Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Richard Crouse: Toronto Mike'd #323

Episode Date: April 10, 2018

Mike chats with movie critic Richard Crouse about his years as a bartender, co-hosting Reel to Real, hosting The Richard Crouse Show on 1010, his cancer scare, his love of Elvis Costello, Pop Life on CTV and so much more.

Welcome to episode 323 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery located here in Etobicoke. Did you know that 99.99% of all Great Lakes beer remains here in Ontario? GLB, brewed for you, Ontario. And propertyinthesix.com, Toronto real estate done right. And Paytm, an app designed to manage all of your bills in one spot. Download the app today from paytm.ca. And our newest sponsor, Camp Tournesol,

the leading French summer camp provider in Ontario. I'm Mike from torontomike.com, and joining me is movie reviewer, but really, let's be honest, TV star, Richard Krauss. Nice to see you, Mike. Thanks for having me. Welcome, Richard. I can still feel Ryan Doyle's presence here. That was a recent episode. You're right. I think you're in the Mad Dog seat there.

I made Ryan sit here. But yeah, you're wearing, I should point out, you wore, you're not wearing it now, but you were wearing your Newstalk 1010 jacket. Yeah, they gave this to us a few years ago. And I'll tell you, the thing that's cool about it is that the Newstalk 1010 logo is also on the back here as well. So if you're in a scrum and there's a television camera behind you, the Newstalk 1010 logo is what you see. I think you wear that jacket because you don't pay for a drink when you're wearing the Newstalk 1010 jacket. Oh, yes.

Sometimes, yeah. No, they charge you double. Yeah, they charge you double. I could just picture all you guys, Jim Richards, all you guys, John Moore. You guys look like a gang. You got your jackets. You're roving the streets. Very cool.

My mom is so absolutely delighted that you're here. I got to tell you, So my son, one of my sons turned four years old yesterday and we had a little get together on the weekend. So I was chatting. My brother asked me like, who's coming over next week? And I'm like, Richard Krause, Gord Stelic and Dan Shulman. My mom heard Richard Krause. She, she was so excited. She watches a lot of like, she watches a lot of CTV and a lot of CP24. You're in her living room on the regular. This is a big deal for them.

And moms love me. There's something about me that moms seem to be very attracted to. So hi, mom. What's your name? Mary. Hi, Mary. You do well with moms because the last time she was that excited is when I told her Roger Ashby was coming over.

He does well with the moms as well. That is exciting. Listen, Roger is like a god, a radio god to me. I'm on Chum FM now and to be in the same room with that guy who's been broadcasting for 40 years in the city

and just had such an amazing career and he's got incredible stories. Yeah, so I'm happy to be mentioned in the same breath as Roger. Well, you know why the moms like him? Because they remember like in the, whatever, the 60s or 50s and 60s, they're chum bugs. Yep, totally.

And 1050 Chum, one of the big jocks, Roger Ashby. So they go it's like when I hear like a, I don't know, I hear something from Pearl Jam's 10. It's like, I'm a teenager again. They hear Roger Ashby. So they go, it's like when I hear like a, I don't know, I hear something from Pearl Jam's 10. It's like, I'm a teenager again. They hear Roger Ashby and it's like, let's go to the hop. Yep, absolutely.

You know, Roger's, it's amazing that a lot of these people that I've grown up listening to, like Roger Ashby, Lloyd Robertson is another person who I see quite often now. And, you know, for the last 10 years or so I've seen him and and it kind of blows my mind that after watching them for so long and listening to them for so long that I can you know sort of go up and say hello and with Lloyd the first time I met him I was on the news channel doing nights and he was in the the makeup room getting made up

and I walked in and I said Mr. Roberts Robertson, it's nice to meet you. And he said, call me Lloyd. And I just, even now, I don't know how long, 14 years later, I still call him. I go to say Mr. and I always end up saying, yes, Mr. Lloyd Robertson. So I call him actually by his full, complete name now almost every time I see him. The last, I mean, Lloyd, very recent story. Lloyd's on his way to say goodbye to Steve Anthony on his last day. And Lloyd gets in, I think, on the DVP or something.

