Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Adam Growe Returns: Toronto Mike'd #357

Episode Date: July 17, 2018

Mike catches up with Adam Growe before they kick out the jams.

Welcome to episode 357 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery located here in Etobicoke. Did you know that 99% of all Great Lakes beer remains here in Ontario? GLB, brewed for you in Ontario. GLB, rude for you, Ontario. And propertyinthesix.com, Toronto real estate done right. And Paytm, an app designed to manage all of your bills in one spot.

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I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is old buddy, old pal Adam Groh. Cash gap guy is fine. I was like, will that offend him? I get that all the time. But when was the last time you recorded a new episode of Cash Cab?

It's been, I think, three years. And everybody thinks you're still doing new episodes, right? Well, it's obviously a preference that we would still doing new episodes. Well, it's obviously a preference that we would be making new episodes. I would love to be into season nine. We did eight seasons and repeats, and the brand is still alive because they still get a lot of airplay.

So, you know, the average non-discerning television viewer will go, oh, I just saw you on TV. You're making new episodes. They don't know if that was five years ago or like five weeks ago. Well, but it's going to catch up to me. I turn 51. You look good for 51.

Thank you very much. Do you dye your hair? No, I do not. Okay. And eventually it's going to get to the point where like, wow, you don't look anything like you do on TV. Then they'll ask, when were those made?

That'll happen when you're here. I'm surprised you've held on to the pigmentation in that hair. It's got what I call a little bit of silver now, the sparklies. It's coming to come through a little bit more. I'm going all Phil Donahue over here. But it looks good on you. See, look at us complimenting each other. I think you've got to embrace it.

I was told somebody called it, someone was cutting my hair and called them natural highlights. And I'm like, yeah, they're natural highlights. That's what they are. Some guys get the frosted tips, and this is what I do. Yeah, and hair extensions, natural. Totally natural. Adam, you just came back from a cottage, right?

Yeah, we do an annual thing where we go up to a family cottage for lack of a better word, compound. It's a community compound. The Kennedy compound. It's run by the YMCA in Muskoka, Simcoe, or Simcoe,

Muskoka, whichever you prefer. We've been going there for over 10 years. You go at the same time every year with your kids. And you basically are going to summer camp. With your kids? At the Y with your children. I didn't know this existed. Is this expensive?

Well, it's not prohibitive. But the bonus is that all of the programming is included. So you can be busy if you want, you and your kids, either independently or together, all day, all evening, and you don't pay anything extra. So it's like renting a cottage with all the activities. Yeah, no, I didn't know this existed. And it sounds amazing. I always think when your kids are going to camp, you're like, I want to go too.

That's amazing. It doesn't exist. It's like one of those secrets that when we first got introduced, it was like, well, we can tell you where we go. Who introduced you? Was it like you were in the Stonecutters, you know, like that Simpsons episode? Did somebody just say, we're going to let you, you've earned it, we're going to let you in on a little secret?

It was a couple members of the 3%. No, it wasn't. It was families that, one family that we had kids, both had kids in the same school in Toronto, and another family where we both played baseball with West Toronto Baseball. And so, you know,

eventually we kind of heard about it from a number of sources and applied. It's called Geneva Park, YMCA Geneva Park. You've just given it up now. Listen, it's tough to get there, but I'm involved at a higher level, so I want to promote it because we're doing a capital fundraising campaign to replace the cottages. And this is a place you can go for conferences year-round, by the way.

The cottages are only in the summer, and we're trying to build new ones. But it's absolutely fantastic. Two of our kids are on staff now, and it's leadership, it's environment, it's nature. And I live for being active all day and windsurfing whenever possible. Amazing. When you have, I'm thinking there's dances or maybe there's trivia night or something. There is. Are you the emcee? Well, I introduced, you can volunteer to do some programming as a cottager.

And so I started, I think it was about five years ago, the annual Geneva Park Trivia Championships in the first week that we're there. I made, at the craft shop with my daughter, I made a trophy and medals and everything like that. So I do do a trivia show up there every year. And you write the questions. I write all the questions and I make them, you know,

because it's a family audience, I've got three generations playing on it. So I have to write some stuff for the boomers, some stuff for the kids. So it's a family audience, I've got three generations playing on it. So I have to write some stuff for the boomers, some stuff for the, you know, the kids. Right. So it's,

it's a tough show, but it's become a real big tradition up there. I would go just for that, I think. Yeah. Well, you're welcome. Do you have any,

you want to throw a question at me? Well, well, you know, because of the bent that I'm on right now, I, I infused some of my doomsday prepper anxiety of the world questions. And I try not to make it too doom and gloom out there because, again, I've got kids as young as like six or seven or eight playing with their parents and their grandparents.

But I did have a little bit of fun with the fact that I'm a crazy prepper. Now we can get into that. Not a crazy one. I'm a prepper light, I would say. A prepper pot. Yeah. So one of the questions I infused was, in The Simpsons, Homer was afraid that he was the last

person in Springfield alive when France dropped the atomic bomb after, I think the mayor, whatever his name, Quimby? Yeah, it's Quimby. Yeah, he said something bad about the French. And they bombed Springfield. But Homer was delighted to find that his family survived because his house was covered in layers of what? Lead paint.

Now, do you think you know the answer to that question because you watched The Simpsons? No, that's a later episode. So, you see, for me and The Simpsons uh first six seasons i might like no problem and then first 10 i'm pretty good after season 10 it's a little shaky for me i think that's after season 10 because i don't have a firm grasp on that episode i feel like i remember that but i'm not i wouldn't like if you told me to double down or whatever like i'm not confident like i'm not certain yeah because it could be like asbestos or something like that it's either lead paint or If you told me to double down or whatever, I'm not confident. I'm not certain. Yeah. Because it could be like asbestos or something like that.

It's either lead paint or asbestos. Yeah, something horrible that he shouldn't have done. Well, it is true. It's lead paint. He painted his house repeatedly with lead paint, and his whole family survived. But you've got to give the podcast listener a chance to answer before you. Oh, you know what? That's terrible of me.

You can insert a long pause in the post, Rose says. give the podcast listener a chance to answer before you. Oh, you know what? That's terrible of me. You can insert a long pause in the post process. They were like, I know what I... and then you're like, lead paint. You're right. You're absolutely right. I was not considerate of my listeners. You're right. I actually... I mentioned to you before I started recording that, and I'll get back to the cottage thing, but Mark Hebbshire records his podcast here, and what I've started to do is other people's

podcasts. Like, I was thinking a trivia podcast would be cool, right? I would love to do it. I would love to, you know, I had a podcast for a while that only lasted I think about 15, 18 episodes. It didn't, you know, because, you know,

357, I mean, what you're doing here is monumental and, you know, you've got sponsors and everything like that. So it's, it's tough to get traction. But for me, it's about the convenience and the easability and, you know, cause I was putting a lot of love and time into that podcast. So it eventually petered out because of, you know, the lack of traction, you know, admittedly, but also, you know, my interest wanes when it becomes more cumbersome. And also you might've been ahead of the curve a little, like, cause because I've been doing this, cause I set up Humble and Fred like in 2006. Okay. We started doing Humble and Fred. I can tell you there's a, like a pre-serial era and there's a post-serial era and you were in pre-seral era, and then there's a post-cereal era. And you were in pre-cereal.

And cereal was a big podcast that the masses kind of hooked into. And a lot of people kind of discovered podcasting or learned how to subscribe and syndicate a podcast and how it gets pushed to you. Like that whole concept that scared a lot of people. I'm talking about the average Joes now, not the savvy guys like us. Right, right.

They were intimidated by the whole thing. And then with Serial, they sort of got their feet wet. And then a lot of those same people are now like avid podcast listeners where they don't turn on terrestrial radio anymore. Well, I think that you're right in that the listening habits have dramatically changed even in the last couple of years. Forget the last five to seven years. Right. But what I want to ask you as a podcaster, because I've been on Humble and Fred,

I've been a guest on other people's podcasts, and everybody says, if you want to start one of the keys, one of the... And you as a listener right now, you tell me if I'm wrong, because people were telling me even last year, one of the founding things

on having a successful podcast is frequency. If you're going to do weekly, you've got to be there weekly for your audience because they come to trust you. And my philosophy is that with the way television has gone, if they like your podcast, they'll download six of them and listen in the car on the commute all at once. They're not going, oh, well, he missed that one week. I'm not going to listen anymore.

Am I right? Yeah, I um those are usually former radio people that sort of like bring some old radio rules into the brave new world of podcasting or coming so as a guy who never worked in radio uh i can tell you yeah there's no rules like that like i don't have this for example for me if i do three in a row some people are like oh you need to hold on to them and like release them regularly. And I'm like, no, I release them as it happens. That's the whole glory of this on-demand universe. They just drop.

Literally, they'll just drop. And if you're subscribed, they're pushed to you. And you can listen to the fresh ones or go back and binge, as you said. I don't think there's any rules. I think there's no rules about, oh, it's got to be once a week or twice a week or you got to be on time. No, it's as it happens. It's the new Brave New World. Yeah, so if I blasted away,

you know, six 20-minute episodes of trivia and I put them all up and then I didn't do anything for three weeks, people aren't going to go, well, forget it. Not going back for that.

Those people do not understand. I want to know, when we finish recording, you tell me the names of the people who told you that. Okay. That's right. I'm kind know, when we finish recording, you tell me the names of the people who told you that. Okay. That's right. I'm kind of relieved, not relieved, because I would like you to be a wealthy man. But where am I going with this? Except I asked you about if you had a cottage. You had a

cottage last week, and I was thinking you owned a big cottage on a lake or something. Yeah. I mean, I could keep the brand alive by saying, but at the end of the day, the very forgiving thing about being A, a stand-up comic in Canada, and B, the host of a game show, in particular one that drives a cab, there's not the expectation that you're like, and you know, as a Canadian ABCD

or E-lister celebrity, I've always maintained accessibility, but I think that part of it is Canadians are still apologetic when they approach me and they go, cash cab guy. And they still do say that. Do you mind if I get a picture with you to prove that I actually met you? And I'm like, totally, yes. But I think that part of it is

that I am in their eyes just a cab driver. Not just a cab driver. I shouldn't say that because cabs are awesome. I'm still a big fan of theirs. But it's not like I'm some highfalutin mansion-owning guy. It's like I'm just an average person. You're a cab driver who happens to like trivia.

Right. It didn't really work out that way. I wasn't a cab driver before. So, yeah, the cottage thing is not an owned property. It is a rental situation. And I would say the facilities are a little bit cheap and cheerful, especially in the cottage facilities. But, you know, I'm going to a cottage tomorrow of a friend of mine, and it's rustic, propane, water access, outhouse, kind of my preference anyway, whether you own it or not. Right.

Not that I'm complaining when I've gone to people's cottages, which are houses. You know, I'm just like, this is not a cottage. Right, cable televisions, air conditioning. Because to me, it doesn't matter either way. If I'm going to a five-star hotel or a rustic cottage, it always takes me

because I'm a functioning, just the way I'm a prepper light, I'm a functioning germaphobe. And so it takes me about a day and a half to decompress and just get used to any environment. Doesn't matter whether it's a high-end resort or a cottage. So to me, I'd rather like once I settle in and I go, this is my dirt now, I'd rather be shoes off, lounging and not worrying about anything. Because now it's like it's mid-July, and I feel like everyone but me is at a cottage.

Like, first of all, I feel like everyone either owns a cottage or has a cottage in the family. Like, I don't own a cottage or have a cottage in the family. I have no access to a cottage. I'm not going to be at a cottage this month, but everyone else is. Like, I feel kind of like I'm the last guy in Toronto. It does feel like this club.

