Air Farce

Description

As a group and individually, the Farce have performed innumerable concerts for charities across Canada, and hosted hundreds of fundraisers. Roger Abbott and Don Ferguson have hosted the annual Easter Seals Telethon in Ontario for over 20 years and also are celebrity spokespersons for Raising the Roof’s annual toque campaign. Furthermore, they continue to support fundraising undertaken by their alma mater, Montreal’s Loyola High School and the Nairobi-based African Jesuit AIDS Network.

“The switch to HD is a major change in our production style,” says Air Farce producer and star Don Ferguson. “It must be as dramatic a change as when television switched from black-and-white to colour in the mid-1960s.” Sets have been redesigned, character hair and makeup improved, and CBC’s Studio 42 has been completely upgraded with digital HD cameras and control room.

We did radio for 24 seasons. One year we were taping a radio show in Regina in the dead of winter, and were introduced to a family who had driven 700 miles to see us. I said to (then radio producer) Johnny Dalton, "If I ever think about quitting, remind me about this moment." Doing the TV show has been another highlight. It was like being re-born. The sheer audience numbers (averaging 1.4 million viewers), an entirely different audience than we had on radio, being recognized on the street, working with a production team that can do anything — it's a great sandbox to play in!

I’m heartbroken to tell you that our beloved friend, Roger Abbott, died last night at Toronto General Hospital, fourteen years after being diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a progressive disease that he kept secret from all but a few close friends and family until a week ago. Roger was the guiding light of Royal Canadian Air Farce since it began in 1973, and all of us who have had the honour of working with him and the pleasure of knowing him will dearly miss his kindness, generosity, integrity, leadership, and wonderful sense of humour. God bless Roger!

After two years of missionary work in Venezuela, Jessica and some friends at Ryerson's School of Radio & Television Arts dared each other to try stand up. Jessica caught the bug, and soon joined the cast of The Second City Touring Company , performed at Just for Laughs , and landed her first TV gig: Little Big Kid on YTV , where she played an over-grown three-year-old. During the day, she was working at CBC in Master Control doing data entry.

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