Wayne and Shuster

Wayne and Shuster was a comic Duo Canadian formed by Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster.

Wayne and Shuster meet at the secondary school in Harbord Collegiate Institute with Toronto (Ontario) in 1930. They study both with the Université of Toronto, writing and playing in the theater of the university. In 1941 they make their beginnings with the radio CFRB with their own emission, The Wife Preservers , in which they gave domestic councils in a humorous way. This experiment carries out them to obtain their own humorous emission on the network trans-Canadian of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, entitled Shuster & Wayne .

They enlist in the Canadian Armée in 1942 and divert the troops in Europe during the Second world war by belonging to the Army Show (they would also make in the same way for the Guerre of Korea). They return to Canada to create the Wayne and Shuster Show for the CBC Radio in 1946. They appear for the first time at the ED Sullivan Show with the the United States of America in 1958, and establish a record while going there 67 times during the 11 next years.

Wayne and Shuster refuse several offers to be permanently established in the United States, preferring to live Toronto. Shuster tells that a framework of television network was incrédule refusal of the duet in front of its offer to give them their own emission on an American televised network. The duet explained why they had spoken but decided about it that with their friends and their families being in Toronto, they would be happier in Canada. The framework would have retorted: " There is not only happiness in the life! "

Wayne and Shuster created a kind of comedy " littéraire" compound with the comedy bouffonne. They often use situations and characters drawn from Shakespeare or the other traditional ones; their first appearance with the emission of ED Sullivan, for example, they played a modern police investigation by using the Jules César of Shakespeare in a sketch entitled Rinse the Blood off My Toga (Rinse the blood of my toga). After the opening of the Festival of Stratford of Canada in 1958, they create a sketch with for topic the Baseball, using the characters of Hamlet and Macbeth. The duet treated to them sketches as the singers do it with their most popular songs, giving different versions on several occasions during the years.

After their weekly televised series of the Years 1950, they begin a series of special Wayne & monthly Shuster on television of CBC at the beginning of the Années 1960, continuing until in the Années 1980; at that time, their style of comedy was looked as being obsolete. However, they were an influence for several Canadian humorists who succeed to them, like Lorne Michaels, the Royal Canadian Air Joke and The Kids in the Hall . Towards the end of the Years 1980, a great number of their sketches comic were cut out in segments half an hour and were repeated everywhere in the world.

Wayne dies in 1990. After its death the group receives a Prix Gemini special for their exemplary contribution on television Canadian. In 1996 Frank accepts a price Margaret Collier for the scenarios of the duet and is later made member of the Ordre of Canada. Shuster, which is deceased in 2002, tried a career solo after the death of Wayne, but it especially appeared in a series which made the retrospective of Wayne & Shuster to the CBC at the beginning of the Années 1990.

Shuster was the cousin of Joe Shuster, the creator of Superman.

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