The Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour

The Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour was a radio comedy show on CBC Radio One for four seasons, running from 1997 to 2000.

The show was set in a fictional café of the same name, in the equally fictional town of Blossom, Alberta. Both Blossom and the café were originally described in Tom King's award-winning novel Green Grass, Running Water, though it was run by different characters. The show borrowed numerous elements from King's novel.

The show featured King (playing himself), Floyd Favel Starr (playing Jasper Friendly Bear) and Edna Rain (playing Gracie Heavy Hand). All the main characters were Canadian aboriginals, and the show was a skillful mix of scathing political critique and cheerfully irreverent comedy.

Despite the name, the show was in fact only 15 minutes long, and typically ran as a segment on CBC Radio One's This Morning. The show had a number of regular segments, including:

• Gracie's Authentic Traditional Aboriginal Recipes (including puppy stew, fried bologna, and Kraft Dinners)
• the Authentic Indian Name generator (featuring three wheels that could automatically create names like "Stewart Coffee Armadillo", or "Rosemarie Clever Tuna")
• Friendly Bear's Blackout Bingo (play bingo at home using a card you made up; the numbers called during the tenure were "B8," "I22, "I24, "I26," "N34," "G60," and "O546" {B8 was called during all of season 1 and during one episode, Jasper had announced "G57" to fool Tom when the bingo ball had actually been B8})
• Gracie's Conversational Cree (designed for simple but useful phrases, such as "Please ask the chauffeur to bring the car around" and "How long will we be in port?")

It also regularly featured short guest spots on the "What Else Do you Do (When You're Not Being Famous)?" which featured interviews with the likes of Tomson Highway, Laura Vinson, Graham Greene and an actor playing Louis Riel.

The Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour returned for a one-off hour-long show in 2002, recorded live at Regina's Globe Theatre, Regina,

Its famous closing line was "Stay Calm, Be Brave, Wait for the Signs".

2006 revival

The original Dead Dog cast briefly returned on Dead Dog in the City which aired weekly on Sounds Like Canada with repeats on Nighttime Review between on April 6, 2006 until December 20 that year. Twenty-six new episodes were planned and aired again over the summer of 2006.^[1] This new iteration also stars Tara Beagan as Portia Jumpingbull. The closing line had "Leave Good News Alone" as an addition to the slogan.

Discography

• Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour, Vol. 1 (1998)
• Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour, Vol. 2 (1999)
• Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour, Vol. 3 (2000)
• Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour, Vol. 4 (2001)

Footnotes

1. ^ http://writerbroadcaster.com/WordPress/index.php/?p=230 Dead Dog Cafe, accessed March 26, 2006]

External links

• 1997 Wayback Machine archive of the show's Web Site from CBC.ca, accessed November 12, 2005
• Arthur, Bruce. "Wait for the Signs", Ubyssey Magazine Interview with Tom King
• globetheatrelive.com – CBC Press Release announcing live show recording in 2001