Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Emily Agard: Toronto Mike'd #1199

Episode Date: February 6, 2023

In this 1199th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Sportsnet host Emily Agard about how she got her start in sports media, why she drums and what's next for her. 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 1199 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 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 Redley 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 canacabana.com. Joining me today, making her Toronto Mike debut, is Emily Agard. Emily, welcome to Toronto Mike. Thank you so much for having me Mike I like your setup Oh thank you You've got a pretty sweet setup there Thank you, and whereabouts do we find you?

Ideally you'd be sitting within striking distance Not that I'd strike you, but you'd be right there I would not strike you I would be right beside you But whereabouts in the universe are you today? I am actually at my parents' house today. I'm hanging out here, getting some work done here. Just having a good time.

Okay, and this is in what? In the GTA in Ontario? Whereabouts are you? It's in the GTA. It's in Brampton, yeah. Okay, shout out to Brampton. Betone. So I want to, you want to get into it with

you regarding the work you're doing at SportsNet and how you got there and where you're going, but off the top I opened up to questions and a bunch of questions came in on the same theme which I'm sure you can guess.

But before I get to that theme, I got to ask you a question from a but before I get to that theme I gotta ask you a question from a Kayla Kayla wants to know what's the best sprinkles cupcake okay Mike first of all have you had a sprinkles cupcake before no this is something that you need to add to your bucket list because you've got to cross it off your bucket list sprinkles, sprinkles is basically a, it's a cupcake chain and the States. Uh, and I discovered it like a couple of years ago. It was just something that I'm a big baker. I like to bake. I like cupcakes, cookies. And I came across it when I went on a trip with some of my friends. And ever since

then I've just been obsessed. So sprinkled cupcakes is like my brand of things. If I'm picking a favorite one, if you ever find yourself in New York or LA or wherever the case is, I would say always go for the red velvet. Red velvet. Okay, sounds fancy. Sounds delicious though.

Are you big into baked goods? Are you into cupcakes? Yeah, like I love sweets and uh i enjoy like if you made me cookies i would dunk them in milk and i'd be like in heaven so what's your go to cookie if you're gonna bake a cookie classic chocolate chip yeah okay i'll like throw some m&ms in there oh wow now i really wish you you were. I know. I would have brought you some. You bring me the cookies, and then I would give you, and I feel like I'm teasing you because you're not here for me

to actually give this to you, but I would give you a large lasagna from Palma Pasta. I do love lasagna. And so you'd get your lasagna, but also fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery. Stop. Okay, so this means that we basically have to do this again, Mike, is what you're saying.

I tried to tell you, Emily, you got to do this in person, but you know, you're far away. I know. Even though this episode, unlike 99% of Toronto Mic'd episodes, we're not dropping this right away, because I just recorded with Dave Charles and Mark Hedger, but like this is the coldest day of the year. Have you been outside today?

I haven't yet. I will after this, but I've heard it's like, what is it? Like minus 25, something like that. Have you been outside today yet? Yeah, well, I did like a short bike ride this morning and it feels like minus 30. Like it's insane. Yeah, maybe I'll stay in.

Maybe I won't go out. This is probably the coldest that it's been in a while yeah a few years they said this is like the coldest day in the last few years so by the time i'm sure when i drop this it'll be like a balmy six degree day or something but we can always remember the day we recorded was like the coldest day in years we were in the arctic we were dying in the Arctic, basically. All right. Let me get to that question that everybody wants to know. Okay. They're all related to drumming. Okay. Oh, really? Now, I went to your Instagram and you're a hell of a drummer, Emily. Oh, my goodness. Thank you. I don't really like to say that I'm a drummer I just say that I'm just playing the drums for fun because there are people out there that are definitely

doing it way better and I am just having fun on the drums you are better than just uh drumming you you're great I think you're great like I think you're a great drummer. Now I know a bunch of like professional drummers like Jeremy Taggart or Sammy Cohn or Tyler Stewart. Should I name them? Should I name them all? Uh, you should name them all. But yeah, from the tea party, I could keep going, but tell me like, when did you fall in love with drumming? And then later I'm going to want to know your favorite drummers. That's a question from Diamond Dog. But what made you fall in love with drumming? Okay, so it happened when I was around 16.

That means it was only a couple years ago, right? That is such a nice compliment. We'll just, I'll take it. I'll take that. I'll take the bait. But no, I was 16 years old. And so my older brother was actually the one who got me into drumming. He was super into like Nirvana and the Foo Fighters and like grunge. And he actually bought a drum set. And I ended up

wanting to I was curious about it. I wanted to play around on it. And I was also obsessed, still am, with Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters. That was the main reason why I started drumming, because I would watch his videos nonstop, like every day, obsessed with his work, just watched on repeat drumming videos. And then that's how I started learning. I would just watch YouTube videos of people drumming, and then I would try to mimic what they would do. And it just went from there. Storbritannien Gjørens okay firstly taylor hawkins shout out to Ridley Funeral Home, gone far too soon. Yeah, I don't, yeah.

That's a whole other beast on its own to deal with. That was not, last year was not fun. Like when you learn the news, what is the reaction? I remember when I heard on the radio 102.1 and they said Kurt Cobain had taken his own life. Like I remember that and what it what it meant to me. Like what was it like when you heard Taylor Hawkins dead at I think 50? He was 50. Yeah.

