A Q&A with Canadian Comedy Award winner, lead goal-scorer for the Cartooning Team X hockey team and Sheridan College alum Gary Pearson: Inking for Will Eisner, his improv, TV and novel-writing career, and working with fellow comedian Geri Hall on their stage show, "Middle Raged."

August, 2024

Gary Pearson has a storied comedy career: doing improv at The Second City; writing for shows like MadTV, Corner Gas and This Hour Has 22 Minutes; working on The Kids in the Hall; creating the critically acclaimed show Sunnyside and more. He spoke to GamutMagazine.org about his time at Sheridan College and his career, and also about his stage show, "Middle Raged," co-created with fellow comedian Geri Hall:

How did you get into comics/cartoons, and what ultimately brought you to Sheridan College?

Gary Pearson: I started at Sheridan Cartooning after one year in the Sheridan Illustration program which I found to be very serious. It was more like what they were teaching at the Ontario College of Art. I kept submitting assignments that had visual jokes or humorous characters in them. My instructors were not amused. I heard about the cartooning program and felt that was more for me. As a high school student I had editorial cartoons published in local newspapers, so it wasn't a stretch that I was more interested in Charles Schulz or the artists at Mad Magazine than I was Picasso or Andrew Wyeth. (both those guys are very good, by the way, but not my style). I had read plenty of comic books as well so was excited to get into that work too. As it turned out I didn't do any of that in my career, but the program opened up many other possibilities for me.

I had watched a lot of cartoons on TV, loved Disney and TV animations, comic books, editorial cartoons, so I thought this would be it for me. What I didn't really consider was being an actor and writer at that point since I didn't know what was possible in TV. I didn't know of anyone who did that kind of thing because I grew up in a small southern Ontario town where most people I knew were farmers or worked in factories. In my heart I wanted to be Rob Petrie on the Dick Van Dyke show, or Steve Martin etc...but didn't know how.

Gary Pearson (right) and Leslie Neilsen

I thought I was going to be a cartoonist. In the illustration program at Sheridan was another artist, Peter Grau...who was very good. He switched over with me to the cartooning program. Peter went on to draw many comic books and do lots of book illustration in the education field. He had that super hero comic book thing going for him that I never quite got. I think part of that is patience. I could not be patient enough to draw a city full of buildings...I might try the Superman flying part, but the architecture? Forget it.

Here's a summary of Peter's comic book work: https://canadianaci.ca/Encyclopedia/2450/

Which years were you enrolled at Sheridan, and what was your involvement with or memories of Gamut?

GP: I have basically no memory of Gamut. Sorry. I was at Sheridan's cartoon program '77 to '79. A year before that in the illustration program.

It’s known that many famous working artists at the time, including Will Eisner, Neal Adams, Bernie Wrightson and Mike Ploog, were lecturers at the college. Are there other notable professionals who lectured/guest lectured at the Cartooning Program while you were there? Did you learn from/interact with any of them?

GP: I was there for Eisner and he was great. He lectured while drawing. I read lots of Spirit after that. Very cool style. One part of the drawing he was inking, and he said to me, here, fill this in... so I took the brush and I did... after that I told people I inked drawings for Eisner.

Can you recall a couple of fond memories or anecdotes from your time in the cartooning program at Sheridan? I understand you were a member of the “Cartooning Team X” Hockey team for example.

GP: I was the leading scorer for Team X. That is a very low bar. I remember one game we lost 19-1 but I was happy I scored the one goal. I believe we lost one game 7-4 and that was our best result. I don't think we won a game. I liked our jerseys though. The Boston Bruins black and gold with a big white X (although I'm a Leaf fan I recognized the power of black jerseys...although in our case it made no difference). Jeff Wilson was a good but erratic goaltender. Sort of Dominik Hasek like before anyone knew who that was. There were no performance enhancing drugs, but I suspect some of our players played high as kites. One Sheridan intramural team was made up of all the players who had been cut from the college varsity team. I think those were the guys that got 19 goals on us. We were like if Team Canada were to play a team from American Samoa where there is no artificial ice. We were American Samoa.

