Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Anna Cyzon: Toronto Mike'd #554

Episode Date: December 9, 2019

Mike chats with Anna Cyzon about her singing career, appearing on Canadian Idol, cracking the Polish market, working at eTalk, MTV and The Todd Shapiro Show, and why she turned down Gene Simmons.

Welcome to episode 554 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, StickerU.com, Brian Master from KW Realty, and Banjo Dunk from Whiskey Jack. and Banjo Dunk from Whiskey Jack. I'm Mike from torontomike.com, and joining me this week is singer Anna Saison. Welcome, Anna. Hello, hello, good morning, good afternoon,

whatever part of the world you're in. Good evening. Now you've got me all turned around. Is that your natural hair color? My hair is pink yes and no it is not i mean does anyone ever have pink hair as a natural color probably not red yes pink not so much but i was looking over here on the periscope and i was thinking i should do that because it's striking like you should totally do it and your grays would actually probably take it really nice so it would be like a lighter pink and then the rest of your hair would probably be a little bit darker don't give me any ideas and now i remember recently i had a gentleman on named kyle bukaskas who is a sideline like a rinkside reporter for sports net when they

do hockey games like you'll see him on hockey Hockey Night in Canada. And he has fantastic hair and I was like obsessed with it. And I had several listeners tell me I spoke too often about his hair and now I'm afraid I'll do it again. So this will be all I'll say is that it looks great on you. Well, thank you very much.

They say, you know, when a woman changes her hair, dot, dot, dot. Can you finish that? I don't know. she's going through some changes in her life i guess are you going through changes in your life aren't we all every day we're changing significant changes um i think 2019 has definitely been a big year of change yeah um things that i was just comfortable with and in let's say, my personal life, kind of the bottom came from under my feet.

But sometimes situations like significant changes, fundamental changes are necessary for growth, for expansion. Well, I have to ask, if you're willing to elaborate, you can always tell me to mind my own business, but are we talking, may I ask, are you asking professional-wise or like love life wise or family wise or all i mean in general across the board it has been a year of change but in my personal life yes there has been some significant changes um yeah let's leave it at

that okay i now i feel like if i pry i'd be, and I don't want to be rude, but perhaps you, did you break up with somebody? There's been a bit of a split, a bit of a change in a living situation. You know, I don't want to get attached to anything that is or any kind of outcome, if you will, because everything is in a constant state of flux, and every day we are changing, and no one knows what the future holds. So I know this is all very vague, but this is all to say, you know, live now in the present,

be grateful for what you have and keep moving forward. You're an enigma wrapped in a riddle. Wow. But health-wise, you're okay because you look very healthy. Thank you. I try.

I couldn't sleep this morning, so like 4.52 I think is when I opened my eyes i'm like this is crazy it's not even five o'clock so i tried to go back to bed it didn't work out and then i went and i took a yoga class at 6 a.m so i have moods you know there's days where i'll sleep in and then there's days where i just i'll like cycle and yoga and overcompensate for, I don't know, maybe lack of exercise on the weekend or something. So I'm trying to find the balance in life. Today I learned there's a 6 a.m. yoga class. I had no idea.

Yes, there is. It's actually very close to here, PYC on Islington. Islington and what? Like close to Birmingham? Is that called Birmingham? Yeah. So the closest like big intersection would be Islington and Bloor.

Oh, okay. So it's north of there. Okay. South of Bloor. Yeah. It's funny. I just came back from Islington and Queensway. Oh, okay.

Because that's where Humble and Fred record. And I was on that show this morning. I feel like I was on that show too once upon a time. Maybe they had another location on like 30th Street before they moved to... Around the same time. Because we'll get to it later, but there was a connection, of course, between Todd Shapiro and Humble and Fred.

So maybe that really, maybe, you know. And how do they know each other? Sorry to remind me. Todd worked prior to the Dean Blundell show. Todd Shapiro was, I don't know if you're allowed to say his nickname anywhere, but Howard would call him re-Todd. Oh my God.

I mean, I know. So mean. You know what? Inappropriate. Like today. Yeah. You would never call someone re-Todd.

No, no. And that was not, you know, we're only talking 2001. Like we're not talking about the fifties here. You know what I mean? Like,

I get that their show is, you know, pushing boundaries on things, but I think, I don't know. You want, you want to be compassionate towards people who actually have mental disability. I will say when it comes, yes, I'm a hundred percent with you. And I will say with a, when it comes to that word, we'll just call it the R word. That's a word where in a very short period of time,

it went from something you heard all over the place to like a word you just would never use it was very like rapid the uh and rightfully so we should never use that word but i mean you're a lot younger than me but um in the schoolyard i'm willing to bet everything i have i'm willing to bet it all but in the schoolyard you know the r word was flying around as an insult all over the place. Yeah, I remember growing up too, that word being used, insult. Kids, insulting kids. Kids can be so cruel sometimes. Oh, yeah.

But, yeah, I think, I mean, times have changed. Definitely we're a lot more on our toes and politically correct in terms of how we... Well, at least with the R word. And the other one that was everywhere in the school year that we would never use is the word gay as an insult. You know, you're that's so gay. Yeah.

You're so gay. Oh, he's gay or whatever. That was like that. And the R word where everywhere is insults and gone. I think I like that. Yeah, absolutely.

All right. So a little housekeeping before we dive deep with anna here um and again we will never again on this episode talk about your your your hair because i have a note here no more hair so okay pink which i'm gonna try maybe maybe my teenage daughter i wonder i'll have to ask her permission because she'd probably tell me it was lame if i did that so i have to find out you know what what I learned in life? Never ask permission. Ask for forgiveness. That's a good tip. That's a good tip. A quick update. So we all got together, all of us, Anna, the Toronto Mic listeners got together at Palmas Kitchen on Saturday for TMLX5. TMLX5,

I will let you know, means the Toronto Mic Listener Experience, the fifth one. And Palmas Kitchen, fantastic partner of the program. In fact, because I just said the name Palma, I will let you know that this box, this beautiful red box goes home with you today. Wow. And you ask me what's inside. I'm going to take a big fat guess. Is it vegetarian lasagna? Correctamundo. That's amazing.

And it's frozen, so don't eat it on your way home. You'll break your teeth. Oh, wow, it's heavy. Yeah, it's got some... Is there a dead body in here? Limbs? Okay. Usually, I have it in the freezer.

Sometimes I have it in the freezer freezer and i have an empty box there and uh so it's like sometimes that's an empty box but no you've got the full thing there so that's going home with you honestly you're gonna love it this is very kind of you and palma pasta palma am i saying that right yeah so okay so it is confusing because the their palma pasta is who they are but they have one location they have four locations in Mississauga and Oakville. One location is called Palma's Kitchen. So it is confusing, because it's like it's Palma Pasta,

but the box says Palma's Kitchen, because this is coming from Palma's Kitchen. That's where we all gathered on Saturday. It was really great. We recorded for three hours. I saw so many FOTMs there. What is that? Friends of Toronto Mike.

Oh, okay. Which in about an hour, you will be officially be an FOTM. three hours i saw so many fotms there what is that friends of toronto mike oh okay which in about an hour you will be officially be an fotm amazing which has its privileges you're very lucky girl amazing thank you very lucky girl and uh i mean so many i mean moose i won't name them all but i saw jj there moose grumpy beats came out basement dweller was there james edgar these names mean nothing to you but they're very important to FOTMs Lieve Fumka of course was fantastic, Help, Sheila

there were so many and some new faces Lucas Craig a lot of people came out but also let me shout out some more well known people who came out Larry Fedorek was there, Gene Valaitis from Jesse and Gene was there. Mike Wilner was there.

He calls base Blue Jay games. Peter Gross, Perry Lefkoe, Lou Skizes. Oh, Humble Howard from Humble and Fred was there. So it was just a really nice three hours. Thank you, Elvis, for co-hosting with me. That's right, Elvis lives. And I want to thank everyone who came out. We gonna have a tmlx6 announcement uh hopefully pretty soon so i want to thank everybody let me ask you this anna uh i had an episode with a gentleman named bernie finkelstein

and bernie used to uh run he founded and he owned true north records okay and they have big artists like uh bruce colburn and marie mclaughlin and a whole bunch of artists you probably know he doesn't own it anymore anyway he was on and we were talking about two artists that worked with him that uh i know and quite like a guy named tom wilson and a guy named stephen fearing and i said uh they're sweethearts this is, uh, they're sweethearts. This is what I said. They're sweethearts. I have a,

there's a listener who wrote me this passionate note about how much, you know, he loves the show, but when I refer to men like that, I'm that I'd like or whatever as sweethearts, it makes him cringe. Really? Hmm. I need to know your,

do you have a, what do you think? I personally, I'm not going to stop using the term because I mean it with such love in my heart that they're good people is what I mean when I say they're sweethearts. What do you think? I get that energy from you that it's very genuine and authentic

and you seem, although I don't know you very well or at all, you seem like a very sweet and genuine guy. so it comes across as honest when you say that and not contrived so it i feel like you're totally more than fine to use that uh with respect to my personal experience of the word i find that like especially when a guy calls me sweetheart it's usually condescending or there's okay i will say this though i wouldn't use it for a female. Isn't that interesting? Because I'd be afraid of that. That it would be like belittling almost to her or like... Right.

Yeah. Like toots or something. Or sweetie. It's got almost like an objectifying kind of something about it that doesn't, at least for me, doesn't sit well. Maybe because I don't feel it empowers me. It kind of just like puts me in the corner and pats me on the shoulder but but you make a great point and i'm now thinking because i've called many people over the years sweethearts and never once

have i called a female a sweetheart in that way but it's always a guy so it's funny i'll use it for guys but i won't use it for gals i think it's like your your everyone has like their code word like when i worked with Todd, he would, he would call guys beauties all the time. Be like, what a beauty. I think he still does that.

