Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Adam Growe: Toronto Mike'd #146

Episode Date: November 28, 2015

Mike chats with Cash Cab host Adam Growe about his start in radio, his appearance on 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.

Welcome to episode 146 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from torontomic.com and joining me this week is Cash Cab and the Adam Groh Quiz Show host, Adam Groh. Convenient that it's my name. Imagine someone else, like Imagine it was someone else. Imagine it was me. Hi, I'm Dave. Yeah. Actually, one of my buddies does call me Dave

because one time, years ago, I was doing a one-nighter stand-up comedy club. It wasn't a club. It was a one-nighter stand-up comedy gig in Vancouver. And my buddy and his wife come out to a show. And the emcee goes, Oh, what do you want me to say about you? Oh, you tell everybody I'm like host of Cash Cab,

just in Vancouver, dropping in for a quick set. She gets up there and she goes, You're not stacked. You might recognize him from Cash Cab, David Grove. And my buddy has called me Dave ever since. So that's why. Yeah, just say what you want. Just get the name right.

I think that's the only way. I don't really care. It was just funny. That is funny, Dave. Yeah. So welcome, just say what you want. Just get the name right. I think that's the only way. I don't really care. It was just funny. That is funny, Dave. Yeah. So welcome, Dave, to the show. I was going to say, if you introduce somebody like, this is the host of the Adam Groh quiz show, Dave Smith.

That's right. No, that was completely random stand-up night. That's funny. In that intro, I always say my weekly podcast, but that's a big fat lie this week because I exceeded my quota for this week. Is that permitted in podcast land?

I have to... Is the CRTC going to charge you extra tax on that or something? There's going to be a hearing. I think I'm going to have to speak at some federal hearing. But I'm glad you could come in because you were on the west coast for a while right well i've relocated to vancouver actually coincidentally for a year

one a big year yeah we've been out there since the middle of august and i grew up in vancouver so for me it's a homecoming but it's been many many years since i lived there in fact i always kind of go i left right out of high school i came to u of t and i've been in ontario ever since so i kind of go did i really live in vanc school. I came to U of T and I've been in Ontario ever since. So I kind of go, did I really live in Vancouver? Because when you're a kid, it's like you could be anywhere. It's like, whatever. I got like, you know, my buds and whatever. So to live there with my family,

and we've been there since the middle of August, it's been amazing. Yeah, but I mean, when I visit there, and it's been a while actually, but what they have there is they got these, like this ocean and these mountains. Like we just can't, we can't do that. Well, what you's been a while actually, but what they have there is they got these, like this ocean and these mountains. Like we just can't, we can't do that. Well, what you have, what we have, and I'm still a Torontonian.

Okay. Because I've been out here for most of my life. That's why you're here, Toronto Mike. Yeah, it's Toronto Mike. And so, I mean, we still have our house in the Junction, which is a fantastic neighborhood. I was just there. I had to pop in. We've rented it out.

And we've rented a house in Kitzolano which is an amazing very comparative uh neighborhood in vancouver yeah and what you do notice yes you've got the ocean and the mountains but ontario skies you just can't compare it in bc good to hear usually cloudy but not always but even when it's gorgeous sunny i mean it's beautiful there don't get me wrong sure but the big open skies here i mean it's amazing sunny. I mean, it's beautiful there. Don't get me wrong. Sure. But the big open skies here, I mean, it's amazing. No, I mean, I'm glad we have something going for us on the beauty front. That's all you've got. That's right.

And we have an NBA team and an MLB team. That's it, though. Now we're done. Because everything else is done. You know, my son, I've got three kids, and my oldest is a baseball hockey guy. And obviously, we're Toronto Blue Jays fans. So we're leaving Toronto as they're heading into this epic stretch. And so we're in Vancouver.

And this is the first of their lives, right? Of course, this is the first time in their lives there's actually playoff baseball in their valley. Great. Thanks. Thanks, Papa. How old is your oldest? He's 17. I've got a 15-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old daughter. I got an 11-year-old daughter. I got an 11-year-old daughter. Yeah.

I think they're different, though, different daughters. Yeah, they're, well, you know. You never know. Yeah, so I know that. In fact... I think her father's Dave. Dave. Her other father is Dave.

These are the Daves I know, I know. These are the Daves I know. Firstly, I'm disappointed when you pulled up into the driveway, you weren't driving the cab. Yeah, I get that a lot uh and you know being the host of cash cab you know there's a certain fandom that i appreciate and love and i have also come to realize after eight seasons that when i meet people and they're like oh yeah cash cab guy and i'm like yeah how you doing all right nice to meet you and they're like it's the cab outside and i'm like no no. They're like, okay, see you later.

You got to say something. You're with the great Adam Groh, and that's an easy one. That's why I went for it. The reality is that people want to see the cab and get in and see the lights on the ceiling. Then once they're done with that, it's like, yeah, see you later. I think Adam West feels when he meets people. That's right.

The Batmobile is still... He still drives it. He's still driving it. There's still. But the Batmobile is still... He still drives it. He's still driving it. There's still replicas. The cash cab is done. Really? Yeah. I want to...

Yeah, tell me, because I have a cash cab portion of the podcast where we're going to talk about cash cab. But I'm... Yeah, save that, actually, because I want to get into there. I want to just share a little story about... You may not recall,

but my son, the 14-year-old you met upstairs, he played baseball at High Park, the House League High Park. And every year they had a like a... It was a banquet. A big banquet at the end of the season.

Yeah, so at the Oasis down, actually on Lakeshore, you were the MC of those nights. I MC pretty much anything at the Oasis down actually on Lakeshore and the uh you were the emcee of those nights I emcee pretty much anything that I get asked and that's why I'm in Toronto in fact with the Adam Groh quiz show or with my appearances people see me they go oh you could do our event and my philosophy is always if I'm available it's interesting I'm gonna blog about this uh on right now it's a whole other long story that we'll get into about my website but i'm going to post this blog on linkedin so if you're you're listening right now

and you're and you are a linkedin uh follower of mine whatever what do you call it on linkedin there's twitter followers facebook fans connections connections okay there you go uh so i'm going to post this blog because it's it's precisely about the notion of when people ask you to do these things like the oasis one for high park Park Baseball, I'm just going down. I'm not getting paid for that. I was going to get the – in fact, I probably paid. I probably paid for a ticket to go there and get the rubber chicken and be with a bunch of whatever. And it's fun.

So I love doing stuff like that. And that was great because for me, when I do the Adam Groh Quiz show, often I's a comedy it's a hybrid show it's it's trivia and comedy together and it's for adults typically i don't do a kids show per se and these young baseball guys i mean it's amazing what you know they're into so i wrote some stuff specifically for them some trivia about baseball and everything like that so pokemon yeah yeah exactly pokemon I don't even think that that exists anymore. I know, because I was at McDonald's this morning with my daughter and my toddler, and the treat of the week that comes in the Happy Meal,

she got a hotcakes Happy Meal, and it was Pikachu. Really? Yeah, I had him sit this morning. What can we get rid of? We got some My Little Pony and Furbies, and look, Pikachu. Let's get rid of him. Yeah.

And it's funny. My real quick aside is that they asked me, do you want a boy toy or a girl toy? And because the Happy Meal is for my daughter, my instinct was to say she's a girl. And then I quickly realized, like, my 11-year-old doesn't want a stupid toy. Like, she just wants the hotcakes. And I'm like, let's give it to, like, the 19-month-old kid. Give me a boy toy. And it was Pikachu.

Yeah. Because Pikachus are for boys only. Oh, well. Which you know. Yeah. So you host, you hosted those things. And also once in a while, you'd be the guy like if there was a tournament, like a baseball tournament, you'd be like the guy going like now batting number 11, George Bell.

No, no. Wait a second. I think I only did, I did like the opening ceremonies at High Park Baseball once. Like my son went right through from T-ball all the way up through. And he played West Toronto Wildcats. And, you know, he's still playing

a little bit of hockey, but he's hung up the cleats for baseball. He's coaching a little bit. But, you know, once in a while, they'd say, could you do the, you know, the opening ceremonies at the parade? So that wasn't like, you know, and maybe the Oasis end of Banquet Hall's not my biggest claim no no but this is for

your kids like this is to me this would be you're doing it because your kids play there you're not doing this and my kids are hilarious as you as you probably get at the same time they're like always completely mortified when you are talking or doing anything but they use it uh to their advantage when it comes to in into the positive light so when when they need to get some uh some equity with their friends oh yeah my dad hosts cash that's right but other than that i should really be quiet in public and not make any sort of don't not bring any attention to me or them so they're usually embarrassed by me oh for sure like Have your sons ever asked you, can you drop me off over there instead of...