Everyone's gone. Right? And getting invited is one way in. And frankly, I would prefer not to own a cottage. I talk to people that they do save when their kids are really young. It's a great investment in the family. And then maybe 10 to 20 years later, once they've done that and their kids have kids. But honestly, the

maintenance and the drive. If I owned it, I would be like, I have to go up every weekend. I can't do anything else because I've invested in this. And the commute, if you're going in the high commute, it's just like it's brutal. You've talked me out of it.

I'm now glad. I now cottage in the sea. I always joke, because you're close to the lake here, and I do a lot of bike rides on the waterfront, but then I take the kids to, there's a park called Sam Smith, and there's beaches there. I know it sounds funny. You're in Toronto, but there's beaches, and people are swimming at Marie Curtis, and some are swimming there. There's a website where you can say, oh, look, Marie Curtis has been tested, and it's clean. There's no E. coli in here. We can go in here.

But it's like, you know, people are kayaking. Like I just rented two hours with that Humber River kayak rental place. Yeah. Like I'm going to kayak the Humber River for a couple hours like with a rental there. Like you can cottage, you can kind of cottage in the city, kind of. Well, I think more importantly is if you find your own way with your kids to find an oasis and a getaway within the city, that's brilliant. For me, it is discovering the best-kept secrets in town that people are like, oh, I have to get out. It's like, no, you don't necessarily.

I mean, the advantages sometimes are there is a lack of pollution, no heat events per se, although it's still pretty hot. I hear it's been hot everywhere. Yeah, it was. It was pretty nasty. So you don't own a cottage, neither do I. I feel good that we have that in common. Even though I want you to be rich,

I don't want you to be much richer than me. I need it to be close. Right. And I showed you my vehicle, the one car with the... I go to corporate... That's still the bread and butter when I go to events. Right. And I showed you my vehicle, the one car with the... I go to corporate... That's still the bread and butter when I go to events and people see the vehicle I'm driving. We used to be a two-car family before we moved away to Vancouver for a year, a couple of years ago. And then when I came back to Toronto, I was committed. Absolutely, in this city,

I can totally be a one-car family. It was ridiculous. But my other car was a BMW. I can totally be a one-car family. It was ridiculous. But my other car was a BMW, and now the car that we kept was the family car that has now been experimented on by the two oldest of our family in terms of driving. And I'm not repairing any of the dent. So people see me, and they're like,

everything okay? Are things going well? Are you all right? I go, no, everything's fine. Just driving it into the ground, which is what I should do. And your third kid starts driving when? Like, how close? Well, she's not quite 14, which is what I should do. And you have a, your third kid starts driving when, like how close?

Well, she's not quite 14, so it'll be a while. So hopefully the car will last through that one. Cause I don't, I don't want to, you know, have to invest into another vehicle just for her to learn to drive on it.

That's funny. Now, everyone listening, uh, I want them to go to episode one 46 if they haven't already, because episode one 46, and I'll read the description mike chats with cash cab host adam grow about his start in radio his appearance on star search like this

is some gold in that episode people have to go back star search everything you wanted to know about cash cab but were afraid to ask the adam grow quiz show and more adam also quizzes mike and you won't believe what happens next. So something happens in there. I need to go back and listen. But that was an hour and 12 minutes. Yeah, an hour, 12 minutes, and 46 seconds. What happened with the Adam Groh Quiz Show?

Is that still alive? What is happening there? Well, if you bring me back every 200-plus episodes of this podcast, I'll tell you. The Adam Groh Quiz Show is still very much alive. In fact, when I get bookings for corporate conferences, private events for companies, fundraisers, galas, et cetera, the vast majority of time, if people don't know about the Adam Grokwitz Show,

my agent eventually says, oh, in addition to him just hosting your gala, which they go initially was what they wanted, or they wanted me to do 30 minutes of stand-up comedy, they go, well, he also does this quiz show, which is comedy and trivia together with participation from audience members to win prizes. Which corporations love. They love it because I'm bringing in some tried and true stuff,

but I'm also writing some custom stuff for their audience. So usually they're going in that direction. And so it helps to have the reference of knowing me as the host of Cash Cab, but I've certainly done plenty of events where they have no, like American clients, they have their own host of Cash Cab. And so it's just an interesting concept that's a bit different than just a straight stand-up comedy act coming in. Now that I think of it, so this is Tuesday the 17th, right? Right. Thursday the 19th, there's an event at Great Lakes Brewery for listeners of this podcast, like 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Why didn't I even, like, why didn't I book the Adam Groh quiz show for that? Cost prohibitive. I'm trying to buy a cottage, so price point. I could trying to buy a cottage. So price point. I could pay in beer. There's free beer.

Anyway. What day is it? It is Thursday. This Thursday? Two days from now. You're at a cottage, right? I am out of town. Everyone's at a cottage.

Yeah. So I was going to invite you to even just come. Everybody who comes, not just famous people like Adam Groh, but if anyone comes to Great Lakes Beer, which is near Royal York and Queensway, right by the Costco on Queen Elizabeth Boulevard, if you come

there between 6 and 9 to say hi to me, you get a free 12-ounce beer. Everyone gets one free beer, which I think is amazing. You can say that because they're not buying a ticket. It's a VIP invite. I know this because I have events

where I serve, like, sponsor alcohol and you have to, you don't have, and it's at a licensed, but you're at a licensed venue. You're at a licensed venue.

It's a licensed venue, for sure. I have not been, but I've had the product and I like the product. So, you know, to actually go into the venue

would make sense to kind of get a sense of the vibe of the people. Well, you're not allowed to go unless it's a Toronto Mike listener experience night and you're in a cottage, so you'll have to wait for the next one.

All right. How often do you do that? I don't know. It's my first one. All right. I was hoping you'd come just to ensure like I'm not sitting there by myself, like drinking my free pint. Like that would be the saddest thing. Well, listen, like anything else, you know what it's like when you start out with these. Don't be disappointed if there's not as many people

as you hoped. I have no expectations. I'm good at this. In fact, I was going to do this years ago and then I delayed it because of this nightmare. I had this haunting feeling like I'm the only one who's going to be there. No one's going to show. Why am I doing this? And I said, no, no, no, no. And then I'm

like, okay, let's just try this one time. But my expectations are so low, I'm sure they'll be exceeded. Like if five people show up now, it's like, okay, let's just try this one time. But my expectations are so low, I'm sure they'll be exceeded. Like if five people show up now, it's like, oh, five people came to say hi. I will be so excited. I completely, those are five people that are new levels of fans and listeners

for you and your sponsors. But I hope they don't come just for that free 12-ounce beer. Could happen. I got a note from someone, I won't reveal their name, but they said, like, can they come, drink the 12-ounce beer. Could happen. I got a note from someone. I won't reveal their name, but they said, can they come,

drink the 12-ounce free beer, say hi to me, and then disappear? You see, I don't... Anytime you hear about any contest and it says no purchase necessary, I don't want to be the person to go in, I'm not buying anything.

I still want to roll up the rim. Right. That's right. Who has the guts to be that person? I'm not buying anything, I still want to roll up the rim. You know what I mean? Who has the guts to be that person? I'm not going to spend $1.67 for a chance. I want the little... Because they have to say no purchase necessary. What do you do? Fill out a form? People do this. Because I started

in radio. We used to call... Please excuse my judgment if you are one of these people. We used to call them contest pigs. They're people that that's what they do professionally. Yeah, right. Radio and newspaper, and they just live by that.

And whatever. Everybody's got their own thing. But who has the time? And I just would be embarrassed to go in and just get there. and B, I just would be embarrassed to go in and just get the... Although I have to say, you know, you never can overestimate. You know, one of the things I'm doing right now

is I'm on the executive committee for the Canadian Association of Stand-Up Comedians. This is a real... You and Ron James, is that right? That's right, me and Ron. Now, Ron, actually, we should get Ron involved. Ron's been on the show, believe it or not. You're not the only, now you're one of a small club of stand-up comics that have made the visit.

Oh, amazing. Well, this is an actual association. And anyway, we did a fundraiser, a 12-hour comedy fundraiser at the Rivdown in Toronto, at the Alt.Comedy Lounge. And the idea was to come down, become a member, sign our petition, if you're in the audience, to get comedy recognized as an art form in Canada. Because if you can't believe it... I've heard about this. I've been reading about this. Right. So it's not an art form recognized by the government. So we had this 12-hour comedy marathon.

And the idea was to come down and spend some time and support the cause. And there were people who came down, you down, very few, even comics who came down and didn't make a small donation, which is okay, that I can understand, but didn't become a member of CASC and just kind of insisted on doing the five minutes that we had like over 140 comics do five minutes of time and left.

Not cool. I'm like, well, it's like, okay, everybody's got their own kind of agenda, but in that environment, you wouldn't just at least pretend to be on board with the whole thing. The vast majority, it was a massive success. We're on our way.

Who else was on recently stand-up? Oh, Sean Cullen. He does less stand-up than he does singing and comedy. He does less stand-up than he does singing and, you know, comedy. He does everything. I think that's his biggest problem is he does everything very well, and we don't know where to put him because he does too many things well.

Well, you know, again, in the light of this CASC, Canadian Association of Stand-up Comedians, a lot of people in the comedy industry are excited about it because we're doing things that are going to benefit the whole comedy industry, not just stand-ups. But we're specifically targeting stand-ups, and we're specifically targeting stand-ups and we're getting messages from people that are sketch artists and, you know, musical acts, not for instance, Sean Cullen, but like Sean Cullen going, well, can I become a member? And, you know, for our thing, it's not,

we're not trying to be exclusive. So to correct myself, if Sean cullen for instance said well i do identify as a stand-up that's good enough for us right if if you're like the doo-wops or someone else and you're singing songs and do whatever but you're working comedy clubs which sean does um then you know i just think he might say he's he identifies less as a stand-up comedian as he does uh being i don't know what would you sketch artist not he's not a sketch artist. What was his... Corky and the Juice Pigs. Yeah, they're a singing group.

Yeah, I don't think he's with them anymore. But yeah, he does a bunch of stuff. But yeah, he's funny. You're funny. Ron James is funny. I'm glad Cask is doing his thing there. When you were here, episode 146, you actually, I think you were the first person i saw

every like using a selfie stick you brought a selfie stick i didn't well now i didn't because you but you did right i did at the time probably yeah i i even because all my photos are outside but my photo with you is down here and you could tell someone's taking it and i remembered you had a selfie stick and i i just want to say you were like a head of the curve like they're all over the place now but you were maybe the first one i saw using one well i mortified my kids by using that on a regular basis for our cross-country drives from toronto to vancouver and then we went uh we went through canada on that trip and then back from vancouver to toronto through the states but i captured so much

amazing video and pictures of all of us instead of being the one behind the camera all the time. They don't appreciate it now, but they will. Really great stuff. So I embrace the selfie stick. I still use it on occasion. But right now what I use it for is when I'm doing a self-tape for an audition for a TV show or a film.

I use it connected to when I'm doing a self-tape for an audition for a TV show or a film. Right. I use it connected to a mic stand in my basement to do this. Instead of paying the 50 bucks. This is why I don't own a cottage. Because I don't even have 50 bucks to go to a casting house to pay them for time to do a... Or to fix your car. Yeah. It's like, you know, you got to embrace the lack of funds the best you can.

Like, I don't have 50 bucks for you, but I do have a six pack of Great Lakes beer for you. I noticed that. I know. I forgot to actually give it to you. Then you would be like, oh, he never gave me the beer. Maybe you have to. It's like when Johnny Carson has a stand up on and he invites you over to chat at the desk or whatever. Like only certain people get the beer.

