Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Remembering Eric Bauza: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 2002

Episode Date: October 27, 2026

On this 2002nd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike remembers FOTM Eric Bauza who passed away suddenly at the age of 46.A version of this podcast without programmatic ads is available to all Toronto Mike'd Patrons at patreon.com/torontomike.Toronto Mike'd, an award-winning podcast, is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca.If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I awoke yesterday morning to the most awful of news. I had to read it twice. Eric Bousa had died at his home in Los Angeles from hypertensive heart disease. He was only 46 years old. Way back in December 2020, when we were all grappling with these lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I chatted with Eric Bousa, who wasn't just an Emmy Award-winning voice actor behind Looney Tunes characters like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, but he was a proud Torontonian who had a passion for GTA nostalgia. We were cut from the same cloth.

And for the next 90 minutes, you're going to hear Eric and I chatting about everybody from Joey Jeremiah, to Mark Daly, to Swiss chalet, I mean, this is a romp. At some point in this conversation, Eric promises to deliver to me a medium buy-way t-shirt that I promised to wear until it wore out. I never did get that by-way shirt, but this is not the time for such a petty gripe. This is the time to celebrate a young man who loves. Loved Canada, loved Toronto, but had a voice that was going to make him very, very famous. I loved this chat.

I loved this guy. And I can't believe he's gone. My sincere condolences to everyone who knew and loved Eric Bousa. Here's my chat with him from December 2020. It was episode 771 of Toronto Mic'd. That's right, Doc. Huge fan of Toronto Mike. You know, ever since my reruns on global TV, you know, the Bugs Bunny and Tweety show,

I used to be a Toronto star, but now, uh, me, no with all these streaming channels, it's hard to find me. Welcome to episode 771 of Toronto Mikeed, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities,

good times, and brewing amazing beer. CDN Technologies your outsourced IT department. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from

Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Sticker, you dot com. Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business. Sammy Cohn Real Estate. For a complimentary evaluation of your home, contact Sammy. Via email, he's Sammy at Sammy cone.com. Cone is K-O-H-N. And Ridley Funeral Home, Pillars of the community since 1921. I'm Mike from Toronto Mike.com and joining me this week is the voice of Bugs Bunny, Eric, Bousa.

You know, you brought up Disney Jr. There's so many different shows. I have the luck of being a part of on there. So there's Rocketeer. I don't know if she watches Tots, but that is a pretty big show. It's tiny ones. You know, it's like delivery service. Instead of the storks, they have all sorts of birds delivering babies.

I play Mr. Woodbird. That's the other woodpecker I play on that show, and he's an inventor. And then the other Disney Jr., Muppet Babies, I play, ah, fuzzy bear, waka, waka. Hey, Mike, why did the chicken cross the playground to get to the other slide? Yeah, so, you know, it's all that stuff. And again, I love doing the iconic characters, but when I, I have a chance to do an original character.

That's obviously when a voiceover artist is happy. Well, Eric, if you could do Fawzzy, then you could do Yoda, right? Yeah, yes, I can. But I might try, but, you know, he's, Frank Oz has like the pipes of, I don't even know, him and Jim Henson, they both have like, you know, that weird, you know, when he does Sam Eagle. I also do Sam Eagle. He's very, you know, astute and very proper. but he has that weird Yoda thing.

You know, it's very, they all like kind of live under the same roof. Well, let me just say, welcome to Toronto-Miked, Eric. This is really the highlight of your career. Is that fair to say? That is very true. You have to understand, you know, born and raised in the GTA, the greater Toronto area, Midland and Egglington. I abandoned my parents there behind Kennedy Station.

They're still there. Behind that, what used to be. a pharma plus now it's a dollar store there used to be a blockbuster video uh i used to work at that blockbuster video yeah that was me i was the i used to rewind tapes for a living i mean my brother worked at a blockbuster and i was always jealous of that gig like that was the gig to have back in the it was a great gig i used to do the i used to you know they're no longer around so i could tell you all the bad things i used to do so i used to like do the the punch cards i used to punch the you know, rent 10 and get one free for my friends.

We used to damage the Oreo ice cream cake so we could just say damage goods and then eat them on break. Listen, I worked for a grocery store. I worked for a food city, okay, at the gallery mall. Like, the damn, that move there with the damaged food and you got to eat it. Like, we mastered that play. That was it. That was my, you know, that's how we kept warm in the winters in Toronto, I was eating damaged Oreo ice cream cakes. Amazing.

Now, I still have several Frisbees, Blockbuster Frisbees for, ready for this, for Save the Last Dance. Do you remember that movie? What? That was a promo?

Yeah. So I guess there was a promo, Save the Last Dance Frisbees, and my brother, Steve scored. I still, honestly, if me and the kids go to the park to pay Frisbee, I still have my Save the Last Dance

Frisbee from BlackBusbee. It's the gift that keeps on giving is a blockbuster slash save the last dance frisbee mint condition i wonder how much you can get on ebay for that i would never even consider selling it it means too much to me personally eric but uh sorry go ahead we got a ticket to the antique road show and he's got to like you oh could you imagine i love the antique road show by the way there's a guilty pleasure of mine like if i flip it around and pbs has it on i just stay with it and they have this new thing where they play the older stuff and then they give you the

updates. So it'd be like in the original episode, it'll be something like appraised at 2000. And then they do this graphic that like it's either now it's 10,000 or sometimes you see, oh now it's like $200. It's the it's the where are they now version of we last saw him in 2012. But now how much is he worth? So great. Absolutely. Good stuff. Good stuff. Now, although some think we're too young because we're both in our 40s here. But no, I'm sorry. That shit's gold for even us youngens, I think, the Antigroo. Yeah, you are a Toronto legend, man. You've been at it for so long, and, you know, this is a great opportunity.

When you reached out, I was like, no way. This is insane. You know, I grew up in the Humble and Fred, the, you know, Marilyn Dennis, Don Dainard, Jesse and Gene era of radio, you know, Tony the cheap voice guy, all these old persons. you know, Tarzan, Dan. Who else could we say here? I mean, geez. Honestly, you're speaking my language.

So I need to know this because this is important to me. So I reached out on behalf of Humble and Fred. So I literally tweeted at you to book you on Humble and Fred. Okay? Because you're Bugs Bunny. I'm thinking, okay, maybe you've heard about Humble and Fred. I'll get you on that. I wasn't even thinking Toronto Mike because, I mean, you're bugs bunny.

But then you're a, you DM'd me in a way that made me realize that you, A, you knew I existed, like, and you seemed to be like a fan of what was the vibe at Toronto Mike. Like, so I said, like, okay, yes, you're going to go on Humble and Fred, because that's why I reached out. But you're coming on Toronto Mike ASAP. You want to beat them to it. You got the scoop. That's right, Doc. Huge fan of Toronto Mike, you know, ever since my reruns on global TV, you know, the Bugs Bunny and Tweety show, I used to be a Toronto star, but now, uh, me,

no with all these streaming channels it's hard to find me i'm buried underneath my own reruns doc anytime you want to do that that's amazing i got i got a lot of questions for you and this will be multiple hours if i don't i don't cut to the chase but uh you're you're now like when i'm speaking to you right now you are in california that's right i'm right in uh sherman oaks or as the as the kids call it the chokes uh you know of southern san fernando valley uh uh I miss wearing sleeves. It's actually 90 degrees outside, but I'm still wearing this hoodie. And I don't know how to use a shovel anymore.

