The Ben Mulroney Show - Best of the Week Part 2 - The Dilemma Panel, This Week in Politics, Sugar Sammy

Episode Date: January 26, 2025

Best of the Week Part 2 - The Dilemma Panel, This Week in Politics, Sugar Sammy Guests: Morris Chestnut, Jully Black, Greg Brady, Jaskaran Sandhu, Jas Johal, Sugar Sammy If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! https://globalnews.ca/national/program/the-ben-mulroney-show Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey Spotify, this is Javi. My biggest passion is music, and it's not just sounds and instruments. It's more than that to me. It's a world full of harmonies with chillers. From streaming to shopping, it's on Prime. TD Direct Investing offers live support. So whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for total

fund savings adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. Welcome to the Ben Mulroney Best of the Week podcast. We had so many great conversations on the show this week. As always, the best political panel in the country, Sugar Sammy, dishing on the lines we draw on what's acceptable in comedy and our debut of the Dilemma Panel and it was packed with star power. Enjoy. Let's stay in the here and now. I'm so glad to have as part of our inaugural Dilemma Panel two incredible guests. Julie Black, longtime friend, former colleague, world-beating diva with one of the best voices in the country. Welcome to the show. Thank you. I'm so so so happy to have you here. Congratulations, Ben. Thank you. Thank you.

I'm having fun. I gotta say, now I'm of two minds with this next guest that we're gonna be welcoming. Because I, I, first of all, let's just welcome Morris Chestnut, incredible actor to the show. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Here's why I'm a little, I'm pulled in two directions. Okay. A few months ago I started taking my health very seriously. Yes. And I'm a little, I'm pulled in two directions. Okay. Is a few months ago, I started taking my health very seriously. Yes. And I'm feeling myself a little bit. And then you walk in.

Oh. You walk in and I just feel like a bag of dirt. No, you look great. Well, thank you. Thank you. I'm so, so honored to have you here. We're going to talk about this great new project that you're promoting in a little bit, but let's get into the dilemma, shall we?

Yes, we shall. All right. So first off, here's the first dilemma. Dear Ben, I don't like my spouse's cooking, especially one dish she insists on making weekly. Ooh, I can't mention what it is because it might give away who this is. How do I tell them I don't like their cooking

without hurting their feelings? Sincerely, anonymous. Now it's entirely possible that my wife sent that in. So I just realized that now. But yeah, how do you broach, how do you broach difficult topics with the people that you love the most, Julie? Well you're doing forever with this person, right? So I think when I think this person probably pretended they liked it, right? That's right. Now they can't get out of it. Right, right, right. That's what I was gonna say. They pretend they at one point

They probably said they liked it to be kind But I think it's best just to lead and just be honest from the very beginning However, now that they're in that situation I think it's probably best just to go ahead and and and be honest you if you know It's just doesn't taste and it probably doesn't it doesn't taste as good as it used to. Oh, that's right, yeah. You say, did you use the wrong spice here? I don't know.

But if, Julie, if you're right, then this person shouldn't have too much trouble because they're, the person doing the cooking is doing it because she thinks, she or he thinks that the person receiving it loves it. Right. And if they told me, you know, actually I don't care for it anymore, my taste has changed. Well, maybe they're doing it for them anyway.

Taste has changed. They could also suggest, hey, you know what, how about I try making a dish, right? And then they do it together. Type vibes, recommend some seasonings. But that won't solve the problem though, because after they try it once, they say, okay, I'm going to go back to make it the way I like it. You know what I'm saying? So it really doesn't solve the problem. Or you could be straight up Jamaican and say, listen, man, listen, ear what? Ear what? Ear what?

This marriage naga work. If you keep making this food. You see me? Stop making the food. I don't think I can pull that off, Julie. I think we'd be getting calls on this show if all of a sudden I started pulling that out. All right.

But are there dishes in your lives that you just can't eat? I eat healthy. So I'm going through this, you know, somewhat with my fiance now. He's an American. Shout out. And you know, the FDA rules are different. The seasonings, everything tastes different in America. So now I'm like, listen, you come to Canada, get a taste of our health, different in America. So now I'm like, listen, you come to Canada, get a taste of our health, change your palate a little bit, and export some seasonings. Oh, so he likes it bland.

No, he loves seasonings. Oh, he loves seasonings. But the healthy seasonings. Not all this MSG. He's from the South. He's from the South, yeah. From Columbus, yeah, Georgia. So for me, I mean, mine is easy

because I have a very basic palette in terms of the entree. I pick my meals by, my restaurants by the dessert because I'm a huge, I have a huge sweet tooth. Oh, you got a sweet tooth. I have a huge sweet tooth, yes. And so, so I'm easy. I mean, it's really hard to mess up certain sweets, so I'm easy.

Yeah, I always, before I go to a restaurant, I'm the type of guy who always checks out the menu online. So I make up my mind before I even leave the house. They call me, they actually call me the queen of the mods. The queen of the mods. Modify. Oh really? Modify everything.

Everything. Some people hate that. Julie. Some chefs hate that. Queen of the mods. That's a whole other dilemma, but here's dilemma number two. Okay. Dear Ben, I don't like my brother's girlfriend and recently he's been talking about proposing to her.

She doesn't treat him well. She makes snide remarks every now and then and I believe you should never disrespect your spouse in front of others No matter how small the slight keep that in house. How do I mention it to him without harming our relationship? Have you ever been in a situation like this? Not with a sibling, but with a friend. Oh, yeah, what sure so what'd you do? You know, they choose they're gonna choose I choose who they're going to lay down with. At the end of the day, I don't think that he should go to the brother. No?

I think he should go to the future sister-in-law. Really? Oh. Why? How? And run. And say, hey, hear what I notice, how you've been disrespecting my brother.

I know that I don't really like your tone. Yeah. Right? You're going to be welcoming to our family here. And we respect the man a certain kind of way. All right, so if you really want this forever to be a forever forever Yeah, fix up your tone Okay, so I see to me there's I would need a little bit more information here But see I think that the issue is here. I would have to go to the brother. First of all, you are correct

I mean the the woman is here, I would have to go to the brother. First of all, you are correct. I mean, the woman is not marrying the brother, she's marrying the person that she's with. But I would have to say, I would talk to him and say, listen, you know, it's very kind of disrespectful what she's saying to you. Do you see it or do you not see it? And that's pretty much all you can do

in these types of situations. Because when people are involved in these types of relationships, if they can't see it, if it doesn't affect them now, it's not until it gets later on down the line, hopefully they'll see it, but he can't see the forest for the trees at this moment in the relationship. Yeah, and look, marriage is forever and forever is a long time and if you settle down with

the wrong partner, it's going to be a long life. And I don't know how it is in your families, but in my family, you marry the whole family. Oh yeah, oh without a doubt. But see, here's the thing in these types of situations, it's almost like kids, as soon as you tell someone you shouldn't be with that person, that's the person that's gonna be there. Locked and loaded. Locked and loaded.

