When laughs turn to screams

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This article was published 27/10/2023 (1047 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Writing a book has long been a huge item on Brent Butt’s bucket list.

The problem for the 57-year-old Butt has been that he’s been too busy with other work, particularly as the star, writer and/or producer of TV shows such as Corner Gas, Hiccups and Corner Gas Animated.

“For 25 years I didn’t have much time to do anything but write scripts,” says Butt by phone from Vancouver in advance of the launch of his debut novel, Huge, in Winnipeg on Sunday. “I didn’t know if I’d be able to do it, or if I would even enjoy the experience, but I always knew it was something I was going to try.”

The Saskatchewan-born comedian’s first novel is a darkly comedic psychological thriller that follows a trio of comics through small-town Manitoba and Ontario on the rural comedy circuit in the 1990s.

Dale is from Chicago, the most experienced of the bunch, Rynn is a whip-smart Irish up-and-coming comic … and then there’s the very ominous Hobie Huge. Big, brawny and with a short and violently wild temper, Hobie also happens to be not at all funny.

As the trio, who have been thrust together by a shifty Winnipeg-based comedy booker, continue their travels, their situation goes from bad to worse to downright frightening and violent.

Butt set about writing the first draft of Huge in early summer 2020, finishing in just 12 weeks.

“I’ve been at the writing game long enough that I know the first draft is just you telling yourself the story, and there’s gaping holes and problems you’re going to have to go back and fix.”

As it happens, Butt had a great time writing and editing Huge.

“I was alarmed by how much I liked it, and how at home I felt doing it,” he says, laughing. “I told my literary agent that I felt like a horse that had been let out of a pen — when you’re writing scripts, they’re very structured, there’s an expectation of what goes where, especially in you know, half-hour TV comedy.

“They want the nuts and bolts — just say what we’re going to see so that the director can film it. It’s hard to talk about what people are thinking or what people are feeling.”

Writing a novel allowed Butt to flex some muscles to explore those thoughts and feelings.

“This was an environment where it was going to be somewhere between 80,000 and 100,000 words. That’s a lot of wiggle room,” he says.

He was able to write far more than would ever make it to the page in order to get to know his characters, a luxury not normally found in script writing.

“I put the characters in situations where they’re just talking — there’s so much dialogue that isn’t going to ultimately make the book. But you learn so much about the characters, from the little things that come up, the way they react.”

Huge provides fascinating insight into the world of standup comedy — both how it was in the 1990s as well as the misconceptions about the craft that persist today.

“I wanted to talk a little bit about the craftsmanship that goes into comedy. I think it’s something the general public probably doesn’t realize — sort of how delicate comedy is,” says Butt, who started doing standup in 1988.

“If the joke stops working, it comes down like a house of cards,” he adds, noting that when you’re starting out, “you’re playing unfriendly rooms at least half the time. You have to go in and look for those things that are going to kneecap you … like, what can you do to mitigate the bad that’s in this room? And how can you increase the chances of it being successful, even if just by 10 per cent?”

Butt, who is an avid thriller reader and is already hard at work writing a second one of his own, also got an element of satisfaction out of choreographing Huge’s fight scenes. “Something that was on my radar the whole time was whether you could follow along — am I losing anybody? Does this logically track it in a way that you could read it quickly and not lose who’s who, who hit who?

Butt’s been enjoying being on the road in support of Huge, noting his having written such a dark book lends itself to some lighter moments with his audience. (At his Winnipeg launch there are sure to be some laughs; it’s being hosted by local comedian Dean Jenkinson.)

“I’m a guy who known for comedy, and who wrote this book which is a very dark, violent psychological thriller. Any time you have a dichotomy like that, it’s sort of ripe for joking about,” he says.

“I’m not trying to change people’s perception of me or anything — I’m still who I always have been,” he adds. “I’ve just done this creatively very different thing, but I’m still the same person — and I’m probably always gonna crack wise.”

ben.sigurdson@winnipegfreepress.com

@bensigurdson