Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Barry Flatman: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1919

Episode Date: June 17, 2026

On this 1919th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with actor Barry Flatman about Santa Jaws, Bizarre, Saw III, Private Eyes, Fargo and more.A version of this podcast without programmatic ads is available to all Toronto Mike'd Patrons at patreon.com/torontomike.Toronto Mike'd, an award-winning podcast, is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca.If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, this is Barry Flapman. I am originally from Toronto, but now I'm from Hamilton. I'm here and my debut on Toronto Miked with Mike. Oh, false start there. I'm not doing it again, Barry. No second takes on Toronto, Mike. That's right. That's what I like.

One take only. Welcome to episode 1919, 1,919. Barry, your lucky man to get 1919. That's a good number. Yeah, it's a great number. Of Toronto Mike, an award-winning podcast,

proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. Order online at Great LakesBear.com for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Visit Palma Pasta. Calm for more. Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball.

Catch a game at Christy Pits this summer. No ticket required. Fusion Corp's own Nick Aini's. He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline and Mike and Nick. Two podcasts that you ought to listen to. Recyclemyelectronics.c.a.cometing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Redley Funeral Home.

Pillars of the communities. 1921. Joining me today, making his Toronto mic debut. It is indeed, Barry Flatman. Barry, we talked about that surname off the top. I was thinking, is it like Batman, you're Flatman? Or is it like Bookman, you're Flatman.

You say it again for me slowly. Well, when I meet strangers, I tend to say Flatman so that they can... Because it rhymes with Batman. Well, yeah, I think I was telling you the story before that in the early 70s, people wanted you to have like a Hollywood name, like, you know, Mike Smith or some shit. And so people came along to me and said, you know, Flatman, it's not a very good name.

Maybe we want to change that if you want to be an actor. And I said, well, I don't know. Is Gene Hackman a bad name? Right. Yep. So I kept it. Look, I wish I had a surname that rhymed with Batman. You know what I mean?

I would give anything for that. So I'd like the name. And you know, Barry, Barry, that's a great name, Barry. Like, I've never met a Barry I didn't like. Well, Barry is a, and they're not that many around either. Well, we stopped making them in the 80s. My mother said that she was Welsh and she said that Barry actually meant spear. Oh.

And I thought, that was great. And then you Googled it and found out she was full of shit. Yeah, probably. I never did. Hey, off the top, Barry, we got a lot of ground to cover. And we will thank some people who made this happen. But I got to say congratulations to my firstborn, whose convocation I attended yesterday. He graduated for university, Barry.

No kidding. Did you ever graduate from university? I never did. Coming out of high school, I was addicted to theater and found a whole new family there. So coming out of high school, I had a scholarship to go be, you know, start to be the doctor that everybody else wanted me to be. Wow. Or I had a contract, and I could have gone to work with a theater company in Victoria, British Columbia. And I took the contract and never looked back.

Okay. Well, we're going to look back. You're in the home of looking back. Okay. I'm going to play a song, and I'm going to watch your reaction to hearing this song. Are you ready? Yeah. I know where it is. Here we go. T'was the night before Christmas, and all round the beach, not a creature was stirring, not even a leech. The stockings were hung by the boathouse with care in the hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. For Daddy had taken us down to the shore

To spend Christmas Eve with the family once more While mother and father lay snug in their bed My girlfriend and I went down to the shed We took off our clothes and peeled to the skin And jumped in the water for a midwinter swim When out of the darkness she'd that out a hoot I just saw a shark in a Santa Claus suit Then the silence was broken by a terrible din

Jingle bells ringing on a circling fin. We swam and we swam to get out of its reach till we thought we were finally safe on the beach. When what to our wondrous eyes should appear but a jolly white shark who ate tiny reindeer? Oh, dasher. Oh, dancer. Okay, Barry, listeners of this fine program,

this award-winning podcast, they've heard this song because I had on Toronto Mike, I had on a chap, you know, named Fred Mullen. And I played this and we talked about it. But do you have any involvement in this 1975 hit Santa Jaws? Yeah, I did a lot of the voices on it. Actually, the fun thing was we spent a whole afternoon biting into vegetables for the shark chops,

like a whole lettuce going, and stuff, you know, carrots and whatever. Are you doing some of that biting? Oh, yeah. That's award-winning biting as far as I'm concerned. Especially the big lettuce at the end. Okay. I was the girl's voice.

But how do you get hooked up with the Malin brothers? Like, how does this all happen? We had a company called Homemade Theater. It was actually Canada's first improvisational company. And you name it, we applied improvisation to it. So, you know, we had a theater school of 250 kids. We had a television series. We have this song was a gold record.

We were nominated for four Junos, including Song of the Year. Like that version. So there's two sides to this, 45. So that song we're listening to right now, let it wrap up here. That's the sound of the shark. That's your crunching, Barry. I know it anywhere.

I recognize that crunch. Holy smokes. This is like when you find out the Beach Boys have a crunch and they find out, oh, Paul McCartney was biting into an apple. Remember this story? Okay. So how does that song get nominated for so many Junos? Well, because it was a novelty, right?

record. And it was the year the Jaws came out. So around the Christmas time of after Jaws. And you either kind of loved it or hated it. We used to do all kinds of radio shows, interviews and stuff, where one was, you know, love it or break it or something like that. And we would

do an interview and then the folks would call in and they would either love it or break it. And then this one, I think it was in the Thunder Bay or something, they took out a hammer and they broke it live on air. But Dr. Demento in the United States went crazy for it and played it all the time.

And so it became a big hit. Okay. Maybe inspired a young Weirdo Yankovic. Oh, man. Well, maybe. Maybe. Like, we do the math on this because his, my Bologna hadn't come out yet. That was based on my Sharona.

Like, it's possible. A young Weird Al Yankov is still great. Weirdo Yankovic is here in Santa Jaws and he's getting ideas. That's entirely possible. Could be. Okay. So, Homey Theater was a wild time. It was most of the 70s.

and you name it, we did it, and applied improvisation to it. And it was a phenomenal time. It was a great time in Canada. We all met because we all survived the ordeal of trying to get a job at Toronto Workshop Productions. George Luscombe, who was this sort of legendary guy, auditioned 450 people and took 32 of them into this free workshop, eight hours a day, five days a week, for a month to learn his technique. and you know a whole system of movements and efforts and Stanislavski stuff

you know very hard stuff anyway and we got down to like seven or nine out of all those and three of them were myself Larry Mullen and Phil Sabbath and that that's where we met in September of 1970 actually wow and a year later we formed home-made theater and sort of the rest is history yeah absolutely so early 70s but so who are you in the early 70s when you, like, what made you aspire to be in, you know, to be an actor? Well, I'd spent most of my high school years, certainly in theater, and actually lived at the theater more than anywhere else. I would use school to kind of sleep in the morning.

You know, I was like this straight-A student, and I barely graduated. I think they graduated me just to get you out of there. As a favor, yeah, exactly. So it was like discovering another family. Theater is an extraordinary place, extraordinary people. And as long as you're professional and committed and present, you're treated as an equal, regardless of how old you are. And that was an amazing revelation to me that I can actually be who I was

and explore who I was and what I was becoming with tremendous support all around. So I love the theater. Okay, but can I just interrupt to ask if you had this voice back then? Like, I'm honest to God, first of all, you're a handsome man. Yeah, thank you. And you have a great voice. What else are you going to do with your life? This voice is a little fractured today.

I've got some big allergy stuff going on, so it's not always like that. You know, it's working for you. Right? It's working for you. I used to do a lot of voice work too, and you know, all the stuff down here like this. You know, like that kind of guy. Yeah, yeah. I could feel that in my core.

You kidding me? I would listen to me. I would do anything, Barry, to have a voice. voice like that anything even i'd even start smoking because you smoked quite a bit right i did um uh you offered me a beer i offered you a beer a great lakes beer and you don't drink anymore i don't drink anymore it's funny at 55 i got cancer oh and and and and but also i had just done i did a lot i was sort of a commercial king in the 80s early 80s and i just done uh the first uh commercials for London life.

What was it called? You know, you could retire at 55. Freedom 55. Of course. Yeah. So we shot a commercial in Monument Valley in Arizona, which kind of changed my life.

I'd spent a lot of time there now. But so instead of, you know, retiring at 55, I got cancer. Oh, that's not what they meant by Freedom 55. They didn't say, go get cancer, Barry. But in terms of the freedom, there went to smoking and there.

went the drinking the drinking and never missed it well here let me just offer you something so you told me you don't drink anymore and I'm like oh damn it I got some fresh craft beer from Great Lakes for this man but I also have this is called hop pop Great Lakes brewery sells it zero alcohol okay tasty as heck honestly crack this open all right Barry do this hop pop from great legs crack it open okay not quite on the mic but that'll do okay let's let's hear it Take a step. I'm going to watch you. Here we go. Let's see.

Like when Mr. Burns had to eat the three-eyed fish. Is it refreshing? Absolutely refreshing. Like, I'm not, I don't drink fake beer, as I would call it. Yeah, it's not beer. It's not beer. But it's delicious. Yeah, so hot pop.

So there you go. So at least you got, you know, got some swag from Great Lakes with Zero. That's really good. Yeah. I like that, actually. That's good. I like that voice. I'm going to use that in the next ad campaign for Great Lake, really.

Just Barry Flatman. This is tasty. This is a tasty beverage. Okay. And no alcohol in the frozen lasagna I have upstairs in my freezer for you. Oh. Oh. I see a palma pasta.

I'm a big pasta fella. I love lasagna. Okay. Man, after my own heart. Let me on that note, do this, because I'm going to introduce another FOTM. I already mentioned Larry Malin. So we're going to... Who just turned 80.

I went down. He threw a three-day birthday party with Fred in Nashville. And we went down there and it was like the greatest time. I saw people. I hadn't seen in 50 and 55 years. Wow. It was like a love in. It was wonderful.

Absolutely amazing. Well, he's a lucky man because I let him zoom into this show because he was in L.A. or something. And I almost never do that. I just dropped an episode with a woman named Karen Hines, who's also done a lot of theater work. But she was in CBC's The Newsroom. Did you audition for that? I feel like you could have been the anchor in the newsroom.

Ken Finkelman? It's a long way back. But no, I must have auditioned for some. I'm sure. Well, you just looked like you could have played the Peter Kellahan role. Oh, yeah, yeah. You guys go up. You and Akeena?

You know that old Canadian, the old Canadian jaw, you know. Well, what about Dan Durand? Do you ever look in that back in the day when you had to go in a room to audition? You look around and go, oh, Dan wants this anchor job again. Well, interesting. You know, back in the room, I miss that room because it's all screwed up now. I don't work anymore. You just Zoom now.

