Dec. 09, 2009 - Issue #738: Manraygun

MIXED BLESSINGS: From cops to comedy

Gary Basaraba gets to make use of his funny bone in Mixed Blessings

Out of a career that has stretched from the Yale School of Drama to regular roles on both the small and big screen, Gary Basaraba has carved a character niche as an occasionally gruff but usually well-meaning guy. Something about his face, plaintively relaxed but sternly set, seems to suggest police officers in particular, and up until now his most familiar roles have been as cops of one stripe or another, from Sheriff Kilgore in Fried Green Tomatoes to titled roles on respected cop shows Brooklyn South and Boomtown.

It's not a resume that immediately suggests a turn as Hank, the sweet-hearted but frequently bombastic plumber that's one half of the couple at the heart of Mixed Blessings, but Basaraba has a couple of aces up his sleeve as far as that's concerned. The show, set in Fort McMurray and following the travails of a mixed family, one part Alberta Ukrainian and one part Cree, speaks to two parts of Basaraba's history: his old pay-the-bills jobs working construction and a familiar setting, him being born in Edmonton and all. As he explains, both come in handy for finding the soul of Hank.

"Especially with comedy, making it close to the bone, making it close to who you are yourself offers you a sense of spontaneity and improvisation," says Basaraba, pointing out that that kind of close relation is especially important on Mixed Blessings, which lets Basaraba and co-star Tina Lameman improvise much of the comedy for a more natural feel. "You're playing off of your core, so in a sense you become inseparable from the character."

Playing off the core seems particularly apt for Mixed Blessings. Airing on APTN, it's grounded both by its small-town Alberta setting and its lighthearted take on living in a mixed family: now entering its third season, the show has dealt with everything from Hank taking part in traditional First Nations ceremonies to the life of a hockey dad, and will now take on what it's like to raise a baby. For Basaraba, that grounding is what lets people relate to the more outrageous moments of sitcom living.

"You really have to honour the truth of the relationships in the situation that you're in," he explains. "Even though we're cavorting and making comedy at the same time, if it comes out of a real place, if it comes out of characters and people where people can say, 'This guy's just like me,' or, 'This gal's just like the girl next door,' if you can show that they have to deal with all the things that modern life that people have to, then people will let their guard down, and accept them in the more bizarre comedic situations."

Basaraba believes Mixed Blessings can have that effect because working on the show has already changed his own point of view, something he appreciates more and more as the show continues.

"It's certainly been very enlightening in terms of the inside view of the way First Nations people look at themselves and the rest of society. That's a point of view that you just don't get to share as regular Joe Whiteguy," he points out. "And really what keeps me going is that it's not just 28 minutes of funny stuff and then forget about it. We're stirring that kind of stuff up." V


Sat, Dec 12 (3:30 pm)
Mixed Blessings
Starring Gary Busaraba, Tina Lameman
APTN

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