Regardless of one’s political bent, few would deny the Mayor of Victoria is one super fun guy.
And, unlike Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, he’s intentionally entertaining. Case in point: On Sunday night, Mayor Dean Fortin is the featured guest on Derwin Blanshard’s Extremely Classy Sunday Evening Programme.
It’s a pretty wild live comedy show. It stars comedian Wes Borg, who plays top-hatted Derwin Blanshard. Derwin is a dense but convivial rich Brit who happens to host a fictitious ’50s-style TV talk show.
It’s the sort of show where guests sip real cocktails (“It becomes more ‘lubrious’ as it goes on,” Borg confided). Sunday’s drink du jour will be a mysterious black liquid mixed by celebrity mixologist, Death, aka Andrew Bailey. There may even be faux fist fights, such as the simulated punch-up Fortin participated in during his inaugural spot on the show last season.
Such festivities may seem a touch undignified for the mayor of a city named after Queen Victoria. But Mayor Fortin told me it’s all good. Indeed, he said, his appearance on the Derwin Blanshard show is a reflection of Victoria’s burgeoning image as an ultra-fun city.
“Whether it’s 54.40 rockin’ out the Roundhouse . . . we’re becoming a fairly cool, hip town,” he said this week.
Fortin has other fun-guy credentials, having previously staged Dean’s Variety Show — a fundraiser for his re-election campaign.
It featured the Cheesecake Burlesque Revue, musicians and dancers. That’s where he first encountered Borg, recruited as part of the entertainment.
“Wes came in and sang a song I was sure was going to get me unelected,” Fortin recalled. “The song was called, Worse Than Hitler. And he just managed to offend just about everybody.”
The co-creators of the Derwin Blanshard show are Borg and Kathyrn Popham. The latter was a well-known children’s entertainer in Ontario before returning to her hometown.
The Derwin Blanshard show has established a reputation for coaxing unlikely guests on stage. These include Bob McDonald of CBC Radio’s Quirks & Quarks (who sang Van Morrison’s Moondance), NDP MLA Lana Popham (Kathyrn’s sister-in-law), Oak Bay Mayor Nils Jensen and climatologist Andrew Weaver. The latter is a Green party MLA who was part of the International Panel on Climate Change that won a 2007 Nobel Prize.
Weaver appeared on the show repeatedly last season. In one memorable sequence, noted Borg, he pretended to beat the character of an Irish ambassador to Canada. Weaver, good-naturedly, used a prop “Nobel Prize” for the pummelling.
“We built him [a Nobel Prize statue] because the one he had was so lame. It was just a certificate,” Borg said.
On Sunday, Borg, as Derwin, will quiz Mayor Fortin about topical issues such as the Johnson Street Bridge replacement. Fortin has already shot a video with the comedy crew (to be screened that night) about skateboarding in Victoria.
It was last season that Derwin Blanshard’s Extremely Classy Sunday Evening Programme first entered an already-crowded live comedy market.
The Victoria Event Centre, where the show is staged, is home to ongoing series mounted by Atomic Vaudeville and Sin City as well as a comedy night hosted by Borg.
That’s not to mention various comedy nights in city venues such as Heckler’s Bar & Grill.
Borg knows all this. He figures there’s a hard core of 1,000 people in the city who regularly attend such events.
With the Derwin Blanshard show, he is trying to attract new audiences. Right now, houses are averaging 150 a night.
Plans? Oh, he’s got plans. These include an upcoming billboard for Derwin on the Pat Bay Highway (a friend of his works for the billboard company, for which Derwin/Borg is a spokesman).
“It’s gonna say, ‘So classy, you can smell the Queen,’ ” said Borg, appearing pleased at the prospect.
He’d also eventually like to get Derwin Blanshard’s Extremely Classy Sunday Evening Programme on TV.
Several producers have approached Borg. But he wants more shows under his belt before taking to the airwaves.
Meanwhile, Mayor Fortin looks forward to revisiting a show that, for him, symbolizes Victoria’s emergence as a fairly cool, hip town.
“I had a young person come up to me and say, ‘You know what, Mr. Mayor? We’re now officially no longer No Fun City. There’s always something to do in this town.’ ”
Fortin added: “It’s just pure fun. … These guys are like, funny.”
Derwin Blanshard’s Extremely Classy Sunday Evening Programme is at 8 p.m. Sunday (doors 7:30 p.m.) at the Victoria Event Centre, 1415 Broad St. Tickets cost $20, or $18 for those who dress up. Available at the door or at derwin12.eventbrite.ca.