Canadian comic icon Brent Butt among ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge 2025 honorary degree recipients

trevor.kenney — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 17:03:44 +0000

Corner Gas creator will headline comedy show fundraiser in support of Food For Thought, student food security program

He created a Canadian landmark television program, has traversed the globe performing live stand-up shows and continues to mentor and support the growth and health of the Canadian comedy community. Brent Butt is a true Canadian comic icon and one of six people who will be awarded ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge honorary degrees during Spring and Fall 2025 Convocation ceremonies.

Brent Butt's comedic career has spanned more than 35 years.

Butt, who will be recognized at one of the four spring ceremonies, joins acclaimed writer David Robertson, former ULethbridge Chancellor Charlie Weaselhead, conductor Kirk Muspratt and community advocates Bernadine (BEd ’88) and Toby Boulet (BEd ’89, MEd ’04)(fall ceremony), as distinguished honourees.

“We’re thrilled to announce this tremendous group of honorary degree recipients who represent all the best attributes of the ULethbridge experience and its graduating students,” says Terry Whitehead, current ULethbridge Chancellor. “These are people who have achieved great success in their fields and done so in the right way, as engaged citizens in their communities, as educators, as mentors and leaders.”

Butt, who is known primarily for being the creator, writer and star of the iconic Canadian comedy series Corner Gas, has fashioned a comedic career spanning more than 35 years. Successful as a live performer as well as on the big and small screen, he is now an active screenwriter and author, always with deference to his small-town Canadian roots.

“To be able to recognize Brent for all the joy he has brought Canadians over the years is exciting and a recognition he richly deserves,” adds Whitehead. “Laughter is incredibly important in our lives, and I think we are realizing that more every day. Brent’s devotion to his comedic craft, willingness to share with others in the comedy community and unwavering commitment to his rural roots and Canadian culture says a lot about the kind of person he is.

“His willingness to perform for a Lethbridge audience and raise money in support of food security initiatives at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge is heartfelt, and I can’t wait to enjoy a great evening of entertainment with him and his guest.”

The comedy show fundraiser to benefit the Food For Thought student program takes place Sunday, May 25, 7 p.m., at the Yates Memorial Theatre and features Brent Butt as the headliner with special guest Charlie Demers. Tickets, priced at $65 each, will be available through the City of Lethbridge Ticket Centre.

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge will present Butt with an honorary Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, at Spring 2025 Convocation, Ceremony IV, on Friday, May 30, 2:30 p.m., in the Centre for Sport and Wellness.

Brent Butt

For Brent Butt, there really was no other career path than comedy, something he’d decided before his teenage years. While he briefly attended Ontario’s Sheridan College after graduating high school in his hometown of Tisdale, Saskatchewan, formal schooling quickly took a back seat to his entrepreneurial tendencies. Leaving school, he and a friend developed their own publishing company, and they created two issues of their comic book, Existing Earth, in which Butt drew the illustrations.

He approached comedy not on a whim, but rather as a vocation, studying the intricacies of the craft. By the time he took the stage for his first stand-up performance at the age of 21, he was ready and his meteoric rise in the comedy industry was testament to his work ethic and preparation. A year after his first appearance on an amateur night at a Saskatoon comedy club, Butt was touring Central and Eastern Canada. Before long he was headlining Toronto’s downtown Yuk Yuks Comedy Club and doors began to open for him internationally.

Once established as a live entertainer, Butt began realizing the next phase of his career, and in 2004 created, wrote and starred in the hit television show Corner Gas. Set in the fictional town of Dog River, Saskatchewan, the show reflected Butt’s smalltown upbringing and shone a new light on rural Canada, one that resonated with small communities across the country and struck a chord with populations in larger urban centres.

