CBC Television's comedy contest has whittled its contenders down to 55, after several hundred initial entries. Prince George's two contestants are still in the sit-com game.
ComedyCoup is a multi-stage tournament that asked Canadians to come up with an idea for a prime time all-Canadian situation comedy show. The winner will actually get developed into a show (actually, more than one might make it to air if the ideas are strong enough). Each week the participants face a new ComedyCoup mission that both develops the show idea and whittles away the teams.
The team led by P.G.'s Giovanni Macibob and his wife Holly is producing a concept called Welcome To Tulip, hilariously based on the couple's formative experiences in the actual town of Rosebud, Alberta - a one-industry town and that industry is live theatre.
The team led by Jon Chuby along with Jeremy Abbott and Dan Stark is producing a show concept called Geoff And The Ninja that hilariously supposes an all-too-regular guy got stuck with a professional ninja as a roommate and they attempt to teach each other a better way of life.
Both of them were voted by Canadians into the round of 55, but coming up next is a big cut-down, to the Final 15.
"I was following the stats before the [Top 55 voting period] so I was fairly confident we'd make the Top 55 but the Top 15 is going to be hard. It means we really have to step up our game," said Chuby.
"With our idea, and where we are sitting right now watching a bigger fan base building, we think we have a pretty good shot, but everything gets put in the hands of the voter for that round, so we just hope people like what they see," said Macibob.
Even arriving at the point of Top 55 means their efforts had to already amount to a second job. All the Prince George participants (and most others) have to build their show in between their real jobs, their domestic duties, their studies, and all the realities of life. It is drawing the national sense of humour to the surface out of the grassroots of Canadian life.
"All the little missions have an overall purpose. Week by week it builds you towards that final goal," said Macibob. "It's cool how the ComedyCoup organizers are doing it. And even if you don't make the finals, in the end, everyone who made the Top 55 is learning how to properly develop projects of any kind in the future. It's developing the television comedy industry as they go."
Chuby agreed that great creative ideas live within a great many Canadians and this contest has given a lot of quality concepts a place to grow. Each of these projects had to write the entire script for a pilot episode, each one had to produce a three-season story arch to prove long-term material potential, each had to propose hinge concepts so if the audience wasn't enjoying the direction of the show they could seamlessly move to a different plot plan.
It's all part of the CBC's overall goal of fostering the television industry, comedy industry and business industry all in one national exercise.
"It's been great for our professional capacity," Chuby said. "It has really pushed us, since we are in different locations [the three members of his team live in P.G. and Vancouver], that we all be on the same page and able to deliver that content. For every minute the public sees, there are 10 hours we had to work to develop that product. The longer this process goes on the more we will be able to show that to the public."
There is room in the Top 15 for two Prince George concepts. That is all in the hands of the voting public. To support Geoff And The Ninja or Welcome To Tulip (each voter gets multiple votes and you can split them among multiple contestants), one has to sign up on the CBC ComedyCoup website and explore the options, selecting those you wish to vote for. (There is an information site on Facebook as well, but likes and shares there do not count towards anyone's final score).
The Top 15 voting period is on now, ending Sunday.
