Shaun Newman Podcast - Ep. 83 - Actor Scott Patey

Episode Date: June 1, 2020

Born & raised in Lloydminster AB he now calls Vancouver home. He has been there for 15 years pursuing a career in acting, improv & standup comedy. He has shared the screen with such legends as Jim Carrey, Jack Black & Owen Wilson.  He has was apart of Sonic the Hedgehog & now can be found on the Amazon Prime series "Upload".

Hello, this is Scott Pady, and you are listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome back to the podcast. Happy Monday morning to you, folks. We got a good one today. I mean, they're all good. Who am I kidding? But it's not every day a guy from Lloyd Minster gets to hang out on screen with a guy named O. Jim Carrey. And you're going to hear all about that.

You're going to hear a lot of his stories. They're pretty epic. But I had a really, really good time with Scott. It was a lot of fun. Somehow we graduated in the same year from two separate schools in Lloyd, but had no clue who each other were. And just got to sit and BS and hear his story, and it was really, really cool. Now, before we get into that, let's hear our sponsors for the day.

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Now, here is your Factory Sports Tale of the Tape. This guy is originally from Lloydminster, Alberta. He's currently been living in Vancouver, British Columbia, for the past 15 years grinding it out as an actor, although I should point out, he does stand-up, he does a ton of improvisation, improv, and he's been on, like, so many different TV shows, movies,

and he shared the screen with such a lesson as Jim Carrey, Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Bubbles, Terry from Fubar, and the list goes on. He was just doing Sonic, the Hedgehog, and he's in a new show out on Amazon Prime called Upload. So I'm talking about Mr. Scott Patey. So without further ado, hold on to your hats, folks. Here we go.

All right, well, welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Tonight I'm joined by Scott Pady, actor, comedian, improviser, host. Yeah, keep going. Keep going. No, that's about it. joining me from Vancouver. How's Van City during COVID? You know what? Today is, I'm looking outside right now. It's a rainy one, which we're used to out here. But I must say during COVID, at least the April and this past May, it's been sunny.

And when it's sunny and beautiful in Vancouver, I mean, there's nothing that with mountains and ocean. But yeah, today's rainy, which is we have a bad reputation for rainy weather, which we do get a lot of. I mean, the sunny, and we're just about to start summer here, and nothing beats it, man. I love it here. I was actually thinking you come from living in Lloyd for pretty much all your life until you go out there. I assume you're happy with your choice. Yeah, weather-wise, for sure. I mean, to be honest, I don't know if yourself or other people growing up in Lloyd feel the same,

but, like, I do love all four seasons. Like I love winter. I grew up playing pond hockey going snowmobiling. We'd get hot summers, which you always enjoyed being off school and stuff. And then I, but even my favorite seasons are spurring in fall. So we don't get much of a winter, which I can't complain about it because now I'm more accustomed to it. But I mean, you can drive an hour and a half up to Whistler or even in North Vancouver. We have mountains, right? So for skiing and stuff like that. But if you just want to see some snow, it's very accessible. Yeah, well, I love all four seasons too, but winter and Lloyd seems to go about two, three months too long and just, and the wind never stops. I hear you. I hear you. Yeah, and I do, like I said, I mean, now I've spent, I think I'm at either tied or I've spent more time in Vancouver in my life. I've been, I've been away from Lloyd for a long time, but I go back to visit frequently. But yeah, I mean, I remember those, some of those winters were unforgiving and I don't miss it. Well, let's talk about the early days before you get out to Vancouver. Since starting this podcast, it's always amazing to me how many talented people came out of this area. And we were talking about before we got started. We're the same age, roughly, graduated the same year from two different, you know,

the comp and holy sworn enemies for the rest of our life. But that's a different topic. And honestly, I'd never, until you dropped me in line, I'd never heard of you about. before, which, I mean, that doesn't mean much coming from me because I sometimes live in a box. I got three kids, young kids, I don't do a whole lot of anything anymore. And saying that, you're Sonic the Hedgehog movie, which when it gets out so I can actually either buy it, what you probably can do now online, I suppose. But when I actually physically get that at the house, the kids are probably going to make

me watch that about 100,000 times. Yeah, you get some of that really good. Hey, and no, I've, you know, it's interesting because starting this out, I mean, when you're an actor and stuff and you get, you get, people see you on television or movies or on stage, you start to build, I feel like I've been doing this for 15 years. I haven't, I've worked a lot and I've had a lot of experiences and, and cool stories. And it's been, it's been incredible. But I haven't had what I guess you would call that marquee performance. There's certain shows that you get on that are really popular, and I'll do an episode or two, and I'll hear actually, like, people will message me on Facebook from Lloyd or something, or someone I went to high school with like, hey, saw you on this. Like, great job. I don't have a huge social media presence.

That was never, I'm not super technically inclined. And I know that helps, you know, get you recognition or can help in this industry. I've kind of taken the Bill Murray approach of a, um, more quiet, you know, I do a lot of live performances in Vancouver. So in Vancouver, I've been building my reputation up here for like over a decade. And so, you know, I get a lot of gigs just from word of mouth or people that have worked with me will recommend me or I'll, you know, get clients or work for companies and have kind of repeat customers. And, you know, I ran a successful show here for 10 years and got to know. But yeah, none of it was really utilized through

through social media. So yeah, I don't take any offense to you, not knowing who I was. Having said that, we also spoke before the show started about that. I do come to Lloyd once a year to help out a friend who runs the drama program at the comp, and we do an improv show, and I'll teach some workshops to the drama students,

and we'll do sort of a fundraiser for them. And it's a great excuse for me to come back home and see some friends and family and help out, you know, where I can't. Well, and I was what I was trying to get to, and sometimes I go off course, but by doing this show, we get to shed some light on some of the cool stories that people, you know, now that you've been away for 15 years, unless you're into, you know, maybe the drama club or surrounding, you're in that kind of circle, even if a person saw you on TV,

if they don't remember you from back 15 years ago, you just another guy. on screen and you know just carry on and but now tying you to lloyd and tying so many more people i find such cool stories out there it's like it's wow like that's it's really cool and so when you sent me the message and i got look and i'm like oh my goodness like this is freaking cool man like what you're doing is freaking cool and thanks dude yeah so was it always something you wanted to do then Like growing up here where you're just like, man, I want to someday act. And if so, like, what was the moment that you're the movie or the actor, actress that was just like, man, that was phenomenal. Yeah.

Well, first and foremost, you know, and I'll say kudos to you just touching on this podcast because a friend of mine told me about this podcast. And I've listened to a few episodes and I think you're doing an awesome job. And I agree, man, because I love where I came from. I have a lot of strong ties to Lloyd Minster. I think all the stories you're finding are awesome. So just tip of the hat to you for that. Yeah, and for me, growing up in Lloyd, to be honest, you know, because I know you do a big hockey focus on this.

Obviously, yeah, growing up in Lloyd, I was surrounded by a hockey. I played one year and the next year my parents divorced. And I remember when they were like telling us about their separation. I was eight years old. My brother was a couple years older. and, you know, through tears, we were, we were supposed to go to a hockey camp that summer, that some NHLers, I think it was in Cold Lake or something. And so through tears, we're kind of like, are we, are we still going to hockey school?

And then my parents are like, no, like, we've canceled that. And I think we were maybe just as disappointed to not go to hockey school. So, yeah, after my, after my parents separated, you know. Typical Canadian, more worried about hockey than. family yeah being together for the rest of your life we'll worry we'll worry about your guys's relationship after the weekend we're still going to hockey right exactly exactly and honestly dude that was you know because we loved it me and my brother loved it we'd play on the ponds and we play street hockey in our cul-de-sac and so yeah you know so that was my trajectory for when I was a

kid was to be a hockey player uh that ended uh it's super expensive as we all know and and so i wasn't able to play organized hockey again. So that sort of took me out of that at a young age. Then I had a phase of like liking music and drumming, but I remember in grade five, I went to, you know, for your local listeners, I went to St. Joseph's Elementary School. And I think every year they would take the elementary school kids to go watch the high school production. And I went to watch the high school production. I think we went a couple years. But one year they did midsummer night's dream. And it was like the teachers were performing with the students. And I was just in awe. I mean, I loved movies obviously growing up you know i was a huge saturday night live fan and chris farley and i watched

whose line is it anyway and um jim carey movies and and you know i was you're giving me you're giving me we're in the same right well we're the same age yeah so whose whose line is it anyway was like fantastic dumb and dumber jim carey perfect yeah i mean chris farley in a van down by the river I mean, Tommy Boy, oh, black sheep. Man, there was, I know what you're talking about. Nonstop. Yeah. Those are fantastic.

I mean, and that would be, you know, we'd watch those at Sleeper. I actually have a painting. I don't know for this. That's right there is it's Chris Farley in a van down by the river, oddly enough. So there you go. We didn't even plan. We didn't rehearse this. I swear to God, listeners, we didn't plan that.

We literally met five minutes ago. But, yeah, so I was inspired by all those. But in school, I got started in plays. So as soon as I got to high, and we did Holy Rosary High School, did grade eight to 12. As soon as I got into grade eight, as soon as I heard an opportunity to audition for the play,

we did a Christmas play, and then we did Wizard of Oz, and I was the mayor of Munchkin Land. And from there, I was just addicted, you know, there was being in front of a live audience, the rehearsals. I met a lot of my friends, and, you know, in grade eight,

you look up to grade 11, and 12s, and here you are, sharing the stage, kind of being treated like peers, which you don't always get to do in sports, right, with age groups and separation and stuff. And so that led, that ran my life in high school. I think I did every production. And then as you do more, you get better at it. But I took it a step further because I think it was grade 10. I went to a theater camp in Red Deer. It was put on by Theater, Alberta was at Red Deer College. And it's essentially for the, for as a theater nerds where they have professors from all these universities that teach, you know, drama, like acting, movement, all the things that incorporate it into, and you do it for like a

week straight and you were in classes all day. And that's where I think I really truly thought, like, this is what I want to do for a little. Yeah, I didn't know what that meant, but I was like, this is what I want to do. Yeah. when did you make the move to van vancouver then so i waited it was probably around that time i was about 15 or 16 when i realized this is what i want to do i had i won't throw this gentleman under the bus but i'll never forget it because it was a what do you call the student like guidance counselor i guess yeah and we each student would have a meeting with him and i remember telling him I'm sharing him with him that I wanted to be an actor.

And he, you know, sort of laughed and Chuck. And I don't blame the guy. I mean, no one, you know, Lloyd Minster. I remember he had two books on his desk. It was like University of Saskatchewan, University of Alberta. And that was where 99% of the students were going if you weren't working or doing something else. So, and I, you know, and so he was talking about the theater program. And then I was like, no, like, I want to do film and television.

And he laughed again. And then was sort of this thing. And I remember that was a bit of a. And once again, no, I'm not going to out him. I'm not going to, but I remember that was a motivating factor for me to get out. So I took a year out. I graduated at 17 and I worked at, I'll do some name dropping in Lloyd. I worked at Windsor Plywood.

I worked at Panago Pizza. Saved up a bunch of money. My parents helped me out at the time. My mom and my stepdad. And then I moved to Vancouver at 18 years old. And I signed up to a six-month program, acting program for film and television. and I was off to the races. Okay, you just rattled off a lot there.