Right. So like that's his, that's his steez or steez or whatever you want to call it. Yeah. Thing. So maybe that's your thing. But he probably wouldn't use it for a female probably. Yeah.

Cause if he called her beauty, then, then it would just, you know, objectify her and make it about her looks. And I mean, women like compliments, don't get me wrong. But I think, you know, we're a lot more empowered these days to be told that we're intelligent or smart or strong than we are beautiful or beauties. You know, if you use that term.

I will say, though, it is it's a it's a tricky little spot to tread now that I think about it. It's hard to speak these days, I feel, because someone's going to come out of the woodwork with something that you said 12 years ago. Like, I look at my Facebook posts from, like, 2009, and I cringe sometimes. It's like the things I've said. Oh, sure.

Yeah. There's no R words in there or anything. No, I hope not. I mean, there may have been. Who knows? Like, the beauty of social media, they'll dig up everything. Do you know this song? Hold on.

Have you heard this jam in the last year or so? Sounds familiar. Let it build up a bit here. If you want to sing along, let me know. Okay, if I know it. Where's this again? This is a rapper named Juice WRLD. It sounds familiar.

I don't know the lyrics. So I only know this song because I've heard it so many times over the past year because I have a 15-year-old daughter who I would hear it with her all the time. And it's kind of a neat, to be honest, it's called Lucid Dreams, I think. Yeah, Lucid Dreams. And I kind of dig it. It's got a good vibe to it. Maybe I've heard it enough times I'm just so used to it.

But the guy juice world died yesterday. What? 21 years old. Oh my God. I know. And I was on a little bike ride and I get home. My daughter goes, you know that song here.

That's a bit of this. Sounds like Post Malone. Yeah. There's a very Post Malone-y vibe going on here. Yeah, and she's like, yeah, he had a, I don't know yet the cause at all, but I know he had a seizure in like Chicago airport there and dropped dead. Oh my God. Like 21 years old.

Was he like a drug user? Like I, I don't like i i don't know i don't know that's uh i would say that uh there might be we might find out maybe we find out later either like you know this the scissor this is what almost got little wayne uh the codeine yeah and they get seizures from that i think and then uh maybe opiate that's the addiction opiate addiction. So I don't know. That's so sad. I'm 21 years old. My God. Juice world gone. R.A.P.

And don't worry, Anna. It's very soon. It'll be all about you. But I have to. No. I don't want it to be all about me. I have some Anna Saison tracks loaded up here. But speaking of the Bernie Finkelstein episode,

we talked about a song called mona and the children that was uh played on much music in the mid 80s okay mona and the children and we talked about doug cameron i believe sang it but it was kind of a very interesting song so michael moniz who i met at the tm uh lx5 on saturday he's from hamilton hamilton mike we'll call him. I couldn't find a good MP3 of it so I had to rip it from the video. But he was able to get me an MP3

of it, which I'm playing now. To bring it full circle, Doug Cameron Bernie didn't know what happened to Doug Cameron. But Banjo Dunk told me what happened to Doug Cameron. but Banjo Dunk told me what happened to Doug Cameron. Doug Cameron now plays this is going to blow someone's mind,

hopefully. Doug Cameron now plays in Whiskey Jack with Banjo Dunk, a sponsor of this very program we're recording right now. The guy who, yeah, because we could, what happened to Doug Cameron? 16 year old girl living in a land so cruel she said, this is where The guy who, yeah. Because we could, what happened to Doug Cameron?

So 80s. Love it. I'll let it get to the chorus and then I'll bring it down here. How can I tell you How could she be So young to know The truth in all her dreams To stand before them To hear them say Save your life And throw your faith away

My little pet children Send your love to me All around the world We'll go dancing so this is it I remember it from like the mid 80s here there you go those BGs okay so

we talked about Whiskey Jack so here's a little Whiskey Jack this is TTC Skedaddler. This is their, from their Tom, where is it here? I have it behind me. Maybe we'll do a CD exchange here, Anna.

Ah, yes, I do have something for you as well. So Whiskey Jack has Rhymes and Good Times of Stompin' Tom. And there's Duncan Fremlin. He's the banjo dunk. Duncan Fremlin's My Good Times of Stompin' Tom. And if you go to Whiskey Jack Music and you click on the store and you buy one of these items

or any other CD listed there, you can win a free Stompin' Tom Christmas ornament that plays the hockey song. It's a collector's item. It's very, very, very cool. They're going to do this draw on December 15th, and they'll express post you the ornament the very next day. So it's a little Merry Christmas gift for you all.

Again, go to whiskeyjackmusic.com, pick up the Rhymes and Good Times of Stompin' Tom, or the book, My Good Times of Stompin' Tom, and you could win the ornament so thank you banjo dunk do you know anna uh before you give me that wonderful gift i see is coming my way do you know we've met before well your face looks very familiar and i don't want to say it's well because you're toronto mic'd um and i've seen you on social media etc but i feel like yeah there has been some encounters somewhere if you can refresh my memory because i'm horrible with that i'm gonna forgive you

and i'm not even offended because i will i was a guest on todd shapiro's show once and here's what i remember from this so uh you were co-hosting yes yes you were definitely there and i was i can't even remember what we were talking about, but I came in, Todd invited me in, so I biked to Liberty Village. And I remember you said

you biked in? And I said, yeah. And you said, where did you come from? And I told you. And then, I think it was something like, I don't know,

it was like 11 kilometers or something to get there. And you couldn't believe I biked 11 kilometers. Like, you were really impressed. And I remember feeling really good about myself. Really?

Like, Anna was so impressed that I biked 11 kilometers, even though it was not very long distance but uh i remember this so this was far more memorable for me than it was for you ah i think i i think it's you know we're such dopamine addicts that we just we love feeling good and when someone makes us feel that maybe that was my my whole spiel with you to make you feel something. And then you would remember me. So here you are remembering me.

It paid off. And I couldn't remember where we met. But that's okay. Now I know. Yes, that makes sense. I have some faint recollection. I mean, there was a lot of episodes. It was a long time ago, I should point out.

Yeah, it was. It's so crazy how fast time flies. I mean, I know we say that every day. Oh, my gosh, it's already end of the year and 220 around the corner but it really does fly and i feel like the older you get the faster it goes stop like we need a pause button on life you were born in poland yes i was born in beautiful krakow poland if you haven't been i highly recommend it as uh it's i think it's like one of the top destinations to to travel and and be a tourist these days in in europe and not just eastern europe i think just in general it's uh

if you get yourself across the ocean uh it's a great place to to check out for history for culture for food and it's a lot cheaper for us canadians we're dividing everything now you've got my attention yeah and the girls are hot and crazy. So ask my ex-boyfriends. Just kidding. But no, it's a great place. It's a beautiful city to visit. It used to be the capital of Poland. Don't ask me more on that.

Yeah, what happened there? I need some history. So Warsaw is the capital now, right? Yeah, I was just thinking, don't ask me what happened. But Warsaw ended up being the capital, still is the capital. It was something before the war. I'm so bad. Well, I mean, let's face it.

World War II was not kind to Poland. No, Poland got screwed from literally every single side. The Germans, the Russians, a lot of Polish intellects, like our doctors and lawyers and politicians well maybe not so much politicians but um a lot of the the like significant core of warsaw the the people that were really important got wiped and uh and warsaw got wiped krakow fortunately fortunately, still stands strong. But all of Warsaw has been rebuilt for, I would say, 90% part. And then you can still go to Prague. It's called Praga, Warsaw, where the penis was actually,

not penis, but penis. I was going to say. Was filmed. And that is still the old Warsaw, which stands. Roman Polanski made that, right? Yes, I believe so. I'm just going gonna say it one more time how fantastic uh the uh the new tarantino movie is um which one is this once upon a time in

hollywood because roman polanski shows up in this thing okay i have yet to see it yeah i heard good things about it it's it's unbelievable did you ever see the irishman and then we'll get back to i did yes that's with brad pitt and no, well, Brad Pitt's the Tarantino one. So Brad Pitt, I believe Brad Pitt will win Best Supporting Actor for his role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

So I digress here. Back to Poland. How old are you when you moved to Canada? So my dad left when I was four and he went to Ottawa first, I think, and he was working like in construction with his brother-in-law at the time.

And he came back, believe it or not, after a year and a half. My parents were separated. That seems like eternity today to be in a relationship and be apart for a year and a half. And then this was the time before FaceTime and cell phones. And so they would probably talk to each other once, I don't know, two weeks. Well, you know how expensive those long-distance calls were to Poland. So it was like the age of writing love letters, which no one does anymore. you know, once, I don't know, two weeks. Well, you know how expensive those long distance calls were to Poland. Exactly. So it was like the age of writing love letters,

which no one does anymore, sadly. If someone writes you a love letter, keep that person. And so they were apart for a year and a half. Then my dad returned. I remember having Christmas and being showered with all sorts of presents, toys and shiny shoes. And then it was July of, I want to say 1990, that my mom and I, so this was two years later now

since my dad had left, we got on a plane for what was initially a visit to Toronto. And then my mom got, I think, knocked up pretty quickly after that. And then there was talks, I remember as a kid, like we're coming back, we're going back, but it just, you know, life happened, and 20-something, now almost 30 30 years later without giving away my age uh i know you know i'm doing the math in my head yeah well this is nothing to hide i'm 36 so yeah we just never

we kept going back at the beginning and then and then just we got situated here and well there's a like a fantastic polish community in this uh city there's a huge polish community in toronto there's uh i think it's i want to say the second largest maybe to chicago and chicago has like at least a million if not way more polls i don't know i would i would bet you're correct i would bet you're correct on the being number two outside of poland yeah because i mean you get the ron sees thing going on. But even in this neck of the woods, there's a lot of Russian too, but a lot of Polish and Russian. Yeah, around here you have the delis and the, I think, Arbitros,

if I'm saying that correctly. Correct? Correctly, yeah. Albatross? Albatross. That's a deli or a restaurant? It's a Polish bar, I thought. Okay, so there's Albatross and then there's another one that's like just a deli

and that's owned by a guy named Janusz. And he actually called on the way here because I was with my mom and he's friends with my mom. So it's so funny. He was, yeah, I was chatting with him. Does he want to sponsor Toronto Mike? That's what we need to know. Oh, I can ask. There's room for one more.