I don't work anymore. Why not? Because of COVID? What happened? Yeah, and COVID, they got into this, uh, cell. tape as they call it where you know you think it's great thin edge of the wedge kind of like AI these days where you go oh good I can do my auditions of my own dining room table on my phone and it really did work during that time but one assumed they go back to some form of how it used

to be which is meeting people in a room and talking about what you're trying to create right and because you know going into a room I have half a dozen questions I need answering before I can start to create right Well, you don't get that anymore. You're flying blind. Flying blind. So I don't do it at the dining room table anymore. It drove me crazy for about two years.

It made me kind of angry, actually. But now I rent a studio with a camera person. The lighting is right. I do the best performance I can. It's edited properly and you send it off and forget about it. You don't hear back? What is it? You don't hear back anymore.

Nobody responds. But you're Barry Flatman for goodness sakes. Well, it used to be... Do they not know who you are? If it was something I really sort of wanted, the agent would call back the next morning, go, so I don't want, well, it was really good, and he's on a list of three, or, you know,

you knew where you were. None of that kind of dialogue happens anymore, so. Well, I'm sorry to hear this. Yeah, so now I make my art just creating these little videos and setting them off, and someday maybe I'll work again. The last film I did was September last year. And what film was that? It was called What We Have Left.

I think it's coming out in TIF in September. I'm sorry to hear this. I want to shut out. It's just not a creative process. No, I hear you. And you said you're based in Hamilton now. I am. I moved there.

Actually, I was just listening to your podcast with Ralph Ben Murgi. It was a friend of mine. And we moved to Hamilton two months apart. Okay. Yeah. Did you move from Toronto? Toronto, yeah.

Okay, yeah. Love Ralph Benmurgy. I grew up in Victoria and I moved here. Actually, I left home on an hour's notice and did a show in Winnipeg that closed. And I could either come on to Toronto. to where I had a couch to sleep on. Or I could go back home, 1500 miles, and I went out to Toronto, and that was that.

I want to shout out my buddy, Avi Federgreen. Do you know the name Avey Federgreen? No, what a name, though. Prolific, yeah, prolific film producer in this country, but he just directed his first ever movie. It's called Home Free, and it stars Art Hindle. Oh, yeah, art.

Is it an old old friend of mine? You go back of art, right? Also a friend of Larry's, yeah. See, I'm just trying to name the old guard here. Love it so much. But here, so let's interview you. He's a young Art Hindle. He'll hate me for saying that.

Well, you know what, that's it. You give me Art Hindle vibes. I'm a little six years behind him, I guess. You give me Art Hindel vibes. So there's a big name for you. He's a great guy. I love him. Yeah, I don't know.

Why hasn't he been on Toronto, Mike? Because of the Avi Federer Green hookup, I'm going to get Avi to make that go. I produce Avi's podcast. He's got a podcast called Unleashed. I also produce Ralph Ben Mergi's podcast, not that kind of rabbi. Yeah, yeah. Which is also great. I love the name, too, by the way.

Yeah. Yeah, well, he named it. I would take credit for it in a heartbeat if I did that. So him. It is a perfect Ralph Benmergy title here. Okay, so I want to introduce somebody who's probably listening right now, wondering when the hell are you going to drop my name? I could just, I know he's like, he's like Mike.

I'm looking at the clock here. It's 17 minutes since you started recording, and I haven't heard my name yet. So before you say the name, I'm going to play. So I played Santa Jaws. Oh, before I wrap up Santa Jaws, the B side, It's better than the A-side. I love the B-side.

Shark canals. Why don't you sing along? Silent night, holy white, shark he bite. Shark he bite. Round the ocean he swims o'clock. Swahy hand of and shy eating ever

How shocked were you guys When this was a hit in this country Very shocked, actually Who knew? We're just doing it. We actually put out a couple. We had one called Disco Tech, which is an anti-disco record,

which is funny. You end up blowing up the school with an atomic bomb called Disco Tech. Okay. And what was the other one? Eat your heart out, you too. Yeah, the other one had to do with CB, CB Santa was the other one. Oh, because convoy and everything is a big thing.

Of course. We got a great big convoy. Of course, of course. Back to the 70s here. Okay, so I wanted to play the B-side, but here's a song. You're ready for this one? The B-side's hysterical. I mean, it gets better and better as it goes on.

And this was with a real choir and a small orchestra with cellos and things. Okay. But no crunching. But no crunching. No crunching in that one. Okay. But are you involved at all on that B-side? Less so.

I don't think so. I can't remember. There may be voices on it, yeah. Okay, well, let's get to this show. Ladies and gentlemen, the star bizarre, John Beiner. So John is melting words, but there's no volume. Oh, fix the fucking day. John just had a birthday recently, too.

Can I guess? We must be approaching 90. Where are we at with John? No, I don't think he's that. Oh, 85, maybe? Yeah, he's probably mid-80s early. 80s, I talked to him years ago and I thought he was like mid-80s. He's a genius. I'll tell you one thing. I've worked with a lot of people in my life. And,

and, you know, live television is hard, even if it's just live to tape as opposed to live to air. Right. John is the only guy, and so a master at it. Like, you kind of have to make up your mind. You're either on the cue cards. Like, it's a four camera set up. So there's four sets of cue cards, right? You're either on the cue cards or you're not on the cue cards. Because if you get caught halfway in between, you really mess up. John Biner is the only guy ever worked with who could be on the card. He went through a million words a week, right? He could be on the cards and still improvise with you.

Whatever you were doing, he totally saw, understood, and could play with. It's absolutely genius. So before we proceed too long talking about bizarre in a certain hairstylist who connected us here, okay? Gary. What was your role with you? bizarre. I was part of the company. And you don't get that anymore either. We had a company of, I guess, a half a dozen actors or so, maybe eight who could cover sort of any scene, any quality. I was the, you know, tall, good-looking guy. Of course. I announce her type too. Right, because I was too young to

have that role. So it, and it was a company feeling. So every week, you'd rehearse all week, you'd work, you take them apart, they'd rewrite them back and forth. And it was a real company. You do eight hours, day kind of thing. Down here, actually, down where near your studio is over on Lake Shore. Oh, really? Yeah. And then you...

Like, do you know Lake Shore and what? Like, do you remember? Oh. But down, like, is it Mimico or is it New Toronto? Do you remember any of this or Long Branch? I think west of New Toronto. Okay. So that would be Long Branch.

Somewhere in there. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Interesting. There was a little place on the lake and it was just a big hall and we kind of hung into that. Oasis?

It was a blast. It was a place? I don't remember. It was like the, Just a little place down the bottom of a street. I need these details, Barry. I know, man. Well, it's been a long time.

I'm getting old now, you know. So this company, you were part of this company, and whenever John Beiner and the bizarre people were doing their skits or whatever and they needed a handsome guy, you come in and you would be the handsome guy. Yeah, or various other characters. All I remember are the hot chicks. There's hot chicks? I'm trying to remember.

I guess I just blocked out the handsome guys. All I remember are so many skits around attractive buxum. Well, you know, and that would have to do with Bob. Einstein, who was the producer of the Super Dave. Of course. And, yeah, he had an interesting relationship to women. Well, you know, on this program, do you know the guitarist Leona Boyd? Oh, sure.

She came on. She would come on, right? She was beautiful. Well, she told him a story. I won't repeat it. He's no longer with us, Bob Einstein, but would sort of confirm your point about Bob and women. Bob is one of a kind. I've never, ever met anyone even.

remotely like him for good and for bad. And then later in his life, he had a resurgence on curb your enthusiasm. Yeah, absolutely. With that voice of his, yeah, exactly. You can probably do it. And his brother, of course, was born Albert Einstein. Yeah. Albert Einstein.

Yeah, that's a good name. He called your son, huh? Who knew, right? And Albert Brooks might be my favorite all time. You know, I'm a Big Simpsons fan. And the greatest guest appearances on the Simpsons are Albert Brooks. He's tremendous. Another genius.

I mean, really, absolute genius. No argument here. Okay, so, by way, I want to just tell the listenership and you, Barry, that there is a John Biner episode of Toronto Mike. So I had John on. He was also via Zoom, and we had a great chat about all of this. It sounds to me like Super Dave Osborne became such a popular character. It almost outshone bizarre, like, bizarre and John Biner, which I used to watch. And I loved ice watch on WUTV.

Yeah. Out of Buffalo. We shot at CTV. Agent Court. Yeah. CFTO. At that time, that was the biggest studio in North America. North America.

I mean, we talk a lot about Uncle Bobby. He was recording there. I did another show out of there, too. Which one? Downright Disco. Oh, I don't even remember. Okay. He ran for one year.

Okay. We did five live acts a night. So this is a weird story. The producer, his name is Skid. escapes me right now as always. But anyway, he hunted me down because I had this Annison commercial on the air as the first spokesman for Anison on there. And he said, that's the guy I won this way. And so he came and he found me, he took a while and he found me. Was it Jim McKenna? Yes, Jim McKenna. Thank you very much. I'm here to bail you out.

Thank you very much. Wow. Fabulous guy, beautiful. 1978. And so he offered me the job. I said, listen, if this is groovy guys and giles, I'm not doing it. We just put out discotheque, which was an anti-disco record. Right, right. He said, No, no, no.

He says, We want to take this seriously. This is five live acts a night. And you're the segue in between. So, and okay. So the set that I'm in is this spaceship hovering above the set.

Right. With huge tannoy speakers behind me, gigantic. Oh, my God. So when they crank the music, I just bought went deaf. And we would shoot from eight in the morning until like midnight.

And it was live. And you're the host. And I'm the host. Ladies gentlemen, please. Oh, so I got another offshoot for you. Yeah. So some years later, I get a call from Brian Adams' biographer. Okay, biographer.

Okay. And he says, now, Brian says he was never on downright disco. I said, well, that's not true. He was there. And he was like 17 years old. I said, I remember it very distinctly, and I'll tell you the story. Yeah. Nobody had ever heard of him.

we'd done he was just a kid right he was skinny little kid in these leather pants and we had just done a whole day it was like midnight and they were going to jam this kid in it we're going to do one more and everybody's exhausted so they put some dancers around them they put some smoke out and everything else and he hands me this thing he says we're going to go on five okay he has me a page intro to this kid okay so i got to learn this here we go on the spot exhausted So I go, and they, and so the cameras are big cranes way up in the air to shoot me, and the tanoys roll, and the sound is rolling out, and I'm doing this whole intro, and I go right down to, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, Brian, Adam.

