{"id":2523,"date":"2013-12-05T16:38:53","date_gmt":"2013-12-05T16:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2013\/12\/05\/comedian-is-the-full-package-deal\/"},"modified":"2013-12-05T16:38:53","modified_gmt":"2013-12-05T16:38:53","slug":"comedian-is-the-full-package-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2013\/12\/05\/comedian-is-the-full-package-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Comedian is the full package deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Shawn Conner \/ The Vancouver Sun<\/em><\/p>\n

Harland Williams<\/p>\n

Dec. 5, 8 p.m.; Dec. 6, 7 at 8 and 10:30 p.m.\u00a0 Yuk Yuk’s Tickets: $35, at\u00a0 yukyuks.com<\/p>\n

To comedy fans who came of age in the ’90s, Harland Williams is probably best\u00a0 known for his roles in the movies Half Baked and Dumb and Dumber (he was the\u00a0 state trooper who pulls Jeff Daniels and Jim Carey over) and, perhaps RocketMan,\u00a0 the 1997 vehicle that envisioned the Toronto-raised comic as a modern-day Don\u00a0 Knotts. The 51-year-old Toronto-raised comic can be seen now in the\u00a0 shot-in-Vancouver (but set in Toronto) Package Deal, a sitcom on Citytv, in\u00a0 which he plays one of three brothers a little too involved in each others’\u00a0 lives. Williams’ more personal comedy stylings are showcased on his podcast, the\u00a0 Harland Highway, and on his website harlandwilliams.com, where he posts creative\u00a0 endeavours like Fshlaaanngg!, a running series of videos parodying Jackass-style\u00a0 stunts. But for the full Harland Williams experience, check out his standup act,\u00a0 which he performs Dec. 5 to 7 at Yuk Yuk’s in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

Q I was watching Fshlaaanngg! videos while preparing for this interview, and\u00a0 crying with laughter. Where did that idea come from?<\/p>\n

A I was walking around bored one day and I started filming stuff with my\u00a0 cellphone. There are all these shows where people are trying to do these\u00a0 outrageous stunts and I thought it would be funny to do all these stunts that\u00a0 aren’t outrageous but then act like they are outrageous.<\/p>\n

Q There’s another video on your website of you lipsynching to the Styx song\u00a0 Mr. Roboto.<\/p>\n

A Again, I was just bored one day, and it just popped into my head, the idea\u00a0 of some guy thanking a robot just made me laugh. It’s very bizarre. It got in my\u00a0 head one day and I thought, I’m going to lip-synch to that. It’s time.<\/p>\n

Q These Vancouver shows aren’t part of a tour, they’re just one-offs,\u00a0 right?<\/p>\n

A I don’t go on tour tours, I just go randomly to cities to do shows if I\u00a0 have an opening in my schedule. It worked out for Vancouver. It’s just a one-off\u00a0 show, my last show of the year actually. We shot the sitcom up there, Package\u00a0 Deal; hopefully we’re back there soon, doing some more. We’re in the Pamela\u00a0 Anderson zone now (Anderson is on a few episodes of Package Deal). It’s good\u00a0 stuff, good viewing.<\/p>\n

Q Had you met her before the taping of the show?<\/p>\n

A I had, yeah. I met her out at the Chateau Marmont, in Hollywood. We were\u00a0 flirting with each other at the famous Chateau Marmont, where Jim Morrison\u00a0 walked on the window ledge and where John Belushi died. And now, where Harland\u00a0 and Pamela flirted. How about that?<\/p>\n

Q So you knew what to expect when she came to work on the show.<\/p>\n

A Well,I’dnever worked with her, so we really didn’t know what to expect. She\u00a0 was just amazing, she was a real pro, and she was funny, she was just really\u00a0 bang on. We all loved her. She’s got a great sense of humour. She delivers.<\/p>\n

Q She was a good sport when she was the subject of a Comedy Central Roast. Do\u00a0 you ever get asked to do those?<\/p>\n

A I’ve kind of stayed away from them. They’re a little too mean-spirited for\u00a0 my tastes. I find them a bit insincere. Most of those people don’t know each\u00a0 other. If you’re going to take a jab at someone, you should at least have a bit\u00a0 more of a personal relationship with them. I don’t know. I feel like you can be\u00a0 funny and clever as opposed to just outright vile.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Q They’re a long way off from the old Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts.<\/p>\n

A Those were great for their time. And I think you have to come up and get\u00a0 edgier, but some of the stuff they say on there – I don’t know. It’s not to my\u00a0 taste.<\/p>\n

Q Speaking of comedy tastes, who are your golden-ageof-comedy-type heroes? AI\u00a0 grew up on Don Knotts and Jerry Lewis and all the guys from Second City. That’s\u00a0 why it was such a pleasure to work with Eugene Levy – he did four episodes of\u00a0 Package Deal. What a treat. That’s a guy I grew up watching as a kid. Guys like\u00a0 that, they were hilarious and didn’t have to be super vile or X-rated.<\/p>\n

Q Did you pump him for SCTV info?<\/p>\n

A I didn’t want to do that because I figure he probably gets that all the\u00a0 time. But one day I pulled one out of the hat. I said ‘Hey Eugene, I just gotta\u00a0 do this,’ and he said ‘What?’ and I sang, ‘Who made the egg salad sandwiches (a\u00a0 “hit” for 5 Neat Guys, SCTV ’50s-era vocal group parody).’ He laughed and we\u00a0 talked about the 5 Neat Guys for a bit. That was as far as I pushed it.<\/p>\n

Q How much input into Package Deal do you have?<\/p>\n

A I improvise a lot, that’s kind of my thing, so we’ll do three or four takes\u00a0 the way it’s written, then I let the barn doors open, and I kind of rewrite\u00a0 every scene on the fly and we’ll do a few takes where we improvise lines. Some\u00a0 of them make it into the show.<\/p>\n

Q What can we expect from your sets at Yuk Yuk’s this weekend? How much is\u00a0 improvised?<\/p>\n

A I always improvise with the crowd. Sometimes it’ll be a 50 per cent show,\u00a0 sometimes 70 per cent, sometimes it’s almost a whole show where I wing it. It\u00a0 depends on my mood, the energy in the room. For sure a portion of it is just\u00a0 kind of winging it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shawn Conner \/ The Vancouver Sun Harland Williams Dec. 5, 8 p.m.; Dec. 6, 7 at 8 and 10:30 p.m.\u00a0 Yuk Yuk’s Tickets: $35, at\u00a0 yukyuks.com To comedy fans who came of age in the ’90s, Harland Williams is probably best\u00a0 known for his roles in the movies Half Baked and Dumb and Dumber (he … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nComedian is the full package deal - Thunderbird Entertainment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2013\/12\/05\/comedian-is-the-full-package-deal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Comedian is the full package deal - Thunderbird Entertainment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Shawn Conner \/ The Vancouver Sun Harland Williams Dec. 5, 8 p.m.; 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