They go even deeper. They go even deeper in that relationship. Absolutely. But that's, I mean, that's what you do as a kid when you say like the liquor cabinets off limits But when it's about a partner you should be listening to all the people who matter most to you Well, no, cuz here's the thing. So, you know, of course as actors we when we break down in character We always go with the emotion emotion trumps logic. So there is something that's driving that relationship for that man

Emotionally so much so he can't see the slights that's going on. So it's not until later on, that is going to have to wear off if it wears off before he's going to wake up and say all of a sudden, oh, wait a minute, I don't like the way you treat me. And hopefully, it'll be sooner than rather than later. This isn't a sibling, but it's a friend. True story. I had to break up with a girlfriend of 27 year friendship.

She's married to this person and this person continuously infidelity, disrespect, disrespect and finally I'm like you know what, you said forever, you said for better or worse. So now, you know. So what happened with that friendship? It's over. No, not with the friendship, but she's still with the person.

Still with the person. Still with the person. Still with the person. Still with the person. 25 years. Yeah, it's hard to break, it's hard to break. That person is driving something emotionally. Alright, so's hard to break. It's hard to break. That person is driving something emotionally.

All right, so that dovetails very nicely into our third dilemma. Dear Ben, I am now in my late 40s. I had a really tight-knit friend group growing up, and we keep in contact in a group chat. There's one friend whose views have evolved in a way I don't like and have made efforts to engage less and less with them.

The problem is I feel obligated to remain friends with someone I have a 30 year history with. How should I approach this? Julie Black. So I went straight to my therapist's true story and I figured out how to unfriend, how to break this friendship up, to really leave, to reposition myself.

Because guess why? I was not being my true authentic self. I had to put on this character, not pun intended, but I had to put on this character to be around these friends. I wasn't being on this character, not put intended, but I had to put on this character to be around these friends. I wasn't being truly Julie. That's a problem. If I cannot be authentically Julie all the time, that is a problem. So I repositioned myself. It took 13 minutes. I had all my lines written out. I told exactly why, what was going on. And you know what? If it was a, you know, a boyfriend or, you know, cheating or disrespecting me,

I would have ended the relationship. So why don't we end friendships? Yeah. Right. Good point. Good point. Morris Chaston, the last 30 minutes, 30 seconds are for you. boyfriend or you know cheating or disrespecting me I would have ended the relationship so why don't we end friendships? Yeah right good point good point. More stress not the last 30 minutes 30 seconds are for you. Okay so what I would say I think there's more information that I would need here because primarily so if it's just it's natural as friends and people we grow apart. However 30 year friendship I'm wondering what skeletons you have in the closet that this person has that you don't want to break up. So if you're concerned about that then the problem's a little bit deeper. Yeah a little bit deeper than that. All right, hey thank you to both of you.

Don't go anywhere because we're closing out this week in style with more problem-solving with Morris Chestnut and Julie Black. That is next on the Ben Mulrooney show right here on the Chorus Radio Network. Welcome back and our dilemma panel continues. If you want your questions answered next week, email us at askbenn at chorusent.com and you might find your question being asked and solved on our next panel. This panel is, I mean, it's a high watermark for sure.

We've got Morris Chestnut, the star of the new show on Global Watson, looks like a million bucks. I'm here on my t-shirt. And Julie Black, award-winning, Juno award-winning singer, songwriter and actress. Welcome to the show. Oh, thank you. OK, here we go.

Dilemma number four. Hey there, I'm a 38-year-old man and I'm unhappy with my job. I've been doing it for 15 years now and I often dream of going off on my own and becoming an entrepreneur. The problem is the thought of no paycheck terrifies me. I've been, I've given up on my dreams for the safety net of a salary. How do I break out of that mentality?

At 38 it's scary, especially because I have two young children and a wife. Yeah, he's between a rock and a hard place, but I get that feeling, that desire to take that risk. Yes, I do too. What I would suggest, and what I would try to do in this situation is I would keep the paycheck. You're just gonna have to work,

you're gonna have to double time and work even harder when you're not working at whatever job that is because that's the only way because you have to support your children and just have to work harder. Yeah. It's to have a side hustle first until it can take care of you. Exactly. Yeah. And depending on where you're working, you could probably take a leaf of absence, but

really sit down with wifey though. Sit down with wifey and say, hey, here are my dreams. Because maybe he parked them and she doesn't know his true desires, right? And let's make some sacrifices, right? How many vacations aren't we going to take anymore? Maybe a couple of snail appointments. Whatever it's going to be like, I consider it like being in a canoe together.

We're both rowing. Sometimes I'm going to have to row for you, babe. I'm going to row, right? He'll row. We got to do this together. Yeah, love that. But as actors, as musicians, I mean, you are babe. I'm gonna roll, right? He'll roll. Like, you gotta do this together. Yeah, love that. But as actors, as musicians, I mean, you are entrepreneurs.

You bet on yourselves. Yes. And everything that you get comes from the work that you do. So you're on the entrepreneurial side of this. I'm the corporate guy. I'm the guy who checks in and checks out. Like, it's such a big risk. So what would you suggest?

Being on the corporate side. No, I agree with you guys completely. Like, make it a side hustle until it's so successful that it can become your full-time gig. I will say this though, on the other side of fear, that's where your biggest breakthrough is. Like you're not trying to get too deep with it. Like and then that every win after that,

it's just, it's so much sweeter. It's so much sweeter. All right, here's the final dilemma. Dear Mr. Mulrooney, oh, very respectful. My wife makes more than me and it bothers me a little. It makes me feel lesser than. How do I get over it? My friends all tell me I should be happy with this scenario, but I am not.

We share most of the chores at home, so it's not about men and women having their roles thing. I don't know why it bothers me. Is it ego? Guys, go ahead. I just got engaged at 47 years old because there's so, not the only reason, but so many men are, oh, you know, you make more, you're insecure. But let me tell you something,

my fiance Valentine, Marcus Lewis Valentine, oh I love him so much, he helped me take the S off my chest instead of being a strong black woman, now I can be safe, seen, and soft. Right? Yes, my three S's. So this man has to realize that there's so much more

that he brings to the table. Like, don't take her options away. Right? Like, come on. That's very well said. Yes, I think that he has to be really honest with himself because in that statement he says not, I feel a certain way is not about men versus women roles

but clearly it is. Or else it wouldn't be an issue in the first place. So he has to be honest with himself in either just work hard to get over it or do something to where, try to make more money. If that's what drives him. That's not gonna fix it though. He's gonna make more money,

he's gonna be like, I'm still not making more money. Well, I think in his mind it will because if he's saying that that's the issue, I think the challenge is he says, well, it's not about men versus women roles, but it clearly is. He says, my wife makes more money than me. True, true.

