Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Jeff Lumby: Toronto Mike'd #140

Episode Date: November 3, 2015

Mike chats with actor Jeff Lumby about his role on The Red Green Show, his voice-over work, and his many radio gigs, including mornings at The Fan 590.

Welcome to episode 140 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from TorontoMic.com and joining me this week is actor Jeff Lumby. How you doing? I'm doing great. Okay, first of all, I got to get this track. I'll send you the mp3. Love it. You're kidding with me.

No. I didn't peg you as a rap guy. You know what? I get more of the soul out of this than the rap. Yeah, me too. I've always loved soul. You know what I wanted? I went to my buddy who's a local rapper, and I went and I said,

I want that like, you know that As It Happens? Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. I always, since I was a kid, I love that As It Happens music. That's really good. is yeah yeah i always like since i was a kid i love that as it happens music like that's really good yeah really like that and i said and i sort of describe it and i'm like he's like don't worry he gets these beats from a place and he took some guy named vk in the uk and he i don't know if he licensed it or whatever but he gets the beats maybe he steals the beats who knows and then he lays down the beats and he does the rap and i got uh my own

theme song very soulful i like it no thank you. Good. And thank you. You were saying some nice things about the microphones. It's fantastic in here. It's gorgeous. Because you know your stuff. You helped build the Humble and Fred studio.

You know, yes, they came to me with recommendations. I gave them recommendations and they went somewhere else. Is that right? Yeah, it's completely true. I didn't know that part of the story.

That's why I'm out of the advice game. Oh, that's funny. Yeah, I'm completely out of the advice game. And that's why their. Yeah, I'm completely out of the advice game. And that's why their podcast sounds terrible. You know, but don't listen to me. No, you know what?

It's just whoever advised you on these. Andrew Stokely. Perfect. It's really nice. Very good setup. And you mentioned, now I know why he recommended these mics where you got to be right on them. I can't pick up your stuff on mine. Yeah, because you don't have any isolation in here, which is cool.

And so these are perfect for that. Yeah. So what's isolation? I got to put like a card and stuff? Well, no, if they were in separate rooms, for instance, then you could afford to have a mic with a bigger pattern. But this is perfect. It's gorgeous.

I just know I do what he tells me to do and it sounds great. Yeah, they're really nice. I like them. And summer's back. That's good. What are we doing in here? I know.

We got the last three days of summer here, Mike, and I'm inside talking to you. Don't worry. It'll be all over in an hour. It'll be harmless. It's like my sex life. An hour? Well, that's, yeah.

That's pretty good, man. It's not bad, actually. I don't think i could do that but uh did you did you watch the world series you know you're a baseball guy i'm a big cardinal fan so i i kind of lost and and i for the first time ever i cheered for a toronto team this year so uh it was hard not to oh it was impossible not to it was just fantastic i'm very sad though for toronto that they're losing uh a a but you know? And so, no, I watched very little of the actual World Series. Oh, yeah?

I obviously watched the Cardinals, and I watched all the Jays games, and then I kind of lost interest. You know, at the beginning of the World Series, I didn't want to watch because it's like I just came off that high of the Jays, and I was kind of pissed at Kansas City. I didn't want to watch. And then it just draws me, and I tune in, and the next thing you know, I'm kind of pissed at Kansas City. I didn't want to watch. And then it just draws me in. Like I tune in and the next thing you know what,

I'm kind of digging it. Well, for me, so I don't know if you remember back in the 80s when Kansas City was down 3-1 to Toronto and came back and won. Yeah, absolutely. Then they were down 3-1 to the Cardinals and came back and won. And then the next year the Mets won. And it was like, I'm not cheering for either one of these two teams. And the story I heard is that you, after the Cardinals lost at 85 World Series, year the Mets won and it was like I'm not cheering for either one of these two teams and that uh the

story I heard is that you after the Cardinals lost at 85 World Series you called in sick I did that's amazing yeah yeah you're a grown man I was a grown man you weren't like 10 years old no no I was a grown man and my my I was actually my boss at the time I was actually we've been Danny Kingsbury we go way back I was his best man. We go back a million years. And I called him. He knew I wasn't sick. He knew the reason. I said, I'm not coming in. He said, what do you mean? Cardinals lost. They got jobbed in game six. I'm not coming in. What do you mean

you're not coming in? I'm telling you, when you go in and do your show tomorrow, I won't be there. Okay. That's amazing. Yeah. What a child. That is very childlike, but impressive nonetheless. That takes some balls. I didn't get fired. I mean, I, very childlike, but impressive nonetheless. Because that takes some balls, I think. I didn't get fired. I mean, I've had some heartbreaks

in my Toronto sports life. And calling in sick has never even occurred to me. Well, why would it? Because you guys haven't won anything. That's right. I was a teenager in 92 and 93, so I do have real memories of actual championships. That's true the uh do you

so that mark shapiro thing and aa do you have any further thoughts on that like uh is this just a typical clusterfuck in toronto sports or uh well yeah i got a bad taste in my mouth well first of all what why did they have to go out and and and maybe I don't know the answer to this, but what were they doing signing Shapiro on when they did? I mean, this was just at the absolute transition point of the season. Yeah, like late August or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So. Yeah, they were in first place in late August. So the writing is kind of on the wall at that point for Anthopolis. This is my great. Why did you go out and recruit this guy and give him the kind of the nugget that AA wants when, yeah, we had evidence in late August that this team had turned a corner? No understanding of that. And again, it's just so, you know, I don't want to talk much about the Leafs. I can tell you that as the team.

Although they won a big game last night. They're celebrating face-off wins right now. You're right. You're right. But, you know, they go and hire a coach. It's the last thing they needed. You're right. You're right. But, you know, they go and hire a coach. It's the last thing they needed. That's right. And they gave him

an eight-year deal, though, just so he'd be around in case we were competitive in five years. Eight years of misery. That's right. Nice. Anyway.

He's got to be wondering, like, you know, that Job line from Arrested Development, like, what did I do or whatever? What's the line from Job? I made a huge mistake. I made a huge mistake. That's the line from joe pullman uh i made a huge mistake i made

a huge that's the line is that the greatest show ever made or yeah i actually i've re-watched it three times and i started the other day a fourth round because it's still good like even a fourth round it's amazing it's so good it's incredibly good like it's hard to believe that i was on fox for three years like that's that's how good it is well it's hard to believe that it failed well it's hard to believe that it failed. Well, it's hard to believe they gave it three years. If you know what I mean? That's actually a credit to Fox.

They stuck with quality. You know what I mean? Somebody liked it. It wasn't getting an audience, but we're going to stick with it. That's right. And Bateman on there is just so great. But the whole cast. The whole cast is great.

Yeah, Fuke. Yeah, Tobias Fuke. It's just tremendous. It's tremendous. Yeah, it's tremendous.. It's just tremendous. It's tremendous. Yeah, it's tremendous. That's a great show. Real quick, just for other listeners, you might not care about this,

but I found out that I'm having a girl. So this was last week. We had an ultrasound. Nice. They're pretty good, these technicians. First, they tell you everything's normal. Like, look, there's 10 fingers and 10 toes, and you do this thing,

and then they zoom right into the genitalia. Like, this is a zoom in. And it's like, you know, it's like. Disturbing. It's disturbing. But it's, you know, it's like now that, you know, that's not a, you know, that's labia. And they're like, you know, it's like, oh, that labia. That's a girl thing.