You know what? I could ask for you and it's so convenient that he's like down the street from you. Could you imagine? Because I give out the lasagna. You could give out some Polish sausage. Well, it would go great because I'm'm let me do it right now actually so uh because i know a gift is coming my way so i need to feel like i need to give you something now but you already did oh yeah well you're getting more you're so kind oh by the way thank you great lakes brewery for

sending over the beer for tmlx5 like we had this uh i don't know you call it like a trough i guess full of ice and cold fresh uh fresh craft beer and you know people would come get the free food from palma like for the three hour recording on saturday and they could grab a beer and pop a beer open a fantastic so there's a six pack here going home with you as well that's a six pack of beer for you from great lakes are you sure this is no you're right that's too much right is it too much i feel like maybe you can take one can. That's good. No, no.

Six, six beers. I kid with you now. Uh, I was actually there yesterday for the Christmas market. It was jam packed and they had, they finally had like fire pits and s'mores kits. I have a five year old and a three year old.

Although the three year old was afraid. I think she was afraid she'd fall in the fire. Like I kept getting, I get a little closer. She didn't want to get, she's kind of got the sensibility. Don't get too close to the fire. But the five year old, I thought he was going to jump in the fire like i kept you gotta get a little closer she didn't want to get she's kind of got the sensibility don't get too close to the fire but the five-year-old i thought he was going to jump in the fire like he just didn't care as a parent i'd be more afraid that the yeah the kid is like on fire like jervis that's uh hot anyway we made s'mores but uh so

something for everybody there but it was great to see uh everybody at great lakes yesterday but yeah take home that beer with you and you got the lasagna and here's some stickers from sticker you they uh made a toronto mike sticker for you so cute thank you i feel like christmas came early like pretty much i gotta come on the show more often and also about this beer sorry to interject no please i'm definitely gonna give a can to my dad and maybe even two because he's in the an avid beer drinker so do you enjoy that you know what give him three give him three okay he's your dad yeah yeah exactly he has to deal with me and let me let me know where the toronto mic sticker ends up like tweet me or whatever whatever your

kids are doing instagram whatever get it get it to me i want to find out where where do you want it to end up that's the question hmm i will ideally i think the place you want to find out where it ends up. Where do you want it to end up? That's the question. Hmm. Well, ideally, I think the place you want to be is on the laptop. I don't know if you have any real estate on there. Yeah, I was thinking laptop or like my speakers maybe, my studio speakers. I'd take that. I think I'm on Alan Cross's garbage can in his studio, which I mean a lot of radio stations he says are on that,

so I'm kind of honored to be there. So creative, Alan. Thank you they made up these great magnet badges for tml x5 and everybody loved it and loose skis was telling me how it was such a powerful magnet it even worked through his very thick hat he had this like top hat thing and it's still the magnet still worked so those badges were were beloved thank you sticker you okay so you come to canada now tell me what happens between you coming to canada as a very young person and canadian idol because have we even said this yet that most you're you were on canadian idol i was it seems like a different lifetime but that's a big deal i mean yeah i guess at the time it felt like such a big deal.

And now kind of, you know, so many years later, I'm like, yeah, yeah, it's just like something in the closet. You know, if those skeletons are dug up, then I acknowledge it, of course. But it puts you on the map because that was a big, in this country anyways, a big national program. I think it was at the time. I mean, we didn't have anything like we have CTV The Launch or we have, what else do we have? We have a bunch of, I mean, well, like at least in the time. I mean, we didn't have anything like we have CTV The Launch or we have, what else do we have?

We have a bunch of, I mean, well, like at least in the US, we have The Voice and we have America's Got Talent. There's a slew of these programs now where you can get on and sing and showcase them. But at that time, I think it was just Canadian. I think it was just American Idol and Canadian Idol. Can you name the judges on Canadian Idol? Yeah, it was Sass Jordan, Zach Warner, who was super mean to me. But he was supposed to be like the Simon Cowell, right? Yeah, he was.

And yeah, I mean, he's an honest guy. He said what he needed to say. I don't think that was my greatest performance. I mean, I was nervous as hell and had no sensibility of who I was as an artist. And I digress. And then we had Farley Flex, who is on my WhatsApp and sends me... He's an FOTM.

Oh, is he? What up, Farley? If you're listening, give me a call. And there's Maestro back here. Oh, amazing. But of course, Farley managed Maestro. Maestro I met in the studio with the Ruther Brothers many moons back also

and Mishy Me, I see you have a thank you from her there too. Love Mishy. What an FOTM she is and I love her. You know what I should send you just for shits and giggles?

Mishy and I did a track together like 10 years ago. I wish you could go back in time and send it to me so I could play it right now. I know, but I'll send it to you when I get home

if I can find it. It was called like Outer World or something. She's rapping, you know her her balls off she's amazing and then i had the hook in there and i think i had a verse too it was like something like uh okay i need to hear this i have i have no i think Like I literally can't remember. But you won't forget to send this to me. I will send it to you and you can play it here. It'll be your song.

You can maybe even use it as a like intro to your show if you want. Of course, if it's okay with Mishy, I have her on IG so I can slide in her DMs and say, hey, are you cool with this? She's been on a couple of times, three times, I believe. But once I actually, so this is kind of interesting. I had Biff naked in here. No way, I love her. I love her too.

I love her more than you love her. I met her in the bathroom at the Calgary Stampede when I was like 18. And, okay. We'll get back to that after. You know, she's kind of, she comes in, even though she's, I think she's, if I remember correctly, doesn't eat dairy. So the lasagna is out. Okay. Because there's lots of dairy in this lasagna.

She doesn't drink? Does not drink because she's straight edge. So the beer, although her husband's snake drink, so she does take the beer for snake, but she doesn't benefit like you do. What is snake drinking? What is that? No, the snake is the name of her husband. Oh, okay. I'm like, what, what term is that? No, the snake is the name of her husband. Oh, okay.

I'm like, what term is that? I should have been clear. We talk like that. Okay, Mishimi is fantastic. And I need to hear the collaboration you did with her. Absolutely. Okay, but you're missing a judge, right? Because there's another FOTM you haven't named yet.

Oh, of course, Jake Gold. Yeah. So shout out to Jake Gold, who uh managed uh the tragically hip and i saw him this summer too i took a meeting with him we like caught up and he's a great dude love jake he says it how it is too yeah i've had uh well he's bffs with somebody i work with named mark hebbshire he has a podcast here called hebbs on sports and he grew up with uh jake gold so yeah jake jake's a-okay in my books yeah so we'll get to canadian idol but when in your life did you realize you wanted to sing

you know what i grew up around music uh all my life so before i even came to canada i remember as a kid uh my dad was part of um he was very involved in in the highlander folklore musicality that is south of Poland. And he kind of dragged my mom into this tradition. So as a kid, I remember going to rehearsals, and I would hear them sing in like six-part harmonies and then, you know, play and dance. So that region is called where my dad is from, Górala. So I would be a Góralka, which is basically a mountaineer,

like half Góralka because my mom's from the city, from Krakow, but my dad is from the mountains. And so when he met my mom as i mentioned he dragged her into this this folklore and they toured as a as a ensemble not just them but like as a ensemble of a bunch of people singing and dancing all across eastern europe and europe i think they went to like greece they went to germany So I remember staying with my grandparents. I remember going to rehearsals and I think I picked up a lot of that as a kid. And then I just, I was singing back in Krakow in my family home. There's, I think, footage of me as early as six years old singing like traditional Highlander.

If I can remember, I'll give you a sneak peek. Wow. Seriously. Thank you. I can't believe I actually remember that. I don't know what you said, but it sounded beautiful. So that's not even traditional Polish. So most people, probably Polish people would be like, what are you even singing about?

Because there's a slight dialect to it. So there's like the earliest, at least memory, if not footage of me singing would be like maybe five-year-old, somewhere before I immigrated to Canada, I'd be singing these traditional folklore, gudale, Polish songs. I do know, I just realized, I do know one thing in Polish, if I may.

Dzień dobry. Dzień dobry. Dzień dobry. Yeah, it's like D-R-Z. Dzień. I always think of it as like Jean, like Jessie and Jean. Yeah, no, sorry, I'm spelling it wrong.

D-Z, so Dzień. Oh, yeah, I've never Jesse and Jean. Yeah, no, sorry. I'm spelling it wrong. It's D-Z. So Jean. Oh, yeah. I've never said that correctly. Yeah, it's hard. When I worked with Katerina, one of my first jobs with Katerina, she would come out of the warehouse and say,

what I thought she was saying was Jean Dobre. Yeah. But now I realize I've been butchering it because I've been thinking in my head, it's like G-E-N-E, like Jean. But no, it's like Jean g e n e like gene but no it's like a gene yeah like think j but put a d before it maybe i'll work on this off mic here i have to do some practice then i think put a d before 90 minutes on each one it's a hard language it's super hard

like the pronunciation is is rough it's like a lot of hard sounds. And yeah, good luck with the grammar. Wow. We got a long way to go before I attempt some Polish grammar. Keep trying. Okay. So you just always were singing. So tell me then, how do you get on Canadian Idol? Do you just do one of those auditions we always hear about? So yeah, so fast forward when I came to Canada and I got immersed in like pop culture and long story short, I took some vocal lessons. My parents, you know, I would sing in the back of cars on road trips

and they'd be like, oh, you can actually sing along to Mariah Carey or whatever at the time I would sing along to. So their attention to that made them go okay maybe we should you know push her in the right direction so i did some some lessons at the canadian academy of vocal music with ian garrett who used to be shania twain's old coach and it was more classical but it was technique and like sort of my first you know pursuing this professionally um i always knew i wanted to sing i didn't know how to break. I had no idea. I was in songwriting at the time. I had no sense of self or anything, what I wanted to say as an artist.