You gotta check his friends, family. I think it's culture. I'd love to know the culture. We need more information from these people. Yes, 100% Guys, thank you so much. I want to talk about why you're here, why I'm so lucky to have you in my company today. Sunday, January 26th at 10 PM on Global and Stack TV,

New Medical Mystery Watson debuts. And there's something about these characters, these Sherlock Holmes characters, where we are so excited to see them played by different actors, taking place in different times. And you've got a whole new take on it. Yes, so I was really excited. So this is a modern-day story of Sherlock Holmes mythology told from Watson's perspective that focuses on Watson and what I love

with Craig Sweeney our showrunner has done basically combines two sub-genres. So the story opens up when Sherlock dies and he gifts Watson a clinic to solve medical mysteries. However, we also go out into the field as detectives to help gather the information to solve the medical mystery. So inside the hospital were doctors, outside the hospital were detectives. So this show, we are doc-tectives. So when we combine the two genres,

the medical genre and the investigative drama. What is it about these characters? There's certain characters we're very precious about, right? We don't want their mythology messed with. But from the show Sherlock and then we saw elementary, we get excited when there's a fresh new take on these traditional characters. Well, the thing about it is Arthur Conan Doyle is the creator of Sherlock Holmes. He has so many characters and stories that are just so rich that it's just a great

storytelling. There's so many things to draw from and when you just have it in different iterations it's just so interesting to watch. Yeah yeah and Julie you've got a tour coming up. I do. Tell me all about it. Fountains and Stories Tour. It's so exciting because I'm independent now. And nowadays there aren't many stages for emerging artists. And so for someone who's emerged in this country, it's important for me to be a bridge, big enough for everyone to cross.

And so we're going across the country independently. And I'm so excited. I'm dedicated to my late mom. And we're telling stories. So the one thing I haven't had on this show yet is anybody sing. And I know that you can sing at the drop of a hat. So if I buy a ticket to your show,

what am I gonna hear? You're gonna hear, Oh pirates, yes they rob I. Sold I to the merchant ships. Minutes after they took I from the bottomless pit. But my hands were made strong by the hands of the almighty. We forward in this generation, triumphantly Canada.

Won't you help me sing these songs of freedom? Cause all I ever had, redemption song. Woo! All right, I love that. Where do we get tickets? When does it start? February 7th, across the country. Truly.

Truly black. I get the chills every time you sing. Morris, your turn to sing. Oh yeah, nah, that's what happened there. No, but this is so exciting that you've got this new show. Is there anything else you're working on? Well, that and the show that Julie and I were talking about, Reasonable Doubt.

My show! Yeah, there's gonna be a season three and I'll be around there somewhere. But right now it's just Watson premiering this Sunday, 10 o'clock on Global. Yeah, and you've got a whole, I mean, let's, who else do you have on the show? Eve Harlow's on the show? Eve Harlow, we have Richie Costner, we have Eve Harlow, Richie Costner, Inga Schlangman, Rochelle Ait and we have Peter Mark Kendall who actually plays two characters.

He plays identical twins on the show. Oh, that's right! Yes. That's right. I was trying to figure it out as well. who actually plays two characters. He plays identical twins on the show. Oh, that's right. Yes. That's right. I was trying to figure it out as well. I was like, oh my God, like what's going on with the guys here?

I was like, no, no, he's good. Yeah, he's great. Yeah, he's really good. He's really good, exactly, yes. Well, I'm so glad to have you here. And Julie, I'm so proud of you. Thank you. How can people buy tickets?

Oh, julieblack.com. Go on there, right to the events page. We're going February 7th to March 11th across the country and come on out. It's for everyone all ages. Yeah, fantastic. Well, I can't tell you how much it means that you guys took time out of your busy schedules to help me. You know, we're trying different things on this show and Fridays, we work so hard Monday through Thursday, Friday, we try to have as much fun as possible. And it's been, it's just such a real treat that you guys were able to join us. Well, I'm local.

So if you ever need Julie Black Friday. Yeah. Julie Black Friday. It could always be a Julie Black Friday. No, but I guess it's like, it's incredible because you and I, at least I started out, I cut my teeth in TV and you were right there next to me. There 20 odd years ago.

And right before you did this show, you were over at, you were at the morning show, I believe. That's right. And the two producers there are the ones who hired me in the first place. Jordan and Morley. Yeah. We love them. It's a small world. It's a really small world. Listen, I could keep you. I still have, I've got another minute and a half of the show. I wish we had another dilemma to get to, but I gotta say, I've been following your career for so long and you've conducted yourself with such style and you're such a, you're like every guy's favorite guy.

Ah, thank you, thank you. And the best man, anytime that comes on TV, I still watch it. Oh, all right. I still watch it. I had a lot of fun here. Thank you for having me and having us and I had a great time, so thank you. I had a lot of fun here. Thank you for having me and having us. And I had a great time.

So thank you. I want to remind everybody that Watson premieres Sunday, January 26th at 10 PM on Global and Stack TV. And following the premiere, the second episode airs Monday, February 17th at 7 PM. And then it moves to its regular time slot, Sunday at 9 PM Eastern, starting on February 23rd. There's a lot to get to there,

but people are going to find it for sure. Guys, thank you so much. Morris Chestnut, Julie Black, thank you so much for you and for Canada. This situation has changed very quickly. Helping make sense of the world when it matters most. Stay in the know. Download the free CBC News app or visit cbcnews.ca. Clear your schedule for U-Time with a handcrafted espresso beverage from Starbucks. Savor the new small and mighty Cortado.

Cozy up with the familiar flavors of pistachio or shake up your mood with an iced brown sugar oat shaken espresso. Whatever you choose, your espresso will be handcrafted with care at Starbucks. As always, a busy day, a busy week in politics. So we're doing the roundup with this week in politics and a great, great panel. Please welcome to the show, Jaskarin Sandhu, co-founder of Baz News and board member

of the World Seek Organization of Canada. Jaskarin, welcome to the show. Always a pleasure. Let's say hi again to Jas Johal, the host. Oh, he's not here yet. We've got Greg Brady though from AM640 and the host of Toronto Today. Greg, welcomeal, the host. Oh, he's not here yet. We've got Greg Brady though, from AM640 and the host of Toronto Today. Greg, welcome back to the show.

