As one half of the uber-popular comedy duo Peter n’ Chris, Chris Wilson wears a lot of hats, including writer and actor. But, on CBC Television’s upcoming Air Farce 150 special, he was outfitted with a very different kind of headwear.
“Even in sketches where I was basically playing myself, they were like, ‘Let’s get you suited up in wig,’” the Vancouver funnyman recalls in a recent phone interview. “I need to wear a wig to play myself? And they’d say, ‘Yeah. Yeah. We’ve got one here.’”
Wilson is one of two new recruits joining the iconic comedy troupe for Air Farce 150, a one-hour television special that examines Canadian history and culture through that distinctive Air Farce lens. In the special – which will anchor CBC Television’s sesquicentennial line-up on July 1 – the Air Farce gang presents a sideways spin on the Vikings landing in Newfoundland, the first hockey game, and cottage life with Justin and Sophie Trudeau. There are also pop culture parodies like Ca-Na-Da Land and an all-new take on the classic NFB animated short film Log Driver’s Waltz.
The sketch comedy veteran describes his entire Air Farce 150 experience as astoundingly fun and educational. “They’ve been doing it for years and it’s this machine that’s rolling already, and I was able to jump in and learn a lot about how you produce a large-scale TV show,” says Wilson, who joins Air Farce regulars Don Ferguson, Luba Goy, Jessica Holmes, Craig Lauzon, Darryl Hinds, Emma Hunter, and fellow newbie Isabel Kanaan for the special. “I’ve never been a part of something like that: all the writing in the writers’ room and then all of the read-throughs, and then seeing all of the sets being built. There’s something to learn from everybody.”
And given the roster of special guest stars – including Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, Lorne Cardinal, Kaniehtiio Horn, Hélène Joy, and Eric Peterson – Wilson’s Air Farce 150 experience was occasionally surreal. Case in point: Hadfield (arguably the coolest astronaut in NASA history) wanted to play his guitar in a sketch centered on upping NASA’s cool factor – and ended up singing a song with Ed Robertson from the Barenaked Ladies.
“That was surreal, sitting across the table while they were practicing,” marvels Wilson. “That’s Chris Hadfield and a Barenaked Lady playing ‘If I Had a Million Dollars’ together and I get to be in the room while it happens.”
Wilson is widely known for the sketch comedy duo Peter n’ Chris (see video), which he formed with Peter Carlone in 2009 (“Peter is a goofy kind of guy and there’s a positivity to it all. We both like the same kind of comedy and we both laugh at the same type of things”). They’ve performed together at Just For Laughs, JFL42, sketch comedy fests in Toronto, Chicago, and San Francisco, and are three-time Canadian Comedy Award winners. “I think I’ll always like live performance best, in a small 150-seat intimate venue,” says Wilson. “I like the immediacy of live performance, and hearing laughs right away.”
Wilson and Carlone are also in-demand comedy writers. Their work has appeared on CBC Radio’s The Irrelevant Show and the cult favourite web series White Ninja; their 2016 Crazy8s short Grocery Store Action Movie – which is, as its title implies, a fast-paced action movie set in a grocery store – was nominated for a 2017 Leo Award for Best Music, Comedy or Variety Program.
“I want to make that into a digital series, ideally, and make a bunch of these everyday action movie things where it’s like Ethan Hunt or Jack Reacher on their days off,” muses Wilson.
Wilson grew up on the Island and honed his funny bone watching ’90s sitcoms like Home Improvement and Seinfeld. “I remember writing down Seinfeld’s jokes during commercials,” chuckles Wilson. “My thinking as a kid was, ‘Oh, when I’m old enough to do stand-up comedy, I’ll have all of this great material I can do, because no one will remember Jerry Seinfeld.’”
But Wilson didn’t actually pursue comedy until his late teens; up until that point, he’d convinced his parents that he wanted to be a paramedic. “That was a lie; although it was a good fallback plan. I did a lot of lifeguarding as a kid, and I was well on the path to being paramedic, and then I was like, ‘Yeah, no. Theatre school!’”
• Air Farce Canada 150 airs July 1 at 5pm on CBC Television. For more, visit airfarce.com or follow @ImChrisWilson, @PeterNChrisShow, and @AirFarceCBC.
