Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - BodyBreak's Hal Johnson: Toronto Mike'd #1087

Episode Date: July 26, 2022

In this 1087th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike is joined by BodyBreak's Hal Johnson as they discuss Hal's early baseball career, racism he experienced at TSN, his marriage to Joanne McLeod, their work with ParticipACTION, the evolution of BodyBreak, the Amazing Race and more. And yes, Joanne makes a cameo appearance! Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Canna Cabana, StickerYou, Ridley Funeral Home and Duer Pants and Shorts.

I don't know what you're talking about, Hal. Welcome to episode 1087 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. StickerU.com Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business. Palma Pasta Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville.

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Learn more at canna cabana.com today, making his Toronto mic'd podcast debut is body breaks own. Hal Johnson, Hal, welcome to Toronto Mic'd. Oh, it's my thrill, actually, to be on Toronto Mic'd. This is a thrill. Am I 1,074?

It didn't take you long to get around to me. 1,087. I was so intimidated by you and Joanne that I waited till I met you on the set of Toronto Legends with Andrew Applebaum. And then I mustered up the courage to ask you to come on the show. I see. Well, it's my pleasure.

Thank you very much. On that note, so you're ending a streak I have. Several episodes in a row have been duos. Actually, yesterday's was a trio, but one was on Zoom and two in the basement here but how is it possible how that my duo streak ends when i'm talking to one half of a canadian famous duo where the heck is joanne she's actually running right now she's actually for a run and uh she's uh doing her thing she she is, it's funny, Joanne's, you know, been doing the show

now. We've been doing it and doing different things for presentations across the country for 30 years, but she's very private and very quiet and she doesn't like doing a lot of interview things. She does them and does them very well, but she's not thrilled at necessarily doing it. So she does them when she has to, I guess you could say, but she rather just wants to go out for a run. Look, I can read between the lines, okay? When it's like your morning on CTV or something

and you're going to promote some amazing race thing,'ll do it because you know she has to do it but when toronto mike calls to to zoom into his basement she's like i'm going for a run no you see she she's she's not as familiar with toronto mics as i am so it was as if if she was more familiar with it uh because i listen to a lot of podcasts and she doesn't. And so I've listened to quite a few of yours and you've done very nice interviews or good interviews with different people that I've enjoyed. So I was happy and excited to be on your podcast.

So this is on your bucket list, but it's not on Joanne's. So time for a run, which is cool. I'm actually, so quick aside is with my wife, I'm rewatching Six Feet Under. Did you ever see Six Feet Under? No, I haven't. Okay. So it's an HBO series, which I've ranked since I saw it when it was new. It's the second best series I've ever watched. Okay. And now I'm happily married to Monica, who's never seen Six Feet Under. And I'm like, I'm going to share this with her. We we just started and there's sort of an early theme when like when the going gets tough Nate Fisher Jr. goes for a run like this is sort of like and then I just think this is Joanne's Toronto Mike is zooming in

peace out I'm going for a run so wait let's cut to it so shout out to Joanne I'm sorry I'm missing you maybe one day I'll uh get you on Toronto Mike but uh Hal I'm glad to have you on I'm sorry I'm missing you. Maybe one day I'll get you on Toronto Mike. But Hal, I'm glad to have you on. I'm looking at this background. That's not an artificial background, right? You didn't get like some wallpaper that looks like beautiful nature. No, no, no. This is our gym. And this is actually where we film. For the last two years, we've been filming presentations from this gym. I have a camera set up here, five cameras actually that I can actually hook up and I have what's called an ATEM mini switcher down here and I can switch to different things if I'd like to and show different videos or different camera cuts

or I can actually, if I have a camera outside, I can hook to that and do some, we've done outdoor things live. So when we do our presentations, it looks quite different than a, call it a normal Zoom meeting. We really took the idea of, is that let's make it a television show. And so that way we can cut between different things

and make it a little bit more entertaining. And that's why a lot of people have a fake background but this is actually the real deal and i mean i'm no i'm no geographical expert uh shout out to esri canada but i will say that that's not oakville like that's where the hell are you up in muskoka we're up in up in Muskoka and uh you know we're with the lakes and and bears and and it's uh quite nice up here so so the next time you're on Toronto Mic'd which will be with your wife Joanne uh I will make the trip okay you invite me there I will bring my studio and we'll do it there by the lake is that uh do I have your uh agreement there sure we can do it right on the dock not a problem as long as the wi-fi is good i'll be out there okay yeah amazing so i have like throughout this conversation how we're going to cover a lot of ground but i have uh fotm questions uh i know

you're an fotm because you listen which i'm honored that the great hal johnson would listen to toronto mike like that makes me feel good but we'll cover that i'm sure you'll sprinkle sprinkle uh praise for me throughout the conversation but i'll cover that. I'm sure you'll sprinkle praise for me throughout the conversation, but I do have like questions that came in via Twitter and I want to shout out Dale Cadeau. He says, I hope he makes you do 25 pushups and 50 crunches. So right off the top, Hal, like I do exercise every day, but I don't do a wide variety of things. This is a mistake, right? You can't just do like one thing every day for 90 minutes.

You got to do different things. Tell me, do I need to be doing pushups and crunches? What's the deal here? Is this a Toronto confessional or is it Toronto Mike's? I'm not quite sure. It's real talk. All one in the same. So I do.

So I will, like I'll confess to you that I do at least, usually more, but at least 90 minutes of exercise a day, but it's always on the bicycle. So I do a lot of, I'll walk a lot and I will bike a lot, but I actually don't do much else. Like, uh, I was thinking when Dale said, you know, I hope, you know, make him do 25 pushups and 50 crunches. I was like, I don't think I can actually do that. And now I'm wondering how I've made a huge mistake, right? I got to diversify my regime. Well, it really, really doesn't matter in a sense. What he's really talking about is doing strengthening as well as doing cardio. You're talking about two different things you're doing when you're on the bike, you're doing cardio, uh, pushups and crunches are strengthening. So, um, it's, it's kind of two different facets and he's

correct. You should be doing that as well as doing your cardio. So it's really a three-pronged approach, uh, to health and living healthy is a proper nutrition, strengthening your muscles and aerobic activity. And so if you do those three in combination, it'll be a lot more effective. Um, and so that's why you see like, for example, Tour de France riders or professional cyclists have small upper bodies. Well, they want that because they want to be more aerodynamic and less to push. They don't want a heavy and muscular upper body. Their legs are huge, but their upper body is small. So it's really what you want to really do is, or in anyone

is have a balanced approach to, uh, to what you do. But the most important thing is do something you enjoy, because if you don't enjoy doing pushups and sit-ups, you may do it for that 30 day challenge, but you're not going to do it after that. So really just do things that you really enjoy. Well, I do have a fantasy and I told my wife when I turned 50, I'm going to make this happen, but I want to buy a kayak and I want to, I'm really close to Lake Ontario and then the Humber River. And I always see these people on their boats and kayaks and I get like jealous. I'm like, I want to get out there. Like I w so I want to add, if I add the kayaking to my regimen, then that'll help with my upper body work. Right. Well, yeah, it will. But how often are you going to kayak, you know, realistically? So,

you have to find something that you should, kayak will help you get in shape, but you should look at more at getting in shape to kayak so that you can go out and kayak for an hour and a half and two hours and not feel like, oh my God, I can't move the next day. And so realistically, let's say you wanted to kayak in the summer twice a week. Well, that's not going to be as effective as if you are weight training, but like back here, weight training, you know, three or four days a week, 20, 30 minutes, 40 minutes at a time, just, and as you get older, we lose a lot of muscle tissue. So you want to make sure that you keep that up so you can do the small things in life right um and that's really the the the idea of getting your muscles as strong as possible see how right off you didn't know i was going to hit

you with all this off the top here uh now you mentioned the big three there you said nutrition you said uh cardio and weight training so the meatlo song, can I paraphrase Meat Loaf? One out of three ain't bad, right, Hal? Well, yeah. I mean, it's as long as you do something, but understand that, you know, again, over the 34 years we've been doing body break, you know, people say to us all the time about, oh, I don't do this. I don't do that.

And oftentimes I'll ask them, why don't you do that? I'm too tired. I've heard every excuse in the book. And I often just say to people, if you have the opportunity to go to a cardio ward in a hospital and in the ICU and look at somebody and ask them, gee, would you rather be here? Or if you hadn't smoked or drank so much or an exercise or ate properly, you wouldn't be here. And I think that's one of the kind of reminders that people must have. Whenever you think about your excuses that you may have, think about that. What it's trying to do is keep you away from getting into that ICU. And I uh, and we, I mean, Joanne and I are obviously, it's funny, you know, body break is really about preventative medicine. Right. And so during the

pandemic, we we've seen so much emphasis on whether it be, you know, vaccines, which I am vaccinated and thankfully for, um, it's, uh, it's such a good that's great but why not be proactive in your health and what I find so interesting through the pandemic is that doctors will come on and they'll say you know the people that

are older and have pre-existing conditions or have diabetes or are more susceptible to worse outcomes with COVID. So that's one of the things that I look at and say, and then if you smoke, you have a worse outcome with COVID. If you're overweight, you have a worse outcome with COVID. But they don't really emphasize that element. So just think if two and a half years ago

when the pandemic started, the government said, okay, Canada, we're going to fight this pandemic by getting everybody in great shape to fight this COVID, right? You're making too much sense. I have this conversation with Dr. Mike Hart all the time, which is we always hear mask up and vaccinate.