You have a show now, nine to noon? Yes, I do. When did this? I don't read many company emails, so congratulations, I guess, okay. Well, thank you very much. Hey, let's jump right in with a little bit of audio that's a head scratcher for me.

This is Karina Gould, who's running for Liberal Leader, talking about how Canadians have lost trust in the Liberal Party. I think we have to be honest about the fact that Canadians have lost trust in our party. And part of it is because I don't think we responded to the issues that they were telling us mattered to them. I think when it came to the end of the pandemic and the spike in inflation,

Canadians were saying things are really hard and we didn't say, you're right. We didn't say, yeah, things are really hard right now and here's how we're going to fix it. It took us too long to understand that Canadians were struggling to make ends meet. Well, so the liberals seem to be having a full-blown mea culpa moment here,

but it feels like what they're saying is we dropped the ball for nine years. We weren't listening, but now we are. Now we're listening. Just got just got is we have we got just Garen. Just Garen, is there any chance that this strategy is going to move the needle at all for them? Yeah, I think so. I know I was talking to some buddies about this the other day and I feel that the conservatives and generally speaking the opposition and Canadians directed a lot of their displeasure with this government at Justin Trudeau directly. You know, Trudeau was the brand that was being attacked and that was being held responsible for a lot of the struggles this country's been facing over the last couple of years.

I don't know how much of that was necessarily directed to the Liberal Party in general. And this is what's so interesting about this leadership race, like depending who comes out on the other end of it. I think you may actually see shifts in polls. I do believe that a lot of the frustration was directed at Trudeau himself, rather than the party in general. Jazz Johal is joining us. He's the host of the Jazz Johal show on CKNW in Vancouver and a former member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. Jazz, is what do you make of what Jaskaran just said? Do you think that this is something

that I mean, can the liberals completely pivot like this and say, yeah, our bad, we messed up. It's all Justin Trudeau's fault. But we're gonna listen from here on out. You shouldn't be saying the last nine years was a waste of time, stop. It's all Justin Trudeau's fault. But we're going to listen from here on out. You shouldn't be saying the last nine years was a waste of time, not just a complete mistake, if you're going to be doing that. I mean, you've got to be hiding a little, talking a little bit about what you did accomplish in those nine years, not be afraid to talk a little bit about your successes as well, how you handled COVID, your vaccine rollout, the child tax benefit, many other things. I'm sure that

the post can find to talk about. But a little bit of mea culpa doesn't hurt either. I mean, I think what Giscard said, I do agree with the fact that there's a lot of that frustration and anger has been directed at Mr. Trudeau, like a lot of incumbent governments. And Mr. Biden's been hearing it, it had heard it. You know, the conservatives in England also heard it as well. So part of it is just being an incumbent government. So I think you can't just walk away from last nine years and think you didn't do anything good because if you do that, you're in for a hurt and next time it actually comes around. So there's just no way you got to highlight some of the good things you've done.

I think there's some things they can point to. Greg Brady, I've got to wonder if we take this at face value, I don't understand how this makes the case for any one of these liberal hopefuls that they've earned for more years as a party. No, no, there's an element of damage mitigation, but that's that's the most frank. I mean, Karina Gould in one news conference out in the snow in Ottawa, honestly, and I know she got in a couple of days later, she's the least likely to finish first or second

when all the votes come in for the liberal leadership, but that's the most sincere and authentic anybody has been among the three main contenders here, if we consider Mark Carney, Christian Freeland, and Karina Gould, those contenders. Everyone thinks Gould is struggling in her own riding. Maybe this is to plant the seeds for a future run, because you plan maybe for the election down the line or the leadership down the line, close to Mark Carney universe. But no, Ben, it's just to mitigate damage at this point. And Jazz

has it right. The incumbent anger, we're going to spot that in our province of Ontario at the end of February to see whether it exists or whether it's just in a lot of people's imagination. It's all over the place and the checks come due for the Liberal government, no doubt. Jessica, and I want to flip this on Mark Carney now, who's the presumptive front runner to succeed Justin Trudeau. But a lot of people are asking, where in the world is he? Where's Waldo? As a matter of fact, the conservatives made a, where's Waldo meme of where's Mark Carney? And they say he's been missing for a whole week

now that his campaign has launched. Help us find carbon tax Carney. And there's a picture of him dressed up as Waldo. It's actually quite funny. AI can do some tremendous things. But just garden like the endorsements keep rolling in, but he's been very low key. And I got to wonder whether he's just, he's trying to win by default here. Like let, I'll let the others trip all over themselves, make some mistakes. I've got the lead. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna keep my head down

and I'm just gonna wait for the coronation. Yeah, I. Yeah, I don't think that's a very sincere attack from the Conservative Party. I think it kind of speaks to some of their juvenile tactics, to be honest, to be a little harsh. Cardi just launched 10 days ago. He pre-launched on The Daily Show, which got millions of hits and eyeballs. And let's be honest, Canadians consume American content more than they do Canadians. It's a great place to pre-launch if you wanted to. He then did his launch at Edmonton and since then he's been doing the rounds with MPs on the ground. And, you know, we saw recent pictures for the last few days and just Joe's neck of the

woods there in BC. We got to remember that what's going on in the liberal leadership race. The membership cutoff is January 27th. It's not necessarily the air war portion of the campaign. It's the ground game portion. And then the next month or two to do the air war stuff. But Carney has not disappeared. It's only been 10 days.

And I think we suffer a little bit from recency bias on this because you look at Freeland, a little Freeland's more active, but Freeland just announced what, three days ago? Four days ago? Feels like a lifetime ago, just garden. Yeah, days ago? Feels like a lifetime ago, Jaskar. Yeah, yeah. I don't like it, right? Yeah.

I take your point. I take your point, Jaskar, but, Jazz, this is, he's a relative unknown. He's never been accountable to voters, to the people. He's always been a backroom guy. He's always been behind closed doors. Part of me thinks, doesn't he owe it to the people if he's going to assume the mantle of Prime Minister, even if it's for a short period of time, doesn't he owe it to people to be a little more forward-facing, public-facing?