And like an idiot, I went z at the end. You tacked it on. And you're, and everything grinds to a halt. It was six takes later that I finally got that. intro to Brian Adams. So yeah, he was on that show. Yeah, people forget the disco origin story of Brian Adams,

you know, before run to you and all that. Before Jim Valence, I guess. Amazing talent. Interesting talent. But that was Studio 7 up at CFTO. That huge, huge, huge place. Just like Mom recorded up there. We should just name check all the great thing.

Do you remember this? This was Fergie Oliver, Paul Berford production. Yeah, I do remember. Okay. Okay. But Uncle Bobby was the big one that gets referenced on this show a lot because of, you know, this is sort of a Gen X, uh, nostalgia house.

And, uh, and Uncle Bobby, man, we just had Kevin Newman over here, who was a longtime news guy in this country. Oh, yeah, sure. I remember him. He was like, as four years old, he was on Uncle Bobby doing something about safety or whatnot. But, uh, okay. And so, so any stories that come to your mind, I believe Uncle Bobby, I believe when they

film, uh, what is it? I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. that film. Broadcast News? No, network. Those two titles are two days. That was shot as the FTO in that studio as well. Right, exactly, exactly.

And around the corner of this filming is Uncle Bobby, apparently, Bob Ash. So much history there. Okay, and late great newscaster who is a Ted Gibney. Ted Gibney. I know the name, yes. He's no longer with us either, but he apparently is in that film. Absolutely. And back to,

bizarre, which we've had for six years. Because we haven't really talked about the guy who connected us who we're going to get to. So, Gary, if you're listening, it's coming in a moment, but more. Gary Chowen, that's what I was going to bring up right now. This guy's been cutting my hair since 1978. And it looks fantastic. Thank you. Okay.

So Gary's a great friend of the show. He puts, he'll recommend people for Toronto Mike. And I just book them, even if I never heard of them, because I trust Gary knows the show and he knows who can be a great guest. And he's batting a thousand. So if your episode goes well, he'll keep that batting average. Has Gary been on your show? 100%.

Yeah, I was going to say, because there's a guy that can tell a story. Oh, my God. The Gary Chowan's stories on this show are legendary. He was amazing on this show, you know, for Sharon Moore, right?

Well, he is legendary, because that whole look of share that we all know with the bangs and the four-foot-long straight hair, he created that. So Gary, there you go. It's now quid pro quo, okay? I've got Barry on the show,

and we've given much love to Gary Chowen, but I have nothing but love. Gary. Gary and I have the same birthday. Like a year or just the date? October 6th. October 6th. I think I'm a year older.

Okay. That's amazing coincidence. Which we didn't find out for like 25 years. So you're on Bazaar. We've already touched on a couple of things here. We're building up, but there is a tidbit I've got to ask you about. True or false. Did you date Margot Kidder?

For a long time. Okay. The late great Margo Kidder, what a, I mean, Lois Lane, but Black Christmas, everything. How did you score, Margo? Because you were handsome. I turned to remember when we met. We just hit it off. Oh, I know.

I know. She was having some real problems on the West Coast. She had an accident on set and lost her teeth and stuff. Oh, no. And at the time, I was president of Actra. And so she called me up and asked me how to proceed and this and that. Oh, and then you said, sure, but you got to date. Welcome to the 70s.

So that was a few conversations on the phone and stuff. And then I forget where we actually met. Oh, I know. No, back to Fred Mullen. Fred Mullen set up a dinner and unbeknownst to me invited Jeannie. Oh, sorry. Okay, you're confusing. Wrong woman.

I'm sorry. Which woman is that, though? You dated Jeannie Becker. Cheene Becker. Okay, because that photo of her in the bikini top at that festival, that's iconic. It is indeed. Wait a minute. So you dated Margot Kidder and Jeannie Becker?

Yes. Not at the same time. Okay. Well, no judgment from me, Barry. Listen, I don't judge my guests or whatever. So who did you date first? Margie. Before she was Lois Lane.

Am I right? No, after. That's even more impressive. After. See? One of the most amazing women I've ever met in my life. I can't say enough about her. I just loved her.

Sing her praises for a bit. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home, no longer with us, but one of the great Canadian actresses. She, what a brain. She was one of the smartest people I ever met. And talk about commitment. if she got into some cause that she thought was important.

Right. And she put her whole soul and life into it, which became a problem. She moved into the estates and stuff. And she actually ended up having to take out citizenship because they were going to kick her out of the country for her activism. Wow. Yeah, and stuff like that.

But land of the free, right? Yeah. Never met anyone. And she lived in Montana those days and visited there. And so he visited there. So just, I can't say enough. amazing one. We had one great date together. I think we're on and off together for about five years or something, but

we went to the, at the time I think it was the 25th anniversary of Saturday Night Live party at Rockville Center. So 25, 26 years ago? No, 25, 26 years ago. I think so, yeah. Yeah. And that was like one of the best parties ever, ever been to, you know. Okay, what stories do you got from that story? Well, you can tell them now, 26 years. All the sort of people you meet and stuff. I do remember Dan Aykroyd being there, because I remember Danny from way back when the first year global TV started,

they had a show called Everything Goes. And Homey Theater was the live to air improvisation team on television. They had everybody from Cab Calloway to God knows what. Anyway, Danny was one of the writers on that. And I remember spending time in a green room with him. He was just fretting and kind of pulling his hair and just going, should I stay here and should I go to New York? I want to say, yes, you should go to New York.

What are you talking about, you know? And he eventually did, and the rest is history. The rest is history. Okay, well, look at this. These are a great story. You know what, Gary, if you're still listening, kudos again. You did it. He said, I don't know anything.

I'm going to confess to you. I said it on the episode, my knowledge of Snooker is zero. A Snooker champion could knock on the door, and I'd be like, No thank you. I'm not, I'm not interested in whatever you're selling here. But Gary said, I'm sending over a Canadian snooker champion. This chap was amazing. Like, these are the kind of people he's sending over.

You, Fred Mullen, all these grades. So was it Larry? Which Mollin did I have? Larry Mullen, right? Fred you had. I'd Fred. Who still gets his haircut from Gary. He joins up from Nashville and have his haircut. That's a great.

That's how good Gary is. That story is unbelievable. If I were Gary Chowen, that would be my byline. Okay. You know, great. And again, if I have any missed memory of which mall and I have, it's because it was a Zoom. I don't retain memories of Zooms the way I retain memories of people visiting my basement studio. So I'm glad you drove here from Hamilton.

Yeah, that's understandable. I'd rather be in person for a conversation. Okay. I'm sorry you can't drink that Great Lakes I'm sending you home with, but maybe you have a friend or a neighbor who could enjoy fresh. Sure. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we have friends over all the time. Especially these days out in the backyard. Okay. You know what? I love, I just had a guest. His name is Cadence Weapon. He was here the other day. He's a...

Another great name. Caden's Weapon, though, a fake name. You think? Roland is his real name. Why would you change it if you had a name like Roland? But he was from Edmonton, but he now lives in Hamilton because he also got priced out of the Toronto real estate market. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, I was renting at the time. and I'd rented this house for 20 years. And then they, because the prices were going through the ceiling,

they up and sold it. And it was time to go. Oh, geez. And I was like, and I don't want to find some, you know, one room apartment for $3,000 a month. So we started looking around, my wife and I, and I found a great place in Hamilton. And I'm surrounded by all kinds of actors from Toronto,

Ralph's, just a number of blocks away kind of thing. I think all of our, creative people are now headed, most of them are headed to Hamilton. Like it's a really, a serious problem. I don't want to be left with the investment bankers. Like,

you know what I mean? Like, I loved the Ralph Ben Murgies, the Barry Flatmans. These are the characters I want in my city. Well, that's an interesting point. I mean,

I love Toronto. The Cadence weapons. I moved to Toronto in 1970. And I moved to Hamilton 11 years ago. And in between that was a lot of life in Toronto. And I, I loved the city. I really did. I loved everything about it.

But as, as Ralph said, I think in your last podcast, it got too big. Like the sort of design, the structural design of the city is not built for three or four or five million people. And so I don't even drive into Toronto anymore. I mean, I drove into your place because it's on the outskirts. Oh, yeah. I'm in the west end. Yeah, the west end. Yeah.

It's a little different. You don't have to go through the core. But the rest of the time I take terrain in now because I can't cut it anymore. Don't blame it at all. And I used to be the guy to get through the city anywhere in five minutes. Like I even had a mini at one point. I could literally park behind a garbage can. So I love the city.

But you can't do that anymore. You can't get anywhere in under 40 minutes. Well, when I ask people like Ralph, any regrets, they very quickly tell me no regrets. They love Hamilton. Oh, without question. I think we're going to rename the show Hamilton Mike. Like, it feels like it's all.

Hamilton, the East. Any Tom Wilson story? Even Bruce McCullough. I met him in Hamilton. He's hanging out there. I've met Tom a number of times because I'm involved with Theater Aquarius and Hamilton, which an incredible theater company. That's where I saw, It's a Good Life If You Don't Weekend and bumped into Bruce McCullough.

That's correct. That's right. So can I blow your mind? You finish that thought on Theater Aquarius, though, because I loved, I've seen two things there now because I saw the Tom Wilson thing. Yeah. And I love that. And then I was invited back for It's a Good Life if you don't weekend.

And both times, I'm like. It's worth the drive to Hamilton. It certainly is. It certainly is. That theater does great work. I mean, really great work. Life is great if you don't weaken. Yeah, it's a good life if you don't weaken.

Yeah, it was all the tragically hip music, but the story had nothing to do with tragically hip. So the brilliance of it was this story was really compelling about an immigrant coming and trying to survive in Canada and all that. But they, and it wasn't. It wasn't even like the soundtrack he was listening to or any of that sort of direct stuff. They used portions of the songs to illustrate what was going on in the scenes. It was brilliant.

I thought it was brilliant as well. The only link that you could really detect is that he was in Kingston, Ontario. Yeah. Like that's the only link is that he's in Kingston, Ontario. And oh yeah, the hip are from Kingston, Ontario. Here, let me blow your mind. So during the intermission, when I saw It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weekend at the Theater Aquarius, a couple of things were going on.

One is Tom Wilson promised me he was going to introduce me to Bruce McCullough because I wanted him on Toronto Mike. So I was invited during intermission. There was a party that you go upstairs. And then because I took my daughter to this show because she's into musical theater. And there was all you can eat cookies. And she was in heaven. Like my youngest daughter, I should point out, in heaven with this all you can eat cookies.