And of course you should mask up and vaccinate. Absolutely. But while you're masking up and vaccinate, there's a couple of things, you know, vitamin D is important. Exercise and nutrition, like you said, are so important as preventative measures. Like we really should have done a better job messaging this. We can't just rely on Hal and Joanne for this messaging.

Like let's give them, let's throw some money at them and joanne for this messaging like let's give them let's throw some money at them and help them amplify this abs absolutely i mean mike hardy said look there's studies out there that show a lot of people who are getting the bad symptoms of covid have a vitamin d deficiency so there's a very inexpensive thing you can do to supplement you know in canada we winter all winter long the natural vitamin d is non-existent. Like there's little things like that, that we should have been doing to coincide with the masking. And of course, like yourself,

I have my four, I have four shots. I just got my fourth. That's something that's like your baseline minimum. And then you build on that, but how we're going to cover a lot of ground here. I got another great question. And I want to go back with you because there's some confusion.

Some people have you, you know, you were going to start in right field for the Toronto Blue Jays. Okay, let's get the real talk here. Boris wants to know about your baseball history. How did you play college ball? Give me the real talk on your baseball history, Hal Johnson. Well, I had the good fortune of my dad played ball,

and that's how we met my mom, in fact. And my dad was what's called barnstorming. And barnstorming was where black teams traveled throughout North America. So my dad would travel throughout North America playing in different small towns and with this all black baseball team. And he was, he met my mom in Rosetown, Saskatchewan. So that's how they met. So I come to baseball genuinely from my dad. And so it really is something that I've always loved ever since I was a kid.

So I'm growing up in Toronto in the 70s. You don't think about having the opportunity to go to, you know, major U.S. universities. But I did. I moved out west after high school and worked at my uncle's ranch for a year and then had an opportunity. My dad knew somebody who was a scout and he gave me an opportunity to try out with him in Calgary. And he said, well, I don't think you're quite ready yet, but I can get you a opportunity to go down to the States at a junior college. So I went down to the States for two years in junior college, and then I received a scholarship at the University of Colorado. And I played there and finished and got a degree, a business degree and an economics degree from the University of Colorado and played ball there.

I had the opportunity. I remember calling my dad after my second year in junior college. And I had my scholarship offer and I had an offer from Cincinnati to sign with them. my um i had an offer from cincinnati to sign with them and my dad said he goes uh take the uh take the university degree and and i'm you know glad i did so wait the cincinnati reds yep since there is i had to sign with like a minor league trial yeah minor league uh and i was gonna sign and then go to florida yeah and to to their um their minor league affiliate. And I decided to, to take the college offer at which led to playing on team Canada. And I traveled around the world playing with team Canada. And then which was a great, wonderful experience. And the and then I, I was it, it had run its course. And I realized that I wasn't good enough from a speed perspective to

play in the major leagues. I could hit really well and I could probably hit a triple A level. And I was a good hitter, an okay fielder, but I wasn't fast enough. And so my dad assessed, he says, I don't think you're good enough to make it to the big leagues. And he was absolutely correct. And, um, and I, he said, get your degree. And so I did that. And I was very thankful for that. And no regrets, Hal. You don't wonder what if? No, not at all. The only regret I have to be honest with you is the regret that when I graduated from the university of Colorado, I actually went into selling computer systems and that sort of thing. I did that. But my regret would be that after being on Team Canada, being a Canadian, I graduated in 81. So the Blue Jays had really only

been the Blue Jays for a few years. I should have at that point gone to the Blue Jays and said, you know, I would like to be your GM in about 15 years. Where can I start in the organization right now? So I wish I'd done that. Love the real talk. Now i'm thinking parallel careers almost was a macho man randy savage okay do you do a macho man impression no i don't either so i won't even go into one but uh i mean i love i love hearing a good one though uh scott macarthur does a good one so shout out to fotm scotty mac but he had like i think it was a st louis but he had a minor league career of the st louis cardinals he just wasn't good enough he was like a he Louis Cardinals. He just wasn't good enough. He was a great AAA guy, wasn't good enough for the majors,

and at some point he decided to try his hand at wrestling, but he was quite the baseball player. What position did you play, Hal? I was first base, but first and third, and that's where they put the slowest people, generally speaking, or catcher, but I didn't want to be a catcher. And I was also a pitcher so i i pitched um growing up uh you know through uh little league and all of that and then i i on team canada i was strictly a first baseman but at university

colorado i was a pitcher and also a first baseman so okay now the corner positions are where you need your power did you hit for power yeah i was generally uh yeah i was a power hitter i always batted either third or fourth um in the in the lineup so as i said that i made up for my uh lack of speed with uh my dad would say well if you hit it over the fence you really don't have to run that fast. Right. So just hit it over the fence. So, yeah, that's what I that was generally my my game, as it were. OK, so when your athletic career comes to an end and it sounds like you did, like you mentioned, you got to represent Canada at the World Baseball Championship, for example, which is awesome. Who is the best player you played with on team canada um i i really can't think of one that stood out like there was a we were we were an okay team so they were um i played against um

i played against some really good players um who went to the major leagues. Bobby Meacham, who used to coach the AAA Blue Jay team, and he was a shortstop for the Yankees for about six years. And I played against, in the University of Colorado, I played against Tony Gwynn and Bobby Meacham. Bobby Meacham, who played for the Yankees, and Tony Gwynn were on the San Diego State team together. So San Diego State was a pretty good team. You want to talk about contact hitters.

I don't think there's a better one I've seen in my lifetime than Tony Gwynn. This guy seemed to be like clockwork. He was going to give you a 350 batting average. This was just like his, you know, what a hitter he was. I can't believe he's, no, Tony Gwynn. Wait, Tony Gwynn, he's still with us or he passed away no he passed yeah from cancer so young oh that's terrible but what a hitter it was chewing tobacco that he in his mouth cancer that he used all the time that chewing tobacco which fortunately I I always felt

was disgusting and I never went near it. So never, never chewed. It's kind of hard to believe when I look back, because I was a big fan of baseball in the 1980s, but to think Tony Gwynn and Kirby pocket are no longer with us. Like these were two of those great, great matters, but how you're looking great here. You're here,

you're, you're wrapping up your athletic career. And how do you end up at TSN? Well, I, you know, it was again it was again back back in i was selling computer systems i then came uh down in san diego in fact in san diego was selling computers and i got a an opportunity to do a um i i took a person a friend of mine she was an actress and she needed a ride to a commercial and she goes there's this casting call for this Tylenol commercial. Can you give me a ride?

It was at four o'clock. And I said, oh, that's fine. I'll put my calls around. I'll give you a ride over to the commercial. And I showed up and there was like hundreds of people there. And I was kind of waiting around for it after her spot. And one of the casting people came up and said, what number are you? I said, I don't know.

They haven't given me a number yet. And I was like kind of just joking around. And they said, okay, you go in after this person. So, okay. So I went in, and they said, when did you first start using Tylenol? So I was just kind of BSing and I said, oh, I first started using Tylenol after a football injury. And lo and behold, long story short, I get the commercial and they fly me to Florida. I do the spot. I make like $80,000 from residuals. the spot i make like eighty thousand dollars from residuals wow and i say wow this is really an easy gig and this is back in 1986 i think you could buy a house for 80 000 in 1986

it was amazing they played this commercial because in the states a commercial at least back then when it airs you get paid every time it airs so like it's like literally hundreds of dollars every time and it was it whereas in canada commercials are there are 13 weeks and the actor gets a set fee for that 13 weeks and then it rolls over but every time they played the commercial i was getting paid so anyway i get a i get a i go up to LA, get an agent, and then I do a whole bunch of commercials. I do a movie with Ernest Borgnine. You know, I was so nervous. I remember doing Ernest Borgnine's there, and I'm going to do the thing, and the director gives me the directions.

And I have like zero experience. I really have no clue what I'm going to do the thing. And the director gives me the directions that I have like zero experience. I really don't have no clue what I'm doing. And the guy tells me, and then there's quiet. So I start doing my line and the guy, the director says, could you wait till I say action? I said, oh, okay. Okay. I'll do that. So, so I really, I didn't know what I was doing.

But I then come back to Toronto and get a agent, Larry Goldhart, at Characters. And I get all these shows up in Canada. I move, then I move from San Diego to Toronto. And I get all these shows in Canada. And whether it be Night Heat or TNT or all of those. The TNT is with Mr. T, right? Mr. T, yeah. I remember it well. Yeah.

