Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Festivus 2025: Toronto Mike'd #1824

Episode Date: December 23, 2025

In this 1824th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike and Elvis celebrate Festivus 2025 with the airing of grievances. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, RetroFestive.ca and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

The tradition of Festivus begins with the airing of grievances. I got a lot of problems with you, people. Now, you're going to hear about it. And now, it's time for your blog sucks. I'm another day, come on, come on, with his roadside tie. Elvis, this is how it's gone, things are good when we're young. Elvis, this is our ninth festive episode of episode in a row. Nine in a row, nine in a row, happy festivist to you.

Nine in a row, eight of them recorded on the actual day, one recorded on the 22nd. Why was that? Were you busy? I can't remember why. You moved it to 22nd. I did move it. I did. Was it the weather? It might have been.

Like, if we know a storm is coming, we might. I think it was the weather. Which would have been smart. Like, it doesn't sound like us. No. Like that to me is a reasonable smart thing to do, but it doesn't sound like you and I at all. No, not at all. Not at all. I was getting ready.

But let's we forget, you come. all the way from North Oshawa. I have to climb down a flight of stairs. That's right. That's right. I was getting ready this morning and Mrs. Elvis is like, what are you doing? And I'm like, you know what day it was? I'm like, what day is it?

I'm going to go record the Festivist episode. And she's like, oh, God. Every year, every year. Now, you made a remark that is a very unusual, which you said in North Oshawa, there is, well, you could do it on the mic. What are you doing there? Yeah, I'm doing online. Okay, so Elvis, I'm going to do play by play.

Didn't you say something about it having to be 11 or something? That's fucking bullshit. It's 9.46, baby. For you, yeah. But when a guest comes over for a 9.30 recording, which was your scheduled time, but you're late. But hold on. I'm going to tie it to the weather in a minute.

But I absolutely will make a decision. Like, if it's 9.30 recording, I typically won't say, will you have a beer with me? Right. But if it's an 11 o'clock recording, which many are, I will always say, will you have a beer with me? That's reasonable. That's reasonable. I think because you generally don't know. Mike Richards popped it at 730 a.m.

You generally don't know the people. that are on the show intimately, right? I'm only intimate with you. Correct. Correct. Yes. Okay, but the weather, quick, I got to do a weather.

I feel like I'm humble and Fred doing a weather update here, but you in North Oscewa have less snow on the ground than you see here in South Atobico. Correct. That's not unusual. The reason for my delay is that there was a massive car fire on the 401 on the other side going eastbound. And so, of course, the westbound lanes were a little bit slower out to

Ridley Funeral Home. I hope everybody's okay over there. Brad, we got to pick up. There's definitely, yeah, I'm not sure that that, unfortunately, I'm not sure that person made it. Oh, my goodness. It was pretty bad. Terrible, uh, I hope they weren't Christian because that would ruin people's Christmas. Wow.

This is the ninth fest of us in a row where we air our grievances. What do we do for the 10th? Like, uh, I don't know. Like when, we do anything different? Yeah, I, I mean, I think it has to be an extravaganza. Well, we got to, I don't know. Should it be public, uh, somewhere public? like Jeremy Hopkin is good at finding us

like public sites where we could plug in and people are excited, we're there. Let's do it. Like, I'm going to just shout out the people on the live stream, okay? And wonder aloud in my mind, would they show up for a live recording of a Festivist episode next year, 2026?

But I want to shout out the aforementioned Jeremy Hopkins. I want to say hello to Andrew Ward. Chris Ward, that's not Christopher Ward, who's an FOTM. This is a different Chris Ward, but unrelated to Andrew Ward. Greg Siskinen

Hey ref Who else is here Levee Fumpka A friend of yours and mine FOTM Hall of Famer Unlike you Moose Grumpy Also friend

Also future FOTM Hallfamer Neil Jays Chapmane Neal who loves the Blue Jays But a lot of people there For this live recording But I wonder And it's early

I mean like shouldn't people be working too It's impressive right Do people work on December Typically do people work on December 23rd. I think I don't know. Are you working today? Yes.

Do you work tomorrow? Technically, yes. But no. Of course not. I'll check my teams every once in a while, but that's about it. Okay, one more person on the live stream, I purposely didn't shout out because I'm going to ask you about this shirt I'm wearing right now.

So can you read the shirt I'm wearing right now? I read the liner notes. Okay. So I received this shirt at a very early TMLX event as an homage to the Molly Johnson episode of Toronto Mike, one of the very few episodes you've listened to. Yes, second, second favorite episode of Toronto Mike.

After Ginovonelli. We recorded a recap. That was the best. I wish we could do more of that. That was so much fun. Well, you're going to listen. If you listen and say, I need to talk about that. I know, but if you told me which ones to listen to,

then that would be... Well, listen to all of them. You're going backwards. Okay. Yes. But I'm wearing the shirt because I've always read it one way, and I wonder if I'm reading it wrong. It is a gift from Ames.

Andy, who's on the live stream, Andy gave me this shirt at a very early TMLX event. That's very nice. And I've always, because of Molly Johnson, I always read it as I read the liner notes. But it probably is I read the liner notes. Oh, good call. Yeah. What is it? We need clarification.

Because I've had now, because how many TMLX, I think we're going back now. Like, I don't know, seven, eight years or something. I don't know. I rock this shirt for Andy and for the Molly Johnson episode of Toronto Mike, which didn't win me any podcast awards. It took many years later. But I want to know from the live stream. I just assume it's I read the liner notes as a response to Molly.

But of course, this shirt wasn't custom made. So it probably was marketed as I read the liner notes. Yeah, I think it's I read. And I read. I've got two questions for you. How, when did TMLX start? Did the Festivis episode start before TMLX or? Good question.

I don't have an answer at the top of my head. Because we're nine years removed from the first Festivus, this is the ninth in a row. Yes. When did the first TMLX happen? I don't know. Good question. I don't know.

I'm going to go into the art. It's probably 2018, so probably Festus went first. Okay. And then second question is, of all of your sub-genre episodes or whatever, your special episodes? Sub-series. Sub-series, that's it. Are there ones that predate Festivist? I'm going to say no.

Because you have like toast and you have like... Yeah, toast came with the pandemic. So that shows up in 2020, 2020. And then you have like the Mark Wiseblot ones. Maybe that predates this. Maybe, although they're now on hiatus. Why? Well, because it takes two to tango.

Maybe that should be one of my grievances. We're going to get to the grievances. But one of my grievances is Mark Wiseblood doesn't visit anymore. And I even said it's recently. yesterday, we should do it 2025 retrospective with 1236 as Mark Wiseblot like next week.

Right. No interest at this moment in his life. Really? But it's not like he's going on another rival podcast or he's not going on Canada land. I haven't heard Mark Wiseblot's voice on a publicly accessible podcast since he popped on my mics

in the summer of 2024 when I was set up at Christy Pitts for a Toronto Maple Leafs baseball game managed by your dear friend Rob Butler. I do a pre-Festivist or a Festivus Eve podcast on Canada land. Yeah, and they

They would, you know what? Canada land would be paid them to produce it and everything. You'd have to pay them because they want a bunch of ears where I don't care if I get a bunch of ears. I only want the ears that belong to Jeremy Hopkins or

Moose Grumpy or Levee Fumka or Stephanie Wilkinson. These are the ears I want, Leslie Taylor. You know what I mean? Yes, I do. I don't care about the number. I care about what ears I'm getting here. What are your thoughts?

And then I have to set the table by reminding listeners who the fuck you are. And then I do want to talk about TMLS-21. Like, why is this guy on the show? Because you're not famous outside the TMU. I wouldn't say I'm famous in the TMU. I can't believe I just said DMU. You are famous in the TMU. I've update for you there.

Can you tell me your thoughts? Because you're a big Elvis fan. I call you Elvis. Yes. What are your thoughts on this song? I fucking love this song. It's a great song. I remember when I went to Memphis,

I've been there three times. And the last time I walked down Beale Street and was playing this song in my AirPods. I didn't know where that would go, but I kind of hoped it would go this way. Who doesn't like this song? Rob Pruce. It's not offensive.

The last host I played it. It's got a choir? Who doesn't like songs with choir? Bob Willett, who's a little, he's probably your age. I'm going to say Bob's your age. When do you turn 50? Next year, I think.

So Bob, you don't know? Hold on. Are you doing a bit there? Are you had to think on it, like, when you turn 50? I did. I did. I did. Okay, so you're born in 76?

Correct. Correct. Same with Bob Lulet, okay? Yes. So there's a whole cohort of FOTM's turning 50 next year. A bunch of us already did it. I already did it. I'm really ahead of you.

But Bob Willett and I are like, we love this song. What a great song. And Rob Pruss is all like, I don't. don't like it's okay it's fine but he doesn't care for this song and i thought that was mind-blowing because rob pruss is a um a liker he likes stuff you know what i mean it's a i'm not offended that he doesn't like it but i'm not offended he doesn't like it either i've never i didn't own that but it seems like it's a it's a big thing for you that he doesn't like it and he's a piano in it and he's a piano guy what about this version and then we're going to set the table here

also good anything by Cher is good she has such a great voice I love Cher do you know she's 80 I didn't know that she was 80 but I knew she was old is 80 old I'd say so I'd say for a friend here

although her boyfriend's probably 30 or whatever she's Camping it Whoever she's camping out with these days I have a note from Moose Grumpy Who saw Share on S&L this past weekend Oh that's right And she was there with Ariana Grande

Wasn't she? Right And says she'll be 80 in May So I want to get that right So she's exactly 30 years Older than you Elvis So you're too old for her But Jeremy Hopkins

That's crazy Jeremy Hopkins reporting That the first TMLX event was July 19, 2018, which means the Festivus app came first. Yeah. But not by much. Was I at that first one?

I think I was. I don't know. I can't remember. It was at Great Lakes Brewery. I was at two or three of them at Great Lakes. I co-hosted a couple of them, I think. So let's not bury this lead. Let's cover this who you are.

We'll start by me thanking you for co-hosting TMLX21 at Palma's Kitchen last month. Always a good time. I'm not sure what to expect ever. And then you asked me both. And then you asked me to play bad cop or good cop, bad cop, bad cop can't remember which one. No, you're bad. Right. But then it's your show.

No, it's your show. Like, you do such a great job of moving people in and out. And then, yeah, it was, it was fun. Do you know we recorded three hours and 15 minutes and neither of us went for even a pee break? Yeah, that's a, I usually go for a pee break. We were drinking beer. Yeah. Three hours plus.

And neither of us had to leave for a nature break. And by the way, I usually. And I know I bang this home on the show, but when that's all done and you got your three hours and 15 minutes and you realize, okay, zero breaks, but zero edits, like it's completely as it happened in the room. It's a feat of strength, really is what it is to be able to do that. Bring it back to Festivus. It really is. Well, so thank you for co-hosting. You know, you're always my first call when it comes to co-hosting these.

I don't know why, but I do enjoy it. It is fun. And now that I... But you didn't. But if you had listened to the three hours and 15 minutes, you know, you're always. you'd be like, perfect, no notes. Yeah, totally no notes. And he highlights it all, like when I think about it, it's a bit of a blur,

but you have a lot of Hebsy off the top, and there's the Mike Richards, and then there's a Mike Eppel, and there's a Carla Collins, and there's a Larry Fedorick, and then along the way you have, like, an Ed Susa, and you have a Professor Pricklethorn. Well, the Marv guy was a highlight for me, what does he do, the circle of radio or something? He's got a streaming, like a radio streamer,

that airs Toronto Mike episodes. Correct. On Sunday nights, I believe he said. So he was a highlight for me. But then there's also the guy who tells amazing stories. Cherry Levittan. The John Lennon story, which he's told before.

He went into greater detail, I think, last time. Well, he's been here for the deepest dive into that, but that's Sir Jerry, and he is great. He's so great. Yeah, I love that guy. And then Hebsie was great. I bought two of his, both of his books, signed them. They're going to be Christmas presents. Amazing.

For me, right? to me, from me, but they'll show up in a stocking, I'm sure. So what a, so thanks again to Palma Posta for hosting. And I got a lasagna for you, Elvis. Love Anthony. You're not leaving here without a pause. I just had a lasagna from them last week. And we touched on that origin story, but like if you in a nutshell, and again, I don't

know how much you want to disclose, but like, so you're, you were a co-host of this program, firstly, but secondly, before I started Toronto Mike, you got me a job in pornography. Is that correct? I did. I did, although you correctly say that it wasn't actually, it was software development is what it was. I don't like pretend. Like sometimes it's funny that people assume I acted maybe. Like that's fine. Like I wasn't acting in the pornography. I was an agent. I was like the digital web guy.

