Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Eric "Bugs Bunny" Bauza: Toronto Mike'd #771

Episode Date: December 16, 2020

Mike chats with Toronto boy Eric Bauza about his career voicing such iconic animated characters a Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, his love for retro Toronto nostalgia, the problem with Ren and Stimpy, and so much more.

That's right, Doc. Huge fan of Toronto Mike. You know, ever since my reruns on global TV, you know, the Bugs Bunny and Tweety show, I used to be a Toronto star, but now with all these streaming channels, it's hard to find me. Toronto. VK on the beat. I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love. I'm from Toronto where you wanna get the city love. I'm a Toronto Mike, wanna get the city love. My city love me back for my city love. Welcome to episode 771 of Toronto Mike. A weekly podcast about anything and everything.

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And Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com and joining me this week is the voice of bugs. Bunny, Eric. That was, uh, uh, you know, you brought up Disney jr. There's so many different shows. Uh, I'm, I have the luck of being a part of on there. So there's rocketeer. Uh,

I don't know if she watches tots, but that is a, uh, a pretty big show. It's a, uh, uh uh tiny ones uh it you know it's like the delivery service and instead of the storks they have all sorts of birds delivering uh babies i i play mr woodbird that's the other woodpecker i play on that show and he's an inventor and then uh on this the other disney junior uh muppet babies i play uh The other Disney Junior, Muppet Babies. I play, ah, Fozzie Bear, waka waka. Hey, Mike, why did the chicken cross the playground? To get to the other slide, ah? Yeah, so, you know, it's all that stuff.

And again, I love doing the iconic characters, but when I have a chance to do an original character, that's obviously when a voiceover artist is happy. Well, Eric, if you could do Fozzie, then you could do yoda right uh yeah yeah yes yeah i can i uh but i might try but uh you know he's frank oz has like the pipes of i don't even know him and jim henson they both have like uh you know that weird you know when he does sam, I also do Sam Eagle. He's very, you know, astute and very proper. But he has that weird Yoda thing. You know, it's very they all like kind of live under the same roof.

Well, let me just say, welcome to Toronto Mic'd, Eric. This is really the highlight of your career. Is that fair to say? That is very true. You have to understand, you know, born and raised in the GTA, the greater Toronto area, Midland and Eglinton. I abandoned my parents there behind Kennedy Station. They're still there. Behind that used to be a Pharma Plus. Now it's a dollar store. There used to be a Blockbuster video. I used to work at that blockbuster video.

Yeah, that was me. I was the, I used to rewind tapes for a living. I mean, my brother worked at a blockbuster and I was always jealous of that gig. Like that was the gig to have back in the day. It was a great gig. I used to do the, I used to, you know, they're no longer around. So I could tell you all the bad things I used to do. So I used to like do the punch cards. I used to punch the, you punch the rent 10 and get one free for my friends. We used to damage the Oreo ice cream cake so we could just say, damage goods and then eat them on break. Listen, I worked for a grocery store.

I worked for a food city at the Galleria Mall. That move there with the damaged food and you got to eat it. We mastered that play. That was it. That's how we kept warm in the winters in Toronto, eating damaged Oreo ice cream cakes. Amazing. I still have several

blockbuster Frisbees ready for this for Save the Last Dance. do you remember that movie that was a promo yeah so i guess there was a promo save the last dance frisbees and my brother steve scored i still honestly if me and the kids go to the park to play frisbee i still have my save the last dance uh frisbee from the gift that keeps on giving is a blockbuster slash save the last dance frisbee mint condition i wonder how much you can get on ebay for that oh i would never even consider selling it it means too much to me personally eric but uh sorry go ahead we got a ticket to

the antique road show and he's gonna like you oh could you imagine i love the antique road show by the way there's a guilty pleasure of mine. Like if I flip it around and PBS has it on, I just stay with it. And they have this new thing where they play the older stuff and then they give you the updates. So it'd be like in the original episode, it'll be something like appraised at $2,000. And then they do this graphic that like it's either now it's $10,000 or sometimes you see, oh, now it's like $200. It's the where are they now version of, we last saw him in 2012, but now how much is he worth?

So great. Absolutely. Good stuff. Good stuff. Now, although some think we're too young cause we're both in our forties here, but no, I'm sorry. That, that, that shit's gold for even, uh, us youngins, I think the antique road. Yeah. You, you are a Toronto legend, man. You've been at it for so long. And, uh, you know, this is, this is a great opportunity when you, when you reached out, I was like, no way, this is insane. You know, I, you know, I grew up in the humble and Fred, the, uh, uh, you know,

Marilyn Dennis, Don Daynard, uh, Jesse and Jean era of radio, you know marilyn dennis don danard uh jesse and gene era of radio you know uh tony the cheap voice guy all these all these old person you know tarzan dan uh who else could we say here i mean geez honestly you're speaking my language so so i need to know this because this is important to me so i reached out on behalf of humbleble and Fred. So I literally tweeted at you to book you on Humble and Fred. Okay. Cause you're Bugs Bunny. I'm thinking, okay,

I'll maybe you've heard of the Humble and Fred. I'll get you on that. I wasn't even thinking Toronto Mike because I mean, you're, you're Bugs Bunny, but then you're, you're, you DM me in,

in a way that made me realize that you, a, you knew I existed. Like, and you seem to be like a fan of what was the vibe at toronto mike like so i said like okay yes you're gonna go on humble and fred because that's why i reached out but you're coming on toronto mike asap you you want to beat them to it you got the scoop that's right doc huge fan of toronto mike you know ever ever since my reruns on global TV,

you know, the Bugs Bunny and Tweety show, I used to be a Toronto star, but now, with all these streaming channels, it's hard to find me.

I'm buried underneath my own reruns, Doc. Anytime you want to do that. That's amazing. I got a lot of questions for you,

and this will be multiple hours if I don't cut to the chase, but you're now, like, when I'm speaking to you right now, you are in California. That's right. I'm right in Sherman Oaks, or as the kids call it, the Shokes, you know, of Southern San Fernando Valley. I miss wearing sleeves. It's actually 90 degrees outside, but I'm still wearing this hoodie. And I don't know how to use a shovel anymore. And you also, I noticed you don't know how to speak metric anymore because you told me it's 90 degrees. It's so confusing, you know, but it only takes me only like two seconds.

As soon as I get my luggage off the carousel in, you know, Pearson, I'm off to Swish LA. As you may have seen in other interviews, I'm working on trying to get that lifelong Swish LA gold card that I can just quarter chicken dinner every time I appear. Chicken and stuffing and pie. Oh, my. Yeah, the festive special. I was of the generation of the Toblerone giveaway, not the Lindor giveaway. Of course it's Toblerone or GTFO. As far as I'm concerned, I was actually, so I was biking by a Swiss chalet today and I was thinking,

I miss those days when we could go into a Swiss chalet and enjoy a meal. Like it feels like another like era. That's like they've, they've moved all the chairs out and they've, they've pushed everything up so you don't even walk into the store now. But that's kind of how it is here. There are a lot of staples in L.A. that you used to go to. And just, you know, Chris Rock said it best in his SNL monologue when they came back to a live audience.

