New Showcase "Rent-A-Goalie" series combines hockey with comedy

Jason Keller, Canadian Press
Published: Monday, October 09, 2006

Hockey goalies are famously strange creatures. Whether
it's the isolation that accompanies their specialized position or
the pressure of being a last line of defence, netminders can get
a little kooky sometimes.

Christopher Bolton, producer, creator and star of the new
Showcase series "Rent-A-Goalie," (Sunday, 9:30 p.m. ET) has
his own theory about between-the-pipes psychology.
"I guess having pucks blasted at your head 80 times a day, you
become a little wacky," Bolton said with a laugh. "When I
played hockey I started off in goal. But then realized I wasn't
nuts enough, so I moved to defence because I like the idea of
protecting the goalie, which is what (the character) Cake is all
about - protecting his goalies."

Cake is the name of Bolton's hard-boiled, man-with-
duplicitous-past character that splits his time slinging Little
Italy espresso and running a dial-a-goalie service for beer
leagues in need of a temporary netminder.

His unenviable task of running a roster of goaltending oddballs
is coupled with his comedic struggles to ingratiate himself with
the Italian-Canadian community of the cafe. That's where the enigmatic name "Cake" comes from - Mangia Cake, Italian
slang for Canadian white boy.

"I wanted to tell the story about community, and family,"
explains Bolton about setting the show in a classic Little Italy-
style cafe. "When I moved to Little Italy in Toronto, I realized
how comfortable I felt in that environment. The Italian coffee
shop is a great big family once you're in. But it takes a little
while to get in. They try to break you, but once you show you
can't be broke, you're in.

"I kind of felt the hockey dressing room was a similar
environment. Both are very much codified worlds. It takes a
while to get in, but once you're in, your good."
Directed by T.W. Peacocke (Gemini nominee for "Canada
Russia '72"), the storylines involve plenty of ice time, and there
are even cameos from Phil Esposito, Darryl Sittler and penalty
minute legend Tiger Williams.

In one episode, Cake's goalie rental business comes under
threat by an Irish mobster named O'Malley (Oliver Becker),
who will only ease off if Cake takes on his hotshot goalie -
Lance the Boil (Gabriel Hogen) - in a shootout, assuming he's
made a failsafe wager. But Cake knows how to really mess
with a goalie's head. He straps on his skates and, well, not
much else.

"That was all me," Bolton proudly boasts about refusing to use
a body double for the cheeky scene. "That was actually our first
day of shooting. We were new bosses to a sixty-some-odd
crew, and I came out on the ice in my "all together." It was a
really great way to say to the crew 'I'll do anything, how about
you?"'