So I was actually in Dunedin, Florida, because I was down there for Jay's spring training. And it was like we it was like three days of Jay's spring training. And it was like, we, it was like three days of Jay's spring training. It was the first, it was the night before the first day that I would be filming. So it was like Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we film, it was Thursday night or Friday night, whatever it was. And I got a phone call. Uh, and the phone call was basically my family saying i saying taylor hawkins had passed away i was fast asleep i had to wake up at 4 a.m i was in a hotel by myself in florida and got the snooze and i did not sleep like i was a mess yeah it's awful because you know you you admired this gentleman you uh you emulated him you were you know bust busting you, uh, you emulated him, you were, you know, bust,

busting his styles. And like, it's hard to mourn someone that you don't even know. I tried to explain that to people when it happened. It's hard to like mourn or have people understand your connection to someone who has had such a great impact on your life. So it was very hard to explain that to people so that they could understand but it was it was heavy it was very not fun to deal with and then on top of that alone in a hotel room yeah having to interview the jays the next day and you know i kind of had to put it in a box and put it on the shelf and just you know get through the weekend and then then, yeah. Well, I totally get it.

Because the morning I learned Gore Downie had died, I came down here and recorded and just, you know, unedited, completely raw. And I'm bawling in that recording. Like, I totally understand what it's like to mourn the loss of somebody you didn't know personally. I totally get it. I can only imagine. Yeah, that one was a big one too.

And that was one we saw coming because we knew he was terminally ill. But in the example of Hawkins, we expected to have him around for decades and decades to come. That one was a complete shock. Complete shock. It almost was like I didn't want to believe it as though

I'm sure a lot of fellow Foo Fighters fans can relate to that it took like a while to actually come to terms with it again just weird to mourn the loss of a of a like a celebrity or musician when you don't know them but you get it you know it's interesting Foo Fighters because uh many will say that you know Taylor Hawkins was the best singer in Foo Fighters and Dave Grohl was the best drummer in Foo Fighters oh that's a good take I've never heard that one before I've never well I mean Taylor Hawkins is a great singer yeah would do his queen covers which was amazing during the shows he's got a side project Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders, which was amazing. His album, I listen to it all the time. He's a great singer. I think Dave Grohl is great at screaming. I love when Dave Grohl screams. switcheroo where Dave didn't want to be the drummer and he got a drummer who's a great drummer Taylor Hawkins but probably not as strong a drummer as Dave Grohl but again I think Taylor's

a better singer than Dave but we digress here so you got into drumming you love drumming Diamond Dog does want to know who are your favorite drummers I guess you did just shout out Taylor Hawkins but are a couple other drummers you want to shout out here? Yeah, I would say Taylor will always be number one. Dave Grohl, also up there, because I can't not. I'm obsessed with the Foo Fighters. Neil Peart, Josh Dunn from 21 Pilots. I love Travis Barker as well. I do love his style.

I would say that's probably top five. Mark C has a question for you again i know people are like hey this is a sports net person you're gonna talk sports broadcast we will totally but i'm all into this drumming thing off the top but mark c wants to know emily what's your favorite metal band of all time other than the foo fighters now i'm just going to interject to say foo fighters are not a metal band but this is just my i'm saying that but this is Mark C's question what's your favorite metal band of all time other than the Foo Fighters I was actually going to ask you are the Foo Fighters a metal band no of course not no I I get the question I get the question I mean I don't know if I have a favorite metal band but

if I have a favorite band beside the Foo Fighters I'm'm going to go... I'm probably going to... There's too many to choose from, Mike. This is actually really hard. I can give you a top few. I would say Queens of the Stone Age is definitely up there. Billy Talent is up there. I still very much so

love Sum 41. I grew up with that. So I'm going to throw them in there. Alexa Bonfire. Ar to throw them in there. Alexa Sunfire. Arkells are in there. So four of your five that you've named so far are Canadian bands. Yeah. Okay, good. Yeah.

Yeah. And like you got to Billy Talent, Sum 41, Alexa Sunfire. This all just goes back to, you know, me being in high school, my childhood. So I never really got out of that. That was just something that I grew up with. And I never really got out of that. That was just something that I grew up with. And I love listening to music from, from then. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. Okay. Now we're going to, you know, pivot, but firstly, before we go there, I should just let you know that most of the drummers I've encountered in

my life are a little bit like just a little off, like a little bit crazy. You know what I mean? Like, I feel like, are you saying I'm crazy? Yeah, a little bit. you know what i mean like i feel like are you saying i'm crazy yeah a little bit like i just met you so i won't say you're crazy but and i mean it in a loving way but like uh you know drummers are kind of like goaltenders you know what i mean they're just a little off they're a little off in a good way but yeah i come off as a little off maybe a little just. Maybe a little. Does like, like, does, you know, you mentioned you're at your parents' house. Are they like drums really?

Like that's the instrument you're going to, you're going to dive into? No, they actually, they support it. They really like it because my brother plays guitar and bass. I mean, we, we should have started a band basically. Yeah. A family band. Yeah. Should have started a band, but we never did. We just kind of jammed whenever we would see each other and that was it that was about it not too far not too late okay what you

know we now know your like your drumming history but and how often do you drum do you drum every day no that's too much I don't got the time for that Mike uh I would say probably I've got an electronic drum kit up at my house. And whenever I come to my parents' house, my acoustic one is here. So I go back and forth and I'll try to learn songs on the electronic one. And then I'll put it to practice in my acoustic one. So I would say maybe honestly once a week, once every two weeks. It's whenever I can get the free time.

Okay, cool. And I know you're busy because, you know, you managed to find time to get to Brampton, but not South Etobicoke. That's just a bridge too far for you today. That's why we're doing this remotely. I'm all over the place. I really am. I call myself a traveler. All right, let's pivot into sports broadcasting. Okay, I've had many a sports media personality on this program. Although, Emily, I'm not trying to get in your good books, but I almost always insist they make the trek to South Etobicoke. But for you, I've made this great exception

because you're a fantastic drummer, and I really wanted to chat you up today. Okay, so basically, again, we're going to have to do this in person again at some point. Well, it's worth it for the beer. I'm inviting myself. Okay. I would love it.

