Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Eva Almos: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1895

Episode Date: May 6, 2026

In this 1895th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Eva Almos about her brief time in radio, landing the role of Friend Bear⁠ on Care Bears, her Emmy-nominated writing on Duckman, her work on The Wild Thornberry's, Pinky and the Brain and Wild Kratts, and her recent discovery that she has a sister. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

Hello, I'm Eva Almos, and I'm a TV writer and producer, and I've done a lot of voiceover, including the Care Bears, which I have a feeling we're going to talk about. And I'm so excited to be on the Toronto Mike podcast. Never been more excited. That's what I want to hear. I've never been more excited. Love it. And I believe it. That's how naive I am. And damn right, we're going to talk about the Care Bears. Welcome to episode 1,895 of Toronto Miked, an award-winning podcast. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. Order online at great lakesbeer.com for free local home delivery in the GTA.

Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Visit palmapasta.com for more. Fusion Corpsohn, Nick Aienes. He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline and Mike and Nick, two podcasts that you ought to listen to. Recycle MyElectronics.C.A. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. The Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team, Eva, they play high caliber pro ball at Christy Pits. No ticket required.

I want to see you at the pit this summer. Eva. Okay, I promise. And Ridley Funeral Home. They're pillars of this community since 1921. Joining me today making her Toronto Mike debut. It is indeed Eva. Almos.

Welcome to Toronto mic'd Eva. Thank you so much. I'm so glad to be here. Can we disclose? Oh, I interrupted you mid-sentence there. I was just going to say I'm having fun already. And you said you felt very Canadian down here. What did you mean by that?

Well, just because there's various and sundry things that are very Canadian in here, including you. I am born and raised in Canada. Right. Me too. And there's all kinds of things on the wall, and there's beautiful kitchen things, and maple leaves and and it just is cozy

and it's got all kinds of little playful toy things in here and it's most delightful. Well, you're delightful. We had a coffee, so this is the second time we've met each other. Yes.

And would you mind sharing with the listenership, the TMU, the Toronto Mike's universe? How were we connected? I think that's a fun little small world story. It is. So we share a friend Larry and Arlene Clopott. And you did work with him and you were so kind to him and he had been through so much.

And I was thinking about possibly doing a podcast myself. And he said, you know, I know the guy. It's Toronto Mike. There's nobody better than him. And I believed him. And so... He's an honest man. He is an honest man.

Such a good guy. And then he connected us by way of email. And you were kind enough to meet with me and suggested that. And I thought that was so lovely. And there we sat and had a wonderful coffee. And he said, I want to interview you. I want you to be on my podcast. Right.

So I said, you bet I'm going to do that. Well, to be honest, he had me at Care Bear. Okay? Like, if we're in a universe now where, like, I'm told, okay, you can bike to have coffee with a care bear. And I say, nah, I got other things to do. It means I'm already dead. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. Honestly.

And I don't know, like, am I allowed to ask for the voice off the top? And then we'll get into it and get back to Care Bears later. Absolutely. Absolutely. So actually, the Care Bears was the first animated series that I did in Voiceover. and I was champ bear and Swift Heart Rabbit, also a rabbit, and happy bear. I think that it was happy. I'm not sure.

What about Friend Bear? Friend Bear, that's it. You knew it better than that. It was only 900 years ago. Yes, yes, I totally forgot. So, um, well, Toronto, Mike, there's so nice to be here. I'm friend bear, and already I'm your friend. And it made me so happy to have another.

friend because all of my friends are care bears. So I didn't really have any human friends. And now I do. And I'm so happy. I feel like you're a bit of a jukebox. Like throughout this conversation, because there's a lot of ground to cover that's not care bears. But like I feel like I'm going to periodically ask for friend bear.

I would respect that. I would respect that. And also if you want, because I played Danita Donata on Wildcrats. And she could show up. too. We'll have to see. Oh my god. This is going to be the greatest. I'm so happy right now, but I did pull a clip just a little bit of care bears. And again, this is like teaser stuff. We'll get to it in like chronological order.

But here we go. Hi. Who are you? We're care bears. I'm friend bear. And I'm tender hard. We've come to show you someone cares. We'll always be your friends no matter what happens. Yeah. Can you stop my parents from moving? Well, no. But we can help you feel better. Whenever you see the symbols on our tummies, you know you have a friend.

I don't care. I don't want friends anymore. Besides, it's better not to have any. Kevin, don't say that. Why not? Who cares? Okay, there you go. That guy needs a friend.

He really, really needs a friend. I'm going to call him when we're done. Yeah, seriously. And that man was played by Stu Stone. We'll get to Stu later. Don't even talk about Stu. Let's just wrap up Larry and Arlene here. So for the listenership,

who need me to jog their memories. So Larry is an FOTM. He came on. We talked about his podcast series. Why am I here and he is not? And this was his son. His son's name was Alex, but enjoyed being called LA.

And so I'm calling him L.A. I've got his caps here. I got a Raptor's cap. I got a Blue Jays cap. These belonged to Alex. So this was a very, as you can imagine, very,

uh, what's a very, very, very, very, it's very, very, very,

very, Larry read from his journals that he documented his feelings following the, the sudden passing of his very young son. Uh,

he was in his 30s, I believe, when he died. Yes. So I got to know Larry through this. And just to tie it all together,

I met Larry because the VP of Sales, who's got another name, Tyler Campbell, his dad had lunch, I think, of Larry. They knew each other

from the professional world. And then, Roger Campbell. It sounds like he's from Mad Men. A little bit, yes. Yes, definitely. I'm going to meet Roger Campbell for, like he's an accounts guy with Don Draper or something like that.

Yeah. But anyway, Roger Campbell, who we sang happy birthday two at a TMLX event at Great Lakes Brewery. Love that. That happened. Okay. So Roger told Larry to talk to this guy, Toronto Mike,

who worked with his son, worked in quotes, with his son VP of Sales. That's how he's known. and then Larry and I had a couple of zooms and then he came over and he read his journals and we created a series and then there was this exciting news

that there's now a book. Have you read the book? Have you seen this book? I have read the book and it's amazing and it's powerful and it's heartbreaking and it's got hope and Larry's a terrific writer and early on

when he was doing the journals he would send them to me because he was doing them almost every day right after it happened. And I was just there with him. And, you know, I was so moved by it constantly. And, yeah, so, you know, it just was two years. It was two years ago that he passed. Still, still very, yeah, very recent.

And just to tie, so this book is being launched. And the event to launch Larry's book is being held at the GLB Brew Pub. And Arlene and Larry, basically got introduced to the GLB brew pub because I had a TMLX event, Toronto Mike listener experience, at this location at Jarvis and Queens Key. And they saw it and then they have now booked

their book launch at that venue and I'm going to host. Yes, yay. So you'll be there? I'm going to be there. Okay, we got to get a selfie at the GLB brew pub at the end of the month here. So shout out to Larry.

I'll see you at the end of the month. I got to survive this. that sounds like I'm going to war or something, but I got to survive this one-man show at the Alma combo, which is May 21. So I'm having trouble, I notice basically thinking beyond this date. It's like, oh, yeah, May 21,

I'm doing this show at the Elma combo. Tickets still available. I believe Arlene and Larry are going to be there, actually. Yes. Which is amazing. And, by the way, Arlene, just another TMU fun fact before we move on and learn more, but Eva Almos,

Arlene is essentially the reason Scott Thompson showed up one day. So Scott Thompson's one of the great episodes of Toronto Mike. I even reference it in my one-man show on May 21st. Buy tickets, go to Toronto Mike.com and click Elmo Gig and buy a ticket or two. And I'd love to see you there. But Scott Thompson was basically sent over by his longtime agent, Arlene, who knew me because I was producing her husband, Larry's podcast. Beautiful.

Yeah. Yeah, I know. Scott's great. Scott's great. Yeah. And did you notice the sweater I'm wearing? Kind of. So for Halloween.

