The Ben Mulroney Show - Drex and Shannon Laverty break down the oddities of the day

Episode Date: July 16, 2026

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All right, welcome back to the Benmoor Rooney Show. I'm Drex from the Edge Radio Network and pound 87 in Winnipeg, hosting for Ben for the next few days. He's taking his mom on a nice vacation. That's something that every son should do. Call your mother and tell her you love her. All right, do that for me. Shannon Lavity is a comedian in Ontario.

She's got a gig coming up at Billington. Friday and Saturday, Yuck Yucks. Shannon, welcome to the studio. Thank you so much. How's things? Good. Things are good, yeah.

Have you been paying attention to the news? A little bit. Like how much do you pay attention to the news? It depends on what I'm listening to. So like I try to go to the more comfortable, like, funny stories. I'm getting tired to listen to Trump, although these are funny stories as well. Do you use the stuff that you see? Are you working into jokes?

No. I'm so not a political comment. You don't see any news story. Antonio, your thing is something else? No, yeah, exactly. Like, I did a little TV show about four years ago, and it was all based on news stories. So we did lots of news stuff,

and we would always look for, like, the most ridiculous news stories. And there's so many of them, too. I had David Cooper, who hosts a show here on this radio station on earlier today, and we literally went through some of the strange things he finds a news. Because I think for the most part, when we look at just the top-level news is always political stuff, scandals. But then we find out that a guy in England decided to get an England World Cup Championship tattoo

before they played yesterday against Argentina. Idiot. So stupid. Is that a pre-regret tattoo? I mean, I've done some pre-regret tattoos as well. I think we all have three-regret tattoos. I'm actually getting one taken off right now. Which one?

This one here on my chest. Are you getting that, like, lasered off? How does that feel when you do that? How does that feel when you get a lot? It hurts more. It is. Yeah. What are the tattoos that you're getting in? So I have a Bucon. Unicor. No, no, no. It's a Bronco. No.

So originally it was a dolphin. Yeah. And it was somehow a very angry looking dolphin on my back. So I had it covered up with a happier dolphin with an Aztec sun because it was the 90s. Okay. And then the unicorn on my chest because, you know, I was 18 in Saskatchewan. and that was the cool tattoo to get. That was the best thing to get.

Right? Do you remember your mindset when you were doing that? Oh, yeah. I was like, ooh, I like that. You corn on the wall there. It was a piece of flash on the wall. Oh, that's great. So this guy, I don't know whether you've seen the picture.

It is literally the World Cup statue. He has had this tattooed on his cough. Yeah, painful. And it ain't a small tattoo. No. This is easily 25 centimeters long. Yeah. It's huge and it's ridiculous.

What is the thought process? of somebody that's a sports fan to get the tattoo assuming that their team is it ego? Are they assuming that their team is so good that they just could never lose? Of course. That's just it.

They're like, well, we're just gonna be, we're the best, we're the best. And that's how he's proving it by putting it on his leg. Now everybody's laughing at him.

But didn't he say at the end of that article as well, if they didn't win, he was going to write just joking and have that tattooed underneath it? No one's going to buy that. No, No, it's just joking. Like, ha ha.

Or just keep scratching off the year and then putting it on the next one. Have you been watching any of the World Cup? No. Okay, you're the only person. I know. You're the only person I've met in the past month that's never watched soccer. I watch. That's my reaction.

That's my reaction when someone said to me yesterday, did you watch the England Argentina match? Yeah, I don't. I don't find it very exciting. Like the, I find like the commentators, make it way more exciting than it actually is. Do they have to be English commentators to make it excited? They have to make a way. Yes, absolutely.

They have to be English. And then also the thing that drives me nuts is how quickly these guys take a dive. And I'm like, suck it up. Like, come on. And they're the world's worst actors. They're the worst actors. So bad. Yeah.

I can't, that's why I can't watch it. Like, you know, you watch baseball players and they get hurt and you're like, oh, you've got a hang nail. And you're like, okay, I guess you can't pitch anymore. And like, there's certain sports where if they get hurt, It doesn't look that bad, but like soccer's high up there. You watched the Espies last night, Mike. No, no, I'm just aware they happened.

Did the SBs give out an award for most creative soccer acting? They should. It would always go to somebody from Italy, but Italy wasn't in the World Cup, so they wouldn't have had it. Yeah, the Italians are really good at this one. Or it would have been Ronaldo. Oh, yeah, there is that as well. Yeah.