I was young. I was a kid. And then I went to university because that's what you do when you finish high school. And both my parents, my mom has a master's in microbiology. My dad was like a year away from his PhD in agricultural engineering agricultural engineering and their academics yes so my mom i think more so than my dad because he's kind of just goes with the flow i hope he's not listening to what my mom uh decides i think both my parents to be fair wanted me to to pursue yeah um a higher education so i went to uft and i was there for a year and i think it was the first year that I missed like season. It was one of Canadian Idol. And then the second year of my studies at UFT,

um, I had a slew of people being like, why don't you just go? There's, you know, there's a second season. You got to do this. Like,

this is perfect. And I like, I wasn't sure, but I'm like, yeah, I'll go. And, and like I said,

it wasn't, I, to look back at that performance, um, I wasn't sure, but I'm like, yeah, I'll go. And like I said, it wasn't, to look back at that performance, I don't think that was good at all, but it was the best for that time where I was in my life, not sure of myself as a woman, as an artist. And, you know, one thing led to another. From that came this job in television and it was just a ride. I had stepped into this machine that was the entertainment industry and and the rest is history and right in this so we're going back 15 years right so like

2000 i know i just did that math 2004 you're good well look yeah i got that you got notes and everything i got some notes here for sure professional top yeah thank you that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me. Top 20 on Canadian Idol. So you're on TV, which is, I think, even 15, yeah, even 15 years ago, that was still, today it's less. I feel like today maybe it's not the same,

but even 15 years ago, I think getting on television across this nation was a big BFD. Yeah, because we didn't have YouTube or we did. It was in its infancy. Like it was, it definitely existed, but it seems like, yes, I think 15 years ago being on TV was a much bigger deal than today maybe. Absolutely. Although it's still a big deal. Well, everyone can set up anything, anywhere.

Studio, shop and go, right? Like you can record on your iPhone and upload it to your Instagram and it gets out there somehow. Maybe not to the same degree that you know you have a huge network that has um viewership but it's you still have at least the the same start that everyone the chance to expose yourself right and you're part of the because you're on uh because canadian idol was uh a bell media thing so you're in that somehow you're in now this bell me i hope it was bell media at the time like i get i don't think it was. Was it like CTV Globe Media or something? Or maybe it was Globe Media.

Well, whatever the CTV thing you're now in. Yeah. The machine. Right. I'm in it. So that leads to eTalk. Yes. So after my stint in Canadian Idol and Zach Werner tearing me apart.

Well, yeah. Maybe I'm going too quickly through the Canadian Idol part, which is okay. So Zach Warner tearing me apart. Maybe I'm going too quickly through the Canadian Idol part which is okay. So Zach

Werner? Yeah. Werner. Werner. He was, I got the vibe he was supposed to be the

Simon Cowell type guy. So he was supposed to be kind of mean maybe? He was. And I think

there was a lot of truth in what he said that I chose this basic you know blah blah like what did you choose the Lawrence Welch show type of I you know what's funny is my gut was to sing Mariah Carey I still believe it's that video where she sings to the soldiers the American soldiers is it was one of my all-time favorite songs by her and I had it like in my back pocket because I sang it so many times and I had I I knew how I was going to like what I was going to wear. I had a whole vision of it. And like last minute I doubted myself.

I remember. And I thought, well, what are they doing on American Idol? And it was like, Billy Ray was a preacher. Yeah. And,

and I switched gears last minute and I said, no, I'm going to do this song. And then I, and then you did Dusty Springfield, which is by the way another fantastic tarantino movie because it was played wonderfully in pulp fiction pulp fiction is so so great one of my all-time favorites um but yeah so i i think i i wasn't

authentic to myself or i didn't stick with my gut gut and then i ended up singing this song that was like kind of out of my repertoire i've never sang it before and it didn't resonate with Zach and he said what he said and and I definitely had tears in my eyes you know coming off that stage like it's it's a it's a very traumatic thing to put yourself on on that kind of a stage and and expose yourself and make yourself vulnerable and and then get only to be criticized, right? Cause it's one thing for you to have the opportunity to sing live and then you just walk off and no one has an opinion about it.

And if they do, then they go on their, whatever, you know, comments section and YouTube or whatnot. And people will still find a way to tear you apart. I guess what I'm trying to say is that, you know,

no one really prepares you for that kind of criticism. Like you get on a Canadian idol on a show like that. That's a contest. So you really do have to have thick skin. And when you don't, like I didn't at the time, it teaches you that, you know,

when you fall flat on your face, you got to start again. Were the other judges nicer to you? Sass was very sweet. She was like, I think you sang that nice. You sounded like a star. You looked like a star.

Farley was like, yeah, it was cool. And Jake was like, yeah, I was all right. So no one said anything mean a star farley was like yeah it was cool and jake was like yeah i was all right so no one said anything mean but no one was like wow you know so uh but i didn't feel like wow walking off that stage so that wow has to start with you as an artist or as a performer any type of you know public speaker if you don't feel good about your performance and you walk off that stage any stage any platform that you have second guessing, doubting yourself,

chances are people are going to have that similar, you know, feel. So how does this, you know, top 20, and it sounds like it was kind of received lukewarmly, like, you know, from these, you know, I don't know. You don't sound jazzed about the reception of your performance there, but it does open doors because we mentioned you're on eTalk. So you were there a couple of years. So tell me how you ended up as a correspondent on CTV's eTalk

and like anything you can tell me about that experience. I honestly have no idea. I feel like the story that I want to tell that I faintly remember is I must have joked like to Ben, like, Oh, if you ever need a co-host. And I feel like that was my mom speaking through me. Cause my mom was like, Oh my God, if you get on CTV and you do this and you're so great on TV and the camera loves you. So maybe I wanted to like, keep that, you know, I already got my foot in the door. So how do I stay in this TV thing? because i knew it was a it was a good thing

it was a big thing um and you know ironically shortly after my stint um on canadian idol i did get a call from a producer uh from etalk i think it was shannon at the time or i may get this completely wrong anyway it doesn't matter this lady had said you know why don't you come out and be our idol correspondent so the show was still running and now they were in their top 10 you know contestants performing um well not nightly but they would have one day where it was live and one day where it was pre-recorded so twice a week i would go in front of the john bassett theater in toronto and say like hey everyone i'm anna size off anna size on former canadian idol of course um contestant and

you know reporting to you live from john bassett theater and tonight we have jacob hogard and blah blah blah and and that i did for about two weeks and it was too good to be true because i was on actra and i was doing a hit for like five minutes and getting paid really, really great money, like actor's union fees. So that quickly parlayed into let's get her in the studio and let's let her do these like throws and hits. And so I started doing that and that very quickly went into let's get her on a salary.

And it all happened so fast and I signed on the dotted line and I was like super young and making a lot of money and still not done university and then it just get it started getting bigger and bigger like mtv canada came to to canada to the masonic temple and right bradley schwartz at the time the ceo uh i had met him in la on some junket or something that i was out for with etalk and and we became buddies and and was like, why don't you have your own show a spinoff of eTalk and that ended up being MTV2 and MTV Screen. And that was another two years on top of my two years at eTalk and, you know, the contracts got more expansive and the pay got bigger and the doors doors started closing on me and in the sense that i was just like and where's the music and all of this right because it ended up being not a nine to five job it was like a seven to eleven because sometimes i would pick up the slack for the

morning news hit live that tanya couldn't do or ben couldn't do because they were away somewhere and then there was an event to cover and then there was something and it just i i felt i started feeling like i lost myself and all of it and you're an artist first and when when are you gonna find time to create your art if you're so busy working even though it was a good salary and great exposure right these are you know that's great exposure like you could be are, you know, that's great exposure. Like you could be right now, you could be one of those 14 hosts of the Your Morning or whatever they're calling it, the CTV Morning Show.

So like at some point, do you step down to focus on your art? Well, what had ended up happening is MTV took a budget cut and i got called one day into the office and handed a severance and at that point i think i still had lots of options to stay in tv whether that was to get you know re-signed to the etalk payroll if that was an option or to go to another network and to pursue that but i had at that point realized and known that this is not a part-time job. This is not something that you do, you know, once or twice a week, it's a full-time career. And either I am going to be a TV show host and pursue this, or I'm going to give myself at least some time to go back to music and do what's in my heart. And that same day, literally, I went back

to the studio and I recorded my first, the day I left TV, I recorded my first independent album, which, young boy, the song that you just magically pulled up. We're on the same wavelength now. Kiss her, make her feel like gold And tell her, tell her she needs some pizza Reminder, rewind her, take her back to when she was only 17 Fairly going on 10, yeah

Touch her, taste her, give her what she needs Be her life, give her life, be the only thing she breathes She's your one way ticket, got the lock to your door So get inside her head, you've never been there before. You're out of the office. Watch all the fears disperse. One, two, three, four. Get over here, young boy. All right.

So this is Youngboy. Catchy little d Diddy sounds great. Especially in the headphones I'm listening. I'm like, look, this lady's right in front of me right now. Sounds cool. Thank you. Can't believe how long ago that song came into creation. It's crazy to hear it back so many years.

Yeah, well, that's 10 years old now. Yeah. Celebrating its 10-year birthday. Okay, so this was an indie release? Yeah, well, that's 10 years old now. Yeah. Celebrating its 10-year birthday. So, okay, so this was an indie release? So, there was, yeah, there was a lot of stuff going on. So, the second I decided, you know, I can't be both a TV show talk host and an artist. And I should say, like, on the back end, there was also someone I was dating at the time who was an artist who was like putting those thoughts in my head.

