INSIDE

– Perspective: Channel 4 Begins p. 1

– Hanley documents the festival p. 27

– There’s more than just barbeque on the spit: Pat Ferns gets roasted p. 32

– Canadian Rockie nominees: who from home is going up against the international heavyweights p. 34

– Stand up for the Comedy Cabaret p. 40

In an eye-crossing, jet lag-inducing calendar of international events which includes endless cycles of acronyms and enough festivals to choke an elk, Banff is a relative oasis of calm. The TV people have time to screen TV shows for a change, and the shop talk includes issues beyond ratings and rights. Television, often dismissed by the critics as hackneyed and asinine, gets treated to ‘artsy’ dialogue too often reserved for film.

It might be the venue ­ huge snow-topped rocks and the big sky can’t hurt ­ but there’s something about Banff which lets fresh air into debates on tough subjects. In last year’s Two in a Room, Channel 4 and the CBC took an earnest look at an alternative doc proposal called Planet Queer before the CBC blinked first.

As the uniquely coprod-fertile festival broadens to cover more of the world more of the year, Banff’s tradition of friendly irreverence and casual squeaky-clean Canadian-ness will be its best defence against any global growing pains which might challenge its collaborative consciousness. It’ll still be a beautiful place to make a deal.

* * *

As the Banff Television Festival starts to wind down, the laughs will be starting up when the Banff Centre for the Arts presents the Stand Up! Comedy Cabaret.

Taking place the evening of Friday, June 13, the show will feature such funny folk as Steve Smith from The New Red Green Show, Canadian writer/broadcaster Hart Pomerantz and Zandra Bell as Shirley Best entertaining with stand-up comedy.

Toronto’s Ron James will perform highlights from his one-man show Up and Down in Shakey Town: The story of one Canadian’s Journey through the California Dream. u.k. comedy writer Stephanie Calman (Dressing For Breakfast, Gentlemen prefer my Sister) will do a reading, and Peter Bergman from the Firesign Theatre in California will perform his cutting-edge contemporary humor.

All proceeds from the show, coproduced by the Banff Centre and Banff Television Festival, will go to the Centre’s Arts Media and Visual Arts Program.

The Comedy Cabaret is also an opening for the Banff Centre’s day-long workshop, ‘The Selling of Silly and the Future of Funny: Television, Interactive Media and Comedy,’ on Saturday, June 14.

Panels consisting of senior execs, actors, writers and performers will take a look at cutting-edge humor on television and address the question of whether comedy can cross cultures. Other topics include what sells in comedy, how to reach international markets and how comedy translates in the new world of technology.

Panelists include Seamus Cassidy, senior commissioning editor ­ comedy and entertainment Channel 4, u.k.; cbc’s Ken Finkelman; Yuk Yuk’s ceo Mark Breslin; Fred Keating, president of Lindisfarne Productions; George Gonzo, TV West exec vp; and from Australia, Josephine Starrs of VNS Matrix.

Andy Nulman, Just for Laughs ceo, delivers the keynote Saturday at 9:30 a.m.