Keys to the VIP guys talk chicks ‘n’ wings

By Katy Anderson

Under the guise of promoting their show, Keys to the VIP, two men wearing too much hair product and two bald dudes spread out across the country promoting the allegedly delicious new Wingstreet Pizza Hut chicken wings.

Keys to the VIP is a reality comedy show featuring a group of four panelists colour commentating on competitions between so-called “players.” The show is structured into three challenges, which have in the past included getting a girl’s phone number by first convincing her she reminds you of your mother and admitting you have an intense foot fetish.

The panelists, who represent the self-described “four corners of the male psyche,” include “all-star jock” Peachez, the “hopeless romantic” Chris Greidanus, the “cold, calculated” Alen Bubich and the “mysterious” Sheldon. The latter two headed west to talk shop and promote the Ultimate Wingman contest with Pizza Hut.

After a “rough” night out at Melrose, Tantra and the Roadhouse defending their honour from unabashed Calgary girls who were trying to outdrink them – “I felt like I came to a gunfight with a knife,” says Bubich — the creators of “the first professional league for players,” met this reporter for a midday beer in the Den.

While I was curious if the panelists ever got into trouble with ladies who felt the show was an unabashed celebration of chauvinism, Bubich assures me they hadn’t run into any “femanazis” yet.

“It’s not actually not a show about women, it’s a show about men, if you think about it, the real humour and comedy comes from these guys failing,” says Bubich. “I mean the women are the bit players in this.”

The premise for the show spawned from Bubich and Sheldon’s adventures at Guelph University where the two lived together.

“We were in a constant competition,” says Bubich, who graduated with an honours degree in computer science. “Some of the stuff that we were doing at the time was ridiculous.”

“People loved watching it, we’d get a little crowd at the bar and they’d observe and laugh,” says Sheldon.

The pair then teamed with Peachez, also a friend from Guelph, raised $60,000, hired a director and crew and shot their pilot episode.

“That whole process was some of the most fun we had,” says Bubich.

Sheldon, a varsity soccer player who graduated from Guelph with an honours arts degree and went on to get an education degree, says university is a great place to learn how to meet people.

“It’s the best place to learn game because you’re actually in sort of an isolated environment, all living the same experiences,” he says. “They’re just so many single available women.”

Although the show takes place in nightclubs, Bubich says “our whole world is being played out.”

“As soon as you walk into a club you know what’s happening. Women are there to be seduced and judged, while men are there to pander, to beg.”