Corner Gas ran for six seasons, averaging a remarkable 1.2 million viewers per episode and reaping numerous awards, including four Canadian Comedy Awards and five Gemini Awards. The show has now aired in 60 countries and continues to run on streaming platforms, boasting large fan bases in Germany, the United States, Australia and beyond. A Canadian Armed Forces soldier once wrote the show about his unit watching episodes of Corner Gas to take the edge off during particularly dangerous deployments, reminding them of home and that laughter and simpler times still existed.

The success of Corner Gas garnered remarkable attention and in 2008, Butt was awarded the Peter Ustinov Award for outstanding body of comedic work at the Banff World Media Festival. He joined the likes of past recipients John Cleese, Bob Newhart, John Candy and Eugene Levy.

With a platform as a leader in the industry, Butt has used his profile to call attention to the work of other comedians and to mentor and promote the growth and health of the comedy community.

Eager to continue to expand his creative knowledge, Butt is an active screenwriter and now author, having released his first novel, Huge, a #1 national best seller and one of Indigo’s 2023 Best Books of the Year.

Interest in The Bridge Prize explodes with 340 entries

trevor.kenney — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 15:41:59 +0000

Launched as one of the richest prizes for student short story fiction writing in Canada, participation in the School of Liberal Education’s inaugural Bridge Prize contest has far exceeded all expectations.

The Bridge Prize was launched in March 2019 as a student short story fiction writing competition to be awarded every second year. Shelly Wismath is the dean of the School of Liberal Education.

When the submission deadline closed at midnight on January 20, 2020, a total of 340 manuscripts were received, representing 61 post-secondary institutions from nine provinces – a truly national competition.

“We are ecstatic with the enthusiastic response from students across the country. The total number of submissions is well beyond our expectations for the first year of the Bridge Prize,” says Vancouver-based U of L alumnus Terry Whitehead (BA ’94), founder and lead donor of the competition. “At Christmas, we were at 59 submissions and quietly optimistic about reaching 100 by the deadline. To get over 300 – it is almost overwhelming.”

The Bridge Prize was launched in March 2019 as a student short story fiction writing competition to be awarded every second year. Open to any student registered in a Canadian post-secondary institution at the time of the submission deadline, its focus is to celebrate excellence in the literary arts, to nurture aspiring student writers and to support the transition between student writing and professional literary art.

“It was exciting to watch the submissions pour in as we approached the deadline, and to see the diversity of colleges and universities represented across the country,” says Dr. Shelly Wismath, dean of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s School of Liberal Education. “Having the Bridge Prize housed in the School of Liberal Education speaks to the U of L’s commitment to a broad integrated education based on engagement in the communities around us, from local to national to global. Our local jury is eager to start reading, to winnow down to a long list to send on to the main jury, and we look forward to the announcement in September 2020 of our winners.”

Each story now enters an evaluation process led by a local jury comprised of campus and community-based ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and cultural leaders who will read the stories and select a top 10 to be forwarded to the main jury by May 30. Thomas King, author and former U of L faculty member, heads the main jury. Other jurors include author and comedian, Charlie Demers, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary faculty member, Aritha van Herk, The Walrus publisher, Shelley Ambrose, and Leslie Hurtig, artistic director of Vancouver Writers Fest. They will assess the stories and arrive at a winner and three additional finalists in August. The winners will be announced in September.

The Walrus and Munro’s Books in Victoria, BC also sponsor The Bridge Prize. The winner of the competition will receive $7,500, while the three finalists will all earn $1,000. All four winners also receive a $200 gift card courtesy of Munro’s Books.

Whitehead notes that Canadian writers are renowned globally for the short fiction genre and in helping to create The Bridge Prize, he sought to create just that, a bridge for writers to explore and build towards writing full novels.

“The number of submissions confirms that the short story genre is very much alive and thriving on Canadian campuses. This bodes extremely well for the future of Canadian literature,” he says.

For more on The Bridge Prize, visit the website at go.uleth.ca/thebridgeprize.

UNews - Charlie Demers

Canadian comic icon Brent Butt among ��Ѹ�����Դ���߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge 2025 honorary degree recipients

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