Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Drew Marshall: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1820

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

In this 1820th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Drew Marshall about his relationship with God, the many stars he chatted with on the Drew Marshall Show, and his ongoing search for... something. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, RetroFestive.ca and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

Hey, I'm Drew Marshall here for my friary, very, very first time on Toronto, Mike. I work in the medical industry. I am a circumcision reattachment specialist. Oh, you didn't point at me. I thought you had more. That's it? Shoot. I forgot about the pointing.

Do they do that, reattach foreskin? Apparently the tips are good. Welcome to episode Welcome to Episode 1,820 of Toronto Mike Proudly brought to you by retrofestive.ca, Canada's pop culture and Christmas store.

Save 10% with the promo code FOTM for a limited time. Great Lakes Brewery Order online at greatlakesbeer.com for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Visit palma Pasta.com for more.

Fusion Corp's own, Nick Aeney's. He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline and Building Success, two podcasts you ought to listen to. Recycle My Electronic. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past and Ridley Funeral Home Pillars of the community since 1921

Today making his Toronto mic's debut It's Drew Marshall Hello Drew Your mother Your mother Your mother jokes off the top See tomorrow Carla Collins is going to be in this basement

And she's supposed to be the funny one. So please don't try to, you know, show her up with your comedy routines. Hi, Carla. Nice to see you again. How are you? She's terrifying. I was at her show Saturday night. And I was in the front row and she used me as a prop.

Yes, that makes sense. Yeah. Does she still play the, was it like a flight theme club? Oh, I don't know. She plays a bunch of clubs. And this was a brewery, not Great Lakes Brewery. It was like a North York brewery. It was very nice.

They don't get a mention because they're not a sponsor. No, come on. You've got to cough up the coin. But I want to say that you and your lady friend here will go home with some fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery. Nice. It was worth the drive. Where did you come from today, Drew? A little place called Caledon.

I've heard of Caledon. So you live on like a farm? I do. Do you have the internet there? Seriously? No. Okay, so I'm very interested. We're going to get to know you.

and I thought maybe off the top, though, I would just remind you of how we were connected way back when, okay? You ready for me to jog your memory? Yeah, we met at the clinic after I told you about that ointment that worked for me. Carla's in trouble because she can't follow this. It's going to be tough. You were a regular guest in the early days of the Humble and Fred podcast. You were the God guy, a regular guest.

True false. That's a true story. Yeah, that's a very true story. Like in the good old, I considered the good old days because we used to do it in person yeah well uh so i used to have a radio show and a humbling fred came on my show and then i'd go on their show and we go back and forth and then eventually i i started um near um honica i would do a a show an episode called uh how jew are you and we would have humble on no fred for that one no fred for that one humble on and then andy kindler from l a great great comedian yeah

and then i'd get a local rabbi to come in and referee and we'd just start asking, you know, how many candles on a menorah? Humble killed it. He should. He was raised Jewish. Like, they had a menorah. He should know how many candles on a menorah. It's eight days of Hanukkah, but I'm going to guess there are nine candles on a menorah.

I don't care. Oh, come on, you don't know. Okay. So, we're going to cover a lot of ground, because we're going to get to know you. But I pulled a clip. This is going to blow your mind, I think. And Nick, who's in the room, but not on camera. If you did want to hear these clips, it's in the headphones. So I don't know if you'll hear, but if you stick on those headphones, you're going to hear it. It's only 30 seconds here. So, Drew, way back when, in the good old days, when the Humble and Fred show recorded in person, those were my favorite Humble and Fred episodes, because

it was like people would drop by. And I can tell you, we met. And I don't know if you remember ever meeting me on the Humble and Fred show, but I pulled a clip and I think it's funny now that you're in my basement. You ready? You did a little, like they used to do little promos for YouTube afterwards. And this is you, I don't know, 10 years ago or something. Here we go. I'm Drew Marshall here with the Humble and Fred Radio.com show. Today on the show, wow, buddy whose dog died. What's his name?

Toronto Mike. The queen of the quiff. So somewhere between the queen of the quif and you, I was on the program that day, and you're like, what's his name? Who was queen of the quiff? Was that Carla? No, she wishes, okay? No.

I don't know what happened to queen of the quif. She should become an FOTM, get her on Toronto Mike here. But there you are. Hold on. Hold on. I'm so sorry your dog died. You know what? I'm trying to. So I had a dog, I got a dog in my first marriage.

And then I left. How many marriages are you? Only two. Only two. But I left the marriage and I left the dog with the marriage. So it's like I only had this dog, this dog lived to be. That's like a reverse country song. You left the dog and the marriage as opposed to.

Because the dog stayed. I left the matrimonial home. Like I walked away from the home. I gave her the home where I had two, you know, two kids. It's the only home they knew. And I left the dog with the home and my ex-wife with the home. So therefore, I only kind of lived with this dog for like half of it 16 years. But I guess this was recorded when my dog died.

Yeah. So there you go. But what was interesting to me is that you're like, what's his name again? And then here we are. Fast forward 20 years later. And your phony means saying, can I please visit you? I want to come on your show, man. I've heard so much about you.

Have you figured out who I am at this point? Yeah, I'm going to go with Toronto, Mike. But wasn't that a wild... I want to thank Rob Pruse for digging that up. Like, I guess he was Googling you, and he found that on YouTube. Do I know Rob Pruse? Well, Rob Pruse is a keyboardist with the spoons during their glory days. Huh?

With all the hits. He co-wrote romantic traffic. Wow. Like, that's all you need to know. And then he joined Honeymoon Suite. Oh, yeah. And now he works on Broadway. I feel like every episode I explain who Rob Pruce is,

but I'm just so, like, blown away by, like, his musical genius. But he dug that up and sent it to me this morning. So you were brought to him, to us, by him. What? Yeah, some like that. But, you know, off the top, I do want to ask you about growing up in a funeral home because this show is sponsored by a funeral home, and the owner and funeral director, Brad Jones,

will be here at 5 p.m. to record a new episode of his podcast, Life's Undertaking. What's it like? growing up at a funeral home? Well, first of all, that's a weird connection. But there's going to be another stiff here later. And Brad Jones from Ridley Funeral Home sent over a measuring tape for you, Drew Marshall. That's funny. Does it really have the funeral home stuff on it? I can't see. It says Ridley, yeah. Because that's, that's what we used to do when we were like, that was the standard joke back in the day. Mel Brooks, I think,

first brought that to the Hollywood detention where you'd measure people in blazing saddles. Right. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. What was the question? Well, you grew up in a funeral home. Yeah, I did. So Brad didn't grow up in a funeral home. He is raising his six kids in a funeral home, but he did not grow up in a funeral home. What's it like growing up in a funeral home?

Well, you know, people freak out all the time. But I just, I didn't know anything different. The earliest story, a weird story about me growing up, wow, growing up in a funeral home was that an Italian family was coming in just to say hello to Papa or mama or whoever it was. Right. And Nona, could have been Nona. Yep. And they were, the guys that worked for my dad were panicked because the rosary had disappeared from the body.

Oh my goodness. And apparently I would have been about five years old. I reached up into the casket, felt for some jewelry and pulled it off and ran around the funeral, hiding from the staff that were trying to tackle me and get the rosary back. So, yeah. So there you go. Ozzy mischief in the funeral home. Started with that and then graduated into, I had a party once.

I invited 15 people in high school. Over 100 showed up. It was like weekend at Bernies. I had to bounce my own party. Three guys from arrival high school showed up. My buddy Harvey said, you've got to get rid of them, man. They're just here to tear it up. Like, well, how am I supposed to do that?

I'm not going to have a confrontation at the front door of the funeral home. So this is what I did. You ready? Yeah. I said, guys, you're late. Everyone's here already. Everyone got a welcome shot. Here's a shot for you, a shot for you.

Go on in, enjoy it, man. You know, pound it back, and away you go. Fifteen minutes later, one of them is leaning on the right side of the bathroom door outside of it. The other one's on the other side. They're both white as a ghost and the third guy's inside scream vomiting. Oh, my God. Yeah. Okay, well, listen.

Hold on. Do you want to know why? Yes, I do want to know why. What did you give them? I left you a point in pause to participate. Yeah, it was embalming fluid. Did you know that already? No, I had no idea.

But I know that you were embalming bodies at this funeral home. And I'm guessing what would knock them down like that, embalming fluid. Yeah. So I, yeah, it's, uh, I had to Google that, the legal department for the publishing company I've been talking about with my book coming out next year. Okay. What book is this, like a book about your life? Yeah. And there's a funeral home chapter or two?