Now I'm kind of more like, you could do two if you want. Like Drake did that very smart. Used Degrassi as a platform to, to create. You could have been Drake. I could have been Drake. Well, I don't know about the rapping, but anyway,

you know, these people shall remain nameless and not to point the finger at anyone because. Do we know this artist? Is this a fake person I know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You would know. Anyhow, so I had, you know,

the voice of this person in my head and once that decision, I feel like, was ultimately made for me because I was called into HR and my show was taken off air because there was no budget. So it was decided, okay, your show's done. Are you staying with E-Tuck?

Are you going elsewhere? No, I went to the studio. I recorded this album. And then, so right around the time, I got a grant for this video from Factor Canada, which I'm super grateful for because we had $20,000 to shoot at the time. That was a lot of money.

That would be like- Is that the Much Fact or is that different? Much Fact, you're right. It was Much Fact. Because one of the founders of Much Fact was Bernie Finkelstein. Really? Him and Moses.

Wow. Oh, Moses Nymer, yeah. Right. They did it together. That's incredible. So there you go. It all comes together on Toronto Mike.

There you go. Well, yeah. It was in, I mean, does that still exist, Much Fact? It's definitely changed its name. I don't know.

You know what? I don't know. We have to look into that because that was a great thing that happened. We all of a sudden had, you know, $0't know i don't we have to look into that because that was a great thing that happened we all of a sudden had you know zero dollars and now twenty thousand dollars to shoot a video and uh so young boy was directed by davin black uh amazing director and friend of mine um and he well became a friend of mine he took me to a party at the drake around the time that we finished shooting this and then I met a guy at

the bar Mark Spickelout at the time who was doing A&R for Universal Canada and I had taken his card and then asked Davin to put together like a 30 second tease of the video to send just so I can shoot it off to people to give them a sneak peek and And I'd sent it to Mark, and Mark didn't tell me. He's like, by the way, I'm also doing A&R for Gene Simmons, who's starting a record label in Canada with Balletastronic. I love the background music. And on today's episode of, long story short, I ended up getting basically a deal from Simmons Records

through Universal Canada. I had no infrastructure in terms of management, not even really a proper lawyer in place, and I had the voice of someone at the time who I was also with. Different, same guy or different guy? Different guy this time, no. And do I also know this guy?

This guy you wouldn't know as much. I still want to find out who the first guy was. So the second guy was i think scared shitless that you know his role in in helping create this this project these songs um that he would get x'd out of the equation so he had he was telling me all sorts of things and i was kind of speaking them out loud to gene myself directly so do you know this song? No, this is kiss. This is kiss. Oh my God.

You're so good. You're really quick. And it's going to a quick little, uh, FOTM full circle is that, uh, the real name of Biff naked is Beth. Oh, really? Beth married a guy named snake. We've already talked about snake is probably, uh, Canada's biggest kiss fan. He has multiple kiss tattoos on his body.

No way. And this was probably Kiss's biggest hit, Beth. Wow. So Snake needed to be with Beth because of his love for Kiss. And Gene Simmons took a shine to you. And you're going to continue the story. But I just wanted you to know, I'm not just playing a random song underneath you. But I know the Gene Simmons story.

So I said, what am I going to play? Well, I've got to play some bath. Wow, you're good. You're really great at tying all this stuff together. That's what I do. That's what I do, Annie. I tie this shit together. I'm the tie that binds.

Okay. Please continue. The Gene Simmons. What a, you know, we think of Gene Simmons, larger than life. I get the idea that maybe Jean is a bit of a, I get a feeling he's a bit of an asshole. I'll be honest with you. Come on.

He's not listening to Toronto Mike. Let's go. He was, he was, he's very set in his ways and his opinions. And you know, like when I, he flew both Mark and I down to LA after seeing this video,

the snippet of this video, and handed me the book of prostitution. Because he's trying to pimp you out. Trying to turn you out. I know how this works. I've watched many movies about this. He wants to turn you out. I think he had a plan for me. And I think he wanted to take full control over you know everything from which way I comb my hair

probably to who was in my band so image creative you know he listened to these songs that were now handed to him as a as a demo young boy being one of them reputation this other song that has a video out there as well uh being another there was a few other songs and he's like these are great songs but you know you have to change this this and that your band great but the black guy's got to go the you know the guy with the purple hair is doesn't wrong look like you need he wanted he well he has to control all these aspects he had a vision for it and i wish i was i think today i would have been more trusting or more yielding to can i do can we do we have an example of a gene simmons protege that had great success? Well, he did end up picking up the band The Envies, which was founded by Sean Frank, also a great friend of mine

who now has really great success as a DJ, and him and Delaney Jane, I'm sure you have heard some of her songs. They play her on radio a lot. They play his stuff on radio a lot. So he's made a name for himself outside of Gene. Maybe Gene was a stepping stone to that success uh to whatever capacity degree however um no gene sim simmons records did not launch you know internationally or even in canada and artists so you know i i can't sit here and be like well what if i did or what if i didn't i didn't and

you know i am where i am today and I'm grateful for my journey and my path and it's not over by any means. And Jean was an interesting, you know, thing along the way in my book. I thought there might be, I don't know, I thought there might be a Jean story that would be a little more scintillating. So you made your choice for yourself

that you came back, I guess you come back to toronto well i had a big mouth at the time and again i was kind of speaking through someone else was let's say influencing a lot of um what i was thinking and saying at the time but someone i was i was working with but i was also personally involved with that was a little bit older than me and etc etc spengali spengali yes that was a little bit older than me and et cetera, et cetera. Sven Gali. Sven Gali. Sven Gali. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. A little bit. Yeah. Unfortunately. Before I carry head one of those. I think every woman experiences it in the, in the industry. You know,

you at first, when you start, you're not really sure of yourself. You don't, you don't know what you're doing. You don't know the business of the music. Do I know this person? I don't think you would.

He was more on the back, like sort of on the, you know, creative production, musical end of things. But anyway, it doesn't matter. this person i don't think you would he was more on the back like sort of on the you know creative production musical end of things but anyway it doesn't matter uh everyone's like the one guy the one boyfriend uh you are a boyfriend boyfriend you had that i would know uh obviously you don't have to name this person of course but uh is this person a singer he He's a rapper. A rapper? A rapper and a singer, yeah. And is it Drake?

No. No, it's not Drake. I wish. Hey, Drake, if you're listening, just kidding. Just kidding. All right. Is he Toronto-based? He was.

He was, yeah. Okay. Well, I'll think about it while you please continue. So you came back. Basically, you decided, you declined Gene Simmons' offer. I didn't decline. Basically, what I said, I'm dropping things. The real talk has intensified that Anna is now throwing things on the floor.

Yeah, losing articles of clothing. It's getting hot in here. So basically, I had told Gene that I want the U.S. because what Gene Simmons' records and universal handed me was a, was a three 60 Canadian deal. So three 60 just means they, they take everything across the board from your, you know,

touring to your merchandise to maybe even endorsements, et cetera. I don't remember the exact details of the, the deal and they're not really important. What was important for me was, was to have a chance if I am going to sign this, let's say deal with the devil that I have a chance of breaking the U S market. And so I said to jeans that I would like the countersign of a U S label. And he said, okay, fine. Then do a showcase for, uh, Monty Lipman for, uh, who is the CEO of Republic records, a subdivision of universal in, U.S. in New York. So I flew down to New York, and I had a bass player there on site, and my guitarist came here from Toronto, Mike Schlosser,

and we ended up, and my drummer, who I think at the time was Tony Rabala, and we did a showcase in front of Monty Lipman, We did a showcase in front of Monty Lipman, and I sang two songs that Gene had chosen for me that were produced by, I forget at this point, it doesn't matter, but a well-known producer that I worked with. I think he had done Gwen Stefani's Cool. So I sang one of his songs and another one of his songs, and then I think I got a chance to sing one of my songs towards the end and monty said you know these songs are great but they don't fit radio format

and you're a very talented artist but and i got this call like literally two days later when i flew back to toronto and gene was like we don't have the co-sign from monty from the u.s label so that was kind of where the thing just i I want to say, didn't work out. Or, you know, that was the onset of it sort of terminating itself. And then Jean was here in Toronto and I would like, I would find out through Mark or I would see a tweet or something.

And then, I don't even know if I should talk about this, but I got a DM from Shannon Tweed being like, you have no business. Canadian Shannon Tweed. Yeah. And she had said like, you have no business talking to Jean at this point when our deal, you know,

didn't work out or didn't get signed. Is she, is she worried at this point that you are a Jean's lover? I think she, she did talk about having a, quite a few lovers. Yeah. And I mean,

and as a woman now I kind of feel compassionate, you know, time i was like what the f like why is this happening like i haven't even thought if like that thought did not even cross my mind if it crossed his mind you know i don't have control over what men think and that's you know your your problem with your at the time boyfriend who is now your husband but um today i look at it differently like she probably did have a lot of reason you know not at the time being his wife, cause they are married now, um, to have suspicion or to not feel comfortable about, you know, whatever she may have saw in an email or text or whatever she had access to, but there was nothing ever there that was, you know, not appropriate. It was, it was very business. And if it wasn't business, it was like, Hey, there's a showcase. This person, this artist

is playing, come here. This is where I'm going to be here tonight and I think I did come out a few times I saw the envy um at uh in Kensington at the supermarket and that was one time that Jean was here that was outside of like you know a signing and then another time I think I went out to cherry colas or something and Jean was there too so I mean it was all very innocent there was nothing to worry about and and I wish I wish that, you know, Shannon, I hope that she knows that, but I think that really, like, terminated our relationship, because, I mean, she goes to sleep with him at night, and I'm sure, you know, there was words exchanged, like, if you're not doing business with this girl, then, then you should not be talking to her. Why are you hanging out with

this attractive young woman? I can see that. Yeah, well, I don't know. I'm not going to say I'm attractive because that would be vain, but... Am I allowed to say that? You can say that. You can say that. You're easy on the eyes. Well, thank you.