That's for you. You've earned it, I'd say. I'm having a quick look. I see body double Belgian ale and pompous ass English ale. I love it. They're cheeky with their... And the thing is, to stand out as a brewery now, as a craft brewery, is a competitive market. I know.

You're still Junction Guy, right? Yeah, and there's like 14 to 20 of them in the truck. I saw that, yeah, yeah. It's blowing up, right? And these guys have been doing it for 31 years now, so it's like they were ahead of this whole boom,

but you're right. There's a lot of craft breweries making noise in this city right now. So that's why everyone listening is going to pay their dollars for Great Lakes beer. Pick up your Great Lakes beer. The GLB. Is that what you call it?

You know you're getting critical mass when people actually say an abbreviated name. I have to say GLB because I struggle with the word brewery. It's a tough word. You're a professional though. Just throw it down. Brewery. And the new one I'm struggling with, which I'll say in a moment,

is architectural. I think those are it down. And the new one I'm struggling with, which I'll say in a moment, is architectural. Like, I think those are the words, like rural juror. Yeah. You have to really slow it down to nail those. Speaking of pronunciation, this is a good segue. I wanted to ask you, remind us, are you from Toronto originally? No, I grew up in Vancouver. Vancouver.

And how old were you when you came here? I grew up in Vancouver, left out of high school, went to U of T, and continued on my pathway in terms of not really thinking that I would be a professional entertainer, but always doing stuff like in the drama club hosting events. So I was at New College at U of T, hosting coffee houses, talent nights, producing stuff for student council. And when I sent you my jams right for the yes because we're going to kick out the jams so some of that was related to my experiences there on student council you know just trying to you know the the iconic thing so when i left vancouver uh i was a kid still i was only 18 and so for me i never lived in vancouver in my mind so when we moved back just for a year just right because we could, it was an amazing family.

And you rented your home in the Junction. Rented out our place here, rented out a place in Kits in Vancouver, and just lived the dream out there. And that was when I lived in Vancouver, right? But, you know, I've been in Toronto or parts of Ontario for longer than I was in Vancouver. Say the word Toronto again. Toronto. Okay, so this is a recent thing. And remind us here, and here's a lot of reminders,

but we're all going back to episode 146, which you're right, 200 episodes again. I probably put more of a T into that. Okay, so which stations did you work at? Did you ever work at Chum FM? No. I've guested in my life after radio on a lot of the stations, but my Toronto terrestrial... You're hitting the of the stations, but my Toronto,

uh, you're hitting the second T there, but this will come back. My Toronto terrestrial radio experience was at what is now boom, which was easy rock. Right. So I was at easy rock, uh, for a number of years and then went to Sudbury and then Brantford.

No, no. Uh, I went to Sudbury back to Toronto to Brantford and then I landedford. No, no. I went to Sudbury, back to Toronto, to Brantford, and then I landed at Easy Rock. So I was doing Toronto radio when the comedy career took off.

Do you remember this one? I love Easy Rock. Yeah. And they had John Tesh, right? The John Tesh was the overnight thing? The evening show. It was like sometimes if I covered for the evening drive,

because I was doing weekend and swing. So I covered for the great Mike Cooper in the morning sometime. I covered for the great Mike Cooper in the morning sometime. I covered for Daryl Henry in the afternoon sometimes. And then it would roll into John Tesh on certain evenings and I would be just a board operator at that time, which is where you start, right?

In radio, you're just an operator putting other voice tracks and stuff together. And it's weird that John Tesh was kind of like the syndicated program that aired at night or whatever. And all the ads had Lisa Gibbons in it. And they were both like Entertainment Tonight personalities, which is kind of strange for a Toronto radio station. Yeah. I mean, you know, everybody got up in arms about that.

I mean, it's much more of a global market now. But I remember when, what's his face? big market Toronto or big market radio things were brought into prime time schedule not just the evening or weekend schedule and people were like you gotta go for Canadian content and in radio

and this is one of the things that we're working on with the stand-up comedy industry and the comedy industry in general with regards to digital streaming content producers and distributors and uh mainstream broadcasters producers here is to try to really focus with the government with private sector to ensure that canadian content is is an ongoing concern because i learned in radio when i first started in radio it was what is now z103 it was dc103 out in

orangeville and was like very you adult contemporary, middle of the road. And they had the strict CRTC rules, and I can't tell you how many times I played the same universe of music, Murray, Gordon Lightfoot, you know, and eventually, you know, Brian Adams. But slowly but surely, look at the Canadian music scene now. We're leading the way on Billboard internationally, making a huge amount of money for Canadian artists, Drake, The Weeknd, you name it. You got it. And I think that that's what needs to happen for other entertainment industries in terms of film, television, digital streaming. So you mentioned like, okay, what happens when you kind of... That's my political agenda.

No, I know. I'm all in, man. Oh, Canada. I'm all in, man. Oh, Canada. So you have a radio station and they kind of focus on an American talent and there might be some like, why aren't you developing Canadian talent to do that job? And this all ties in nicely

because Roger Ashby and Marilyn Dennis have a new sidekick or co-host or whatever. Yeah, I saw you posting about this. I was following you because I was looking to you to lead the way. I was like, who is it? What's going to happen? Yep, you came to the right guy. Jamal,Neil. So Jamal McNeil, who was on the air in Chicago,

like doing mornings in Chicago, and he's an American who was working in Chicago and got recruited to relocate here. He is now like the third person in the booth with roger and maryland so there's a lot of discussion on torontomic.com about the fact that jamal is uh not canadian where i i take i don't have this big i don't have a passionate issue with this because i grew up loving tom rivers tom rivers was american too like i'm just bob mccowan i mean i know i think he might have come very young. I'm not sure. But they just got a new guy on Primetime Sports,

Richard Deitch, that they relocated from the States, and he's all American. It seems to be pretty common that we import some American talent here. Well, it is a bit of a dicey issue because when you look at Canadian radio, the landscape is quite limited in terms of the numbers of jobs in the primo positions.

Like for instance, when I started working in radio and I thought, Oh, this is it. I think I've found my, my calling. I just love the industry. I was studying and I was like, you know, jumping out and you ultimately want to reach the morning drive, which is the top spot at any radio station, Drive, which is the top spot at any radio station, typically. And a lot of the same people, including Roger Ashby and Marilyn Dennis, were in the air chair, in the morning chairs at that time. So if you look at the opportunities of attrition, so when something does come up, you would hope that they're able to find Canadian talent. My point to that is, because I do agree to a certain level, same with stand-up comedy.

I think bookers and producers of comedy should book who they think is best. Who's the best talent? So how do we rectify that situation? And my thing is development and cultivation. So the more we do to create better Canadian musicians, better Canadian on-air talent, better Canadian stand-ups,

the more likely the bookers and the producers are going to go, well, we've got great talent right here, as opposed to going outside immediately and having that kind of blanket decision that they think, oh, it's Canadian, so we've got to find talent elsewhere. And the reason I wanted to hear how you pronounce Toronto is because I guess his first few minutes on the air, Jamal said Toronto, like hit the second T, which is Toronto. And I got some comments and some tweets that real Torontonians don't pronounce the hard T, the second one. So they go Toronto, Toronto. And then I thought,

I think I do sometimes say Toronto, but sometimes I'll say Toronto. Sometimes I'll hit that second T because I find it fun to hit the second T. It's just Toronto. I'll sometimes go Toronto. I think it's just as a professional in terms of enunciating, but also maybe because I grew up in Vancouver. But I don't do the Don G. Toronto! Oh, well, he can't enunciate anything.

Just throw it away. But I think that you're right. I think that maybe it is. And at the end of the day, I don't know why people complain about stuff like that. Do you find him entertaining and engaging? What's his chemistry like with Roger and Marilyn? Well, that's the other thing going on.

I know you're going to be careful maybe, but I keep seeing, speaking of Simpsons, remember the Poochie episode? No. When they drop they drop in poochie okay so uh there's an episode where itchy and scratchy they give them like a really they give itchy and scratchy they're kind of stale and old and they're gonna bring in a hip cool new sidekick to kind of liven things up and poochie's all like to the extreme and all this stuff right and it doesn't work out they end up poochie ends up going back to his home planet. They just write him out or whatever.

But there's a lot of people joking that with Roger, who's, I think he's the only guy, I believe Roger, and I chatted him, I saw him on Wednesday, as recently as last Wednesday, I was chatting with Roger Ashby. That's how I roll now, Adam. I'm rocking with Ashby. Yes.

He's a legend. He's a legend. I think he's the last guy left on the air who was also on a Toronto radio station in the 60s. I think he's the last guy left on the air who was also on a Toronto radio station in the 60s. I think he's the last guy. Amazing. And I think the second last guy who's no longer on the air is John Donabee,

who's coming over on Thursday. Amazing. There you go. But Marilyn and Roger have been doing that since the mid-80s. Yeah. And now they've dropped in Jamal, and it'll be interesting to see how he does

because obviously they're trying to get a little younger, a little hipper, a little cooler. Let's see how this goes. Well, you know, you talk about the amount of years and time that they've been on there. But it's really, if you know the radio business at all, it's astounding when you think about how volatile. That's one of the reasons when I had an opportunity. It's like either you're going to continue pursuing radio or you're going to look at this comedy career. And if you can imagine that I went,

you know what's more stable? I think it's more stable for me to pursue a comedy career, which is ridiculous. It's one of the most instable, volatile professions you could ever imagine. But radio for me was, you could be kicking butt, doing really well, a book comes out,

or the upper management goes, we want to freshen things up, or we're changing formats, and you're done. So the fact that Roger and Marilyn, even when they rebrand, like you identified, they've tried different things,

that they're still the go-to, says a huge amount. Or Putin's got something. I don't know what it is. They've got something on Putin or something. It's either Putin or Poochie. That's what we've established. Is it Putin or Poo-tin? You pronounce the strong T on Poo-tin?

True Russians would not do that second T. And for the record, if you're out there and you say Toronto, I think you can still be a real Torontonian. I like to say the second T. It's fun. Toronto. It's fun to hit that second T. It's not always so lazy. Or you're out there and you say Toronto, I think you can still be a real Torontonian. I like to say the second T. It's fun, Toronto. It's fun to hit that second T. It's not always so lazy. Or you're like Jamal

and you're an illegal crossing the border into this country and you should be sent back to where we're going to just get into that. I don't know where he's from. I'm completely ad-libbing. He's got my anxiety in the world right now. We wish Jamal, for the record, Adam and I wish Jamal nothing but the best of luck.

I do. I honestly think like that. I honestly think when someone is in a position that I would have wanted, whether it be comedy or radio or otherwise, I go, best of success. You know why? Because if you don't nail it, the chances of positive decisions involving me or anybody

else are even lower. That's the way I look at comedy in the corporate market or club market. If I lose out on a gig, I want them to kill so that that company books a comic for the next five years. What is it, a rising tide and all boats float or something? There's something there, a rising tide. Whatever floats your boat. That's what I like. As a kid, I once had, it's like your root beer and your ice cream, right?

It's a float, right? Do you see these anymore? Are these still around, the root beer right? It's a float, right? You just see these anymore? Are these still around? The root beer floats? It's not. It's the motion of the ocean. It's the float. Fat bottom girls, they make the rocking world go round.

We're going to kick out the jams in a moment, but you dropped, you said this word twice now. Okay. Prepper. Yes. So if I forget to ask you about that, it's going to keep me up tonight. I need to know right now. What are you? A prepper. Yes. So if I forget to ask you about that, it's going to keep me up tonight. I need to know right now. What are you, a prepper light?

