Shaun Newman Podcast - Ep. #134 - CTV's Josh Classen

Episode Date: December 2, 2020

Originally from Lloydminster he graduated from NAIT's Radio and Television Arts program. After spending nearly eight years at television stations in Lloydminster, Saskatoon and Toronto, he moved to Edmonton and joined CTV where he currently is the Senior Meteorologist. We discuss his journey into a career in weather & his love of rap where he dabbled in his youth.  Let me know what you think   Text me! 587-217-8500

Hi, this is Braden Holby. Hey, this is Tanner, the Bulldozer Bozer. Hi, this is Brian Burke from Toronto, Ontario. This is Daryl Sutterin. Hello, everyone. I'm Carlyagro from SportsNet Central. This is Jay On Right. This is Quiddick, quick dick coming to you from Tuffmore, Saskatchew. Hey, everybody, my name is Theo Fleary.

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We got a great one on tap for you today. If you hang around to the very end, you can even hear Mr. Klaus and break it down for you. But before we get there, let's get to today's episode sponsors. I'm teaming up with the Lloyd Minster Region Health Foundation for Lloyd Minster's Gift to Health. It's a radiosth on December 15th, which is aimed at raising money for the Lloyd Hospital and continuing care. We'll be doing a 12 hours 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Facebook live stream where we'll sit down with different people from the community to share stories about the hospital and why it's so vital to our community. I recently just sat down with Quick Dick McDick to talk about it. He'll be a part of it. Rod Peterson, Wade Redden, Clark MacArthur, Scott Hartnell. There's a couple other ones coming. That's going to be a lot of fun.

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info. We've got lots of different options and I'll find something that can work for the both of us. Now, let's get on to this T-Barr 1 tale of the tape. Originally from Lloyd Minster, he graduated from Nate's radio and television arts program after spending nearly eight years at television stations in Lloyd Minster, Saskatoon, and Toronto, who moved back to Eminton and joined CTV. He's a graduate of meteorology program at Mississippi State University and a member of the Canadian meteorological and oceanographic society. I'm talking about Mr. Josh Closson. So buckle up. Here we go. This is Josh Closson or as you'll learn later in the show, juggling omnipotent content. You're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Today I'm

joined by Mr. Josh Closson or am I supposed to call you the juggling omnipotence? You're Omipotent content or Mr. Suit and Tie? I don't know. You got so many names. I don't know what to start off with. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, when I was a kid, one of my nicknames was Jock.

And so when I started rapping, I switched it up because everybody back in the 90s, their rap name was an acronym. And so JOC stood for juggling omnipotent content. Well, I got to be very clear here. I feel like I live under a box or a rock or something because as soon as I started doing any sort of research on you, it came very clear. I thought there was another Josh Klausen and I thought for sure you were pulling my leg about the wrapping thing. And then I started listening and I'm like, that can't.

That's pretty good. That can't be him though, right? And then I started digging more and more and the more I dug on you, everything comes back rapping. And I'm like, I obviously live under a stone, not to know that. No, you don't live under a stone. It's just that that's my first love. And because I love that so much, I intentionally keep that separate from my other job. Because I do the same thing everybody else does.

And as soon as I hear rapping weatherman, I roll my eyes and I change the channel. And I don't want to hear it. So, yeah, people are always like, hey, you should wrap on the weather. No, that will never happen. And yet, the song that was played at the end of the other podcast you did back in 2012, the Unknown Studio, the song you gave them, you rap about clouds and the weather. Yeah, that's the only one. So before I was a successful weather man, I was trying to break into the industry.

And so the song was Atmospheric Avenger. Atmospheric Avenger Defender were warm weather, weak, west of winds, in a high pressure center. Love or Mother Nature Precipitation Preventor, got a meteorological, neurological, neurological connector.

You know, so. I got a radar map on the back of my brain. So if I'm acting strains, it's because they attach satellite maps that the insides my eye flaps with 30 second time laps

just so I could keep track of the right. But that was, I mean, I was a weather guy in Lloyd Minster at that point. No, maybe Saskatoon. I,

so my, my recollection of you, Because I'm like, I don't know, you're what? I don't want to date you, but you're in your 40s now. 44. 44. And you look like you're 22. Is that something to do with weathermen?

They got to, like, always look the same age as they get older? Because I got a, and I got another. You remember Bill Matheson? Bill Matheson was like 80 and he still looked like he was 40. It's crazy. Bill Matheson fought in World War II, I'm pretty sure. No. Really?

Yeah, I'm like, I'm like, you know, what we're going to do right now while we got everybody waiting while I drop that freaking bomb I'm going to pull it up. He was the guy, right? Because I grew up with Lloydminster. Born in 1926, born in 1926, he joined the army at age 17 and fought in World War II as a paratrooper. Hey, did I just blow your mind this morning?

Holy, Bill. Bill and his red socks. Anyways, I've had a, I've had a. So Earl Stevenson, who was on Canadian Isle, once upon a time from Lloyd, he's come on and sang a song. I've never had anyone just start rapping on the middle of the show. That's, I'm, hey, I grew up in. On right didn't, Onright didn't just break into freestyle?

No, he did not. And I tell you what, the next time he's on, I'm certainly going to ask him to. Yeah, you should. You should. On right, so I worked with him at Global and Saskatoon. and he would write bits because we would have to do, he would throw to weather. And so at the end of his sports segment,

but we would be standing literally back to back. And so we would have to pre-tape my little response to him. And so he would write it because he was funny and I wasn't. And so he would write, here's what I'm going to, here's the setup. And then here's your punchline. And so I would pre-tap it like four in the afternoon, the punchline.

And six times out of 10, he would change the setup. So the punchline didn't make any sense. And then he would just giggle. Yeah. Love on, right. That's awesome. Oh, God. The early stories of you guys, like when you're back before your stardom, so to speak,

those stories are entertaining as all hell. Like, do young guys still get away with some of that stuff right now? Nope. There was no social media back then, right? So you could you could get away with a lot more than you do now. And you know what? We hear stories from the real old timers. And they're even more off the rails. TV and radio used to be crazy back in the 60s, 70s and 80s. What's one of the best stories? Everything. Right. So did sports. Right. Like you hear stories about oilers that would be at, you know, characters in downtown Edmonton in the basement, you can't get away with those things anymore, right? You hear stories about Glenn Anderson and those guys back in the back of the day.

And I'm sure only half of them are true. But even if only half of them are true, that's crazy. So yeah, yeah, the old timers had a lot more fun than we did. But we have way more fun than these kids do now. Pretty crazy. And as time goes on, I assume technology ain't going the other way. It's not like you're all soon just going to get rid of technology. So what you're saying is as it goes along, it's going to get worse and worse for every generation that comes along for the amount of fun.

I don't know if it gets worse. Well, it does, though, in a sense, right? The freedom to live a little outside the lines is slowly being pulled back. I got a 16-year-old son. And, I mean, I follow him on Twitter just because I have to keep track of what he's saying. Like, listen, you got to take that down. your potential future employers are going to see that. So, yeah, yeah, everything you do is in a bit of a fishbowl.

I tell you what, you probably talk about this a lot. I know I seem to talk about a lot, but I'm really happy in my developmental years, probably from, I don't know, whatever it is, 14 to 25 or whatever that space is, shorten it or lengthen it for wherever you're at in life. But I'm really glad social media wasn't what it is now because I did a little. a lot of stupid shit that time. And I'm really happy that it wasn't captured. Right? Like now you can't escape.