Well, my wife was a care bear for Halloween. And she made this sweater. So she bought the sweater and then she made this thing. She was a care bear. So I'm not 100% sure what care bear I am. Does that look familiar to you? Well, you know, it's got the carebear vibe to it because it's got these lovely hearts in it. But it kind of is reminiscent of, and if you ever want to do it,

this is just go care bear stare that would be you know it's it's it's kind of wild to hear that voice come out of you like like when you go to parties and stuff or just meet up with friends do they ask you to do the voice and then they're like oh my god like it's just wild to me i i do get asked a fair amount for different characters that i've played um but i will tell you something really funny years ago. I went on a date with this guy and I had told him that I was a couple of care bears. And so when we sat down on our first date, which was our last date, he said, so you're a care bear, huh? And I'm like, uh-huh. And he said, you know, I really like friend bear. Friend bear's my favorite. And I went, okay. And he said, can you like talk to me tonight, like in that

voice. I knew where that was going. I just wondered how far you would go. I can see that being a kink. It was an enormous kink. And I said, well, do you think we could just talk like normal people, like for a minute? And he said, yeah, okay. Okay, so how you doing? What's coming? Okay, okay, could you do the care now? And I was like, you know what? I think, A, he needs to grow up a little bit. And B, I think I forgot that I have another event I have to go to. Oh, yeah. I forgot. I have a Dental cleaning. Yeah, I have a thing. There's a thing coming up.

I must go to. But yeah, that opens a whole other, you know, universe of potential there, but we won't get into that. That's for our after dark podcast. We're going to talk about that. Oh, my goodness. So I, so much love to Larry and Arlene, and I'll see you on the 21st at the Elma combo, and I'll see at the end of the month at the GLB Brew Pub.

And I appreciate you introducing me to Eva Almos. But another Larry I want to ask you about. Yes. I only want to talk about Larry's today. Horowitz. Is he still with us? Oh, honey. He's long gone, right?

No, I don't think he passed. No, I don't think he passed. You know, I get him confused with Morgan Stern. There's a couple of, like... Oh, yeah, there are some Larry's. But I know. He was, because I do talk, in fact, this guy I'm going to ask you about is from the same yuck-yuck-yx scene. Yeah.

But Larry, he did tons of stand-up for years and years at Yuck Yuck Yikes. But I know that he might have not been well. I hope he's okay. So I hate the fact that we're now talking about it. Because, yeah, I mean, he was with Jim Carrey in that yuck yuck scene from that 1980s. I hope he's doing well. I hope so too. I hope so too.

So everybody, he's probably alive. Don't listen to me. What do I know? Okay. But Larry Harowitz, I hear that name a lot because I talk to lots of people like John Wing. Yeah. Do you know John Wing? Yeah.

Yeah. I remember him well. Well, Ralph Ben Murgy, I talked to an awful lot. Yes, you do. And he used to do like early days he was doing hosting at Yuck Yos. Yeah, he was. He was. I knew him from so many years ago.

But the guy who was my last guest on Toronto, Winked and sat in that chair is his name. He's another Larry. He's Larry Fedorick. Oh, yeah. Do you remember Larry Fedorick? I kind of do. Yes.

Because he wanted to be a stand-up guy. He thought he came from, he came from Saskatchewan, I want to say. And he wanted to be a stand-up guy and he was working yuck yuck yucks and stuff. And he thought they'd tap him on the shoulder and say, get your ass to L.A., okay, let's get you on the Tonight Show. But, of course, that never happened. He learned very quickly he wasn't good enough. And he pivoted to radio. Okay.

And I was telling him, you're coming up. And he said, I remember her being involved because Larry Fedorik was involved with the Tom Rivers Show on CFTR. Oh, yeah. So I feel like maybe we need to go back and talk a little Toronto radio off the top. Is that cool? Sure. Okay, so let's hear from you. Like, like, maybe how did you end up working in Toronto Radio?

And let's talk about, like, at some point in this, we'll find out if you ever did anything with Tom Rivers from CFTR. But take us back, like, what got you into radio? Yeah. So I guess, you know, I started to realize that I could do, people always said, because I have a low voice and always did that I had a good voice for radio. and I was already kicking into voiceover for animation and commercials, which I did a lot of. I was very fortunate that way. And then I thought, you know what,

I'm going to put together a little demo tape. And I loved listening to radio. And I would send it out to small little radio stations in Brampton. I think there was one in Grimsby. And so I sent it around. And then one little radio station got in, touch with me and said, would you come and do our in-house radio commercials? So I said, sure.

So it was a bit of a John to get there, but that was fine. What station? It was, oh, my God. Come on, you knew you were coming on Toronto, Mike. You must have dug up your old CV or something. It was in Brampton. Okay, so was it Chick-FM? So I did that, and I was, I was that.

I remember the first commercial that I did for them in house was for a little jewelry company, and it was called Rikabee's Jewelers. And it was kind of like, come to Rikabee's Jewelers. We have gold, silver, Rikabees, come along. It's going to be really fun. Rikabee, it was just like one of those really redundant saying the name of the company, which was fine. And, yeah, and so then I did more and more and more. and then I got a little bit more well-known as far as doing radio commercials and animation.

And then I went to Q107. And I got a job there. And I was pretty much doing the same thing. But I started doing mornings as well with... Scruff Connors. Scruff Conners. And... How do you forget a name like Scruff Connors?

I don't know. Come on, the listenership demands better. And by way, just Chick-FM, we're quick because we moved past Chick-FM, but Chick-FM is what, that becomes CFNY, right?

Yes. So you're there, so CFWI, I think it's 77 or something when CFN-Y launches. I'm trying to remember my CFNY history. I have to go back to episode

102-1 of Toronto Mike. I remember where Marsden explains it all. But Chick-FM and I remember May Potts was there at some point. You know, where the chicks are or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe Scott,

Turner, but I believe also a young Larry Fedorik is there. Yeah, right, right, right. Before CFDR. Okay, so, but you end up on Q107. What are you doing on the legendary Scruff Connor's morning show? Yeah, well, and listen, this is the home of real talk. Scruff, shout out to Ridley Funeral Home.

He's definitely no longer with us, okay? I get my Lawrence Morgan Stern and my Larry Horowitz mixed up because they were two people, because it's before my time, this 80s, yuck, yuck scene. And they get mentioned together a lot by the Ben Murguys and the John Wings and stuff. And even the Humble Howard Glassman's and stuff like that. Do you know Humble Howard Glassman? I don't know him.

I know his name, but I don't know him well, no. Okay, because I know he had a spell here, but then he went off to L.A. And then a lot of L.A. talking for you two later. Yeah. But I, so I get, I know Morgan Stern has passed away for sure. Hopefully Larry Horowitz is still with us. But what are you doing with Scruff? and be honest with me because I know Scruff's reputation.

Yeah. So they brought me on because his wife had passed and they wanted to have a woman on the morning show with him. So they brought me in and he was not having it. And so, you know, I really tried to be cool with him and, you know, maybe do some sketches. and I wrote a couple of sketches, and one of them was where I would come in as the lady that came to clean the place.

And I did sort of like this, and it's dirty in here. And we have to clean the abscraf. What are you doing? And he went, Eva, don't do that. And I went, what? Who's Eva? I'm Maria. I'm cleaning here.

And he said, no, yeah, no, you're Eva. You know, cut it out. It's not funny. Because when I hear you do that, I think about the. Pete and Geetz show. And Geets would do all these votes, right? And you had like your Pete Griffin, before family guy,

your Pete Griffin, kind of the straight man. And then Geetz is doing these like characters. Yeah, he wouldn't go for it. He just wouldn't allow me to have a moment. So, um, was that misogyny? Or was it just that this is a Scruff Connor show?

I think, uh, a little of both. I think a little of both. Well, you know, that station, uh, allegedly has a terrible history with misogyny.