Well, first of all, I would say the situation is the situation. What I mean by that is a real leadership race. If Mr. Trudeau had left last year, like many are asking, you could have had a much longer runway and allow him, Mr. Carney, and all the candidates to do so. So first of all, I think it's just the situation we're in. Secondly, Mr. Carney at this moment's priority, his priority right now is winning over members of the Liberal Party of Canada and winning that leadership. He will have that discourse and conversation with Canadians if he wins when the election starts. And I think that's the way to look at this,

number two. Number three, I'd also add one more thing. I know the conservatives are taking shots and they're very organized, they're very good at it, and good on them for doing that. That's the nature of politics. But I would also argue that they keep referring to them as carbon tax carny. That changed on Monday with Donald Trump. This is a Donald Trump election. This is a tariff election. And the conservatives, as much as they want it to be a carbon tax election, they got to wake up to this. I think they're a little behind the ball here. They've got to refocus their campaign even now because everything changed on Monday once Donald Trump

was inaugurated. Greg, the last 30 seconds are to you. Yeah. Well, I think it's a very insular campaign. There's no doubt about it. And as to Jas's point, it's about signing up, certainly donors within the party, members within the party. Once somebody has to run into a general election, once somebody's an interim prime minister, yeah, they're gonna be barbecued

if they're not taking questions during news conferences being out there. Hey, don't go anywhere guys, it's coming up. We've got more of our political panel, including is it time to start looking at another major trading partner to sell our oil to? That's next right here on the Ben Mulvaney show across the chorus radio network. This week in politics marches on. Very happy to have Jaskar and Sandhu, Jasjo Hall and Greg Brady joining me for a roundup of the biggest political stories of the week.

Greg, I want you to listen to Donald Trump talking about Canada and tariffs, 50 for a state, the whole thing, and then we'll comment on the other side. One thing we're going to be demanding is we're going to be demanding respect from other nations. Canada, we have a tremendous deficit with Canada. We're not going to have that anymore. We can't do it. I don't know if it's good for them. As you probably know, I say you can always become a state.

And if you're a state, we won't have a deficit. We won't have to tariff you, et cetera, et cetera. But Canada has been very tough to deal with over the years. And it's not fair that we should have a 200 billion or 250 billion dollar deficit. We don't need them to make our cars and they make a lot of them. We don't need their lumber because we have our own forests, et cetera, et cetera.

We don't need their oil and gas. We have more than anybody. Yeah, he most certainly needs that stuff, at least in the immediate term. But Greg, if there's one thing that has come into stark relief since Donald Trump took office, it's how we've truly hobbled and bungled how we've, how we've been developing our energy sector. And I wonder, do you think that

that is? I mean, that that's, that's a concern. The conservatives want to want to have an election on that if they're not going to have it on the carbon tax, they can have it on that, can't they? Yeah, I think they can. I mean, look, we were just bountiful with the amount of oil that's available to us. And even though I think there's some perception out there that we don't have a Derrick's pumping 24 seven, of course we do. We produce more than we can use. We've only got a population of 41 million and we're the fourth biggest oil producing nation in the world. But yeah, the conversation has kind of switched and we're talking earlier about the federal

liberals. I'll be real curious when someone puts to Mark Carney, what should we do about pipelines? Because he was very much against them a few years ago. There's quite a famous Zoom debate between him and Pierre Pauliev when Pauliev was simply the finance critic asking Carney about why he supports pipelines in other countries, and not Canada. But yeah, all these European countries, Ben, are begging, they don't want to deal with Russia anymore. They may not even want to deal with the Saudis. And they are begging for

liquefied natural gas or oil, and we need a way to get it. Yeah, Jas, Joe Hall, what do you make of the theory that this could be this this this could be a natural gas, this could be an energy sector debate and election? And do you think that the liberals can reinvent themselves with enough time to come onside and say, no, we're the party, we're the party that's going to get those goods to market? Well, hey, liberals can say, look, the natural gas pipeline that's built in British Columbia, servicing the LNG

Canada project, the largest private sector project in this country's history, $36 billion, was built under their watch. The TMX pipeline was completed under their watch. I think what Mr. Trump has done to be very blunt is force Canada to wake up. I think that's the one positive. I used to work for the LNG industry. I used to go to meetings in Texas, in Calgary, to Ottawa as deputy ministers, to China, to Japan, to Korea. In the time that we have debated LNG, built one large plant, it's taken about

10 years. It takes about five years to get it organized, approved, and then it takes about five years to build. In that time, the US had no LNG plants. They built seven of them, and they've got five more now being proposed. Well, we have one. Canada's biggest problem is Canada. So I hope you have a serious conversation about actually getting your natural resources developed. If that happens in this election, I'm all for it because, as I said, if you were to invent a country out of the air right now, Canada would be the country you would invent natural resources, agriculture, educated people. We have everything. Our biggest problem is us. And we've got to get out of our way and start selling this stuff. And we can still be- Except for the weather, Jess, we would not invent the weather. We would change that. That would be

a script change last minute. Edit that out. Jessica. Yeah, Jessica. And I got it. I got to ask, though, you know, we talked about on the on the other side of the break before the break that it might not be a carbon tax election, but maybe maybe the conservatives want to have this fight. Maybe they want to point to to the liberals and the NDP and say, you've been the ones in the way we've been beaten the drum that we have to diversify. We've we've wanted to to do this and you're the ones who slowed it down with with with onerous regulation and you know, the our inability to diversify our client base. Maybe that's the fight they want to have in an election.

I'm sorry, go ahead. Just my apology. No, it's all good. It's all good. Look, yeah, I would agree as well. This election is about the economy. It's about our relationship with the Americans. And it's about looking in the mirror and understanding that we can't just rely on the paradigm that existed before Trump. This has been a huge wake-up call that we need to develop our own capacity and our own ability to pull our resources and sell it to market

For the conservatives though, you know But the problem is going to be that the liberals and the NDP are both going to say here Paulie average of Donald Trump liked and I think most Canadians do not like Donald Trump and that's going to be the bigger challenge for the conservatives and May may force them to kind of avoid this debate altogether and keep just talking about the carbon tax and stuff that was relevant maybe, you know, 12 months ago but has quickly, has become a peripheral issue.

Well, Greg Brady, I want to take on this, the viral story, the viral interview that Pierre Poliev had where he said that he's only aware of two genders in response to an executive order that Donald Trump brought into effect, saying that that is the case in the United States. We don't recognize any more than two. Part of me thinks, Greg, that Pierre, he enjoys these combative reporters,

these combative interviews, because he knows that it gets his message out to more people. And it seems like his popularity grows every time he has one of these. And this story made its way to Fox News. Does that bode well for him? Or to Jaskarin's point,

does this cast him as Donald Trump of the North? Greg, you there? Oh, Jazz, Jazz, what do you think? Well, I think, you know, I think you have a very good point and I think there's a lot of folks who've been listening to woke culture the last eight years are really, you know, questioning and challenging some of the assertions and some of the things that we've been told. I think Mr. Polyev's comments do resonate with the public and middle-class voters. He's just got to be a little careful, I think, because I don't think you win elections on these types of questions. I mean, it's

a common sense answer on his part, so be it. But I think he has to be a little careful. He has to win the middle class. He has to win that middle voter who does vote at times for federal liberals and are this time kicking the tires and want to vote conservative. So I think he can win on vision. I think he can win on this is where I want to take the country. These issues, yes, they can resonate. They can be viral and they're all well and good.