At what point in your life, we know when you got into drumming, but when did you decide that you wanted to get into sports broadcasting? I actually never saw myself in sports. I saw myself doing entertainment television and then soon realized that that wasn't for me. I knew I wanted to do television and production from a very young age. I would say 15, 16. I was doing that when I was in school and then I went to Ryerson or sorry, I don't even know what it's called. I can tell you, I know this because I call the Toronto Mike universe TMU. Okay. Okay. That university is now called Toronto Metropolitan University, also TMU.

Gotcha. So that's where I went for radio and television arts. And, uh, from there I did some kids television. I was super into, I really wanted to be on YTV, Mike, like so bad because I watched it growing up and I wanted to do stuff with Carlos on TV. And so, okay. Like, did you know PJ Freshville? No, I've never met him. I wish I did. No, like I do know him, but I never met him. Okay. I can never, cause I was too old. This is the difference in our age here. I was too old for ytv but even like flipping channels i would see pj fresh phil and i'd stop in and just to see what is this uh they were called don't tell me not they were called pjs that's what they were called okay pjs like who is this guy interacting with like this screen yeah yeah the purple thing yeah no he was so fun and so cool

it was so hard to not want to watch pj um who else was on ytv it was like was it sugar am i making that up it was carlos and sugar i might be i don't think you're making that up again i i i'm not an authority i'm more of a much music authority but uh when it comes to ytv by the way the fun fact is the building where ytv was broadcast from is now where's the zoomer plex in liberty village where moses has built his zoomer empire and of course moses at one point had an empire which included much music in it oh my goodness there you go wow that's a throwback yeah you know what I did want to be a much music vj at one point point two but I just felt like everyone wanted to do that and I was like is this a thing for like am I actually trying to pursue like is this for my

talent or is this just a thing for show and I just I never pursued that I didn't want to so I ended up doing kids television I did kids cbc did ytv did uh tbo kids for a bit as well and then at the same time I was working at MLSC as their host like their music host so whenever artists or bands would roll through the building we would get some time with them and present them with these gifts that we would uh like on behalf of the building these unique custom gifts and give those to them and then I got kind of I got pushed into sports without realizing I was being pushed into sports so I would start doing Raptors tailgates hosting those hosting Leafs tailgates um I did the championship run for the Raptors, which was so fun. Those were insane. And at this point, you're working for MLSC?

Yes, I worked for MLSC for about seven years, seven years, seven, eight years. Okay. And it's wild to me that it's like you kind of had your eyes on, I'm going to guess, like Entertainment Tonight Canada. Is this what you were kind of? I did. I sure did, Mike. It was ET Canada for me.

I really saw myself in that. And the more I did sports with MLSC, the more I did interviews with athletes, the more I was like, this is totally my jam. Like, this is my jam. Can we, I played a, sorry, I pulled a couple of clips. See, I'm not the expert communicator you are, Emily. So I'm going gonna stumble here and i will not edit these stumbles but i am going to just play a little taste of you chatting in just with some toronto raptors so let's listen to this norman who would you say is the most extra in your team group chat i would say chris boucher is the most extra in our team group chat why because he's

always trying to be funny fred if there was one thing you could take from Scotiabank Arena to have with you in Tampa Bay, what would it be and why? One thing I would take from Scotiabank Arena to Tampa is the energy and the love from our fans

and just the incredible support and enthusiasm that they give us. They give us a really good home court advantage and we're going to really miss them, but we just kind of

try to bottle up the energy that they give us and things that we can but we just gotta try to bottle up the energy that they give us and things that we can draw back on and try to go out there and play with that same enthusiasm. Best answer. What's a food you could eat every single day? Brisket. Easy.

Every single day. You don't have to eat the whole brisket, just a piece here, a piece there. I just enjoy eating brisket, so yeah. Doesn't have to be every meal, but I could do it every meal. I mean, who doesn't love brisket? Also got a message from the one and only coach Nick Nurse for you guys. We want to thank you for being the greatest fans in the NBA. As you watch us from the comfort of your home, bring the same level of energy as if you were in your seats at Scotiabank Arena.

That Nick Nurse clip makes me laugh so hard. We're going to look back at that in years and go, wait a minute, why weren't they at Scotiabank Arena? Why are they only allowed to watch at home? It's going to be like a fragment of this historic time that we lived through. People are going to be very confused as to what was going on. I lived it.

It was only a couple of years ago, and I'm confused by it. I'm like, we couldn't go watch the Raptors? What's going on. I lived it. It was only a couple years ago and I'm confused by it. I'm like, we couldn't go watch the Raptors? What's going on here? I know. I'm still confused. Or WWE, when you would see in the ring

and then you would see all the, instead of people, it was like a huge screen of just these Zoom videos of people's faces. What is happening? So bizarre. Do you think we can,

this is a side question, but can we do that again like like do you feel like the next pandemic will be far more deadly and they're gonna say we got to do it again and people are gonna say nope i feel like people are gonna be like screw you i'm gonna do me at this point because it's caused too much damage i would rather die than do that again it's okay well those are your options. Let's, let's, let's do it here. Okay. So you're at MLSE for several years and how does the MLSE experience lead to the current gig at Sportsnet? Yeah. So again, I was being pushed into the direction of sports and I realized that I really liked it. Um, and I kind of had my eye out

for any sort of opportunities in the sports world. Uh, and funny enough, I actually, it's just so weird how this stuff works, Mike, because it's like you, it's almost like I manifested it. It's like you put something out into the universe, you know that you want this thing and the universe comes knocking. And honestly, in my case, that's kind of how it happened. I really wanted to move on from where I was because I knew I could only go so far. And I had done basically everything that I possibly could when I was at MLSC. And I'm so grateful for that time there, but I knew I was ready to move on. I literally every year make a vision board right before the new year, I will make one and I will put it somewhere in sight or I'll set it as my phone background. So it's always in sight. And on my vision board that year, I'd actually put,

it was Sportsnet and TSN. I actually did put eTalk on it as well. I just wanted to move out of the space and I was able to connect with someone at Sportsnet and it just escalated from there. Escalated and escalated. And then here we are, my friends. Did you put on your vision board to one day be a Toronto Mic'd guest? You wanted to be an FOTM. You may say that, but I have actually listened to previous podcasts of yours with personalities, which is Sportsnet personalities. So that's funny. So when you had reached out to me initially,

