Harlan Blayne Kytwayhat’s Sanguinet is a Character of Few Words in SHORESY, But Not Necessarily By Choice!

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede Sometimes the title character in SHORESY just needs somebody to yell at, and that somebody is Sanguinet. Right from the outset of the Crave Original Series SHORESY – the LETTERKENNY spinoff that debuts Friday, May 13 – viewers will get a clear understanding of the relationship between Shoresy, played by creator, writer, and executive producer Jared Keeso, and Sanguinet, played by Harlan Blayne Kytwayhat. Virtually every time the affable and soft-spoken Sanguinet opens his mouth, Shorsey screams, “Shut the f— up, Sanguinet.” And yet, they go virtually everywhere together, and are very close in their own unique way. So did Kytwayhat need some therapy after filming SHORESY? Does he still flinch every time he speaks, for fear that someone is going to scream at him to “shut the f— up?” “No, I’m doing great for now,” said Kytwayhat with a laugh. “I’m pretty sure when the show airs, I’ll probably have to go through that. But right now I’m okay.” As the series begins, Shoresy and his main comic foil Sanguinet are teammates on the Sudbury Bulldogs, a struggling squad in the Northern Ontario Senior Hockey Organization (a.k.a., the NOSHO). But Sanguinet rarely plays. In fact, when the team jettisons its coach and is on the verge of folding, Shoresy quickly suggests that Sanguinet can step behind the bench as a low-cost option. Sanguinet meekly protests by saying, “but I’m a player.” To which Shoresy immediately barks, “Sanguinet, you’re a healthy scratch on a last-place club in the NOSHO, hang ’em up!’” Thus begins the journey in SHORESY. But how did this journey begin for Kytwayhat? “To be honest, when I first got the audition, it didn’t click right away that SHORESY was a LETTERKENNY spinoff,” recalled Kytwayhat, who is a 24-year-old actor and musician from Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation. “But I did the tape, got positive feedback, and they were really liking my shyness and reservedness. So for the next tape, Jared and Jacob (Tierney, executive producer and director) told me, ‘we actually want Sanger (Sanguinet’s nickname) to be shy and reserved.’ And I said, ‘Oh, that’s easy, that’s what I do on a daily basis.’ It’s just the look I give off, I guess, my personal facial expressions.” When it got to the in-person part of the process, Keeso apparently found it hilarious that when he, as Shoresy, would yell all sorts of terrible things at Sanguinet, he had to look up to do so, with Kytwayhat being over six feet tall. “Jared loved that part,” Kytwayhat said. “He was like, ‘this is it, game over, you’re Sanger.’ ” There are some comically touching moments between Shoresy and Sanguinet, too – watch for the hand-holding as Shoresy receives bad news – but Shoresy isn’t shy about putting pressure on Sanguinet, either. How else to describe it when Shoresy pushes Sanguinet into retirement as a player, thrusts him into coaching, and then promises that the team will “never lose again.” But at least in terms of making the switch from playing to coaching, Kytwayhat has some experience. “I am an athlete myself, but volleyball, not hockey, and a version of it happened to me in real life,” he said. “I was a volleyball player, went to college a little bit, and then I got asked to go and coach for my old high school team. So in that scene with Sanguinet, I was thinking about that moment, relating back to it. I did understand the emotion that he was feeling.” Whether Sanguinet is a healthy scratch as a player, or trying to get a grasp on what it means to be the coach of this unruly bunch, Kytwayhat can’t wait for the wider world to get a look at SHORESY. “I want everyone to meet Shoresy, and see his dynamic with different characters, instead of always just ripping on Reilly and Jonesy (from LETTERKENNY),” Kytwayhat said. “And maybe now when people see Jared, they’ll be saying, ‘Hey, be nicer to Sanguinet!’ ” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv