[cheering & applause]
Across the country, nay, across the world,
Small towns that have been devastated by loss of industry
Have been inspired by chemainus,
And are turning things around with mural projects,
Featured on this very show— churchill, manitoba, botwood,
Bell island, all with beautiful mural projects.
But it was chemainus. This is where it all started.
"the little town that did",
Was the little town that did it first.
[cheering & applause]
Before chemainus, who'd 'a thunk that you could
Turn around the economy of a mill town that
Lost its mill, with art?
Bringing in tourists' dollars. Show me the monet!
[laughing]
When you grow up in a small town in newfoundland,
You see the people have a sense of humor about hard times.
Check, check.
I turned that into a career and hit the road.
Mr. Jonny harris!
Now I'm on a mission to find the funny in the places
You'd least expect, canada's struggling small towns.
Towns that are against the ropes but hanging in there.
Still laughing in the face of adversity.
This is chemainus, british columbia.
♪
[cheering & applause]
I love the slogan: "chemainus, the little town that did."
I like that slogan.
You know, it makes you sound positive, hardworking,
But it's also sort of vague enough that
No one can really pin it down.
- Do you know what I mean? - [laughing]
We're the little town that did.
- Did what? - Did we ever.
- No, what did you do? - What didn't we do?
[laughing]
♪
So, you work in tourism here?
I do, yeah, I'm very lucky.
♪
I talked to one young woman who moved away but was
Able to return, community booster and
Boomerang kid, brittany pickard.
[cheering & applause]
Your roots go pretty deep in chemainus.
Yeah, born and raised here.
My mom was born even at the chemainus hospital.
My grandfather worked at the mill.
My family worked at the mill. My uncles worked at the mill.
Chemainus prospered for decades as a logging town,
But then logging here went into steep decline and
The mill closed in the early 80s.
And the transition was tough.
Everybody lost their jobs,
So people had to move away to find work.
This town just had nothing anymore.
Whose idea was it for murals and public art?
Karl schutz came here with this brilliant idea.
And he was like, "I'm gonna put murals on the wall
And revitalize chemainus".
It only started out with a few murals,
And then it just spiraled.
And now, there's like over 50 murals.
Brittany told me she was a little girl when suddenly,
There was tour buses full of people dropping visitors off
By the thousands to come and look at the murals.
Her class were tasked with going out and painting some of
These yellow footprints that you see around the town.
We would all have to come and paint the footprints,
And they would lead you to the murals, which is kind of cool.
So, tourists were able to find them easily.
I think that's kind of funny.
Like, when I was a kid, we were very much
Discouraged from painting on public property.
[laughing]
The murals did an incredible job of revitalizing the town,
But after the mill closed, there still wasn't a lot of
Employment opportunities for young people here.
The young individuals in our community have to move away
For jobs because there's not that huge industry here, right?
You know, brittany was able to move back and
Make a living here. She's one of the lucky ones.
They call them the, "boomerang kids".
Once you leave chemainus, it like has this
Way of like pulling you back in. It's like,
Come back, you always want to be here.
And this will always be home.
You know, she said there's something about chemainus
That just draws you back in.
And of course, I see a lot of that in newfoundland as well.
Maybe hypocritical to say because, you know,
My home base is in toronto right now.
So, I guess...
I guess I'm not a boomerang kid, but...
In fact, I think the crowd back home call me a lawn dart.
[laughing]
♪
To learn a bit more about your town,
I got the hood scoop from michael marks.
[cheering & applause]
Michael explained how when he was young,
The mill was exactly what kept young people around.
When we were kids, we all worked the Friday night
Graveyard in the sawmill cleanup.
We'd get done with our workday and, I'd have this,
And my buddies would have other hot cars,
And we'd go tear around town.
You and your buddies have a few drag races
Or anything like that?
- Well, yeah. - [laughing]
We'd like to wake the neighbours up.
It sounds like a lot of work to me.
School in the daytime and then work at the mill in the night.
And all of this so that you can burn out.
[laughing]
After high school, he worked at the mill full time.
We used to live by the mill whistle.
It went off at 7:30, noon, and 4.
And when the mill shut down, the town went through some
Pretty drastic changes, going from a mill town to...
They didn't know what.
And then, it quickly became clear that this mural project
Might work, that it was bringing in visitors.
