photo: 

Video: 

Brent Butt is returning to TV with a new comedy Hiccups starting March 1, 2010. 

He is best known for his hit TV show, Corner Gas.   Corner Gas was nominated for a 2004 International Emmy Award surviving three rounds of preliminary judging from over 500 judges in 38 countries.   It won numerous Gemini Awards, Canadian Comedy Awards, Director's Guild of Canada Awards, Leo Awards and was even voted "Funniest Show on TV" by TV Guide readers. 

"For the first time in a generation, the highest-rated sitcom on  Primetime schedules was a Canadian show, not American." (Hollywood Reporter-March 2005).   Corner Gas remains one of the top ranked Canadian programs in any genre and regularly places on the Top 20 TV Shows in Canada (which includes US programs). 

Brent has also been honoured for his many individual achievements including being presented with the Sir Peter Ustinov Comedy Award in 2008. 

Born and raised in the small farming community of Tisdale, Saskatchewan (population 3000), Brent honed his comedic storytelling prowess at the local coffee shop, where he and his friends would sit around - literally for hours at a time - discussing everything from world domination, to the most comfortable kind of socks. Brent insists, "Coffee shop conversation was a great way to learn comedy. It's relaxed and conversational and the jokes build naturally without forcing them." 

In high school Brent performed stand-up comedy at variety nights and drama nights. When he was 20 a comedy club opened up in nearby Saskatoon, and Brent moved to the city to pursue a career in humour. He moved through the ranks incredibly quickly, and within four months of his first amateur night appearance, he was offered a tour on the road. After a year he was headlining in Toronto, and after only 4 years, he was showcased in his own gala performance at the world's largest international comedy festival - Montreal's Just for Laughs. 

His career, which was the subject of an episode of the cultural affairs program Adrienne Clarkson Presents,is an interesting one. Brent has become a regular at Just For Laughs, as well as appearing on numerous national and international television programs. Aside from his own national special Bedtime with Brent Butt, he has been seen on A&E, HBO, CBC, CTV and Global.His one-hour TV special entitled Comedy Now - Funnypants earned him a Gemini Nomination in the category "Best Comedy Performance". 

He was named "Best Male Stand-Up in Canada" at the 2001 Canadian Comedy Awards and was subsequently selected to represent his country on the World Comedy Tourin Australia. He followed that by hosting the Just For Laughs Asian Tourin Singapore. His invitation to appear on the CBC 50th Anniversary Special entitled All-Star Comedy Homecoming secured his reputation as one of the funniest people in the country, as he performed alongside the most noted comedic minds from the past 5 decades of Canadian entertainment. 

Over the years, Butt, who claims he never went after an acting career, landed bit parts in various productions such as 2000’s Duets, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, the Bob Saget directed TV movie Becoming Dick, and episodes of The Kids in the Hall, The X-Files (1998) and Millennium (1997) and Cold Squad (2003). 

Who knew he was cooking up his own series, Corner Gas, set in the tiny town of Dog River with an odd bunch of archetypal characters? “It came together pretty quick, if you don’t count the 17 years of being on the road as a standup,” says Butt of the series. Brent not only stars in front of the camera but also wears several hats behind the scenes including creator, writer, executive producer and director. 

In 2005 Brent followed in the footsteps of Alanis Morissette and Shania Twain not as a singer, but as host of the 2005 Juno Awards. Butt joins a long list of comedians who have also hosted Canada's Music Awards over the past three decades. This is first time that a comedian will host the Juno Awardssince CTV first acquired the awards broadcast in 2002. 

In 2006 Canada’s #1 comedy went international securing a U.S. distribution deal with American cable network Superstation WGN. The series will be available in nearly 70 million U.S. homes while it has been concurrently licensed to broadcasters serving 26 countries across 5 continents in all – countries including Australia, Iraq, Finland, Morocco and more.

In 2008 Brent announced that the sixth season of Corner Gaswould be the last. "They didn't want it to end yet. But for the good of the show, I wanted to exit gracefully, on top of our game, when we're at our prime," Butt said at the time. Season six of the series is now airing and remains a ratings winner. Brent also announced plans for a new half hour comedy pilot for CTV to be shot in the Fall of 2008 and that work has begun on his first feature film which he will write, possibly star in and co-produce under his Sparrow Media banner and in partnership with Brightlight Pictures. 

Making his home in Vancouver for the last ten years, Brent continues to tour the country performing in clubs, theatres and as a much sought after corporate entertainer. "I love what I do." Butt says. "I look at it as just having coffee. Only now it's with hundreds of people at a time."

Location