As many Kimberley residents, especially those who stood in line to get into the event, know, the CBC program Still Standing with Johnny Harris was in town in late March to film for the show and present a comedy show at the conference centre.
Still Standing has, over nine seasons, visited small Canadian towns, mainly those who have lost their major industry, and explore how they have kept going and what makes them unique. And while they are in town, they put on a free comedy show.
Mayor Don McCormick was at the March 22 show and says the turnout from the community was amazing.
“The ballroom was full, and there were hundreds of people waiting to get in,” he said. “It was incredible the buzz this created around town.”
Some of those hundreds had to be turned away much to their disappointment.
The actual episode will air in October of this year on CBC.
McCormick says it is interesting to see what people who don’t live in Kimberley find to be fascinating about it.
Still Standing crews focused on unique businesses and Kimberley’s history. They spend some time on the history of the Sullivan Mine and spoke to folks at the Underground Mining Railway. They explored Bingo night at the Shed, learned about snowmobiling and avalanche safety from a local business and visited the Berley Skate facility.
McCormick says it started with a phone call from the production company to see if Kimberley might be a good fit.
“I gave them a list of names and it just grew,” he said. The crew did research and put a preliminary story together. Then they arrived in town and began doing interviews, and the writers put together the comedy show.
“They were awesome people to work with,” McCormick said. “They came to city hall every day to upload video.
“There were overwhelmed by the response from the community for the comedy show. It was such a great event. These people are funny.”