Did you see his car? It was total, and he's still out there with a microphone reporting on it. That guy amazes me. I sat next to him during election coverage a few years ago. And, you know, as the election results were coming in, he'd say, well, that's the first time that that county has gone liberal since 1962. And someone next to me said, should we be fact-checking all this stuff? And they said, nope, Lloyd is the fact-checker.

Lloyd is the fact-checker. Oh, man, that's great. And we'll get into this later, like, you know, where we can see you, but obviously you're in tight with the Bell Media family. So at the Bell Media station, we're probably going to hear your voice or see your face. This is, I mean, I've been playing it so often lately, but I was going to play some Stan Rogers because that's like my acid test, like, to root out the Maritimers.

Like, they walk amongst us and we don't know. I know, I know. And, you know, I root out the Maritimers. Like, they walk amongst us, and we don't know. I know, I know. And, you know, I've lived here for a long time. Stan Rogers isn't really the one. Like, Don Messer, maybe, something like that, might be something that would draw me back to that. But yeah, I'm an East Coaster. Proudly so. So a couple of, like, right

off the top, I got a gentleman named Andrew Ward. He was also excited. He's not a mom, but he was still excited you were coming on the show. He says, this is written to you, I suppose, but you're an expat Nova Scotian from the South Shore in Bridgewater. Born in Bridgewater, grew up in Liverpool. Close. They're 40 miles apart. Yeah.

Yeah, I love it when these insider terms. I'm like, I think that means something to a guy from there, the South Shore and Bridgewater. Well, the South Shore is, so the part of Nova Scotia that I'm from is the southern shore between Halifax and Yarmouth, kind of midway between the two. And it's beautiful. Where I grew up, there were four beaches that you will not find more beautiful beaches anywhere. The water can be a bit cold, but the beaches are absolutely gorgeous. But nicer than the PEI beaches? It's a little different.

The sand's a little nicer. And the thing about it is, though, when you grow up on a beach, when you're bored and you're a kid, and you're bored a lot of the time, they always say, oh, just go play on the beach. And so now, I haven't been on a beach in years. I can't remember the last time I walked on a beach because I spent the first 15 years of my life on a beach and I'm kind of done with it. And I have no real nostalgia for it, but certainly, you know, it was a gorgeous place to grow up. And I grew up listening to a radio station

called CKBW. And that's where I first started working. And I was determined. When I wasn't on the beach, I was determined to spend time at that station. That's awesome. So Andrew knows this. I don't know if Andrew Ward is from Nova Scotia or not. It sounds like he might be. He's talking the lingo. Anyway, if he's not, he's convinced me.

He's faked it. I'm convinced, Andrew. But he says, question for you, Richard. What does it feel like to see someone from your hometown make it to the big leagues the way you did? You made it to the big leagues? Okay, yes. Let's go with that premise.

I like that. And have you ever met any of these famous people? So the people, he's got a list of people that have made it from your neck of the woods. You'll tell me if he's accurate. He says, Sarah Dunsworth of Trailer Park Boys fame. Yep, yep. I've met her. John Dunsworth's daughter, I think.

The late Saskatchewan premier, Alan Blakeney. I don't think I've met Alan Blakely. No. No. And, of course, this gentleman who I actually know, Donald Sutherland. Donald Sutherland. So Donald Sutherland and I have a connection in that we had the same first job about 30 years apart.

So my dad, growing up in Nova Scotia, knew Donald Sutherland. And he was a couple of years older than him. And so I was in Los Angeles a few years ago now, probably 10 years ago now, doing some interviews, including one with Donald Sutherland. And just before the camera started to roll, a light blew. And so we had time. They're going to have to change things and then relight. It's going to take a while. So he was bored by the whole situation, I'm sure. He had done a lot of interviews that day, I guess. And the idea of just sitting there while they changed the light was not putting him in a better mood. So I said, I grew up on the South shore of Nova Scotia and I worked at CKBW radio. His entire body language changes because when he was living in Bridgewater, uh, he wanted to work at CKBW. And what he did was go down and hang out in front of the radio station. And as the

announcers and management, whoever would come off their shift, he'd say, hi, I'm Donald Sutherland and I'd like to work in there. And they'd go, get out of here, kid. And then the next day he'd be back there. I'm Donald Sutherland. I'd like to work here. Get out of here, kid. And eventually they let him in. And he was the junior announcer, which meant that he wrote obituaries. He wrote some news. He did the news. He probably played country and western music. He might have done a little bit of drama.