There are many dead things in there. Yeah. One of the lines is the first person I ever punched and the first boob I ever grabbed were dead. Oh, yeah. Brought to you by Ridley Funer. home. Oh my God. Okay. So on that note, though, so you're, your, is it your dad who owned the funeral home? And where was this funeral home? Richmond Hill. Richmond Hill. Okay. So this, you guys were a family who lived on the premise. We lived above the funeral home. My mom did

hair and makeup. My dad owned it. And, um, and my sister and I live there. And, uh, and I, I found out later, I used to have to bribe friends to come over and visit. Because what I found out later was, yeah, because my, the parents were like, no, you're not going to his place. to play. Are you weird? Yeah. I could see that. But you know, that's a pun intended. It's a dying breed to have families living on the premises. Yes, it is. Yeah. It's turned very corporate. As a matter of fact, the family business just sold to one of the big conglomerates. It's a common theme because I record this show Life's Undertaking with Brad. And Brad is the owner of Ridley Funeral

home and they're fiercely independent and he's got his eight-person family living on the premises. And there's nothing else like that in Toronto. Like, it's all conglomerates. It's like you've seen six feet under, right? Have you seen it? Yeah, that was us. That was, yeah, mom did the makeup and the hair and yeah, yep. So what is that, like, what is that? Due to a kid?

Due to a kid. Like, what perspective on death would you have that your buddies wouldn't, you know, considering you're like retrieving bodies from like suicide and homicide scenes? Hmm. Well researched. Um, yes, my dad would, I'm reading your bio here. My dad, my dad would wake me up at 2, 3 in the morning, say,

and I'd be 14, 15. 16 and he'd say put your suit on we're going on a call and we would go to a homicide or a suicide scene and pick up a body and so there are lots of things that I saw I've written about them in the book and I I've brought this up with my dad and the two guys

that worked for my dad forever great guys but yeah I mean a couple of them briefly just to entertain your listeners yeah well tease us man we got to get this book but it's not out yet right yeah so I remember going into a backyard with a pool and a 400 something man was floating in the pool

and it was our job because there was no removal service in that area like McKinnon and Bose that do it downtown we had to pull the body out but it'd been there so long that when we grabbed the guy's wrist we sleeved them. Oh you like the skin came off? Oh my God. Looked at the

cop at the gate of the pool area and I said you know my dad or whoever it was said can we get some help he's like no that's not I'm a union guy that's not part of our deal now may I be very personal with you I feel like I can because you did publish this on the worldwide web so I feel like that's the red the green light

I'm not the red light the green light that I can proceed here did you attempt to take your own life as a teenager yeah absolutely I don't know why I said absolutely that's like a talk show response absolutely well I'm glad you failed well thanks you know what I was just an attention seeking punk and I think that's one of the reasons my dad

I'll give you another quick example I think he was trying to snap me out of being an ass because Christmas Eve I remember one time we went with a stretcher into a house down into the basement past the family and it was renovated there was white drywall everywhere hanging light bulbs very white and bright

and it was like two in the morning Christmas Eve and there was a table saw and some spilt paint all around it and in the middle of the paint was a was a body it wasn't paint um buddy had just decided to turn the blade up turn it on and threw his neck down on it wow so that's something you shouldn't probably see as a 15 year old uh and i often wonder or any year old or any year old yeah maybe uh and so i often wonder what role that played in in in my mental health state but my suicide was it wasn't like i didn't want to kill myself. It was just a cry for attention. It was, I felt invisible in the family

I grew up in and there was probably a couple of circuits not firing properly as a result of some funeral home things. Or maybe it was because I was adopted and I was a sucky pants because of rejection issues. I don't know. I have no idea. But yeah, I tried to come myself. Just pills, ER, and then they make you stay in the shrink ward for two weeks. And you're a teenager. Yeah. Did you start talking to somebody? Did you start to Did you seek some, and back then, I know it was different back then, but still. Yeah, back then, I was heavily into the Jesus scene. And so I had a youth pastor and some God people that I, that I would talk to.

And, you know what, I want to give credit to a place that really helped, at hindsight, I look back and they saved my life. They're Jesus' place, so that comes with some additives, because I have some problems with tribal conditioning amongst the evangelical Jesus' tribe. However, Teen Ranch up near Orangeville really played a huge role in me getting my life back. So there you go. Teen Ranch also a pretty great song, right? Teen Ranch, oh, Teen Ranch. What is this wrong? What's happening? All right. So I, you mentioned Jesus. So I want to dive in a little bit here because I knew you as the God guy. And then at some point I want to ask you a hundred questions about your long-running radio show ran for what 16 years yeah okay and it ended in 2019 and

I did spend a few days going through the list of guests that appeared on that show it takes days it does you can't again it's not a quick task dude it's like your list are you kidding me oh it's like my list on steroids so uh we're gonna get into all that but you were raised religious like by the way this is a horrible room to do a podcast uh with creative guests who have probably ADD. Please explain why. There was so much crap around to stare at.

Let's take a moment. See, I'm not, this isn't the CBC, so let's take a moment. What has caught your eye? Brian Linehan. Brian Lionahan. Back in 1973, when you first met your mother. Well, the goalie mask, I have one of those. That is, you know, I wear that on Halloween and terrorized kids with a chainsaw without the chain on it, touching the back

of their necks. You have albums, and you have, you have everything. You have an old ghetto, no, is it a separated ghetto blaster, which, I don't know, is that a bad thing to say now? I believe we now say boombox, but I did grow up with it being a ghetto blast. Yeah, you've got funeral home stuff, you've got promotional stuff, you've got, you've got a lot of, you've got everything except heat. You know what, I did offer for the record. I offered to get the heater, right, Nick? Yes, but it's like, it's like going to watch Letterman.

like that studio is a morgue. Is that Radio City Music Hall? What is that? Yeah, it was, I can't remember when I was there last one. But you're right, they keep it like a fridge. The old Ed Sullivan studio. Well, that's what I'm going to start telling my guests. We're preserving the gear here.

Sorry, what was the question? No, I mean, so, like, so you've, have you heard Toronto Mike? Yeah. Okay. Are you kidding me? Well, I see, I don't know. Like, I actually don't know because obviously from that first media at Humble and Fred, you were like, what's his name again?

His dog died or whatever, right? So, so like, and then, and then. I would hear you on Humble and Fred, which is where I would learn. And, you know, for example, I learned you walked to the Camino de Santiago, which we'll go get to later. But, so I learned about you because you'd come on Humble. Dude, how long is this thing? We're going to get to a lot of stuff later.

Well, how long? When are we getting to something now? This is the stuff. Hold my hand. Okay, this is, this is my show. This is not the Jew Marshall show. Okay. But you've, because you've heard Toronto, Mike,

you have an idea of what's going on down here. But I was wondering when you got down here, Were you, like, underwhelmed, if that's a word, by the studio? Or was it what you expected? Or, like, what are your thoughts, having heard the show and then getting down to the basement? No, this is exactly what I hoped it would be, all in more. I wasn't underwhelmed. I was, I had to duck under the ceiling because I'm six-four.

Yeah, you're a big guy. This is a great place to interview like oompa-loompas. So Peter Gross is okay down here. Peter Gross. Because he's down here regularly. and I've never told him to watch his head. Yeah. Not one time here.

Not one time. So, why do you do this? Which? Why do you do this podcast? Well, I'm learning. I like to learn about people and Jew Marshall's in my basement.

You know, when you say my first name, it sounds like you're saying Jew? It does it? Yeah, Jew Marshall. Nick, does it sound like I'm saying Jew Marshall? No.

She's shaking ahead. Thank God. I'm glad there's someone else in the room, okay, to keep you in check over here. Okay. Okay. So before I tell you why

I do this. Why did you want to be a guest on Toronto Mike? Well, okay, so selfishly, there's something I want to promote, like everybody who comes on a show. Sure. And I want to promote it locally. I had all these people coming at me when I had the radio show wanting to promote stuff. And anybody that came at me, I was not interested in. Typically, that was the deal. I knew what I wanted.

I knew the kind of show I wanted, so I went after people. I went after, you know, names. But I also realize, as I got a little less arrogant in my later years, latter years, that there are small schmucks that need the word spread about important things. And I'm a small schmuck, what? You're a big schmuck, who is doing something now that I'm, I'm, I don't think I've ever been more passionate about anything in my life. So that's why I'm, that's why I'm here. Okay, well, what is that that you're so passionate about?

I need to say this.com. I now, so when I finish the radio show in 2019, I spent the next few years, like getting a 100-acre farm back in shape, and then I was also writing, and I wanted to finish my book. When I finished the book, I was like, what the heck am I going to do now?

I got to get back into the world, because I just unplugged massively. So I thought, what can I do? Like, I don't really know. I'm not a handy person. I can't. get a real job. So I was thinking about what am I passionate about?

And there are two things that came into kind of a molding pot. One is I really enjoy asking people questions like you do. Absolutely. There is something magical about the right question at the right time. I love chasing the whys because I think it helps me be one wiser. That didn't make sense. Anyway. And then the other thing was I,

When I finished writing the book, I realized there was a theme of self-hatred throughout my life that had a foundation in not getting things right with my mom before she died. When I was 22, she died the same night my son was born. And it really haunted me for a lot of years. And I'm very passionate about helping people say what they want to say to those they love before it's too late. So whether that's mediation or palliative care. So that's what I do now. I simply get people on Zoom, we talk, I ask them what they really want to say. I'm simplifying it.

We record it. I give them a chance to edit it, and then they can send that audio to whoever it is that they want to say. Can I give you a couple examples? Of course. We're getting the promo right out of the way. Here we go. Let's do it. Last week I interviewed a guy from Ottawa who has five kids and will be dead within six months.