You're stupid. No. And there, like, I don't even have pictures of things we did. Whereas now, I mean, forget about posting it on social media. Everybody has at least a phone that takes a picture of every single incident that you, it's, yeah, it's crazy. You know, you have three children, 16, 14, 13, which you have. is very close to what we are. We're at, I mean, but we're younger. That's two years and then one year apart and we're four, three, and one. So does it get, I'm looking at you like a look into

the future. Is it better in the teenage years? It's different in the teenage years. We were, I think every sort of stage you have your, your ups and your downs. We were watching, So our kids used to make YouTube videos, like fighting videos, or they would record themselves playing Minecraft. And we actually went down a bit of a rabbit hole last night watching them and laughing at their young little voices. But they were so cute back then. Although I seemed to recall back then that they just, they annoyed me just as much as they do now as teenagers. But now it's like you got to, you know, you got to slow down while you're driving because our 16 year old just got. I'm like, it's snowed, like, there's ice outside. I need new tires on my car. So, what do you

mean you need new tires on your car? So I went and drove it. He's like, yeah, no, it's fine, stopping. It's just I can't, I can't get off the line very quickly. I'm like, well, you can't get on it. What do you? You got to go slow. So, yeah, every age is as it's joy. The older they get, the more you can see light at the end of the tunnel where they're going to, going to move out and my wife and I can have our lives back again. What are you going to do when they move out? What is your big plan? I'm going to sell everything and I'm going to live in a one bedroom condo so they can come visit, but they can't stay. You realize you're going to get married. You can sleep on that

for a little bit. You realize you're going to get married, have kids, and then you're going to need a bigger space all over again because you're going to love the next role, which is grandparent where you get to jam, you know, chocolate and everything else in their mouth at like seven in the morning and send them home. Listen, I'm only 44, Sean. Let's not get to Grandpa Josh just yet. I know. I don't know what I'm going to do. My kids. It's coming for you. Well, my kids leave. They, uh, I don't think they're leaving any time soon. Our oldest wants to be a doctor. And so he, uh, he'll be living at home going to university for a long time. I think our only hope is that our youngest might end up in jail, so we might be down to two kids at some point. I'm only half kidding. I'm only half kidding.

Well, enough kid talk. I love talking kids because we got, we got the, the three, four and under. I mean, the fourth is, yeah.

Are they all boys or boys and girls? Boy, girl, boy. It adds a very interesting complexion to it. And, uh, So you have not only, not only will you have to deal with middle child issues,

or you have to deal with middle child only girl issues. That is correct. Oh, man, you don't know what you have in store. She already has me twisted around her finger. Like she is smart. She is the older brother, so Shea, the oldest, he is like, stereotypical boy run through everything. Like, I mean, going to be a fun kid to watch in sports and that type of thing.

but his younger sibling at three she has figured out how to be like she can twist things she's smart she's really smart and she's three and i go you're three and you're already this smart like that's scary like you're a scary human human being right now at three yeah at three you got to find a way to channel that into something positive absolutely absolutely Yeah, yeah, we're going to figure something out. Now, what about, let's talk about this weather career. I'm curious because, you know, I go, A, it's a job where you probably don't like hearing this, but I mean, like, even if you're wrong, you're right, right?

Like, I mean, it's an interesting career and weather is always changing, so you don't have usually the same day. living in emminton you get to deal with the extremes of you know extreme hate to where we're sitting at right now and going worse so your days aren't i assume the same so we already alluded to the rapper thing and i want to go down that rabbit hole too but like where and when do you decide like man i want to be a weatherman because i just i think back to a kid and i go i don't remember growing up i always remember thinking man maybe being the sports guy'd be fun like that might have been fun. But to be the weather guy, I just don't remember. Actually, you're the one weather guy from Lloyd

I can remember, which is kind of odd. Like, I can't remember anybody else. And I apologize to anyone else who did weather and Lloyd. But where, when did this start? So I, I didn't grow up wanting to be a weatherman either, right? Like, weatherman wasn't a career that you really, that you even could do. So I was going to be a sportscaster. If I didn't make it to the NHL, I was going to be a sportscaster or a teacher. What position did you play? What position do you think I've played? I want to say you're a goalie.

There's your hint right. Yeah. Of course I was a goalie. Because back of the day, that's where you put the short kid, right? You put the little, I'll put Claussen in the net. He's little. He'll just shoot puckson. How short are you?

I'm like 5-8, which means 5-7. So I'm 5-7, which means I'm closer to 5-6-and-a-half, meaning I didn't play goalie. I think there's more to it than just being short. No, no. But I'm older than you. So you might have caught the wave of big goalies coming in. All of a sudden Ron Hxtall got popular and everybody went, Oh, put the giant in that.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. He blocks more net. So, yes, I was going to play in the NHL, but then I didn't make it. So I went to Nate and I was going to be a sportscaster. Got a internship at CKSA and Lloyd Minster because you don't make any money. And I went home to live with my parents. And then I was lucky enough to get hired on as a news reporter and hated being a news reporter.

And so when you say, when you say, when, When you say news reporter, do you mean like going out and like one of the main two people at the front of the hour talking? Or do you mean a guy out on the streets going and like get it in the news? Yeah. So I don't remember many stories, but I do remember covering a lady who was angry because there was garbage on her front lawn because she lived across the street from the exhibition and the Lloyd exhibition had just come through town. And I remember thinking, this happens every year. Like the X was right across. What do you think is going to be on your front lot?

Why am I doing this? This, I thought it was a smart guy. And now here I am interviewing some lady who's angry about garbage on her front lawn. So I didn't, I didn't really enjoy being a news reporter. And I couldn't get a sports job. Adam Cook, who does sports for us now, was our sports guy in Lloyd Minster. And so my boss said, do weather and agriculture. and I don't know anything about farming.

He's like, but do that. And then when Adam leaves, because eventually he'll leave, then you can have the sports job. And then I just, I was horrible at farm news. I had some really good people that were like,

define, define horrible. Oh, so there was a half hour show called Agrafax that I used to have to do. And the Sherry Lukens was the woman that I replaced and Sherry won all kinds of awards for this like broadcasting awards for for this half hour show. I took that half hour show and I knew I had 22 minutes to fill so I would find one guy

and I would talk to him for 22 minutes and then I would just cover it with like footage of crops or caps. And I didn't win any awards for that. I had to call. There was a a family that was like, listen, call us. If you're going to say something stupid on TV, call us first. You can look stupid to us on the phone and then you won't look dumb on TV. So I would call them and I'd be like, hey, listen, and it's spelled H-E-R-E-F-O-R-D. It's a heifer or herford. And they would laugh.

They'd be like, well, it could be a heifer. But that's actually pronounced herford. So yeah, I didn't know anything about it. But I really liked doing weather. And so I got a job doing weather in Chastatoum. I can just imagine the farmers talking about you while you're trying to pull that. Terrible. When I came to Edmonton, years later, I got an email from a guy in Bonneville, and he says,

listen, I remember this goofy kid in Lloydminster who wore suits that were three sizes too big, who was terrible. My wife and I used to look at each other and go, how is this guy on TV? I got to say that you're not half bad now. That's awesome. I eventually won him over. But yeah, so I got a job in Saskatoon. I had gotten passed over for this job the first time at Global in Saskatoon.

There were like four people that applied for it and I didn't get it. And so I was still in Lloyd. And then six months later, this job came open again. I was like, oh, this is awesome. So I applied for it again. Got it. got to Saskatoon and my boss is like, yeah, there was actually no one else that applied for the job this time. So we had to give it to you.

And then three weeks later, she says, oh, you know, Greyhound just dropped off a tape. There was one other applicant who was another girl that I worked with in Lloyd Minster had applied. And they lost her tape. She's like, I totally would have given it to her. but I give it to you instead. So is that why your favorite lesson is you have to be lucky to be good and good to be lucky? Absolutely. Yeah.

I mean, my dad used to say that when I would play goal too, right? He'd sit up in the stands and I would make a save and he had signals for me. And one of them was this. And so I'd make a save and I'd be feeling really good. And then I'd look up and he'd be smiling and doing this, which meant horses. And I was like, no, that's not luck, that skill. And he's, sure it is, sure it is. But yeah, I, I, so the woman that had the job for six months, she was worried she wasn't

going to keep her job. And so she wrote fan mail to herself and then refused to admit it when they approached her with it. And so they, so they let her go. They terminated her contract after her six months probation. So that's how I got. So I got lucky in that regard, in the, that Greyhound lost the tape of the only other person that applied.

Yeah. She wrote fan mail to herself. Yes. And this was pre, like computers weren't really a, I remember the, remember the first time we got like an internet connected computer with hotmail that you could install on like one computer at the front of the news. So this was before all of that. So she would handwrite them.