It was, remember when we had plans? You know? My God, going to the movies. How fun was that? Like, to the point where you're like, I'm just going to stay home. But now it's like I can't even you don't even you'll you will think twice about eating in a dark room with a room full of strangers, you know, just popcorn even or a hot dog. Like that's so bizarre now. It's amazing how quickly we have come to that point. Right. It's been about 10 months, I think. But, you know, so so 11 months ago that was the norm we had lived for four decades plus and then

now just that whole idea like that let's go to a movie with other people indoors and then we're gonna go sit in a restaurant with other people chatting indoors that whole concept to me it feels so foreign and wrong and it only took 10 months to completely reprogram me. What's crazy is, you know, there's two things. I was at the, gosh, Kobe Memorial basketball game. And again, that was like late March or, you know, whenever it was. Yeah, earlier than that. Yeah. Yeah. It was like one of the last things that I remember doing, like, in a room, like it was a very emotional event. But there I was like, just standing and there was like a guy next to me crying. And I was like getting teary eyed. And, you know, he put my he put his arm around me. And I was like, Hey, man, you know, geez. And I was like, my God, if that were to happen now, like, oh my God, like, it just amazing what we, what we were doing and maybe not even knowing that we were in possible danger. And then the other thing was, you know, getting a haircut. How about that one? I remember just, you know,

shuffling through Instagram, Instagram feed. And there's a really great place out in Burbank called Fade Factory and they do like you know the the the tight fades and like the super modern haircuts and stuff and I remember seeing a photo in their feed and it looked like they moved the barber chairs outside and everyone was wearing masks getting their hair cut it was black and white photo and then I looked again I was like wait a sec are they open and that photo from like, like the early 1900s or like the late 1800s. So I was like, okay, we as a society and as a human race have been here before. We've been scared out of our wits before. We've been threatened before by something like this. And, you know, only 10 months ago, we were eating in the theater. So I know that in time, we will get back to some kind of normal scene.

Well, if you say so, that's what I'm hoping for. I'm hoping it happens in 2021. I'm hoping that we can all go to theaters and see the new Space Jam. But hold on. Don't talk about Space Jam yet. That's the teaser here. Your parents are in Scarborough, right? That's correct.

And they're doing all right? They're doing fine. They're doing okay. Okay. You know, my brother's in Brampton. He'll visit every now and then. And when I was following all the Toronto news, when things started to lighten up,

like the very, very first time, and we were all being very careful following all the Toronto news when things started to like lighten up like the very, very first time. And, you know, we were all being very careful because we were all genuinely frightened about this. So we were all keeping our distance and we were all following the rules and then things lightened up, you know, people started hanging out. And then, you know, I just feel like we kept getting back, but you know, the numbers in comparison, like every time I ask, how are the numbers here?

And he's like, oh man, you know, in the, oh, you know, a, just like really bad a like in the thousands. And I'm like, oh, that's nothing compared to where we are. Oh my gosh. Like knock on, knock on wood. My son was has only been sick once in the last 10 months and we had to bring him in because it was just the exact symptoms. He was having a little trouble breathing. Oh, so he got tested.

He got tested and he was, you know, negative. Okay, good. Thank God. But, you know, as a parent, as anyone listening as a parent, the moment the little kid's nose starts running, you're like, oh God, you know, get the thermometer, you know, double check that temp. Now am I going to get sick? Like I need to get tested. So it's this whole thing. Right. Well, in March, when this was all

coming down and, you know, you're watching so much news on this, I went to bed at least twice in March convinced I had COVID because I'd have a scratch in the back of my throat. And I just think, you know, your mind starts to run away with it and you're like, oh, this is how it begins. Like next week i'll be in a ventilator like and then and then nothing ever came of either instance but it's just it's funny how you start to sort of uh give yourself covid when you hear it all around you and of course in in our day and age it's the web md self-diagnose am i you, you go through the list of hypochondria. But being someone that performs behind the mic, what was the immediate protocol with you guys as a station, as a show? Did you

guys start doing everything remotely? How was that taken care of? I like thinking about us as a station. So basically, March 13th was the last time I had somebody in the studio here. And then I moved it to Zoom for a few months. And then I got really bored of Zoom. So I started recording in the backyard. So I have a backyard studio. So guests are 10 feet away outdoors. And we've been doing that. In fact, that's still happening, actually. So now that it's getting really cold here, because we don't have your 90 degrees, we have... In fact, today it's like, I don't know, it feels like minus 10 out there now of a windchill, I think.

Celsius. I speak Celsius around here, Eric. You're going to need a translator. But it's, yeah, so I don't know when guests will be back in the studio here, but it'll be after we all get the, uh, the vaccination and doctors say it's safe to do so. So. Yeah. And, and, and hopefully, you know, all goes well and, and, and people, uh, you know, um, start to,

hopefully we'll, we'll, this will all just, you know, I know it's gonna,'s not going to happen overnight, but I just hope that, you know, the people that need it the most, it works for them. That's my biggest hope. Well, that's it, man. Like I'm an optimistic person by nature and I'm full of hope because I can now see,

you know, I can see people in the city of Toronto. You know, it's not a lot of people, but people in the city of Toronto are now getting vaccinated for COVID-19. Like, that started Monday. So this is the beginning. This is possibly, hopefully, the beginning of the end of this.

And I'm feeling good about that. Yeah. You know, I was the original social distancer. I live in a hole in the ground, Doc. No one... I'm like an island. I touch no one one no one touches me honestly eric anytime man that's amazing that's amazing that what an iconic character like we're

gonna dive deep into this because i gotta start with some like retro toronto stuff first but like you're bugs bunny like pinch yourself right now you're bugs oh yeah no no it's every day it's like no and here's the thing you know Mel Blanc will always be Bugs Bunny that's the thing that's bottom line we all we there's not a day that goes by I mean it's it's been 80 years for Bugs he they celebrated his 80th birthday this year and Mel Blanc you know with a team of other artists, created this character, but he was really the personality behind it. And we're still talking about it to this very day in 2020. The amount of the heart and soul that he poured into this character

and the rest of the Looney Tunes, not just Bugs, but Daffy, Tweety, Sylvester, Yosemite, Marvin the Martian, like you name it, he was behind Pepe le pew foghorn leghorn i mean the amount of energy and um life that he put into these characters is still here like talking to us you know like it's amazing i think about it all the time well mel blank i mean uh he had the gig from the start. So I did do a little homework here. 1940. So there's a short called A Wild Hare.

And that's the first time we see Bugs Bunny and it's voiced by Mel Blanc. And he does it until he passes away in 1989. And for you folks out there who struggle at math, that's like, no pun intended, but that's a hair short of 50 years. Yeah. Like, amazing. And figuratively. And mathematically, Doc, if you're not a math whiz. Yeah, it really is a lifetime and all the way up.

And then, you know, it's 80 years. So you have to pay attention and tip your hat and homage to the guys that continued because I was sitting in Ontario Place in that big, the big dome. The Cinesphere. The Cinesphere, right, and I was watching the 51st birthday spectacular,

51st and a half. They made like a short, an animated short, and that short starred Jeff Bergman. He was the first guy to do it. And do it amazing. He was out the gate swinging for the fences, and

he nailed it. He was also Bugs and Daffy in the very opening of the feature film Gremlins 2, a new batch, where Bugs and Daffy in the very opening of the feature film Gremlins 2, a new batch where Bugs and Daffy are fighting over who gets to ride the shield. Now here's the other voice that I like to do. It's basically Richard Dreyfuss with a lisp. Okay. Mr. Vaughn, what we're dealing with here is a perfect eating machine. All this machine wants to do is eat and make little baby sharks. And that's all.

Okay. Yeah. It's it's I'm sure Richard Dreyfuss will be thrilled to hear that. But it's Daffy. It's the least pandemic friendly voice of the loony tunes. Six feet away from my mouth, please. Thank you. Yeah.

And, you know, Jeff did those voices too. And after him, rest in peace, Greg Burson. Okay. He was also Bingo Dino DNA. He was Mr. DNA in Jurassic Park. Right here, we have dinosaurs. And, you know, he worked with Spielberg on Tiny Toons. So Spielberg, I don't know if you know this guy who directed Jurassic Park.

Spielberg, he probably hired Greg, because he knew him as Bugs, to do Mr. DNA. And of course, he hired Dreyfuss for Jaws, so it all comes together. Right. I mean, listen. I mean, come on. You know, I don't have any spit. Marianne Moffat, she broke my heart. Okay?

Right? Or was it Marianne Moffat? I've got to brush up on my Jaws trivia. uh after that it was billy west in the original space jam uh we also had a canadian uh on the west coast doing baby bugs bunny that's the arguable one is it is it bugs bunny proper or baby bugs bunny uh mr sam vincent uh amazing amazing voice talent not to interrupt but i actually have to plead a little ignorance i didn't realize that the original space jam was billy west and i'm a big howard stern fan like i remember billy west from way back oh yeah of course he was the go-to voice guy and

and i i love this this is my analogy in comparison between uh you know jeff and Billy. We were actually, the three of us were invited to be guests at the Comic-Con panel, the virtual at-home San Diego Comic-Con panel for Bugs Bunny's 80th. So you had three guys who have played Bugs Bunny on the same panel. And, you know, it was amazing because I grew up watching these guys, you know?