Yeah. And so like we would chat all the time because it was a crazy place to work. And we developed it's not often that a recruiter, you know, becomes friends with someone that they placed. But we did because the stories were so great. And I was so curious as to like, Because there's a madman running the show over there. And a very, very, pretty famous rich person who was financing the whole thing. Yeah. And he was bananas. And the stories were just like, they were great. And yeah. So, and then, uh, yeah.

So, and that. So I think after six months, I might have, like, written a detailed, like an email to you about what's going on in this, um, this hotel room at Avenue Road and Bluer. And we were across from the ROM. Correct. So you were close to where I work too. Uh, and, I remember that you, because I would ask, like, what is it that you see or, like, you know, and the closest that it came to porn was like a playboy on the coffee table.

Oh, no, except on my computer screen, because my job, my job involved affiliate links for porno sites. Right, right, but yeah, yes. But it wasn't like there was. There wasn't porn like happening live in the room. Correct. Right. You weren't editing it or anything. Although the owner might have, might have liked that.

I don't know, but there's a lot going on there. But so we became buds. Yes. And in the early days, you were on many episodes co-hosting. And I enjoy thoroughly. Obviously, this is the ninth in a row. I thoroughly enjoy the fest of this catch-up with you. We're going to air grievances.

Can I, this is not a grievance. It's the opposite of a grievance. But can I share that I'm going to come out of the closet, okay? Are you ready? Yes. Again. How's that beer tasting? It's fantastic.

I've got the Canuck Pail ale. It's a classic. It's good. And then the other one here that I will also have is the premium logger. Those are probably the two big guys outside the IPA universe. Yeah. I find the IPAs, like any IPA, not just GLB. Like, people go crazy with the hops.

Like, I like a good IPA, but it doesn't need to be like 15%. And like, you know, practically a fucking soup. When you have a moment, what's the percentage of alcohol in that burst that you have, this one? Oh, the burst. Because that's a very, that's only 4.5. Yeah, it's 4.5. That's a tasty IPA. And if you're not looking for too much alcohol in your IPA,

honestly, I'm here to tell you the fighting weight octopus wants to fight. That's my go-to during the winter. Yeah, the octopus is good. I like the octopus. It's good. But there's not, again, not necessarily GLB, but like some of these hoppy ones are crazy. This is one of my favorite Christmas songs, by the way. It's fucking great.

Okay, that's where I'm going, actually, which is that I recently watched the documentary about this song. I don't remember where... There's a documentary about this song? Yeah. I watched it last week. So not the Wham one? Not the Wham one? Oh, wow.

So there's a documentary... Where do we see this? Well, I have a, like, I don't know if you have access to somebody we call Stella. Do you have access to this? I do not. So I don't know where it originated. It might be Netflix. I don't know for sure.

But there is a last Christmas documentary. It's fairly recent, like only a couple years old, maybe. And I watched it last week. And it's like, obviously everybody who's in the video which was filmed at a Swiss ski resort or something. Oh, right, yes. Everyone who's alive

in the video now. Here's the funny thing of the video. The video was they're all friends. They're all friends of Andrew and George, the two members of Wem. One of whom is, shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. You wept openly. I did. His anniversary of his death is in two days.

Yeah, he died on Christmas Day. It's crazy. Again, for those new listeners, that's a celebrity death that caught me off guard. Like really caught me off. Yeah, it was very sudden and hit you hard. Yeah, it did hit me hard. I was like, I remember openly weeping about it and be like,

why am I cried about George Michael dying? But yeah, maybe one of my grievances that I'll talk about. There's a song, we're going to get to that soon. There's a song queued up that, well, maybe explain it a little bit. I don't know. I still can't explain it. There's going to be a lot of George Michael on this episode because we'd have it no other way. We'd have it no other way.

I do like George Michael, though. Yeah, me too. He's good. The Faith CD Yes Was I spun it a hundred times Yeah me too Yeah totally

And I make it big This this So make it big was the Wham cassette I played over and over again As a kid Yep Yep true

Me too So I watched this dog Okay You can interject of course I was gonna say So they interviewed everybody Who's still alive From the video

Everybody who was in the video It turns out They were all real life friends Who all went to Switzerland To film this Except they hired a model To play Joy George's love interest in the video.

Of course. So she was parachuted in this doc. They all reunite, including the model who wasn't a part of the friend group. So it's all a bunch of friends getting back together. Obviously, George no longer with us. But everybody else is alive. And Andrew's there. And everybody's back together.

Pepsi is her name. There's all these people who are like backup singers for Wham. And they're all friends. You probably learned about this in the Wham documentary. But there's a model, a British model who was hired to be the love interest for George. And she comes back for this to kind of have like a re-refer. They reunite. And it's all interesting,

but they go back to when they made, they talk about how George Michael, his big thing was he wanted a Christmas number one in his home of England, where it's a big deal to get a Christmas number one single. We don't give a fuck over here. But in England, this is huge. Get your Christmas number one.

And this song, he goes, I got it. This is the number one. And he does it all. Andrew, Andrew Ridgilly had the best job in music. He really did. He really did. Although he was,

I mean, if you watched the Wham documentary, he's he's a you know He's a motivational like He helps motivate Yes George Michael Yeah yeah yeah and he I think he recognized

Based on what I remember from the doc I think he recognized George's his talent Of course And sort of like did what he could And he was so shy George Michael was so shy That Angie had to kind of give him like confidence Yeah he did what it could

Yeah to push him forward But you know musically He didn't have anything Okay so George writes this thing He plays all the parts He plays all the he produces it, it's 100% a George Michael's

solo endeavor last Christmas I'm talking about. But in the documentary, which you really need to see, like they play his vocals to tell you how amazing his vocals were, and I have pulled so when you hear nothing, which is right now, it's because there's a musical part.

But if you listen, So this is Last Christmas, Just George. Last Christmas, I gave you my heart, but the very next day you gave it away. This year, to step me from tears, I'll give it to someone special. Last Christmas, I gave you my heart, but the very next day, you gave it away. He's here To set me from tears I'll give it to someone special

Special So great So there's some instrumentation here What is Rob Pruss think of this Is he a fan of this song? I'll ask him You know what I'll ask him I bet you I don't know

But now I'm going to All these songs I just took for granted That we all like I'm here to say Even though this gets played a lot And he's about to come back George I don't want to talk over him But

Once bitter And twice shot I keep my distance, but you still catch my eye. Tell me, baby, do you recognize me? Well, it's been here. It doesn't surprise me. Happy Christmas. I wrapped it up on Santa.

That's border material right there. Happy Christmas. I should isolate that. me again last Christmas I gave you my heart but the very next day you give it away this year step me from three years I'll give it to someone special last Christmas I gave you my heart but the very next day you gave it away love it To save me your tears I'll give it to someone special, special.

Hello to Midtown Gord, who has joined us on the live stream. Oh, sorry, George. We're going here, hold on. News Grumpy says this is called Wham, Last Christmas Unwrapped, and it's on Netflix. So you can watch it tonight. That could be your festival. Yeah, I think I will. Andy says George Michael had...

Oh, sorry, George. George had the voice of an angel. Who said that? Andy. Yeah, okay. Dan Jay is here. Hello Dan. And

My guy, I thought you were someone to rely on me. Oh. I promise I'm moving on, but I got to let him finish. Hold on. A man in the cover, but it's turning to be apart. Ooh, ooh, now I found a real love you'll never fool me again. me again last Christmas I gave you my heart but the very next day you gave it away this year to save me from tears I'll give it to someone special

last Christmas I gave you my heart The very next day you gave me away This year, I'll give me from tears I'll give it to someone special Place on a lover where the fire in his heart A man under cover What you tore him apart

Maybe next year I'll give it to someone I'll give it to someone special. So good. That's great. How do you feel inside right? Oh, sorry, George. George.

I thought you were done, George. Holy smokes. How do you feel right now in the cockles of your heart? Cockled. It's great. It really is great. You know, the 70s and 80s were funny because they're like George Michael

and like Freddie Mercury. I feel like. Elton John? Well, not so much. Elton John. I thought you're going to tell me about all the proud gay men who couldn't be publicly. gay.

Well, yeah, but I didn't, didn't we feel like we knew Elton John? I just remember, like, when my mom found out George Michael was gay, it was like, are you kidding me? Like, it was like such a surprise. Right. Liberace. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, like, now you look back and you're like, you know, it is, you know, it is, you know, my memory of Elton is, because he had the big song, Rocket Man, and he talked about

his wife and stuff. Yeah. I think, I think it was left ambiguous for a long time. I, maybe. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, but yeah, it's, it's a funny. It was funny.

Like, I mean, now you look back and you're like, well, I don't know if you're going to apply stereotypes. Like, he fit like so many of them, right? And what are those stereotypes? Like, I don't know. Just like the faith cover. The fact he likes to openly, open mouth kiss men. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, he kind of looked like a village people person. Like, you know, like in that the, the, the leather and the crossy ring and stuff like that like just some stuff there that you know clearly george was trying to tell us something without telling us something well we're well it turns out when he did come out of the closet he burst out like the Kool-Aid man he really did because didn't he get cut he well he got caught yes he got caught the famous story well he got caught in a public men's room having you know uh hooking up with anonymous men right and a men's room and then i guess that outed him i suppose i think so yeah and then he says i'm out now uh watch out world i'm

going to be the gayest gay man in gayville. Yeah, but still love him. Oh, my God. Okay, so this episode is in memory of the late grade. So how do we do this? You know, I'm trying to. Is it really? Why not? It's my show. I can do what I want.

So I have more audio for one of my grievances, actually. But how, like, can we do a check in unless you want to just like do the grievances and then tell us how you're doing as we proceed? But because I want to know how is Elvis doing, even though I saw you at TMLX 21 and you were on these microphones. There's no opportunity really to check in with Elvis because it's chaos for three hours and 15 minutes. And I think it was Andy.

Or was it Andy or was it Stephanie Wilkinson who commented that I commented numerous times that there was like a lot of people there on this on the podcast? Sounds like a Stephanie if I ever heard of. There was a lot of people there. I kept looking up and being like, holy, because we were seated right on like this table and everyone's on like high thoughts and stuff. Well, this is the first time we were on that side of the room where we could see people coming in.

Yeah. It felt to me at times like we had outgrow in that room and I got notes from people who came, couldn't find parking and saw it was so busy and left. That's, I saw you put that in,

you message that and that's sad. So what do we do? So can I ask you, what should we do? Because I'm going, I plan to do this again for the last Saturday of November,

2026. If we're still alive, Elvis, we don't take anything for granted. Okay, someone pulled that clip and shout out really funeral home if it, you know what happens. But if we all, all get together at noon on this date, which I can probably look up if I opened my Google

calendar. And like, what do we do differently next year? Do we just like, that's just the way it is? Do we rein it in? What are your thoughts? What if this gets bigger? I only just won a Canadian podcast award. I think, I think you do it at Palma pasta. So you don't change a thing. No, I don't think you change a thing. You like saying that. You like saying I'm not changing anything. The last Saturday, November, is November 28th. Okay, November 28, 2026. We don't know what number it'll be, but it'll be a TMLX event.

I think you still do it there. You know, like, Anthony is a great sponsor. He's a great dude. It brings in a ton of business for him. Or like you, I don't know, because you can't do, I was going to say maybe get a tent or something and do it outside, but the weather is like, you know. The weather outside is frightful. It is very fraught.

Because you could take over that. No, let's face it. I'm asking you this as if I would change anything. Unless maybe you, like, don't change it, but make sure that you are publicizing the fact that you need to get there early and or here's other places where you can park and walk. Right.

Now, uh, retro festive, who stepped up. So I'm going to say hi to tie the Christmas guy for a moment before we get into your first grievance. Because tie the Christmas guy, put up his hand and said, I would like to sponsor Toronto Mike for November and December of 2025. So this is one of the, like it's only a few episodes left. this calendar a year. So I got to say that's amazing because Ty the Christmas

guy was already an FOTM. He had been on. He gave gifts to a previous TMLX and no money exchanged hands. We have the gift that he gave from TMLX. My, Mrs. Elvis loves it. The leg lamp. The leg lamp and it is plugged in and has been plugged in since I got home.

Mine's plugged in the kitchen. I love it too. And I want to say thank you to Retro Festive. And it's not too late everybody to go to the Oakville store. I feel like the cash man. Doesn't he have a line about, no, his son, his son says,

Dad, can I run the Oakville store? And then he goes, oh, yeah. Oh, God. Speaking of the Kool-Aid man. They're still in business, those? 100%. You kidding me? Russell Oliver at some point

will be sitting in this basement, okay? Can you talk about it? What came first? I know what the answer. So the Kool-Aid man was going, oh, yeah. Yes.

