2008 David Morrison Interview

DAVID MORRISON - Not blessed in life with the joyous role of parenthood, my skills in keeping kids entertained are at best woefully unpracticed. When a situation demands that I turn on the buffoonery in the name of a toddler's chuckle, I’ll rarely receive the hoped-for reaction. If I'm lucky, I might get that blank stare of disdain only a kid can truly pull off, or else the little sweetie will just totter off to play with a spoon. I must say it's most disconcerting, making me feel nine-parts ogre, one part dullard.

Consequently, I can only regard people such as family entertainer and CHLY programmer Brent Boehler with envy. "I can make kids laugh just by looking at them," he says. And having spent a mere twenty minutes in his company, I can well believe it. He's an effervescent funny guy, a natural, especially when giving life to his hand puppet companion Woofy, a wonderfully daft dog character vocalised not dissimilarly to Yogi Bear.

Every Saturday morning for the last year-and-a-bit, Brent & Woofy have taken over the CHLY studio to present a high-octane hour of lunacy aimed squarely at an audience of two- to-twelve-year olds and their families. More often than not, there'll be a guest from the community to contribute to the mayhem. For a man and fabric pooch with no previous radio experience between them, it's proven a surprise hit. Recalling how he evolved from a bar circuit singer-songwriter to full-time family entertainer, Boehler says: "I played in bars from '82 until about 93, but when my kids were two or three years I started writing songs for them. I'd always wanted a place to play other than bars, where I could actually have a career. I just started writing songs and doing puppet shows and it fell right into place. It sure has fallen into place, with Boehler calling on an ever-expanding cast to suit the job in hand. When not accompanied by his faithful cloth hound, he might transform into Banjo the Clown, Brenton the Magician or - one can only imagine - Tarzan's Dad. And perhaps you have need of a Nerd-O-Gram? Or someone happy to deliver balloons dressed top-to-toe as a chicken? Then Boehler's your man.

He performs at scores of shows and children's parties every year, each occasion providing magical memories- especially of the things kids say. I’ll never forget this little girl with bright red hair," he begins in recollection of one particularly amusing encounter; she's got this puzzled look on her face. I said, ‘honey, what's wrong?’ and she said 'your hair is broken!’ That's what I love about kids- they're so brutally honest," Boehler chuckles, lifting his ball cap to display a denuded cranium.

With The Brent & Woofy Show's first anniversary already under their belts in 2008, Boehler and his material mutt have another biggie upcoming. "I have plans to have a huge Brent & Woofy fifteenth birthday party this year," the human of the partnership reveals. Upon his mischievous master's instruction to bid me fare-well as I prepared to leave, Woofy barked: "Get the hell out!" I laughed like a drain, of course - such are the comedic skills of Nanaimo's finest broken-haired family entertainer. Catch the Brent and Woofy Show Saturdays, 10:00 am 11:00 am on CHLY 101.7FM <www.chly.ca For more information, visit www bbshows.ca or call (250) 753-6695