With a fall line-up of serious courtroom dramas, medical catastrophes, police procedurals and reality programs, Caution: May Contain Nuts drives home the point that sketch comedy is time well wasted.
It’s round two for the live-wire folks at Mosaic Entertainment as Nuts premieres its second sketch comedy season Tuesday on APTN at 10 p.m.
One of the driving forces of the show, St. Albert’s Matt Alden, continues as head writer and a major on-camera presence. Returning to the fold are comedians Howie Miller, Sheldon Elter, Ryan Parker, Jeff Halabi, AimĂ©e Beaudoin, Mark Meer, Dana Anderson and James Higuchi. In addition, SCTV comic Joe Flaherty and film actor Gordon Tootoosis make special guest appearances.
Similar to funny men George Carlin and Richard Pryor who tackled taboo topics, Nuts has no sacred cows. The irreverent multicultural humour, with a cast of thousands, pokes equal fun at First Nations as to those in the highest corridors of political power.
While last year’s six-episode season was strictly a studio shoot, this year’s expanded 13 instalments have added a live element, an overhaul suggested by APTN.
“It now has more of a variety show feel. The intros are in front of an audience and it has more of a Laugh-in and Saturday Night Live feel,” says Beaudoin.
This year Beaudoin was added as a scriptwriter, the first female on the team. Her main writing credits go to a segment dubbed Anne of Green Stables, a Gables send-off, and Daisy and Rose, two stiletto-wearing cops.
The farcical sketches skewer everything from Dungeons and Dragons, Fox News and Star Trek to a time travel agency, dinosaur fossils and our beloved national sport, hockey.
“The scripts are stronger this time around. We had eight months to brainstorm and ended up with 1,000 pages. We cut half and only kept the key ones, the cream of the crop.”
The film’s shoot took place in late fall of 2009 over six weeks. While outdoor camera work jumped from Fort Edmonton Park to Jasper Avenue stores, indoor studio scenes with live audiences were shot at Global TV studios. “We are all from theatre backgrounds and being in front of an audience just pumped us up.”
Every episode also shines with at least one sacrilegious song. A standout number blends Bollywood with Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. “It’s a shoot ’em-up Tarantino send-up to a Bollywood dance masterpiece. It’s electric.”
Sample sketches from Caution: May Contain Nuts can be viewed at www.nutsonline.tv.