Oh, yeah. Our two oldest are in high school. We're starting a new high school for the year in Vancouver. So we're dropping them. You can stop here. My oldest son does that too. This is fine. Right here is fine.

You don't have to take me out where my friends will see you dropping me off. But in the meantime, he'll get friends that will go, your dad's the cash cap guy? You know, tell him to follow me on Instagram. Yeah. Send me a note. And he'll say, could you follow so-and-so on Instagram?

I'm like, oh, yeah. So he's using it. Yeah. But in the meantime, completely embarrassed by his father. No, he's a smart kid. He's a smart kid. Do your teenagers, do they like sleep in on weekends like it's their job? Generally, they're not as bad as the stereotype

okay uh my son is a gamer so he's up late gaming and then when he wakes up but he's not like we don't necessarily have to haul him out of bed at like the crack of noon type of thing but both of them also uh have started to get some work oh Oh. So my middle daughter, well, I have three kids, but the older ones are working. So he is a lifeguard and a swim instructor. So sometimes he's got to get his act together. Yeah, he's got shit to do. He's got a job. Yeah.

And likewise, my daughter is a ref for soccer. So they're a little bit more motivated to get out of bed. I'm impressed. I'm impressed. Because around the corner from you, my son is my son's room. And you were coming over to do this on a Saturday at like two o'clock. And when the clock struck like 1230,

I started thinking, I got to wake him up. But like it's 1230. I've been out. I had done a whole day with my other two kids. Okay. A whole day. Yeah. The youngest is napping right now.

The youngest went down for his nap before the oldest got out of bed. Yeah. It's ridiculous. I just, I'm looking around. I'm going to steal all his Pikachu toys. His room's right here. He collected them all.

I'm going to go in there and confiscate them. Hey, you were a morning DJ on the radio. Did you know that? That's your first trivia question. The answer to that is correct. Yeah, I started my career in radio in Ontario.

I worked small market, worked my way up into the morning shift in these small market stations. And eventually I ended up in Toronto on radio at what is now Boom. Was it Easy Rock? It was Easy Rock when I was there. And I love radio. I mean, radio, like a podcast. I mean, I wish I was doing it. Well, you got the pipes for it.

You're great. And the oldest one in the books is I got a great face for radio. At least I've made the transition into television. And podcasting is, you know, that it's on the same platform. And even more and more now. It's like unpaid radio. That's right. Well, I mean, you know, you're making the big bucks.

I do it like for the same reasons you host the banquets for Hyde Park. That's right. To embarrass your children. To embarrassquets for Hyde Park. That's right. To embarrass your children. To embarrass my kids. That's right. That's right. All right. So you were on Easy Rock, and I'm just trying to remember when it flipped, but it was like,

I don't know, 2009 or something. Yeah. Yeah. It was like mid-late 2000s. I was there doing, at the time, I had been full-time mornings at a couple of different stations, Orangeville. Then I was Sudbury middays on a network, which was really interesting. Came back to Toronto, and I did a very short stint in Brantford, which was the only time in radio which was a nightmare.

I hated it. And then I ended up doing part-time. If you know radio jargon, I was the swing guy. Yeah, of course. jargon, I was the swing guy. Yeah, of course. So I was the swing announcer at Easy Rock. And even got a chance to fill in on the afternoon drive for Daryl Henry

at the time, and then occasionally for Mike Cooper, who was the morning guy there. He's still on mornings at CHFI. And for me, even though I'd been in the business for about five, six years, I was like a kid. I'm sitting there for Coop? Are you kidding me? Do you remember?

How old were you when you came to university? You came to Toronto. Yeah, I was 18 when I came to Toronto. You might have missed the 510 stupid joke of the day on 680 CFTR. You might have missed that one. I missed that. That's Cooper. He brings it back. He still tells great jokes.

He just repackages them. He's like a legend, right? He is. He is. Absolutely. And that's for me. Radio is that way. And at the time, being a swing guy, I started to develop my stand-up career at the same time.

Cool. So I would often be going to the program director going, I need some time off because I'm doing a cruise ship or I'm going here. And he'd go, okay, Adam, you're my swing guy. So you fill in when the full-time talent goes. I can't cover for you. So I had to make a choice. I had to get out of radio and pursue comedy full-time, and that's what I chose to do.

And even though I love radio, I kind of look back and I go, when you look at the main talent on radio in this country, it doesn't change a lot. So for a guy like me that that's an up and comer to think I would love to be mornings in Toronto. You know, when I started, it was Roger, Rick and Marilyn. Right. And then it's, it's still Roger and Marilyn. I don't know who they've gotten. Nobody yet. Right. So there's you, right. There you go. Exactly. But there's not a lot of change of the guard in the primo gigs in this country. That's true. So, you know, I look back and I go,

I made the right choice because I was, I'm able you know perform comedy i can do television i'm not anchored i'm you know working in radio full-time you're like an nhl player they could trade you at any time or you just never get it there's no except for the like the one percenters the aaron davis's and the john derringer's there's no security in radio. We just had the Bell Mobility cuts like last week. You know, on the show, last episode was Mike Toth. He was at 1010, Newstalk 1010, and got a pink slip last week

because of the 390 people across the country got one. It's, of all the businesses, stand-up comedy can be very cutthroat, but I think radio is even more cutthroat. I think you live and die by the books, which used to be the BBMs, and now it's the people who, I don't know how they do ratings.

You could be killing it, and then the PD comes in, hires somebody new, and says, no, we're changing things, sorry, and then you're gone. There's a million stories of exactly that, people getting big fat numbers in their share for the targeted demo,

and maybe they want to be paid a reasonable amount of money and it's like now we're going to put somebody else there or other things out of your control like in stand-up comedy you face the same thing because somebody might go well you know we're not going to headline you this uh this quarter because we we want to mix things up a bit we want to bring in some whatever there there is a little bit of that but you are a little bit more of an entrepreneur creating your own business when you you own at the adam grow quiz show for example like exactly i hope you own it because that name smells like you own it well yeah uh i'm negotiating with a guy right now okay this guy dave is a real he's got he's got the adam grow quiz show.com and he's being a real jerk about it but no i i created

that brand for for two reasons a because it makes sense like you've created your own brand to create your own brand no one else is ever going to go after the adam grove brand it's my name right but when i was doing cash cab even though i had been a stand-up comic a headliner for over a decade before cash cab came along right people were starting to discover me as a comic for the first time and they go i had no idea that you did stand-up comedy and you know like you know that's just the way the Canadian show business goes. So I had this whole new arena of places to perform. And people were like, okay, your comedy's great, but now ask us some questions because that's what we really

wanted. So I said, why not bring the two together? So I started doing live shows, corporate, private functions plus ticketed functions where I was doing this stand-up, you know, hybrid show with comedy and hilarious quiz games where people could win money, which is what I'm doing tonight. People can win prizes out of my pocket coming up on stage. Is tonight a private show or is it?

Tonight is a fundraiser, so it's a little bit steeper ticket price. It's a $75 ticket price up at the Goldhar Center in Vaughan. It's a fundraiser for Beit Reyim Synagogue up there. So they're doing community support and youth leadership. And they've hired me to come in to help add some cachet to the night.

And obviously, as you'll see on my LinkedIn post, I'm talking about the decision to, you know, when do I do things for free? And when do I still charge a rate, but a reduced rate for a charity? Right. Right? Because you can't always work for free. And then I'm kind of reconsidering,

but I won't spoil that. Don't, yeah. And by the way, Adam Groh has an E at the end of Groh. I can see people in LinkedIn trying to find this thing. And so anyway, you know, just with regards to the closure there, you know, at the time while I was doing Cash Cab, I pitched Discovery on touring a live Cash Cab show.