First of all, the table I'm currently doing this off of is built by Mr. Carly-Clauses and Windsor Plywood. So, showed up to them. They are huge sponsors to the podcast. Oh, see what I did there? I just snuck in a little sponsor. We had this scripted, didn't we? Didn't we, Scott?

Yes, it feels like it a little bit, yeah. It's funny you bring up a guiding counselor, or not, I guess, not laughing, well, kind of laughing, or I guess laughing at it. But I find that interesting. I find because I've always wanted to be on radio. Always wanted to like, just enjoy it. I don't know what it is. I like talking to people, right?

And people try and steer you away from that. They want you to go the standard route. Here's the other options or go work. and earn a paycheck and carry on with life. I think that's a pretty mature thing of you to, you know, let that spur you on and you still chase it. Because a lot of people, as soon as they get that, you know, a little bit of negativity, then they might hide that dream away for another 20 years and look back and go, man, should have just went after it.

Like, instead, now look at where you're at. And it's been 15 years. and you've done some pretty incredible things. I mean, you said at the start, you haven't had that feature film yet, but when you watch where you're trending, it's like, I can see it coming, right? Like, it's your track record is getting to the point where you probably got contacts in a lot of different spots in the movie TV business, and it just takes one role, and away you go. And so I bet you, you know, guidance counselors probably hear all sorts of things.

That's probably why he laughed is, you know, it's just, you know, he goes from one extreme to the next. But it's pretty cool that you kept on with it and pushed and moved to Van City. I mean, that's a long way. I assume you had no family members out there. No, I didn't know a soul out here. And I looked at like, I looked at Toronto and I even looked at Los Angeles. But obviously, even back then, you know, 15 years ago getting your papers and then American dollars. for the schooling and yeah it just was complicated so Vancouver was sort of first choice but yeah

yeah and I don't I don't blame that guy I mean that's such a personal thing for me that I just that guidance counselor kind of pushed me in that direction uh like motivated me but I think what I agree with you man I think any sort of negative thing especially at that age can deter you and you want to take you know the safe route and even your parents like um my parents were luckily very support and they also knew, you know, I sort of, I guess, auditioned, not to use a term from acting, but I almost did that in senior high school, doing all these plays and getting all this positive recognition

from teachers and audience members that they could tell that I was dedicated, that I took it seriously and that I had, you know, I guess a knack for it. So that was all positive stuff that sort of overlapped any guidance counts or thing. But yeah, yeah, it was definitely scary, man. It was definitely scary, man, coming out to, I'd been to Vancouver once before, but I mean, compared

to Lloyd, it's a metropolis. It's super intimidating, you know, coming here as an 18-year-old that take the bus and you have no money. And I wasn't in a university program where I was staying in a dorm and with a roommate or a friend or anything. Like I was, I was solo, soaking it all up. So yeah, it was scary. I bet you learned a lot about yourself in that first three months to probably a year.

Absolutely. Yeah, I definitely, you know, and I mean, especially for something like acting school, what you're doing, the training that you go through. I mean, you have to be open up and most people are pretty, you know, charismatic. And so I made friends easily and a lot of people, there are a lot of international students. So for me, even coming from Alberta, you know, Alberta, Saskatchewan, one province over, I mean, there was students from Mexico, Ireland, Germany. And you realize the. leap they took to put themselves here. So I felt, I did feel, you know, pretty safe at the time. But yeah, learning, like taking bus routes and going out. And I wasn't, I was legal to drink. I was 18. So I was legal to drink in Alberta and sort of celebrated my 18th birthday in Alberta. And then when I, it was like I was being punished because out here it's 19. So I had to wait another, I think it was like six months before. I can relate. I played my junior hockey out in Ontario. So I celebrated my 18th birthday in Lloyd and then went another full pretty much eight months once I went down there in Ontario's 19. So I can drink there either. Yeah,

it's like we got punished for being. Yeah. I mean, there's ways around it, as we know. There's ways to get no. There ain't ways around it, is there? Yeah, I mean, you know, fake IDs, things like that. But I think I waited. I was I was patient and then that, you know, I got enough of that in my, in my 20 days to make up for a last time. Who is the first, did you use somebody else's ID ever to get into places or to buy alcohol? You know, a couple friends I met out here were

musicians and bands. So what we'd do is I would be, we'd load into the bar before the show started a few hours before. I would be like the merch guy or loading gear. And so then the bouncer, whoever wouldn't even start their shift. And then I would just hang out and I'd wait

on the side stage. So I never had a physical fake ID. I would just use like you know, slicker ways to, uh, to get in. Mine, mine was Mike Sugar. I hope I'm not throwing him. That was his name. Mike Sugar, wherever you're at. Did you look like him at all?

Not even close. I mean, it couldn't, it couldn't even been remotely close, but it worked. Yeah. Sorry. Oh, yeah. Mom's learning lots of things today. Oh, always. Yeah.

Nonstop. What was, what was your first break? Your first, role, I guess, that you got casted for and maybe just talk a little bit about it. And I assume there had to have been some nerves. Yeah, of course. I mean, once again, I mean, going into the background of, like I said, doing all these plays in high school, I mean, you meet people at acting school that never did that.

Like, they discovered it after they graduated high school. And I was even one of the youngest in my class. So I was one of the youngest and believe it or not, one of the most experienced because I had all these opportunities in high school to do these plays. But shortly after school, you sort of learn like you get an agent and you don't pay that agent anything. It's this working relationship where they get 15% of whatever you make and their job is to send you out on auditions. So a lot of times you're going to start with commercials. So you're going to read for commercials. So I remember I'd go to auditions for commercials

and I did that for like a year straight and I read for hundreds and I'd get callbacks and I never booked anything and then you start getting down on yourself like am I doing something wrong or am I? You know, you don't, you don't, I was so green that I didn't realize how difficult it was that there's like thousands of people

auditioning for this one role. So the first and then I got very lucky because it was shortly after that and meanwhile I'm like I'm working at restaurants busing tables, you know, paying my rent, essentially, with help from parents and stuff. And I had my agent, I'd go out on these commercials,

and then I ended up, my first gig I ever got was a show that was on the CW, which used to be the WB called Reaper, and it ended up being a reoccurring character. And I didn't speak, I didn't have a line of dialogue. But because they brought me on for two episodes, on my resume, it said, recurring. And recurring means like, you know, you're in multiple episodes that you don't list like only two episodes on your resume. So casting directors see that. Chances are they haven't watched the show,

you know, so they go, oh, this kid. And then if you'd have a good audition and your resume backs it up that you're on this hot new show. So that opened up some doors for me. And it was around 2007. I read for this movie that was about dirt biking. And at the time, there was a super popular Disney show called High School Musical. And one of the leads in that, there's obviously super handsome Sack DeFron. Don't know that show at all. Yeah, at all. So there was an actor there by the name of Corbin Blue, and his dad was in the industry.

And believe it or not, a lot of Disney kids, once they've done it long enough, they get sick of it and they want to be out. Because when you're under that microscope, I mean, you can't go to a bar. You can't get fake IDs. You know, you are under contract and you're representing their brand. So kids look up to you. You can't, you know, be drunk at a Blue Jays game or something. So a lot of times kids want to break out.

So I guess for Corbyn, he wanted to get out. So he wrote this sort of dirt bike movie where he was this lead guy. And I auditioned for the role of his mechanic slash best friend. And, you know, and then I booked it. And it was incredible. I did like 20 days on set. I quit all my jobs once I found out how much money I was making. And I was definitely nervous, but I think at that point, I had already spent like a year and a half auditioning.

You know, I took a full-time acting program, all my history in high school. So I felt like I was I was ready for that next step. I was excitement kind of outweighed the nerves. Like it felt like this was well deserved, like I fought to be here. And once I did that, yeah, the doors and opportunities kept opening. So that was sort of my first sort of breakthrough role. What, you talk about being on set and that kind of thing. Did it meet your expectations?

Like when you rolled on, were you like, oh, so this is what it is? Or were you like, this is what it is? That was a great, you know, I think I remember this, this show Reaper, the first gig I ever did. I, I wouldn't, I couldn't stay in my trailer. I was out like annoying the A&Ds, which are assistant directors, because for anyone that's ever been on a film set or heard about it, they have this famous catchphrase called Hurry Up and Wait. So everything's like a rush, rush, we need to get this, but then it's like, wait, we're not ready yet. So they'll bring an actor in, you'll get hair and makeup, you'll

put on your wardrobe, and then you're sitting and waiting, then they'll mic you up with the sound guys, and then you'll do a rehearsal, and then it's wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So now that I've been doing this for 15 years, I look back at those times and I laugh because, yeah I mean I was definitely so excited to have my own trailer wardrobe to be treated a certain way to know that I was going to be on television with such a goal and then you know once you do it enough times it's sort of I'm sure you know like anything like as a hockey player skating out just those those dreams that you have or that you picture as a kid once you've done it you know the novelty sort of wears off but I think my for my first experience it definitely you know met and went above the expectations I had and and and you know you know being on especially large sets where there's big budgets and stuff. I mean, I still get so excited and sort of weak at the knees. Like, that's, it just feels like that's my happy place, you know. But yeah, and then, you know, but I've had throughout my career different experiences,

but I still, even when I get a job to this day, 15 years, and I get excited about being on set. Do you watch your movies after you're done them? Are you a guy that can handle seeing and critiquing or do you just stick away from it? You know, I do. You're somewhat forced to for a guy in my position because we have this, once you do enough work, they have what you call a demo reel. So it's a body of work that you piece together.

And I mean, you know, I hire an editor to put it together. But I obviously want to see, you know, and my agent wants to see like, okay, well, what's my best stuff? that what can I send out to other casting directors, directors, producers that will want to hire me, what can I showcase, you know? And typically you want to contrast of like, yeah, I can do comedy and I can do drama and stuff like that. So I have watched my stuff before. I've also gone to premieres.

Yeah, I'm one of those actors. I don't mind it. I like watching myself. I think you can learn a lot from watching yourself. And film and television is so technical that it's even those things of like, you know, your eyelines and these certain moments. and then, yeah, obviously wanting to deliver a believable performance is important. So, yeah, I'm not one of those guys where I get cringeworthy.

And I do a lot of live performance, too. When I started out doing stand-of-comedy and it would be filmed and, you know, I'd have a few drinks before. Sometimes that stuff's embarrassing. And I want to wipe all of it off YouTube if it's still there. But as far as film and TV goes, yeah, I don't mind watching myself or my movies at all. Why stand-up comedy? Was that something you did in Lloyd?

