Comedian Brent Butt of Corner Gas fame is heading to Red Deer tomorrow night to host a fundraising event.

The evening of comedy is presented by the Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools Foundation. The event takes place May 17 at City Centre Stage (4922 49 St.). Curtain is at 7:30 p.m.

Born in Tisdale, Saskatchewan, Butt discovered early that being funny was a good way to get attention. He honed his comedy in school and at the age of 20 moved to the city to pursue a career in stand-up. Within months he was headlining top clubs in Toronto, and within a couple years he was touring internationally and appearing at major festivals.

His television specials quickly secured his reputation as one of the funniest people in the country, but he was also busy creating his own TV series – a sitcom called Corner Gas. It became an instant hit with unprecedented ratings and numerous accolades including an International Emmy Award nomination, and was named Funniest Show on TV by TV Guide readers.

Corner Gas went on to become Canada’s number one comedy, broadcast in over 26 countries including the U.S. and airing for six seasons.

Butt then created another sitcom for CTV called Hiccups which starred himself and Nancy Robertson. They made 26 episodes of Hiccups, winning multiple LEO awards along the way. He is currently developing a new sitcom for television, and is also set to begin filming this fall on his new feature film No Clue which he wrote and will star in.

Aside from TV and film production, Butt continues to tour the country performing standup as often as he can.

Tickets for the fundraising event are available through Ticket Central by calling 403-347-0800 or online at www.centralalbertatheatre.ca.

– Fawcett