What is this? Well, my wife calls me doomsday because since Trump came into power a year and a half ago, I've gone down a rabbit hole every morning and become more and more anxious. And I literally, you know, I've always been a cautious and, you know, precautionary individual, but I literally started prepping a home emergency kit, go bags, car emergency kits, freaking out. This was back when he was poking Kim Jong-un.

He's like, go ahead. Let's do it. Let's bring it. I'm going, we're all going to be in a nuclear war. And my wife's like, just settle down. So I said, well, the least I can do is be prepared. And so I've got the full on thing. I even created my own proprietary mini go bag,

a military waste pack full of the essentials for an individual. You could sell these. You know this. I'm trying. I'm working that. And put some trivia questions in there. A hundred percent. Because the recommendation from the authorities is to prepare yourself for 72 hours, water, food, supplies.

So I've got 72 trivia questions, one every hour for you to enjoy and entertain your family. And to top that off, this is how I deal with my anxiety. I've actually, not only did I go back and requalify with all of my standard first aid qualifications, because the last time I did anything was when I was a camp counselor and then when we had kids and got the child CPR course. I'm actually now a certified Red Cross first aid instructor. I can certify you. And I'm teaching courses now on how to get people prepared for and to respond to emergencies. I think there's a fine line, of course,

between preparedness and paranoia. There's a fine line there, and you're teetering on it a bit, but I think you're still on the good side here. I think it's always a good idea to be prepared. Always a good idea. Your wife will let you know when you teeter over to the paranoid. She thinks I'm there already.

She's pretty sure I'm there already, but I figure if I'm a little... Do you have a bomb shelter yet? I don't have a shelter, but I'm constantly... I'm even training physically if you were to survive. But, you know,

and I'm not trying to be doom and gloom, but, you know, I call it the WSGD workout when beep goes down, right? And beep's going down. I don't know if I can swear on your podcast. You can swear. You know, it's the whenSGD workout when a beep goes down. Right. And beeps going down. I don't know if I can swear on your podcast. You can swear. You know,

it's the, when shit goes down workout. And my anxiety level is that shit is going down more and more. So the least I can do, instead of being like contributing to it or being negative, I want to be there to help people be prepared. If something happens, I'm like that as well.

Like when you're nervous about something, do something about it. And if you can't do something about it then don't worry about it like if you can't so you're in a situation where you have some anxiety about this and you're not helping yourself by the way with those deep dives into the news every morning it's a scary place i know i had a podcast since i would for several months i had a podcast which was every weekday morning i did it was like three to five minutes where i discussed like five things you should know I had a podcast. For several months, I had a podcast, which was every weekday morning. It was like three to five minutes where I discussed the five things you should know. So to prepare for this, I would be deep diving in the news because I wanted to not just do the stuff you can hear like on CB24.

I wanted to have some really deep, interesting things I thought you should know. And it really got to a point where I had to cancel this. I called it TMI. I had to change it anyway so now it's like a as it happens type format uh speaking of that but i had to change it because it was i was starting to carry this with me it was too much trump and then you threw on some ford and i couldn't it was really like i was carrying it and i felt like i needed to like take off this like heavy jacket you know what i mean well I think that the problem is, is that everybody responds to this anxiety differently. And the average person just, you know, blissfully, thankfully for them, doesn't get as wrapped up to it.

But when you're in radio or podcasting or comedy, you tend to read more because you're writing material. And you're a little bit ahead of the curve in what you need to know than the average person who has a job and doesn't have really time to take a deep dive. But what I think happens is more and more, whether you call it fake news or not, people are getting access to information and are becoming more anxious. And the human brain has a natural defense mechanism, which is cognitive dissonance, as an example, to justify how they're feeling. And what's happening more and more is instead of responding positively, people are responding by lashing out. So if I'm anxious about what I'm reading and someone doesn't agree, it must be, this is what the brain does, it must be because they're crazy.

They're idiots. It's not because I'm crazy. You're right. Right? And my philosophy is if I don't do something positive, I'm going to become one of those people. Right. Because at the end of the day, when people are trolling me or anybody else that I'm't do something positive, I'm going to become one of those people. Because at the end of the day, when people are trolling me or anybody else that I'm reading on social media, and I'm reading them going,

I cannot believe you think that. I'm like, I just like you're in my head right now because, and I don't mean to interrupt, except you've got the one thing, which is maybe Trump says something with Putin, that you can't believe that the president of the United States is saying that in this situation, in this context right now. Like, is that really happening? Oh my God, that is happening. And that's outrageous on some level that's upsetting. And then you see

people defend it. Like there are people like you think you're a reasonable guy and you see this and you don't think there's any biases at play and you see it one way, there are people who will defend it like it's normal and they normalize it. And I think that is what really drives me crazy. Well, because you have to know that those people would read something that you post and go, I cannot believe what they're thinking. They think the same thing. So at the end of the day, you know, more and more, it feels like there's's less of an opportunity for persuasion and middle ground and just more and more animosity. So, for instance, when you read one perspective on the Putin-Trump summit and go, wow, that was outrageous how he didn't defend his own country and kind of just brushed off what this sworn enemy of the state's dead. And other people are posting saying he is more concerned with the political agenda

to ensure the prosperity of America. So he's developing positive relationships and a future for a nuclear-free world. That's what they say. And you're like, there's not going to be much... But that's more upsetting than the act itself to me that there's so many people who sort of have found a route to kind of like support that. And right now, no matter what side of the argument you're on, it's a deep dive we've all taken.

And so the brain is going, I've committed so far down this pathway of either being pro-Trump or anti-Trump, I can't let go of either direction because I'm too far down the path. anti-Trump, I can't let go of either direction because I'm too far down the path. So it's going to be impossible for you to convince me on any issues like environment, climate change, gun control, the National Rifle Association. I'm so far down that path, I can't admit I'm wrong because

it's like Trump's experiencing it himself. He can't acknowledge anything to do with the election because it would be a hint that he doesn't deserve to have won. Right, and you've just described essentially religion where your ideology is so intertwined with your identity that you can't take off that jacket anymore because that is you. And then who am I? And then you've got this whole existential crisis. At the end of the day, for me, a religion can still, even under that vein, be a beautiful,

spiritual, loving thing if you look at the loving kindness that is a directive of the religions as opposed to getting wrapped up into everybody else is wrong and they must be annihilated if they don't agree. There's a classic tune to roll in on the faith-based conversation. Which I didn't mean to play.

Okay. That's a teaser. Which I didn't mean to play. Okay. That's a teaser. Census Design and Build. Now I get to say the A word I've been practicing all week. Census Design and Build provides architectural design, interior design, and turnkey construction services across the GTA.

To learn more about the possibilities for your home, call them at 416-931-1422 or visit them at censusdesignbuild.ca. Contact them and you can schedule your zoning and cost project feasibility study. I mean, I need them for this studio, to be honest. I need some work done down here. Since this sounds like the... Architecture?

Yeah. I need a bunch of work done. You're good at that. Can you say architectural, though? Ooga-chukka. You know what? I know. And that's very...

Listen. Behind the scenes, let me tell people. So there's a few technical things going on here. Earlier, I was like, what do I do? I have a headphone crackling issue which i'm working on fixing and where it just cuts out of my headphones but then i can almost not hear myself like i can't i can't remember where i am like i need to hear myself in the headphones it's a weird phenomenon you get used to it yeah i'm so used to it like after 357 i'm like what am i talking about oh yeah trump is bad and then i have another issue of inline music that we heard on the Hebsey episode

where we did the sports jams where the three and a half millimeter headphone jack is crackly at times. So in this episode, we're going to play a lot of music. So I'm all like concerned with making sure that goes smoothly because nothing's worse than hearing a good jam. And then there's crackle like that's garbage. And then, of course, now I'm like,

I need to play a song for Senses. And I'm like, I'm going to play Pearl Jam's The Fixer. But of course, I give a little sneak preview. You've got a great jam coming up. I hope people won't, maybe I would edit it out, except I'm going to keep it in. That is one of Adam's jams, but we'll get to that. So stay tuned.

And let me tell you guys a little bit about, speaking of, you can fix up your home with census, but if you're looking to buy and or sell. Brian Gerstein is your man. You call Brian at 416-873-0292. If you're even thinking about buying and or selling in the next six months, you give Brian a call.

He's an honest guy. He knows his stuff, and he would love to chat with you, meet with you. And here's the thing. I mentioned Thursday night from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. We're all getting together at Great Lakes Brewery for a pint and maybe some food from their new food truck, and there's going to be live music. There's a loyal listener whose band is going to play some 90s covers i know it's gonna be great brian's gonna be there at least for the

first two hours uh then he has to pick up his daughter at some camp good excuse brian but if you have any questions about gta real estate or if you just want to compliment brian on his great hair uh you're gonna see it in a minute you see that pint glass right there? Yeah. That's yours. Oh, nice. I feel like you giving away prizes on trivia night here. That's Brian's pint glass property in the 6.0.

Yeah, but is this his high school picture? You'd have to... Oh, you won't be there. I'll take a picture of him on Thursday and you can compare. But you want to come see Brian's hair. You want to ask any questions about real estate.

Brian will be at Great Lakes Brewery this Thursday, so get some time with him. But if you're not going to be at Great Lakes, call him. Again, 416-873-0292. Almost time to kick out the jams. This is not one of your jams, but this was on the short list, right? You were considering some Floyd? I'll go with that.

No, you don't have to go with that. You don't know. You know, it's an acquired taste. You don't need your Floyd. But if you pay bills, and we all pay bills, Adam and I pay bills, you probably pay bills too.

You need the Paytm Canada app. It's the only app in Canada that gives you rewards for your bill payment. And you can choose how you pay. You can the Paytm Canada app. It's the only app in Canada that gives you rewards for your bill payment. And you can choose how you pay. You can pay on your credit card like I do, or you can pay with your bank account, or you can pay with your Paytm cash. So go to paytm.ca, download the app, and when you make your first bill payment, this is really important. Listen closely. Use the promo code TRONOMIKE. All one word. Use that and you get $10 in paid TM cash.

And you can use that towards any other bill payment or reward purchase. So they've gamified bill payment. There's no surcharges or extra costs. It's just easy, convenient, free free and you can make cash on it that's $10 just sitting there use the promo code Toronto Mike Adam, as soon as we finish kicking out the jams you can get that $10

promo code is Toronto Mike gamified I tried the gamification thing gamifying trivia what's the status of the... Well, it's still just sitting there. I mean, this is...

Dormant? This is something that I developed years ago, and with the web guys that I was working with, what I wanted to do is basically Trivia HQ. And they said it's impossible. It's impossible to do a live internet-based game and have people compete and have cash or other prizes because of buffer zones

and servers and different devices, whatever platform they're on. You'd never be able to do it. It's impossible to have a game. And so I just created a web app that was non-native to your device that you can just go online and play. If you get on the internet, you can get on this. Yeah. If you can get on the internet, you can get on. And it was meant to augment what I might be doing for a private event. So I could create custom questions that the people at a conference can play as a lead-in to support the agenda. So it wasn't meant to be a mass consumer product. And then, of course, Trivia HQ happened. And I've just been blown away.

Their black box, whatever it is, they've cracked that nut. Now, there are other games that I think were even before Trivia HQ. For sure. And that's why people thought it was impossible

because until this Trivia HQ, it hadn't, it hadn't worked. Like, these, I mean, it hadn't worked. But somehow they've been able to.

These guys, it works. And it's, my daughter's on it. And, but other companies have mirrored it. They figured it out. I don't know how you reverse engineer something that's in the soft black box.