And they were all in the same handwriting, different colored ink, but all the same handwriting. because she was worried that, you know, her probation was coming. Really, really dumb question because obviously I don't know enough about being a weatherman. Writing. Okay, yeah. That's writing fan mail to yourself. Is a successful, like at the end of her probation, were they going to look and say, listen, you only had one person right into you, you're out of here?

Like, are you, have you ever been? Fan mail? To myself? Yeah. Well, not after that happened. That's a cautionary tale, Sean. Don't write fan mail to yourself. I had to give the, do they call it the commencement address?

What do they call that when you're like the guest speaker at a graduation? Anyway, I was the guest speaker at a graduation. I had to give whatever the address is. And that was the title of my address to the grade 12s from Paul King High School and saying. Now, but the address was, don't write fan mail to yourself. And then everything kind of built off of that. Oh, by the way, don't write fan mail to yourself, whatever you do. That's my life lesson right there.

Lucky to be good and don't write fan mail to yourself. I get, I'm missing something here. I get the story about don't write fan mail to yourself. But when you started in Saskatoon, at six months, did they bring you in and go, listen, and actually people really like you. We're going to keep you on. Oh, yeah. Oh, okay.

So she was really worried. She was really worried then that nobody was liking what she was doing. Yes. I think she was concerned that she was not going to get renewed. And so, hey,

let's push the ball over the goal on it. So she wrote, she didn't write to herself. She wrote to the news station saying, oh, this woman's awesome. Oh, sorry to all the listeners. I'm a bit slow this morning.

Like, I get it now. So the boss Right. And so maybe maybe saying famail to yourself, famail about yourself.

A fan mail about yourself. A better term. Yeah. Oh man. That is, yeah. Isn't that a great story? Oh, that is a great story.

I can't believe that's how you got your big break. Yes. Yeah, yeah. So then my second big break was, so I worked in Saskatoon for about five years. And then the global Toronto was starting up a morning show. And so my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, she's like, you got to apply for this.

You got to apply for this. I was like, I don't know. We don't want to move to Toronto. So I applied for it. And then they called me and they called and offered me. It was like six in the morning. They called and offered me basically the same amount of money as I was making in Saskatoon. I'm like, what are you talking about? why would I move all the way out to Toronto to make no more money than I'm making here in Sastatum when I know it's going to cost me more? So I said, thanks very much, but no thanks. And I turned down the job.

So then like an hour and a half later, she called back again. And she's like, okay, listen, we can give you. And it was like an extra 15,000 a year. I was like, nope, I'm still not doing it for that. Thanks very much, but no. So I ended up turning down that job three times. And then the senior vice president of news for all of global called and said, sometimes doors open.

You walk through them. You don't ask questions. And good things happen on the other side. So I was like, okay, well, my career is over if I don't take this job. So we up and moved to Toronto. And then I did not enjoy my time in Toronto. And thankfully, about six weeks after we got there, this job came open. I had a boss who would threaten.

She threatened to tape my hands to my sides because I talk with my hands. Sean, you've seen me on the news. I talk with my hands. I'm an expressive person. And I'm a weatherman. I have to point at stuff. But she was from radio who had been brought in to sort of overhaul the news department. And so she, I was like, you offer me this job three times.

surely you saw my tape. You know I talked to my hands. So, yeah, she would threaten to tape my hands unless I kept them below my shoulders. So that was the compromise that we came up with is I could still move my hands, but they couldn't come above my shoulders. They had to stay below my shoulders. And so the second day we get to Toronto, we find out that my wife is pregnant. So now I'm not making enough money to live there.

and support a family. She's not going to be able to work because no one's going to hire her now that she's pregnant. We just moved away from all of our family. I'm doing a morning show, so I got to go to bed at like 8 o'clock at night and get up at 3 in the morning to drive all the way across Toronto because I'm living in a Tobacco because I can't afford to live anywhere else. So yeah, it sucked. And then Ian Leonard, who was the weather guy at CFRN and Evanston,

And he left. He went to the States. And so this job came open. So I was only there. I did a month of rehearsals with them. And then I was on air for about three weeks. And then my last day was the blackout. You remember the big blackout?

Yeah. Yeah. So we were there for SARS and the blackout. And the SARS Rolling Stones concert, relief concert. And then we came back to Evanton. So I kind of torched that bridge. They were not happy with me. But it was the right move.

I've been here for 17 years now, and it was absolutely the right move. Gee, management is such a funny thing. Just going back to the lady about your hands and everything, right? She probably had the best intentions on why she wanted, you know, certain things. Oh, I'm sure. But at the same time, when dealing with people and how to keep them motivated, basically torturing them and basically saying like, you remember what you just did?

Yeah, don't ever do that again. Well, that ain't really, I mean, that's pretty much taken away your legs, you know, so to speak, and showing up to work. Yeah,

especially on TV, right? Like, you're already nervous because it's, like, you're in Toronto. This is it. You're at the center of the universe on TV. And now I can't be natural because I'm constantly worried about where my hands are.

Or she didn't like that I would say. So it'll be like minus two for you Tuesday. She's like, what's with your Tuesday? I don't know. What do you mean? So then I all self-conscious, am I saying things wrong? What's? So yeah.

Yeah, it was just a bad fit. Which is too bad. But going from Lloyd to Saskatoon to Toronto to Amiton, I mean, you've been, you've been to some very big populations. What's the biggest difference from going from little small town Lloyd? Obviously not having to host an agricultural show would be one of them going to bigger centers. Sure. But what was maybe some of the biggest differences you noticed, even from Saskatoon to Toronto? Like, geez, that's a giant jump. You know what the biggest thing that I noticed is how little was different.

like I thought, oh, here you are, right? You've made it. You're in the biggest city in the country. These are the best of the best. And they're not. It's just, it's exactly the same. It's just people doing their jobs. They're not any more talented.

uh then a lot of the people the news anchors i worked with in toronto were no more talented than you know chris freger and in saskatoon who i worked with or uh you know mcintyre and esfeld and carried all here at emminton i mean they were they just were they lived in toronto and so they got a job in toronto uh so that that was what surprised me the most was just it was the same it's the same thing no matter where you are it's just people have maybe have a you know not even have a bigger opinion of themselves because in Saskatoon, guys who thought they were the kings because they were on TV. So yeah, yeah, I don't know that there's all that much different.

I mean, there's more, when you get to Toronto, there are, there's more money and more resources available to the news department. than the risk. You get you get to make a few more decisions because decisions are in Edmondson. Decisions are being made there and then they kind of get filtered down, right? Well, you, you, you've hit a thing on my head. I've only been doing this now, just coming up on two years. February, it'll be two years of sitting now. I'm going to be blunt. I didn't go in the radio. I didn't. I've always wanted to. And then I heard my first podcast in 2018 and I thought wow that's brilliant and obviously I lived under a box because I found out quickly

that podcasts have been around a very long time but when I watch when I started watching uh you know like the on rights of the world uh well on rights pretty special but when you watch yeah when you watch some of the big shows that are on Toronto and stuff all I think is like when I'm watching I'm like actually don't do anything that special they just have a giant audience size right like And they've done some things right to get there. But then instead of having an audience of, you know, Lloyd Minster, I don't know, you know, surrounding area and everything, call it 50 to 70,000, let's call it.

Well, immediately you're going to Saskatoon, you're hundreds of thousands, right? And then immediately going to Toronto, you're millions of people. It's audience size. Yeah, although, so I worked with a guy named Michael Coos when I was at Global in Toronto. And he had come from Edmonton to Toronto when I went from Saskatoon to Toronto. And so we both knew what it was like to work in a Western market. And when I got when I got to Toronto, he's like, the first thing you're going to notice is that nobody cares. He's like, when you worked in Saskatoon, you couldn't go to the grocery store without people knowing that you were the weather guy.

Same thing for me when I was in Evanston. He's like, there's legitimate celebrities here. We are not celebrities here. So yes, more people are watching you, but you are way more anonymous. You're way more anonymous there than you are in a smaller market. Well, that does make sense, though. I mean, in Toronto, you got the Maple Leafs, you got the rappers, you got Drake, you got Bieber, you got, I mean, you just, you got some star power there.