But I'm there because I want to meet Bruce. But then I look over and I say, oh, there's Jane Eastwood. She's been on the show too, but she's zoomed in. She's a damn good friend. Well, this is going to blow your mind where I'm going with this. I would have met you there that night. You know what? I had no...

Except Montreal was playing. Sorry. I go to the openings, but Montreal was playing that night. Oh, yeah. But, okay, the Habs? The Habs, indeed. Okay. My daughter lives in Montreal.

There you are. That's a Toronto Mike bingo. Another, not the cookie-loving daughter. There's a lot of daughters I play here, but the cookie-leaving daughter does not live in Montreal. She lives right here. Okay, so here's where I'm going to this. So I chatted up Jane Eastwood because she had come on my show via Zoom.

We talked about her Toronto Mike debut. We had a good chat. And she says to me, and I didn't believe it, but it must be true, because Jane Eastwood said, she said, Mike, I don't know a single tragically hip song. She goes, I am completely unfamiliar with their music. And she goes, I am loving this show. But two things.

One is, first of all, that speaks to how, even if you never heard of the tragically hip, the story transcends. Like, it's just a beautiful. Without question, yeah. But is it possible Jane Eastwood could be completely unfamiliar with all tragically hip songs, despite the fact she lives in? Yeah. How is that possible?

I mean, I know a few, but I was not a hip fan. I didn't really care about them. But you even know a few? I know a couple. You know courage. Sure. Yeah, of course. Couldn't come.

Bob Cajun. You know Bob Cajun. Exactly. But also, but I'm of a certain generation. And Jane is a couple years old than me. So it's possible. Okay, well, Jane, I take back of those comments I thought you were pulling my leg there. But Jane, but here's what?

You ready for the mind below? I mentioned a bunch of shows. produce. Okay. Another show I produce is for a gentleman. This is going to blow

your mind. You're sitting down? His name is Joel Greenberg. Oh, yeah. Have you ever heard this name? Sure. I've worked with him.

So Joel Greenberg has a podcast called Life and Stages. And we've been talking lately because we're going to batch record episodes for the new season. So he sent me a list

of all the guests because we're going to record these things in. So he comes here. So he'll sit where you are and I sit here and the guests typically they zoom in.

But sometimes they're in person. But basically we're going to record in August September of this year, all the episodes for the new season. So he sends me the list. I'll be doing one. I just booked it this morning.

Yeah, this is what I'm saying. I got this list from him yesterday and I wrote him back. So Jane Eastwood's on the list. And I said, oh, I just chatted her up at theater Aquarius. But then I go, mind blow, Joel. Barry is in the basement tomorrow. Like, I got this list yesterday. You're on the list.

So you're going to be on life and stages of Joel Greenberg. Yeah, September. I think we're, or 10th we record. Because my wife and I are going camping all summer because we're... Where do you camp? We're going up to Killarney, which is one of the most... I love camping up Clarnie. That was my spot, and my kids fell in love with Pinery.

So I've been doing this Piner. I'm going to be back to me. Totally different. Totally different. I love Calarney. Yeah. And we're going to there for two weeks. We just spoke that yesterday, too, the second week.

And then we're going down to Kill Bear. Yeah, that's a great spot, too. My nickname, by the way, is Bear. Yeah. Okay, well, Barry, Bear, Bear. I'm catching on here. Okay, so mine blows left right and center here, but I love to see you on that list.

And then we're going to Newfoundland, because there's a writer's festival out there. I've been going to for almost 30 years. Is that the Woody Point? Woody Point. Do you know who organizes that? That's where I met my wife, Stephen. Stephen Brunt.

Stephen Brunt. Has he been running a show? Many times. Absolutely. He's a dear friend of mine. See, Hamilton's a cool place, man. Well, Stephen Brunt is, so when I think of Hamilton, the same people I think of,

Brunt's on that list. So there's going to be Tom Wilson. Brunt, coming from Grimsby, I know Dave Hodge is going to be there. I love Dave. And Dave and Stephen are like thick as thieves. Yeah, they still get together for those brunches. And yeah, they are. They're still dear friends.

They're both music lovers. That's where I met my wife. What do you point? Unbelievable. Because I'd broken up with Jeannie a year before. Okay, so let's do this. Let's do the love life of Barry Flathen. Okay.

How did you meet Jeannie Becker? And at what point are we talking about here? Is this fashion television's Jeannie Bech? Is this the new music's Jeannie Becker? Same. Same, same woman. Well, same woman, but like which era? Oh, God, that's a good.

I am chronologically challenged. Okay, okay. Well, are we talking 80s? No. No, no. No, no. 90s. Turn of the century.

Okay, this is fashion television, Jeannie Becker. Okay, so. Definitely fashion television. Well, because, okay, Jeannie Becker. So Freddie had a dinner with his wife and stuff and invited me. We have dinners all the time. And there was Jeannie. It was a setup.

Wow. And we got talking. And we got talking and hit it off. And then we had two more dates where we met at, what's it called on Danforth? Isn't that crazy? It used to be my old haunt for decades. Alan. Alton.

Allens. Thank you very much. I rely on my wife now. She's my memory. Only because Ian Thomas and Murray McLaughlin, there's a group. They call themselves Lunch at Allens because they used to. to meet for lunch at Allen. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And Dorquillo's next door, although I think it's called something else. They renamed it. Yeah. Yeah.

Anyway, so we went there, we went there and met twice and had two lunches and talked about why this may or may not happen. And stuff. And we agreed upon the fact that we should start seeing each other and see what happens. And I think it went five or six years.

Wow. Yeah. Okay. That's another FOTM. So you're tied to all these friends of Toronto, you're now an FOTM yourself. And for, guy who doesn't, I was not looking for anybody in that sense, right?

It was just like this sort of magic happened, you know. Okay, well, geez, Jeannie Becker still looks amazing. Totally. I haven't seen her a long time, but... Well, I've fallen on Instagram. She's always showing off these bathing suit shots. Oh, no, okay. Going into the hot tub, sure.

She knows what's going on. She had her butt with cancer and stuff, too, so, you know, she's a hero. Yeah, absolutely, a big fan of Jeannie Becker. Okay, so we're coming here. So have we given enough love to Gary Chowen? Like, will he be satisfied? I think so, yeah. Okay, okay.

Okay, because I got to talk to you about a few other things. But then again, you know the vibe of the show now. Like, if something hits your head that you think I'd be down with, you've got to drop it. Like, you can't be holding on to details. Like, I dated Jeannie Becker for five years. I'll give you the great story of how I met my wife. Her name.

We were in Woody Point. Yeah. It was a year after I broke up with Jeannie. And Jeannie was there, too. So a lot of it was still kind of awkward and strangeness going on. But I clearly was not looking for anybody. It was completely disinterested. It takes place in the little fishing village.

And they have this old, what was an Orangeman Hall. So it's 120, 130 years old that was refurbished by this Charlie. Amazing guy who refurbished the whole thing. And that's what started the whole festival. So jump 25 years later, whatever it is. And so this beautiful hall, and the first night, it's always a band of some kind. And so, and they can shoehorn maybe 200 people into this. And the stage is about three feet high.

So the immediacy with the performers, it's phenomenal. And it's a writer's festival. So people are there for the words. So they're really listening. It's quite something. So it's packed. It's five minutes to eight. The show's going to start.

I'm keeping this empty seat for David Ferry, a dear old friend of mine, the last hundred years who's from Newfoundland but had never been there to this festival if you can imagine so I finally talked to him into coming so I'm saving the seat for him and he hasn't arrived yet right and everybody's looking at the seat because it's thought and I get this tap on my shoulder tap tap tap tap tap I turn around she goes excuse me is this seat taken and it was like like in the movies just it was love it for sight yeah it was like and feel bolt of light I'm just going, well, it is now.

Only with that voice. What could she do? And she sat down and we started talking and we've been together ever since. I love that story. And I love it's at Woody's point, which comes up. Well, Brunt comes over quite a bit. And we always talk about the amazing one year Gore Downey from the Tragically Hip. I was there that year.

I met him. Yeah. I'm jealous, man. Wow. So many great Canadian songwriters and singers have made the trek to Woody's point. I think it was Joel Plaskin was playing that night. Love Joel Plaskin. And so ours was, oh, what's the name of that song?

He sang this song that night and it became our song. Fashionable people. No. Because that's too close to. Can I go nowhere with you? Okay. That was our themes. That became our theme song.

You know what you did? Tell me. Stephen's daughter told him that we had met and that we're a big item. He recorded it personally on a little cassette and sent it to us. My God. the kind of guy, Joe. So the aforementioned Avi Feddergreen. He produced a movie called One Week

with Jeremy Jackson. But in that movie, he put musicians in the movie including Gore Downey, M. Griner, making her debut on the screen, and Joel Plaskett. I love this guy. He's like a pure essence.

He is music, right? To me, you push the button and it just comes pouring out of him. And that's so connected to his soul and who he is. I've only ever met him. He's a Maritimer. He's all sweethearts, you know.

He's beautiful. Shout out to Sloan. He was in Thresh Hermit, as I recall, which was a big Halifax, it's a concern. Okay, I went to the live stream because you are live at live. totronomike.com,

whether you know it or not, Barry. And Chris Ward, not the much music, Chris Ward, who would have worked of Jeannie Becker, who was doing like rapid facts, I think, or something, at much music,

if I remember correctly. But he points out that John Biner is turning 88, this. Oh, so you're right. He is close to that. Push a 90. I knew he was like mid-80s when I talked to him, and I knew that was a few years ago. I talked to him every year on his birthday, but I missed it this year. Sharp as a tack, right? Oh, yeah. God. So, this guy, you know he got to start? So he's in New York, and he's completely broke, and he's got kids.

And he's walking by some comedy store, and he sees this, you know, an open mic auditioned 50 bucks. and he went in and won the competition for 50 bucks because he had to feed, literally had to feed his kids. And it's another great story about him. So we come out of the studio one night after shooting. It's pouring rain. I mean one of those downpours, right? And somebody, this woman, I can't remember who it was,

her tire was flat. He pops open the trunk, gets the thing. He had that tire off and the other one on in like three minutes flat in the pouring rain. Renaissance man. He's like back. truck driver. And when it comes to flats,

we would think flatman would be the guy you call here. Barry Flatman. Flatman. You should start a side business. The curbside help if you get a flat tire. Or it could be for cyclists too. You know,

I do a lot of biking, and nothing's worse than pop in that tube on a bike on bike ride. I had a flat tire last week. I haven't had one in like 50 years. I bought the special tires, because I got tired of it. I do a lot of riding. It was nothing's worse than being like,

I don't know, 50K from home and the tire pops. It's like, oh, great. But it's like the first. first five millimeters, it's like, protects you for five millimeters. These special tires, they're like, uh, puncture proof. Oh, so you can keep going. You basically, you can run over like a little bit of glass and maybe the side of a nail,

all that crap that you run over and it won't get to the tube to pop it. So you will be safe. Anyway, this is a, just thrown out there, these are punctureproof tires you can buy. But there's another comment and we're going to get to a couple of your, um, acting gigs that might be best remembered. but St. Catherine's Chris, shout out to St. Catherine's Chris. He says, wow, I remember Barry from the soap opera Family Passions.

