Dan Redican (born 1956 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadiancomedy writer and performer and puppeteer, best known for his work with the comedy troupe, The Frantics. As a founding member of the troupe he has worked since 1979 on numerous stage shows, the Frantic Timesradio show, Four on the FloorTV show (which aired in England and the US under the name, The Frantics). They also have written and performed many albums which are still available on the website, Frantics.com.
Redican started his career as a puppeteer, performing with various partners at birthday parties and church functions, before joining Tom Vandenburg to perform two family shows at The Toronto Centre for the Arts on Dupont Street: The Old Fisherman and A Day At Rotten Cheese Gulch. After this, Redican focussed on solo performances in London, Ontario at Smale's Pace (later renamed the Change of Pace) Redican entered the world of television puppetry on CHCH's Adventures of Snelgrove Snail in the role of Conrad Crepidula. Redican left puppetry to focus on comedy when the Frantics formed in 1979 but he returned briefly in the late 80s to appear as a featured actor and puppeteer for the Jim Henson Company on NBC's The Jim Henson Hour. In the nineties, Redican puppeteered the character Hegdish on YTV's "Groundling Marsh" and Maurice the Maggot on YTV's Freaky Stories.
In the late seventies, Redican performed as a folk singer with his band Poopy Dan and his lunch featuring Pat Logier, Rob Minderman and Doug Hux, though 'Poopy Dan' was short-lived.
Redican performed a number of times in Toronto as a comic monologist in small shows at the Rivoli as well as in "The Cheese Stands Alone" and "My Private Hell On Ten Dollars a Day" at the Factory Theatre. His show "Stop Being Stupid" ran at the Tim Sim's Theatre and received rave reviews. "The Devil's Progress Report" enjoyed a short run in a Vancouver theatre. His monology drew the attention of Lorne Michaels and led to Redican becoming a producer and story editor for The Kids in the Hall.
He has written and produced a number of television shows in Canada including Blackfly, Not This But This, The Altar Boy Gang and The Kids in the Hall. In the United States he worked as a writer and producer on The Jenny McCarthy Show, Chimp Channel and Lyricist Lounge. He has recently written and acted as creative consultant on a number of episodes of CBC Television's Little Mosque on the Prairie, in which he also played a chiropractor in the episode "Marriage Minded".
Along with Gary Pearson, he is a cocreator of the sketch comedy series Sunnyside, which premiered in 2015.
He is married to television writer and producer Caroline A. Commisso. He has two children, Madi and Joey.
Four on the Floor is a sketch comedy series which aired on CBC Television in 1986. Consisting of only 13 episodes, the series was a showcase for The Frantics, a comedy troupe consisting of Paul Chato, Rick Green, Dan Redican and Peter Wildman. In the U.K., it aired in Channel 4's traditional Friday night comedy slot, from 10 June to 2 September 1988.
A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object, called a puppet, to create the illusion that the puppet is alive. The puppet is often shaped like a human, animal, or legendary creature. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from the audience. A puppeteer can operate a puppet indirectly by the use of strings, rods, wires, electronics or directly by his or her own hands placed inside the puppet or holding it externally or any other part of the body- such as the legs. Some puppet styles require two or more puppeteers to work together to create a single puppet character.
Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. Such a performance is also known as a puppet production. The script for a puppet production is called a puppet play. Puppeteers use movements from hands and arms to control devices such as rods or strings to move the body, head, limbs, and in some cases the mouth and eyes of the puppet. The puppeteer sometimes speaks in the voice of the character of the puppet, while at other times they perform to a recorded soundtrack.
Mark Douglas Brown McKinney is a Canadian actor and comedian. He is best known for his role as store manager Glenn Sturgis on NBC's Superstore and the sketch comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, which includes starring in the 1989 to 1995 TV series The Kids in the Hall and 1996 feature film Brain Candy. He was a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 1997; and from 2003 to 2006, he co-created, wrote and starred in the series Slings & Arrows and he also appeared as Tom in FXX's Man Seeking Woman.