All these different Canadian shows that were being produced in the, in the eighties and ENG, ENG. Yeah. Yeah. Did, did that. Well, the same casting director did night heat and ENG and everything. So it was, but yeah. And all the only thing I said is I don't ever want to be a pimp or a drug dealer. I will only play upstanding people. I just didn't want that to ever play a role like that. But, but anyway, I was just, so I shelved my career in, in selling computers, computer systems and thought, well, this acting thing is pretty

good. So, I was doing it and then I'm doing it for about a year up here and doing pretty well, but I'm just not the type to sit around. And I kept thinking, you know, I kind of, I want to get into sports. I want to get back into sports. And so I, I, I put a tape together, a reel, sent it around and I went to TSN and TSN liked it very much. And the executive producer of it, and he, he hired me. I came in for two tests. He saw my reel. I went in for two, one test. He said, come back. I came back in about a week later, did another read through, gave me some pointers. So he said, you know, I think you got some raw talent here. So let me, we'll hire you. So I was so ecstatic and I was hired. And then three hours

later I was fired and it was fired because he then went to the head of TSN at the time and said, I hired this young guy. And they didn't want to have two black reporters on the staff at the same time. So that's why. And he was very upset when he called me and thought it was disgusting. And I don't know why. Honestly, I just didn't get mad. I was disappointed, but I wasn't mad. And I think I learned a lot of that from my dad, that whenever you're mad, you really can't focus on the problem or the issue at hand. on the problem or the issue at hand.

And so I then subsequently went away from that. TSN at the time was the only game in town, and that was April of 1988. Okay, firstly, the obvious, which is what bullshit? Holy smokes, it's hard to believe that was 1988. It sounds like you're talking about, I don't know, 1938 or something, but 1988, basically you were told, paraphrasing, sorry, we already have a black guy. Oh yeah. I mean, but you think about it, you know, how many women were on the desk in 1988 with TSN? Like none, you know, it was just white guys guys i'm trying to think of when uh theresa

hergert cruz shows up but around there but you're right there's not a any yeah there wasn't i mean so the the struggle between let's say call it minorities and women there there's many parallels between that and that's why you know women can let's say have more empathy and relate more to the struggles of uh minorities because they've had to struggle all their life. And so it's you understand that it's really a matter of, you know, do you get mad or do you get even? And I looked at the element of there's always a way and I'll get even. So that's kind of in a in a non-confrontational, angry approach. Now, a couple of things.

One is you went public about this. I think you were, the murder of George Floyd inspired you to talk about this. This offer was rescinded hours later because basically, new ownership at TSN now, but TSN at the time, basically that's a racist policy. Like, you know, we don't want a second black reporter is absolutely a black and white racist, no pun intended. But when you went public about this,

I co-host a sports show with Mark Hebbs, you're called Hebbsy on sports. And then because you went public with your story, he felt comfortable talking about his story, which sounds very similar in that he says he didn't get a TSN job because Michael Landsberg was there and they already had a, I'll quote Mark Hemsher here, they already had a Jew. digest but this is how it was in 1988 which seems feels like 10 years ago to me i know you're going to tell me that was longer ago but it feels like it was only about 10 years ago so i'm sorry that you had to go through such bullshit yeah and i i look at it as um just it got me to where i was supposed to be in a way like i i don't have any kind of ill will. I know in TSN, when I put out the video

a couple of years ago or two years ago, they called me, they were so apologetic and so forth, which absolutely meant nothing to me. It's like somebody up in the street, coming down the street who you've never met apologizes to you for something somebody else did. And you go, to you for something somebody else did. And you go, that doesn't mean anything. I mean, the person, the person that, the head at the time, he has passed away. He's the one that made the decision. It wasn't, let's say systemic with, it was, it was him that had this opinion and attitude. And so it was, but interestingly enough, his son reached out to me when he saw the video and what his son was apologetic, um, that, and his son said that was his dad. He knew that that, that was his dad. Cause I didn't say that it was who it was

or a TSN that said, no, I just said it was TSN, but he said, it was my dad tsn that said no i just said it was tsn but he said it was my dad who did that and i apologize for that because it um and so but you know that that meant a little more to me that than it's certainly a you know an organization but it was it was funny the cynical part of me says you know geez that's uh all they're all they're doing is covering their butt. I mean, they just want, it's a PR stunt for TSN to try to get out in front of it saying, you know, how sorry they are. They issued a statement, you know, but the people that were there and the company, I think it's been sold four times before it got over to Bell. So it's not even related, you know, kind of thing. Right, right. So when you came out with your video basically that's that's especially well at any time but especially in that climate

because i remember that that time after the murder of george floyd that that that's very bad for the brand so to speak and i noticed in the apology they were very clear that this actually wasn't us but we're going to apologize on behalf of the logo we bought so So it's the logo that's apologizing to you. But yeah, that's what it felt like. But it was the one thing that they said to me, which I thought was interesting, is they said, well, you know, we would like, the VP kept calling, called me several times, we talked talked back and forth and she, she said, you know, we're going to change our, um, uh, practices for interns because interns before at TSN was the friend's father, the director's friend, kid, guy plays golf with his kid was, uh, now got into

being an intern. And now you become an intern at TSN. What is the likelihood that you're more apt to get a job at some sports? It's that springboard. So they're looking at from an internship perspective of changing. I don't know if it has changed. There was all, I know it was interesting. They had, in my speaking back and forth, I said, well, you know, what could I, how could I be a force of change within TSN? How could I help in any way to make this better? And she says, well, we're going to definitely do something with you, Hal, you know, keep it with me, whatever.

And so, you know, six months went by and I thought, you know what, I don't really need or want a job. Honestly, I don't. But I just did this to test them. So, I called six months later and said, hey, so what's going on? Is there anything that's, you know, how are you? Oh, yeah, we're right on it. We've implemented all these changes and we're going to get back to you about, you know, you helping out in, you know, some capacity with us and never heard a thing. So as it says, things die down and it kind of goes away and then there's another crisis that,

that's hit that hit. So I was, I wasn't surprised, but I, I, I asked them just as a test, not, not certainly that I I wanted, but I even told her, I said, I'd be happy to come down and speak to your employees, speak to people there at all. No charge, just happy to help out. So it was never taken up. There's a lot there, Hal, but I can say as a guy who never worked in the industry, but has been kind of monitoring it, so to speak, with the blog and now 10 years of Toronto Mic'd and asking lots of stories. I have an interesting perspective on this. And one is I've noticed with these big media companies, now you're talking about Bell Media, but I'm also thinking of what's happening right now with Chorus. and one of the definite cards that they play when there's a crisis is the time card which is you know enough time will pass so i've noticed this is going on right now of course because there was like oh my goodness jennifer valentine dropped a video and then maureen holloway said this and

then jackie delaney said that and then andrea ruse said this and then colleen rush home said that and it was like all anybody was talking about for a little while. And now this is the whole time thing. Like another week goes by. There's not a peep out of chorus. Then another week. And now you're a couple of months out. And you're a few months out.

And who's still paying attention? Who do you remember? And this is a quick aside. Do you remember? I remember at night I want to know exactly what's happening in Ukraine. What exactly is happening in Ukraine? Is Volensky still with us? Every morning, I'd wake up and make sure he was still alive.

What's going on? What are we doing with Putin and this oppressive invasion, et cetera, et cetera. Do you remember? That was every day. And then all of a sudden, it's not a top news story, and it gets bumped to later, and then it's not even in the news. And now it's like you almost have to seek an update because it's not, you know, it's not part of the news cycle. This is it, time.

That's the move Bell Media deployed there was time. And it works. It's effective. And that's frustrating. Well, it is. And it's, you know, it behooves us to things that are important to us to keep it on the front burner, in a sense. And that's really what people do, is they want to keep things out in front of the mainstream media so that they make sure that it draws our attention. and today is that we are inundated with information joanne and i were talking about this the other day we have a we're gifted in a sense that we have so much information to pull from but our brains haven't gotten any bigger than they were in the 80s right and so we can only process so much and

we throw so much at us so we got so much coming at us right advertising it's the news cycle like it what used to be like a two-week news cycle is now a two-hour news cycle. It's like, oh, that was... My mom will message me. This happened. And I'm like, oh, I heard that at 6 p.m. last night. We're on to the next thing now. That's old news. But you know what I mean?

This is the shrinking of the news cycle, without a doubt. Without a doubt. Oh, one last thing. So about observation stuff. And again, there's a lot here. I'm thoroughly enjoying this. this my friend you're gonna come on toronto mic once a week and we're just gonna chat if that's okay and i like looking at your background too there and there's something on your face we'll discuss later so i purposely haven't brought it up but there's something on your face we need to discuss so later let's tease that one but uh the internship again i never worked in the industry i've never been an intern i've never applied for a job in mainstream media but i talked to a lot of people how did you get the job well

without a doubt the vast majority of people in mainstream media today took an unpaid internship and were there like all the time working for cheap or nothing and somebody needed something right away because somebody was on vacation or sick or something and they said, I'll do it, I'll do it. And they stepped in and did it because they were there and they were there and they did it. And next thing you know, they've got a mainstream media career

and it all sparks from that. And all I can think of is, oh, so if you can't afford to work for free, which means if mommy and daddy aren't going to finance your life for a period of time, this industry is essentially closed to you. Like this is anybody who actually needs to make money to feed themselves or to pay rent, which is a great percentage of the populace.