No, no, not at all. Improv I did in Lloyd, and improv's definitely become my more prominent thing. I haven't done stand-up in years. I host a lot of events, but when I started doing stand-up, it was the first agency I signed with. They sort of got a glimpse of my personality

and me thinking I was funny or saying something, and it was my first agent that dared me, said, you know, you should go up and do an amateur night at Yuck Yuck's. And I was like, okay, you know, confidently. And then I, at the time, you know, you'd send an email and then you'd wait and then they'd give you your date. And I, I wrote some jokes. I remember I was terrified. I was 19 years old. And I used to have to drink like a Mickey of alcohol before getting on stage. And then I eventually, obviously had to stop doing that once I watched the tape. But yeah, I mean, I would have a lot of friends that would come out to the shows and support me.

it's terrifying and um there's also a big rush with it too like it's that catch 22 um and you know it's been years since i got up and did something like i said i host a lot of events but that that that's not stand up like hosting an event you're partially scripted i like to use my improv skills and live in the moment and interact with people but stand up i'd i'd host an event tomorrow any day of the week hosting is like you say you stick to a script you i mean you sure you're write a joke or two and you play off a couple things that are going to happen. But you've got like a very big or very good structure to what's happening when you host an event, right? And you got other people coming up and talking and whatever else going on. To be the guy on the stage and try and make people laugh,

I think we all can relate to where you get somebody who is exceptional and it is maybe one of the funest nights of your life. And then you've had the opposite where somebody gets up and just none of their jokes hit for whatever reason the audience doesn't relate or maybe your jokes just aren't funny for all I know right um but to be the guy that's got the balls to go on stage all the props to you because i tell you what i'm i'm i'm not that funny of a guy and to sit there on stage and have a hundred people or 50 people or a thousand people whatever it is stare at you man there are only so many guys that can can do that and do that well. Yeah.

No, I agree. I have so much respect for the art form and I'm a fan of it. And I enjoy doing it. And I'm not opposed to getting up and doing it again. It just really hasn't fell into my, you know, my involvement as an artist and a performer. But it's definitely, yeah, it's definitely a skill set that, I mean, takes years and years and years to master. And I think I've led towards improv more because improv has that.

performance element that I can use my acting skills, you know, and even though it's off the cuff. And a lot of the stuff you were saying in improv is just as scary. I mean, we're going up, we don't have a script. We don't have, we're taking audience suggestions. And there's moments, you know, I've been lucky enough where I'm with a company in town here where we do shows, you know, I'll be on stage four or five nights a week. And I've done cruise ship contracts. And I performed at, you know, conferences and big events and small events. And it's very true. Like, sometimes you have an audience where everything is hitting

and you're getting those big laughs and it feels good. And then you have those where it doesn't. And there's not a lot of laughs. And you're questioning yourself. And, I mean, yeah, it's crazy. I got over that once I started doing enough shows where you just go, you know what, it's not my first show. It's not going to be my last show.

And you learn from the bad ones, right? and then get better. So it thickens your skin. Going back to the stand-up then, what was the first show like when you got up there as a 19-year-old and you had a couple jokes scribbled down? The whole experience, I mean,

if I'm being brutally honest, which I will be, I was half cut. I was like on the verge of drunk where I was still, I mean, I did my set, and it went well and it was a full adrenaline rush, but I definitely had had some drainage.

And just backstage, I mean, you go backstage and they'll do like a pro-amateur night. So there'll be like seasoned guys back there, you know, who've done this a million times and your headliner and your MC and you're going up to do your three to five minutes. And yeah, I remember, you know, being backstage, you can hear the other comics going up in the rooms and, you know, the laughter through the speakers. And, yeah, you know, you go over your jokes all day and you're trying to memorize them and have a beat, but you can never prepare. for what the audience is going to give you, you know, the space.

So I remember it was a huge adrenaline rush and I loved it. And like I said, I had some friends there supporting me, which felt good. And I mean, I ended up going back and doing it again. So but yeah, I mean, the nerves, the butterflies, all those things. But like I said, I mean, at that point even, you know, I just feel like I do owe a lot to like my high school days for those stages to perform on. Even a high school musical, like you'd rehearse those things for months and then you'd sell out like a jam of 500 people, you know? So going through that and experiencing that as like a 14, 15 year old was pretty incredible to, you know, especially to transition for for me to pursue this career. Jeez, I guess I never were to thought of it like that.

But you're right. I mean, you do a play back in the day in high school. the whole high school's there or majority of them all your parents are there that's enough people to be in front of and have to perform absolutely yeah and i did that like i said i did that since since grade eight multiple times a year you know you usually do two plays a year so i felt like that definitely helped prep me for by the time i got up on stage it wasn't like my my first time being in front of an audience it was doing something different stand-up specifically i'd never done that before but um but i think i was i got quite comfortable

being in front of an audience through those high school years. Why improv? Is that your love of choice or passion of choice? Yeah, you know, like I said, stand-up popped out of nowhere. It was a dare from my improv started. I remember it was a, I mean, I took all the dramas, dramas you could take in high school.

So I remember that was like a part of the course was improv. And at the time when I first took it, I was in grade 10 and I was in class with all these great 11. and as soon as we did improv, I was sort of let loose and I remember just making these older guys in my class laughed who I wanted to like me. And now I get to use this improv, you know, as a tool to have these guys like me and befriend me and get a reputation for being, you know, the quote unquote funny guys. So that's when I first was introduced to improv and because, you know, it helped me gain friendship and sort of status. I loved it.

And then it was the same thing. The high school put together a team. And so we had a team where we did performances. I think we even did like a couple of corporate events. And that just sort of forced me, you know, at 16, 17 years old to get really comfortable. Obviously, as I grew and learned and got proper training, I mean, there's so much to learn in that art form. But when I first moved out here, I didn't do it for a couple years. And then I sort of found it again.

when it was a slower time in my film and television career and got involved with some people, met some people out here. And now it's like a main stay, one of the main things that I do in my life and help me land my most recent gig on the Sonic the Hedgehog movie. It helped you land that gig? Yeah, I mean, the role, which is very hard to explain. but essentially my role in the Sonic the Hedgehog movie was, and you'll see it at the end credits. They threw me a speaking role. My scene got cut out,

but I'm credited as bar patron, but my other credit is Onset Sonic. And what that means is they hired me because I was a veteran actor and an improviser, and I would on set read all of Sonic's dialogue for the actors on camera to react to because he's a CGI character. So the voice of Sonic is done by an actor

named Ben Schwartz. Yeah, Ben Schwartz. And he did all of his stuff in studio, right? So he flew to Vancouver twice. He did a table read that I listened to him just to sort of get his cadence and how he read the character. And then he was gone doing other things.

And they were working with him when they shot the movie. So for the three months, they shot the movie, every day on set when Sonic is in a scene, I'm there off camera saying his dialogue so then the actors have a reaction to. So you don't, it's interesting because they had like a dummy and then tennis balls because it's all visual effects. He's CGI and he's created. But the actors, James Marsden, him and I became really good friends because we spent every day together. I was essentially his co-star, even though, you know, Paramount and Hollywood really didn't want

people to know that I existed because they didn't want to ruin the illusion. And then also, obviously, James Marsden is amazing. But I had 12 days with... Yeah, for people who don't know what James Marsden is, think of Westworld, because he is fantastic in that. Well, that entire show was fantastic. Yeah, he's been one of those guys who's really nice. down-to-earth guy, but yeah, his most recent credit, he's on the show Dead to Me on Netflix, and he's been in a ton of stuff. He was Cyclops and X-Men. That's right, the old X-Men movies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He did, he played the other guy in the notebook opposite Ryan Gosling's competition. So he's super handsome, super good-looking movie star dude, right? But yeah, we, I got to work

with him a lot, but I did get, I did 12 days, and that's a specific number, and you'll know why that I got to work with Jim Carrey, which was absolutely. It was the coolest, Sean, it was, I like, it was the biggest roller coaster high I've ever been on, as we discussed before, I mean, growing up in Lloyd, I think we had a birthday party for a friend of mine where we went to all go to the May Cinema 5 at the time to watch Ace Ventura. So I grew up like a super fan of his. How many times have you seen, well, you can take the pick on Jim Carrey's movies, but dumb and dumber comes right to mind.

Ace Ventura is another one. That one's gold. But how many times you think you've watched those movies? Oh, dumb and dumber, because I remember like TBS would always play it like on those Saturdays or Sundays on TV, like just rerun after. And you can watch that as many times you want and it's still just as good as the first time. Yeah, and even to the point when I tune in and it's like halfway through, I can't. And if I land on it, I'll have to finish it, you know.

So, yeah, I'm easily 20, third. I mean, it could be up to 50 times full through. I own the DVD and, you know, throw it in on one of those lazy hangover days. Yeah, incredible. So, you know, and he hadn't done, he was sort of a mystery at the time because they just had the documentary come out of Andy and Jim about his time on. Yeah, man on the moon? Man on the moon, yeah.

So that had just come out and he hadn't done like a comedy or anything. So he was obviously a bit of a mystery and, you know, on film sets, especially that it was Paramount picture. So it's a big studio movie. You know, you got hundreds of crew and the director and even James Marsden had worked with him on Anchorman too, but hadn't seen him in years. So when he showed up, it was like this like moment, you know. And I got to be there.

It was me, the director, the producers, James. Tika Sumter, who played the female love interest to James, like his girlfriend. And then Jim comes in and we're talking about the script. And at this point, I'd establish my relationship. I mean, I auditioned for the role and the director trusted me. And we got to sit down and talk about the script we were going to shoot. And there was a moment, you know, because you're there trying to be a professional. It's Jim fucking carry.

Like, I mean, let's, let's be real with what it is going on right now. Your mind is blowing up as you stare at this man, I assume. Absolutely. And he's a tall gentleman as well, you know. Luckily, like, and I know, you know, we're going to have to do another podcast here with all these names I'm dropping. But luckily, luckily throughout my career, like, I did one day on this movie called The Big Year in 2010.

Owen Wilson and Jack Black and Steve Martin. So I spent a whole day with those three. And literally, we were the four speaking actors on the scene. So whenever we'd get breaks, they would shuffle us together. So I just got to hang out with these guys. And of course, they obviously caught on that I'm, you know, just a working actor and I'm not as famous as them. So they gave me a lot of attention and would joke around with me,

particularly Jack Black. But like, you know, so I had these moments and opportunities in my career leading up to the Jim Carrey moment. So I knew how to be a professional and handle it, but sometimes it's tougher than others. You know, some actors you work with and you might have seen them on a movie you like or TV, but you're like, you know, we're professionals

and let's get this done. And so I guess the flare kind of has worn off for me to a certain extent with certain actors, but like what you said, Jim, Jim fucking Carrie. I had to prep myself. And I had to sign NDA, like non-disclosure agreements and I couldn't talk about it. So my poor girlfriend, I'd come home after work and I'd be shaking.

And I, she's like, how was your day? And I'm like, how much time you got? You know, like I would tell her in-depth detail. And obviously it was exciting for her. And but, dude, it was a rush, you know. And it was, the whole shoot was about four months. We shot in 2018 from like end of July till end of October. And it was the best time in my life.

And then I was in Los Angeles. in February right before COVID hit and I went to the premiere and then I was meeting up with the director and now I think it was just announced like two days ago. I don't know when this episode May 28th, May 28th they announced Sonic the Hedgehog 2. I assume you're going to be suiting back up. I mean, we all assume I was texting with the director and you know, he's become a good friend of mine and they obviously loved the work I did. at least that's what I gathered. So, yeah, I hope, I don't know what things look like post-COVID for being on set.

So it might be a long time from now. But yeah, my fingers are crossed that I get to go revisit that job again. Well, here's to hoping you do. Now, you've got to go back because I interrupted, I think, or we changed subject. But you said, Jim Carrey walks on the set the first day. Everybody's sitting around doing a script reading. What happens from there? one of the coolest moments in my life.