I already knew who you were. Okay, okay. That's exciting to me because you know what happened? I'll tell you what happened. I think it was New Year's Eve because they run the plays of the year. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Over and over and over and over again you can't escape me I will be in your home on your TV whether you like it or not exactly and I was watching the plays of the year with my 8 year old because

he's sort of like just getting into sports and he plays house league hockey and he plays soccer and you know it's kind of know, it's more fun to watch. I mean, I would actually watch it myself. I like watching plays of the year. But it's more exciting with him because it's like he's never seen like this. Like, whoa, you see that? He has the bicycle kick or whatever.

Like, oh, my God, you see that goal? Whatever. So it's always exciting watching with him. And you're there. And I'm like, like, I got to say, like, oh, like oh like i think i think you'll tell me who your predecessor was but i've had on i'll just name some people i've had on uh jackie redmond has been on carol caroline schwed like these are people who did plays of the week and year and all that at some point like you're sort of a successor to these people.

Yeah, no, I do know both of them. I haven't met Jackie. I would love to, because I think they're, they're both honestly crushing it in their careers. In my opinion, I personally love what Jackie's doing.

I think that's partially because I love WWE so much. And I do like watching what she does with WWE. And also she crushes it with hockey as well. Uh, Caroline as well. Like I knew what she was doing. She did WWE as well. Even watching her on plays and misplays.

I was always impressed. So they're crushing it. Do you know Caroline, uh, personally, or just as a, uh, media personally,

Toronto FC host when I was at MLSC. And I remember we, we did something so briefly on camera during the when they won the championship I don't even remember what year that was it must have been 2017 2016 2017 one of those two yeah we did something very very briefly very quick on camera and we'd met then and we just kind of followed each other uh we never actually got to sit down and speak but we do like I know of her she's in like the network of the industry yeah she uh she had almost like i want to say like some kind of a epiphany in life from a car accident like

she had a she had a bad car accident and it changed her perspective on many different things next thing you know and now we complain about the weather today because it feels like minus 30 okay my wife was born and raised in edmonton alberta canada okay this is just a friday in edmonton okay this is i know i know she's probably used to it at this point yeah so but caroline just up and like she quit the sports gig and she said i'm gonna go to edmonton and she ends up uh getting married and uh she seems happy but she's like living in Edmonton now. Honestly, like sometimes

that stuff just happens though and you got to roll with it. Life comes at you, right? Right. It's going to do less for you. Was anyone doing these plays? I got to plead some ignorance but between Caroline and you, there was a gap, right? Or were you the successor?

There was a gap, yeah? Or did you go, were you the successor? There was a gap. There was a gap. Yeah. I don't, they did not have a host from my understanding and from what I know of, but, um, I think it was, it was quite some time. Cause I don't know what the timeframe of was of when she had left, but there was some time. I think it might've been like a year or more than a year. And I don't think they had a host tied to it. Okay. So you're actually, this had a host tied to it. Okay. So you're actually, this is a good chance for me to find out exactly what you're doing at Sportsnet because you've mentioned wrestling a couple of times.

So what exactly do you do at Sportsnet? Everything. It's honestly, it's a little bit of everything I've got. I've, I'm very grateful for the opportunity to be able to kind of dip a toe in every sort of area. So I'm doing digital.

I'll do some stuff with the Raptors, with NHL players, WWE stuff. I have plays and misplays, the broadcast as well. Some VOs here and there for some certain terms. I'm kind of all over the place. And what about the wrestling component? I know Carol... I grew up with wrestling and love wrestling. I love WWE

so much. I've actually got the Bella Twins back here, Edge back here. Just a big wrestling fan. I grew up with it. I was a big Chris Jericho fan growing up, Y2J for life. And same with Edge. This was very fitting when I stepped into the role. I was like, are we going to do WWE stuff?

We have to do WWE stuff. Yeah, now that I because Jackie did the wrestling stuff and then Caroline too, right? She was doing wrestling stuff. I should know this. I do believe they had the show aftermath right right

yes aftermath yes it's interesting how like yeah it's almost like this is these duties all kind of get bundled together uh it's a good thing you're a wrestling fan yes i don't know i mean i think it's very easy to become a wrestling fan even if you weren't one it's just it's hard to even if you don't like the actual wrestling everything around it is just so fun like i dare you to watch one episode of monday night raw and not be like okay that was fun that was actually really fun to watch if you've never seen wrestling before so i mean it helps to be a wrestling fan but i don't think you really have to if you weren't well it's a good thing you are. It makes life a little easier for you. Yeah.

Now, I'm, again, several decades older than you, Emily. So when I was in love with wrestling, Leaping Lanny Poffo was a brother of Macho Man Randy Savage in the WWF. Oh, snap. Pre-E. Yeah. So is there any, like, I'm wondering, with a younger generation of wrestling fans,

and you shouted out Chris Jericho and Edge and these, you know, that generation, but is there any, you know, not necessarily respect, but awareness of, you know, those kind of the OG wrestlers from like the 80s when WWF really comes into main focus? Now, here's the question. Does, would the Rock and Stone Cold fall under WWF? They wouldn't. That's again, no, they're still, I think, yeah, I think they're still WWF, but that's sort of like, I would say that's 90s, right? Yeah, so I think for me, so I was born in

the 90s. I grew up with watching The Undertaker, watching Mankind. Oh my god, love Mankind. Who else? The Rock, Stone Cold, Trish Jericho, that was kind of the holy grail of wrestlers.