They're ineligible for these roles because they won't be there because they're going to be working at the grocery store or landscaping or whatever they're doing to make a dollar. Yeah, but I think that's a lot of industries. I mean, we've got a daughter right now who's interning for a company. For free? No, actually, she's getting $24 an hour. Yeah, but you see that? You see that? Yeah, no, see, that's different. That's different. different that's different but but so many so many uh you know companies smaller companies especially are asking for um you know are asking for kind of an intern internship now yeah media

because so many people want to just be in the building right that they're willing to pay and you know bell and rogers and all of them are willing to take it. So you realize, but I guess the thing is they realize the value of that. So why give it away free? Meaning that you have to pay people to do this when people will come in for no, but because it excludes people who don't come from a upper middle class or, you know, upper class family.

Well, but they, they would tell you, I'm not defending it, they would tell you that's not their problem. All they're looking for is to the stockholders to make as much money as they can. And the bottom line is the less we have to spend on certain things,

the more we can spend on other things. And if we can, if we have a, if we got 500 people that want to be, to take two positions, they don't want to get paid. That's great. That's, I'm just saying that's the way the calculus works with. Mr. Johnson, that's classism, my friend. You got to sign my petition to make unpaid internships illegal in this country. So I'll let you know. That would be good.

I want, I want to hear about how you met joanne well we it's it's kind of uh you know you you would you would guess this story in a sense we were i was at a gym goals gym on um on in scarborough on just uh i think was it shepherd uh egglington and yeah egglingtoninton area, right up in there. And we were, she was on the peck deck. I walked over. I said, oh, can I work in? And she looked pretty good.

And so I thought, well, I'd give her one of my smooth moves. I only had one, but it wasn't that smooth. And she bit. give her one of my smooth moves. I didn't only had one, but it wasn't that smooth. And, and she, she bit. And I said, long story short, that evening, we went out for dinner. And that was in May of 1988. We went out for dinner. And it was so funny, because neither of us, neither one of us drank. But she thought that I drank and I thought she drank. So I, when the waiter came, waiter asked, would you like some wine? And I said, certainly, yeah, I'll have some wine. And Joanne said, oh, I'll have some wine. So we split a half a craft, which is basically a

glass and a half, not very much. We didn't, neither one of us finished our wine, but we felt compelled because we thought, oh, well, we don't want to look silly because the other person does drink. So, but that's how our first date, our first date was at Pasta Pasta in Toronto, a downtown Toronto, a pasta restaurant. so listen to me this is so close to palma pasta but not quite you're halfway there pasta pasta so i wish you and uh you know if you were here i would be you would be leaving with some palma pasta so i just want to give some love to palma pasta they make great italian food so maybe if there's a big milestone uh anniversary coming up we'll uh feed you some palma pasta but no booze it sounds like it's a booze-free household. Is that right? Yeah. Well, it's not that I have anything against alcohol in terms of prohibition or whatever,

but I just don't see the needs. It's empty calories. One of the things, for example, a good friend of mine in Halifax has throat cancer. Never smoked in his life. He has asthma, in fact, and he has throat cancer. He went through the chemo. It's shrunk significantly. And actually, I'm going out to support him in a ride, a cancer ride. I'm going to be riding, Joanne and I'll be riding in October 1st in Halifax. So anybody out there that wants to support me and uh joanne i'll be actually putting that on uh on our um on

our website and our uh facebook page uh to contribute to and what is that website how it's a bodybreak.com okay bodybreak.com bodybreak and our twitter feed is bodybreak uh bodybreak88 is instagram and facebook is bodybreak so it's it's pretty easy, but I'll actually be putting that up next week and about supporting him for a ride for cancer. Now, what was interesting, I was talking to him yesterday and he said, you know, he's getting in really good shape. He feels a lot better. Chemo's done, all of those things. And he said, but he said that he's no longer allowed to drink alcohol. He was strongly told not to. He said, but he said that he's no longer allowed to drink alcohol. He was strongly told not to. He said, because the alcohol actually will actually, it's fueled to cancer.

So you don't want to have it, especially with throat cancer. So you want to abstain from alcohol and limit the amount of sugar as much as possible, because that is also a promoter of, of the cancer. So he's reducing the amount of sugar significantly, and he's no longer drinking any alcohol. Like he said, he could have a beer now and then,

but it's not, it's not helpful to his cancer. So why would you have it? He said, so he's, he's now off of that. So, you know,

there, and that I, as I said, I, I, I'd rather have a piece of pie than, you know, three beers. So that's kind of how I spend my calories. Well, here, then what I'm going to do here is I'm going to let you know and let the FOTMs know that if you're looking for sweet threads, you know, that are comfortable, you could bike in these things. And you can also wear these into a boardroom or for a presentation to a corporation. You want Dewar pants and shorts, D-U-E-R dot C-A.

They have a retail store on Queen street West and you can save 15% if you use the promo code Toronto Mike. So say 15% help out the show Dewar world's most comfortable pants and shorts and sticker you. I'm just, if you need any body break stickers or decals or anything, sticker you.com they're in Liberty village, but they're available anywhere. You have an internet connection, wonderful people, great supporters, shout out to Andrew Witkin and his

family and, uh, great, uh, fuelers of this real talk. Okay. So you and Joanne, was it love at first sight? Like those sparks were flying when you're at that pasta pasta. I'm sure it was for Joanne, but it was, um, uh, no, we, we actually, um, uh, I, I had just started in May of, um, uh, 88. I had just started a two week course at Ryerson and, um, and I was going to be starting on that Monday and it was about a TV was about TV and television and whatever. So I had the experience with TSN in April. I thought, let me take this two-week course, summer course at Ryerson to learn more about the TV industry. And maybe I could, and also about being on camera and so forth, that sort of thing. So I was telling her about that. And she said, well, she kind of, she did a local

cable show, a couple of appearances about, about health and about track and field. And so, you know, she was quite interested and she wouldn't mind getting into that field. So that was my foray into say, well, why don't we have dinner and we can sit about and talk about that, you know? So, so I came and picked her up at her, at her apartment and she, she was knocking on her door. She's, Oh, I'm here. Oh, just a sec. I got to go get something. She went and got a pad and paper cause she wanted to take notes. And I thought, really? Like you're, Oh, I thought she, I thought this was just a line like, you know, okay.

So she was serious about the business meeting and you were, oh, I thought you, I thought this was just a line. Like, you know, okay. You really want to. So she was serious about the business meeting. That's right. And you were there to, you know, because you're attracted to this figure woman. But she, in fact, we never talked about it the whole, the whole date. So we had a, we had sports in common. Okay. Before I, before I go too far again, Joanne, she went for a run because she heard Toronto Mike was zooming in.

Who can blame her? But can you give me an idea? Because we've heard you had a baseball career and you were playing for Canada, Team Canada's baseball before your athletic career. But Joanne herself, what were her disciplines? Give us a sense of what kind of an athlete. She's clearly still an athlete, at the time what she was uh well joanne was a really really good athlete you know she um she was you know ever since she was a young girl she was um you know certainly um you know certainly a someone that you'd look at and say

well she she really knows what she's doing kind of thing. She played basketball. She ran track and field. She ran track and field for Canada. And then she went to Canada Life Insurance. And that's when I met her. She was working at Canada Life Insurance. So she ran for Canada for over 10 years as a high hurdler. And so we had actually mutual friends,

uh, that we, that we had and, um, between us that we could actually, um, a guy named Hugh Spooner, who was a friend of hers who ran, who she ran track with and myself. So it was, uh, uh, yeah, she was, uh, really, you know, a very good athlete and, um, and, and all different disciplines. So it really, it came back really to tell, to really show us that, uh, I, I played all kinds of sports myself. I mean, I was just, uh, you know, all kinds of different, different things. And so when, when we, when we did got together, you know, from, from, you know, from the baseball to, to basketball, hockey, all the different things that, that I would, that I'd participated in. And we, we talked about all of those different things and on our first date and, and shortly

after the idea for a body breaker. Okay, great. And we got to talk body break, but first I need to tell the listenership because most people are going to hear this on their, as as a podcast they won't know that you just showed off your mad production skills in real time bringing up a slide of joanne as a young athlete and yourself as a young athlete like i just want to give you some props uh for those who won't see it that i just witnessed the greatness of producer hal johnson well it's just, I love tech stuff. So I'd rather be behind the camera, I think.

So I really enjoy all the tech. See, me too. I love it too. I love, the fact that I'm actually talking on the mic is just because, let's face it, I couldn't find anyone who could do this as well as I could. So I had to do it myself. But I'm just kidding, of course.

But all the other parts, I enjoy touching all the other parts without a doubt. So we're cut from the same cloth okay so particip well well no before we get this so body break i want to differentiate between body break and participation because i think some of us treat them like synonyms but body break which you know we know from your instagram handle this starts in 1988 so tell me what is body break versus participation? Well, the, I guess the body break versus participation in a sense that we, we look at that, um, they were our first sponsor.

