It’s safe to say that Frank van Keeken knows a lot about comedy.  A Canadian comedy legend, Frank has been around the block in the television world, working on everything from Seinfeld to Mad About You.  After an extended dalliance in the States, Frank is bringing his tight, quirky writing style back to the motherland and is on board for Season Two of the Showcase hit Billable Hours.  I had a chance to chat with him about his life, his work, and how he became, what he calls, “the Pete Best of The Kids in the Hall.”  

As Exec Producer (or ‘show-runner’ as he calls it) for Billable Season Two, Frank immediately got his hands dirty.  With his background in writing, that’s where he decided to start.  For Season Two, Frank wanted the writing “darker, faster and more furious” and to “cram as much story-telling into the process as possible.”  It seems to have worked.  While Season One was like, ‘Whammo!’ Season Two is more like, ‘Shla-Blammo!’, or ‘Jamma-Jamma!’  That’s what Frank does.

The next hurdle was producing a show about lawyers when he isn’t a lawyer.  Frank insists it wasn’t an issue, that good sitcoms are stories about people, not their business environments.  He points out, “In Cheers, nobody cared about the liquor truck not showing up.”  With that in mind, he set about making a second season which contains very few legal stories, but is packed with memorable characters and plenty of laughs.  He cut two characters and added three new ones, and is entirely pleased with the result.

When not writing TV, Frank heads up van Keeken design (where he plies his trade as a web designer for hire), writes and produces webisodes, and remains involved in the local sketch comedy and stand-up scene.  Which brings us to The Kids in the Hall.  Unfortunately, there’s no story of fireworks and drunken fist-fights to account for his departure from the troupe.  After making the move to Toronto and forming the original Kids in the early 80’s, Frank simply left to pursue his own interests.  “The writing door opened, and I kind of went that way.”

Seems to be working out all right.

Billable Hours Season Two airs Sundays at 9:30, and visit the website now for exclusive webisodes.