If you have been tracking the trajectory of Canadian comedy icons Matt Johnson and Jay McCarroll, you already know they specialize in a very specific brand of beautiful, unscripted madness.
Best known for their cult hit series Nirvana the Band the Show, the duo has finally packed their signature blend of real-world guerrilla filmmaking and narrative fiction into a massive new feature film project - Nirvanna the band, the show, the movie.
As the movie gears up to storm UK screens, we sat down with Matt, calling in live from the driver's seat of a car, and Jay, holding down the fort in the studio, to talk about their 20-year creative marriage, terrifying undercover stunts on top of the CN Tower, and working unscripted.
"The story has a happy ending..."
Welcome to the UK airwaves! We actually have to start with a bit of a confession, we heard rumors that hmv almost played a massive part in the origin of this movie.
Matt Johnson: It’s totally true! We have to tell you that hmv was right there at the very beginning of the film. Because Canada is a Commonwealth country, hmv stores were a massive, massive deal for us growing up, especially in the '90s and early 2000s. When we were planning the movie, one of our original ideas for a sequence where the characters go back to 2008 was to go undercover in one of the few remaining hmvs in Toronto.
But things didn’t exactly go to plan?
Matt: We went hunting and we just couldn't find an open one left in the city! We only found a Sunrise Records location…
Well, hmv and Sunrise are actually part of the same family, so you technically did shoot at hmv.
Matt: Oh wow! No way! Okay, well then the story officially has a happy ending. We went into that Sunrise Records on our very first day of shooting, pretended it was 2008, and the staff completely played along. They were such good sports. The footage didn't actually make the final cut, like so many things in our movies, we just didn't find a narrative reason to keep it, but the spiritual connection to hmv is there. It means we’re completely on target being here.
Navigating Unscripted Mayhem
For UK audiences who are discovering your style for the first time, how do you describe the mix of scripted narrative and real-world interactions?
Jay McCarroll: The easiest way to say it is that nothing is scripted. At all.
Matt: Yeah, we don’t really make a distinction between the two. We operate on one strict rule: our main characters are the only people who know they're in a movie. Everybody else in the world is completely real. If you follow that logic, it all makes sense.
Operating in the real world means dealing with total unpredictability. Have you ever had a passerby completely hijack a scene and change the movie for the better?
Matt: Literally the very first scene of the movie! We were shooting a bit at a Canadian Tire store, and this random guy just walks up to us and says, "Don't do it, you'll die. If you cut through it, you'll get electrocuted." What that guy specifically said, his exact mannerisms, and the way he treated us, completely transformed the entire project. That one interaction wound up dictating the actual ending of the movie.
Jay: You honestly can't get a better example of what we do. We go out into the streets every day just hoping to capture one of those moments for an entire movie or an episode of our show. That’s the ultimate trick we’re always trying to pull off.
Two Words: "Chaotic Good"
If you had to distill the absolute energy of this film into just three words, what would they be?
Matt: (Laughs) Nirvanna the Band? No, that's a joke from our series. It's tough because it's such a complicated, layered joke of a film that briefly describing it never really does it justice. You just have to watch it. It’s definitely chaotic.
Jay: I’d add wholesome. We genuinely want people to leave the theatre with a bit of a wholesome, good feeling.
Matt: So, if we can do it in two words instead of three: "Chaotic Good."
The Terror of the Undercover Stunt
The physical stunts in this project are pretty spectacular, especially a highly publicized sequence on the roof of the CN Tower. What goes through your mind when you're hanging off a building for a scene?
Matt: It is incredibly nerve-wracking and anxiety-inducing. The funny thing is, the actual height of the building didn't bother either of us all that much. What made it intensely stressful was the fact that we were up there shooting undercover. You can actually see the genuine stress on our faces in the film.
