Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Jeff Silverman: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1583

Episode Date: November 19, 2024

In this 1583rd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Yuk-Yuk's president Jeff Silverman about his years working for Gary Topp, creating The All-Night Show with Chuck the Security Guard, and his relationship with Mark Breslin leading to a lengthy run as President of Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Clubs. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, The Yes We Are Open podcast from Moneris and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1583 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. The Advantage Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada.

Learn how to plan, invest, and live smarter. Season 7 of Yes We Are Open. An award-winning podcast from Minaris hosted by FOTM Al Gregor, RecycleMyElectronics.ca, committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past, and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, making his Toronto mic debut is Jeff Silverman. Welcome Jeff. Oh, stop the applause.

I have a button for that. That's a, that's more of a morning zoo type thing here. This is a authentic real talk, but it's a pleasure to meet you, Jeff. And a pleasure to be here really. Thanks. It's a fun convergence of events that I was chatting with a gentleman named Derek Emerson. And he invited me to moderate a panel in, uh, I

got to get the name of this room, right. But it's a, uh, like a Mason's, uh, room at the Masonic temple at 888 Yonge street. And he's like, okay, Gary Top has a book coming out. And he's like, here's the panelists. And I get the list, right? Colin Brunton's on there. I've had him on Toronto Mic now.

Ivor Hamilton's on there. Of course, the other Gary, Gary Cormier's on there. He's been over. And then I see the name Jeff Silverman. And my first thought is, I need to get this gentleman on Toronto Mic before that panel discussion. It's like, we're going to record our

pre-interview here. So that's why you're here. Great. Happy to be here. Really. So maybe we'll start with Gary, since, uh, you know, this is doubling as a, you know, uh, research for when I moderate this panel, but

please, can you tell us how you came to partner with Gary Topp at the Roxy? I had been working with my brother in New York. I actually originally lived in London, England for four years when I graduated from the School of Visual Arts. And then I went from London to New York and worked with my brother for a while, selling advertising, which was a horrible, horrible job. Like in New York?

Yeah, in New York. What we would do is, I won't go into the whole thing, but basically they put- You can do that, I got time. Well, they put me at a card table and they put a whole bunch of magazines in front of me and I had to go through the magazines and find ads. And then we would have a pitch where I would call restaurants because one of my partners named Sheldon

Landware was a well-known restaurant reviewer in New York. If Sheldon said something good, there'd be a lineup around the block. And if he said something bad, then the place would close. Right, he was an influencer. Right, but well, before they were in the world of restaurants. Right. So I was pretty good at sales and we had this pitch where, you know, Mr.

Jones, I don't really sell advertising. I'm really the artistic director, but we had a problem. One of our ads dropped out and we're about to go to press. Now I know Sheldon is going to be doing a story on your restaurant. So I thought, gee, wouldn't this be great if I can take your ad, which I see in this news, in this magazine and put it in our magazine. And I'll tell you what, Mr. Jones, if you do it, if you can help me, I will let you do it on an ill, on an ill forbidden basis,

which means you can take it at this time at this discount for as long as you want, keep it as long as you want at half price and you can take it at this, at this discount for as long as you want, keep it as long as you want at half price and you can quit whenever you want. And the guy. You are good at sales cause I'm about to open my wallet for you. I could tell you stories where I've actually

been chased out of restaurants with a guy with a hammer. But, but, but anyway, that's the other end of the story. So this story begins with me being able to do this and then of course the trick was I would sell you the June edition. Uh, and we were in April. So when you called up and said, gee, thanks, but I don't want it anymore. We'd say, no problem. It's out.

But remember you're in the next two issues because you started three issues behind. So they were already out and being published. Anyway, that was the thing I hated doing it. And then of course I would have to go out and collect if they didn't pay. And I can tell you a story which you won't believe where I actually sold this guy on a whole page and I had to come down the next day to get the artwork and the place was not there.

It was a hole in the ground with boarding all over. And I walked up and down the block three or four times. It was gone. Anyway, I had enough of that and I decided I would move to Toronto because I had a girlfriend that I met and lived with in London for four years and her parents lived in Toronto. So I came up and, um, you know, we got

together. I lived at her parents' house for a while and I was new to Toronto and this is 1976 when you arrived here, I'm bad at that It could be 78 my crack research staff has done some digging they think it's 1976 So just so I understand so before you go off to New York and then I'm sorry a London New York But you're an American. So are you like where's home? Where are you from Brooklyn? Well, I can hear the accent I was born in Brooklyn, New York Which I always say is status without responsibility Because I can always say it and people are impressed

But I really grew up mostly in Long Island and then went to the School of Visual Arts for art training and you know My university years and when I got out they had a special deal in those days, which was $99 round trip to London. They actually had another Pan Am had a thing, which was amazing, which was $199 around the world, but you can only go in one direction. Okay. Right. Okay.

I picked the student thing, which was $99 and I went off to London. Okay. And I remember looking out the window of the airplane thinking I'm, I'm on my way to Bizarro land, because everything's going to be the same but different. And I went there and I built a life there really. I got a job. And you met a girl.

I met a girl there and she was going to RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. And anyway, we were together for all those years and I had an uncle who was one of the founding people in Bali manufacturing, pool tables, pinball machines. Of course. Yeah.

And now, and he flew to London and he said, your mother wants you back. So why don't you come back and I'll let you run my company, my advertising agency in the states. Well, I couldn't say no to that. So I handed in my notice, and literally the next day, there were two first class tickets, one back to Toronto for my girlfriend,

and one for me to go to New York. I went to New York, my brother and I drove out to his estate. We had dinner, and he turned to me and he said, hey, I thought you were gonna cut your beard and your hair. I said, no, you'd never said anything bad. He said, well, you can't get along with my friends that way. You'll have to go and cut your hair. And I said, forget that. My brother and I left and I hadn't spoken to my uncle then for a number of years until he was on his

deathbed. Anyway, so there I was in New York and that's how I started working with my brother. Okay. And that eventually led me to Toronto and that is where I met Gary Topp. And I was like, oh, that's how I started working with my brother. And that eventually led me to Toronto. And that is where I met Gary Top.

Okay. No, that's some great background. So it might be 1976 depends how good my crack researchers are, but at some point in the mid seventies, you find yourself in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. And yeah. So tell me how do you meet up with Gary Topp? I gotta be specific because there's Garry's there's multiple Garry's at play here but Gary Topp. Well there was no Gary Cormier and there was no Gary Moose at the time it was you know for years it was just Gary and I I'm trying to think I think I went to a

movie and that's where I met Gary and Gary was in the midst of a problem with his two partners they had started a company called Topsoil Film, and they were buying the rights in Canada to films like Hendrix at Berkeley and films like that. And one of the partners was an accountant, and one of the partners, I don't really know what he did, but there was a fight because money was owed. I don't know whether it was tax.

It was money owed and they didn't have it. And, uh, they didn't like what Gary was doing and there, there I was. I'm a pretty big guy. Gary's a small guy. So Gary said, well, look, will you come down and stand with me as we confront these two guys? And I did. And they left.

They literally, when he said, I'm going to fight the, I'm taking over this place. They left and we've never, I've never heard from him again. Gary, which was, this was the thing that first made me really respect him. He went to the bank and he paid whatever was owed on the company by himself. Well, I was a poor guy trying to make a living in Toronto and I was impressed by that. And we sort of became, well we weren't partners, we hung around together. But I guess after you hang around for a year or two, you become partners.

And all of a sudden we started a company which called Deluxe Amusements and worked together at the Roxy theater. Of course, all I did was make sure the bills were paid and, uh, I came up with ideas for promotions, but the guy with the knowledge was Gary Topp. And at the time I met Gary, he, you know, he doesn't remember this or maybe I have it

wrong, but he was, um, an editor in an underground newspaper here in Toronto. And that impressed the hell out of me. And he seemed to really care about what he was an editor in an underground newspaper here in Toronto. And that impressed the hell out of me. And he seemed to really care about what he was doing. He knew music backwards and forwards, and he was a wonderful person to join up with. Uh, he had all the skills I did not. And I didn't mind being behind him, making sure

that the bills were paid and the promotions happened and whatever else. So that's how Gary and I got together. Eventually, Gary, we hired or became partners with Gary Cormier. Gary Cormier, you know, Mr. Music, he would set up the band, set up the music, set up the lights. And it was a really great joining of those two because they both loved music. It's not that I didn't love music, I just didn't care enough about any particular

genre of music or person and Gary did. So we palled around for quite a while. In fact at one time we had a radio show on Ryerson radio called the edge of morning. And we did all the things I always wished to do. We called people in the middle of the night. We would read through papers and find some guy in Arkansas, soft flying saucer. We'd call them. And that's the kind of stuff we did for, for over a

year, I made a deal with, with a shopsies. So we'd have a big platter of food to eat during the night and we would be there in a, in the studio. So that was one of the adventures. And of course the Roxy, which was an adventure by itself because we would do just crazy stuff. We had Bista Ramis, we had a sex-a-thon where we had the police come down. And the other police, the real, yeah, the Toronto police.