Trish Stratus, love. Lita, love. The storyline between Edge and Lita, obsessed. Still laugh about it to this day. Okay, so pause right there. So Bob wanted me to get you talking about wrestling, so I just want to let Bob know, mission accomplished. But that, so I, again, I dropped it in the late 80s.

So when you say there's a storyline between Edge and Lita, what was the storyline? It was just, so it was just like a love storyline that escalated maybe a little too far. And they would do a lot of very, quite interesting things in the ring, which made a lot of people laugh. And I think that was back in a time when WWE was a little bit more experimental. But what do you mean interesting things? Like you're not on Sportsnet now. You could be more explicit or whatever. Like there would be a bed in the ring.

I'm going to stop there. And they'd get under the covers? Yes, correct. Wow. Yes. Yeah. If you watch the clips on YouTube, they are insane. They're insane. You're like, what on YouTube, they are insane. They're insane.

You're like, what? This was WWE? Wow. Okay, because the reason I brought up Leaping Lanny Poffo was because we learned he passed away yesterday. So I'm always curious, does the new modern wrestling show

pay homage to somebody like a Lanny Poffo who is kind of a key, well, you know, like a Lanny Poffo, who is kind of a key, well, you know, he's kind of right in the mix anyways with Mr. Perfect and everything in the mid to late 80s. And again, brother of Randy Macho Man Savage. So I'm just curious if there's some kind of a retrospective memorial thing done there

with the modern show. You know, I don't know. Today, well, today's SmackDown. So I wonder if they will do something tonight because they didn't have a show yesterday, but they, I did see a post on social on WWE social honoring him. So I did see that.

Cause he was the genius, you know? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I hope they do something tonight. I'm sure they will at some point. Amazing.

Uh, Julian wants to know, what's your favorite wrestling promo of all time? Define promo. Isn't that just when Mean Gene Okerlund, again, I'm going back to the mid to late 80s here, but when Mean Gene Okerlund is interviewing, I don't know,

you got Paul Orndorff there and he's doing his hype thing about coming up, I'm going to take on Hogan. I mean, I don't know if I have a favorite promo to say, but I do have a favorite. I think maybe two favorite moments. Sure.

I would say the Bella Twins, Twin Magic, when they revealed. So I think it was Brie Bella who was in a match and no one knew that she had a twin. And Nikki Bella just came out from under the ring and people realized that they were the Bella twins. That was their start. So it was called Magic. That was so fun. It's super fun to watch even back like going back on YouTube and watching that. It's super fun. And then I would say Edge returning. It was a Royal rumble in 2020,

2020. That was pretty big moment. Cause especially because he, it was, he was almost like written off because of his injury. So it was very shocking to see him come back. Okay. Amazing. I want to get to some,

a little bit more sports media, real talk here, but just not to put you on the spot. You can always plead the fifth on this, even though this is entirely 100% legal for adults like yourself. Do you smoke weed? Do you consume cannabis, Emily? No, but I probably should. I don't. I don't. I probably should though. You know, that doesn't help anxiety because I could use some. Honestly, it totally does. There's a strain for you and you don't have to smoke it. I feel like, you know, people get, some people are turned off by the idea of combusting fire and the smoking and inhaling it. But there's, of course, there's.

Well, I was telling you that I like to bake. Can I just like bake them into some cookies? Oh my God, yes. Yes. Okay. So here's what you're going to do. Okay. This is what you're going to do. Homework. Homework for you. You talk to one of the knowledgeable bud tenders at canna cabana because canna cabana will not be undersold on cannabis or cannabis accessories and yeah you bake the oh yeah you bake those brownies or whatever and then when you do finally come over here because you need to at some point maybe in the summer make a visit here to the tmds studio you bring me one of those brownies and we'll enjoy a half a brownie each as we have a good chat.

Okay. You know what? I'm down. I'm in. We got to eat it before we do this though. Yeah, I know. Absolutely. Now just remember there's one rule, uh, start low and go slow. Okay. Hey, these are things that I need to know. I can't just like be out here pounding four cookies that have marijuana in them that's right and before i get you back because i have i got this clip i've been dying to ask you about this and i can't wait to find out what the heck this is but i just want to let everyone listening know including you emily that if you have any uh antiquated electronics like some tech that is like dead it's died it It's past its lifespan. And you don't just throw that in the garbage.

You need to safely recycle that tech. Cause there's a whole bunch of chemicals and stuff inside that is like dangerous stuff that you can't just chuck. So you have to go to, this is important to everybody. You got to go to recycle my electronics.ca and find out a place near you where you can say, drop it off and have it safely recycled.

So thank you to recycle my electronics.ca. So you got, you got all your homework now. There you go. I got my homework. I got my takeaways. You got your takeaways. You,

I saw a video of you and your, is it your fiance? Are you, you guys are still together or is that an old YouTube video? What's happening? We're still together. Just making sure you never know. Right. Cause I saw it and you were testing him on a Guyanese, uh, expressions, et cetera. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, my fiance is Irish Italian and I love teasing him with Guyanese terms all the time because one,

I can say this cause I'm Guyanese, Guyanese people are crazy. They're batshit crazy. Two, the sayings and the words and the phrases are so funny that people who are not Guyanese are like, what in God's name are you saying? So I thought it would be really funny to just throw some words at him and have him define them. Now, okay, so that's awesome. This is a very popular video and it's fun to watch actually uh i think i know i knew i had a worked with a woman a woman of a jamaican descent who would talk about vex vexed yeah vexed and it just means like you're pissed right mad like you vexed me so that must be like a Caribbean thing. I think so.