And, you know, they're buddies and, you know, we're co-actors, but they will always guys, you know, and, and, and, you know, they're, they're buddies and, and they're, you know, they're, we're, we're co-actors, but they will always be, you know, the, the guys that kept these characters alive and well long enough for me to join the family. So it was a trip just sitting, you know, even though, you know, we're all over Zoom, but it was nice to see them and hear them do these voices. So when did you get the Bugs Bunny role? In 2018. Back even further, in 2011, there was the first reboot or reimagining of the Looney Tunes that they had in a very long time called The Looney Tunes Show. Yes. Which depicted Bugs and Daffy living in a house together and all the characters lived in a cul-de-sac.

It was basically like their undercover attempt to compete with animated sitcoms. So the show was written a whole lot different than what we're used to. The tone was very dry, you know, very, very sarcastic, but I watch them back now, and I laugh. Like, there's some pretty good jokes in there, and that was my first introduction. I went for most of the characters, but I walked away with Marvin the Martian Earth Creature. Isn't that lovely? I love your show, Toronto Mike, but it blocks my view of Venus. You know, I walked away with that one

and that was, you know, the longest I've been with a Looney Tunes character. And then a few years later, that show came and went and then they went right into the next one. You know, we're living in the age of reboots and reimaginings where maybe when you and I were kids, it would be like, here's one movie,

and then it would go away for a few years, and then they'd bring it back. But now it's like they're piling on top of each other, and they made one called Wabbit, which they later named New Looney Tunes. And in that one, I played Marvin again, and I think I played the two, Hubie and Bertie, those two mice. Yeah, yeah, sure, sure.

Hey there, boy. Hey there, Hubie. You know, we're after that cheese, you know. Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. I think Mel Blanc again. And then they took a little bit of a breather, but again, not really. Went right into Looney Tunes cartoons. And that's when they had auditioned. Because Jeff Bergman booked Bugs and Daffy for Looney Tunes show, and a majority of the characters there, rightfully so.

That was like his big return to these characters uh and then um he did bugs and then a few other characters in new looney tunes uh but then they opened it back up so technically that was only the second time in a decade that i had auditioned for bugs and and i had booked it wow like like no like i couldn't believe it i was was so not expecting anything. But I booked Bugs, Daffy, Tweety, and then Marvin again. Wow. Okay. Well, firstly, congrats to you, man. I love it when Toronto boys and girls do good.

So what an amazing role. So congrats. Thanks. Thanks, Doc. You're the best Toronto, Mike. My favorite of all the interviews, Doc. This is the one. I'm all warmed up now.

I'm an open book. Oh, I should start recording, you're telling me. We're done the pre-interview. This is the longest cold open I've ever had. I actually got to go back. Okay, so Mel Blanc, as you gave your great credit to the, yeah, Mel Blanc, 50 years. He originates the role of course so i'm gonna just play a little bit so this is actually the uh this is it this is the

let's hear a little of mel No more rehearsing and nursing apart. We know every part by heart. Oh, jerk, cut, lights. This is it. We'll hit the heights. Oh, what heights we'll hit. On with the show. This is it. So I've got to ask you, when you're doing bugs, Eric,

are you basically doing a Mel Blanc imitation? Or like, how do you, do you just mimic how Mel did it for 50 years? You know, there's so, with YouTube, it's so easy to look up just Mel Blanc in general. And I often try to find performances or interviews that he's done that aren't the shorts. So I can just hear, you know, how he kind of naturally used to talk. Oh, like Letterman. I watched the Letterman interview from 82 with Mel like a couple days ago.

You know, they asked me, if a pig could talk, how would he talk? You know, he talked with a grunt. I went out to the countryside and I wallowed around with the pigs. And I went back to Warner Brothers. They said, go home and take a bath. So I did that. And then I came back and I said, if a pig could talk, he'd talk with a grunt. And he'd be going, going, going, the other, the other, the other, the other.

That's all, folks. You know, like I would watch all of that. And, you know, whether it's I'm doing a Mel Blanc impression, going into Bugs Bunny. It all depends on how you see it. It will slowly depart from there and just kind of also become my own because, again, we've touched upon the other gentlemen that have taken over for Bugs. And although they all sound different, we forgot to mention Joe Alasky, another rest in peace voiceover artist that got to do Bugs

and received an Emmy Award for his performance as Daffy. You know, they all sound different. We all sound different. But there is something about the performance that you can hear, that you could just hear the guy that's doing it back when he was 10 in front of the TV eating cereal on Saturday morning. There's something that is so like, he clearly, this guy's obsessed, you know, like with every performance. So, um, I don't know if you have the other guys there, uh, on, on cue, but you know, at least for me, Mel, yeah, it's, it always starts there. There's one word that I could say, uh, as a warmup and it's the word. All right. All right. There's something word that I could say as a warmup and it's the word.

All right. All right. There's something about that word for me. All right, doc. He always says it in most cartoons, like, all right, you had me guilty. It's like that weird up and down. You know, there's, there's a high and a low to his voice that happens at the same time. That weird, like up here, i'm not doing them the accent if we start there and and you have to get that grit in the back of the throat and that the nasal at the same time and then the new york brooklyn accent i'm glad you brought that up okay so because mel blank describes it as like taking a bronx and a brooklyn accent and kind of mashing them up

but there's a famous claim by tex a that he asked Mel Blanc to give the character, I'll put it in the words, not a New York accent per se, but a voice like that of actor Frank McHugh. Have you ever heard Frank McHugh talk? I haven't heard Frank McHugh, but I've heard of Clark uh clark clark gable was that it oh clark gable of course from gone with the wind right yeah was it clark no no no was it is it not clark gable i'm i'm screwing up my my trivia thank god for phones we're exposing you eric i'll have to fix this and that's fine i mean like i need it i need you know you gotta keep okay well while you think of that here let me tell you that okay so frank mcc, for those who don't know, and that's most people listening,

he was often like a, he was a supporting actor in the 1930s. And his voice was kind of described as like New York Irish. And I couldn't find a lot of Frank online, but I found a little bit. So I'm going to just play like 10 seconds, maybe actually four seconds of Frank. Here we go. I have to pack and unpack that lingerie many more times. I'll turn into a big sissy. Okay, so did you hear that?

Yeah, yeah. So that's a little Frank. And apparently Tex Avery wanted some Frank McHugh in the voice of Bugs. In the performance? Yeah, that's what some crack research has uncovered here. Clark Gable in It Happened One Night, there's a famous scene where he's,

you could probably hit it up on YouTube, but there's a scene where he's eating a carrot. And he's probably talking like Bugs. And to be honest, in that scene, he kind of looks like Bugs with his big ears. You think it's simple, huh? No. Well, it is simple.

It's all that old thumb, see? Yeah no no well it's simple it's all that old thumb see yeah now some people do it like this or like this all wrong never get anywhere oh the poor thing yeah boy but that old thumb never failed it's all matter how you do it though you know now you take number one for instance that's a short jerky movement like this that shows independence you don't care whether it's top or not you got money in your pocket see clever yeah but number two that's a little wider movement smile goes with this one like this see that to me that means you got a brand new story about the farmer you know doc every time man you know he's trying to get one over on someone you know he's always eating duck i actually in my audition yeah uh i'll have to send it to you or

like the small excerpt of it i actually am eating carrots in my audition when i auditioned for bugs there's a moment where it's a direct callback from um a short where he's reading about gremlins and how they destroy technology uh gremlins are uh you know and that was back before he was like more like this it was more like uh you know a very it's almost reminiscent of peter griffin uh from family guy you know almost like this but uh gremlins uh like to destroy automobiles that's a bunch of horse eggs and while i was reading all that i was eating uh baby carrots in my audition. Apparently, Mel was allergic to carrots, so he would actually eat

celery, and sometimes carrots, and then he would spit it out right away, but you know, almost all the time, when we're in session, I will ask for a small, like, you know, cup of baby carrots in case he is eating, and yeah, I mean,

if you listen to Clark Gable with a mouthful of carrots, Doc, you know, that's like Bugs Bunny, Doc. What's up, Jack? You know, it's everything that adds to that character. Oh, again, man, you got this role. Like, I just sometimes have to, even during this little conversation,

like I'm talking to Bugs Bunny. Like, is there a bigger role in the world of animation? Like, is there? I mean, you know, unless you count Mickey. Oh, boy. You know, I don't think I could do that one anymore. Conflict of interest. But, I mean, come on.

