From Schitt's Creek to global explorer

Comedy icon Eugene Levy talks to Suzannah Ramsdale about his new travel TV show

- Suzannah Ramsdale

CONVERSATION with Eugene Levy takes a while to settle into. His deadpan delivery, buoyant trademark eyebrows and earnestness are too familiar. They are all too Johnny Rose - the Schitt's Creek patriarch and a character Levy has described as being "as close to me [in real life] than anything I've done in my career". It's hard to separate the man from the fictional motel mogul.

Schitt's Creek is perhaps the most perfect TV show ever created. In September 2020, during its sixth and final season, the life-affirming Canadian sitcom made history by sweeping up nine Emmy Awards the most for a comedy in a single year. "I've definitely been on a comedown, though we were riding that high for quite a bit," he tells me. "It was one of the most amazing nights in our lives, let alone our careers."

Levy co-created the show with his son, Daniel. His daughter Sarah also plays cafe owner Twyla in the show and his long-time collaborator Catherine O'Hara stars as his wife Moira Rose. A simple premise - the endlessly endearing show follows the pretentious and wealthy Rose family as they go bankrupt, lose everything and are forced to live in a motel in an arse-end of nowhere town. "It was nice to have that experience, doing a show like Schitt's Creek, at this point in my life," he says. "It's nice to have that towards the end of your career."