I just got back from interviewing the Trailer Park Boys for an online feature for The Coast. Though extremely excited for the opportunity, I was a little weary of the prospect of the Boys being in character, which I was assured they would be. I suppose that I was just concerned that I would be the straight man in a comedy routine that had been in rehearsals with out me.
Thankfully, a couple of things managed to mitigate any awkwardness and made for a decent interview:
John-Paul Tremblay, Mike Smith and Robb Wells have been at this shtick for almost a decade now. I am sure they have more experience of being interviewed and engaging a reporter than I do interviewing subjects 'in character.' They were low key, open and funny.
Nothing kill spontaneity and flights of fancy faster than a subject conversing with the crown of a reporters head as she furiously tries to transcribe their answers. Yes, I had that famous reporter nightmare of the recorder batteries dying the moment I pressed the [rec] button; and me without shorthand skills! The moment you depend on technology, you run a deficit in self-sufficiency. I give credit to the Boys for not running off on furious tangents, leaving me miles behind in my warbled notes.
The piece should be up on thecoast.ca eventually.