And you also, I noticed you don't know how to speak metric anymore because you told me it's 90 degrees. It's so confusing. But it only takes me only like two seconds. As soon as I get my luggage off the carousel in, you know, Pearson, I'm off to Swiss L.A. As you may have seen in other interviews, I'm working on trying to get that lifelong Swiss L.A. gold card that I could just quarter chicken dinner every time I appear. Chicken and stuffing

and pie. Oh my! Yeah, the festive special. I was of the generation of the Toblerone giveaway, not the Linderre giveaway. Of course. It's Toblerone or GTFO as far as I'm concerned. I was actually, so I was biking by a

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

It was, remember when we had plans? You know, my God, going to the movies. How fun was that? Like to the point where you're like, I'm just going to stay home. But now it's like, I can't even. you don't even, you will think twice about eating in a dark room with a room full of strangers, you know, just popcorn even or a hot dog. Like that's so bizarre now.

It's amazing how quickly we have come to that point, right? Because it's been about 10 months, I think. But, you know, so 11 months ago, that was the norm we had lived for four decades plus. And then now just that whole idea like that let's go to a movie with other people indoors. And then we're going to go sit in a restaurant with other people chatting. indoors. That whole concept to me, it feels so foreign and wrong. And it only took 10 months to completely reprogram me. What's crazy is, you know, there's two things. I was at the, gosh, Kobe Memorial basketball game. And again, that was like late March or, you know,

whenever it was. Yeah, earlier than that. Yeah. It was like one of the last things that I remember doing like in a room, like it was a very emotional event. But there I was, like, just standing. And there was, like, a guy next to me crying. And I was, like, getting teary-eyed and, you know, he put my, he put his arm around me. And I was like, hey, man, you know, jeez. And I was like, my God, if that were to happen now, like, oh, my God. Like, it just amazing what we, what we were doing and maybe not even knowing that we were in possible danger.

And then the other thing was, you know, getting a haircut. How about that one? I remember, just, you know, shuffling through Instagram, Instagram feed. And there's a really great place out in Burbank called Fade Factory. And they do like, you know, the tight fades and like the super modern haircuts and stuff. And I remember seeing a photo in their feed. And it looked like they moved the barber chairs outside.

And everyone was wearing masks, getting their hair cut. It was black and white photo. And then I looked again. I was like, wait a second. Are they open? And that photo was from like the early 19. hundreds are like the late 1800s. So I was like, okay, we as a society and as a human race have been here before. We've been scared out of our wits before. We've been threatened before by something

like this. And, you know, only 10 months ago we were eating in the theater. So I know that in time we will get back to some kind of normal scene. Well, if you say so, that's what I'm hoping for. I'm hoping it happens in 2021. I'm hoping that we can all go to theaters. and see the new space jam, but hold on. Don't talk about space jam yet. That's the teaser here. Your parents, your parents are in Scarborough, right? That's correct.

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

And, you know, we were all being very careful because we were all genuinely frightened about this. So we were all keeping our distance and we were all following the rules. And then things lightened up, you know, people started hanging out. And then, you know, I just feel like we kept getting back. But, you know, the numbers in comparison,

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

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

I went to bed at least twice in March, convinced I had COVID because I'd have a scratch in the back of my throat. And I just think, you know, your mind starts to run away with it and you're like, oh, this is how it begins. Like next week I'll be in a ventilator. And then nothing ever came of either instance. But it's just, it's funny how you start to sort of give yourself COVID. when you hear it all around you.

And of course, in our day and age, it's the WebMD self-diagnose, you know, you go through the list of hypochondria. But being someone that performs behind the mic, what was the immediate protocol with you guys as a station, as a show? Did you guys start doing everything remotely? How was that taken care of? I like thinking about us as a station. So basically March 13th was the last time I had somebody. in the studio here. And then I moved it to Zoom for a few months.

And then I got really bored of Zoom. So I started recording it in the backyard. So I have a backyard studio. So guests are 10 feet away outdoors. And we've been doing that. In fact, that's still happening, actually. So now that it's getting really cold here, because we don't have your 90 degrees.

We have, in fact, today it's like, I don't know, it feels like minus 10 out there now of a windshield, I think. Celsius. I speak Celsius around here, Eric. Come on. I'm going to need a translator. But it's, yeah, so I, you know, I don't know when guests will be back in the studio here, but it'll be after we all get the vaccination and doctors say it's safe to do so. Yeah, and hopefully, you know, all goes well and people, you know, start to

hopefully this will all just you know I know it's not going to happen overnight but I just hope that you know the people that need it the most it works for them that's that's my biggest hope like I'm a optimistic person by nature

and I'm full of hope because I can now see you know I can see people in the city of Toronto you know it's not a lot of people but people in the city of Toronto are now getting vaccinated for COVID-19 like that started Monday So this is the beginning, this is possibly, hopefully the beginning of the end of this. And I'm feeling good about that. Yeah.

You know, I was the original social distance. I live in a hole in the ground, doc. No one, I'm like an island. I touch no one, no one touches me. Honestly, Eric, anytime, man. That's amazing. That's amazing. What an iconic character.

Like, we're going to dive deep into this because I got to start with some like retro Toronto stuff first. But like you're Bugs Bunny. Like pinch yourself right now. You're Bugs Bunny. Oh, yeah. No, no. It's every day it's like, no. And here's the thing.

You know, Mel Blank will always be Bugs Bunny. That's the thing. That's bottom line. We all, we, there's not a day that goes by. I mean, it's been 80 years for Bugs. They celebrated his 80th birthday this year. And Mel Blank, you know, with a team of other artists, created this character, but he was really the personality behind it.

and we're still talking about it to this very day in 2020. The amount of the heart and soul that he poured into this character, and the rest of the Looney Tunes, not just bugs, but Daffy, Tweedy, Sylvester, Yosemite, Marvin the Martian, like, you name it, he was behind Pepe Lai Pew, Foghorn Leghorn. I mean, the amount of energy and life that he put into these characters is still here, like, talking to us, you know? Like, it's amazing.

I think about it all the time. Well, Mel Blank, I mean, he had the gig from the start. So I did do a little homework here. 1940. So there's a short called A Wild Hair. And that's the first time we see Bugs Bunny and it's voiced by Mel Blank. And he does it until he passes away in 1989. And for you folks out there who struggle at math, that's like,

No pun intended, but that's a hair short of 50 years. Yeah. Like, amazing. And figuratively. And mathematically, Doc, if you're not a math whiz. Yeah, it really is a lifetime and all the way up. And then, you know, it's 80 years. So you have to pay attention and tip your hat and homage to the guys that continued.

Because I was sitting in Ontario place in that big, the big dome. The Sinosphere. The Sinosphere, right. And I was watching the 51st birthday spectacular. Fifty-first and a half, they made like a short, an animated short, and that short starred Jeff Bergman. He was the first guy to do it, you know, and do it amazing. He was like out the gate swinging for the fences, and he nailed it.

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

Yeah, it's, I'm sure Richard Dreyfus will be thrilled to hear that. But it's Daffy. It's the least pandemic-friendly voice of Zaloo. Six feet away from my mouth, please. Thank you. Yeah, and, you know, Jeff did those voices too. And after him, rest in peace, Greg Berson. He was also bingo, dino DNA.

He was Mr. DNA in Jurassic Park. Right here we have dinosaurs. And, you know, he worked with Spielberg on Tiny Tunes. So Spielberg, I don't know if you know this guy who directed Jurassic Park. Spielberg, he probably hired Greg, because he knew him his bugs, to do Mr. DNA. And of course, he hired Dreyfus for Jaws, so it all comes together.