And he wanted to say what he wanted to say. what he needed to say to his family before he died. There's a lady who has cancer and she has a son and that son is married and those two are on the outs with her and that's killing her more than the cancer. So we sit down and we talk about what do you really want to say? What is happening here? So we get the honesty going like at a pretty big scale. another guy I know

again he's not dying of cancer anything but he had a health scare and he had a bad divorce and he wants his two daughters who are in their 20s to know his story because they got poisoned by the ex of course and they think of him the way she told him

she told them about him so anyway so there are things like that that are important so I love this idea I feel we're cut from the same cloth only your cloth has a deeper voice than my cloth. That's the key difference. And you're a bigger guy. And you've got a cooler hat because I want to ask you

about the hat. So I went to the website now. I need to say this.com here. And people can contact you there. And you'll interview them like a legacy interview. Yeah, I do legacy interviews as well. Those seem to be

so there are two components, relational interviews. You need to get things right with someone. I'll help you. I'm not there with wisdom. I'm not a counselor, I'm not a shrink, although I spend a lot of time as a pastor and a hospital chaplain walking people through a lot of stuff. But I'm just, I just, I think I think I can ask the right questions. I think I can. I think I can. You know, we'd be a dream team.

I'm telling you, you and I should collaborate. I'm seeing a photo of you on a horse. So you could ride, you're not just, you know, living on a farm. You can ride a horse. Yeah. And that's why you get to wear the hat, right? Like, you told me that hat. I'm looking at the freaking hat right now.

So that hat, how old is that hat? 40 years old. And did you know how to ride a horse before you got the hat? Yeah, I rodeoed when I was young, and that was one of my first real purchases. Okay, you rodeoed, like professionally? No, well, I was a hack. Like, what does that mean? Okay, so.

So I bucked out on bareback. I didn't do any saddle bronch. I did bear back and bull, but when I did bulls, I'm sorry, yeah, when I did bulls, it just looked like I was, I'm six-four, so it looked like I'm six-four, so it looked like I was wrapped around the bowl, and there was no points in that for me. And so when I'm flailing around bareback riding and breaking my limbs, I get more points. So where is this that you're like a rodeo cowboy? So I started that stuff at Teen Ranch.

They had a rodeo school that I signed up for and learned all sorts of things there. And then when I moved to California, I ran away to California when I was 17. I was a head wrangler at a ranch down there, and I rodeoed down in California in the foothills of the Yosemite Mountain. You've lived a life here. So what makes you start the spiritual talk show? Because obviously you can imagine I have questions about this show. Yeah, I was, how do we do this concisely? Take your time.

You don't have to run through it. This isn't like a 15-minute humble and Fred hit or whatever. We've got time to breathe here. Okay. So first, I mean, I was born a poor black child. That's not true. Do you remember that Steve Martin routine? Okay.

Anyway, what was the question? Oh, how did I get into? Like where, so we got you, you know, I mean, I know what we haven't talked about it, but you tried to be a CFL player. Like, you tried out. Dude, that was not what you said earlier. You are, you are worse than I am with the, with the,

the focused, the focus. No, but you try these. I mean, you're, you're a rodeo cowboy. You're trying to be a firefighter. You're trying out for the CFL. I'm wondering, what is your path to start a spiritual, talk show. Right. So I had met a lot of Australians through Teen Ranch, where I was involved, and I said to my wife at the time, we had two kids, young kids, you want to go to Australia?

And she said, yeah, let's go to Australia. So we went to Australia. We took nine bags of stuff, no place to live, no job, and ended up staying five years because church hired me to be an associate pastor, a pastor. And I remember telling somebody that when I came back for a visit to Toronto. I ran into a mother of a guy I used to go to strip clubs with. And I said, she said, what are you doing? I said, well, I'm living in Australia. What are you doing there? I'm a pastor. She goes, shut the fuck up. Oh, are you allowed to swear on this show? Yes, you can. Okay. All right. So, yeah, it was a bit of an odd thing. But it was a great country for me to be a pastorian because there are just so many criminals. That's the foundation of Australia

here. So I was a pastor for five years and then on the way back from Australia. I I had a good look in the proverbial mirror and said, who are you kidding? There's no way you should be in any form of spiritual leadership. Stop. Just stop it. Bob Newhart sketch. And then I woke up one morning after being back in Canada with an idea about interviewing people about what they believe. Because, dude, we're talking about something invisible.

And if you're certain about something invisible, that's interesting. So I pitched the idea of this show where I would interview anybody and everybody about whatever it is they believe. And I would just explore everything from the high priest of, sorry, the high priest of the church of Satan to the leader of Canada's polygamous colony, to James Brown, a BB King, Alice Cooper, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, so this is when you return to Canada from Australia, where you're there for five years as a pastor. And do you see a help wanted sign in the window and you just say,

hey, can I be the pastor? Like were you tapped on the shoulder and like, oh, you got a good rap on you, son? I had a vision. No, I just networked and people said, yeah, this place is looking for someone. So are the three churches that wanted to hire me, which is astounding. I mean, that'll just show you the caliber of the country. Three churches wanted to hire me as a pastor. Like what, that's, it's just, no, it's honestly, it's the best country I've ever lived in.

Okay, but why only five years if it's... Oh, because it was time to come back home for two reasons. My ex-wife's mom was dying of cancer, and our kids were about to start high school, and I've always said once a kid starts high school, we're not pulling them out of that school. We're not moving. I don't care what's happening. I don't want to screw them up.

Okay. So now you're realizing I don't want to be a pastor. Yeah. And I want to talk to people about their faith. Yeah, because I struggle with mine and I find it interesting. So it was a long way to process my own stuff. So you have to get on,

this is back in the day when you had to get on a radio station. Like, so what, you send in tapes and just say, hey, hire me? How do you get on the radio? Well, I've, with the format I was thinking of, I had to find some pretty unique stations. So there were a couple of God stations in Southern Ontario, and I applied with them.

And one of them was super Jesus-E, and I knew they weren't going to have me. And the other one were a little more chilled. It's kind of like the difference between the United Church and a Baptist church. Okay. And I said, this is my idea. And so they said, well, let's get you on the mic, maybe starting to backsell some songs. which I didn't know because I didn't listen to cheesy Jesus music. What station is this?

It was 1250, yeah. But what is it called? See Joy? What is that? No, it's just Joy. Joy. Yeah. Okay,

I have had people on this show who have worked at Joy, but I don't think I've ever heard Joy. Like, where do you hear this frequency? It actually has quite a decent throw. What was the, what's the term? Reach? Yeah, that's the word. Because it was owned by, it's owned by Michael Kane.

Not that Michael Kane. I just saw the Muppets, Christmas Carol last night, and Michael Cain does a fantastic job as Ebenezer Scrooge. Like, he's amazing. He's great as Scrooge. It's because everybody's goof. They're all Muppets doing funny stuff, and then he plays it straight. So Michael Cain acts like he's on some BBC production or whatever, and he just kills.

It's fantastic. Nice. Nice. Yeah. Back to me for a second. Oh, my God. And so this is the guy that owned the Kane family, where one of the last family-owned. broadcasting families and they owned AM 740 as well and sold that to Moses

Nymer for a gobsmack of cash right and then CJMR Toronto's biggest ethnic station and then they own the God station so I was on the God station okay and Bob hold on yeah gotta say we were able to build four five six ten times the size of listenership because of the little thing called the internet we we did streaming. Yeah. Well, I saw your bio on the Drew Marshall website

and you said 100,000 listeners. Yeah, that was the metric every 15 minutes or whatever. Okay. That's a monster number for a smaller South Ontario AM station.

Yeah, but it was niche, right? And there was loyalty in that kind of a niche market. And, you know, when was the last time you heard I don't know, James Brown talk about his faith.

Well, I mean, before he died. It would be even better if you can get him now. Like, I've been trying to get him. Okay, so this leads to question. I want to talk about these guests. Okay, so this show, you called it the Jew Marshall show, right? Yeah, D-R-E-W, not J-E-W. I don't think anyone heard that except you.

Okay. But so 16 years, it ends in June 2019. That's right. But I've been to the website, and you alluded to this earlier, but I'm going to it right now in real time, okay? So I mentioned it took me days. So you actually have a caveat at the top, which said this is not a complete list of previous guests,

which I find amusing because are there any other humans left on the planet? It's like this is a roll call of living and breathing human beings. Okay. So I'm not going to name them all because it's alphabeticalized, and you mentioned James Brown. So that alone, like there's a big name. Yeah,

it'd be better for you to go to the homepage because the cooler people are on the homepage. I decide who the cool people are on here. For example, my nine-year-old would be very excited that can, Candice Cameron Bure has been on your program. This is DJ on Full House. Yes. Okay, married to Pavel Burray's brother.

Okay, that's a lot of fun facts there. So how do you... Wait, I'm going to tell you, can I tell you Candace story? Yeah. It was down at their place in Malibu a number of years ago, and there was a soiree, and they were serving wine. And I don't drink white wine, but I was drinking white wine. because this white wine it had cocaine in it or something.