And they loved the idea, but the bureaucracy and trying to get it mounted, it was almost a couple of years, and then we didn't get it there. So I thought, I should just do what I do. I can't call it Cash Cab Live because I don't own that brand. You don't own Cash Cab. But I own Adam's Road. Okay. Let me just quickly wrap up this stand up by asking you were you on Star Search? yes! that's amazing

is this the Ed McMahon Star Search? no no no it was the first season of Arsenio Hall I've got teenage kids I think I might have a couple years on you I was actually just talking about Star Search recently because that was I think in, yeah, I think I might have a couple of years on you, maybe. Yeah, I was actually just talking about Star Search recently because that was, I think, in 2002 or 2003. It was a long time ago.

And it was the second night of the first season of the Arsenio Hall version. And that version didn't last long. I think we had one or two seasons of the Star Search. And that was wild. I mean, I love live. Don't get me wrong. Radio's live. I did a lot of live television, stand-up comedy.

Obviously, you get immediate feedback because you're in front of a crowd. Right. This was night two, and you're up against one other comedian on the show. There's singers, dancers, comedians. So I'm up against one other comedian, and we knew from the night before that minimum 14 million people on u.s network television crazy we're going to be watching live yeah so i was just talking about this because i didn't win uh spoiler alert if you go on youtube but you're only up against one guy so i didn't win uh but i delivered what i had to deliver they cbs booked me for that show for by seeing my just for laughs and they said we

want this guy so i had to do some of the pieces that they wanted specifically from my Just for Laughs. And they said, we want this guy. So I had to do some of the pieces that they wanted specifically from my Just for Laughs set. And then I had to, in a lawyer, in a boardroom with two lawyers, go through my set word for word and they had to approve of it. And on live television, as a stand-up comic, I mean, if you can relate to this, I don't know,

you're given one minute and 50 seconds to do stand-up comedy wow i'm a headline act i got over an hour sure so how do you narrow it down and then so you're about to go live i'm standing in like what you know is like the feeble flimsy stage wings and arsenio hall is live ramping up it's like and then your next act is this and this i'm going like i can't even flub a word, a syllable. I got to nail this perfectly. So that mind game, it was unbelievable. So really great tactile experience.

I wish I had won and it had led to other things, but what an amazing time. Did you flub anything? Nothing. I didn't win because my comedy didn't resonate in LA. I was going up against an la comedian who was frankly very funny guy but very racist and they loved it and here's the guy from you know you know out of town going up against the local boy uh you know not that i'm saying that's the reason he won he was very funny but uh i that racist humor is tough tough to compete with yeah

i'm not that guy and it was very funny because, and people ask me about this. I don't know how much time do you have on this one. This is a Saturday, man. You can go six, seven hours if you want. People ask me about this all day because the worst thing about that, the experience was, not only did I know that 14 plus million people were watching, I knew that basically everyone I know was watching. Because my manager hired a PR specialist. We promoted it.

I got articles, everybody I was related to in both sides, uh, in all in North America and all of my friends, uh, close and not knew that that was happening. And so losing, knowing that I was going to have to, you know, not only manage and lick my own wounds, but also deal with, you know, people going, Oh, sorry, buddy. You know, know like all that stuff and so everybody asks me about it because they say well what do you would you ever do a reality show again because i was on the show and my judges were jack osborne right uh one of the judds i think it was naomi judd okay yeah carol uh cypher i think i can't remember Naomi Judd. Okay. Yeah. Carol, uh, Seifer, I think. I can't remember her name. She's a very good comedian.

And, uh, um, Ben Stein. Yep. Oh, yeah, yeah. Win Ben Stein's money. Carol Seifert, I think. She's, she's a great standup comic and she wrote on Seinfeld for years. And I can't remember. Okay.

Her name escapes me. Her last name. But anyway, she's very funny. So there was two comedians. Ben Stein, Carol, and then Jack Osborne and, and Winona Judd or whoever it was. Winona Judd. I don't know. escapes her last name but anyway she's very funny so there was two comedians ben stein carol and the jack osborne and and winona judd or whoever it was i think was the mom naomi judd i don't know which one it was one of the judges judges and uh she was a judd judge and people and they were like her comment to me was uh you know in in the teaser for the show you talk a bit about your son who at

the time i think was like six or something like that. Right. She says you should do more material about being a father. And I felt like saying, I'm on live television. Yeah. And I had picked the one minute and 50 seconds based on what CBS had told me to do and then what the lawyers had approved. And I go, I've got an hour of material. You don't think I talk about my kids?

Yeah. So it wasn't very constructive or helpful. No. And so people ask me, do you so it's like was it wasn't you know very constructive or helpful no uh and so people ask me it's like do you think it's like weird like you you were judged by jack osborne and a singer and then i say yeah totally that is exactly reality that is how entertainment works you think about what we were just talking about about cutbacks and in bell and the television business in this country there are people who are not experts necessarily on the medium, on stand-up comedy per se,

that are making all sorts of important decisions about stand-up comedy. And that's the way it goes. So that show was more reality than Big Brother. That was reality. So I have no regrets about it. I wish it had happened differently. But when you're about to step on,

and you know, you must know, okay, 14 million people and everyone I know. It's amazing you could just sort of turn that switch and go do it. I would just be,

and I don't know, I've never had anything. I had a lot of downloads of the Strombo episode of this podcast, but I don't think it was 14 million. A little less. You can get inside your head, and that's why I look back on that. I go, no, a little less. You can get inside your head.

And that's why I look back on that. I go, there was a lot of, you know, even when I got Cash Cab, there were a lot of things, that being one of them, that gave me the equity that I needed so that when I was auditioning for a show that became just perfect for me, which was Cash Cab, that I had this buildup of experience that made it perfect for me. So, you know, to deliver, I didn't make a mistake. They didn't like what I had chosen

and what I delivered, but I look back and I go, what I was tasked to do, I did it. You executed. Yeah. And so that, you know, like that was a big mind. You know, I know I can swear on your show,

but I'm not because I have a brand. No, I understand. The Adam Groh quiz show is not for the... And there's no racist humor from you. Yeah, I know. I always even feel... It's my one complaint. That's right. Just edge it up a bit. So anyway,

you know, that experience and other experiences when you deliver are really important in your entertainment. And it's a good, like you mentioned, just for laughs kind of leads to Star Search and then this all leads to Cash Cab, right? So how soon after Star Search does the Cash Cab happen? That was several, that was

many years afterwards. Many years later. It was. And it was interesting to me because I'd been doing some touring down in LA in the comedy clubs down there showcasing. And as a result of the showcase down there, that is one of the reasons I got Star Search, but they also put me in a couple of years later at another showcase. My manager called me and said, there's two shows that we're going to submit

you for because they've requested based on your tape and seeing you in LA or whatever. One of them is this cash cab thing. I don't know anything about it, but you're a taxi driver and you ask trivia questions. Do you want me to submit you? And I said, yeah, well, you know, check that out.

That's intriguing, you said. Sounds kind of interesting. I love trivia. I'm a radio guy. I'm a trivia guy. You always wanted to be a taxi cab driver. Yeah, you know, and we'll get into that.

But at the same time, the other show, he said it was the first season. It was not on the air yet. It was last comic standing. So they want to see you for that. And I said, well, what's going to happen with that? And he goes, well, it's your classic formulaic reality show.

And this was back when they did do the whole living in the mansion before they went straight. By the time they got a little further ahead with Last Comic Standing, it was only on stage and in studio. They still had challenges, but they didn't live together. But this was the first season when you were going to live. And he said to me right away, he said,

so what you're going to, you audition for the show and then you live in a house with 10 other comics or nine other comics and they want all that kind of, you know, character stuff.

And then you do stand-up comedy and you compete head to head and then eventually they go into the studio and you go, I go, I, I'm a father

and a grown-up person and I am not going to go live in a house and try to be the, the jackass to get as much attention as Paul. Yeah, and you have to be like 10 times your normalness to kind of resonate. And I said, don't even submit me to it. And I don't regret that. I know a lot of Canadian comics ended up doing really well. And, you know, Jerry D., for instance.

Oh, sure. He was always very funny, but that was the catalyst for him to really bust out and really make a fortune as a stand-up. Oh, sure. that platform, that catapult, that springboard to the next step. Right. So, but I don't regret it because I just, I would not have enjoyed myself. I wouldn't have been good. I would have lost on that for sure. Forget losing maybe on Star Search. I would have lost on Last Comic Standing

a hundred percent because I'm just not into that. And you know your strengths and your wheelhouse and all that. Yeah. And then the rest is history because Cash Cab was like, once I, even the early auditions for cat and you had to

audition for the role right it was i knew other comics that were auditioning for the for the same job and you know there was a whole different you know skill set that made me perfect for cash cab and even right away before the show went on the air in our tech rehearsals in our first games i knew this is awesome. This is fun. Canadians are hilarious. That was one of the variables. Because this is a franchise show, Cash Cab. So tell me that.