Yeah. Yeah, no, legitimate celebrities, right? You have movie stars. Movie stars, and I should throw out the Js, too. geez, I'm not even spacing on the Blue Jays too, right? Like there's a lot of different. The Argos. Yeah, yeah.

The Argos. Yeah, sure. So why do I see? Sock, I tell you what, soccer's slowly becoming, or maybe quickly, you know, there's soccer fans out there. Not in this part of the world. There isn't.

But, I mean, soccer's picking up steam awfully quick. Sure, yeah. I think the white caps have a pretty big following. FC has big ball. I was just being a jerk. That's all right. The people around Lloyd aren't turning on Toronto FC, but they are turning on the Blue Jays, right?

Like if the Blue Jays are doing anything decent, heck even this year with the shortened season, everybody watches the Blue Jays. Yeah. Yeah, fair. That's fair. I don't. I can't get into baseball.

Really? I just can't know. I can't. Can't do it. Slowness of the game, length of the season, both style. What is it? I don't know. It's not slowness of the game because I love to watch golf.

And that is slow and takes a long time. I just don't care. That's fair. Yeah. So what sport then do you watch? You're a golf guy. Yeah, I like to watch. watch golf. I watch a lot of football,

watch a lot of basketball. Don't watch as much hockey as I use. Basketball? Really? You're going to put basketball in there? I do watch basketball. My wife hates it, but I do watch a fair amount of basketball. So you're a Raptors fan? Is that where we're going on with us? Who are you cheer for? You know what? Listen, Sean, when I was about 11 years old, I decided

I needed to have a favorite team in every sport. Okay. But I hated front runners. Fair. I was a guy, like, if it's popular. So you're a Vancouver Grizzlies fan. No, no, no. I, uh, I'm a, I'm a New York Knicks fan.

I'm a New York Jets fan. And I'm a Flyers fan. And none of those teams, none of those teams since I picked them have won a championship. Flyers have come close. Yeah, they've come close. None of them have actually won, though. Hey, I'm an Oilers fan.

We haven't won, though. The curse. Hey. Yeah, well, that's I hated. I used to hate the Oilers because they were always beating the Flyers. I like them now that they're not good. So you were living in Lloyd and a Flyers fan. Yep.

Oh. Yeah. Ron Hextall. That was my guy. Ronnie Hextall was your guy. Well, Pelly Lindberg was my guy. And then when he died, I bawled my eyes out. And then for a while we had nobody, right?

We had Bob froze. Remember Bob froze? No, I can't say I do. Can't say I do. We had a terrible run of goalies. But I think finally we've hit on something here with the Sherwood Parkin. Oh, yeah, Carter Hart. No doubt, man.

That kid's legit. Yeah, I think so. Flyers, Knicks, and the Jets. You realize the Jets are terrible. I know. They've been terrible forever. I mean, it's, you know how sad it is to be a fan of a team and your glory year?

Like when you look back, you're like, oh, man, it was so good when Mark Sanchez was our quarterback and Vinny Testa Verdi. Like that, when that's what, that's, that's, that's the height of your fandom, right? Oh, man, I wish we could have Sanchez back. Mark Sanchez. You know what my best memory of the Jets is? We were at, I think we were at the Canadian Brewhost one night and they were playing,

well, I can't remember if it was a Monday night here. I want to say it was a Monday nighter, but I can't be sure on that. When Sanchez, uh, the butt fumble. The butt fumble. The butt fumble was in the bar that night. I'm like, oh, my. God, this is the greatest thing in the world. That's the Jets in a nutshell.

That could be put on repeat for the rest of time. And everyone in COVID would have a smile on their face. Like, I mean, that right there was just pure entertainment. Yeah. So the best moment in the past 10 years for the Jets is when Ryan Fitzpatrick almost led them to the playoffs, only to throw an interception at the end of the last game of the season to the Buffalo Bills and just destroy all jet fans. Terrible.

So are you a Jerry, are you a Jerry V? I can't think of his last name. The guy who wants to buy him. He's like a motivational dude, marketer, yada, yeah. Oh, listen, anybody would be better than Woody Johnson. Yeah, we got to get rid of that, dude. Just purely on the, just purely on his support of Trump. I'm out.

Like, I'm ready to cash in my chips on that team. So you're, you're obviously a football fan. Did you grow up playing football? Yeah, six-man football. K-I-I-I-U, the K-U League. So I went to Holy Rosary High School. Oh, you're a holy guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Holy Rosary Raiders.

But we were small enough that we played six-man against like Wilkie and Loosland, the Loosland Lords and maybe Crobert. I was a DB. Not a great one, but I was a DB. And then our last year, we actually actually. actually our quarterback who I think teaches at Holy Rosary now, Dustin Falsher. So he ended up going to Queens. He's been on the podcast, him and his brothers.

There you go. Yeah. So Queens Golden Gales. So he was our quarterback and then got injured right before we went into playoffs. And three kids moved to our school right before playoffs. So they kicked us out of the six-man league and we had to play nine men. The very first game that we ever played in nine men was playoffs. nine men football playoffs.

And so our chance, had Falsher stayed healthy, had we been in six man instead of nine man, we would have been provincial champions. But no, no. Not not, not bitter whatsoever. No. I don't, I don't, it's actually been a long time since I thought about that story. How, how did you fair? Falsher's, how did you,

angrier about it than me. How did you fare in your first game of nine, man? Horrible because we didn't have enough guys. So I had to go both ways. So they put me in at like, I don't even know what the position wasn't running back or half back really. But they had this play where it was a reverse. But I didn't know how to play offense. And so they were like, okay, so you go this way and then come back and then cut back.

And then Kim's going to hand you the ball. and we ran that play twice, back to back, and I screwed that play up twice. And then they were just like, just go out there and run routes or something. We're not giving you the ball anymore. I was horrible, horrible. I'm a D. I'm a D guy. I'm not an offensive guy. I'm having visions of the replacements with Canada Reeves where they're trying to play and they're just having issues, right?

Like I can imagine lining up against your team being there's equipment that's not it's not tucked in properly. Yeah, maybe the longest yard is more apt, right? With Adam Sandler, that might have been. Yeah. Nope. We've been talking now for like 40 minutes and I haven't even got to this rapid thing. I got to know where like along the stretch. So we've talked a lot about your career of being becoming a meteorologist, the weatherman.

Where on earth then? Yeah, and I am a meteorologist. When I was in Saskatoon, I went back to school and got my meteorology degree. Oh, so you are legit. Not just, not just a pretty face on TV. What, where, what song? There had to have been a guy or group that you, would it have been tapes back then? Public enemy fear of a black planet.

what's that sorry? What did it have been a cassette? Oh yeah. Walkman? From, yeah, well, for sure, a Walkman, yeah. The yellow Sony sports Walkman. So it was Public Enemy Fear of a Black Planet that I bought at the Record Hound in Lloyd Mall. That dates me.

That dates me. I don't remember that. Yeah, yeah. It was, do you remember where the Zellers was? Oh, yeah. Yeah, okay. So it was just outside, just up and to the right from the Zellers. I think there's a sports, like a sporting goods store there,

like an athlete's world or a foot locker there. A foot locker. Anyway. Doesn't really matter. That album, and then I bought Run DMC, tougher than leather on cassette, and I was hooked. and my buddy Marcus Lopez, his dad owned the Arbys and what was the bar was called Amigos. Amigos is still back.

No. Amigos is back? Amigos is back. So we've had a real rough. Is it still right beside the wayside in? Oh yeah. Yeah, it hasn't moved. So Amigos is back.

It took a brief hiatus and became, there might have been a bar in between. but it became level up for a little bit, but now it's Amigos. Coolers shut down, hasn't ran in probably, I don't know, three years, I would say.

What was the other one on the SaaS side? Long Branch? No. We never went to the Long Branch because they played country music. We didn't like it. God, and now I'm forgetting

what the other one's called. That's terrible of me, Lloyd Minster, I apologize, but essentially, Migos is the one place in town. You're not thinking of Bo Didleys, are you?

