INTERVIEW: YOU BETTER WATCH OUT! NOOK & CRANNY ARE COMING TO TOWN…

Justin Shaw and Devin Bateson return to The Staircase Theatre for two performances only December 12 and 13 as lovable twin detectives, Nook & Cranny. This time, they are tasked with solving the greatest mystery of all: Christmas.

Back from their hit 2024 Hamilton Fringe show Nook & Cranny: Twin Detectives, this wildly funny pair are back to raise Hamilton’s Christmas spirit in this nonsense holiday comedy. I had the pleasure of a virtual interview with Bateson and Shaw and together, we discuss the concept for this buddy cop duo, their creative chaos and the possibilities of future adventures with Hamilton’s favourite twin detectives.

Where did the concept for “Nook & Cranny: Twin Detectives” come from and what inspired you both to create it for the Hamilton Fringe Festival in 2024?

JUSTIN: Devin and I actually helped each other with our Hamilton Fringe 2023 solo projects - he was working on The Midshipman’s Handbook and I was working on A Creature Is Stirring. They’re wildly different shows but we would share bits of our shows with each other and offer feedback and we realized we had a great rapport and said we should work on something together but we didn’t know what.

DEVIN: I texted Justin a photo of Sean Astin and Will Wheaton from Toy Soldiers and said “this is us” and we decided we were twin detectives.

What is your favourite thing about buddy cop narratives (or odd couple narratives)?

JUSTIN: I just love the immediacy of the conflict. As soon as you see them you know there’s some kind of history of tension. Like, imagine you saw a cat and a dog walking side by side down the street, you’d be like, “I need more information.” Off the bat you know they have opposing viewpoints so with that established so readily and clearly it allows for a very high ceiling for a bonkers plot.

DEVIN: I love it because it is two people that are contractually obligated to work together, and no matter what happens they have to work it out. And it’s a classic “will they/won’t they?”

JUSTIN: By the way, mentioning that cat and dog thing earlier makes me want to stage a theatre adaptation of Milo & Otis.

What has been a highlight of writing and staging this production? How much of “The Spirit of Christmas: A Nook & Cranny Mystery” is scripted and how much room is there for the special kind of improvisational magic the two of you create on stage?

DEVIN: We do not improvise - everything is fully staged, but we do put in moments where we try to make it harder for the other person by making them laugh. Can I turn Nook into a Cranny for a moment? Let’s just see!

JUSTIN: When we build the script we do a lot of improvisation to really dig deeper into the characters and the comedy of the script. So we keep improv mostly in rehearsal, so when we are live with an audience we’re doing just the stuff we worked on.

DEVIN: But we trust enough with each other to get to where need to be without deviating too far from what we worked on.

JUSTIN: Initially, we would meet mostly over breakfast and flesh out some plot points of what could happen and where we could take the story. Once we have a list of plot beats, we assign each other what scenes we individually write, then meet up and read the entire thing as a cold reading and it is usually a big mess. Then we clean it up as a working draft that we improvise off of in rehearsal.

DEVIN: What we’re saying is we really like breakfast.

For those unfamiliar with Nook & Cranny, how does this type of comedy speak to audiences and what do you hope audiences take away from seeing this production?

DEVIN: Does it speak to audiences?

JUSTIN: God help us, I hope so. We’re both big fans of Mr. Show, and we both think we’re the Bob Odenkirk of our group. But if you like any shows by StarKid, you’ll definitely pick up what we’re laying down.

DEVIN: A Fringe volunteer once said our show was “funny even though it had Millennial humour” and we choose to take that as a compliment.

JUSTIN: We just want to make folks laugh but also make them go “wow, these guys put a lot of time and energy into making something so exasperatingly stupid.”

DEVIN: I want the audiences to feel stupider than when they came in.

JUSTIN: And all the happier for it!

Do you anticipate creating a series of Nook & Cranny adventures? What are some themes or tropes you’d like to explore as these two characters?

DEVIN: Yes. If anyone pays us we will make more. But we think of the shows like the Hardy Boys series. You don’t have to read any of the other ones to know what’s going on. In fact, you don’t have to read anything at all! I’m not your boss!

JUSTIN: We have thought about doing more shows where each show the twins have different jobs. Maybe not like Three Stooges where they have basic menial jobs like baker or plumber, but like preposterous jobs like astronauts or ghost hunters or prospectors.

DEVIN: Baker or plumber isn’t off the table, as long as we could murder someone by accident it passes the Nook & Cranny test.

JUSTIN: I think we’re open to whatever as long as we can justify having our favourite character “The Chief” be involved as this ongoing subplot gag where he shows up adds little to the plot but everything to the story.

CHIEF: Thanks boys, I’ll take it from here.

A huge thank you to Justin and Devin for their delightful insights into how Nook & Cranny came to be and it’s clear that the possibilities are endless for this dynamic comedy duo.

Tickets for The Spirit of Christmas: A Nook & Cranny Mystery are nearly sold out, so be sure to click the link below to get yours. Happy Holidays!

Devin Bateson (left) and Justin Shaw (right)