Yeah. Wow. He goes, that show had a fantastic cast. But I don't know, I'm not a big soap opera guy. My mom watched another world, and I grew up with another world in the house. This is what I remember looking back 40 years or whatever. But what can you tell me? This is called Passions or Family Passion.

Family Passions. It's a German-Canadian co-production, so half the cast were. German. And we started from scratch. This was not a show I got hired on to go do. We started episode one. And we had like eight leads in it. When you get rocking, you need like 24. So we were each doing 38, 48, 48 pages a day. Okay. So we would do a 94 page completed hour every day. It was insane. So you lived with this script crunched in your hand. Oh, yeah, it was insane.

But after, so that's some of the hardest work I've ever done in my life. Oh, I bet. But because of improvisation, once you get going in it and get in sync, you're carrying the whole thing. I played this guy. I forget, what was it? Oh, McDeer. Connor McDeer.

He was a one-legged ex-race car driver with a drinking problem. Okay. Yeah. And so the first. self you tell me. So the first scene is my wife chasing me down the huge staircase. You know, the mansion staircase. Oh, is it like a spiral?

Almost. But no. Yeah, I can see it. Huge one. On one leg. Because I have my leg tied up behind me. And she's got my prosthetic. So I'm chasing her on one leg down this 50-step stairs, chasing her around the living room.

Eventually, I'd tackle her onto the couch. That's how I started with that. I also tore my knee at that time and had a knee operation years later. I now have two replaced knees and two replaced hips. But anyway, that was the start of it. Oh, wow. They could rebuild you. Yeah, pretty much.

So the studio was set up. It's like a thousand feet long. And you'd start, and my set, my house set was at the end. And we start there every morning. And you literally work your way down this huge studio set by set until it was all completely. It's 10 o'clock at night, and then you start back the next day at this other one, at my house, right?

So as hard as you want to work, I'll tell you, it's like a factory. It's absolutely a factory. So where was I going on with this? What are you talking about just family? Family passions, yeah.

Because I didn't even know about that particular show. You have such a lengthy, you know, IMDB page. It's pretty damn long. But can I play a clip of something that I think a lot of people know you from? Let me just play this. It's like 43 seconds.

But let me tell you something that I know for sure. No sentence I gave him, not 500 years, not even death, nothing. We'll take your pain away. And vengeance doesn't solve anything. It only makes the pain greater, Jeff. Okay, there's a little taste of a little film called Saw Three. Saw Three, man. Okay, talk to me about Saw Three.

Well, first of all, the intensity of saw one was like here, a foot high. And then the intensity of saw two was like two feet high. And the sensitivity of saw three was 12 feet high, right? Through the ceiling, literally. It was so intense. And that's a low ceiling, so it's easy to get through that. So I auditioned for this thing on Friday morning on the floor, literally on the floor of the producer's office at like 9 o'clock in the morning, screaming and doing all this stuff. Yeah.

They informed me that afternoon that I had the job. The script, my scene, scenes arrived on Sunday. And I had to sign for every page. Every page had my name on it. And, you know, and I had to sign every page. If you had rewrites that came in, you'd sign the pages back and sign in the new pages coming to you. So there's no spoilers or anything.

And I shot the thing on Monday morning. Wow. But the first day. And the first day was this. that scene. So imagine, I'm chained by my throat to the floor of a vat in an abattoir.

And there are spewing thousands of gallons of rotten maggoty hog guts. Right. They, they, they eviscerate the hogs and then spew it all over me.

To the point of drowning, there's a shot where my nose is sticking up above the slop with bones floating around and everything else with real live maggots crawling on my nose. I kid you not. Oh my God. Yeah.

Okay. You know what? I was going to say, I got to keep the Palma Pasta mentions away from the maggots there. I'm not okay. That's okay. But this is like, I feel like once you have a memorable role in a Saw movie, you can go to comic cons for the rest of your life, right? Like, I feel like you're in with that diehard genre horror.

I once made $10,000 or $15,000 one day signing pictures. Yeah. It's unbelievable. in Philadelphia as it was. I'll bet. Like, okay. It was so intense. And so, and here's the other thing.

So you find on the wide shots and everything, all these chains on my throat and everything, right? Yeah. And they're literally, you know, the size of a, like a cement mixer. That's how much is coming, barreling down on these shoots and hitting me all the time. Yeah. So once you get closer than the wide shots,

you can see that it's all kind of fake stuff on my neck. And it was not believable. So they eventually actually chained me down. I can't believe I allowed this. So it was like, you really got to keep your shit together because it's going to take them a couple of minutes to get you out. And I'll lock this thing and get it off it. It feels like this is more of a documentary than a fictionalized horror series here.

It's insane. And so the director who shall remain unnamed and I will never work with it again. Well, people can search it up right now. Oh, probably. He decided to, I don't know if he, what he wanted, like a more naturalistic, authentic response to hog guts. Yeah. Having me, basically, they would send the suit down and I get hammered.

And once I get hammered with this, I can't see because it's all glycerin and glop and stuff and I can barely breathe. Unbeknownst to me, they sent another one down in the middle of the scene. and it hit me without knowing. I didn't have time to breathe. You didn't know this was coming. I'm literally drowning. Like, are you okay?

I feel like you're going to need therapy after this. Yeah. So they dove in, they cut the chains off and dragged me out and everything else. And it was down tools for a while. Nobody would work because of it. It was quite the time. Anyway. Well, no wonder you won't name this director.

He's a sadal masochist. It's just one of those things. I don't know. You kind of chalk it up to it was a good idea at the time. but, you know. Okay, that's 20 years ago that they came out. So that took 16 hours to shoot in that slop. And every couple hours, they drag me out because I couldn't feel my body anymore.

It's stone cold. Take everything off. Throw me into a shower until I got my body back again. Put another set of clothes on and then put me back in the slop again. It can't be good for your heart. But I don't die there. That's not where I die. I die by accident.

But that's another story. So back to Philadelphia. Wait, that's not your death scene? That's not my death scene. No, that's when you meet me. But do you amp it up for the death scene? Like, where do you go from there? He's this judge.

Yeah, you're a judge. Well, yeah, but I did. That was the guy talking there. Very, yeah. So now we're in Philadelphia, right, doing the signings and all I can. So we're having a press conference with all these press people. And, oh, no. Yeah.

And so I'm at this table signing autographs and pictures and taking pictures of stuff. And this guy walks up with my shirt and my tie. Oh. He bought it. They sold it. it. Oh, the actual. Not a replica. The actual. I had about, I don't know, eight I used during the day. Well, okay, I think a third time I've mentioned Avi Federgrain, but he talks about how

if you want to get a movie made, you've got to make a horror movie in this country now because I guess they're, and they're fanatical. Even the movie theaters are seeing an uptick in people actually buying a ticket and going for this genre. Horror movies are basically the genre that seem to still work. All of the saw movies, and they did about 10 of them were shot in Toronto. I did, because of the cruise here. I did once bike through ATN Brulet Park by the Humber River and saw it. I saw they had like a mock cemetery, and I was like, what are we doing here?

And they were filming a saw. Yeah. I got another saw story. Okay, give me another saw story. So I have my knees replaced. Right. And a year later, I'm trekking in the Himalayas. Okay.

And I'm climbing up to base camp. Anna-Purner is about 16,000 feet or something. It takes seven days to climb there. Right. So each night you'd stay at this place called tea houses. They're like these little stone houses that have these little cubicles with a cot in it where you can sleep in a night, freezing cold. Right. But you have dinner around this elliptical table with eight or ten people, other people trekking and stuff.

So people from around the world, there's like, there's six languages being spoken at this table and all that. And this one guy keeps looking at me and looking at me. me and finally he go is there something he says are you an actor i went okay yes were you in saw three oh you're kidding he said it just opened in Beijing oh he's from china he's from china and we're on the top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere like is that the most uh like is that the most interesting place that you were recognized because i bet you people recognize you in public yes that happens that's the good part of the job because you do all this stuff and it goes into the camera, and then there's this huge process that goes on.

And then it comes, you know, pouring out onto a screen somewhere. And so somebody coming up to you and going, oh, I loved what you did there and what is the completion of the dialogue, right? Right. Can I ask you about so you've done a lot again, but we're going to cover a couple of quick hot spots here. But I am good friends with Gere Joyce, and Gere Joyce wrote the book. I think he called them some G.

G.B. Joyce, when you wrote this book, the code book, whatever. But they made a show about this book, this character called Prize. Private eyes. I ask Gary. I said, hey, Gary's coming over. This is what Gare wrote, you, okay? I copied and pasted it.

Nice guy. Shade's dad in the novels is based on my boyhood buddy's dad, who was the top dog in Toronto's mounted division and coach of the cop hockey team. So that he gave me a little insight into the character

that Shade's dad is based on. Shade, of course, is Jason Priestley, right? Yeah, absolutely. So 902 and O's own Jason Priestley. And 90210 was. produced by Larry Mullen, who is Fred's brother. Right.

Okay, everything comes full. I've got to get later on. Okay. But you played Dawn Shade in Private Eyes. Can you tell me a bit about that? Yeah, that was, that was a lot of fun. We did about six seasons of that, actually. But they rebooted it, right?

Like in L.A. or something? No, in my hometown, Victoria. Okay. But is it plain L.A.? No, it's playing Victoria. Okay, good, good. And I think they may be doing a, what do they call, a white lotus version of it.

I hope they do. Because it's basically just Jason and Cindy Sampson, right? The two of them. Right. And I guess they're now married. And so they're probably traveling the world. And so they're in Victoria and these murders happen and they solve them or something, right? So they could they could literally be in San Francisco next year.

Well, you know what you're reminding me of? Another show you were in. The littlest hobo. The littlest hobo. Yeah, I did. My brother just watched an episode of that on the web. and sent me a screenshot of me and of the logo and stuff. It's very funny.