Right. I mean, listen. I mean, come on, you know, I don't have any spit. Marianne Mawfitt, she broke my heart, okay? Right, or was it Mary Lynn Moffat? I got to brush up on my Jaws trivia. But after that, it was Billy West in the original Space Jam. We also had a Canadian on the West Coast doing Baby Bugs Bunny. the arguable one is it is it bugs bunny proper or baby bugs bunny uh mr sam vincent uh amazing amazing voice talent over it not to interrupt but i actually have to plead a little ignorance i didn't

realize that the original space jam was billy west and i'm the big howard stern fan like i remember billy west from way back oh yeah of course he was the go-to voice guy and and i love this is my analogy in comparison between uh you know jeff and and billy we were actually the three of us were invited to be guests at the Comic-Con panel, the virtual at-home San Diego Comic-Con panel for Bugs Bunny's 80th. So you had three guys who have played Bugs Bunny on the same panel.

And, you know, it was amazing because I grew up watching these guys, you know, and, you know, they're buddies and, you know, they were co-actors, but they will always be, you know, the guys that kept these characters alive and, well, long enough for me to join the family. So it was a trip just sitting, you know, even though we're all over Zoom,

but it was nice to see them and hear them do these voices. So when did you get the Bugs Bunny role? In 2018, back even further, in 2011, there was the first reboot or reimagining of the Looney Tunes that they had in a very long time called, The Looney Tune Show, which depicted Bugs and Daffy living in a house together and all the characters lived in a cul-de-sac. It was basically like their, you know, undercover attempt to compete with animated sitcoms. So the show was written a whole lot different than what we're used to.

The tone was very dry, you know, very, very sarcastic. But I watched them back now and I laugh. Like there's some pretty good jokes in there. that was my first introduction. I went for most of the characters, but I walked away with Marvin the Martian Earth Creature. Isn't that lovely? I love your show, Toronto, Mike,

but it blocks my view of Venus. You know, I walked away with that one, and that was, you know, the longest I've been with a Looney Tunes character. And then a few years later, that show came and went, and then they went right into the next one. You know, we're living in the age of reboots

and re-imagininges where maybe when you and I were kids, it would be like, here's one movie, and then it would go away for a few years, and then they'd bring it back. But now it's like, they're piling on top of each other, and they made one called Wabit, which they later named New Looney Tunes. And in that one, I played Marvin again,

and I think I played the two, Miehury, those two mice, yeah, yeah, sure, sure. Hey there, boy, hey there, Huby. you know, like, we're after that cheese, you know. Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. I think Mel Blank again. And then they took a little bit of a breather, but again, not really, went right into Looney Tunes cartoons.

And that's when they had audition. Because Jeff Bergman booked Bugs and Daffy for Looney Tunes show and a majority of the characters there, rightfully so. That was like his big return to these characters. and then he did Bugs and then a few other characters in new Looney Tunes. But then they opened it back up. So technically that was only the second time in a decade that I had auditioned for Bugs. And I had booked it.

Wow. Like I couldn't believe it. I was like so not expecting anything. But I booked Bugs, Daffy, Tweety, and then Marvin again. Wow. Okay. Well, firstly, congrats to you, man. I love it when Toronto boys and girls do do good.

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

Oh, I should start recording, you're telling me. We're done the pre-interview. This is the longest cold open I've ever had. I actually got to go back. Okay, so Mel Blank, as you gave you gave. gave your great credit to the,

yeah, Mel Blank, 50 years. He originates the role, of course. So I'm going to just play a little bit.

So this is actually the, this is it. This is the themes. Let's hear a little of Mel. Oh, the German lights. This is it the night of nights.

No more rehearsing and nursing a pot. We know every part by heart. Oh, the church, curtail lights. This is it. We'll hit the heights.

And oh, what heights will hit? On with the show, this is it. So I got to ask you, when you're doing bugs, Eric, are you basically doing a Mel Blank imitation? Or, like, how do you, do you just mimic how Mel did it for 50 years? You know, there's so, with YouTube, it's so easy to look up just Mel Blank in general. And I often try to find performances or,

interviews that he's done that aren't the shorts. So I can just hear, you know, how he kind of naturally Oh, like Letterman. I watched the Letterman interview from 82, if Mel, like a couple days ago. You know, they asked me, if a pig could talk, how do he talk? You know, he talked with a grunt. I went out to the countryside and I walled around with the pigs and I went back to Warner Brothers. They said, go home and take a bath. So I did that. And then I came back and I said, if a pig could talk, you talk with a grunt and it'd be only going, go, go, either the other, the other, the other day, that's all, folks, you know, like I would watch all of that.

And, you know, whether it's, I'm doing a melblank impression, going into Bugs Bunny, you know, it all depends on how you see it. You know, it will slowly depart from there and just kind of also become my own. Because, again, we're going to, we've touched upon the other gentlemen that have taken over for bugs. And although they all sound different, we forgot to mention Joe Alasky, another rest in peace voiceover artist that got to do bugs and received an Emmy Award for his performances, Daffy.

You know, they all sound different. We all sound different, but there is something about the performance that you can hear, that you could just hear the guy that's doing it back when he was 10 in front of the TV eating cereal on Saturday morning. There's something that is so like, he clearly, this guy is obsessed. you know, like with every performance. So I don't know if you have the other guys there on cue, but, you know, at least for me, Mel, yeah, it always starts there.

There's one word that I could say as a warm-up, and it's the word, all right, all right, there's something about that word for me. All right, duck. He always says it in most cartoons like, all right, you had me, guilty. It's like that wind up and down. You know, there's a high in a lot. low to his voice. That happens at the same time. That weird, like up here, if I'm not doing the accent, if we start there and you have to get that grit in the back of the trote and the nasal at the same time and then the New York Brooklyn accent.

I'm glad you brought that up. Okay, so because Mel Blank describes it as like taking a Bronx and a Brooklyn accent and kind of mashing him up. But there's a famous claim by Tex Avery that he asked Mel Blank to give the. character, I'll put it in the words, not a New York accent per se, but a voice like that of actor Frank McHugh. Have you ever heard Frank McHugh talk? I haven't heard Frank McHugh, but I've heard of Clark, Clark Gable, was that it? Clark, of course, from Gone of the Wind, right? Yeah, was it Clark? No, no, no. Was it not Clark Gable? I'm screwing up my trivia. Thank God for phones. We're exposing you, Eric.

I'll have to fix this and post. I mean, I need it. You know, you got to keep on that. Okay, well, while you think of that here, let me tell you that, okay, so Frank McHugh, for those who don't know, and that's most people listening, he was often, like, he was a supporting actor in the 1930s. And his voice was kind of described as, like, New York Irish. And I couldn't find a lot of Frank online, but I found a little bit. So I'm going to just play like 10 seconds, maybe, actually, four seconds of Frank. Here we go.

I have to pack and unpack that lingerie many more times. I'll turn into a big sissy. Okay, so did you hear that? Yeah, yeah. So that's a little frank. And apparently Tex Avery wanted some Frank McHugh in the voice of bugs. And that's how, yeah, that's what, that's what some crack research is uncovered here. Clark Gable, and it happened one night.

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

It's all that old thumb, see? Yeah. Now, some people do it like this. Or like this. All wrong. Never get anywhere. Oh, the poor thing. Yeah, boy, but that old thumb never failed.