Jeez. There you go. So congratulations are in order. Yeah. For your new labia. It's in March. Yeah. You know.

How many have you got now? That's number four. Holy mackerel. And actually, so I had a boy, then a girl, and then a boy. yeah it's in march yeah you know how many we got now that's number four holy man and actually so i had a boy then a girl and then a boy so i was actually rooting for a girl and you got one and i got one and and then i thought you know you know you're happy either way but each time you might you have a slight preference like the first time i wanted a boy and i got a boy you and then the second time i wanted a girl because i had a boy and i got the girl and then the third time i wanted a boy again and i got a boy and then the fourth time so i'm girl because I had a boy and I got the girl. And then the third time I wanted a boy again and I got a boy.

And then the fourth time. So I'm actually four for four. I'm keeping up. You're keeping up. Yeah. I don't know if I can take much credit for it, but I did get what I wanted. So there you go. You did your eight seconds of work.

If I, I don't know. I'm not even sure. Good for you. Well, and when is the. Not till March, I think. It's like we're 20 weeks in. Well, congratulations. Thank you.

That's my big personal news. And is that news on broadcast number 140? Yeah, that gender reveal. Yeah, that's right. And before, I got a lot of really intense Jeff Lumby stuff to get to. But real quick, my last episode was a comedian named Christina Walkinshaw. Okay. real quick uh my last episode was a comedian named uh christina walkinshaw okay okay so basically this was the day that uh like the remnants of that hurricane showed up and it rained just poured rain and wind all day yeah so a tuesday i guess so like an idiot i had like an hour before she

was gonna i had no i had 90 minutes or something before she was gonna show up so i went for a bike ride even though and i went along the water and it was like pouring rain. What'd you do that for? Yeah, so, and I was thinking, I'll do a quick ride because the temperature looked like it was reasonable.

But I'm like, so I'm like, I'm going to be soaking. I hate that feeling. So I'm like, I'll ride in shorts. This is my thought. And I'll ride in shorts

and no socks. So I put on sandals and shorts and I went for a ride along the water. Okay. That's a look. You with me? And,

it was really windy and it was, I bike every day so it wasn't a conditioning thing but when I got home, I felt like it had really kicked my ass. Like,

I didn't feel cold. I felt just sort of like, kind of like, just numb and kind of like, worn out and then I decided I'd have a quick shower

because I have a guest coming. You know what? That's a pro. It's a great story, right? It's a great story. So I go into the shower, which is quite hot because I like a hot shower. And within two seconds, I start, I feel this burning sensation. Like my legs are now on fire.

Because I guess I'm now looking back, my legs must have been so cold. They were numb. Or the wind. Because it was also, you know. Very windy. Wind burned. Super windy. Because I would be going full out and only going like 10k an hour but i'd be like

cycling as hard as i can because the wind was going against me so my legs are now burning so i jump out of the shower and for like 20 minutes my legs are on fire this is like cold meets hot this this story is exciting but i gotta explain yeah it's crazy no it's so far okay so my legs are on fire. So now I'm like, oh shit, I got a guest coming to a podcast soon.

I'm kind of trying to walk it off. And all of a sudden I have this sensation I'm so hungry. I feel like I've never felt this hungry in my life. I'm now like starving to death.

With hot legs. With hot legs. And the legs are starting to come back. But now I'm feeling faintish. Like I feel faintish. I've never fainted in my life. Okay.

I'm walking in the kitchen. You look like you could use a burger or two. You know what? I eat a lot more than you think. I'm now so hungry, I actually start to see black. Have you ever had like a cloud of black? Never? Me neither.

Well, not for hunger. Like my blood sugar levels off or something. I don't know. So I start, I say to myself, this is what it feels like when you faint. Cause I've seen it in movies. You hear about fainting. I've never fainted, but I bet you it's like this. That's what I'm telling myself. And I'm like, I don't want to fall and hurt myself. I'm going to go onto the ground. I actually went to the, onto the floor of my kitchen. Well, that's smart though, because if you feel like you're going to faint, right?

You don't want to fall and hit your head. Why be five or six feet off the ground? Right. Yeah. Closer to five and six. Okay. So I so i'm uh now i'm on the ground and i um i'm starving and i'm like i need to get something in my system so bang door knock at the door christina's now a half an hour early christina walkinshaw has showed up i can hardly do you have clothes on i have clothes on yeah okay all right anyway now i'm at this point. I'm so hungry. I can't even like, I've never felt this hungry. I've got to get something in my system. I'm going to faint.

I can barely see. I didn't faint, by the way. But then I go to the door and I have a guest and I start to like, I have trouble forming words. Like I think maybe I'm stroking out here. This all happens. I'm trying to be like reasonable with this person I'm meeting for the first time. And I say, I'm sorry, I got to eat something first. And I have hot legs.

I have hot legs. I sit her down. I'm wolfing down. I'm just eating food. I'm literally eating ice cream out of a container. Just eating food now to get myself normal. I wolf down this food. We start recording.

For the first half hour of that recording, I felt like I was watching myself. I felt like I was out of my body watching myself. I didn't know if I was my, I was making sense. You probably just have a brain tumor or something. Something like that. So all this long, boring story is to say, I literally, cause I told my wife everything. And then suddenly she's Googling symptoms of stroke and I hit like five of seven. And then she's like, let's, we're listening back to hear if I'm slurring my speech. Okay. That's how, that would have been six out of seven. And then she's like, we're listening back to hear if I'm slurring my speech. That's how intense it was. That would have been six out of seven. I would have scored six out of seven.

I'm sure it's because I was stupid with that bike ride and I was just hungry. Something I did not have. There was like a headache. So one of the symptoms is a headache. I did not have the headache. So that was the story of episode 139. You're okay though today. I feel fine today, but I did have a bike kick.

And now it's like 18 degrees outside, so it would be great to bike out there. Yes, it would. I think I will after, maybe. I don't know. It's kind of late in the day

after that story, but that's... That story, don't worry. I'll edit that out. That won't make the broadcast. No, I'm just kidding. So tell me, because a lot of people I know

will know Jeff Lumby from a show you did, a Red Green show, which we're going to talk about. And a lot of people will remember you were on the Fan 590. Yeah, that was first summer. No, no, but that was never supposed to go along. No, that was like a substitute.

Substitute, yes. Yeah, for sure. And these different places. But you started super young, right? You were Tex on Size Small small that's right that's tell me about this it's like a family project it was a family uh well see my mom and dad uh grew up in television my dad was the second employee of cfqc tv in saskatoon as the chief cameraman there and my mom had a kindergarten show and that's where they met

she had this was live television right it's in the 50s so she had a kindergarten show and then they had a film company through the late 60s and 70s and then they thought let's let's get this idea back on on the ground this this kindergarten idea and uh so we all you know brainstormed as a family we created all these characters we created puppet characters my mom's also a very good uh pianist and writer so she starts writing music we start creating these characters we start writing scripts and we had a show and how old are you when this show is uh the show i'm probably 25 when the show starts okay ish you know it's in's in the 80s, so 2022, something like that. And yeah, so I had four or five or six different puppet voices for the show, and then Tex was the live character. And my brother was, he was just in time.