Although for him and his buddies, you know,
He said art and tourism didn't really jive with,
You know, young guys hauling around in muscle cars.
We were creating a little too much havoc downtown, I think.
But anyway, basically, what we did,
There's a point of land out across from chemainus
Called bear point.
If the cops got sick of you around town,
They'd boot you out there.
So, the car scene he said sort of got pushed out.
And I've heard about wild times out on bear point.
I think there's a pretty good measure of people that live in
Chemainus that were conceived out there through the years.
[laughing]
- Just saying. - Yeah, yeah.
He figures a lot of chemainiacs may have
Been conceived out on bear point.
[laughing]
Perhaps conceived, I guess, because of a bare point.
[laughing]
Mike asked me if I wanted to go for a ride and,
I took him up on it. And man, that's the loudest,
"rumbliest" car I've ever been in.
[engine roaring continues]
Here we are, bright yellow '55 chevy.
The sun is beating down.
Beautiful day on vancouver island.
We're whipping past a cornfield.
I said to him, I said, "thanks, mike,
This is just what the doctor ordered".
He couldn't hear me, but...
[laughing]
I think it's what the doctor should order.
I think it broke up my kidney stones.
[cheering & applause]
Have you been able to take in any of the murals?
Well, that's why we dropped by.
I got a chance, then, to talk to the man with the plan.
I had chat with karl schutz.
[cheering & applause]
My wife and I, we went on a trip to europe.
And everywhere we went,
They said, "oh, you go to romania.
You can see the mural. They're awesome".
This was the inception of the idea.
He was in romania. And he's looking at these
Beautiful 300-year-old frescoes painted on
The walls of churches and cathedrals.
And I said to my wife: "wow,
This is an attraction we need in chemainus.
If the sawmill is going down,
Then we need another attraction".
And he came back. He was so excited even—
They stopped him at customs, and they said,
"do you have anything to declare?"
And he said, "yes, a brush stroke of genius".
[laughing]
But karl said when he got back here,
Council was reluctant to take him up on it.
They thought it was outlandish.
They looked at me, like...
"what? Painting murals on walls of businesses?
You got to be out of your mind".
He had trouble convincing them to see the big picture,
Which was...
Big pictures, I suppose.
[laughing]
But then, karl said he got a call one day.
He said there was a new mayor,
A young guy maybe around 30.
"I think that's a great idea," he says.
"when can you start?" I said, "tomorrow".
[laughing]
And the mural project was born.
I said to karl, "at what point did you think,
Okay, this is gonna work?"
Within the first hour,
Because people came and looked at that artist.
They started watching him painting this mural.
About an hour in there's a dozen people there
Watching this guy. I mean,
I've done outdoor shows to less people than that.
[laughing]
And these people are literally watching paint dry.
[laughing]
I'm saying, right now, he deserves a tv special.
I could play a young karl.
[laughing]
Well, youngish, younger.
[laughing]
It's gonna be: The story of karl schutz of chemainus:
He schutz, he scores.
[laughing]
♪
You know, here in chemainus there's a coast-salish artist,
Whose next piece will be an archway over the entrance
At waterwheel park. That's the plan.
They're still raising some money for it.
They need a little more arch support.
I met maynard johnny jr.
[cheering & applause]
Several murals, even a lovely marble statue,
Depicting indigenous people or scenes.
But there's not really any traditional art.
I suppose it's an understatement to say that,
For chemainus, that, you know, the time has come
To have some of that representation.
Yeah, definitely.
And what better way to start than at a major
Focal point of chemainus? When people come here,
They like to take pictures with the waterwheel.
What he has planned for this project that waterwheel park—
I should say, I love waterwheel park,
I love watching the wheel.
There's something about it that I find so like,
Calming and peaceful, and at the same time,
Makes me desperate for a round of mini putt.
[laughing]
I did a really simple concept sketch.
And the idea is that it has to be at least 12 feet tall.
And then I wanted to use salmon going up the river and salmon
Coming down the river and that's signifying resilience.
You know, and then, the heron right on top
With its wings spread out.
So, this archway, this'll be a metal work?
It will be mostly metal. And then some concrete.
I had this idea of using as a cylinder-type plastic,
And then you can light it up at night.
Sounds really cool, you know, with the art,
The plastic and the metal.