So, uh, I went to the money, they were the money. They were the ones who, who, who, who really put the money behind it. And I got to them because I went to TSN after, on June 8th of 1988 is the day that we came up with the concept and the idea. And the reason I came up with the idea is I was at Woodbine Racetrack and the director didn't want to have myself next to a white girl. Wait, wait, wait. so you were filming an ad i was filming an ad at the woodbine racetrack uh about about racing and i was in the fan and you actually people have brought it up and they've seen it on youtube and i'm next to the white guy because i was not next to the the girl and because they didn't want a white girl and a black guy together so that was kind of the straw in 1988 in 1988 okay so i'm in a i'm in a mixed marriage myself uh i know you are as well but

the that's uh wow like so in 1988 they're filming this ad you're sitting beside a white woman they're like we need to move how because we don't want a black man and a white woman sitting beside each other in this ad for woodbine or whatever. Yeah. And so we, at that afternoon when I got home, I was supposed to leave on a flight on Ward Air to San Diego. And I decided Joanne was going to take me to the airport. And I decided, I said, you know, I've got this idea and I had storyboarded over lunch, this concept and idea coming from the idea of dealing with Joanne and her athletic background, seeing that the racism and that I had faced all my life, but there I thought, what can I do to make a difference? And so that the idea of Body Break was born from that because

Body Break is really about showing that we can all live, work and play together. Fitness is really the conduit that gets us to that point. But the one thing that all of us have in common, even Trumpers, is that we want to have, we want to be healthy. And so we can all agree that health is very important. And so I thought regardless of your ability, your disability, your ethnicity, your gender, we can all live, work, and play together. And that was the original concept in 1988. And so I went around to 42 different companies.

I was all turned down by each and every one until I went to Participaction. And when I went to Participaction, and the reason I went to there is because I went into TSN and TSN loved the show. But the person in the programming department said they would buy it for $500, but I couldn't be the host because they didn't want a black guy a girl and a black guy together they didn't think the canadian public was will it was up for that so i remember sitting in the guy's office and he told it to me directly like he said that's you know we would do that he they would buy that and i just i i thought about it i said okay well thank you very much we'll think about it and i went home and was, I got home at three 30 in the afternoon.

And I always do this thing where I look at a phone and I say, when I'm trying to think of an idea of, okay, and I go, who can I call? What can I do? Who can I call? What can I do? Who can I call? What can I do? And I was looking at the phone. So I, I, and I chant that out loud. And I was looking at the phone. So I, and I chant that out loud. And after about five minutes, I yelled to Joanne in the, in the other room, I said, who does the fitness stuff for Canada? And she said, the participation, participation. And she couldn't remember. She said, you know, that 60 year old Swede that's healthier than the Canadian ad that was in the 70s? I said, oh yeah. So I looked in the white pages, looked up participation in the phone book, called them, talked to a gentleman by the name of Bob Duck, and I was at four o'clock,

and then the next day we had a meeting, and within a few weeks, we had a contract with ParticipAction to do six pilot episodes for them. Okay, here's what I'd like to do, Helen. It's my show, You Can't Stop Me, but we're going to spend 90 minutes and we're going to listen to like an early body break. And then we're going to talk a little more about it. How about 90 seconds? What did I say, 90 minutes? Yeah. See, that's how long this episode is.

It got in my brain. 90 seconds. You are correct. Here we go. Body Break with Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod. That was a great ride. Too bad Hal had trouble keeping up with me. And one reason he had trouble was his lack of arm strength.

And it's your arms that stabilize your body when you ride. Well, what Joanna's trying to say is that when you ride, you use your entire body. And it's your arms that keep both you and your bike in balance. So you can conquer these tough hills. And one exercise I found just terrific is tricep kickbacks. It helps develop the back of the upper arm, which is your tricep muscle. So since Joanne won that race, let's have her demonstrate the exercise, okay? Joanne is bent at the waist, her arm is at shoulder height,

and just as the exercise implies, she kicks back the weight until her arm is straight. Hold for a second, and then slowly comes back to the original position. Now remember, make sure that you move only the forearm and keep that elbow high and stationary. Our tip today, if you want to develop tone when doing an exercise using weights, do 12 to 15 repetitions comfortably, which is one set, for a total of three sets.

So until we see you again, keep fit and have fun. Well, it looks like this time I'm going to beat Joanne. Let's go. See you about that. Body Break. What a jam, Hal. Holy smokes. I'm going to call my buddy Stu Stone.

We're going to remix that into a new song. But, okay, so that's a very early, like, I don't know. What is that? Like one of the very early episodes. That was our very first episode that we did. And what you see for your listeners who don't see what you're seeing is that this is our original storyboard that we put together. So I didn't know that you were going to play that. And this is our original storyboard that I have.

you were going to play that. And this is our original storyboard that I have. And it was what I would then take out to all of the, take a VHS around with this original storyboard to explain, here's what the, here's what the show is about. It's about, you know, you're out, you're, you're, you're trying to bring all of Canada together. We're out having a little competition, some fun. You know, then, you know, we, we do the exercise, show the result and then back to biking again. So, or in this case, biking. So that was the, what you were playing, this was the exact episode that we did. It was our very, very first episode. The music changed over the years. Dave Clark was the, is the gentleman who actually did the music for, for Body Break. And he was still a good, good friend today.

And he did about four renditions of it. We kept getting it going faster with it. So that Body Break theme was about, that was kind of about a year and a half to two years with that theme. And then we changed it. Our original theme for Body Break, this original theme, I went to Dave and I said, I want to make it sound like Earth, Wind & Fire-ish. My favorite song is September by Earth, Wind & Fire.

And I said, when I hear September, one, I want to get up and dance, but it makes me happy. And that's what I wanted. I wanted it to make people happy. So when it came on and what's so interesting I find today is that, is that people that are in their, you know, their late twenties, early thirties, or not early thirties, their thirties, early forties, they'll come up to us. And when the music is so grained in their head, they know the music, they know the theme, but they would say when it would come on, they would jump up as a kid and hear the, Oh, body break. And then hear the fun element. That's a kid, you know what I mean? And that's, the kids are truthful. And so they, they would tell me they

jump up and make them want to move because it was happy. And I think that's, and that's why when people come up to me today and they're, say they're in their early forties and they, they always have a smile. They always are saying, you know, that they, you know, they tell me their memoirs of a body break, but it, it, it reminds them, body break reminds them of being a kid. And what it reminds them of is not having a car payment, no mortgage, didn't have to worry about interest rates. You know, they don't have any kids, no responsibility. All they had to worry about is, you know, were they going to eat what mom was serving that night, you know, or where they were going to get, uh, uh, that, that evening for dinner, that's all they had

to really concern themselves with. And did they have to do their homework? Um, so that's where I, I, um, uh, I think about the music is so, um, was so important to body break it. It was, there was elements that wouldn't body break would not have worked without certain elements. And we got so fortunate, so lucky and so grateful, um, that we had, uh, you know, certain people, you know, in our lives that, um, that, that certainly helped us out a great deal. And, and Dave Clark was one of them, uh, in the music. Now, one of the things about the music from a technical perspective is that, and this is again, going back to Dave, he said,

when you send it to the stations, run the hit off the top in red, meaning make it really almost distorted loud when you're mixing it. So mix the front part. But body break, when it comes in, it's yelling at you in a sense. Get your attention. And so we need to run it into the red and then bring it down slightly. So for the first two seconds of body break, it was loud, much louder than the show that you were watching um and so it went into the red

which means it's so when when you're watching a show and then body break came on it was like yelling at you body break you know that type of thing it was effective how and uh i'm one of those gen xers who uh you know and i'm i happen to be a nostalgia merchant myself so i i peddle in the nostalgia on the daily, but this is a big part of it. I'm thinking of me and my buddy Retro Ontario or would play old body breaks and talk about Hal and Joanne,

but yeah, really, really effective. What's the gentleman's name from Retro Ontario? Ed Conroy. Yes, I called him and I wasn't really, I wasn't on YouTube quite a bit, very much. And now what we're doing is actually putting Body Break on YouTube and we're putting it, we've been putting it on for the last year and a half. We have over 300 episodes. I mean, every week we've been dropping, you know, one or two episodes every

week. Generally two episodes a week we've been dropping now for the last six months. So we've got a hundred and so on there, but I was, so I was just getting into the YouTube thing and I noticed the person who handles it for me, they said, there's these people that have thousands and thousands of views using your material, you know, and I go, well, is that really right? Well, no, then she goes, no, you just have to go to this area on YouTube and say copyright. And then, so I did that and I said, yeah, copyright and they have to take it down. Well, like, and I didn't realize if you, you can say it nicely or you can say it definitively and i said it definitively not knowing what the ramifications were the ramifications were they could be banned

from youtube if they don't do it within a seven days or something like that how you should have called me first because ed's one of the good guys in fact he's he's in the FOTM Hall of Fame. So I could have brokered this. And of course, he only wants to pay respect to this. These artifacts, right, of our Ontario-centric, you know, Toronto-centric, but nostalgia requirements. But a quick story is that he once put an ad for apple juice, D'Angelo's apple juice, and he got a strike by Frank D'Angelo. And he told me he only is allowed

three of these things and yeah they throw them off YouTube so this is very serious Hal very serious I didn't know that I had no I just saw all of these people like literally there was hundreds and hundreds of people and you just have to put a check mark next to the one so I was just going down going like you're not you're not allowed to use like all these people, not allow all these people using our content that didn't ask to use the content. Right. And so I just, and some of them had like, you know, a hundred thousand views on our, and I go, okay, well, why is that? That shouldn't be right. I totally get what you're saying.