I appreciate that. Oh, wow. It's like a trip down memory lane here today. This is your life, Anna Saison I just wanna take your love and wear it like a fur coat Not that I'd condone the slain of animals But you know I'm metaphor to keep me warm Your love is nice, my soul's on ice You're the fire, I could be cold

But you already know Get it over here, don't waste another minute. Press your body up against me to the rhythm. Rock me slow and then go low. I want it all and then some more. You know what I want. I want you to love me, love me, baby. Over and over

love me so this is where you take full advantage of your dual citizenship uh huh you're good you got your research because this song was entered into Eurovision

2010 the 2010 Eurovision song contest and this. 2010. The 2010 Eurovision Song Contest. And this was, and for Canadians, we're often like, what is this thing? But this is a big deal in Europe, right? It's huge.

It's like all the countries get involved. It's televised across the continent. And every country basically has a pre-selection. And then that person that wins the pre-selection goes and represents the entire country somewhere and wherever they hold it that year. So you represented the entire country of Poland. So I was one step away from that.

And what's funny is at the time I was told backstage you won. So I got on stage like I got this. And then they handed the award to some guy who sang like a folklore type of song with an apple on stage. And they're like the whole shebang, the costumes. to some guy who sang like a folklore type of ish song with an apple on stage and the like the whole shebang the costumes and he had yeah i i don't know what happened there apparently many years later i was told that it was like it's completely you know uh what's the thing uh word rigged that there was one call from above that political yeah uh somebody told me this years later i took a meeting with someone that worked in TV and they said that, yeah, you had all the votes, you did win.

And there was a phone call made and somebody. Wow. This is a geopolitical intrigue here. I'm telling you. I was 2010. Okay. If it was earlier, I would have said maybe the, maybe the Pope called in a favor. JP2.

Lech Wałęsasa the former president of Poland he's got Canadian roots does he? I believe so I don't know I think so I feel now I feel like

I wish I wasn't live anywhere and I would go Google it and come back sounding really smart but I think so but this song

called Love Me did not win even though I thought so it did not represent it took second no it didn't represent Poland but it did it took second and I think it did not represent it took second no it didn't represent Poland but it did it took second

and I think it did almost wonders in that respect because there was a lot of like pissed off fans that were you know at the time

writing it and reaching out to me saying like why didn't you win why didn't you go for it that was you know that song should have gone and represented us

instead of this song and so the backlash of the other song winning was a favor did me a favor, I guess, in the sense that I got this fan base in Poland. Now I'm just going off the chart, just playing some Anna Saison music.

What is this? This is Polish. Where did you find this? Oh, this is English. Okay, but there's a Polish version of the song. No, this is Set Me On Fire. We'll just play in the background we'll ask you what's going on with your music career here okay so love me okay we got that story and uh

into the sun comes out in 2013 but uh i guess we're gonna play some new stuff and then maybe you have a gift for me but can i ask you at this point i'll bring this down uh screen appearances like you've you've shown up on uh on the screen right did you ever have you ever popped in i've shown up in a movie yeah like can you can you do i know you're looking honestly i had a moment you were looking at me like like i've never been on this i've never been on a screen are you talking about well there's a lot of screens these days right like well that's true i was keeping it intentionally open. You mean like the big screen. I mean, I've done some,

I've worked with some really awesome Canadian directors, Warren P. Sonoda amongst them. He put me in a film called Unrivaled and it had Rashad Evans, UFC, I want to say champion. So that was my little stint in his film. He also then put me in his movie Textuality, which I didn't have a speaking role, but I got to make out with Jason Lewis.

Who I don't even know. Jason Lewis was Samantha's like sexy hunk boyfriend, the younger guy that she ends up with on Sex and the City. I should know that. But yeah, okay. The young, the boy toy guy. He was much younger than her. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Samantha, right? He was like a hit amongst the girls. And you got to make out with him. I got to make out with him. This is a career highlight. This is a career highlight in my film, in my acting career. No, I'm kidding. And then I've done a bunch of stuff, like most recent.

I mean, okay, so I played one of um, in Silent Hill, the first Silent Hill. That's a big deal. That's a big deal. And then I, uh, and then I ended up being the most recent thing I did was it was the same producer, Samuel Hadid, a friend of mine also who passed sadly, uh, around this time last year, he was producing. So this ties in Quentin Tarantino. He was shooting a film 2017 here in Toronto and in Hamilton,

mostly in Hamilton, Lucky Day, which just got released this year. And the script writer is Roger Avery, who has an Oscar for Pulp Fiction with Quentin Tarantino for the script. So he was both the script writer and director of Lucky Day, and I had a small part there where i get shot in the head my eye comes out and then they canned it i feel like it was samuel who didn't want me because he's like you're an artist you cannot get killed in the film he was a french guy so it might have been him who scrapped it or roger himself um but my song ended up in the

end credits so chloe and red which is now on Spotify, it's off this album that I have here for you, which hasn't been released yet. I've been dropping some singles here and there, and Chloe in Red is... Yeah, there you go. In the end credit of Lucky Day, written and directed by Roger Avery. This is not out yet?

This is out. It's on Spotify. There's a music video. This is not out yet? This is out. It's on Spotify. There's a music video. Yeah. The album is now. Burning, flaming fire Brought me down right to the ground Couldn't, wouldn't even get much higher than this

Even if we were to try Would I just be a lie? Do we even stand a chance? Okay, I've kind of got this figured out now. This is in the credits for a movie that's out now. Called Lucky Day. Called Lucky Day, which was filmed mainly in Hamilton. Yes.

I'm keeping up now. It's also on an album called Letters to Love, which you've just generously handed over. Which, by the way, I now see why you have to wear the pink hair. It is really part of the branding now. So I'm allowed to mention it one more time. Okay. Since we're going back to the hair, this was a black and, or it was a colored photo that my friend Josh Haggerty took of me, also a great photographer, writer. And then I ended up doing a black and white version of this picture and then handing it over to a visual artist,

Anja Mielniczek, who is also a friend and an exceptional visual artist who had done a portrait of that photo. And then the stuff on the back here, which you see another image of two people embracing,

which I actually own. I bought from her and it hangs in my living room. Thinking about getting that tattooed maybe one day on my body. And then the front, she had painted

and I think she had asked me for color, or maybe I suggested to her like hues of pink. I don't know why at the time. Well then the front, she had painted and she, I think she had asked me for color or maybe I suggested to her like hues of pink. I don't know why at the time. Well, the song's got the word red in it. Like,

so is there any tie to that? Like it almost looks reddish. It's a song we're listening to, this big lead single that's in a movie and everything is called Chloe in Red. Well, it's called

Chloe in Red. It's funny that you bring that up and it's interesting because initially it was Bonnie and Clyde and Samuel the producer of Lucky Day who bless his soul

is no longer here with us, he had said to me why are you going to do Bonnie and Clyde, there's already Bonnie and Clyde, you change the name to Chloe in Red, the two characters in the film and so I changed the lyric a little, you know, up in my head Chloe in Red, something in this bed, Chloe in Red

but initially it was Bonnie and Clyde, you know, up in my head, Chloe and Red, something in this bed, Chloe and Red. But initially it was Bonnie and Clyde. You and I, no, no, not I. Not you and I were no Bonnie and Clyde or something like that. And so that's how the song, he had really vouched for me and pushed for that song to end up in there. And it did. And it was like a gift that he left me with, which I never got a chance to say thank you for because he's no longer here.

I'm sorry to hear this. That's okay. It's life. He's watching over me. He's upstairs. Yeah. He's here in the building. He's watching on Periscope.

Yeah. Exactly. I like that. So Chloe and Red off the new album. Thank you so much for Letters to Love. Let me play a clip from FOTM Jay Brody. Oh, Jay Brody, what up? We worked together on,

yeah, Todd Shapiro. Oh, yeah, here, let's do this section here. So this is where I met you the first time on Todd Shapiro's show. I saw Jay Brody and Roddy Comer that day.

Oh, Roddy, I love Roddy. I was there a few times, but the one time I was there, I remember being very impressed with the fact there was like a live music because Roddy Comer is such fantastic musician he's awesome and he's cute too and he's and now you're gonna tell me about the the washboard abs and i don't know if i need to hear that again but uh jay brody who i believe he also has washboard abs they're just it's

underneath some sweaters sweaters very good so jaydy, who came on recently with the entire Y108 morning show, I just knew you were on the schedule, and I asked about you, and here's what he said. Anna is fantastic. She's a world-class talent. She's a firecracker in all the best ways. She's really funny. When we were on the show together, she was sharp and beautiful

and could sing wonderfully. She's really funny. When we were on the show together, she was sharp and beautiful and could sing wonderfully. She was on Canadian Idol. Yeah, she was on Canadian Idol. Who is that? She's done some great stuff overseas as well. Really popular in Poland. If you get a chance to catch any of her live performances

in town, you should go. She's super talented and wonderful. Are you in love with her? I don't like when he talks about other women i'll tell you i ate her panties on i've never known her name before he wouldn't tell us on the show oh my god that's crazy i forgot about that how do you forget that someone ate your underwear but you weren't wearing them at the time i think yeah i think i was asked to bring a pair of underwear and then were they they were clean they were clean yeah

they wanted i i'm pretty sure they wanted it to be disgusting and like have me take it off you know as i was sitting there and because like eating clean underwear if i may as a like a radio bit uh it's like saying eat this uh towel or eat this like it's just fabric like it's not really edible but the whole i think the radio if i'm i'm not saying he should do this but if you're gonna do that kind of humor it's gotta be like take off your panties and eat it like that's the whole point i would think otherwise what is it like where's the you're just eating fabric like it's a dumb it's a dumb bit to be honest and how do you digest that like i wonder if that's still in jay's stomach like jay if you're listening and it can't be good for you because uh and i mean

it was at least like a thong like not as much material yeah no i the skimpiest underwear i ever probably owned i brought that down yeah okay good don Don't bring the granny panties. Your granny underwear, your period underwear. Also known as the period underwear. Yeah. That's great. That's great real talk. Okay, so how do you end up on the Todd Shapiro show? So, yeah, we really fast forwarded here.