It was just unbelievable. Oh, we call that the John Gallagher. Okay. Okay. So unbelievable stuff. Unbelievable white wine. So to help them, well,

hold on. I said, where do you get this? This is our wine. What do you mean your wine? Oh, we started a wine label and we, you know,

we're starting to sell it. I thought, oh, I'm going to help you guys out. I'll buy a case. They laughed. I said, what are you laughing?

I'm trying to help you out. I'll buy. buy a case. Well, like, I'm trying to support my friends. Dude, here's a bottle. Just take a bottle. That's fine. Yes, like $380 a bottle.

That's what I was drinking. That's why it tastes that good. They're like, you can't afford it. They're like, just looked at me like I was not a chance. Okay, so Candice Cameron's brother, of course, is Kirk Cameron, who is like a Jesus freak. He's a brother to Jesus. He's a, we laugh at Kirk Cameron. He's, you know, a shout out to Alan Thick, who I once met at the Humble.

and Fred's studios. Oh, yeah? That's a true story here. But shout out to growing pains. How did he feel about his son's copyright infringements? It was before that because he died. But this is, once again, to preface, I did meet Alan when he was alive. You know, maybe Brad Jones some after he passed.

I wasn't there. But Kirk Cameron's a Jesus freak. So he's also being on your program. So how do you get these people? Like, do you reach out to their PR representative or do you have a Rolo Dex that's quite large? Like, how do you get? these people.

You type their name into the Google, and you put the quotes around their name, and then you put in manager in quotes or whatever. I can take notes over here, because I want to put Candace Cameron on your mind. And then you find their manager, and you ask their manager if they can come on the show. And here's the deal.

Like, Humble would always say to me, we got to, both of them, Humble and Fred would say, we've got to start talking about God stuff here, because if you do that, you get better guess. Is that it?

Like, they feel it as a chance to share their, faith, so it's like an evangelical. They never get asked. They never get asked about such serious stuff. They always like, hey, remember when you partied? I'll give you a quick example. Pat Boone, do you know that name? Of course I do. So Pat Boone, the Mr. Clean White Shoes

guy who stole black music, he lived beside Ozzy Osbourne. Right. That's a sign of the apocalypse right there. And Ozzy came and knocked on his door one time. and Pat,

how are you doing? And I said, oh, good, good to see, Ozzy, what's going? We're moving, we're moving. I said, oh, okay, well, that's sad. I'm sorry you're moving. He said, look, I just wanted to tell you, you were the best fucking neighbor we ever had. I said, well, wow, that's really nice.

How come? You never called the cops once. It was great. You know, there's a great Malcolm Gladwell revisionist history episode about Pat Boone getting a bad rap because you mentioned stole, You know, still black music for a white audience. But there were two streams of radio in America at that time,

black radio and white radio. So what Pap Boone actually did is he got black artists on white radio. I know. So it's not necessarily... It wasn't cultural appropriation. It was more of a marketing scheme. It's just interesting to revisit that whole thing. Like, this is a revenue stream now for the black artists on white radio

because Pat Boone is singing it. Have you ever had any black guests? Oh, you Joe. I thought you listened to the program. Come on. It's radio. I don't know. know. I have had black guests on Toronto mic. Absolutely here. So Kirk Cameron gets on your show.

Does that make you nervous when we talk about? Because I live in the country. We talk about anything and everything all the time. No, you can talk about anything. You can talk about anything. Okay. I don't really know how to reply to that. Like, yes, I have had black guests on the program. Absolutely. I don't invite people based on their skin color. There's many black people I want to talk to on Toronto mic here. But when you have on a Kirk Cameron, Jesus freak like that. So do you challenge him at all, or is it, okay. I challenge the more Jesusy you were, the more you got challenged. And he still enjoyed the experience?

No. No, he didn't. Yeah. There was a guy, what was his name? Reverend Lovejoy. God hatesfags.com. I remember this. Remember those guys?

Yes. They'd hold up picket signs at dead soldiers' funerals and say your kids or your son is in hell because they're protecting a fag nation and that kind of stuff. Fred Phelps, that was his name. I had him on the show and the Jesus people were, well, all people were angry that I, not all people. A few people were angry that I didn't take him to task as much as I maybe should have, but my idea of radio is not Rush Limbaugh, confrontational American talk radio thing. I'm smarter than that. I give people rope. You give people rope at the same time, will you call out like homophobia when you hear it? Because I'm not going to draw a Vendai.

diagram for you, but there are many a fervent evangelical Christian that is also homophobic. Yes. If it's subtly, or if they're cloaking their homophobia, oh yeah. But if it's as obvious as God hatesfags.com, I'm not going to go, you know that's homophobic, right? Yeah. You know, you always say, well, if what if your son were gay? Oh, yeah. Yeah, we've certainly had all that.

Okay, so I'm only getting a cherry. Just some interesting guess. Cherry pick? Yeah, because a lot of these people have, some of these people have been on my show, for example. Jane Harbury has been on your show. Oh, Jane's a sweetheart. Yeah. And you had Don on... Yesterday.

Yesterday. Yeah. She's been on your show? Yeah. Great girl. Okay. Yeah, she was lovely. Lovely.

But you, some of your guests have not been on my show. Many of these famous guests, I don't even know how to get to them. I know you want me to Google it. But Stephen Harper has been on your show. Yeah. That was a good interview. So you talked to him about his faith? Yeah.

And he answered, smoothly. Sass Jordan's been on your show. Come on. She's pretty, she's been down here. And by the way, these people, you know, they just, they may not necessarily subscribe or ascribe to a particular

God viewpoint, but as long as they understand the format of the show and I'm going to ask them, what do you think? Do you think there's more? Do you think there is a creator, et cetera, et cetera? Most people really enjoy that conversation. Like I can't remember Sass's point of view about God stuff, but I remember Marie Osvin's point of view about Mormonism, God stuff, you know. Or Shnade O'Connor, whose mother beat her vagina with a broom handle.

Jesus. Yeah. Jesus. Okay, so you had Shnato Connor on the program. That was a great follow-up word, by the way, there. I know, I know. Oh, I see here. Okay, and that's a good thing.

Okay. So, Shnato Connor, just, is it a phoner? Like, you phone her up or she phones you up? Yeah, it was St. Patrick's Day special. First thing I said to her was, I dreamt about. you last night because I did so much research that my brain was still thinking about it and she says oh was it erotic

that's how we started that interview okay all right you gotta lose and I see you don't have just have religious people in the show for example I know for a fact strombo is an atheist yeah yeah but you'll have on atheists but his mom listened to my show and so that's how he found out

about me was through his mom um his mom sweetest woman on the planet sent in money like a $20 bill or something like that to me just to support me and say good for you or whatever I'm just sweet and kind of you know we're gonna

don't worry I want to spend some time with your personal beliefs and stuff so we're gonna get to you know your faith and what you believe so you want to talk about how I'm a red letter agnostic monotheistic deist right that's a good teaser for it too because I yeah I want to talk God like Humble and Fred called you the God guy

and I've been promoting this as like the God episode I want a God segment in this but I'm still kind of calling out some people on this list. For example, I can't believe you got to talk to Jesse the Body Ventura. Okay, I was a big WWF guy in the, but there's an Andre the Giant mug over here, but that was my time when he was calling games with Bobby the Brain Heenan and Gorilla Monsu, and he was calling matches.

Ted DiBiase and I did a television show together once. Where is this? Tell me. No, because it was an embarrassing television show. It was a panel of God guys. men and it was a show for men to talk about men stuff and things men don't normally talk about like mental health so that you know there were some good things good content but it was it was good actually i just phoned uh and ted uh three weeks ago and uh we hadn't talked you know what back then being the million dollar man was impressive like he's got a million

that's a millionaire today i think there's three million dollar men in this room easy yeah What happened to the million dollar claim? Like, what was it, the $6 million man? That's pocket change now for... Yeah, geez. Shout out to Larry Fedorick, who just... Does anyone know that sound, first of all? Yeah.

What is it? It's when he was going fast, right? Yes. They did slow. Yes, or when he used his bionic eyeball. Yeah. So, I'm 51 years old, so I will pick up some of these late 70s references. But we did...

This interview may never end. How long did you think this was going to be? Well, I had no idea. All I'm saying is you and I can riff. I actually don't believe you listen to Toronto. You and I could riff on anything forever, is what I'm saying. Are you telling me the truth that you have listened to Toronto, Mike? Yes.

Then how do you, how can you be... We haven't listened to one on the way down? Well, how can you be surprised that we're still talking at the 42-minute mark? No, hold on. I'm not saying I'm surprised we're still talking. What I'm saying is, dude, it's really easy to talk to you. Well, we mentioned six feet under earlier, and people who watch six feet under, I loved that show very, very much.

It's like one of my top three shows of all time. But remember, Rayne Wilson came on that show and moved in and had like a moment with the mom there. What was your name, Ruth? But that was before the office. So Rain Wilson, who's known best as Dwight from the office, he's been on your show. Yeah, that was, I quite enjoyed that one.