Yes, I know. Yeah, so that was that. But you know Jane Hodden came on the show because I was writing a lot about the complaints against John Derringer. And Jane Hodden wanted to come on because she felt like Q107 was getting a bad reputation as a toxic masculinity hotbed that was unfavorable to the female gender. And she wanted to come in and defend it a bit. But I'm telling you, I've talked to a lot of people. That sounds like it was a systemic problem at Q107.

Very much so. Very much so. I only stayed. I ended up leaving because I thought, you know what, I don't have to do this. I don't need for him to be responding that way. They brought me on to kind of help him out to be a feminine, you know, presence in the morning show. And he wasn't having it. So, yeah.

And I'm just going to push a bit closer because you're getting comfortable. You're good. Go on. Okay. Yeah. So, thank you. So, all right. So how long were you on the Scruff Conner's Morning Show?

About, I'd say about maybe four months. What I remember is Scruff doesn't last that long himself. Like, doesn't he, because he goes and comes back and he goes and comes back. He does. And I remember people that would come in there would be like brother Jake Edwards would come in from the Maritimes. He was on in Halifax, I think. Brother Jake, he was on with John Gallagher. Did you ever cross paths of John Gallagher?

Or was that after your time there? That was after my time. Okay, you're early there. Was there anyone else you could remember from your Q107 stint? You know, it was so indicative of my relationship with Scruff that. It was just he and I. And, you know, I did the traffic reports. He would cut me off and tell me, you know, you don't have to say all that.

Like, he just was not the nicest guy I ever met. Definitely. Disappointing. His son is an FOTM. Yeah, you're telling you that. Real estate agent now. Yeah, that's cool. In Winnipeg, I believe.

So shout out to T.J. Connors. But, okay, so what's your next stop after? The Mighty Q. Yeah. So, I mean, I was doing so much voiceover and commercials that it was really kicking into that. And I was acting as well. And so, you know, I went from kind of, of my first agent to another agent until I was fortunate enough to kind of do, you know, I was doing

so much. I was the voice of Air Canada. I was the voice of KFC. I was the voice of a lot of big. Those are big brands, Eva. Yeah, they were really big brands. Who has time for radio when you got that kind of a voiceover career? Yeah.

So that's really where I kicked into. And ultimately, because I was with a wonderful agency and they had offices in New York and my demo tape now was all the commercials I had already done. And they sent it to an agency, a big agency in Los Angeles, and they sponsored me to move there. So you're a, you're going to put words in your mouth. You're a proud Canadian who did spend a good chunk of your professional life living in Los Angeles. Well, I was here for a long time building my career. And then, yes, and then they brought me there. and I was there for quite some time, and I got to do a lot of commercials there too.

But I was studying at UCLA at the time and got into the Warner Brothers Writers' Workshop as a writer. And then I was just writing and ultimately show writing. Okay, we're going to get to that, but Larry Fedorik has a specific memory, and I'm going to find out now how reliable his memory is. Did you ever do anything at CFTR? Yes, I did.

Yes, I did. I think I did some in-house commercials. Do you remember meeting Tom Rivers? Yes, I do. This is like, I'm like, you're on the stand right now, and I'm just the lawyer here. Okay, so what do you remember about your interactions with Tom Rivers? And I will disclose to you, Eva.

That was my morning show when I would wake up to go to school, grade school, believe it or not. I would wake up to 680 CFTR, the Tom Rivers, was it the Air Force Base, I can't, Rivers Air Force Base, whatever it was. That was my morning show. And I would hear things like the unfriendly giant. I don't know if that's ringing a bell at all.

Not that many bells. Not that many bells. Okay, but Eric, oh God, he's an FOTM 2. He was great. He did all the raceline stuff. Eric, Eric, the raceline guy. How do I not have that name on the tip of my tongue? He was a great episode of Toronto Mike 2.

Raceline Radio. Here we are in real-ta. Eric Thomas, oh my goodness. So Eric Thomas was a part of this morning show on 680 CFTR, and he would do these voices with Tom Rivers. So what do you remember, just to satisfy Larry Fedorik's memory? What drain the memory bank, everything you remember about Tom Rivers, CFTR, even if there's nothing there?

You know, I remember really liking him as a person and he was tons of fun and I think I might have done some characters with him where he would bring me on like here and there. But we had a very nice relationship. He was a really cool guy and very respectful. And so, yeah, but that's really, I mean, we're talking about, you know, 900. years ago. You're forgiven, but now that we're in the time machine, I now have a... I'm going to play a 30-second

trailer for a movie. Here come the care bears in their very own full-length movie. Hey, neat. Join Tenderheart, Grumpy Bear, Secret Bear, Friend Bear, and the rest of the Care Bears

on a fun-filled adventure as they share their love with the whole world. Glad to have you along. The Disney Channel is proud to present the exclusive encore presentation of the Care Bears movie. All right, so let's take you back at mid-80s here, okay? Tell me, I want to talk about Nelvana for a moment here because I had Clive A. Smith over. Yes.

And we talked about how Nelvana was like out of money. They had that big theater, that movie bust. What was the movie, the big cartoon movie from Nelvana? I'll dig it up that, was it not the devil and Daniel Mouse. It was the rock and roll one. Rock and rule.

Do you remember this? So they had a movie that almost ruined the company. Yeah. And Clive credits the Carebear movie with Savie Nelvana. Yes, it was. It was the main crux.

So talk to me about your professional relationship with Nelvana and how you got the Carebear voiceover gig. Yeah. So it was just, like I said, my first, animated series audition.

And I was very excited about it and met with them. And so they gave me two care bears and the rabbit. And so, yeah, it was an amazing gig. It went on for quite some time. And the cool thing about that time in doing voiceover for animation was that we were all, it was all adults doing the characters. So these days it's kids that they will hire to do the kid voices primarily. But with us, it was all about, and we stood side by each, so we weren't doing them one at a time where it is very, you know, right now that's how it works.

So they would just turn off our mic when our line was over. So it was, you know, me and there's so many other people doing it. And it was just such a community and we were the bears and we had a blast doing it. And yeah, I just loved it. It was such a nice way to start my career. That's quite a booking, like your first time out, right? Yeah. So your first audition and it's care bears and you get multiple care bears, you get a rabbit,

like you hit it out of the park, Eva. Thank you. Look at that. I was lucky. I was very lucky. Okay. So what was like, the Nelvana, the current state of Nelvana is rather sad. I mean, Khoris owns Nelvana, but they don't do any new production, right?

No, they don't. No, they don't. So it's just kind of, I mean, Nelvana is known for care bears. and there's been certainly other shows, but this is the one. And, yeah, I mean, I haven't heard about much about Nelvana of late. Well, I know, I mean,

Chorus has no money. That's in the news all the time. They're in, yeah. And they did announce no more new publications. I think they're going to squeeze the last drops of, you know, lemon juice out of the stuff they have there. Yeah. But it's so shadow of its former self.

But maybe remind us what Nelvana was in the mid to late 80s, like to have that here in our home. It was a huge production company. It was amazing. It was the care bears. Everybody wanted to be in the care bears. You know, it was just, it was a wonderful, wonderful place and that really respected, you know, a voiceover for animation people.

And so, yeah, so it was just the best at its time. Did you cross paths, Eva Almos, with a young Stu Stone during your Nilvana years? I did not at that time, but the wonderful, talented, and delightful Stu Stone is my nephew, Jamie's best friend since they were kids. And so I've known Stu forever. and I had the honor of hiring him for a show that I ran, Carl Squared, and it was about a kid who had made a clone out of himself, so he didn't have to do all the dirty work in his life. And I auditioned many, many people because I wanted them to be able to play both characters.

And Stu was in town, and Jamie told me that he was, in town and I knew how talented he was and I got in touch with him I said come on in I want you to audition for this and I had a radio auditioned so many people and he killed it and I hired him and he was amazing and I loved working with him and he interviewed me some years ago on his because he's had so many shows TSM I think it's called I think so TSM radio yeah TSM radio yeah so when we were in L.A. together because he was in Oh, that's it. He's another guy. In his most recent visit, he's been on 100 times, but his most recent visit, we really

dove into the L.A. chapter of Stu Stone's life. Like, who was he living with? Because I just read they're doing like a Casper reboot. And Devon Sawwa plays Casper. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Stu's living with Devon Sawah and the guy, the guy who does the voice of the Faisal in American Tale and Faisal goes west in all these animation productions or whatever. Like, we got that story the last Stu Stone.