And then it's encased in concrete,
Which is good because I think lady gaga
Might come try to wear it home.
[laughing]
But traditionally,
You mostly work with painting, is that right?
Yeah, yeah, and it's solid painting,
But it's actually the most difficult way to paint
Because lines gotta be clean and crisp and even.
Maynard, by his own admittance, can get frustrated,
Can be impatient when creating art. And of course,
With indigenous art, it's all very bold, clean lines.
There's not a lot of room for error.
Landscapes or portraits, you can make mistakes and
Just work it in with the paint and create shadows.
Whereas, you can't make mistakes with native art.
Like a bob ross moment, do you know what I mean, like...
Happy accidents, you know what I mean?
"oh, I smudged this, but as you can see,
I'll blend it into the tree behind it, and ah...
There, there you go."
You can't do that with indigenous art.
You know, he can't be like, "as you can see,
I made a little mistake on the eye of the raven here,
So I'm just gonna throw this out the friggin' window. Ah!"
[cheering & applause]
On the south side of chemainus there's a
Special place that's hogging all the cute animals.
I went and I had a chat with the founder of r.A.S.T.A,
Which stands for rescue and sanctuary
For threatened animals. Lucie cerny.
[cheering & applause]
We've got goats and sheep and pigs and donkeys
And cattle all living together.
And a lot of our residents, you'll notice,
Are potbellied pigs.
Why so many pigs? Why do pigs need rescuing?
There's more pigs than anything else.
A lot of potbellied pigs, and she explained to me,
This was all part of the like
Miniature pet in your purse thing.
People started buying what were advertised
As teacup potbellied pigs,
But apparently, there is no such thing.
One of our residents, maggie mae —
The one back there actually —
People paid $3,000 for her because they were told
That she was a special imported line of teacup micro pig.
And she wouldn't be any bigger than a chubby chihuahua.
And as you can see, she is a lot bigger.
No such thing as a teacup size.
#the-pig-will-get-big
[laughing]
When we moved here, there was an old barn on the property.
And it was our plan to try to fix that up.
When lucie bought the place,
She knew the barn was in rough shape.
She knew she was gonna have to rebuild it.
She figured it'd cost about $100,000.
We asked for an itemized quote for the building.
And that came back as $450,000.
So, it was a huge shot to the gut.
The barn was not just rotting, it was sinking into the ground.
The ground had to be completely refilled.
And she thought that was gonna be it.
She thought the dream was over.
She said, "it's gonna cost more money than I have
To make this place a real pigsty".
[laughing]
And then, out of the blue,
Enter pamela anderson.
[cheering & applause]
Celebrity actress, animal activist.
Pamela anderson, you might've heard of her, ha,
Expressed an interest of wanting to come down for a tour.
She's a vegan and she's very passionate about animals.
She came for a special visit and,
She fell in love with the sanctuary.
She showed pam around. She showed her the animals,
The goats and the pigs, and the—
Everything except the chickens, I hope, right?
Never let a fox in the henhouse.
[laughing]
And, as part of the tour, we walked by the old,
Decrepit barn and I just had mentioned,
"this is something we're not proud of".
But it was a really great visit.
But shortly thereafter, pam gave her a call and
Said she wanted to help out.
She came back with her partner, mr. Dan hayhurst,
Who happens to be a builder.
And when pamela anderson offers to build you a barn,
You go ahead and take that offer.
And just like that, the project was saved.
It's an unbelievable story.
We are still milling wood.
Actually, the trees that were standing here have been milled
To go into the barn, which is pretty cool.
No kidding.
So, it's still a work in progress.
If you want to see the rest of the barn build,
I'm gonna try to produce a new show.
- I call it barn watch. - [laughing]
Starring pam anderson and david hasselhog.
[laughing]
And until the barn is done, the pigs are safe,
And they got food and space to roam around.
And if they get hot, there's a big mud puddle.
- They're rolling in it. - [laughing]
I mean, that should be the new thing:
Happier than a pig in chemainus.
[laughing]
[cheering & applause]
I got to meet the couple who opened riot brewery.
And they've got beers that are right up your alley,
But they won't make you ralph.
I'm talking about ali and ralf.
[cheering & applause]
Aly and ralf are from east vancouver.
They moved to the island in hopes of
Opening their own brewery.
It was funny because he was never actually
In the brewing industry. It was me.