No, what the heck was his? Oliver Sutton. Nice. And he was the friend record. Everyone said, who's the record? Who's in the record? That was my brother. He was the only one who could fit in the suit. He's 10 years younger than me. Right, Oliver Sutton. Nice. And he was the friend record. Everyone said, who's the record? Who's in the record? That was my brother. He was the only one who could fit in the suit.

He's 10 years younger than me. Right, right, right. Did this ever air in like... Everywhere. PBS. I found out you had this show, and I searched for footage. It's tough to find. I couldn't find it in the dregs of YouTube.

I'm looking. Somebody's got to have a clip. There is some stuff out there. I couldn't find it then. No. In YouTube? That's funny because I saw somebody posted something the other day on Facebook, and it was an old size small thing.

But anyway. So where would you have seen this? Like TV Ontario or something like that? It wasn't. Only because I was like raised on TV Ontario. It was global. It was on global because it was originally shot at a CK&D in Winnipeg, and they were on the global network.

And then, of course, it was also PBS. So, yeah, it was a going concern for our family for about 10 years. That's pretty freaking cool. Yeah, and we shot everywhere from Winnipeg through Saskatchewan and most of it in Regina and Saskatoon and stuff. That's cool. Yeah. I think that That's cool. Yeah. I think that's super cool.

And then there's a character you would go on to play. I'm going to play a little clip here because I could find a clip of this one. But let's hear this and then we'll talk about another character you played. Okay. I'll tell you, Winston, with the power of this rig, we'll have everybody out of the ditch and home for supper. Let's go. Red, I can't.

What, you lose the keys? Don't worry about it. I know how to hotwire. What are they saying? Red, we can't use the truck. I'll I can't. What, you lose the keys? Don't worry about it. I know how to hotwire. What are they saying? Red, we can't use the truck. I'll tell you why. When I broke into this sludge-sucking business, Red, I made myself one promise.

Do you know what that promise was? Always wash your hands before lunch? No. I just made a promise to myself to only use this truck to make money. You may find this hard to believe, but I've never once used this truck for pleasure. That's business. So you won't help a friend in need? Well, you know what Anthony Anthony says about that, eh?

Oh, man, not that succeed-through-success bozo on TV at night. Hey, wait a minute, Red. Anthony Anthony just happens to be financial advisor to Florence Henderson, and a host of other important Hollywood celebrities who just love to pop in on his infomercials and say hello. You know what he says, eh? He says that a friend in need is a customer. You gotta hear it. It's really good.

I'm not gonna listen to that. So, what does Anthony Anthony have to say about public relations and community involvement? You got to hear it. It's really good. I'm not going to listen to that. So, what does Anthony Anthony have to say about public relations and community involvement? I don't know. It was on the other side of that tape. I was going to listen to it tonight. Yes, it sounded like I had a cold there. That was Winston Rothschild III.

That's right. And that's your character. He's the owner, by the way, of Rothschild III. That's right. He's the owner, by the way, of Rothschild's Sewage and Septic Sucking Service. That's right. On the Red Green Show. Too much fun. There was a very interesting story about how we met. So I was at Y95 in Hamilton. Started there in 1990.

Ironically, that's when the show started as well. But I hadn't heard of the Red Green show. But I think it was about 92, both Steve Smith, Red Green, and I got asked separately to be parade float judges at the Oktoberfest parade in Kitchener. So that's where we met. We just hit it off. We just had such a good time. And then so on the way back to Hamilton, I said, you know,

hey, would you ever be interested in doing a handyman corner or something on on the radio and from from there it all he came in and did quite a quite he did uh renew your vows on valentine's day from the parking lot you know people would drive up you still love it yeah you love him all right nice there you go and and so um and then um and then one day he said i want to take you for lunch we go for lunch and he says uh looking for a septic second guy and your name floated to the top that's perfect and from there on it was just so much fun and i learned from just some great people you know the the the show had you know peter callahan yeah i just had uh i just saw him in an audition this

morning uh peter callahan and of of course, Pat McKenna. I mean, Pat McKenna, you just learn so much from a guy like that. Because Pat was on the set all the time. It was just, you know, I couldn't have. I hit the jackpot with these people. And this show, I mean, we know it, of course, here in Canada, but this had a following outside of Canada, right? Oh, huge.

It's like a cult thing. Well, and during the shooting and even afterwards, we would go to these PBS stations and do pledge breaks, you know, telethon things. In costume, I went with Peter, I went with Rick Green and, you know, with Wayne Robson

and Bob Bainborough. We all went and did these things. As far away as Utah, we'd go to Utah and Illinois and all these sort of Midwest they just love the show yeah it's cool to be a part of something like that it's sort of like having a role in like a Star Trek show like you can do comic-con or whatever for the rest of your life you know what I ended up doing for about four years I did a sewage and septic sucking

conference in Illinois oh get out of here yes speaker oh the keynote or like yeah yeah it's funny they would show me they take me around and they're showing me all this stuff. And it was all I could do not to say, you know, I just play one on TV, right? No, but you're like their poster boy. I mean, there's not a lot of sewage and septic guys in the... That's amazing. Yeah, exactly. It's a sadly overlooked kind of element of society.

And the thing about Winston is he loved his job. That was the key. Yeah, even that clip is just great. Yeah, it's great never used the truck for pleasure and uh i remember growing up and watching on chch smith and smith and these shows and yeah he's just that's where that came from that show was just a tiny little oh is it uh like a spin-off yeah okay just like uh what was it morgan mindy came out of happy days but like you know it's just well he uh, Steve was always amazed at the Red Fisher show.

And what does he, how does he describe Red Fisher? Red Fisher never worried about how much he could bore you. So something along those lines. It's like this podcast. And my story is about episode 139. That'll be gold one day. Don't worry. But no, and so he, he took that character and that's why he was so

low-key but it was always funny so everything was people thought it was a broad show it was actually the opposite it had a lot of nuanced very well-written stuff to it and they made a i know they had duct tape forever yeah the movie right so and you of course now. So any word of another movie or anything? No, we're done. Yeah, it's done. I mean, this year would have been a perfect year for a reunion show because it was 10 years ago that we stopped shooting. Oh, yeah.

Actually, very close to this date. It was November of 2005. Why do you think I invited you in? Oh, is that the reason? That's okay. See, you know more than me. There you go. But it would have been perfect, and I just don't think,

I mean, Steve's doing his own one-man show across the U.S. and Canada. I was going to ask if you had a contact with him and what he's up to. Oh, yeah, he's a friend and just an amazing, amazing guy. That's the thing about the show. I was on the show for 12 seasons. I tell this to people, I can't believe, there wasn't one harsh word on that set said to anyone ever. It was just always full of laughter just the whole it's like whether you're shooting or not

everyone's having fun no it's good to hear amazing yeah and i don't know how many shows can say that uh do you know how many episodes you did or i don't know how many i did but there were 300 in all total okay good uh yeah the reason i remember there's a little numerology to this. Steve was 60 in 2005. There were 300 episodes and 15 seasons, and he thought, that's it. Yeah, that's pretty round. That's pretty good. The voices, like you talked about Tex on Size Small, and then the voice of Winston Rothschild III, you've always had a way with voices. Yes. So when did you realize that you could do this?