Puppets Who Kill is a Canadian television comedy programme produced by PWK Productions and originally broadcast on The Comedy Network. It premiered in Canada in 2002, and in Australia on The Comedy Channel in 2004. It has also been broadcast in India, South Korea and Germany. The series was on the digital network Hulu and is currently on CON TV and Tubi in the United States.
Gary Pearson is a Canadian comedian, and television writer producer. He grew up in the southwestern Ontario village of Comber. Taking an early interest in politics and art, he began to do editorial cartoons for the nearby weekly newspaper The Tilbury Times.
Boot to the Head is a comedy album performed by the Canadian comedy troupe The Frantics. Originally released as an LP in 1987, it was re-issued in 1996 as a CD with the same track listing. The album features a number of skits from their radio show Frantic Times, as well as a few sketches that could not be aired to a general audience. The sketches were recorded over a three-day period in front of a live audience at the Toronto Free Theatre.
Ephraim Todd Ellis is a Canadian actor. He is best known for playing Rick Murray on Degrassi: The Next Generation and Danny Ellis on Falcon Beach.
The Frantics is a Canadian comedy troupe consisting of Paul Chato, Rick Green, Dan Redican and Peter Wildman.
Patrick Bristow is an American actor, comedian and director. He is best known for playing Peter Barnes on Ellen (1994-1998), and Patrick on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody (2005-2008), and for the film Pain & Gain (2013).
Enemies of Reason is a comedy album performed by the Frantics Canadian comedy troupe. The sketches were recorded live in front of an audience at Toronto's Yuk Yuks venue on November 20, 2005. Some of these skits also appeared on "The Frantics Reunion Special" television show, as well as on an episode of CBC Radio One's Madly Off in All Directions.
Daniel Milano is an American voice actor, puppeteer, writer and director. He was one of the creators of the Fox sitcom Greg the Bunny and performed the title character Greg as well as Warren the Ape and The Wumpus. He is also one of the voice actors and writers of Robot Chicken, and was nominated for an Emmy for writing on Robot Chicken: Star Wars 2.
Jani Lauzon is a Canadian puppeteer and musician of Métis heritage from East Kootenay, British Columbia. She is a three-time Juno Award Nominee with Muppet Show credits that include additional puppetry on Follow That Bird, performing on The Jim Henson Hour, and the character Dip in the Sesame Street Canada television special "Basil Hears a Noise".
Puppet Up! – Uncensored is a live puppet show produced by The Jim Henson Company combining puppetry and improvisational comedy created by Brian Henson and Groundlings performer Patrick Bristow. The show is advertised for "adults only" and as "uncensored". However, one rare and "exclusive" set of shows "for children" were held in Edinburgh in 2006.
Peter Wildman is a Canadian actor, voice actor, musician, writer and member of the Frantics comedy troupe. He appeared as Buzz Sherwood on The Red Green Show, and voiced Mojo on the X-Men Animated Series and Mr. Fixit in the series The Busy World of Richard Scarry. He was also a writer on The Red Green Show from 1994 until 1998.
Little Mosque on the Prairie is a Canadian television sitcom created by Zarqa Nawaz and produced by WestWind Pictures, originally broadcast from 2007 to 2012 on CBC. Filmed in Toronto, Ontario, and Indian Head, Saskatchewan, the series was showcased at the Dawn Breakers International Film Festival. After the series finale aired in April 2012, Hulu announced it would begin offering the series under the name Little Mosque that summer. The series made its U.S. premiere on Pivot in August 2013.
Sugith Varughese is a Canadian writer, director and actor.
Cheryl Wagner, is a Canadian puppeteer, producer, director and writer, who is the creator of the TV series The Big Comfy Couch, is a Gemini Award and Emmy award- winning Canadian children's television writer, showrunner and producer who began her career as a performer in both theatre and on the screen. Her Halifax-based touring Merrytime Clown and Puppet Company in which Wagner worked as a clown and puppeteer from 1977 to 1980 provided a fertile ground for her later work as a producer and writer in children's entertainment.
Heath McIvor is an Australian puppeteer, comedian, writer and singer, known primarily for his role as 'Fiend' in The Jim Henson Company co-production Me and My Monsters, and his more general role as the puppet comedian Randy Feltface.
John Hemphill is a Canadian comic actor, writer and producer.
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