And then Russell Oliver, the cash man, use that as his catchphrase. It's the same thing, right? Oh, yeah. You need to get him and Marvin in here at the same time. Oh, God.

That would be amazing. I can't afford the insurance. Would you really get Russell Oliver in here? Why not? I just had Jack Berkovitz. Do you know this name? Yeah, yeah. What's the difference?

Yeah. Well, the only difference is, obviously, Berkovitz had a radio show. So we had to talk about it. He got fired from all the AM radio stations or whatever. But other than that, like to me, they're very similar.

They're both. Russell, that would be hilarious. I'd have Ross. I would invite Russell Oliver over. Ask him if I can run the, the Mimico store. I think you just invited him now. Russell, get your out.

If he's listening, Russell, get in touch. Come on. Get in touch. So thank you to retrofestive.ca, and the promo code to save 10% is FOTM. Do you know what? Here's a big trivia question for you, Elvis. Do you know what FOTM stands for? I have no fucking idea.

Is that the truth? Are you doing a bit now? The Friends of Toronto, Mike. Okay. So FOTM saves you 10%. Thank you to Retro Festive. You have your Great Lakes beer. Great Lakes is back in 2026.

Those guys have been around as long as Festiv as has been around. Yeah. They have been, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're amazing. We've done 10 years at least with great. That's amazing. That's so great. What a partnership.

And what a partnership with the Petrucci family and Palm Aposti. Yeah, he will be back there in November 2026. He's been around for a long time too. Will you be co-hosting that episode with me? I mean, if you'll have me, sure. I'm asking you right now. Okay, yeah, sure. I don't want to change anything.

I would love to. Yes, of course. I would love to. Don't piss me out here. I'll put it in my calendar. All right, so we're obviously. Who was at? TMLX that won't show up again.

I know one person. Carla calls. Carla calls. Okay, so Elvis, let me ask you, why don't you think Carla will show up again? Well, because she asked you to do something and... Do you want to have a quick chat about that before we get to the grievances? Maybe this is kind of a grievance.

Maybe, yeah, maybe I think that's a grievance. Okay, so you, can you acknowledge that I have occasionally missed the plot on something? Yes. Okay, so... Well, I'm not sure that you did miss the plot on this. Well, let's be clear. Okay, let's do it here. So can I tell, I'll set the table and then you tell me, I miss the plot.

Because, you know, I may have missed the plot on this. I'm not, uh, and for those new listeners, I am not afraid to tell Mike when he's fucked up. And that's when I use his microphone. And there's things that, you know, like, that we don't agree on everything. An email, so she was booked, firstly, for December 30th. I'm just pointing that out because she was going to be my guest that kind of bridges Christmas to New Year's, and she was going to come over yesterday. I was going to do a Ben Rayner and a Carla Collins next week.

So there were two new episodes to listen to. And then she said, I move it up because I want to promote my New Year's Eve thing in Barry. She's doing a performance in Barry. Oh, really? Okay. So she actually, because I went to her show and she said, can we move it up? And I actually drilled a hole in the schedule.

Like, I like, I will do this for Carla because I like Carla. Carla came to TMLX21. I was at her event in North York at a brewery. And at that brewery when I was at her event, I had a chat with her, I don't know what his title is, but her gay fiancé, Michael Webb. Because I had read on Facebook that Michael Webb had just met Pierre Polyev. and Michael Webb wrote like 10 paragraphs of praise for our future prime minister who he thinks is going to save this country, okay?

Where did he write this? Facebook. Facebook. Right. So I go... And you're friends with him on Facebook? Yes. Okay.

And I'm on, I'm at this brewery in North York and I said to Michael Webb, oh, I read what you wrote about Pierre. Like I didn't say anything negative about it. I said, I read what you wrote about Pierre. When you come over, we have to talk about this. And he kind of nods or whatever. He says, okay, I like talking about it, whatever. And then I get an interesting.

an email, like the day before Carla visits, and an email, and I got to pull it up to quote it properly, but something to the effect of, I don't want to talk politics. This is what I read it as anyway. So what she wrote almost doesn't matter, because in my brain it was read as, I don't want to talk politics. And in my brain, I'm thinking, oh, this woman is a Canadian, lives in the United States, crosses that border all the time to get home, et cetera. She doesn't want to have the T word attached to her in any way. so I took it as mainly I took it as a two things I took from that one is okay I won't ask Carla any thoughts on anything

political that was the first thought and secondly I'm going to keep Donald J. Trump off this episode not that I do a lot of Trump talk anyways but it could come up organically because she's a Canadian living in the United States I thought the T word was tits thanks for she says tits a lot does she really because she got

phony tits what's fake boobs okay phony fake okay so she got And she kind of has some... Oh, does she talk about that? She talks about it all the time. Oh, wow. Good for her.

That she got these enhancements of her breasts, and she... When was that? A long time ago. And I tried to get the story out of her, like, why, but it sounds like somebody talked her into it many, many moons ago. So, yeah. So Carla, who is a very tall, thin woman, has fake breasts. So the T-word's okay, but the Trump.

So I said, don't ask Carla anything political, which kind of sucks, to be honest. Like, I was going to do it for her. Like, I agreed to do it. I wrote her back. You don't take notes. I don't like that. Like, I actually don't like it because I probably wasn't going to...

But you can understand why. But she didn't say why. Like, I was, that was me in my own head saying it must be because she crosses the border and she doesn't want to have some border. But it could also have been that maybe her gay fiancé told her about what you said. Right, but I wish she had said that. So that's where I wish she had said, I wish she had said, Michael Webb said you talk to him about Pierre.

I don't want to have that conversation can be you and Michael when I'm not there. or something like that. Like, I wish she had said. Or off the mic. Like, she never mentioned Webb. So I took it as don't ask Carla for her thoughts on anything political. That's what I took. Yes.

So that's what I took. So we're doing our thing. Michael's sitting there on the mic. So he's miced up and he's chiming in a little bit here and there. Carla's where you are and the camera's on her. And it's going really well. And we're, you know, I got like 15 minutes left. And then I said to Carla something like, you know,

chillax there. I'm going to spend a couple of minutes talking to Michael Webb if that's okay. And then I said, I asked, I just said something like, okay, you just met Pierre Paulyev for the first time. And he goes, yeah, yeah. And then I get the look from Carla, like, it's the shut the fuck up, cease and desist. I can't believe you're asking Michael Webb about Pierre Pollyov. Like, it just, and then, so then I'm in this awkward moment of like, I'm not going to edit this fucking thing. So then I have this whole real time, like, oh, I guess she doesn't want me to mention anything political on the episode,

even if I have no interest in her saying a word about it. Like just let me talk to Michael Webb for two minutes. I was going to two minutes. And I wasn't going to say anything, like, I wasn't going to trash at all. I actually had some, like, legit questions about this proud gay man and his love for a conservative government. And I had a few questions about it. Like, I was curious about it. Wouldn't you be curious about it?

Yes. So I had some questions, right? This is Toronto Mike. Like, this guy's on the mic. He's sitting here. And I had questions for him. And I wasn't going to ask Carla for her thoughts on it. And I wasn't going to introduce.

anything American political, which is very polarizing, as you might know. Yeah. So this is your chance. So if you let's, so it was a bit awkward as we changed the channels. And because I'm already, like, admired in this stew of awkwardness, I reference it a couple of times. Like, I feel like it's this big gorilla sitting in the room. So a couple of times I referenced the fact. In the remaining 15 minutes.

Yeah, in the last 15 minutes. I might reference the fact that, like, we're not talking. Just reference the fact that there was this big thing I brought up to talk about on my show and I got like a cease and desist like Carla was going to storm out and never talk to me again. So it was awkward the rest of the time. But weirdly, that was a rare episode of Toronto mic where I took the photo before the recording, not after. Oh, wow. And I never do that.

It's funny because I looked for that photo to see if there was any sign. The Molly, but we talked about Molly earlier, which was awkward in a different way. But that photo was taken after and it was delightful. She gave me a big hug and a photo and it was like, oh, maybe she doesn't hate my guts. I haven't talked to her since. But this is now, I'll shut up. Tell me, I fucked up. Well, what would, did she say anything to you off, off the air?

No, it was just, we didn't, we barely talked after. Like, it was like, obvious. I had the same thought, which is, oh, I guess that's the end of Carla Call. And has she, well, has she contacted you since. So you, because she's been on the show twice, once on Zoom and once in person, right? Yeah, and then plus the TMLX 21. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, right.

So three times. And I have seen her. I've been in the room chatting with her face to face three times in the past three weeks. Really? Because TMLS 21. No, TMLX 21. Right. Her show.

Her show in North York. And then this moment. But you haven't seen her since. No. Oh. I wonder. I wonder what would happen if you saw. Well, you need to tell me now, did I fuck up?

Do you think she's done with you? Yep. Yeah, you think she's done. That's my feeling. But, I mean, I won't invite her on again. Which is too bad because I feel like you guys vibe pretty well. It was like a comet. There's like a friendly flirtation thing that goes on.

We shone so bright for a short period of time. and then it flamed out. So this is, I have heard from FOTMs, I respect, who said I was cringy or, I did, yeah, I saw that too. That was Al Grego. So Al Grego thought I was cringy

that I referenced it again. But I know how my brain operates and I knew I was going to reference it. I'm kind of like with you though. Like I'm one of two ways. Like when there's something crinchy or awkward, I either bring it up as a way to make it less cringy,

but there is a moment where it comes. Like you need to kind of acknowledge, there's this big fucking gorilla in the room. Yes. Yeah. It's weird not to, acknowledge it. Yeah, but then there's also, like, you know, part of me that says, like, yeah, maybe

you shouldn't have said that because it is cringy, but at the end of the day, like, who fucking cares? It's not like as if she's... I'm creating a real, like, just like that three hour, 15 minute thing. This is going to be an hour, 10 minutes, unedited Carla experience. And I did get super awkward because I, I, I didn't mean to violate any trust. I think that that it wasn't clear enough that no politics means no politics from both of them.

That's, that's what I said to her. And she's like, no. like she didn't even want to like talk it's like no well because she just probably just wanted to move on right she just didn't want to make it a thing which makes a question though what are we what are we afraid of because i had decided in my own head that she was afraid of border well i don't i don't i want yeah i just think she probably just doesn't want any pauliev and she doesn't want politics to be part of her brand at all whatsoever but it's kind of like i don't understand how it's part of her brand well it's talking to michael web i think there's nothing good to come of it right for her that's why i left her out of the confo see i'm still defending my because if I revisited this on bike rides many times since it happened and every time I do the same fucking thing. Well, I think that because you wouldn't be interviewing Michael Webb

without Carla Collins beside him. Correct. Right? So there's an attachment there. But again, one more note here. One more note though. I regularly book Carla Collins on Humble and Fred show

for a 8.15 a.m. Zoom hit for 20 minutes or 25 minutes or so. Right. And that episode will end up being about, let's say it's a two-hour episode. 20 minutes is Carla, which won't have any politics attached to it.

But the rest of the show is Humble and Fred shitting on Donald J. Trump. So the whole episode is, like nothing that you've heard on this show. Like, they just shit on him with all their power, with all their might. And then there is a 20-minute block with Carlin where they don't talk about Trump. But I don't, so to me, what's the fucking difference?

Like, she's not there? I'm kind of surprised at Humble and Fred shit on Donald Trump. You thought they would be fans of Donald Trump? Well, yeah. Maybe they were at the beginning, or at least Freddie. I don't, I know, Fred's a conservative. He loved Stephen Harper. Right.

He hated Justin Trudeau and liberals. He must love Carney. I think he's fine with Carney, but I think Fred's one of those conservatives who can recognize there's a big orange grift going on down south. Right. And he's a narcissist, like a hateful human being. And I wouldn't let him run Palma Pasta, let alone run the country. I mean, the last liberal budget was basically a Stephen Harper budget. So, I mean, you can't really be super.

upset with... Well, he doesn't like... I can say Fred does not care for Pierre Pollyam. So I had questions for Michael Webb to bring him back to that. Right. And I can get you more beer

when you're done. But I'm good. Humble and Fred of all, as far as I know, when they started talking about Trump in 2016, they've always despised the guy. Yeah. I mean, yeah.