Okay, no, no, no. No, no, no. Actually, no, no, no. What should I know? What did we miss? Tell me. I don't think you really, there's nothing important like after the after the the polish Eurovision thing i i did get a deal from at the time it was EMI Eastern Europe but with that i was one foot in Warsaw and i was one foot in Toronto and i couldn't decide where i wanted to live i don't think i was ready to pack my bags

and move to to Poland and invest you know jay mentioned that you're big in Poland like well what i hadn't ended up doing is that song that you played sent me on fire. That was off a Polish album that I recorded here, like 2014, um, with, uh, two Polish Canadian guys here.

And then when I had this 10 song Polish album that I don't even think I put out, I'm going to do this this year still, like as a Merry Christmas to my Polish fans. Um, I, I realized like, what am I going to do toronto with a polish record so i just i got on a plane and i went to poland and i got a band there and assembled great musicians to play some live shows with and i did that pretty much

to 15 16 so that also helped build my my polish fan base being relevant and being there but that's a big market like it's huge it's bigger than Canada how many people live in Poland million okay yeah so it's a smaller country geographically but it has a bigger population right it's dense much more of a like a celebrity and a and a culture for eating all of that you know up like you know who you know do you know the name Sofia Yurstukovic hope I didn't butcher that one. But she was at Sportsnet. She was a sports media personality who's actually now working in New England

covering the Bruins. Oh, wow. But she's an FOTM. And Sofia tells me about her cousin, something Yurstukovic. I can't remember her first name. So when Sofia goes to Poland and visits her cousin, the paparazzi follow them around

and their photos end up in like. That's what I'm saying. Like they have their own celebrity culture. They have their own magazines. They have their TV shows. Like Poland has the voice. Like Canada doesn't have that, you know? So, and they eat that up a lot more.

They like the big American like pull up and you know, like aley and have the red carpet i feel like i mean outside of tiff and like you know the award show here and there junos and whatever we have in the summer here the much music awards if that's what they're still called like we don't really have like these huge production shows and these like canada is kind of like we don't care if we see drake walking down the street we'll like high five him we'll be like yo that's dope but there's no like screaming girls and and paparazzi and because we don't have a culture for that america does and we are kind of like you know a subsidies to that or like under its thumb in a

way where we're like tapped into it but i was like that like i like the fact that a big celebrity can kind of walk around toronto without feeling like Yeah, it's cool. It's yeah. So it sounds like like. So let me ask you, though, if you're walking around in Poland or do people get excited to see you? I did get recognition maybe closer to the Eurovision. People would recognize me here and there. Or like if I when I did go back and I would do like a television show, you know fresh off the runway if you will like people be like oh I saw you or something but it's not like I get mobbed on the streets no I mean I

like to blow smoke you know you could have said you could have just told me yes like your paparazzi are all in your grill you can't go anywhere and who would I be to tell you you're lying to me like I would what would be the purpose of lying you know and it is real talk you need to be honest with me at all times of course of course all right so now are we ready for shapiro or is there something yeah yeah yeah i didn't want to skip anything but but uh we'll save it for the book if anyone wants to you know do a documentary or write a biography i'm happy to i'll write it heck all right amazing now okay so let's pause here for a moment here before we dive into the Todd Shapiro work. And let me just thank Brian Master for coming to TMLX5. Brian Master recorded a Christmas greeting for us all. So let's hear from Brian. Hi, I'm Brian Master, sales representative

from Keller Williams Realty Solutions Brokerage. It's great to be on Toronto, Mike, and there's so much going on in the real estate market. Email me at letsgetyouhomeatkw.com. We'll get you hooked up to our client appreciation program. No obligation, great information once a month and we'll stay in touch with you. And speaking of stay in touch, we're glad you're in touch with Toronto Mike and we're wishing you a very Merry Christmas, happyidays, however you're spending it. And a very prosperous and healthy 2020. Let's get you home at kw.com. That's where you write Brian Master,

get on his snail mail newsletter, which I get every month. It's got great information, education, value add, details. So again, let's get you home at kw.com. Also, before I forget, do you know the band Lowest of the Low? It's okay if you don't. I don't think so. That's get you home at kw.com. Also, before I forget, do you know the band Lois de la Lowe? It's okay if you don't. I don't think so.

That's okay. I forgive you. Now, Lois de la Lowe, they have a concert at Lee's Palace on Saturday, and I promised I would give out a pair of tickets. So I just had people tweet at me their favorite Lois de la Lowe song, and I put all the Twitter handle in a spreadsheet, and then I ran this randomizer and it spit out a number.

And I do not know this person. This is straight up. I swear this Twitter handle is going to get a DM from me at some point today. So I can find out what name is on your birth certificate because that's got to match to get these tickets. But the Twitter handle that has won the lowest of the low tickets,

Forever Game 6. a match to get these tickets but the twitter handle that has won the lowest of the low tickets forever game six forever game six i have two tickets for you to see lowest of the low at lee's palace and i will be there and i'm excited about it and i'll see you there so there now uh now tell us how you end up on the Todd Shapiro show, which I should just preface this by saying it is on Sirius XM. I know it's changed channels, but it was on Canada laughs. It was when I was there. Yeah. And now I think it's moved to Canada talks. Okay.

How do you end up on that show? So I feel like Todd and I, we go back like when I was in TV and he was on radio, we must've like brushed shoulders at events and parties. And so we were acquainted in that respect, but we didn't really bump into each other and chat until he was hosting something at Everly for Zark at the time, who owned or still owns the Everly part owner. And I, Zark was asking me to also like not so much host but just like promote so I would like post things onto my social media I think I would perform there every now and then it wasn't like a residency monthly but there was some live music there too

that I did so um we meet at Everly and then Todd's like you know I'm I'm starting this thing up and I can't really tell you much about it yet but but I think you'd be great for it. And so we kept bumping into each other like biweekly or maybe even weekly at this point at Everly. And then eventually he told me what it was and he's like, I want to do like a test run with you. So I guess to see that I'm not a dummy. So he wants you to kind of do a test to see whether you could be his co-host?

Or I could be one of the co-hosts because it ended up being, you know, Todd, myself, Jay, Roddy ended up, you know, chirping in also. So there was a, it was a family of a bunch of us. There was Jeff who was playing guitar, who would also throw in his two cents on the show. It was a lot of fun at the beginning. And, you know, I i agreed to even though i hadn't much television experience and although i would argue you do have a lot of television experience yeah so it was hard for me to like and i get he was starting it up so there was you know

he needed to find sponsors and and it takes time for things to get built so So I think as a friend at the beginning, I said, I'm happy to do this for you and, you know, just help out. But then it just had to make sense for me financially. And so we parted ways, I think after, I don't know, a good half,

I would say like a half a year I was on the show. Is that all? It's funny how, I mean, you would know, like I'm not here to tell you you're wrong. Okay. So,

I mean, I only, it didn't go on. I only at the beginning when, I helped him at the very beginning. He came here because I did the back end work. Now it's funny I'm working with them again, but I did the back end work for Humble and Fred. And Humble and Fred were already on SiriusXM Canada Laughs as the morning show. And Humble and Fred helped get Todd Shapiro

the afternoon drive, I guess you'd call it, on Sirius XM. So, because they work together at 102.1. So they go way back. Now, so where are we now? So now Todd Shapiro wants it to be the same kind of infrastructure setup as Humble and Fred.

So that's me. So he came here. My wife took photos of him in the backyard. We built the first website, the Todd Shapiro Show website. So I worked with him at the very beginning. So then of course he had me on the show a couple of times. That's where I met you. Now I remember he would, he would promote you on the show. He, he would say Toronto Mike. Oh, that's me. Yeah. So this is, it's all coming back. It's all coming back.

That's your share? Celine. Celine. Oh my God. I'm thinking turn back time. It just seemed like it might be going into Cher. Celine, Cher. They don't even sound alike, but okay.

That's very good. Sort of. Kind of. Not really. No. Okay. I'm more of a Cher guy than a Celine. Really?

I know Celine's Canadian, but I'm more of a Cher guy. Okay. I think most guys are. You know that video on the aircraft carrier? tattooed on my brain yeah forever for all eternity she could be like she you could tell me now she's 75 years old yeah but you'd still remember her ass not up here yeah okay so okay so moving on here yeah uh you only did a half a year as co-host I know you know Jay's been very honest in this show jay's as you might know jay brody is a very honest guy and he came in and there was

an issues with jay and rod they came on together actually roddy colmer about uh being paid for their work on the shapiro show yeah i think that was like again you know to not say anything bad about todd because he's a friend of mine and he was starting up his own thing right so again things take time to get built but I think after a certain time if you want to retain certain people that are helping you at the beginning then you know you have to pay them what they're worth and and then the people also have to know what they're worth right so I think again radio is much different than tv in many respects but I'm also not a newbie just to the entertainment world and machine of it all.

So I felt like, you know, I, I, I know my worth is all I can say. Right. So, so it sounds like if I'm reading between the lines at the beginning,

as a friend, you were willing to sort of help out without compens, financial compensation. And then there sounds like there's probably at some point where you're happy to continue if you're paid a fair monetization.

You were paid fairly. You were paid for your work, for your time, right? It's different if you come and do an interview and you're promoting yourself. You're getting lasagna and beer. More than most radio programs. And hopefully new fans, listeners, followers. you're promoting yourself, but I think you're getting lasagna and beer and see, that's pretty more than most radio. Hopefully,

you know, new, new fans, listeners, followers. I mean, you know, I'm happy to be here. And like I said,

lend my time to the degree that it's also, you know, worth my time. And then at some point it's like, it's, it's just social exchange, right? It's,

if you're going to put your time and your work into something, then you've got to have some benefit from it. And if you're doing it every day or every other day, then you need to be compensated for your time. It's your job. So while we continue, I realize it's very close to Christmas now. We're in December. So you have a song called Mistletoe.