Cartooning Team X (1978-79)
Front Row (L-R): Bill Slavin, Tim Cerantola, Jeff Wilson, Gary Pearson, Ernie (?) Middle Row: Paul McCormack
Back Row (L-R): Gary Long, Keith Milne (Team originator and captain), Peter Grau, Geoff (?), Mark Challinor.

As for the memories of the group... we had some fun all working in the same space every day. Lots of off colour jokes, immature humour, mostly all guys (which is never a good idea). There was more than one woman in the program, but everyone had a crush on one.

How did your career path after leaving Sheridan lead you to your television work? I know you were at Second City, and part of The Chumps Without a Net, and did some work on The Kids in the Hall. I’d love to hear more about those experiences.

GP: I was lucky and landed a job right away with CBC Graphic Design in Toronto doing all kinds of design work for TV. I sort of slid my way into animation- basically self taught. I was not in the Sheridan animation program but I figured it out as there were artists at CBC doing it. I did animations for Mr. Dressup including two openings over the years as well as many segments for the international version of Sesame Street, so my stuff went world wide.

The opening of "Mr. Dressup" - animation done by Gary Pearson

As far as The Kids In the Hall goes, I did lots of props and graphics for them, but my big claim to fame was the scratched on film titles in their opening. That animation is my work. I also appeared twice with the Kids as an actor.

After I was working at CBC a couple of years I discovered Second City and the improv world of Toronto Theatresports. That changed everything for me because I found I enjoyed the creativity that had an immediate audience response. I was in a troupe Dangerous Poultry that played the Rivoli along with the Kids in the Hall, who were already becoming famous. From there I was in the Second City mainstage cast with notable people like Kathy Greenwood who would go on to star in Road to Avonlea and Whose Line Is It Anyway. I was doing tons of TV commercials in that period for people like KFC and Honda. From there I joined my old friends from Theatresports and we had a club called Big City Improv where we became The Chumps. We did hundreds of shows including our popular Star Trek parodies which we did with full costumes and 'special effects' for about 5 years. I played Capt. Kirk in that.

Gary Pearson and "The Chumps" spoofing Star Trek

We got a radio show with CBC that lasted two seasons improvising comedy on the radio. Around that time I was getting more and more writing work from CBC radio and feelers from TV interests and I left CBC design to carry on with my writing and performing career. From there I worked in LA with MadTV...so going from reading the magazine as a kid and admiring the writers and artists - I was now sort of part of the Mad gang of idiots.

How did your skillset as an improv and sketch actor translate to your writing duties on shows like MadTV, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Corner Gas and as head writer on That's So Weird? Are there different challenges between working on an American show like MadTV vs Canadian shows? Do you prefer writing, or would you rather be performing?

GP: Improv is writing on your feet. So it is a skill that helps you as a writer. And improv is fast and needs to develop stories fast, so that helps when writing sketch comedy. You have to get to the point, get to the emotion and story in a hurry. It helps you find characters. Lots of times writing comedy, you get up on your feet and say 'what about this' and you sort of act out something to either show yourself or a writing partner. My biggest contribution at Mad TV was the creation of the Gap Troll for Alex Borstein. I told her I had this dumb idea and I wrote it and she leapt at it and made it real. She has had a great career (Mrs. Maisel is her biggest success).

Alex Borstein (Family Guy, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) as the Gap Troll on MadTV, written by Gary Pearson. Image courtesy of IMDB

After Mad I did 7 seasons writing on 22 Minutes. I became a joke writer there in addition to sketches and would write up to 100 jokes a week hoping to get 3 or 4 in the final cut of the show! Writing for Corner Gas was the only pure sitcom I wrote for. Coming from a small town in Ontario, the Saskatchewan version in Corner Gas wasn't hard to adjust to. One thing is everyone knows everyone and all their business.

That's So Weird was my first show running experience. It made by the same company as 22 Minutes. We had many of the same crew in Halifax. It was a terrific experience working with a young cast doing a show that was kind of like MadTV or SNL for a 10-14 year old audience. We couldn't make the humour too adult but we had some great characters and sketches. Kayla Lorette, James Hartnett, AJ Vaage were stand outs. The cast won awards, they were very good at a young age. Very satisfying for me as a show runner as we did 39 episodes, which is like 100 episodes in another country!

