Duo go from playing from pickup to playing for laughs on TV

It’s no joke: A Chatham couple are turning their life in country music into a funny new life on TV.

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Pat and Megan Whalen, who make up the classic country duo Deep Southwest, have landed a deal with Bell Fibe TV 1 to produce and star in the new streaming comedy series, Due Southwest, shot in Chatham

Deep Southwest, formed in 2020, started with the couple doing socially distanced performances on the back of a pickup during the COVID-19 pandemic.

They didn’t think it would last, “then people liked it and we just kept getting hired,” Megan said.

When she first suggested playing out of the back of a truck, “I thought that was ridiculous,” Pat admitted. “And then from there, it just kind of grew.”

Both have experience with large theater productions, and Pat said they first thought of creating a stage play before the Bell Fibe TV opportunity came up.

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Bell was seeking pitches for a streaming TV series, Megan said. “We thought, ‘Well, what’s funnier and more topical than a small rural band trying to make it big in the machine that it is the music business?’ ”

But Due Southwest is no reality-TV show, Megan said. It’s a scripted comedy that mirrors what they’ve gone through.

“Sometimes the stories that we go through in reality, become crazier than anything we could have written,” Pat added.

Megan said the series will feature 15 original Deep Southwest songs, written by Pat, as the backdrop to “this really crazy, fun comedy script that we’ve written.”

They’ll play a “heightened version of ourselves,” she said.

The couple joked they didn’t have to do much research on being struggling Canadian musicians and what it’s like to be turned down 100 times.

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Megan said the series is about Deep Southwest trying to realize their dream of being able to perform at the Hawaiian Pizza Festival in Chatham-Kent, which is regarded as where the pineapple pizza was invented.

The musical duo believes this will help them land bigger and better gigs so they can afford to fix a leak in their basement. They hatch a plan to get 10,000 followers on their social media platforms to quality for the giog festival.

Having at least 10,000 followers “is very real in the musical business,” said Megan, inviting people to follow the band on Instagram at deep_southwest.

The series will see the couple encounter colorful Chatham-Kent situations and characters, who try to help or hinder their bid for “Hawaiian Pizza Festival glory,” Megan said.

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The Whalens are excited to be working with director Gavin Michael Booth, known for his award-winning musical video career, and Chatham cinematographer Ben Srokosz.

Even their beloved 13-year-old dog, Riker, will have a role and has a this appointment soon to ensure he is in tip-top shape.

“He needs to live,” laughed Megan. “He needs to make it to film.”

A number of local cameos are planned for the series, which is slated to run for three to five years.

Filming is slated to begin in the fall and will take place entirely within Chatham, stipulation of Bell Fibe TV1 funding, Pat said.

Produced by Whalen Entertainment and partially financed by Bell Fibe TV1, Pat said there will be ad space at the start of every episode, so area sponsors and advertisers can get exposure to Bell’s more than two million subscribers across Canada.

“What’s great about that opportunity is it goes directly into production, which means that we can employ more local people,” Megan said.

A fundraising concert for the TV series is being held Sept. 25 at the Red Barn near Blenheim, where Deep Southwest will discuss the episodes and perform the 15 songs to be featured in in the series.

To learn more about volunteer or sponsorship opportunities, contact the Whalens on Instagram at deep_southwest or at deepsw.ca.

[email protected]

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