It's all matter how you do it, though. Now, you take number one, for instance. That's a short jerky moving like this. That shows independence. You don't care whether it's top or not. You got money in your pocket, see? Clever. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, but number two, that's a little wider movement. Smile goes with this one like this. See, that to me, that performance... You know, Doc, every time, you know, he's trying to get one over on someone, you know, he's always eaten, Doc. I actually, in my audition, I'll have to send it to you or like the small excerpt of it, I actually am eating carrots in my audition when I audition for bugs.

There's a moment where it's a direct callback from a short where he's reading about Gremlins. and how they destroy technology. Gremlins are, you know, and that was back before he was like more like this. It was more like, you know, very, it's almost reminiscent of Peter Griffin from Family Guy, you know, almost like this.

But Gremlins like to destroy automobiles. That's a bunch of horse eggs. And while I was reading all that, I was eating baby carrots in my audition. Apparently, Mel was allergic to carrots. So he would actually eat celery. And sometimes carrots, and then he would spit it out right away. But, you know, almost all the time when we're in session, I will ask for a small, like, you know, cup of baby carrots in case he is eating.

And, yeah, I mean, if you listen to Clark Gable with a mouth full of carrots, Doc, you know, that's like Bugs Bunny got. Wow. What's up, you know, it's everything that adds to that character. Oh, again, man, you got this role. Like, I just, sometimes I have to, even during this little conversation, like, I'm talking to Bugs Bunny. Like, is there a bigger role in the world of animation? Like, is there? I mean, you know, unless you count Mickey.

Boy, you know, I don't think I could do that one anymore. Conflict of interest. But, I mean, come on, come on, let's be honest here. I mean, Mickey's Mickey. No disrespect to Mickey. But, I mean, we're about to see the reboot of Space Jam with LeBron James. I think in terms of like generations being familiar or wanting to see a character,

I think this is the biggest role in animation, Bugs Bunny, I would say. Yeah, you know, he's definitely, he sold a lot of shoes, let's put it that way for Nike and the Jordan company, the Jordan brand. And, you know, you're talking about a kid who would often run down the stairs

of Kennedy Station just to catch a glimpse of those promo posters for Space Jam. It was like these really cool, slick you know, the only two colors on the poster were red and black and the characters were in silhouette and the background was red and I'm telling you from like one side of the platform all the way to the end of the subway platform had like Tweety, Daffy, all the monsters, Jordan, bugs, you know,

everyone, Sylvester, they all had a poster. Newman. Taz had a poster. Wayne Knight. Hi there, Michael. We're late for the game. We've got to get your Jordans and your Big Mac. Oh, speaking of.

Jurassic Park. I know you referenced it earlier. Another great way. So I almost feel bad for you, though, Scarborough, Eric, because you only have the one station, right? Like, we have a lot. I'm in a Tobico right now, and there's, let me do, I would do the Malley. You got Old Mill, you got Kipling, you got Islington.

There's three stations in the Tobico. That's right. We get the one. And that's all we need. We have the LRT, though. We have the Midland LRT, which was right by the recycling plant. So every time the doors would open, It always smelled like someone cut one. So before we talk about, you know,

Space Jam and some of the other amazing characters that you do, let's just go retro styles. Let's go back since you're a Toronto guy. And this will give you an opportunity because I know you've got a like a business tied to retro. But when I first saw, like I think it was about a week ago, I saw you did some media piece. And you were wearing in this video I watched, which is really why I reached out because I said,

oh my God, he's from Toronto. I had no idea. you were wearing a Mr. Dress-Up shirt. And, I mean, this is Toronto Mike. This is, I'm a nostalgia merchant, okay? Yeah. This is what we do in this show. I can't wait to talk about this episode on our pandemic Friday recording on Thursday night.

Like, this is what we do. In fact, oh, so many things. Like, overload. I'm about to explode here. But let's start with the fact that like the Mr. Dress-Up shirt, right now you're wearing a hilarious house of Freitenstein shirt. Like this is right in my wheelhouse. Tell me about the biz, and then let's talk a little more about like retro Toronto stuff. I love that shit.

So again, I grew up in Toronto in the 80s. I was born in 1979, right at downtown. I think St. Joseph's. And I live on St. Joseph's, but we don't call that downtown, though. That's Parkdale. Okay, Parkdale. Thank you. Thank you for correcting my geometry there.

The geography, sorry, of where everything is. It's very important. That was it. I was, you know, on Jameson Avenue. That was, lived in some of those apartments there. And then we moved to Scarborough, right by Corvette Park, Alfreds and Sons. Here's the thing that I miss most about Toronto's, the fish and chips. You can't, I was in England and I had fish and chips and it sucked compared to Toronto's fishing chips. And Alfred and Sons was like the best. It was, I was like on Linden Avenue in Scarborough by Corvette Park. there was a there was like a pizza nova around the corner or gold was like pizza nova or golden pizza

gold i don't know but so many different like uh you know places to eat and and uh just the culture itself i grew up watching i'd say that mr dressup was one of the best there was uh there was parley moa with saul the uh the hobo clown who used to scare the crap out of me as a child yeah on tv o yeah cucumber Club, you know, of course, Poca Dot Door, today's special. Absolutely. You know, there are so many things that I grew up watching. Hilarious House of Frightenstein. The Librarian was the freakiest character

to ever be considered a child entertainer. And then there was, you know, of course, Looney Tunes. Always Looney Tunes in the background. But Toronto, oh my gosh, SCTV, kids in the hall. but SCTV, that that program alone for me was like, I would be obsessed with these actors who could play not only original characters but would pull off the most absurd impressions.

You know, John Candia's Hervey Villages. You know, I mean, so many people. Okay, tell me this then. When you're in California, and all of a sudden, everyone's talking about Schitts Creek. And it's, like, it wins. all the Emmys and they're like, yeah, like, what's it like for you? Are you like, are you sort of like able to tell your American friends like, oh yeah, you know, Catherine O'Hare and Eugene Lovie?

You know, it's all about Eugene Levy. I mean, if we're going to talk about Schengrink, we have to talk about Eugene Levy. I love the guy, you know, aside from the guy he played the dad in American Pie, you know, he was Bobby Bittman as well as, was the Earl Cannon Bear? I forget, you know. Yes, yes, he was. It was one of my favorites. And that's also in the same wheelhouse as my Dan Aykroyd impression. Yes, also a guy who loves the supernatural.

He wrote Ghostbusters. And I caught a glimpse of him at the Ghostbusters Fest at Sony Studios very much. Thank you very much. But, you know, I love Eugene Levy. He's one of my favorites. What a guy. And then Schitt's Creek just comes in and just destroys everyone, you know? Wow.

Do you feel this sense of pride? Like, you know this is a Toronto thing? Absolutely. And it's, it's, I feel like now more than ever. This, you know, Looney Tunes cartoons premiered in March. And you know what else premiered in March? COVID. So there wasn't a lot of, everyone loves the COVID show. But, God, I hate COVID. But it's COVID, you know. But it took over everything. Nothing was, was important. Like, the biggest news that Looney Tunes cartoons got was that it was beating reruns of Game of Thrones and Sopranos. It was the number one watch and continued to be throughout the year, the number one watched thing on HBO Max. Wow. And that was great. And I, I, I, I love that. I was always proud of that show, but no one really cared that I was this new voice of Bugs Bunny until December when people were sick of COVID. And I had a, a dear friend of mine who is an editor, 17 years at the national on CBC.

Sure, okay. Janem again, she's the one that was like, you know what? They keep asking me to do like non-COVID related stories. And I've been dying, you know, ever since March, I've wanted, you know, we graduated in 2001 at the Bell Center, Centennial. We were at Papen Mortimer, the Bell Center campus, the original shooting location of DeGrasi Jr. High. Oh, my God.