Let's be honest here. I mean, Mickey's Mickey. No disrespect to Mickey. But, I mean, we're about to see the reboot of Space Jam with LeBron James. I think in terms of generations being familiar or wanting to see a character, I think this is the biggest role in animation, Bugs Bunny, I would say. Yeah, he sold a lot of shoes, let's put it that way, for Nike and the Jordan company, the Jordan brand.

You're talking about a kid who would often run down the stairs of Kennedy Station just to catch a glimpse of those promo posters for Space Jam. It was like these really cool, slick, you know, the only two colors on the poster were red and black, and the characters were in silhouette, and the background was red. And I'm telling you, from like one side of the platform all the way to the end of the subway platform had like tweety daffy all the monsters jordan bugs you know everyone sylvester they all had a poster newman has had a poster wayne knight hi there michael we're late for the game we gotta get your jordans and your big mac oh speaking of uh jurassic park i know you referenced it earlier another great way wait wait so i almost feel bad

for you though scarborough uh eric because you only have the one station right like it's like we have a lot i'm in etobicoke right now and there's uh let me do that i would do the mali you got old mill you got uh kipling you got islington there's three stations in etobicoke that's right we get the one and that's all we need we have we have the lrt though we have the midland lrt which was was right by the recycling plant so every time the doors would open it always smelled like someone cut one so before we talk about you know space jam and some of the other amazing characters that you do uh let's just go retro styles.

Let's go back since you're a Toronto guy and this will give you an opportunity because I know you've got a, like a, like a business tied to retro. But when I first saw, like, I think it was about a week ago, I saw you did some media piece and you were wearing in this video I

watched, which is really why I reached out because I said, Oh my God, he's from Toronto. I had no idea. You were wearing a Mr. Dress up shirt. And I mean, this is Toronto Mike. I'm a nostalgia merchant, okay? This is what we do on this show. I can't wait to talk about this episode on our Pandemic Friday recording on Thursday night. Like this is what we do. In fact, oh, so many things,

like an overload. i'm about to explode here but let's start with the fact that like like like the mr dress-up shirt right now you're wearing a hilarious house of freidenstein shirt like this is right in my wheelhouse tell me about the biz and then let's talk a little more about like retro toronto stuff i love that shit so again i grew up in toronto in the 80s and i was born in 1979 right uh downtown i think saint joseph's and i live i'm born in saint joe's but we don't call that downtown though that's uh really okay parkdale uh please thank you thank you for correcting my geometry there the the geography sorry of where everything is it's very important um that was it i was you know

on jameson. That was, I lived in some of those apartments there. And then we moved to Scarborough, right by Corvette park, Alfred's and sons. Here's the thing that I miss the most about Toronto is the fish and chips. You can't, I was in England and I had fish and chips and it sucked compared to Toronto's fish and chips. And Alfred, Sons was like the best. It was, I was like on Linden Avenue in Scarborough by Corvette Park.

There was like a pizza Nova around the corner or gold. Was it pizza Nova or golden pizza? I don't know. But so many different like, you know, places to eat and just the culture itself. I grew up watching, I'd say that Mr. Dress-Up was one of the best. There was Parlez-Moi with Saul, the hobo clown who used to scare the crap out of me as a child. Yeah, on TVO, yeah. Cucumber Club, of course, Polka Dot Door, today's special.

Absolutely. You know, there are so many things that I grew up watching. Hilarious House of Freightenstein. The Librarian was the freakiest character to ever be considered a child entertainer. And then there was, you know, of course, Looney Tunes, always Looney Tunes in the background. And then there was, you know, of course, Looney Tunes, always Looney Tunes in the background. But Toronto, oh my gosh, SCTV, Kids in the Hall. But SCTV, that program alone for me was like,

I would be obsessed with these actors who could play not only original characters, but would pull off the most absurd impressions. You know, John Candy as Hervé Villachez. only original characters but would pull off the most absurd impressions uh you know john candy as hervey village as you know i mean so many people okay tell me this then when you're in california and all of a sudden everyone's talking about schitt's creek and it's like it wins all the emmys and they're like yeah like what's it like for you are you like are you sort of like uh able to tell your american friends like oh yeah cat you know catherine o'hara and uh you know it's all about uh eugene levy i mean if we're going to talk about schitt's creek we have to talk about eugene levy i love the guy you know uh

aside from the guy who played the dad in american pie you know he was uh Bobby Bittman, as well as was he Earl Cannon Bear? I forget. You know? Yes, yes, he was. He was one of my favorites. And that's also in the same wheelhouse as my Dan Aykroyd impression. Yes. Also a guy who loves the supernatural. He wrote Ghostbusters, and I caught a glimpse

of him at the Ghostbusters Fest at Sony Studios very much. Thank you very much. But, you know, I love Eugene Levy. he's one of my favorites yeah what a guy uh but and then schitt's creek just comes in and just destroys everyone you know like wow do you feel this sense of pride like you know this is a toronto thing absolutely and it's it's i feel like now more than ever uh this you know lo Tunes cartoons premiered in, uh, March and you know what else premiered in March COVID. So there wasn't a lot of, everyone loves the COVID show, but, uh, God, I hate COVID, but, uh, it's a COVID, you know? Um,

but it took over everything. Nothing was, was important. Like the biggest news that Looney Tunes cartoons got was that it was beating uh reruns of Game of Thrones and Sopranos it was the number one watch and continued to be throughout the year the number one watched thing on HBO Max wow uh you know and that was great and I I I love that I was always proud of that show but no one really cared that I was this new voice of Bugs Bunny until December when people were sick of COVID. And I had a dear friend of mine who is an editor, 17 years at the National on CBC. Sure, okay. Jenna McGinn.

She's the one that was like, you know what? They keep asking me to do like non-covid related stories and i've been dying like you know ever since march i've wanted you know we graduated in 2001 at the bell center centennial we were at papen mortimer uh the bell center campus the original shooting location of degrassi junior high oh my god yeah joey jeremiah was at my graduation i was gonna say i just had joey just had Joey Jeremiah on Toronto Mic four weeks ago. He will only be known as Joey Jeremiah. Oh, that's it.

And you know what? No joke. And you can listen back and see. I know his name is Pat, okay? Yeah. But at least twice during that conversation, I accidentally call him Joey, which would be like if I started calling you Bugs, right? Oh, that's fine.