Well, Mike Myers got his first acting gig, I think. I think a lot of people did. Because Gare is listening at home. So your character is not part of this reboot, this privatized reboot. No. That's too bad. Except for one scene. We shot a scene in Hamilton because they wanted videos from their wedding.

Oh, just to like, I see. But I just finished shooting this other movie. So what we have left, which is coming out, I think, in September of TIF, is about old hippies getting back together and seeing each other for the first time in 50 years. Well, my wife and I took most of the last year off. Okay. We were away for four months. I didn't even take my phone.

Really? You can imagine. Okay. What if Gary Chowen wanted to check in on you? That's life. I unplugged. Can you do that? Four months?

You did that? Yeah. Thailand. Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, New Zealand. Amazing. Landed in Muirayah, which is the island next to Tahiti, which is freaking paradise, man. It's just, we were going to stay there a couple of days and then travel around all the islands around there. We ended up staying six weeks.

It was heaven. Well, that does sound like heaven. It was absolute heaven. We had our own little bungalow with a full kitchen, and we had our own private beach. And, you know, there's a reef that goes all the way around the island. our part of it was 40 feet off the shore. So they had this perfect lagoon full of coral and sponges and fish of every color you imagine sharks going through every day. Not Santa Jaws.

No, not Santa Jaws. Different shirt. It was paradise. That was part of our trip was to find paradise. Anyway. So I didn't shave. So when I came back, the guy said the movie's back on because we tried to get it up to the year before. I had a beard and hair down to here

So it was a good old hippie Perfect Until we get two private eyes Having to shoot this one scene of their way And they said it's fine I don't know how they justified the beard And everything else Maybe they didn't

Maybe they just left it there Okay okay So you didn't have to shave it out Okay Well speaking of you know You described heaven on this four month journey That sounds amazing So you described heaven

So speaking of heaven I just want to give some love To Ridley funeral home Okay Pillars of this community since 1921. Barry, speaking of very good, this is a measuring tape from Ridley Funeral Home. Love it.

Thank you. What you wish. You know, because this business is definitely not about the money. It's about the perks. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, and since you can't drink the Great Lakes beer, you're lucky you got that and you got lasagna.

I'm loving this hop pop, though, man. It is good, right? Okay, Barry loves this hop pop. Take a note, Great Lakes Brewery. Hey, by the way, since I'm giving you stuff, I want to give you a book on the history of Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball. This is a free. baseball quality baseball you know it takes place at christie pitts have you been to a game in

yes a long time ago i loved it get your butt back to christie i know you're a hamilton man now you can't watch baseball in a better place ah i agree and uh how much did your ticket cost when you went to see them at christie is zero isn't that the best value in the entire country totally so much love to tronelamapleaves baseball you got that book there and uh make sure i saw my my buddy my son's buddy is gonna have his birthday party at Christy Pitts during a Leafs game. I think it's like July 17 or something. I'm like, maybe I can talk to the owner and see if they get like free signed baseballs or something.

I got to see what I can do. I'm going to work on that. But much love to them. Last but not least, recycle my electronics.c.c. Barry, if you have old electronics, old cables or devices, don't throw them in the garbage. Those chemicals will end up in our lines. You got them loaded up. But go to, seriously, take a note.

Recycle my electronics.c.c.c.a. Electronics.C. Go there, put in your postal code, and you can find it where you can drop all of that off to be properly recycled. Very good. Recycle my electronics. And I know I have this terrible habit of saying, last but not least,

and then doing another one. Like, that's a terrible habit I have. And I've been doing it more than ever because I want to give some love to Nick Iienes because he's got a podcast called Building Toronto Skyline and then another podcast with me called Mike and Nick, where we discuss what's going on in this crazy, crazy mad, mad world. and he stepped up to help fuel the real talk.

So thank you to Nick Aienis and Fusion Corp for stepping up. Okay, Barry, quick hits here. I could talk to you forever, but I just... Well, while you're talking about the Maple Leafs, the other Maple Leafs... New Coach. I'm a Montreal Canadiens fan because I grew up on the West Coast, and you had...

But how does that work? I thought, uh, you had a choice, so you just chose... The Habs. And it was only 16th and the Habs, and it was a pretty obvious choice, actually. Tell me why, because you hated Toronto? Because Montreal were fire wagon hockey. And, you know, from the age of five, Montreal won five.

Right. Stanley Cup's in a row. You can imagine, you know, did you watch the last series? Yeah. Tampa, or sorry, you know, Vegas against Carolina. Yeah. It's sensational. And how hard it is to win.

It's the hardest cup to win in the world. Right. You imagine winning five in a row. So they were great to watch. And the Leafs are kind of lunch pail guys. Anyway. Yeah. I got here in 1970.

By 1974, Larry Mullen, back to Larry again, and I got season tickets to the Leaves. Five bucks a piece they were at the time. Wow. Are these in the grays? And blues. Best seats in the house. Wow. Hanging off the wall, literally.

Yeah. I had them until last year. Really? Fifty-one years. What did that price increase look like? Oh, God. I think the average is closer to 200 a seat now. Okay, but you gave them up?

Yeah. You saw the window of closing, didn't you? For most of it, I had a partner, my friend Jeff Bronstine. We had the tickets for decades. They're still under El Mullen, I might add. Interesting. And then his son took over his share, and then I found a partner to take over half of my share. And now he's found a partner to take over half of his share.

So there's other people taking it, and then I just kind of stepped out. It still all goes through my website and things are. So last year, last season, you did not have your seasons. No. Okay. And they did not make the playoffs. I don't think that's a coincidence. Well, coming back last year, we were coming back from Moorrea.

And we were listening to the Leafs and Montreal in Moorrea. We listened to the games live. I'd get up at 7 in the morning or whatever it was that. Radio feed or television feed? Are you hearing Joe Bowen? Okay. Holy Maconaw. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

The greatest. He's retired now. He's retired now. man. Yeah, he's done. I can't imagine it. But anyway, so. It's going to do other things.

But I also thought the Leafs are playing so well. I thought it could happen that I get back from Moorrea and they're in the Stanley Cup finals. Right. And that would be the fitting end to 51 years. Right. Well, they didn't. Spoiler alert.

They haven't been in the Stanley Cup finals since 1967. That's a fact, Jack. Unbelievable. And I was born after 67. So I've never seen my hockey team. And you're spoiled with. Riches as a Habs fan. 24. Patrick Waugh.

I mean, you won twice. 86 you won. Then you went again in 93. I was hoping he ended up being the Leafs coach. But they've hired a pillar or something. Yeah, who was like an assistant? And when I saw the name, I'm like, who is this guy? Because I don't think he was even talked about. But, you know, Tortorella, Vegas said goodbye to Torts.

And I was thinking, do they fire him? Yeah. Is that interesting? So, interesting, right? He is a, his style is a little tough. to last. Ambraces, shall we say? Right.

But he got his team to game six, right? They lost the six, I guess. The Stanley Cup finals, and then he got pink slumped. He's done. Is that crazy? Interesting times. It's a tough world, man. It's a doggie dog world.

You're wearing milk bone underwear. I just thought to toss that in there. I toss it all in. So I'm back to being a Montreal fan full time now. I care about the Leafs. Well, you got an exciting team because I was in Montreal during, it was a terrible game. but game four was at the bell center and it was also my daughter's convocation

she graduated from McGill and I'm in Montreal and I was amongst the fans in that fan zone they have outside the bell center in fact I ate at La Caj or whatever it's called which is built into the Bell Center and I was like please I don't care I actually hate the Habs like I

I didn't want them to win any Stanley Cup this year but I wanted a goal because I wanted to be there when these thousands of Habs freaks I wanted to watch them explode okay So I'm like, just give me one goal. They didn't get close to scoring a goal. They lost 4-0-0 and it was a dismal effort.

And I'm like, oh, I've seen this movie before because I'm a Leafs fan. I've seen the Leafs in a big, big game in a second or third round, just completely disappear. And that's what the habit is. But that is a young team. It's an up-and-coming team and I'm jealous of you. You know, the one thing is harder than that? Paying 350, 450, $450, $550 bucks that seat to watch that. I always think, yeah, imagine you coughed out much more money than that and you got to see a four.

nothing and it was a terrible effort. Like there wasn't one time because I watched the game at this La Cajas. It was in French, actually. The first time I watched a game in French. Oh, yeah. It's very exciting to be there because the DJ plays during the breaks and then they put back on the audio of the French telecast. And I'm there of all the Habs fans.

And there wasn't a single moment in that entire game where I thought the Habs had a chance to score. Like there were no good scoring opportunities. And what point? In four, I think it was. So they were in the first Carolina. So they won the first game. Yeah.

Killed them. Yeah. And then this was game three. Because they went back to Montreal for game three. Yeah, okay. Because. Was it four? No, it was four.

It was four. I was going to say because they did two overtimes and they could have been up three. Nothing. You're 100% right. It was four. It was game four. So it was again, game four. I'm there and the rest is history.

The rest is flat, man. Okay. Here we go. Ready for quick hits here? Sure. I'm loving this very much. So we talked about the littlest whole. We talked about,

we talked about Saw 3, of course. We talked about a bunch of stuff. But quick hits on this. You were in the television series Fargo. Oh, yeah. What season was it and what character did you say? Season one, the first season. I loved season one.

It was incredible. Billy Bob, Fort. So you probably wouldn't recognize me because, here's the story. So I read for the father, you know, the woman cop, who was one of the lead. She was great.

With what's the name, Hank's Colin. Colin. Her father, I read for him. Okay. And that went to, what's his name?

Anyway. Someone else. And then they came back and said, no, they want you to read for this guy. His name is, uh, uh,

Walt Semenco. Okay. And he's this being, like Dave Semenco. Uh, like Dave Semenco. Exactly. He's this huge hulking guy.

He could kill people with his bare hands. He's, the head of security for um for this guy in the in the in the show and and so i'm reading it and it's and here's the description wally is massive if wally were hit by a truck the truck would go to the hospital built like a brick shit house what do they want with me i'm 510 190 right Right, Mr. Average Canadian. No, no, they really want you. They think you'd be perfect for them.

Okay. So I go into audition and I go in the room and there's two guys in the room. One of them, both, one of them was like 6'5, the other 6'7. They're all 280 pounds. Massive guys. And you go, okay, fine. They shot me in a close up, just my head. Yeah.

Right. So that's fine. So I didn't have to, the good thing about that was, I didn't have to worry about being massive. Right. I could just play the sociopath. that he is and those things I can get a handle on. I get the part. So I go, okay, this is crazy.