All the things that I eventually ended up doing. And I didn't stand in the parking lot, but my dad owned a furniture store, and one of the salesmen who sold advertising from CKBW came in all the time. And every time I saw him, I'm like, I want to work on CKBW. And he'd say, I'll see what I can do. Next time I'd say, I want to work on CKBW. And it was just until finally he got sick of hearing it and he gave me the gig. So Donald Sutherland and I, 30 years apart, had the same job.

Oh, that's great. And this says something to the value of persistence. And a lot of times I do have people on the show and it'll be like, how do you get your start? And persistence plays a key role sometimes in getting the door open. It's the only way to get a start. And then even once you've gotten your foot in the door, it's the only way to keep that foot in the door

and to keep that door open, I think. Or get a restraining order against you. One or the other is going to happen. So hopefully it breaks the right way. And this time in Liverpool, I think. Or get a restraining order against you. One or the other is going to happen. Either way. So hopefully it breaks the right way. And this time in Liverpool, which I can't believe you were with the Beatles. How amazing is this? It was settled by people from Liverpool, England. So we have a Mersey River in Liverpool and that sort of thing.

And you had a... No Beatles. No Beatles. You had a theater company called Winds of Change. That's right. Yeah. called Winds of Change? That's right. Yeah, the Winds of Change was there. And they started when I was a kid. And they're still going.

They still do shows at the Astor Theater, one of the longest running theaters in Canada. And it's this beautiful thing. Liverpool is an interesting place. My understanding of the history of Liverpool is this. And this... Please don't write me and tell me I'm wrong. This is what I believe and what I think happened.

Liverpool is a small town. There's about 1,500 people there. When I was there, there were about 15, maybe 2,000 people if you're generous with the outlying areas. And years ago, 150 years ago, maybe not, maybe 120 years ago, they thought it was going to be a port city. They thought it could be the next Halifax and it could be something. So people built stuff. We had a grand hotel.

We had a big town hall with teak and all sorts of things inside, beautiful houses and a movie theater that was initially an opera house. And then it never happened. The city never happened. It became a small town with these amazing facilities. So, you know, the Mersey Hotel, which was the big hotel, people started living in it rather than, you know, grand dams and people coming and going. The theater went from being an opera house to being a vaudeville house to being a movie theater, but it has been continuously operating for about 115 or 16 years.

And it's a gorgeous old building. And the Winds of Change perform in there or frequently, in recent years anyway, have performed in there. And I've done a lot of shows there. And the first one being the Ziggy Effect. The Ziggy Effect. Yeah. I don't know how people are finding this out because I've done a lot of shows there. And the first one being The Ziggy Effect. The Ziggy Effect, yeah. I don't know how people are finding this out,

because I don't know that I barely remember The Ziggy Effect. You're new to this program. Brian Linehan has taught me everything I know. The Ziggy Effect was a show written by a guy called Mark Diamond, and Mark Diamond was a West Coaster who had written a number of really cool plays, and this was a new one. I don't know whether it had been performed before, maybe once somewhere else, but it was about some punk rockers.

And I played one of them. I played Boone. They shaved all my hair off and it dyed it silver. And I said terrible things in this show. It was, you know, it was an edgy thing. One of the things that was kind of interesting about growing up in this small town at that time was there were a lot of expat Americans, i.e. draft dodgers, that moved there. And with them, they brought things that previously I don't think really had been there. A real love of kind of strange and avant-garde theater. You know, jazz records. Man, there was a guy that I knew named Don Kugler who had jazz records that I'd never, like in a million years, I'd never heard of. And all these people were a bit older than me. But they really, for my money anyway, gave this sort of cultural life in this small town that I don't think had really existed before.