But, yeah, there's this block of a good chunk of Stu's life where he's also living in L.A. for professional reasons. For sure. Yep. Now he's back. We're happy to have him. Okay. Well, this is a, you know, Stu, because of Stu Stone, when Novana, I talked to Stu and Novana said we're not doing any new productions.

And Stu ran down a list of gigs he booked from Novana. Like, you know, Stu was dining out on Novana cartoons for many, many years. Yes, he was. Yeah. He's so talented and so funny and so adorable. Well, I'm going to have to pull that clip for his next visit. Okay, so Care Bears, it's your big voiceover breakthrough. Okay, because it was such a big deal.

And again, the movie, the first Care Bears movie saves Nelvana. Yeah. So you played a role in saving Nelvana. Yes, I guess so. I guess so. Take the credit, Eva. I'm giving it to you. But you've done so much more since then.

Like, so one question that came in when I said, Eva Almos was making her Toronto mic debut came from Toronto Boris. This is on blue sky. So two point question. One is, has she mastered the care bear stare? Well, I'm going to go with yes. Because like I said, with your sweatshirt, because it's round and reminiscent of care bears, you could say, or you could just push your chest out a little bit.

And I will go, Carebear, stare! And now we have put that together and absolutely. Isn't there this thing called regression therapy or whatever where you bring people back to their childhood? Because I'm like 10 years old right now. It's unbelievable. And the second part to Toronto Boris's question,

which will bring us to some other interesting voice work you did, is he wants to know what was more fun to work on. Care Bears or Duckman. Oh, well. And then we can talk about Duckman. Yeah. Different gigs completely because Care Bears was voiceover and Duckman was writing. So I wrote a bunch of episodes on Duckman.

And I loved that show. And it was ahead of its time. And it was so brilliant and so funny. Not because of me, but because of Everett Peck, who created it. And unfortunately, he's no longer with us. I was so close to him. I miss him all the time. My office is covered in, you know, posters of Duckman.

And, you know, it's just, yeah. So that was a fantastic show to work on. I just loved it. So I would probably pick Duckman. And you won a prestigious Cable Ace Award. Right? Yes, I did. And that's for writing for Duckman, an episode, a 1994 episode.

Yeah, absolutely. And then we were, then I was nominated for an Emmy for Duckman. But you didn't win that Emmy. But forevermore, your bio will open with this. Darn it. Emmy nominated writer, Eva Elmo's, right? Like forever. I won a podcast award.

I don't know if you heard it in the intro. This is cool. I don't know, was it December, 2025. It was fairly recently. That's good. Congratulations. And I realized, like, I, Forever, because I've been nominated many times, and never won.

So forever, I was like, who gives it damn about a stupid award? Like, I'm not in this for trophies, okay? I'm here for the real talk. It's not going to be for everybody. I'm not going to win a trophy. And then I win the damn thing, and I realize, oh, forevermore. You can say that. I can put that in my bio, my intro.

Forevermore, I am an award-winning pot. I actually, my wife made this sweater because she was a care bear for Halloween. Right on? Her and her team at the bank, they all were different care bears. So this is like one in a series or whatever. And I said, I need a shirt. And I just need the shirt to say, award-winning podcast.

I'm not joking. I will debut that at some point this spring. But I realize, like, you are an Emmy-nominated writer. Like, they can't take that away from me. No, they will never take that away from me. So that's, that's cool. So why not do a voice on Duckman? You know, I did sort of some background stuff,

but because I was writing them, and, you know, so I was very busy at that time. I would still do some voiceover for sure, but it was my writing career that kicked in. And, you know, I was really lucky I got into the Warner Brothers Writers' Workshop and I studied at UCLA. And then my teacher at UCLA, who had ran Mork and Mindy and was an amazing writer and showrunner,

he just took a year off to teach at UCLA. and at the end of my course, he asked me if I would write with him. So we became partners, so that was really cool. Amazing. So you're more than just a great voice. You're developing, your executive producing,

you're directing, you're doing it all behind the scenes here. Hopping on one foot. Hopping on one foot. You're doing the care bear stare. You're writing Stu Stone's biography. You're doing it all. Okay, so Duckman, which, by way,

duckman, the voice of Duckman, big time TV star. Like, are you in the room with him? Oh, yeah. So Jason Alexander. George Costanza on Seinfeld. Before that, best known for a McDonald's ad. Do you know that?

Right on. Yeah, yes. I can tell you the Orish story. Oh, actually, it was a pretty woman too, of course. Yes, who he was amazing. And I love that film. But he was brilliant as Duckman. He never made any mistakes unless it

technical. He just, he was brilliant. And to, because I would sometimes direct him, but I had nothing to direct because he was so good. It always, I, I was a big duck band fan. It seemed like that was a tough voice to do. Oh yeah, definitely, but he found it. He found it in a minute. He didn't regret, like, okay, I, I forgot it'd have to do this so many times. Like, maybe I should have picked a different voice. No, he got it. He got it. Because the pilot script, which I did not write, um, told you who he was. So he found him right away that he was just this wild, wacky, loved his

kids unless he saw some cute chick on the street. Right. Yeah. So, but he was amazing. Wow, duck man. Okay, you just said the word wild. So may I ask you about your work on the wild thornberries? Ah. So

I ran that show. It was so much fun. It was such a, it was just such a great experience. And, you know, I ran it for two seasons, I think. Yeah, two seasons. That's a big show. It was a huge show.

Like, I obviously was too old for the wild thornberry berries. I can barely say it. But I almost want to call it Thornbury, like the place near Collingwood or whatever. The wild thornberries. But you couldn't miss it because it was just such a juggernaut. It was huge. Yeah, it was huge. Yeah, it was tons of fun to do.

And you were the showrunner. I was. That's a big title. That's a big deal. Come on, what's going on here, Eva? So much more than just a voice on 680 CFTR, okay? What was Scruff? What the hell was Scruff Conner's thinking?

He wasn't. He wasn't. But, you know, because I produced the Humble and Fred show, I mentioned Humble Howard earlier, but Fred Patterson was, before we launched this Humble and Fred show, he was a program director for the chorus stations in Peterborough. Right. And because one of them was called, oh my God, not the rock, not the dock.

The moose, wolf. One of those cottage, you know what I mean, those names you get in the... A muscoca chair, something like that, yeah, okay. Right, okay. So, that's the wolf in Peterborough, I think he wanted to bring in Scruff Connors because he knew him from, you know, from, you know, from, yeah, because he was at CFN Y, Fred, but he knew him from that world or whatever. And he knew his son or whatever.

So, but I got stories, and again, he's passed away. I feel like I can't be, uh, Lauren Honnickman tells me I can say this. But like the schemes he would be into, like, you know what I mean? Like, he was really into scamming and scheming. Yes, yes. There was a story that Listeria outbreak. Do you remember this from Maple Leaf Foods? This was a huge Canadian story.

Yeah. But he, you know, tried to fake that he was poisoned by this Listeria. I've tried to get money out of Maple Leaf Foods. Like the most, these things were like part of his, you know, DNA or whatever. Yeah. So I'm not surprised that he would not appreciate it. appreciate a talented young woman like Eva Almos. Well, that's so kind of you to say, but he wasn't having it.

Wasn't that's why. We brought in brother Jake Edwards. Yeah, exactly. More men, please. More men, and then eventually Jesse and Jean, I feel like they took turns. Like Scruff would go, then Brother Jake would go, and then Jesse and Jean would go, and then Brother Jake again, and then Scruff, and then maybe back to Jesse and Jean. Like, there was a whole, like, rotation going on there.