You know what? I think it was probably back in the day. My parents were always that way. One of the things we always used to love to do would be to go to like the latest Clouseau Pink Panther movie and then we'd all come home and, you know, we'd all be talking like this, you know. We'd all be, everybody, my mom and dad always did little voices. So we were always encouraged to do that.

And as a result, I just took to it and then I started doing, you know, I would do, like, I think my first, you know, impression was like Archie Bunker or something like that. And, you know, and then, oh, you get encouraged by, you know, and you just keep going with it. It's fun.

So when was the first time you were paid for your voice, if you will? When was the first time you got a paycheck because of your voice? You mean... Like because of... Radio or... Anything. Well, radio going 70s, I guess.

So, okay. So how old were you when... I was just first year out of high school when I got into radio. Okay. Yeah. Saskatoon. Yeah. You know, my first wife is from Saskatoon.

Come on. Your first wife. My first wife. What's her name? Taryn. What's her last name? Ferguson was her last name. Oh, okay.

Not like everybody in Saskatoon knows each other. You know, how big is the population of Saskatoon? Well, when I was there, it was 100 and a half. Oh, wow. But it's much bigger than that now. Yeah, her dad was, I think he wrote for the paper there. My dad worked for the paper. Derek Ferguson.

Oh, you're kidding. Yeah. Yeah, my dad used to be the cameraman at the Star Phoenix. Yeah, yeah. Well, probably, yeah. There's some overlap there, I'm sure. Because I know that he was big in the paper and then before he went on to work for the Toronto Star

at some point for years. But yeah, that's my only Saskatoon story. That's our only connection. That that's your only uh our only connection that's right uh okay well before we get into the radio though i want to just touch on some voiceover work so i got a list here uh like just some of the titles where you're like credited on is like sailor moon and 16 and ricky sprocket showbiz boy peep in the big wide world odd job jack uh Skatoony. There's probably dozens and dozens more.

Skatoony was very fun because I got to play this bombastic New York sounding guy who just yelled at everybody. Who doesn't love that? No, that sounds like a perfect job. It is, yeah. And his voice was sort of like that

and he's always being talking like that you know that's that's the trick you can do that that sounds like a card to my kids i mean i have three kids now so and i've seen a lot of cartoons and yeah there's some voices that you can hear like in different shows and you recognize the voice from the other show what's the chick's name on the road um oh my goodness i'm gonna have a mental block on this. There's a woman in Canada who I hear on almost every show that this country produces. Now I'm going to guess she's in her 60s now.

Oh yeah, she was... Why can't I remember her name? Jane Eastwood? She was in Ricky Sprockets with me. We were husband and wife. I'm not kidding. A show will come on, CBC Kids or Treehouse or TV Ontario Kids or whatever,

and it'll be her voice. She's in everything. Yeah. That's amazing. And you know what? Just one of the most, first of all, is hilarious, but just one of the greatest people in the business. And not only voiceover, I'll point out, I'll be watching a live action kid show and they

need a grandma or something. You know, a grandma who talks like, whatever. I can't even do her voice. Or back in the day, drama. You could probably do her funny voice. Yeah, no, I can't.

But yeah, Jane Eastwood, I don't know how many credits she's got, but holy smokes. Wonderful person. Very fun. That's good to hear. I actually, yeah.

Oh yeah, she's a riot. She's in everything. Yeah. Even in commercials too. Like I'll be watching TV and there's an ad on and oh, Jane Eastwood. There we go.

Something's coming out in January that was recorded over a year ago and it's the new George of the Jungle and I play the narrator, Jane Eastwood. Something's coming out in January that was recorded over a year ago, and it's the new George of the Jungle, and I play the narrator in that. Cool. And that is fun because it's been written, you know, just like the old Warner Brothers stuff, the Bugs Bunny stuff, there's something for the kids and then there's something for the grown-ups.

And it's really, really well done. So we're hoping that that goes for another year, but that's going to be coming out, I think it's Teletoon in January. And you just, you basically, do you audition for these things? Is that how this works? Yeah. And that's where you were this morning, auditioning for something. Yeah, just a radio commercial today, but yeah.

And yeah, I mean, you're, you got a lot of credits here, but there's a movie, The Perfect Man. Yes. So The Perfect Man. My girlfriend, Heather Locklear. Yeah, Heather Locklear. won't stop calling yeah she's still wearing those melrose place uh pantsuits or uh what a pro oh man what a sweet person and she's about five foot nothing oh yeah yeah no she can't you know like you do a scene in her case you're doing a scene with all these day actors you know you don't need

to talk to them you don't need to introduce yourself. You don't, really. But she came up to everybody, and this is 10 o'clock at night. We shot that scene. Hey, how you doing? And just the sweetest person and very professional. Why not, right? Yeah, why not?

Life is short. Just be nice to people. Why do you have to be a dickhead? Why are you going to be a dickhead? I'm with you. Yeah, what's the reason? I'm all turned around on this. For a while, in your 20s, you're like you're like you can be a bit of a dick or whatever

and then you hit a point where it's like i'm just be nice to people yeah and then you know word spreads and like next thing you know people like you yeah i know it's weird how we all have to learn that i think at some point in our life no she was just amazing just really sweet and uh so um yeah back to the real quickly to the cartoons. You mentioned Skatoony, but of the rest, what is your, what was your favorite gig? That was one of my favorite gigs. Skatoony. Only because it reminded me of Saskatoon. No, no.

Skatoony, come on. No, but just the voice, and also Forget About It. There's some funny stuff on a show called Forget About It. It's about a crime family who's been put into the witness protection program, and they move from New Jersey to Regina. It's a very funny show. Oh, that's great. It's all adult crime family who's been put into the Witness Protection Program and they move from New Jersey to Regina. It's a very funny show. Oh, that's great. It's all adult, though, right? Sure.

And I also really enjoyed Ricky Sprockets with Jane Eastwood and then this new one, George of the Jungle, is really fun. So I hope it goes again. Where's that going to be? Teleton, I think. Yeah, in January. I love George of the Jungle. Yeah, it's the old Georgeorge the jungle yeah well it's yeah

it's the old george of the jungle jungle but it's you know it's just it's very it's fun it's nicely written that's the that's the thing you enjoy anything that works well uh that's that's written well and believable and you have fun with it and then the odd job odd job jacks were really interesting that was a great show from those guys and Smiley guys. And it just, you know, it ran with McKellar as the lead. It ran its course. I mean, I think it did five years, four or five years. It was good.

Cool. So now we've covered the voiceover, got the TV work and stuff. I got to talk to you about radio. Okay. You mentioned you started young. So, I mean, some of the places you were working in, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal, of course, GTA. But tell me how it all began for you in radio. So I was in high school, and I just got the urge to do this. And my mom and dad had worked with a guy named Roy Curry at CFQC in Saskatoon.

He had just started a radio station called CJWW. And he was conducting these voice classes down in the basement of the radio station in the evening for anybody who wanted to. There was no charge, just anybody who wanted to, because he came from the Lauren Green School of Broadcasting. And so it was just an opportunity to do that. And then one day he pulls me aside and he says, Jeff, you want to do the overnight show here?

