There’s nothing more normal than learning about other people’s cultures—even if you can’t quite get a grasp on it.
That’s essentially the premise to Bell Fibe TV1’s new short-form comedy series Normal Scotia, co-created by Charles Wahl and Amarpal Dhillon. The show features two Indian immigrants, Manish (played by Akshay Shirke) and Shiv (Ishan Sandhu) coming to terms with the Maritime lifestyle as they work at a curling club in north end Halifax.
The show’s six-episode run will see Manish and Shiv encounter the many strange ways of Nova Scotian life, from their unique way of giving directions, to the food they frequently eat—all the while showing how different Indian culture is in comparison, such as in the first episode where arranged marriages become a topic of conversation.
“It’s basically a comedy of manners between Maritimers trying to figure out Indian immigrants and Indian immigrants trying to figure out Maritimers in the workplace,” says Dhillon in an interview with The Coast. “The great thing about the workplace is this great democracy, where people you’ve never hung out with before are put together.”
The newcomer experience
Both Dhillon and Wahl are the children of immigrants. Dhillon’s parents moved to Canada from India, while Wahl and his family moved to Canada when he was two years old—his mother is Moroccan, and his father is German.
Dhillon says growing up in Halifax during the 1980s and ‘90s influenced how he observed Maritime culture. These observations were enhanced by a 14-year stint in Toronto, giving him the chance to really see how unique Maritime culture can be.
Wahl grew up in Ontario, moving to Halifax around 10 years ago, giving him a deep perspective of the differences between Canadian cultures. While growing up in Ontario, his family would often sponsor fellow newcomers to live with them.
“There was a definite adjustment when I first moved here,” says Wahl. “There was a lot of little difference, and like, little things that jumped out at me immediately. So I am actually able to bring a bit of that kind of quasi-fresh perspective to being new here.”
Dhillon and Wahl may call Nova Scotia home, but they also acknowledge that the Maritimes are not without their eccentricities.
“Okay, so you’re new to Canada, but being new to Canada in Atlantic Canada is its own thing,” says Wahl. “We thought that on top of that, it takes it to a whole other level. It’s such a welcoming and heartwarming place, but with so many quirks that we felt like it’s kind of perfect to really focus on that experience because it is so warm and funny.”
Originally, the show was supposed to be set in a hardware store, but once the duo began scouting for locations, they found the Mayflower Curling Club on Monaghan Drive in Halifax to be a perfect spot to shoot their show, as the club was closed during the summer.
“It’s so Canadian, and you would not expect a bunch of newcomers to be working in a curling club, and it just added a whole other layer of texture and atmosphere to the show,” says Wahl.
The entire show was shot in Halifax, leading some of the comedy to come from the locale itself, including some directional mishaps that lead the main characters to Dartmouth.
“There’s already kind of Halifax jokes, Dartmouth jokes, Indian jokes, Maritime jokes. Now we have curling jokes layered in there as well,” says Dhillon.
Balancing comedy and sensitivity
When cracking jokes about different cultures and how they clash, a certain sensitivity is needed to ensure the joking doesn’t go too far in one direction, potentially alienating the audience. Dhillon was well aware of the sensitivity needed to make Normal Scotia work.
“There is a delicacy to these topics, where you want to toe the line between comedy, but you don’t want to be completely offensive as well,” he says. “So there is that sweet spot where we try to look at the human element of everything and find humour in that.”
One example of this can be seen in the first episode. When the topic of arranged marriages comes up, there’s no belittling, nor any jokes made at anyone else’s expense—the biggest laugh of the scene is one of the Canadian-born characters saying she wished her mom could hook her up with a guy and be done with it.
“Even though there’s a culture clash between it, it just shows that people kind of worry about the same things, regardless of if you’re from outside Canada or within Canada, there’s still like a focus of conversation between them, and there’s pros and cons from their perspectives for all of it,” Wahl explains. “It’s something we try not to be too overt about, but it’s a little more subtle. It just shows that, despite where these people come from, they still worry about the same things and think about the same things—it’s just in a different package.”
Even the title relays that message, emphasizing the normality of everyone who makes Nova Scotia their home—although, the title’s origin is based on an idea Dhillon had years prior. Having moved back to Halifax from Toronto during the pandemic, he began to pick up on the ways Nova Scotians began to show their regional pride, such as in fashion brands like East Coast Lifestyle or Nova Scotia Strong bumper stickers.
After some time tinkering with a phrase that would be as eye-catching as the ones he had seen around, the phrase Normal Scotia popped into his head. When it came time for his and Wahl’s television show, he pulled it from his memory.
“It was kind of serendipitous, but originally, it was just me trying to think of a bumper sticker, and then it evolved into this,” says Dhillon.
New episodes of Normal Scotia air every Wednesday on Bell Fibe TV1 and Bell On Demand.
This article appears in Dec 1-18, 2024.