I wouldn't care. And I'm sure he doesn't either. I mean, we're talking about a character that, you know, from Canadian pop culture that has stood... We're talking about the power of Pat. The zit remedy, man. I still kick out everybody wants something, you know? Come on. I know you're aware of everything but the the the true tragedy of course is when you stop down and think about what happened to the uh to not only wheels the character which is a tragic character but the character the actor

who plays wheels like we can never have a zit remedy reunion right right it's tough it's a tough pill to swallow but uh at the same time we we can pay homage and tribute. And that's what Retro Kid is. That's the company that- Oh, yeah. So Retro Kid. Tell me about Retro Kid. So my high school friend and I, Steve Gaskin, best friends since high school, still best friends. We love graphic t-shirts. I was, again, a child of the 90s. I would wear Bart Simpson shirts. People would laugh and be like yeah you know that's it's a little nerdy but nowadays you walk into a room with something like this on and people just want to like this glows in the dark by the way we made sure that this glows in the dark well i love it that's good to tell people who are listening on the podcast the hilarious house of frightenstein the words uh glow in the dark amazing amazing well one of a fully licensed product, by the way, none of our stuff is bootleg. We contact,

you know, people we've worked with TVO and I mean, TVO doesn't work with anyone. Talk to me about this. Cause you know, Ed Conroy from retro Ontario is a frequent guest on this program. And we play, you know,

he'll come. In fact, this is the first Christmas in many years. We won't be doing a Christmas crackers volume because we're being very safe. And he doesn't, he doesn't want to do it on zoom because he says he can't capture that magic. And I appreciate that. So we'll do it when we can,

but, uh, we play retro Ontario himself has been one of our biggest supporters. I'll bet entered the scene. We've contacted him. We're friends. We do contests with him. Uh,

he is, he is a, you know, the access of the, the vault that he has is insane and um you know hopefully working our way towards an electric circus t-shirts or uh you know speakers corner t-shirt uh you know okay i don't know if you can see that okay but that's an electric circus beer that we brewed at the local craft brewery is a great lakes brewery and the guy on the cover and you let me think yeah you'll be i'm doing your math and you'll be fine with

this it's do you know who that is on the cover is the guy with the cowboy hat which was the well it's the cowboy who's the electric circus dancer and here's a fun fact i can share with you which i hope you don't know because it'll be more fun but his name is uh k pompey this dancer and he is the father of former toronto blue jay uh uh pompey dalton pompey so dalton pompey's dad was the cowboy on and this beer which they brewed with permission from the cowboys so the folks at great lakes actually reached out but uh It was brewed because basically Great Lakes sponsors Toronto Mic'd. I had on Joel Goldberg

who, by the way, ready for this? Joel Goldberg who's one of the creators of Electric Circus and is a great FOTM like you are now. He also, by the way, here. Alright. Okay. Oh my god! He also directed the video for maestro fresh west's let your

backbone slide oh really yeah only the best song ever to come out of to that is signed you got to put that in a frame my friend unless you play the vinyl off and i don't know i don't even have anything to play the vinyl on i'm sure they have something at urban outfitters all over the place. I'm sure they have something at Urban Outfitters. All over the place, but the bottom line is retrofit, so people like me can buy these licensed prints. Oh, yeah. RetroKid.ca.

We've done... We did this... The first round we did was... I kind of like to call it the out of business businesses. So we did a, this was before the Byway announced their comeback. So we did a Byway shirt. We did Beaver Lumber. We did Bargain Heralds. We did Wolko. We did, gosh, we did Video 99. gosh, we did video 99, uh, not jumbo video, but we did, I was a huge video 99 guy. Um, you know, I wanted to do consumers distributing. My idea for consumers distributing would be the Royal blue long sleeve with the logo consumers distributing down one sleeve. And then the pencil, just that, that little pencil that you would have to use. You have no idea how like targeted you are in the wheelhouse here

that we talk about consumers distributing all the time but i gotta go back to byway okay yeah oh yeah absolutely please byway which has come up on probably 200 episodes of channel mic uh so there's actually in my hood there's a rogue byway like it so so that's where you live by the rogue byway i live by the rogue byway in fact if you google rogue byway i'm the guy who wrote about it and and has the seo juice if you will i'm the i'm the rogue byway man not to brag here i'm the rogue byway man uh cam gordon from twitter canada who joins stew stone uh who i'm going to talk to you about in just a moment uh on these pandemic friday episodes he once gifted me because he knows about my love

of byway nostalgia if you will he gifted me a byway bag and then i tweeted like this byway bag and it started showing up in all those like mainstream article yeah so that's my byway bag that i did because that's the the one thing that i researched there was like of course there's a ton of byway commercials but i wanted that the one that had the checker print Byway, and then I did the circle above that. So if I want a Byway shirt, retrokid.com? Is that what it is? .ca. Retrokid.ca.

Retrokid.ca will sell me a Byway shirt? I don't know. I was going to get my wallet. I was going to just say, take it. Take it all. Here's the thing. We've done two rounds of it and they've sold out every time. And we don't want to get in trouble now that we're out of the cats out of the bag.

However, I have the design. I have a direct-to-printer here in LA. I will custom make a one-of-one byway shirt. Or do you want a hoodie? I'll make you a hoodie. Oh, a medium t-shirt. Are you kidding me? Yeah, no, no, I'm not kidding you.

I design, I design all the shirts. I do all the digital cleanup because you know, everything's from scratch because no one in Toronto saves anything. Every, every design that you've seen, like for instance, everything from Mr. Dress up to uh you know that casey and finnegan shirt oh i did i designed okay i love it i just want i collect a lot of this crap now because it's because the uh the talk in baseball 10th anniversary blue j uh anyway uh

okay the byway shirt medium would be so amazing i don't even know like what to say but i'm right i'm writing down in order. Throw out a mic. Byway medium. Okay, but before I forget, because Stu Stone will kill me if I don't mention this. So I mentioned Stu Stone. The man was in Donnie Darko. He was Ralphie in the Magic School Bus.

He's done his own cartoon voiceover. Become a very good friend because I've spent the last 40 weeks with him in my backyard because we've been doing these Pandemic Friday episodes since the pandemic struck. So his dad, oh, there's a documentary you've got to find called Jack of All Trades. And Stu Stone directed it. And it's about his dad, his estranged father, who sadly passed away this summer, actually. But his estranged father, Jack, used to own and operate Sluggers. Sluggers was a Toronto store that dealt baseball cards and sports memorabilia.

Where was it located? They're North York, guys. So I want to say North York. But I'm Googling. But there's a very, in fact, in the most recent, see how excited I am to talk to you, the most recent stone movie which is called faking a murderer uh he wears a retro sluggers shirt in this and we were chatting about you coming on and he said he would absolutely love uh and he's i think he owns like the copyright or whatever but like if you produce slugger shirts like we could we could

sell slugger shirts just to listeners of Toronto Mic'd. That's how popular this is. I feel like if we did a limited run, it would be our pleasure. I'll have to forward that info to Steve. If you guys want to collaborate on something. Yeah, I would love to. If I put you in touch with Stu, you should see his IMDB page. It's quite impressive.

That man did a rap album of Jamie Kennedy that sold 300,000 copies that's the dream right there, Jamie Kennedy is awesome he's still around and kicking and doing all sorts of stuff and an amazing voice talent himself oh my god, and I'm going to

shortly, so I showed you, this is how it all connects, that's the whole thing here I showed you the Maestro Fresh West 12 inch I'm about to bring up somebody else who had an album out uh similar event and similar vintage uh who's out in california doing voiceover work i'm going to bring him up in a minute so uh okay so the sluggers i just want to make sure i brought that up i'm going to put you in touch with stew stone retro kid.ca sounds like a catnip to me. Like that sounds like heaven, man. The Byway shirt, like I'd wear it in every photo I take. It would be like, I would never wash it. We've had Russell Peters wear the Byway shirt. We had Cardinal Ophichel wear the Byway shirt.

You know, we would love to have you dressed Eric McCormick online. Like, you know, I brought up Hilarious House of Frightened Slang to Paul Myers, who I believe is. He's in California. Yeah. Brothers with Mike. Yes, he is. And he's at Kids in the Hall. He wrote the book on Kids in the Hall.

Yeah. I used to be neighbors with Dave Foley. Like, he would always be like, hey, Toronto. Like, I would have my blue. I always wore a Blue Jays hat. Now I'm on to the Raptors gear. Love it. You know, I just I haven't told LeBron that.

But hey, you remember when you sweeped us two years in a row? Man, I forgot about it. Really, I don't hold grudges. But yeah, Retro Kid is amazing. We did TVO. We did Inspect Your Gadget, which is a Canadian co-production. Right. And then recently we did CBC, which had the raccoons as well as Mr. Dress Up.

Okay, Stu Stone did a voice on the raccoons. Oh, you're kidding me. Well, there you go. I mean, like, it all comes full circle. Okay, so raccoons, Mr. Dress Up. Who else you got on that CBC list? We just did the classic CBC hoodie. It had the CBC gem.