Was this a US show that was going to make a Canadian version? It's actually started in the UK. So it's a London, England company that created Cash Cab. They only made it in London for, I think, one season. And then they franchised it. And at some point in time, there's been a cash cab in over 30 countries wow around the world now we are one of the longest running i'm pretty sure i don't know who's still in production uh the u.s was on air with their version about four seasons before we started and then we started they did nine or ten we did eight seasons and so we had a really good run at it.

But the big question was once you started to look at other versions of the show, and I didn't do a lot of that because I wanted to be my own host. I didn't want to start to mirror or parrot anybody else's style. But the question from the producers was what are Canadians going to be like? Are they going to be humble and soft-spoken and apologetic? Or are they going to be like are they going to be you know humble and soft-spoken and apologetic or are they going to be hilarious and as you've seen if you watch i have i mean it progressively just got better and better and people started to get what was and it is you know 100 authentic reactions the emotions are real the the reactions of them being excited and and being angry when they strike out it's just amazing. And Canadians, I think

our version of the show, because of the contestants, is better than any since that I've gone back and looked at. I didn't look at stuff while I was making the show, but I've kind of dabbled a little bit. And I don't take credit for that. I take credit for ensuring that the contestants in the Canadian version

of Cash Cab trusted me, that I'm not going to make fun of them, that I'm there with them. You know what? I have a very close friend who's been on Cash Cab. Yeah. So I had actually episode 144, we talk about his experience because I knew you were coming on. I wanted to hear what's it like from your side.

Did he win or lose on the show? He did not win. Uh-huh. He did not win. All right. So just this is, you know know now you have to take what you what you're getting in in context no no this is a good thing i'm about to say i promise you uh he said that a you were you were very nice through the whole thing but he said you're an

incredible multitasker like you're like literally you're driving this cab through downtown toronto and you're you're navigating the thing but uh which it sounds like like you know it's you driving a cab's gonna be tough enough in the city you know well it is it is a cab is going to be tough enough in the city. It is a tough gig and I know the cabbies are in the news because of this whole Uber stuff that's been going on for over a year now and cabbies, by the way, are

hard working, for the most part cabbies are hard working entrepreneurs who deserve to be tipped very well. They're the last people that are making a fortune like the taxi brokerages and the middlemen. These are guys that you really got to take care of because they're busting their hump. be tipped very well. They're the last people that are making a fortune like the taxi brokerages and the middlemen. Right. So they, these are guys that you, you really got to take care of because they're, they're busting their hump and it is a hard job to multitask. First of all, there,

there's two things on that. I think that's one of the main reasons aside from the fact that I am a stellar host, right? Okay. One of the main reasons I got the job is because I had kids and I could multitask while i was driving was that the uh training well it there there was no training it was just like a lot put it this way a lot of comics and other actors and hosts slash tv personalities that i knew were auditioning for the role of the host of cash cab fabulous hilarious great host good chance that they didn't have the years of experience that i had how do you drive around a car talk reach around give a granola bar you know stop a fight they might not have had that and that was literally what the producer said you know

you're one of the first people that have come in that i didn't feel like we were going to crash right and it was never a danger. It was never illegal. You just have to be confident and you have to be, there was nothing, there was no handheld illegalities about, you know, once in a while people say, well,

you know, there's, there's rules against that. It's like, no, we were doing everything above board. Cabbies are even, well,

you were a licensed cabbie. Yeah. And you're allowed to have a CB. They're changing that a little bit now for cabbies, but anyway, it was all above board. So that was one thing, but that is one of the other questions that i get when people fandom come and people want to

talk to me about the show of course is were you really driving or were you on like one of those film trailers with a car towing you around the city or was it green screen i'm like i was driving at all now i'm not going 80 kilometers an hour. And in fact, I got pulled over once. The only time I ever ran into any incidents with the cops was in Toronto. We did one season outside of Toronto, and the other seven seasons were in Toronto. Only time I got into any sort of trouble with the cops in Metro Toronto was one time coming out of the junction, actually, and going over the bridge down into a little Portugal there, I guess, I was going too slow

in the active lane. Is this DuPont? Or Annette DuPont? No, it's the Ronci break-off down onto College and Dundas. And so I'm going over that bridge into Dundas. Where the chocolate factory is.

Yeah. Is it Sterling? Or I don't know. Anyway into Dundas. Where the chocolate factory is. Yeah. Sterling. Is it Sterling or I don't know. Anyway, we're off. The French school. The French school. I know it smells. Okay. Because it smells like chocolate there.

Okay. We're at the end of the West Toronto bike trail now. Right. Right. And so I got pulled over for being in the active lane going too slow. And the cop literally pulled me. I was at mid-game. I had contestants.

Wow. I pulled over. I'm like, I'm really sorry. I'm so embarrassed. I don't know what I did. I definitely didn't run a stop sign or a light. And so the cop comes up to the window. And you can't see this on the podcast, but he comes up to the window.

He knocks on the window, and I do the bzzz. And the window goes down, and he kind of looks at me. He goes, oh. Like, he didn't realize it was me. And then all of a sudden, he looks at me and goes, oh, man, what are you doing? So he didn't give me a ticket. I don't know how he didn't see the lights or what was going on but yeah he didn't clue when he says you're just going a little too slow in the active lane i'm so i was probably going like 20 or 30 in a 40 or 50 well that's i was like how hard is it

to get a license to be a cabbie like it's harder than you think but not as hard as you think uh in ontario and it's different so when we did vancouver i had to switch everything over to a bc driver's license and i had to get a special cabbie license there because it's different in each municipality across the country which is one of the main reasons why we didn't have cash cab edmonton cash cab halifax cash cab ottawa uh because you it's there's different bylaws in every city. And you're only allowed to have one provincial driver's license at any given time. So I had to surrender my Ontario driver's license to get a special license.

That's a good point. So in Ontario, for Toronto taxi drivers, if you wanted to become a taxi driver and you're listening right now and you want to become a cabbie, all you need is your Ontario driver's license. And then you take a course with the Municipal municipal licensing services, the MLS, which is about three weeks. And it's all theory. There's no road test. In Vancouver, there was a road test. In Toronto, there's no road test.

So the, the stumbling block in Toronto for me was, I knew that I was going to be hosting a television show and I was going to have a director in my year. And then once I got contestants and once they were in the cabin and agreed to play the game, I didn't have a lot of pressure for me to get from A to B in any sort of major hurry. They were going to be like, do whatever you got to do, man. I'm going to win some cash. But I still had to get my

license, plan out the right routes. You have to memorize the right routes and you have to memorize a whole lot of geography. So you'd ought to know all the major hotels. You still aren't sure what chocolate factory that was. Oh, for the test, yeah. And you have to memorize a whole lot of geography. So you'd ought to know all the major hotels. Yeah, you still aren't sure what chocolate factory that was.

Right, exactly. Because it all left, as soon as I passed the test, it all left my, and we, like, I had to memorize routes, hospitals, hotels, major intersections,

and, you know, and it's not only the destination. You have to memorize the major intersections on the way. I mean, there's a lot of pressure. And everybody says, well, why not just use GPS? And the rule is you're allowed to use GPS, but you have to be tested. What if you get in your car and it's

not working? Sure. It goes down. Yeah. Right. So you need to know it. Yeah. And so that was way harder than I thought. And my wife was hilarious. Like we literally were like, when I knew I was getting this role and the producer's like, I think you're going to get this role. We just got to get final approval from Discovery. Yeah. So you got to go get your taxi license, buddy. Right. You got to be legit.

I'm like, OK. So we back timed it. And I literally you take the course. It's about three weeks. And then you get your and then you have to write an exam and you have to get 75 percent or higher on that exam to pass. And you don't get your results till like a couple of days later. So I was literally getting the results back the day before we were going into production.