And they said, we're closing you down. You can't show these sex movies. And we said, what are you crazy? We took them up to the projection booth and showed them that all, everything we were showing was approved by the Toronto sensor board. They were just, you know, they were Russ Meyer movies like trader, horny, or come one, come all. Right. And, uh And so that was one

adventure. There was one time when we got the rights to show the E.D. Amin film and we were contacted by the RCMP who said they found out about you showing the film in Toronto and if you show the film they're going to take somebody and kill them so you can't show it. There was a scene in the movie, a firing squad scene. They literally pulled up to the front of the theater, there were lineups, went up to the projection booth and cut out the firing squad scene

and we were able to show it. These are the adventures we had at the Roxy. You know, at the Roxy, if it was cold outside, there was a lineup around the block, we had at the Roxy. You know, at the Roxy, if it was cold outside, there was a line up around the block, we would bring them hot coffee. It was quite an experience. When the government came in and said, you have to apportion a party or theater for smoking,

we put them at the front, so everybody in the back would have to watch the smoke rise. We just had a blast. Well, I was just thinking, if you're doing a sexathon or whatever, Shopsies Sausages is a pretty damn good sponsor for that particular event there. But the Roxy, okay, so please, and again, for the listenership, there is a deep dive with Gary Topp in the Toronto Mic'd archives.

You can go back and listen to Gary Topp. There's also a Gary Cormier, and I just talked to Colin Brunton was over here. And that's a pretty cool episode that ties into all this too. But please tell me, like, how does the New Yorker come about? Gary and I wanted to do music. We want to do live music. And the New Yorker theater was available. There was a guy who owned the theater called Bennett Fode.

And they were showing sex movies, again, soft core, like Flesh Gordon. So Gary knew him, so we went and we met with him. And he was not, you know, he was kind of a greasy guy. But anyway. You'd have to be in that business, I think. Right, so he rented us the theater and we would put on, you know, the thing about Gary was he was so ahead of his time.

And this is what, you know, made me just want to be with him and do stuff with him. He would look in the Village Voice, the New York Village Voice and find up and coming bands and bring them to Toronto, which was genius to me because they all had a following and he knew all about them. We had some amazing people there, I mean, as you know. And I would, I really didn't know their music most of the time, you know,

but the place would be sold out, you know? So anyways, so we built a stage in the New Yorker theater. The stage that's there now was built by us and we were then able to put on music. So, you know, we, we would put on shows and again, always an adventure. Now the name of this book, by the way, I feel, and I felt this way with Colin Brunton as well, because he's another guest that came on after I saw

who was on the panel and I got to talk to these guys. It's almost, I just have to tell the people, no shout out to Ridley Funeral Home required. Gary Topp is alive and well, he's doing great. He'll be at the book launch on December 1st. He hijacked my brain. It feels like we're memorializing a guy who passed away. Like sometimes I feel like let's remember Gary Top and what he meant to us and

what he did for this city. And it's like, Oh no, Gary's still alive and well. So it's pretty vital. I mean, the thing is he's the, you see, I like to follow people who know what they're doing. You know, and I've done that even after Gary. But Gary is the real thing. I mean, you know, he loves and he knows what he's doing and he's always had problems. The thing that's amazing about Gary is he's always had to fight the, the, the administration, if you want to call it that. When we showed movies, he would have to fight different companies.

United Artists wouldn't let you put a movie next to a Paramount movie. Our Paramount movie, you couldn't. And he would go and say, these two movies don't mix, I want these. And since we had a 99 cent theater, some people, and God bless them, they would take pity on us or whatever,

because they never made money. You don't make a lot of money on 99 cents. So you'd either get a flat amount for a movie, $50 or whatever, or you'd have to pay a certain amount per ticket. And, um, you know, Gary knew what movies to pick, always put them together and that's how the Roxy came to be. It was quite special. Tastemaker, if you will.

So the name of the book, just cause I can hear Derek Emerson in my head saying that you didn't name the book. He hijacked my brain. This is the new book from, uh, Gary Topp. And we'll, like I said, the book launches on December 1st. I'm pretty sure it's sold out, but I'll be there and Jeff, you'll be there. And I'll be asking you these same questions over again, but can you name

check, and I know you're not the music guy, but can you name check any of these like cutting edge bands that would have played the New Yorker? We had the Police, we had the Ramones, we had, I mean, John Cale, we had the Burrito Brothers, we had every type of music, we had Cecil Taylor. I have a scrapbook at home, and in my scrapbook is a pipe stem and the pipe stem is because we had Cecil Taylor at the New Yorker Theatre and he just, I don't know if you've ever heard

his jazz, but it's just plunking on a piano, playing, and a guy in the audience stood up and said, that's not music, that's flagellation. And we had to drag him out. And as we dragged him out, he broke his pipe. So I kept a piece of his pipes. You know what? I'm thinking Jim Shedden should put that in the Art Gallery of Ontario. He's funny, I was at the Art Gallery once at an exhibit that Jim Shedden curated.

And I saw, he had on display, like behind glass casing, Gary Topps, not a Rolodex, but like an address book. Like this was an exhibit at the Art Gallery with Gary Topps. Really? Yeah, an address book, yeah this was an exhibit at the art gallery with Gary Tobs. Yeah. An address book. Yeah. And you can see his handwritten, like he'd have a name in there. Like, I don't know, he'd have a Sting and then Sting's phone number in there or whatever.

And I thought that was pretty cool to see at the art gallery of Ontario. So shout out to Jim and Jim. I didn't know that. That was cool. And I hope, Jim, I hope you're at this book launch on December 1st, because it's right up your alley here. Okay. So I want to, let's Okay, so let's get to the horse. So how does the horseshoe tavern come to be?

Because you follow Gary to the horseshoe tavern from the New Yorker. Well, I like to think we went together, but. Right. Do you feel like the Garys has kind of like, because people, and I wasn't around, so I'm just learning by talking to interesting people like you, but now we talk about the Gary's, but what, I

don't hear the Gary's and Jeff, you know what I mean? No, no, the Gary's came after me. I kind of, what happened was we wanted, Gary wanted to do music and, and you know, that was great for me. I loved learning about it and being part of it. And, uh, we couldn't do what we wanted to do at the horse at the New Yorker theater. And so we had this opportunity to take over the horseshoe tavern.

And the story of that goes this way, Mark, Gary and I walked in one day and there was a lot of drinking and you know, cowboy music. And I said to Gary, what are we gonna do to get these people out of here? And he winked at me and he took a cassette out of his pocket and he put it on the sound system and I swear within 20 minutes there was nobody in the place. It was no longer a honky tonk.

There was nobody in the place. And from that point on we started bringing acts in. Any memory of what he played? Was it like the Ramones or something? What would he have played there on the music? Like to get rid of the old country music. It's funny you say that because I just found some tapes that he made many years ago. I just happened to have saved them. And I, I mean,

I don't know enough about music to describe him, but people loved it. And you know, the thing about Gary, I think he wants, his wife once said to me something like, what did you learn from him? And I said, well, one of the things I learned is you never cut off a song in the middle. He'll always wait for it to end. Right. Don't truncate these jams.

Yeah. Because he, we'd be sitting in a theater, somebody else's theater and they'd cut the music off in the middle and you know, see Gary twitch. Cause Gary cares. Like they think this is the big thing about Gary Top is that he cares got the music off in the middle and you know, see Gary Twitch. Because Gary cares. Like they think this is the big thing about Gary Top is that he cares about the music. He wasn't going to book an act unless he believed in that act. He's not going to book an act because it'll fill seats.

That's right. He battled for everything he's gotten and I'm not sure he's done. No, I don't think he's done at all. Patti Smith, I'm going to shut out a few other names. I saw it by the way, the police, that was actually Horseshoe Tavern, right? Not the New Yorker Tavern. Were you, and I know you weren't really the big music guy, but were you at this a inf, I want to call infamous, but this famous police show, which I understand

and Colin Brunton confirmed this just last week, 15 people may be in attendance to see the police at the horseshoe Tavern. I paying customers because he mentioned there were a lot of people there who were like, you work there were freebies or whatever. Mike, I honest to God, don't remember. Don't remember. The place was full or empty. It was, I was the big guy. When it got to the horseshoe Tavern, I was the guy at the door and that sucked. I mean, it was my job and I did it, but you know, one time we had some hockey players come in

and kick the floor, kick my feet out from under me. Oh my God. Yeah, I mean, you know. Who was that? When you stand at the front door, you better be ready for whoever comes in. Was that Tiger Williams? Who the heck is doing that to you? I don't know who it was.

But I'll tell you another story about the Horseshoe Tavern. I've been with my wife now for 47 years. And how I met her was, her and her friend tried to sneak into the Horseshoe Tavern and she made it. Her friend didn't, I grabbed her friend and she came over to help her friend. And we have been together for 47 years since that night.