And eventually they settled on some calming influence, named John Derringer, and the rest was roses. Yeah, yeah, he's great. Did you ever meet John Derringer? I think I did. I think I did, but, you know, a long time ago, but I remember him being the calm after the storm. Unless you're a woman who was in the booth with him.

Well. And then he wasn't a calm at all. But we'll talk to Maureen Holloway and calling Rush Holm and Jackie Delaney and others about that. Okay, good. So back to your voiceover, because I'm curious about Pinky and the brain. So just wrote a couple of episodes of Pinky in the Brain. I didn't do any voiceover on that.

That was a blast. Maurice LaMarche, Canadian guy, brilliant. No, it was so much fun to do. Brain, brain, brain, brain, brain. It was a big one too. That's a big one too. But you already teased Danita Donata. Am I saying that right?

De Nita Donata. Right. The fashionista. The fashion villain on Wildcrats. So Wildcrats. I guess you're part of all six seasons. Yeah, I'm, yes, absolutely. And also, originally, so the Cratt Brothers,

they had done Zabumafu and Crats Creatures, but they had never done an animated series. So they wanted to do an animated series with live action bookends. So they sent out the request to a lot of agents. And because I had done the Thornberries and had a lot of episodes, I sent them, my agent sent them

that and then I was fortunate enough they chose me so I came and helped them develop the animated series and then and we created the characters and then uh denita denada came up and so I had to audition for it actually but that was fine and yeah that was so much fun to do and I actually wanted her to be maybe a little Italiano but they didn't want me to do So I just did Danita because she's a fashion villain, right? And she wants to kind of do what she wants to do. She puts animals in suspended animation. So she kind of freezes them.

They're not dead. But she kind of freezes them. And they're on a hat or they're on a belt. And so, yeah, so that's been so much fun to do. I love that character. She's really fun. Okay, before I move on, because there's a lot of meat on the Eva Elmo's bones here, okay? Is there any other voiceover work you want to highlight here?

Well, you know, I mean, I've done so many Scoopy Do and I did a whole bunch of different ones, but I think that like, of course, the Care Bear started it and Danita is so much fun to play. And in the middle, there's been different shows and things. But yeah, and just because I've been writing and producing, you know, and show running for the last bunch of years, you know, my focus has been a little bit bit more on that. So, but listen, I feel so lucky that I got to, I've gotten to be able to do all the things that I really love to do. So it's been a lovely ride. And you ain't done yet. Nope. Not yet. No, you're literally doing voices in my basement right now. I'm going to compensate you,

Eva, by giving you a large, frozen, delicious lasagna from Palma pasta. Get out of here. I wouldn't lie to you. I'm so excited. I love that. You love a lot. You love Italian food. You just did an Italian accent. I know. And you can do an Italian accent. Thank you. I'm going to eat so fast.

It's going to be great. I had a voiceover actor named Jeff Lumby over. I don't know if you know Jeff Lumby. He's in a lot of cartoon stuff. Yeah. But he was lamenting the fact that he used to be able to do like non-white people characters. And he says they no longer will allow him to do the non-white people characters. Do you have a thought on that?

Like you can do Italian, but if somebody wanted you to do a Jamaican accent, would How do you feel about that? Well, it's interesting, and he's right, because if you have a white person playing a black person, and they can absolutely do it, there is a black person that you should be hiring. So I'm absolutely of that mindset. You know, whatever culture you are, let's get that culture. Let's get that person. You know, they deserve it.

I'm happy to hear that. And I'm a big Simpsons fan. Yeah. Did you ever audition for a voice role in the Simpsons? No, I didn't. I didn't. I was, at that time, I was writing, writing. You're too busy writing, okay?

I was a little busy. You were a bit busy, okay? Sims, no time for this, this show won't last anyways, this Simpsons thing. Just a little fad. Just 900 years. It's only been going for 30-something years. I know, that's all. I know.

You know, they kind of wild. I mean, sadly, we lost fellow Canadian Phil Hartman many years ago, but he was a, not a major role, right? He only, he did a couple of characters that joined. Lionel, Lionel. Lionel Hutz and of course, I'm Troy McClure. Yeah, yeah. He was so talented. I met him a couple of times.

He was a lovely, lovely man. He really was. He's so sweet. One thing I did see in the fairly recent documentary, Peewee as himself. Did you see this? Paul Rubens, it's about, so Paul Rubens, he knew he was dying, but he wasn't public about it. He had cancer. And he was talking to these documentary filmmakers as Paul Rubens.

as Paul Rubens talking about Pee-wee, which is something he normally wouldn't do that. No, he didn't. And then at some point he actually quits the project, but after he passed, they put together this documentary, which was wild. But you see that basically, because Phil Hartman was such a key part of the Pee-wee,

pee-wee's playhouse and the pee-wee character. And then I feel the way it came across in the dock is that Phil Hartman got a job at Saturday Night Live. And I feel it really comes across, like Paul Rubens was so personally offended, that Phil Hartman left the pee-wee world, they didn't talk again. Yeah, I know, that's really sad.

But they were so tight. I know. Well, it's like it's got maybe a little ego in it, maybe a little, certainly disappointment, certainly, you know, just. Life is full of complications. It is. It is.

We're all going through something, right, Eva? Yeah, everybody comes from a little trauma. We'll get to that. Okay. There'll be a whole segment on it. But I guess where I was going with that is it's kind of, it's a great thing, but that you could have a show run 30-something years. And none of the principal characters, sure, Enda Craboppels,

she passed away, the voice of Edna Crababobabal. But the principles, what is it, the big six or whatever, they're still with us all of them. Yeah, they are. And that's a good thing. And they've had the most beautiful gig. And they're so family, you know, on and off. from animation to humans.

And yeah, no, it's a fabulous. Listen, if you can get that gig, it's the best. Although I will say, because a couple of them are in their 80s now, I believe. But, you know, the voice of Marge... It's changed a bit. It's changed a little bit. It's a bit tough.

It's a bearer like this. Hey, that's not bad. I'm going to hire you. So, Disney owns The Simpsons. You ever heard of Disney? Never. Some mom-paw shop. Some kind of weird word.

I don't know what it is. Yeah, okay, go on. So Disney owns the Simpsons, and it's, I mean, let's face it, everybody dies, Eva. I hate to say that, but everybody at some point will pass away. It's true. What do you think the Simpsons owned by Disney? What do you think they do should something eventually happen to a key character on the Simpsons? Find an actor, and there are many that can replicate that voice, and they'll find that person.

It's happened a lot in animation through the years, you know, so they just, and even if somebody Like we got different Fred Flintstones, different Mickey Mousers. And even on live action shows, one of the characters dies, and they get a person who kind of looks like them, kind of. It's a tough one. That's a tough one than voiceover. Or absolutely the, you know, does not look like them at all. And they've created a new character because they've killed off that guy. The Simpsons, you can't quite, oh, yeah, Homer took a job in Missouri.

Exactly. Marge is remarried and there's a new bold book. Foon that's living at 732 Evergreen Terrence. Exactly. I don't know. You know what? Well, stay tuned. That'll be interesting to see what happens there.

But do you have any thoughts on, let's say the guy, Dan Castellanetta is his name. Okay, he's the voice of Homer Simpson. He still sounds great. He does. I see. He's so talented.

Yeah, and he still sounds like he always sounded. Like, unlike the Marge voice, this voice, and the Mr. Burns' voice is heard him too. Yes. Yes. But, like, how do you feel about if Dan Castellaneta licenses his voice to Disney and Disney creates the character using AI. What are your thoughts, Eva, Almos?

