Everything about Fool Canada, eh?

Tonight: Fool Canada, Still Standing, Escape or Die, Illusions of Grandeur

Fool Canada, CBC
British bachelor Roland Shaftesbury (Will Sasso) tries to find a Canadian girl to marry; the Dead People’s Clothes vintage store opens in Kensington Market; the Angry Ranger (Craig Lauzon) enforces park rules in BC; and Kyle the Theatre Guy (Will Sasso) sells discount theatre tickets at Toronto’s Harbourfront.

Still Standing, CBC – “Coleman”
Jonny digs up the dirt on the Rocky Mountain mining town of Coleman, Alberta.

Escape or Die!, OLN – “Underwater Coffin (Nassau, Bahamas)”
The last time Dean Gunnarson attempted Houdini’s famous underwater coffin escape, he died and was miraculously brought back to life. Thirty years later, he takes a second chance and attempts to escape a coffin chained underwater in the shark-infested waters of the Bahamas.

Illusions of Grandeur, OLN – “Los Angeles”
Zack arrives at the end of his journey with one final goal – audition for, and become a member of, the legendary Magic Castle. The Castle is an exclusive club frequented by the best magicians in the world – but to pledge magic’s ultimate fraternity, Zack will have to overcome his fear of performing in front of other magicians.

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TV, eh? podcast episode 185 – Suddenly Sudbury

Diane, Greg and Anthony discuss CBC’s summer comedy series Still Standing and Fool Canada and Global moving Rookie Blue to Wednesday nights. Also on the docket: Killjoys and Dark Matter score for Space, the Directors Guild of Canada nominations, Diane chatted with CBC boss Sally Catto, and the trio opine whether Canada is ready for another shot at the late-night talk show genre and who might host it.

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Tonight: Fool Canada, Still Standing, Escape or Die, Illusions of Grandeur

From network episode descriptions:

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Fool Canada, CBC – series premiere 
In this hidden camera social experiment series, Will Sasso and a team of comedians travel across the country in disguise to poke fun at what it means to be Canadian. Will Sasso and a team of comedians travel the country with a truckload of hidden cameras and clever disguises to test the limits of Canadian politeness. Transportation Officer Richard Move (Will Sasso) tickets a skateboarder for speeding; Bylaw Enforcer Ian Yard (Sam Kalilieh) visits homeowners to introduce the Raccoon Release Program; a Quebec Culture Officer (Craig Lauzon) inspects tourists in Ottawa for French content; and the Ex-President of a little known country (Will Sasso) opens a food truck.

Still Standing, CBC – “Bamfield” series premiere
Follow comedian Jonny Harris as he visits struggling small towns, gets to know the locals, and mines enough material to put on an original stand-up comedy show for the whole community. Jonny goes hard-core with some locals to discover the secret charms of Bamfield, British Columbia.

Escape or Die!, OLN – “Haunted Asylum Escape”
Ripley’s has challenged Dean Gunnarson to defend his “World’s Most Daring Escape Artist” title by breaking out of the abandoned West Virginia Haunted Asylum. As an extra challenge, Dean has 60 minutes to free his team – Ava, Cary, and Jeff – from their restraints…but first he will have to find them hidden around the asylum.

Illusions of Grandeur, OLN – “San Francisco”
In the City by the Bay, Zack tries to recreate Harry Houdini’s 100 year-old upside down straightjacket escape, while dangling from a crane before a huge crowd.

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Will Sasso sets out to Fool Canada

The short answer is yes, Canadians are just a polite as we’re believed to be. That is the finding of Fool Canada, CBC’s televised social experiment where hidden cameras capture everyday folks plunged into outrageous situations and confronted with outlandish characters.

Debuting Tuesday night, Fool Canada stars Will Sasso (MADtv) as the king court jester, who along with Craig Lauzon, Sam Kalilieh and Sara Hennessey goof on everything from our love of street hockey to mistaken identity.

“I would feel bad,” Sasso says. “The producers would be talking in my ear, telling me to push it a little further and I wouldn’t want to. ‘This person is on their lunch break, they don’t need to deal with me in a wig!'” And yet deal with Sasso they do, whether he’s dressed up like a European tourist and testing the patience of a passerby by having a dozen pictures taken or portraying a traffic cop and pulling over a girl for “speeding” on her skateboard.” The B.C. native describes Fool Canada as longform improv he found scary and daunting … exactly the reasons he signed on.

Though Sasso admits not all of the bits he participated in were stellar, several in Tuesday’s debut are. The aforementioned tourist bit goes from awkward to amazing and a segment where a city staffer (played by Kalilieh) drops off raccoons for placement in city homes is snicker-worthy. The laugh-out loud moment of the half-hour show? Two dudes playing street hockey … with two dolls strapped to their chests dressed up like real babies. The look of horror on the folks who walk by to see pucks bouncing off the fake infants is worth tuning in for.

“These things don’t work unless I’m in the comfy bosom of my countrypeople,” Sasso admits. “There is this meter where you wonder how far you can push. And when you reach that spot on the meter it becomes fun.”

Fool Canada airs Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. on CBC.

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