Yeah, Joey Jeremiah was at my graduation. I was going to say, I just had. had Joey Jeremiah on Toronto mic four weeks ago. He will only be known as Joey Jeremiah. Oh, that's it. And you know what? No joke. And you can listen back and see, I know his name is Pat.

Okay. But at least twice during that conversation, I accidentally call him Joey, which would be like if I started calling you bugs, right? Oh, that's fine. I wouldn't care. You know, it's, and I'm sure he doesn't either. I mean, we're talking about a character that, you know,

from Canadian pop culture that has stood, We're talking about Georgia, the power of Pat. The Zit Remedy, man. I love it. I still kick out everybody wants something, you know? Come on. Although the try, I know you're aware of everything, but the true tragedy, of course,

is when you stop down and think about what happened to the, not only wheels the character, which is a tragic character, but the actor who plays wheels. Like, we can never have a Zit Remedy reunion. Right, right. It's tough. It's a tough pill to swallow.

But at the same time, we can pay homage and tribute. And that's what Retro Kid is. That's the company. So Retro Kid, tell me about Retro Kid. So my high school friend and I, Steve Gaskin, you know, best friends since high school, still best friends. We love graphic T-shirts. I was, again, of the child of the 90s, I would wear Bart Simpson shirts.

People would laugh and be like, yeah, you know, it's a little nerdy. But nowadays, you walk into a room with something like this on and people just want to, like, this glows in the dark, by the way. We made sure that this glows in the dark. Well, I love it. To tell people who are listening on the podcast, the hilarious House of Frightenstein, the words glow in the dark. Amazing.

Amazing. One of a fully licensed product, by the way. None of our stuff is bootleg. We contact, you know, people, we've worked with TVO. And, I mean, TVO doesn't work with anyone. Okay, talk to me about this, because, you know,

Ed Conroy from Retro Ontario is a frequent guest on this program. And we play, you know, in fact, this is the first Christmas in many years. We won't be doing a Christmas Crackers volume. because we're being very safe. And he doesn't want to do it on Zoom because he says you can't capture that magic. And I appreciate that.

So we'll do it when we can. But we play. Retro Ontario himself has been one of our biggest supporters. I'll bet. Entered the scene. We've contacted him. We're friends. We do contests with him.

He is, you know, the access of the vault that he has is insane. And, you know, hopefully working our way towards an electric circus t-shirts or, you know, speakers corner t-shirt. You know. Okay, I don't know if you can see that, okay,

but that's an electric circus beer that we brewed at the local craft brewery is a Great Lakes brewery. And the guy on the cover, and you, let me think, yeah,

you'll be, I'm doing your math and you'll be fine of this. Do you know who that is on the cover? Is it the guy at the cowboy hat, which was the, well,

it's the cowboy who's the electric circus dancer. And here's a fun fact I can share with you, which I hope you don't know because it'll be more fun. But his name is Cape.

Pompeii, this dancer, and he is the father of former Toronto Blue Jay, Pompeii, Dalton Pompeii. So Dalton Pompeii's dad was the cowboy. And this beer, which they brewed with permission from the cowboy, so the folks at Great Lakes actually reached out. But it was brewed because basically, you know, Great Lakes sponsors Toronto Mike. And I had on Joel Goldberg, who, by the way, ready for this,

so Joel Goldberg, who's one of the creators of Electric Circus, and is a great FOTM like you are now. He also, by the way, here. All right, okay. Oh, my God. He also directed the video for Maestro Fresh West's Let Your Backbone Slide. Really?

Only the best song ever to come out of T.O. That is sign. You got to put that in a frame, my friend. Unless you play the vinyl often, I don't know. I don't even have anything to play the vinyl on that. I'm all over the place. something at urban outfiters. All over the place, but the bottom line is retrofit.

So people like me can buy these licensed prints. RetroKid.ca. We've done, we did this. The first round we did was, I kind of like to call it the out-of-business businesses. So we did a buy-way announced their comeback. So we did a buy-way shirt. we did beaver lumber, we did bargain heralds, we did WOLCO, we did, gosh, we did video 99, not jumbo video, but I was a huge video 99 guy.

You know, I wanted to do consumers distributing. My idea for consumers distributing would be the Royal Blue long sleeve with the logo consumers distributing down one sleeve and then the pencil, just that little pencil that you would have to use. You have no idea how like, targeted you are in the wheelhouse here that we talk about consumers distributing all the time. But I got to go back to Byway, okay? Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely, please.

Byway, which has come up on probably 200 episodes of Toronto Mike. So there's actually, in my hood, there's a Rogue Byway. Yes. So that's where you live by the Rogue Byway? I live by the Rogue Byway. In fact, if you Google Rogue Byway, I'm the guy who wrote about it and has the SEO juice, if you will. I'm the Rogue Byway man, not to brag here. I'm the rogue byway man.

Cam Gordon from Twitter, Canada, who joins Stu Stone, who I'm going to talk to you about in just a moment, on these Pandemic Friday episodes. He once gifted me, because he knows about my love of byway nostalgia, if you will. He gifted me a byway bag, and then I tweeted, like, this byway bag,

and it started showing up in all those, like, mainstream article. Yeah. So that's my biway bag that I took. Okay, because that's the one thing that I researched. There was, like, of course, there's a ton of buyaway commercials, but I wanted that, the one that had the, like the checker, the, you know, the checker print, buyway, and then I did the circle above that.

So if I want a buyway shirt, retrokid.com? Is that what it is? Dot ca. Retrokid.cad.c.c.a. Retrochid.ca will sell me a byway shirt? I don't know. I was going to get my wallet. I was going to just say, take it, take it all.

Here's the thing. We've done two rounds of it, and they've sold out every time, and we don't want to get in trouble now, now that we're out of the cats out of the bag. However, I have the design. I have a direct-to-printer printer here in LA. I will custom make a one-of-one buy-way shirt, or do you want a hoodie?

I'll make you a hoodie. Oh, a medium t-shirt. Are you kidding me? Yeah, no, no, I'm not kidding you. I design all the shirts. I do all the digital cleanup because, you know, everything's from scratch because no one in Toronto saves anything. Every design that you've seen.

Like, for instance, everything from Mr. Dressup to, you know, that Casey and Finnegan shirt I designed. Okay, I love it. I collect a lot of this crap now because it's, but that's the Talk in Baseball 10th anniversary Blue Jee. Anyway, okay, the byway shirt medium would be so amazing. I don't even know what to say. Hold on. I'm writing down in order.

Throw on Mike. Byway, medium. Okay, but before I forget, because Stu Stone will kill me if I don't mention this. So I mentioned Stu Stone. The man was in Donnie Darko. He was Ralphie in the Magic School Bus. He's done his own cartoon voiceover. Become a very good friend because I've spent the last 40 weeks with him in my backyard

because we've been doing these Pandemic Friday episodes since the pandemic struck. So he, his dad, oh, there's a documentary you've got to find called Jack of All, Jack of All Trades. And it's a Stu Stone directed it. And it's about his dad, his estranged father, who sadly passed away this summer actually. But his estranged father, Jack, used to own and operate Sluggers. Sluggers was a Toronto store that dealt like baseball cards and baseball and sports memorabilia. Where was it located? They're North York guys.