And so Don Kugler, who came to Toronto and helped co-found the Necessary Angel Theatre Company, which is still going today, although he's long gone as far as I know, found this play and cast us. So we do the show, and it's a whole lot of fun. It blows people's minds because of the language in it. And on opening night, I remember coming out on stage and looking down in the audience

and seeing my, my, you know, beloved grandmother sitting in the front and she was not from Liverpool and she was about probably 80 years old at the time or so. And, and I looked at her and I thought, Oh no, I've got to say these terrible things. And here she is. And I, well, whatever you're there, you got to do it. So I did it. And after the show was over, I, I saw her in the lobby. We were all going off to an opening night party. And, and, uh, I said, so what'd you think of the show? And she said, Oh, it was, it was nice. It was lovely. I liked it. And I said, well, what'd you think of the language? And she said, and this is why she's so cool. She said, well, it what did you think of the language? And she said, and this is why she's so cool.

She said, well, it might have offended some of the older people in the audience, but I didn't mind it at all. That's great. But my grandfather was a jazz trumpet player in New York in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. So I'm guessing that there is nothing that she hasn't heard before. Oh, that's very cool. That's very cool. And we're going to, I want to get you to bartending, believe it or not. But so you're in, when do you move away from the Maritimes and make your way to the Big Smoke? I left there when I was about 16.

I was just kind of done with it. It was a small place at the time that I didn't see much of a future for myself. And a lot of people of my generation left. I was done school and I finished. And it's, you know, interesting, this, this building that I grew up in the other kind of interesting thing, I think anyway, that comes from, from, uh, or that, that I guess harkens back to what I do now is that I grew up in a vaudeville theater. So my dad had a furniture store on the main street of, of Liverpool and this giant hulking old building

that creaked and shifted in the wind as, as, uh, these gusts would come off the ocean. And it was a furniture store in the bottom, a warehouse in the back. And then upstairs was a giant apartment where we lived. And, uh, the, the apartment led directly into like this warehouse. But downstairs in the warehouse was where a vaudeville stage had once been. And it was probably around the turn of the last century, a vaudeville theater. And again, didn't make it because Liverpool didn't really take off and become the big sort of city that it was supposed to. And then it turned into a pulp and paper mill or a sawmill, I guess. And the story that I've heard about that is that there was a guy sawing a giant log and

he's putting it through this, this whizzing saw and he cuts one of his fingers off. I knew that was going to happen. Yeah. Cuts one of his fingers off. And his friend said, Jesus, Bobby, what did you do? And he said, well, I just did this. And he does it again and cuts another finger off. That is the legend of the sawmill.

But the part of the stage and the whole thing was still there. And every now and again, you would find in the warehouse, you would find posters from old vaudeville shows that had been used as insulation, I guess, or something. That went in a better place. I was worried you would find fingers. That's fantastic a better place. I was worried you'd find fingers. No. That's fantastic. Very cool.

I just read in the Globe and Mail yesterday, I think it was yesterday, maybe it was this morning, it's been a long week, in the Globe and Mail, but this guy who's collecting all the old vintage music posters from Toronto shows,

and he's got an Instagram, and I wish I could remember the name of the darn channel, actually, but I will put this on tomorrow's TMI. But yeah, I just love that, the discovering of the old posters and music history. It's cool. I mean, you know, I'm not someone actually, this will be an interesting bit of time that we spend together

because I don't really think about the past all that much, to be quite honest. I'm someone who is always thinking about what's coming next, you know? And so it's, you know, kind of fun to sit in and reminisce a little bit, but I do love the old posters. And, you know, right now I'm going through a storage area that has everything in it. It has everything that I've written since I was a kid. It has posters of shows. It has everything. And it's all being digitized. And so I'm kind of going through a lot of this. And I was really remarking that the stuff from the 80s looks so much different than the stuff from the 90s,

which looks so much different than the stuff from today. It's really interesting. And it's a cool timeline. Let me know if you find a poster for the Ziggy Effect. You know what? I think it's probably there somewhere. I know that very definitely there is a poster for the Ziggy Effect in that collection. You know what? I think it's probably there somewhere. I know that very definitely there is a poster of the Ziggy Effect because I've seen it hanging at the Astor Theatre in Liverpool, Nova Scotia. Is this for, you're going to put this online somewhere so people can see it?