Everyone thought I was 'cause I'm a guy.
Yeah, 'cause he's a guy. And I called him one day
And I was like, "you wanna open a brewery?"
He's like, "okay". It's like, "done. Let's do it".
And for chemainus, it was the perfect kind of business.
I mean, here were these young entrepreneurs—
Youngish, youngish—
[laughing]
Who could build something from the ground up.
And it would be a place for tourists and
Locals alike, you know.
And it's especially great that it can be enjoyed by locals.
I mean, let the people who painted their town,
Paint their town red.
They've got a pretty punk approach to how
They name their beers.
They're all named after something based in their lives.
For example, they have a beer called...
Junk punch.
[laughing]
Actually, everyone on the label has been junk punched by me.
Are you serious?
So, I was one of the first female brewers in bc,
If not canada, like over 20 years ago.
You know, being the only girl, I was really very much in a,
In a gentlemen's club.
You know, when aly was training in chicago,
She would get a lot of like saucy sexist remarks.
And then she decided one day...
Whoever makes these kinds of remarks to me,
I'm gonna punch him in the junk.
[laughing]
So, people learned real quick, just leave me alone.
Oh, I've got some of the best junk punch.
Like, knee slide to junk punch.
Like you name it, I've done it all.
That's a finishing move.
- Yeah, slide... Ugh. - Right?
- They'd get a junk punch. - [laughing]
And, no warning.
That's aggressive, that is aggressive.
Even back in junior high,
We do the common courtesy of asking somebody,
"what's the capital of thailand?"
- "bangkok". - [laughing]
Riot was an immediate success.
And then, of all things,
What tripped them up was the weather.
A week before christmas 2019.
An unexpected windstorm just ravaged the island.
Just everywhere from the gulf islands, here,
The valley, victoria, everywhere.
Then, not even two months later,
They get a second junk punch when there's a freak snowstorm.
Snowpocalypse, so again, we couldn't deliver beer.
We couldn't get out there.
We couldn't get the ingredients.
We couldn't do anything.
They lost product, they lost sales.
Couldn't make deliveries.
And they lost contracts and eventually
Were declared insolvent.
It was fear and panic.
You know, I mean, what do you do, like...?
And then, the community rallied.
Suddenly, they're having these closed-door meetings,
50,60 people, all kinds of community leaders.
They spearheaded to save riot.
And they were like, "we're not gonna let riot go,"
Which was very humbling, because we didn't...
You know, I've heard of a bar refusing the customers
At closing time. But did you hear about the time
Customers refused the bar from closing?
[laughing]
And I'm proud of what we created and,
How much all of these people are a part of it.
Oh!
I had a great time there. I got behind the bar.
Even poured up a few beers.
- There you go, sir. - Cheers, jonny.
I haven't slung that many junk punches
Since junior high.
[laughing]
♪
If the young people who moved could see the town now,
They'd probably flip their lids.
Maybe they'd move back. I'm sure chemainus
Would welcome their boomerang kids.
Follow the yellow footprints, the murals are a must.
But don't follow a yellow chevy, you'll only be eating dust.
[laughing]
Find some serenity at waterwheel park where
Very soon there just might be coast-salish artwork that
Brightens up your day and perhaps
Even lights up the night. Get out on the town
For dinner or a show or beers and bands at riot.
I know a junk punch sounds disconcerting,
But don't knock it 'til you tried it.
Out at r.A.S.T.A they're building the barn,
The animals get new digs.
Ladies, lucie's like a relationship coach.
She doesn't want you bringing home pigs.
[laughing]
And don't forget the tv special,
Where I played karl as a kid.
It's about murals and art and a whole lot of heart
In the little town that did.
Thanks for coming out, chemainus.
- You've been great! - [cheering & applause]
Thanks so much!
[cheering & applause]
Thank you!
[cheering & applause]
Jonny is just great, as usual. We knew he was going to be.
I mean, how can you miss?
Thanks for coming and...
Recognizing the little town that did.
♪
I really love how he tied everything together and,
On how the town became what it did, so...
And now we're gonna move it forward in another way.
He's a very sharp dressed fella.
Got to work on the beer pouring skills though.
[laughing] too much foam!
You're fired.
♪
You realize you don't have a full exhaust system on here?
[laughing] yeah.
♪