Brent Butt coming to Maryfield
February 6, 2024, 9:46 am
Kevin Weedmark
Brent Butt is coming to Maryfield on March 15 for a show that the Maryfield Auditorium committee is cheekily calling “A Comedy Night in the Middle of Nowhere.” The comedy night is a fundraiser for the Maryfield auditorium.
“I love Corner Gas, so I thought he might be a good fit, and I contacted his agent and had success!” says Michelle Longman with the Maryfield Auditorium committee.
Longman says she doesn’t think the Maryfield Aud has ever had an act as big as Brent Butt perform there.
“I’m fairly new to the committee, but it’s not something that I have heard of before,” she says. “So, I was pretty excited that he said yes, and I can’t believe how fast our tickets sold. We were sold out in less than 19 hours.
“We were concerned that we wouldn’t sell out at all. So we were very, very taken aback and very happy to see the way it turned out.”
The funds will be used for upgrades to the theatre building.
“Our community theatre needs a new exterior,” says Longman. “We’re currently fundraising to redo the exterior of the building, restoring it and replacing windows. It’s an estimated cost of around $100,000.”
The Maryfield Auditorium is a historic building, built in 1939 and entirely run by volunteers.
“The building is owned by the village, but the committee covers the operation of the theatre and performances,” says Longman.
Longman says when they reached out to Brent Butt they were surprised that he was able to do the show.
“I was really hoping for it. I was surprised and I was happy to see that. And it kind of opened doors for maybe bigger acts down the road. I have a few other thoughts in my mind about who to contact for upcoming performances, and hopefully we’ll have success bringing more acts and performances in,” she says. “And put Maryfield on the map a little bit.”
For the Brent Butt show, Longman say people called from all over the region to buy tickets. “I haven’t seen where everybody was from, but we were getting calls from all over the place,” she says. “We were drawing from a pretty good area.”
Why did they call it the Comedy Night in the Middle of Nowhere?
“It’s a little bit of a joke at our expense,” says Longman. “We are a small community. We are kind of like Dog River, I guess. We’re only 300 to 400 people. So, yeah, it’s just a little joke at our expense, but everybody on the community thought it was a good name for the comedy night, and we decided to run with that.”
Longman says she is looking forward to the show.
“I think it will be fun,” she says. “I mean, he’s a funny guy. He’ll put on a great show!”