And then, you know, we're hoping to do a second series. I'm hoping to produce a really good David Suzuki T-shirt, The Nature of Things. All I want is the hair, the glasses, and then the beard. That's all I want on the shirt. I love it. I love it. Honestly, this is amazing stuff. And now I just checked the clock.

Like, I know you don't have like all night for me here and i have so many other little things i gotta get to here but uh did i read correctly that you had a at least for a little while you were a stand-up comic uh you know who's the one that was trying to get me on stage and actually maybe one of the first guys was uh you know a very tall gentleman by the name of harlan will. He was like, hey, Bowser, you're a funny guy. You should just get up there, you know, just, and I'm like, Harlan, I'm not like you. I watched Harlan and another friend of mine, Carlos Elazraqui. He was the voice of the Taco Bell Chihuahua, as well as Rocco from Rocco's Modern Life on Nickelodeon. And also recently, you know, he's one of the main cast members on Reno 911.

He plays Garcia. But he was also, you know, another guy along with Harlan that was like, I would watch them do stand up comedy back to back sets, same jokes, but different audiences, which made them completely different sets. You know, like Harlan is a master of just, different sets you know like harland is a master of just you know callbacks and you ever you ever go home and uh run around and put lettuce in your hair and pretend you're a lettuce monster and then people would be like no and he's like you will his jokes are amazing they're just like really fast and just so like you know they're thinkers, but not really. They just go in and out. You get a laugh. He's like, you know, like a Rodney Dangerfield type.

He'd fit like 500 jokes in a minute. And I miss him dearly. And another cartoonist, though, he has a show on Disney Junior. Harlan Williams, the guy that drank pee from a beer bottle in Dumb and Dumber has a children's show on Disney Junior called Puppy Dog Pals, which happens to be one of the most watched. You know, yeah, they're puppies and they do their business on the paper. That's what he says. They do their business.

Great cameo in the There's Something About Mary as well for Harlan. Oh, my God. You know, six minute abs. Oh, it's great. And I got to just shout out Harlan Williams. He's my, okay, so my favorite iteration of Ed the Sock ever was when he had Harlan Williams as his co-host on Cable 10. That was my favorite.

Yeah, Ed the Sock, man, when he had the hot tub, when he was in the hot tub on City. God, there's so much good stuff that has come out of Canada. And, you know, I'm happy to remind people of that always because I'm very proud to be from Toronto. guitar solo Something's a-hanging down on the boneyard street Something's a-hanging down on the boneyard tree Little girl, I love you so much Why are you going to give away your touch There's something that's hanging down on the boneyard tree

I just don't know how all this came to be I don't know how all of these states are free You see, I say so I can't sound in God's house So I see me windows backseat I wish Eric was home in Toronto because I'd give him some Great Lakes beer. That's right, I'd give him a six-pack of fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery here in southern Etobicoke.

I'd also give him a frozen meat lasagna from Palma Pasta because that's how we roll on Toronto Mic'd. I'd give him a Toronto Mic'd sticker, courtesy of StickerU. Go to StickerU.com, upload your image, and make your own stickers or decals or fridge magnets. Do people use fridge magnets anymore? Temporary tattoos, badges. There's so many things you can make at sticker you.com

we're listening to some watchmen here and the drums are fantastic who's on drums you're wondering why it's sammy cone and he's not only a great drummer he's a great real estate professional drumming up results is where you can go right now and take advantage of this amazing limited time offer. Sammy's willing to give you a free drum lesson in exchange for any real estate inquiry. So go to drummingupresults.com, reach out to Sammy, take advantage of the man.

He knows his stuff. Speaking of people who know their stuff, the people at CDN Technologies, they can take care of you. If you have a network, they can be your outsourced IT department. Reach out to Barb Paluskiewicz. It's spelled exactly how it sounds.

Barb at cdntechnologies.com. And thank you Ridley Funeral Home for your excellent support. They're at 3080 Lakeshore. That's at 14th Street. Pay tribute without paying a fortune. You can learn more at ridleyfuneralhome.com. Still a great jam. Now back to Eric. We'll see you next time. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, All right, so I know you did some voices for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, right?

Yep, I voiced Leonardo. I voiced Donatello. And I voiced Master Splinter. And an original character named Tigerclaw, which was basically like, you know, there was Bebop and Rocksteady who would always mess up for Shredder and then Tiger Claw was this like Yakuza you know sniper and like

you know, gangster and he was no nonsense he was like the Moe if Bebop and Rocksteady were Larry and Curly he was Moe Alright, here's the question for you Eric did you ever own the Coming Out of Their Shells album that was distributed by Pizza Hut?

That is a big proud... I never owned it, but I always wanted it. Did it come with a meal? I think it was $3.99 or something with some kind of a bundle.

See, I only discovered it like after the fact. And I have it now because of YouTube. Thank you, YouTube. But it's really good. Like it doesn't have any business being that good. And I don't know if that's the nostalgia or whatever. I played it recently on Toronto Mic. And I just wondered if you actually were lucky enough to own a copy of

coming out. I did not own it, but I'll tell you there's a toy company by the name of NECA, N E C A or C C A. There is, I got a shout out, a Canadian, a fellow Canadian,

one of their top sculptors, Trevor Zamet. If you, if you see him, look him up on Instagram. He sculpted almost all of the gremlins from Gremlins 1 and 2. He sculpted all of the theatrical Ninja Turtles toys, like all those giant ones that are like, it looks like the movie.

And I think they did a coming out of their shelves version of the toy. And, you know, maybe I could try to find one for you. Oh, man, I just think it's way who's your favorite ninja turtle uh probably michael because i'm a mike so i always like mikey and also i love pizza but i mean they all love pizza but mikey really loved his pizza if if one exists along with a byway shirt i will be i will be sending you a michelangelo coming out of their shells action figure along with your byway t-shirt. You know, that's what we do at retro kid is like, wow.

You, you've sacrificed time for me. The least I could do is clutter your studio. Dude, I'm not even recording this. I just wanted to chat up bugs bunny. Okay. This is amazing.

This is going to be the biggest cold open. I swear. Okay. So, and I do have some space jam questions, i'll save them i want to know uh basically here's the guy i was talking so i mentioned maestro fresh west i love like i just love rap anyway but i love canadian rap like i just love the origin of canadian rap and mishimi and maestro and i love kish okay yeah andrew kish. Right. So I was when, when the, when the COVID hit and I had to pivot to zoom, I figured, well,

if I'm going to do zoom now is a chance to pick up some guests I've wanted on for a long time that are, you know, not, don't live in the GTA and can't wander over to my home studio here. So Kish was one of my first calls there and Kish was fantastic. So I had Kish on and I'm wondering, did you ever work with kish on any projects we worked together uh together and not together we were on the the uh i believe it was wonder con panel to advertise batman versus teenage mutant ninja turtles it was a direct to dvd

feature film which was backed by warner brothers and Nickelodeon the current owners of TMNT and it was awesome it it generated toys uh where you know we're living in an age where kids love the digital games they hardly you know make tangible toys and it I have my own Leonardo action figure from that and Andrew Cascino uh you know top tier voiceover artist here in la was the voice of uh shredder right which is amazing uh we didn't get to share booth time actually they were this one did you have a private convo because you're both uh from scarborough oh yeah we've we've we've also shared uh characters like storm shadow uh I played Storm Shadow in a one-off called G.I. Joe Resolute. It was Hasbro's attempt to bring G.I. Joe to the 14 and up generation and audience. So there was,

people died, there were bullets, there was blood. I have a photo with myself, Andrew Cascino, and Keone Young, who played the original Storm Shadow in the very first 80s G.I. Joe. So it's like three different Storm Shadows in one photo. And Andrew is amazing. He's, again, another genuine article from Toronto. He's great. And on his most excellent album, Order from Chaos, on the song, She's a Flirt, Let's Do It, which got high rotation on MuchMusic. Lucy from Degrassi is one of the stars of the video. Oh, you're kidding me.