I think it's not good. I think it shouldn't happen. I think that that voice is with that show. I don't think he would ever do that. This job is amazing. But he might do that. Down the road when the show's over? Well, when he's 80-something and he knows I won't live forever that lets Disney keep

Homer alive forever. I don't know. It's a slippery slope, right? It is a slippery slope. And I think in his 80s, he's already worth $9 billion trillion. So I think he's okay. He's all right, but poor Disney,

nobody's thinking about poor Disney. What will Disney do? I don't know. We'll have to call them and see how they are. Won't somebody think of Disney? Oh, by the way, Millhouse's actress retired, the voice of Milhouse,

and they replace Millhouse. And I will say when I hear the new Millhouse, I miss the old Millhouse. I'm just saying that, I'm like, it's not quite Millhouse. It's close. It's a kind of a cousin of Millhouse. It's not really Millhouse.

Oh, and on the, we talked briefly about white people doing voices of people of color. And the Simpsons decided with the Apu controversy, they decided, you know, I'm going to, who's a doctor, Hibbert? Dr. Hibbert is now voiced by a man of color. Yeah. Doesn't quite sound like the old Hibbert. Like, I'm glad it's a voice. I'm glad it's a person of a color, but it doesn't quite sound. And they absolutely just retired Apu without a farewell or everything.

I know. Why not hire a South Asian voiceover actor to be a poo and bring back a poo and have respectful stories about Apu and his eight children? And I'm just saying, bring back a poo with a new voice. Well, I'm with you on that. I knew we'd come together. Okay, so I'm actually still giving you gifts, but I'm a big fan of the voiceover stuff. But I'm going to tell you, I have fresh craft beer for you from Great Lakes Brewery.

We mentioned them earlier because there's that book launch for Larry, Larry Klopat. At the GLB Brew Pub, and I have an event in late June, the last Thursday of June. I'm having a free event at the brewery, which is down the street from the Costco near Royal York and Queensway. And everyone is invited to this, including you, Eva. Yay. So the Elmo gig, you got to buy a ticket. For the TMLX event at Great Lakes Brewery, just get your book. but they're from 6 to 9 p.m.

And have a good time. So that beer is for you. Oh, you're so sweet. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Wow. That's lovely. You didn't know.

I guess you did know, right? You probably said to Larry, what should I expect? Am I getting lasagna? What's happening? Lazzania beer. And I have a measuring tape for you from Ridley Funeral Home. That's nice. Thank you.

And they have a great podcast called Life's Undertaking. And we have a new episode recording tomorrow. Oh, beautiful. Shout out to Brad Jones. Speaking of a great podcast, I just want to shout out Nick Aynes and his podcast, Building Toronto Skyline, which made Toronto political news this past week. Seriously, there is a complaint filed with the Integrity Commissioner at the City of Toronto regarding a Brad Bradford participation in a live recording of Building Toronto Skyline.

That happened, Eva. Wow. So I'm going to talk to Nick about this. First opportunity, he will let me talk to him on Toronto Mike. Nick Aeney's is a great part. partner of the show. And yes, the podcast I encourage you to listen to is called Building Toronto Skyline. Maybe find that Brad Bradford episode and find out what was said in that room. I didn't edit a stitch of it. It's all there. I kept it all in there. Okay. And last but not

least, Eva, before I ask you some more interesting questions, if you have old electronics, do you have a room, at least a closet, maybe at least a drawer full of old cables, old devices? old phones, old laptops. Do you got one of those? I don't. Okay, well, lots of people do, Eva. Didn't you take improv? Didn't you, didn't you graduate?

Yes, I have a lot of chords. I forgot about my cords. I have a bunch of them. I was going to say, didn't you graduate from the Warner Brothers Writers' Workshop. Yeah, but it didn't have a lot of chords. What is it? Oh, the improv people always say, yes, and that's what they say.

It's like, do you have old electronics? Yes. And I always go to Recycle MyElectronics. I put in my postal code and I find out where I can drop that tech electronic junk off to be properly recycled so those chemicals do not end up in our landfill. Got it, Eva? It's good. Okay. Okay.

Quick hit on this one. I was reading that you designed jewelry for characters on television. True or false? True. Can you tell me more? Sure. Like, what are we talking about? Like if I see a character on a TV show wearing a necklace,

you may have designed that necklace? I may have. Yes. I did that for a few shows. I did that for actually a show here in Toronto. Littleest hobo. It was the littlest hobo. Was it?

No. I got excited for you had me going there for a moment. Degrassi. Dickrassy. Joey Jeremiah's necklace was designed. I just did it for some actors and, you know, gave it to them and they put it on. But it's not like a huge thing. But it's an interesting thing.

Like aside, but you're doing all this writing and this producing. Yeah, I like to design things. I still once in a while, like if it's somebody's birthday and I'll kind of do their, you know, their little stones and that they like and things. So yeah, it's fun. Okay. I was hoping maybe just possibly. that, you know, in the Zit Remedy video, you know, you can see there's some, some, some, some,

bling on wheels. And I thought possibly Eva Elmo's design that. Okay, and one more, because I know where I'm going here, because it's what we talked about at, uh, at coffee the other day. But I did mention earlier that I produced a show for Ralph Benmerge. Yes. It is called Not That Kind of Rabbi. Yes. And I was, uh, couldn't help but notice. There was a brief period of time. So I produced it. I helped birth it with Ralph. We did a lot of stuff down here, actually. And then at some point, he leaves me. I know.

That's sad. For the Canadian Jewish news. I know. What does the C.J.N. have that I don't have, Eva. Absolutely nothing. Maybe a, uh, some kind of a gefelta fish or something. But aside from that, probably not much at all. I've learned a lot of Yiddish.

I produced and co-hosted a show with Mark Hebscher. Okay. So if I say, Zets a Javec Abysel, what does that mean? Oh, that's a lot of Yiddish. Oh, that's a Yiddish. means give me more beer. You know what? That one I don't know.

Okay. That's a Khevecabissal. Sit down a little. Okay. I do know a lot because Hebsi did drop a lot on it. It's called Hebsie on sports. We did it for five years. And he did drop a lot of Yiddish on me. And I learned a lot of Yiddish, but that one never came up. All right.

We can have that one. But all this is to say, Ralph came back to me a little while ago, maybe a year or so ago. Yeah. But during that time he was away, he had on Eva Almos. So I'm actually, I don't even know if you want to talk about this, but I'm going to play this trailer just so I can find out what the heck this was and is possibly, and then we're going to talk about something heavier. You ready?

Yes. Sources inside the government have told RDA news since the attacks are the result of what the government and BFV are privately calling an untota run dead. Zombie. Are you serious? No German. soldier shall be seen shooting a victim of the Holocaust, even if they are an untowter. Four more Germans were found dead.

Six more Germans were... Separpi zombie alert. Zombie pyrofira. One verified reporter. This zombie bullshit is another distraction whipped up by neo-Marxist Jew. I tell you, these are not coincidences. This is justice. This is vengeance for crimes we choose have not forgotten.

Your Madina is here. Justice, a Holocaust zombie story. An original audio drama from the CJN in association with the Ashkenaz Foundation. Coming August 31st, listen at the CJN.C.C.A. slash zombies, or wherever you get your podcasts. No wonder he went to the CGM.

I don't have a voiceover guy like that. I know. That's a nice bass. I know. How do I get that? Do I need to start smoking now? A little bit. A little bit. drink some vodka.

More vodka down your throat, yeah. But on the serious tip, what was your involvement with Justice, a Holocaust zombie story? Yeah. So I played a few characters in it. I played a grandmother who was European,

and she was kind of, she was elderly, she was forgetful, but she did remember some things in the past. And I actually used, my mother was a Holocaust survivor and she was from Lithuania and she talked like this and so sweet and you like her, Masha was her name. And so I use this voice for the character. And whenever I do, my friends are always asking me to do my mom because she was such a sweetheart.

And so I really, I feel her when I do her voice. I think you were doing her voice with Scruff Conner when you were there to clean the... It was a little bit more Italian, the lady, a little bit more. But yeah, pretty much. I can only do my mom's voice. So you're channeling the spirit of your mom who's a Holocaust survivor in this audio drama.

