Before emerging as one of the most famous skids on Canadian television, Evan Stern briefly aspired to become a jock. There were obstacles, he conceded, like growing up in a family of four boys who might have formed a team: “But you’d have to pick a really specific sport — like jockey, in horse racing.”
His father was a drama teacher with the Peel District School Board, west of Toronto. His mother was a sculptor and a painter. And as he waded into Grade 9 at Oakville Trafalgar High School, Stern was still not quite five feet tall.
“My mom didn’t let me play contact sports,” he said with a smile. “I went to the football tryouts. I was killing it — wide receiver, catching all the balls, no problem — and she walked onto the field and walked me off the field.”
And that was the end of his football career: “It was very embarrassing, very tough, but I don’t have any concussions.Stern, now 33, relaxed all 5 feet, 6 inches of his frame into the corner chair of a cozy coffee shop in The Junction neighbourhood of Toronto. He was in a green wool-knit toque, a black Mortal Kombat T-shirt and, since 2016, he has also been in “Letterkenny,” a Canadian streaming comedy built on hockey as a founding narrative pillar.
0 Comments