We did that over video as well. So that was on the YouTube channel, but I've taken all my videos down. But you have all this audio? Yeah, it's all there. Because you should start a podcast in which you just sort of say... No, why? I don't want to do all that work and not get paid, and I don't want to chase advertisers ever again.

Okay, well, then you could put it on a platform where, you know, there's a CPM payment with a dynamically inserted ads. Because you have a lot of interesting... I don't have no clue what you just said. Like, you don't have to do... I think I just said, I don't have no clue as well. Like, I see here, I see Fred Penner on this thing. Okay, can I just tell you I was excited?

Like, I don't get Gaga over guess. I just don't. But I was silly over Fred Penner. as you should be. He also has a cool hat, but very different from yours. Right. Right.

Love Fred. So of all these guests, yeah. And there's some monster names on this list, obviously. And I'm not just talking about Bernie Finkelstein, okay? Bernie is so good.

Who made you go gaga in addition to Fred Penner? Like who would be some of the guests where you were like, I can't believe Kathy Lee Gifford is talking to me? Oh. Well, and why is it Humble Howard? Why did I, did I say Humble Howard?

No, my joke is that he's the one you were gagged for. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, I see what you're saying. No, not at all. I do love him. Like, if I was gay, yeah. Oh, all over him.

But you don't have to be gay to be all over him. Yeah, you know, he could be fluid. That's true. Look, the, when I finished the interview with James Brown, the next day his manager called and said, how did it go? I said, no, it was great. Yeah, we talked for about 20 minutes. And she said, 20 minutes?

he's never given a 20 minute interview in his life. Why would he give you 20 minutes? And I think it was the moment I told him that I used to be a pastor, there's something about the older black community that just... It's respect. Yeah, leans into the God people, the God preachers or whatever. That's what I'm going to start saying. I was a pastor.

That's how you get instant and respect. Yes, try that. I'm going to try that. Although, can I tell you I tried that in Scotland once? Since we have time, I'm going to share this anyway. Yeah, of course we have time. I went and did a wedding. over there and the Friday night instead of going out and getting hammered as you would in

Scotland we went for a game of golf and then we went out afterwards but the game of golf I'm a south paw a lot of a lot of Canadian hockey guys golf left and couldn't find a set of left clubs anywhere so we're in scumdy I mean Dundee and and I finally find a shop and I said how much and take it easy on me will you I'm a pastor because they didn't have the prices posted he says look, go out and enjoy your game. I can't do the Scottish game. Go enjoy the game and we'll settle up when you come back. Nervous, what they're going to charge me, but do it anyway.

Come back and he goes, I said, how much? He goes, don't worry about it. I said, what do you mean to worry about it? You got to make a living. How much? He says, look, anyone that comes in here and calls himself a bastard, free clubs. Okay, I'm a pastor bastard. I have used that many times before, but people actually heard what I said.

all right now I guess that wasn't that great of a story now that I think about it well when you listen back on the drive back to Caledonia you'll see oh that that one didn't land this one did land you know sometimes people try too hard like sometimes just get to take a deep breath you know put down the shoulders you're just having a chat with your buddy Mike

okay even though you didn't know you didn't remember my name that one time we went you shut up now you know my name here we are so yeah crack it open on the mic though If you don't mind. I don't that mic. That's a super light logger. That's from Great Lakes Brewery. Delicious.

You should come to my events, man. I have events at... Ooh, that is really good. Yeah. And that's a very light. I think that's three something up because it's a money person. That's actually... It's 3%.

Yeah, you don't have your readers on. But get Nick to tell you that percent. Because it's a super light. So I think it's three point... Here, let me tell you. And it's got... It's a great temperature down here, that beer. You know, everything's chilled.

This is my walk-in fridge You're in here here 3.2 It's like the morgue Is it cold in the morgue? Shut All right So of all

Do you think people are still listening? I don't know if I care To be quite honest I'm still listening Of all these guests you've had on Yeah Okay Who's the most in love with Jesus

Of all I see so many Paul Henderson's on this list Okay The only guy 10 feet from me And he wouldn't come on my microphones okay he spent time with you i don't think i'd word it like that he wouldn't come in your microphones he wouldn't i always say i can come in the basement please who is the most in love with jesus

of all of these guests so hard that's you know what i've never been asked that question that was pretty good you're in the big leagues now i just before we get back we have to circle back on this but before we do that so we're going to circle back on who was the most in love of jesus yeah but prior to that when i get asked who who are the guests are that i like you know like a google over it wasn't the names and I know you're supposed to say this kind of stuff but it was it was true it was it was the the stories of people who had gone through unbelievable stuff and I was able to ask them what role did God play in your processing of all this crap let me give you a quick example parents of a blonde university age girl was killed hold on I have a beer burp

we'll do it on the mic like Howard Stern come on parents of a blonde university aged girl. She was in a van with a bunch of other students. The van gets in an accident. Almost everybody's killed, including their daughter. So they're gutted, and they are grieving, and they bury her,

and then a few months, I don't know, whatever a month later, they give away all her stuff to charity and just the whole thing. And then they find out she's still alive. Yeah, still alive. It was a case of mistaken identity in the hospital.

was another blonde girl who survived. And that blonde girl was their daughter. And they buried the daughter from another family. Oh, wow. And the other family was at the bedside of their daughter, thinking it was their daughter. Oh, wow. So they had to tell their daughter, they had to tell that couple, this is our daughter, yours is in the grave. Oh, my goodness. Wow.

So those are the moments, or anyway, sorry. Well, that's a hell of a story. Yeah, yeah. That sounds like it's Grey's Anatomy or something here. Yeah, it was insane. insane um so it's more of this more of the content than the uh the name yeah so so it's not it's not biff naked is what you're telling oh she was good she's good i mean she's just she's pure entertainment that's what she is and a sweetheart um yeah and and when i say that i don't mean

um inauthentic schmuck i mean she's just authentically interesting that's what i have to say oh yeah it was she made a doc about her life which uh it's gonna be on super channel i think now maybe i saw recently in like a premiere. Her, so her life is Doc worthy. Yeah, yeah. The most Jesusy that I can think of

would be Kirk Cameron, you've already mentioned that one. Kathy Lee Gifford. Wow. She, anyway. Was she drinking on your show?

Just curious. I stayed at her place in Nantucket years ago. So you're not just phoners. You're in these people's living. Like you're getting the from Candace and Kirk and their brother and sister, right? But whatever, the Cameron's.

Like, what is it that you have these guests on, but you become friends with them? Like, you're going to go hang out with Kathy Lee Gifford? I stalk them. What time should I be in Caledon later? When do I get a hat like that? So, like, what made you personal friends with Kathy Lee Gifford that you'd be at her home?

I'm trying to find, hold on. Are you checking your Instagram feed? No, I'm three of my wife, like, we'll be watching a show and we're watching it, and I'm all, like, focus on this show. and then suddenly I hear, oh, she's going through her Instagram fees. This is one of the most Jesus people I had on my show. Her name's Diane Cannon. I know Diane Cannon.

Married to Carrie Grant. And when I came out on my show as no longer being certain there was a God. Which is going to be our next segment. Yeah. This is the voicemail message I got from her. I'm listening. Ready? Yeah.

Are you crazy? What were all those instructions? That's just insane. This is Diane Cannon. And I want to talk to you with our friend, your friend and mine. Christina Chaunce and her husband And we all want to talk to you About what's going on with you

I want to know if what you're doing is for ratings Or if it's for real Because it's for real, I want to thank you I absolutely want to thank you You can leave your pants on, I don't care But I want to thank you Okay, so call me It's Diane Cannon, you have my number, bye

Okay, was it a work or a shoot? That's the wrestling terminology, but was it for ratings Or for subs? I don't know Who, it's like someone saying I'm gay to get attention. Who does that? Well, it's a little less extreme than that. You could fake a crisis of faith.

And that would become something you'd talk to your guests about. It would become a, hey, oh my God, God, the God guy isn't believing in God right now. So dumb. Listen, I'll give you an example. When I told my son this, when I told, like my son, he was my hero growing up. It's supposed to be the other way around, but you've met me. I told him, and it was hard. It was embarrassing and hard to tell him,

look, I'm just not certain that everything I taught you growing up is true. And my son's response to that was, I said, what do you think of that? He said, well, I guess it just means I can't trust anything else that comes out of your mouth. Which is a valid point. Why would I say that? Why would I fake that is what I'm...

Yeah, okay. But you could have said, you could have said your son, I'm going to fake something. It's not true. You know what I mean? You could give them a heads up. What is you wrong with people this? Anyway.

So, okay, there's a couple of places I want to go here. But so you're saying during that 16 year life of this show, this popular show you had on spirituality where you interviewed all these big stars like dying canon and stuff like that. At some point in the show's run, you come out of the closet as having doubts that there's a god. So can we do this? Can I thank a couple of partners? Please do.

Can I dive into the God part of having the God guy on and then walk through your relationship with God and then sprinkle a little of my relationship of God in the mix, perhaps? Who knows? Amen. Amen. Amen, brother. Amen, brother.

