Montreal Comedy Festival
Jimmy Dore, Godfrey, The Sklar Brothers and James Adomian from the cobblestone streets of Canada.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Posts
Buck Jones: French Are Stupid Too
Josh: Kevin Booth
Jack Lindberg: Kevin Booth
Kevin Booth Interview on The David Feldman Show : American Drug War 2 - Premiering June 6th, 2013: HOW TO LISTEN
About Jimmy Dore
The Canadian Content laws (a.k.a. CanCon) might sound like a good idea, but in practice they tend to make content producers even more artistically conservative than they might otherwise be.
Obviously any media company is under pressure to select projects with the most sales potential and will usually choose things they expect will appeal to as many people as possible. Add in a legal mandate to produce a given amount of content based on a single requirement (i.e. nationallity) and that pressure becomes magnified and the focus shifts to an even smaller tallent pool and eventually you get things selected just because they meet the mandate.
In writing that I just realised that this sounds like an argument against affirmative action, which I SWEAR was not my intent.
What I’m trying to say is that however well intentioned the CanCon laws have led to more mediocre (and worse) media being produced as often as not in the name of furthering Canadian culture.
For example; Little Mosque on the Prairie. I consider it to be “Two and a Half Men” grade hackery, but the CBC puts all its’ weight behind promoting it until it becomes a “hit”. I believe it wouldn’t have finished its’ first season if it were on NBC or FOX, but because it’s a Canadian production it gets more chances and more support.
Flashpoint is a more subtle example of CanCon’s side effects. It’s a decent show made by a Canadian network, filmed in Toronto and actually set in Toronto (almost unheard of) which is all great. But if you played a Who song over the title card and slapped “Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer” on the end most people wouldn’t think twice about it. It passes every test for Canadian-ness but is at it’s core no different from a dozen other American shows so how much has it really contributed to advancing or preserving Canadian culture?
I may be stretching to make a point, but I think my basic point remains valid.
Anyway, great show as usual. Thanks.
Ew-La-La!
Saw both you guys perform in Montreal, and I wish you’d move to canada. Because I live in america. Just kidding. Great show. as always.
Great show as usual. David should do more man on the street interviews.
You guys are so awesome. David sounds exhausted. Even when he can’t think straight he’s more on top of things than 99 percent of the podcasts outthere. You used to pout out five a week? What happened?