You know, and that's kind of how it all began and and it was just it was fantastic and then from there you just boy radio is i don't know if i don't know if people today have the stomach for what it the dues that we paid uh back in the day they all want to be with roger rick and maryland or whatever they want to start at the big market yeah Yeah, whereas both Howard and I, humble, Moose Jaw, that's where he's from. We both worked in Moose Jaw. I worked in Saskatoon and Lloyd Minster and all these little podunk doing overnights. And I've got three years of overnights under my belt. So you think there's a sense of entitlement sometimes where they think they should start with a midday shift on a big market like Toronto?

Well, but the problem, there's another problem with where radio is now, and that is voice tracking, I believe. You will talk to the managers of radio stations and they'll say, oh, no, there's no difference between voice tracking and live radio. There's a huge difference. I don't care what anybody says. When you're on live, when you're voice tracking oh well that's screwed up let's rewind start again and when you're when you're live there's just an there's a there's an added focus that goes to it and i think that it's it's a i just find them poles apart i don't even think they're close so and and so with voice tracking where everything's voice tracked middays, afternoons sometimes

overnights, evenings there is no opportunity to build up grassroots radio live I think that audience of young wannabe radio people or people starting out, I think they listen to this podcast I get a lot of feedback because I have a lot of people

whether it's Strombo or whoever and they talk about basically how they started and how they got their foot in the door and i get a lot of feedback even from some professors at humber college and stuff who will listen and use some of it in some of their classes so i think if you could speak to those people what would be your advice to people who want to get into radio now well first of all uh i wouldn't be choosy no seriously like you got to go to Orillia. You got to go to Kelowna. You got to go anywhere. Thunder Bay. I just about took a job in Thunder Bay and then something else came up. I was, yeah, no, you've got to be willing to do that. You've got to be willing to work any and all shifts.

And in Moose Jaw, I did swing, overnights, and production, and some promotion work. So you've got to be willing to do all those things and not put up much of a stink about it. And then you've just got to show that you have the metal for the business. How much should you be willing to do for free, though? Because a common thread is that a lot of times I guess they're either unpaid interns for a long time. I don't think that's almost... I find that that's almost illegal right now because at the last, or at least

unethical, which is kind of sad, actually, because when I was just at Bell, we had interns while I was there, and then all of a sudden there was a moratorium on interns because they had to be paid. Oh, I think a law might've recently changed maybe. See, so that, and this is over the last year, year and a half, because we had interns.

I know Humble has had interns that have gone on to do very well in radio. And I don't see a problem with that, but you know, I can understand a big corporation not having the stomach for it and and if the law has changed then there you go but yeah i you know i i fully support it because i think that some of the people uh that have gone on to do well from humble and fred show well like some names like uh jason barr for example started doing that and todd shapiro who's and uh well bingo bob now is like virgin radio's i don't know music i don't know what his title is but some music guy at virgin yeah so you know because those are the people who really take the thing seriously i'm here for free how could how could you be more serious about it right

right and you're willing to work long hours and terrible hours and a common thread is eric smith just hit on this recently and adam from 102 was on recently he said the same thing it's just being there like always being there and being available and you never know when opportunity knocks and they need you to go on and do something and the next thing you know you've proven yourself you got your reps in if I were to give you one sentence of advice on radio at the starting at the starting platform I would say that if you have an opportunity to be in the business, take the opportunity because once you're in the business, that's when things can happen. If you're on the outside looking in, no one knows you're there and no one knows what you can do.

So get, do what it takes to get in the business. That'd be my advice. And if that means going to Aurelia Orillia to work the summer cruiser van and be cut in, seriously, whatever it takes. Because once you're in the business, then you can show your program director what you have and what you're willing to do and where you want to go. You can't do that if you're not in the business. So that would be my one nugget of advice on people who are just just looking at the idea of getting into radio yeah i think that's a good advice i think but

do you aaron davis once told me that going into radio now is in a paraphrasing not exact quote but it's like robbing the bank after the money's all gone yeah like is there anything to the fact that she's right because like she's lucky enough, I guess, to have been there, and when they were actually paying reasonable wages... No, she's right. And again, I think... I don't know where it began,

but I can tell you that when I was in Radio and its heyday, the people who owned the companies, whether they be mom and pops or WIC, or certainly smaller than Bell, Chorus, Rogers, they were interested in getting 15 to 20 points on the dollar. Now with shareholder radio, it's 35, 37 points. And if you're a shareholder and you've had the fortune of having a very successful radio station that is getting that kind of revenue but then all of a sudden starts to dip well then that's when the cost cutting comes in it's funny um i'm gonna i'm gonna be organizing a y95 reunion uh for next

year's the 25th anniversary of y95 um signing on the air and we're we had a little meeting of the group of people uh the organizers and we came up with over 100 names of people that worked at the radio station. Right. I just left Kuhl in Kitchener, and I'll bet you there aren't 15 full-time employees there right now. So that's where radio is.

Not only are the big high-paying jobs not as prevalent, but just jobs in general. You know? Yeah. I know at least one person who was doing weekends and shift work for Virgin Radio and was literally being paid minimum wage, hourly wage, and simply left to become like a software consultant, like for implementation of big enterprise-wide software systems, software consultants, like for implementation of big enterprise-wide software systems, just so they could make an adult wage and, you know, own a car and have maybe even, maybe,

maybe even own a house one day in the GT. I don't know, maybe Milton. I'm not sure where you have to go now. But yeah, it's, it just seems to me like there's a lot of people working very hard so they can just pay the rent on their basement apartment. And these are prominent names that we listen to for hours a day on our favorite station. Yeah. And I find it unfortunate because I think if I would be so bold, I would say that at some point it's going to catch up with the business. The only thing that radio has on other mediums right now is immediacy. And with immediacy, you need content. So you need content providers. You need to pay people to provide content. Because today's generation is not, they're not watching, they're not watching Married with, sorry, what's, they're not watching Modern Family. They're not watching it at Thursday night at 8.

Nobody's doing it. That's correct. Or whatever, whenever the show is on. Right. Okay. But radio is the one thing that you do have an opportunity to broadcast live. That's the one thing it has. And what are we doing?

We're taking it. We're not paying content providers. You know, we're taking away the one saleable item that they have. So, you know, I mean, even what's the only thing that really on TV that's watched live? There you go. See, so I think radio needs to kind of smarten up on that note because the people who are in the

management roles right now, I guess they're happy with it right now, but are they looking at the future of radio? Because I think the future of radio, if we're losing all of our content providers, I don't know where it will end up.

These are all great questions. I mean, great questions. And now we have some of the best content is not even on the radio now. It's in podcast form. When I go for a bike ride, I put on a podcast. And I hear stuff I wish I just smart, well-produced. Unlike this show, smart, well-produced content that is not on the radio. And the other thing was that radio stations, even 20 years ago, had more of an individual feel for market.