That's the break that launched a thousand hip-hop jams. Okay, amen, brother. So I want to say, amen. Christmas, go to retrofestive.ca. Go right now. Nick, go in your web browser. Retrofestive. Because if you use the promo code FOTM, that's friend of Toronto-Miked, you're now an FOTM, Jew Marshall.

Mission accomplished? Nice. You look delighted. Okay. So FOTM will save you 10%. They also have a store in Oakville. You can drop by and good people, good family run business. So thank you, retrofestive.

com. And I also want to thank Nick Iienes, who was on the show on Friday. Nick Iienes is from Fusion Corp, and he has stepped up to help fuel this. real talk and we love his two podcasts. Building Toronto Skyline and building success. So thank you, Nick. And here's a tip for you, Drew.

Yes. If you have on the ranch, okay, if you have a, I don't know, you have a barn full of old cables, old devices, old printers, computers, who knows what you've got piled up there? Don't throw that stuff in the garbage. I have a giant crate of that stuff. Yeah. You can probably think, and I'm going to put it out by the curb. Do they have

curbs up in Caledonia? No, okay. Don't just throw it in the dump. Don't throw it in the garbage. Those chemicals end up in our landfill. Go to, take a note on this, recycle myelectronics.ca. Nice. Find out where you can drop it off to be properly recycled. Boom, boom. And last but not least, in my freezer upstairs right now. Uh-oh. Yes, Mr. Dahmer? I get that reference. Okay, no, that's, I try to keep the Dahmer cannibal stuff away,

from the palm pasta love, okay? Oh, I love this stuff. This is cow. Yeah. I want to share everybody. Okay. So this lasagna in my freezer upstairs is for you to take home. It's courtesy of palma pasta. You're going to get a frozen lasagna.

That's why you're here. How you doing? Is that Joey from Friends? What are you doing over there? I just got Italian. It's the only Italian I know. How you doing? That's like New York Italian.

Okay, okay. So, God. And I know you think you think you've been talking already too long. You want to wrap this up. No, I don't want to wrap it up. I think you've been trained maybe that you get, you get seven minutes to talk about this. No, I need to say. I did podcast on the radio before anybody else did podcast. No, I didn't invent podcast, but I did long format interviews. Like I went an hour and a half with Gary Berghoff, an hour and a half. Radar. He was missing a finger. Yes. That's what I remember about radar. Yeah. But I loved MASH. And he was a legit killer drummer. I didn't know that. Yeah. When he, when he drummed, dram, when you drummed? I saw the sticks, I saw the sticks. Oh, they're from teenage head. Okay.

So, Jean-Champaign. Anyway, yeah. So, Radar went an hour and a half with you. But how much time was your radio show? Four hours. Okay. Yeah. Did you get paid?

Yeah, when I got sponsors. Oh, I see. Like Chapman's ice cream. Canadian good business. Maybe they should sponsor Toronto Mike. Chapman's reach out. Coast to coast. Yeah, I'm a big Chapman's head.

And my nephew, when we thought he was allergic to peanuts, we had to get Chapman's. Yeah, because they don't play with that stuff. They don't fuck around with the peanuts. Yeah. Yeah, that's actually their slogan. You said a bad word. You said one first.

Like, I follow the get, so I'll tell you, because I know you couldn't swear on Christian radio. Well, it did happen. Well, you're not supposed to. That's for sure. Wait, can I tell you a quick story about swearing on the Jesus show? Yeah. Okay.

Guy named Tony Capolo is a big fancy preacher guy. He's dead now. But he was speaking at a Bible college. of thousands of Bible people staring at him and he was one of 17 speakers and he was looking at them going, what am I going to say to get through to these kids? Like what the heck?

So he gets up and he goes, there are three things I want to tell you. Number one, in the next 60 seconds, kind of like a Bono statement here, I don't know, thousands of kids are going to die around the world from starvation, malnourishment, and neglect. Number two, none of you give a shit.

And he saw the heads pop up. Like this is at a conservative Jesus college he play. Right. Number three, more of you are concerned with the fact that I just said shit than the fact that in the next 60 seconds, thousands of children would die of blah, blah, blah, blah. Right, there you go. I'm going to steal that line, too.

For my one-man show at the Elma combo in May, I'm going to steal that line. I'll give you credit, though. Can I be your opener? I'll do this. You know, you've got to buy a ticket, though. And I have no, I don't know what they're going to cost. We'll see.

Okay. So you're raised with religion in your life. Wait, Carla's here tomorrow, and she's, married to Zoro, right? Zoro's son. Well, she's not married to anyone right now. She's single? That marriage is long gone.

In fact, that's on the agenda to dive into. Oh, the end of my marriage? What happened to your marriage? It's all I got. Is that sound a book? Are you single right now? Yeah. Are you romantically involved with the other person in this room?

I plead the fifth. I'm looking at her now. She's very beautiful. You romantically involved of this mountain of a man to my left? We are so good friends. Wow. Okay. She's here because she heard of you. So you're talking about Tyrone Power Jr. Yeah.

Yeah. Honestly, tomorrow, because this is only her second. Actually, it's her third appearance on Toronto Mike because she came to my event at Palma's Kitchen, but she only had like five, ten minutes there. We're going to get into it. So she's going to be in the basement tomorrow with her gay fiancé. Okay. And she's single.

Right. As far as I can tell. Even though she has a gay fiancé. We'll find out about that. But yeah, Tyrone, apparently this marriage was not a good. good one, because she made jokes about it at her stand-up, and I'm going to get some deeper, some deeper dive into this, but yeah. Deeper into the tea, baby, into the tea. All right, would you stay focused?

No, I'm talking about tomorrow's guest. I'm cross-promoting now. You open that door, but okay, so can you maybe give me a little idea of what you believed when and then what caused this crisis of faith? Like, so when you were a pastor in Australia, for example, you believed in God? Yes. Yeah, that would suck if you didn't. However, I was the kind of pastor who would, who would doubt openly, who would talk about, I would challenge certainty, if that makes any sense. Hold on, I got a beer burp again.

Okay, well, you burp away there. I should probably stop drinking the beer, but it's good. And so when I came back, I started the radio show, and as I started the radio show, I started listening to all sorts of different people, and I was still on my own journey of doubt. It had been there the whole time. And one day I was interviewing a super Jesus person and I was ambushed and I said, by my own, I said, this is it.

It's coming out. I have to just say this publicly. I said, I'm no longer certain that there is a God. And dude, my phone blew up and. Diane Cannon called you. It was just ridiculous. Just ridiculous. And then I tackled it.

I tackled it on air. I laid down the gauntlet. I did a thing called Drugel, Drew's Search for God, where I interviewed all sorts of people and had them say whatever they needed to say to me to convince me that there was a God. And they were found, their answers were found wanting. It was like, you know, the typical parking spot prayer answers.

You know, why do you believe a God? Well, I prayed for a parking spot and there was one. Really? That's your, that's a hyperbole there, but, yeah. So it was, anyway, yeah. Okay, so you had, why, like how old? are you when you have this questioning of your faith, where you're wondering if you've been

betting on the wrong horse? I'm still there. So I'll tell you where I'm at right now, okay? Which is what I said earlier, the big tagline. Which came out with a customs officer because he decided to interrogate me about why I was going to L.A. to talk to people about television shows.

Why did you go to L.A. to talk to people about television? That sounded like I wanted to go there with more explanation, but I didn't sorry. You can't just leave those things lying down. They want, they, I said to, I said the guy at the border, I said, look, it's because of what I talk about on my radio show. They're thinking about developing a television show, but, and they said, what do you talk

about a radio show? And I told him about the radio show, and I interview everybody about what they believe or don't believe. And he said, well, what do you believe? It's like, I am late for my plane. Here we go. I am a red letter agnostic, monotheistic, deist. And then he let me go. Red letter.

Well, this just tells me this wasn't during the Trump era. Jeez, don't even. Red letter. Do you remember Bible, motels had um sorry motels had bibles of course not bible motels those are totally different thing um and those bibles were put in there by the gideons

and the gideon bible whenever jesus talked was written in red right i do remember that i still think that whether jesus actually said that stuff because there's no question there was a man who was superiorly amazing named jesus the question is was he you know who people said he was

Son of God. Yeah, it was, that's good stuff to live by, man. Those red letters, that's good stuff. If I could just, just even this, love your enemy. Give that a shot. That's tough. Red letter is good stuff. Agnostic.

I don't friggin' know. I'm not an atheist. I had Penn Gillette on the show. We talked about his atheism. You know, we've had numerous atheists on George Strombo and I talked about that stuff numerous times. I can't be certain on either side. I just can't. Red letter, agnostic, monotheistic. If there is a god, if there is a supernatural realm, if there is a greater power, I don't know, mathematically, it makes sense to me that there would be one,

not many. That's all I'm saying. Monotheistic. Deist, I look at around at this world we live in, and I think, man, this place reeks of design and purpose and meaning. It feels like there should be more. That's it. why like you can't prove a negative right like so this whole idea that you know I don't know because I can't prove something doesn't exist

you don't know like no one applies that to anything else in the world right like that argument to me it's like there's nothing else in the world where you're saying well I can't prove this doesn't exist therefore maybe it does like there's because there's

would you concur that there's actually like zero evidence that God exists Oh, yeah, there's, well, it depends who you talk to, right? And then it comes back to, oh, I found my keys, because I, you know what I mean? That's circumstantial at best. There was a great argument or a great televised debate about evolution versus creation. And it was a guy by the name of Ken Ham, who was representing the Jesus people and the creationism against Bill Nye, the science guy.