Absolutely. Next time, how there's a problem with an FOTM Hall of Fame member. You call me. Everybody will be happy at the end of the day. That's because you – so just to understand the difference. So Participaction is a government agency that's financing the airing of your body break. But you and Joanne own Body Break. You own that.

That's why we only work with them for two years. They didn't renew our contract. We did 65 episodes with participation, but, uh, only, um, the only, the, the, the only one was, you know, the episodes were, were, um, uh, we got to be too well known. So participation said, no, we don't, we don't want that. We don't want, um, you to be too well known. So we're no longer renewing your contract. Although it was the most successful thing participation had ever done from a, from a, a, a plays perspective. Cause we're being played 1500 times a week on 140, uh, cable and network stations across the country. And there was no internet or people didn't have PCs at home or phones or anything like

that. So when you watch network television, that's what you watched. And we were all over it all the time. And we became very, you know, very well known because of it. And so, but Particip participation didn't own us and therefore they, um, they, Kellogg's had come to us and asked us to be on the back of special K. And that's what got participation upset because they realized they get corporate sponsors and they would have to then share this money with, with us. And they didn't want that. So they then

didn't renew our contract. And then we went off on our own and did it ourselves. So, and Joanne and I had always, we'd written every script. We'd, I, I direct all the episodes. Joanne does all the editing. And, and then that's, it's a little thing we put together and we would, then we would actually, I take the, the tapes down, I'd get the tapes dubbed to all the different stations needed. Some needed three quarters, some needed beta cam, some needed, you know, whatever medium we get that done. And then we would usually spend two days labeling and mailing them out to all the stations across the country. Wow. So firstly, good on you for owning your shit.

That's the best advice I give anybody. And you were, as a man who, you know, got the scholarship and had the good education, always own your shit. So you and Joanne owning Body Break, so smart. But I will say, when I hear what Participaction realized, it's similar to what the Toronto Blue Jays realized when they realized, oh, we don't own BJ Birdie. Okay, so this is what happened.

We don't own BJ Birdie. That means BJ's got to go and we got to bring in a different mascot that we own. It's just one of these terrible corporate things. But if you don't mind, I'm going to just, at this point, I'm going to get to some more FOTM questions. So Dan writes in, he says, as someone on the waiting list for a knee replacement, I would love to hear more about his experience before and after the surgery. He says he also wants you to know he loved the video that you and Joanne did for Perlator. He works for Perlator. And he says, and then there's a

question I'm going to hold on to because after you just let Dan know about knee replacement, and I didn't know how that you had knee replacement surgery, but you can tell us about that for a moment. Then I'll get to Dan's other thing because it ties in with the most frequently askedibia plateau, which is the I fractured it back in 1999 playing hockey and it repaired and then but I caused a lot of damage in there. So the doctor told me that at some point I'm going to create a lot of arthritis in there. And he was absolutely correct. And basically about 18, 19 years later, I started having some real knee issues because

of that right at that spot. So, and I was getting a lot of pain and I couldn't really hike as much. And it was hard to golf and carry my bag without a tremendous amount of pain. So I eventually got a knee replacement. And I searched around, and I went to Dr. Brad Weaning in Oakville. He has a YouTube channel called Talking with Docs. In fact, it's great information. I'd go to that to learn about talking with docs from Dr. Weaning

and Dr. Zazzo. In fact, both of them performed the surgery and they filmed my surgery. So, if you go to their YouTube channel, you can actually see my knee surgery. They filmed the whole surgery. I haven't watched it. I was going to say, did you produce that one on the fly as well? But you know what the funny thing is? Going surgery again, I wasn't nervous at all. I mean, and it was because I had my production hat on and I'm, they've got the camera there in the, they've got the IV in you. You're in a, not in the operating room yet, but you're sitting there and they, both the doctors come in and they start to interview me about going and doing the surgery. So I'm thinking I'm on TV mode. I'm being interviewed. So I'm thinking about the interview, you know, and this and that.

And I do the interview. They put me on the gurney, wheel me in. And they ask, what song do you want to hear? I said, September by Earth, Wind and fire. So as I'm being wheeled in the September is playing through the, uh, the speakers there, and then they've got, they got the cameras there and they're filming the entire, uh, and then boom, I'm out. Uh, so, but I wasn't nervous because I had my production hat on. I wasn't even thinking about the, uh, the surgery actually. So, uh, uh, but they were, uh, they, uh, it was great. it was great. And, but I would say, and it was interesting, Dr. Weaning said to me, he said, the people that really are glad they did the surgery are people that are in a lot of pain going into the surgery. And if you're not in a lot

of pain, don't get the surgery because one, there's a large percentage of people who it doesn't, it could be worse or about a percentage that it doesn't necessarily help a great deal. It could be like 10% or 15%, that sort of thing. And then you're on grades of scale on whether you have the, your ability to do things. It comes down to, I realize in going through the process, the procedure of the surgery, that unless you're willing to dedicate about three months of your time to this is your new job. So in this gym here behind me, I was in this room probably four hours to five hours a day. And that was only up here. I was actually doing things in my, in the house. I was going from using a TENS machine, ice, with TENS machine was muscle stimulation doing stretches of for what you have to do to reduce the

scar tissue treadmill bike all the different exercises that i would do in the gym here so it was a constant constant working out and you just go from one thing to the other, to the other, to the other. So for, for a good eight hours of the day, it was, I was in physiotherapy, whether it be icing, whether it be muscle stimulation, whether whatever it might've been. And if you're not willing to put that time and effort and energy into it, I would necessarily hold off because it's, and I must say, it's painful. Dan, brace yourself, buddy. I actually met Dan's daughter at a Blue Jay game recently. So Dan and his daughter will listen to the Pandemic Friday

and Toast episodes of Toronto Mike together. But it sounds like Dan's got a lot of work ahead of him. I think he was hoping you'd say oh it was nothing like i did it and i recovered right away and but you you delivered the real talk here so dan knows what's in store there uh but john riches and i think you addressed this because it sounds like uh if we follow body break on youtube we can see all because this is where i went to get because i i did load up a couple of episodes uh in that one we just heard but john riches wants to know he says body break would be perfect for tiktok he wants to know is there any since you own the content and you still have it which is

half the battle right there uh any plans to like uh drop those new episodes on tiktok by the way i'm not on tiktok so i'm now talking out my butt here. And I'm not on TikTok either. And that's a great idea. Thank you very much. And I will look into it. But what I will do, there's a program that I recently heard about that can take my SD, which that's standard definition is what we originally shot all the body breaks on up until 2004, which is the majority of our body break episodes, that was on standard definition. There's a program now that we're going to be doing and converting all of the original body breaks to 4K and then reissuing them back on YouTube as new content, because there's, there'll be 4k content. So taking that episode that you just played and going from standard definition to 4k, and we can do that. Um, it's, they use AI to make this happen and it'll be 4k

content. YouTube will look at it at 4k. So I will wait to put that up on to TikTok when it's 4k. So you'll, you'll, it'll be new because it'll be much clearer now. It'd be nice that, you know, when Joanne and I were in our thirties, um, it's okay to have, have in 4k, but when you're, when you're not in your thirties, you see a little few more lines than you did when you're in 4k than you did back then. But you know what I had recently, I noticed some people I know when they go on their social media, the lines are gone.

Like it looks like they're sort of like they're aliens from another planet. Like, and I always think like, and Madonna, you know, bless Madonna's heart. What a great singer song. Does she write her own music sometimes? Yeah. Anyways, what a great pop star anyways Madonna lots of hits but she's really I always look at her Instagram

posts and I wonder like it's okay to be in your 60s okay like there's no shame in being in your 60s you can look she looks great for a woman in her 60s but when you see her on Instagram she looks like she's 19 okay so I mean I'm just saying let's look at me here Hal did I dye my You know, you see all this is all unfiltered, but okay. I'm off the track here. There's something we have to address right now. Something And then many people, but Brady Figley wants to know,

any plans for bringing back the mustache? Countless people asking. One person wants to know, why did you shave your mustache? So let's talk about the mustache for a minute. This is very important to Canadians who are tuning in uh from c to c here and there's also there's also a um a a video a song we got approached um by saying you can look it up on uh on google about um about me chasing my mustache and i'm actually it's a song that was written and they they it wasn't about the mustache but it was the the whole music video that was made was it was me chasing my mustache and it was being absconded

it was it was very strange it was just fun we shot it in uh in hamilton um but okay so anyways let me just tell the people what i see right now so and again we will take a screenshot at the end of this that'll attach to the post, but people, and I am recording this for Facebook, but most people will not see you. They'll hear you right now, but I see this beautiful,

thick mustache on your face right now. I was fully expecting not to see anything on your lip. Can you pull on it? I want to know if it's fake. Just pull on it. Is that fake? I don't think so. Wow.

Okay. So what happened when I was, cause wasn't i on a zoom with you you and andrew recently there was no money where did this mustache come from it came from a growth that's what that's what happens when you grow i'm just jealous because mine looks so weak compared to yours like well i can do this in about two weeks okay um uh so it's um yeah so it's yeah so basically what's happened is I generally don't like to have the mustache anymore.