Congrats man. Yeah, it's quite amazing. Love that story. And for everything I've ever done, she's been part of it since then. And with Gary, I'd say the same thing about Heather, his wife. I mean, he met her when we were at the New Yorker Theater,

and I guess it was a marriage made in heaven. Beautiful, beautiful. I won't bug you with this one, except that it's top of mind, because I literally have the DVD in front of me But this is the last pogo document that Brunton made. Yes. Were you there that night? No, I'm a cop shut that down No, let me tell you what I know about Colin Brunton. Okay, go ahead Colin worked at the Roxy Theatre and

You know, he was quite good at what he, whether it was being an usher or helping one thing or the other. But he had this love of film and love of music. And I think he was one of the people who was entered, there's a famous director, his name escapes me, you might know it. Bruce McDonald. No, no, he started a school for people who do who do film and Colin was Lee something

Lee okay I can't remember you know if we said the name we both know it because it's quite a well-known name Norman Jewison yes that's it you said the name yeah cuz I did the research it just came back to me yeah go and and from then on he went on to be his own man and I, I mean, you got to respect him. He's, he's become a real producer. Schitt's Creek was a big hit. Yeah. I, you know, if he was right here, I would hug him and say, I really didn't like Schitt's Creek for Schitt's Creek, but it was, you know what?

It was well, see, I have produced stuff. So I know that what it looks like and what it comes out like is really what you pin your hat on. All the rest of it is just, you know. Well, you just said if he was right here, well, he'll be right there on December 1st because he's probably gonna be seen next year. We've spoken on the phone.

I haven't seen him in years and years. Wow. But it'll be nice to see him. So I am gonna play a little clip of something that you created and produced that I'd like to talk to you about. In fact, uh, enjoyed no, it's, it's just a bit. I could play a lot, but I'm going to play a little bit and then fade it down. Okay. Twilight zone. Oh, good. Twilight wasn't it? It was interesting posing the philosophical problems about being

replaced by automation and so forth. Uh, actually at the end there, that robot was Robbie the robot, very, very famous robot was in Forbidden Planet, 1956, very, very famous science fiction film. And Ryerson was just telling me that Robbie was actually destroyed. By the MGM prop department. They destroyed him and a fan rebuilt him from the original plans.

So he's made TV appearances and everything. He was Robbie the big robot. Also, I don't know if you noticed in there, you probably did, but the security guard was a real dummy. First of all, Mr. Whipple says, well, we better get rid of that guy who punches the clocks, you know, and he'd be the first one to go, of course, you think, because security guards, of course, you know, a lot of people think sort of the bottom rung of society. And then, of course, you know, this guy in the film, well, films, I mean, you know, blacks, a lot of trouble there getting portrayed as anything but singing, dancing, happy-go-lucky numbskulls, basically, which is what Hollywood portrayed them as and yeah I think that's certainly what Hollywood portrays security guards as which I think is really unfair I mean

you know Ryerson's father was in the creme de la creme of the security guard corps absolutely you know what I'm talking about he was in the I don't even want to turn it down it's like this was podcasting before podcasting but please tell us Jeff your role this is the all night show and that's Chuck the security guard bury me in some info on how this came to be and remind youngsters what the heck this was this was an idea that when a TV station shut down because all TV stations shut down around midnight maybe one o'clock right there'd be nothing but, you know, static. You couldn't watch anything. And for a long time I wanted to do an all night television show.

And in fact ended up doing Canada's first all night television show. I'm right now trying to find out where all my stuff is because I donated it to the museum of broadcasting and they don't exist anymore. So I'm gonna start looking around for where it is, but the story and it really is- But on that note, you might need a conversation just because he might have a clue, but I'm dear friends with Ed Conroy,

who's also known as Retro Ontario. And he's actively looking to preserve such artifacts from this country's- Oh, if you can give me his number. Yeah, uh, artifacts from this country's, uh, yeah, I will, I will introduce you guys via email only because that clip I just played was because somebody recorded it to VHS and, uh, and Ed ripped it to his YouTube channel. And that's how I got that clip I just played, but please continue. Well, let me tell you, I I'm I was shocked that I went on

YouTube just a couple of days ago and said the all-night show and it's there I didn't put it there. Ed Conroy put it there, Retro Ontario he's an FOTM Hall of Famer. Well if he didn't two people Bob and Claire Lamarche did because they they were the the master control operators when we did the show, they were part of the small little crew that put that show on. Anyway, the story, and it's funny, because you know how much it has to do with Gary Topp?

His programming of the Roxy Theater was what I took and programmed on television. I was gonna ask you how we got from Gary Topp to Chuck the security guard. Well, Gary Cormier came along, and Gary Topp and Gary Cormier were very close. I mean, so was I. But all of a sudden, there were shows being put on,

and I just had to make sure the heads were in the paper. And there wasn't enough money for three people to produce music and make enough money to live. So I decided at one point, I want to do something else. I really didn't feel, this was like New York again. I was there. I was important, but I didn't really want to do it. So I went off.

I thought I was going to go to New York, but I visited Michelle, the girl I told you about, and I never went. I'm still here and she's still with me. So, uh, I decided I got to do something. So I started looking around. Uh, I went to Moses Neimer and, um, I said, I want to do an all night television show. And he said, okay, uh, I'll give you an office

and, uh, you go research and tell me what you find. And I sat there. In fact, what he did for me was he said, I'm gonna allow you to go in and watch the news being what you find. And I sat there, in fact, what he did for me was he said, I'm going to allow you to go in and watch the news being produced, the six o'clock news. And the producer of that news was Yvonne Fassan, who eventually was on the top of CTV and all that stuff, and Bell. So he let me sit there. I brought coffee. I made sure that if they needed coffee, I brought coffee. And I learned what the hell is going on

in the control room. You know, who does the cutting, who does the shooting, who's the switcher. And that was fantastic. I'll never, you know, I can never thank him enough. And so he didn't want it. I kept looking around and I finally found there's a person who's no longer alive. One of my close friends now,

um, Martin Enrot and Martin knew Gary and Gary knows Martin cause Martin was in the music business and, um, Martin knew Dan Yannuzzi who was the person who ran owned I don't know channel 47 MTV CFMT yeah which I loved calling MTV because nobody knew and shout out to Jay gold on my buddy Joel Goldberg who was a very early VJ on camera was called anything else whatever their music show was. They called it MTV. It's funny because Jay Gould that I know has been my accountant for 40 years now.

That's funny. And, and help, help, you know, yuck, yuck, stay alive at the beginning. We should get to yuck, yuck. Yeah. So anyway, make a long story even longer. Um, uh, Gary, corn me a Gary top and then Gary Muth, all into music. I moved on, I wanted to do something else. Eventually found Dan Jannuzzi through Martin Onrott

and Dan said, well, as long as you make sure the commercials run, do whatever you want. And that was it. I gathered together two other people who were trying to do an all night show, Errol Bruce and Michael Lenick. One was like a science fiction lover, but, but he was able, he knew how to do split screens and

crazy stuff like that. And Errol Bruce was a thinker. He'd always come up with ideas. 90% you couldn't do 10% were really good. And it was, it was also Errol who picked the music, which is the opening theme of the all night show. And, uh, then we picked Chaz Lother, who I saw at Yuck Yucks. And I thought, gee, you know, who would I,

if there was a security guard guarding me in the middle of the night, this is a guy I could trust. And so we hired him to be Chuck the security guard on this all night show we were going to do. Right. And we took him into Rogers had a little studio somewhere near Adelaide Street, I hardly remember. And we went into that studio and I we tried it and Chaz just didn't have just didn't have the power. have the power. So we fed him sugar water. And the guy was like, like as if we'd given him cocaine. And it was too much.

That's the secret, secret sauce right there. And eventually we decided that somewhere in the middle was great. And he got along well with Errol and Michael. And so they would go off into their little corner and decide what they want to do live. And I would plan the rest of the show, which was twilight zone, outer limits, um, car 54, where are you? All this old stuff that I loved. And then I went and found little shorts because I noticed that in the movie

business, they don't do that anymore. Used to be able to go see a cartoon or short and then the movie. Right. No more. Well, where were all these shorts? So I found them, things like the national film board, believe it or not. And, and just independent stuff. We had a film called blow job where a guy walked on, he said I've had enough of this world. I'm leaving this world.

And he walked off into the distance with a handful of dynamite. And as he gets way far in the distance, he looks at the camera and he blows up. And he blows up like that. Like that. And the police showed up. The next day, I got a call, you know,

we'd go home at 6 a.m. Yeah. Somewhere around eight o'clock, I got a call from Daniel Nuzzi. Did you kill somebody? Said, what do you mean? He said, we have the RCMP here in my office. Somebody said you murdered somebody.

Well, it turned out to be this film. And there were many more like it. There was a film called, Urinemy, where it's a Greek myth where an egg opens up and the whole world comes out of an egg. And I got called again. Did you, did you show a film where people are coming out of a woman's vagina? I said, so that's, and the all night show was amazing.