All right, let's talk about, have you been following the story coming out of the States where everyone just has explosive diarrhea? Yeah, yeah. Everyone's just squirting in their pants right now. It is, it's terrifying. Apparently, it's, what is it? Clio sporesis. Am I saying this right?

Cyclosporacisis. Cyclopsperesis. Yeah, I don't know how to say it, but it doesn't look fancy. So apparently Taco Bell has pulled lettuce from several Michigan locations after this outbreak. Don't we always make jokes about Taco Bill giving us the runs anyway? Yeah, of course, because it does. constantly. But honestly, if you ever had a cheesy gordita crunch,

it's the most delicious thing ever. They took away my favorite. What was your favorite? It was like a burrito. It was a crispy burrito or something where they would like grill, I don't know, they would grill it in a route. I don't know that one.

It was really good. Joy Tee, do you know what that sandwich is that she's referring to? Not a taco bell fed. Nope. Oh, wow. It was years ago that they had it. I've literally stopped eating, and I know this sounds really bad.

I've stopped eating any American produce. Yeah. Like I went to the grocery store yesterday. I'm just like, oh, product of California. No, thanks. I don't want the squirrels. No. I don't need that.

I think it's more coming from Michigan, though. I think that's the big problem because of people pooping and the, can I say poop? Yeah, you can say poop. Well, you know, if it's coming from Michigan, that makes sense because those are the ones who are sending us all the, hey, Canada, stop with all the smoke messages. Oh, okay. So hang on a second. I wonder if there's any produce that comes from Michigan into Canada.

But if it did, we'd probably see cases of this already, wouldn't we? I would think so. But I mean, I think that that's the highest, they said that that's the highest rate was in Michigan. Have you ever had norovirus? Yes. When I was in the Dominican. Me too. I had norovirus about a year ago when I first took this job.

And I did my first week of working back at chorus while recovering from norovirus. I think I lost about 15 pounds. And it hits you bad where you cannot stomach anything. You never feel full when you eat. Your stomach's constantly churning. So apparently this is much more worse than that. Well, I've heard that people who are like close to their goal weight as well are like, oh, give me the lettuce so I can just get rid of that last five pounds.

I don't need the Ozempic here. Let's just go to Taco Bell. That's right. And this is not just Taco Bell. This is like grocery stores have had to stop selling produce. And I saw some scientists saying the other day that possibly one of the main culprits is lettuce

because of all the nooks and crannies. Yeah. Well, it's always lettuce. Like how many years have we had like Romaine pulled off the shelves in the summer coming up from California because of, you know, they decided to wet down the lettuce with the poop? Why have we never banned iceberg lettuce?

Any type of lettuce? If it carries so much I think iceberg is more compact. Like it's a more compact It is the romaine grows open. The romaine is open, yeah. So more stuff gets into it. Okay, that's insane stuff.

All right, so we've got a lot more to talk about here. Shannon Laverty is here. She's a comedian. She's got a couple of shows coming up in Burlington at Yuck Yuck Yucks on Friday and Saturday night. You can probably go to Yuck Yuck Yuck's website to find out more details. You can follow her on social media as well. At Shannon Lavity on Instagram. S-H-A-N-N-O-N-L-A-V-E-R-T-Y-Y-Y-M.

with Shannon on the Ben Mulruder show as we come back in a couple of seconds. All right, welcome back. I'm direct from the Edge Radio Network and pound 87 in Winnipeg covering for Ben for a few days while he goes on vacation with his mom, as all good son should do and tell your mum you lover. Please do that. Call it today and tell her. It's important stuff. Shannon Lavity is in studio with me. She's a comedian from Toronto.

You can follow her on social media. Her Instagram is at Shannon Lavity. She's got some gigs coming up this weekend at Burlington at Yuck Yucs Friday and Saturday night. If you want to follow her, she's got a Facebook. page as well. Shannon Lavity's stand-up comic and she's just hanging out in studio with us. We've been talking about some of the news of the day. Apparently the Russians are scared of SpongeBob. Did you see this? He's too gay.

Oh, I thought it was his haircut. Yeah, SpongeBob. Is it a haircut? Isn't he just a sponge that wears shorts? I know, but he's almost got a flat top, right? So Russian TV at a single color yellow rainbow in a SpongeBob episode, a change viewers linked to Russia's crackdown on LGBT symbols. after the government labeled the international LGBT movement an extremist organization.

