Trailer Park Boys Call Us Collect

Julian and Ricky, potty-mouthed stars of the hit mockumentary TV series Trailer Park Boys spent the holidays getting some much-deserved R&R in prison and they're psyched to reunite with their buddy Bubbles and party hard with Vancouverites tonight and tomorrow night at The Commodore. It will be the second stop on the Trailer Park Boys: Out of The Park tour of Western Canada with Swollen Members.

For the uninitiated, The Trailer Park Boys chronicles the lives of the fictional residents of Sunnyvale Trailer Park in Nova Scotia. Julian (played by John Paul Tremblay) and Ricky (Rob Wells) are chronic party animals who pursue various "Freedom 35" illicit activities like running booze cans, porn rings, stolen Christmas tree lots and marijuana grow-ops. Their bespectacled sidekick Bubbles (Mike Smith) lives in a shed with stray cats and is the constantly flabbergasted voice of reason and morality. Monitoring, though rarely foiling the boys' schemes is a bitter alcoholic ex-cop trailer park supervisor named Jim Lahey and his paunchy ever-shirtless bisexual lover Randy.

The show might sound as intellectually stimulating as COPS, and these are indeed exaggerated stereotypes of low rent culture. But the scripts, co-written by long-time friends Tremblay, Wells and TPB director Mike Clattenburg have a provocative skewed logic, with an underlying theme that for some people, prison beats abject poverty. The show is wildly popular with people from all walks of life because it digs at all of our social hypocrisies and rallies against the cognitive disconnect with folksy messages about the importance of close connection with friends, family and community. Instead of cliché family interactions, the TPB, for example, Ricky shares a nicotine patch with his cigarette-addicted pre-teen daughter.

Season six of the series now airs in a dozen countries round the globe, the 2006 big screen debut Trailer Park Boys: The Movie was the top box office draw in Canada opening week and it was recently nominated for three 2007 Genies. The much anticipated season seven has already been filmed for the Showcase fall lineup, there's talk of a season eight and perhaps a sequel movie.

But all this fame hasn't gone to the boys' heads as we learned when Julian and Ricky got drunk and called The Tyee offices collect from Sunnyvale to share their latest news, angle for smoke-able green "presents" from local fans and advise Harper how to run the country. They even slip out of the usual in-character interview shtick to speak as the actors playing these much-loved characters. What follows are excerpts from our conversation.

On Bubbles being MIA

Ricky: "It's only me and Julian on the phone. Bubbles got caught in a snowstorm on the way back from New York. He was down there with Axl Rose, watching him record his new record. We're jealous. Me and Julian only did a couple of shows with Axl [last December on the Guns N' Roses tour], but Bubbles did most of the tour and did his awesome song 'Liquor and Whores.'"

On the current 'Out of the Park' tour

Ricky: "We're just gonna get out there and giver and have some fun with everybody. Bubbles will do music for sure, but we're more like Bubbles' side-kicks managers I guess."

On the perks of rock star fame

Ricky: "Our tour rider's awesome: seven 40 ouncers, 180 beer, sandwiches, seven bottles of wine, a few cartons of cigarettes and of course pepperoni and rolling papers. We're hoping to meet some great people with presents too. They're gonna throw us on some planes to get around [Western Canada]. Pretty cool, but I'm a little 'fraid of flying, so I'll just get drunk and different other techniques. Hotels'll be good. Beats livin' in my shitmobile."

Low rent entourage

Ricky: "One guy'll come out with us to make sure we don't get thrown in jail, but that's it."

On global domination

Julian: "It's insane how many people know who we are now. People are great and really nice and they're always hookin' us up with cigarettes and drugs. It's great."

Ricky: We haven't got to the point where we need to hide from it all.

Julian: "We watched one of the [TPB] episodes from French, dubbed. It was weird. The voice of Bubbles is really creepy. I don't know French but you can usually understand what Ricky's sayin'."

Ricky: "French people are enjoyin' it from what I hear anyway. Hopefully we can get over there soon, and Amsterdamned."

On how you can't take the Canadian trailer park out of the boys

Ricky: "It's kinda like Little House on the Prairies from Hell here. But, Sunnyvale is home. We can't leave it. That's where our family is."

Julian: "And I love Canada, so I'm not leavin'."

