Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Chris Finn and Blair Packham: Toronto Mike'd #1204

Episode Date: February 15, 2023

In this 1204th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with comedian Chris Finn about his years in stand up, writing for MadTV, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Ron James and Rick Mercer, and what he's up to now. Blair Packham sits in and tells an amazing story about Burt Bacharach. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Canna Cabana, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.

Welcome to episode 1204 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. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh,

homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Electronic Products Recycling Association. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. And Canna Cabana. The lowest prices on cannabis.

Guaranteed. Over 150 stores across the country. Learn more at cannacabana.com. Joining me today, making his Toronto mic debut, is Chris Finn. And co-hosting with me is future FOTM Hall of Famer, Blair Packham. I'm here. Hello.

Welcome, Chris. Welcome, Blair. Hello. Hello. Hello there. So I tweeted that I had, you know, Blair was returning. Because Blair, what is this, like your fourth or fifth? I think it's my fourth.

Yeah, yeah. It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth. And a couple of TMLX events. But I said there was fresh meat. That's you, Chris. I saw that on Twitter last night and I was like, oh, I guess I've been canceled. The 50-something fresh meat. I'm more like an over-steamed chuck. you're rancid yeah i'm like a very chewy

stew chewy stew i love that guy that's my favorite favorite rapper wrestling name okay oh yeah there you go i have a note for chris well we're gonna get to know chris and we're gonna catch up and i have some topics for both of you but i'm uh to read a note from a great FOTM. In fact, I mentioned Blair Packham played Toronto Mike listener events in the past. One of them was TMLXX at Great Lakes Brewery where Blair Packham opened for this gentleman. Danny Graves wrote me an email last night. Danny said, Chris Finn is great. A good buddy. a motel regular glad you're having him on so because danny is a owns a parkdale uh bar and apparently you're a regular i uh i i sort

of stopped going around the pandemic but i i was just short of having a little plaque with my name. And a mattress. And a mattress, which, yeah. But still a great bar. I just rarely go out anymore. Maybe one good thing that came over the pandemic is saving money and not going to bars as much. But Danny is a great buddy. And a great singer. Yeah, a fantastic singer.

And I miss his solo nights at Motel. I would stumble over for that um i don't know if they're doing music there anymore but we got to get those back yeah if they are i want to play they're always quite moving well you know what i'll just have like an unofficial tmlx at the the motel bar in parkdale and we'll make sure danny plays and blair packard plays and chris finn will be there. They sell Great Lakes beer there. Do you ever consume a Great Lakes beer? Do I? I ordered their home delivery so much over the last couple of years,

I got a Christmas card personally signed by everybody who works there. And once they were dropping off a couple of cases, and the guy said, hey, how's the band liking the beer? And I said, what band? how's the band liking the beer? And I said, uh, what band? What's your favorite Great Lakes beer? I like the, uh, I like a lot of them, but I am liking the pale ale these days. I also like the light beer, the, uh, the Great Lakes lager light. And, uh, occasionally I'll get, uh, I'll get thrown off by one.

And then I realized, oh, I didn't read the, uh, maybe it's too pumpkin-y or something like that. But I mean, overall, their products are fantastic. So you're leaving here with some fresh craft beer from Great Lakes. Unless I drink it while I'm here. Unless you drink it while it's here. Which, by the way, when I get Blair going on a topic, I can run upstairs to the fridge and get you a pale ale.

Did you want one? Oh, I'm okay. Oh, you sure? Okay. Yeah, a little early. Let me know. Is it early? Okay.

I might. It's five o'clock somewhere, as they say. If the Irish in me kicks in. And Palma Pasta too, while I'm giving you some gifts real quick here, I have a lasagna for you in my freezer. You're leaving here with a, it's a frozen lasagna from Palma Pasta. So good. This is great because I'm on, I'm actually, as a coincidence, I'm on the lasagna and beer

diet and it's actually, it's pretty terrible. It's good for you, actually. No, I'm not, actually it was a coincidence, I'm on the lasagna and beer diet. And it's, actually it's pretty terrible. It's good for you, actually. No, I'm not going to lie, it's a bad diet. I mean, these are delicious products, but I wouldn't recommend. I don't know why I'd try it. Good for your taste buds, bad for your waistline. Not a, anyway, yeah.

Blair, how many lasagnas have you had in your experience as an FOTM? Actually, only two. Is that right? Yeah. I mean, I had some on site at the TMAX events. Oh yeah, because they fed us there at those two events. Yeah, but inM? Actually only two. Is that right? Yeah. I mean I had some on site at the TMAX events. Oh yeah because they had us there at those two events. Yeah but in my freezer only two and each time I've had one I've thought and I thought it again this time I thought how will I make that fit

in my freezer? Right right. So but I will and it'll be great. My son actually who barely eats anything other than pizza and burgers he I said I was coming out to you. He said, will you bring a lasagna home? I said, I hope so. That's why he keeps asking you to, you know, tap me on the shoulder and say, hey, can I come back? Exactly. Because we're feeding your boy. Yeah, exactly.

They're a freezer staple. Yes. New freezers and fridges shouldn't come with a frozen lasagna. That's right. You got to mean it can be in there forever. Girlfriends too, now that you mention it. You know, it should just be a thing that gets bandied about. Well, speaking of girlfriends, Blair, you seem awfully happy.

Like I follow you on social media and we just had Valentine's Day yesterday and you're just like, you seem like you're in love. I'm in love and I'm in love with a, when I'm in love with a beautiful woman. But won't this ruin, like you kind of have a thing going, I feel like you being in love is bad for your brand maybe. Am I wrong? Am I crazy? Well, yeah, my brand such as it is,

if anybody gave a crap about my brand, it would hurt me. But it's not going to hurt me because, in fact, it'll win me all the romantic people because I'm feeling very lovey-dovey. This is a post-Valentine's Day statement, if I've ever heard one. Chris, are you in love? Oh, man.

Or just with Blair. Do we have to go there so soon? All right, I'll have a beer. Chris, are you in love? Oh, man. Or just with Blair? All right. Do we have to go there so soon? All right, I'll have a beer. No, I'm kidding. No, I'm just, no, I'm not. I'm bitter right now, actually. Okay, good.

Which is sort of my natural. I was going to say. Your default setting. He can be very funny when he's bitter, though, so keep poking that bear. Okay, okay. Well, okay, so I got some, like, this is how it's going to work, Chris.

We're going to get to know you. We're going to spend some quality time with you, but I have a few things off the top that are kind of Blair things, but you can some like, this is how it's going to work, Chris. We're going to get to know you. We're going to spend some quality time with you. But I have a few things off the top that are kind of Blair things, but you can chime in, of course. But this is now, what, mid-February, and I have not had Mark Weisblot in my basement this entire calendar year. So his last visit was the last week of December. Have you noticed this Blair Packham?

Of course I have. I really, really love those. I always love his appearances and I love his speech cadence and I love the stuff you guys talk about but I also love the way he talks about it because he, as I observed,

his very strong presence always makes you recede into the background. And I've quoted that often. Yes, and which, you know, on a normal episode, I don't want you doing any receding at all. But with Mark, I find him really interesting to listen to. And I hope it's not because he feels,

like I think you said it's because he's regrouping. And that makes sense to me. Yeah, like I'm still like, I think you said it's because he's regrouping and, uh, that makes sense to me. Yeah. Like I'm, I'm still like, I sincerely believe he'll be back. In fact, if I were a betting man, I'd say Mark Wiseblood is in this basement this coming spring, but he absolutely needed like a, so this is a TMDS approved, uh, hiatus for Mark Wiseblood. I have to be clear about that. And when I imitate him as I do, would and I'm just about to, yeah, but I want to give this preamble in case he's listening. Which he hopefully is. Yeah. And I've said this about him before. I, you know, I, we've only, Mark and I have only met once, but I really like him. I like his brain

and, uh, and I like needling him a little bit and, uh, and I like imitating him. Um, And I like needling him a little bit. And I like imitating him. But it's not in any way with any malice or anything like that at all. So I'm about to do it. Here we go. Toronto Mike, it's funny you should mention that. Because we have Chris Finn in the room right now. And he has the audacity.

Anyway, I'm going to stop did you i think you detected this as well but when i was chatting up uh alan zweig oh god he has a similar cadence well i sent you a text and i said if you take that and you speed it up about 30 you got mark weisblot yeah yeah he's like a slow yeah so maybe that's why how weisblot will sound in like 15, 20 years or whatever. Or after he has a mechanic cabana, you know. I was obsessed with his documentary Vinyl. It's so good. It is so good.

I really went down the rabbit hole with that. It really was an interesting character study, wasn't it? Yeah, it really, really was. And by the way, I was out with Michael Zweig last night, Alan's brother. Wow. Who scores Alan's movies and who's a dear friend of mine. We were roommates back in the 80s.

And he's a wonderful guy who you should have on the show. Very interesting guy. Listen, absolutely, I will do that. I know when Alan Zweig was here, which your name came up, Blair. Okay, I have to address that for once. Go ahead, yeah. Because Alan is so funny. Oh, my God. here which your name came up blair but okay i have to address that go ahead yeah because alan he's so funny oh my god he he uh alan chris you'll enjoy this when mike would say um well you know you're a you're a friend with uh so and so let's say he didn't say my name right away but then he

said what about blair packing he said he Alan had to be very precise about everything. He said, well, I wouldn't say that Blair is, well, no, he's a friend, but some of these people you're mentioning are acquaintances. Right. And he had to put them in one camp or the other, acquaintance or friend. And it was like, dude, relax.

Even like an hour later, you're still doing the interview, and he's saying, well, I don't know if I'd call him a friend exactly about somebody else. And it's like, okay, relax, you know,

but whatever happened to just buddy or schmuck simpler days. I am going out for coffee tomorrow with Alan for the first time in a long time. Really? Is that because you heard him on Toronto? Yeah. And he sounded great. And I, I missed him.

So I asked him if he wanted to go and he said, yes. There's a list of people. So Steve Pagan will listen to Toronto Mike. Going out for him on Friday. No, I'm kidding. So I asked him if he wanted to go and he said yes. There's a list of people. So Steve Paikin will listen to Toronto Mike. I'm going out for him on Friday. No, I'm kidding. It wouldn't surprise me. So Paikin will listen to Toronto Mike and then somebody will be on he hasn't talked to in 15 years.

And that'll prompt him to reconnect. And then I'll get these notes like, oh, I'm having a beer. I'm having a coffee with so-and-so because you reminded me of them or whatever. So it's like that's awesome. It's very sweet. And my experience of listening to Alan was very sweet. And it reminded me of why I liked him so much. Alan did not care for the Doug and the Slugs documentary.

