Park Life

Before RTÉ’s Hardy Bucks bounded out of Castletown, before David Brent sauntered into The Office, before Joaquin Phoenix played us all for a fool and before the word mockumentary had even made its way into the public consciousness, there was Trailer Park Boys. Since 2001, Canada’s favourite high-flying threesome have been bringing their deranged misadventures to the big and small screens, but with one crucial difference. A decade later, they’re still in character.

“We’re doing great!” bellows Julian (John Paul Tremblay) down the phone from his hometown of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. I can just about make out the clinking of ice cubes as he lays his signature prop – a tumbler of rum and coke – down on the table. “We’re drinking a bit…”
A glass of hooch might not sound like much of a trademark, but surly Julian is never seen without one in hand, taking it with him everywhere, from the bathroom to the slammer.
“Jails in Canada are pretty awesome!” he booms. “You can make a lot of money. You just party and play video games.”
Lovable sidekick Bubbles (Mike Smith) chimes in; “Don’t listen to him, jail sucks! I’m not great at sticking up for myself. Julian helps me out when I’m in jail, but he also attacks firefighters.”
It’s not bloody likely, but with a bit of luck, they might just be able to avoid a stint in Kilmainham during their upcoming visit to Irish shores.
“We know you guys like to consume the same amount of liqour we do,” Bubbles says, “So we’re looking forward to that. I want to go see a castle somewhere. I wanna get drunk in a castle.”
Excellent. I’ll alert the good folk at Failte Ireland.
Besides boozing it up on the battlements, Julian, Bubbles and party animal Ricky (Robb Wells) will be bringing their live show – appropriately titled Drunk, High & Unemployed – to Dublin’s Olympia Theatre in March.
They’ve already sold out venues all over the US and Canada, but was it difficult to make the transition from the trailer to theatre?
“We’re drunk by the time we hit the stage,” Bubbles assures me, “and we’re pretty high on weed so it’s pretty easy to do. It’s kind of a whole different ball of wax being on stage. But liquor can make you do anything, really.”
By all accounts, Trailer Park Boys fans are every bit as rowdy as the lowlifes they whoop and holler for. Julian calls them, “the craziest group of people you’ll ever see.”
“A lot of them like to squeeze Julian’s muscles and try to oil them up with some body oil. He doesn’t like that. Not when it’s fellas trying to do it.”
Us ladies are cool, though, right?
I detect another rumble of ice cubes, “Sure, yeah.”
Along with fightin’, drinkin’ and a spot of dodgy ventriloquism, shred battles have become a mainstay of the live show.
“We have a guitar and see who’s the best player in. It’s usually the drunkest person in the place.”
Julian pipes up, “Bubbles isn’t as good as he thinks he is. But he’s pretty good.”
“I’ve been playing the guitar since I was a little guy, probably five years old. Yes, ma’am. I can sort of play whatever people throw at me. I’m a multi-faceted that way.”
What kind of artist does Bubbles model himself on?
“That’s a tough question. Probably Roy Rogers from Hee Haw was my biggest influence. It’s a television program from the ‘70s with Roy Rogers and Roy Clark.”
Julian butts in; “It’s terrible!”
After looking up on the ‘Tube, I can confirm that the honky tonk travesty is just that, although those two Roys can bust one mean banjo riff.
“Some people tell me I sound a lot like The Pogues,” Bubbles continues. “I love The Pogues. I might shave my head bald too and do some Sinéad O’ Connor stuff.”
Trailer Park Boys ran for seven seasons, including six specials and two feature films, and even produced a Trailer Park Boys book. How does it feel to walk into a local store and see their lovely faces peering up at them?
“Kind of pissed off ‘cause we didn’t get any money from it.”
“We’re being used. Julian signed some really shit contracts and now everyone makes money off it except us. I got a few tins of cat food and some free cigarettes.”
With all the kudos they’ve been getting from inside and outside the trailer park, I’d have thought their celebrity fanbase (which includes Guns N’ Roses, no less!) would be able to donate a few bottles of the hard stuff when times are tight.
“The Prime Minister loves our show!” Julian boasts. “We get drunk with politicians all the time.”
Bubbles interrupts, “Who’s the head of Ireland over there?”
That would be one Mister Brian Cowen.
“Maybe we oughta try and get drunk with him.”
Something tells me that can be arranged.
But all liquors considered, it’s been a chaotic decade for the boys in flannel. Would they dare to pick a highlight?
“We were billionaires for a little while,” Julian recalls, “for about 10 minutes, when we robbed a bank. We got caught, but it felt good to be a billionaire.”
Surely, that’s not the end of their hair-brained scallywaggery?
“We’ll gonna all retire as billionaires,” Julian stresses. “There’s at least a 20% chance.”
Bubbles isn’t convinced, “Ah, I gave up on that a long time ago. I’m a little more realistic. If I can make a couple grand a year, I’m happy. Couple of thousand bucks a year and I can live like a king.”
‘Next, we’re gonna build a still and start making our own liquor, try to make a few bucks selling bootleg whiskey. We’ve got our own theories on how to make it, but as soon as I step off the plane in Ireland, I’m gonna pound a quart of Jameson in my head.”
Cheers, boys. We’d expect nothing less.

Drunk, High & Unemployed comes to the Olympia, Dublin on March 3 and 6.