The whole production team, it's not a very big crew, but there was like a small crew of people ready to go. Yeah, all two of us were ready to go. And so my wife's like, you better not fail taxi school, buddy. Or, you know, you might as well sleep on the couch. That's right. Or worse. You're passing this.

Everything went well. So, yeah, you cram all night. What's the nearest intersection? You're short his route from here to A to B. Yeah. Yeah. And all of that, just like in grade 10 algebra or grade 12 chemistry, as soon as I was done the exam,

out of my brain. Absolutely. See you later. Gone. I've retained it for as long as I can. You need to make room for some important stuff. Like trivia questions. Like how to interact with people

and how to have fun. So you feel camaraderie with other cabbies as a result of this kinship? I was worried, and I don't mind saying it out loud, I was going to be one of very few white cabbies in Toronto. That's's fair comment and uh i didn't want them to see me on television going that's not real who's this guy pretending to

work like we work hard for a living but what it did before this is before uber what it did was it brought taking a cab into the spotlight for torontonians and canadians and so people were getting into cabs in a better mood. They're going, oh, I wish you were the cash cab. And all these guys with Ethiopian cabbies, European, South Asian cabbies would see me on the street. And I take cabs still. And I would get in.

And they go, oh, my god, it's you. I love your show. And I was so grateful that they were fans of the show because I didn't want to be like white men is coming here and pretending to be to work as hard as we are because they work hard. It's a hard gig. People think that they're just making money. You got to rent the cab.

The guys who own the cabs make the cash, right? Yeah, the guys that own the plates and then the brokers that send them out get a little bit of a cut. The last guy to make money is the cabbie. If I check that phone there, would I find Uber on there?

I have the app because I... I'm glad you're being honest with me because I wasn't really going to check. I have to do research for my life, but I've never actually used Uber myself. And I'm not against Uber. How do you feel about Uber as Canada's great cab representative now?

I think that it was definitely sketchy to start because they were basically saying, yeah, there's not really anything above board in terms of insurance. And I've taken Uber with people who, when I go out with them, they book an Uber and I'll hop in with them. And so I would quiz the Uber guy. I'd say, you know, so how do you feel about this? And they go, well, you know, basically it's not really, I think it's changed now, but when it first came out, you know, as a driver, you're not really insured to do that. That's right. Yeah. Right. Right. But Uber's philosophy is we'll pay whatever you get. You get a ticket, you have an

accident and insurance. And so the cab the uber drivers were saying and some of them are actually cab drivers part-time too interesting um they were saying i i feel confident like you know anytime i've had any problems uh i go into the app i submit something and they immediately just put money in my account so uber was basically paying the insurance on these drivers now there has since has been changed there's i think there's one company in canada that's offering a very special class of insurance for Uber drivers. For a passenger, you're basically covered

by your own drivers and home insurance. So if you get into a liability thing like that, all you got to make sure is that you've got a little bit more than a million coverage because if you get into a lawsuit, you're going to probably... So as a passenger, you're covered. But it was sketchy with drivers at first.

I think that they've corrected that, and I think that it is the future. And what I hope happens for cabbies is that even though there are some legitimate plate holders of cab licenses who make the money, and even though there are some legitimate brokers in the cab business, for the most part, it's a corrupt business. And that's the reason why the drivers are the last one to make any money. And so what I'm hoping is what happens is they overhaul the industry so that it's a level playing field for everybody. And then at the end of the day, all these cab drivers also benefit. Great. I have a Twitter question for you about cash cabs. This is Mike Gamble on Twitter. Yeah. Are people actually picked up randomly on the street, or do they all sign up ahead of time to be on Cash Cab?

Nobody signs up ahead of time to be on Cash Cab. Everybody that gets on the show is completely surprised. Okay, because I noticed you're wording that carefully, but they aren't looking for a cab to take them from A to B when they go on Cash Cab. Well, there's a combination. There's a combination. There are, and why I say it's 100% people are surprised is because in both scenarios, there are 100% surprised.

Right. In one scenario, I'm legitimately picking up completely random hails. Oh. Yes. Completely just off the street and get in the cab. And that got easier and easier to do over the years because the concern is it takes a long time. Like, for instance, when we were making the first season, that was the only time really, aside from one or two afterwards,

that people were like, I don't know. I don't think I want to do this because they didn't know. They didn't know what I was up to. They're like, what's your deal, buddy? Survival instinct kicks in. But now, once the show was on the air, if people had either seen it or heard of it, when I picked up random people off the curb, they were like, oh, this is all. Let's go.

And so it was really easy. We didn't have to spend 20 minutes going through the formal rules. But because it's a television production and we are working with an eight-hour day, really, on a max day, I was making about four or five games a night because from top to bottom, when you're making a television show, you know, there's a lot of things that happen. There's a lot of, you know, stopping, picking up B-roll shot of the street.

And there's like phone a friend or whatever the... Yeah, the mobile shoutouts. That stuff takes time. The street shoutouts, they all took a lot of time and those were all completely random people off the streets. And you got to find the guys who will sign the waiver. That's the key. Yeah key yeah sometimes people don't so you have to drive another block and try some more people so there's a lot of things and so if we didn't use a wrangling process to get contestants for the other portion of the cash cap contestants we would have never been

able to make 26 episodes and eight seasons it would have taken forever yeah so to speed up the process we would wrangle people but they would have no idea what they were getting into. And so when people talk to me about that, because that's in the credits of the show. It's not a secret. It's listed at the end of the show. And so when people ask me about that, I go, at the end of the day, your chances of hailing the cash gap randomly are actually as good as or the same odds as being wrangled randomly. Like the process is still random. Sure.

Right? It was just a matter of making sure that when I was going into a production day, we knew that we had a little bit of time to drive around. And I would drive around in the theater district for 45 minutes and not get hailed. Wow. Right? Because there's 10,000 cabs, right? So, you know, we would just know there'd be a

little bit of time to fish it's called to randomly fish and then we'd know at you know 805 we know at college and and bathurst there's these people that are expecting to go somewhere else right and that's my buddy's experience they're gonna be uh told to hail this hail a cab and then i get them and they get in and they have no idea and And that's why the authenticity, the organic, the surprise is there because, and even those people would be like, Hey, yeah, but listen, can we make this quick? Cause we've got to get somewhere. And they don't realize they'd actually been wrangled for that. That's how good the ruse was. Right.

Yeah. And my buddy was a hundred percent surprised. Like he, he knew he was going to be on some kind of a game show. And he was told, this is way back when, but his experience is he met a producer at Starbucks. And he was given 20 bucks to hail a cab to get to the studio. And he goes out and he hails a cab, which happens to be you. He has no idea that that game show is going to be in a cab. So he's completely surprised. And I'm surprised.

Even that to me is a little bit beyond what we would normally be giving in the wrangling process, that he was told that he was going to be on a game show. But that stuff might have just trickled out with the producer. Or he was going to be on a TV show. Anyways, yeah. Probably wasn't told he was going to be on a game show. Probably told, we're meeting down here. We're doing a show. You're going to meet somebody.

Oh, we've changed locations. We're going to send you out to a bar in Eglinton. Grab a cab, and then they're hurried up and they get in and they're like totally guerrilla-ed. But if we didn't do that, we would have got a game or two a night, and it would have been... No, I like your ideas, great, the hybrid of both. Yeah, so we would do both.

And what I also tell people who are completely cynical about reality shows is first of all, Cash Cab is more real than the vast majority of reality shows and i don't have anything against other reality shows i'm just stating a fact because once the surprise is done nothing else is scripted i'm not you know telling these people what to say how to get along like you know and my banter with them it's in the moment like it could have been you know live as far as i was concerned that and you can tell when you watch a television show

you can tell like they're actors or whatever, or they're ramping it up. And I tell people, if you, if you're still are really cynical about it, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to get 10 episodes of cash gap. Five of them are random hails, people I just picked up off the curb. Right. Five of them are people that we wrangled with our sophisticated ruse. If you can tell the difference, I will give you the total amount won in all 10 of those episodes, which could be like, you know, $20,000.

