He may be on the small screen, but former Flin Flonner Bryan (Chunk) Pawlachuk has big hopes as his reality TV series enters its second season.
Nightclub Confidential, airing Thursdays on Citytv in Saskatchewan, follows the life of Pawlachuk, owner of Saskatoon’s Tequila Nightclub, and his family and employees.
After making its debut last season, Nightclub Confidential entered season two last week and will continue to air once a week for the next six weeks – with plenty for viewers to look forward to.
“There’s some good surprises,” said Pawlachuk. “You’ll see a lot of me as I do a lot of things myself.”
Tribulations
Season one followed Pawlachuk and business partner Simon Papadopoulos through the trials and tribulations of running a nightclub.
The bar went through renovations, employee struggles and an overhaul of its music (though it didn’t last as Tequila remained an electro bar with a focus on dancing and high-energy music).
“It gave us better exposure to people,” said Pawlachuk. “People think nightclubs are bad places and I think this showed a good side.”
Season one’s first episode aired at the end of October 2013, at which time Pawlachuk says the club did see an increase in numbers.
“During the show airing we do see a spike, but it’s hard to know long-term [what the impact will be],” he said.
Season two began filming last September, before season one had even aired, and carried through until the middle of the winter.
Cameras followed Pawlachuk, wife Natalie and their twin boys as well as key employees.
Pawlachuk said the seven-episode season will “keep you watching, for sure.”
“My boys are awesome,” he said. “My twins own the camera on a few things. They have a few good scenes that are enjoyable.”
Viewers will also “get to see what I’m all about and a lot of the troubles that I had to deal with and all aspects of the business,” said Pawlachuk.
In season one, Pawlachuk shared responsibilities with Papadopoulos, but following the latter man’s retirement, the owner became the focal point.
The show also “gets a lot more into our personal lives,” Pawlachuk said. “But it shows more of what we do. We don’t sleep until 2 pm, crawl out of bed and party. It showed a lot more behind the scenes.”
Strong ratings
Season one of Nightclub Confidential went over well and although it’s not known when or if the show will go national, ratings were strong.
“It did extremely well,” Pawlachuk said. “It was fifth or sixth in Saskatchewan last year. We’re pretty proud of everything.”
Though classified as a reality show, Pawlachuk prefers the term “documentary show” since nothing is scripted or staged.
Pawlachuk said he has enjoyed keeping in contact with friends and family who have watched the episodes.
“High school friends had seen it and were sending me nice messages,” he said. “It was like a blueprint of my life right now.
No Flin Flon yet
Pawlachuk had hoped to film a portion of an episode in Flin Flon during the first season, but couldn’t make the deadlines work.
The crew had attempted to come during Trout Festival when his dad, Ken Pawlachuk, helped organize the Sea-Doo races on Ross Lake.
“The crew just ran out of time last year,” said Chunk. “The producer has sworn he will make it to Flin Flon.”
Idea not far-fetched
When Bryan (Chunk) Pawlachuk and his wife were asked about starring in their own reality show, the question didn’t seem that far-fetched.
“We’d had it in the back of our heads that it would be great for TV, some of the stuff that happens around our lives,” he says.
The producers of Nightclub Confidential, a half-hour Citytv series airing in Saskatchewan, agreed.
Nightclub Confidential debuted in October 2013 to some rave reviews and strong hopes that it will grow from a regional show to a national one.
Though he left town when he was 19, Pawlachuk still has strong emotional and familial ties to Flin Flon.
The son of Ken and Janice Pawlachuk, he adopted his familiar nickname “Chunk” in the sixth grade. His friends were starting to refer to people by their last names, so he shortened his and added a consonant.
He wasn’t a shy youth by any stretch, becoming one of the first males to enter what had been called the Queen Mermaid pageant.
“I do like the – not attention, that’s not the right word – but I like doing different things, like really different,” says Pawlachuk.
As a teenager, Pawlachuk worked as an inserter at The Reminder, ensuring copies of the newspaper were assembled and ready for delivery.
He also pumped gas at Gas Bar and stocked shelves at Co-op.
Not long after graduating from Hapnot Collegiate in 1992, Pawlachuk and a buddy headed west to Saskatoon.
He worked in construction but found greater financial rewards in bartending at a nightclub that he would go on to purchase and rename Tequila Nightclub.
Last year, after filmmaker Antonio Hrynchuk caught wind of the behind-the-scenes drama at Tequila, Nightclub Confidential
was born.
