Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Thereare
important
things south
of theborder
Two Canadians
on writing for
Demetri Martin
BY BEN KAPLAN
Levi MacDougall and Nathan
Fielder are roommates and
writers on Important Things
with Demetri Martin. The ser-
ies, which begins its second
season tonight, is the second
most watched program in the
history of Comedy Central and,
for the two Canadians, it was
cause to move to Los Angeles
from Toronto and upgrade
their digs in the process.
“In Toronto, we lived in an
apartment, but here we have
two mansions connected to
each other,” Fielder, 26, says.
“We’re technically only still
roommates because of the
bridge that connects our two
mansions. We actually rarely
RETURN
AL2 to be connecting with a young
demographic, which has been
the wild
discovering their work on the
Web. Theirs is a brand of al-
TOECHO
well on Martin’s variety pro-
BEACH
playing with the television
The most medium and doing things like
breaking its own format,” Mac-
anticipated movie A visit to The Dougall, 36, says. “It allows the
of 2010 needs Contemporary writers to go to the joke first,
rather than having to conform
to work on its Zoological to the structure of a more trad-
public outreach. Conservatory Martha & the Mu∞ns, the grandparents of itional sitcom.”
Armed with impressive
Page AL4 Toronto’s indie rock scene, are born again comedy résumés — the Gem-
BY MELISSA LEONG ini-nominated MacDougall
was featured on popcultured
“Can you believe that you are and The Jon Dore Show while
BAD
serving yourself sugar out of bum, This Is the Ice Age, they wanted to Fielder got his start on This
turtle?” Morgan Mavis says. BY MIKE DOHERTY work with an unknown producer whose Hour Has 22 Minutes — the
I pause, my hand holding a ideas excited them; their skeptical rec- friends say they’re adapt-
ADVICE S
demi-spoon in mid-air as if I’m ometimes Mark Gane feels as if ord company reluctantly agreed, while ing comfortably to life in L.A.
about to cast a spell on a pre- he’s living in a Talking Heads song. forcing them to accept a lower advance. Fielder actually went to high
served turtle with sweetener in “I look around, and it’s like Once That producer was Daniel Lanois (his school in Vancouver with Seth
its hollowed-out shell. in a Lifetime,” says the guitarist, singer sister, Jocelyne, was the Muffins’ bass- Rogen, and both men say that
A visitor to Mavis’s Toronto and songwriter for Martha & The Muf- ist), with whom “we discovered all kinds U.S. comics have nothing on
ODIE LOVE apartment should come to ex- fins. “ ‘Look at my beautiful car and my of interesting things,” Johnson says. “He the performers back home.
pect these things. The 29-year- house. How did I get here?’ I can’t really was very much a musical explorer.” “The most talented comed-
Garfield: Survival old operates The Contempor- explain how it’s all happened. It con- Lanois would help the band come ians in the world are doing
of the Fattest: His ary Zoological Conservatory, stantly astounds me.” into their own artistically, producing stuff in Toronto; there’s just
the city’s only taxidermy par- Neither Gane nor singer-keyboard- their next two albums before moving on less of an industry there and
40th Book as a lour, from her home. Since ist Martha Johnson (as the song goes, to work with the likes of U2 and Peter people don’t get recognized for
guide to marriage. 2008, she has welcomed guests, his “beautiful wife”) expected to make a Gabriel. By the time the band recorded how good they are,” says Field-
by appointment, to tour her living as a musician when they started 1984’s Mystery Walk with him, a fluc- er, who still works with both
Page AL2 collection of dead animals and their band in 1977, but a hit single tends tuating lineup had solidified into the This Hour Has 22 Minutes and
stay for fresh baked goods. to dictate its own terms. The inter- duo of Johnson and Gane; they built up Laugh Sabbath. “Demetri’s
Visitors walk up to the sec- national success of Echo Beach (1980), their sound with a host of guest musi- show gets maybe three mil-