And that's how confident I am. You would not be able to tell the difference. And that's what made the show a success is because people were genuinely surprised, uh, you know, and, and,

you know, all, although I, I know that people have the fantasy of just coming to toronto to hail the cab which is done now we're out of production uh you've mentioned that and i actually have to plead a little ignorance i had no idea cash cab was out of production yeah we we made season eight two summers ago over two years ago and it finally went to air they held on to the last 13 episodes of it for a long time okay and so it finally went

there and they were like some of the best episodes we made and so they they didn't option a season nine so we haven't been in production for a couple of summers okay and you know you never know what might happen down the road but you know the the whole we talked a little bit about the business in this country the whole television world has been completely flipped on its side in canada yeah and so shows like cash cab uh and i'm and don't get me wrong i'm very proud of cash cab and what it is and what i did with it and the people that were on it the contestants i'm very proud of uh of the product that canadians helped us make and being the host of that show but it falls into the category of what's kind of in the business called cheap and cheerful right it's a very inexpensive probably one of the most inexpensive shows

to make just got to keep that cab all crew uh you know it's you know it is a mobile television studio with very sophisticated equipment but very leading edge technology we were the first in canada to use the flash card medium uh to capture like so there was it was like you know seven or it was seven decks recording simultaneously hd cameras mounted in on top of the cap right it was quite a sophisticated thing but at the end of the day much cheaper than a big huge scripted drama in you know alberta or on in halifax or whatever like that much cheaper production right so they call it cheap and cheerful because it just filled what used to be called the early prime or daytime slot where broadcasters in this

country were obligated to have a certain percentage of canadian content right and now they no longer have that obligation now the crtc has changed the rules and so they really only have to provide that in prime time so of course the broadcasters are going well let's take all the money that we even if it's cheap and cheerful we'll put all of our money into bigger budget prime time shows like you know digging for shark skeletons and an iceberg uh that that's been under you know whatever yeah all that stuff is great but what it means in the business for guys like me and production companies that make shows like cheap and cheerful cash cab are for the time being until the equilibrium is found right not working, right?

You know, so I mean, I'm busy doing my corporate stuff and the Adam Roquist show. Yeah, which I want to get into. I got the new pirates and the fire, got lots of stuff going on. Yeah. But I think there's going to be

a little time before the dust settles on the CRTC's decision, which I agree and disagree with. I don't agree. I agree with the sentiment that the CRTC is trying to encourage quality Canadian programming. And we should always be striving for it.

And the rationale was, the reality, there was a lot of stuff on television that nobody was watching at all and people were making money on. So if nobody's watching the show, why are we making it? Why don't we make shows that people watch? Cash Cab was watched. It was a hit show.

And reran like crazy, by the way. My buddy still gets texts, say your episode's on. It. Cash Cab was watched. It was a hit show. And reran like crazy, by the way. Yeah. My buddy still gets texts, say your episode's on. It reruns all the time. Yeah, and you know what? I don't mind.

People say, oh, you must be making a fortune. Not in Canadian shows. No, you're a hired gun, right? So you're like hired as an actor essentially for your time, right? Yeah.

In Canada, you don't make syndication or residuals. You know, I've got, there's not much in the back end for me. Right.

But it's great branding for me. Sure. It's for adam grow and the same as the contestants a lot of contestants are getting their own little fan mail it's like i saw your episode again or yeah you're on that show and you know the reality of why that's happening is because it's so consolidated the business in this country bell Bell Media owns Discovery. Bell Media owns comedy. Bell Media owns CTV. So they can repurpose shows that make sense. And for me, that just is more of a tribute to the fact that Cash Cab was a success and they should be making more

because it could live on multiple platforms. Not a lot of shows could Discovery make and also put on comedy. That is for sure. Right? Not a lot of shows could CTV make and put on comedy and Discovery. for sure. Right? Not a lot of shows could see TV make and put on comedy and discovery. But Cash Cab lived in these different,

and they get all the advertising revenue from all three of those places from making one show. To me, as a revenue model, it's like, why are we making more? I don't understand this. Right? So anyway, that's me talking biz.

No, I mean, Ed the Sock was on this show and, you know, give him, and Ed and the guy with his hand up Ed's ass. What? There's a guy? You got to meet this guy. So now, not only are you trying to suspend people's disbelief and break the magic of cash cash... No, I didn't mean to break the magic of cash cash.

But you're now telling me that... Yeah, but he'll go on a rant about Canadian television, and just... He says the whole model is effed up. Well, they're trying to fix it. And I agree. That's why I agree in the long term it'll fix it. And there are and don't get me wrong, in the last 10 years, there has been some extremely impressive Canadian shows that have gone into what is international distribution. on into what is international distribution and with canadian talent that is selling around the world you know flashpoint uh corner gas uh even though i'd be you know getting beach commerce

beach commerce danger bay danger bay yeah exactly it's always fun being on the west coast again because that's where that all those shows were made which were great shows for what that's worth yeah and you know uh orphan black a lot of these shows, there is exceptional Canadian product. And my philosophy is that find a way, because it's going to hurt the economy if you put a lot of people in the television business out of work. You should keep them working in a way, try to stage in this transition and keep people working to fuel the economy, but at the same time elevate and build upon the success stories. Well, Bell Media is doing it backwards because they just released 390 media professionals back into the wild.

Well, you know, they're in a tough spot because when you look at the bottom line, and it's not only the CRTC rules that I've talked at length about with traditional broadcasting yeah we haven't even got into the world of digital right and you're in the right place i mean you you are this medium that we're talking on right now is the future and even like when you look at these sophisticated organizations like bell rogers and shaw they're playing a little catch-, I think, in terms of how to compete with YouTubers, VidCon stars, podcasters.

You're right. People that are making. Well, your kids don't watch regular TV anymore. Probably. They probably do what my kids do. Yeah. But it's a little bit of both. My kids like don't mind some appointment television.

OK. But they are the generation where they're when they want, how they want it in their own hands. Right. On their laptops, on their smartphones and whatever. But for me, there has been a real change in the last 18 months to two years when the quote-unquote,

I was just talking to a buddy of mine about this, the marketing term for these people is influencers. You're an influencer. You've got a podcast. I'm on your podcast to promote my website my show i've come you know great graciously and you know willingly to your basement in your son's room with his collection of pikachus to do your show because you're an influencer you've got your own audience and i'm interested in your audience and that's always been there but now the tables are turning where the influencers like you

are starting to call the shots i like what i'm hearing here unlike the broadcaster they're not used to that they're not used to like there are vid yeah because they used to own they used they used to own the medium and now they no longer control yeah there's three mediums in in this world there's paid medium there's paid advertising what you can buy an ad on the radio or on television there's earned advertising like when you are are Rob Ford and you get on the news all the time. And then there is owned. And this is owned media. You own this, right? And traditional broadcasters have tried to control that and they're finding they can't. That's why they scrambled to have Show Me and Crave TV to compete with Netflix. That's why they scrambled to have show me and crave tv to compete with netflix

right that's why and and youtubers and vidcon stars are getting approached by the traditional broadcasters uh specialty channels and otherwise going oh we we see you have a cooking show or a a car show we'd like you to come on our network and they're going so then then what i would be doing is surrendering my brand to you you would would own it. Take over my YouTube channel. And I would make maybe less than the $2 million I'm making. Thank you. No. Yeah, no thank you.

I think I'll control my own destiny and own my shit. Not everybody's making millions of dollars on YouTube. But the reality is people are. And the traditional broadcasters are going, how do we get this back in control again? Yeah, you're right. No, you're absolutely right. I don't think they can. It's like trying to close Pandora's box.

Yeah. What they need to do is fuel it. And what they should be doing is fueling people like you and people like me. It was like, you want to do the Adam Groquist show? We'll do it live in a studio and we'll broadcast it on this channel and we'll all win. Instead of, you know, they're like, it's like, it's a great analogy and a parallel to the taxi business. The people who own the plates and the brokers need to start working with the drivers to make it better to compete with Uber. That's what they need to do. It all comes together. The broadcasters and the Toronto mic need to work

together to compete with the VidCon stars and keep Canadian quality programming on all mediums, all platforms. So tell me, the Adam Groh quiz show, which you own it? I know there's a partner named Dave, but you own the Adam Groh quiz show? So tell me though, tell me exactly what that is. Like is this, you tour with this and you do it live?

Yeah, my dream for that is exactly what I'm talking about. I would like that to be a multi platform show for the most part right now. That's in theaters that have bought the gig or at corporate events. Like tonight in Vaughn. Tonight is like a fundraiser. Right above Toronto, by the way,

right above us. If you're north of seven, you're, you know, uh, so that's where I am tonight. So it's, it mostly lives as a live show in an audience where it's fun for people to – I don't grab people against their will.