Or is this a personal project you're kind of doing? It's a personal project to get rid of just this vast amount of stuff. Firehazard. The insurance company wants you to. Yeah. And I'm not a hoarder. I'm really not, but I have saved things, so they have to go. Cool.

And so you come straight to Toronto when you're a teenager. Yeah, I moved here. I had about $110 or $20 in my pocket, and the first night, my brother was living here, and the first night we arrived in Toronto, we went to Frank Fittier's on College Street, which is right near the College Subway, where you go down.

It's long gone now. I think it's where the Shoppers Drug Mart is now. And we went there and I was underage, but still, it didn't seem to really matter. You can serve places. And then we went to the El Macombo and saw B.B. Gabor and I spent all the money I brought up with me. I was a big shot. Hey, my drinks for everybody.

Back when beers were, you know, three or four bucks probably a throw and we probably only drank Bredor, as I remember. A bit stronger than everything else and woke up the next morning broke and in need of a job. You're too young to be bartending, though.

I wasn't bartending then. I went out and got a job working at Mr. Green Jeans as a busboy. Was that the Eden Centre location? One of the Eden Centre, yeah. I remember that place. Which was, at the time, the busiest restaurant in Canada. And it was madness. It was absolute madness.

We would start, well, eventually I became a bartender there. I worked there for five or six years, I think. And I became a bartender when I was 17 or 17 and a half or something like that. Cause I lied. I told them, I think you have to be 18 to serve booze in those days. I can't remember 19, 19 to drink it, 18 to serve it. And I was 17 and a half, but I was this tall and sounded like this. So I got away with it. And I remember on the night of my 19th birthday, we threw a party at Mr. Green Jeans. And I was like walking around, I'm 19, everybody. And I was taking a sign that said, do not, you've been bartending here for almost two years.

Oh, that's right. Shut your mouth. So I worked there and it was nuts. We used to sit and get ready. Or not sit, we were running around getting ready. And the restaurant opened at 11. At around 10 o'clock, there'd be three or four people out front.

At 10 after 10, there'd be 10 or 15 people out front. At 10.30, there'd be 60 people out front. By the time you open the doors at 11 o'clock, there'd be three or 400 people waiting to come in and it would just like a wave and they would fill the entire restaurant and we'd go on a wait and it would stay that way until, you know,

midnight. You'd have a half an hour or an hour wait for tables. And I think part of it was just, it would, you know, really been nothing else like it. It was this big sort of American style restaurant that came in, but it was, uh of it was just there would really been nothing else like it. It was this big sort of American-style restaurant that came in. But it was grim sometimes because it was so relentlessly busy. But it was fun.

Yeah, I totally agree. Did it become a Lime Ricky's? No, it wasn't. No, it stayed Mr. Green Jeans until it closed, which was just a couple of years ago. But it was just this massive thing. And the Emporium, that's the other thing. So it was a restaurant, and they kind of figured out, well, if we're going to have people standing around for an hour,

we should sell them stuff. So they had an Emporium that just sold things, just sold stuff. And people would load up on trinkets to take home, you know, and then go eat buffalo chips. Right, right, right. Now I'm, I don't know, maybe I already know I'm more nostalgic than you, although you do enjoy looking at the old

posters and stuff. So there's a bit of nostalgia in you for sure. But when I see that, I get sad because my grandmother loved Honest Ed's and that was her big thing, taking, like I would go over to Honest Ed's. It was the biggest deal there.

I was gobsmacked the other day when I went to, I mean, I guess it was a couple of weeks now, but I went to Bathurst and Blore, and I spent a lot, I lived in that neighborhood. Well, that's where I'm going here, yeah. I worked at a bar up there for a long time. And just to see that building gone is shocking. And, you know, there's a few things that I do get nostalgic for. The Sam the Record Man on Yonge Street was a store that when you,

I essentially grew up working at the Eaton Center and I would walk home. I lived in Cabbage Town for a good chunk of this. So I would walk home up to College Street. So I had to walk past Sam the Record Man with a big chunk of cash in my pocket for the tips that I'd made that night. I would always go in.