Whereas there's so much cookie cutter out there right now. You know, oh, there's Katy Perry there. There's Katy Perry. There's Katy Perry. And it's just, oh, these are the charts, these 10 songs. And it's universal. As opposed to you would go to Edmonton and you'd hear, oh, wow, that's – you'd go to Sask – oh, sheepdogs. You know, you'd have –

You're right. You just have more of a local feel. There'd be more of an organic, you know, feel for radio stations. Not to say that the playlists were all stupid. I mean, playlists, somebody commented on Facebook the other day that, oh, the music Jeff Lumby played on Y95 was amazing. Well, that was the product of some really good

music directors. I didn't choose any of that music, right? But see, that was the feeling. Somebody took the time to individually choose each song, and so much of it now is just spin the the the computer wheel and out pops out your your programming and it's it's frustrating because it's the same coast to coast in a lot of cases yeah and that it's like this whole franchising of i guess it was the branding like you might have like a fresh here and a fresh

there and and i remember there would be jacks here and Jack's there and it does lose its character like this, uh, the soul sort of, it's like this, you know, I don't know. I mean, I listened to the edge 102, for example, which whatever we were calling it in the early nineties, you know, you always got, you got your low, lots of lowest of the low and bare naked ladies and, you know, pursuit of happiness and these kinds of cool local bands. And I don't know what they were playing in Vancouver, but I always felt like we were getting, you know, more than our fair share of like the Bare Naked Ladies stuff. Maybe Bare Naked Ladies doesn't become the band

they did without The Edge. I would say that you can make that argument. Yeah, they really did. For a lot of bands. They played the hell out of that little indie cassette back, you know, before they had Gordon. Yeah. Before Gordon came out, yeah.

Yeah, you know, so I had Gordon. Yeah. Before Gordon came out, yeah. Yeah, you know, so I don't know what the answer is and not to discourage you if you want to get into radio because it's been a wonderful, wonderful business. I know because right now they're all basically changing careers

as we talk here. It sounds like, what's the point? You're never going to be able to, you know, make a reasonable wage and I know you can't speak to this from any insider information, but I have people working for Bell Media right now telling me like there's an imminent i don't know what's going on because i'm not an insider yeah like apparently there's an gonna be an imminent

cut job cut action type well they just they just they just gutted uh middle middle to upper management is that is that this week because i'm here no, this is like three weeks ago. But yeah, there's more coming. Like something's coming and they're all like, and I know some people who work for Bell Media are actually delaying

their appearance on this podcast because they're going to wait until the dust settles on whatever's happening here. And I just think, and I know, I work for a software company,

okay? I see cuts, you know, people fired for no good reason all the time. It's not exclusive to radio. But there's something about you can do a good job

and be known in your market and then kind of get let go because, A, maybe you're making too much money and you've been around too long. Like, for no particularly good reason, you get, you know, budget cuts or new direction or whatever they tell you, and you're gone. Yeah. Like, there's no job security.

No, there isn't. And, I mean, throughout my career, there was never any job security. And a lot of people shied away from morning radio because of that. I gravitated to it because I just thought it was fun. And I thought I could get numbers for radio stations. And, you know, through the course of my career, I was able to do that. But for some reason, that doesn't seem to be the criteria anymore. I mean, uh, the reason I'm no longer in radio is in April, my contract came up. Uh, we both wanted to extend, Bell wanted to extend, I wanted to extend, but the offer just wasn't there, just wasn't there. And so I decided, you know, I did some soul searching and said, you know what, I, I feel I'm worth this. So I'm going to, I'm going to step away. Um, and I, the amount of difference would be something that back in any day

somebody was going to be able to make up. And so the margins are really tight. And I just don't quite see what radio has in mind down the road because, as I mentioned earlier, if you're losing all these content providers and paying this dollar for this kind of content, I just don't know how you're going to stick out in the marketplace. I really don't. All right.

Let's go for a lighter note here and take you back to Montreal just for a moment. Okay. A little moment here. Oh, the Montreal Canadiens. Yeah. I know you're a big Habs fan, right? Yes, I am. That's a whole different podcast.

Well, good for you. Go enjoy your Habs your habs that's yeah all right fine doesn't bother me no no uh montreal cjfm yes all right okay so i uh we have a mutual friend uh you mentioned humble howard glassman so yes uh i asked him i had an interview with him at some point and we talked about you know him he worked with you in Montreal. Yes, and he abandoned me. Well, let me read his quote, and then you can tell me if he's got it right here. This is a direct quote from Humble Howard Glassman.

All right. I was doing mornings with Jeff Lumby in Montreal, and in fact, the PD and GM of CFNY originally wanted to hire Jeff and I to come to Toronto. Jeff said, sorry, Jeff didn't want to leave Montreal. And after meeting with them, I called later and said, I was definitely into it. Fred came to meet me. And that's how the Humble and Fred show was created. Is he, he's got his facts right? Or is he misremembering?

Do you know what? I'm going to have to call myself out on this because we just had a guy's night. I don't know if you heard about this legendary night we had up at uh darren waslick's cabin and danny kingsbury who is the guy he's talking about right there who is also my program director a couple of times at city in winnipeg and at y95 so he was there and darren was there and humble and fred were there but really the only important two people to this question you're asking is Danny and Howard. And I honestly, I'm looking at you right now with no drug involvement whatsoever. Do not remember that meeting.

However, I do not remember this meeting. I don't. And it bothers the hell out of me that I, and then Darren was saying to me, well, maybe it was just an off the cuff coffee and, and, uh, the conversation came up. Do you want to go to Toronto? And I do remember that I was very happy in Montreal, and I probably like, none of this

sounds... Like you probably would have turned this down at that time. Yeah, I probably would have turned it down. So it's plausible. Oh, it's very plausible. I believe their side of the story. It's funny. So at that time were you inebriated? Is that plausible? No. No, I didn't even drink. No, I have no idea why this little nugget of my very storied radio career is missing from my files. But it is.

And so, no, I think he's bang on with that. And, you know, that's fine. No, but it's a very interesting part of the origin story of a popular Toronto radio team. No, it is. So you have a play in there. I do have a play. You are a footnote there. I am a footnote. And, you know, again, we're talking about my best friends on the planet here.

So I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt on that one. So, yeah, I mean, both Danny and Howard just shook their head when I told them that I don't remember the meeting. And so I'm going to take their word for it. I just don't remember it. Do you remember how you felt when Howard told you he was bolting for Trump? Yeah, I was not happy. I was not happy.

But that was just over a few months. And we reconciled just in time for me to attend his wedding. Okay, good. That's good. So here's the story at the wedding. So this is how un-Jewish I am. So we go to the wedding, and i go to the i go to the bar and i uh the guy said what do you want i said uh caesar please and the guy goes it's a kosher

wedding and i go great that's super so uh so could i have a caesar please no no sir it's it's a kosher wedding i didn't ask for bacon just a caesar would be great right now i don't i didn't know about the shell i still don't know shellfish okay i didn't know see now you. I didn't know about the shellfish. I still don't know. Shellfish. Okay, I didn't know. See, now you know too. I didn't know either. I've never been to a Jewish wedding. Yes, well, I was at this, Howard's wedding was a Jewish wedding

and I still feel like an idiot to this day. Oh, don't feel bad. I bet you nine out of ten people would not have known that. We know the bacon. Yes. We know any pig. You know that.

And I think a lot of stuff has to be blessed by a rabbi. That's true too. I even know that. That need pig. You know that. Yeah. And I think a lot of stuff has to be blessed by a rabbi. That's true too. I even know that. That's right. Because I worked at a grocery store for five years and I remember.