I won't, I won't go on anymore. So that was the all night show. But it was so, so innovative and interesting. It's almost, I'm actually surprised that Moses didn't want that. It seems to fit the ethos of what he was building there at 99 Queen Street before they moved to 299 Queen Street West. He told me music, movies and news. That was their secret sauce and they didn't change and they haven't changed. And you know, Moses was great, but he had his moments. You know, when the comedy network first started,

Mark Breslin and I were invited to a meeting. We were shown who's gonna take over, and we insulted them by saying, what do you know about comedy? Well, that really insulted her and insulted Moses, and so the fight began, and Moses called me one day and said, come and talk to me. So I went up to what they call the eagle's nest,

and I said, said Moses what Mark wants in this thing you don't care about and what she wants we don't care about what he said you go back and tell I'm not sucking anybody's said do you go tell your partner? And for no reason, I was escorted out of the building. I went back and told Mark, who immediately said, let's go to the newspapers. I said, no, I don't want anybody.

I'm not particularly interested in telling everybody I got kicked out. Yeah, Rob Salem would love that story. Rob Salem, I gotta talk to him because maybe he can help me. He was here, I gotta talk to him because maybe he can help me. He was here, I guess in the summer. He can help you out.

Yeah, Rob Salem's like, I'm thinking of this glory days. I think if we were describing this all night show to youngsters who kind of missed the early eighties, because we're talking 1980, 1981, I don't know if they'd believe us, like that this is a thing, you know? Chuck the security guard. And it was just a.

Canada's first all night television show. Now every station has all night television, right? It's true. Cause I mean, I got, I got a 22 year old and just, I don't think he'd understand the concept that they used to play the national anthem and then you'd either hear beep of like the colored bars or whatever. No, we would stop it like static. Like that.

Yeah. hear beep of like the colored bars or whatever. No, we would stop it like that. Yeah, stations went off the air for the night and you didn't with the all-night show and totally wild. Okay, but it didn't last too long. Was it just too, I was gonna say too much for much. Yeah, it was just under two years and but we had, you know, what happened was it was now two and three in the morning and all the performers from Toronto had nowhere to go, nothing to do. So we had some amazing people come on and, and play instruments and play with us and talk to us. It was, it was quite a moment.

You know, we had a scavenger hunt at the beginning of the show and we'd list all the stuff we thought about. One of the things we listed was a fly. Where are you going to find a fly? And we had a lineup around the block. Love it so much. Man, I'm loving these stories too. So obviously you've mentioned the name now, Mark Breslin and Yuck Yucks, and we will absolutely be getting there in a moment, although I have a couple more hits I wanted on my way there. But do you mind maybe we stop

for a moment so I can give you a few gifts since you made the trek Do you enjoy Italian food? Yeah, yes, I do I have in my freezer right now a large lasagna from Palma pasta That you can take home with you. Yeah, and you say it's not available in Toronto. No, it's in Mississauga so I mean close enough right but You know what now that somebody sent me a photo that you can get Palma pasta in chains, maybe Longos or something, but absolutely they got four locations in Mississauga and Oakville. One specific location I want to shout out is called Palma's Kitchen, and they're going to host us for an event on November 30th.

This is the day before our panel there at 888 Yonge Street. It's called TMLX 17, the 17th Toronto Mic Listener Experience. Everyone's invited and Palma Pasta will feed you. Great Lakes Brewery is sending over fresh craft beers. So you can grab yourself a can of Great Lakes beer. We love them. And of course, we'll be live recording. So you could jump on the mic and say hi

and get into the festive spirit, if you will. So that's happening November 30 Noon to 3 p.m. At Palma's kitchen in Mississauga Jeff you're invited I don't know if you're around available, but you are absolutely invited. We'd love to see you there Italian food I'll try my best. You know what? Are you a lasagna guy a penny guy you like the I'm a fettuccine guy they, I'm a fettuccine guy. They got delicious fettuccine. Fantastic. All right. A couple more quick gifts here. Uh,

there is a measuring tape from Ridley funeral home. They're pillars of this community since 1921 measure what you wish. That's what you make sure you fit the coffin. Exactly. I haven't heard that one before. Okay. You don't want your feet sticking out. Well, when you have a president of Yuck Yuck, you got to get some zingers in there. Okay.

I also have a wireless speaker for you that Monaris sent over and yeah, you can listen to some great music on that, but specifically, my friend, Jeff, you are going to listen to season seven of Yes, We Are Open. These episodes are dropping now. This is an award winning podcast from Minaris that Al Grego hosts. Al Grego will be at TMLX 17 on November 30th at Palma's Kitchen.

He's going to help me with the audio. That's your alarm to say I got to get to Toronto Mike, but we're already rocking and rolling here. It's okay because I will tell everybody that the most recent episode of Yes We Are Open has Al Grego talking with Neil McGalsky, and they talk about the home gaming industry and the 60 plus year history of AVO Game Room. And again, these are inspiring stories of small businesses, and Al does a great job. So everybody should subscribe, including you, Jeff, and you have the speaker to listen to

it on. Fantastic. Last tip before we get you back. In fact, I'm going to get you to the CBC here on our way to yuck yucks, but I would urge all listeners, including you, Jeff, that if you have some old electronics, old cables, don't throw that in the garbage. Go to recycle my electronics dot CA, put in your post postal code, and then you'll find out a place near you. You can drop it off to be Properly recycled so those chemicals do not end up in our landfill. They're doing great work recycle my electronics CA

Fantastic What can you tell me about concerts in the park you you produce this for CBC? Yes It was after the all-night show. I needed to do something. I needed to make money. And, uh, I went around again. It's funny. You remind me, cause you're reminding me that Martin on rot somehow got me a meeting and I got a job doing concerts, uh, concerts in parks all across

Toronto for the entire summer. Wow. And, um, you know, we had big bands, we had singers, we had the McGarry concerts in parks all across Toronto for the entire summer. And, um, you know, we had big bands, we had singers, we had the McGarrigle sisters, uh, we had, um. Now I'm thinking of the log divers waltz, right? Isn't that the Kate McGarrigle and, uh, aren't they the McGarrigle, aren't they the singers of the, the log, the, uh, the national film board of

Canada's log divers waltz, you know, we go twirling down and down like water. Never heard them sing in English, but maybe. Okay. Okay. I could have my, I could be wrong. Okay. You could be right. So you just say later I'll be fact checked on the live stream. Go ahead. But just, just to tell you, I mean, I didn't pick the acts Martin on not picked the acts because what would I know? What would I know?

And some of them were eclectic and some of them weren't. And you know what? It taught me a lesson because it didn't matter. As long as they had a name, you could somehow find a way to make money with them. Now, that's not Gary Topps way. He has to love them and care about them. So one of the things I did after I did concerts in the park,

which were about 11 concerts, we had Manteca it, uh, I don't even remember. We had rough trade. Yeah, we had a rough trade. I believe Gary Cormier was managing Carol Pope at some point. Well, I did not, we didn't cross. Yeah, I know. Just a fun fact for the listenership, but Ronnie Hawkins, the good brothers, I've had Brian good on the program, the good brothers. And, uh, that sounds very cool. And we had, you know, all of them come with a story.

Uh, we did Ronnie Hawkins and Hyde park and we had Satan's devils. I, what are they called? The, the motorcycle gangs. Oh, hell's angels. No Satan. Satan something. Yeah. And they were there in the park, Satan something. Satan something, yeah. And they were there in the park

because their favorite guy was Ronnie Hawkins. Of course. And Ronnie, he couldn't remember the names of anything. They had to put big sheets of paper on the stage for him to be able to know the words. He had his family. I think his son is part of his band. Anyway, it was very interesting. You know how guys my age know Ronnie Hawkins originally. We knew him as the guy in the fur

jacket at Nathan Phillips Square on New Year's Eve who would be on City TV. And if ever, Gord Martino and whoever else was up there, Ann Ruskowski or whatever. But yeah, we knew him as like the host of the New Year's Eve celebration at Nathan Phillips Square, which City TV used to air every New Year's Eve. But there you go. And we had a comedy festival at Nathan Phillips Square where we had Howie Mandel, a number of people. But it was kind of a weird, you know,

comedy is a very strange thing. It's not a place where you want to give people comfortable seats, for example. You want to give them hard seats. Because the more uncomfortable they are, the harder they laugh. And you got to stick them together. If somebody's got like two, three feet in between you and the next person, they don't necessarily laugh. But if you stick them really close together and one laughs, it's like kindling. They all laugh.

It's addictive, right? It's amazing. It spreads like a virus. So It's addictive, right? It's amazing. So it spreads like a virus So by way Satan's choice I there's a ruling on the live stream that Jeremy Hopkins says it was Satan's choice and we believe it was Kate and Anna McGarigal Who did this very famous? NFB short log divers waltz and just a little background there once the show was over and everybody loved it apparently they sued CBC because

once the show was over and everybody loved it, apparently they sued CBC because, because they only contracted for Ontario and it was all across. I don't know. National of course. Yeah. So, but yeah, so that we did the concerts in the park. They were a lot of fun to do and, um, amazing to see thousands literally thousands of people out there. And you know, I once did a thing at Canada's Wonderland, Michael Damian, who was over the year.

