Sean Cullen is hard to miss. In the past year he’s hosted his own show on CBC, appeared in his own Comedy Central special and on Royal Canadian Air Farce, had a bit part on the sitcom Patti and has popped up repeatedly on The Tonight Show. He has also hosted more awards shows and specials than most people would ever willingly watch – fronting The Phil Hartman Awards, the WGC Top Ten Awards, the 20th anniversary of Just For Laughs and last year’s Geminis.

Cullen will be back at the Gems in October – about the same time he makes his gala musical debut in the Toronto version of The Producers – and for this, the 18th edition of Canada’s top TV honors, his Dream Square Entertainment company will help run things backstage.

But hosting shows, as Cullen recently explained to Playback, is tough work. Is he a consummate showman, or a glutton for punishment? Canada’s answer to Bob Hope or Billy Crystal?

Why do you do so many hosting gigs?

I don’t know. I guess it’s because I can. It’s hard to find people willing to do them and word gets around.

Really? Why won’t other people do them?

They’re kind of the hardest crowds in the world. It’s a very anxious night. Everybody’s quite worried about if they’re going to win or lose, and if they don’t win, then you’ve got 80% of the crowd not happy by the end of the show. If someone can do that and amuse everyone and make sitting through an awards show a little less painful, then everybody kind of jumps on them.

It’s very daunting. But as long as you’re respectful, a little bit cheeky but not too vicious, people won’t take themselves too seriously.

Last year was a rough year for the Geminis – they drew poor ratings and mixed reviews. Why did you come back?

I think the Geminis are always struggling with that kind of stuff, that they’re not slick enough or whatever. But I don’t think anything I did drew ire from the media. I think what started it off badly last year was the press conference – the presentation seemed to go all awry and it got off on a bad note. But the actual show went off really well last year. I think I did a good job.

Will you do anything different?

We’re going to try to improve on what we did last year, to bring a little bit of humor and fun to the show. We had a big musical number so we’ll do that again and hopefully make it bigger.

How much control do you have over the show as a whole?

As the production company, we pretty much approve what’s going to happen, but CBC and the Academy have the final say. The presenters are out of my hands. They’re going to do however well or bad they’re going to do, but I approve the whole script and I’m in on the writing. I have two guys writing it – Jason Belleville and Adam Sternbergh – who wrote with me last year. So we’ll have a little more control that way.

Do you prefer to always work with the same people?

Once you find good people, especially writers, you want to keep them. Jason and Adam really get me and understand the way I think and the way I speak and they really can produce some very funny stuff. With writers there’s a comfort level – a give and take that’s hard to find.

What are you watching these days?

I watch Hockey Night in Canada. I love hockey so I watch a lot of that. The Air Farce, they’re good friends of mine, 22 [Minutes] and Made in Canada. And we’re all watching Canadian Idol of course. It’s almost a train wreck but not quite. [Laughs.] No, it’s not. I don’t want to knock it. It’s very exciting.

I’m really glad Trailer Park Boys is getting recognition, too. They exemplify what’s best about Canadian TV, when it tries to make something out of nothing. They take the little bit of money they have and use it – they use the cheapness so well – they make it a strength, not a weakness. It’s an amazing success story.

It’s unfortunate that in Canada being a ‘cult hit’ means you get thousands of viewers. If they were in America they’d get millions.

Your show, The Sean Cullen Show, is not back this season. How do you feel about that?

What kept it from coming back were the [CTF] funding cuts. It’s sad. The government trains you to be good little bureaucrats to get your money and says, ‘Okay, now there is no money.’ You’ve handed in all your little contracts and all your little tables are filled out and they just pull the rug out from under you. So that was a bit sad.

Would you try it again?

Oh, certainly. We learned a lot from doing it. I’m not saying it was perfect at all, but it was a really great learning experience for me and I’d love to revisit something like that.

You’re also about to play Max in the Toronto production of The Producers. How are you preparing?

I just watched the movie, with Zero Mostel, again. He’s so gigantic in his interpretation. He’s so loud and aggressive, but there is such a sweetness to him, too, a real vulnerability. What I think you have to have between [the leads] Leo and Max is a father-son relationship, or younger brother-elder brother, where one is trying to bring the other out of his shell, show him a world he’s never seen before.

Is Nathan Lane’s performance on your mind?

I never saw him. But I saw Jason Alexander and Martin Short in L.A. That was strange. It felt like they switched the roles.

You’ve also been doing segments for The Tonight Show.

They’ve really liked my work. I go on Venice Beach, find people, make them sing. I can’t describe how it works, but we just try to find weird people and make them look weird and I watch in amazement.

Do you want to do more work down there?

I haven’t given up on the U.S. at all, but I wanted to do this Producers role. I just think this is too good

a role to pass up. I think it will

show I can perform and perform a role. I think it’ll open a lot of doors for me.