SHATNER BACK TO HIS ROOTS
Actor ‘moved’ to return to Ottawa for stage show
An Evening with William Shatner feels a lot like being beamed to another planet.
Captain Kirk took the helm at Ottawa’s EY Centre Friday night, in a special ticketed fan event ahead of this weekend’s Ottawa Pop Expo.
The energetic, eccentric 84-yearold, clad in a black leather jacket, came as advertised. Shatner looked like a man still fit for the captain’s chair. His one-man show was a stream-of-consciousness rumination on everything from Star Trek to Air Canada (“a test of your sanity”) from Pacific salmon to Twitter. Ottawa’s airport was the subject of one of many entertaining tirades: “You can’t get out of it because of the signage!... It’s not me, it’s the f---ing airport.”
Shatner indulged in nostalgia for his Canadian roots, too — both in mind and appetite. He ate a smoked meat sandwich and Montreal bagel on stage — a tribute to his days at McGill University and the three years he spent in Ottawa working at the Canadian Repertory Theatre: “I’m almost weeping. I’m moved being back in Ottawa,” he said, before wistfully adding. “Three years and 60 plays.”
“I was the starving actor in Ottawa — my room had a rope mattress,” he explained, noting he survived on toasted cheese sandwiches and fruit cups from a local, cheap diner. “But Ottawans would come every week to see the new plays, and it would be a big deal.”
A 12-year-old’s question about whether he liked the new Star Trek films turned into a rambling meditation on the sole Trek film he directed, God, the Devil, having principles, and making compromises: “I compromised. I didn’t stick to my dream. My movie didn’t make any money because I didn’t stick to my principles.”
Fans lined up early for autograph and photo sessions with the Canadian actor who has played Kirk, T.J. Hooker and Boston Legal’s Denny Crane. Shatner is still boldly going where no man has gone before. In honour of Star Trek’s 50th anniversary in 2016, Shatner has been loudly pitching a TV musical or variety show. Starring himself, of course.
What keeps him going? “Exercise, eating in moderation, no smoking … (and genetics),” he explains. “I don’t do anything magical. The other thing is attitude. People keep asking when are you going to retire and I say, ‘Retire to what?’”
For a man who has been wearing what amounts to a golden pajama top on-and-off for five decades, Shatner knows not to take himself too seriously. Here’s a small sample of the topics Shatner hit throughout the evening:
On the Trek franchise movie reboots: “They’re really good… a big ride with a lot of computer graphics,” he explained, while hinting that he believes director J.J. Abrams diluted the deeper messages that anchored many Trek episodes and earlier films.
On Justin Trudeau: “You have a great new prime minister. Trudeau is back… you have a Kennedy. You have a Kennedy here.”
On Canada’s melting arctic tundra: “We are going to grow hay out of it in 50 years.”
On his native country: “Canada has always been great, but Canada is on the lip of being one of the greatest nations…. Canada is coming on. It is the country of the future.”
On the need to “guard” the environment: “Among the most marvellous things Canada has done is the invention of Greenpeace.”
On comic legend Stan Lee, Shatner’s partner on a new “cinematic graphic novel” based on his novel Man o’ War: “Stan Lee is a phenomenon… I was into his comic books at a very early age.”
Tickets to the event started at $25. But “gold package” tickets — which included a photo op, autographed item and front-row seats — cost $199. Christmas came early for those who’ve always dreamed of a framed picture of themselves and The Shat to hang above the mantle.
Shatner is far from a one-trick pony: director, producer, musician, author, graphic novelist, Tshirt purveyor (the Shat Shirt). He seems to have more jobs right now than most of us have in a lifetime. Where does he get his energy, one fan asked. “Smoked meat” he deadpanned. “I do take care of myself. I am a little overweight and I hate myself for that. But I do eat healthy and I exercise a lot. I ride a lot of horses.
Beam us up, Mr. Shatner. The planet you live on is far more interesting than our own.
Shatner also appears at Pop Expo Saturday, Nov. 21.