But if you want to be a leader of a country, focus on the other big stuff. And this stuff is not what's going to get you elected prime minister. But I can see it being a viral moment. And I hear these conversations from the public as well. A little tired of hearing all this stuff. So it's going to resonate. But like I said, I want to lead it. Who wants to talk about the big stuff? Just Karen and Greg, I've got 45 seconds left for each of you. So Greg, we'll start with you. What's the question again, if you can give it to me? It seems like he his popularity grows every time he has a tussle with a journalist.

It seems like his popularity grows every time he has a tussle with a journalist. Yeah, I see that to a great extent. Listen, I think also he knows where he is in the polls. I think he knows what's going to play, not just to his base, but to the point earlier, 75% of us float around in the middle and we swing from party to party and our ideas evolve and we get tired of something and we come back to another thing. So I think he's got a good pulse on where that is right now. Awesome. And just Karen, the final word to you, does this does he run the risk of positioning himself like Donald Trump of the north? Yes, yes, he does. But people do like the combative guy. But at the certain point

where it becomes annoying and very fine, fine line. Well, gentlemen, I want to thank you all. Jessica Aronson, co-founder of Baz News and board member of the World Sick Organization of Canada, Jazz Johal, the host of the Jazz Johal show on CKNW in Vancouver and former member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia and Greg Brady, AM640 host of Toronto Day, as well as my dinner date for tomorrow night.

I had a great time. Semi-formal, Ben. I'm going to Google semi-formal and figure out what I'm supposed to wear. Okay, guys, thank you so much. Let's do it again soon. This is the Ben Mulroney Show. Welcome to the bilingual show.

Everybody ask me why, why a bilingual show? Cause we're in Montreal, baby, that's why. It's the only city in the world where you'll run into a Greek guy in Park X and he'll talk to you in three languages in the same sentence. It'd be like, look, I told Casta de Malacchia to stop coming to Park X. Last time he came, he brought his girlfriend Tabarnak. One, two, three, a po' piso.

I was like, what the fuck just happened? Were the Greeks at my plaza? Anyway, some in the front, that's rare, because usually, you know, you're in the back. But, um... If you are like me, and you are proud of Canada's multicultural history, and the fact that we were built on immigration, and that we have this duality of language,

then my next guest is the perfect Canadian. He is the prototypical Canadian. I wanna welcome to the show Sugar Sammy, one of the funniest comedians working today, a good friend and now a new friend of the Ben Mulroney Show. Sammy, welcome to the show. Thank you so much.

Thanks for having me back. Yeah, well, no, I'm glad to have you. I'm glad there's so much to talk about. Now for our listeners who don't yet know you, you are from Montreal. You are perfectly bilingual. You've been doing stand-up for how long? 30 years now this year.

30 years, congratulations. When you told your parents that you wanted to be a stand-up, what'd they say? They still don't know. They think I'm a doctor. I'm here on a medical convention. Listen, I think- That's a tough sell to any parent. It is a tough sell. But the good thing is my parents were, you know, they're, they're, they weren't traditional. They're like semi-traditional.

Okay. Right. So they're like, do it, but you know, make sure you make it do a good job. Make sure, make sure you make enough to take care of us. Right. So there's always that. So my parents always encourage us as long as it was serious. Yeah. And what came first, stand up in English or stand up in French? In English. In English, I was always a fan of English stand-up, especially American stand-ups.

I grew up, I mean, I think we're the same generation. So Eddie Murphy, Delirious, right? So we've watched that over and over and over. So for me, I think my influence always came from African-American comedians, you know, who were sort of doing social commentary from the margins. And to me, that's always been interesting. And I think my, you know, my humor's evolved.

It's like a mix of all of these influences now, African American, British comedy, you know, mainstream American and Canadian comedies. So who are you listening to now? Who are you watching now? Well, I love, I love Bill Burr. Bill Burr is like, I think my favorite and I think the top comic in the world right now. Obviously, Chris Rock, I've been a fan of forever. I mean, every time he puts out something, you know, a lot of the Chappelle stuff is great too. So, I mean, I think that's the kind of stuff that I really like. Roy Wood Jr., I think, is amazing, you know, now that I'm interested in doing political stuff as well. But that's what I was noticing.

These are guys who are unafraid of the line. And there was a moment in time a few years ago where a lot of comics were expressing frustration that they couldn't get near that line. They weren't going to college campuses anymore. There was no tolerance for offense, but that's where the fun is. Exactly.

Were you having fun a few years ago or was it frustrating for you? No, I'm always having fun. I always make sure that I'm not cancelable. You know, and the way to do that is I produce my own tours, produce my own shows, so we do all of that. So it's like, you know, and I even say, like I say the most outrageous things on stage,

you've been to my shows. And then in Canada, I'm like, okay, well, yeah, and I know I'm gonna get canceled. But we're in Canada, what are you canceling me from? CBC gem. City TV, Crave, I'm like, I cancel myself. Yeah, but yeah, I'm convinced, like, because you talk about, you've got this unique position

where you can talk about social issues, but also the language divide. And I'm convinced that if you had a separatist and a federalist sitting in your audience, you would want them to both be offended, but also both laugh. Yes. And do you think you've managed to do that?

Because I know you have. I think I'm pretty close. I think I'm pretty close. And look, to me, I think that's always the best type of comedy to write and it's the most difficult is where you're crossing the line people know there's a sense of danger in the room. Yeah. You know you've you dug a hole for yourself and now you have to get out of it and the audience is looking like how's he gonna get out of this. Yeah. And the best way is the biggest

laugh possible right. So you say something dangerous and then you're like okay where's the punchline? Is he gonna get out of this, or is it just gonna be tense for a minute? And that's always, to me, the most interesting type of comedy. These are the type of comedians we've celebrated, right? We always mention the Richard Pryors and the George Carlins,

but we say, oh, we love that those guys broke barriers and they were our favorites, and because they crossed the line, but then people wanna prevent the new guys from becoming that way. Which if you wanna celebrate those comedians, make sure that the next generation is able to have that same leeway.

