“‘Canadianity’ is a fictitious word we’ve made up that sounds like a religion, and it’s used to describe the things that both make us roll our eyes as Canadians but also make us proud,” says Jonathan Torrens, co-host and co-creator of the laugh-out-loud funny Taggart and Torrens Canadianity podcast.
Torrens is a well-known actor working on two successful TV projects in CBC’s Mr. D and Trailer Park Boys. Jeremy Taggart spent the last couple decades drumming in iconic Canadian rock band Our Lady Peace.
The weekly podcast has been running for just over a year and has skyrocketed in popularity after a move to iTunes in January to the tune of 300,000 downloads and counting. The hour-long show is completely unscripted and consists of something akin to a two so-called “bauds” shooting the proverbial horse pucky, trying to crack each other up.
When the duo decided to add a live show at the Rivoli in Toronto on May 2 as part of Canadian Music Week, it sold out in minutes.
Everything from buying a Timmies for a guy behind you in the drive-thru, to just being a “baud” to reacquainting ourselves with the musical works of long-forgotten musicians such as Amanda Marshall qualifies as Canadianity. It is a celebration of quirky Canadian people and customs that have developed over the past few decades.
“We hit the ground running, and it’s been growing on a grassroots level on such a crazy scale,” says Taggart. “It kind of feels like it validates that it [Canadianity] is a thing and it is a feeling.”
It taps into that inner hoser in a similar fashion to Bob and Doug McKenzie, who managed to poke fun at toque-wearing, beer-guzzling Canucks in a way that also made us proud in a strange way. And that’s a serious compliment to the show’s two hosts.
“We come from similiar but different worlds,” says Torrens, who first met Taggart when the Trailer Park Boys were the opening act for an Our Lady Peace concert tour a years ago. “We’re buds, but not besties, and I think, even tonally, we’re kind of a little opposite, and I guess I just wondered what that kind of conversation might bring,” he says.
The show has added many features along the way, including a top five songs segment in each episode as well as a slew of regular games such as poetry sayin’ and Alanis or Avril, where a quote is read, and one of the hosts has to guess if it was said by Alanis Morisette or Avril Lavigne.
A couple of Canadianity’s recent shows have introduced listeners to two new characters in Salvadore (the “touchy-feely weirdo from Spain” who is constantly having trouble fitting in because he “doesn’t understand Canadian ways”) and the notorious Quebec strip club DJ who introduces dancers with uniquely Canadian stage names.
Torrens, of course, knows a thing or two about quirky character development, having donned the do-rags and gold chains of Trailer Park Boys resident white rapper J-ROC since the show first aired in 2001.
That show has turned into something of a global sensation since Netflix took over for the eighth season in 2014 and continues to fund its development.
“Every six months since the show started, I’ve thought, well that’s gotta be that then,” says Torrens. “It’s the show that will not die, and it continues to find new audiences in new corners of the world through Netflix — especially teenage boys who are just latching on to it.”
Currently, Torrens is back at work writing for the show’s upcoming new season.
After leaving Our Lady Peace in 2014, Taggart has been working in broadcasting as well as writing, drum clinics and teaching. He’s also been making music with Kirt Godwin and Alex St. Kitts and confirms the band might have something out this year.
“I love music, but I definitely wouldn’t just go out on the road for 12 months for nothing,” Taggart says. “I have three kids now, and I’m enjoying being here. Life is interesting enough; when you have responsibilities, you have to keep your head clear. I’m not 18 anymore.”
The show is unscripted, and preparation for the show consists of a couple of texts and a frantic five minutes before the show goes live.
“It’s not like it’s frickin’ Robin Williams,” says Taggart. “Just legitimate people having a conversation, and if we’re not laughing, we know it’s not a good one.”
And that’s all part of the charm.
“It’s warts-and-all kind of programming, not a slick piece of radio at CBC, for example,” Torrens explains. “And once we cracked that nut and found out people had this real affection for this nostalgic Canadianity, for lack of a better term, it was really exciting.”
Although parlaying the success of the show into a paying gig on radio might seem like the natural evolution, which is how Torrens saw it originally, something changed along the way.
“It’s only in recent weeks that we realized that would be limiting for us and for our listeners,” he says. “The end game is to keep spreading the Canadianity, maybe find some sponsors. And my dream is to do a cross-country tour of back roads spots, episodes from hunting cabins, fishing huts, some of the hardest to reach places in the country.”
For more information on the show, visit their website.