No, he did not. Chris, have you seen this? No, I didn't know there was one. Jem, it's on CBC Jem. Oh, okay. I actually find that was fine because it was done like from the neighbor, the young neighbor, CBC Gem. Oh, okay. I actually thought it was fine because it was done from the neighbor, the young neighbor.

The daughter of the neighbors basically did this doc from her perspective growing up next door to Doug. And I thought it was okay. A lot of FOTM showed up as talking heads on this thing from Denise Donlan to, oh, heck, Chris, who's there? Yeah, so many. So many I can't remember right now. So Yeah, so many. So many I can't remember right now. So many, so many.

So many unimportant people. But I was wondering, like, any interest in a, like, would there be a jitters doc in the work? Oh, God, no. Now that we have our Doug and the Slugs doc. But here's the funny thing. You know, the guy who puts together many of the documentaries, the music documentaries that we watch, whatever they are,

Rush, Beyond the Lighted Stage, that ZZ Top documentary that's on, I think it's on Netflix, but a whole lot of them, the whole hip-hop nation, it's David Steinberg who is the legal guy behind all those. And you'd think the guy who plays drums in the jitters might be able to put something together for the jitter stock, you know? But no. So you introduced me to David Quinton Steinberg.

Yes. Who has now been over a couple times and will be over again. And now you're introducing me to Chris Finn. So tell me off the top of your head, and again, I have more things I want to get to, but I'll sprinkle it throughout, but how do you know Chris Finn, Blair? Chris and I met about 30 years ago. We were mutual fans of The Odds from Vancouver, and I think we met at Lee's Palace. I don't remember the I believe you. I don't remember the, I believe you. I don't remember the exact night.

I was, you're also mutual friends with my then girlfriend, Debbie Lillico. Yeah, but I think we all met that night. Yeah, okay. That's great. I love the odds, by the way. Oh God. Fantastic.

Big fan. And Craig Northey just recorded on one of my songs and he sent the tracks and I realized I meant to download them this morning, but anyway. And you're really connected, Craig, because you're buds with Steve Page and Northie and Page do so much together. They're in the, well, they play together

as well as Craig is in Stephen's own band. Yeah. But so Chris and I met then. And so I was friends with Debbie, his then girlfriend. And we became friends. Chris and I became friends. And we have a lot in common including our bitterness and our But that was before you fell so madly

in love that your bitterness is dissipating. Yeah, but that's only to piss Chris off. We share a similar outlook. Yeah, we definitely do. And it has been that long, my god. It was my, I was still living on Queen West. 93 or something. Yeah, you were above the shoe store, yeah. Oh my god.

Yeah, I'd met Craig before that through Kids in the Hall. Yeah. on queen west 93 yeah something yeah you were above the shoe store yeah my god and i yeah i'd met craig before that with through kids in the hall yeah and uh that's right it was was odds playing the night we met at least palace oh okay so but just to go further though about about knowing chris uh he's a beloved friend of mine but beyond that he's so accomplished he's so can i swear i can't remember yeah you can be so fucking funny and uh uh really honestly when i go to his front door i will repeat the joke he closed on new year's eve five years ago uh every time i knock on the door and uh all it is is this hello and uh and it always cracks me up but but uh he's he's very funny but he he's worked on uh

uh well he worked on mad tv worked on uh worked on, well, he worked on MADtv, worked on This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and worked more recently on the Mercer Report, and is like a professional funny guy. Now, of course, the pressure's on for him to be funny here. But he's not getting paid, so, you know, you all can ask him. He's getting lasagna. He's going to earn that lasagna.

There's no pressure. And the Great Lakes, we know he's a big fan. I'm going to sweat off this lasagna. That's right. Being funny. Pounding funny. So I love this guy, and I'm glad he's here. And I really was excited for you guys to talk, so I'll shut up now.

So Chris. Thanks for the jinx. Did you, had you, be honest with me. I can handle it. But Chris, had you ever heard of Toronto Mike before Blair? I don't know. Maybe you guys were having coffee or something. I had.

I had heard before. Okay, now you have my attention. Let's go. I didn't. Full disclosure. I'm something. I had. I had heard before. Okay, now you have my attention. Let's go. Full disclosure, I'm not a huge podcast listener. That's my bad. But I had heard of you before. I'd seen Toronto Mike on Twitter too.

Okay, okay. Amazing. Yeah. Did you ever hear maybe Danny Graves on Toronto Mike? There's an episode for you to go dig up. I will go dig that up. I did some research and I should get more involved in the podcast thing. I've listened to, not to mention another podcast in your podcast. You can do that.

I listen to WTF occasionally, Mark Maron's podcast. Never heard of it. Yeah, okay, let's keep moving. I just saw him in a movie and he was very good. He's a good actor. Yeah. He's a really good actor. He's very natural.

This movie's about addiction and- He would know about that. Yeah, well, he, yeah, he was great. And what are they called? To Leslie, For Leslie. For Leslie, I think is the name of this doc. The woman who stars in this doc, not a documentary, it's a movie.

But the woman who stars in this movie is nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars this year. So it's not exactly an unknown film. But I think my wife went to the wiki page and it made $26 26 000 in the box office so it's not exactly avatar it's not ripping it up it's not top gun here but it's great i worked with him once in 97 it was one of the last stand-up sort of regular stand-up gigs i ever did i'd been back from uh from los angeles for about three or four months and i hadn't done much stand-up uh and

don't hardly do any now but uh i got a call from the Laugh Resort, which was a great club back in the day on Lombard Street. And they said, we're bringing in Marc Maron for a weekend and do you want to open the show? So, you know, MC, open, go on. They do 20 minutes, half an hour. Yeah. And I was so rusty.

He was a very nice cat. I can remember bombing so bad every show. Like just... Well, at least you're consistent. Boom. Like unreal. Like so bad that by the late show Saturday, sometimes a resort could be a little cruel

if you were from Toronto because they brought in a lot of American names. So you were sort of like, oh, here's the local kid, blah, blah, blah. Which wasn't a great attribute to that club albeit it was a great club but by the i was so disheartened by the whole thing i didn't even go up to end the show by the saturday late show to say good night i just left just left and went had cocktails with a waitress the irish goodbye yeah i kind of which was wildly unprofessional but maybe the funniest thing i did all week all right so take me back now uh and obviously we'll discuss rick mercer and these so rick

mercer's an fotm uh ron james is an fotm i just saw ron a few nights ago we watched the superbowl together nice yeah we when we hang out when we can't i would say a lot because he's on the road a lot we we see each other four or five times a year, which is a lot, I think, for any comedians to see each other. Yeah, because I see you like three times a year. Yeah. You get older, that's just what happens. No, you're not a comedian. Yes, he is.

Great musician, but not a comedian. So Ron James has only been on twice, I think. But both times, he was like so quick with that style of speech that he delivers with the maritime thing. And I can't even imitate Ron James, but is he like that when you're hanging with him like watching the Super Bowl?

Okay. He has the gift of gab and, you know, he's constantly touring, so it doesn't leave him as quickly as it leaves someone like me who doesn't tour anymore at all or do club dates or anything. But the way it fired, I almost felt like these were things he had scripted at some point and memorized because they were just rapid fire.

Yeah, it does that. I have always compared his energy to like there's a bat loose in the cottage. And you're sort of fumbling around for a badminton racket trying to, we got to get it out, get it out. And not one of these one of the greatest comedians this country's ever produced he's one of the best audiences he like if something's funny he cracks up for you he'll he'll run around the room laughing his ass off which makes you feel really really good most comedians just look at each other and they go yeah it's really funny i hate you good yeah no well well yeah yeah there is a quiet simmering uh resentment usually but uh we just we crack each other up we always have a great time we had a lot of fun on uh on sunday and uh

i'll see him again in a few months uh we worked together a little bit over the pandemic and it was uh it was a riot yeah okay man so you've been involved in all this cool cool stuff and you mentioned blair mentioned mad tv and this hour is 22 minutes we're gonna get to that but bring me back like because i'm really like here to i want to learn more about you and then i have some general topics i want to discuss especially uh we recently lost burt back rack so i want to talk to you know blair about that because i i hear he's got a stellar burt story that i have to capture but uh like like you mentioned you lived in the states so what you wanted to be a stand-up comic was this the uh

i was uh when i was like where was i born and stuff well you don't have to i mean yes okay like i'm looking to see like were you funny guy in high school like a class clown i wanted to be in a i wanted to be in a band but you know my bum didn't look good in jeans. Well, Blair's does look great, so I can see. But I didn't, I was, I ostensibly grew up in Ottawa, East Coast roots, and I lived in the States when I was a kid, too. But a club opened in Ottawa in the mid-'80s, and I started doing open mics with people like Jeremy Hotz and Norm MacDonald. Okay, slow down.

Angela Sarukis and Lisa Gay Tremblay was a comic. So how well did you know Norm back then, just from the scene? Really well. We did our first paid road trips together. I remember I wrote a thing about it. It's on, I forget where I posted it. But yeah, we did, there was a club in edmonton that we flew out we were both still living in ottawa and he headlined and i mc'd for him and uh

yeah it was a really really great time he's uh he was uh we took the bus down i'll never forget this yeah the flight was out of uh toronto we were living in ottawa so we took the bus down the bus was full so we were screwed we're gonna miss the flight but it was back in the day it was like 86 they had to throw another bus on so this guy came up and said it was just you two the driver and we got on so it was just norm and i and it's a very sweet memory for me it's a very uh carowack just smoking cigarettes and we found a pack of cigarettes when we were running low just talking about movies and artists we like and stuff uh you know we both lived in toronto uh we weren't super close in toronto but you never forget the guys you started out with he reached out to me i didn't know he was sick and he reached out about a year before

he passed away and he said uh yeah my mom has the same birthday as you and i never knew that how come i never knew that i guess i should have known then that the guy was sick because it was he wasn't a sentimental guy as far as i remember him and then the next thing you know uh we we twittered tweeted back and forth a couple of times and then he left us yeah it's very sad i never really got to say a more proper you never forget the cats you started out with never wow did you know when you were starting it with him that he was destined for uh yeah everybody does he was better than everybody immediately and always was

always so good norm mcdonald yeah i mean we were struggling on uh like you know i had no trouble believing i was an open mic comic if you saw my first performances, but Norm had a structured act jokes that fit together with a point beginning, middle and end from the first time he was on stage. He was always good. Always. And an odd cat. Here's a,

here's a detail about the guy. Yeah, please. That was, that would, it's not necessarily funny, but it sort of sums him up a little bit. I remember running into him around the old downtown Yuck Yucks Club,

which was a great room in its day. And we were both doing spots. It was like a Tuesday night, and he had just come from Sam the Record Man, and he bought a new Dylan tape. I think it might have been Slow Train. I can't remember. But he was going, I got the new but uh he took it out he was going i got the new dylan he took it out of the uh out of the plastic case and he threw the case away and

he just put the thing in the jean jacket pocket and go what are you doing he goes wow man it's like a rapper man look like that's that's how he thought a little bit it wasn't just the cellophane the hard plastic the hard plastic What are you talking about? And there was like no sort of thing in his eye that. Just like, yeah. Yeah. I've got what I need and this is it. Yeah.