So I'm sitting there and I hadn't met him. He obviously, you know, he flew in right before. And, you know, for those that have seen the movie, he's in this elaborate red suit. We were shooting him in his pod was one of the first scenes we shot. So there was some script stuff. And I had knowledge, the director and one of the producers came up to me and James and asked us, hey, do you have any idea?

for some dialogue, you know? So James and I, we'd been shooting the movie for like two or three weeks. So, so, you know, it was, I was very comfortable on set. James and I had a rapport and a relationship, the director, obviously, through pre-production and stuff. So we were all comfortable with each other, but now Jim's coming in there. So we had some ideas for the script, and they were essentially like, we're going to pitch these ideas to Jim and see what he likes and what wants to happen.

So, and I'm representing Sonic, right? because even though I'm not the voice of him, but on set, I am him. Sonic, yeah, absolutely. So he sits down and we start chatting about the scene, and I had had this one joke about his suit. It was going to be James Marzin's line to him about, nice of you to stop by on your way to Comic-Con

because he was in this sort of his nerdy suit or whatever, and it was improvised. And I remember everyone was chatting, and I had a moment, you know, as much as I gave you the background, you know, here's 15 years in this business. I've worked with people, but I had this moment, like, I didn't belong there. I'm like, these are all these Hollywood people.

Like, what the hell am I doing here? I had to remind myself, like, no, Scott, like, you earned your spot here. Like, there's a reason you're here, you know? And so I was holding back and all these people were chatting. And then I had something that I wanted to say. I wanted to pitch this line of dialogue. And I saw, like, a producer said something. I think even James said something.

and Jim kind of politely dismissed it. Or, you know, we're just kind of racking our brains. And finally, there was a break in the conversation. And I said, I go, what about or something like that? And all of a sudden, I could feel all the eyes on me, including Jim. And my heart's beating out of my chest. And so I kind of pitched this idea. I'm like, what if you say this and you react this way?

And I'll never forget it as long as I live. He looked, he kind of chuckled. And then he pointed at me and did it in a very Jim Carrey way. And he's like, that's funny. And sort of, obviously he knew my role in it and was like, we need to give this guy and started sort of pumping my tires. And dude, you could have, you could have shot me in the head. Like I was on cloud nine the rest of the day.

And he came up to me later. This is our first day working together. I had 11 more days of him. But he puts his hands on my shoulders and he looks at me and he's in his full costume. And he found that I was also like a comedian improviser. And he goes, comedians. He goes, what does he, I don't want to misquote him. He goes, we're a different breed, you and I, and sort of like pushed me away. And once again, like, I don't remember, like,

we were shooting out in Burnaby and I live in Kitzelan, it's about a 30-minute drive. I wouldn't remember my drive's home because I would just be on another planet. It sounds dangerous, but I, you know what I mean? Like, that feeling was just, it was so overwhelming and exciting. And, and then, yeah, I mean, that was day one. And then I had... You had 12 days of Christmas morning. 12 days, exactly, dude. That's the best way to describe it.

Yeah. Every night you're going to bed trying to fall asleep so you can wake up and go back to work. And it's those moments. I'm sure you've had guests on your podcast before for, you know, when you have a job like that, you're just like, this is not real. And they're paying me like really well to do this job. And this is like, I would pay, I would give up everything to do this job. And that's why the like hint of the sequel to do it again gets so exciting.

But as this industry goes, I mean, I've had so many ups and downs, highs and lows. And you take everything with a grain of salt because things move and change so fast that nothing's guaranteed. And one day you're on top of the mountain and the next day you're at the bottom starting again. But yeah, I'll never, you know, it was so fresh. I mean, that was 2018. So that was the highlight of my career. You work with Jim Carrey 12 days. The first day you have, he gives you the point, pumps your tires.

What happens in the final 11? I mean, some of the days were business as usual. I mean, you wouldn't want to, I have a picture with him. I've posted on my website and you might have seen it. I had it on my Instagram as well. But I remember even getting that picture because I wanted it so bad. I was like, I need to have this memory. but even there's sort of this, I feel like a big part of my job was just that professionalism

and how you handle yourself. Because trust me, I had improv friends that were so excited and I'm sure wanted that job. And I think that, you know, they would have did a great job. But I know there's certain people out there that it's like, it's just that that level of ease that you have to, you know, that was almost half the battle. So, you know, some days were just work or just like, you had to work and I just wanted to be professional and deliver his lines. Some days were I'd barely see him, but we'd have a small interaction or whatever.

And then there was a couple times, I got to eat. We were shooting in the studio and me, him and James, and a representative for Paramount were there. And all of a sudden, we like, the conversation led into talking about his personal life. And I felt like I was Barbara Walters because here I have this, like, icon two feet away. And I mean, you can Google all this. It's information that's out there. But he was going into detail about like losing his ex-girlfriend to suicide and getting sued. And there was a lawyer who I think now was going after Trump that everyone was praising, but that was the lawyer

that went after him. And anyways, it was, you know, divulging his his personal life. And I remember just feeling, I mean, it was pretty intense to try to, I think it was. I think it was. it would be difficult at times just making small talk with him because I remember he talked about how LeBron James just moved in as his neighbor. And then, you know, I'm trying to counter that with telling him that my girlfriend and I have a silverfish problem in our apartment. You know, like it's like, how do you relate to someone like that? What do you think him and LeBron talked about? He said he brought over something, maybe like a housewarming gift or something, but I think it was a small exchange. I think, you know, in my experience, whenever I've seen, like, big celebrities interact with

each other, unless they have a deeper friendship, it's always, like, very surface, small talk, appreciation for each other. But his other neighbor is Ewan McGregor, and they did a movie together, and he's from, like, the Star Wars movies and stuff like that. But, I mean, this got, you know, I did get a sense of him. There's definitely a sense of, like, loneliness. Like, he had a bodyguard, for good reason because I think in the past, like, people have claimed that, you know, he's touched them or hurt them or whatever, and then there's lawsuits. And he had his own hair and makeup team. He had his own trailer.

And usually when he was done, man, he was in a tinted out SUV and he was either off to the airport to fly home or he was, he had like the penthouse suite of, like, an amazing hotel in downtown Vancouver. So a private guy, I sensed a bit of loneliness. which you can get, you know, the guy's been making $20 million a movie for the last two decades. So it's, yeah, it's interesting when you get to witness that up close and hear them speak on such a personal level. Being in that industry, is that something you think you'd want? You think about it.

Like, everybody thinks they want that. And Jim carries an interesting case study because he's got a lot of, uh, documentary footage about him talking about how we're all just playing a part, right? He's playing Jim Carrey. Who are you playing kind of thing, right? Which makes you really think deep, I guess. And hearing you talk about him, you know, he sense a bit of loneliness. Geez, you got to think, he ain't walking down the street.

He walks down the street. Everybody knows Jim Carrey. He can't go anywhere without people knowing Jim Carrey. So it's not like, hey, Scott, you want to go for a nice bite to eat after? work today. Let's go hang out. Because, I mean, probably just get mobbed by 100 people. What's the fun in that?

Or maybe he enjoys it. I don't know. Yeah, no, you nailed it. You nailed it. I remember one particular day, you know, James Marsden, who's famous in his own right, but not as famous. Him and I would go to like, there's a restaurant, I don't know if Lloyd or

Edmont. It's called Joey. Joey's. It's like a bird rolls, whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we went there a bunch ate dinner and we, you know, you'd go out and he'd wear a hat. This is James Mars. He'd wear a hat or whatever and sometimes we'll get recognized, but for the most part was very quiet. And I remember one particular day, James asked Jim, like, Jim, have you tried any restaurants out here? And Jim goes, oh, no, no, no, no, no. He's like, I have my chef cook. And James, you could see James,

who like I said, is famous in his own right and has this was like, I could see him thinking like, oh yeah, private chef, that would be awesome. It's like so incredible to see the range of that. But no, absolutely. You nailed it. Like he wouldn't go out. He would get absolutely mobbed. And so I think that's where the loneliness comes in.

Because I think after he worked, he would go home, you know, to probably run his lines. He had his assistant who I think has been with him for years. But I would imagine it also becomes hard to trust people when you're that rich and that famous because people always want something from you. So to answer your question, and oddly enough, my therapist asked me the same question, like, would you want that life? Like, would you trade that? And before she finished, I said, no, like, absolutely not. Like, yeah, there's the pros of, like, I'm a multimillionaire and my neighbor's LeBron James and I, you know, but when you see the downside of it, it's something, you know, I wouldn't want. I'd much prefer to. I'd much prefer to

have a more easy going life, which is just an eye-opener for some people, because I think you wanted it until you have it. Well, I just think you got to go down to the store for a jug of milk, whatever it is, coming from a guy with three kids, that happens more often than I. Yeah. But you think you go to shoppers, you go to Walmart, you go to wherever you get to, you know, your jug of milk. If you're Jim Carrey and you go to butt fuck nowhere in North America,

America, well, the world, you're going to get spotted. Like, I don't see how you can just walk in. And at the beginning, I bet you that's got to be a lot of fun, like a pretty cool, like, confidence thing, right? Like, that you're that popular. But eventually, all you want to do is just buy the jug of milk, don't you? Like, just, I just don't want to buy the jug of milk and leave. Have you watched the last dance at the Michael Jordan documentary at all?

Of course, yes. Yeah. When he's sitting in the hotel room and it's just him and he just wants some alone time. I'm like, oh, man, that looks lonely. Because everywhere he goes, he's got media chasing him and like 100 people just hounded him. I'm like, there is a price to be in that good. Yeah, absolutely. And I've seen, you know, he's another great example.

I mean, there's a handful of people, Michael Jordan, Jim Carrey included that are so famous that, like, yeah, you can't do anything. You need to have this team around you to, as you said, go get a jug of milk or you're signing autograph. And people always want something. I saw it at the premiere too. This was just in February, but like I watched him go over to this crowd that had been waiting there for maybe a date. Maybe they camped overnight, but just to get autographs.

And he's just getting this stuff shoved in his face and he needed a bodyguard. And that, to me, when it gets that intense, like, it's scary. And the people that handle it like himself, I mean, he's been, he's been handling. it for for decades but yeah like I said once you witness it firsthand and you and you meet these people and they're just these normal people I mean you don't wish that on anyone and and then you learn to respect like the word I was looking for earlier was I felt like half my job on that set was etiquette just to have really good etiquette to when I'm called to do my job to do a good job to be reliable but that was like 90% of my job was just to be professional have great etiquette and

you know, which you'd take into anything, but I just guess when you're working with people of that caliber. Yeah. Well, and if you can throw a little self-restrain, that'd go a long way. Absolutely. Right? I mean, it's still Jill, Jim fucking Gary. But I mean, at the same token, he's just another guy and he just wants to do his part of, you know, hearing you talk about how Sonic the Hedgehog is filmed, I assume this goes further on than just Sonic, but I just always assumed, Jim Carrey's on Sonic, so he's there for the duration. But that isn't the case. He's there for a short bit. He walks in. He is the man. He comes in. Everything's structured around with him. And boom, he comes in, does what he's got to do and gets out. Yeah. I mean, there's, because they

have a thing, like, so that would be like a studio movie. So a lot of the big studios, like that was Paramount Pictures. There's Universal Studios. There's 20th Century Fox. The budgets for that are astronaut. It's like all the Marvel movies, Star Wars. These are huge budget movies. And when you, you know, when you're dealing with these actors who are getting paid astronomical amounts of money to do that, I mean, they're also flying out. All the actors, you know, Tika, James. They would, James is there for a lot because he's seen most in the movie besides Sonic. But all of his days off, I mean, he would go promote another movie. Or I remember all of them went to Comic-Con when Comic-Con wouldn't go away.

