For 10 seasons, Shoresy has been launching a barrage of mom-focused chirps at Reilly and Jonesy on Letterkenny. But in the spin-off Shoresy, the often-indisposed hockey player has moved his chirps to the real town of Sudbury, Ontario, to play for a hockey team named... well, that's part of the joke.
Created by Letterkenny's Jared Keeso, Shoresy follows the foul-mouthed cry baby to the Sudbury Bulldogs, where viewers meet new faces, including Shoresy's, new challenges, and new potentials. One of those new faces is Harlan Blayne Kytwayhat, Sanguinet, who was recently joined by Letterkenny co-developer and star Jacob Tierney — and Shoresy's director — to discuss with The Dipp the challenges of making the spin-off, being on the receiving end of Shoresy's chirps, and the evolution of a mean-spirited toilet hog.
The Dipp: Why was Shoresy the character to follow for a Letterkenny spin-off?
Jacob Tierney: That was my question to Jared [Keeso] as well. I was like, 'Why are we doing Shoresy?' But he had a vision [for it] ... He really wanted to tell a story with Shoresy, and we don't do that on Letterkenny. We just sit around and talk about people masturbating in space. So it's fun to really be able to watch a story get completed. And that's what's exciting about this thing rolling out, is there's a real watch-in-order. And we always say with Letterkenny, you actually don't have to [watch them in order]. Sometimes there's plot things, but in general, we try to do enough standalone episodes that you can pop in and watch Spelling Bee whenever you want to. You're not missing anything from the episode before.
The Dipp: What challenges did you face in giving Shoresy its own voice and differentiating it from Letterkenny?
Tierney: You just identified exactly the challenges. You want to live in the same universe; you don't want to completely alienate people. But at the same time, I wanted to give it a different look and a different feel because it is a different story. I think one of the things that helped a lot is, first of all, because it's set in a city, right away our landscape feels different. It feels much more urban. It's way less bucolic and rural than Letterkenny feels. And then I decided to shoot it in 2-3-5, which is at rectangle. I wanted it to feel rougher, because Shoresy is rougher. The look of Letterkenny was largely based on Wayne, who never moves... And Shoresy is edgier and more all over the place.
The Dipp: Harlan, the cadence of jokes in Shoresy, as well as in Letterkenny, is very quick. It's a certain type of writing and comedy that I would assume, as an actor, is something you have to adjust to. How did you approach when you got the scripts?
Harlan Blayne Kytwayhat: I'm a huge fan of Letterkenny, so me and my brother always bicker back and forth. We take a scene, and we just mess around with it. I feel like that's where I started studying it, so I was already prepared and ready to go for those quick back and forths.
The Dipp: Sanguinet is often on the receiving end of Shoresy's chirps, but there's also more to their relationship. How would you describe it?
Kytwayhat: You're right. There is definitely a tenderness [to it]. I am always at the end of his chirps, but I think there's a big brother and little brother relationship there.
The Dipp: Jacob, how did you guys go about writing the unmasking of Shoresy? Did you go back and forth on what that reveal was going to be?
Tierney: We actually filmed it a couple of different ways, because we also filmed it for the end of this last season of Letterkenny, and we didn't end up using it. We weren't sure, ultimately, how we were going to do it. And then it just felt right and natural that the first thing you see is him taking a shit, and you see his feet, and then he comes out of the stall. It was like, 'Well, how else do you reveal Shoresy really?' He's begging for it. This is the way to do it. It felt fairly organic to his character.
The Dipp: Did you just—
Tierney: I love that this is my job. This is what I anticipated in my early forties being like, talking about adult men shitting as my job.
The Dipp: Harlan, as a fan of Letterkenny, and obviously knowing Shoresy from that, how do you feel like he's evolved in this show?
Kytwayhat: Well, he is not as shirtless as much.
Tierney: He's gone from a one-dimensional chirp machine into a real person. I think that by the end of watching the six episodes — I don't even know if it'll take all six — I think it becomes very clear why we wanted to tell this story, why Shoresy is more interesting than just that he's dealing with a lot of pain and a lot of emotion. He's got an interesting backstory, and he's got a drive. Again, with a show like Letterkenny, when we're not focused on story so much or on plot, we don't have to give characters a drive or a mission. And Shoresy's a man on a mission. So hopefully, people want to go on that journey with him.
The Dipp: There are obviously a lot of recurring jokes and phrases in Letterkenny. Do you guys have any favorites from Shoresy that you have included in this series, that you're really excited for people to latch on to?
Tierney: I'm ruing the day how many people are going to ask me about an aquadump. I know that that's going to haunt me for a while.
Kytwayhat: I guess just when I walk down the street, people telling me to shut up.
Tierney: You should ask Evan Stern [Roald on Letterkenny] what it's like to have people [yell] at him all day long.
The Dipp: Last question, how would Glen do in Sudbury? Any chance he'd ever show up?
Tierney: I don't think he'd do well. I think Glen would get beat up a lot in Sudbury, if I'm being perfectly honest. It's a rough town. But who knows, wherever the Lord takes him, Glen will go.
Images: Courtesy of Hulu