Anthony Jesselink said something interesting recently. He said, comedy is supposed to be dangerous. We are supposed to be flirting with that line and we shouldn't be complaining that people wanna cancel us because never before have there been more opportunity for stand-up comics, never before has there been more money out there for us to do what we do. Of course, it should come with a price.

Yes, of course, and not just that. Being canceled right now is cool. Yeah. Like, cancel me, then I'll do the cancellation tour. You know, it's great. People want to see that guy who got canceled. It's like, okay, well, let's see what they're gonna say. So I think there's definitely,

it is the golden era of comedy and there's so much to watch and there's so much to take in from. And it doesn't just have to be that type of comedy. I enjoy all kinds of comedy as well. But my- Observational. Observational, but my favorite to write,

obviously, are those jokes where, you know, you're getting yourself out of those holes. But you know, I give the audience a break and go into different things as well. Well, yeah, but where do you test out your material? Because the art in what you do is making it sound like you're making it up on the fly. But you have to rehearse that stuff

and you've got to test it out. And there's a joke that you've got to test in front of an audience. And if it doesn't land, you've got to either fix it or figure out what's wrong with it or cut it all together. Where do you test that stuff out? Well, I'm lucky. My brother actually produces a lot of shows

around Montreal. And so I always jump on last minute at these shows unannounced with my papers and surprise the audience and try out new material. So, you know, I'll be up there an hour a day sometimes, you know, four or five times a week testing out new concepts and new things. And not to use the parlance of our times, but it, do you view those times, do you view those places as safe spaces where you can test out material

that may not land, that may just, you know, you're going to make things awkward. You're going to be, you know, the punchline won't land. And so it it's just gonna feel tense. Yeah, that's so much fun. And it is, I find that's the fun part, is I remember at one point, you know, just having a bunch of, and sometimes you'll run into, you know, the audience that's not there for you, you know, who didn't pay to see you, they just wanted to see a show,

and you're able to test this material on, you know, people who aren't your target audience, and that's interesting too. Will this work with this type of audience? able to test this material on, you know, people want your target audience and that's interesting too. Will this work with this type of audience? I remember having a row of like Gen Z, you could tell woke, very left-wing, a group of like you know 12 kids were there and I was like this could go wrong very quickly. It's so funny how 20 years ago, 30 years ago when I started, you'd be afraid of the older people in the audience.

They're like, oh, they're conservative, they won't go for this. Now the older people are the cool people. Yeah, they're the ones that, yeah. Gen Zs are the least cool generation right now in the history of humanity where you're like, I might offend these kids, you know? But you know what I find interesting is, I think we're getting back to a place where,

where even though we all come from different places, like the immigrant experience doesn't matter where you're from. There are whether it's Iranian background, Indian, Serbian, and my, like our grandmothers have so much in common. Yeah. Right. And, and, and that common out, like I can laugh at stories from Indian comics, like I said, people from Persian backgrounds. And there's, I think, a willingness to appreciate that connection today, where for a long time,

it was about, oh, we all have our own lived experience. We can only experience what we've lived. And that's nonsense. Yeah. No, I agree. I agree. And look, I think that even it got enhanced when I you know started going out with a Polish girl.

We've been together 12 years but now I have the experience of the in-laws and that family and my experience and my family's experience and you can sort of mishmash all this together and turn it into something fun. Yeah and what is it it's not you're dating the white girl so you can comment on the white people. Yeah exactly. But somebody tells me you were doing that beforehand. I was doing that beforehand anyways. I mean I even talk about it, I go you know like I say you know I've been with a white girl for 12 years you know like and you know who gets mad at that is Indian girls. I go but you know but I I work hard. I deserve a white girl. Like, why be miserable?

You know? Like that's the thing is like, standup comics allow us to laugh at stuff that in any other scenario, we would have to pretend wasn't funny. Yeah. You'd have human resources calling you in. Yeah. No, exactly. Right away.

Yeah. No, I love your stuff. And we're going to talk about so much more after the break, we're going to talk about what you're working on. Now we're going to talk about is this the best time to be a standup comic. So don't go anywhere. We're in conversation with sugar Sammy. Our conversation continues after the break on the Ben Mulroney show. This is the Ben Mulroney show. What's your name? Idris. Look at this beautiful. Oh Trump supporter Who said I'm here with you miss? Sir are you an immigrant? Yes, but you have your papers. Yes Nice to meet you. Sir, you are a gentleman and documented. That's Sugar Sammy, one of the great comedians working today. And I got to say between you

and Russell Pierce, the crowd work that the two of you do is like next level. Thank you. Have you ever done a show entirely of crowd work? It's happened accidentally. Yeah. It's happened where I headlined a comedy club, this was years ago, and I remember just starting with the first person in the crowd, it was like 200 people,

and then just made my way through the crowd, and an hour later, I was just doing crowd work and came back and finished it with the guy I started with and wrapped it up and it was done. That was it. That was it. It was the most fun ever. I mean, that's a skill unto itself, right?

To be able to just throw away the material and just go with the crowd. Yeah, well you're writing on the fly. So it's that exercise where you're creating, you're figuring out, you're actually honing your writing skills on the fly, and that's fun. And so you're on tour now. On tour now across Canada, starting in Winnipeg this weekend.

Congratulations. What a place to start, minus 35. And then, yeah, 17 cities across the country, it's going to be fantastic. And what can people expect? Look, if you're looking to get away from the grind of not saying what you want at work in front of human resources and having fun. This is amazing. It's unadulterated stand-up comedy. It's gonna be a lot of fun and we're gonna let loose and nothing is off limits. Leave the kids at home. Leave the kids at home. And if people want tickets? SugarSami.com.

I love it. You do it all in-house. Is this the best time for comedy? Because I'm thinking the the the Trudeau government is long in the tooth. People have real opinions, real emotions attached to their feelings. You've got Trump coming in and he's just a material machine. There's so many issues on the table that are creating comedy, it would seem, in real time.

Yeah, it just writes itself. A lot of times you just gotta turn on the news and just go, okay, now just take notes. No, it's fantastic. It's fun. And you know what's fun is having everybody in the room together. So what's fun about my audience is not only is it multicultural, multi-generational, but it's multi-political. So you have people from everywhere. And this is why I like starting in Winnipeg, because Winnipeg feels like these places in the world, there are a few of them, there's an area in Montreal called Verdun that's like that, where you have three political parties that are neck-and-neck. So you have that in the audience, and to me that's the best sample

audience to test everything. Of course. And see where everybody gets mad, and people get mad and laugh in different places, but all around they love 90% of it. So I always say, what do you prefer? 90% of an amazing show or 100% of an okay show. Well, that's a great tax to pay, 10% to have 90% of it. If someone said you're paying 10% income tax in Canada, you'd be loving it. I would say what country am I in?