Rock on, he did the cover of Rock On, he was a soap opera actor. Yeah, that's right, he was in the Young and the Restless. And I walked out on stage to something like five, six thousand people and... Well that cover of Rock On was a top 10 hit. I don't know where it peaked. Uh, I just had her Andy Kim over rock me gently went to number one on the billboard hot 100. Okay.

He wants you to know that. Absolutely. But this cover, I know Michael Damian's rock on was a hit that was all over top 40 radio. Well, we had to do a really strange dance here in Canada because the, the, oh, I'm trying to think of the name of the opening act and I can't, but anyway, for Canada, the show was about the opening act.

And for America, it was Michael Damian with this opening act. Right. So, you know. I wish you could remember and I wish you would tell me it was the spoons. No, it wasn't the spoons. Not the spoons. No. I did, I did however, go to a woman who,

who had connections all over the world for material, Ismay Benny, I don't think she's in business anymore, although she's probably still around. And she was able to find me specials, flock of seagulls, I don't know, I can't even think of the names anymore. So I took 12 of them, sold them to the CBC, which they paid, it was the easiest money I ever made.

And I took them, went into a, into a studio and just put Deluxe Amusements and my credit role at the end of their credit roll. Rock Deluxe. Rock Deluxe. How did you know about that? I came up in my effective research here, but I got a fun fact that'll blow your mind, maybe or maybe not, you know,

we're just getting to know each other, but Flock of Seagulls has recently hired as a guitarist in that band, the lead singer and founder of The Spoons, Gore Depp. So The Spoons and Flock of Seagulls are now like in the same universe. You think I didn't know that, right? You knew that, right?

I had no idea. No idea. I get it. And then again, rock deluxe. I like their name. Let's put it that way. And I ran, I ran so far away. Don't ask me to name a second flock of

seagulls. What did I need them for? You could do it. And the way I sing it, it doesn't get picked up by the, the algorithm out to make sure I don't copy, play all this copyrighted music. Little Feet, Brian Ferry. Oh yeah, wonderful. These are some of the big acts you had on, uh, this raw, but easiest money ever made.

Gary loved little feet and I got to hear them and get to know them because of that. Yeah. Listen, he'd pick winners. He was, he was a winner. He knew how to pick the winners, the Ramones, the police, these bands were still talking about today.

Okay. Now you did another, you did a bunch of great work here. I'm going to get you to yuck yucks here because I got some questions for you as Mr. Yuck. And we'll talk about, you mentioned you're retired. We got to confirm all this. What the heck's going on with your professional life here? But you, what did you have to do with these acts? Okay. I'm going to name some artists that are, I'd call these global a-listers. Okay. Billy Idol, Tina Turner, David Bowie, some guy named Michael Jackson. What the hell did you have to do with these cats? Um, I don't remember.

I had a, I have a very good friend named David Bluestein known to the world as blue. I know this guy. There you go Yeah, so, you know blue was my partner in the all-night show because I Wanted to do the programming and I wanted somebody else to do the business and that was David Bluestein So he would you know, we want it's funny because one thing I did that I always like to say is Chaz Lothar, right? So when the show started as he was Chuck the security guard for the first week, he'd come in, you know, he would do the show. But the

second week he came to me, he said, I can't come here by subway anymore. You're going to have to send me. I can't, I get stopped in the street. People, I can't get here. And so we had to, in fact, get him there by car, but then he wanted a raise. So I said to him, listen, you and I, we're all new in this, right? Right. We have this show, which seems to be a hit. We're on the, every newspaper headlines and stuff, Chuck the security guard and whatever. And Chuck was the kind of person where he didn't like being Chuck the security guard all the time. Like we said, Hey, they want you to lead the Christmas.

He wants to be a serious act. I mean, a real act. Yes. And in fact he is right. Yeah, sure. He's still acting, right? Absolutely. Made in Canada. Yeah. So anyway, he was, so I said to him, listen, Chas I want as much money as I can get, right? I will promise you that I will always make $50 less than you, no matter what the negotiation is. I promise I'll always make $50 less than you. And that stopped any of the arguing and we went on for the rest of the show.

Well, we know you're a good salesperson. Any interest in selling advertising on a very popular local podcast? Not really. Good. Cause I can only pay you commission and lasagna from Palma pasta. Okay. So, Hey, so the Billy Idol, Tina Turner, David Bowie, Michael Jackson. Oh yeah. So, so David Bluestene after I got done with that, uh,

I needed a job and blue said, okay, why don't you come work with me? It's, it's CPI concert productions international, right? Michael Cole, Bill Ballard. And so, um, you know, I was thrilled to do it. And that's how all those names came up because I was put in charge of signage. Oh, for Molson. Yeah, well, because the deal was Molson and CPI weren't together.

So they needed signage. I had to go and put up signage and, uh, you know, okay, happy to do it. But it got me backstage of every show and meeting all the people there. And it was, it was fantastic. In fact, my son, I have a son, he was eight years old at the time. And we would climb to the top of the lighting towers and watch the crowds and watch, you know, he, he once got hit by a June jet, Joan jet, somebody threw an orange, a Joan jet,

and it hit her and bounced off and hit him. And now he loves rock and roll. Well, I don't think you ever got rid of that shirt, now he's like 50 something. And you know, you always think you gotta get a gig, you gotta pay the bills, but these are cool gig. If you have to work, this beats being on the assembly line, right? You said it. And you know, in school, you got to get a gig, you got to pay the bills, but these are cool gigs. If you have to work, this beats being on the assembly line, right? You said it.

And you know, in school, I said to myself, whatever I do in life, I just don't want to get up early. And I've always been able to do that. And it gets a little bit, so again, we're on our way to yuck yucks here. We're kind of there, but I'm going to ask you about your work at the O'Keeffe Center. Yeah. Okay. Because I know that your- I was the- Promoting show is Center. Yeah, okay. Cause I know that your-

I was the- Promoting shows there. Well, I was the account director. Okay. And Martin Onrod was the general manager. Martin got a job as general manager of the O'Keefe Center. So obviously I was able to work. So what did I do?

There was an advertising agency that was connected with CPI. Len Gill owned it. I'm trying to think of its name right now. But it was an advertising agency. And I was made the account director for the O'Keeffe Center. So then they brought in everybody, you know, from Joan Rivers to, you know, Disney on Ice. Yeah, I see Sesame Street Live. I was a little old for it,

but had it been maybe 10 years earlier, I would have been there. You know, my older brother's passed on now, but he came to Toronto, and I impressed the hell out of him because I introduced him to Nureyev. And this was a big thing in his life, right? Wow.

So, but you know, this is, I met all these people, and most of them are nice. Once in a while, right? Wow. So, but you know, this is, I met all these people and most of them are nice. Once in a while you'd find somebody that shocked you how bad they were. Who's that? Um, what's the name of that, that Jackie Mason. Okay. Yes. Yes. I know, I know him well, but he was a voice of Krusty the clown on this. Krusty the clown's father on the Simpsons. You know, I didn't, I didn't know that, but he played the O'Keeffe Center and there was a woman there who was on, who worked at channel 47. Uh, I can't think of her name, but she did the high show, the Jewish show.

Okay. Um, her name will come to me, but anyway, she was backstage. I was backstage and she said to him, I would love you to come on my show. And what proceeded was 10 to 15 minutes of the most filthy, most angry, what the fuck do you think I'm gonna come on your show for? I wouldn't come.

I'd never seen anything like it. She walked out like so embarrassed. So every once, I'd never seen anything like it. She walked out like, like so embarrassed. So every once in a while you find people like that. Every once in a while there's a jerk. Oh, he is a jerk. Yeah. There was no reason for that. Oh, I'm so hopefully there are a few, a few and far between, but they are.

Now, Mark Breslin, not a jerk. No, not a jerk. He's been here. So Mark Breslin's been in that same seat you're sitting in. Yes. We talked. No, not a jerk. He's been here. So Mark Breslin's been in that same seat you're sitting in. Yes. We talked. I asked him because I never listened to podcasts. I didn't even know where you'd find them.

I did find yours because I just went and said podcasts and there you were. Right. But, um, I, you know, when you first invited me, I thought, I don't know. Right. Like who's this guy? Yeah. So I called around and, you know, people said, no, great. He's, he's great. And, uh, you should go see him. And Mark said, what like who's this guy. Yeah, so I called around and you know people said no great He's he's great and you should go see him and Mark said yeah, he's been here. Yeah

Mark present was great on this show. He's one of those older dads I had just done an episode of Ralph Ben Murky who was an old older dad. Okay, so yeah any Ralph stories I just realized so maybe tell it maybe we'll go like this here So tell us about your relationship with Mark Breslin, like, like how you met him and then tell us how you ended up working with him at Yuck Yucks. Mark would, he's an avid movie lover. Um, and he went to the Roxy and we got to talking. It was that simple and we became friends.

He had a club on Church Street where he first started Yuck Yucks, which was basically a bowling alley at the bottom of 519 Church Street, which is now the gay center, the hub of the gay community apparently. Sure. And I went to see him and see the club and that was it. Then one day he said to see, went to see him and, uh, see the club and that was it.