There is some crossover for sure with the West Indian cultures like Trini, Jamaican, Guyana. So there's definitely crossover there. Okay, but you're Guyanese. That means you, Emily, are a woman of color in Canadian sports media.

Yes. Okay. There are shockingly few women of color in Canadian sports media. Yes. Okay. There are shockingly few women of color in Canadian sports media. In fact, when I think of Sportsnet, where we can see you, we're lucky enough to see you on Sportsnet, I can only think off the top of my head right now of FOTM Hazel May. As a woman of color, we see regularly on Sportsnet she's of course a Filipino descent yes can you name another honestly I don't know that I can

not on Sportsnet to be honest and it's funny that you say that because one of the, a huge reason to why I also wanted to go into sports was because I never saw myself when I was a kid growing up, my brother and my dad, they watched a lot of sports TV. I never saw someone that looked like me in sports. I always saw someone that looked like, I first of all, barely saw someone that looked like me growing up on TV. That's the number one thing. But even if I did, it was someone in entertainment or someone in news. It was never really in sports. So my thing

was like, if I can be the person that I could have seen when I was younger to maybe even fast track me to realize that this is where I wanted to be for someone that's watching out there right now, then my mission is accomplished. That is good enough for me. Yeah. Good for you. I really think it's important. Like it's important. Um, my daughter is a half Asian. So, you know, of Asian descent, my daughter, Morgan, shout out to Morgan. And I always think, you know, yeah, so there's Hazel May, which is great. She can see, oh, there's Hazel. I can do that. But it's, it's when you see reflections of yourself doing things like that you can you know you can it plants the seeds of a dream that uh oh you know emily is doing this i can do this you know yeah i agree no we need more representation for sure i think it just again it just helps

when you see yourself represented on tv you feel as though it's possible for you. That is a possibility that you could, you can do this. Right. So how did you, without you, you obviously didn't have this. I mean,

I do see an American sports media. You do see women of color, for example, on NFL broadcasts and you know, et cetera. It seems to be more diverse in America than here in Canada. And we watch a lot of their sports media what's that which is quite interesting to me i would i would have thought

i mean america's huge maybe it's not that wild no it's you know i can off the top of my head i can think of several women of color like regular spots on particularly uh nba and n NFL broadcasts, Pam Oliver, you know, this such. But Canada, I had Nikki Reyes on. I think she quit to, funny thing is I produce a show for, we're all over the place here, but I produce a show for Donovan Bailey. And it's Donovan Bailey and Jason Portwando.

And they're here once a week. And we record. I love Jason Portwando. I've worked with him. He is Donovan Bailey's co-host on Donovan Bailey Running Things. Yeah, he's here once a week. He's a sweetheart.

I love him. Okay, next time you see him, you have to tell him that I say hi. I worked with him when I did. I didn't tell you this. I did TSN for a bit. What, are you holding out on me, Emily? I did. Before sports, I did TSN for a bit, and I worked with Jason on a horse racing show.

Yeah, that would do it. Yeah. Yeah. So you'll have to tell him I say hi. Was that like a show with Laura Dykin? It was. It was myself, Laura,

Jason, Chad. Yeah. That's so funny. And Brody, Brody Lawson. So Laura, Laura Dykin's dad lives across the street from me.

No way. What a small world this is. That's. I know. And you should listen to the Laura Diken episode of Toronto Mike, if you're poking right now. And there's a Jason Portwellis too, actually,

because I did a Donovan Bailey episode and Jason was sitting in on it. And then I had Jason over for his own episode, but I know Jason through a gentleman. I produce a podcast for a name, Peter Gross, who has the definitive Ontario horse racing podcast. And that's how I met Jason. Oh,

wow. Yeah. You see, met Jason. Oh, wow. Yeah, you see, this is a small world, small industry. Everyone knows. It's like three degrees of, you know. Now, if I can only remember where I was going. Like, okay, so I was talking about, okay, so Donovan and Jason come over, record their podcast. Oh, yes, that's right. Nikki Reyes quit the job at Sportsnet

to go do this reality show with CBC, which I think is going to air next month, I think. Or maybe this month. But there's this big, because I know, because I produced Donovan's show and he had to take a couple of months off in the summer because he said he had to travel the country

and do this show, the ultimate, I don't know, ultimate challenge. I can't remember the name of the show, but Nikki's a host. What's it called? Is it a baking show? No, definitely not a baking show. Like there's coaches and Donovan's one of the coaches and Canadians and Nikki is a host of this show, Nikki Reyes. Okay. I'm going to have to look it up. Yeah. Like it's going to be promoted heavily. It's a CBC thing that's coming really soon. Like I would say maybe later in this month

or in March. I can't remember. I should ask Donovan when he's here on Tuesday. But so Nikki, I remember having this chat with Nikki because Nikki went from TSN to Sportsnet. She did both. And if you look at now TSN slowly getting better. Yeah, but Kayla Gray was for the longest time

the only black woman you'd find on Canadian sports media. Yeah, no, it's been like that for a while. You know, I am so happy to see also what Kayla has been doing. She has honestly paved the way and has created, it feels like there's opportunity for more, put it this way. I feel very inspired when I watch Kayla do her thing. And I'm sure many people who are not in the industry or in the industry are feeling the exact same way. I, she's a great follow even on social media. I love following and just seeing what she does. When she came on Toronto Mike, she was literally, uh,

trying to get time on TSN radio. This is how, you know, she was always working hard to get her time. And I still remember we talked about a dark guy showed up and got a show on the weekend or whatever. And Kayla, meanwhile, was working her ass off

for a shot at a show, but she wasn't spotted during a Leaf playoff game with a dart in her mouth. Yeah. Dark guy. Shout out to dark guy. Who's also an FOTM. And,

uh, you know, he just took a, uh, advantage of an opportunity who wouldn't, but, uh, good on Kayla for what she's done the last several years.

