Mike Smith settles into a chair at Katzman Art Projects in downtown Halifax, his 14-year-old son, Vox, nearby. Outside, the spring sun sharpens the city’s edges. Inside, the air hums with possibility. Best known as Bubbles, the coke-bottle-spectacled, cat-obsessed, loveable misfit from Trailer Park Boys, Smith is still wrapping his head around his first solo art show last year, an event as improbable as one of the series’ misadventures.

“It all started with Billy Bob Thornton, who brought Ronnie Wood into the movie in the first place,” he begins, recounting how the Hollywood actor convinced the Rolling Stones’ bassist to make a cameo as himself in Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties: The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story, the feature film that Smith wrote, starred in, and released last December.

“Ronnie,” as Smith calls him, also played on the movie’s companion album, Longhauler, recorded at Abbey Road Studios. It wasn’t just Wood’s musical talent that impressed him. “He couldn’t have been cooler,” Smith says. Within an hour of meeting, the legendary rocker extended an invitation: “Hey, you want to come by my house, and we’ll listen to music?” Smith laughs, recalling his response: “Sure, Ronnie Wood, I will come to your house.”

Smith leans back and takes a breath. “Billy and I went up to Ronnie’s place near the studios, and the first thing that hit me was the art. Just really cool, interesting pieces. I mean, obviously, Ronnie’s a rock star, but he’s also an incredible artist. I’d always noodled around myself, never seriously. But seeing his work got me thinking, the movie’s coming out, the album’s coming out… Why not paint Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties? So, I did.”

Vox, who was five when he landed his first acting gig in Trailer Park Boys, beams. He knows his father — the way he talks, the way he punctuates the air around him with movement, the storytelling sway, the thespian pitch, all shoulders and hands. It’s true, what the old man says, or at least true enough. One conversation in a London studio led to another, which led to another, and suddenly not since Andrew Lloyd Webber had there been such a multimedia promotion devoted to cats, specifically the cats of Trailer Park Boys.

“It was incredible,” Vox says, remembering rubbing shoulders with rock royalty. “I got to meet most of them.”

For 52-year-old Pictou-born Smith, that’s sweet music from his son. It means that even mid-career, when routine conspires to rob life of any magic, he can still pull live rabbits — a movie, a record deal, and a gallery showing — from his trick hat for a new generation. Since he and co-stars John Paul Tremblay (who plays Julian) and Robb Wells (Ricky) bought Trailer Park Boys and its brand in 2013, they’ve turned the once low-budget indie project chronicling the fictional lives of three hopelessly romantic drunkards into a cultural phenomenon. The show spawned movies, live tours, merchandising, a Netflix deal for seasons eight to 12, an animated spin-off, a beverage brand, and a global fan base.

The pandemic slowed their momentum, but not by much. Later this year, season 13 is set to debut on their new streaming platform, Trailer Park Boys Plus. “We’ve done two series, set in jail, but we haven’t done a season in the trailer park since pre-pandemic,” he says. “We’re writing to shoot it, probably this summer.”

Meanwhile, Smith and his partners are expanding their brand in another direction familiar to fans. The latest venture, Trailer Park Pack, is a new line of ready-to-drink coolers: Bubbles’ Orange Tabby Creamsicle, Ricky’s Lime Ricky Licker Aid, and Julian’s Ultimate Rum and Coke. “We wanted to do something in the booze world because our show, you know, it lends itself to that very easily,” he says.

Now that’s he’s gone about as far as any lowbrow comic genius has a right to expect, all the way to Ronnie Wood’s inner sanctum, is he ready to conquer the world of fine art as a serious painter?

His friend, neighbour, and gallery owner Marianne Katzman thinks he’s a natural. Having seen the piece that he painted for Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties, she urged him to do more and gave him the space to show his work.

He sold all but two of 20 paintings at his exhibit last October. “At first it was like, ‘Is this going to be a joke?’” she says. “But you know, he’s actually a great painter. After the show that we had here, I took a new body of his work to Art Toronto. That was wildly successful, too ... very buzzworthy, which was really cool.”

There’s also music. Before his acting career took off, Smith played guitar for the Canadian rock band Sandbox, which earned a Juno Award nomination for Best New Group in 1996. “If I had to pick, I would probably focus on music,” he says. “That’s what I did before I ever became an actor. I became an actor by accident. I thought I was going to be (in a band) sort of forever.”

Vox may prefer that his dad keep his options open. Life’s more fun that way. Besides, he has his own agenda. “He taught me a lot of stuff,” he says. “Just obviously, seeing him and being exposed to it, I’m really passionate about acting. I’m getting tons of auditions. I have an agency in L.A. I have an agency in Toronto. Last year, I was getting a couple of auditions every week, right? So, I’m just constantly putting myself out there, sending in tapes for tons of films and movies.”

There never was any doubt about Smith’s priorities.

“Over the past couple of years, I’ve been really, really consumed with the album and the movie. But now that that’s done — ” He glances at Vox. “I’ve never seen a kid work as hard as this guy ... I’ll be home more.”