Wow. You know, did you spend any time in these early standup days with Mike McDonald? Yeah. I knew Mike really, really well. Because, I mean, I do love talking to standup comics. And it sounds like Mike was like a stand-up comics comic. So the masses might not be too sure, although I remember him quite well.

Well, I think both he and Norm should be on the Walk of Fame. Mike McDonald was like a band. He was like a punk band. I mean, he was a different kind of comic. I've never seen a more physical comic. And we all stole his gestures. Like, he was a dance instructor of comic. I've never seen a more physical comic. And we all stole his gestures. Like he was a dance instructor when he was young. A lot of people don't know that.

And he studied mime, and he never wanted anybody to know that. But that's how it worked its way into his act. He was such a physical, menacing presence. And, you know, before everybody's uncle had 10 minutes to stand up like now. and you know before everybody's uncle had 10 minutes to stand up like now i'd say norm for a while no uh mike sorry was like the maybe the greatest uh comic in north america and he toured coast to coast canada in the u.s so tell me this then because hill and like three hour shows you've got norm and mike unrelated by the way but they have similar last names but they're both uh like you said you put them on like the Mount Rushmore or whatnot,

but one of them ends up, you know, on Saturday Night Live and becomes, you know, internationally famous. The other doesn't seem to, well, doesn't hit that kind of level of fame. I'm just wondering what was the difference there? Like what made Norm appeal to the masses and Mike be the comics comic? That's just show business. I don't think there is a hard same thing in the in the music business sometimes you see a band that made it and you go the fuck are these guys well you're talking about the gin blossoms i'd be talking about a lot of different bands the singer's a friend of mine okay i take it back i'll take i'll pick a different band great guy i would never i don't i don't have the musical acumen you know but

i don't yeah i don't think there is a um i think norm was also a lot more tv friendly yeah well maybe give me he's more handsome if we can just you know i mean mike's not ugly or anything but norm's a very handsome man he's got those uh he's a handsome guy but i mean yes true and also his his act act was more pliable. Like you could see him being a fake news guy. Mike was always much more menacing, topical, and subversive.

Well, it's interesting you tell me that I never knew about Mike in the, I almost said Mike in the mechanics, but Mike in the miming. They were also hysterical. Mike in the miming, which would be a good band name too, I suppose. No.

It would not. When you think of a manic comic, your first thought would be Robin Williams. And I understand Robin Williams was a mime, like in the 70s, he was miming. They were very different comedians. Mike had set pieces. He could riff and he was good off his cuff,

but Robin Williams was off the cuff that's just what he did it's just what he did and also mike never took the i learned this from mike too he never took the mic out of the mic stand as physical as he was interesting yeah and there is there's a lot of i don't know if it's still around but in my day in my day there was a lot of snobbery around that if you you were considered a little lesser than if you took the mic out of the stand really not all right yeah let me just take this mic out of the stand that's that's crazy the you know the stuff you learn the deeper you go into various you know that you if you learn more about bass players well bass players think this and be like

what really you know the things that matter to these niche groups it's weird and it is absolutely i tried to do it once like long after i don't know i was at like a touring stand-up for about 10 years and i remember about about five years in i decided i'm gonna do a set tonight i'm gonna take i'm gonna take this goddamn mic out of the stand and i'm gonna break this and i I flop sweat, like on an easy Thursday show where you just should have done an easy 20. And it just changed everything. I couldn't, I didn't know, I couldn't remember anything. That's fascinating.

Well, just the muscle memory wasn't there. You don't realize how connected I was to that umbilical cord of keeping every gesture, every move you make, some body part went somewhere, right? Yeah, right. And now you're hamstrung. It's weird. I'm freaking out just thinking about it.

I gotta go. Well, listen. So, okay. That brings us to the end zone. So we got Norm and Mike. Okay, so shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. Two great comics. You were gone far too soon.

Two guys. But a guy who's still with us, thankfully, and an FOT uh jeremy hotts love him talked to him the other night yeah hot see hot's buddies i do uh i produce a show for humble howard glassman and i know they knew each other from back in the day howard was a great stand-up too i don't know if he does it anymore he well before the pandemic he got back into it cool and then i think the pandemic and now he, now he's like bumming around Mexico. Like now.

This is the life he's living here. That can be funny. Is he still doing the podcast? Yeah, yeah. So we just do it. You can be anywhere if you have internet. Wow. And he brings his good mic with him, and yeah.

I'm heading down to Mexico. Oh, you can sing a song. Have you written a song about that? Oh, Mexico. That's the song I wrote, yes. Who did Thinking of You down in mexico edward bear edward bear yeah i put that in everybody's head now sorry yeah so hot see right uh jeremy hotz funny funny sob i'm trying to think of where where i first oh yeah he had this uh like a stand

up that was airing i want to say in global or something some kind of a comedy special where he talked about you know mr christy you make good cookies just don't mail them you asshole and yeah and i could almost remember the whole routine but just a funny son of a gun that jeremy hotz is a he was an impossible i've known jeremy a long long long time and uh i always there were two guys that i hated following and we were on when we were on the same circuit jeremy was the first one and harlan williams was the second one because they had this um like i was a topical comic politics lifestyle you know more adult religion and these guys were such escapist comedians they

were such uh kids on stage and what they did was so you know people got to be so childish i'm not saying their acts weren't sophisticated or anything like that it's just that they were great escapist acts and then you'd go on with the headlines and everybody'd be like johnny serious is here in the leather jacket were you friendly with eric tunney yeah we were really good friends yeah that's a heartbreaker nobody nobody really knows what happened either i mean we know some circumstances but that one really blew my lights out yeah yeah the reason i mentioned eric uh again gone far too soon but i bring him up because you mentioned Harlan Williams

and I mentioned Howard Glassman. Do you know what Harlan Williams, Eric Tunney, and Howard Glassman have in common? Hmm. Besides being, you know, stand-up comics. They all bombed at the Oshawa Club? They all co-hosted Ed the Sox night party. Oh, yeah, that's right.

There's your link right there. Yeah, I should have. I think if I, yeah. Well, that's where. There's your link right there. Yeah, I should have. I should have. I think if I, yeah. Well, that's where I first saw Harlan Williams was on Cable 10. This is before City TV would air. It was a Cable 10 show. But Harlan Williams and Ed DeSoc, and I thought it was hilarious.

I don't think I ever watched it because that was long enough ago where I was immature enough to just be envious. And sort of go, why are these guys getting to host? Right. Which is what a young comedian is supposed to do. When you get older, you're happy for everybody. If they know they get a used car commercial you're like yeah go man so chris you do like 10 years of uh stand-up uh as your yeah about that i started in about uh i still do the like the occasional set but boy it's not like riding a bike i don't i'm not i'm not very good anymore but uh i was okay back in the day. I did all right.

Made a living. I got on regular nights around 86 and then started touring about 87. And, you know, the chicken... What about Jim Carrey before I leave this era of stand-up? Met him a bunch of times, but I don't think I was ever on the same show with him.

But he was a very nice cat. Because when I had Breslin on, I asked him about Carrey and he said he didn't think Jim Carrey was very good. So he sure didn't see that coming. Neither did I. You know the famous show where he opened for Gato? No, but Gato's an FOTM, but no, I don't know this.

He opened for Jim Kerry. So I recorded two nights of Gato at the Roxy Theatre in Barrie, and they made it into an album called Best Seat in the House. And the promoter had asked Gato, you know, who should we have as the opening act? And they decided on a comic because it would only use one microphone. They wouldn't have to move any gear. And so I was there.

You know, we didn't record the set, by the way, but he came and did the set. And it was all impressions. It was like Kermit the Frog. And we used to do like Bruce Dern and stuff. Yeah, Clint. I feel like he did Clint Eastwood. He did. And he did the Frog. And we used to do like Bruce Dern and stuff. Yeah. But really. Yeah, Clint. I feel like he did Clint Eastwood.

He did. And he did the eyes. People threw stuff at him. Like it was a rock crowd. It was a Godot crowd. Yeah, nobody would be able to pull that out. No, it was horrible. And I blamed him at the time,

but I have since realized that who could win in that situation? Mike McDonald. Yeah. Actually, you're speaking, goes full circle. Mike McDonald was the guy who opened for bands because he had the rock and roll tennis racket thing. win in that situation mike mcdonald yeah yeah you're speaking goes full circle mike mcdonald was the guy who opened for bands because he had the rock and roll tennis racket thing and also he could go out and talk about like in one bit being stoned for like 20 minutes just one joke and so it would get the crowd they would oh he's one of us right he could do it there's a great story about him uh opening for brian adams in uh at the

commodore i think in vancouver and um this is right around when i guess adams is breaking only hiding from love is that his first like 82 well okay well i don't know if he's broken at that point but he had the first airplay first okay yeah maybe local maybe okay and you know they love him in van obviously and so he's at the commodore and and mike is opening and uh mike's walking out and the whole crowd are stomping up and down going brian brian brian and mike's standing there with his tennis racket suitcase going oh man sudden this old stage hand walks and he's gonna he's about to open the curtain on Mike. Brian, Brian. And the stagehand looks at Mike and goes, is your name Brian?

Wow. I love it when it comes full circle. It's funny you talk about Jim Carrey. The reason Jim Carrey broke, not only because he's wildly talented, is because he went to the States and he worked his ass off. There's only so much you can do in Canada.

It's an anomaly to be a successful touring comedian here a little bit. You can make some money, but it's like the greatest part-time job in the world. Unless you're Ron James. Unless you're Ron James and a few other people. Brent Butt still, but they also play the stage. Speak of Craig Northey who did all that stuff for Warner.

He wrote the theme song with Jesse Ventura. Jesse the body? Jesse the body Ventura. Remember him and Bobby the brain heen? Jesse, what's his name? I forgot his name. Grilla Monsoon. That was one of those accidental free bits.

There you go. Free chuckle. What's his last name, Jesse? Is it Jesse? Jesse Valenzuela. Valenzuela. Who is the lead singer in the Gin Blossoms. Wow.