The main difference between US and Canadian TV in my experience is budget and crew size. We would typically have 4 to 5 writers on a Canadian TV show and Mad TV had 15 or more. It made it harder to get your material on as it was very competitive but i was happy I got a sketch on all the episodes I worked on. I enjoyed working in Los Angeles and made some friends there I'm still in contact with.

As for writer vs. performing, I enjoy both. I think doing Middle Raged with Geri Hall stage show is very satisfying because we invented the show, wrote all the material ourselves and perform it across Canada.

In 2015, you co-created, wrote and exec produced Sunnyside, which one reviewer called "Canada's best sketch comedy effort TV effort since The Kids in the Hall." How is the role/life of a creator and producer different from that of a staff writer on other shows?

GP: Sunnyside was a great experience because I was working with Dan Redican of Frantics and Puppets Who Kill fame. We created the show together, cast it, hired great writers and did pretty much what we wanted with this twisted neighbourhood in Toronto with all these great characters. I loved the cast. Rogers CIty put the show on but really didn't promote it of course, so like many Canadian shows it was gone after 13 episodes. Look up the cast for that show, they are all really good performers.

The cast of "Sunnyside" - show co-created by Gary Pearson

You've found success as a novelist as well, producing three novels in roughly the same timeframe that you were co-creating Sunnyside - how do you find time to balance your work, especially the different styles of writing between long-form novel writing and TV?

GP: There is some waiting in TV and some down periods. You get the go ahead to do the show...but you don't start for 3 months. That's when I tended to write the novels, in those periods. I had no idea how to write a novel before I did my first one. I just did it. I'm still doing that. Just writing and seeing what happens. I write on planes, buses, in libraries...the other day I had a problem with my ear and had to go the the ER. I took my laptop for the 3 hour wait and wrote there.

Gary Pearson's first novel, "Slapshot of Love," as well as his other two novels, "Me and the Crack Mayor" and "Marooned In Space" are all available on Amazon - click the links to purchase. Image courtesy of Amazon

I know you and Geri Hall have reunited since your times at Second City and This Hour for your show Middle Raged, which must be a ton of fun!

GP: Geri Hall is a brilliant writer and performer, and I'm lucky to be working with her. She was on 22 MInutes as a performer when i was a writer there. We both did Second City in Toronto, but at different times, but we have a common language. It is like a Second City show... sketches, improv, songs, but it is just me and Geri. It tackles what life if like in Middle Age. A lot of sketch comedy is aimed at 20 year olds, so we saw an opportunity to write about our lives now. In Second City you typically have 6 or 7 performers- but we just have each other and are on stage for 90 min. We have now done the Middle Raged show 86 times including a 3 show run with the Mirvish company in Toronto that we virtually sold out. We have performed it from St.John's NFLD to Salt Spring Island BC and many points in between. It is a true joy to do. Some might think that kind of touring is better when you're in your 20s but I've embraced it.

Gary Pearson and Geri Hall on stage at their show, "Middle Raged."

Like writing a novel, doing animation or creating and touring a stage comedy, I have mostly learned by just trying to do it. All my novels are available at Amazon, where I'm sure I'm ranked in the top 1 million authors! But I don't care, the fun is often writing it, and then you just hope people discover it, which in my case, at least sometimes, they have.

At Sheridan I learned about some possibilities to be creative. I explored those and then that opened up more creative avenues and a life in the arts. Some of the specific things I learned I never used, but some of the basic stuff about being creative and exploring ideas and stories cross all artistic disciplines.

I would leave you with this: I have made a career in the arts. I didn't get rich but I've had a lot of fun and paid the bills. If you have a creative idea, whether it is a drawing or comedy sketch or novel, just try it. Follow through. Don't stop yourself. There will be other barriers, but don't let yourself be one of them.

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For more information about Gary Pearson and Geri Hall's stage show, "Middle Raged," visit www.middleraged.ca.