I don't want to talk about it, Mike. I don't want to talk about it. I got your rider, okay, Elvis. We're moving on now. I got to cross the board. You need to make a final decision and it can be, I don't know,

but you need a final decision here before we get to the game. I think it's fair for Carla to be miffed, but I don't think you did anything wrong. I think she should have been more clear because clearly she meant both of them, which is fair. She should have been clearer because I'm not the right as late in the chandelier. Well, I think she should have been clear, but I don't think that it was wrong for you to do what you did because she didn't mention not to talk to him about it. Okay, so we're on the same place, which I regret it, but I wish I had no one that I couldn't even ask Webb about. It is interesting, though, that a gay man is a conservative.

But not just a conservative, right? Like Pierre Polyev, who has a gay father, is so vehemently against any sort of, like, gay rights. Like, it's just such a curious thing. Yeah, his dad's gay. Did not know that. I did not know that. But Michael, maybe that's how it is. Maybe Michael Webb is Pierre's father.

That explains so much. See, if we had only had a chance to talk about it, that might have been disclosed. Exactly. Okay. You got a second. Why is he, why is he a fiancé? That's Carlos terminology. It's just the joke. Like her best friend is just a joke. Because she's not married, is she? She's not married. Right. That was the other awkward moment. I segued from

amazing. Not talking politics to tell me about being married to Tyrone Power Jr. I would like that episode back. But here's the thing. And I said this, I said this in the FOTM group on WhatsApp, which is not public. But I'm going to say it now, which is when you have a Ron James on or a Carla Collins on, by default, they go into this memorized routine mode where they have these things in their head that they've written for their comedy that starts coming out. And it's not really a conversation necessarily with Ron James and Carla Collins because they're doing their schick. Right. You need to, you actually, I sit here thinking, I got to move this person. So with Carl, I'm like, I got to move this woman off the stick so we can have a chat.

Like, I'm not here to hear her stand-up routine. Well, I think part of it is also that you've got guests that come on to promote something, right? And a comedian's the easiest, like, person to do that kind of thing. Juno Vanelli was clearly not here to promote, you know, black cars. Like, even though you wanted them to. Can we move off on you? So that's a good evidence. I do have an issue of these things.

Can we move off my love for Pierre Paulyev already? It's so great. That was such a great episode. Gino Vanelli. I can't believe we got Gino fucking Vanelli. Well, we should find out when is the test. 10th anniversary of the GinoWEP and you and I should record a 10th anniversary retro-spects. It's so good.

It's so good. Why don't you listen? There could be other episodes good, but you don't listen. I know, I know. Should we get to grievances or what? This is a fest of this, Elvis. Yeah, we're going here. Okay.

We're going. Hit me, so I don't have any sound. You want me to go first? Mine has a bit of music here. Okay, so here's my first music. So I'm going to play a song for you that I played last Christmas and I hope I've finished that thought, which is that I'm coming out of the closet as a fan of last Christmas. I love last Christmas

We usually play last Christmas on Festus I think because I know you cried for George So I'm playing it And it's too bad he died on Christmas Day Can we get off of that please? If he had died on Festivis We could have captured your like real time reaction I wonder who's died on Festivis

Has anyone important? Oh I'm sure I'm sure But here's a song I also have always loved And I think I love it more today than ever So I'm going to play a bit of it Because it's a song we've all heard 100 times this month but I have a grievance about it

I was Christmas of babe in the drunk tank and all man said to me and see another one

and I only sang a sign the rare old mountain Elvis is looking up people who died on December 23rd. Victor Borga. Oh, I remember his infomercials on TV. Yes. His piano or whatever.

And the guy who created Call of Duty died today in his Ferrari. He, like, crashed his Ferrari and died. It's very fast and furious of him. Yeah. I have never played Call of Duty. Have you? No, never, no. I know of it.

I would say the most famous person that I know, on this list, of which it's a very short list, is Victor Morgan. Levy Fumka just reported she has cheesecake in the oven. Do you think that's a euphonism? Show me your cheesecake. You know what I was thinking? Lucky Juan. Hey now.

Hey now. Cheesecake in the oven. Holy, that's a euphemism all right. Cheesecake in the oven. It's going to be a happy fest of it. But it's funny because she calls Juan her little cheesecake. Oh, really? By the way, Andy is a... Andy's pulling a Robert Lawson on you

The Call of Duty guy died a couple of days ago It's no, it's said here, I'm looking at it All right, well Andy's calling you out on that Okay, so this song, we all know the song I fucking love this song This is Shane McGowan from the Pogues and Christy McCall So you know this Poges

With Christy McCall's Ferry of Hale of New York What do you think of this song? I have no opinion You're indifferent I'm indifferent, yeah I am not indifferent to the song I really like the song. I like their voices together.

I like the way Shane sings it. I like the way Kursi. I like everything about this song. You like the little flute thing there. Yeah. In the back. I think it's crafted in a manner. I wouldn't change a fucking thing.

I've even come around on the F slurs because in the guise of that character Hussein, here it comes. So in the guise of these characters, I kind of get the F slur too. Sort of like in dire straits, money for nothing.

guys of that character, that guy would say that in that way. And that's the way it was written, okay? So it's not, you know, it's not being homophobic. It is, these characters are used terms like that. And anyway, so this whole song, I wouldn't change a thing. You're with me? Okay. Yeah.

So my grievance, bring down the pogs here. And I'm going to burn through this because I don't want to spend too much time. But my grievance is all these artists who try to cover that song. I wish musicians would stop trying to cover fairy tale of, of New York because I need those voices and that style. I've never heard an alternative where I thought that's pretty good. Every time I hear a cover of fairy tale of New York,

it makes me want to find that original because it just reminds me of how great. Which one is the worst? Well, I'm going to play a few right now and I'm going to close of the worst, okay? So, and let's see if you can even guess. So we're starting with this one, which is a nice attempt, and these people are football

players. What? This is Jason Kelsey. Oh, my God. But wait, you have to hold on, because I know you're a Swifty. Do you live with, you have a son, you have two daughters? Yes. Maybe Swifties in that home?

We're a Swifty house, yes. Same here. So there's a documentary, a finale just dropped that my wife and my nine-year-old are going to watch tonight. Like a finale of a Taylor Swift documentary series or something. Big deal in this house, big deal in your house. So, the other voice we're going to hear. He's going to be Mr. Swift. Does he drop the F-bomb here?

No. In this version? It's completely sanitized. No, there's no F-bomb in this. Here, I'm going to fast for it. So give it a moment if we can get to Travis. Mr. Swift. So they've called the Philly Specials.

They've got cars, biggest bars. They got rivers of gold. Oh, God. How is this not the worst one? It's not the worst one. Yeah, please. So stop doing this. You were pretty.

You're the king of South Philly. They changed it a bit here. So Philly, okay. So that's the Philly specials, which is Jason and Travis Kelsey. And then real quick here, there's a quick one. And you know, as covers go,

this one's not terrible, but it is not good. Hold on. What is this? It was Christmas Eve, babe. In the drunk tank An old man said to me Won't see another one

Are you familiar? Should I recognize who this is? Only if you like, do you listen to like new music? The rare old mountain do. Vance Joy. Do you know the name Vance Joy? Oh, I do not. Okay, so Vance Joy did a cover.

Is that a ukulele? Okay, here's another name you might know. I don't know Vance Joy. Elvis does not know Vance Joy, everybody. It's Christmas Eve, babe, in the drunk time. The problem of this exercise is that it starts with this slow part of the beginning, and then it gets all romp and so... I feel like I should know this voice.

I'm going to say the name. Let's see if you know the name. Ronan Keating. Oh, yeah, I know. Yeah. I don't know him intimately. name. You've never been intimate with Ronan. No. Shadow 2, George Michael. I mean, this is fine, but it's not,

I mean, it's... Like all fist by the way going on. But it is... It's... It's unnecessary. It's meh. Yeah. It's... You're a bum, you're a punk. You're an old slut and junk. I am there almost dead.

So they're going to change the lyrics, ready? You scumbed, you maggot. You're cheap and you're haggard. Meggit. It's always been maggot, but you're cheap and you're haggard instead of you cheap, lousy, F.ler, okay. So the two worst ones are coming up here, okay? Have great big seed on this? Did you know Alan Doyle was in this very basement? I heard.

Earlier this month? I heard. It was Christmas Eve, babe. Who's this? It's my second least favorite. An old man said to me won't see another one. And then he sang a song The rare old...

What are your thoughts on Good Charlotte? Oh, yeah. This is Good Charlotte. They're all right. They're all right. It's like, you know? They're like a guilty pleasure, but I'm not even like really like them.

But like if they have a couple catchy tunes, but that's about it. I think one married to Hillary Duff. I, I, I, yeah. I think that's true. I know they married someone famous. Like, they definitely leveled up. Oh, maybe, uh, maybe, uh, what's the, what's the woman from there's something about Mary?

Cameron Diaz. Maybe there's two brothers. Maybe one's got Hillary Duff and one's got Cameron Diaz. Really? Talk about punching above your weight. Yeah, no kidding. I thought you punched above your weight. Yeah, I did.

But Cameron Diaz? Yeah. Wow. Oh, this is horrible. This is bad. This is bad. Like, holy shit. It's not even the same song

You said Promise me Broadway was waiting for me I was handsome Yeah you got to say this is horrible So this is awful right But hey I've saved the worst for last Don't worry

We're saved the worst for last year Let's drink this in And we'll get to your first grievance But my grievance again Stop fucking covering Fairy Tale of New York We have a perfect version We don't need your carbon copies

As a man of An old man said to me Won't see another one As a man of Italian descent You should know this artist Rare old mountain Jew I have no idea I turn my face away

And dream about you Got on a lucky one I have no idea who it is. Since we're airing grievances, I've got to let it breathe a bit. I've got a feeling. What an unnecessary cover. Oh, happy Christmas. I love you, baby.

I can see a better time when all our dreams come true. They've got cars biggest bars, they've got rivers of gold. Who rose right few used the place for the old? You first took my hand on that cold Christmas seat. Promise me Broadway was waiting for me. You were handsome. You were pretty queen of New York.

City with the fans out at bay And they held out from all Sinatra was swinging All the trunks stayed were singing On the kiss on the corner And past year the night With boys on the in my free choir were singing

Gal we pay And the bells are ringing out For Christmas Day Bon fucking Jovey That's Bon Jovi? Oh my goodness I like a Bon Jovi But that's not good

He needs a lot more Shot to the heart, right? He needs a lot more reverb and guitar That just not sound like Bon Jovi Horrible Horrible Anyway, he needs

Virgie San Borough Bon Jovi Fairytale of New York The worst of all the fairy tale of New York covers And although I will shout out When Chey McGowan died Carlo nailed it.

Carlo was on the live stream, and he knew that was St. John Bon Jovi. He's a fellow proud Italian dissenter. I don't know what you want to be. I was going to use another term that I've heard Petrucci use, but I don't have license. He got it in two notes.

Yeah, you cannot say that. I want to shout out, so Lieve Fumka brings it up, but there was a version that was performed at Shane McGowan's funeral. That was wonderful. So outside of that, I will allow that one. Outside of that, I was going to say,

like he didn't perform. on that then. His friends performed it and it was quite touching. But he was dead. Shane was not, Shane was at his own funeral. Right. He's in a box,

I think. I don't know. Shane, much love to Shane McGowan. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. Elvis, what's your first grievance here? We've got to get rock in.

Yeah. So this will be a shout out to, potentially, uh, it could have been shout out to Ridley Funeral home. So my son, who is 11, plays travel baseball,

like rep baseball. Yes. And so they, you know, like it's, you know, multiple uniforms, you know, like Rob Butler has talked about your son on this very program. Oh, wow. Cool. So, a home opener this year in May. We are at our home diamond.

And we live stream the games. And I score keep. And I can't, I want to say they play seven inning games and I want to say this was maybe like the third or fourth inning. Okay. And it was in the changeover of the inning. And there are four coaches. The third base coach is like we've been together like as a team since they were eight.

So this is like the fourth or fifth year, fifth year I'd say. And he coaches third base, great family friend, do a lot of things together outside of baseball. and he starts walking towards home plate, I think it was to get something, like to pick up a bat or something. And then you can see him, like just realize something is wrong. He turns back towards the dugout

and falls flat on his face. And we, me and a couple of other dads who are there in the score. keeping doing the scorekeeping in the stands i suddenly have this like moment where i'm like something is not wrong i need to turn off the live stream so i go and turn off the live stream and at this point in time i knew something was actually before i turned off the live stream i knew something was wrong because one of the dads is a firefighter and he got up and walked with a purpose out onto the field and i knew something was wrong so that's when i went and turned off the live stream

then my my second instinct was I need to call Kylie who's Chris's wife and I didn't know why I didn't know what to say I didn't know what was going on I just knew something was wrong and so I called her and I said Chris is fallen he's down it doesn't look good I don't know what's going on and I walk out on the field um not to belabor the point but Chris had a widow maker heart attack. And I saw him die or at least stop breathing four times in front of me. I'm on the phone with his wife relaying information about what was happening. One of the dads is a firefighter. Like I mentioned, one of the other dads is a former EMT and one of the moms from the other team is a nurse. And so they were around him violently giving him chest compressions.