You know what we should shut it down right now we're not it's not gonna get better than this like I've done this a long time

don't use the Gin Blossoms as a punchline in my presence from you no I'm actually I'm gonna stick I think it was Jesse Ventura

I'm gonna stick with that and I'm gonna get like pissed off that man was governor you know I don't know about your politics buddy did you see that coming

that's my next question did you see that coming that's my next question did you see that coming uh and he was in commando with uh fotm ray don chong oh wow yeah there you go it's all coming together okay so i gotta i realize now we only have the 90 minutes so and i have burt back rack and i need to talk we need to talk a little bit about john tory and i got a couple other things i'm gonna talk about my hair for a moment very important things coming up uh you mentioned uh mike You mentioned Mike McDonald and weed, and I just want to say, anyone out there who consumes cannabis,

Canna Cabana will not be undersold on cannabis or cannabis accessories. They have over 150 locations across the country. CannaCabana.com. Okay, so you got it, Chris, where you're off to is CannaCabana.com. I will. All those who love weed and funny websites,

please go to my website, thecanadianer.com. Biting political and lifestyle and topical satire, a form of comedy under attack from the humorless. And I would like you to subscribe. It's not an AgWare subscription. We just send free jokes. And I would like you to subscribe. It's not an AgWare subscription.

We just send free jokes. And it's, you know, after the Mercer Report went off the air, I tried taking a stab at more serious writing and sort of back to pitching sitcoms. And I realized I'm no good at this. What I'm good at is writing political satire. And so I started this website called The Canadiana, which is such. And I'm urging everybody to go look at it. It's really, really good. It's pretty

funny. I don't mind saying. The Canadiana, which is like Canadiana with an R at the end. No. No. Sorry, I'm screwing that up. There's a couple of ways. I sort of thought of it. What's more Canadiana than that? So it's Canadian with an E-R. With an E-R at the end.

Gotcha. Canadian. E-R. All right. And I do follow you on Twitter, Chris. I know this is stuff that usually I do at the end, but let's do it right now. I follow you on Twitter,

but there's nothing on your Twitter account to say you're Chris Finn. So it's like I had to take Blair's word for it that it was your account. I have two. I have the Canadiana. Okay. And I have Chris Henry Finn,

which is, and I usually post the headlines on both. And there's a Facebook page as well. My son's middle name is henry yeah it's mine too i kind of like it because i think it'd be cool to go by hank yeah is that just am i wrong yeah i don't know nobody ever i just i you know i think hank's a cool name i just think chris henry finn sounds very literary even though i'm not yeah or am i Christopher Henry Finn like that's a getting into kind of more of a Christopher Robin thing then?

I don't know. We don't want that. I can see the Christopher a bit withering because it's a lot to say. And you sound like a spoiled kid in short pants. I can see the cardigan. There's no tough guy's name. Christopher. What about on The Sopranos?

That's true. Well, he's more of a maniac. Spoiler alert. He's in's more of a maniac. Yeah. But yeah. He's in the new season of White Lotus too. It's good. And every time I see him on the screen, I call him Christopher. Michael Imperioli is fantastic.

And a musician too. And a musician too. Yeah. As a band. And former bar owner. Yeah, that's right. Just like Danny Grapes. Okay.

There you go. So you 10 years or whatever on the road, why do you come off the road and what do you do next? I started getting into screenwriting and I got a job through a friend, Brian Hart, who's also a fantastic comedian. No relation to Corey. No.

Because we did Brian Adams. Now we need to do Corey Hart. I'm picturing his face at the comparison. When you ask that question, yeah. Blair knows Brian. Brian's from Winnipeg. I'm just going to leave it at that. But Brian's a very accomplished guy.

He was one of the original writers on Kids in the Hall, Jon Stewart, and then he became co-executive producer of MADtv. And I went through my paces. I submitted, I flew down, and I met with him and ended up getting a job through Fax Bar and Adam Small and Brian, who were the producers of Mad TV. And I did a year there. That's a big show.

Yeah. I didn't want to go back. I didn't sort of – I was homesick and I kind of blew it. I should have stayed. I don't mind admitting. All you young comedians out there, if you get a gig in LA, stay. It's funny you mention that because Ron James came back too. He was there a long time.

He was there six or seven years. I don't look at it as failure or anything like that because I got a job on 22 right away. I think I just found out something about myself is that I'm not really cut out for Los Angeles. I like visiting. It's a world-class city for a reason. A lot of friends there. But I found day-to-day life I don't know, just off-putting. And that's just me, I'm sure. No disrespect.

But I learned invaluable lessons and met a lot of great people. Maybe a quick story or two about MADtv. Anything at all? It just sounds like that's a cool gig for a Canadian guy. Well, it was an eye-opener. It was during the, I don't know if it's not necessarily very funny, but I remember going to work one day and there were all these buses outside. And I went in and I asked Laurenuren dombrowski who's one of

the other writers i was like uh she was from boston uh i said what's with the buses outside is there we got a bunch of extras today and she went no it's the verdict today dummy and i went what are you talking about it was the oj verdict which i had completely lost interest in i didn't and i was like so what are these buses for and she was like looking like i'd never felt more like a rube she was like well i think if he's found guilty there's going to be some people who might get upset about that i said so we're gonna got in the bus she's like you're an idiot yeah you're gonna they're gonna get in the buses and take us somewhere safe if they have to wow they were preparing for the riot if wow yeah i did not necessarily funny but

i did find la it's the only american city i really found that in um the the racial thing's really real i don't have to tell anyone that but uh in a way that doesn't affect your life like it does here um i found it pretty menacing at times and a clear division. Yeah. Yeah. Which is depressing. Not that that was a big reason I came back. Didn't,

didn't help. So, okay. So when you come back, you get this hour is 22 minutes, which in the Canadian landscape, that's a big, big deal. Yeah.

At that time, late nineties, that was the original cast. It's where I started. I'd met Rick Mercer before that. I met him at just for laughs in 94 95 um then i did the la adventure and i came back and uh that's where we struck up a working relationship and and uh greg toomey mary walsh and kathy jones uh original cast yeah

which was a really fun gig i did that for three years. Okay, amazing. And then walk me through the rest of this. So after, what do you do after this hour? It's 22 minutes. Oh, floundered. I really did. Oh, you know what? Actually, no. I wrote a couple episodes of Corner Gas, which was fantastic. Brent Button and I go way, way back. He's also on

FOTM. Yeah, well, he's fantastic. I have to tell you when you mention FOTM. Blair will tell you. Compulsively, I would say. I have to. And we you mention fotm so blair will tell you compulsively i have to yeah and uh we remain very good friends i was lucky enough to be involved in that and another show he did called hiccups which i went out to vancouver and worked on and then the mercer show started in 04 i remember that because the red socks one and we went for your red socks fans i am a red socks fan um I get East Coast roots. There was no, when I was born,

there was no Toronto Blue Jays, so I just, you know, if you're from. No, that's when I allow it. Like, not that I can stop it, I suppose, but like, I think, who's it? Payton's also a Red Sox fan, but if you fall in love with baseball pre-'77, then you're excused. And also, Boston was the the mecca was the new york to if you're

from st john's or corner brook or halifax or somewhere boston's the go-to town there's still tons of red sox fans out there and uh sort of like when you meet because i got a guy down the street who has a big detroit tigers bumper sticker and i'm like hey you know well you know we have a team and he's like yeah but i'm from windsor i know, you know, we have a team. And he's like, yeah, but I'm from Windsor. I know he's from London, London.

And he says in London, we root for the Tigers. Like this is just. Yeah. And Windsor and that whole. Yeah. Windsor. For sure.

Windsor. Yeah. Any around the Lake area or Cleveland, uh, guardians too. Huge, uh, huge fan base down there.

Okay. So 04, you're, uh, on the Rick Mercer, is it the Rick Mer mercer report it was a monday night report in the first season okay and then they switched us to tuesday i remember yeah they had all these t-shirts and all this marketing you could have kept the name it would

have been uh ironic like uh you know but really confused the audience early days were just were crazy i mean we lived there yeah we uh it was a great confluence of of talent and uh will because i think we all at that time uh were of an age where if we do this right we can run this show for several prime ministers and that's exactly what we did and it was so there was a there was a welcome lack of uh pissiness and uh competitiveness everyone was at a point in their career when professionalism meant everything didn't matter who had the good idea as long as we have the good idea so uh yeah in the early days it was uh darren jones was on the show he had a like an eight minute segment which uh we

would go out and produce and then so thursdays were like nine in the morning till like midnight then you come in friday and we'd all go to the taping it wasn't until about six years into the show we started to figure out how to uh do more stuff from home which was uh which was good by that time you sort of needed it but in in those early days, we all lived there. And this Darren Jones is the Darren Jones from The Buzz. Yeah. The Buzz, I'll say, because I went to U of T at the same time as Darren was there,

and I used to see him on campus all the time. And I loved The Buzz. Maybe I just watched a lot of Cable 10 back then. He's naturally television savvy, and he's a really good writer on the show too because he didn't they don't think he started with the spot he they hired him as a writer and they tried a couple of other people to do remote stuff and it didn't go quite well and darren fit in perfectly but i think we did three seasons with him and then and then he went on to do his own

stuff well he's got he's on the radio now now. Yeah, he does a lot of stuff. I think it's Kiss 92.5. I wouldn't screw that up. But the Mr. Mo is the other guy on the buzz. Darren Jones and Mr. Mo. Yeah. I wonder what Mo's up to these days. No idea.

I got to track down Mr. Mo. I want Mr. Mo on Toronto Mike. I don't think I ever met the gentleman. No. If you weren't a stand-up back then, nobody met each other. There was an era where like improvised like second city people and and like uh yuck yucks were the only games in town

and those those streams didn't ever cross there was a real snobbery between them so i went the other way and i studied at second city and i did stand-up. I'm glad I did because it gave me a sketch background. I understood a little more. There was just such snobbery between the two. I always thought it was kind of a drag. Am I right that Mercer has a new show? He hosts a show on CBC that introduces young comedians. I guess it's a new show,

but it's not like Rick Mercer introduces young comedians. So I, yeah, I guess it's a new show, but it's not like Rick Mercer introduces young comedians. I think it's, I don't even know if his name's in the title. Is it? I don't know. I haven't, I'm embarrassed to admit I haven't seen it because I don't, I watch young comedians and I go,

oh, that's really funny. I should be doing that. I think I'll rewatch the Sopranos. But you know, you can do it. Like, you know, you could get back out there. I do. Occasionallywatch the Sopranos. But you know, you can do it. Like, you know,

you could get back out there. I do. Occasionally, someone will phone like a benefit or something. It's a lot of work now to, you know, that muscle is a weird muscle

to get back into. See, I would have thought, I'm surprised, I heard you say this earlier and I'm surprised because I've never done stand-up but I would think it is a bit like riding a bike.