Bo Didlies is on the upward side? Is Bo Dittles still there? Bo Dillies is still there? there. Oh yeah, absolutely. Great times there back in the day, name that tune. Yeah. Nah, God, what's the place on the SaaS side? I don't know.

Come on. We never went to any. We never went anymore. There was two bars in Lloyd back in the day. There was, there was Amigos, and there was the place where you had to be 19 because it was on the Saskatchewan side, and I could never get into until you're older. Was it in the base? Was it in the basement? Yeah, in the basement.

Isn't that the long branch? No. God, this is terrible. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. You know what I'm going to do? Anyway, I'm going to text my buddy right now as we're going. And that way I can have the answer because I can feel people listening going, you idiots, it's this.

It's this. Carry on. Anyway, because his dad owned Amigos, he had an end with the DJ. And so the DJ would always slide us rap records. And so, yeah, that was, I mean, from then on, that's all I listened to. And so my, my brother and I would make tapes. And we'd record them in Miles's, Miles Hush was my brother's buddy. And so we would record him in his basement.

And NWA had just come out at that time. And so we would, we called Miles' studio, 100 miles. and running, but Miles was with the Y. We were called the villains, with the Zed, of course. My brother and I, and so, yeah, we just, I, I, through the year, through the years, that's all we did is we would just

record rap albums, songs after songs. Did you keep all that? I met a guy in North Battle for, oh yeah, lots of it's on cassette, so I can't listen to it anymore. but I've got most of it on on CD and then on the computer because literally took the listeners

less than 30 seconds as he's like I mean they're already making fun of me that I can't remember that. Oh, Eses. Right? Eszies in the basement. That's no more either.

I don't, I was maybe in Esi's twice in my life. Really? Why? No. I don't know. It just wasn't where we, that wasn't our.

That wasn't your hang. wasn't our that you're seeing no we would go to amigos but and listen if your buddy's dad owns a club yeah you're going there

yeah you're going yeah right fair so yeah yeah it's so you're making all these tapes like my buddy my buddy Randy Kuzlowski

lived in North Battleford his dad had an old electronics shop and above the electronic shop he had a studio and I would we would just

those are the greatest times i mean we would stay up all night i would i'd work all week and then friday night i would drive to north battleford and we would stay up all weekend and just make music and oh it was it was awesome try and save money so that we could buy zip drives it could save them to these zip drives ah it's the best so did you actually like tour around rapping then yeah uh we we would do shows uh when i started working in Saskatoon, we would, I'd do shows probably once a month in Saskatoon. So like just at a bar, that's what you're talking about? Yeah, just at the club. And then I met up with some guys online. We called ourselves the worldwide word smiths because there were two guys from New York,

a guy from Oklahoma, a guy from Toronto, and then me in Saskatoon. And we all would record in our remote locations and send them to my buddy Derek in Oklahoma and he would mix it all down. And then we put out an album called Classic Composure. And so we did we did some shows in the States with that. So I went down and he did a couple shows in Oklahoma. How was that? It was awesome. It was great.

So good. I mean, it was crazy because I knew these guys so well, but I had never met them in person before until you know my plane lands in Oklahoma and there's this these guys that I've seen pictures of but I've never met them before so but I mean I had a guy when I lived in Saskatoon I had a guy that I would there used to be these rap boards that you could you'd write your write your wraps on online and then it was it was so nerdy but but you would form these crews. And so I had this buddy named Tree Vortex.

I didn't really know Tree, but he decided he wanted to come from, I think he was in Windsor. And he was like, hey, can I come stay with you for like a week? And we'll record an album in your bathroom. I was like, okay, sure. So some guy just shows up on my doorstep to stay for a week. And it was the greatest times. I met the greatest people. It was so good.

And I mean, people, that was before rap was really popular. I mean, it was starting to become more popular. But it was something that nobody, nobody was really doing it. It was just, I mean, now it's like, oh, yeah, you're a rapper, everybody's a rapper. I don't think that at all. Coming from this area, I don't, it's surprised the hell out of me. I'm the best rapper from Lloyd Minster, Bord. Yeah, you might be.

I don't know, or maybe for all I know 15 are going to pop out of the woodwork. And in like two months' time, we're going to have a rap battle here in Lloyd where you've got to stand behind. You've got to be in your selective boxes so there can be no actual spitting on each other and just screaming each other through plastic. Like that, that could maybe go. That's not a bad idea. I like that. I like that a lot. It would keep down the fights too.

if you were separated by Plexiglass. Have you done rap battles in? Like, I feel like, I feel like I'm, you know, you talk about it being like, you're a nerd for like going down that rabbit hole.

And I sound, I feel like I sound like a complete nut or moron because I literally know nothing but rapping. I will say this. I enjoy the music. I, uh, run DMC's freaking awesome.

Um, like, there's a lot of rappers that put out some really good content. like some really catchy tears and everything else. But when it comes to this, I feel like I don't even have the questions in my repertoire to ask. So you've been in rap battles in? Like you've just pulled up to, I don't know, wherever and just started going off?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, usually they would happen at shows. So you would go to a show. So you might go see, like in Saskatoon, we would go, you go see Gangstar. And then after the show's done, he, he wraps, I rap.

So you battle. It's not like, yeah, it's not like an anchorman where you've got your, your posse is rolling up. But it just sort of happens organically.

And I mean, it's a small enough community that everybody knows everybody and hates but likes each other. And everybody, and everybody thinks they're the best. So. That was a Friday night.

That was a Friday night for you then? Yeah, yeah. You go see, oh, man, there were so many great shows that came through really small clubs. I saw De La Sol with like 30 people. But I was, when I worked in Saskatoon, I was emceeing an event. at a high school.

Oh, I was emceeing a talent show. And some high school kid challenged me to battle, not really knowing, and I remember I destroyed him and had some line about how his girlfriend loved me. And I had to say, no, because I'm too old for her. And the crowd was just like, oh!

And it was all like their parents and stuff. And I was like, oh, I got to stop this. But it was the highlight of my battling career when I took out this high school kid as like a 22 year old. Well, it probably surprised the hell out of him and then surprised the hell out of the audience. Yeah. Yeah, he was he was done. You know, what I love about sitting down across from people is every once in a while. And actually, I shouldn't say that lots of times.

You just get completely like surprised, genuine surprise. and the fact that you toured around and I met like went down south and like chased it man that's that's pretty cool

lots of people wouldn't chase it I'm sure there was lots of people back in the day that wanted to but you actually chased it like did you ever ever get close like did you ever just like you know like

you know what I think the guys the guys in that group were really good Like we, if we had really pushed, I think we might have been able to do something. But what's doing something, right? Like, there's so many talented musicians. I mean, to be a touring musicians, there's lots guys doing that, right?

So, I don't know. I don't know what that would have looked like. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out now. And I mean, my kids love music. I got a 14-year-old, but he's got his own Spotify account, and he has been putting out, he puts out like an album every month. And just instrumental guitars and drums,

and he taught himself to play piano. My youngest, you know, likes music. And so he's on a couple of the, we with one of the radio stations here in town, We do a Halloween song every year. And so he's been on the last two Halloween songs that we've done. We did a Christmas song a couple years ago. He was on that.

So, I mean, I don't know what making it would have looked like. I wouldn't have been Drake. We were never that, you know, commercially accessible, I don't think. But, yeah, I mean, I'm happy with the catalog of music that I have. on my computer, I can still go back and listen. I mean, some of them are like, oh, but some of it's good. It's cool that, you know, one of the cool things for kids growing up today is they can do what your kids are doing, right? Release to Spotify and like the accessibility.

Well, just I even think for the stuff I got to listen to since I've known, which has been like 24 hours. I had no idea before 24 hours. And I have a thing where when I'm getting ready for an interview about five minutes before, I threw on ACDC, I got a song that I like, you know, that just gets me going, gets my mind in the right mindset. And I thought, hey, you know what? We'll throw out a little Josh Kloss. And so I threw on numbers.