Absolutely. Yeah. So what is your goal here? Okay. So now that you're, you've got what I would call like the the jackie redmond caroline schwed now it's of course emily agard you're all you're in that mold there but where do you want to go from here you're still very young but like where do you see yourself and

this is not an hr interview i know it sounds like one but like where do you see yourself in five years like what's the dream job for you i don don't know. Like, that's a great question because I, I feel like I did just start. It's been like a year, about a year and a half into Sportsnet. I'm really enjoying having the chance to do a little bit of everything. And I think while I do a little bit of everything, I'm getting a little, a little bit more sense of what I really want to do and what I really want to focus on. I don't know that I'm there yet to say what that focus is, but I do think I'll get there because it's hard to narrow it down. I could see myself doing MLB reporting, but I could also see myself doing sideline stuff

for NHL, but I could also see myself doing WWE stuff because I'm so heavily passionate about it. but I could also see myself doing WWE stuff because I'm so heavily passionate about it. So it's, it's all over the place. I can't really say. Are you taking a look at that big country we referenced earlier that South of our border? I haven't, but maybe,

maybe one day, maybe, you know, I do have a lot of friends that have gone down there that I've done broadcasting here and that i've gone down to america and are doing great things down there and i don't want you to leave this don't don't misinterpret this okay uh i don't want me to exit the country everyone he's like leave canada no i don't want you to leave but uh who could blame you if the opportunity there's just so few, you know, you got your TSN, your Sportsnet. Sometimes there's a fantasy theory out there that MLSE just buys them both and merges them.

Okay, I'm just making that up. I don't want to start any like, you know, stock prices start to plummet upon Toronto Mike's rumor here. But like, there's just not a lot of jobs in this country, right? Like, you know, I always feel bad when somebody loses, like I cover the Raptors for when you lose your gig. It's like, it's not like there's like, there's not a lot else for you to cover. Yeah, no, it's true. It is true. Yeah. You can count on one hand, the number of jobs or whatever for what you want to do. So I always wonder with the vast amount of sports media in the United States

and the opportunities there, and it does seem like there's, I'm not suggesting at all that there's any colorism or racism at play, systemic or otherwise, but although it wouldn't be a shock, right, to find out there was, you know, it seems to be less so in the American sports media. I will say this. I have said this in the past, so I'm very happy with where I am right now, extremely. I have always said that I wanted to conquer Toronto and Canada

before I could move on. So maybe I am on the right path. Who knows? Well, you're born in the 90s, for goodness sake. So time is on your side. Yes, it is. There you go. There you go. All right, Emily, I got to play a clip so you can tell me what the hell I'm listening to. You ready?

Yeah, I'm scared. You should be scared. Here we go. Oh, be very afraid, Emily. Be very afraid. Here it comes. There it is. Please, you have to help. Some people are here to destroy my farm. Let's try a handful. I keep telling people this forest is haunted. What, like ghosts? Ghosts?

How crazy would that be? Party! Party! If you want to see the beauty, you have to believe in it. You know, I played a very visual trailer on an audio podcast, so shame on me, but what the hell was I watching there, Emily? Let me go into the archives for that one, Mike. Was that, you know, it's funny because I have to question it because I never actually watched the full thing.

Is that Forest fairies? Yes. That's forest fairies. Oh my God. I cannot believe, well, I mean, it's on the internet.

People would see it if they said, I didn't like, look, look, I didn't hack into anybody's email or anything. All you did was literally search. Like you can Google my name and that comes up. I went to the most famous website of all time.

It's called youtube.com. Oh boy. Okay. So when, when did I do forest fairies? When I, when I first started, it was 2014, 2015, 2014, I would say I was very curious about acting. And I was like, why not? Why not have an agent and just dip a toe in and see if this is for me spoiler alert not for me not down to act totally not my thing I'm good with hosting and I'm fine with that forever thank you but I did try it yeah and I mean it was fun but I honestly think the movie is on Amazon Prime what role did you play i played a fairy named emeline and all i can remember from that shoot honestly is the two things we shot everything in studio because

everything was green screen or blue screen right um i remember i had to eat a lot of chocolate cake for one of the opening scenes and the second one I remember being they had to harness us like the fairies up so we had these like huge harnesses and we would have to pretend to fly in the air that's what I remember from that experience it's a great experience at the time for myself at the time it's like oh I'm gonna be in a movie cool yeah I mean it's not the biggest budget movie it's not quite you know avatar it's it's not avatar definitely not avatar but i think at the time it was just fun to be part of like we shot that in new market it was like in a suit i don't even remember the production company but it was like uh somewhere

in new market that we shot it so you gave it a go and then you know in an alternate universe you come out of that with the acting bug and you're simply in like Netflix series and stuff. You're, you're Emily in Paris. I could, Emily in Paris. It could have been me.

It could have been me, Mike, but yeah, no, it just, acting wasn't for me. I just, I always knew I wanted to do hosting and I think this,

I was just curious about acting. So I tried it and then it further confirmed that hosting was like the thing that I needed to do. I got to say, when I discovered this Forest Fairies, which is, yes, is available on Amazon Prime. If people want to see. Don't do it. Don't put yourself through the torture, everyone. Well, you haven't seen it. For all you know, it's great. Yeah, I know. I haven't even watched the full thing.