No, thank you. No, well, maybe for some people. I certainly wouldn't speak for everybody. You know where I do like to, occasionally I'll do a spot. it is a bit like riding a bike no no no well maybe for some people i certainly wouldn't speak for everybody you know where i do like to occasionally i'll do a spot um there's a i think it's the best indie room in town uh it's called her root it's like danforth and woodbine and it's an ethiopian restaurant that has a stand-up night every the last friday of every month and the guy who runs

it his name's kevin mcdonald he helped me with the canadianer it's a great guyup night the last Friday of every month. And the guy who runs it, his name's Kevin MacDonald. He helped me with The Canadiana. He's a great guy. But not the Kevin MacDonald. No, not Kids in the Hall, Kevin MacDonald. He's also an FOTM. Exactly. He's a really funny comic who runs this room.

And it's got a lot of newer people, but a lot of established people drop in too. It's got a great vibe to it. So it's sort of one of those, you don't know who's going to show up kind of places. And people are there for the comedy. It's not a, you know, there's nobody yelling you down. And the family are great.

This Ethiopian family, they wanted to do a stand-up room because, you know, they come from a background where you can't say whatever you want to say. Oh, yeah. Interesting. It adds sort of a nice element to it. Food there is very good, too. And that's where I last saw you do a standup set. It was great.

God, it has been a, but I always say I'm going to go do it. And then Friday rolls around and I'm lazy. Did you ever hear this story? We talked earlier about Mark Maron and his WTF podcast, which probably even has more downloads in Toronto, Mike,

believe it or not, but possibly we haven't seen, we haven't seen evidence of that yet, but okay. Uh, let's, I do remember the time he was booking Kevin McDonald and somehow the Ronald Mike, believe it or not. But possibly. Take it back. We haven't seen evidence of that yet, but okay. I do remember the time he was booking Kevin MacDonald and somehow the wrong Kevin MacDonald was booked. Yeah.

Have you ever heard this story? There's a Kevin MacDonald who made Last King of Scotland and some other pretty good films, right? Yeah. So do you remember, Chris, he wanted the kids in the hall, Kevin MacDonald, right? Or is it the other way around? He wanted the kids in the hall, Kevin, and he got the director, I think.

Okay, yeah. It would have been funnier the other way around. Right, yeah, yeah. No doubt. But I think Mark would certainly comedy savvy enough to know who's, but that one got away on him. So what are you up to these days? Because Rick Mercer's show, what are you up to these days, Chris?

I'm just doing the website. You may have heard of it. It's Canadiana. It's the Canadiana.com. Remember Canadian with ER at the end. That's www.canadier.com. It's on the interweb. You can get that at home now. I'm new to this. Okay. I'm going to, I know there's a great story out there. We lost Burt Bacharach recently I'm going to I know there's a great story out there we lost Burr Bacharach recently

and I'm just like fascinated he was a prolific songwriter and when you learn the songs he composed and you're like oh that's him too like I went down this rabbit hole of like every song of his that went is in the top 40 and it took a long time okay

there's dozens and dozens and dozens of songs he wrote that in the top 40 and it took a long time okay there's dozens and dozens and dozens of songs he wrote that hit the top 40 but i'm gonna lean back from the mic and i'm going to listen to blair packham because blair packham has an amazing burt backerack story blair the mic is yours thank you it it you know what mike it is an amazing story um it amazes me looking back and uh this is how it went so tying it in with the comedy world mike myers had just had burt backtrack in one of his uh austin power movies austin powers movies and mike's best friend and our mutual friend david mckenzie um uh this was around the time of 9 11 and so uh uh mike had reached out actually to Bert. I thought it was the other way around and

was worried that Bert was stuck in Toronto because air flights and stuff like that. And asked him if he, you know, if he wanted to be amused basically. And Mike then asked David McKenzie to round up some friends of his, musical friends, and they would meet with Bert for dinner, and dinner was on mic. So David called me at my studio, and he said, you want to have dinner with Bert Bachrach? I was like, yes, you know, and then David said he couldn't come right away, because he lived out of town at that point, so he lived in Minden, and so David said, I need you to go to the restaurant first, and then I'll arrive, and some other people, I'll invite Kurt Swinghammer and Michael Philip Voivoda and a few other people.

So I go to Prego in Yorkville and I walk in and there's Bert sitting at a table, smiling, his blue eyes, you know, and he's wearing a sweater tied around his neck the way that you see him in so many photographs, you know, casual. And he's and I say i say to him hello i'm blair packham i'm one of david's friends a friend of mike and uh and he said well welcome have a seat so i sit down and instantly we start talking about anything but music and it was amazing well and it's because of this on the way there i had called my mom because I was so excited. I called my mom and I said, guess who I'm having dinner with? Burt Bachrach.

And instead of going, oh, that's wonderful, Blair, because that's how she talked. That's wonderful. She said, instantly, she said, ask him about Olive Hall. Like that, as if she'd been waiting for the call. You know, as if she knew that I'd be calling to say I was having dinner with Burt Bacharach. She's just been waiting for this moment. Yeah, so I said, Olive Hall? What do you mean?

And she said, Burt used to come to the dorm when we were at McGill. And he dated Olive Hall. She was so beautiful. And he would come to the dorm and he would sit and play the piano and entertain us girls and while she was getting ready and and so so i sit down in the restaurant and you know and we greet each other and how do you know david how do you know mike and you know i knew how we knew mike and so forth but we're talking and i should have said so you're a songwriter uh but but i said my mother i called my mom i'm so excited to meet you i called my mom

and the first thing she said was this ah and i imitated her ask him about olive hall and he and he went all dreamy eyed like he seriously did he went like olive hall i haven't thought of her in 50 years he said and he's still looking off into space, and he said, she was so beautiful. I knew her at McGill. And then he turned to me and very urgently said, do you know what happened to her? Do you know where she is?

Can you get in touch with her? Like, clearly, Bert was in the market for a girlfriend. And I said, no, I did ask my mom, and apparently she married a neurosurgeon and moved to the American Midwest. And he went, Oh, and he said, she was beautiful. I would go to the dorm and while I was waiting for her to get ready, I'd play the piano and all these girls would hang around. And I said, yeah, my mom was one of them. He went, wow, that's amazing. And then we started talking about other, other things. Uh, you know, uh,

amazing and then we started talking about other other things uh you know uh my baby boy had just been born he's 21 now and uh so the idea of being a father was scaring the shit out of me and uh and also relationships get get uh tense or you know they get transformed often when you have children and i was experiencing a bit of that and didn't really know why and didn't know if i was doing the right thing and so forth and i just said he said so you you married I said well yeah and a matter of fact I just had a had a kid and he said oh that's great and then I said but the marriage is you know it's being tested they they they often are and that's what's going on here and he said oh man yeah I I can relate to that and he started telling me stories about how it was with carol bear sager who he was with and he's like so open and so candid and he told stories about whitney houston and bobby brown at the at the at the grammys and

how she had to be replaced because like at the last minute because they wouldn't come out of their trailer they were you know they're in the trailer acting crazy he said and so i'm uh conscious of you know celebrities and they you know my experience with celebrities is they don't want to say bad things about other celebrities, which is nice. It's good impulse, but it's a little disingenuous maybe. So I said, I said, well, what was the problem? And he said, she was high on crack as if, as if I was the biggest idiot in the world. Then he asked you to leave the table. Yeah.

No, I was like, but I was like, oh, of course. Yeah, okay. Yeah, okay. So anyway, but it was a lovely evening. The other people arrived after about 40 minutes or so and David arrived first and he sat with us and talked about his friendship with Mike and so forth. And then Kurt Swinghammer arrived

and he had a guitar that he had already, he had this already because he's the biggest Burt Bacharach fan in the world. He'd taken the headstock of the guitar and he put a guitar that he had already, he had this already because he's the biggest Burt Bacharach fan in the world. He'd taken the headstock of the guitar and he put a little black and white picture of Burt on it and he wrote on it in silver pen, Burt. And he'd already done this. It wasn't for this evening.

He'd already done this. And so when he pulled it out of his case to ask Burt to autograph it, you could see Burt was like, okay. Like a little freaked out, you know. Right, it's intense. It's pretty intense. Yeah, but he did it and he was very, very gracious.

And it was really a lovely, magical evening. Do you think Bert went on the Craigslist Missed Connections? Olive Hall. Olive Hall. This is Bert Bacharach, seriously. Olive Hall. Quite a name too. And the fun fact, which I only learned about when Bert passed away,

is that he went to McGill. My daughter's there right now. I Burt passed away is that he went to McGill. My daughter's there right now. I had no idea Burt Bacharach went to McGill. He didn't like it. I asked him about going to McGill and he said no. I went to two other music schools and he listed them what they were. I don't remember but he said yeah McGill was shitty at the time. He said I'm sure it's better now and I

think it is better by the way. I know many McGill grads who are amazing. Hence his 1974 hit McGill is shitty. Lyrics by Hal David. Right the way. I know many McGill grads who are amazing. Hence his 1974 hit, McGill is Shitty. That's right. Lyrics by Hal David. Right, of course. Yeah, you know, Hal gets the short end of the stick here.

Like, he's such a key part of that songwriting machine. Those lyrics for those songs. Do you know the way to San Jose? Unreal. Yeah, I mean, all those lyrics are so vivid. And so they've got these incredible little details to them, and they're really amazing. And he does get the short end of the stick.

Even by Bert, who I didn't have the nerve to ask, why are you and Hal David not a thing? Because apparently there was some aggravation there. That was your chance, Matt. I know. He sounded like he was ready to talk about anything. I didn't want to ask him stuff that you could read anywhere. But as soon as you sat down, what's with Hal David?

Yeah, come on. Hal's in the kitchen right now working. That's called real talk. Waiter, drinks. So Blair, there's something else we have in common that I didn't realize. We both have 21-year-old sons. That's something we have in common. That's yet another thing, yeah.

I'm going to have to add that to the list here. That's right. My boy is at York University and doing very well. You ready for this? My boy's at York University. Oh my god. Wow. In engineering? No. Your boy's smarter than my boy. I don't know. My boy's pretty smart. He's got a huge... This is why I didn't have kids, see?

There's always something happens, rivalry. And then it crashes. Yeah. That's wild. Okay. I love that Burt Bacharach story so much. I'm going to cut it out and put it into the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial episode for February 2023. So.

