By now , you've probably figured out that Mark and Jesse didn't actually visit the Skky Hotel for the production of this story. The rather fictional piece was actually produced way back in October 2007, months before the hotel had even opened. Furthermore, if you're really on the ball, you've probably realized that almost everyone Mark and Jesse apparently met during their "tour" of Yukon's swankiest airport hotel sounded kind of familiar.
Yes, most of them were famous actors.
Not since "Designer Guise" at the beginning of Smells Like Yukon's Classy Second Season have Jesse and Mark relied so heavily on Hollywood talent to produce a segment. In many ways, it was a challenge to work with so many legends of the silver screen—especially the dead one—but no one can argue with the results. If you've heard the story, then you know that "Skky's Guys" is radio magic. If you haven't, then you probably thought that the previous 23 segments were mostly crap and you couldn't be bothered.
We won't bore you with all the details (we prefer to bore you with just a few), but you may be interested to know that Mark recorded most of the special guest spots on a two-week jaunt that included stops in L.A and Jersey. The one detail you may actually be interested in is how Smells Like Yukon managed to secure so much talent on a limited CBC budget... but we're not going to tell you.
Given the amazing cast we assembled for this segment, we thought it would be great idea to create a video document of our recording sessions—and we're happy to share it with you. (Please don't ask why so many of the recording sessions seem to involve unusual locations, elaborate sets, strange costumes and irrelevant dialogue and characters. It's very hard to explain, especially after 10:00 p.m. on the night before the world premier of "Skky's Guys.")
It was actually the Swedish chef (played by Jim Henson) who encouraged Smells Like Yukon to work with Miss Piggy on the Christmas special "Yukonnaise." We'll never make that mistake again.
As the two previous clips demonstrate, Joe Pesci's performance was thrilling, but his profanity was completely out of control—and totally gratuitous for the role we cast him in. One of the biggest challenges of completing "Skky's Guys" was editing the actor's work to make it suitable for a CBC morning show audience.
John Cleese was a dream to work with, but we have nothing good to say about the Germans.
Okay, so Brando didn't actually agree to appear in "Skky's Guys." When we found out he died in 2004, we just stole some dialogue from a scene in The Godfather and hoped listeners wouldn't recognize it.
We can't even begin to describe the weirdness that surrounded the recording of William Sanderson's one quick line (at the approx. 3:00 min mark). And we're still not sure why the hell he had to bring Bob Newhart. That spelled the end for our deli platter.
Don't worry—those weren't guns, they were only Tasers. The shovel was from Mark's garage in Whitehorse. He carried it all the way to Newark, but trust us when we say he had a hell of a time getting it through security in his carry-on.