Whereas another product, you could buy a product and open up an iPhone and reverse engineer and copy that stuff. But with this, I don't know how other companies. But anyway, Trivia HQ blew open the market. It's moles on the inside that you recruit. Moles, yes. There you go. Good idea. But anyway, they did it,

and they had the money to engage the market. These are the guys that created Trivia HQ or the guys that were behind Vine. And so they had the money to create this, and when I looked at it, I was like, just, this is amazing. They're putting the money into the technology, which people have no idea how much that costs

to make that buffer. You know, that's why when you play it, Scott Rogowski or whoever is hosting is a little bit pixelated and weird for a while. Or sometimes on a really big day, you only get the questions. You don't get the video. There are two elements. And it's just very cost prohibitive to do it. Plus, they were paying big cash prizes now, not just $2,000 per game, and big sponsors.

But at the end of the day, you know what? I have to tell you, I'm not a big fan of the style of the game. On some of the questions, I don't know how you feel about this, but when I write my own questions for the Adam Grokwitz show or when I'm doing anything for fun, not Cash Cab. Cash Cab was researched and

bonafide questions that we got approved through Discovery and whatever. But on their show, either a savage question or not on Trivia HQ, it'll be a question like this. On average, Dallas morning commuters run red lights 50% of the time,

30%. I'm like, you're now not answering. You're just pulling the arm down of a slot machine. Guessing, yeah. Right? Now, I know a lot of guessing happens anyway because you only got 10 seconds. But that kind of question spoils it for me. I'm with you Now, I know a lot of guessing happens anyway because you only got 10 seconds, but that kind of question spoils it for me. And I hate those kind of questions because it's just

you're doing darts at a dart. Like, it's like, there's no frame of reference or context to that. Yeah, if you were lucky answering a question and you didn't know, fine, but at least you're rewarded

with some sort of nugget of knowledge. You're never going to, like, it's water cooler talk. I'm with you, bud. You're not going to go down the street and go, did you know that Dallas drivers run a red light?

There's no fun fact there. They also Idaho stop more than any of them. That was quite the controversy. Did you see any of that? Bill Hayes was telling me how wrong I was, and Erin Davis wrote about it. She has a journal she keeps. I saw that blog by Erin, another radio legend, by

the way. Absolutely. And you know, she retired too early as far as I'm concerned. Oh, but yes, she had some, yes, 100%, and she knows it too, but she needed some time away. Yeah, I don't know all the personal story. I just, I'm making a judgment based on her talent. No, I mean, because, I mean, she's been very

public about it, so we can talk about it, but her daughter passed away suddenly, not too long before her decision to go out west. So Aaron's daughter... I think that was a couple of years before. Was it a couple of years? Okay, maybe. You're right. You could be right.

I remember it was Aaron's daughter's first Mother's Day. So I know it happened in May. And I know she was only 23 years old. And it was very sudden, something with the heart while she slept. And I mean, that was, I can't imagine. I mean, we can't imagine, right? I can only assume you would have to kind of follow your heart and do some things that you definitely would not have done otherwise.

It would absolutely change her life. And so she might have gone on a pathway and just did the courtesy to her listeners and her coworkers and the company she worked for by making it a longer pathway. Or maybe she was trying to see if things changed. But I think that anybody that's been in a similar situation would probably tell you the same thing.

It changes your perspective on everything. And you can only hope that it doesn't happen. But anyway, I did notice the Idaho stop thing. And I, as a trivia guy, I had to look it up. Okay. Because I was like, wait a minute. And it's a bona fide law. So I'm surprised you got a hard time because it actually

can increase safety in some circumstances. Yes. And there's a lot of studies to that effect. I got a hard time because people assume you're not following it properly. What I said was, for those who don't know, is that, and that the key is that stop signs become yield signs and red lights become stop signs. Okay. And there's, by the way, this is, it's not a blanket thing for me because when I'm in downtown and it's busy, stop signs are stop signs and red lights are red lights. Okay.

This is more. It's not like when you're following a GPS, you don't have to run a red light. You can stop and wait. You can make a wise decision. Okay. This is more like, it's not like when you're following a GV, you don't have to run a red light. You can stop and wait. You can make it. And of course, right. So if there's any cars involved, I stop at red lights.

I'm not blowing through red lights with cars involved, but I'll, I mean, anyone who tells you they don't do this is, I think they're, they're lying. Cause if it's a quiet street and there's no one else around and there's a red light and you're cycling,

it's, I'll say a stop sign. That's cause that's, there's a stop sign. You treat it like a quiet street and there's no one else around and there's a red light and you're cycling, I'll say a stop sign. That's because that's a stop sign. You treat it like a yield sign. Nobody stops completely if there's no cars or people around on their bicycle. I'm not a big, this is not, maybe this doesn't necessarily qualify. I'm not a big whataboutism kind of person, right? I don't like to do this.

But I would say with the bike, I'm not like a crazy cyclist. Since Car2Go left Toronto, I've been actually riding my bike a lot more and taking public transit, but I was, you know, because we were a one car family. Right. But I do say like, if you were going to have a problem with Mike Idaho stopping, before you complain, are you wearing a bike helmet? Me? No, anybody. Anybody that complains about you, I'd say, you know, over 18 or under 18, you know, regardless of the law, are you wearing, and this is me as a first aider now, right? Are you wearing a bike helmet? If you're answering no to that question, you have no complaint. Is your bike fully equipped with a lighting package,

front and back, and side even? And if you answer, or, and a bell, do you have the proper equipment to ride a bike in the city? And if you answer the question no to any of those, or, and, which is not even a law, if you have your earbuds in and are cycling with, you answer the question no to any of those, and not even a lot, if you have your earbuds in and are cycling with you know, and I know you're different because you're probably on a path. My headphones allow in ambient noise. They're specially designed for runners and cyclists

so you can hear. I hear cars, not just honks. I hear the cars. So they're kind of special. You know, listen, when I'm running or cycling, I zone out. You get into a groove, but I'm a big cycling, I zone out. You get into a groove, but I'm a big advocate of being aware of your surroundings.

Absolutely. So you've got that. And so, you know, for me, if someone's going to complain about you blowing a stop sign or a red light and any of those are yeses or nos or whatever the case may be,

you know, I think that that's a bigger safety concern than Idaho stopping. I think I'm just the idiot who admits he... I've been doing this forever, too, and I do over 10,000 kilometers a year in the city, and I did 65k

yesterday, and I'm very safe because... You know why I'm safe? Because I cycle to live, not to die. I'm very, very aware and careful, and I'm not interested in hurting myself on a bicycle ride. And ultimately, if you're riding super fast in the Peloton or something like that, and you have a wipeout, you're going to get some nasty injuries. I'm not interested in hurting myself on a bicycle ride. And ultimately if you're riding super fast in a Peloton

or something like that and you have a wipeout, you're going to get some nasty injuries. I'm talking about wearing a bike helmet is just going to prevent the unnecessary injury when you are just going slow speed and you get knocked over or a truck or a door hits you or something like that. A concussion can happen really easily

on your head. It's not the big spills we're talking about. Yeah, I mean, I won't do a kilometer without a bike helmet. Although it's funny because before, like when I was a teenager, for example, I never even considered putting a helmet on my head. But now I won't go on a ride without it. Like I just think times have changed. I don't even feel right. I know.

And that's my thing with the city bikes, right? I'm not going to, like, I know some cities other than Toronto have actual helmets in the satchels. They get all sweaty and everything. And they say, well, we got the little, you know, at the go-karts where they have a little netting, you know, you can have the netting to prevent you from getting lice or some other diseases. But I think that the city-run bike sharing is amazing, but I'm just, I'm reluctant because I'm not going to carry around a bike helmet with me. That's a good point. It's a very good point. My friend, we're

an hour deep here. Now I'm going to ask you the most important... No, don't be sorry. I love the real talk here, but I need to ask you an important question. Are you ready, Adam Groh, to kick out the jams? I saw him dancing there by the wreck of my ship I knew he must have been about 17 The beat beat so strong

Playing my favorite song And I could tell it wouldn't be long If it was with me, yeah, me And I could tell it wouldn't be long If it was with me, yeah, me Singing I love rock and roll Spoken all the time in the jukebox, baby I love rock and roll. Spend lots of time in the jukebox, baby.

I love rock and roll. Spend lots of time at Dance with me. Joan Chet, I love rock and roll. It's I love Adam Groh. If you sing it. I love Adam Groh. Yeah.

There you go. I'll never hear it the same way again. Thank you very much. That was courtesy of a girlfriend of mine when I was 14 years old. That's why it's on the jams. Well, that would do it, man. I remember as a very young man, this is one of the first kind of cool rock songs

that you'd hear all over the place and think, oh, that's a different sound. I like that. It's like an introduction to rock. Sing it. Wave it. Wave it. Bad and gross.

Nice. I'll take it from there. She was a pioneering female rock star that just, you know, for a lot of friends of mine, you know, young women that I was friends with at that time, this is like a real inspiration. This was something, you know, her and Debra Harry, Blondie, you know, it was a new era. Yeah, and Chrissy Hynde, the Pretenders.

You're right, like a cool rocker chick thing going on. And she was, what was the song? God, it's in Shrek now, but she had a few hits, but this was one of the big ones. She did that movie of Michael J. Fox, I remember. You remember this? Joan Jett? Yeah.

I remember she was Pinky Tuscadero. Wasn't she Pinky on Happy Days? No. Oh, I don't think so. Who was that? No one famous, I don't think. On the Happy Days? Yeah, there was. Joan Jett, I don't think was that. But no one famous I don't think on the happy days yeah there was Joan Jett

I don't think was that but she was definitely in a movie with Michael J Light of Day do you remember this Light of Day

no like it came out he does Back to the Future and Teen Wolf and this was like right in that mix some Michael J Fox trivia for you

some Joan J trivia for you good Canadian boy Inspired Choice I love it yeah do you roll the whole tune? yeah

that's a short jam too some people come and they bring in like they bring their whatever their 14 minute Bob Dylan song or their 11 minute Led Zeppelin song when I was a guest on this podcast over 200 episodes ago,

That's a long time. we didn't jam out on every song, did we? We didn't jam at all. Was that a new thing? This is a new thing. I started a little over a year ago, so you're like the 50th person to kick out jams. Let's kick out another one.

All right. Tell me why you love Queen's crazy little thing called love. Well, this was another one that was one of those on repeat. I would, you know, when it came on the radio, everything stopped. It was like back when appointment radio was still appointment radio. So the tune came on and I would literally be rocking it out on the couch in the living room, dancing around. It was a tune that just caught me. And I like Queen in general, but this one in particular,

kind of like Elvis style. It's got a 50s rockabilly kind of vibe. You're right. And the big... I liked rockabilly. I liked Stray Cats back in the early 80s. Yeah, Stray Cats was shortlisted. I had a lot of Stray Cats stuff for the top jams.

You know, Stray Cats front, of course. Look at that Cadillac. Rock This Town. Rock This Town. And then, you know, or a modern grunge era of Rockabilly. I would include Spin Doctors in there. Oh, I love it. in terms of their sound.

They were a little harder, a little edgier, but they kind of had that same vibe to them. Interesting. Little Miss Campyron. Yeah. And of course, people erroneously will tell you that Spin Doctors are one-hit wonders because Two Princes was such a big hit or whatever.

Did they do Kryptonite? Right. Yes. So, yes. Spin Doctors, man. I haven't heard from them in a long time. Any status updates on Spin Doctors? Any idea?