Um, and so I, but I've, I had to, uh, I had to shave it off cause we were shooting a video, uh, a Dan actually works for Pure Later and we were shooting that video. So we need to match up video that we had shot when I didn't have my mustache. And then I had to, I had to grow it. And then I had my mustache on because I had to grow it for commercial that I, I shot. Then I had to shave it off to match video. So I shaved it off, but I'm growing it back now. The reason it's back now is because I'm shooting a commercial for Action Water. We're the spokespeople for Action

Water and it's a 9.5 pH water and alkaline water. And so we're the spokespeople for them for this year. And so they wanted the mustache and I have to shoot a commercial August 4th for them. So the mustache is back. Well, you know why they want the mustache. Do you remember when Jennifer gray, okay. From dirty dancing, got a nose job and nobody recognized her anymore. And also we're shooting a commercial at the end of, end of August with Connor McDavid and Bo Horvath.

Wow. So we're shooting with that. We did a commercial with Connor last year and they painted on, they didn't, I show up to the set and they go, oh, we wanted the mustache. We thought you had the mustache. And I go, no, so they put on a fake one and I hated it. I hated it. So I said, next year I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll just grow a real one. So yeah, I yeah, I'll grow it. And, uh, then after we shoot the video, I will probably shave it off. So. Okay. Well, I thought maybe you were going to tell me you grew it for me. Cause I, you know, this has been in your calendar for, uh,

several weeks now. And I was really hoping it was like, Oh, how grew that back for me? Because he knows I'm going to ask, where's, where's the mustache. If you had more followers on Facebook, then it would be worth it, right? That would be the thing. Listen, people can hear your mustache. That's how beautiful it is, okay?

People will hear it. Okay, so the mustache is back. We got a great, it only takes you a couple weeks to grow that thing. I don't know why it left, but it sounds like, is it just uncomfortable? You know, is it just, it was itchy? Well, it's just, I'm low maintenance, right? So it's just, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, I just don't like, yeah, it's just, I don't like to take care of things. No, I know. Yeah. I can totally

relate to that. Okay. So the next series of questions, let me tell you, I grew the mustache originally. I grew it originally when we were on team Canada. And so we're in Japan. And so we all wanted to look tougher because we were playing the Americans. So one of the guys had the idea, let's grow. Everyone grow Fu Manchus because that's what we were in Japan. So that was the idea. Let's grow Fu Manchus. So we all grew these big Fu Manchus like a Goose Gossage, who was a pitcher for the Yankees in Oakland.

He grew this big burly mustache. So all of us had this big burly mustaches on, and I grew it. And then I got back to University of Colorado. My girlfriend said, oh, I love that mustache. Oh, the mustache is great. And so I kept it, and's i just kept it on through that because you know uh the girls when i was said they liked it so i go the girl said oh get that thing off i'd have probably shaved it off oh that makes sense to me uh so rod black was here a couple

of weeks ago and i had all these questions for his missy mustache and i was just going to cross out the name rod black and put in hallow john just pepper you them. But here you are with a great mustache. And now I have no questions. Yeah. I must say when you're 20, when I was like 24, 23, 24 playing, I looked like I was 19, 18. I always looked kind of younger. So when you're that age and you grow a mustache, you make you look older and tougher when you're 66. Older and tougher is not what you're striving for. Like it's that's not the goal that you want to look at.

Don't tell don't tell Jim Van Horn because he's held on to his. I noticed Gino Reda got rid of it. A lot of people got rid of it. But but Jim Van Horn still rocking rocking his which is cool to see hey so are you coloring that mustache be honest because it looks pretty dark uh you must be coloring that i i be honest with me how we're friends now i'm not julie i'm not julianne but but it it doesn't naturally come out as quite as thick as this or quite it's normally red you see so i just put it a little bit darker that way all right before i get now i'm going to get messages i spent too long on them i had kyle bukakis over here and they said i spent too long on his hair i'm like are you new to toronto mic'd okay so mark d i love mark d's question but actually i gotta preface this mark d question by playing a clip now it is a couple

minutes long but you have a couple minutes for me so let's listen to this and then we're going to talk about it. Hi, I'm Joanne McLeod. And I'm Hal Johnson. We are huge fans of The Amazing Race. You might know us from Body Break. We've been encouraging Canadians to live a healthy, active lifestyle for 25 years. It's really just an extension of our real lives. Besides being business partners, we're married. We have a 14-year-old daughter, and Max.

He's a Nova Scotia Daktola retriever. And I'm 56. And I'm 54. I grew up in Scarborough and had the honour of representing Canada, running hurdles and track meets all over the world. I grew up in North York, and my passion for baseball started at a very early age. I then went on to the University of Colorado on a baseball scholarship and then played on Team Canada. 25 years Joanne and I have been living and working together that's why we think we've got what it takes to win the Amazing Race.

Well this is where we've watched the amazing race since its inception in 2001, and we haven't missed an episode. And as Joanne said, we're big, huge, enormous fans of the show. You might say that we've been training for this all these years. We've cycled in Lunenburg, whitewater rafted on the Bow River, skied in Mont Tremblant, kayaked in Algonquin Park, golfed in Alberta, snowboarded in Whistler, heli-hiked in the Bugaboos.

Skated on the Rideau Canal. So many activities, roadblocks and challenges all across Canada. Whether email, social media or people that we meet on the street every day, people tell us that they've grown up with us. They've grown up with Body Break. Now that can be a big advantage on the Amazing Race, but it also could put targets on our backs. It could be a liability,

but I think we could use it to our advantage. I think we can. There's going to be a lot of great competitors out there, and that's what we're really looking forward to. We're also really proud to be Canadian, and to get the opportunity to be on the first Amazing Race Canada would be great. Oh, Race Canada would be great.

Oh, it really would be. And celebrating 25 years being together. Well, until next time, keep fit and have fun. Wow, I could have saved us 90 minutes and just aired that. That was pretty, pretty hell. Okay, yeah. So again, amazing production by Hal Johnson on the Facebook stream. So if people want to check it out, go to the Toronto Mic Facebook page

and they can actually see the archive of this recording. But okay, tell me, I need to know, how did the amazing, so tell me about the amazing race experience and then I'll ask a question from Mark D. And then I'll ask a question from Mark D. The Amazing Race was a memorable experience for us. And we've done so many. It's funny, something that goes through your mind in your life when you can remember every single second, which we can, of the race.

And so it was just so imprinted on us. And it was such a great experience. On the one hand, it was such a a great experience on on the one hand it was such a a great memorable experience on the other hand it was so gutting and devastating and was interesting and what you played our our uh our audition tape that that you played there is that we thought that you know being on the race would work to our advantage and work to our disadvantage that's absolutely what happened in terms of body break work to our advantage and work to our disadvantage that's absolutely what happened in terms of body break working to our advantage and disadvantage because um we we got some advantages from the public uh uh because they they they knew us that were very slight very slight

they you don't have any you have very little money and so we were actually people gave us money to help us out they they knew we were actually, people gave us money to help us out. They, they knew we were on the race somehow and well with all the cameras and whatever. And they said, do you guys need money? And I was like, Oh, okay, we'll take it. You know, like 20, $30 here and there. Um, and it was, that was great. But the reason we got you turned and that's why we were eliminated from the race is because the eventual winners, the Tims, felt that we had already had our 15 minutes of fame and didn't really deserve to be there.

And so they wanted us off the race. And they thought that the producers were giving us advantages because we were doing certain things that they couldn't figure out. How did Hal and Joe get to where they are i'll give you an example of that is that we were in white horse this was on the the fifth leg we're on in white horse and they the amazing race has only um they with air canada they have a blocked out certain flights in terms of the number of people that can be on amazing racers that can be on that flight. And so we didn't really know that, but so we get to the airport where the

13th arrived and they say, no, you have to take the next flight because we had to get to Regina. So you have to take the next flight to get to Regina, which was a connector. So anyway, I, I figured out that, um, we, I went on, I went on the phone and I used a different name. I used my middle name and I used Joanne's middle name and we were able to get on the correct flight. And so the other teams didn't know how did we do that? In fact, the producers called the camera people and asked that were filming us at the time, how the heck did they get on that flight? And so there was this kind of thinking that the producers were helping us out. Well, you're celebrity contestants and that they were helping you out because it would be good to have you on the TV competing because you're famous.

Right. They thought that. But we also prepared. And a reason we were very much in production mode in proper preparation. Proper preparation prevents poor performance. So what we did before the race is not only we tried to get it in really good physical shape, but more importantly, I studied every Air Canada route because they were a sponsor. So I studied every route in Canada because I knew that's where we were going. So I knew that if you're in Vancouver past 8 o'clock at night,

and you need to get to Winnipeg, it's better to fly to Toronto in the overnighter and then fly in the morning from Toronto to Winnipeg. You'll get there quicker than if you wait in Vancouver overnight. I knew every hub. I studied it literally for six weeks. I went to a car dealership because Chevy was the other sponsor. And I drove every stick shift that Chevy had. Reason being, I'm thinking when you're under high stress, you need to know how to get into reverse or how to use that stick properly. And I had a stick shift when I was younger, but these were different. And they were.