Then one day he said to me, you know, um, I, I, I'm opening a place on Yorkville and I got people coming, but I'm not making any money. Can you come and look? So I went down and I said, first of all, Mark, nobody's using the register. His cousin was in the box office at the time. I don't know what to do. I said, well, it's very simple. You push this button, $2, you push this button, 50 cents, and you push this button, the thing comes out, you collect the money. And we started that way. And then I said, Mark, you know, the club next door, the place next door is empty.

It just, they just left. Why don't you take that over? We'll build an R a doorway through the, through the wall and you get licensed. And so Mark and I filled out all the papers, went to the liquor board and eventually got licensed and that's when things changed. I mean, once you start selling booze, you start making money. 100%.

So, and also, it didn't ruin the comedy room, it helped the comedy room. People got loose. Yeah. And of all the acts I've seen there, and I'm talking, you know, Howie Mandel, Norm MacDonald, and American acts, Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno, they all played Yuck Yucks.

You know who was the best MC? Mark. He would walk out on stage and control that entire room. It was fascinating and it was amazing to watch. And then he would introduce people. And they would come out and like I said, he would bring up acts from the states and he supported Canadian comedy 90%

and he never would ever stop any, he was uncensored, this was his big thing. Sometimes got him in trouble, but he was uncensored and he would live or die on that and to this day, that's still how he feels. Quick circle back, the name you were trying to come up with who Jackie Mason went off on, Shirley Solomon. That's it, Shirley.

Mark Wiseblood got the answer, so shout out to Mark Wiseblood on the last stream. Yeah, yeah, sure, and you know she didn't deserve it. I wonder what she's doing now. Great question. But anyway. But so, it's good that, what I like about the livestream is you and I are like, what's that name?

And then magically it just appears. What an age we live in. That is exactly what happened with the All Night Show too. You couldn't ask a question, you couldn't do a contest without so many people replying. And it was like having a live computer. Better than Wikipedia. In the middle of the night, at three in the morning

because you know, what I learned from the All Night Show is there's three distinct group of people. At the beginning of the night at three in the morning because you know what I learned from the All Night Show is there's three distinct group of people. At the beginning of the night, it's stoners and people who wanna see crazy stuff. And then in the middle of the night, you get an older audience of like women who've had babies, doctors who work overnight and that kind of stuff. And you'd wanna show things like passing parade

and sort of interesting stuff. And then at the end of the night, you'd have to show soft music. If you put rock music on at the end of the show, you'd get, and I just found a tape. God's honest truth, I just found a tape. That's when I was listening to tapes, how I found Gary's. A tape that was on a machine at Channel 47 with people going, hey Chuck, I love ya,

send me a button, how was Ryerson? All that kind of stuff. Wow, it's almost like a speaker's corner before speaker's corner. It was better than that. In fact, I painted the elevator in the building called Elevator to the Stars, and I said, let's bring in people who have bands,

we give them three minutes to do their act, doors open you got three minutes at the end of three minutes whether you're done or not these doors come down they're like, you know, yeah and People loved it and Ralph been murky's wife was the person I hired to you know be a first wife or second wife I didn't know he had a second. Okay. Yeah. He's on a, I'm on the same boat here, Ralph. So, and Ralph will be, by the way, Ralph and Brent Bambury will be together in the basement, I think next week or the week

after, so I'll just promote that upcoming episode with, uh, with Rabbi Ralph. Uh, but he, uh, don't know which, so I, I don't know. He's, he's got a second wife now and he's got two kids with the second wife, two kids of the first following my, my blueprint, although he might have done it first. I have to check the math on that.

But any memories of Ralph Ben-Murgy? So I'm going to ask you about some, basically some people who I've worked with. And first being Ralph Ben-Murgy. You know, how do I even sum up Ralph? You know, he's a CBC person. He's in that world. And when he was in our world, the comedy world, he would get on stage and he would do his act.

Wasn't the best act in the world. Wasn't the worst act in the world. He liked it. We liked him. And he's a friend of Mark's. And I, then I didn't see him for years and I understand he had a problem with cancer. And I met him at some gathering and I didn he had a problem with his with cancer. Yeah. And I met him

at some gathering and I didn't know who he was. I couldn't identify him as Ralph Ben Murgy. So let me tell you a little story on that which is so when I invited him over the first time like I wanted to talk to Ralph Ben Murgy because he hosted Friday night. It all comes back to Breslin here but he hosted Friday night and I wanted to talk to the midday guy Ralph Ben Murgy and he kind of I don't hummed and hawed a bit and then I'm like, no man, we'll have a just, it'll be comfortable, we'll have a good chat, you'll enjoy it. And then he shows up at my door and he told me in a later episode that he was hesitant because he knows we're going to take a photo by the tree and he didn't, he wasn't happy

with how he looked because he says, his words, my Jewish nose was gone because it was as they had the lop off a part of his nose or whatever but he was really self-conscious about his physical appearance and it took a lot of courage if you will but that was the moment where he sort of came back out of hiding like that that he showed up at my door we had a great talk I ended up producing his podcast for many years and again he's back here in about a week or so but absolutely he had to kind of get over the fact that he didn't quite look the way he used to because of the removing this cancer. There are a number of people out there,

Ralph being one of them, who never really encouraged or never did anything positive really two or four yuck yucks. He always believed that, or at least we got the sense that he always believed that Mark was doing the wrong thing by making comics work for him and signing contracts and all the time, while Ralph is working at two or three different places.

So although he was a friend, although I still consider him a friend, if I said to him, listen, in fact, I'll give you an example. I once, I said to him, Ralph, you have a radio show. We'll give you tickets to give away. Never heard back. Doesn't believe that Yuck Yuck is a good force in the world of comedy, in my opinion.

Well, there's several people like that. Do you know Anton Leo? He's a producer at the CBC, a good friend. He was part of a comedy act, and it's a fantastic act, and he's a fantastic guy. But he also believes that Yuck Yucks takes advantage of comics. And I don't know why he thinks that. And I'll give you an example. We have been, for 25 years or so, we've been doing a show on Sunday nights called The Black Show with Kenny Robinson.

Of course. And very proud. Is this the Nubian show or is it? Yeah, the Nubian Disciples of Prior. Right, right. That's what he called it, right. And he's a good friend, still does it. But Anton decided, or with the CBC,

they were gonna do a special on the black show. Can they use Yuck Yucks? So he said, can we use Yuck Yucks? By the way, we can find another place. Said no, we'd like you to use Yuck Yucks. Is there a possibility you can put the Yuck Yucks sign somewhere in the production or announce it? Well, well, I'll see what I can do.

The show is now produced, it hasn't been aired yet and I'll be really surprised and grateful if he shows a yuck yuck sign or mentions yuck yucks, but You would think somebody who worked with yuck yucks all these years and as a friend of Mark's would say hey There's a great chance to get your logo in the picture, right? We're national we're from coast to coast. We're Canada's national standup comedy company and he doesn't want to put our logo on. I just don't understand it. Well, you mentioned to me you're retired. I said, do you have an hour?

And you said, I'm retired. Right. So you're no longer president of Yuck Yucks? No, I'm still president. Okay. And I still sign the checks once a week. Okay, so that's like a bad job of retiring, I suppose, if you're still, so you're still president of Y bad job of retiring, I suppose if you're still you

so you're still president of yuck yucks comedy clubs. Does it help if I say I'm semi retired? That's called semi retired. Okay. And I do want to get back to a few names here, except I did. And I said you're coming on I did hear from some comics. Okay. And I'll just read one question. And this is a dose of real talk. But this question I'm going to read a verbatim here. You ready? Yeah. Can you talk about how important road gigs are for comedians making a living outside of the major cities, bringing comedy far and wide to small town folks who drive an hour or more to the nearest movie theater?

So can you speak to... Let me tell you how it works. How about that? I'm listening. At Yuk Yuck's now, we're not talking about when it started because when it started, nobody knew what to do, I guess. But now, I guess we're 40 years, 30, something like that. Here's how it starts.

You wanna be a comic. Some come from the Humber School of Comedy, which Mark started with Humber. Some just come from their house, their life. And they want it, and so they get a chance to go on amateur night. And how they get selected for amateur night is we have somebody who watches the acts,

and when somebody goes to them and says, I'd like to perform, they get a, you know, yeah, you're on in three weeks, or you're on this Tuesday, whatever that process is, and then they perform. And if they're funny, we let them continue to perform. They don't get paid, right? I mean, they're amateurs.

And they maybe have five or 10 minutes of funny stuff, but they're just new on the stage. And it takes time to develop an act. And as you develop your act and have more material, you fall into different categories. You could be an opener, which means you open the show. That's your slot in the show and you get paid for that. Or you could be a middle.