If I'd worked a day shift, I would always go in and you get to talk to everyone. I knew all the people that worked there. And then go up and on the way home, you'd pass Maple Leaf Gardens and I'd wait till about five to eight and then buy scalpers tickets and you could get in for five or 10 bucks in those days.

And I saw every band in the world at Maple Leaf Gardens for very little money. But Sam's, I'm nostalgic for. And when it finally closed down, when it was done, my wife and I went in on the last day and where we'd been in together dozens of times before this, but we're, we're walking around and I'm showing her around and I'm, people are coming up to me and the people that have worked there for years. And I remember you when you were a teenager and all that kind of stuff.

And as we walked out, we were, I was walking slightly ahead of her and the people that have worked there for years. And I remember you when you were a teenager and all that kind of stuff. And as we walked out, we were, I was walking slightly ahead of her and she said, are you crying? And I'm like, you know what? You're busted. I am. I'm crying because Sam the Record Man, a big chunk of my life is closing. I think he hit the holy trinity there because you got Sam the Record Man, Maple Leaf Gardens

and Honest Ed's. And for me, that's a big three right there. Well, I loved Ed. I loved Honest Ed because I really thought that Toronto was kind of stayed in those days, except for these guys like Sam Snyderman and Honest Ed Mirvish, who were showmen and who were exciting and they had big gaudy signs out front. But they were – and they were in the stores. Sam was often in the store.

Ed was often around. When I worked at Southern Accent on Markham Street, we saw Ed frequently. He was often there. And David too. And so, yeah, I like those guys. I like that kind of old school Toronto thing that has people that have outsized personalities running things. You beat me to it, because

I was going to say, that's the big... Sam the record man in Honest Ed. You could actually, like you said, you could go in and you could meet Sam, and you could meet Ed. These were real people and famous Toronto people. They were famous Toronto people that were there.

Later, after the early years when I finally got enough money that I could go see a show at the Royal Alex, I used to go to Ed's Warehouse beforehand. And I loved Ed's Warehouse. My grandmother's favorite place to go to celebrate is Ed's Warehouse. I loved Ed's Warehouse. And by far, I would be the youngest person in

there by 30 years, you know, but I loved it there. I loved the red velvet. I liked the Baroque things. I liked the Tiffany lamps. I liked that the waiters were all 150 years old. And, and now there's a few places that, that still maintain that kind of charm that the rooftop of the park height, it's closed for renovations now for a couple of years. But I remember going there in the 80s and you'd sit on the balcony outside and I remember I went through

this phase where I thought it was really cool and I would drink Courvoisier. And I remember ordering a Courvoisier from one of the waiters and he said, oh yes, we drank that at Vimy Ridge. And I'm like, dude, these old guys who had been around and seen it had done it all. I loved it. Yesterday was the 101st anniversary of Vimy Ridge.

Yep. Yeah. There we go. Battle of Vimy Ridge. And I only know that because my son was born on Vimy Ridge Day. There you go. But you mentioned Southern accents. So that's why I brought up Honest Ed's is because I think some people know, maybe not

everybody listening, that you were a bartender for a good long time as you, you know, what you do now while you were kind of figuring out how to make a living on that. You were serving drinks. I did a bartender and a waiter. Yeah, I served, I worked in restaurants for about 17 years. And the crazy thing is I think I wrote my first three or four books while I was still bartending. I had a TV show and kept my bartending gig because, uh, and radio shows.

I worked for the CBC. I did a lot of stuff. Uh, and I kept the bartending gigs because back in those days, you could make a whole whack load of money doing it. And, and the work, I enjoyed the work.

And, and honestly, uh, the, the, the, the talking to customers and all that kind of stuff taught me more about interviewing than almost any other thing. I think you're right.