And then I found another one. I think it was nine to five. Nine to five was pretty good too, right? Even though it's kind of like, it's kind of, you know, It's almost a little humorous when you watch the video, right? About what you guys are all talking about, right? But it's still like, I'm like, this ain't half bad, right? Yeah, so that was, that's my buddy RJ,

put that together. He had to do that for a class project. Omar, who's in there, is a really super successful writer. And he's a, you know, he's a former rapper as well. And so, I mean, we all just kind of had regular, jobs and that was RJ's vision. He was like, listen, here's what you're going to do. You're going to rap about what your regular 9 to 5 job is, but the fact that you also

love hip-hop. That's, that's really cool. I mean, I guess I completely understand what you're talking about in a sense, not the rapping part because that's so foreign to me. It's my creative outlet. But I mean, yeah, creative outlet. The fact that it's rap, right? Like it's a creative outlet.

That's a very good way. no different than if I, you know, if I played in a jazz band or, you know, a country band. It's just that. Well, I just look at it. Yeah. And I just look at it at the same. Listen, I work, I work Monday to Friday, sell chemical in the oil field. And my creative outlet to steal your terminology is sitting down and talking to people like

this. Because I really, really enjoy it. Like it is, it's what I look forward to every single week is who I get to sit down with this week and who are, you know, and then you find out stuff like this. You're like, God, that's cool, right? Like, that's cool. It's super cool. You think back of the day you think you're a nerd, but I think anyone who enjoys whatever they're in is a bit of a nerd, right? They're totally sucked into it. And some of them are just a little more mainstream, right? So if you go to hockey practice and play hockey 24-7, people call it dedication. And it's because it's accepted as we're all

try to make the NHL, but if you go a little bit out of the box, then you're a nerd. That's okay. I think that's pretty cool, right? Yeah. No, I mean, that's like I was saying, if it's popular, uh, most of my life, if it's popular, I don't like it, which is kind of ironic because in the job I'm in now, the goal is to be popular, but. Well, I got a couple of, uh, me, I want to pick your meteorology brain then, because I've been wondering a couple, uh, a couple of things have, uh, I've thought about. And one of them is as cities grow and get bigger and bigger and bigger, does that, obviously, I think, that can impact weather patterns or am I wrong on that? Oh, no, you're totally, totally on base with that. I mean, it affects temperatures. You've got more of an urban heat island

effect. Because of that, you've got greater lift because of the heat. And so, greater potential for that to act as a trigger for thunderstorm development in the summertime. Yeah, oh, absolutely. Urbanization definitely has impacted weather patterns. So then does that lend to the thought that we're seeing more extreme weather then? Or not so much? Yeah, I don't think it's urbanization. I mean, most of the studies are pretty clear that, I mean, global warming.

and climate change is pretty well defined as the increase in CO2 emissions. So that's where most of the increase in extreme weather and the change in temperatures globally that we're seeing is coming from. But over your career then, how many years you've been, how many years you've been in meteorology? Oh, 24. How old am I? 44, yeah, 24, it'd be 24 years. Yeah. So over a 24 years span, have you seen whether just slowly get more extreme?

Or is it just pretty, you know, like, I don't know. All I can think of, and this is a terrible analogy, and I apologize, is I just think of something like hockey. Let's bring it to hockey. If you go back to the 90s and just slowly see the rule changes they've made up until 2020, you can see the change in hockey. It's very, yes, it's very evident. Now,

I don't sit and watch weather every single day. You do. Have you seen like a noticeable change like all through the past 24 years you've been in it where it's like, wow, this is pretty noticeable. Yeah, not so much with, with extremes.

Although, I mean, if you look at record high, like we almost never set record lows anymore. We set record highs a couple times every year. average temperatures for every month except October are above where they were 30 and 60 years ago. Rain in the middle of the winter is more common than it used to be. It's always rained in January, even back in the 20s and 30s, but it happens more often now.

So, yeah, I mean, because I do it every day, it's hard. And because I'm always looking forward, it's hard for me to remember. what just happened. And so I'm, I'm a guy that relies on going back and looking at the historical records as opposed to my own memory. Because my memory of those things is as flawed as everybody else's. But you can. I mean, the numbers show that that that is happening. And one for my wife, if she ever listens to this, because she makes fun of me.

Anytime I comment on the weather like a good farming kid, she goes, oh, weatherman, Sean's talking again. And so when she heard I was having you on, she's like, oh, that should be fun. Like that should be fun, right? Like, here we go. You're going to talk about clouds. Everybody's a, well, I mean, especially in Western Canada, everybody loves to talk about the weather. I don't know, I don't know what it is. But people love it.

And maybe it's not just Western Canada. Like if you look at consistently what are the most downloaded. news and information apps. The weather apps across North America are the ones that most people are accessing more frequently than anything else. Everybody, everybody loves to know what it's going to be like.

Well, you think for... And then complain that it was wrong. Hey, people want to complain. Actually, COVID's taught me one thing. Is people... I was just saying this on my most recent episode. People want to complain at the best of times. You always get,

heck, I have days where I just want to, I just want to have a complaint out or bitch about something. And I didn't fully understand the necessity of sports in society until it's taken away. And all people comment on now are really, really charged things, right?

So the election in the States is charged. Anything to do with COVID is like super charged, right? it almost hurts and stresses me out too much. And I just want professional sports to come back. So when it comes to weather, I get it, right? Fucking weather, man. Said it was going to be sunny today.

It's raining. What an asshole. Right? Like, yeah, I get that. But sometimes it's just nice to complain about things that are almost like irrelevant. Inconsequential.

Thank you. I want those things back. Right? I want them. I want the Oilers playing and I want McDavid to have a bad day just so I can hear people talk about how McDavid's overrated and you'd be like, oh my God. Like really? That's where we're at as a society.

I want that back. Right now everything we complain about is, man, it stresses everybody out. It's hard to get away from. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody's got an opinion. At all time. And everybody's opinion is right no matter what.

As for everybody, you're right. It is, it is. It is more fun being a, an armchair, you know, general manager, as opposed to an armchair politician. Oh, man, the armchair politicians are hurting my brain right now. It makes me want to just, yeah, that's, that's, that's, it's so, it's such a, it's a, it's a really hard, not a hard thing to talk about. It's just like, I don't know, man, either.

let's take Alberta for instance you either hate Kenny or like love them and if you love them the other side hates you and vice versa right right and that's all I can and it's like there's no

there's no ability to chat between the two groups anymore you're on a side and you pick your side and we're gonna go to totally polarized oh man and that's the entire world it's like you know if you just put down your phone

and went and talk to that said person, they're probably pretty nice and they're probably pretty normal and probably some things that you thought you'll talk to them and be like, geez, that's actually a pretty interesting point. I don't really thought about it that way. Yeah. And also, I find that the people who are like the angriest and say the worst things online would never say those things in person, which is why if any, sometimes people will be, you know, you, you get negative comments online and people are like, how do you deal with that? I don't, I don't care. That person, if that person saw me, they wouldn't say that. There's no way. And if they did,

okay, well, I just turn around and walk away. Who cares? But it's the same with my kids. Like I look at my 12 and 13, 14 year old sons and like what they go through with social media and the things that people are saying. I'm like, this only exists on your phone. None of these kids say these things at school. Why, why are you talking like a gangster on your phone? You're not a gangster. You live in St. Albert. But it's something with social media and phones. It's safe and you can say whatever you want. It's terrible. Terrible. Now I'm sounding like Grandpa Josh. I don't know. I go back to every once in a while, a guest will say something that really stays with me.

And the one I think of when you're talking like that is Keith Morrison. He said basically for every advancement that's really good, you have the similar negative consequence of it. So for all the technology advancements have been really good, there's negative consequences to it. And when you're, you know, with all the technological advancements, so the human element, a human element of it has just disappeared, right, the in person doing this.

And that's a lost skill. It really is to sit and be able to chat to somebody and have a conversation. And you see it in the younger generations. Like get that damn phone out of your hand for a little bit. Right here. Right here. Yeah. Yeah.

No, they talk more, but just not face to face. Well, I don't know. It's not going to change that you're just going to have to learn to adapt to it. But Keith is right. I mean, I'm sure people said the same thing when radio first came around. Oh, radio's going to destroy the world. And then TV, oh, TV is going to destroy the world. And now it's social media.