You're the middle of the show, right? Or you could be the feature act. And of course you get paid more as the feature act. And then in those categories, there are a number of of people you look like you're gonna ask something or no I'm gonna my follow-up will be who's your all-time favorite feature act in yuck yucks history And why is it? Mike McDonald Well, it's certainly certainly an guy. I love Mike, unfortunately, not Willis, but he was, every time he got on stage, he had

new material. And he had some older stuff that everybody loved to see, with a hanger on his head and playing a fake guitar. I mean, here's the thing. Most of the comics, you know, comics sometimes say about me that I think they're just sausages in a restaurant and it's in that regard yeah you can't have a restaurant without it but what you're like, how you act not only on stage but off stage has a lot to do with it. I mean would you want to deal with somebody

who's always a pain in the ass? No. And their act is okay, nothing special. In fact, if they need anything, they need stage time to make it better. And if you don't give it to them, they get upset. And in my book, I wrote a book, and in my book, there's a thing called, what's the name of the movie where people go to sleep and a pod becomes them?

The Matrix? No, no. What are we talking about here? The pod? You know, they, if they fall asleep, they become this new creature. Anyway, it's a famous movie, I just can't think of the title. But that's the title of the chapter in my book because- What's the name of your book?

It's called Funny Business Funny Business, okay I brought you a copy Amazing Makes a great fire starter, I tell people We're doing a gift exchange Sure So

Fire starter So I'll bring it camping So in the book I say Invasion of the Body Snatchers There you go There you go It's like that because a comic will start as an amateur, then they'll get actual working gigs, they get paid,

and every one of the slots I told you has an amount. If you're a feature act, you might negotiate a larger amount but there's a set amount and the same thing with a middle and a feature and an opener. So you start out and everything is great. You go, oh man, you're touring me? You're gonna send me to Calgary and Vancouver, Halifax? Fantastic.

And then maybe a month goes by, maybe two, they go to sleep and they wake up and they say, how come I'm only getting this much? That guy is not as good as me and he's getting more than me. He stole my act, he stole my, All of a sudden they become a monster. Now some of them are fine. You know that's just people being people. Some of them, you know, there was a line in the movie Sunshine Boys says, as a comic nobody can touch him. As a person nobody wants to touch him. Love this insight

here. Okay. Back to some names here real quick here, because we talked about Ralph Ben Murgy, but another, uh, valued client of mine, I produced his podcast today. Later that same life, Larry Fedorik. Do you have any memories of Larry Fedorik?

He, uh, not many. Um, I don't remember Zach that much, but I know he became the head of some radio station. And he went to CFTR. He's been around. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, you know, we would love to do

promotions with them. We've never have. We, you know. Well, now he's a, now he's a lonely podcaster like myself, but he absolutely had a pretty, pretty lengthy successful career in, uh, in radio. He was a good comic and we, we, uh, toured him and he had a good act, but his heart was elsewhere. It's a tough thing to do.

Yeah, he wanted to be real, but another guy whose heart was elsewhere is, do you have any memories of humble Howard Glassman? No. No memories of humble Howard Glassman? Okay. No. He went off to California and everything. Okay.

And last but not least, because I love talking to him on Toronto mic, John Wing Jr. Oh yeah. Well, he's, you know, he was on one of those shows that he was on, you know, But last but not least, because I love talking to him on Toronto mic, John Wing Jr. Oh yeah. Well, he's, you know, he was on, um, one of those shows, uh, you know, the best, uh, what's the show in the States? America's funniest comic. Right. That's right.

It wasn't really that sure. It was like one like it. And I thought he was going to ask comic standing or something. No, it was actually, it was, uh, America's got talent. Yes. Okay. And he was doing well. He didn't win. He's fantastic. He's always funny.

You know, there was so many comics that are really fantastic and they, I really thought that was his shot and he deserves it, you know? Well, let me just drop the biggest name of all, you know, we, we did reference a Howie Mandel earlier, but there's a comic who kind of famously on Toronto, Mike, Mark Breslin came on. I asked him about this comic and Mark told me that when he saw this comic perform on the yuck yuck stage, he was completely underwhelmed and did not

think this guy would make it. I am speaking of Jim Carrey. Jim Carrey. I know Mark likes to tell the story of how he got him off stage with a hook and, and it's a shame because he was a good guy you know, he's he his father used to come down and watch his act all the time and I'd have to be on television to do an imitation of him because it was like every night he'd go. Thank you. Thank you Thank you, and he could be anybody his face would change. He was he deserved

Eastwood he could I know I remember now thinking of those improvise. Yeah, he was great. Sammy Davis Jr., he could make his face twist and then, but the thing is I couldn't get him on the phone now. I doubt if he'd even, but Howie Mandel, different story. You can get Howie on the phone. Okay, call him up. Let's ask him some questions. I don't think I will. Let's just, go ahead, sorry. But let's just go ahead. Sorry. But he's a really great guy

and he comes back to Toronto very often cause that's where his family is. And he never turned being a big shot. If you know what I mean. I in fact, can I tell you how he Mandel story? Yeah, I love it. On our 25th anniversary, we decided that we wanted to do a big special on with the Comedy Network

And we decided we wanted to do it in Ottawa because it was the country's you know capital right? so we did and how he was going to be the master of ceremonies and 911 happened and It happened. I don't know a couple of weeks before the show So he said nobody's flying. I don't know, a couple of weeks before the show. So he said, nobody's flying. I can't come up there. We said, well, planes are flying now, but I understand. He said, listen, I will, why don't we do this?

I'll stay here and we'll get a satellite and you'll throw to me and I'll announce the show and then, and we do that. And we just couldn't afford it. Well, he actually got on a plane, came here and did the show. And he didn't have to. And I don't think we'll ever, you know, we'll never forget him for that. I mean, he saved the show. Oh yeah, and it was a wonderful show.

And he did a great job. And it's funny, I have a picture of my house of me and him was a wonderful show. And he did a great job. And it's funny, I have a picture of my house of me and him shaking hands and hugging. One, he's bald like you know him now, and one, he's not like when I first met him. That's the Howie Mandel story.

That's a great story. He's a good guy. With Howie Mandel here. And you did work with Jim Carrey on the, it was at the Yuck Yucks Great Canadian Laugh Off? Yes, and he did a television. Oh, and the People's Comedy Festival. Yeah, he did a television show for us.

He's fantastic, you know, he's a performer. It's just, I can't say he's a friend. Right, well yeah, like you said, you can't get him on the phone, but you could get a hold of Howie Mandel. All right, a few more, go ahead. We can get in touch with anybody, but if we wanted Jim Carrey,

we'd have to go through eight people I'm sure and and Russell Peters great friend nice guy wrote the wrote the introduction to my book and You know, but all of a sudden he wasn't with us anymore his brother was managing him Clayton Clayton Yeah, he's been over and oh he's been on to you know why he went to high school of I. Yeah. He's been over and uh, oh, he's been on to, you know, why he went to high school with Iver Hamilton who's on the panel. Uh, that will be, uh, that will happen at 88 young on the 1st of December. Who is Iver Hamilton? Iver Hamilton is a CF and Y music guy. So that'll be for like, when we get to the CF and Y parts and the police picnic and all that stuff.

And it all come back to Rob Pruss and the spoon. spoon So Rob if you're listening, it's gonna come back to you. But yeah, he's the for the CF and why I say I get you know Things things so that like I'm doing this thing. I don't know. Are you getting paid for this panel? No No, I'm not getting paid either, but I'm excited to do it. But I was told the lucky. I didn't tell you the truth No, if you afterwards if I find out Jeff, you're getting paid. I'm go to Derek and say I will always make $15 less than you know what let me see that you're gonna owe them 15 bucks if I do that man for Gary Topp I would I would pay money to do it really but there's like it's got to be under 60 minutes and I was saying okay so you got Ivor Hamilton on that stage Gary Cormier Colin Brunton Jeff Silverman and then of course the star of the show is there, Gary Topp.

I said, 60 minutes is gonna go by. I mean, we'll start off on the Roxy and it'd be, okay, 60 minutes is up. We haven't got you to the New Yorker yet. But anyways, it's gonna go quick. But Ivor Hamilton's the CF and Y guy. I hear that they're adding a second show. I said, a show? This is the Gary Topp experience? I heard about the second show, but I was actually not invited to the second show. So I don't even know what a second show would be. I didn't think it was a show. I think, uh, I think I joked with Colin. They're going to replace me with Strombo.

That's what they're going to do. They're going to go big on that second show here. Can we just spell this? I don't know if you can even speak to this, but, uh, Jim Carrey, there's a rumor out there because we talk about the show and I don't even know if you'll remember this show, but it was called Just Like Mom. Fergie Oliver hosted it from Asian Court, the CTV studios up there.

This is like late seventies, early eighties thing. Any memory of Just Like Mom? No, no, you're forgiven for that. But there is a rumor that Jim Carrey was originally recruited to host Just Like Mom. You I mean, I would, I'm just going to dispel the myth based on the fact he would be like 18 years old at this time, but since you don't remember Just Like Mom, you're not gonna have any insight into whether Jim Carrey was offered the hosting job at Just Like Mom

before Fergie Oliver. You have no idea. I really don't have any idea. You're off the hook on that one, Jeff, okay. When was that? Anyway, was that? Early 80s? I guess I had an exact year.