Anais Granovski. Yeah, so go to YouTube later and look up She's a Flirt, Let's Do It. And he also revealed to me, Kish, that for that album, which I own, so I paid like, I think I paid like 16 or 17 bucks for it at sam the record man uh i think he like he got like uh pennies literally received pennies for that album

which explains why he's in california right now doing cartoon and video game voiceover work so but you know i you know and i i don't want to get political here but it's like when i decided to make the move it was yeah because the the idea and prospect of making residuals versus being a canadian voice actor where you only get the buyout rate which is fine you know but at the time there wasn't a lot being produced in the in toronto however every time in of course when i say every time the non-pandemic years before this one every time i would visit, I would turn the TV on. And oh, my God, the amount of original animation that's being produced right now in Toronto and in Vancouver, you know, co-productions or homegrown is insane.

And, you know, I talked to Cree Summer, who was the original voice of Penny from Inspector Gadget. talked to Cree Summer, who was the original voice of Penny from Inspector Gadget. And I talked to Tara Strong, who is there right now in Toronto filming a TV show. She's been there since September. We're like, man, should we move back? Like, is it enough for us to move back? Could we move back? I mean, maybe they're talented enough to move back, but I'm just like, I'm Bugs Bunny here in America. I ain't moving. not until they fire me again. And again, however many remakes it takes for me to leave. And you can't handle our winters anymore anyways, right? I would be a baby.

I would be in the basement sucking my thumb. I've lived through two Ottawa winters, so let's put it into perspective. Yeah, a long, long time ago. But again, this is the Stu show. He'll love this. But he's he's a toronto guy north york guy and then he uh moved to la for his career because he was in donnie darko and all these things and now he's back and i see him out there on my uh in my backyard when it's like two or three degrees and he's literally shivering while cam and i are like we're balmy you know it's just he's been ruined la while Cam and I are like, we're balmy. You know, it's just, he's been ruined.

LA has ruined the man. So, uh, It's the desert climate. It changes you forever. I don't know. Now you, uh, you mentioned Billy West earlier because he was a voice of, uh, bugs on the original Space Jam. And now you're the voice of bugs in the new Space Jam.

Uh, but you're also Stimpy, right? And there's a, there's a, tell me, cause I loved it. I know it's problematic now, but.'re also Stimpy, right? Tell me, because I loved it. I know it's problematic now. Oh yeah, very problematic. Even when it wasn't, it was, because I was there and I saw some stuff and witnessed

that aspect of the Me Too movement as far as... And this is where it gets like, I don't want to get too deep. And to be perfectly honest, no one's ever asked me about it. And I'm surprised. But since you brought it up. Because John Kay, right, has been allegations that are out there.

Yeah, but I can confirm at least, you know, as far as, you know, in a position of power, not just when it comes to females, but males in general, it's tough. It's tough because, you know, I saw people like grown men and women cry over getting stuff approved. And it shouldn't be that hard. It's cartoons. Even the greatest cartoons that were ever made, likeoney tunes or disney you look at them and none of them are ever perfect there are still some scenes that are like that could have been better

right but no one no one lost sleep over it or or or at least as far as i know or no one you know had a mental breakdown over it or or or there was no, um, you know, animosity stirred up from nothing, you know, like I would see people get pit against each other, friendships lost for no reason, you know, like, and that's what I'm talking about. It's like, it's that weird, like power play. And I was never a huge fan of it, you know, and, and, and it was something that I recognized and kind of moved on from immediately. And, you know, like, kind of, you know, Billy West and I are friends. You know, I love him. He's an inspiration. And, you know, we've never really talked much about that part of both of our pasts. But, you know, I never had any ill will towards him taking over that voice. In fact, I was not even

like the second choice after they had approached Billy about doing it. And he knew better. He was like, no, thanks. You know, he was, he was already Fry on Futurama as well as the Red M&M. He didn't need to be part of a reboot that was, you know, it was like being on board the Titanic. It's like the ship is sinking. But, you know, it was for me, it was like I was the third or fourth choice after they went to plan B and that didn't work. They went to plan C, which was they were going to make Stimpy a mute character. And then they're like, anyone in the studio wanted to ask the product, the production manager. I was, I wasn't even an artist yet. I was a production manager. That just goes to show you, you know, how, how, you know, how,

how this guy, you know, John would, would dangle carrots in front of people. Like, Oh, you want to do that? Well, make sure that everything's organized first. And then maybe we'll, we'll see if you're good enough to do voices. And it was like tough, you know, like here's a guy that, you know, created an amazing show that impacted the industry as a whole and humor as a whole.

And then you really find out what kind of person he is and it is a really sad thing. And I feel awful for the people that he's, you know, really had an adverse effect on. And I hope that they recover from it. But yeah, it's strange. It is a strange situation. uh i'm i'm in a much better place now and and you know the only thing that i could be thankful for was that i've the friendships that i made working at that studio uh the people that left that studio went on to greater things and um you know you go to a different studio after being in a boot camp like that and you're like, my God, they have bagel Friday here. You know, like they, they treat their employees nice here. My Lord, you know, like it's, it's,

it's amazing how you're put in the, you know, you're in the trenches and then, you know, the grass is always greener on the other side. I think my, my son is home. Oh, in the homestretch here, in the homestretch here, by the way, I'm shocked that when you do your five minute uh appearance on cp24 they don't just ask you random stimpy questions like i'm shocked that that's not happening you know but but you're you're you're of a different breed my friend you are you are the real journalist you are digging deep we do deep dives here uh okay so in fact speaking of deep dives uh my oldest son so you've got the four-year-old there. I have an 18-year-old who can legally drink in like five weeks.

I think we did the math. Five weeks he can legally drink. Yeah, it's coming soon. And I mean, it's blowing my mind, but he's in university and I was just chatting with him earlier and we were talking when we were young, when we were young, when he was younger, we used to watch this show called The Ripping Friends. Yes. Okay.

And I personally gravitated towards The Ripping Friends, and he loved it too. But I loved it because it had the voice of Mark Daly in it. Mark Daly. The voice. But even before Mark Daly, Harvey Atkin, the voice of Leon's. Of course. Who was the original voice of Craig, one of the leader of the ripping friends and then uh yeah and mike mcdonald's in there yeah another another legend and i got to meet

mike mcdonald and you know he was he was a great guy a true blue collar canadian stand standup comic. And, uh, uh, again, I was working at a studio called Cambium, which was responsible for Sharon Lois and Bram, the elephant show. I would, I would, uh, walk by this gentleman's office every, and I was like, I was again, a production assistant. I was, I was sorting checks and mail and, and keeping track of the art on Ripping Friends. But I would always often walk by an office

who was occupied, this guy, Larry Markin was his name. And just a high bye in the morning. Hi, Larry. Bye, Larry. Going home, Larry. You know, like Sam and Ralph on Looney Tunes, the wolf and the sheep dog. Hi, Sam.

Hi, Ralph. You know, it was like that until my last day of work when I actually stepped into his office to say goodbye. And the entire wall was decorated with nominations for the show Fraggle Rock. Ah, which was filmed here. Which was filmed in Toronto while Jim Henson and the Henson Company, while he was in England. Larry showed me old telegraphs and the very first version of email that he would be getting course. He's like, this is like when email was like, you know, was carrier pigeon.

And I was like, this whole time I could have been talking to you about fraggle rock and only on my last day of work this like you know literally a humble guy and uh but um yeah annette frimer and arnie zapersky over at cambium i don't know they're probably still there and you know that's that's another one that i would love to uh get on a shirt is that spider that goes this has been a cambium production you know like that little spider so so before i know before i let you go what was it like working with the voice i mean we talked about city tv i love the characters from city tv i work with a bunch of them now i gotta know what it was like uh working on a show with mark daly

well i mean again you're talking to uh from one uh super hardcore uh toronto trivia canadian to another i was floored when when i i heard he was gonna be on the show and i i tried really hard to get in there i only caught a caught a glimpse of him like once. But, you know, I made him say it's City TV everywhere. Well, here, let me find this. I play this on Pandemic Friday sometime. Let me see if I have it loaded up here. Okay, let's only take a few seconds here.