Oh, the kosher section. There's like a kosher section and it's like rabbis are involved. So anyway, we're able to patch it up at that point and we've been just amazing friends

ever since. I love my time with Mr. Glassman. I'd like to go see like an alternate universe. Like what would have happened if you had, in that meeting you don't remember, if you had said, okay.

Yeah. And then, I don't know what the, Humble and Lumbee is the 102.1 morning show. Yeah. What happens. With maybe Fred doing sports and like. Right. Because he was, yeah.

Him and Stafford was there. He was still, well, he was there at the time. Right, right, right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. He's been there since the 70s. See, it's just as well. Because everything worked out so well with those guys.

And they are iconic in terms of Toronto radio and still pump out a beautiful podcast today. So, yeah, who knows? Although their podcast sounds terrible because they didn't take your advice. Actually, I got to be careful because, you know, Humble's going to listen to this and I'm going to get a phone call.

What did you mean our podcast sounds terrible? No, really, Howard. If you want to use, Humble's going to listen to this and I'm going to get a phone call. What did you mean? No, really, Howard. If you want to use a microphone that's typically used for a kick drum, go ahead. Please knock your socks off. That's funny. Hey, you mentioned the Y95 reunion. So did you work with Mike Richards? Yes.

Yes. Another just awesome friend of mine. He had Victor Newman on his show the other day. just awesome friend of mine. He had, uh, he had Victor Newman on his show the other day. And of course, if you know anything about Mike Richards, you know, that there is not a person on the planet who does a better Victor Newman. And, uh, they had dueling victors with Eric Braden on, but, uh, yes, Mike and I did our show at Y95, uh, just, uh, just one of the best people on the planet. And, uh, just, I, I've never worked with anyone with those kind of talents. He is just staggeringly good. I remember him when he was at the Fan 590.

I remember Mike Richards. With Derringer? Yeah. I know he did a lot. He still does the Bob Cole thing. Oh, baby. He did a good Bob Cole. Oh, not like his.

His is the best. He did a good Don Cherry, right? Yeah. Yes. I think I'd go against him with my Don Cherry. Can I hear a bit of Don Cherry? Oh, come on now, Mike. Geez.

Listen here. Now, I'll tell you something right now, Mike. The Leafs, sir, you got this thing here hanging. You got all the cups on this flag.

It's about four inches by six inches. Listen, they're in big trouble right now. I'll tell you something right now. You need some Darcy Tuckers in there. All right? You need some, you know,

Dion Phaneufs. Come on. Gotta get him out. He's got a Halloween costume, a pile on, after this guy. Okay? So listen, I'll tell you something right now. Not a good situation. I think the Habs are going to win the next cup. It's that simple it's

very good very good oh no well done well done uh yeah so on mike richards uh just that um he came back to toronto to he's doing mornings on tsn uh 10 50 which is the direct competitor of the fan 590 and all that is a wonderful segue because i gotta ask you so you mentioned it was a summer fill-in you did at oh yeah yeah in 590 wait hold on am i missing anything so uh oh yeah well you did the kiss kiss fm uh we had mocha mocha on this show you mocha from the uh yeah yeah yeah oh well i i worked in the same building with mocha in in uh when i was at dave fm in in kitchener and he's a great guy. Yes, he is. But he still has a bunch of Kiss FM mugs.

Oh, does he? I guess he had access to a bunch of mugs. Well, Mike and I worked at Kiss. That was Mike Richards and I. I didn't know that. Yes, that's right. We went from Y95 to Kiss. How many stations do you think you've worked at?

If you had to guess, pick a number. A dozen. You know. I'd go higher. It makes me sad. It makes me sad. But you would still take another right is it just if the if the if they'll pay you a reasonable amount you would take another radio gig yeah i'd have to i'd have to really think about it i really would but because

i'm i'm i'm really digging my life right now so i right and those uh morning shows like you got to wake up yeah crazy hours it does catch up to you Three o'clock in the morning comes really at a nasty time. Okay, so you're at Kiss FM, and I mentioned Mocha just because I recently had him in here, and he worked there too, and then you were at Dave FM. Okay, so the Fan 590. So you knew the deal going in, obviously. Yes, yes. So they were very clear that you're doing this, I don't know, until Labor Day or something.

Yeah, that's right. I don't have a commute anymore, but back then i had a commute and i listened to a lot of fan 590 mornings i heard a lot of you had very very difficult format and and okay so i'm a sports fan but i mean i gotta tell you something the people who are hardcore sports radio fans are like trekkies you know you'll say al Pujols with a, you know, right now 432 OBS. It's actually 435. It's 435. Could somebody correct

me? It's 435 OBS. It's like a Simpsons episode. Hey, tone her down, guys. It's just sports. But yeah, you have to really know your stuff. And the guys who do well on sports radio, Mike being my favorite, obviously, right now, they know this stuff. But, you know, see, I'm a big fan of the Colin Cowherds of the world.

And I don't know if you ever heard of Colin Cowherd. He was recently with ESPN. Now he's with Fox Sports. But here's a guy who knows everything you could possibly need to know about sports, but he doesn't get into the minutiae. He doesn't get into the stats. He tells stories. He talks about more of sports as a lifestyle and all the connections to sports. That's the kind of stuff I want to hear. I don't want to hear game breakdowns on sports radio. I don't want to hear Luigi from Woodbridge commenting on the third period of the Leaf game, I'd rather hang

myself. It's just, that's not what, to me, sports radio should be. Well, they seem to be going in your direction then, because Dean Blundell does mornings on 590 Now, and I don't think he's particularly deep with his sports knowledge. Well, it's like Imus. You know, Imus worked the fan in New York. He didn't do any sports radio. That's right. But Mike, I think Mike has that combination figured out because Mike knows sports. He covers sports, talks sports, has sports interviews.

But then there's an entertainment side to what he's doing on TSN that I just think is where it needs to be. So it's TSN and just wondering, because I, the books come out and you see the numbers and the TSN numbers are not impressive when you compare them to the 590 numbers. Well, okay. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

Wait a minute. Okay. Two reasons. Mike was, was off with, he was ill all, all summer. I don't know if you know.

Battling cancer. Yeah. I heard him talk about that. Yeah. He's, he's, he's all cancer free now and doing very well. But he was off since, I don't know what, early part.

Well, his operation was in June. Okay. So he's off all summer, and then the Jays kick in. So come on. Please. The numbers are very favorable. Not to take anything away from Blondell, but I'm just saying that when you've got the Jays kicking in like that

and the morning guy off over on the other side, it's pretty easy to see why the numbers are where they are. But going into, you may want to take a look at the numbers back in the spring and the winter. And I think you'll see that Mike was doing much better at that point, obviously. Back to you being the fill-in there for that summer, the summer of love, we'll call it there. I got to say, so the guy who took over for you who was the summer of love, we'll call it there. I got to say, so you were, the guy who took over for you, who is the permanent guy, was Andrew Crystal. Is that right?

I think you were better than Crystal. I'll go on the record. Oh, well, that's very kind of you. I didn't think Crystal was very good in that format. Yeah, I didn't listen to him. And if he's a buddy, I never know who's friends with who. No, I don't really know Andrew that well, other than just kind of cleaning out the control room for him every day when I was there, because he was doing middays for the first bit.