So I want to say North York. but I'm Googling the but there's a very in fact in the most and I'm all over pleasure but in the most recent see how excited I'm to talk to you

the most recent Stu Stone movie which is called Faking a Murderer he wears a retro sluggers shirt in this and we were chatting

about you coming on and he said he would absolutely love and he's I think he owns like the copyright or whatever but like if you produce

sluggers shirts like we could we could sell slugger shirts just the listeners of Toronto miced. Like that's how popular this is. I feel like if we did a limited run, it would be our pleasure. I'll have to afford that info to Steve. And if you guys want to collaborate on something. Yeah, I would love to like if I put you in touch with Stu, you know, you should see his IMDB page. It's quite impressive. That man did a rap album of Jamie Kennedy that sold 300,000 copies. Oh, man. That's the dream right there. Jamie Kennedy is awesome. He's still around and kicking and doing all sorts of stuff. An amazing voice talent himself. Oh, my God.

And I'm going to invent it shortly. So I showed you, this is how it all connects, right? That's the whole thing here. But I showed you the Maestro Fresh West 12-inch. I'm about to bring up somebody else who had an album out of similar vintage, who's out in California doing voiceover work. I'm going to bring him up in a minute. So, okay, so the sluggers, I just want to make sure I brought that up.

I'm going to put you in touch with Stu Stone. RetroKid.ca sounds like catnip to me. Like, that sounds like heaven, man. The byway shirt, like, I'd wear it in every photo I'd take. It would be like, I would never wash it. We've had Russell Peters wear the byway shirt. We had Cardinal Ophichel wear the byway shirt. You know, we would love to have you dressed Eric McCormick online.

Like, you know, I brought up hilarious House of Frankenstein to Paul Myers, who I believe is... He's in California. Yeah, brothers with Mike. Yes, he is. And he's a kids in the hall. He wrote the book on Kids in the Hall. Yep. I used to be neighbors with Dave Foley. Like, he would always be like, hey, Toronto.

Like, I would have my blue, I always wore a Blue J's hat. Now I'm onto the Raptors gear. Love it. You know, I just, I haven't told LeBron that. But, hey, you remember when you sweep this two years in a row? Man, I forgot about it. Really, I don't hold grudges. But, yeah, Retro Kid is amazing.

We did TVO. We did Inspector Gadget, which is a Canadian co-production. Right. And then recently we did CBC, which had the raccoons as well as Mr. Dressup. Stu Stone did a voice on the raccoons. Oh, you're kidding me. Well, there you go. I mean, like, it all comes full circle.

Okay. So Raccoons, Mr. Dressup. Who else you got on that CBC list? We just did the classic CBC hoodie. It had the CBC gem. And then, you know, we're hoping to do a second series. I'm hoping to produce a really good David Suzuki T-shirt, the nature of things.

All I want is the hair, the glasses, and then the beard. I love it. I love it. I love it. Honestly, this is amazing stuff. And I have a, now I just check the clock.

Like, I know you don't have, like, all night for me here. And I have so many other little things I got to get to here. But did I read correctly that you had a,

at least for a little while, you were a stand-up comic? You know, who's the one that was trying to get me on stage? And actually, maybe one of the first guys, was, you know, a very tall gentleman

by the name of Harlan Williams. He was like, hey, Bowser, you're a funny guy. You should just get up there, you know, just, and I'm like, Harlan, I'm not like you. I watch Harlan and another friend of mine, Carlos Ellis Rocky, he was the voice of the Taco Bell Chihuahua as well as Rocco from Rocco's Modern Life on Nickelodeon. And also recently, you know, he's one of the main cast members on Reno 911. He plays Garcia. But he was also, you know, another guy along with Harlan that was like, I would watch them do stand-up comedy, back-to-back sets, same jokes, but different

audiences, which made them completely different sets, you know? Like, Harland is a master of just, you know, callbacks, and you ever go home and run around and put lettuce in your hair and pretend you're a lettuce monster? And then people would be like, no. And he's like,

you will. His jokes are amazing. They're just, like, really fast and just so, like, you know, They're thinkers, but not really. They just go in and out. You get a laugh. He's like a Rodney Dangerfield type.

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

Great cameo in the, there's something about Mary as well for Harlan. Oh my God. You know, six, six minute abs. Oh, it's great. And I got to just shout out Harlan Williams. My, he's my, okay, so my favorite iteration of Ed the Sock ever was when he had Harlan Williams as his co-host on the on cable 10. That was my favorite. So. Yeah. Ed the Sock, man, when he when he had the hot tub, when he was in the hot tub on city. God, there's so much good stuff that has come out of Canada. And, you know, I'm happy to remind people of that always, because I'm very proud to be from Toronto.

All right, so I know you did some voices for the Teenage Mead and Ninja Turtles, right? Yep, I've voiced Leonardo, I've voiced Donatello, and I've voiced Master Splinter and an original character named Tiger Claw which was basically like there was Bebop and Rocksteady who would always mess up for Shredder and then Tiger Claw was this like

Yakuza you know sniper and like you know gangster and he would no nonsense he was like the Moe if Bebop and Rocksteady were Larry and Curley he was Moe here's the question for you Eric

did you ever own the coming out of their shells album that was distributed by Pizza Hut. That was, that is a big, you know, a big, like, you know, a proud, I never owned it, but I always wanted it. And I know what, did it come with like a meal that it was it like? Yeah, I think it was like $3.99 or something with a, with some kind of a bundle. See, I only discovered it like after the fact that, like, and I have it now because of YouTube. Thank you, YouTube.

but it's really good. It doesn't have any business being that good. And I don't know if that's the nostalgia or whatever. I played it recently on Toronto Mike. And I just wondered if you actually were lucky enough to own a copy of coming out of their shots. I did not own it, but I'll tell you, there's a toy company by the name of NECA, N-E-C-A or C-C-A. I got a shout out a Canadian, a fellow Canadian, one of their top sculptors, Trevor Zamet. If you see him, look him up on Instagram.

he sculpted almost all of the gremlins from gremlins one and two he sculpted all of the theatrical ninja turtles toys like all those giant ones that are like it looks like the movie and I think they did a coming out of their shells version of the toy and you know maybe I could try to find one oh man I just just just think it's way Who's your favorite ninja turtle? Probably Michael because I'm a mike so I always like Mikey

and also I love pizza but I mean they all love pizza but Mikey really loved his pizza. If one exists, along with a byway shirt, I will be, I will be sending you a Michelangelo coming out of their shells action figure along with your buyaway t-shirt. You know, that's what we do at RetroKid is like, you're going to say, you've sacrificed time for me. The least I could do is clutter your studio. Dude, I'm not even recording this. I just wanted to chat up Bugs Bunny, okay? This is amazing.

This is going to be the biggest cold open, I swear. Okay, so, and I do have some space jam questions, but I'll save them. I want to know, basically, here's the guy I was talking. So I mentioned Maestro Fresh West. I love, like, I just love rap anyway, but I love Canadian rap. Like, I just love the origin of Canadian rap and Mishimi and Maestro. And I love Kish, okay? Yeah, Andrew Kishino.

Right. So I was, when the COVID hit and I had to pivot to Zoom, I figured, well, if I'm going to do Zoom, now is a chance to pick up some guests I've wanted on for a long time. time that are, you know, don't live in the GTA and can't wander over to my home studio here. So, Kish was one of my first calls there. And Kish was fantastic. So I had Kish on and I'm wondering, did you ever work with Kish on any projects? We worked together, together and not together.

We were on the, I believe it was WonderCon panel to advertise Batman versus Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It was a direct-to-d-d-D-D feature film, which was a... backed by Warner Brothers and Nickelodeon, the current owners of TMNT, and it was awesome. It generated toys. We're living at an age where kids love the digital games. They hardly, you know, make tangible toys in it. I have my own Leonardo action figure from that.

