Urban Legends

LAWYER - TURNED - ACTOR ON LIFE ON THE FRINGE

Who: Russell Bennett

What: Star of the one-man Fringe play, The Reefer Man

Roots: Originally from Ontario, Bennett came to Vancouver last November to
write The Reefer Man with co-author Gillian Stevens-Guille. Appearing as
part of the Vancouver Fringe Festival starting Saturday, Sept. 11.

Mary Southin ain't the only smoking judge:"I'm a lawyer by education, and
when I was in law school it struck me as highly ironic that many students
and friends of mine were smoking pot, including myself, and yet we had to
take an oath when we became lawyers that said we never did anything
criminal. It was clear that many of us had, including many of the judges and
lawyers that are working today."

Dear Student Loans Office, I am unable to pay: "I've always wanted to be an
actor, and after I got my call to the bar in 1997 I decided that I would
first make the documentary Stoned [about the legal journey of
hemp-store-owner Chris Clay], and then after that was over I realized that I
really wanted to act and not just make documentaries, so I went to New York
to train for two years at the Neighborhood Playhouse. I graduated from there
in 2000, and I was acting in New York for a bit, and I came back to Toronto
for two or three years, acting and making short films. One of my short
films, The School, was actually screened at the Sundance Festival. I did
practise law, with my father for about two years while I while in Toronto. I
just didn't have the courage when I was in my early-to mid-twenties to
really admit to myself that I wanted to act. It was frowned upon in my
family, so I became a professional and then did what I wanted to do and
followed my passion." He won the lottery! "I've done the Fringe in New York
and Toronto about four times, but I'd never done a tour. Last October -
Halloween, actually - I won the tour lottery, so I was immediately accepted
into eight Fringe Festivals. I thought to myself: 'Now's the time to write
my first play' so I came to Vancouver and taught [acting] on the Drive, and
wrote the play with Gillian."

From the producers of Sybil..."The Reefer Man is a solo show, I play 25
characters. No costume changes or anything, just morphing from voice and
physicality. I co-wrote it with Gillian Stevens Gale. It's about a young
lawyer, Charlie Kovacs, who works for his dad in his dad's law firm and
secretly grows marijuana in his basement. He gets caught, and then he
becomes The Reefer Man, Canada's newest superhero. His superpower, I guess,
would be that he grows amazing pot."

Bad law is good business: "I was playing in the Saskatoon Fringe when the
Marc Emery verdict came down. [Ed.'s note: Emery was sentenced to 90 days in
prison for passing a joint outside a Saskatchewan NDP meeting. See Evil
Brain, page 10]. The Reefer Man was sold out, I earned the 'Best of the
Fringe" award, and they ended up scheduling another show."

A place to take your Granny? "A lot of people think our audience is mainly
just potheads, but it's not. It's far from the truth, in fact. It's really
hard to get potheads into the theatre. Most of the audience is extremely
varied, from teenagers to 80-year-olds."

Right on, brother: "Personally, I believe that marijuana must be legalized.
Decriminalization, at least in the form of the bill that's in front of the
house, is sending the wrong message to citizens. It's saying that you can
possess very small amounts, like a couple of joints, but to get it is a
crime, and to grow it is going to be even more of a crime, because they're
doubling the penalty from seven years to 14 years for growing. They're
saying 'You can smoke it, but you can't buy it, and we're going to make it
harder for you to get' so they're in effect creating and enhancing the black
market. It's time for our lawmakers to wake up and legalize it, and ignore
the trade threats from the United States."

The eighth habit of highly effective people? "Partly what I wanted to do
with The Reefer Man is really dispel the stereotypes that are associated
with pot smokers-that they're lazy, that they can't get their acts together.
I smoke pot, and I love pot and I'm a highly productive individual."

Also invented, the 'Take Me to Your Dealer' alien: "Artists are known to
enjoy the sacred herb a lot. A lot of our great writing and music and art
has come from people who create while under the influence. Sometimes it's
good, and sometimes it results in not so great things. I've written stoned
and written sober, and I'd say that really good ideas came from when I was
stoned. For example, the logo for The Reefer Man [a man with a pot leaf for
a head] came to me when I was high one night. First it started with a man
with a pot leaf in his heart, and then I realized, no it should be a pot
head."

- -Elaine Corden