So any days off we had from filming, a lot of them were on an airplane going somewhere else to do something else. Some of them, James started shooting Dead to Me, the Netflix show, before we finished shooting Sonic. So his last two weeks of Sonic on his days off, he was flying to Los Angeles to shoot, dead to me. And, you know, as an actor, as myself, who goes, you know, long periods of time without working, and every actor will go through that. I mean, that's like the position you want to be in where, you know, when you're that busy, you're like, oh, that's excellent. But yeah, no, they're definitely not there for the duration.

Jim, we shot some of Jim's stuff in August, and then he wasn't back again until, like, late September. What was it like being a CGI character? it was cool like you know obviously until I saw the movie or the trailer I didn't so I wouldn't have like the mocap or anything because that's something totally different

so literally how they shot Sonic was they had a dummy the size of him so James knew his structure his eye line of what he was looking at and then they would so we'd shoot a scene with the dummy then they'd remove the dummy then they'd put literally tennis balls and these like

because they're like visual effects people and then we'd shoot with just a blank with nothing there so we would every scene with Sonic they'd have to do three takes like that and like I said so when you watch the movie there's like a bunch of scenes in a truck and Sonic's in the front seat

and James Marsen's driving during those scenes I'm laying in the back of the truck crumpled up under like a blanket so you can't see me, saying Sonic's dialogue to James for his reactions. So that's just an example of like

of my role of the whole movie. Was laying under a blanket in the backseat talking through lines? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's a little behind. See, it's bursting the bubble. And this is why Paramount like, I got the credit. I got paid. But it's like, you know, I'm not,

even though I felt for three months like I was, was Sonic the Hedgehog. Even the publicist came up to me one day and she said, you know, Scott, you're doing such a great job. Everyone loves you, yada, yada. But she's like, just so you know, Paramount doesn't want it to seem that your job existed, essentially.

So, which is, you know, it's a little heartbreaking. I mean, having the experience I did, totally worth it. Like I said, they treated me like gold. And it was such a special, unique job. But for the most part, like, it's true because for people that watch these movies, it does ruin the illusion to know that, you know, even if you watch interviews with James or Jim,

like I'm not mentioned, he alludes to me in one interview, but he was sort of instructed not to do that. And I think he felt really bad because he's like, you know, he would tell me you're such a crucial part and thank you so much. And so it's one of those like kind of thankless jobs. And the people that were really, you know, awesome, the director, all the producers, James, the other actors, they were so friendly those are the ones who count you know for the rest of the world but of course there's that ego battle where it's like no i'm sonic dead yeah i mean uh but that's just what yeah that's just why the hell would they care i'm just i think like i'm thinking out here and i'm just going when i watch sonic i'm not going to sit here and think they had oh they had a they actually

had a dude dressed up as sonic and he was a tiny little man doing that part like I think it's crazy and cool to hear how they actually did Sonic. I think that's better story than just saying that part never happened. Well, and don't get me wrong, because Ben Schwartz, who when you watch the movie, that's the voice you hear. He also, he did like 20 days in a studio doing all of Sonic's dialogue. They put facial sensors on him so they would get his performance. So, I mean, you know, he is Sonic the Hedgehog.

He put in a lot of work. If anything, my job was so James and Jim and their performances were authentic, so they had something to play off of instead of just, you know. But your Sonic stunt double. Exactly. Exactly. Right. Like, I mean, I don't see how it's, I guess, hey, maybe I'm one of the anomalies that

this doesn't bother. I think it's, I always think in movies and production and anything for entertainment, the effort that goes into making it as good as possible is always crazy to me how much efforts put into making sure every tease cross eyes dotted to give you the best chance of success like to have you laying in the back under blankets talking through the line so he has somebody to talk to I think is awesome yeah no it is and I mean it's becoming more of a thing because you don't see a ton of movies I think the reference they used was actually James Marsden had done another movie called hop where there's an Eastern Bunny who's CGO.

Yes. And the Bunny's voice is Russell Brand, but James never met Russell Brand because he did it. He recorded his lines. Because Russell Brand didn't want to lay in the back underneath the blanket. Exactly, exactly. And even then he said they didn't have someone like me

who auditioned and had the skill set to do that. They just had someone on set who read. And other, I haven't seen these movies yet and people are going to be mad. But Guardians of the Galaxy, I think Bradley Cooper and another actor. I know.

Are you kidding me? I haven't been like a superhero guy. And you know, I also watch movies from a different lens. And trust me, I'm a huge fan of film and television and I watch a lot of shows, especially being quarantined.

But yeah, the Marvel ones I haven't, they're on a list that I need to get through. Well, I'm a DC gay. I'm a Batman guy. But, Oh, this is going to stir.

I'm going to have buddies texting me because they, we love to get in this debate. I can't figure, are you a D.C. guy or you're a Marvel guy? Well, see, and for, I mean, I have my, I'm not a superhero guy. I'm not a superhero guy, but my, I mean, one of my favorite movies all time, obviously, is the Dark Night. And that trilogy, I think, was the best. Christopher Nolan. Superhero movie. Incredible. Incredible.

So what I'll say is, the Marvel universe, what they did there, are all the, the movie's great, no, no, there's some junk in there, there's some filler. But what they did in general is like epic. And I never understand why the DC universe didn't just copy that format and start from the beginning and know they're going to be 10 years out until they get to Superman and Batman and whatever else they want to do. It never makes sense to me because they have such a story arc they can play there. Yeah. And similar, like you said, there's a formula there where they have just a exciting, you know, characters and storylines. And, you know, it's interesting, dude, because just talking about earlier,

even how my role was sort of swept under the rug to the general public. Because studio movie, it's a business, right? So it's all about making money. So it's like, I remember Sonic was up against at the box office, the Birds of Prey, which is the DC movie with Harley Quinn or Margo Robbie. And they were, you know, they had high hopes that Sonic was going to beat it, A, because Sonic pertained to more families and stuff, but the Birds of Prey movie,

they also knew that Suicide Squad was a bit of a flop. And that's what I mean. So it's all this behind the scenes where you see, and I've always said this about my role in this, is back at Holy Rosary High School, performing in The Wizard of Oz and Bye Bye Birdie and all these plays, I was in love with the art.

I was a kid. I loved the artistry. I love the sense of performing, moving out here and training and taking classes and working on all these plays, you fall in love with the art. And then as I grow up and I started booking these roles, it's like you realize the business.

And there's definitely been moments in my career where the business has taken over. And when the business takes over sometimes, it's depressing because it's like, it's a tough business. So it's like when the business is treating you well, it's great. But when it's a slow time or you feel like you got, screwed over by this and that, it's like, it can be the worst. And knowing the business, that's why it makes it harder for me to sometimes be a fan or an audience member just because

I'm in it. So I see things that not everyone else gets to see and I get to experience things. And there's pros and cons that come with that. I was going to say that you doing what you did on Sonic might create you a career in doing that because CGI is becoming well, is a giant thing. Right? Like just think of all the movies that use CGI.

There's partly movies that don't use CGI anymore. Yeah, and I mean, it's probably going to grow into a bigger, there was actually some jokes on set of some of the producers saying I was going to become, I don't know why I am forgetting his name, but the dude that did Gallum. Yes. Andy Circus.

I was actually, that's exactly who I was thinking of. I'm like, like, you get talented enough where people just go, we need a guy who can sit and do this. Oh, you need that guy. You become the guy. Oh, that trust me, Sean, the thought has crossed my mind where I'm like, you know, dealing with the studio people. Let's say, like you said, a movie gets made that's like Sonic and they're like,

oh, we need someone in that, like exactly what you said. We need a guy. Who's the guy that did it in the Sonic movie? Oh, this guy. And then, so I'm hoping, you know, when COVID's all over that, you know, I'm ready to go to work. And hopefully there's a lot of movies that need to be shot that need that. And, you know, like I said, I mean, it's, it is a unique gig, but I had so much fun and the people you get to meet. And they essentially, I was treated like a number one on a $100 million studio movie, which for any actor, you know, like, how exciting that would be.

Like, it's, it was incredible. So, yeah, I mean, I hope I get to do the sequel. and I would absolutely be the new Andy circus of performing with CGI characters. Well, I just, you know, you are doing what you want to do. And when you get to do what you want to do, time just seems to fly by, right? It doesn't feel like work. You're showing up to set with superstar guys. And whether that happens with you being the, you know, you said,

do you want to be Jim Carrey and have that lifestyle? not really but you could be the faceless guy who plays a part in all the big movies and makes a living doing that and that's just as cool of a story absolutely that's what great books are made on yeah well yeah and i you know i'll have a new york times bestseller with all things good you know what's cool man is i've i've barely gotten a chance we spoke before we you started recording about i uh i did another podcast with a guy in vancouver where i told this story but i've barely had a chance to tell this story. And I wouldn't have been able to tell it before the movie came out. But yeah, I think it is an interesting story. And not too many people got to hear about it

besides, you know, my close friends and family that knew I did the gig. Like a lot of people don't even know that I'm in the movie or unless they saw, you know, because they ended up throwing me a role. They like, come on, we got to give Scott a speaking role. And so they threw me in a bar scene which got cut. It's on the deleted scenes. But yeah, unless you stick around for the credits, which most people do. There's like, yeah, you'd have no clue that I was part of that movie. Growing up, did you have a saga where you like the rest of us and had a saga? Yes, in fact, I remember for my brother's birthday, my mom took me to pick out a gift and I

picked out Sonic 3. I think it was at like the home hardware on, off like 50th Avenue or whatever. And so, yeah, we had, my brother's a big gamer. even still to this day. And so, yeah, we played, we had, we had Sega Genesis. We had N64. So, yeah, we played Sonic. I now get to tell people that I had, you know,

growing up, Sonic the Hedgehog in video game world was, right up there was Zelda probably from Nintendo, right? Like, I mean, Sonic was, and still is the shit. Like, it was awesome. Saga was awesome. Yes. And the fact the guy from Lloyd got to play Sonic, That's pretty cool.

Thanks, man. Yeah, I, like I said, to this day, I still go back. I had to like, you know, you kind of have to trick your mind to sort of move on in a good way and have other things, you know, absorb. Because there's also this humble thing because where I perform and stuff too, there's, it can be this competitive thing where it's like you don't always want to talk about it or that's why my poor girlfriend just got earfuls of it or close friends. Because you eventually want to let it go and, you know, that's the exciting thing about being an actor.

