Fiacco Should Step Down Now

I just got through reading the Maclean's follow-up article where Fiacco hijacks the new Maclean's reporter and takes him to a staged meeting under false pretenses. What did you expect Mr. Fiacco, that the journalist would be won over by your deceit? You're like a mini George W. Bush. A man who lives in a sheltered state of denial.

Since Mayor Fiacco took office, the two convenience stores I visit in North Central (both on the periphery where I happen to live) have placed large chains with padlocks on their grocery freezers. I may be presumptuous. but I'm guessing it's because there are an increasing number of desperate, hungry people living nearby.

When my family was the victim of a home invasion 18 months ago, the intruder walked past my laptop and cleaned out the freezer in my fridge. That's been happening a lot, Mr. Mayor. It's not a sign that everything is fine.

Your reaction to Maclean's shining a light on our city's shameful secret has been a disgrace. You tried to hoodwink us and the rest of Canada into thinking that everything was fine with your I Heart Regina nonsense, despite the presence of that big ol' elephant in the room that is North Central.

The I Heart Regina campaign is symbolic of your campaign to rid the city of graffiti. Sweeping the dirt under the mat doesn't solve the problem. You're all about hiding the problems of our city, instead of working to solve them.

How about "I heart not being in denial."?

Your impotence, ignorance and inaction may have hurt the lives of countless people. We need someone with integrity and guts to face the challenges of this city head-on.

Find some balls and step down now.

Maclean's takes 2nd look at struggling Regina neighbourhood

Journalist Colin Campbell met with provincial, civic and community leaders including Fiacco, and all encouraged him to write about more positive developments in North Central.

However, in his article published online Thursday, headlined by a quote from a resident — "It's not the worst neighbourhood" — Campbell challenges the upbeat picture painted by those leaders.

The article covers teenage prostitution, gangs, crime, "extremely bad" housing and the reaction to the first article.

Campbell ended his article by saying the conversation in Regina was "more focused on wounded civic pride than real solutions to North Central's daunting problems."

Source: Maclean's takes 2nd look at struggling Regina neighbourhood

• link to the MacLean's followup story

Little Mosque Proves Saskatchewan Comedy Manifesto

Manifesto is a poor choice of words, but if you know me, you know I have so few words to choose from.

In 1994, after creating a buzz with a local comedy cable tv show, and a memorable performance in front of TV and film industry types at a provincial awards show, I had the opportunity to develop a comedy series with a broadcaster with the same group of friends who worked on our cable show, and a big-wig comedy show-runner from Tronna.

It was to be a home-grown Saskatchewan comedy series, different than anything you'd ever seen because it would be done "Saskatchewan-style," an anti-Toronto, anti-Hollywood comedy. At least that's what we envisioned.

Saskatchewan-style would be subversive, unpredictable, and most importantly, self-deprecating while at the same time outsmarting and outwitting comedy shows from the mainstream comedy factories in Toronto and L.A., probably without those people knowing it at first.

We knew we'd be judged with prejudice by the comedy establishment if the series ever went into production because of where we're from. So we intended for the show to make fun of us simple Saskatchewan folk, living out here in the irrelevant prairie west. I pictured making a hugely-successful show that would pave the way for other Saskatchewanian comedy geniuses to follow. The result, I believed, would be a whole new genre, or style, of "Saskatchewan" humour that would dominate the national stage for years to follow.

Newfoundland had their day, now I wanted ours. I knew that Saskatchewan people were funny, and although we enjoy a simpler lifestyle here, I also knew that we are smart. We're the quiet left-out person who's been silently observing the world while others have their louder, more aggressive voices heard. As a result, we have a keen understanding of human nature because we've had nothing to do but sit and watch, we've never been invited into the conversation.

I was the youngest sibling in my family, with two older siblings, both more than eleven years older than me. I didn't have a voice in my family but I did a lot of observing. I've seen a lot of idiocity and I've learned my life's lessons from my brothers a decade before I reached the same stage in life. I had plenty of opportunity to mature while the rest of the family did all the talking, shouting and foot stomping. I'm a better person for it, otherwise I might as big of a buffoon as my more dominant siblings are.

