For 20 consecutive years Canada has been entertained by Trevor Strong, Mike McCormick and Chris Patterson, making them probably the oldest worms who ever told a joke. They are certainly the most arrogant.
The Arrogant Worms have been coming to Prince George almost as long as they've been a musical comedy group. Strong couldn't remember exactly but thinks this is the trio's fourth time to B.C.'s northern capital dating back to the mid-1990s. Making return visits not only feels good to see old friends and fans again, but also helps their stage performance.
"Usually we kind of know what's going on if we've been there a number of times and we can use that, and if we get a feel for the audience before the show, that can help," Strong told The Citizen. "The one thing we decided really early on was we would not write the banter in between the songs. Our rambling always changes so we aren't ever doing the exact same show and that keeps it fresh for us, too."
This particular tour is on the strength of all the strengths the previous tours were on the strength of. It's a 20th anniversary "greatest hits" album that drives this bus.
"It's your reward for lasting as long as you have. It's your one gimme," said Strong about the benefit of a "best of" package. "We don't write as many songs as we used to, but on the other hand we are on our 12th album so we have a lot of material. But we make a new song every now and then."
Canada has to co-operate a little bit if you want a lot more Arrogant Worms material. They chew on pop-culture references and Canadianna. If there is an aspect of Canadian society they haven't written about, it probably doesn't matter all that much. They have tunes poured like maple syrup over their pancake pile of albums with titles like "Celine Dion" and "We Are The Beaver" and "Me Like Hockey" and "Canada's Really Big" to name only the ones on their greatest hits selection.
There is an art to it, though, said Strong. You can't just toss off a song about whatever Canadian reference comes along. It would be easy to be funny about Justin Bieber, but if he fades into obscurity like some modern age Vanilla Ice then the song has a short shelf life. They want to keep singing songs like "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate" and "The Ballad of Tim Hortons" for another 20 years.
Comedy is not confined to music, and there is no covenant insisting the Arrogant Worms only do funny songs, instead of standup material or sketch-comedy, but Strong said that is their natural domain. They are musicians first and comedians a close second.
"We started as a sketch comedy group - probably 90 per cent sketches - but we slowly ditched the them," he explained. "It happened early probably because we were playing a lot of campus bars and we were doing a lot of busking, places where the audience was not necessarily attentive. We have our little act going now, and we have a style. Going back to doing sketches would require a whole other setup. And some of our banter verges on sketches, almost sketch-like introductions to songs, so that does the job."
For all their travel over the years, even to the Arctic, there are some places the group has not wormed their way into. They have not made it to Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, or Newfoundland and Labrador. Strong said people are so naturally musical and funny there that there is no need for imports like them, but after 20 years they might just drop in out of sheer arrogance.
The worms wiggle into Prince George on Tuesday night at Vanier Hall. The show begins at 7:30 p.m. and is open for all ages. Tickets are $38 available at CN Centre Box Office and Studio 2880.