The following program contains adult themes, nudity, and coarse language. Viewer and parental discretion is advised. So what I want to do with RetroK kid is do the late great movies t-shirt and have that film reel spaceship but then on the back have that disclaimer like on the back of the shirt absolutely that's my dream shirt but uh but yeah uh i mean we could i know we could talk okay forever and i don't want to know at some point if you ever want to shoot the breeze on this stuff uh drop me a note because we we should do a sequel we have so much to do

but can i ask you lastly about uh because because i'm married to a filipino canadian okay and part of the fun of that is that i'm i'm very aware of famous filipinos like oh the guy in black eyed peas or the woman in the pussycat dolls like i i know where the filipinos are okay we're scattered around the universe we're we're a very endangered species the filipino right or it'll be like oh this uh anchor on cp24 or this this person who you know doing the raptor chris reyes who's doing raptors this that anyway uh you are also Filipino-Canadian. And big news in animation lately, for example, a character like Cleveland in Family Guy,

who is a black character voiced by a white guy. Or Apu in The Simpsons. A lot of voices in The Simpsons, actually, that Hank Azaria would do, or other white actors. But then they said, okay, from now on, no white people are doing voices for people of color, characters color so i guess a couple of questions here but one is what do you think of that uh like was that important to you yeah here's the thing it's it it really does uh you know because i've i've been guilty of it before myself you know i'm the voice match for antonio banderas for push and mooch you know there is a very way a very specific way that been guilty of it before myself. You know, I'm the voice match for Antonio Banderas for Pusit

Boots, you know. There is a very way, a very specific way that he speaks when he does this voice. And I equate it to how my parents speak with the Filipino accent from Toronto. You know, when, Eric, when you come back home to Scarborough, you have to go to the cemetery and visit your grandmother, you know. And I'm like, what, the cemetery? And they're like, that's what I said, the cemetery. You know, when you hear Antonio speak, it's not like I'm hearing any kind of, like I'm hearing an accent from, you know, his descent. But what I'm hearing is my parents trying to sound

less Filipino and more Caucasian. And that's where I think the charm of someone like Antonio's accent comes into play. And if you've ever seen him in the booth, he is having the time of his life. There is a very special video that they did to promote Puss in Boots. And it's basically Antonio Banderas over at LA Studios. You could tell by the chairs. And he is going through lines from the movie.

Like he'll do three takes for every line. And it's the most amazing thing. He's having so much fun. When I voiced that character for DreamWorks for about five seasons on Netflix, it was, again, less about the accent and more about the unpredictability of where the accent lies with Antonio.

Because there are reads that he does that you would never guess in a million years how to read it the way he does it, because that's just who he is. But as far as representation, of course, I applaud it. I applaud opportunity for people that may not have had the opportunity to do something. voiceover because, you know, when, when, you know, I'm not trying to defend Mike Henry in any way, because he stepped down from the role of Cleveland voluntarily in an effort to be more conscious about that, which is amazing. But when I hear Cleveland, I don't hear like, he's not doing stereotypes. He's not, he's not doing like blackface offensive stereotypes he's doing a specific like something that

something in his life where like he met someone someone specific that it sounds like a very specific tone you know but then there are voices on something like the simpsons where it's like you know they they even made a joke about it where it's like you know we do stereotypes and then they had the italian pizza guy come in they had like the pirate guy come in they had the you know the dojo instructor come in and say their one catchphrase the bumblebee guy um but people often forget the main characters of the simpsons are the all-american white family that are ultimately being spoofed. So voices of color, people of color being represented, yes, I applaud it. But I feel like still, like, I hope that we get back to that

point in our lives and in our society. I think we need to address the important heavy stuff now that is killing people on the streets, yes. But I hope that we can get back to a place in comedy where we can still laugh at ourselves and make fun of ourselves. And I feel like that's a huge part of who we are as Torontonians. We're big self-deprecators. I'm a huge fan of Conan O'Brien

because of how much self-deprecation he does. And it's like, that's me. Like I'm, you know, like my joke is like, you're going to look at like this, like long line of white voice actors that have voice bugs, buddy. And you're going to end up on the kid from up, you know, I look like Russell from up, you know, like that's a joke you're laughing. And I said it because I know it's funny and it's, and it's true visually. It's a, it's funny. And you know, you know, people can be like, Oh my God, like, Oh, Oh yeah. Oh, he's Asian. And it, but it's true. Visually, it's funny. And, you know, people can be like, oh, my God. Like, oh, yeah. Oh, he's Asian. But it's like, yeah, who cares? You know, like, I don't want it to be like a crutch. Like, oh, just because I'm Asian, now I'm the voice of Bugs Bunny. No, no one really thought about it. But now they're looking at it going, oh, my God, like, he's Filipino and he's the voice of Bugs Bunny. It's a proud moment for Filipinos, but I don't think it's something that we were suffering from. It's not like the Filipinos are like, we need to be the voice of Looney Tunes.

You know, like I think they're celebrating it in a different way, not in a way that we were repressed. And I feel like you can ask your wife this. Filipinos, like of all like the, you know, we're South Pacific Islander, but all of all like the people that look like us visually, like the, you know, the Japanese, the Koreans, the Chinese, you know, Indonesian, Thailand, Filipinos have some, for whatever reason, escaped any kind of like ridicule. Like we don't really get made fun of that much. And I don't know why. And I don't, I'm not asking you guys to make fun of us. I'm not, I'm not giving you an open invite to, Hey, come make fun of our people. But I'm just saying we've, we've been pretty good. Uh, as far as it's just kind of like, okay, we've kind of

slid, uh, through racism again. I've, and I've been living here in, in LA for 15 years. Not, not once has anyone ever come up to me and said any kind of racist slur. It's been very strange. But, you know, I'll just say this. These Canadian voice actors, you know, they're coming in here. They're stealing all of our jobs. We've got to do something about this, okay? We've got to make – here's my idea.

We're going to build a wall around Canada. It's going to be made out of poutine, that delicious food. French fries, gravy. I believe they call it Putin, right? I don't know what it is, but I like having it in my mouth. But yeah, I feel like we've got to get rid of these Canadian voice actors. Hi, how are you? She can't hear you.

He says hi. That's Eric. Hey, Eric. Yeah. Monica wants to know, there's Jollibee's in the GTA now. What? Oh, yeah. Well, they had the first Jollibee.

Was that not at Kennedy Commons? The first Jollibee was at Kennedy Commons, right? That was the first Jollibee's. I sound like that's the first. She thinks so, yeah. We're WestEnders here. We don't know what's going on over there, but we think so. I remember seeing the longest line for chicken

like they had to build they had to build tents because the amount of people lined up it was like the first 12 people who got in line would get free chicken for a year at jollybee something like that no i think it was a big deal it was a big deal but eric this was a big deal for me like thanks so much for all this time what a great chat and anytime you want to shoot the breeze again just ping me and we'll jump on zoom and do it it was fun we'll have a part two dory this is not over uh toronto mike at toronto mike fans uh this is uh bugs bonnie signing off that's all folks uh we will we will have our time again and i know that this is the you know we're we're independent. What else are we going to do? Thanks Eric. Honestly, that was great. Thanks buddy.

And that brings us to the end of our 771st show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Eric is at Bauzilla, B-A-U-Z-I-L-L-A. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. CDN Technologies are at CDN Technologies. Sammy Cone is at

Sammy Cone. That's K-O-H-N. And Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley F-H. See you all next week. 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. Because everything is rose and green. Well, you've been under my skin 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 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. Because everything is rosy and gray. Well, I've been told that there's a sucker born every day. Thank you. There's a thousand shades of gray Cause I know that's true, yes I do I know it's true, yeah I know it's true

How about you? All that picking up trash and then putting down rogues And they're brokering stocks, the class struggle explodes And I'll play this guitar This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Rome Phone. Rome Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RomePhone.ca to get started. 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 Chaclacour But I like it much better going down on you Yeah, you know that's true. Because everything is coming up rosy and green. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow warms us today. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine. And it won't go away. Because everything is rosy now

Everything is rosy and Everything is rosy and gray Thank you.