And he does it all just by being Brent. His humour is seemingly low key, but like all good observational humour, its actually very sharp and insightful without having to be crass or controversial.
Life is funny. Simply. And Brent finds that, his writing exploits it and where TV is concerned, his creations bring it to charming and laughable life. In the case of Corner Gas, anyone who can make a small town and small town characters funny for me is doing a great job. I am from a small town and could not wait to get away from the provincial attitudes. And yet everything I hated was given the right amount of de-emphasis; showing me that its not what you're looking at, its how you look at it that counts. And that my over compensating attitudes about the big city were not only the proverbial "equal and opposite reaction": they were equally obnoxious!
I look forward to 'funny class' in his new "Hiccups" and wish him continued funny success...
Brent Butt began as a stand up comedian, but I didn't hear of him until I started watching Corner Gas. He's the creator and sometimes writer for the show, and stars in it as well, as Brent LeRoy. The idea of the show is just to deal with life's little problems, but in a funny way, and in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere.
He plays the role well, and in interviews, he's certainly made it pretty obvious that he's pretty much playing himself. However, he's also writing some of the episodes, and therefore writing other characters too; and as executive producer, he has a say in all the episodes. It's a great show, and Brent Butt is the driving force behind it, which makes him incredibly talented, in my book!
Brent Butt is a very funny actor and comedian. He is extremely famous in Canada. In the US he’s best known for… well, nothing.
He writes, produces and stars in the hilariously funny sitcom “Corner Gas”. American sitcoms based around one comedian tend to leave the rest of the cast as somewhat one dimensional, as if they are only there for filler but Brent allows the supporting cast to handle a lot of the humor and they do it well.
Although it is too bad that he is not better known here in the US, I kind of hope he doesn’t get ‘discovered’ in America because he is so great at doing what he’s doing where he’s at now!