Right. And the best way to summarize that debate, which was called Ham on. nigh um that's good was the answer the question at the end was is there anything that would change your mind they asked the the jesus guy and he said no they asked kenham can not sorry that was the jesus guy they asked bill nye is there anything that would change your mind he said yeah proof right right because that's how science works right like you will modify your beliefs based on new evidence that arises right yeah so people ask me if i believe and i say i hope that's it but are you are you searching for something like are you i stopped i i haven't stopped

with arms crossed like a little sucky pants although i make a good sucky pants sometimes um but i i just i'm exhausted from the search i was just exhausted and my thinking is if there is a god and i was i've been sold on a god that is personal right a father god and if that's a real thing then this father god would know that I have been searching for a tangible relational encounter for decades, and I have done everything, everything from fasting to three months of silence to a week of blindness to all sorts of things, and just living, just not anything extreme either, and there's been nothing. So my thinking now is, okay, well, if this God that I think maybe is real and supposed to be Father God, he can look at his kid and show up when he wants, right? It's like the proverbial father who doesn't

show up. Right. I'm done. You can show up whenever you want. Well, you know, Ralph Benmergy, whose show I produce, it's called Not That Kind of Rabbi. He would tell you that you're talking about a Santa God. Yeah. Well, no, no, I get where you're going there. I don't want, I don't want, it's like a guy of a, the guy you see in the Simpsons in the cloud. Right. Like some guy of a beard. Yeah. And the father figure. And the reality is we are talking again about God. So for us to think that we have God figured out and then, complain about the fact that this God we have figured out is unfiguratable? Come on.

So you've had hundreds of celebs telling you about their belief in, you know, Jesus and God and the Holy Trinity, if you will. I went to Catholic school. I know what I'm talking about here. Who, Jesus marrying Joseph? No, it's the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. And if you can, in the olden days, it was the Holy Ghost, which I think sounds much cooler.

It's way cooler. It's like, why did we change that again? You know, fuck Vatican too. That's what I say on this program. I think that happened because Jesus' people are afraid of pagans. Not Steve Pagan. Wow. That's a whole different conversation.

Dude, that is some smart guy. Holy cow. Oh, so when I produced Ralph's show, he wanted Steve, because they're buddies, he wanted Steve Pagan on a show. And Steve politely declined because he says, I don't want to talk about religion. And that's what Ralph always wanted to talk about. He's smart, I told you.

Yeah. It's like when I had a neighbor up of the old cottage was, sex with Sue, Sue Johansson. I love Sue Johansson. Yeah, and I asked her to come on the show, and she said, yeah, absolutely, because she was like going to be a nun at some point in her life, so Catholic stuff was a big thing. And then she thought about it and went, you know what, I don't need the heat from the God people anymore.

I'm so sick of their response and reaction and overreaction. I'm not, no, I'm not going to do your show. Okay, she made a wise call there. You know, she was on Degrassi, like a special guest thing where Sue came in and taught the Degrassi kids about, like, how to put a condom on. On a banana. On a banana. On Kurt Cameron's banana. So Sue was on, I'm trying to remember, Sue was on Q-107, I want to say.

Meanwhile, you had on CFTR, you had Dr. Ruth Westheimer. Both women created erectile dysfunction. They weren't hotties, is what you're telling me. Holy cow. Well, you know, you couldn't see the radio. This goes back to whether I had any black guests on Toronto Mike. Like, you don't know what color Maestro Fresh West's skin is. Like, it's audio only.

What do you know, right? So, who knows how beautiful Sue was? I'm sure there was some guy spanking it, listening to Q, and imagining Sue was a babe. Whoa. Right? Oh. I don't, I just think there's got to be at least one here.

Okay. Therapy after this. So, and this is the God section, and then we're going to release you. You've fulfilled your duties. You've earned the palm pasta lasagna, and you've earned the beer, and I'll even replace that beer,

so you bring a full set home with you. That's what a sweetheart. I am hearing too. But this show you ran for 16 years. I don't want to skip this part. Why did you choose to end the Jew Marshall show, which ran for 16 years and had Kirk fucking Cameron on? When I walked across Spain during a three-month vow of silence,

I then went to a monastery on an island off the coast of Africa and started writing. And when I came back home, the first words I spoke were too much. my wife. I said, will you marry me again after three months of not talking? She said yes. And then three months later, she left. Okay, 2019. Yeah. No, 20, hold on, 2017. Okay, 2017. So I was, we were separated for two years. Then next thing, you know, we started, we had to get the house ready for sale. We were hanging out and working together. We got back together. We got back together. Went to Mexico, renewed the vows. And then while we were getting back together, she said, you know, if you've ever thought about ending your show, this would be a good time because there's

this farm that I think we're going to end up on. And it needs a lot of work. And I own a cafe. I can use your help here. And maybe you could stop doing the show. So I did. So that was 2019 when you end the show. I ended the show in June 29th.

Yep. On her birthday. On her birthday. How long after this does she or do you guys end this relationship? Another two years later. Yeah. Okay. You're like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burden over here.

Let's give it another go. I always wonder, like, I have an ex-wife, like, I can kind of see it, like, as you, at some point in your life, you sort of rekindle what you were attracted to in the first place, and sometimes it's, you're thinking, oh, we already share children, like, this will be convenient. Yeah, and since then, I've learned all about the anagram and attachment theory and all sorts of things that would, look, here's the litmus test for this whole thing. That doesn't make sense. hold on my daughter said to me when I told her I was dating someone a year later after

after thing she said I'm so happy for you I can't believe you stayed with mom that long and I'm just want you to be with someone who wants to be with you. We got pregnant at 22 well we got pregnant at 21 married to 22 and we just did quote unquote

the right thing we stayed together we made it work we created a family we raised two great kids but we were massively different human beings right from the get-go and we tried hard and we did it for 35 years. I can relate on some level

because I got married at 21 but not because there was a baby the baby came a few years later but I also had a boy and a girl with my first wife but without a doubt I couldn't shake this feeling like she wasn't my person

like it's like you're so young at 21 and then you hook up with this you know you're now married for life but who you are at 31 and who you are at 21 or two different people. And this whole vibe of like, like I love her, but this is not my person to go long.

Like I need to go find my person. I can totally relate to that feeling. See, that's my pause for effect right there. I do notice some people are uncomfortable of the pauses on a broadcast. They're like, this is live. He doesn't edit the show and they know it. And it's like, oh, that pause is too long.

I need to fill it with something. But I feel like we should ride some silences. Like, we should be pro pause. I like that. Yeah. Prop pause. You want to borrow that for your,

is your book finished? Pro men. Oh, pause. You know what? There was no more than a pretty face. There was no humor in that whatsoever. Sometimes the thoughts just need to stay inside. You know what?

You're workshopping that. I'll get Carla to work on that tomorrow. I'll just share that with her. But is your book in the can? Okay, can you still edit it? I want you to add a chapter about this visit. Yeah, no. I'll take a sentence.

No, yeah, definitely, definitely not, definitely. But is it done? Yeah, it's done. And when is it available to purchase? Negative. Next year. Well, negative. What do you mean negative?

It's called an ass named Grace. And it is my attempt to understand why those I love leave and why I'm such an ass. Is this true? I can't tell if that's a bit or whatever. No, that's true. Okay, so you acknowledge you're an ass. Absolutely. It's a spiritual gift.

Are you working on it? Yeah, I've been working on for, really? Can you not tell? Work harder. But you know what? Here's just a kind of segue into where I'm at these days. I have thoroughly hated the journey towards figuring out why I'm such an ass. But in turn, it has helped reveal some massively huge things, which has helped me be a better listener for other people,

which has helped me do I need to say this.com. It has helped me ask the questions that actually matter. And I really care insanely passionately a lot about helping people say what needs to be said to those they love before it's too late. Because I have done well over 100 funerals, right? I officiate funerals. I just did one yesterday. I'm doing one on Sunday. And almost every funeral I will hear some.

say, oh, I didn't know that about them. I wish I'd spent more time with them. I wish I'd said. I wish I'd cleared up. My mom died and we never got a chance to take. So I went through that and it really affected me for decades. This is why mediation, conflict resolution and palliative care stuff. I mean, dude, hold on a roll.

I've got to say something here. C.S. Lewis, the great author, Chronicles of Narnia, would often talk about what the Celts would describe as thin places. And those are geographical locations around the world where they felt that the gap between the creator, if there was one, and the created felt thin. It just feels eerily thin. Stonehenge was supposed to be a place like that.

I fell asleep on the lawn there. I didn't get it. Oh, geez. But my thinnest places are when I'm sitting with a father who's going to die in six months, and I'm asking him, what do you want to say? And he's got a, he's got, I can't share anymore. Sorry, I just realize I have to be a little bit more private about this stuff.