And Andrew Casino, you know, top tier voiceover artists here in L.A. was the voice of Shredder, which is amazing. We didn't get to share booth time, actually. Did you have a private convo? Because you're both from Scarborough. Oh, yeah. We've also shared characters like Storm Shadow. I played Storm Shadow in a one-off called G.I. Joe Resolute.

It was Hasbro's attempt to bring G.I. Joe to the 14 and up generation and audience. So there was people died. There were bullets. There was blood. I have a photo with myself, Andrew Kishino, Keone Young, who played the original Storm Shadow in the very first 80s, G.I. Joe. So it's like three different storm shadows in one photo. And Andrew is amazing.

He's again, another, you know, genuine article from Toronto. He's great. And on his most excellent album, Order from Chaos, on the song, she's a flirt, let's do it, which got high rotation on much music. Lucy from DeGrassey is one of the stars of the video. Oh, you're kidding me. Anais Grinovsky. Yeah, so go to YouTube later and look up.

She's a flirt. Let's do it. And he also revealed to me, Kish, that for that album, which I own, so I paid, like, I think I paid like 16 or 17 bucks for it at Sam the record, man. I think he got like pennies, literally received pennies for that album, which explains why he's in California right now doing cartoon and video game voiceover work. But you know, I know, and I don't want to get political here, but it's like, when I decided to make the move, it was, yeah, because the idea and prospect of making residuals versus being a Canadian voice actor where you only get the buyout rate, which is fine, you know, but at the time, there wasn't a lot being produced in Toronto. However, every time, of course, when I say every time the non-pandemic years before this one, every time I would visit, I would turn the TV on and, oh, my God, the amount of original animation that's being produced right now in Toronto and in Vancouver, you know, co-productions or homegrown is insane. And it, you know, I talked to Cree Summer,

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

I would be a baby. I would be in the basement sucking my thumb. I've lived through two Ottawa winters, so let's put it into perspective. Yeah, a long, long time ago. But again, again, this is the Stu Show. He'll love this. But, you know, he's a Toronto guy. North York guy, and then he moved to L.A. for his career because he was in Donny Darko and all these

things. And now he's back. And I see him out there in my backyard when it's like two or three degrees. And he's literally shivering while Cam and I are like, we're balmy, you know. It's just he's been ruined. L.A.'s ruin the man. So, uh, it's the desert climate. It changes you forever. I don't know. Now, you, uh, you mentioned Billy West earlier because he was a voice of bugs on the original space jam and now you're the voice of bugs in the the new space jam but you're also stimpy right and in that there's there's a tell me because i loved it i know it's problematic now but oh yeah very problematic and uh you know even even when it wasn't it was because i was i was there and i saw some stuff and you know witnessed that aspect of of the me too movement as far as

you know, and this is this is where it gets like, I don't want to get too deep. And to be perfectly honest, no one's ever asked me about it. And I'm surprised. But since you brought it up. Because John Kay, right, has been allegations that are out there? Yeah. But I can confirm at least, you know, as far as, you know, in a position of power, not just when it comes to females, but males in general. It's tough.

It's tough because, you know, I saw people like, like, like, grown men. and women cry over getting stuff approved. And it shouldn't be that hard. It's cartoons. Even the greatest cartoons that were ever made, like Looney Tunes or Disney, you look at them and none of them are ever perfect. There are still some scenes that are like,

eh, that could have been better. Right. But no one lost sleep over it, or at least as far as I know, or no one had a mental breakdown over it. or there was no, you know, animosity stirred up from nothing, you know, like I would see people get pit against each other, friendships lost for no reason, you know, like, and that's what I'm talking about. It's like, it's that weird, like, power play.

And I was never a huge fan of it, you know, and it was something that I recognized and kind of moved on from immediately. And, you know, like, kind of, you know, you. you know, Billy West and I are our friends. I love him. He's an inspiration. And, you know, we've never really talked much about that part of both of our past. But, you know, I never had any ill will towards him taking over that voice. In fact, I was not even like the second choice after they had approached Billy about doing it.

And he knew better. He was like, no, thanks. You know, he was already Fry on Futurama as well as the Red M&M. He didn't need to be part of a reboot that was, you know, It was like being on board the Titanic. You know, it's like, the ship is sinking. But, you know, it was, for me, it was like I was the third or fourth choice after they went to Plan B and that didn't work.

They went to Plan C, which was they were going to make Stimpy a mute character. And then they're like, anyone in the studio wanted, you know, ask the product, the production manager. I wasn't even an artist yet. I was a production manager. Oh. That just goes to show you. you know, how, you know, how, how this guy, you know, John would, would dangle carrots in front of people.

Like, oh, you want to do that? Well, make sure that everything's organized first. And then maybe we'll, we'll see if you're good enough to do voices. And it was like tough, you know, like, here's a guy that, you know, created an amazing show that impacted the industry as a whole and humor as a whole. and there, and then you really find out what kind of person he is. And it is a really sad thing. And I feel awful for the people that he's, you know, really had an adverse effect on. And I hope that they, they recover from it. But, yeah, it's, it's strange. It is a strange situation. And I'm in a much better place now.

And, you know, the only thing. thing that I could be thankful for was that I've, the friendships that I made working at that studio, uh, the people that left that studio went on to greater things and, um, you know,

you go to a different studio after being in a boot camp like that and you're like, my God, they have bagel Friday here, you know, like they, they treat their employees nice here. My lord, you know,

like it's, it's, it's amazing how you're put in the, you know, you're in the trenches and then, you, You know, the grass is always greener on the other side. I think my son is home.

Oh, no. In the home stretch here, in the home stretch here, by way, I'm shocked that when you do your five-minute appearance on CP-24, they don't just ask you running stimpy questions. Like, I'm shocked. That's not happening. You know, but you're of a different breed, my friend. You are the real journalist. You are digging deep.

We do deep dives here. Okay. So, in this fact, speaking of deep dives, my oldest son, so you've got the four-year-old there. I have an 18-year-old who can leave. drink in like five weeks. I think we did the math. Five weeks he can legally drink. Yeah, it's coming soon.

And I mean, that was blowing my mind, but he's in university, and I was just chatting with him earlier. And we were talking, when we were young, when we were young, when he was younger, we used to watch this show called the Ripping Friends. Yes, okay. And I personally gravitated towards the ripping friends, and he loved it too. But we loved it. I loved it because it had the voice of Mark Daly in it.

Mark Daly, the voice. but even before Mark Daly, Harvey Atkin, the voice of Leon's. Of course. Who was the original voice of Craig, the leader of the ripping friends. And then, yeah. And Mike McDonald's in there. Yeah, another rest of peace, right? Jeez, another legend.

And I got to meet Mike McDonald. And, you know, he was a great guy, a true blue-collar Canadian stand-up comic. and again, I was working at a studio called Cambium, which was responsible for Sharon Lois and Bram, the Elephant Show. Of course. I would walk by this gentleman's office. And I was, again, a production assistant.

I was sorting checks and mail and keeping track of the art on ripping friends. But I would always often walk by an office who was occupied. This guy, Larry Markie. was his name. And just a high bye in the morning. Hi, Larry. Bye, Larry.