Really, Putin? Are you sure? Like, come on. That's so strange. We see book censorship and now we've got Russians going, oh, that's too gay for television. Look, I'm a SpongeBob fan, and I don't think there's anything, and I'm also a gay man as well. I don't think there's anything inherently gay about SpongeBob. Isn't there, aren't they talking about the fact that SpongeBob does this occasionally and a rainbow pops up? that what they're talking about? I think so, yeah. That's ridiculous. But then what do they do with real

rainbows in Russia? Are they just not allowed? They don't exist. They're not allowed. They're banned. No water droplets in the air. It's the strangest thing ever. What do you, what do you think when people start banning things like this or start freaking out or censoring a children's cartoon? It's ridiculous because they read so much more into it than what kids actually believe, you know? Like, kids just see a rainbow and it's a rainbow. They don't put a label to it or anything like that. They see a sponge wearing pants and a slow-talking pink starfish. Yeah, exactly. I mean,

just stop doing this. Isn't it a squirrel? Patrick? No, what's the squirtle? Isn't there squirrels as well? Isn't he? Gary the snail? Maybe. Gary! Did you say squirrels? Isn't that? No, that's a... Squirtle's a Pokemon. Oh, that's a Pokemon.

I was going to say, it sounded something from the Urban Dictionary. No, it is as well, I'm sure. I think it may be right. I think it is a Pokemon. I'm pretty sure it's a Pokemon. There's a crossover for you, though. SpongeBobber, a SpongeBobbong Pokemon. Hey, listen, something I wanted to ask you about, you know, you're here and usually Ben would be sitting in this chair.

I heard that when he did, is it called Humor Me? Humor Me, yes. Which is like this big charity thing they do every year where they get people who aren't funny to try and be funny for five minutes. Absolutely. Were you his comedy coach? I was his comedy coach. Oh my God, how did he do?

He did well. He won the most, he took the biggest risk, the biggest risk taker. So he won that award for the night. What did he say that was risky? I was doing some jokes about his dad. He was making jokes about his dad? Okay. Yeah, he was.

Wow. And how long ago was this? This was two years ago. Okay. Yeah. And he knocked it out of the park. Do you think there's a career there for Ben Mulroney? You know, if radio doesn't work out, then he'd make me a stand-up comic?

No. Wow. Shade. I know. I know. It's a lot harder than people think. Even people that talk and for, like, you know, are public speakers. Yeah.

And then you go to do stand-up. it's a whole other game. It's different. How often do people come up to you and say, oh, I want to do it. I can do this. And then they just bomb. Oh, I always encourage them. I'm like, yeah, get on stage. Give it a shot. Try it. It's the greatest thing to do. If you're not sure whether you can do it or not, just part, take yourself into an open mic now. You'll know real quick whether you're good at it. Have you done it? Oh, yeah. I've done it a couple of times.

And? I find it terrifying, but I also find it fun as well. I like, you know, Jessica Kirsten, the comedian. She does the crowd work. That's my thing. I like, because I like interacting with people and talking to people. So I like to get silly with them. I would not, like I don't have a tight five, so to speak. Right. But if I need to emce something, I'm going to be having fun with people in the front row. Sure. Yeah. I think, you know, if you're just naturally amusing, but not a comedian, that's fine. Yeah. Right. Just know that if you're diving into that, that you've got to be ready, like, for anything, for anything to come back and get you. Oh, yeah. Well, I think, I think years of radio, two, years of radio and years of sort of improv and ad-libbing. you either develop that muscle

where you don't and you just become terrible at it. Some radio guys just don't. And she's talking about Ben Mulroney here. No future in stand-up comedy for him, unfortunately. I did not say that, Ben. Here's some other news that you may be across. This is kind of an interesting one.

I know I talked about soccer earlier. You haven't watched any of the soccer. Soccer Federation presidents say that Senegal has lost the World Cup because the team doctor is actually a gynaecologist. Huh? What? So, Senegal's Federation president blamed the team's World Cup exit on its doctor being a gynecologist, even though the physician has spent a decade working at sports medicine.

What is it? I don't even understand. He still understands basic anatomy. Yeah. He just knows women's anatomy a bit better. That's all. The Senegalese Association for Sports Medicine called the claim false and defamatory, noting the doctor is fully qualified.