CPR, the ripped his shirt open, the whole nine yards. I kept turning him over to see if he could continue to breathe. And I just remember, you know, we've lost him. We've lost him. We've lost him. the diamond, which was on Durham College's campus, didn't have an AED. And so someone had called security, and security came over with an AED, and they shocked him. And the whole time I'm watching this happen, my buddy on the ground, and probably a meter or so.

away from him. And they shock him. And then at that point in time, the fire trucks come. I'm on the phone with Kylie the entire time. Chris, my Mrs. Elvis wasn't there. And I realized that she was watching on the live stream and that I should probably tell her what was happening. So I, you know, tell Kylie I'm going to call Mrs. Elvis. I grab someone else's phone. I call Mrs. Elvis and she freaks out because she sees someone else is calling her, not me. And I'm like, you know, hey, everything's fine. You know, Charlie's good. A couple of the moms had taken the kids off of the field and everything.

But long story short, he's fine. He died four times, basically. They loaned him up in an ambulance, put a couple of stents in his heart. And then two weeks later, more stents. But outside of like a fucked up face because he literally fell flat on his face and got a whole bunch of cuts on his nose, the doctors have told them that you're going to be fine. Like you're better than you've ever been before because now we know. He's got the widow maker.

We've fixed it. Right. And you're good. Like there's no restrictions basically. Like other than doing some rehab and stuff. But does he have to take any drugs? He takes drugs, yes. Okay.

But like blood thinners and stuff. but they're like, well, so do I. For all intensive purposes, yes, so do I. For all intensive purposes, you are better off now

than you have been before. Right. Because now that we, you're going to be monitored. There's no more blockage. You got a warning shot. There's a lot of guys, George Michael didn't get a warning shot.

He had a 1% chance of surviving. It was one or three. I can't remember. But regardless, that's, but I don't like those odds. No. But he survived.

And so the grievance, of course, is that he doesn't remember any of this. Like, so he, He has, his memory of this is very different than ours. But watching your buddy die. And, and then having to relay that information to his wife on the phone and getting shocked.

What's that called the shock? Defibrillator? It's a defibrillator, yeah. Should I get one for the TMDS studio? Well, we raise money as a team. And so now we have a portable AED that we carry around with us. Every hockey arena has one. Yeah.

Yeah. And now that diamond has one. because of like they it was funny the next week we played there and there is now a sign that says here's the aED what a chilling story like but i have had nightmares almost daily for the first three months now maybe like once or twice just nightmares of of replaying that event in my mind over and over and over and over again um but of course as we do we we we handle it with humor and so now one of the things that he says to the kids when they're playing because he had to take some time off coaching but then he he finished the season on the on the field um

you know when kids are leading off or like getting close to being picked off like he'll yell at them is like hey you only live twice go for it uh so yeah if you don't laugh you i get that because if you don't laugh you'll cry like i this is how i deal with trauma it was humor it was uh one of the most intense moments in the like it was one of those moments where it was intense while I was in the moment and then afterwards it just was like I spent a lot of time a lot of money talking about it trying to like you know figure out what to do with these nightmares and this and whatever and it's it's not gone but it's definitely better but man that was a fucking trip this was so this is in may and now we're in December obviously I had no idea it's fucking nuts but why don't you share these

things who am I going to share me privately I'm sharing it with you now true that You're sharing of the world right now because this is an award-winning podcast and you know I'm a CNN correspondent. That's right, yes. It wasn't something that I wanted to really talk about because I just wanted to like forget about it. But I suspected something was up with you.

You dropped like little breadcrumbs that you things were shit. I did. I feel like you did. Maybe it was before that though. I feel like there were breadcrums from Elvis over the last 12 months of going through something. Well, last Festivis, like I told you the things were shit.

Yeah, life has been. Life has been pretty shit for like the last two years. But you're talking, you're talking to somebody about this. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I have to. When you describe, you know, the three months or whatever of reliving this moment where you saw your buddy stop breathing four times or whatever.

I can still, I can still hear the noises he was making in my mind right now. See, that's fucking nuts. It's really crazy. That must be. And again, I'm not a doctor. I just pretend to be one on a podcast. But that must be PTSD. I have, uh, I have been.

told by people who are front line workers that if you are ever in a situation like that, the thing you do not want to do is watch and call the person's fucking spouse. I had a friend of mine who's dating a guy who's an ambulance driver. And he's like, you never want to be the volunteer to say like, I'm going to call the person's spouse. Yeah, because what are you giving play by play? Oh, his heart stopped again. Stand by.

I was giving play by play. I literally was. I was it. I never. Hearts back going again. Don't worry. I never said that he. died, but I did say that they're having, he's having trouble breathing.

And then I always, like, he's, he's being shocked right now, like, it was fucking crazy. But then this does make you realize how difficult it must be for the frontline people, the people, the paramedics, the EMS workers. They tune it out. They tune it out. Like, they're. But by what? By drinking more Great Lakes? Yeah, pretty much.

Pretty much. Like, so the guy who, the dad who is a retired EMT, it really fucked him up, too. There's a third one. But it really fucked him up, too, because he says even though he's, you know, done it a million times, this was the first time he did it to a friend. And he said, that's where it really fucked him up. The other guy, the current firefighter, I think he was, because they got a lot of accolades, of course. And, like, you know, they were recognized. I would get a T-shirt that said, I saved my buddy's life.

And they got recognized by the city of Oschwatt and city council meeting, like, a hero ward. Wow. And I could tell that he, he never said it, but I could tell he was uncomfortable because, like, that's his job. but yeah, it was also his buddy. So anyway. Well, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, one thing is I'm very happy to hear.

This story has a happy ending because I didn't know where it was going. Yeah. But, you know, you did start it by saying it was almost a shout out to Ridley Funeral. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You spoiled the ending for us there. Come on. It was,

it was a shoutout for a little bit, but. It was almost a shoutout. He came back. Whisper to Ridley Funeral home. And then, like, we visited him in the hospital that night. And he was, I mean, other than the fact that he had a concussion and he came.

kept repeating the same he was he had very limited short-term memory so he asked like the first thing he he said to us when we came in is like did we win the game it's like dude we didn't we never played the game he's making jokes over yeah uh like he because he he had again like his perspective was so different but anyway that's uh yeah that was fucked up and uh pretty crazy pretty nuts and something did good did come out of that shit storm because now you have one of these defibrillator. Correct. It's a tough word to say it again.

We have a defibrillator. An AED. Say that. Just say AED. We have an AED and we also like a couple of the people who are involved are starting a fundraising to try and make them more available. So there's definitely good that's come of it. One of those.

And it puts the heart we beat back in rhythm, right? Correct. It doesn't start a heart that stopped, right? It just puts it in rhythm. I think it shocks the heart. to start beating again. Okay. I think.

I don't know. Because it's a muscle, right? I thought it, I didn't think it could do that. I thought it just takes a faint heartbeat and puts it back in rhythm. I don't know. I don't know. I watch a lot of ER. That's my medical training.

But they seem amazing. You know, they're, okay. It's fucking nuts. But you like, like, you, I don't know, you ever see it in real life. Like, they fucking bounce. I have not. No. I've not seen it use in real life.

When they're doing chest compressions, like. they're fucking ranking on the chest, man. Like, cracking a rib or whatever it takes. It was nuts. So I'm glad your buddy. What's your buddy's first name? Chris, Chris. So, shout out to Chris.

Coach Chris is back. Will Chris ever hear this? I think he's a fan. I'll tell him about it. Oh, you buried the lead Elvis. I don't know if he's a fan, actually. He's heard of you. Oh, he's heard of me.

Well, just because he probably. But I don't know how much of him. Heard Elvis was on. And he had the two names. So tell him to listen to this because I want to say, Chris, I'm glad you're still on this side of the dirt. This is amazing. Yeah. And I'm sorry you had to witness that.

And I hope you're processing it. I don't have any tricks for this. I'm glad you're talking it out. But I would be like just, I would be just have a little notey, like a like a post-it note that said he lived. Like just like because I feel like, I feel like this story is more traumatic

if he dies on the baseball field. Oh yeah. Because I mean, imagine the kids. Right. This is their coach. Like they had to be shoved. Thankfully some of the moms like got him away.

So they couldn't watch and stuff. And you had the wherewithal to kill the live stream. Yeah, I don't know, I don't, like at that point. You just didn't want him to die on screen. Yeah, like you can go, he watches it. I can't watch it, but you can see him fall over on the live stream. He might be like, why do, I want to see everything. Why did you kill the live stream?

He's like, I want to see all this stuff. That would have been really fucking morbid. Oh, okay. Jeez, man, you always bring the emotion where I'm, I'm going off on covers of a fucking Pogue song. Okay. And your buddy's almost dying in front of you there. Okay.

All right. So I actually didn't, grievances. I had a bunch and I didn't know. In fact, I have three. So there's two spots left and I had three. Okay. Like in real time, I figured I'll just pick which ones to go at. And I think what I'm going to do with this one is I'm going to go off on what I call AI Slop.

Oh, you hate this? Because it feels to me like 2025 was the big year where it entered the mainstream. Like if you're, you know, build. Bill King, who's an FOTM and if I'm on Facebook, I like to read what Bill King is writing about. He's a, he played with Janice Joplin, you know, very talented musician. But all his posts on Facebook are just AI slop.

It might be a picture of, I don't know, Trump shitting his diaper or something. Like, it's like, okay, like I get it. You've got this cool new tool that can spit out a rendering that looks kind of like maybe 80%, like Donald Trump shitting in a diaper, okay? But honestly, we're talking about like juvenile humor,

humor level. Like, I think even this is below you, Elvis. And that's as low as standard as I can think of them. I actually really love the chiropractor ones. Well, what are, I don't even know. Those are great, where it's usually like an old person or something and then they'll have like a chiropractor like jump on them or throw them through walls or be like, oh, I fixed your neck.

In 2025, we've all seen so much about this. So I just want to point out. I was reading an article the other day. And it was talking about how AI, artificial intelligence, not Al Grego, AI, AI is helping to detect breast cancer before you can see it in a mammogram. Oh, wow. Yeah.

Like, there's like some serious advancements in AI detecting cancer early. By the way, I saw a documentary you would love called Run Terry Run, made by Sean Menard, who made the documentary 299 Queen Street West,

which you cannot see unless you visit Sean's home. But he made this documentary for the Terry Fox Foundation called Run Terry Run, and I watched it. And it's got footage of Terry talking that you and I have never seen before.

Really? Where do I watch this? So I don't know yet. I saw it at a screening at Roy Thompson Hall put on by the Canadian, sorry, the Terry Fox Foundation. But at some point, obviously, they're going to make this available to the public. I just don't have that info in front of me. But it's called Run Terry Run. It was directed by Sean Menard, who's an FOTM. And yeah, you would love it. This footage that he recovered had been sitting in some warehouse for 40 years.

And he got access to it. And so you get to see stuff that you have. haven't seen before of Terry Fox. I only thought of Terry now because we're talking about cancer. And I want to say, I love it. I love the idea that we can use this tool of AI to potentially to help save lives by detecting cancer earlier. So I'm not here to shit on AI.

There are some fantastic uses of AI. But I also read about like music performed by AI and art. generated by AI this fake out slop I read about I read I experience myself inaccurate information just like the worst the internet has to offer and it's being pumped out by AI

like you know I personally would rather you know your your son or my 11 year old we both have 11 year olds right I would rather see them use Microsoft paint and do their best for hours of Microsoft paint before I look I'm interested in seeing chat GPT

rendering of this or that in this, this, you know, artistic renderings. You know, give me Bon Jovi's cover a fairy tale of New York before giving me like an AI rendition of fairy tale of New York because you know there now you can find oh, here's AI's version

of what it would sound like if Elvis Presley performed Fairy Tale of New York and you can access that. But I say give me humanity in all its flaws and take your generative AI and stick it up your ass.