Amazing. You can add that to your CV. Okay. Well, and. Your bio. But Mark Weisblatt won't be there to. Well, even before. your bio but mark weisbott won't be there to well why even before so the chronic chronology of events here is that he actually told me he was done with that part of the episode anyway like before so he

was it was bumming him out he said i don't like i mean this is him talking so he was being he was feeling bummed out about spending 90 minutes on people who had passed away i guess i can see that okay yeah so i told him i said okay i, that's okay, do the other part. Like, we don't have to, I said, I'm happy to take that on myself, which I have. I did the one for January, I'll do the one for February.

I said, I'm fine with that. And then he booked, he booked actually Ed Keenan from The Star to come in for the first Thursday of January because I had a recurring meeting in my calendar that was for three hours at 2 p.m. the first Thursday of every month. That was like wise blot time.

Three hours? That's unbelievable. Of that? Yeah, that would be a little intense. Not for everybody. For every Blair, and there's a bunch of Blairs out there. I got so many notes. Shout out to Mike Apple. You're going to have to find a scotch sponsor.

For every Blair, there's... He's already got a weed sponsor. I got weed by methamphetamine. We have our beer and our weed. It's still not quite enough, but yeah. An acquired taste, but if you acquire the taste, it is your crack, right? Like that is... I enjoyed it immensely.

It's good beer. But so then he booked Ed Keenan to come over because the idea was Mark Wiseblood, Ed Keenan, and I, although I would recede into the background for sure. Inevitably. Those two for sure. But it was going to be all about the history of alt media in Toronto. And it was of a Gen X focus.

But it was basically, you know, they were going to talk about Now Magazine and iWeekly and What's Next and all this stuff. And then he took him, he said, I'm out. I need some time to figure my shit out because he just got the St. Joseph Media had just parted ways with him on

1236. And if you notice, you're not getting your email newsletter. I haven't had one since I think October or something. So he needs to figure his shit out. So I said, okay, like, let me know when you're ready to come back. And I don't have a, like I can do the Ridley funeral home segment myself. I don't have,

he's a unicorn. There's, I don't have a backup wise blot to talk about like things like Dina Pulezi, who announced that she's leaving breakfast television today. Like normally that would be one of the big topics we discuss in the first 90 minutes. I don't have a, I mean, are you, who's a good backup? Some speculation about management

and what the real motive might have been behind her leaving. No, the question is, if you're asking, am I the guy to talk about that, would I have to do that voice? That's the question. is if you're asking am i the guy to talk about that would i have to do that voice that's the question only if you wanted to because remember this story has a lot of dimensions to it one is so so so dina and i don't know of how familiar you two are with the breakfast television crew maybe you're not familiar at all but this happened today so we get up we have

schedules of the rock music i'm aware it exists yes well that's enough so dean has been there since oh six okay do some math on that that's a long time yeah uh she's about my age so that's a big chunk of her adult life there so dina announces she's leaving the show which i believe it's i believe it's her call like i actually sincerely believe that she's quitting that show like no one tapped her on the shoulder and said dina you're quitting the show like i think she's quitting the show because she wants to leave the show. But then you have this whole interesting dynamic that I would normally talk about for hours with Mark Weisblatt, which is that Rogers poached Pooja Handa and Gurdip Aluwalia from CP24 and have them hosting the CHFI morning show. We always talked on my program about how we felt these two tv stars would end up on breakfast television so there's a there's anyway yeah if you anyways i don't have

another uh i don't have a backup wise blood he's a unicorn yeah a lot of intrigue the backstabbing yeah we're poaching mark knows people to come and run your show mark knows about that stuff you see i i'm i'm not media savvy in that way at all either am i yeah it's a full-time job yeah he's committed to it he's definitely and he he really does and he he hears he has his ear to the ground he knows uh what the back room stuff is you would have to love it because there would be a huge burnout yeah factor in that kind of thing uh who was doing the book about gen x in was was it Toronto centric or, if it was a book you were talking about someone doing something about the

Gen X scene in Toronto now magazine. it wasn't a book. No, it wasn't a book. It was going to be a special. Maybe Cam Gordon's writing that book, but he might be, I think I was interviewed for a book like that.

It was a really, really great time in Toronto comedy. The mid to late 90s was fantastic. There was like a sketch kind of revolution and the Rivoli was just, it was a great room for that. So many good sketch groups that came after kids and Vacant Lot who had a show, I think, for two seasons on CBC.

Is that the one that opened with the Sex Pistols? Yeah. I watched that. You know, one of the guys in the vacant lot is on the Jitters album cover that has Last of the Red Hot Fools on it. I told you that story. Yeah, somebody said a band should have five members.

Yeah, it was Dean Cameron, actually, who said that. Right. And who was at the time vice president, I think. He became president of Capitol Records. But yeah, he said, we see you as a classic five-piece rock band. And I'm like, well, the Beatles are a classic rock band and they don't have keyboards.

Led Zeppelin, Heloo. Yeah, Heloo. There's so many. Yeah, but anyway, so we didn't take it seriously and we got the bass player's brother who happened to be Paul Greenberg from The Vacant Lot. There you go. So he's on the album cover.

David Quinton Steinberg is on the album cover. He didn't play on that album at all. He was fired. But at least he plays. You had a guy on the album cover who wasn't even a musician. He doesn't play music, no. He's in the video for Last of the Red Hot Fools, sort of hopping behind a keyboard.

He doesn't really play it. He just hops up and down. That is one smooth-talking dude. Wow. Onto the album cover. Right into band. Doesn't even play the, Before we get too far away,

you guys, in that great, great, great Burt Bacharach story, I gave it three greats there. You dropped the name Kurt Swinghammer. Would you mind

taking a moment, because he's in my calendar to make his Toronto Mike debut. Oh, that's fantastic. Well, he's a very, I can do an impression of him too,

but he won't like it and I love Kurt, so I won't do it. And not that I don't love Mark Weisblatt, but I have loved Kurt Swinghammer for decades. For longer, even though you worked with Mark at CIUT when it was just...

Well, yes. CIUT Radio. I think he was a couple of years older than me. He hates that because I'm 10 years older than him. Well, he can't come on. He has no microphone anymore. That's right. He's been neutered.

Oh, I can just say it. That's right, yeah. He doesn't have a podcast. So, yeah. So when Mark and I worked together at CIUT, I looked up to him. He was a few years older and he's aged well. Anyway, okay, I'm going to stop that. Swinghammer is an incredible guitar player.

He's a great songwriter and singer, a terrific producer, and he writes music for film and film and TV. But beyond all of that, he's a fantastic and very accomplished visual artist. Very much. And yeah, and he so he's known for all of these things, as well as being a funny, funny guy and a lovely guy. And I love him. He's just so great so great yeah he lived in the Niagara area and moved to Toronto to become an artist and and succeeded he he did a concert or he's doing a concert actually in a week I think that I can't go to unfortunately but it's I think it's called songs for Mrs. Yao

and she was his art teacher in Niagara and he's having like doing a concert for her and she's going to be there this is his high school art teacher who encouraged him he's having like doing a concert for her and she's going to be there this is his high school art teacher who encouraged him he does stuff like that he did did a whole uh album about a russian cosmonaut the first female cosmonaut and and made a concept album about that uh he's done album covers for for david wilcox and and you know all kinds of interesting people he's he's just a i would say he's uh i know him a little bit he's a sweet guy yeah um he you're gonna do you're gonna do an impression but he does have um if there is such a thing as a quintessential toronto accent he has it that's that's yes i would say so chris i've met a few people with that very distinct kind of flat, and only in Toronto.

It's almost like, you know the way Chicago has, there is a definable, well, the hard S on the end of words that it shouldn't be like, hey, did you get a new pair of jeans? That's true. Like T-Z-S, and there's classics, so oh my god, that's very Chicago. But Toronto's got that flat, vowel-y, kind of almost nasal, bear-like kind of something. That's right. Paul Myers does the best Kurt Swinghammer.

Well, that's Edward. Also an FOTM. But I think that's that accent, is a Toronto. I think you're right. A definable Toronto. I never knew this. Which is funny, because he's, and you should, Toronto-miked. definable toronto i never knew this yeah which is funny because he's and you should toronto miked um he uh because uh kurt swinghammers is as i say from niagara but you know developed that i guess

maybe it's a golden horseshoe accent he borrowed my uh he bought my guitar to play the uh the back room of the cameron once oh yeah and i didn't explain it was like it's an old gretch and it's got those weird uh it's got like an off the kill kill switch, and it has to be one way or the other. The pickups don't work. Yeah, nothing happens. We went on, and he hit this chord, nothing. And he kind of looked at it, and then he looked at me. Then he looked at the crowd, and he went,

hey, that's my sound. That was hysterical. A great skate save. That's funny. I'm going to ask you guys about another artist. Did you guys know Mendelssohn Joe? I did, yes. I did not.

Certainly knew of him. Rick Mercer did two or three things with him when the show was in existence. So I did write for the guy, never having met him. And Joe says this, and you'd come up with 20 jokes. He didn't need it, I'm sure.

Joe, a very very interesting character uh and i miss him already but i missed him before because he uh he got sick and also he moved away quite a while ago we did talk on the phone a few times uh i think the last time was probably five or six years ago and uh he was a lovely guy a a real hard ass, and he didn't suffer fools. But boy, he had a big heart and a lovely guy. He didn't like politicians much, and he was always about following the money. And he was very, you know, not cynical, but he'd say something and he'd question it. He wouldn't just let anything go by. I didn't know him well, but I did really like him a lot. He was very quick to point out what

passes as a public servant these days is not what it was in the old days, speaking of John Tory. I'm going to actually bring him up next. So with Mendelssohn, Joe, as you mentioned, he was unwell, Parkinson's, and he took advantage of the new assisted dying law in this country and was able to plan his exit. And I think it's so civilized that he was able to. He literally wrote a farewell note on his website,

and with his wife by his side, there was an assisted suicide. Yeah, he's not the first person in recent weeks to uh to do that actually uh al mayor who was the uh the owner and uh founder of attic records uh he it's funny i you know um richard flohill you may know of him and if you don't you should have him on your show he's uh 88 years old now and he's a music publicist, and I've known him since I was about 13 years old. And he's a really great guy. He came to see me play at Sauce every Wednesday night

from 8 till 10 on Sauce on the Danforth, ladies and gentlemen. So Richard came to see me, and Al Mayer's name came up. We were just talking. Because Al took me to see Ricky Gervais at Massey Hall. He had season tickets, and he thought, who would like to see this? Blair gervais at massey hall he had season tickets and he thought who would like to see this blair packham who i and i really didn't know al very well but i mentioned this to richard and richard said yes al is dying on friday wow and i and i said well how do you know that he said because he's uh doing the assisted death uh thing and uh

yeah so al chose to do it that way al had a cancer and uh he's an fotm as well and when he passed i put together this pretty cool episode in the toronto mic feed of like the attic story as told to me by al mare and it's quite like glanced over at the maestro fresh west record because attic distributed it up here in canada and uh i mean some of the attic stories because weird al yankovic was an artist that uh attic would distribute in this country and and katrina and the waves yes well yeah right i think there should be like assisted suicide for anyone who just had a bad set just have like a booth and you're not coming back from that man that'd be good well wait that was that was in a show oh no you know what it was in futurama they had suicide booths everywhere like phone booths well that's the you know that's

what worries me a little bit about i mean just in my paranoid self it's like yeah of course you're for the humane assisted dying thing but like humans i always take things away in the wrong direction yes this is going to be like you know having at airports, your flight's delayed or you can just check out, do some real flying. That's great. All right. Speaking of a career suicide, let's talk a bit here about John Tory if we can. This guy was in France. He'd get two more terms after this.