You know, you get to move on to the next gig. And before Sonic, I had, you know, something I, earlier in my career and something that I figured ties in pretty well to your podcast and stuff was one of my first sort of wow moments in my career was I got to do Slapshot 3. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which the trip. Go ahead. Oh, I was just going to say. there was a thing on Twitter the other day that was talking about

what's the greatest sports movie of all time and for fairness we're not going to put slap shot in because we know what everybody's answer was going to be and I'm like well that doesn't that kind of defeats the purpose of the bracket like put slap shot in it's going to wipe the floor with everything because it is unreal Paul Newman is

just fantastic and the Hanson brothers I mean they have a coming out party right like I mean it's just that movie I would say gets watched on every bus trip known to hockey. I don't know. Every team watches at least once, if not two to three times a year, I would say. Absolutely. Yeah, it's the staple.

And even though it was made in the late 70s, I remember even though I didn't play hockey, I was around a lot of friends. And we had some friends of ours that, you know, I went on the bus trips and stuff like that. And that was the first time I saw, like my cousin, who was a hockey player, he played junior, played for the Kindersley Clippers and the Yorkton Terriers. And I remember he's the one that showed me the movie.

And I'll never forget it to this day, just being a fan of hockey. And even though it was like an old 70s movie, it was like still just full entertaining the whole way through. You know, and then you fast forward. I know they did the second one. And the second one, obviously, is this straight to DVD. it had, I think, Gary Bucy and Stephen Baldwin, and you're sort of like, so when the third one came around, it's like, you know, I knew we weren't making the original. In fact, going back to like this

being a business, I knew that this was strictly like, well, let's wrap this trilogy up, cash grab, you know, but it was Universal Studios and it was all these things. And I just remember auditioning for it because this was very early in my career. I just finished the dirt bike movie with Corbyn, and it was, I think, 2008. I auditioned for it. And I got, it and I remember just combining, you know, my love for hockey and then acting. And now I'm doing both. Like, I'm on set and we, you know, I had a stunt double who did most of my on-ice stuff that I wasn't part of, but there was a lot of times that we were on ice. I'd have to get gear. And then I got two chiefs jerseys. One of them signed by all the Hanson brothers. And of course, they were in

the movie because they're this sort of novelty, nostalgia. They were all fun guys. And then You know, they brought in Doug Gilmore and Mark Messier. We got to hang out with those guys for a day or two. And I mean, yeah, to have that as one of my experiences, you know, just going back, it was like that was just such a wow, cool moment that I'll never forget. Like I said, I still have the jersey. And then I ended up meeting one of my close friends, Tyler Johnston. And we've done a couple projects together since.

And Tyler went on to play Stewart and Letterkenny. Yeah. And Ladder Kenny, yeah. Which I think most listeners know what show that is. Actually, I was thinking, you know, when you sent your bio to me, I was looking through it, you've worked with some of the biggest icons in Canadian film TV. And the guys I'm thinking of is that show, Letter Kenny is huge. I mean, he's one of the, what, main characters, I would say.

Yeah, not the two main guys, but he's still. one of the main reoccurring characters. Then you did Bubbles and Fubbar. I worked with the guys who played, sorry, Bubbles and not Dean, but Terry.

Terry, thank you. And I'm pretty sure kids today have, well, maybe they know, maybe they know trailer park boys? Because that was huge when we were in high school. And Fubar came out in like 2002,

2002. Yeah. Those are iconic films, man. For us, like we talked about you and I being the same age. I mean, that was right up our alley. Yeah, we were at the perfect age for trailer park boys. I remember I started watching in grade 11, my brother and some of his friends were watching it and I caught a glimpse of it.

And I'm just like, this show is incredible. And then Fubar, I remember watching the movies shortly after that. And so, yeah, it was like, I was a fan. And, you know, obviously growing up in Lloyd and having friends that were, you know, a bit more hardcore fans to me. So I, in 2010, I think the Olympics just happened in Vancouver and I was bartending. So I actually bartended across the street from the gold medal game. It was one of the greatest times of my life. Like, that's a whole other, we're going to have to do this again, Sean.

The stories are spilling out of me. But so that was an amazing time. And then shortly after that, I booked this movie that was shooting in Calgary. Me and this other guy were the two first cast. And we were playing these college students that entered this LARPing tournament. And I had read the script so I knew the characters, but I didn't know the other actors they were casting. LARPING? LARPING is live action role playing.

So it's like they've done a few. What was the movie, role models? You can tell I'm getting old. Yeah, no, for sure, for sure. I trust me, I got educated. Lucky enough, on screen, believe it or not, most of the roles I play, you know, are these nerdy, techie guys.

So I'd learn so much about nerd culture and things like that. So yeah, I landed this role. The movie was shooting in Calgary, and it must have been like a month before we went to shoot. There was a role of this character named Derek who was like the bad guy. He was our college professor.

And they're like, yeah, we got Mike Smith. And Mike Smith is known is Mike Bubbles Smith from the trailer part Poison. I guess he was super excited to do the movie because he'd never played a character outside of being bubbles and he got an opportunity to do that. And yeah, I mean, at that time, it was just like, I was so excited. It was my first time shooting outside of Vancouver

because Slapshot and a lot of stuff I'd done was shot in Vancouver. So they flew up to Calgary. I stayed in a hotel for like five weeks and they hired another actor named Brian Possein. He's a stand-up comedy comedian that he played like one of the good guys. And then Dave Lawrence, who plays Terry and Fubar, those guys are all from Calgary. That movie was shot in Calgary. And so they got him in on the movie too.

And it was an absolute right. It was a comedy, so it was very loose on set. And I mean, Mike Smith, whose bubbles, like, without his glasses on, people don't really recognize him or people would come up to him and be like, hey, you kind of look like bubbles. And he would either, you know,

fuck around with them or say whatever. But he just knew everyone, dude. Every Canadian city, I mean, he's a Canadian icon. So he got us, we went to a flames game and got to hang out with all the flames afterwards. And he knew every night. Like, so I partied with this guy for four weeks. And then later I went to one of his live shows in Seattle,

and I brought a bunch of buddies. And he got us a hotel room with, you know, that's where I met Ricky and Julian, because they would, they do a live show. Right. And they traveled it. Yeah.

They traveled. They did Europe and everything. I think they had a Netflix special. So we got to see that show and we partied with them. And honestly, I'll have to, this is the autobiography book I'll do later. I mean,

the stories from that are, I'll remember forever. But he was so nice I mean, I was 23, 24 years old. The other one of my castmates was 19, and he would take us out. And, you know, he didn't have to do that. He could have ignored us or did his own thing,

but he took us out, he partied with us, he treated us like gold, and we had an absolute blast. I stayed in contact with him a few years after. I haven't spoken to him in years, but he was such a nice dude. And then, yeah, for him to get me and all my buddy's tickets to go watch a show in Seattle.

And we got to meet, Ricky and Julian and, you know, we got to smoke and drink with them. And, oh, dude, it's a moment I'll cherish forever. And the Fubar thing, they were doing Fubar 2 when we were doing the movies. So they were promoting it. So I got to go to the Fubar 2 premiere in Calgary. I think it was during their film festival. And they had a shotguning competition.

And this was back in my day, you know, my earlier 20s when I was a bit better. But I won the shotgun competition. I don't think I got a prize or anything, but just the pride I felt. You got mad respect. Mad respect. Yes. And I was never, I always didn't, I didn't think I was that, but yeah, I'll never forget that moment.

So not to toot my own horn, but yeah, dude, that whole experience. And once again, just highs and lows, like, I know we're going over my career highlights. And trust me, there's been a lot of these, these experiences lasted a few months or sometimes a few weeks. And then it's not always like this. You know what I mean? These are, this is the highlight real. A lot of times in acting, it's, you know, waiting around.

What are some of the lows then, Scott? You've alluded to it's the highs and the lows, the highs and the lows. And we've talked about a couple of the highs, some of the really highs. What, I think, I think what the highs and lows relates to anything in life. It's, if you can remain even keel, not too high at the high, not too low at the low, It's probably the best way to be, right? You got to celebrate the wins, but you can't celebrate them for too long

because you've got to keep pushing forward. But what have been some of the lows then? Oh, yeah. I totally agree with you. I mean, when you're chasing, it almost feels like a dream you're chasing. And I definitely ran into, well, yeah, a bunch. I mean, off the top of my earlier in my career

when I landed these movies and I quit my job, I mean, I failed math 10, like, You know, I wasn't really, I was this performer. This is, you know, the left brain, right brain kind of thing. So math was never a thing. So, and I didn't have a ton of guidance. You know, my parents weren't living here. I was still super young.

So when I got those first couple paychecks, like I went to Mexico. I went to Vegas. I would take limos home from the bar. So that money, what I'm getting at is I blew through that money really quick to the point where it's like, oh, I'm, you know, I'm not working. I don't have a job. I'm going to get this credit card. And then your ego inflates because you're like, I'm a movie star.

I'm a straight to DVD movie star, you know? I'm going to ride this out. And then all of a sudden it's like, no, now I haven't worked in six months. I'm in debt. I'm, you know, I'm renting this place. And I was single through most of this too. So I just sort of had buddies. I was friends with a bunch of buddies that were in bands.

And we were living in basement suites. And, you know, it wasn't this, this lavish life that it's all played out to be. So I had a big learning curve there. You know, obviously there was a lot of booze. You know, drugs and alcohol were plentiful. And there was a moment actually after Sonic just last year. I took a year off booze as a personal and professional thing. But I would say a big part of that was how that Sonic gig was so high.

And I think all these movies, you know, slap shot. to the movie I did with Bubbles to Sonic. It's like a big summer camp. So you're in this moment and everything is incredible and you want to be doing this day in and day out. You wish this was your job for 20 years, the same job, right? And then it just ends. And then you're left picking up the pieces to start all over again.

You know, then you've got to start auditioning again. I've had like, I don't know, thousands of job interviews, aka auditions. You know, most people hate that thing. Like, once you've got the job, it's like, look, I can do this, you know, hire me. So I think alcohol, you know, came into my life. And it was used in a celebratory way, which it's still, you know, it still is. But there was a while there where it was like, oh, I'm not drinking to celebrate anymore. I'm drinking because I'm, you know, I'm sad.

Like I'm like, I want to go back to the high, you know, I want to get there again. So, yeah, that was a big learning curve. And yeah, man, those times, you know, I've been the richest and the poorest I've been. And I know a lot of people probably have a similar situation, but just the way these gigs work or these jobs where it's like, you know, one day you're in credit card debt and you owe taxes or whatever. And then you book one movie and you can pay all that off. And if you're smart with it, you can, you know, so I've definitely had to learn,

I guess, the hard way. I wouldn't trade anything for the world. But, yeah, off the top of my head, those are definitely some of the, some of the, of the lows. I mentioned therapy earlier, you know, for a, but not just specifically to the professional life, but just the personal life, like as an actor, you got to be in touch with every emotion. So in order to bring those and have them be believable on screen, you want to make sure that you've dealt with some shit in your life. So if there's anything lingering that you feel like is unhealthy, you know, to bring it up in your art, you got to get into a therapy room. You

got to sort that stuff out so then you can celebrate those emotions on screen and through storytelling. But yeah, so I've definitely, like I said, after the highlight reel, there's definitely been real shit in my life like anyone that just struggle. But I do look at this as a career and I'm still like in the midst of it. So I hope it, like I don't want to retire ever, you know, I want to keep this going. So and it's always evolving. you're always learning. Well, you've said some interesting things. When you mentioned doing a second one, there's no choice now because we haven't even got

to half the stuff I have written down that I was thinking about talking about, which is a good thing. It's a good thing. But you take a full year off drinking. How hard was that? It was hard, dude. It was super hard. You know, especially, I don't know, guy, you're my age. We grew up in the same hometown.