Sure. Or if I'm in the hospital room as someone's loved one is dying and they're doing the death rattle, as I'm invited in to that space, or as I'm asked to officiate a funeral for someone I've never met, and as I'm getting to know this person in their family and the dynamics, dude, those are thin places. So, I don't know if you can tell, but I'm, kind of passionate about i need to say this dot com love the passion i love the fact you recognize that you can be an ass hat and that you are continuing to work on yourself thanks

and fun fact which you probably know but i still think it's a fun fact because you drop the name c s lewis you had them on the show well i i wish i could have but guess what else happened the day that c s louis died uh tim horton started that's a good guess that's a good guess that's a good guess close but not yet but the day c s louis dies is the day that john f kennedy is assassinated i had no idea of you are like and there's another adis huxley too like there's a trifecta but all these deaths are overshadowed by the assassination of john f kennedy you're like the cliff claven of toronto radio he's been on your show yeah john john john johnny john ratsonberger i had lunch down in North Hollywood ones

and he is he is a very interesting cat he started a thing called the Nuts and Bolts Foundation because he's freaking out over the fact that kids don't know how to use their hands anymore none of them are tactile, none of them can fix anything anything the only thing they're tactile with is their junk

or some buttons that's it so he's freaking out over that so between Pixar cameos he's helping the kids learn how to use their hands he's fat now is he? Yeah so I relate to Cliff because Cliff couldn't grow a good beard. You can grow a good beard. Next, John Ratsenberger.

Okay. Let's get, let's get Cliff on the show. And Cliff got on, remember, he got on Jeopardy. Why are you so fat now? Nick is shaking her head. I feel like you want to go on the mic for one minute before we say goodbye. Would you? I'll open it up. Here, hold on. Just, come on. So, just swing it around and get in front of it.

You get right in front of that. Nick is my proctologist. Oh, shit. She's helping me be. of an ass. Nick, say hello. Hello there. Okay, right on my, good.

What did you think? We just spent, I just spent an hour in 17 minutes trying to get to know Jew Marshall better. It's the first time I've met the man since that encounter at Humble and Fred many moons ago. I forgot about my dead dog. I should talk more about my dead dog.

People feel sorry for you when you talk about your dead dog. But Nick, like, what did you think of the last hour and 20 minutes? I just feel like every time you're withdrew was like the first time you're with Drew. So did you learn anything about Drew? That was good. I liked that. Okay, did you learn new things about Drew?

No, overly, no. Pretty consistent. Okay, consistent. Okay. Is there anything I should have extracted from Drew or any story I should have prompted for that you think would be Toronto Mike Worthy? Maybe you asked Drew a question

that would lead to something you feel we left on the cutting room floor. No, I'm sweating. You finished the interview. I feel like I feel like I have a good sense of his faith you know I do I don't want to like beat up people who believe in God I have a tendency my wife tells me I do this and I've been working on it which is like not don't judge people because they believe in this imaginary figure that we you know that like I don't want to do that

in this God episode I want to appreciate people's different faith and stuff from the camera now Nick the comfort hat just went on Nick ask asked you a question please well I've always been so in this miracle for lack of a better term that he's looking for and not seeing that life itself is the miracle and how many people he's helped out if you're looking for something dramatic and yet every single day you're making such a difference, God guy. So whether God's the name you want to use

or Santa Claus, I think there's a lot more that he can't see that other people do. That moment was brought you by Ridley Funeral Home. That's a great question. Great place to bury your issues. Yeah, what are you looking for, man? Right? Right?

He goes blind by choice. Yeah. He says he can see every single day. He stops talking, but you have the gift of gab. Like, who are you to shut the fuck up for three months? Like, legit, I'm curious, because you did this long walk and you didn't talk for three months, right? When you utter those first words, how do you sound? Like, I'm just wondering if you just shut down. I sound like Nick does.

She's got laryngitis. How much do you smoke over there? Come on. You on the darts? No, she's the last 9-700 number or whatever it was. I'm also usually on a microphone. 1-800-9-6-7. There it go.

Something like that. Okay. So, do you want to answer her question, Drew? Certainly. That is part of my self-loathing and self-beating up that I've already tackled, which is seriously, dude, just stop being such a pussy, complaining about things that you, that are already in front of you. I was invited to do a reality doc series in Israel for a month.

And all the places I went and saw, I expected, I would hope that there would be some kind of, and by the way, hold on, let me just, sorry, I chase him. I'm not, I don't want stuff from daddy, if there's a daddy god. I don't want his stuff. This is what I want. I just want to put my hand, or sorry, or I just want him to put his hand or whatever, you know, just that feeling,

where I can't argue it and, and tear it apart. And if there is a God, then God knows whatever that thing is going to be, a tangible relational encounter. And I talked to, and the reason I hunker down on that is because I spent 30 years in the Jesus tried, and the amount of Jesus people had talked about this stuff. So I could have, maybe this is just lingering brainwashing that is telling me I need to encounter this thing. But what I'm in desperate pursuit of is peace

Because it's not happiness Happiness is the carbohydrates of emotions You spike, you crash I need peace I need to sleep I'm old enough that I just want to sleep That I was that clear? Nick has stumbled upon something

Which I know you don't really You don't care what I think It's like oh this guy just man I'm here for the positive Who me? Yeah I would tell you You gotta love yourself man I'm like, this has to come from within.

Thank you. You're looking for this external daddy love from this, you know, ghost figure. And I feel like you need to look in the mirror and say, I like, I like Drew. But I, but I didn't. Be the best Jew you can be. I have hated myself for decades. Another bear burp. I have hated myself for decades, but I didn't realize that until I finished the book.

And I saw a through line of self-loathing. And then I realized that. Those people that I know that don't like themselves, the aeors of the world, who are always bitching and moaning and complaining, blah, blah, shut up. I don't like them. I don't want to be around them. I just go, stop.

You are creating your own, you're manifesting your own bullshit in your world, right? So I didn't, I just realized maybe I was doing that. What's happening? What are you doing? Just given the recording a glance at Nick. I need to know exactly what's going on. I'm producing this show.

I'm producing this show. Joe, so, Jew, how was this for you, man? I feel like we, we had a pretty lengthy deep, deep chat about your life, which I find very interesting, and I hope you find, I hope you find what you're looking for. Ooh, that's interesting you say that, because my initial response was, if I don't, it'll be okay.

Which, which I think is the precursor to peace. Sorry, that was a good ending. maybe the search is the thing. Absolutely. It's all the journey. And the worst thing I think that could happen to you, Drew Marshall, is that you do find it. It's like, I think about this sometimes with the Stanley Cup,

which is that for my whole life, I've thought it, well, imagine my Maple Leafs could win the Stanley Cup. You know, we've never even made the final since I was born. And then I wonder, oh, what if the worst thing that could happen is we win that fucking cup? Like, I feel like the journey, the quest, that is my Stanley Cup. We need incense right now. And peppermint. I've really enjoyed this.

I actually, I'm not surprised, but I really did enjoy this. Thank you, young fella. Well, thank you for making the long drive. And I mean, when you were on the phone with me and you suggested this, right away, I said, yes, I would like to talk to the God guy for 90 minutes. What makes the God guy tick? I want to hear from the God guy. Let's talk 90 minutes next time about Kirk Cameron.

Did he hang up on you? Oh, no. There were a couple that hung up. There was a wrestler guy that you would know hung up on me. I can't remember. You can't remember. Darn. Was it Randy Macho Man Savage?

Was it Rowdy, Roddy Piper? No. Okay, if it comes to you, let me know. Text me when you figure that out. But Kirk, how did it end? because I know he probably didn't love you. It was a happy ending. Oh.

It's like me and Molly Johnson. Any plans to bring back that you Marshall show? It's been dead since 2019. No. No interest in broadcasting again. No. When I left, I got rid of my phone and my vehicle for two years and unsubscribed from everything.

Right. I have been, the land and the animals at this farm have gotten me through some pretty dark years. and I'm more content that I've ever been. When I ride my horse to the pub, that's when I get my rocks off. Too much information there. And that

brings us to the end of our 1,000, 800 and 20th show. 1820 with the God guy. Can I still call you that? Do you want to retire that moniker? It's probably better than a lot of other things that people have said. The ass hat, Jew Marshall. There we go.

Go to tronelomite.com for all your Toronto mic needs. And much love to all who made this possible. Again, that's RetroFestive. They're with us for only another 14 days. That's two weeks. Use that promo code FOTM at RetroFestive.ca. Go there and buy a gift for somebody you care about. And me too.

Great Lakes Brewery, delicious fresh craft beer. Palma Pasta. I got a lasagna in my freezer for Drew Marshall. Nicayini's. Recycle MyElectronics.ca and Ridley Funeral Home. Brad's here at 5 p.m. today for another episode of Life's Undertaking. See you all tomorrow when Carla Collins makes your basement debut. That'll be great.

Seeing Carla tomorrow. See you then. We're going to be able to be. Thank you. Thank you.