I think being a potential comedy maker in Saskatchewan was kind of the same thing. No one gives a shit about us. Half the people in Toronto don't even know where Regina is. I'm not kidding, I lived there for a year and it was remarkable how many TV and film people, who, assumably, have to be pretty darn smart to be doing what they are doing, easily interchange Edmonton, Winnipeg and Regina. It's all the same to them. I've found myself having the same ignorance and prejudices about people I meet from smaller centers in Saskatchewan, having, myself, grown up in the big city of Regina, have often I disregarded people from smaller towns.

Hollywood seems to think Canadians are funny. I've heard many Canadian comedy stars explain in interviews that it helped that they lived in a small country next door to the United States. That we Canadians spend a lot time growing up watching TV from that big, loud country next door. Because the U.S. isn't us, we can enjoy the entertainment they produce but we can also judge them, observe their short comings in spite of all their bravado and decide that we could do so much better if we were ever given the chance.

Well I didn't get a show past the pilot stage. Comedy's a risky thing. People are much more likely to watch a mediocre drama than a mediocre comedy. They'll run away from a mediocre comedy. Networks are rightfully hesitant about green-lighting comedies. The majority of drama produced in this country is mediocre, in my opinion, but it still gets funded and it still gets watched enough to justify its production.

When Corner Gas was first produced, CTV bravely backed it with everything they had. They gave it enough money to build a large building/exterior set on location in a small town as well as on a sound stage in Regina. They put a couple of Canada's best comedy TV writers on it and they poured everything possible into promoting the show when it debuted. Corner Gas broke ground and paved a new comedy highway.

The show is as huge a hit as is imaginable in Canadian English television. And it's produced by a network (CTV) not known to take chances on primetime network TV comedy. They allowed something to be produced out of a place that doesn't have a solid reputation for producing content for national consumption (other than our mediocre dramas, mostly movies of the week.) That still impresses the hell out of me to this day.

It had to be a long shot that Corner Gas would be so successful. We are inundated by dozens of channels of American content. Content that is produced by a much larger country, with much more money, a star system, and a far broader training ground of comedy clubs for comedians to hone their craft and get discovered. Yet Corner Gas did it, and they did it the Saskatchewan way.

Now there's Little Mosque on the Prairie, produced by a Saskatchewan production company, shot partially in Saskatchewan. Last night's show, the second in the series, was impressive. The jokes were solid and they were good jokes. Not jokes you see coming at you from a mile away, not broad jokes written for morning radio station DJs. It's a smart show, Saskatchewan smart.

I realize that the writers aren't from here. Even the show's creator only spent ten years in Saskatchewan, but the show gets it. Maybe they're ripping off Corner Gas, or maybe they're making Saskatchewan style comedy their own. Time will tell.

I see two big challenges for the Little Mosque. Unlike Seinfeld and Corner Gas (when Corner Gas is at its best), Little Mosque is not a show about nothing. I think it will be extremely difficult to produce a funny series that is actually about something, especially cultural-political themes. So far, they've done that, I admire them for the achievement, the non-comedy is as well-written as the jokes.

I'm disappointed that they've moved much of the production to Toronto. I think this could have become some sort of cowardly act by CBC. I understand that the cast and writers are mostly from Toronto but I think, like Corner Gas, Little Mosque would benefit from basing itself solely in Saskatchewan. I think it would come across on screen as more genuine. (In the back of my mind, I'm still getting the sense that it's a mainstream Toronto TV take on Saskatchewan rather than a take on ourselves.)

Lastly, the great, the fabulous, the funny, the relatively-odor-free, Dan Redican is a consulting producer on Little Mosque. He was the show runner we brought in for our first comedy development adventure in 1994 and he has been stupid enough to work with us ever since. I like to think me and my homies taught Dan everything there is to know about Saskatchewan comedy.

Don't thank me. I've also taken credit for inventing blogging, podcasting and foreplay.

JamesPod 49 - Racism in Regina

As this podcast becomes more of a weekly update on James, rather than a comedy podcast, I will focus my comedic efforts on Video blogging.

This week I discuss the Maclean's article and talk about segregation and racism in Regina. 

This is the second podcast served from pod-serve.com, a free alpha version podcast host.  Please let me know if you have any problems with the feed or with downloading the file.

For more James, visit ReginaRadio.com.

Next week: an exploration about the scandal involving Bruce Murray of the Zedcast kicking me off his MySpace friends list.

I've also started a blog for swimming pool enthusiasts.  It's a commercial blog but I am passionate about the subject.

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