Like, drinking was a big part of growing up. It's a big part of hockey culture. It's a big part of the film and television industry. And, you know, I made a commitment. I was lucky. My girlfriend did it with me, so I had someone to support me. But as soon as I made the commitment and I was ready, I actually did it after an ice fishing trip with a bunch of buddies

that I went to high school with back in Lloyd. And that was sort of my last drink was with them. And all of them believe me because they knew that I would commit to it and do it. But I think a lot of them, you know, it's funny because when you start talking to people about it, you get different reactions. You get like, now we're in our 30s, so it's a lot of positive, like, good for you. And then you can tell a couple people are questioning themselves like, oh, maybe I should, you know, take a break. And, you know, to each their own, everyone's got their own reason.

But yeah, man, it was tough. It was, you know, and I did everything social. I like I didn't avoid parties. I didn't avoid things. Like it wasn't, everyone's got a different level. I don't feel like I was this hardcore addict, but I just felt like I had a unique relationship with it.

And, you know, I remember this isn't the collided, but I went to a wedding and Lloyd. Last summer, I think it was like a year ago, and I wasn't drinking. And I didn't know who this guy was, but he was some guy at the wedding. And this is, I laugh at it because it just does remind me a bit of Lloyd Minster,

but I got a water from the bartender, and this guy sees me, and he's like, what do you drinking water for? What are you pregnant or whatever? I remember laughing, and it's like, I'm not going to go into a story with a stranger about why I quit off the booze. But yeah, I mean, so there's that social pressure, right? Which, as I said, I think that's leveled off as you get older, but it still can be hard in social situations, even just, you know, having that drink.

I've never smoked cigarettes, but I'd imagine it's the same thing of like, there's a social element to it and drinking very much has it. But, you know, I would go to bars and watch game and I would order like a ginger beer or a Diet Coke and and still be, you know, a part of that. So I faced through it. I learned a lot. And I what was what was some of the things that came out of not drinking for a year that were positive? Because I assume there would be for myself, I understand that if you have a night of drinking, the next day you're not functioning the greatest and coming from having three young kids when you're not functioning the greatest they can sense that and you're quicker to anger quicker to have temper flare-ups you name it

you're not as motivated i can go on the list but when uh i find it very interesting a full year that's something um i did a month i did a month about a year ago and then i did it i've done it twice since and when I did a month, people thought I was nuts for doing 30 days without drinking. I remember tons of people. I'm like, it's 30 days. I'm not swearing it off for life. I'm not going and joining a, I don't know, whatever, a society where we don't ever partake again. I'm just, it's 30 days.

And people thought that was absolutely crazy. A year, years, hey, that's a significant amount of time. But also in a year's time, you wouldn't have the mornings where you get up and, you know, if you were out until three in the morning because you were hanging out, that's one thing. That's, that's, that's on you. But you don't have the mornings or the afternoons or anything where it's been four days in row and you haven't got anything accomplished. I'm curious what a year of no drinking looked like or felt like.

Yeah, well, I did exactly what you did. I would take a month off at a time. And in that, you know, I learned a little bit, but I knew I needed something more substantial. Also, just a little like back, like you mentioned your kids. and being married. Like, I have a long-term girlfriend. We're coming up on five years, but I don't have kids, never been married.

I've mostly been single throughout my career. And even just being out here in a bigger city, and when I was doing live comedy events, I hosted my own show for the better part of 10 years, doing improvs. Right away, you'd befriend the bartenders. So the other part was like, I was doing the show Monday night every Monday for eight years,

and I would have a bar tap. Sometimes when you're doing live, comedy, they would want to pay you in booze. Yeah, instead of, instead of giving you money, they're like, hey, is it cool if we just give you like, you know, can we give me a flat of Pilsner? Is that cool, man? Yeah, dude. And any time you're like, especially in that event, like, you're going out there and you're entertaining these people. And a lot of these people, because you're doing it at a bar or a drinking establishment, these people are drunk. So in order to even tolerate them,

you're like, I'm going to drink too. And then it becomes this party. And don't get me wrong in my early to mid-20s, like, it was the best. Like, it was awesome. Like, you know, I'd perform on a Monday every Tuesday. I was so hung over. You get up, you do it all over again. My, you know, I'd obviously, I'd have auditions, but my responsibilities were, were limited, you know, and even off doing these movies and stuff, like you shoot it, you work your ass off all week. You're shooting 14-hour days, you know, as soon as you're wrapped. And especially in situations where I'm working with bubbles and bubbles says, hey, a buddy of mine owns a steakhouse, you know, do you want to go and, yeah, hey, we're getting a couple bottles of wine and we're doing

shots. It's like, yeah, I'm going to, you know, I became a yes man. And I think for the longest time I had a handle on it, but years and years and years of doing that, I, I, um, I needed a break. And, uh, and I saw, I saw the effects when I sat back and I learned. And like you said, I started with a month and I think I was always scared to commit to something like a year, like I knew it would be this huge deal, and it would be like, oh, because there's all these events, you know, when a buddy gets married, there's the bachelor party

and there's always an excuse, a birthday party. So I'm just like, no, I just need to do it. And whatever I miss out on, I miss out on. And like I said, everyone's got the reasoning and their own relationship with it and their own childhood traumas and everything like that. So I just took a deep dive.

I sort of slashed the water wings, went into the deep end. And yeah, everything you said, man, like I didn't miss the hang. overs. My skin was better. I was definitely more motivated. I'd wanted to build a website and start my own business for years. I kept putting it off, putting it off, putting it off. And I finally did all that. And, you know, the other part with the motivation is like, yeah, I'm self-employed. Like, I'm a contract worker. So it's, it's, you know, if I'm not motivated in doing the work I need to do,

I'm not making money. So that was another motivating factor. And, you know, it was just a year. So it sort of had this outline, but I got used to, I think I was ready for it. So the first three months were tough. And as I started coasting through, it just became normal of like, yeah, I don't need, you know, I'd show up to parties with like, I was drinking these zero calorie sodas. They're called zeevias and they're like flavored or whatever, but I would just pound a six pack of those, you know, while watching a hockey game or shooting the shit with friends. And then it just became the norm. And so I just started, I think my year was March right before COVID hit, actually. And even now, like, I'm still, I'll never go back to the days of my late teens or like in my 20s. But even now and

again, like it's like, you know, I'll have a beer or something. But I also know during COVID that it's definitely like not a good idea for me to get hard on the wagon again or there's no real excuse to because, you know, we're all suffering through this together. So, um, Yeah, I'm still exploring it. I don't think it'll ever go back to the way it was, but I'm happy with what I learned and what I took away from that experience. Well, we've been going, I think, for about an hour and a half. Yeah, dude.

I know people are going to be like, Sean, stop it. Don't cut us off. Just keep going. But I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to push us on to our final segment of the last five questions. And what we're just going to do, we're just going to have you back on for a second part. I think that's easy enough. Yeah, absolutely.

Okay. So we'll go on to the Crude Master Final Five. A shout out to Heath and Tracy McDonald, huge supporters of the podcast from the beginning. It's just five questions, long or short. We've got nothing but time. So we can go whatever rabbit hole we want to or they can be quick. And we'll carry on to the next one at a different date. But what was the last song you were driving along or running or working out or in your house hiding away from COVID that you jammed to? Oh, man. I think last night I was on my bike.

And I'm just being brutally honest. In high school growing up, I loved the band Corn, but I hadn't listened to them for a while. And I had this playlist on and there was a song called It's On and it's sort of like almost what the band would open with. But I was biking home yesterday and that song came on. I was I was vibing with it. I was my anger, you know, my childhood drama and anger was coming out. And yeah, so that's literally the last one. That was like 24 hours ago.

When I try and think up final questions for the final five, right? Certain ones I like and I know listeners likes you do them, but I don't want to get so redundant that you never have new ones. So I was driving, I was driving home from work the other day because I worked full-time. every single day and that's why we do these podcasts late at night. And so I'm driving home and I was jamming out to like, is it, Dulepa, do whatever her name is. I can't even think of her name.

And I started laughing at myself because it's like some hip-hop poppy song. It came on the radio and I was just in a good mood. It was like 3.30 and the sun was shining. Oh, yeah. Where we go? And I'm like, I started laughing. I'm like, can you imagine if there was a camera on me right now? because I mean, like that would be an internet buster

and me trying to sing along not knowing the words. I had that with this song called Shut Up and Shut up. It's some poppy radio song, but whenever that came on, it got me moving. I love music. Music is the best. And I was telling me, me and my brother Harley, my next oldest brother, we go for walks right now every morning.

And at 5.30, we go for a stroll. and I was explaining this question and I thought I was going to ask you tonight, my first one, you know, what's the last son get jabbed out to? Me and him get talking about him. I mean, even if he said like corn or something, like, I like corn. No, you did. I totally did. I'm like, I remember rocking out the corn in the dressing room.

I mean, like, it's pretty heavy, but, you know, if he says it, I can't understand that. I'm howling over here because I'm like, of course you say corn. Yeah, there's some chemistry going on between us. Yeah, I don't want to make this weird, but I'm enjoying the hell out of it. I've been blabbing. You've been asking great questions. I just hope your audience is enjoying what we're living. Well, all I can think of is stepbrothers.

Did we just become best friends? Yeah, totally. So many activities. Hell yeah, Sean. I'm in. What's one actor? You know, you'd mentioned Jim Carrey. And I think I'd heard it on a different interview where you said he was on the top.

Him and Chris Farley were on your bucket list. What's the next actor on your bucket list that you'd like to mark off? Great question. Off the top of my head, it isn't an actor, but there's, my favorite movie of all time is Pulp Fiction. So working with Quinn Tarantino would be, would be, you know, you go towards filmmakers and stuff because you're just like, how cool are all of their movies and to be a part of that?

And, you know, having checked off a few actors in the box, but like, yeah, working, collaborating with him, be cool. You know, the Seth, Rogan, Judd-Apital guys are right up my alley. And they've, he's from Vancouver. He's shot here before. So I've auditioned for some of those projects. I think that would be insane. And then, to be honest, like a lot of my heroes have, have passed away. Like, people that would be on that list are like Chris Farley, who we talked about, Philip Seymour Hoffman, who I loved, and then Robin Williams. And, you know, unfortunately, rest in peace to those three dudes. but like that, yeah, that would be going in.

Those were always my favorite who I'd model myself off of. A lot of them could handle drama and comedy. But yeah, nowadays I'd say probably, yeah, Tarantino, Seth Rogen. You know what? What did you think of Tarantino's last film, once upon a time in Hollywood? Do you see that? I loved it.

I did. I loved it. Yeah, James Marsden actually had a role in that and it got cut out. I think it's in the bonus features, but he had shot that right before doing Sonic. And I must have just annoyed the hell out of him fan-boying him. I'm like, you know, he couldn't really say much. But he got to work with him.

But I loved it. Yeah, what were your thoughts? Well, Tarantino has, this, every movie has, has that, this, like, air about it. It's weird. You know, Pulp Fiction was phenomenal, like, phenomenal. The acting between Samuel Jackson and, Trevolta. Thank you.