Jay: It’s a terrifying but totally thrilling thing. If you are ever visiting Toronto and want a real thrill, do the CN Tower EdgeWalk. Lean right over the side. But for us, that shoot was like trying to execute a highly orchestrated, incredibly nuanced ballet dance. We had exactly one shot to get it right. All we were thinking about was timing, positioning, and making sure we executed the plan perfectly.
The Secret to a 20 Year Creative Marriage
You two have been collaborating for nearly twenty years now. What is the secret to keeping that partnership so fresh?
Matt: The simple answer is: don't plan things. The second you sit down, write things out, and carefully overplan, the energy gets stale. Every single time we have ever tried to manually sit down and write a joke, it has failed. Every single time. You have to just react to the moment.
Jay: It also comes down to our team. We've been working with the same small crew for years, and there is a massive amount of trust and patience there. I always feel creatively protected. Even if Matt and I have a massive disagreement about a creative choice, I know that my best ideas will always be heard and valued by the team. We operate on a collective belief that together we are a better, stronger version of ourselves.
Matt: The golden rule we have with each other, and with any actor we bring into our world, is that no matter what happens, we will never, ever let you look bad in the final edit. When people feel that safety net, they take much bigger, braver, creative risks.
The Global Internet Monoculture
Your work is famously love letters to Toronto, but your comedy has been a massive hit in places like Australia and South Korea. How are you feeling about unleashing it on the UK?
Matt: We are always amazed when other countries like our stuff at all! The UK is a really exciting dark horse for us. Our comedy is heavily inspired by British institutions; the original UK version of The Office was a massive blueprint for us, and we absolutely love Limmy. So we're incredibly curious to see if that connection translates.
Jay: If you pull the magnifying glass back all the way, the internet has completely equalized the playing field for comedy. It doesn’t matter if content is coming out of the UK, Australia, the US, or Canada anymore. Our project is inherently born from internet humor and internet sensibilities; we've just packaged it into a traditional movie format. It's a global language now.
Well, if you guys ever want to come over across the pond and shoot undercover in a massive UK hmv store, you have an open invitation.
Matt: You know what? We would absolutely love that. To see a giant, thriving hmv again would be the coolest thing ever. Sign us up!
Nirvanna the band, the show, the movie is out in cinemas July 3rd.
As the movie gears up to storm UK screens, we sat down with Matt, calling in live from the driver's seat of a car, and Jay, holding down the fort in the studio, to talk about their 20-year creative marriage, terrifying undercover stunts on top of the CN Tower, and working unscripted.
"The story has a happy ending..."
Welcome to the UK airwaves! We actually have to start with a bit of a confession, we heard rumors that hmv almost played a massive part in the origin of this movie.
Matt Johnson: It’s totally true! We have to tell you that hmv was right there at the very beginning of the film. Because Canada is a Commonwealth country, hmv stores were a massive, massive deal for us growing up, especially in the '90s and early 2000s. When we were planning the movie, one of our original ideas for a sequence where the characters go back to 2008 was to go undercover in one of the few remaining hmvs in Toronto.
But things didn’t exactly go to plan?
Matt: We went hunting and we just couldn't find an open one left in the city! We only found a Sunrise Records location…
Well, hmv and Sunrise are actually part of the same family, so you technically did shoot at hmv.
Matt: Oh wow! No way! Okay, well then the story officially has a happy ending. We went into that Sunrise Records on our very first day of shooting, pretended it was 2008, and the staff completely played along. They were such good sports. The footage didn't actually make the final cut, like so many things in our movies, we just didn't find a narrative reason to keep it, but the spiritual connection to hmv is there. It means we’re completely on target being here.
Navigating Unscripted Mayhem
For UK audiences who are discovering your style for the first time, how do you describe the mix of scripted narrative and real-world interactions?
Jay McCarroll: The easiest way to say it is that nothing is scripted. At all.
Matt: Yeah, we don’t really make a distinction between the two. We operate on one strict rule: our main characters are the only people who know they're in a movie. Everybody else in the world is completely real. If you follow that logic, it all makes sense.