Yeah, yeah. And played another couple of characters, a New York kind of girl, you know, sort of, you know, kind of lady who was always telling people what to do, you know, sort of. So, yeah, I played her. And Sounds like Rhoda from

Yeah, a little bit of Rota Yeah Yeah Outside of New York Yeah You know if I were doing an audio Maybe I should do this I would just hire you to do all the world

That's cute That's nice So this Okay so that's what you were talking to Ralph about Was your role in this drama About Holocaust zombies Yeah Yeah

Yeah we talked a little bit about my My work And yeah It was so nice to see him I've known him for so long Yeah so on Friday I don't know if he loved I don't think he enjoyed

It's a Good Life If You Don't weaken the way I did But I don't want to speak for Ralph Maybe next time I get him on Toronto mic I'll talk to him about it What he didn't love about it We were at the same theatrical presentation

In Hamilton on Friday Oh, that's nice And I came out loving it And I don't think Ralph left it We'll talk about that later We'll let Ralph talk for Ralph But are you ready to share Are you warmed up?

Yeah Okay Because you And I hope this is Is this public stuff we can talk about? Yeah. Okay, I wasn't sure 100%. Because am I right that you discovered fairly late in life that you had siblings that you did not know existed?

Yes, absolutely. So about three years ago, my brother called me. I was in Los Angeles at the time and told me that we have, he was on many of these DNA websites, and that we had a half-sister on our father's side. And I was like, what? So we all got together because I was coming back to Toronto pretty much the next day. We all did a Zoom and we were all talking. She's seven years older than me and only seven months older than my brother.

Yikes. Awkward. Holy bananas. Anyway. Is your father still with us? No, uh-uh. No, he passed a long time ago. Because you'd have some questions for me.

We would have a lot of questions. Yeah. We kind of figured it out a little. bit, but we don't have all the info. Anyway. And your mom has passed sadly, too. Yeah, she passed about six years ago. So, yeah. Anyway, so sad. But

I wear her ring. I'm sorry. Anyway, so, um, and of course I do her voice. Anyway, so then, so we had a Zoom with everybody and she was because the man that she thought was her father was not, really. I mean,

and my father had a moment with her mother. So, um, Yeah, so she was like, Eva, I want to know you. I want to know everything about you. I'm your sister. I'm going to take care of you all this stuff. And it took me a minute to really kind of take it all in. That's a lot of the process.

Yeah, it is. You have a sister you did not know existing. That's correct. Yeah. But I really came to realize that so many people are experiencing this in their lives. So many people are on DNA websites. They've discovered siblings. and parents that weren't their parents and an uncle that they thought was their friend who lived

next door. And it really changes your life. And for a lot of people, they are open-armed to it. They want to meet that person. They want them part of their life. And then there's some people who want to stay anonymous about it, which I totally respect, that they haven't confronted the father about it or, you know, what they've come to know. so I think it's really a

a powerful place to believe in sorry for interrupting so we can basically attribute this influx of stories just like the one you told that this is because now we have these DNA databases

and every I see them all the time of course people want to find out oh my goodness I'm 12% scum Goddish and all this stuff, right? And then, of course, now your DNA is on a database. And you're finding out, oh, I'm a sibling to this person that I've never met. And I do know in my personal life, I know people who have experienced exactly what you've experienced.

Yes. Yes. It's everywhere. It seems to be everywhere. And then because you're experiencing this, now that you're like open to, like, receptive to people sharing similar stories. There's a comic who Gare Joyce invites over to do voices in. Gere Joyce is a, he's a writer, not just sports writer, but mainly a sports writer,

but about other things too. And he writes this series called Every Spring a Parade Down Bay Street. And it's this fictional version of the Toronto Maple Leafs where we win the Stanley Cup every single year. It's very interesting. I like that. Actually, are you aware of what happened yesterday in Leafs land? I am not.

I'm sorry. Okay, you're forgiven. Except that we had this 8% chance of getting the first pick in the upcoming draft. Okay. And somehow the Maple Leafs won that lottery and now have the, we now have the first pick in this upcoming draft. Yay. Yeah, okay. Sure.

If you're a Leafs fan, it's good. It's fantastic. There's a guy named Gavin McKenna, who I, believe we'll go first overall. I watched him on the World Juniors and I believe he's going to go first overall. And he will be a Toronto Maple Leaf. So, okay, so that's an aside.

Except that there's this voice, this comic. He recently found out, you know, he's got a family he didn't know about. And they've become very close. Yeah, it's beautiful. But you're right, there's probably, there's people who are receptive and it helps their life. And there's probably some people who are guarded

and kind of resist it possibly because, Oh, I'm going to just speculate here. My father, my wonderful father, who was so in love with my mother, there's no way he fathered a child out of wedlock and kept that a secret. That didn't happen. There's a lot of denial, I would guess. Absolutely. And it's the big secret. And so many millions of families, they have that big secret across the world.

You know, people are discovering this. but I know a fair amount of people even in Toronto and Los Angeles and in New York. And, you know, it's constant. I think it's fascinating. Yeah. And the comic, I hope he said his name. It's Jerry Hall is the guy. He's been over.

He's very, very, very funny. He's a proud Canadian comic. And he's been very open and public about his story. Beautiful. And if anyone ever starts a podcast, if anyone ever starts a podcast where they talk to people who are in the same boat as you, Eva, who have just found out they have a sibling or two or three that they didn't know about, a whole entire other family possibly,

that Jerry Hall would be an absolutely fantastic guest for that podcast. I love that. I love that. I think it's very worthy. So you've met this sister of yours? Yeah, I have many times. But yeah, but the most amazing thing that happened was that we finally met in person and we were having lunch and we sat down in front of each other.

So we couldn't really tell on the Zoom. But when I sat down in front of her, I looked in her eyes and they were my dad's eyes. That kind of scared me through my life a little bit. What was your relationship like with your dad? Now I really am. Now I'm not the lawyer. Now I'm your psychiatrist. You know, listen, he came from a lot of trauma and he was a Holocaust

survivor and he was an old-fashioned kind of little bit of male chauvinist Greek man and a Greek Jew, Sephardic Jew. And so he was, you know, he was so talented. He was so lovely. He was so handsome. He could dance. He could sing. He played instruments. He was so talented. But he went through a lot, you know? So he didn't really know about connection in that capacity. It wasn't comfortable for him. so but when I looked at her and she had his eyes I literally and I didn't do this consciously I just went and she went what Eva what's wrong why are you responding that what's going on and I went oh god I don't even want to tell you like I feel terrible telling you but you have our dad's eyes and she said and that's bad and I went well it's little not good like it's okay but it's just but ultimately

we had this beautiful two and a half hour lunch and she was so kind and funny and lovely that his eyes became hers beautiful eva thank you so that's really that it's such a crux of this of this story and it's so many people other people's stories too you know yeah i the stories i read her not as happy as that it's uh Oh, I signed up for this DNA thing. And then we found out my brother is a serial killer. Yeah, that's not good news. And that's bad news. I'm not a serial killer, but if I were a serial killer,

I'd be telling my siblings, I'd be like, don't sign up for any DNA thing. Yeah, don't do that. Just trust me on this. Don't put your DNA in a database. You don't know who's going to access that. And don't worry about the knife in my hand. I'm just going to cut some meat.

Oh, yeah, it's getting dark in here. But humor is my coping mechanism. So here. So what's your, as we speak here, May 6th, 2026, like, what is your relationship like with this newfound family member? Are you, do you text each other? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I talk to her all the time.

She's, like I said, seven years older than me. She plays guitar like my dad did. She has a son. She has grandkids. When I'm in L.A., I certainly visit with her. lot. We have, you know, it's a beautiful story and, you know, it takes a minute to acclimate to it, but ultimately it changes your life and, you know, I love being around her. We're very different. You know, she's so, she's just, you know, open spirit. You know, she makes potions and different

things. Oh, potions. Some potions. Well, she's a witch. And some lotions and some different things that rhyme with ocean. Right. And she makes potions and lotion by the ocean. By the ocean.