Exactly. This ain't Canada. Exactly. I've got to think though, doing a show in Montreal, a bilingual show, must scratch all of your itches because you get to deal with the separatists, the federalists, you get the bureaucrats, you get all the languages and all the cultural communities

all at once in both languages. You do it in both languages, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's a fun place to perform. And I took the bilingual show across Canada. So we did one night in most major cities last year. And to me, it's one of my favorite things to do because it's where I grew up as well, and where you grew up. So it's fun to have that opportunity to perform at home

and to deal with those issues. And they never change, they just keep evolving. Well, one issue in particular is evolving into sort of a concerning trend. opportunity to perform at home and to deal with those issues. And they never change, they just keep evolving. Well, one issue in particular is evolving into sort of a concerning trend. And there's, you know, a lot of people believe the immigration system in Canada not working as well as it has in the past.

And that has led to an anti-South Asian sentiment in this country. And, you know, you're of that background. Have you felt that personally? I didn't feel it until I saw it under like my Facebook ads. Like sometimes I'll go and scan the comments and they're like, more Indians, what are you guys doing? Stealing all our jobs.

And I've seen people get mad at the fact that like, there's a statement like a lot of people say, Indians are stealing all these jobs at Tim Hortons, that's all you see is Indians. I'm like, that's the job you're complaining about? That's the job? Not the doctor thing, not lawyers, not like Ian Huneman saying,

you're mad at the Tim Hortons job? That's when you know it's a little bit white trashy. Cause like, what's your job now? Like belly lint remover? Just removing belly lint going, ah, if it wasn't for all these Indians, I'd be serving coffee at Tim Horton. Well, it must be, but the French could say that about you

for coming in and stealing the job of a host on their version of America's Got Talent. Yeah, in France. You've been doing that for years. What's it called over there? La France a l'incroyable talent. That's a mouthful. Yeah, yeah.

La France a l'incroyable, the French know how to take something and make it three times longer. Yeah, but so La France, c'est incroyable. The French know how to take something and make it three times longer. Yeah, but so if you watch it, like if you watch it with the volume off, it looks like that format. But it's, what they appreciate as talent might not be a little,

might be different from what we appreciate. Is that right? Is that a fair assessment? Right, and I think as a North American, they appreciate that point of view. You know, a North American coming in and sort of ripping up their taste. So what are some of the peculiarities of that French show and the talent that they want

to showcase? Is it more mimes than anything? No, no, no. You know, they have a little bit of everything. And you know, I'm very straightforward. And I think that's one of those things that I think has picked up on television there is people love the fact that it's unfiltered. And it was, you know, one of those things, I think has picked up on television there is people love the fact that it's unfiltered. And it was one of those things I think with the producers that we worked on, make sure

that we were able to not have the same sort of restrictions we'd see on maybe Canadian television where we could just go as far as we want. And I improvise and say the first thing that comes to my mind and they keep it. They don't edit it. They don't cut it out. And I think it's fantastic. And I think with that, we should see more and more of that on television.

I think we gotta let loose a little bit more because TV's dying because people are finding alternate sources, you know? You know, I found with the advent of Netflix, where everyone around the world was able to consume the same stuff, there was this confluence of appreciation of different things, where all of a sudden it was,

you know, British dramas were more accessible to North American audiences. Squid Game. Yeah, Squid Game, exactly. But even the format of British TV became something that was adopted over here. All of a sudden we're doing eight episodes of TV, you know, and that sort of thing.

Have you noticed the influence of other cultures on French talent? Yeah, I mean that because it's opened up now, right? The internet is, that's one of those great things. The internet has opened up the world to different points of view and different ways of doing things. So yeah, these formats everywhere else become interesting. Yeah, well it's also like you were saying before,

I mean, your appreciation of sort of what is funny around the world is more accessible to you now. You're able to watch comics from different parts of the world. Yeah, it used to be. I remember the first time I went to England, I started touring England, and my cousin turned me on to The Office, the British version of The Office.

And I didn't know anything about that. But today, in real time, people can figure that out very quickly. And so we'd watch the DVDs. I watched them on a laptop. My friend would get some sort of digital file sent to him, and I watched them on a laptop. My friend would get some sort of digital file sent to him and we watched them on a laptop. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was something unlike anything else I'd

ever seen. Me too and then extra so I became a huge fan of Ricky Gervais because of that and you know so I you know when he appeared on the Golden Globes on in 2011 for the first time and you exactly what was coming. Yeah. And I was like I cannot wait to see this. He's uncancellable. I love Rick Aderbeck, he's one of my favorites. The harder people push at him, the more he pushes back and he's insightful and he understands how to construct a joke as well.

I watched him on comedians in cars with Jerry Seinfeld and he's one of those guys who makes it look easy but it's only because he works so hard. Yeah, genius at TV writing and also at standup. Yeah, so he's great. You got the standup stuff, you've got the TV show, you've got the tour, what else are you working on? So far, I mean, that's it, the tours, you know?

The tours and the bilingual show, it keeps me busy most of the time, the TV show in France, and then, you know, a couple other projects, you know, that aren't officially it. I watched a show you did once. It was a French show on Crave, I think. It was on television back in Quebec. It started at Cigala in 2013.

So it was a series, three seasons. People can find it. I think they're on YouTube right now, but it was on Crave for a while. So yeah, I did my, I had a sitcom. Well, and listen, Sammy, thank you so much for showing up. I want to remind our listeners that you're on tour and they can get all the information at sugarsami.com.

Calm, not that C-A stuff. Dot com. Dot com. Hey, I really, thank you so much for coming in and I'm going to let you know when I'm in Montreal because I'd love to come see you. Yes, please. Yeah, we gotta go for dinner.

Of course. Yes, hey, thank you so much. And honestly, if you haven't discovered Sugar Sammy, he is one of our national treasures. And like I said, he is the embodiment of everything that is great in this country. And he knows how to make us laugh. And so thank you very much, my friend. Thank you. She has partial retrograde amnesia. She can't remember the last eight years. Tuesdays. What are the odds I get my memories back? It's the brain. Nobody knows. A new series coming to global and streaming on StackTV. I don't know who I am now. Inspired by the unforgettable true story. But I will be a doctor again.

Emmy nominee Molly Parker. I will do everything I can to get my life back. DOC, new series Tuesdays on global. Stream on StackTV.