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A Bad Dog aimed at kids
By
GREG OLIVER -- Co-producer, SLAM! Wrestling
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  David J. MacNeil. |
It is obvious to an adult that MacNeil has done his homework on the
tough guy, French Canadian accent and mannerisms. "I grew up in a house
that was half Anglo, half French-Canadian. I went to French schools
until I was in Grade 10. So tapping into the whole French Canadian
character is pretty easy for me," he said. MacNeil graduated from the
University of Ottawa, having studied Communications and Theatre. From
there, he enrolled in broadcasting at Algonquin College, and graduated
in 1995. One of his classmates there was the now infamous Tom Green;
"He's done well for himself." MacNeil has been in Toronto for eight
years, acting, writing and freelance broadcasting for TVO in the
promotional department.
Knowing a little about promotion, before the Bad Dog Tremblay skits hit
the airwaves, he set out to warn the Vachon Brothers themselves. "Before
it was launched, I tried to find either one of the brothers on the 'Net,
and I found Paul's site, Butcher's site, and sent him an email," MacNeil
explained. "I said, 'Hey, I've been working on this character. CBC wants
to air it. I just thought I'd drop you a line and tell you about it.' He
responded right away and said that was neat, would I be interested in
swapping links to get a little bit of traffic going to each other's
sites. That kind of thing. He was good enough to send me pictures and
stuff. Beyond that, I don't know him very well. But he was very cool
about the whole thing."
But the man behind Bad Dog Tremblay has no illusions about becoming a
real pro wrestler. "I recognize that these guys are pretty talented
individuals. I certainly, at this point, don't possess any of those
talents! We keep the camera pretty tight and I do stuff in a pretty
controlled environment when we do shoot."
RELATED LINKS
CBC's The X web
site
David J. MacNeil's
web site
More on
Mad Dog Vachon
More on
Butcher Vachon
Greg Oliver founded SLAM! Wrestling with John Powell way back in
1996, and has been writing about pro wrestling since 1985. He is the
author of the recently published book The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame:
The Canadians from ECW Press. Order it from the SLAM!
Wrestling Store. He can be emailed at goliver845@gmail.com.