So you want to put, like you have use cases for AI and then non-use cases for AI. Yeah, so I guess it's different terminology used in different pieces, white papers, and write-ups. But generative AI seems to be the umbrella, which includes the stuff I fucking despise. And it's typically some form of art,

like be it an image or a video or music that AI has pumped up. a lot of times it is beyond that though like a lot of times now with I'm going to pick on Google and the app formerly known as Twitter and there's other

tech giants that are utilizing AI to pump out what I deem to be misinformation. You'll ask for something and instead of just the olden days where maybe you would link it to the Wikipedia page or something and then you could read that and check your sources. Nowadays it gives you the synopsis

which I will say is about 60% true 20% misleading and then 20% pure fiction but good luck trying to tell the difference like it's a big blob and your job now is now I got this blob of information how do I as a human human in 2025 almost 2026 how do I differentiate between that 60%

which is fact that 20% which is fiction and then this 20% which is grossly misleading because it's lacking some form of context I think this is fucking dangerous in an age where misinformation seems to be so rampant. People no longer care about what's the source, what's true, what's not.

I think it's dangerous and I fucking hate it. And this seems to be the calendar year where it all came to the forefront. I think it gets worse before it gets better. I think you're right. Yep. I think it gets, and so like in my defense, the call of duty thing,

like I still don't know if it's true or not. Like, who was it that said that it's not true? But it was the, it was, you know, the Google AI that told me at the top. That's a good example. Right. So did he die today? Maybe he, the accident was a couple of days ago, but he actually died today?

I don't know. I thought he died in the accident. Well, maybe the news came out today. Yeah, maybe. Who knows? He's not that famous considering I don't know this name. So maybe the disconnect is when the news broke. But then this is exactly where you get the delusions from AI because I told this story.

I wrote about on Toronto Mike.com, but I wanted to see what AI from Google, whatever they call it, Gemini, I think. What do they think, who do they think Toronto Mike is? And then I just said, who's Toronto Mike and right? And then it told me, oh, yeah, former radio host, Mike Stafford is Toronto Mike, and this is his... Oh, yeah, that's right. And it was like, it's all there black and white from me.

Now, what if I don't... What if I'm not Toronto Mike? And what if I'm legit, just curious who's Toronto Mike? I've now left my Google experience believing that Mike Stafford is Toronto. Right. Yeah. And yes, he worked at 640. This was a lot of truth in there

that who Mike Stafford is, but a complete disconnect that Mike Stafford is not Toronto Mike, a different Mike is Toronto Mike. But Mike Stafford's being on Toronto Mike, and that's where this hiccup, this delusion comes from. It's just not accurate. Well, and like it could happen for anybody who is named Mike that works in Toronto Radio.

Yeah. So I don't know where the disconnect comes. I assume it's from the fact Mike Stafford is a regular guest on Toronto Mike. But he died Sunday. I've got it confirmed here by CBC, a source I do trust. Yeah, so there you go. That's a real, real time example of where AI has led us down. Yeah, so you're right.

Exactly. Thank you. A real time example where you learn from AI that this. This guy died today, Festivus. Yes. But we now know this is Tuesdays. So this was, Andy's 100% right. This person, Zampella, Vince Zampella,

yes. Died on Sunday. Yes. I stand corrected. But I literally typed in. I said who died on December 23rd. AI's also ruined Google, if you will, in that you got to wade through all this.

I don't think you can turn it off, can you? I don't think so. Because I will, I, anywhere I think Firefox has some stuff where you can turn up. I don't want. want AI results anywhere. I don't want any art from AI. I don't want to hear fairy tale of New York performed via AI. So your comedy show poster, like that's... Well, I haven't done any till that's, yeah, but I didn't make that. So I haven't even, you know, you know that, that's, I almost brought up that comedy show at TMLX21. Like, I introduced it and then I think... Who booked you?

I have never told the story in public. I don't even know. But it's happening. But it's happening. So I should, at some point, references exist. Are you actually doing this? It's, it's been, she paid the deposit. So here, so, okay, let me do it. Who does this? Yeah, for real. It's so weird.

Okay, so here's what happened. I'll do the quick version. I almost did this at TMLX21, but so. Do I know the person? I can't remember who it is that did this. Go ahead. Tell the story. Still, I'm going to stop.

Do we know why Rob Butler did not come to TMLX 21? I don't know. I haven't talked to him since. He was 100% confirmed and I was ready to have him on the mic. It's wintertime. It's wintertime. in the, in, in North Oshawa?

You don't see, you don't see, you don't see neighbors as often in the murder, right? Okay, I didn't know if your boy had seen him or whatever. No, no.

Okay. The owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team is a gentleman named Keith Stein. He also is starting a new baseball league for women,

a league of their own, if you will. This is happening in 2026. And that's a lot of his focus. He's an entrepreneur. He's being on Nick Iienes' podcast, building success.

And I got to say thank you to Nick Iienes because he, much like Ty the Christmas guy has stepped up to help fuel the real talk here by sponsoring Toronto Mike. And I am looking for a new sponsor in January because Ty the Christmas guy

and the wonderful people at Retro Festive are leaving. So here I'm sliding in this little hit me up, Mike at Torontomike.com, sliding that in and thanking Nick Aienes from building Toronto skyline and building success. So Keith Stein has a wife named Melissa Stein and I've become pretty close to Melissa over the summer.

Hey now. Hey now. So Melissa Stein listened to episode 1800 of Toronto Mike, which was Jeremy Hopkins and I live from Casilloma. Right.

Yes. So this was, you know, Jeremy is the, he brings the, the fun facts and the mind blows. He's the historian.

He's not a comedian, although I find him witty, okay? But he, so because I find he's giving you your vegetables, I'm sitting there to learn about, I'm at Casa

fucking Loma, and I'm there to learn from Jeremy, but I feel like, Oh, he's shoveling some, like, greens, some vegetables for the listeners. So I'm there to kind of, for dessert and stuff. Like, I'm throwing a little, oh, here's a couple of Hershey kisses or whatever. Here's a Mars bar.

You know what I mean? I have no idea what you're talking about, but okay. Yeah, I wrote that for me. I just read it. So all this is to say, I just naturally will try to be a little, I'll just add a little levity to the whole thing by being funny. Sure. I don't know if I'm a funny guy.

I've never considered stand-up. I'm not a stand-up comedian. I don't consider myself a comedian, but I will just be naturally throwing a little jokes there so we can take the vegetable. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. Okay, you're with me? So Melissa listens to this episode,

and she sends me, she phones me, actually. I was on a bike ride, and I remember where I was when I got the call. She said, I listened to episode 1800 from Casaloma. You're hilarious. I just booked the Elma combo for you to make your, I guess she called it your stand-up debut, is what she called it. It's amazing.

And I think I said something like, what are we talking about? Like, I needed time to, I said, I need to process it. It's like, what do you mean, you booked Elma combo? Like, I didn't understand. Yeah. So I didn't, so I'll just say this. I haven't put up any money. So I have no financial skin in the game.

But she's going to be selling tickets. This will happen in late May. I have the date somewhere. But she's going to sell tickets for me to make my, Elma Combo debut. I haven't even done like five minutes at the comedy factory or whatever.

Like in your kitchen. Like, I know. I know. So this is on the bill. Is it just you? Like are you going to put, do you have an hour of material? She bought a night.

She bought a night from the Elma combo. Like she cold called them and paid them for a night. For me, I guess to do whatever I want. But this is happening. Like tickets will be sold. for me to headline at the Elma combo. So yeah, you mentioned that's where AI came into it.

Yeah. So she used AI to create a poster, which I fucking did not like. And I told her, I don't like this. And then Jeremy Hopkin made a different poster. I believe it's still AI. So at some point there will be a poster, which may or may not be generated by AI, but just know if it is generated by AI, I'm going to hate it.

But I am going to be performing something at the Elma combo in May. The Elmo. Like, but then, no. So why stop there? Why not Scotia Bay? But the devil's in the details. There's two levels to the Alma combo. There is where the stones played.

Right. Upstairs. And then there's the downstairs. I'm downstairs. This is this. So I never had any, I never negotiated. You always want to be downstairs. I'm downstairs.

So tickets will be sold to see Toronto Mike. And I already have because I do these meditation bike ride things where I have to think about what's going on. life. I do have an idea of what it's going to be. I'm calling it Toronto Mike's social experiment. Like, I do have an idea of what this will be, but there will be, and I actually am comfortable with the fact there's two paying customers or 120 paying customers. Like, I can go either way on this, but it is happening. I know what it's going to be like. It's going to be, it's going to be like the landlord in the big Lubowski who has this

performative art show that's what it's going to be you're going to be dancing around in your underwear to some performance art thing with a panty hose over your head Elvis it's time for your second grievance moving it along here I have no more to say about it except it is happening like it's happening oh I can't I get people like get ready no offense Mike but it's going to be cringe. How do you know? Have you seen it? That's another skee.

That's another grievance, okay? If you do a, if you do a, like a, I don't think this is what you're describing is going to be like a stand-up routine. If you do a stand-up routine, it's going to be cringe. It's not going to be like seeing Seinfeld or whatever. No, if you do some sort of show, like that's different. I have an idea that I think will entertain FOTMs tremendously. If you get up there,

an hour or for 90 minutes brother 10 minutes and start to do a routine that you've never done before like Toronto Mike social experiment coming to the Elma combo this this made 2026 this is going to be quick grievance before you get to your real one is I don't do a quick one which is to say I really do I really have grown intolerant of people who have critical feedback on an episode they didn't listen to oh yeah like it's happening mean, it happens, okay? Yes. Yes, I've seen it.

Yeah. And to me, it's actually, I have to, like, I have to like, Mike, you know, calm blue ocean or maybe to bring it back to Seinfeld. It's Festivus. Serenity now. Like, I actually have to like restrain myself because to me,

this is the greatest sin there is in art, like to criticize something you haven't consumed. Like, if somebody wants to criticize the Carla Collins episode, a mandatory, prerequisite is that you listen to the Carla Collins episode and then you may criticize it as much as you want as a Y, Y, Y, Y, Z, sorry, he likes Y Y Y Z Gord did and Al Grego did. You can criticize something if you consume it, but I don't want to

fucking hear a word about an episode that you haven't listened to. Yeah, I can say without a doubt that you are not, you do not shy away from criticism but it is a fair ask that in order to criticize you must have listened and form an opinion on your own and not you know just pile on i get and even if it's not even pile on it's like if it's you know one person says it and you say it again like you know yeah i get very uh harsh nasty criticism for a episode that included uh furgy olver and my first response as always, did you listen? And without a doubt, the reply back is,

no, I'm not listening to that. And I honestly can't proceed with the conversation because I will have the conversation. This came up with retro Ontario yesterday because there was a resurgence on TikTok of a super cut of just like mom video of Fergie Oliver with getting really close to the young women,

young girl contestants and being what we would deem in 2025 to be like inappropriate for a man to be like in a poor girl's space like that. And I get this all 20, 25. I got a lot of this. I talked to Ed about this yesterday because he said, I'm one of the few people who actually tries to give context to the situation.

And I am happy to have the conversation of everyone. But it ends when they say I didn't listen. Like, you need to listen and then we'll talk about it. Yeah, that's fair. I think that is a fair requirement. Thank you. There's a bonus grievance. It's absolutely.

Can I do another bonus? And then you do yours. I do mine, you do yours. And then we piece out here. Okay, this is a bonus. I have a grievance. I think we all have this as human beings on this planet. I call it when FOTMs break bad, okay?

There was a woman who came over here named Dahlia Kurtz. She has big blonde hair, like really big hair, almost Carla Collins style. Carla's got big blonde hair, okay? She does. Jahlia and Carla are probably like a foot difference in height when I think about it. Like Dahlia doesn't have to watch her head and Carla is much taller. Okay, they're different humans, obviously. But Dahlia Kurtz came over.

She even came to a TMLX event, so she's an FOTM. But Lannrick Bennett, Jr., who is a beloved FOTM, he was the bicycle mayor of the city. He shared this with me on Blue Sky. And this is now a quote. It's a screencap, and this is still there, even though I'm not on X. This is on X.

In fact, it was reposted by Dahlia Kurtz. But I'm going to read it. And then I'm going to tell you, well, it'll be obvious, but my grievance here. You ready? Yep. Dahlia put on X. It's still there.

She reposted it. She was so proud of this. She wrote, about 49% of Somalians are the product of inbreeding. The average IQ is 67. Mental impairment in America is anything less than 70. And in someone, Ilhan Omar is married to her brother. So there's that. Civil War Somalia is a great investment, Minnesota.