I feel a song coming on. Anyways. Can you sing? We'll have to write it. Did you inherit any of that musicality? I have a okay ear, but because I've done so much voiceover that comes from your chest, because you have to kind of sing from your diaphragm. So, but I have a pretty good ear.

but can't you just identify a voice that's a good singing voice and mimic it? I can because I can mimic accents and things, but I'm not a great singer. You shouldn't hire me to sing anything. I mean, I'm okay. I was going to have you sing at the Elma Combo in May 21, but forget about it now. When the shark bites, oh, mag heap, babe, and they call it, what is it called? Mac the Night.

See what we did there? Yeah, it was excellent. all. Do you remember a mid-80s, just about when Care Bears was coming out in theaters, okay? Do you remember the McDonald's ad campaign called Mac Tonight? With a moon, there was a moon man, and he would sing a parody of that, like, When the Clock Strikes, Half Past Six, yeah, time to head for golden lights. It's a good time for the great taste.

Dinner at McDonald's. Get Mac tonight. Come on make it Mac tonight. Do you remember this? I do remember that. Yeah. It's embedded in my brain from a mid-80s campaign, I remember. You know what?

If these podcasting stuff doesn't work out, you should definitely sing on commercials. Don't tempt me. That's the next chapter in my... After I headline at the alma combo to great acclaim, I will become a voiceover actor. Excellent. I will hire you.

Don't tell me. But, okay, so how is your brother reacting to finding out that he has a sibling the same age. Yeah. So, yeah. So he was, you know, he was the one that told me he was willing to connect. At first, actually, he got the email that said you have a half-nephew on your father's side. So he got in touch with the nephew guy, Alon.

And then he told his mom to send in her DNA. And she did. And that's our half-sister. So my brother has been open to it. You know, I would love to be able to tell our story together, you know, which would... How would you do that? Like, I'm curious naturally because we had that private, unrecorded coffee together. And then you dropped the voice on me and I almost crashed my bike on the way home.

I couldn't believe I talked to a carebear. But you're not my first carebear. Melanie Melody is my first care bear. Right, you told me. I know. Melanie was right in there. She was excellent. Married to Clive, the aforemen.

Right. That's right. Right in there. And that car, you couldn't miss the car. You could not miss the car. Yeah. Well, she's quite the presently. So you're not my first care bearer. I hate the break. I can take two. I can take number two. But how, like, how are you exploring ways to share this story and others who have similar stories? Yeah. I would love to do a podcast about it and interview people that have experienced it. and even if they want to not, you know, say their names.

Mr. Black. Right, yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. This guy. So, but people have been through it, even if they want to stay anonymous, what happened, how did they discover it? But it's really in the aftermath of the discovery. And how did you deal with it? And where did you take it to?

and did you confront and if you didn't and what's the relationship like now and I just think it's fascinating because everybody will have a different experience how old was your father when you passed away 71 and how long ago was that 30 years ago so like there was no way your father ever imagined

a day where people would be putting their DNA in a database right right and I think imagine if your father's still around and then he's got his daughter and son asking for a chat.

Yeah. Can we talk? Can we talk? I don't think he would be the one asking. I think we would be the one asking. Well, that's what I mean. You and your brother are like, Dad, we're going to have a chat.

Yeah, we need to have a little chat. But even then, I know people whose parents have negated it and said, no, those websites are stupid and don't believe that. Those eyes aren't your fathers. You're not half Irish, even though you have red hair and freckles. Why would I even assume that?

It's like, you know, proving paternity is always, you know, historically been difficult for obvious reasons. Maternity is easy, you know. It came out of my body. That's right. But, like, sometimes the eyes will give you away. Yeah. And it sounds like your sister has your dad's eyes.

Yeah, she sure does. So is it tougher not being able to, you know, talk to your father about this? Does that make this an even more difficult experience? Well, you know, what we kind of know is that my parents met after the war in Germany. They dated for a few months. My mother's sister told her not to be with Greek men. They don't treat their women nice.

My mother broke up with him. Then he had a little something, something with my sister's mother. Then he came back. Whoa. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Was that wrong? Okay, wait. Who's mother? My sister's mother.

Oh, so you, right, right. So, because your brother's seven years older, so there's a bit of a, maybe an off on, maybe this era, there's a bit of an on-off thing going on, maybe. Well, so what happened was. I'm caught up now. I'm so excited about that too. So, we know my parents broke up for a few months. That's when dad was off doing some stuff.

We were on a break. Right? We were on a break. It's friends all over again, but different. And then my dad came back to my mom and begged her, begged her to be with him. They got married in Germany. My mother agreed. They got married in Germany.

And they high-tailed it out of town to Israel. So my dad was trying to get out of their fest. That we know. So we know that we don't know for sure if he knew what happened. happened with the child, but he sure left the building quickly. So, and then my brother was born in Israel, and my sister had already been born a few months before. So it's entirely possible your father never knew your sister existed. There is that possibility, and we do not know that.

These unanswered questions, these mysteries that will never get solved. I will say this, whether I'm involved or not, I hope you, with that great voice and your great storytelling ability, I hope you do launch a podcast where you talk to people who have experienced what you've experienced, because I think this is far more common than we know. I think there's a lot of people who aren't putting it on Facebook like Jerry Hall, and I think people would be surprised to find out how many people have found out, Their dad had a dalliance or two and fathered other children.

So I hope you do it. Thank you. Okay. Do it. Okay. Now on our way out here, what are you up to these days? I'm just curious. Are you still doing voiceover work?

I'm still doing some voiceover work. I teach voiceover. I develop shows for people. People send me. I've also edited four novels. I love the process. Did you edit Larry's book? No, I did not.

No, no. But, yeah, so when I help people develop shows and writing a pilot, and yeah, so, yeah, it's good. So you're busy? I am. Okay. How was your Toronto mic debut here today?

It was excellent. Had a wonderful time. Talked about a lot of fun things. Got a little deep. But life is like that. Yeah. It's up and down and all around. But it was a really wonderful experience.

I so appreciate it. When I look back at this episode, here we are in real time. I'm now going to just say that we had care bears. We had some Simpsons chatter. We had Scruff Conner's Real Talk. We had this. Danita? We had, yes.

See, because I didn't watch that show. Oh, I see. But Danita, Danada. Yeah. Right? we had a little chat about Holocaust zombies, okay? And then this, what I think is a very interesting story that you and your brother finding out you have a sister

and what that involves. Because you found out so late in your life, like we needed technology and this DNA industry to arise to even make that at all possible. Absolutely, absolutely. So somewhere, be a podcast form or whatnot, I hope I can continue to follow your journey. And I will see you at the Larry Booklaunch.

Why am I here and he is not? I will see you there. That you will. Thank you so much. This has been a lovely experience. Just use the Care Bear voice when I meet you at the GLB Brew Pub in the end of the month. Yeah, okay. And that!

Woo! Friend Bear is here. I love it. And that brings us to the end of our 1,000. 8,895th show. Go to Tronomomike.com for all your Toronto mic needs and buy a ticket or two

to see me at the Elma combo on May 21st. Rob Proust will be on stage with me and there'll be a special guest for a grand finale. You don't want to miss it. It's going to be awesome. May 21. Elma combo. It's a one time only happening.

This will never happen again. He says, don't call me on that in case one day happens again. I don't plan to ever do it again. See you there. Much love to all who made this possible. Again, that's Great Lakes Brewery. You got some fresh craft beer for you, Eva. I do. Palmapasta, you have some delicious lasagna in my freezer upstairs. They sent over. Thank you, palmapasta.com. Thank you. Nick Aini's. I'll see you Friday, Nick. And maybe on Toronto, Mike will talk about this

Toronto municipal political controversy with Brad Bradford. Recycle Myelectronics.ca. And of course, Ridley Funeral Home, you got your measuring tape there. Measure what you wish.

See you all. Friday. When my special guest, she's a singer-songwriter, I'm quite looking forward to talking with Charlotte Cornfield. Charlotte Cornfield makes her Toronto mic debut Friday. See you all then.