Trevolta is like some of those scenes are just the most iconic scenes of all time. And, you know, like when the dog goes, spoiler alert, if you haven't seen this movie, I suggest you pause this for a second. Oh, I'd be so mad, anyone who hasn't seen it. But yeah, go ahead. But the dog at the end when Brad Pitt's high and six and you're just like, what is going on right now? But that's Tarantino. And so was it my favorite of all the movies he's done? No.

But I thought it was classic Tarantino where you come out of it and you're like, oh, frickin Tarantino, right? Like he's got a very unique style. He's right up there with when you see his name attached to a movie, you immediately want to go see it. You're like, oh, I bet that's pretty good. Like Tarantino doesn't do crap. No, and getting Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt on the same screen.

in the same frame as like like those guys are the movie stars right now of our generation and uh yeah i mean like you said it's definitely stylistic his stories are always smart and witty you always get a bit of action in it but um yeah i wouldn't pulp fiction will be my all-time favorite that's tough to be but it was it was up there i'd say it was middle of the pack but i do enjoy all of his movies uh another director that is fantastic actually is my favorite of all time and you alluded to watching The Dark Night is Chris Rennolan and his new movie coming out, Tenet looks. Man, I've seen the trailer.

I watched the trailer several times because his movies are always, you know, after you watch it, you need to go have a beer and chat about it, yeah. And like I remember watching Inception and me and my buddies were like, for three days, we're like, so okay, what the hell would you spin in top?

And, you know, but yeah, that's what's great, man, because that's what filmmakers want to do. They want to create that sense for the for the audience god if there's one thing i hated about inception it was the last scene i'm like what is he going to do that you don't need to do that just just let us have the happy ending but then again now we sit here how many years later and talk about it so that's exactly that's there for still relevant that was a great movie great movie if you could have your choice of one of these what would you pick a major motion picture so the lead role in one of those

a TV show or I guess it was a TV show but I think with improv I think whose line is it anyways like if you could have that a sitcom or whatever type of TV show you want or the big movie what would you take yeah another great question I think my for what I do in my career what I would want my current goal would be to get on a hit TV show and then to be able to be able to tour live. So similar to what the trailer park boys did when I went to that show. And actually, what Letterkenny was doing, when COVID hit, they were in the middle of a 40 city tour, were they doing live sketch in character comedy. And for me, to do something like that, whether it's related to the show or not, if I could shoot the show for a period of time,

and then when we rap, if I could go on tour and do live performance, that would be my dream. Man, that'd be something about touring around in front of live audiences in different cities. Yeah, yeah. Which movie slash TV show slash whatever you have right now would you suggest that if the audience listening hasn't seen of you and wants to get a good idea of you, what role have you played? What movie would you tell them to go watch or TV show? Yeah, great question. You know, in my 15-year career, a lot of the stuff where I have substantial roles were in independent movies, which can be more difficult to get. One of my proudest movies, if you can ever, for those people that download or whatever, I don't even know if the actors in it know how to get, but my good buddy Tyler, who I was in, Slapshot 3 is a fun one to watch.

I mean, it's a family comedy, and it's, you know, it's 12 years ago now. but Tyler, who plays Stuart and Letterkenny, we did a movie a few years ago. It ended up going to TIF, which is the Toronto International Film Festival. It's a movie called The Odds, and it's a drama, and he plays the lead, and I'm a supporting character, but it's about, we're essentially high school kids

that get caught up in a gambling ring, and there's like a murder, and it's sort of a who-done-it, but it's shot very stylistic. It's got a bunch of great actors. There's a kid named Calumworthy, who was in a Disney show called Austin and Allie in it. And it's one of the proudest things I've done. Like we got to go to TIF,

which was one of the biggest film festivals in the world. So that one's called The Odds. And more recently, a lot of people have been giving me shoutouts for whoever has Amazon Prime. I just had a show get released there on May 1st called Upload. And I shot that shortly after Sonic. And uploads awesome because it's written and directed by Greg Daniels who did The Office and,

parks and wrecks. So it's a comedy. It's futuristic. I have a reoccurring character, so I'm in three or four episodes. You get to see a sneak peek of me. But I think that in quarantine times, just because it's new and relevant, that would be a fun show to check out. And all the other movies, I don't have my beard even. So I don't know if anyone would recognize that. I started watching upload this week. Nice. Yeah. And I can safely say to all the listeners, I was pleasantly surprised. I, uh, yeah, we have Amazon Prime, but we always seem to watch Netflix. And we get, once again, I go back to the kids, a lot of my time is spent, like when Sonic hits, I'm telling you, we're going to watch Sonic 8,000 times. Right now we're in Frozen 2 and Moana. I know every song

to Moana. You're just going to have fun with it, right? Of course, yeah. But, uh, I started watching upload and, uh, it's really well done. Like, really well done. Like, I was brilliant, you know, I don't know what I, flicked it on, I didn't know the premise of it. I had no idea what the heck was going on. And I was like, it's good, right? It's about a guy who gets uploaded into essentially heaven.

And, you know, actually, as I sit and watch, I go, man, do you think the future could ever get like that? Like where you take your consciousness out of your body when you die, and they upload it into a virtual program essentially. and then you're there forever, right? And you're part of a simulation, I guess. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I look back to like back to the future. Any movies that sort of involve or they take a stab at what they think the future's like,

and it doesn't always turn out. Some of the movies in the 80s like back to the future like it is. But yeah, Greg Daniel, I mean, he's got a new show out now. He's a busy guy. But I think it just got released on Netflix called Space Force with Steve Correll. and that's got more of like some heavy hitter actors, but he's got a brilliant mind. I mean, if you're looking for like the office,

I mean, the office is iconic. You're not going to touch it. Same with Parks and Rec. This is like a definitely different style show, but you can tell it's his writing. And he directed the one episode I was in. And it's such a brilliant mind. He's really created a cool world.

And yeah, like you said, like I wasn't sure. I was just so happy to work with him, like when I auditioned and he was in the callbacks and to meet him. I could tell reading the script, I'm like, this is like funny. It's well written, which you don't always come across, you know, because Vancouver sometimes gets a lot of Hallmark movies, a lot of CW. So the writing's not the best.

But yeah, a lot of people are enjoying it. You know, and I think in quarantine, just anything new, new content. But yeah, yeah, stick it out because it does. And they just got picked up for season two as well. Whenever you bring up the office, I chuckled to myself. I had this thought right off the hop when you were mentioning. improv classes. All I can picture is Steve Correll going to improv

shooting everyone. Boom, you're dead. Boom, you're dead. You're dead. Freeze it. You have to stop killing. Yeah, it's the number one rule is to say yes. So he was going the complete opposite way.

Classic. Final question for you. What's next? What can listeners expect? Do you know, I know COVID has probably put a lot of, well, I know it's put a lot of stress on everything, and you guys don't escape that. So do you have any idea what's coming up next for you? Can you even talk about it?

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, no, I don't. I mean, I'm like everyone else, everyone's jobs and careers that have been affected. Like, yeah, this definitely shut down our industry for a while. And the cool thing is, is it's like, you know, you look at what most people, whether it's families or singles or couples, you know, they're watching. TV. They're watching movies, old movies, new movies, new television shows. So storytelling, I know will never die, which always gives me hope of my career and the longevity of it. And,

you know, live shows are a bit scary. Like, I know the company I work with here, we have a 200-seat theater and just now even BC's doing really well, but even with the phases, like, it's going to be months, I think, before we're back to performing. And I don't know what that looks like. And that's a big part of my career even doing corporate events and stuff like that. So yeah, in the near future, I have no idea. I just bought a PlayStation 4. So I've been playing some games on that. My girlfriend's away working. She's tree planting. No shit. Props to your girlfriend because I have tree planted and that is a special breed that does that. She's, you guys are machines. I went out with her a couple years ago and I planted one tree. And that same day, I think she did 3,000 or something.

So, yeah, I can't visit her. She's away working. She did it for 10 years, and she does improv and comedy and acting as well. And she's just getting into it. And so she was moving pat, you know, wanted to leave tree planting in the dust. But it's such a big part of her, and she had an opportunity to go. So she's gone doing that, which is good. Here's the thing about tree planning.

And I don't know. I never thought this is going to be what came up on this podcast. But here's the thing about tree planning. The first year, maybe even two years is where you go through all the pain. And once you know what you're doing, that's where you make all the money. Because you understand what the heck you're doing. I mean, that can be translated to all of life in a nutshell. Anything you're going to do, the first little bit, that's where the pain is.

And if you fight through the pain, tree planning, there is some good money to be made there. It's hard work. But you meet some of the coolest people on the planet who are tree planners. Oh, no question. I mean, yeah, we've been together for five years, and she'd been tree planning since she was like 20 years old, so she's definitely at the point where you said, where it's beneficial for her to go because she's a vet.

She knows what she's doing, and she can make the money and then live off that, you know, for the year. And all of her friends and the people that I've met in that industry are, you know, we even talked about writing a TV series about it because there's just so many unique characters and situations that have come up and bears and Cougars and the terrain. I mean, it's, yeah, it's insane.

I could never do it. I'd love to work on a show with her, which, you know, hopefully, which ties into what you were asking earlier, like, yeah, I've been doing some writing and stuff, and it's just like trying to be creative. I mean, having upload where I have a recurring character get picked up for season two and having Sonic announce that they could do a sequel,

my hopes are that when things are ready to go, I can jump back into one of those. two things or both hopefully. But yeah, man, other than that, it's just like, yeah, taking this time to reflect and relax and, you know, stay in contact with friends and family and just kind of wait this out like we're like we all are. But yeah, I've definitely antsy.

This is the longest I've gone in a decade without being on stage performing. And it obviously sucks to not be able to audition or know when the next job is. But, I mean, we're all in this together and all weighted out. but yeah, no, nothing set in stone, but yeah, some potentials for when for when this thing is finally done with. Well, I thank you for reaching out and hopping on with me. It's been a ton of fun. And when you do come this way, whenever that is, you make sure that you drop me a line because we will for sure sit in the studio and have a BS. But we'll have to do this again sooner than later. I'd love that, Sean. Yeah. And to anyone listening who lives in Lloyd, I have been.

coming there for a year and doing improv shows with the Lloyd Minster Comprehensive High School. My buddy Simon Stang is the drama teacher there. And we do a fundraiser charity event. And we usually do it at the Victoruba. We did some shows at the root back the day, which were always more like adult, like 19 plus shows, which were always a riot because I bring performers from Vancouver. I brought Colin Mockery one year from Whose Line Is It Anyway. So I'd love to see, you know, when we're able to do it again,

I will absolutely plan a time to come chat with you and then we'll maybe give some tickets away, make sure that you're at the show and yeah, we've got something to look forward to. Absolutely, man. Well, stay safe and hopefully you're back working sooner than later. And when I finally do watch Sonic, I'll make sure that I'm looking at your work. Watch that truck scene. I'm in the back, baby. I'm in the back.

Sounds good. Well, thanks again. Okay, thank you, Sean. Take care, buddy. Hey, folks, thanks again for joining us today. If you like what you hear, hit the subscribe button. Or better yet, come visit us at our website, shan Newmanpodcast.com, and leave us some feedback. New episodes every Monday and Wednesday. We'll see you there.

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.