Social media is going to destroy the world. So, but this time I think it might. I think it actually might. It's definitely got everybody supercharged. But that's the thing. You can't, you can't, it's very hard to go put yourself in the room when the TV's first being out and the thoughts and discussion going around the coffee table at that point. That's, it's almost impossible to go back. And because I mean, all through the last

hundred years, there's been moments in time where the political society is just supercharged with issues. I mean, we only have to look to, you know, some famous individuals, you know, like there was a president assassinated at one point in time. There was people, uh, that were public figures that were assassinated at different times, right? That happened in the last 100 years. That ain't that long ago. Heck, it happened in what? The last 50 years?

60 years. Yeah. I mean, for all of our hand-wringing about how horrible the world is, I mean, if you look back through history. There's some pretty bad times, man. For the most part. There were some really bad times, right? I mean, even with the pandemic, I mean, we're not crawling through muddy trenches in the middle of war right now.

We're just being told to stay home and put on a mask. And yet, and yet, I will say to that, by us talking like it's not as bad, like being in the trenches, at least we don't have to be there. we're in a different type of trench. And what that has brought up is the mental health aspect. And I tell you, five years ago, I never really thought much about mental health and every year that it goes along, it becomes more prominent. And in today's society, the mental health trench is a pretty big one for a lot of people. Sure.

Yeah. I'm sure it was a big problem then too. We just didn't talk about it. Yeah, fair. Right? Mental health is that, do you remember talking about mental health? 10, 15 years ago even? Never. Never.

I'm glad we're in a place where... Five years ago, Josh. Like, it was pretty tough to talk about. Like, people didn't want to... It had a little bit of a taboo on it, five years ago. For sure. And it's just slowly coming out of the woodworks now. Yeah.

Yeah. So I think, I think to what you're saying, I think that's probably always been an issue. It's just been an issue that was, we don't talk about that. Oh, we don't talk about that. But you're right. It is, this is just as hard for us going through it.

Well, human. We won't, we won't know. We can't put ourselves back in those shoes, right? Well, we can't put ourselves in war. And I'm not, we're not on Oregon Trail where malaria is killing people. All I'm saying is with World War, I don't think anybody wants to go back to that. Nobody wants to go back to the trenches. Nobody wants to go back to the mortar shells hitting.

And, you know, I've read and heard stories. I'm a Dan Carlin fan. hardcore history where he talks about the mortar shells hitting and blowing up force and just making them sit there and float because of so many more like none of us want to go back to that but i will say this you know with the announcement coming yesterday and basically you're in your house you're not supposed to have anybody over no you know like human interaction whether we want to give it it's uh it's due is a huge part of being a human right of just being a human, is human interaction and having positive conversations where everything

isn't like just negative, negative, negative, negative. Now, with technology, there's ways to do that. We're doing it right now. And people need to exercise their ability to do that more. But when you start to cut that interaction out of people's lives, that's a, that's a, that's a tough thing to go through. I think, and I think a lot of people are feeling that stress. And we just have never had to deal with it before. Because normally you get to go to, well for us work or the hockey rink or music class or you just think and you get to you get to let out a couple bitches about man the weather sucks today and is it inconsequential yes but is it nice to sit there and talk about something with somebody and hear a little bit of a gossip story sure and all

that is just poof gone for you know it's been almost a bloody year right like it's it's it's I've been a long time. My youngest was just saying he's, we were, when we were watching those YouTube videos from when they were little, he's like, you know, I almost can't remember what it was like,

not to have to wear, to remember to bring a mask to school, to be able to like, wrestle with my friends to, it's gone quick. Those, those things have gone quick for my kids. They,

they don't, they don't, I mean, we were in, we were in, we were in Mexico in January, but I look at those pictures and that seems like it was 10 years ago, not 10 months ago. So, yeah, yeah. I don't know what the point of that was, just that my kids are now to the point where they've adapted to it and they,

I think it might be harder for you and I, guys like you and I who remember all of our lives having those social interactions for them. they've already kind of forgot. They've adapted to this new normal. They forgot what that was like. I just think, look at him. Which is kind of scary. It was sad and scary for these kids.

Yeah. You hope that someday this is over. And now are they going to be skittish about having those interactions again? What, you know, when they're told that they can take the masks off and. You remember, you remember being a kid and having health class and them telling you about the

water fountain and how many germs are there. Do you remember that, that part of health class? No. That is one thing that has stuck with me for all time. And I still remember thinking, yeah, but I want to drink water. Like, I mean, if I get sick, I get sick, right? Pretty much. And now I was at a bell store a couple days ago. And the guy was wearing his mask to talk in the phone. And I said, you got to wear your mask talking the phone? Well, that's like one of the worst parts of contact, right? And I'm like, I guess because you're talking into it. But, you're So use your own phone and don't transfer phones. Like to me,

we've, we've started to focus on everything that has the most contact points, which is fair. I get it. But I'm like, that has always been there. There's always been germs there. There's always been sickness.

And, you know, you mentioned in Toronto dealing with some pretty severe things going on. It's always been there. Right? Like, it's why you've got to take care of yourself at all times, whether we're in a pandemic or not in a pandemic.

If you take care of yourself, you know, the immune system is a pretty impressive thing. Howie Mandel was onto something. He was ahead of his time. Good old Howie Mendel. With his elbow bumps and not touching anything. For older people, they'll remember exactly what you're talking about.

Well, we've gone down a pretty serious topic. I want to bring it back to a little lighter end to this because it's been a really fun chat of sitting with. you. I always do at the end. It's the crude master final five. Five questions. Shout out to Heath and Trace McDonald for supporting the podcast from the very beginning. So my first one always is. If you could sit down with one person like we're doing and pick their brain, who would you take? Oh, who would I sit down and pick their brain? This is, I would go with, oh. Whose brain do I want to pick?

Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon? Sure, why not? What would you ask Richard Nixon? I want to know how much he knew about Spiro Agnew getting cash kickbacks in the vice president's office. I don't know. I don't know what I would ask Richard Nixon.

How about, I mean, the correct answer to that is like Nelson Menon. Mandela, right? Let's be very clear. There is no correct answer. Richard Nixon would just be as fascinating as Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela, obviously, for everything he went through, yeah, you could probably sit with that guy for five days and just record and see what comes of him. Yeah, I don't know who. That's a great question.

What's question two? Let me think about that. If you could open up for one act, who would you want to open up for? De LaSoul That's who you'd open up for Yeah They're the greatest The greatest

But I want old De La Salle I want Prince Paul De La Soule If you're If my listeners have never heard Any of them Well I'm just I'm sure there's plenty that have What's a song then they should

They should head to YouTube and listen to Okay so I don't even know if you can get most They're in a fight with their record label Tommy Boy over their old stuff. But if you go to find De La Sol is Dead, you can listen to Millie pulled a pistol on Santa,

which is a great, great, very deep, very dark song, or you could go, you know, really light with Ring, ring, ha, ha, hey. But yeah, three feet high and rising, De La Sol is dead. Two classic, classic album. I want your most impressive fact about clouds. My most impressive fact about clouds. Oh, okay, so you know how everybody thinks that the darkness at the bottom of the cloud is the rain or the snow inside the cloud?

That's not actually what it is. It's just that the cloud is so thick that no light is getting through and penetrating the bottom of the clouds, just in the shade. Really? That's why it's dark at the bottom. Yeah. Because sometimes it'll be raining, but you have light that's reflecting off the ground that's still lighting up the bottom of the cloud.

That's not rain that you're seeing that's making the bottom of that cloud. It's just no light is able to get to it. That is impressive. Best or worst or one of each, doesn't matter. Movie to depict either weather or the weatherman. Well, not the weatherman.

I went to see that with Nick Cage. Did you ever see that movie? I went to see that thinking it was going to be like Anchorman. It was not. Lighthearted and it was going to be like a bit of a comedy and it was not. Yeah, no. No. Not at all.

The best movie to depict a weatherman. I don't know. Are there weathermen in movies? I'm not a big movie guy. Well, I think you already named two of them. I'm a music guy, not a movie guy. But. Fair.