I look for volunteers. They become part of the show. They're contestants on stage. I've got a sizzle reel of it on my YouTube channel, Adam Groh TV or Adam Groh on YouTube. You can find me in the end. So it's a live show. And I like it when it's a full-bloomed variety show. So I'm hosting the show. I do a quiz game and i like it when it's a full bloomed variety show so i'm hosting

the show i do a quiz game then i bring up a guest comedian uh then i do another quiz game i bring up a musician then i do a quiz game and i bring up an athlete or a celebrity like it's a variety show and i would love that to live in traditional media i'd love that to live online and my own show and i'm building an app right now i'm gonna to have an online mobile app where you can play along and do some trivia with me. Now, my website is completely delayed, unfortunately. I have adamgrow.com up and live, but it's an old website and I've been working for months to refresh my website.

It's almost there. So as a listener right now, you get the benefit if you've never gone to my website. You can go now and go, oh, okay. Before and after. And then, you know, soon, if you've never gone to my website you can go now and go oh okay before and after and then you know soon if you follow me on facebook or you're a fan on facebook or follow me on twitter you'll know you'll be one of the first to know when the new site's finally up and it it will have a little bit more functionality so that i can start incorporating the online

interactive what i want to do is i want to i want to be a that guy. And at the same time I have other personas, like I'm auditioning for shows where I could be potentially the host of a completely unrelated type of show. Cause I'm still a tell television personality, but if I can kind of keep the, what I love to do, which is interact with, you know, real people in a, in a trivia environment or in a talk show type of environment and just have, you know, random fun with them in my in my own brand that's that's a dream that i could always be doing on the side no matter what other television show that i might and you're smart not to be swearing on this show because you're corporate friendly yeah you are corporate friendly no racist humor coming from adam i mean you know i i i try to do comedy from where i am and i am just that kind of person so it wouldn't make sense for me to become

like a vulgar but when I did decide to actually because I dabbled in stand-up in university and it went really well but I never really thought about it as a career until later and when I actually decided to pursue comedy, I made a choice. I said, I'm going to start working on an

act that I could get hired at these private functions because that's where the money is when you're struggling. I was going to say these corporate because I know I've had a Christmas party last night. My wife's work had a Christmas party and they had a big budget for that thing. And I had no call. I didn't get a call. Nothing. I wish she was in the marketing department.

I would have made sure you were on the short list for sure. But, you know, and it was a 60s theme and they had hired a band to play like 60s music. And they had a spin on the Ed Sullivan Show called the Earl Sullivan Show. I'm sure there's a lawsuit pending. You hired Ed the Sock, didn't you? It was Ed the Sock. Well, that would have been great. Two weeks ago, if I had been here just a little earlier, I would have got the gig.

No, because he works. He's blue. I think. I don't know if he can do the corporate thing. Well, green. He's green. He's green. He is green.

That is absolutely right. We have a controversy of Ed the, green. He's green. He's green. He is green. That is absolutely right. We have a controversy of Ed DeSoc. He's got a cigar in his mouth. Even that, times have changed. He's got a... That's not cool anymore. He should have an e-cigarette. Yeah.

He should be vaping. He should be vaping. That's right. But I could see these corporate events with these software companies and stuff, there's a lot of cash. And they really are big on customer... Well, they're big on that too, but they're big on employee retention stuff

and putting money back in to make sure everyone's happy. And yeah, that would be, yeah, the Adam Groh quiz show. Yeah, company, like sometimes I'm, when I get hired to do a corporate event, sometimes I'm just moderating a panel of senior executives.

Sometimes I'm hosting a town hall. Sometimes I'm just doing a gala award. Sometimes I'm doing a takeoff on the talk show. And then sometimes I'm doing the Adam Grokowicz show or a variation of it. And they do love it. They're like, okay, we're going to bring you in and we're going to pay you X amount. And then we're going to give you X amount to hand out in a fun way. And in addition to your pop culture type of trivia questions and having fun, you can actually write custom questions for us to support our agenda and have fun with the people that have been at the conference for three years.

Yeah, we'll book you for that. That's the key. You customize the questions for the messaging of this. They love it. And I will tell you that there are comics I know who are incredibly funny that don't like the corporate market because they are told to do other than what they want to do.

Yeah, you got to gotta conform and that's their choice yeah and me i don't it's i don't look at it as like selling out or doing i have an absolute gas when i do like a big client of mine is td i've done a lot of work with td over the years uh pet value return client northbridge insurance these are corporations big names yeah i have so much fun with the people creating and crafting the show. I mean, even TD, for instance, I go away to them to exotic destinations. Last year, I was in the Dominican, and I'm up there. Imagine, I'm the cash cab guy and a stand-up comedian,

and I'm the one that does the quote-unquote fireside chat with Barrett Masrani, who is the top of the top of TD Bank. All right? This is a guy that even some of the managers and executives in TD Bank say, I wouldn't even know what to say to him if I ended up... Nicest guy. Really smart. But here I am. I'm

doing the one-on-one with him. Joe Carter, ex-Jays legend, Joe Carter was one of their guest appearances. I get to... Are you kidding me? Come on, they couldn't get a Dominican for that? Well, I know. Joe and I talked a lot about that. And, you know appearances i get to are you kidding me they couldn't get a dominican for that well i know joe and i talked a lot about that uh and you know oh here tony fernandez for example okay let me ask you a trivia okay let's go yeah uh this is one of my favorite questions i love

the questions that kind of come up organically in addition to the ones that i write for the adam brookway show after i do the the thing with joe carter which of course i am like a kid i'm like i'll bet that's amazing that is amazing i'm interviewing him on stage and we do the thing with Joe Carter, which of course I am like a kid. I'm like, that's amazing. That is amazing. I'm interviewing him on stage and we do our thing. Afterwards, I go to the beach and I'm just decompressing

at the poolside bar. So is he. So I bump into him and he goes, hey, Adam, that was a great job. It was really good working with you. Let me ask you a question, right? I'm ready. He said, Joe Carter asks me,

who was on deck when I hit that historic home run? Alfredo Griffin. And why do you think you know the answer to that? I think we were all very worried if Joe didn't deliver. I seem to remember like, I hope I'm right. Am I right? Am I misremembering this?

Continue the story. I hope I'm right am I right am I misremembering this I feel like this has become sort of a trivia question because you know Joe ends up hitting the walk off although we never called it a walk off back then but he hits the walk off but I think there was a lot of concern because on deck was Alfredo and I believe it might have been his last season or something and we were worried about

him having to deliver with two outs and sending it to game seven so there I am on the beach and I, and I'm a trivia guy, but I wouldn't say I'm necessarily, and I didn't, I was at U of T at the time, but I wasn't a Torontonian. I was like, you know, like a, you know, snotty nose. You're from Vancouver. And here I am with the legendary Joe Carter and he's quizzing me and we're in the Dominican. We'd already gone on about, you know,

we're, I've got an American ball player. We did a whole charity event at a local Dominican field and they built, it was, I was crying. They built a diamond for this local Dominican ball team, this club, the coaches and the players were all crying.

That was, that's what TD does in the community. It was like, it was amazing. So anyway, I was part of all that. And then, so now the legendary Joe Carter is asking me a trivia question,

which is awesome. And I, and I'm going, I'm not the biggest sports encyclopedia. I've got a lot swimming around in my head. And I go, what are the chances that he's asking me this? And it happens to be a Dominican player.

So I could narrow down the batting order. Good job. And sure enough, I get down to, I'm going to go with Alfredo Griffin. Beautiful. And he goes, correct. And you nailed it. I down to, I'm going to go with Alfredo Griffin. Beautiful. And he goes, correct. I'm just glad I'm correct.

You nailed it without missing a beat. That is impressive. You should let everybody know I didn't Google it or anything. No, that was legit. No editing. And so let me tell you something. There are questions like that that I ask around that nobody gets. That's one of them.

Nobody knows that. And so you kind of stated the fact like, well, of course. You did hit my sweet spot, though, because I'm a big Jays fan. Well, there you go. But, you know, I've bumped into some of them. Nobody knows that. And so you kind of stated the fact like, well, of course. You did hit my sweet spot though because I'm a big Jays fan. Well, there you go. But I've bumped into some of them. So very impressive. Thank you very much.