Anyone want to vacation there? Like this was a post she was so proud of and she posted it. And I'm just here, and there's a couple of other examples, including a guest who's actually going to be back in 2026. but when FOTMs break bad this post by Dahlia Kurtz who has been on this program

I find so repulsive and gross and I deem it 100% pure racism and I fucking have a grievance with that would you have her back on the show to talk about this yeah

but I'm not I'm not one of those I get a flack too you have people on like Bruce Dobigan for example who's another FOTM who said the following things in 2025 he said

Elon was just waving high when he did that gesture. So he did this gesture twice. He said, Elon was waving high. But then I asked Bruce, do it for me now with the camera was on him. What do you do it? So he's not going to wave high. Obama won a Peace Prize because he's black.

Did you know that? Oh, I did not know. Yeah, Bruce wants you to know. He won a Peace Prize because he's black. Trump calling a woman Piggy is exactly the same thing as Nancy Pelosi telling somebody to shut up. Really? Yeah.

Bruce will begin. Okay. So I'm just calling this grievance, which is a bonus grievance, when FOTMs break bad. But I would have somebody on to talk about it because I would read that to Dahlia and we would talk about it. Because Dahlia Kurtz has been

extremely vocal on my program and elsewhere about the anti-Semitism that she's witnessing in the world today. And she's the daughter of survivors, Holocaust survivors. And we had a lot good chat about this. So she's going to bat for Jewish

people everywhere and I support her with it and I amplified it. But then I read this post and I'm sorry this fucking post is racist and you are racist Dahlia Kurtz and I fucking have a grievance with that she uh I don't know who she is uh but I I heard about this and so I went on her website and she is soliciting donations to help her do the work that she's the work quote unquote I know on my camera I'm doing the air quotes the work that she is doing so she's clearly grifting to try and is that we say grifting She's clearly grifting to try and make some money

Because she's not in She used to be mainstream media. Yeah, she was on Bell Media Station. She's not mainstream anymore, right? No, she's not working in mainstream anymore. Yeah, Bell Media parted ways. So she's got to, she's got to grift. She's got to make some money somehow.

You don't have to grift. No, you don't, no, I'm not defending her. I know, I know, I know. But that's her, think about it. There's a market for that. That's her move. You kicked my camera. I kicked the camera.

There's a market for that. So it's just, that's a grievance I haven't. But you have to wonder how much she's making. She can't be making much. It doesn't mind. No offense to her. I know you're not making an excuse.

You're saying why. She's not like, you know, how much is her voice actually amplified? She probably just got more press here than she ever has before. Right? Like, again.

That's called the Streisand effect. Yeah. That's right. Yes. Shadow to Barbara Streisand. Okay. Who's probably listening. Not.

Not really, Elvis, we need another grievance from me. Yeah, okay, sure. So this is, I'll make this one quick, but shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. My mom died this year in October, and it was a longer protracted illness for about a year. She was old and, you know, had expressed that she was 86, and she expressed.

How old was she? She was 86, and she expressed a desire to be here as long as she could for her grand. grandchildren, but at the same time, really missed my father, who passed away five years ago. I didn't really truly understand the love that they had from one another because I grew up in a house where they were, there was a lot of fighting, a lot of arguing. But in speaking to her friends who came to the funeral, my mother, it was difficult for them to appreciate that my father had been gone for five years because she spoke about her grief as though he had just passed away yesterday.

And so for five years, she just, like, yeah, couldn't process the fact that my dad had passed and she expressed this desire to be back with him. But the saddest part about it was, you know, my, Mrs. Elvis and I commented that my mom, my mom and I didn't have the greatest relationship in the world. but my mother was definitely super stubborn and would dig in her heels a lot. She would, you know, like she would form an opinion or have, you know, the way that she wanted to do something and she would dig in her heels even if it was like to her detriment. And I think that that was something that she carried right to the very end because there was

just, she just couldn't let go at the end. And so it got pretty, pretty sad. At the end, my brother and I were with her when she passed in her house. You know, it was, it sucked for all sorts of reasons. I also have crazy nightmares because there was a bunch of things that happened that week before she passed that got really kind of things you shouldn't see, you know, with your mom. So it could have been a lot more peaceful, but it could have been a lot worse too, I guess. But yeah, shout out.

I mean, it's, I don't know if it's a grievance necessarily. Ultimately, it was time and I think it was the right thing to happen, of course. But there's a lot of stuff that goes into losing not only your mom, but I guess the second parent. Right. So it's just my brother and I now. But yeah, shout out to Ridley-Feral home for my mom. Do you miss your mom? Uh, no.

I do. this is horrible to say. I probably shouldn't say this out loud, but there definitely is a feeling of relief. I didn't want her to die. I didn't, like, no one, I don't, I, you know, I don't, yeah, like, but it was just really difficult in the last, especially the last six months where I think everybody involved,

my brother, myself, me. I'm not going to speak for my brother, but, and my mom, I think that it just, the outcome was, it was time and it was the best outcome. Do I miss her? I don't think we were close enough for me to be able to miss her in the way that you should miss your mom, I guess. But I miss the, I'm, I do feel bad for her grandchildren, my children, my children, my brother's kids that they won't have a grandmother to grow up with. That sucks.

It's also, uh, it's also complicated right like these relate you have so many different relationships and your relationship with your parents and stuff and uh you lost your i mean i could play the clip but it's such a good good because i haven't loaded up i played it at tmlest in one i might play it for the newbies did you play it at tmlx i'm pretty sure i played it at tmlx that's amazing there must have been people in the audience for like what the fuck is this like you know what i say though i'm not dumbing it down for the newbies you know what i mean like you should have been there what's wrong with you that you're just discovering this show right now and you got some catching up

to do. So I will play the clip. And was that that wasn't, correct me if I'm wrong, that wasn't a Festivist episode. No, no, no, because you're in the backyard. Yeah, I just came over to talk about my dad dying, right? You came over to talk about your dad dying. Right. And we had this 40 second exchange and then I'll give it context on the other side. So here it is. My sincere condolences. Last time you were in my backyard, I was giving you sincere condolences. Shout out to Ridley funeral home. I was, because your father had passed away and you were very, I know. It's Is that too proud? It's best of it.

So your father had best of it. Your dad died. Shout out to the funeral. So, and again, again, again, my sincere condolences.

And you were, can you really say sincere condolences? I mean, come on. It's so fucking good. Oh, that's fantastic. So that,

I'll listen. I'll listen to that over again. So that must have been the next Festivist after. Because my father passed in June. I recorded in your backyard later that year. That would have been 2020. So that would have been Festivist 2021.

Right. Right. And that is the birth for those who don't know. That is the birth of shout out to Redley Funeral Home, which gets added early and often now. But that was the first time I ever strung those words together on Toronto Mike. And it was fantastic. So that's organic.

You can't like chat GPT can't script that shit. That has to just spill out or whatever. You got to save that shit for Elmo. Well, you know, I have no, I want to say a couple things. Elmo, one thing is that I have no say over the price of the tickets because I didn't put any skin in the game financially. I didn't put up a dollar. So Melissa is paying for the whole thing. Is she paying you?

No, she's not done with that. So she's putting up all the money. No, I didn't even think about all that. She put up all the money to get the Elmo. and then I guess she'll take all the money that comes in and then if she makes back her money I suppose we'll have some kind of a sharing system if she makes back her money

of course I actually envisioned two people in the fucking room okay because it's going to be me and Monica what would Monica even go? Well great question great question we have to ask her she was she's upstairs but would you go because when I think about this Great question.

Because TMLX events, I wish there had been 21. 21 TMLX events. Yes. I famously, asking Nikonis, I famously have never charged a penny to attend a TMLX event. And I feed you and give you a beer. Correct. That's what happens. Okay.

I never have made a penny on any of these events. Well, so my relationship with you is not because you're a podcast host, famous guy. It's because you're my buddy. So I would- The fact that I was on the cover of the Toronto Star. Right. So I would go and support. you as a buddy so me paying to go support you is i'm not i'm not i'm not offended by that like what

if i don't know what the prices will be for the tickets right so now my so then there's two other things right like how much is it that i'm paying for this right but two i i would feel uncomfortable going to something and then just watching you flame out if that actually would happen now i know you prep and like you're going to if this actually this is me i actually plan to craft something I don't think this is going to happen. I don't believe it's going to happen either, except that the deposit's been made by Melissa, so she's put a bunch of money behind it.

She's proceeding with the ticketing stuff, Event Bright or whatever it's going to be. She is coughing up this AI poster bullshit and I got Jeremy Hopkin working on something there too. But there is good, at some point in early 2026, I'll probably post a link to buy tickets on Toronto Mike.com. So it is happening. Well, okay.

Let me just be clear here. For the people who may be misinterpreting what I'm saying, I do not think that Mike could, I think Mike could do something like this. My challenge is that this was not your idea. No, and I never had visions of doing this and I never even had a desire to do this. So this is where like my challenge with this is,

is like this was not your idea. This is not your brainchild. And so therefore, how good could it actually be? You're kind of doing it because you feel like maybe you have to. Yes, but I am wired such as many are, maybe yourself as well. But like, if it's going to happen, you got to go big or go home. Like, I'm not going to half ask something because I didn't think of this idea.

But why does it have to happen? Like, there's no, there's nothing here to say that you have to do this. Because to me, again, didn't come from me. It didn't initiate this at all. But it is part of the great social experiment because whether two people are there or 200 people are there. There's a story there. Like, there's a story either way. This is going to be great. So, I don't know if I can. I'm asking if anyone else is on the bill and these early thoughts I'm having do, so I, in my, let's say it's 75 minutes to 90 minutes, okay? In this thing

I will present on this date in May, there are musical cues to accompany what I say that will be performed live on keyboard by Rob Pruss. So I will not be, I won't be just Mike. Rob Pruse on Keys will be accompany me. So there will be cues I would say in my, like he'll know ahead of time, obviously. The cues, which will result in specific songs, he would play on the keyboard as I tell this story.

But I'm assuming he's in the union. Like, is he going to be playing for free? I have no plans to pay Rob Puce anything. But I have no plans as we speak, and I'm being honest with you, I don't expect a dime from this. Like right now it's going to be hours and hours and hours and hours of work.

Yes. Because I will craft something. And I kind of have a, like, I don't want this to be some cheap $8 ticket or whatever, where it's, like, I want it to be like a real thing because part of this story is whether two people are there or 120 people. Like to me, that's part of the story. I would pay 20 bucks to go. Yes, I'm going to, again, I don't know, payment is Great Lakes and it's on you.

So Rob Pruss is probably swimming in Great Lakes Bear. He leaves me once a month of Great Lakes beer And he gets a lasagna anytime he wants Same with Bobolet And you're getting both You're getting that Great Lakes Elvis And you're gonna get a lasagna So we gotta get

I guess I have one more grievance Then you have one more grievance Yeah, that's right But I gotta go I don't have Okay, yeah so okay So let's move on Except to say I don't have any more information

I can't wait for this But I believe it's happening That doesn't mean it's going to happen It just means as we speak I believe it's happening I'm scared And I haven't put up a penny But I don't expect a penny

And if Pruss wants a penny he's going to be taking a penny from a guy who doesn't expect to make a pie. But if I made a penny, I don't know. If I made any money on this, which would be a shock to me if I made any money on this,

obviously Proust would get a share. I wonder, I don't even know how much it would cost a rental table mall. I know. It's thousands of dollars. It's not because it's thousands of dollars because I was very clear right out of the bat

that I'm not interested in paying a dime for this experience. It's so great. Okay. This is my last grievance is very quick here. And it's very quick, and I don't think it'll be shocked to anybody. But my grievance is with, and this is, we're talking about 2025 here, okay? I have a grievance with Canadians.

You're a Canadian? I am, born and raised. Canadian passport's the only one I got. Same for me. It's the only one I'm entitled to as well. Canada passport is the only one I'm entitled to. Let me get an Irish passport from my grandmother's side. I'm going to find out.

Okay. So I only have one passport as Canadian. I'm a proud Canadian. Are you a proud Canadian? I am very proud, yes. Okay. I have a flag in my. back aired on a flagpole.

Love it. Monica and I had an argument about a big flag pole. During the height of this 51st state rhetoric from Donald J. Trump, I had this plan to put up a big flag pole on a big flag. And Monica didn't think

that would be like something nice to see in front of her house. Like she wasn't sure. You're going to put it in front of your house. Oh, ours isn't back here. Well, Monica kind of vetoed it. Like we're both on this deed. I didn't feel like I could do it anyway.