I think there were a lot of comics who actually made it by breaking away from yuck yucks at a certain time and going off and doing their own thing. So it's very possible that they did that. You know, a lot of, I feel like my source for this is a gentleman named Gary Chowen, who was cutting hair for shows like Bizarre. Gary Chow and he still cuts hair in Yorkville, by the way, he was shares personal. Uh, yeah, it's quite a story, the Gary Chowen episode, but I think he's my source for

this. Andrew Chowen used to work reservations. No, I don't know. Okay. So you've been amazing. Like I've learned so much. I find this, this conversation just fascinating, but I'll just wrap up with some of the comics questions that came in. And then I might be putting

you in the seat, but who are your favorite comedians that are currently on the Yuck Yucks roster? I don't know. And I'll tell you why. I told you I was sort of semi-retired. I haven't been to a comedy club. I haven't been to one of our clubs, I would say in five years. When I started with Mark Breslin, I used to say, I like that guy, you should use that guy. Hey, why are you using that guy? And Mark said something that I'll never forget. He said, Jeff, don't tell Picasso where to put an eye.

So you're not responsible. I, and again. No, I know them. I deal with them because I signed their checks. You signed the Mike Bullard checks, for example, who we recently lost. Yes, yes. And, uh, again, great guy. And at one point after using Yuck Yucks to be known

and to get around and to make money, he had, he had his show and he worked with Mark on that show. And, uh, you know, but something happened to him. I don't know what happened to him. He had his show and he worked with Mark on that show. But something happened to him. I don't know what happened to him. He was always sort of a braggadocio kind of guy. I mean, that was his act when he got up on stage. He would always say, where you from and make fun and stuff like that.

When he got his show, I thought, this is the biggest chance you'll ever have. National coast to coast television show and there's no competition in this country But somehow it went dark. I don't know I mean, so as I recall like it was a CTV show that was filmed at Gretzky's I want to say 99 Blue Jays Way Originally, no originally before I went to Masonic Temple. No

well, I only know it going to the Masonic Temple and being there and him doing well. But again, you know, Mark Breslin, he doesn't like censored comedy and he likes things that are dark and Bullard started off that way. And I just felt that the show wasn't light enough. You know, I said to Mark

many times who's the musical act and is that gonna be he didn't care about that stuff. Like he wanted to make sure there was a guy in a cage who said things. You know what's the set like who who so um that's the way they operated and I couldn't do that. I needed to know everything that happened with the All Night Show. I mean, I was the person in charge. Love it so much. Fascinating.

The future of Yack Yack, I know that you're semi-retired now, but any- We have 18 clubs, coast to coast. We're growing. The last club we opened was in Winnipeg. We now have signed a deal with a company to do television shows and stuff, which hasn't happened yet. They just apparently they're on the stock market.

The name of their company is Icarus Capital. And we're talking to them about making TV shows and stuff. And we have several people, well, all for many years, we've had several people who wanted to buy the company that might happen in the meantime, Mark and I are happy we've created this engine that continues to run. He worries about the fuel that goes into it. And I make sure that, uh, maintenance is done. If that makes any sense.

Yeah, it makes complete sense to me, but a confirmation that Bullard show did start at Gretzky's and then was, uh, CTV bought 888 Young where we're going to be on December 1st and the Bullard was kind of the main attraction at the Masonic temple there when he moved his show there. So it starts at Gretzky's and then moves over, But he left for global, I want to say, and that's when he kinda... He got screwed. Yeah. Right. He got screwed because he left because he thought it was gonna give him more, more, more everything.

More freedom, more money. But as soon as it didn't do the numbers, he was out. And at CTV, they would have stuck with him because it was their baby. Right. And then they ended up syndicating or getting the American show, the John, what's the, why am I stumbling on his name? The famous news guy, the talk show that was like the, anyway, they brought in a show that destroyed Bullard in the ratings and then the rest is history. Bill Braille has a lot to say about, you know, interviewing, uh, Mike Bullard at this time and how he seemed to be a broken man at this point. So it only got worse for Mike. And then he had an untimely

end. And he's not the type to take advice. And you know, his brother is in California. Yeah. And you would never guess they were brothers if they were side-by-side So, you know, he's got a half brother who is lead singer of the down child blues band Oh, did you know that Chuck Jackson? No, I had no idea. I just had a guy for there. They're just wrapping up themselves here Okay, so the nice comment that just came in for you from Canada Kev says I had a lot of fun organizing a couple of fundraisers for kids hockey and baseball teams with Yucky. Yes, we do that.

We have a whole department that does fundraisers for, you know, all kinds of sports organizations and and it works out well. We give them tickets, which they sell to their people. Right. And that way they raise their money and we help fill the audience on us on a slow night. But it certainly raises money for we've done it for many, many charities, continue to that name I struggled to come up with, it came to me now, John Stewart, of course. So the John's that John Stewart show was syndicated by CTV to go up against Bullard's global show and

syndicated by CTV to go up against Bullard's global show and. I did not know that. Canadians preferred Jon Stewart, I guess, over the new Mike Bullard show there. Okay, my friend, we are going to see each other on December 1st and now I've got, you know, maybe Gary Topp will be surprised. I spend all 60 minutes talking to you with all

the follow-up questions I have, but is there any story you wanted to share that we didn't get to? This is your chance before I play us out here. Well, I'll tell you a Gary top story. Please. We decided at one point that we wanted to do some spectacular promotion. And at that time, the C and E had a promotion where you stayed on a Ferris wheel for a certain amount of time and And there were thousands of people.

So Gary and I said to each other, hey, we can do something like that. So we found an Australian guy named Jim Montesino. We had t-shirts made, we put ads in the paper. Can he do it? 101 hours playing the piano. And it started out at the New Yorker Theater with the piano facing the screen and

he played. And of course after like what 30 hours or something he was like somewhere else he'd say I'm hungry. We go out and get him a sandwich. I don't want any food. He had a manager and his manager gave him one quarter glass of ammonia and three quarters water and the guy drank it to wake him up. Wouldn't that kill you? You would think so. We had a chair. We cut a hole in the chair so if he had to go to the bathroom he could go through the

chair and it was Gary's job and mine sometimes to get the bag and take it out and put it in the garbage. So the end of the story is he did it for three days, almost four days. But can you, can you? Nobody came. Oh my God. Nobody came and he was facing the stage. So what we did after the second day was we started running anything that was free, like

trailers of people in Florida on skis and stuff. And he was just out of it. Now, here's one part of the story. There was a woman who had great affection for him and started filming him and made a film out of him doing it. And that woman is the woman who does Degrassi Street and the name of her company is Playing With Time. Is that Linda, Linda Schuller?

Maybe. I think her name is. Playing With Time. And the end of the story is after four days, and by the way, every morning, we would bring him to the piano. Every late in the afternoon, we'd take him with a little piano around his neck. He'd keep playing, get on a truck that had a piano on it. And he would play in the truck on the way to the Roxy where he'd get

off with the little piano and play. He did that for four days. And when he got done and nobody came, and it was one of the worst things we ever did. He did not have health insurance. We had to take a whip around. Maybe Colin will remember this. We had to take a whip around. Maybe Colin will remember this.

We had to take a whip around to get him enough money to put him somewhere. Jim Montesino and the record that he broke. That story is unbelievable and it's got a Degrassi tie to it. And the... The record he broke. The record that he was going for,

the Guinness Book of Records, was broken one day. One day after we sent him to the hospital. Honestly, that story is incredible. You ask Gary, I still have the shirt with him playing the piano saying, can he do it? Can you even stay awake that long? That's humanly, did he get like catnaps? Was he allowed to eat catnaps? No, he just kept playing.

And of course it would be, dink, dink, dink, dink, dink. That was the piano after three days. And nobody came and then it got broken the next day. Nobody came to either theater. And, you know, it was we had ads on the paper. We had CFC, Chum. We had Chum promoting it. Well, I was thinking of Chum when you were talking about

the roller coaster thing, because Mike Cooper was set the record for longest period of time on the roller coaster DJing or something. Larry Wilson. Larry Wilson, I think, was the chum. Larry Wilson worked. Yeah. I don't know what happened to him, but he would help promote it.

Dude, this was awesome. These were moments in time. We're capturing these stories now for future generations to learn about Toronto in the 70s and 80s. Everybody who's listening, think of this. This right now is your past. You might not know it for 10 years, 20 years, but you'll look back at all the crazy stuff that happened

and you'll be glad. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. Absolutely. You gotta lie somewhere. And that brings us to the end of our 1,583rd show. You can follow me at torontomike.com. Thank you to Rob Pruse for the new closing theme song, his rendition of Rosie and Grey by Lois de the Low. Love it, Rob! Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, don't leave without your lasagna, Jeff, RecycleMyElectronics.ca, Raymond James Canada, Minaris, you got your speaker, and Ridley Funeral

Home. I'll find out on December 1st what Jeff measured with his Ridley Funeral Home tape measure. See you all tomorrow when my special guest is a sports broadcaster named Victoria Mateish. Looking forward to that. See you all then. Thank you, Mike. So So Music