Me, no. But I remember hearing the lead singer, I don't know his name. He was a real diva. They broke up because he was just hard to get along with. I could see that. Yeah, he's got this super pot band. He looked like he was high all the time. I don't know.

The weird thing for me is that until a little bit later in this selection of jams, I'm not very sensitive to the story of the bands or the nature of the songs. It was just the tune. I'm amazingly lacking in music knowledge for a guy who's a trivia guy and who started in radio and I played a lot of music.

My wife and daughters can hear a song for the first time and know the lyrics and I couldn't sing along with any of these songs. You're like my wife. My wife doesn't hear lyrics.

It's quite a phenomenon. I don't. And then I'll be like, yeah, where my teenagers, actually even the four-year-old is pretty good at this, You're like my wife. My wife doesn't hear lyrics. It's quite a phenomenon. I don't. And then I'll be like, yeah. Where, yeah, my teenagers, actually, even the four-year-old's pretty good at this, pick up the lyrics really quickly. And my wife, no. It's the tune. It's something to do with how your brain's wired or whatever.

It's what resonates with me in terms of a beat. Are you looking forward to the Queen movie? There's a Queen movie. Oh, no, I didn't know that. Yeah, I think, yeah, it's a big production coming out, I think, in the fall, I guess. But it'll be out soon. You can check that out. But let's kick out, oh, good, some CanCon.

Let's kick out another jam. We'll see you next time. Sometimes you stand, sometimes you turn your back to the wind. There's a world outside the darkened door where blues won't haunt you anymore. With a brave heart free of love and soul, come ride with me to the distant shore. We won't hesitate, break down the garden gate. There's not much time left today. Life is a highway I wanna ride it all night long if you're going my way

I wanna drive it all night long through all these scenes Tom Cochran, Life is a Highway. Classic, rockin' it, on the road, driving song. If I were Jerry Maguire, played by Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire,

when I did that handshake with, you know, whatever his name was, that he kept, you know, fine, and he was looking for a song just to rock it out to kind of... Cuba Gooding Jr.? No, no. Jay Moore? I'm trying to remember. No, no, when he kept the big quarterback, this is fine. Oh, right, right, no. Jay Moore? I'm trying to remember. No, no. When he kept the big quarterback as his client. Oh, right, right.

He was just trying to celebrate it. He was searching the radio for a song, and he found eventually Tom Petty, and he just sang along. This would be me singing just when I was pumping it out. And this was very connected to my early working in radio and to what i was just talking about how i don't really pay attention to the lyrics or the meaning of the song so this song for me was just like let loose you know just party in the on the road driving by myself commuting when i was working

in orangeville and radio back to toronto or likewise and um because i was playing so much adult contemporary i was you know the CanCon I was playing was soft, and so this was just playing on the cue or whatever, and I was just rocking it out. You were sick of Celine Dion, is that what you're telling me? Well, I love her. I love her tunes. So I would rock it out to this, and so it would just give me that great release.

But then it wasn't until years later that I realized what this song means for Tom Connery. And it's an upbeat song. It's like a pump me up type of song. But he wrote this, well, he apparently started writing it before he went with his family with World Vision to Africa.

And he was very taken aback, obviously, by the poverty he saw there. So his words are something along the lines of he was trying to unpack what he witnessed in terms of the poverty in Africa. And he needed some sort of pep talk for himself. And this is the song that he completed because he needed to kind of go, you know what?

Kind of like what I'm going through right now. I'm anxious. I can't believe what I've witnessed. I can't control everything. So I'm going to write something for myself to celebrate life. And what a jam. I mean, I'm a big Tom Cochran fan. Like, I liked him before this.

I liked his stuff after this. But this song is going to, like, in 20 years, it's going to sound just as fresh today as it was when it was released. Like, it sounds great in the headphones. Yeah, it still is a power song. And for me to add that extra layer of meaning at this juncture in my life when i listen to it

now it's even more powerful a lot of his songs are deeper than like he's got some deep lyrics and some deep sentiments in his music too i always he did uh the humbled bus tragedy he performed a version of uh big leagues uh for that that was really really touching i saw that on tsn one time he tweeted at me, I don't know, somebody tweeted at us or something. And I wrote back like, Oh,

I'd love to have Tom Cochran on the show. And he tweeted at me, let's do it. And then I'm like, Oh, Cochran will come on. That's great. And then I sent him a DM,

like with some like contact info to let me know to schedule it. And he ghosted me. Like I haven't heard from him since. So I don't know if that was just something he said on Twitter or did he mean that he would come on? It was his intern. Oh, that's what it was? That's what people ask me when I actually respond to

messages on social media. It's like, is this really you? And I go, is Trump really tweeting? Then it's really me. It's really the both of us. Adam Groh, for the record, Adam Groh tweets his own tweets. Yeah. Here's another jam that we...

Which sounds ruder than it needs to. That's right. We already teased this one, so let's kick it. Uka-chaka, uka-chaka, uka-chaka, uka-chaka, uka-chaka, uka-chaka, uka-chaka, uka-chaka, uka-chaka. I can't stop this feeling deep inside of me. Girl, you just don't realize what you do to me.

When you hold me in your arms so tight, you let me know everything's alright I'm hooked on a feeling I don't believe in that you're in love with me blue suede is that right? that makes more sense, I think.

It's hooked on a feeling. Blue Suede. You've heard it before. Oh, my God, yes. It's on the Reservoir Dogs soundtrack, I think. I think it's on Reservoir Dogs, and it was also a big Ally McBeal song with the dancing baby. With the dancing baby, right, right, right.

But anyone who loves your Tarantino movies knows this jam, that's for sure. Well, I was introduced to it before both of those. So it was kind of like my experience back at U of T being in residence at New College there. One of the other college mates that I had made this our house. We had houses in the college. Like a frat one.

Yeah, in St. George there. Yeah. Not frats, but within the college dorms. So we had. Yeah, in St. George there. Yeah. Not frats, but like within the college dorms. Right. So we had our mini frat type of environment.

So he made this our house, Bolton House song one year. And so it was like, you know, it was kind of a different song,

different kind of thing. But I'm like, I still don't know to this day how he picked it. Like where it came from for him, right?

Because it wasn't in the zeitgeist. You know what? Usually it is. Usually, like, if you're from the 70s, which you and your friends there were, you would get those albums that were like various artist collections.

And this is probably stuck on one of those 70s super hits collections or whatever K-Tel would put out. I guess what was completely unfamiliar to most of us, aside from this dude. And so it was just kind of this song and then of course I don't know for sure

if it was made popular in my relationship with Julie because of Ally McBeal we probably watched that show and were fans of that and I don't know

if it was because of that but it ended up being one of our wedding songs. Oh wow. Like we had this play and in that first sequence when we're dancing, it wasn't the first song. The first song was Julie, Julie, Julie,

Do You Love Me? Which Julie is surprised is not on my top 10. I actually was just about to say that. How does that not make your list? Is she going to listen to this? Yeah. It doesn't have the multi-layers. This one was one of our wedding songs,

as was December 1963, Oh and a Night by the Four Seasons. So I picked this one because it had other layers to it. Other, you know, more significance. You get ten, though. Come on. There's always room for that song. I know, but I'm not going to put like three of my wedding songs on. It's not too late. You can edit it in. You're going to go, man. I think it's hilarious because I've owned

the Reservoir Dogs soundtrack forever, and I've heard that song a million times before Ally McBeal. And I find it hilarious. I thought it was blue suede. Like I never looked at that word and realized that's not suede is with a U. This is suede with a W.

I've never heard it said before. That's amazing. That's because they had one hit, blue suede. Maybe they had others. Was Dogs before Ally McBeal? Yeah, no, it was definitely before because I knew the song when it became like an internet meme

of the baby and everything in the early days of the internet way before, actually. I'm pretty sure Ally McBeal was like 97 or something. I lose track. Dogs is like 1990-ish. Is it really that old?

Because Pulp Fiction is 94. Oh, wow. And that's the follow-up. You're better at the ad hoc trivia than I am. I have to come prepared. That's right. I can improvise. The facts are less retrievable for me

after asking thousands of questions. That's a good excuse. More CanCon. Nice choice here. Sitting on a riverboat having a party Me and my Cajun queen She's turning 21 on the Mississippi River Heading out of New Orleans The year is 1894

Oh, come on, mama, And love me some more Her dark eyes flash like a Gambler's rings She shakes her pretty head and sings Life for me is a Riverboat fantasy Watching the sun go down A rock and roll band with a

Reefer in my hand Now look at that, we'll go around Cocaine kisses and moonshine misses That's the life for me I'm sailing away from my heartache On a riverboat fantasy David Wilcox, Riverboat Fantasy. Now, okay, you're going to, you and,

you listening right now, you're going to call me on this too, because I said, I'm not going to pick like two or three songs that are associated with my wedding. Well, this one goes back to my days at U of T as well. So now I'm getting myself into trouble because I'm packing it up on the U of T songs. The glory days. This was related more to my professional identification as being a host, organizer, producer and event MC.

Which is for the large part what, frankly, I would say is my core competency. There's trivia, there's stand-up, there's acting. But hosting stuff is the Adam Rookow competency. There's acting. But hosting stuff is the Adam Brookwell thing. And so one of my major accomplishments at U of T was being on student council for not only my college but for SAC and booking concerts and events. And for me, honestly, we brought in some pretty cool acts at the time. Even today, Blue Rodeo, Chalk Circle, The Spoons.

And for me… Love those bands. Yeah. And so one of the things was, you know, the dream was... And again, because I'm not like a big music person, I was booking based on who's hot right now. But for me, in terms of what I listen to in the house or on my trips, David Wilcox was a big one. Like we had the box set and we just would rock it out

to David Wilcox all the time. And I said to the committee, I said, what about bringing in Dave? Didn't know the guy. And I said to the committee, I said, what about bringing in Dave? Didn't know the guy. And we did it. So he came and played. And, you know, obviously, back in the day, any Canadian band is looking to make some extra change.

They're going to do college gigs. And it was absolutely spectacular for me to kind of see that gem. And, you know, he wasn't the biggest act that we brought in, but to me it was just so close to home. And I remember it in particular for a number of reasons. I had just gone away to Mexico with a bunch of friends and came back with the Montezumas for a day. And I couldn't drink or eat or anything,

but I was front row at that concert just not feeling well, but just digging it. And the other thing that really resonated with me was the first time I really had a strange experience with riders like all the bands had talent riders and stuff that they wanted but he was like a solo act and the amount of stuff that he wanted i'm like it was the first time i was like okay so what they do is they book all this stuff on this rider and they just put it in a duffel bag and they take it home right you know like when they 12 cases of beer four bottles of jack you know and it's like i was like okay so what are you gonna do i'm a student you know like there's the fee the talent fee and

then there's the writer he drank everything oh wow he drank like and i hope he's okay i don't know i don't know he's alive i hope he's okay because he's a he was a fabulous guy to work with, but he was like so... But he performed magnificently. And I'm like, how does a human being do that? He was great. That's great. And I'm going to do some quick fun facts on those bands you named. So Chalk Circle is the first band I ever saw live.

The first non-children's performer band I ever saw. So there's Raffi, Sharon Lozenbram. Yeah, we had a guy named Jerry Brody who was like a local version of, I wonder if anyone knows that name out there. If you know the name Jerry Brody, let me know.

But he was like a local Raffy and he was a big deal in the hood here where I was growing up. But so I saw Chalk Circle at the Forum at Ontario Place. Okay. That's right. And the Spoons are important, very

important because one of the few great bands that has actually been on this show. So Gord Depp has been on this show. And now he's in Flock of Seagulls. He's a guitarist with Flock of Seagulls now. I know. Very talented. They're great.

