The real Bob Saget

by Bianca Dayrit

When people think of Bob Saget, Danny Tanner, the loving father from Full House or that animated G-rated host for America’s Funniest Home Videos comes to mind. Saget’s character on Full House was obviously fictional, but somehow people believed he was really that way. “I was a clean-freak guy that hugged everybody (on the show). I don’t know why any- body would think I was like that,” he said about his Full House character in a phone interview.
 

As of late, he is appreciated for his more adult-oriented characters such as his cameos in Entourage, his HBO special That Ain’t Right and his North American stand-up comedy tours where his fans are finally getting familiar with his R-rated persona. “There are people that come to my shows that never saw a moment of Full House or never knew that I hosted the video show,” he said.
 

Aside from acting and stand-up, Saget, 54, also gave direct- ing a shot. He wrote and directed Farce of the Penguins, a parody documentary of March of the Penguins. He is also the uncredited narrator for the hit show How I Met Your Mother. Saget will soon be creating new personas for us to identify with in his new show Strange Days with Bob Saget, which will be broadcast on A&E. In Strange Days with Bob Saget he becomes a Bigfoot-seeker, a member of a fraternity called the Seal & Serpent at Cornell University and joins a motorcycle club traveling from Nashville, Tenn., to Daytona, Fla., in a sidecar, which he says was a wimpy way of riding and not dying.
 

“The things we did, we’re really proud of it,” he said describing the somewhat ludicrous antics filmed for the show. No matter how you slice it, Saget says though the show could be called reality television, he would rather call it a comedy- documentary. Although reality TV is often seen as “trash” TV, many viewers will agree that Saget is a great deal more hilarious as himself on a reality show than when he played fictional banal roles on his older family-friendly programs.
 

Saget will be hitting up Calgary Dec. 18 at the Jack Singer Concert Hall for his stand-up comedy tour. He has done shows in Calgary before and says he is excited to perform here again. He reveals that, this time around, his tour will be a little more musical. In addition to the songs his stand-up fans already know, such as “Danny Tanner Was Not Gay,” and the “Old English Folk Song,” new tunes will be incorporated, including his hilarious new song about a relationship with a 90-year old woman. Saget laughs about their fictional love affair: “We definitely have our issues.”