I do. I'm just going to keep your love by the fire. I don't want to spend this night on my own Big bright light So did you leave the Shapiro show then come back?

I stopped going in daily yes there was some point I don't remember at what point that was but I stopped and then Todd would be like well why don't you just come out to this or we're doing the beer fest so then i would just i would show up i guess kind of like with what made sense for me in terms of my timing and scheduling and and whether i guess it was worth my while to show up to whatever

it was um and then now he's like if i call him, hey, Todd, I want to come by the show and just catch up. Like then he'll be like, come by. So you're an FOTS. What does that mean? Friend of Todd Shapiro. Oh, OK. Can I still be your friend, though? Yeah, definitely.

I can't speak to your relationship with Todd. You know, that's your business there. It sounds like your relationship with Todd sounds a lot better than Jay and Roddy's. Really? A lot better. Well, I just don't want to have any bad blood. I think life is so short and on my deathbed or whenever my time is up, I don't want to have vendetta or some...

Even I look at girls that I've had beef with or people that I was jealous of or didn't want to do well. Like it's just, it's for starters, it's a waste of energy. And then I do believe in karma. I think if you, you know,

really wish somebody not well or for, for them to be not successful, then you're kind of almost doing yourself an injustice. But do you believe that if you wish somebody ill, that you will be struck with ill? Maybe not to that extent. That's what karma is, right? Well, yeah.

What goes around comes around. I think that you're much better off spending your energy, you know, thinking positive things and having compassion for people if you can't have love for them because you maybe don't want to love everybody but just you know everybody is in some shit and struggling with something so it's really quick to judge and to say oh well this person blah blah blah and we're just a species of you know it's easier to point the finger at someone else and say this person did this to me

but it's harder it's a lot harder to be accountable for your actions and take responsibility so to me but it's harder it's a lot harder to be accountable for your actions and take responsibility so i think it has to start there you have to go okay well did i allow for this did i allow for this person to take advantage of me did did i allow this person to xyz um xyz please is that right that's so funny that you bring that up i don't i don't know why i say Z. But you know what's funny is my dad calls Jay-Z Jay-Zed. Does he call the Texas rock band Zed Zed Top? I don't even think he knows who that is. You said you say X, Y, Z. I blame TMZ because everybody knows TMZ.

But, you know, I mean, your dad might call it TMZ. Which is something I might say, actually actually just to piss off my teenage daughter. Why do we even have like, why is it Zed and Z? British thing, I think. I feel like we get a lot of our stuff from, from the Brits,

the Queen, right? Like color, spell color. Like there's a lot. And, and, but we don't,

but some stuff we take from America, for example, they use S's instead of Zeds and words like realize. Like, so we decided realize there's a Zed in it. Speaking of Z take from America, for example, they use S's instead of Z's in words like realize. So we decided realize has a Z in it, speaking of Z's. America changed the S to a Z. And we said, okay, we'll do that. So we picked like half of the stuff we said we'll do the U.S. way and half we'll take from England or UK. I didn't even know that.

Yes, I'm an English major at U of T. So I'm all knowledgeable in the U.S. That's amazing. And I just thought of like how dumb our phones make us, you know, where everything is autocorrect. Like I'm even forgetting in the U.S. That's amazing. And I just thought of like how dumb our phones make us, you know, where everything is autocorrect. Like I'm even forgetting how to spell. Like do I even need to know how to spell? It really is having it rewiring the way we think and, you know,

it's messing up a lot of our ability to speak. Like you and I will do 90 minutes of conversation here today, but I actually worry about like can the next generation do that considering they're so used, it's all texting. It is, yeah. Can they actually have a 90 minute conversation with somebody?

I know, it's scary. I think I'm still very much like old school when it comes to that, especially relationships. Like I don't want a relationship on a phone if I'm going to have one, you know? Like it's so cheap. Like having conversations with people,

meeting face to face is like, that is what is real life. A person in front of you in flesh, that is what it's it's so cheap like having conversations with people meeting face to face is like that is what is real life a person in front of you in flesh that is that is that's why i made you come here you said oh you said mike please can i do this by skype and i said no no you didn't you didn't i said no anna i need you here in the flesh here all right so when does this album come out that's a very good question it's been coming out all of it was recorded it's i started recording it in 2017 the first uh song that i got in the studio i recorded a cover of chris isaac's wicked game and that i did as a what's that i said that's a great song oh thank you yeah yeah number 14 wicked game yeah so it's it's on there and it was uh that's another video that's tattooed in my head

because is it christian isn't it helena isn't it christians christians yeah okay yes yes yeah anyway i tattooed one of the videos tattooed in my brain okay that's so hot i always want to shoot a video for that on the reverse where like i'm chris isaac and the wife beater you know and there's like a super hot like naked guy on the beach holding his boobs and butt and running away well uh if you do that i'm sure many people will be grateful for sure for sure for sure for sure are you also a yoga instructor i am i am so my um let me answer that question i don't know when it's coming out it started we never did answer it started in 2017 and all of basically this year i started dropping singles from it because it's

more of a single single-based market or i've been told I might just on Valentine's Day just be like, here's the album 220. I don't know yet. It changes every day. So that's to answer your question. So you're doing it yourself. This is an indie. Do you have? I have.

But then I feel like I'm wasting away like good songs like the next one I put out. way like good songs like the next one i put out i would like to have you know somebody who knows what they're doing to say put this out on spotify put i don't know x amount of money behind getting some streams blah blah blah can we talk really briefly before we wrap up here about your twitter account here okay so i'm a twitter guy and i know a lot of people uh your age are more maybe they're more instagram people whatever but you do have a Twitter account and a Twitter presence. And this is actually from a gentleman out West who goes by the name Jaded Optimist. But I have a similar question because I've been following you on Twitter now for a while.

So Jaded Optimist writes in, question for her, what is the deal with the minimalist oblique tweets? Samples from her timeline, spicy. And that's it, okay? That's it. So connection with like a hashtag connection spicy and that's it okay that's it so uh connection with like a hashtag connection and that's it uh what else is there there's it's just basically it's very vague minimalistic style tweets uh what's up with that they're like my brain farts you know like i'll be

like walking and i'll be like oh it's all about connection like connection with people you know like how humans connect to one another and then I'll just it's like it's almost like a reference note for me like if I'm songwriting then I'll go back and and maybe reference that or build on that idea um or it's just on the timeline of like my crazy thoughts in life uh spicy was someone it was a I was talking to a tattoo artist and i told him that i wanted to tattoo um on my left thigh uh heaven lies within which is like a concept that happiness heaven bliss nirvana whatever you want to call it is an internal thing it's not an external thing um but the placement of that is kind of sexual which i find interesting and uh well we could do a whole episode about this and he had said i think he had said wow that's spicy or something and then i read and i

was like well because maybe i'm spicy and then that went to twitter you know there's nothing to do with pascal siakam who is that okay just checking here okay uh should i know who that is he's a toronto raptor okay nba champions and he's spicy spicy p oh okay oh yeah i know that i watched the big ceremony last year and wherever it was in the middle of cp spicy p i guess of course um yeah so i wouldn't take i wouldn't take me on twitter serious like myself so but do you ever do real like do you ever do tweets that maybe mean something? Yeah, of course. Like would you tweet like,

I had the best time of my life of Toronto Mike today. Like would you do something like that or would you be more like? I can totally tweet that. As a matter of fact, I will like take, maybe we'll take a selfie or something

and then, you know, I think those are important parts. Well, we do need to, we do. Right before you drive away, we go to this special secret spot where every guest gets a selfie with me because I use that to promote the show.

So we're definitely going to do that. And last time I'll say it, but we need the people to see the hair. I have one last Christmas gift for you. I know I've buried you in riches here. I almost feel like I will take back half that beer and you have to invite me over to eat the lasagna. I've given you too many things.

I'm coming to the show more often. I mean, I'm walking away here with... Every day, Anna's at the door. The Electric City Candle Company. Now, listen, this is special needs adults who make candles and they sell the candles at electriccitycandles.com and all the

proceeds, like all the money they make from selling these candles. I think it's like 10 bucks a pop and they're great candles. They smell amazing. You're going to love it. There's one here for you. All that money goes towards their hockey league. They play hockey,

these special needs adults, electric city, special needs, hockey.com where you can learn more about the hockey league right now. They're trying to fundraise to buy a used van for our travels. So they have sent over, and I think there's a personalized letter for you from one of the players. And again, that's Electric City Candle Company.

Thank you so much. This looks so wonderful. And I don't know, I don't know, because I don't open these, that says to Anna. I give them, I just told them, here are the guests coming in December. It does say Anna on a star. That's so cute. Thank you so, so much. But what I don't know is what scent your candle will be but there

was one i have called banana bread and it is unbelievable it just looks like lavender let's see what you got before all right ta-da candy cane oh perfect for the holidays. It's really good. It smells so good. I want to eat it. Would it be inappropriate for us to take a spoon and just start eating the candle? I mean, you can try. And if you don't die, I'll follow as a dare. And that brings us to the end of our 554th show. Wow.

Congrats. Thank you. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Anna is at Anna Saison. That's C-Y-Z-O-N. Anna Saison. Zed.

Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Thank you. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. Brian Master wants you to write him at letsgetyouhome at kw.com. And Banjo Dunk is at StickerU. Brian Master wants you to write him at letsgetyouhome at kw.com. And BanjoDunk is at BanjoDunk with a C, as in Duncan.

See you all next week. Everything is kind of rosy and gray. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the snow wants me today. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the snow, snow, warms me today. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away. Cause everything is rosy and green. Well, you've been under my skin for more than eight years. It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears.

And I don't know what the future can hold or do for me and you.