So what do I do? So I go, I know what happens. I'll get there two months later to be shot in Calgary. I'll get there two months later and they'll go, but you're not massive. You're fired. Right. That's what happens.

So I put on 40 to 45 pounds. Wow. And not the good way either, not like eat the proper food and pump a lot of iron. No, steak and ice cream every day. Wow. I'm not getting. So I went from 190 to 235 or something like that. And I called wardrobe immediately to say, okay, first of all, how tall is Billy Bob?

Because I've got this scene. I'm the only guy in the entire series that goes up against him. I got this scene where I'm literally nose to nose and going, you're not the guy. I'm the guy. So if pack your shit and get out of town, I won't kill you, right? and that's got to be believable. So how tall is he?

Oh, he's just a little guy. He weighed 140 pounds at the time because of whatever he played before. So I go, okay, fine. Well, I can't go any higher. It turns out he's three inches taller than me. Right. That's the tough one. We put some lifts in the shoes, but I said, the best thing to do is let's go wide.

So my jackets were an inch wider on each end of it. And I had the belly that was going out like this. I grew a mullet. Right. Right. And so guess what? The first scene I have to shoot is with Billy Bob. The nose scene is in his motel room.

Yeah. So the scene goes, I had a great time with it. It's the first guy I've ever worked with. He's playing basically The Devil. It's the first guy I've ever worked with where there is zero. There's nothing coming back. Whatever I do does not affect him at all. And there's nothing he's giving me.

It's like he was dead. It was incredible. Interesting. It's a marvelous performance. He's a hell of an actor. He's a great actor, but he's a bit of a wingnut, right? Oh, totally. He's great.

As he describes himself, I'm just a hillbilly. I reckon I feel the old game. We talked a lot about kids, actually. He had problems with his son, and so we talked about kids more than anything. Anyway, so we're doing the scene, nose to nose. The way it's written, in the middle of the scene, he up and grabs this book written by my boss, goes into the bathroom, sits down, takes a shit, reads the book. which flabbergasted this guy.

In the script, they said, he storms out and slams the door. And I'm going, no, I'm going to win this. Forget it, forget it. So I storm out and don't slam the door in this motel. So the director comes by and goes, thank you. Just gave me the great shot for the last shot of the scene.

Is the camera on the floor looking through the room into the bathroom where he's sitting. But how do you know, Barry, when you can improvise, that and when you know you've got somebody who's like do it as written on the page well you have to feel it out like me i tend to go when they come to you afterwards and go don't do that anymore then i really know okay but otherwise and obviously i'm not trying to i'm not trying to rewrite the script my job is to is to squeeze everything that's in that script right get that out that was i will say this because i love the movie fargo and i was like oh they're making a series it's

like in honor of the, not really the Cohen brothers, but like in the spirit of the Cohen brothers or whatever. And I had, I got like, oh, this won't be good, will it?

But I watched that first season. I got to rewatch it now, knowing FOTM, Barry Flatman's in there. But I got to say it was tremendous. Like it was excellent. It was. Because you got the spirit of the whole thing.

Yeah, they captured the essence of the Cohen brothers. What's his name, Holly? He was the executive producer and the writer of the whole thing. I forgot in his first name. You probably got it.

It'll come to me if I don't think about it. Anyway, Cohn brothers don't develop their stuff. They don't even like take a film and let it run on television. They just let stuff, they make a film and that's it. They just, they don't do anything with it. And so. Noah Hawley.

Noah Holly. What a genius. I mean, this guy. Oh, man, I love this guy. So he on spec wrote a couple of scripts and sent them to them. And they went, you got this. Right? Right.

And that was it. captured the spirit. Yeah. And they basically said, it's all yours. Go ahead. They never showed up. They showed up in January once for a couple of days. That was it.

They gave him free reign and he shot the whole thing. And it was good. And it was actually great. Unbelievably good. Yeah. It was great. Okay, quick hits here. You're doing amazing.

And I'm not even sure what this is. You'll have to tell me, just friends. Just friends. The other thing. Okay, one second. Yeah. Coming back. Yeah.

I was type two diabetic. And still am. And I'm the weight game. I am two pounds away from being back to what I was. He's taking you this long. Is it worth it? I mean, this is a gig. No,

I will never do that again. That was silly. But, uh, yeah, it's like, uh, the guy who plays Batman or whatever. He's always,

uh, going up and down depending on the, the rule. I know, I think there's my reference. Uh, shout out to Batman, Mr.

Flatman. Okay. Just friends. I love that. That was a, that was a, but what is it? But what is it?

I got to dig into this, but I was just, you know, do my homework. This is it. Ryan Reynolds. Ryan Reynolds, who was at the Canada soccer match the other day. Yeah, he was.

Yeah. What a beautiful guy. I've yet to watch that series that I really want to. He bought Rexum, right? I haven't seen it either. The only team in history to go up three years in a row, three different leagues. Yeah. We should, you know what, my boy's a big son.

My youngest son is a big soccer head. And it would, you know, it's never going to happen due to the almighty dollar in capitalism. But wouldn't it be amazing if the Leafs could be relegated and then we'd have to climb back to the NHL, right? Like, this is the way to go. It's too late now. You can't put that genie. These guys are paying billions of dollars now.

They're not going to be relegated anytime soon. Marley's are playing for the championship right now. Here's that thing I'll say, okay, so that's got to be lost in the noise of Toronto. Because, I mean, now you're in Hamilton. That's a big thing. They've only ever won at once. Yeah, I got. Barry.

What do I have there? Oh, my God. It's a ring. It's the Calder Cup ring. Wow. Wow. on the team. So that's a replica of what the players got.

But does it look real? Like, that's the real deal. This is the Calder Cup. So, yeah, we did win it. Absolutely. Blue Jays are doing that.

They're doing 92 and 93 rings. Well, they're giving them out at some game coming up. Yeah. I don't personally think, I don't think you should ever give a ring for finishing second. No, no,

they won the world stories, 92 or 93. But I believe the 2025 Blue Jays are getting a ring. Oh. I think the 2025 Championship ring. Yeah, like an American League Championship Reims.

To me is, there's a famous story from Andre Agassi. He wrote a book and he said, he finished second in some tournament and his dad took a silver medal threw it in the garbage. This is young Andre Agassiz,

threw it in the garbage. And basically like second place is just another loser. Okay? Nobody remembers who can say. And I mean, we had a great memories, but I mean,

I'm well aware we did not win the World Series in 2025. You don't give rings out for anything but the championship. Okay, so the Calder Cup, I think that's lost in the noise. It's like I was surprised to learn this morning. We're up 3-0-0 in the Calder Cup

because there's too much going on to the city. They're going to sweep. Yeah, it looks like it possible. Tomorrow right. But who in Toronto is even noticing, other than that diehard 10,000 Marley's fans, right? Because the World Cup is here. You know, Messi got a hat-trick yesterday,

but there's more games happening in Toronto. And playing right next door to the Marleys. It's right next door to the Marley's. to the Marleys. Meanwhile, the Jays are going concerned because they're the Blue Jays and everybody's back on that hype train and they get $42,000 a game at the dome. But there's so much going on in this city right now, I don't

think the Marley's are even noticed by the average Toronto sports fan. I think you're right. So we're educating people right now. By the way, the Marley's might win. You're amazing. This has been amazing but we're going to cook a gas here. So Jess Friends. Jess Friends was a blast. We shot it in Regina. In the

middle of winter, it was like minus 40. as was Fargo, by the way, and almost everything I shoot in Calgary is minus 40. And so, yeah, we shouted out. So the great thing that was, I don't know if you've seen the film, my house, what was his name? I'm trying to remember my character's name.

Mr. Palomino. There's a neat name for you. Well, the good name is like Al-Paladini. And Paladini is a palomime. Oh, really? Well, that's, he was a... Exactly. I know.

You know Al-Pelladena. Late grade, okay. So his whole thing is he's won for 10 years in a row, the best lighting, like Christmas lighting on his house. And it's the entire house and all this stuff out in the lawn and everything else. The great thing about it shooting it in, in Magina, in the middle of winter, it was real snow. And it just stayed there.

Because we used to shoot the Christmas movies in the summer, and the summer movies in the Christmas. Right. In the winter. It would drive you nuts. Right. So you're doing a summer. movie in the winter and you're putting ice in your mouth before you speak.

So there's no steam coming out. We actually did this stuff. It is true because Patrick McKenna was just here and he's off to film some Christmas movie. And yeah, you film your Christmas movies in the summer. That's right. Yeah. So anyway, actually they film all year now because they do it. Well, now there's a hundred of them a year.

Yeah, they do at least 10 of them here. Yeah. They just pump them out. Every actor I know is paid their mortgage with those shows. They're great to do. They're great fun. Anyway, so this was a blast to do and won a cast. My God, can I remember even all their names?

But, oh, and it has the funniest credits, maybe in history. It's worth watching the film to watch the hit. Well, I have to see, I don't know. I just, I don't know how I missed it, but now that I know you're in it, I'm going to revisit it. I'm going to find it. We were shooting a video throughout the whole thing. And I never did see what it all came together.

We all sang different stuff. But in the end, Ryan was in his full. fat suit, I mean head to toe, singing, I can't remember what, some thing from the 80s. He sang the entire thing in like this kind of close up. Right. Throughout the credit role. It was genius. Absolutely genius.

That was a blast. That was really fun to do. I had done a pilot for a series that then went and I moved to L.A. to shoot it. It was called Manchester Prep. I'm trying to remember the name The guy who directed it and produced it Also did just friends I hope you got it there somewhere

Because I'm terrible with names I love this guy And we had just a blast And we were shooting I was living in Malibu Cruel Intentions 2 Cruel Intentions 2 is what it was Yes

So it was based on cruel intentions Okay it was based on cruel intentions too No it was based on cruel intentions Right And we shot Oh straight to video We shot five episodes of the series. Roger Cumble.

Roger. That's it. Yeah. Cumble. Okay, it's a prequel to Cruel intentions. Well, so they based it on cruel intentions. We shot five episodes. We did a pilot in five episodes.

And then they pulled the plug. Because there was too much sex on television for teenagers or something. And we got canned. It was no Dawson's Creek. So then they took the footage of the five that we shot and made cruel intentions too. There you go. There you go. Okay. Okay.

Good to know. Yeah, right. So I got to live in Malibu for six months and had a head of blind. Worst things to do. Okay. So quick hits here. Earth Final Conflict.