The Spoons are great. And what was the other one? Oh, yeah, Blue Rodeo. So Blue Rodeo, the fun fact there is that probably the version that played your school there, that had the original drummer, I'm guessing, who was married at the time, was married to Ingrid Schumacher, who spent 40 years at Chum FM. Another radio legend.

Yes. I hope Ingrid's okay. I know she's been off the air for a little over a year, but she's got to get back on the air. That woman is a legend. She could record a podcast right here. Yes. Reach out to me, Ingrid.

We'll do something. Oh, yeah. Are you ready? Party Rock! Yeah! Woo! Let's go! Party Rock is in the house tonight. Everybody just have a good time.

Yeah. And we're going to make you lose your mind. Woo! Everybody just have a good time. Clap! Party Rock is in the house tonight. Oh! Everybody just have a good time.

I can feel this! Yeah! And Adam is right now dancing. He's dancing, everybody. That's right. If you call it that. L-M-F-A-O. And kids, if you're listening,

I'm not going to tell you what that stands for. There's a dirty word in there. Party rock anthem. Clap my face off. Sorry, close enough. Yeah, this song is more recent, obviously, than my other selections so far. I'm sure that you've been to a stag in your days.

Not your own. Honestly, not many. I honestly, this is funny, this came up recently with somebody, but I don't have any memories of being at any of these stags I see in movies. Right. I've missed out on these stags. Well, most of the stags that I've been to have also been

epically nerdy, legendarily nerdy, but one of the more recent, in fact, the most recent stag that I was at was not too long ago about four years ago three four years ago for uh one of my closest friends um who got married for the first time and the woman he was married got married for the first time so they you know we did it up right and for me it was like i traveled across the country to go to whistler for the stag that his

brother was throwing for him he This is a Vancouver boy. And I was just thinking, you know, like, we've got to do something. We can't, even though we're all in our late 40s, mid to late 40s, we can't just be, like, lame. And so I planned this thing where I got him the Red Fu wig at, like, a party store here in Toronto. And the printed spandex underwear, whatever you call it. Leotards? What are those called?

Spandex. Something like that, yeah. Singlets? Okay. Yeah. What he wears. And the Wayfarer glasses, like the lensless glasses, right?

You know the image I'm looking at. Yes. You've seen the video. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I took those three items out, and we went out for this great steak dinner in Whistler, and it was springtime. And at the end of the dinner, I brought out the wig, the glasses, and the... I didn't make him take off his pants.

He could wear it over his pants, the little leopard-skinned print. And the look on his face was like, are you kidding me? And the rest of the table was that awkward. There was about 12 of us. There was that awkward kind of, what are you up to, man? Like, we're too old for this. He was green. He was like, of all the guys that he thought would do something like that, I was the least.

So he wears the glasses and the wig. And I bought like wayfarers for all the dudes. So I had enough of the way that nobody else had to wear the wig or the pants. But every one of us had the wayfarer lensless glasses and we went to one of these epic stag stagette party bars in Whistler known for this.

And we're all like 10 to 20 years older than everybody in there. And we walk in there with the wayfarers and we were the hit of the party. So all the guys that were looking at me like, you're crazy, I'm green, this is stupid, you're an idiot. As soon as we hit that bar and we had the 20-something girls

just basically pawing us. We were like the stars. You looked at me like, that's dancing? I literally don't dance, but we danced for three or four hours and had a blast. And if it weren't for those glasses we would have been the lame 40 something dad bod guys in this i don't know how to play this part so that's legendary song for me that's great but now i think you're gonna you are gonna be in trouble with your wife i think uh just because we have four elevens we have elevens no not that uh more

that uh as we talk as we kick out these jams, like these memories of college. I had the Uga Chaka. That was only four years ago, but it was like a little freedom coming out there and then no wedding. I'm just saying, very interesting. One wedding song. We're learning a lot about Adam Groh

as we kick out the jams. Isn't that the point? That is exactly the point. My daughter, who turns 14 next week, she must have been the right age when that song broke because she played the mess out of that lmfao stuff like it was just everywhere like and there were a lot of like singles that came off that album well yeah they they remind me of just uh obviously good time fun rock and roll kind of cheeky taking the spit out of themselves in a way that you can laugh and and

rock out like a good dance type of tune like uh what was the other one uh sexy and i know yeah that's the other big one yeah yeah i'm sexy and i know it and they sound very similar those songs like you know you could merge them together but uh and there was another one part even that song you said okay you called it party rock party i knew what you meant i knew what you meant but there's actually a couple of jams on that album that have the word Party Rock in the title. Like, sorry for party rocking and things like that. Oh, I don't know. I have never taken a deep dive into the album. You should.

You should. Next road trip. That's what you do. All right. Here's a jam that's actually been kicked out before on this podcast. It was nice to hear it again. Blame it all on my roots. I showed up in boots and ruined your black tie affair.

The last one to know. The last one to know The last one to show I was the last one you thought you'd see there And I saw the surprise And the fear in his eyes When I took his glass of champagne And I

toasted you and said Honey we may be through But you'll never hear me complain Cause I got friends in all the places where the whiskey drowns And the beer chases my blues away And I'll be okay I'm not big on social graces Think I'll slip on down to the oasis

So I've got a friend In low places Garth Brooks, Friends in Low Places. Have you ever seen him in concert? No. No, I hear he's like rock star Kiss. It's like crazy. Maybe not anymore, but it used to be.

I thought about putting some Kiss on the jacket. It's funny you said Kiss, because every time I hear Garth Brooks, I think of CISS, the station. Oh, yeah, okay. It was a new country. They dined on this guy. Oh, yeah. Well, apparently

he's quite the rock star. I think that, in fact, Kiss and Van Halen were those type of bands were big bands that he grew up with. So when he did live concerts. But anyway, I picked this song. It's a bit of a longer story and I'll try to consolidate it. But I have a scene in a screenplay treatment that i've written uh that has been morphed into a

series that i'm shopping around and it's a it's just one scene and this treatment for this screenplay that has become a series has become really close to me personally in terms of an idea not only in terms of a professional development but in terms of you know me spiritually me as a family person and in this scene i envisioned this moment where the young boy of this family who's like eight or nine expresses himself in a piano recital in a very difficult time in his life for him and his family. By not doing the classical piano assignment that he's been working on with his teacher and that everybody's expecting with judges and everything like that in front of a live audience. And his father's there, his mom is here, it's just, no spoiler alert, But this young boy rebels by playing his own orchestrated version of this song on the piano.

I can see this scene in my mind. It's great. And he sings it. He belts it out. And the scene starts with him shocking everybody by laying into this. And everybody's like, wow. And the judges are like, what's going on? And the dad's kind of slumping down into his chair and uh eventually the boy is just belting it out acapella and the room is

silent for a moment and then he stops and then the scene ends with the crowd picking it up like at the end yes and when i think of the scene whether i'm writing at my computer or whether I'm on the treadmill or out for a run, I literally am crying. Yeah. It's very emotional. That's a great scene. Right. Yeah. Wow.

And so this song for me, like your daughter with Alan Mathéo, I've listened to this song over and like, again, shockingly and shamefully, I cannot probably sing along with all the lyrics because I don't remember the lyrics. I remember the lyrics I remember the psychological significance of the song and what it would mean in that scene if that

scene ever gets made and we get Garth's approval it's going to be moving I won't tell you the complete spoiler

alert on it because if it does become a scene it'll be rewarding so what's that like shopping it around like is

like can you shop it to Netflix? Yep. And don't they have some mandate to spend money on Canadian talent? Well, there you go. And I'm just writing about this right now with regards to petitioning the federal government on how they should allocate funds. And yeah, there's a Netflix deal that was negotiated with Melanie Jolie and the Heritage Ministry to spend $500 million over five years.

And whether you think that's enough or not, if you do the math, it's really a pittance in comparison to what they're making. But at least it's a start. It's a foundation. And the fine-tuning of that is, well, does that mean, and this is what's important to me,

is that that $500 million over five years is not only about producing shows here in canada but using canadian talent and production talent in key roles not just resurfacing you know right like like the handmaid's tale is filmed here and there's a lot of canadians on that crew but it still stars uh american talent yeah and i i don't begrudge like i lived in vancouver for a year and the people who are making money in the film and television industry in vancouver are crews American talent. Yeah, and I don't begrudge, like I lived in Vancouver for a year, and the people who are making money in the film and television industry in Vancouver are crews.

And I don't begrudge it at all. It's good for the economy. Right, the X-Files film there, as I recall. But my philosophy is that if you get Canadian, like say if you look specifically at a Canadian stand-up comic,

and you make them the central character, and you build something around them, and it's bonafide Canadian content across the board on Netflix or mainstream, then there's all other avenues for that individual to have stardom in this country, tour live, create other products. Whereas if it's just handmade sale,

what else does that do for the country? It's linear and it ends. Whereas if you build the infrastructure of the stardom for Canadian talent and writers and people who produce things that are Canadians, they can produce more in this country. And it's even more economically beneficial. And that's what I don't think is happening quite yet. So, yeah, when I shop it around, it's a long shot like anything else. But it's so close to home.

It's one of those things that I'm sure if you've ever had a creative idea, it's just getting it out is like, ugh. Yeah. I can't even believe that I've written it out and I've spent a lot of time. Anyway, that's the short version

of my long story. No, very, very, very, very, very cool. Just a quick note,

Handmaid's Tale is written by a girl who lives in Toronto. Her name is Margaret Atwood. I just, so we got that. young, aspiring writer.

You ever heard of her? Yeah. She's going to be something one day. Yeah. All of your jams up to now were in my collection. Like, they were all sitting in my collection. Young, aspiring writer. You ever heard of her? Yeah. She's going to be something one day. Yeah. All of your jams up to now were in my collection. They were all sitting in my collection. Oh, perfect. All of them.

Until this one. But only one has been played before. You've had them in your collection personally. Right, right, right. Only one has been played before. That's correct. All right. But this jam I'm about to play, I had to seek out and add to my collection because I did

not have it. So let's hear your next jam. Danny Gatton? Danny Gatton. Funky Mama. Funky Mama, yeah. Nice. I'm guessing he's not Canadian But I don't know I should probably know that

But I heard it on a Canadian radio station The first time I heard Danny Gatton Was on The Q And it goes back again It's multi-layered Back in high school I was the host for student council Of air band contests And so we host for student council of air band contests.

And so we would put on these big air band contests where people would rock it out to different things. Guitar solos were obviously you pick a song with a good guitar solo so you can rock it out. And I always kind of liked that because I don't play an instrument. I'm not musical. And so I always just

kind of rock it out and air guitar. And when I first heard this, I just thought, this is like the best song. If you were ever in an air guitar competition, you could just like totally like make it look like you know what you're doing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And kind of get your facial expressions in there. And so the first time I heard it, I said, you know, I don't usually go and buy albums. Like I know the point of people playing songs on the radio is that you go buy albums and now download them.

So it was very rare for me to actually go out and buy and this is instrumental. There's no lyrics or anything to it. Right. Which may be why it resonated with me because I don't pay attention to lyrics anymore. That's a good point, Adam. And so I actually bought this album and whenever I'm just kind of feeling like I just want to rock it out it's a go-to track

and now I weaved it into my treatment. It's another scene in the movie as well. In terms of when a dad's trying to cheer up his kids. And he just does this goofy, clownish air guitar thing and gets them all on board. It became more from that as well. But it did originate with just being a great air band type of tune. Do you remember where you bought this album? Interesting question.