On the Patriot Act, hoser-style

Julian: "The show was on in the US for a while [on BBC America in 2004]. But they were bleeping out all the swear words [about four per minute]. Originally it was supposed to play late at night but that didn't happen, so the producers pulled it. But some people are jacking satellite from Canada and that's cool. There's an underground cult following down there.

Ricky: "I don't think it's good to become too much like America, cuz some of the people I meet down there just aren't as cool and friendly as Canadians. I think we should stick with our guns and be Canadian and not baby the Americans. We should just stop worrying about who we're not and be ourselves."

On war and peace

Ricky: "Is that war still goin' on? I think we should just bring our boys home. Maybe I'll run for politics cuz none of them seem to know what the hell they're doin'. I could do a much better job.

"There's some rumour about how I was related to Stephen Harper. I don't know where the hell that came from, but it's not true!

"I actually voted for the first time in my life [at the last Federal election] and it didn't make a damn difference. I could do a much better job runnin' the country. I don't agree with this stupid war and we need to get our boys home. I doubt they can really party over there. How strict are they about that?"

Julian: "I think we should lower cigarettes taxes."

Ricky: "And gas and liquor taxes. Make up the money by decriminalizing marijuana. That'd balance everything out and we'd be a lot happier.

"At the trailer park we don't have a problem with anybody, so we're not against gay marriage or anything. It doesn't matter what race you are."

On New Year's resolutions

Ricky: "I'm tryin' to quit smoking. Just cigarettes. I'm thinking about gettin' my grade 11. Supposably it opens up a lot of doors and people say that havin' grade 11 is better than havin' grade 10. But I don't know if I believe that or not.

"Maybe marriage therapyin' would be a good idea with me and Lucy. She definitely has some things to deal with. I'd like to spend the rest of my life with her, but she's being difficult, getting drunk and tryin' to get with other guys. So we have to work through all that I guess. Once in a while she lets me in the trailer, but for the most part I'm livin' in the shitmobile and that's a drag."

Julian: "I don't make [resolutions]. I'm just trying to stay focused on making money, staying out of jail and retiring. I'm lookin' at Freedom 38 or 39 now. But that's okay. We'll find it one of these days. Freedom 45 doesn't sound that bad."

On the call of the 'clink' and standing up for smokers

Julian: "Going back to jail brings you back to your roots, keeps you focused, grounded. But we're gettin' smart, more experience startin' to not want to go to jail.

"Of course, we just got out yesterday for smuggling smokes. No big deal. There's so much money to be made in taxes that it pisses us off so we steal 'em. I was dabbling with [potato] vodka [making] here and there in jail, but cigarettes are where the money's at. Problem is, the penalties are harsher than with the dope. The other problem with jail is that you can't just leave when you want to."

Ricky: "Yeah, I don't agree with that or not bein' able to smoke. That's fucked. Smokes are so friggin' expensive that you have to smuggle them from the US or steal them.

"Anyway I like jail. You can't do whatever you want to: play lots of sports and ball hockey and you get pretty much whatever you need in there like food and booze and dope and everything. So it's not that bad. They're not stealin' satellite like we are in the park, but we get to catch up on TV cuz we're usually too busy partyin' and stuff to watch it at home."

On mentoring Canada's next generation

Julian: "We just hope the kids'll learn from our mistakes. It's good for younger kids to watch the show."

Ricky: "My daughter's getting older so I gotta try and stay out of jail. She knows it's wrong, but it's kinda cool to have a dad in jail and she knows I'm just going there to support the family and stuff. But I gotta try to stay out of there now that I'm getting older and she's getting older. Unless it's for the right reasons: have a good time, look after my family and my friends."

Split personalities

John Paul Tremblay: "We bring a bit of ourselves to the characters, but, yeah, constantly acting the part can be frustrating."

Robb Wells: "Yeah, it can get a little monotonous at times. We've only done one or two out of character interviews. The characters are based on a bunch of people we knew growing up, but mostly very exaggerated, so it's hard to keep it up all the time. But when Mike Smith has the glasses on, we're on. He went to an eye doctor and apparently his eyes are fine; wearing those glasses actually made his eyes stronger. His jaw's usually in pain after about 20 minutes though. But we're having fun and we're game for a season eight. There's rumours going around about another movie but nothing 100% confirmed. It's nice to do something hardcore and edgy and homegrown."