Critics say the president's comments look like a bureaucratic, own goal after a late game collapse, not a medical issue. Can I make a suggestion? Possibly. Yeah. I don't know if this happened. He tried one of his, what he knows in gynecology, on the male players and didn't go over well. I mean, maybe he was like, let's do this, let's check this. And they're like, that's not where you should be looking.

I don't think that happened. I think that he's very good at dealing with vaginas, but maybe not the pussies that are on the soccer team. Boom. Right. I agree with you wholeheartedly. Don't even. Don't even do it. Don't even.

I should mention what's going on in the studio. If something ever even remotely untoward is said in this studio, I get people looking at me and they stare at me intently, like they have to hit a button that they don't really need to hit. Did you just hit the button on me?

Wow, you dumped that? What? You dumped that? That's offensive. That's not a... That's not a bad word. Yeah, that's not a cat. Yeah.

That's all. How dare you? I think we should have a cat sound. Yeah. Like when Craig Ferguson used to be on the late, late show, and any time you drop the F bomb, you'd hear like a chicken clock or something. Yeah.

Right? Oh, my God. I have the chicken clock in there. I can't believe you did that. She landed a great joke. She's a comedian, and you took that away from her. Wow. Can we leave it in the video?

I don't know. We allowed to do that? Whatever. Shannon Laverty is a comedian here in Toronto. You can follow her on social media. Shannon at Laverty that is for her Instagram and you're also on Facebook as well. So Burlington Yuck Yuck Yucks, I always love Yuck Yuck Y' Y' Y' Krooms.

They know what they're doing. Listen, and the Burlington Yuck Yuck Yucs Club is so much fun. Like before when there was a club in another town, they don't have it there anymore. That used to be my favorite club in all of Canada. And now Burlington has taken that over. How many years have you been doing, How many?

36 years? 36 years. You still love it every day? I do. I love it every day. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

And apart from doing comedy, you've done any acting as well? Yeah, yeah. I'm on a show. I'm on the office movers on Crave. You're on office movers? I am on the office movers. Oh, my God.

I've been many to watch that show. Yeah, yeah. What's your role in the show? I'm in season two. I come in later in season two. Yeah. And I'm playing the girlfriend of one of the movers. But I just have like a little, yeah,

I have a little bit in the first, in the second season. And then I just show. another episode for the third season. Oh, that's so much fun. Did you make it raunchy? Oh, it's absolutely raunchy. No, but you do up the roll a bit?

Oh, absolutely. They did they dump your audio too and you said something until... No, they didn't. They left all my swears and all my grossness. Yeah. All my movements,

all my things that I did. Everything. Everything. Oh, that's so much. Do you like doing that? I love it. Which do you prefer? Because I guess there's... You kind of love the comedy, but you probably like stretching the comedy acting as well, right?

Well, comedy, doing stand-up is great because you get the automatic response. Yeah. It's right there. And then I used to like doing theater, but now I'm like, nah, not as much. Yeah. And then, but acting like doing TV and stuff like that, that's so much fun. And does it for you, does it have to be kind of something silly, like a silly type of room? You know what?

I always, when I was younger and I was acting, I was like, oh, I want to play the lead role, the love interest and all the stuff. And I'm six feet tall. I'm never going to be the love interest, right? I'm always. You got to play the angry manager of a store or something like that. Yes, or the wacky neighbor that's weird and stuff. And those are way more fun roles anyway.

And how often do you go out to audition for stuff like that? Not enough. Not enough? No, not enough. All right, I'm going to have to watch office movies now. Yeah, yeah. Oh, my God. Hey, thanks for coming by.

Season two. Yeah, thanks for coming by talking about the news of today. And thank you so much for revealing on national radio that Ben Mulrooney does not have a future in stand-up comedy. I could have told you that. Sad for him. Do you think if he kept practicing, he could be good? I think he could. He could be better.

All right. Yeah. So there's hope for him. You have to practice. That's the way that you get better. I love it. Shannon Labity, comedian in studio with us. Follow her on social media.

She's at Yuck Yucs this weekend in Burlington, Ontario. Shows on Friday and Saturday. Have a look at the local Yuck Yuck Yucs website to find out more. Shannon, thanks so much for coming in. We appreciate it.