But you already named two of them. The weatherman and Anchorman depict Anchorman. And if you're going, if you're strictly going with weather and whether it's accurate or not, right? You can go Twister. And you have Twister or the core where they drop. Day after tomorrow. Yeah, right. There's some factual inaccuracies with Twister.

You mean you can't tie yourself up in the middle of a tornado and not get ripped off? You could try. You could try. I don't remember any of that movie. I'm horrible with movies shot. What was the last movie? What was the last movie you saw then? I don't even know.

I'm sure we watched a movie like this weekend. What would we have watched this weekend? I'm watching the undoing and succession right now, which are a series. I don't know what the last movie I saw was. Did you watch The Last Stand about Michael Jordan and the Bulls? Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Okay, so you watch TV. You're just saying you don't, you're not huge into movies. Yeah, I just don't. I just don't care. I like I like them. What are you doing? I just don't remember them. What are you doing in your spare time?

Write lyrics. I have no spare time, Sean. I've got three teenage boys. In my spare time, lately I've been playing a lot of Tiger Woods Wii. Wee. Oh, man, it's the greatest. Do you have a Wii? Used to have a Wii.

We've got a Wii. We've got a Wii. Yeah, yeah. So my kids have now advanced. They've got an Xbox and a PlayStation. So I have taken over the Wii. And I've got Tiger Woods, 08, I think. and it is the best because you have to swing.

You still putt. Like I feel like I'm, I feel almost like I'm golfing when I play that. So that's what I'm doing. You'd be happy to know. I won the Father's Day tournament from 2008, just a couple of nights ago. Do you walk around the house telling your kids and your wife?

Guys, I just shot like four under. No big deal, right? Yes, yes, yes, I do. and like my wife will ask me to put another log on the fire. I'm like, mm-mm, not in the middle of this back nine. I'm not, I can't. I'm in the mode right. The last time I put a new log on the fire, all right?

I double bogeyed the next hole and put myself out of contention. I'm locked in. Don't ask me to do anything. So that's what I'm, that's how I'm spending most of my time right now. That's awesome. Your final one then. If you go to music. I haven't actually answered any of these questions.

I agree. You've actually been very dodgy on these. You gave me Nelson Mandela and Richard Nixon. Oh, and you gave me you'd open up for one act. Yeah, that's true. And the cloud and the cloud. And the cloud. You just didn't give me a movie.

You didn't give me a movie because you basically said, I don't know movies. I don't watch. Okay. Well, we'll change that question then. We'll go back to number four and say, what was, what has been your best Netflix bin show that you've watched in COVID. Ray Donovan. Oh, Ray Donovan.

Ray Donovan. Oh, no. Yeah, well, that we were, we toured through that before COVID. But that, oh, man, that's, that is the greatest show on television. I can't believe that it's done. I'm going to give you a sad fact. I've never watched Ray Donovan. What you're telling me is I need to get into Ray Donovan.

Well, listen, I never watched Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones or, any of those shows. You never watch? And everybody tells me. No, no, no. Let me be very clear. Breaking Bad took every ounce of my fiber to get through it.

Because there is moments where it is the best show on television and moments where it is just boring and I did not care. But everybody talked it up so much that I just fought through. And overall, it's a pretty good show, but I wouldn't recommend that.

Game of Thrones, on the other hand, up until the final season is the greatest, well, no, second greatest show probably to ever go on the airwaves. And by far the most epic, like the fight scenes, the dialogue, the storyline, the, the storyline, unbelievable. The one I would put above that is true detective the first season with Math McConaughey. Oh, yeah. That is unbelievable.

Unbelievable. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I would agree with that. Have you seen hunters? on Amazon Prime. With Al Pacino.

I watched the first episode and then I kind of thought about it, which is sad to say. You got it. You got to get through it. It is, there are so many points as you get deeper into it, there's so many points where you just go, what? It's so good. You got to watch hunters. But Ray Donovan. I mean,

listen, the first two seasons, at least of Ray Donovan. Season three and four, if you're fan, you'll like them. But yeah, the first two for sure. Okay. Fair. I will do that for you.

I will see about tracking down some Ray Donovan. Your final, actually, you should do yourself a favor, though, and do Game of Thrones. I'm just, I'm telling you. I can't. Why not? I saw like, I saw like 45 seconds of one episode and there were like 17 scenes that happened in that 45 seconds. And I was like, I can't know. Nope.

Uh-uh. What? I can't keep up with this. Whoa, slow down. Slow down. Let's do this first. What, like, was it further along the show? Or was it the first episode?

No, no, not the first episode. I was like some random shit. Then just happened to be on. And I was, I was like, oh, let's see what this is all about. And it was like, listen to me. Listen to me. Listen to me. Go get the first season.

There's too many seasons. I can't. Go get the first season. Listen to me. I'm telling you. I'm giving you. I'm giving you a great piece of advice here. Go get the first season and watch the first season from cover to cover.

And if after that you're like, you know what, I'm not into it. Then it's fair. But the first season, my wife isn't in the fantasy, dragons, old stories about nights and fighting. She isn't. She was glued to it because the storyline is so good. The acting is so good. Everything about it is so freaking good. all right i'll give it a chance if i'm going to give ray donovan a chance you give game of

thrones a chance i'm telling you it's not even it's not even close ray donovan your final one if concerts came back tomorrow meaning you could go and watch uh at you know i want to say rexel but rogers place oh right right yeah If you could go in there and see any act perform tomorrow, just like it was a year ago, who would you take? Who would I go see right now? Oh, I would go see Earth Gang. Earth Gang.

Yeah. Because I'm not going to say like KRS 1, although that would be a good one too. Yeah. Earth Gang. Go Spotify up some Earth Gang. I tell you what, that's exactly what I'm going to do, because I have no idea who Earth Gang is. I'm going, that's who it is.

All right. Yeah. Well, this has been, shall I say, entertaining. Very, very. It's been entertaining for me too. Thanks, Sean. This has been great. Yeah, no, I appreciate you hopping on and sharing a little bit about your career and some of your hobbies.

it's been very enjoyable and I appreciate you hopping on. Six-man football. That's right. Yeah, absolutely. Sorry about the falchre. I mean, come back. Oh, God. Provincial champions.

We would have been champs. It's all on you, Dustin. That is all on you. Yeah. Way to go. Well, thanks again for hopping on, Josh. Hey, anytime. Well, if you're still here,

I know you've been waiting for it since the beginning. Here is Mr. Josh Klaus. along with RJ and their song Numbers. Enjoy. Yeah. I got another one for you. Stick around for the end of this verse. I got a little surprise.

Yeah. Eighty-four beats, 84 bars. And they wait for the heat, bake them more pies. If they're 84-deep, we got more guys. More ties to the streets facing more crimes. Frikin' I want to C-Sat him more lives. Cease five, fuck a piece. I got more fire than the four-fire.

Murder beats I got more rhymes I'm reloaded I got heat on the B side To be quoted homie piece put your piece down Add a finger to the piece off an e-town Rapper 116 sins 3 now Castle Down's on the ground with the streets down Give me pounds a corang make the beat bang a heat man God dang and I hang like a G string

Off your ting and I'm sweet like a green drink Know what I mean and I sang like a G-dang Nate Daw give them all what they wait for You lay boy in the void all the folk I won't cause what the cars in the boats, Josh, I don't talk. But I do. Ever since I was 16 in the 1.992. 16 bars on the beat is a man you have 16 bars for the street like White Avenue.

Seems hard to compete with a man who can make 16 legendary like Montana. Who? Montana for the 49 is. But this is the city where 99 is loved and lauded, treated like a god. And placed in the number one spot when we get on that list, ought to be on that. on that list. They'll talk about me when them d'emines

like aplex for ordinary timelines till they bury me six feet and five. Boards, get your numbers. Get your numbers. Get them up. Putting numbers on the boards. Get your numbers. Get them up. We're putting numbers on the boards.

Get your numbers. Get them up. You need to get your numbers. Yeah. Hey folks, thanks again for joining us today. If you just stumble on the show and like what you hear, please click subscribe.

Remember, every Monday and Wednesday a new guest will be sitting down to share their story. The Sean Newman podcast is available for free on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you find your podcast fix. Until next time.