Going home, Larry. You know, like Sam and Ralph on Looney Tunes, the wolf and the sheepdog. Hi, Sam. Hi, Ralph. You know, it was like that. Until my last day of work when I actually stepped into his office to say goodbye. And the entire wall was decorated with nominations for the show Fraggle Rock. Ah, which was filmed here.

which was filmed in Toronto while Jim Henson and the Henson Company while he was in England. Larry showed me old like telegraphs and like the very first version of email that he would be getting course. He's like this is like when when email was like, you know, was carrier pigeon. And I was like this whole time I could have been talking to you about Fragal Rock and only on my last day of work. this, like, you know, literally a humble guy. And, but, yeah, Annette Frymer and Arnie Zeperski over at Cambium, I don't know, they're probably still there. And, you know, that's another one that I would love to get on a shirt is that spider that

goes, this has been a Cambium production, you know, like that little spider at the end. So before I know, before I let you go, what was it like working with the voice? I mean, we talked about City TV. I love the characters from City TV. I work of a bunch of them now. I got to know what it was like working on a show with Mark Daley. Well, I mean, again,

you're talking to, from one super hardcore Toronto trivia Canadian to another, I was floored when I heard he was going to be on the show. And I tried really hard to get in there.

I only caught a glimpse of him like once. But, you know, I made him say, I made him say it's CDTV everywhere. Well, here, let me find this. I play this on Pandemic Friday sometime. Let me see if I have loaded up here.

Okay, let's let me, let's only take a few seconds here. The following program contains adult themes, nudity and coarse language. Viewer and parental discretion is advised. So what I want to do with RetroKid is do the late great movies t-shirt and have that film reel spaceship. But then on the back, have that disclaimer like on the back of the shirt. Absolutely. That's my dream shirt. but yeah

I mean we could I know we could talk forever and I don't want to No at some point if you ever want to shoot the breeze on this stuff drop me a note because we should do a sequel we have so much to do

but can I ask you lastly about because I'm married to a Filipino Canadian okay and part of the fun of that is that I'm very aware of famous Filipinos like oh the guy in black eyed peas or the woman in the pussycat

I was like, I know where the Filipinos are. We're scattered around the universe. We're a very endangered species, the Filipino. Right. Or it'll be like, oh, this anchor on CP24 or this person who, you know, doing the Raptor. Chris Reyes, who's doing Raptors, this, that. Anyway, you are also Filipino Canadian. And big news for in animation lately, for example, a character like Cleveland and family guy.

Yeah. He was a black character voiced by a white guy. Or Apu in the Simpsons. A lot of voices in The Simpsons actually that Hank Azaria would do or other white actors. But then they said, okay, from now on, you know, no white people are doing voices for people of color, characters of color. So I guess a couple of questions here, but one is, what do you think of that? Like, was that important to you? Yeah, here's the thing.

It really does, you know, because I've been guilty of it before myself. You know, I'm the voice match for Antonio Banderish for Push and Much. you know there is a very way a very specific way that he speaks when he does this voice and i equated to how my parents speak with the filipino accent from toronto you know when eric when you come back home to scarborough you have to go to the cemetery and visit your grandmother you know and i'm like what the cemetery they're like that's what i said the cemetery you know when when you hear antonio speak it's not like i'm hearing any kind of like i'm hearing an accent from you know his you know his descent but what I'm hearing is my parents

trying to sound less Filipino and more Caucasian. And that's where I think the charm of someone like Antonio's accent comes into play. And if you've ever seen him in the booth, he is having the time of his life. There's a very special video that they did to promote Puss in Boots.

And it's basically Antonio Benderas over at LA Studios. You could tell by the chairs and he is going through lines from the movie. Like he'll do three takes for every line. And it's the most amazing thing. He's having so much fun. When I voiced that character for DreamWorks for about five seasons on Netflix, it was, again, less about the accent and more about the unpredictability of where the accent lies with Antonio.

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

He's not, he's not doing like blackface, offensive. stereotypes. He's doing a specific like something that something in his life where like he met someone someone specific that it sounds like a very specific tone, you know, but then there are voices on something like the Simpsons where it's like

you know, they even made a joke about it where it's like, you know, we do stereotypes and then they had the Italian pizza guy come in. They had like the pirate guy come in. They had the, you know, the dojo instructor come in and say their one catchphrase. the bumblebee guy. But people often forget,

the main characters of the Simpsons are the all-American white family that are ultimately being spoofed. So voices of color, people of color being represented, yes, I applaud it. But I feel like still, I hope that we get back to that point

in our lives and in our society. I think we need to address the important heavy stuff now that is killing people on the street. Yes, but I hope that we can get back to a place in comedy where we can still laugh at ourselves and make fun of ourselves. And I feel like that's a huge part of who we are as Torontoians. We're big self-deprecators.

I'm a huge fan of Conan O'Brien because of how much self-deprecation he does. And it's like, that's me. Like I'm, you know, like my joke is like, you're going to look at like this like long line of white voice actors that have voice bugs bunny and you're going to end up on the, the kid from up you know i look like russell from up you know like that's a joke you're laughing and i said it because i know it's and it's true visually it's it's funny and you know it's you know people could be like oh my god like oh oh yeah oh he's asian but it's like yeah who cares you know like i i don't want it to

be like a crutch like oh just because i'm asian now i'm the voice of bugs money no no no no no really thought about it but now they're looking at it going oh my god like He's Filipino and he's the voice of Bugs Bunny. It's a proud moment for Filipinos, but I don't think it's something that we were suffering from. It's not like the Filipinos are like, we need to be the voice of Looney Tunes, you know, like I think they're celebrating it in a different way,

not in a way that we were repressed. And I feel like, you can ask your wife this, Filipinos, like of all like the, you know, we're South Pacific Islander, but of all of all like the people that look like us visually, like the, you know, the Japanese, the Koreans, the Chinese, you know, Indonesian, Thailand, Filipinos have some,

for whatever reason, escaped any kind of, like, ridicule, like we don't really get made fun of that much. And I don't know why, and I don't, I'm not asking you guys to make fun of us. I'm not, I'm not giving you an open evite to,

hey, come make fun of our people. But I'm just saying, we've been pretty good as far as, it's just kind of like, okay, we've kind of slid through racism. Again, I've been, living here in in LA for 15 years, not once has anyone ever come up to me and said any

kind of racist slur. It's been very strange. But, you know, I'll just say this. These Canadian voice actors, you know, they're coming in here. They're stealing all of our jobs. We've got to do something about this, okay? We've got to make, here's my idea. We're going to build a wall around Canada. It's going to be made out of Putin, that delicious food. French fries, graving. I believe they call it Putin, right? It's, I don't know what it is, but I like having it in my mouth. But yeah, I feel like, you know, we got to get rid of these Canadian voice acts. Hi, how are you? She can't hear you. He says hi. That's Eric. Yeah. Monica Lacedo, there's Jolly Bees in the GTA now. What? Oh, yeah. Well, they had,

the first Jollybee was that not at Kennedy Commons? The first Jollybee was at Kennedy, Kennedy Commons, right? She thinks so, yeah. We're West Enders here. We don't know what. what's going on over there, but I remember seeing the longest line for chicken. Like, they had to build, they had to build tents because the amount of people lined up. It was like the first 12 people who got in line would get free chicken for a year at Jollybee. Something like that. It was a big deal. It was a big deal. But Eric, this was a big deal for me. Like, thanks so much for all this time. What a great chat. And anytime you want to shoot the breeze again, just ping me and we'll jump on Zoom and do it. It was fun. We'll have a part two. Dori.

This is not over Toronto Mike fans. This is Bugs Bonnie signing off. That's all, folks. We will have our time again. And I know that this is, you know, we're independent. What else are we going to do? Thanks, Eric. Honestly, that was great.

Thanks, buddy.