So now I'll ask you the other question that very rarely anybody gets the answer. I hope I do better. Let's go. Right? This one, I'm assuming, even though it's not sports, that you're going to get it.

This is another question I ask in the Adam Grokway show. And by the way, usually in the Adam Grokway show, there's funny multiple choice which makes it comedy that leads to the answer. But if you get the answer before the multiple choice, you get more money on my Adam

Grokowicz show. And then if you clearly don't know the answer, I'll give you some funny multiple choice and have fun with you. And there'll be red herrings in there. And then three are clearly not the answer. So no one feels stupid. So the idea is everybody wins. But not as much necessarily. Anyway, this question, very few people have got. Okay.

So when Nissan introduced the electric car, the Leaf, they were concerned that people weren't going to hear it driving down the street. Right. You'd step off the curve and, boonk, you get hit by this car. So they consulted composers of film scores to create a sound that would be cool for the Nissan Leaf. And they ended up choosing a sound that resembles flying cars in what 1982 movie?

82. That's the sound that they consulted. And they chose to artificially add a noise to the leaf and they chose it specifically because it was similar to the sound of flying cars and what blade runner is there's flying cars and blade runner you're asking me yeah if there are blade runner yeah uh 80 yeah so what do you think the go-to answer most people want? Well, 82. So to me, I'm thinking in my head, maybe because of the

anniversary, but 85. It would be Back to the Future. I think that's all we're thinking of. 85. Now, 82, of course, is to be used earlier. I don't think there's a flying car in like an 82, I don't know, like an E.T. or something like that. I'm trying to think of like an 82 movie that would have flying cars in it. And Tron. Tron. I'm trying to think of an E.T.2 movie that would have flying cars in it.

And Tron? Tron E.T.? The problem is because of... Now, to be fair, that just recently was the 30th anniversary. Was it the 30th? 30th anniversary of Back to the Future. So that's why the date is top of mind. But that's 85. Yeah, it's the 85. 30th

anniversary was in the news this past year. So it might have cued you to not be Back to the Future because the vast majority of people say Back to the Future. Yes, that was the first thing I thought of, and then I said, Mike, that it was 1985. Yeah, so there's two clues in the question. One of them is flying cars, plural, because in Back to the Future in 85,

there was just the one at the end when they fly. Right, the DeLorean. Right, so there weren't multiple. That's the first clue, and the second clue is 1982, not 1995. I'm changing my answers. Are flying cars in Tron? No, this is what happens in the cash cab. If I talk long enough,

you talk yourself out of the correct answer. It was Blade Runner. Yeah, I'm going back to Blade Runner. Oh, yes, thank you. Amazing. You know what? Can I say this? I love the Adam Groh.

I'm just realizing, I almost forgot we were recording. I love the Adam Groh quiz show. I might make you stay here for six hours and just do this. I love it. Well, you should come to the show tonight. Although I don't want, I would not bring you on stage. Or if we ever go into production again with Cash Cab, I am not picking you up.

You clearly, you got two of the questions that nobody ever, some people have gotten the Blade Runner. Yeah. Nobody's got Alfredo Griffin yet. Yeah. So I'm the first one to get those two now you know everyone listens to this of course yeah do you have it do you have any more are we done or do you have any more i don't want to sound like a begging can i get one more i've got lots of questions uh okay here's a question because i'm loving this i'm gonna go three for three a little

bit more current uh so in his recent rants against the par attacks, John Oliver cites the resilience of French culture by, amongst many things, naming several French philosophers like Sartre and Camus, in addition to what towering French pastry? Did you see John Oliver? I didn't see it. I didn't click play, but it showed up in my Twitter feed and I never clicked play. So he did a big rant on the Paris attacks when they just happened, like the next night, which is very courageous

because it's, you know, how do you bring comedy to that? But he's one of the rare commodities that can bring comedy to something that's pretty delicate. And so he did a rant and, you know, people like John Oliver and Jimmy Fallon, whether you like them or not, or you like one sensibility better than the other,

they are totally getting the multi-platforms. Yeah, for sure. Like Jimmy Fallon is killing it. Yeah, like he had just Adele doing something with like kids instruments that's going viral right now. He's got that YouTube crowd. Back in the day, and some of these, I wish these Canadian broadcasters would go, that's the viral right now. He's got that YouTube crowd. Back in the day, I wish

these Canadian broadcasters would go, that's the way you do it. You put out morsels and Saturday Night Live is starting to get it. Put it out there so people can consume it for free to drive eyeballs in traffic and then sell that. But they want to hold on to it. So anyway, John Oliver,

he talks about the French resilience. You think you're going to... I can't even do an English accent. You can't take away the culture from France because they've got this, they've got this, they've got the French philosophers and they've got this towering French pastry. You know, the little balls. Yeah, you know what? I got no idea what, I should have quit at two because I was perfectly two for two and two difficult questions and now I'm blowing it up. I think it's pronounced croquembouche. I was never going to get that.

Not in a million years. I know croissant. I've been to Paris and I ate a croissant in Paris. Yes. But I don't know this word you just said. There you go. You pick a category and I'll give you... Well, the movies or sports. I mean, I think give me anything.

I'll be okay. Except for that. Don't do food. Don't do food. Yeah, don't do food. Okay, sports or movies? Give me sports. Sports.

Okay, this is an old... Okay, soccer or hockey? Hockey, please. Just because I don't think I know much about soccer. Okay. So after hiring... And I'll make this... I'll make, uh, it's going to be, I'll make this easier. I'll make it an easier version after hiring the Curtis Wright corporation to get them to Toronto for a hockey game on December 13th, 1929. The, the New York Rangers were the first NHL team to travel by what?

Airplane. Correct. Now, I made that easier. You made a little too deep. Right. I thought the curveball would have been, who's the Curtis Wright Corporation? That is true. I do not know of that corporation.

I know the Curtis Joseph Corporation. That's a different corporation. I've had a chance to work with some of these NHL legends. King City guy? Is he up there? Yeah, I think so. And more recently working with Paul Coffey, doing some stuff with him. Really, really fabulous guy.

My wife is from, I can smell her cooking upstairs, actually, but from Edmonton. So Paul Coffey, yeah, absolutely. He's amazing. So anyway, the harder version of that question is what team on December 29th? Yeah, okay. But then you've got a one in six chance. Yeah, okay. Then you've got to go with an original six.

But then you've got a one in six chance. Yeah, yeah. And you know it. Yeah, yeah. One in six chance. That's an old eSports question. I don't even want to sign off. I'm enjoying this.

Oh, I'm so glad. I'm so glad. Hey, listen. You can start playing online. I'm actually doing an online game. So when's this app available? Well, the app is in development. The challenge that I'm facing with the app is that, you know, I've always been a little bit ahead of what I want to do with what the technology will allow.

Because in my app, I want there to be video. And right now what happens in, you know, even the most sophisticated device like my Apple 6 Plus is it takes you out of the app or out of the feed into the media player. So you can't do interactive. So we're trying to solve that problem with HTML5 or whatever. So in the meantime, I'm doing just a fun trivia thing every Tuesday and Thursday night,

usually sometime around 9 or 10 p.m. Eastern, I promote it. And it's completely linear, right? You just log on and you can answer some questions in real time. But the app's in development right now. The app's in development and I will announce when that's ready.

And it'll be Android and iPhone. Yes. I'm going mobile first. That's what I'm doing. Smart. You're on the bleeding edge, as they say. Well, yeah, no, not really. I'm trying to catch up.

And tonight, so in tonight, people can actually buy tickets to this Vaughn... Yeah, it's $75 up at the Gold Horror Center in Vaughan. If you just check out Bright Hopes Gala, you're going to find it. But don't go to adamgrow.com because I went there today to see your upcoming gigs,

and they're all in the past. I will update. See, I've been updating this new site and not paying attention to my old site. Don't forget the old one. I know. Because when we Google your name, that's where we all end up. This is where I'm not ahead of the game. And that brings us to the end of our 146th show.

You can follow me on Twitter at Toronto Mike, and Adam is at Adam Groh. Don't forget the E at the end of Groh, at Adam Groh. See you all next week. around and drink some goodness from a tin cause my UI check has just

come in ah where you been because everything is kind of rosy and green

yeah the wind is cold but the sky is warm