Air Farce: 40 Years of Flying by the Seat of Our Pants

Roger Abbott, Don Ferguson

Wiley, Oct 24, 2011 - Social Science - 272 pages

A rollicking, behind-the-scenes look at Canada's favourite comedy troupe

A staple of CBC television for fifteen years, with diehard fans numbering in the millions, Canada's Royal Canadian Air Farce exemplifies brilliant comedic mayhem. Written by the founding members of Air Farce—Roger Abbott and Don Ferguson—this candid memoir, full of anecdotes, photographs, scripts, and other memorabilia from the authors' private collection describes every aspect of their hard-scrabble early life in 1970 as an onstage comedy troupe, their historic run on radio, and their spectacular success on prime-time television.

With contributions from many of their longtime friends and collaborators, including Dave Broadfoot (whose "When I regained consciousness" tagline is now part of the Canadian vernacular), and the irrepressive Luba Goy, Air Farce takes readers behind the scenes, and onstage, into the day-to-day creative vortex of one of the most popular comedy shows in the history of Canadian television.

• Offers unprecedented access to the intimate workings of Canada's legendary comedy troupe—from their days as "something fun to do on Sunday nights" in theatres to their arrival on Canadian television, as one of its highest rated shows
• The authors share the highlights, lowlights, successes, and tragedies that resulted from their Air Farce collaboration

Offering a no-holds-barred look at the key players that turned comedy talent into prime-time gold, Air Farce offers their legions of fans a genuine keepsake destined to last at least as long as the troupe's forty-year career—if not longer.

About the author

ROGER ABBOTT was born in England in 1946. He immigrated to Canada in 1953 and grew up in Montreal, where he began his broadcasting career off-the-air in programming and management in private radio.

DON FERGUSON was born in Montreal in 1946. He too worked in private radio and as a photographer and documentary filmmaker until he discovered that comedy writing and performing were more fun.

Friends since they were thirteen, Roger and Don both stumbled into comedy in 1970 with the improvisational comedy troupe, The Jest Society. In 1973 they became two of the founding members of Royal Canadian Air Farce, which ran for 24 seasons on CBC Radio.

When Air Farce made the jump to a weekly television series in 1993, it became an instant hit. It was one of the highest-rated series in Canada for 16 years, and over that time its average audience topped 1 million viewers. The annual Air Farce New Year's Eve special has garnered huge ratings.

Winners of the Governor General's Performing Arts Award in 1998 and recipients of a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in 2000, Roger and Don and their fellow Air Farceurs became the first Canadian inductees into the International Humour Hall of Fame in 1992.

Air Farce was the recipient of fifteen ACTRA Awards for radio and television, and a Juno for best comedy album. At the 2000 Gemini Awards, they received both the Earle Grey Award for Air Farce's body of work in Canadian television, and the viewer-voted People's Choice Award for favourite television program, which they won again the next year. In April 2001, Air Farce was inducted into the Canadian Comedy Hall of Fame. Roger and Don were also honoured with the Gemini Humanitarian Award for their extensive charity work.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Air Farce: 40 Years of Flying by the Seat of Our Pants
• Authors: Roger Abbott, Don Ferguson
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Wiley, 2011
• ISBN: 1118034260, 9781118034262
• Length: 272 pages
• Subjects: Social Science / Popular Culture