Yeah. Yeah. So let's do that because I hear from people. Now, I'll just preface all this by saying I legit 100% don't care what consensual adult sex that John Tory is having. 100%. I don't care who it's with. Well, I shouldn't say that. We're going to explain what I mean in a minute. But essentially, I don't care if he cheats on his wife.

I don't care if he gets, you know. care if he gets uh get you know what my only concern here and why i think it's a story worthy of uh publication in the toronto star and why i think it's newsworthy and in the public interest is that she was a city hall staffer and not only only working at city hall but his executive assistant who even accompanied him on city funded trips to london england yeah it's wrong it's wrong and also that he you know he's propping himself up as doing the right thing when the star told him we're going to publish we're going to they did publish like an hour before but they also told him yeah oh yeah so i mean it's like anyone could go out and go and you know he didn't say i'm busted he said i've

decided to do the right thing right right there's a little bit of a twist here i mean listen this guy like i agree like it's none of my business what this guy does between him and his wife and his family. Right. And I get really uptight when people start moralizing about somebody else's... We're not the morality police here. But I mean, there's so many reasons this guy shouldn't be the mayor. Like, you know, we need a pixel scoreboard behind this guy of like, you know, while he's droning on about how great he is about people getting stabbed on

the subway. Yeah. Oh, look, there's another 10 people where this guy's droning on. Like he is destroying the city property taxes are going through the roof. TTC fares are going up, man. Talk about a, wow. It's a counterintuitive move. Yeah, really? Like not that anybody pays for the TTC or should they, but I mean, everything he's doing is, is, is just destroying the place as far as I can tell. Yeah, really. Not that anybody pays for the TTC. Yeah, exactly. Or should they? But I mean, everything he's doing is just destroying the place, as far as I can tell. Renovictions.

Yeah. Look, I know it's not the Toronto we grew up in, but I don't think, I mean, like an 11-year-old can go, you know, we should do raise taxes. Like that just seems to be like every solution now. Yeah. Before I start to sound like an old man. But you know what I mean?

It's like, I don't think it's warranted. I wanted to hear what you guys think, because I live in my an old man but you know what i mean it's like i don't think i wanted to hear what you guys think because i live in my you know i know what i think and it bounces around my cranium all day and i go on a bike ride and i'm like yeah i agree with myself like it's like an echo chamber in my own head well now you know you and i have often talked about how uh you know you'll do you i'll listen to an episode and i'll say i knew that guy and i had dinner with that guy and i you know and i, uh, I used to coach that guy in guitar playing or whatever. And, uh, I was the guy, not kidding, who told John Tory to run. So it's all my fault. And I'll tell you how John Tory used to do his show on CFRB at the same time I did my show with Bob Reed on CFRB. John would come in and have to

do a promo in the middle of our recording, which is a drag. So he'd wait for a pause and then he'd say, fellas, I need to use the room if you don't mind. And we'd say, sure, of course. So he sat down and I left some papers and I had to go get my phone or something. So I go into the room and Rob Ford had just announced that he had more than enough to eat at home. And so I lean over to john this had just happened and it was on the tv screen in the control room so i leaned over and i said you have to run you have to throw your hat in the ring please i'm begging you and he said well you know i've been thinking about it more seriously and of course these events you know and he started pontificating also you're

not to be held responsible for that because really, no. Not really, no. But also, a traffic cone would have been better at that point. I did speak to a couple of traffic cones, in fact, as well. And they were too smart. Yeah. I didn't know that. Fun fact. So at CFRB, you're telling him he should run, and this is the 2014 election when he runs,

and that's the election where rob has to switch spots with doug because rob gets sick yeah and then the michael ford goes there's a oh my god oh i know i know and i had history i had to stop playing my rob ford uh song because he got sick and i thought it's just shitty of me but it was a pretty funny song there i know like time has passed we can bring it back i always wondered like the rob ford legacy was like i mean at the time of course it was like when, I'm old enough to remember when Reagan was president. And like, I see end of the earth, you know,

and now in history, it's a footnote. But Rob Ford. Herbert Hoover. In the man's demise. He did this. I'll give him this. He gave garbage back to the mafia. That was a pretty smart move.

Because remember for a while in Toronto, it was like you had that, your garbage had to the mafia. That was a pretty smart move. Because remember for a while in Toronto, it was like you had to, your garbage had to be like, it needs to be tied with a purple ribbon on Tuesday and don't take it. Like they wouldn't, now you can leave a body out there. Yeah.

They're coming by, they'll take it. They're making money. They're making money. So for the average homeowner, it's a little better. Well, you know, Mr. Dithers is what I call it.

In this home, I call John Tory Mr. Dithers. He's always dithering about, you know mr dithers is what i call it in this home i call uh john tory mr dithers he's always dithering about you know everything's about getting the next meeting yes that's right everything yeah but if you want action out of this man the only thing that seemed to spark action and passion out of the man was getting the homeless out of the parks yeah let's go let's go yeah let's get the police yeah there was a good military outfits yeah there was a good roasting happening. Yeah. He was all in. He's all for it.

So as we speak, John Tory has not actually resigned, even though Friday we all heard him say, I'm going to resign. And today is, well, probably the most important meeting of the term. This is the budget meeting today. And he's leading that as super mayor. He should have nothing to do with that budget. On the other hand, who would?

Who would be in his place? While they're trying to rush her through, he was shouted down today. So they had to postpone it. And cops were throwing people out of Nathanfield. What's it called? City Hall. What do you call that place?

The rink. The big rink. The big sign. You know, where they had the Raptor Parade. The big rink. The big sign. You know, where they had the raptor parade. The French fry truck. The good fries. I played there a couple of times. I bet. Is there any venue in the city you haven't played yet?

The Imperial Room at the Royal York. We can make that happen. McVeigh's. You've never played McVeigh's? That's true. I'd have to put on an Irish accent. Oh! That just comes out of you when you're there. That's right. Oh, hello, everybody.

An absurd abuse of power, I think, for a man who's resigning to be... Agreed. Well, okay, so there's something going on behind it. I don't know what it is. What do you know? What do you think? I love your thoughts on all this.

Here's the thing. I don't know anything, and what I think is a common thought, which is that it's a common a common thought which is that it's a distraction it's meant to be a distraction from something that Ford's doing they're you know they're tight and and I think there may be some blackmail involved it may you believe that yeah I mean there sounds a little conspiracy it does and I'm not prone to that I'm really not but but come on like you know uh you have a mayor who smokes crack you know Rob Ford

and and does you know egregious thing after egregious thing and nothing happens to him and john tory thinks that he'd better he'd better resign over this when yes it's an abuse of power but it's not actually necessarily worse than any other mayor ever sadly and and i and i feel i feel like there's something else going on especially because to me right now the conservatives are trying to dismantle so many institutions in this province so that they can say, yep, see, doesn't work. We've got to privatize it. And it's working, by the way. Yeah, it's working. And people aren't even paying attention.

And they're not even paying attention enough to vote. And they don't even spend the budget. Yeah. And maybe, maybe Johnry wasn't playing ball and so they've given this mayor superpowers but he's not playing ball so now they're hoping to install somebody michael ford to who will play ball you know but you know like it's it doesn't i'm calling my friend david miller we're going to get him back in town boy i personally think that'd be fantastic there was a story today about the Liberal's federal diversity minister

is going to make a run for the mayorship. Wow. Yeah. What I've noticed is happening now, and Ford started this sort of ball rolling this morning, I think, because he wants Tory to stay desperately, is that they're starting to float this, oh, if Toronto gets a lefty mayor.

Oh, yeah, I heard Doug say that. Oh, boy, it's all. So now they're starting to sail that balloon. Yeah, I hope Nenshi moves from Calgary and becomes our mayor. There you go. I'm into that. How about your Cinda Ardern? Yeah.

Is that her name? Yeah. Ardern. Yeah, Ardern from New Zealand. Yeah, come over and run Toronto. Yeah, I mean. And do it in your sleep. I personally think that balance in politics is a really good idea.

I like minority governments, and I think having a lefty mayor to balance against the province would be a really good thing. I wonder how much... Do you think a lot of it came down to Mega City and what they did with the amalgamation? Because now it's like downtown Toronto

is the forgotten... It doesn't matter anymore because they know the votes come in from the suburbs. Yeah. They bring in. But how did David Miller win two terms? Right. Yeah.

Well, was that during Megacity? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Because Mel Lastman was the first mayor of the Megacity. Then David. Right. Yeah. So he's the, and the third one was.

The Megacity. The sheer Megacity of it. He walked the line pretty cleverly about never saying he was a liberal. That's true. Because he's probably NDP. But also, why is to sort of look

not on either side? City politics, that's what they're supposed to be, but you don't get that with a guy named Tory. Isn't he still getting a yearly paycheck okay so i can tell you it's the rogers family trust so he's a he's an advisor to the rogers family trust for a hundred thousand a year it always stunk especially when the blue jays were saying stop the act of to because we don't get enough people at the dome and then it's like suddenly my act

which i partook in all the time they stopped stopped it. The conflict of interest was always there. And that's why this story, which I think he thought he could stop the investigation, the story by resigning or announcing he's going to resign because, of course, this woman who I've decided not to name, but everybody who cares already knows her name, but this woman who was the City Hall staffer

who had this inappropriate relationship with John Torrey is now at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which is 37.5% owned by Rogers. Like the whole thing, there's more to the story. The whole thing stinks. There's more threads. It stank then and it stinks now.

