JOHN CANDY: A LIFE IN COMEDY
A CONVERSATION WITH AUTHOR PAUL MYERS (PART TWO)
The conversations with those interviewed in the book are often so detailed that we cannot do them justice in this space. Paul Myers does discuss the ‘good and bad’ of Candy’s personality, which results in some very dramatic scenes in the book. The author’s narration, and stories told by others, make for some compelling reading. Still, Myers is practical about his job as a writer, “I don’t think that people wanted to talk to me so much. I’m happy they did, but they wanted to put on record. ‘You’re doing a book about John Candy. You seem to have people who are going to be credible, so therefore I’m going to tell you my version of the story, and I want it to be included.’ So, the people who wanted to be at the table, like Catherine O’Hara, they wanted to make their statement about John through me. They’re not saying ‘I need to talk to Paul Myers’. So, I take my ego out of it. Having said that, I think there are some people who have told me later that they appreciated how I handled the story, and I do think of that. I take it very seriously that, this is your friend. I’m not just writing about a mythical character from a legend. This is a guy you mourned when he died. You thrilled to when you worked with him. In the case of Ron Howard, it was inescapable that he was like, ‘We had this moment on the film.’ And he was very important, because Ron Howard hadn’t made his name yet, and Tom Hanks hadn’t made his name yet as a film actor. So, you gotta also try constantly to get into the context of these people’s brushes with John. There was no Imagine Entertainment legacy for Ron Howard and Brian Grazer at this point. Splash was one of their films where they were scrappy, trying to make a big hit comedy. So, that’s really important to remember.”
AUTHOR PAUL MYERS
While being an avowed fan of Candy, Myers also acknowledges an additional tie to the late star. He notes, “I never met John Candy. But I’ve got to tell you, this is important, because there’s always a personal connection in everything I do. Like with the Kids In The Hall, obviously, I was part of the story at times. Barenaked Ladies, I was part of the story at times. But in this case, my brother, Mike went to see Big City Comedy. It was a TV show that John Candy had, that Mike went to see at Convocation Hall at U of T, Toronto. He went to the backstage door after a promotional appearance with Candy and Tim Kazurinsky, and other people who are from comedy. He was a little kid, and he said, ‘I like being funny, and I want to be funny on stage. How do I do that?’ And John Candy said to Mike – who’s just a kid, like probably 13 – he says, ‘Here’s what you should do. Go to Second City, Toronto. They have a workshop there. If you’re any good at it, you’ll keep doing it, and you might get better at it. And if you really like doing it, even while you’re doing the hard work of learning how to do it, then you might even want to do it for your living, and it’ll be hard. But if you’re good at it and you’re enjoying the work, you will work as hard as you need to work. And you might not get anywhere, but you might get somewhere, because you’ll be good at it’. And it was such good advice to give anybody! And so, John Candy is the reason Mike went to Second City workshops, which is how he got drafted in Second City, which is how he ended up on Saturday Night Live. So, to me, our family owes John Candy that. And all the stuff I know about comedy comes out of the fact that I was now along for the ride, because Mike and my brother Peter and I are all very close. So, when one of us learned something, everybody was like, ‘Here’s what I learned in class today!’ So, I went to comedy school basically because of John Candy giving advice to my brother. So, there is a deep connection.”
“I love that Mike did run into him years later at Wayne Gretzky’s restaurant. Mike was sitting at a table with his friend, Davey Mackenzie, and John Candy walks in, he’s sitting at a different table. Then someone says, ‘You should go over and say hi’, and Mike’s like, ‘He won’t know who I am. He won’t remember.’ And then, having seen Wayne’s World, John Candy walked over and said, ‘Hey, I saw your movie.’ And Mike was like, ‘John Candy walked across the floor to talk to me.’ That, for Mike, was a huge one. I’ll let him speak to that. I think he does speak of it in the book. We’re doing an event in Toronto and an event in New York with Mike and that’s the main reason. It’s not because I just want to pull out my celebrity brother. And I wouldn’t have even asked him, except that I feel like I will interview him as much as he interviews me about this stuff, because he, you know, he has insights. I draw on him in the book, you know, much like the Kids In the Hall draw on him too. That’s what’s gonna happen when you’re writing about sketch comedy, and you grew up with the guy who’s, like, one of the big names. I mean, I’m proud of my brother Mike, because he’s one of the big names in sketch comedy, and he knows stuff. That’s the thing about Mike. He didn’t just bump along in this business. He studied it. He’s a very inspirational person for that, for me. So, shout out to my brother Mike. But also, the fact that the connection, it’s very legit. It’s not name-droppy to bring out my celebrity brother. I use him as an expert, you know?
PURCHASE JOHN CANDY: A LIFE IN COMEDY
Paul Myers is an excellent biographer, using his source material to artfully tell his story. With that said, John Candy: A Life in Comedy is among his best work. As for what he hopes readers will take away from reading this book, Myers says, thoughtfully, “As I was writing it, I did have an inspirational wall in front of me, and the biggest heading was something to do with, ‘Remember the man, not the myth.’ Also, remember that you want to make him three dimensional. He’s not all sad, he’s not all happy. But when he was making other people happy and making other people laugh, he was happy. He’s one of the most social people that you’ll ever write about or hear or possibly meet. I didn’t meet him. I wanted it to be the story that this person transcended everything about his accidents of birth, accidents of physicality, and found a way to channel everything in his life into a really solid career for many years. Unfortunately, not enough years for a lot of us, and certainly not enough years for his family. I think that’s what I wanted to portray: this was somebody’s father, somebody’s husband, somebody’s friend, and everybody’s uncle.”
“So, what this book is, is John Candy. It’s a life in comedy. It’s not so much about his family. His family are in it constantly, because it’s so much a part of his story. I haven’t seen it yet, the film’s probably more about the family life, and I’m happy to see that. But I write about people’s work. I like to write about musicians’ lives and comedians’ lives only as they pertain to the output of what we know about them and their creative process. So, for me, A Life in Comedy is a way of saying to everyone, ‘Here’s what you’re gonna get.’”
Paul Myers Links