Whether I... I might have taken advantage of when I was working radio. Do you have an album year on that? No, but I could... While you talk, I can Google this. Because I'm thinking that at the time when I was working in radio,

you could order through the music director of the radio station. You'd still have to pay, but you'd get a wholesale price on albums as opposed to going to an actual store like Sam's. That's what you were getting. Which sounds amazing. That sounds amazing. Okay, so here I'm looking at him now. Okay, that's what he looks like. Okay.

That's what he looks like, by the way. You've seen him, I'm sure. Okay. So. Okay, that's what he looks like. That's what he looks like, by the way. You've seen him, I'm sure. So, But it's not beyond me to actually go into a record store. I might have actually done that. He died. Did you know that? I did not know that.

He died at the age of 49. Oh, gosh. I'm glad I'm 51 almost. I wouldn't want to have some weird... And he passed away, yeah. So he passed away in 1994. He's been dead a long time. I'm learning so much.

Daniel Woodgaddon Jr. Okay. Let's see. He was known as the humbler, the telemaster, and the world's greatest unknown guitarist. He's pretty good. Yeah.

Wow. Let me see here. So I don't remember where I bought the album. But it was also kind of cool when Q played a song like this, it was just an unusual selection, right? And it might have been like Derringer

or Brother Jake, whoever it was at the time, was kind of like, I heard this, you gotta hear this. I had to roll this. It was definitely a personal choice of theirs to come on as opposed to like a top-down decision in terms of, you know, the record. Yeah, back in the days when the DJ had a little

leeway, right? Could actually put something on the playlist. Probably at this time they didn't, but they did anyway. Right. Because when I started on the radio it was 1990 and there was no leeway. You don't play what anymore anyway this one's a little longer but that's why it's so epic for guitar things

you'd have to pick the best sections if you were in an actual competition I'm trying to think of guitarists that I bought albums from that were just instrumental guys the one I remember is Joe Satriani yeah I bought albums from that were like just instrumental guys. Cause there's a, the one I remember is Joe Satriani.

Yeah. I bought albums. Like I'm sure that I had that through my music director. Like I was really into, um, a lot of that kind of style of, you know, instrumental, but rocky.

Right. Do you, uh, have you ever heard of, uh, Yngwie Manstein? No. Oh,

okay. I remember Yngwie Manstein? No. Oh, okay. I remember Yngwie Manstein back in the mid to late 80s had a little run there. But I also have distinct memories of Q107 playing Joe Satriani's Sang on one song. It was on something, Surfing with the Aliens, I think was the name of the album. I think, maybe I'm wrong, or maybe it was the next one.

But he did vocals on a song, and they were playing this on the Top 10 of 10. And I remember, oh, was the name of the album, I think. Maybe I'm wrong, or maybe it was the next one. But he did vocals on a song, and they were playing this on the Top Ten of Ten. And I remember, oh, Joe Satriani's singing, and he just did the one song, I think, and that's it. But yeah, Danny Gaddon, I didn't know he existed, but he is the world's best unknown guitarist, so how could I know him, right? But good on you for adding him to your collection.

Love it. You ready for your ninth jam? I remember when people were, you know, cuing into what I was listening to, and they were like, you know, you should listen to some original Fleetwood Mac. You know, it's not like the easy songs that you hear. You know, early Fleetwood Mac is very rocky and bluesy.

Before Rumors, right? Yeah. Yeah, for sure, for sure. Go ahead. Just like a waving flag And then it goes back And then it goes back And then it goes back Born to a throne Stronger than Rome But violent prone

Poor people's zone But it's my home All I have known Where I got grown Streets we would roam Out of the darkness I came the farthest Among the hardest survival

Learn from these streets It can be bleak Accept no defeat Surrender retreat So we're struggling Fighting to each And we're wondering When we'll be free So we patiently wait For that fateful day It's not far away But for now we say When I get older I will be stronger We patiently wait for that fateful day. It's not far away, but for now we say. When I get older, I will be stronger.

They'll call me freedom, just like a waving flag. And then it goes back, and then it goes back, and then it goes back. Oh, so many wars. Canon, leave him playing. Well, despite the fact that I generally don't listen to lyrics and I couldn't sing along with the song, this song, when it started getting heavy radio play, would make me well up every time I heard it in terms of what it represents, because it's very obvious and the lyrics are very clear. And it's easy to hear them and understand what the essence is of, you

know, breaking out of a cycle of poverty or limitations or persecution and, you know, especially as a young person, finally having freedom and then taking that back and trying to create opportunities for people back home or other communities or anyone else that has experienced the same as you. So for me, when my daughter, who's now almost 14, would sing this for her friends because they're just singing whatever's on the radio,

it didn't matter to me that they didn't necessarily understand. It's just kind of like that will resonate in some way. And for me, even before the last year and a half, when I became prepped for life and very anxious, I've always been, in my adult life, especially after having kids,

someone to remind myself of how fortunate I am and to channel my positive spirituality and energy to others that, in the context of what I might be complaining about, like bad traffic, getting out of Toronto's downtown pool, or when Netflix is jammed up and I'm watching I, Tonya with my daughter and it freezes, going, just give your head a shake. In terms of, I know that it's been overused, like the hashtag, you know, first world problems. But it's more than that. It's not only being aware of that,

it's empathizing and channeling your positive energy out to others in the hopes that they have as much freedom and success and respect, wealth, and wealth not in terms of the yachts, but wealth in terms of freedom and food on their table and clothes on their back as you do. And this song, to me, was one of those songs that actually was so clearly about that that I didn't have to dig deep.

What are these lyrics about? Like, when you listen to the Tragically Hip, what is he actually saying? Do I have to figure it out? This was, like, clear and really resonated, and it's beautiful. It is a beautiful song. It's a great jam.

And they, what is. And the Canadian singers redid that song for the Haitian Relief. That's right. And I remember that last part was pretty young, I guess. Still kind of young, but Justin Bieber doing that last part. And I believe the song also was used for a World Cup, I want to say eight years ago, but I can't remember which one, but I think it was like used as one of the World Cup songs. But great, great jam.

And here we go, your final jam. We are searchlights We can see in the dark We are rockets Pointed up at the stars We are billions of beautiful hearts And you sold us down the river too far What about us what about all the times you said you had the answers

what about us what about all the broken happy ever afters what about us what about all the plans that ended in disaster? What about love? What about trust?

What about us? We are proud of our love That wanted to be solved Yeah, this is a la Tom Cochran, not really knowing what the song was about, but really being moved by the composition. And Pink, I mean, she's just extremely talented. And as you probably know, and if you don't,

and if you're listening, you know this, if you have kids, whether they be teenagers or that age, when you get in the car and you're shuttling them around to soccer practice or whatever, they're in control of the radio or by connecting their mobile phone to the aux. And so I would listen to a lot of songs that, like Kiss 92 version, radio songs, whatever,

that my kids would sing. So this is one of the ones that I go, okay, you can leave that one. You know, they listen to about 30 seconds of a song and they're looking for the next station. I go, well, leave this one. I just really liked it. And actually, when I first heard it, I thought it was about relationships.

Like, what about us? What are we going to do? And so ultimately, it is about relationships. And it even resonated with me because very rarely, because lyrics don't resonate with me, but once in a while, I go, what is is that song about and so I looked it up and obviously as you if you know you'll know it connects very strongly with what I'm going through and while she doesn't mention anyone specifically it's a protest song about people in authority positions particularly politicians who make all these promises and don't

deliver what about us what about all the promises you made about the happy ever after? And she basically wrote this in her own words, not in the lyrics of the song, against Trump and all the promises that he and the GOP made and the Republicans. And it's clear that these people in power, in particular him, don't care about people like they say they do. And for me, you know, I'm not cynical about politics, but I've always felt as if, okay, people campaign on a platform and they get into office and they go, oh, well, now we see the budget. We can't actually do what we promised.

Everybody says that. Liberals, conservatives, Democrats, everybody does that. NDP, everybody does that. So I kind of like that's apples to apples. But ultimately, I have felt with this administration that they're not only doing that in the normal game way, they're actually in your face, basically saying we don't really care about that.

And this song was early in the administration in 2017. And I kind of go, subconsciously it resonated with me because even though I couldn't put my finger on what it was about, it took me reading about what Pink said in Entertainment Weekly that even more powerfully. That's where I am. It's like, you know, the time is coming where through various movements the people are saying not only what about us but you're going to be accountable we're not going to be passive about asking this question

that pink's asking i think if she wrote a song now it would be like look out for us is what it would be oh good uh good because when you have these situations like we're experiencing now, when you had it with Nixon, even with Reagan, it always seemed to result in good protest music, be it punk or whatever style of time. And I did not know what that song was about until you told me, and it was very interesting.

But I do sense maybe there's a... You would think at this point in the administration there'd be more songs. You know, when Green Day put out american idiot for example and like the in in pearl jam and all these bands had stuff for w but we're like w oh my goodness and you know retrospect like now that was like a opening act or whatever here's the headliner where is the protest music well i think that there is more coming. And, you know, maybe people were afraid.

I don't think she was, but that's not the reason. I don't think she was. It was more subtle for me as to what it was about. And then there's the irony that when people play protest songs and resonate with them because they're just good beats, jamming, rocking the jams, like rocking in the free world. Rocking in the free world is like an american anthem for a lot of americans that's a good example there's even a better one though what born in the usa yeah it's a protest all the time you'll get like i think reagan wanted to use it or something like they don't they take it very literally like yeah this is yeah that's a pro-american song and then bruce will be like actually's not. And he'll be like, it's very interesting.

You're right. Yeah, it's like rocking that song and rocking the free roll. We're like, look at what we're doing and how we are treating ourselves and each other. And people are like, rock and keep on.

We're going to keep rocking in the free roll. And people don't get it. So it's like anything else. It's like the news. Take the time and understand why the songs are resonating with you. Maybe you'll learn. Adam, I won't be able to wait

another 200 episodes to get you back. I might have to bump that up a little bit. Since you're only in the junction and you can just bike over it sounds like. I do that ride several times a week. That's nothing. So that's what you get next time you're biking over here. Well, especially if the teenagers

crash the car. Now the car goes out there, I'm going to have to press over or something. That's why I drive a shitbox because my 16-year-old is learning to drive right now. And go nuts. That car is a piece of junk. But that's what you get for driving a nice automobile. Thank you so much for doing this. I really feel like I know you far more now than I did before you kicked out the jams.

I know you're going to be in trouble with your wife and I know you far more now than I did before you kicked out the jams. I know you're going to be in trouble with your wife, and I know lots of other things too. But honestly, preparation is important. It sounds like you're doing some key stuff there. And it really does sound like the anxiety you're feeling from this administration is really eating you up. I can kind of see it in your eyes and hear it that you are grappling with this. And what can you do? Because I feel you probably sense a lack of control here. The world is on fire

and you don't have a hose big enough to put this fire out and I think you're struggling with that. Well, I'm taking control where I can. And I think that's the most important thing. And as long as there's trivia questions in those survival kits, I'm going to buy one.

There you go. Perfect. And that brings us to the end of our 357th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Adam is at Adam Grow. Don't forget the E at the end of Grow. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are

at Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthe6.com is at Raptors Devotee. Drop by Thursday at Great Lakes and. Propertyinthe6.com is at Raptors Devotee. Drop by Thursday at Great Lakes and say hi to Brian. And Paytm is at Paytm Canada. See you in a couple of days

when my guest is John Donabee. I'm a much better man for having known you. Oh, you know that's true because everything is coming up rosy and green. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow won't speed the day.

And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away. Because everything is rosy and green. Cause everything is rosy and green. Well, I've been told that there's a sucker born every day.