I think that's a Lisa Simpson quote. There you go. It is, it's a huge conflict of interest. You know, it's, to be fair to Tory, you know, getting kickbacks is his first love so allegedly yeah allegedly i got lauren honickman will call me and say uh you can't say those things on your show but i did not say it and i said uh allegedly and we'll add allegedly i mean he was a nice he was a nice friendly fellow at cfrb he's friendly I had a private chat with him at the Pumpkin Parade in Mimico.

And he's on episode 1000. He congratulated you. I have nothing but great personal experiences with him because he knows your name.

He's a good politician. He's a likable chap when you meet that guy. But anyway, lousy name. But as we speak,

he has not resigned. So I just wonder now whether he's going to be talked into sticking it out. And it's possible. Yeah, it's possible. Like anything's possible at Toronto City Hall. I would imagine if he feels he can get away with it, of course he will.

But no one said he had to resign in the first place. This is my beef, which is that we didn't, like, you know, I was shocked when he resigned. I knew the story before. I knew the story. And I did not think he would resign over it. So when he said he was resigning, I was as shocked as anybody.

And he did that. Like there's no law that said he had to resign. There's no law against what he did. He decided to resign. And to resign on a Friday, and then, you know what I mean? And then put this chaos into play and then to not actually step aside i just he's gonna look pretty

wishy-washy no matter what i mean also what do you do what's he gonna do go out and go yeah well you know what i've been sleeping with a staffer for a long time what do you think what do you think i should do yeah like you can't you know be you can't leave it open you'd look even more ridiculous but i would have respected him more if he had resigned at at a.m. on a Monday. Right, yeah, because Monday morning he could have filed that paper. Yeah, and do it. And I thought he would, actually. Yeah, and do it and live with it. That would be the right thing. If you're going to do it,

that would be the right thing to do. Or just say, you know what? She's 31 and I love her, damn it. Yeah. And we're taking off to live in the south of France. Yeah, that's right. Fill your boots. Yeah. Then I would have had some respect for that's true you know yeah fill your boots all right last couple of minutes here uh one thing i'll share and then i'll find out if you have anything more to share chris uh this is your debut you're now an fotm how was the experience oh it's a lot of

fun i appreciate you having me on thanks all right you get the lasagna. Okay. So quick thing about... Is that code? Wait a second. Wait a second. If he... Yeah, that's code. Yeah. That's bro talk. I'm iced. That's Etobicoke for... Let's get rid of him.

That's how we talk in South Dakota. You can have the lasagna if you know what I mean. That's funny. But wait, had he answered incorrectly, would I get his lasagna? No, neither of you would get lasagna. I consider you a package deal. Oh, man. My New Year's resolution was to finally maybe get off my ass

and promote my projects a little more. So I do appreciate it. And his website, The Canadianer, the Canadian with E-R at the end. On the interweb. On the interweb, which you can get at home now. It's so funny. Mobile version.

He is way funnier than any of these stupid little jokes I'm making. It's very funny, and it's a take on current events. Well, I'm going to bookmark it. Have you written something about Tory already? I did. I posted two days ago about Tory. There you go. And I'm concocting another one.

But as a teaser, I think I'm going to do a Trump thing next. Okay. Yeah. Okay, do it. By the way, just a quick side on the Tory story, which is on Saturday morning I had David Ryder on this program, and it. By the way, just a quick side on the Tori story, which is on Saturday morning I had David Ryder on this program

and we talked about how the story, and it got a lot of traction and people found it some good behind the scenes stuff. So if you're at all curious of how, like when did the star

get the story? You know, what did they do? When did they tell Tori they had the story? All those nuts and bolts thing that I'm always curious about. It's all in that

Saturday morning episode with David Ryder. Okay, real quick on my hair. So, since I got married, which was almost 10 years ago, my wife has been cutting my hair. This is a fact. I'm divulging to you two gentlemen right now. So she cuts my hair periodically. And I like it because I hate going to like a, I hate to go to a barber or whatever and get my hair cut. I just don't like to sit there and have my hair cut. And Monica would do it and she seemed fine with it. But at some point,

I guess it became very mushroomy, unruly, this hair of mine. It's very thick and it's going crazy. And she told me, she's not, I have to go to a pro and then she can maintain it again. Are you a professional haircutter, Blair?

Oh, me? Yeah, well, you had your hand up. Oh, no, I thought you were looking at Chris. No, no, I have the coolest hair cutter. Me too. The coolest. Same guy? No. Oh, okay. No, you have a very cool one too. Oh no, I thought you were looking at Chris. No, no, I have the coolest hair, hair cutter. Me too. The coolest. Same guy? No.

Oh, okay. No, you have, you have a very cool one too. All right, well here, I know who you're going to say.

Okay. This is how long we've known each other. Yeah, that's true. Who is it? We know each other's sizes. Mine is, is Don Pyle,

drummer in Shadowy Man from a shadowy planet. Speaking of, yeah. For the kids in the hall. Of course. And he's a fantastic guy. Wow.

And he cuts my hair about every three months. Okay, I wish, okay, because of my fidget store, you realize, you could hook me up, but here,

so Monica said you have to get a, so I haven't been to a pro in over a decade, but I actually have in my calendar for later this afternoon, this evening,

I guess, I'm going to a local guy who cuts hair, and I wish I knew the name of this place, the great, I can't remember what it's called right now.

The neighborhood barbershop or something, which is here in new Toronto. Sounds like a trap. Yeah. I'm getting it. So this is a big day for the first time. I think, yes,

if I do the math, this is the first time in the history of this podcast that I will have had a professional cut my hair. It's happening tonight. We can hardly wait. People, you know, it might sound like you're making light,

but that's a big thing. Thank you. I thought it was a big thing. This podcast is almost 11 years old and this is the first time I've had a professional cut my hair since I started this podcast. I think it's my last vanity

that I actually have hair left and that I do take care of it. Well, you had a hat on the whole time. What's going on over there? He's got a good head of hair. No, there's a good Irish, there's a good Irish mop under here. Yeah, take it off.

Let me see this. Yeah, so hat's coming off. Look at that. It's full head. Well done. So Chris's hair cutter is Suzanne McGlynn. Am I getting her name right? Yes.

She's lovely, and she's very, very good. The city's full of great hair cutters. She was never the drummer in a great band, as far as I know. I think I feel like I just heard, and maybe I'm not sure where I heard it but on something I was listening to recently gave the story of how Shadowy Men

and a Shadowy Planet how that song became the Kids in the Hall anthem yeah I don't know that story I'll ask Don next time I get my hair cut the song is called

it was played at the live events and then it stuck and then they well every taping the band was live yeah but even before they had the show

they would play it when they would the Rivoli and all that stuff the song is called Having an Average Weekend. That's right. Yeah. I think I still have that vinyl.

I used to, I used to open for the kids in all their studio shows. And I remember always just like, what are getting such a rush when they'd play you on. Yes. Wow. And it was so much fun to do that gig, man.

First of all, it was 400 bucks, which then was like, wow. That's a lot today. Yeah. It's almost rent. You kidding me? You know, That's a lot today. Yeah, it's almost rent. Are you kidding me?

It's a lot today. Yeah. I love that troupe. I mean, Kids in the Hall. Fantastic. It hit me at just the perfect time in my formative years. I loved it. I don't think they know the effect and influence they had on the Canadian and wider comedy scene.

But I didn't remember going to, I met Dave Foley doing commercials with him. We did these ads for Pepsi in like 88 or 89 or something. And he invited me to the Rivoli and I hadn't seen the kids. And I was at the downtown club and I ran into Norm MacDonald and I said, Hey, I got, I'm on the list to go see the kids in the hall you want to come he goes yeah here they're great so we went and saw him i had no idea what i was walking into but we just felt like yesterday's papers like i remember just sort of feeling so like i suck like they were light years ahead of what they were talking about

what they were doing and i remember remember Norm, especially after that, his writing got so much tighter. It really lit a fire under his ass, I think, because he could be competitive that way. And to bring everything full circle, because he came up earlier, but do you know who wrote the book on the kids in the hall? Yeah.

Paul Myers. The Gravelberry Zone. That's right. Wow. You guys, this was fantastic. And Ivelberry Zone. That's right. Wow. You guys, this was fantastic. And I said 90 and I hit 90. Blair, final thoughts. Paul married me on a beach to my wife, Arlene Bishop, my ex-wife.

He and his wife married us. Just the four of us on a beach, San Francisco. That's like one of the Blair Packham greatest hits. I could never get tired of that one. Wait, is this Ron Hawkins? Yes. Ron and I were... No, anyway. Everyone has a Ron Haw of that one. Wait, is this Ron Hawkins? Yes. Ron and I, we're, no, anyway.

Everyone has a Ron Hawkins story. That's true. Chris, you got a Ron Hawkins story? I don't. Just my final thought, be careful of neighborhood hair barber shop. Yeah, the neighborhood,

I feel like it's called the neighborhood, it's like an episode of Batman. Yeah. It's on lakeshores, so I feel like it's, people will be able

to see through the window if I'm in, quick escape window if I'm in distress. Quick escape for exits before you sit down. And that brings us to the end of our 1,204th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Blair is at Blair Packham. Chris is at Canadianer.

So it's a Canadian with an ER at the end. Canadianer. I got to guess. And it's a good follow. Follow Chris and he told you the website's Canadianer.com.

I can't say most words, Chris. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. nadianner.com. I can't say most words, Chris. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Recycle My Electronics are at EPRA underscore Canada. Go to recyclemyelectronics.ca. Find out where you can drop your old tech so it can be safely recycled. Oh, yes, and everybody's getting a Ridley Funeral Home.

That's for you guys. That's a measuring tape from Ridley Funeral Home. You can measure anything you want. They're at Ridley FH. And Canna Cabana are at Canna Cabana underscore. See you all next week when my guest is Steve Ryan

from CP24. And it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is Rosy and gray Well I've been told That there's a sucker Born every day But I wonder who Yeah I wonder who Maybe the one

Who doesn't realize There's a thousand shades of gray Cause I know that's true Yes, I do I know it's true, yeah I know it's true How about you? Are they picking up trash

And they're putting down ropes? And they're brokering stocks, the class struggle explodes. And I'll play this guitar just the best that I can. Maybe I'm not and maybe I am. But who gives a damn Because everything is coming up Rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow Warms me today

And your smile is fine And it's just like mine And it won't go away Because everything is rosy and gray Well, I've kissed you in France and I've kissed you in Spain And I've kissed you in places I better not name And I've seen the sun go down on Sacré-Cœur But I like it much better going down on Chaclacour But I like it

much better going down on you Yeah, you know that's true Because everything is coming up rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold but the smell of snow warms us today

And your smile is fine And it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is rosy now Everything is rosy Yeah, everything is rosy and great guitar solo