Halifax: It’s business as usual on the set of Topsail Entertainment’s Trailer Park Boys, less than a week after the cast and crew heard the news about their nominations at the 18th annual Gemini Awards.

The dark-horse hit, about the oddball residents of the Sunnyvale trailer park, picked up noms for best comedy program or series, best ensemble performance in a comedy, and best achievement in makeup, for Annemarie Cassidy. The episode cited in the last two categories is titled ‘What the Fuck Happened to My Trailer Park?’, perfectly capturing the tenor of the show. In the ep, Ricky (Rob Wells) takes a mall security job, putting himself at odds with Julian (John Paul Tremblay) and Bubbles (Mike Smith).

In the unseasonable Nova Scotia heat, series creator and director Mike Clattenburg and his cast steamroll through scene after scene with laughter and good-natured ribbing. Most in question seem somewhat cynical about their shot at taking home Canadian TV’s most prestigious prize.

‘I’ve been nominated a few times in the past, but I’m really not involved in the whole thing,’ says Clattenburg with a shrug, following a morning of shooting. ‘I just focus on the show, but it’s cool that it happens.’

This is the cast’s third nomination for best ensemble, a fact not lost on the performers. However, two nominations and no wins thus far, despite a hardcore fan base (viewership has increased 215% since its May 2001 premier) and critical acclaim, doesn’t fill the cast with optimism.

‘I don’t really pay much attention to awards,’ says Mike Smith, whose Bubbles wears TV’s biggest bifocals and has a fondness for shopping carts and cats. ‘It’s cool we got nominated, but we’re probably going to fucking lose.’

Actor Wells, who plays the none-too-swift, oft-inebriated, loose-tongued Ricky, chimes in.

‘I think it’s pretty fucking awesome that we got nominated,’ he says. ‘It’s a low-budget show that makes people laugh, and that’s what it comes down to. It’s good that we got nominated, but I don’t think we have a hope in hell of winning.’

‘We’re not on the good end of the political setup,’ adds Smith. ‘Historically, a lot of CBC shows get four out of five nominations and usually win, and they’ll probably win this year too.’

For the record, a CBC show has taken home the trophy for best comedy program or series every year since the Geminis launched in 1986. And this year, Trailer Park Boys finds itself up against CBC’s six-time winner This Hour Has 22 Minutes, The Comedy Network’s The Gavin Crawford Show and Puppets Who Kill, and VisionTV’s Lord Have Mercy!

CBC also so far owns the best ensemble performance category, having won it for Made in Canada in each of the award’s first two years. This year, the Boys will take on the teams from CBC’s Made in Canada, An American in Canada and This Hour as well as that from W Network’s A Guy & a Girl.

Although CBC may have an award-winning history, Trailer Park Boys has its own history of being a sleeper. It’s been a sleeper on the TV dial ever since it began three seasons ago, notes Lucy DeCoutere (who plays single mom Lucy, Ricky’s sometime squeeze).

DeCoutere is actually upbeat about the Gemini noms and what they mean to the series, and she feels Trailer Park Boys’ cast represents the ultimate in collaborative effort.

‘This show truly has an ensemble cast, in the sense that you have the three guys propped up by the anomaly by which they are surrounded,’ she says. ‘Each character brings out a side in another, and no character could stand on their own. If we were to win, I think it’s symptomatic of… how solid the group [is that Clattenburg] has been able to put together.’

Clattenburg seems most excited about Trailer Park Boys’ nom for makeup artist Cassidy, who is also his wife. He feels that the nomination reflects her work on the series overall.

‘She came up with the looks for Ricky and Julian, and very carefully thought of those,’ he says. ‘Many things have changed on our show,

but the look of the characters has always been consistent, because they’ve always worked.’

He says Cassidy’s job is made even harder by the miniDV format on which the series is shot, which can cause problems from time to time, given that the series is shot outdoors in late summer.

‘It’s a very difficult format to use in sunlight when you’re dealing with people up close,’ says Clattenburg. ‘The exposure range is really bad, but the characters manage to look good and not ‘made up.’ Her art is an invisible art. It’s hard to keep the sweat off people in the bright sunlight, but they always look good.’

Trailer Park Boys is also nominated twice for the viewers’ choice award for favorite comedian, which will be voted on by the public via the Gemini Awards’ website. Both Smith and Wells are up for the prize against eight others, including Made in Canada’s Rick Mercer, Gemini show host Sean Cullen, and This Hour’s Colin Mochrie. Conspicuously absent from the nominee list, however, is TPB’s Tremblay and his outwardly profane yet subtly comedic performance as Julian, who constantly walks the delicate line between prison and the straight and narrow. The oversight seems to neglect the ensemble nature so central to the show’s success.

As for the two Boys who are nominated, with a strong Internet presence for the show on broadcaster Showcase’s website, either actor probably has a better-than-average shot at the prize.

At press time, Smith was battling for the lead with Buzz’s Morgan Smith

-www.showcase.ca/trailerparkboys

-www.geminiawards.ca