He followed me. Yeah, I don't know. He's maybe more of a news talk guy, would you think? I don't know. I don't know what he is, because I've met him in person and had conversations with him. And for a while, I was going to have him here, and I actually changed my mind. He's a bit aloof. Yeah. I don't know what format's right for him I'm not suggesting he's not talented or that there's not something there but I don't know yeah it's just

not something you gravitated to yeah I didn't think it was very good I will tell you though that that is I have so much respect for whoever does sports radio. Cause I, that was the, even though I was just filling in, you know, you still want to do a good job. And I put a lot of pressure on myself. That was the toughest radio I've ever done. Is that right? Oh,

by a mile. By a mile. But part of the problem is you were solo most of the time. Like I feel like that you need a guy like I take, for example, Greg Brady, for example. So like Brady and Walker and the foil in the back,

much easier I would think. It really is. It's like doing this thing by myself. It's like, it's much in the back, much easier, I would think. It really is. It's like doing this thing by myself. It's like it's much easier when there's somebody you can converse with. Absolutely, yeah. But it was good. You know, I signed up for it,

and I'm not complaining. Sure. It was a good summer gig. What the heck? Give it a go. And Don Collins was the PD there, and I really like him. He's now in San Francisco.

But yeah, so no, that's just something. You know what, though? Just a little side note. On the very last week I was there, I got to do an interview in studio. It was me, Dave Stieb, Pat Henkin, and Dwayne Ward. I mean, come on. All my heroes, yeah. And we had clips of their great moments, winning the Cy, winning this.

And they were just wonderful to have in there. Is Dave Steeb much more media friendly now as he finishes training courses there? Because I remember him as a little bit cranky. I heard that about Carter, too. Is that right? I heard that about Carter. But you know what? He was just, yeah, they had all three of them had a great day.

I was quite surprised, yeah. I loved, like as a fan, I loved it when Dave Steeb had his second go-around with the Jays. Because remember, he has his big career. He was there for the 92 World Series. Then he goes off and he pitched somewhere. He might have retired for a few years. And then he has his reliever comeback with the Jays. You remember this?

Yeah. That was fantastic. Yeah. Because he was our first, I would say, our first ace. Yeah, oh oh for sure well does he have two perfect games or one one okay

well it's not a perfect game he has one no hitter one no hitter against Cleveland and that's our yeah there must have been a walk I don't think it was a perfect game but to date

it's the only no hitter Blue Jays ever pitched the only one just one we had a few close we had two what's his name twice took a no hitter

into the ninth last season. Estrada, twice. I think back-to-back maybe those starts were. But anyway, Steve was famous for that, back-to-back one-hitters. Because remember, he had the back-to-back. Didn't he have the back-to-back? Yeah. He might have gone.

Jimmy Key had a one-hitter, didn't he? Probably. Yeah. But anyway, that was really a fun thing to do, just to have that as sort of the signature bit on the fan. But that was fun. I enjoyed that. Do you ever listen to Blundell now on that show?

I've never listened. No. No. I don't even think I can get the fan where I live. It's AM, right? I'm way out in Guelph. Yeah, that's right. That's right.

And I'm sorry to hear you're not there at the Cool FM because you mentioned the contract expired. Yeah. And I really miss, I was working with Angie Hill, who is just one of the most, honestly, one of the most brilliant radio people I've ever worked with. Just the fastest, quickest, most fun professional. She's just lights out. And I miss, I do miss working with her. So that's the, that's the thing about the business is you work with so many great people over the years and and that's what you miss the most because and it's it's almost like red green the funniest stuff or or so much funny stuff was in between right same with radio right you got guys like howard and mike richards and angie hill and i feel pretty blessed and that cool if a k reminds me of cigarettes. Just pointing that out there. I don't hear that station. I'm sure it's great, but it's out of range.

Is it true you hope Donald Trump wins the presidency? Is that true? No, not at all. I made that up, actually. I got to confess. No, not at all. No. And do you have any thoughts on the liberal majority?

This is still fresh, I think. Yeah, I mean, that's a mandate. That's what you call a mandate right there. So whether it's an anti-Harper movement or whether it's just some, you know, the people voting for something new and you got it. When it's a mandate like that, you just got to roll with it, right? Right, right. Yeah. One final note before we say goodbye is that you told a story once

on the Humble and Fred podcast. I'm not going to play it. I thought about it, but then I thought, no, I can't go play your story you did in another podcast. Why can't you? I don't want to tell it again.

No, you don't have to tell it again. What I'll probably do is I'll link to, I'll figure out what episode that was. Yes. I'm going to figure out which episode it was. But basically, I title this story Vagina Juice is the title of the story yeah and i gotta tell you it is one of the sincere sincerely funniest stories like i love a good story you love a good story the way you told that story and the the voices you did in that story made me laugh out i'm not

a laugh out loud guy i laughed out loud at the vagina juice story. So there you go. Great story. I got to dig up that link and then people hear it. Okay, promise that you'll put the link on there because if the link is there and if you listen to the story, here's the thing to know. I'm not embellishing one bit. It's one of those stories that you couldn't possibly write. Like you just, you couldn't make it up.

You could not make the story up. So that's what, and some aren't the best stories, true stories. Yeah, no, absolutely. You know, so. And it's helpful when they're true stories, because then every time you tell it, it's the same. Same, yeah. Have you considered the Vagina Juice t-shirts?

Has anybody approached you about? Well, that's their thing, right? Like if, I'm happy to help Humble and Fred out, because it was, it's their thing. It was on their show. And then the song came up. Is that the first time you told that story. It was on their show and then the song came up. Is that the first time you told that story?

It was on their show? Okay. Yeah, yeah. I wasn't sure. I just got back. I think you told that story a second time at the horseshoe, didn't you?

Yes, I did. Because I was there that night. Yeah, I told it there. Oh, is that the first time you'd heard it? No, no, no. Yeah, no, no. No, the first time I heard it.

The first time was in the room when you told it. I just got back from that holiday with my wife. I just got back. This is quite the tease, so I'm going to have to dig up this link and get it in today. quite the tease, so I'm going to have to dig up this link

and get it into the... Now you have to. I'm going to do that. And speaking of lowest of the low, if The Edge could do it in the early 90s, I could do it now. I'm going to play us out with some lowest of the low.

Okay. Did you have a good time? I did, man. Thank you so much for having me in. Anytime you want me back, I'm here. Although that is quite the drive for you. We'll figure it out. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And that brings us to the end of our 140th show. You can follow me on Twitter at Toronto Mike, and Jeff Lumby is at Jeff Lumby, but you never tweet, right? I'm not a big tweeter guy. You should give it a go. You know what?

It really helped me watch sports, like live sports. What's the best for sports? Yes. Twitter's the best for sports. And now I find that the Jays had their big run. Something about sharing the two-way street with the masses via Twitter just made the sporting experience that much richer. That's true, too.

No, I get that. My website is voicepretzel.com. Voicepretzel.com. Yeah, that's where you can reach me. See you all next week. I want to take a streetcar downtown Read Andrew Miller and wander around And drink some Guinness from a tin

Cause my UI check has just come in Ah, where you been? Because everything is coming up Rosie and Gray