I didn't even go to the premiere of the movie which was also a new market my parents went on my behalf because I was too what I was too busy presenting Ricky Martin with a gift backstage at Scotiabank Arena or Air Canada Center at the time who's the biggest star you got to meet backstage at Scotiabank slash Air Canada Center we did a lot we did pretty much everyone that rolled through that building we had the opportunity to meet unless it was like super time restrictive or whatever the case was honestly the like i would say pretty much everyone i think my favorite one was ed sheeran though he was so cool well that's a that's a big one yeah he was super down to earth i we've

met him like three times and he would always remember our team and always say hi and just just super down to earth like just a bud hanging did you get to meet somebody like i'm gonna throw names out there now but like justin bieber that's when we haven't met no we haven't met him we were always that there was always a time constraint on that one what about the foo fighters They played that venue several times. I wasn't there when I was a fan. I was a fan in the audience when they played there. But I did meet, I will say this,

I went to the Rogers Center for their show in 2018. I did meet Pat Smear backstage and that was super cool. And he greeted my brother and I by saying, what's up weirdos? And I'll never forget it. I want to say that Pat Smear ended up marrying a woman who used to work at Q, a Canadian woman who worked at

Q107. Did I know this? I feel like I might have known this. Now I've got to Google it. I'm 99% sure, which Sounds right, Mike. Hold on, I want to Google it because now I'm curious. And of course he's famous for being in the in the germs right that was his punk band but i got you know germs is one thing because it's cool punk band but no mass you know no mass appeal when you're

in a punk band called the germs but he of course is all over the uh nirvana unplugged in new york from 94 yep yep yep yep and then continue down with the Foo Fighters, which is great. So are you Googling it or am I? Because I'm 99% sure, but I can do it real quick here. Q107, you said? Yeah, Q107. Well, it does come up. Let's see.

People can just listen to us Googling. We're Googling. I don't think I'm Googling correctly because I'm not seeing anything. Well, you know why? Because you're on the spot here, live. You've probably listened to enough episodes to know I refuse to edit any of this. It's all kind of live to tape. His wife's name is Jennifer Youngblood.

Let's look, Jennifer. This is like primetime investigation here, Mike. By the way, is like prime time investigation here mike by the way now now listed as ex-wife by the way uh unfortunately but uh he married now yeah that's too bad okay so we'll have to i'm pretty sure like i i get you know when you're doing what i do this is episode one again we're at almost 1200 by the time this thing drops wow good for you thank you but it means like i get buried in fun facts on the reg like this is a daily thing where fun facts get entered into my head and i try to retain them all and this one is like it's been retained because i pulled it out but uh i'm 99.5 sure and familiar yeah we're going with it. Okay, so yes, Pat Smear married a Canadian who worked at Q107.

That is just fact. So before we say goodbye, Emily, because you have a bright future in sports media, and we know you love your wrestling. I wish I watched more current wrestling, but for some reason it just, I grew it. I know, I shouldn't say that, right? But other than that acting with the fairies there, is there any other acting gig you want to shout out? Because I saw some interesting things you did when I was kind of doing my homework here. Like I noticed this thing called

gastro blast. Yeah, that was also part of a little bit of acting stuff that I did. It was actually with the same production company, which is funny around the same time. And I felt a little bit of acting stuff that I did. It was actually with the same production company, which is funny around the same time. And I felt a little bit better about that one because it felt a little bit like a host because I was speaking straight to the camera. I just had a different, I don't even remember what my name was, a different name. And I was like the food scientist of the show. So like that one felt a little bit better. And that aired on TVO Kids. Yeah. It was basically teaching kids how to cook, but like the science behind the cooking too.

Okay, shout out to FOTM Steve Pagan. But you do get listed, by the way, not just food scientists, but you are listed on GastroBlast as a co-host. So there you go. There we go. I didn't even know that. So yeah. So GastroBlast is like the gateway drug

to what you're doing now. Like, thank you, gastroblast. Thank you, gastroblast. Shout out to gastroblast. And I had a gastroblast with you today, Emily. This was great. And I got to save something for the sequel, which will happen in person.

But before we say goodbye, this is your chance. Anything you want to share with the listenership, you're now an FOTM, much like Jackie Redmond and Caroline Schwed. You're now an FOTM. That means Friend of Toronto Mic'd. So welcome to the family. What up? Thank you so much for having me on here. I'm very excited to come in in person to do this where I will bake us cookies or some sort of baked goods. Oh my God. We made the deal. We made the deal.

So it has to happen. But yeah, no, this is great. I think what you do is great. So thank you so much for having me. And I would say watch your back, Ron McLean, because Emily is here. Oh, snap. Love you, Ron.

And that brings us to the end of our 1, 1199th episode. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Emily is at Emily Agard, A-G-A-R-D. 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. Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH. And Canna Cabana are at Canna Cabana underscore. On Wednesday, I'm visited by Mike Shorman. Thursday, it's Craig Helkett.

And Friday, it's John Scholes, kicking out the jams. See you then. And drink some goodness from a tin Cause my UI check has just come in Ah, where you been? Because everything is kind of rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold, but the snow, snow warms me today

And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away Cause everything is rose and green Well, you've been under my skin for more than eight years It's been eight years for more than eight years. It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears. And I don't know what the future can hold or will do for me and you. But I'm a much better man for having known you. Oh, you know that's true because everything is coming up

rosy and gray yeah the wind is cold but the smell of snow won't stay today and your smile is fine 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 Cause everything is rosy and green 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 green Cause I know that's true, yes I do Maybe the one who doesn't realize there's a thousand shades of grey Cause I know that's true, yes I do I know it's true, yeah

I know it's true How about you? Oh, they're 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 Cause 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 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 and everything is rosy and gray Thank you.