We had like a, we had a passionate discussion about it. Okay. You should get her on to talk about it. Okay. So I'll wrap this up quickly. My grievance is with Canadians who are still traveling to the United States of America for pleasure. Now, I'm not talking about the guy who has to go to Thanksgiving dinner because he married an American and her family is there and they've got to visit the family. I'm leaving them out, even though that kind of bugs me, but on a different level. I'm leaving out the guy who's got to go travel there because work wants him to go meet a client or maybe he's got to, you know, maybe Wilner's got to go to, I don't know, Florida for spring training, whatever. So if it's professional reasons, if it's like, you know, your family lives there and you want to see your mom or you want to see your brother, you know, maybe they should come to you,

but this is the whole side. So I'm literally talking about the people who, I'm going to Vegas, I'm going to Vegas for pleasure to gamble and to have fun. I'm going to New York because I want to see something on Broadway. I'm going to a Blue Jays game in Detroit. I'm going to see the bills play in Buffalo. I have a grievance with Canadians who are going to the USA for pleasure, considering the president of the United States of America,

has threatened to annex us and wants us to be the 51st state. And even though he gets distracted by other things, and maybe he's going to bomb some Venezuelans for a little while, whatever he's up to, he still wants Canada to be a part of the United States. and I don't trust what comes next. Stay vigilant and stop going to that country for pleasure while Donald J. Trump is president of the United States of America.

That is all Elvis. I got a question for you because I'm with you. Mrs. Elvis and I had a challenge with this. Can I guess? Yeah. It's going to be a child who has a... sports tournament in that country. Correct. And we were...

I heard this story from others. Yeah, and we were polled as a parent group, like, are you comfortable in going or not? And my answer was, if this was a personal vacation, we would not be going. I would prefer not to go as a team. However, if the entire team is, or the decision is made by the coach, who ultimately is the ruler, he makes the final decision. If ultimately he decides that this. this is where the team is going to go, we will go because I'm not going to be,

I'm not going to put my son in a scenario where he has to learn that adults suck. So you've uncovered one of the, like I mentioned, like if you had a family member you needed to visit, or maybe you even, you own property and you have to go there. Like, there are these areas where you can, you can, I can understand, okay. And that, it would, that would put that in that category. But we struggled with it because we're like, is this a moment for us as parents to teach our children a lesson?

And we opted not to. I can tell you that we talked about... That was hard. Humble, so you opted not to. So did the team go? So we went. We went. But we opted not to use it as a lesson for my son.

I see. So you've uncut... We talked about it. But if Mrs. Elvis said, I want to go see Mamma Mia in New York or whatever. It's our anniversary. whatever. We would not be going. Okay. So then, then I don't have a grievance with you. Okay. Damn it. I like, I like having grievances with you. I'm, I'm with you for the most part.

But it is, there are gray areas. It's hard. I also went to San Francisco for work. Work. And I didn't want to go. Right. But, you know, it's hard to tell work that you can't go or that you won't go. And like all of the people I work with are American, and I think that they would have been sympathetic if I said I wasn't comfortable. But in this market, I'm not willing to put that in a, again, like, I feel like there was an opportunity for me to make a stand there, and I didn't. So it's something that, you know, we wrestle with. Like, when is the parenting moment? When is the how much, like, when is the right moment to stand up for what you believe in versus not? What about Disney? Like, what if your kids say, I want to go see Mickey Mouse? We'll go to Paris.

See, yeah. Okay, so you and I on the same page here. Yeah. Okay. Glad to hear it. Like, we're hopefully going, like, maybe we're going to go away over the holidays. And if not, we'll go away in March break. Florida, California, somewhere hot is not an option. Maybe Mexico.

We're going to Mexico. Yeah, we're going to an island or Mexico, somewhere that, you know, is not the U.S. Now, I had, I did get flack from your favorite person in the FOTM group on WhatsApp, Dan Jay, who I think is, he, by the way, confirms Dan Jade does confirm that that Shadow to Ridley funeral home about your dad passing was a festivist in the backyard. So I guess we had a heater or something. It was cold back there, but that was a backyard episode festivist.

We did. It must have been warm. I mean, if you go back and look at the photos, like, well, maybe, maybe we got a nice warm. Yeah, we must have had a, because this is unseasonably snowy winter so far. Like, we've had snow as of November, and that's not, sometimes not the case. Like sometimes we go all the way through the, you know, November, December with no snow.

So Festivus, you know, COVID couldn't kill Festivus. We did that in the backyard. So I got a little, I definitely got some flack from Dan. Like he snapped at me because I, he decided to do a cruise or whatever. And he was talking, he was in Alaska, which by the way, fun fact, Alaska, part of the United States. They are, yeah, yeah, it used to be Canadian, not anymore. Long ago, oh, it was Russian. Oh, it was Russian.

Yeah, yeah, 1860s or something. Sorry, we passed on buying it. Right. Russia sold it to the U.S. back in the day. Did you know Louisiana belonged to France? Yeah, I did.

I got some fun facts to be over here on this. Okay, so Dan Jay was like having a pleasure cruise in Alaska, which again, I'm not Dan Jay's daddy. I'm not in charge of Dan Jay.

I'm disappointed that he's doing that and this is a grievance I'm airing right now. But I didn't want to see in the group all the pictures of the fun he was having in the States. Like, if you're going to do this, which I fucking don't care

that you're doing it, I don't like that you're doing it. Like, I don't want to see all the photos. Like, want to see FOTM Semi, look, here, here's my picture on a, on a Florida beach or whatever, having a great time here. Ooh, the weather is great. Sorry, it's snowing up there.

I don't want to fucking see that. I think some people get upset by you being upset because they feel, there's a part of them that feels a little guilty about it. I think part of them feels like you have a point. Oh, he's even chiming. It's real time, Dan J. We elected not to cancel and eat thousands of dollars for a trip already, but before Trump. Again, I don't want to see the pictures.

Right. They go start a new group. My visit to enemy territory because I didn't want to eat the thousands of dollars that would have cost me. And then people who want to see it can go out. I don't want to see it. Yeah, that's fair. Final grievance is yours, Elvis.

All right. This one is related to the one. It's maybe a little cheap, but it's related to my mom passing away. Final grievances with Rogers. Like, I'm sure people die. I have no verified facts of this, but I'm sure people die every day that are Rogers' customers. I was going to say, both are absolutely true. That's my guess.

Uh, however, it appears as though my mother might have been the first person that three people who work at Rogers, because that's how many times it took me to call and cancel her internet and TV, uh, and home phone. It took me three phone calls after the first one I was offered a, uh, like, so my mom is dead. Like she's gone. I was offered, uh, would your mother like a Rogers branded master card? Oh my God. Yeah. I'm like, are you serious? dude like really it took three calls two of them i had to end prematurely because i was just like this is ridiculous i wasn't like upset like i wasn't crying no but that could be disturbing this is just yeah i mean if someone's like i can only imagine if someone is like you don't even miss your mom if someone's like severely distraught i'm sure they're like you know oh my god right like you want my mom to have a master card like what the fuck i would like nothing more than my mom to have a master card right now but my mom is fucking dead i did say for the final call, I was like, listen.

Because I knew the script at that point in time. I was like, listen, I don't want to do any, because they also want to downgrade you instead of like, you know, like, oh, you have like your TV packages. You know, my mother's TV package was like $380. They take advantage of it. It's fucking crazy. You know, they do this.

Yeah. This is insane. And, oh, fuck, I forgot about the song. This was for the first, the second grievance. But this will work too. We're going to close of it. Yeah, that's good. You know what we didn't play today, though, is,

is the Christmas the Bono Christmas song I actually haven't loaded up but we're going to hit two hours here this is crazy yeah Rogers like the person is dead

I'm all for grievances against Rogers okay give up your script and you know what in fairness to Rogers not that I should be fair I'm sure there's other companies but because I'm the executor of my mother's estate

I have firsthand knowledge of companies that understand people die and how they like Act on it and then other companies who just like pretend like, oh my God, this is the first person ever to pass away. It's insane. But Rogers by far was the outlier in this and like they're just ridiculous. My mother needs a master card.

Are you crazy? And then like you want to go from $380. So like, oh, we can just like downgrade her TV service. There's no one to watch TV. I think that's criminal to be charging anyone $380 for TV because you're exploiting an 86 year old woman. insane and like she like it's just insane think about that it was the first thing that we my brother and i were like we got to get fucking was that the sports net package to watch all the jays she did love blue jays she like the the the world series run was super fun uh and like because

she had passed away obviously before they ended up uh you know making it there but part of me was like hey they're doing this for my mom is it true the the wedged ball stopped her heart it's so craziness. That's nuts. But yeah, part of me was like, hey, you know what? The Jays are doing this for my mom. Good old Daphne would have loved watching. Because she did love the Blue Jays. She would watch all the games. Yeah. So listen to this song with me for a moment, Elvis, and then I'm going to ask you about it before we say goodbye. More George Michael. Although I search myself

It's always someone else I see I just allow a fragment of your life To wander free But losing everything Is that the sun going down on this is it Ladies and gentlemen Mr. Martin John

I can't still get chills So one of the things that my mom gave me was the love of music She loved music There was many times

music in the house from a very young age. My name is not Elvis in real life. Mind blow. My mom's love for Elvis, though, was second only to her love for my dad. And I just remember Elvis being such a huge part of my life. And I also loved Elvis.

This song, I remember when it came out and she bought it on a CD single back in the day when he could buy singles. Yes. And I've probably heard this a million times, no exaggeration. We play this at my mom's funeral. It just really, she just loved this so much, two of her favorite artists. It just, like, when I hear this song, I think of my mom.

And, yeah, it's just, it's a great song, but it's a good memory of my mom. I'm going to free. I probably I probably came off as a huge asshole saying that I don't miss my mom but I do miss or I do, I don't want to say regret, but I wish I had more memories like this of her. That's something that I miss, I think, of my relationship with my mom.

I don't have many of these, which I think other people probably do. And I hope that my kids eventually will have more of these with me and Mrs. Elvis. Elvis, I'm sorry for your loss, buddy. Thanks, Mike. I don't have any other parents to die, though. Like, this is going to suck. I can't talk about dying parents on Toronto Mike. It's over.

The sub-series of Festivus and talking about dead parents is over. This is it. I guess you only get two chances at that. At most. No, you could have step parents. I don't have any step parents. And that brings us to the end of our 1,824th episode of Toronto Mike.

In our 9th annual Festivist episode, I can't wait for milestone episode 10. I'm hoping my fingers are crossed, somebody will die. Oh, man. I hope we get to do this somewhere else. That'd be kind of fun, wouldn't it? Although I do like the basement. Well, we have 12 months to figure this out, and we'll come up with something.

Yeah, this is your safe space. Yeah, we can do it like in a pub or something. I like that. But what pub is open in the morning? I'm going to go see Santa now. You're going to look in the mirror? Yeah. go to

Toronto mic.com for all your Toronto mic needs whatever they may be I wrote that one day and I've been using it but AI did not write that line I wrote that line See you're funny

Use that at Elmo I was funny at Casoloma Apparently Much love to all who made this possible That's retro festive Peace and love promo code is FOTM

Great Lakes Brewery You haven't heard this new ending yet right? No. Because you don't listen to Toronto, Mike. That's fucking great. So, Palma Pasta, Nick Iienes, Recycle My Electronics.C.A. and Ridley Funeral Home, can you name these bits? What's this?

Mr. Dressa? Yep. What's this? That's the Zit Remedy. Everybody wants something from DeGrasi Jr. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, beautiful. Yeah.

Yes! Yes! That's Gino. brother. Does this? What's this? Oh, uh, uh... Pokedodod door.

Yeah, that's it, that's it, that's it. Yeah, yeah. So is this, like, doesn't that automatically get your shit pulled off of YouTube? Just by virtue of the ending or no? This version hasn't caused me issues yet. Gotcha. Okay. So everybody, this is it.

Happy Festivist to everybody. Happy holidays to everybody. The next new episode, because I am taking a. couple of days off now. The music's gone, but I'm still talking, but I'm going to my calendar now, because I just want to see what the next do is. The next new episode of Toronto Might will be a chat I'm going to have on December 29th, which is six days from now, with Ben Raynor. So we're going to find out how Ben Rayner is doing the last episode of Ben Rainer, the catch-up of Ben Rainer, was quite something. People had a lot of thoughts on it. We're going to see how you doing in the Maritimes, Ben?

So we're going to chat on the 29th of December. I might drop a little special something on Boxing Day, but it won't be something I'm recording. Well, maybe a little bit of something I'll record on Boxing Day and a little special something. And then I will drop this 90-minute chat with the director of the CFNY documentary. I'm going to drop that on New Year's Eve. And I find the whole thing rather fascinating, even if others don't agree.

But thank you for listening. Thank you for everything. Thank you to the Canadian podcast awards for that prestigious award. And thank you to my friend Elvis for dropping by once again on Festivus. Thank God it's them and not you.