Operating in the real world means dealing with total unpredictability. Have you ever had a passerby completely hijack a scene and change the movie for the better?
Matt: Literally the very first scene of the movie! We were shooting a bit at a Canadian Tire store, and this random guy just walks up to us and says, "Don't do it, you'll die. If you cut through it, you'll get electrocuted." What that guy specifically said, his exact mannerisms, and the way he treated us, completely transformed the entire project. That one interaction wound up dictating the actual ending of the movie.
Jay: You honestly can't get a better example of what we do. We go out into the streets every day just hoping to capture one of those moments for an entire movie or an episode of our show. That’s the ultimate trick we’re always trying to pull off.
Two Words: "Chaotic Good"
If you had to distill the absolute energy of this film into just three words, what would they be?
Matt: (Laughs) Nirvanna the Band? No, that's a joke from our series. It's tough because it's such a complicated, layered joke of a film that briefly describing it never really does it justice. You just have to watch it. It’s definitely chaotic.
Jay: I’d add wholesome. We genuinely want people to leave the theatre with a bit of a wholesome, good feeling.
Matt: So, if we can do it in two words instead of three: "Chaotic Good."
The Terror of the Undercover Stunt
The physical stunts in this project are pretty spectacular, especially a highly publicized sequence on the roof of the CN Tower. What goes through your mind when you're hanging off a building for a scene?
Matt: It is incredibly nerve-wracking and anxiety-inducing. The funny thing is, the actual height of the building didn't bother either of us all that much. What made it intensely stressful was the fact that we were up there shooting undercover. You can actually see the genuine stress on our faces in the film.
Jay: It’s a terrifying but totally thrilling thing. If you are ever visiting Toronto and want a real thrill, do the CN Tower EdgeWalk. Lean right over the side. But for us, that shoot was like trying to execute a highly orchestrated, incredibly nuanced ballet dance. We had exactly one shot to get it right. All we were thinking about was timing, positioning, and making sure we executed the plan perfectly.
The Secret to a 20 Year Creative Marriage
You two have been collaborating for nearly twenty years now. What is the secret to keeping that partnership so fresh?
Matt: The simple answer is: don't plan things. The second you sit down, write things out, and carefully overplan, the energy gets stale. Every single time we have ever tried to manually sit down and write a joke, it has failed. Every single time. You have to just react to the moment.
Jay: It also comes down to our team. We've been working with the same small crew for years, and there is a massive amount of trust and patience there. I always feel creatively protected. Even if Matt and I have a massive disagreement about a creative choice, I know that my best ideas will always be heard and valued by the team. We operate on a collective belief that together we are a better, stronger version of ourselves.
Matt: The golden rule we have with each other, and with any actor we bring into our world, is that no matter what happens, we will never, ever let you look bad in the final edit. When people feel that safety net, they take much bigger, braver, creative risks.
The Global Internet Monoculture
Your work is famously love letters to Toronto, but your comedy has been a massive hit in places like Australia and South Korea. How are you feeling about unleashing it on the UK?
Matt: We are always amazed when other countries like our stuff at all! The UK is a really exciting dark horse for us. Our comedy is heavily inspired by British institutions; the original UK version of The Office was a massive blueprint for us, and we absolutely love Limmy. So we're incredibly curious to see if that connection translates.
Jay: If you pull the magnifying glass back all the way, the internet has completely equalized the playing field for comedy. It doesn’t matter if content is coming out of the UK, Australia, the US, or Canada anymore. Our project is inherently born from internet humor and internet sensibilities; we've just packaged it into a traditional movie format. It's a global language now.
Well, if you guys ever want to come over across the pond and shoot undercover in a massive UK hmv store, you have an open invitation.
Matt: You know what? We would absolutely love that. To see a giant, thriving hmv again would be the coolest thing ever. Sign us up!
Nirvanna the band, the show, the movie is out in cinemas July 3rd.