Oh, wow. I was the president of the United States. Oh, sorry. I wish, okay. I got to jump back. You were talking about Joel Greenberg. Joe Greenberg. And I did a play with Joel, he directed it,

called Stuff Happens. It was the biggest hit of that season in Toronto. I played George Bush. and it was during the time they're, you know, sending attacking Iraq in the end. Weapons of mass destruction. Exactly.

Right. It was a genius script. Absolutely fantastic. And directed by Joel. It was one of my, one of my favorite, certainly on stage career. When you record,

what day do you make, off the top of your head, do you remember when you're going to record with Joel, Life and Stages? September 10th. Okay, so that hasn't even, that, you know,

I'm here in real time going into my calendar. This is the kind of of a producer. Then I'm going to Newfoundland and then I'm going to Ireland because we take people on these excursions around the world.

You got quite the life here. I'm going to lift the curiosity through it. Did you, are you going to record at 10 a.m. or 11.30? 11.30. Okay, so I'm actually in real time. You can witness this here. I'm doing this in real time.

I'm saying with, hold on here. This is like cross-pollination. Yeah, listen, I can't believe the coincidence when I got that list yesterday and I saw you were on in here. With Barry. Blackman, hold on. And I'm adding.

your email. I won't say it out loud, but I am adding it. And now I'm clicking save. And you are right now getting the Zoom link to chat with Joel and I, although it's really Joel, because I just sit here quietly recording and everything. But Joel will be there. You'll be

in Hamilton, I presume, and this will be September 10th at 1130. I'm going to hear so much about this. I request it in the studio. You know what? He'll be right back here then. Yeah, good. Good to know. That'll be even better. So you'll be there. He'll be there. And then we'll capture some great audio.

I love it when they're in studio because I can control the audio. It's beautiful. Okay, so Earth Final Conflict. Earth Final Conflict. President of the United States. That was a big hit, actually. And I had some fun stuff to do.

But then the line went dead, and I stopped doing it. And I kept asking, and said, no, no, you'll be back. It's all fine. You know, you're one of our guys. And I remember running into one of the headwriters a year or so later,

I haven't heard anything. Is it over? He said, no, no, you're not dead. You know why? Because if you're dead as the president, I have to write the music for his funeral march or whatever.

I haven't done that, so you're still alive. I never heard from them again. So, I don't know what out. No kidding. Come on. Like, at least a courtesy call or something.

Jeez. Oh, my God. How did you? Now you're not working at all. So now you just traveled here. It's always been feaster famine. Feaster famine. Okay.

But I've also been really. good with my money. I'm not rich, but what money I have is well invested and, you know, life is worth living. Okay, then I'm going to send you an invoice for this appearance here, Barry.

This is not a free service, Gary, didn't Gary tell you? 10,000 per episode, and then you got to pay for that Liz Zahua. It's never cutting my hair again. All right, real quick hits, because I'm going to do three more here,

and then I'm going to chastise you for not appearing in a certain series, okay? Oh, okay. Rido Hall. Rito Hall. You know, I've been there, but okay. That was really interesting.

That's another situation. I was the Prime Minister of Canada in that one. Okay. And we did the pilot, and they didn't take my character with them to series. Don't ask me how. You know what? I don't like your industry. What the hell's going on here?

You should have stuck on the stage. I don't know the ramifications behind that. I certainly didn't turn them down or anything, but that was fun. That was fun to do. Well, here's a movie I watched. mainly because I love the fact it was filmed in Toronto, the city I lived in, the city I was born in, and it was exciting, and I like the first one so much,

but Short Circuit 2. Jeff was it, Johnny 5? I just got a residual check for that. And it was shot, I don't know when, like, 1943. Yeah, probably the late 80s or something like that. Early 80s, maybe. Well, not too early, because... Short Circuit 2.

Steve Goodenberg was in Short Circuit 1. Yeah, he was a star. And he was here doing a police academy in the early 80s. And so I think you're in like, I have to check, but I would guess like 1988 for sure. Something like that. Yeah. Okay.

So one thing I remember about that, it was fun to do, good cast, was that if you worked with a robot, you ended up having to re-loop, re-voice your entire performance. Because there was so much RF coming out of this machine that when they would record you with microphones and all the kind of stuff

and all of the stuff. That's fascinating. Yeah. So I had to redo every scene in a sound studio and re-voice myself, which I was really good at. I used to do a lot of voice stuff. But boy, you have to be good at that. And certainly in those days, you had to be a good dubber.

You had to be able to re-voice yourself or you couldn't work. The release date was, in fact, July 6th, 1988. So my memory is intact. Boy, you're good. I'm good at that one. I nailed that one here. But, of course, I remember this distinctly, because it was obviously Toronto,

obviously any Trantonian, but it was playing New York, right? Like, it wasn't, it was pretending to be New York. I shot somewhere on the, I don't know, 30th floor or the first Canadian place. There you go. Okay, well, it comes back to Nick Aeney's

in building Toronto Skyline. But Fisher Stevens, of course, not of South Asian heritage. That wouldn't fly today. Fisher Stevens is not going to be able to play a man of Indian descent. Interesting. Yeah. But Michael McKean is in there.

And of course, he is great. Love all his stuff. Even the prequel to Breaking Bad that he was in, Better Call Saul. Yeah, he's always good and great comedic actor and Spinal Tap and more. Spinal Tap and everything. Okay, so one more.

Two more, because you're here now. What are you going to do? Escape right now. But I want to, oh yeah, I can't hear one more and then I'll chastise you. But Ramona. Romona. God love it.

God love it. He's based on the Beverly Cleary's, I think second best-selling children's books of all time. Ramona Quimby. Ramona Quimby. I played her dad. And Ramona Quimby was played by, here I go to the panic of forgetting people's name,

Sera Polly. That's a huge name. At eight years old. Right before the Adventures of Baron Moonsha. Yeah, that's right. Right before that. Yeah, which was I also loved. Yeah.

First time I saw Uma Thurman. Oh, yeah. That's the first time I saw Uma Thurston, because you could have missed her in that movie. And keep your eye on this one, yes. We were, and it was such a tight budget on Ramona. Right. That we would be like in the kitchen for like two weeks,

shooting every kitchen scene of several episodes and stuff. And they found this home in Scarborough somewhere. That's perfect. That's the perfect little house that she would grow up in. And they reproduced it in the studio. Well, I don't know if people know this, but if you have a lovely little home in the studio, it's because it's a big home in a studio.

Because in that little home, you can make it look little, but you've got to bring the cameras and stuff in, and they're all rolling through. This one, we shot with the cameras shooting through the doorways. Because there was no room to actually put a crew inside that. Oh, it was insane. I was constantly doing things of like, leaping up from the table and running out the door, and I get two inches past the door and stop because there was a light in the doorway.

Right. Right. Oh, it's insane. And that's with two kids. One is eight, and others are ten, I think, right? Doing all these scenes over and over and over and over again. And that was the other thing, too. You'd always do all the kids takes first.

And then you go back at the end of the day, and they're gone. At the end of the day, my wife and I are doing all of those. lines that we do through all of those scenes. And because it's been the kids first, you're acting kind of like this. You're being really big. And so you get the reactions from the kids. And now we go back and go,

now how was I doing it really? It was insane. I love you peeling back the curtain here. And you've had, I mean, geez, Gary Chowen hit it out of the park again. He gets full credit for your great appearance here, Barry. This has been a blast, man. I really enjoyed this.

So there's nothing you've left on the, I don't want you to be driving. back to Hamilton and being going, I can't believe I didn't tell this story. Like, is there a story you had loaded up and you can't believe he didn't tell it? Well, you were going to challenge me for something I'd turn down. Oh, yeah, I'll do right now. I'm going to do it. What's that?

So I mentioned Joel Greenberg's podcast. He's done like four seasons. Many great guests. You're coming up. And one thing I noticed whenever there's a guest on, and he talks about stage, but they all do, you know, TV shows. So you mentioned the littlest hobo, okay? Which they're rebooting. I hear.

Yeah, I hear. You better be in the new version here. I'll call Seth, Rogan. there. Okay. But one show every single guest seems to have a credit on, but you don't, is Murdoch Mysteries? Yeah. No. How is it that you never got the call, or you never

got a gig on Murdoch Mysteries? I don't know. That's an oversight. That's an oversight. That's an oversight. I don't know. I'm sure of Red Fort. They now shoot in Hamilton. Maybe maybe they need an old fart now. So that's going to be the quest, my quest. I will not rest until I get

a role for Barry Flatman on Murdoch Mysteries. That show's been going 20 years. Yeah, it has. Okay, we're going to make that happen. It's an oversight. Sorry, I apologize. You won't get the order of Canada until you appear on Murdoch Mysteries here. Dude, this is amazing, you know, you play a lot of judges,

you know, you play prime ministers, you play presidents, and now you can play a friend of Toronto Mike. You're now an FOTM. Thank you very much. You got some good swag, too. Yeah. Good times for you. And you know what? I think Gary should give you your next haircut on the house. You got some free plugs. He's always looking for, he's in Yorkville.

He's always looking for new heads of hair to cut. I would give him my head a hair to cut, but my barber is literally, not just for me, but he's flying back from the Maritimes to cut my hair on June 25th. June 25th, by the way, I wanted to do this on the show. I'm going to do it very quickly.

I wanted to invite you, Barry, and all your friends, everyone you know and love, including Gary Chowen, everybody is invited to Great Lakes Brewery, which is 30 Queen Elizabeth Boulevard, which is down the street from the Costco, in South Atobico, not far from Queensway in rural York.

Everybody collect there at 6 p.m. Because from 6 to 9 p.m. It is TMLX22, the 22nd Toronto mic listener experience. And your first beer is on the house. That won't help you, Barry, but it will help everybody else. And Palma pasta is sending enough food to feed a small army. So we're all going to get full on delicious, authentic Italian food thanks to Palma pasta. And we're going to...

It's just going to be great to hang. I just want to see you there. Put that in your notebook. I will be there for sure. And that. That's what my shirt says. And that. You have to decide what came first, the shirt or the, and that.

And that brings us to the end of our 1,919th show. 1919. Go to tronomite.com for all your Toronto mic needs. Much love to all who made this possible. Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball, Nick Iienes. Recycle My Lines. Electronics.ca and Redley Funeral Home.

I'm going to start smoking because I want to sound like Barry. It's never too late to start smoking, right? Never too late. Back to the calendar. Who's my next guest? We're recording on a Wednesday. Who's visiting Thursday? Load faster, calendar.

Okay. Oh, I'm excited to talk with Caitlin McGrath. She covers the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team and more. She's a sports writer in the vein of Stephen Brunt. be nice to talk to Caitlin tomorrow. See you all then.