You had to press a button in order to get into reverse, which under stress, you know, you don't see things. So you want to make it more automatic. So we did a lot of research. Plus, we were the oldest team on the race by far like not even close um one team their commute their their uh cumulative age didn't add up to mine so so when you look at um our experience was there so in fact on the the final question of the race was what flags and put the flags of the country of the provinces and the and the flowers of the provinces together in a puzzle. Joanna and I figured out on the second leg of the race, that would be the final question, because on our on our clues was the flag of the

province that we were in. And every time we got to the mat, the person next to John Montgomery had a flower in their lapel. And I asked the participant, I said, what is that flower? And they said, oh, that's the provincial flower. And so what Joanne and I did when we were at an airport, we went and got a computer and we printed out all the flags and flowers of the provinces, cut them up. And then in the room at night, we were playing and getting them correct. So Joanne could actually do that in about 45 seconds. She could put the flowers, flags and flowers together. That was the final question. Two of the teams didn't even get the two of the three teams couldn't was the final question. Two of the teams didn't even get,

the two of the three teams couldn't answer the final question. They couldn't put it together in a lot of time. And the other team that did took them a couple of hours to do it. So we would have won the race if we'd have gotten to the end. Spoiler alert. No. Watch season one over again on youtube okay honestly amazing but mark d's question is if you and joanne had the chance to run amazing race canada again would you do it it ebbs and flows and the reason i say that it ebbs and flows is because um part of me just it was a memorable experience but it was, and it was great. It was just so exciting to live like that was just so great to live on the edge of,

just imagine ripping open an envelope and you don't know where you're going to go. It's going to tell you where you're going to go. That is exciting as hell so the state of yyz the state of pearson airport today i feel like you just be just in the airport for a couple of weeks well i think well they filmed this before uh pearson and everything else went crazy so they were they were filming in april right so things hadn't't gotten, people weren't really traveling that much at that point. So, but no, it was, to answer your question, it really depends. Sometimes I think I'd love to do it. And other times I think, I think our time has passed, but the competitor in me says,

you know, I think I could do it. And we're again, huge fans. We watch it. And kind of a funny note is that because we're doing speaking engagements all across the country and we've done it for years, we've run into teams. We ran into the eventual winners of season four, I think it was. I think it was season four or five. I think it was four. We ran into the teams. I ran into the team at Pearson. I was meeting Joanne out in Vancouver. She was already out there. And I see a camera and I go, oh, and I see it's two teams. I said, hey, you guys are

doing an amazing race and they can't say anything. And I knew the cameraman. I said, yeah, I know you guys are on the race and I know you need money. Here's, I only got 20 bucks on me. Here you go. Here's 20 bucks. They go, thank you. And then we took pictures with, with each other. And then, then I left. And so I gave them the 20 bucks and they were the eventual winners of the race. And I'll give a big shout out. They still owe me the 20 bucks. So it was, that's great. That's great. Okay. So one one more serious question for me and then it's a free-for-all before i play us out here but you've been fantastic how like honestly you build up these things in your mind like okay hal johnson from body break i'm like i know i don't get joanne

so you're like oh you're a little bummed out but you're like i get how and all his essence you don't get joanne but you know that's joanne know, Joanne's always a good sport. And so, Jo, she just got back from a run. If you just want to come here and just say hi to Toronto Mike here. Use my microphone here. Oh, she's got you a coffee. No, no. Those are her CTE.

Okay, CTEs. Mike says she just got it from her, right? Yeah. Mike, he's been so insulted that you haven't, you know, that you haven't, didn't want to show up today. And so, you know, that's, it's not personal. It's not personal. Okay, Joanne.

I need to get my workout in. So, yeah. No, Joanne, look, this keeps my streak intact. Remember how I told you I had a duo streak? Now I can say I had you both on the show. So, Joanne, I know it's fine. When people find out Toronto Mike is zooming in, usually that's when they have to go for the run. I'm used to

that. But what an honor it is to meet you. Honestly, you guys inspired me so much when I was a younger man watching the body breaks on television. You're still at it and I'm just so happy to see you here on the Zoom.

Hal, thanks for making her do this. It wasn't painful. Wow. Hal and Joanne on Toronto Mike. Now I know how to promote the episode, Hal. It'll be Hal and Joanne, the devil's in the details. So get Hal back for the final question.

And then while Hal's setting himself back up, I'll just thank Great Lakes Brewery for their sponsorship, delicious fresh craft beer. And if you want cannabis or cannabis accessories, Canna Cabana will not be undersold. 100 locations across the country. Go to cannacabana.com.

And last but not least, shout out to Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of this community since 1921. It's funny, off the top, I mentioned six feet under. Well, six kids under. That's Ridley Funeral Home and Brad Jones there. Okay, thanks for Hal.

Thanks for making Joanne do that. That was just a thrill for me. And the last serious question before we wrap up here is from Brady. Brady wants to know, in all seriousness, how do you feel, Hal Johnson, the sports broadcasting industry has changed for BIPOC. That's, that's, uh, black, indigenous,

and people of color over the past two years. Um, I think, uh, like we talked earlier when the, uh, when the volume goes down in terms of the, uh, of what's there, uh, companies will just fade and do what they get back into their normal habits. There has to be, there has to be incentives. There has to be companies to want to seek out. And it starts, you know, it's not going to be overnight, number one, but it starts at, it starts at Ryerson. It starts in, it starts way back at schools type of thing and given opportunity. I hope, you know, that you've got people that are behind the scenes more of color, not,

not just what you see out front, but what you see behind the scenes. And that's often like when I, when I'm on production shoots, I very rarely see people of color, whether it be Asian. I was on the shoot that we shot a few weeks ago. I mean, there was probably 20 people on the shoot. There was one person of, one Asian person on the shoot. I did a thing for Netflix here in Toronto and there was 42 people on the set because I counted them and there wasn't one person of color. So it's behind the scenes. It's just not there. There should be more incentives to put people in, whether it be women, whether it be people of color in those

positions. So I'm encouraged at least there's a conversation about things. And one of the reasons that I didn't really come out about it before was, is I thought, well, you know, I didn't want to sound like I was complaining about something. I was just, I didn't want to complain because that's not the, I don't like to do that. And it was really more that I just wanted to let, let inform people that this is, this is out there and inform Canadians that, you know, the U.S. and I must say that the U.S. is nuts. Like they're, they're, they're crazy. In fact, I don't want to ever go to the U.S. again. It is just madness down there, their politics. But, you know, it's creeping into Canada. It's a disease that racism is a disease that lingers, and it will come in. It's creeped into Canada. It's nowhere near in the same level at all. It's an apple is an orange's comparison, but it is here. And it's good to make Canadians aware that we can do better. And that's all that Body Break has tried to do over these last 34 years is, you know, come on, Canada, we can do better.

Well said, Hal. And thank you for talking to us and sharing this stuff. Because people like me, we don't know what's going on until somebody like you has the courage to tell it like it is. So I just want to thank you for that. My pleasure. And what, and just before I play some lowest of the low, and then remember I need a screen cap with you. That's so look as handsome as you can brush,

maybe just get a comb or something for the mustache and make sure you're ready for that. But just let us know. I know we got a little taste because dan works for perlator and says he saw like a corporate video there but what are you and joanne like what are you up to these days uh with the body break brand well we have a line of clothing um that you can pick up on Good for Sunday website. Good for Sunday came to us about eight months ago, and they wanted to license the Body Break brand. We were very intrigued by being with Good for Sunday because it's a Canadian-made product, and it's something that brings back nostalgic body break sweatshirts and T-shirts.

And this is our very first original body break shirt that I wore in our body break episode. Wow. And they've recreated that exact shirt, and that's for sale. And the great thing about these particular clothing, it's all made in Canada. Most of it's made in Ontario, but all in Canada. And it's a very, very well-made product. And we're very excited to be part of the Good for Sunday team, as well as hats and sweatshirts and t-shirts. And it's very high quality. So that's one of the big things we're doing. And you can, as I say, pick that up at Good for Sunday. And so as well as that Indigo and the Bay. And that's one of the

things that we're doing as well as, you know, different things for Purolator. We're doing some in-house things for Purolator. We're doing some in-house things for PureLator and we're talking about perhaps doing something a little bit more not in-house for PureLator as well. So we're negotiating with them at this time of doing some things with them as well as a couple of other companies. And we're doing loads of speaking engagements, both virtually here as well as we're starting to do them live in person. They're slating those up. So we'll see how COVID goes. So we'll, if we have to stay in our room here or, or be able to hop on a plane and go someplace.

Well, here's what I've witnessed how, okay. In addition to the mustache, I've witnessed Joanne McLeod just showed up with a tea for you. Okay. Nope. Not for you. not for you? both of them? she drinks steep tea from Tim Hortons every day but she had two extra large

one of those is not for you? no I never drink tea okay so Joanne I was going to say because Joanne shows up I thought she had a tea for you but I look out your window and I see there's a Muskoka Lake over your shoulder. I would say

life is pretty damn sweet for Hal Johnson. It's pretty good. And that brings us to the end of our 1,087th show. You can follow me on Twitter.

I'm at Toronto Mike. Hal is at Body Break. Go to Twitter, follow him at Body Break. That's his handle on Twitter. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. Dewar are at Dewar Performance.

Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH and Canada Cabana are at Canada Cabana underscore. See you all next week. Until next time, keep fit and have fun