I think that would be quite the education. Absolutely. And I don't know. I didn't ever work as a bartender, but I'm imagining lots of cash in your pocket, not all of which I'm not putting anything on you, but maybe some of it doesn't appear on your tax card. I declared every dime. Of course card. I declare it every dime. Of course you do. I declare it every dime. I'm the asshole who would consider spending

that Sam's instead. Well, it's funny. I mean, you know, you blew through it pretty quick. Like, you know, I remember my first day of bartending it at Mr. Green Jeans and I was on the upstairs bar. So there was the big front bar where later on

I became the king of that bar and I worked, I was there most of the time. But when you're first starting out, they'd put you on this bar upstairs that had customers, but it wasn't quite as busy. It was still pretty intense though. But you'd start at 11 and you'd be done by two or something like that. And I worked it and I think I made 70 bucks. And with that 70 bucks, I went out and I bought a pair of pants, the first David Wilcox album, and went to a place called the Thunderbird Cafe and drank beer all night for 70 bucks.

Yeah, the good old days. But it taught me a terrible lesson is that you can spend it all and then the next day you just go in and you make it all back. It was like this. It was like a special Aladdin's lamp that just kept refilling itself.

I'm surprised you're not still attending bar. You should never have given it up no matter how many times we see your face on CTV. I loved it. I liked it, but there comes a point where you're doing it, and for me anyway, there came a point that every time the door opened,

I was like, who's this goof? And it was like when you get to that point, it's time to go. It's time to go. It's time to go. So before we leave this, what was your favorite drink to make? Is there one drink that you love to make? It was a little different back

in those days. Now, when you go out, there's people that have eyedroppers and they're making very specialized, they call themselves mixologists. I was a bartender, man. I slung beers and made a thousand rum and Cokes a night. Right, right.

And when I worked at Mr. Green Jeans, we had things like chocolate monkeys and strawberry daiquiris and pina coladas. And on Friday nights, because it was so intensely busy and I was really fast, I used to get put in the service bar. So no customers, you're just in a little hole, essentially in the middle of the restaurant where all the waiters get their drinks.

And at the beginning of that shift, you would bring in these giant buckets, like these giant mayonnaise buckets, except that they were filled with ice cream and strawberries and raspberries and all the stuff that you were going to need, this mixed stuff, all real stuff. All sugary. But you would have, you would have, you would have eight buckets of strawberry stuff, eight buckets of raspberry stuff, all that stuff. And about 9 o'clock, you'd have to do it all again. You'd have to load up again.

And you would just go home covered in goop. You were sticky all the time. But the money was good, so I did it for a long time. Yeah, I don't blame you. It sounds like fun. And you get to tell these great stories on toronto mic many years later how's your how's your french like you're growing up in the maritimes uh is it just the mandatory grade nine french or did you have any

more than that it's not good it's not good i had a french teacher that didn't speak french yeah and it really put uh it really put me off off and it's a shame because one of the great regrets of my life is that I don't speak French well well that non-speaking French teacher would not be welcome as a counselor at Camp Tournesol I can tell you that now everyone listening

if you have a child between the ages of 4 and 14 send them to French camp this summer so they don't end up living with regret as an adult that they didn't learn French. You basically send them off to camp, and when they come home, I compared it recently to when Bart Simpson

did the foreign exchange, and he ended up in Paris, and he came back speaking French. It's pretty much that deal. This is the largest French camp in Ontario, Camp Tournesol, and it doesn't matter if your child is francophone or in French immersion or has no French experience. They have a day camp or an overnight experience

for your child. I'm just looking at the list now. Introduction to French day camp, that's for ages 4 to 12. They have a French day camp for children uh in the francophone schools there's a overnight camps in ontario for ages 8 to 15 there's a leadership program for grades 6 to 8 like i this is amazing stuff there's that the exciting 13 day trip to quebec that i sold the gore depth from the spoons on he's uh he's all psyched up. He's going to lie about his age. And heck, they even have tutoring in French via Skype. So go to Camptea.ca and when you sign up for one of these great French camps, use the

promo code Mike and you get a discount there. 20 bucks off your first order. Camptea.ca And I know you're a bartender and you probably know, Richard, you probably go out and you drink fancy wancy drinks, right? It's not the truth.

Is that not the truth? It's not. I'm glad to hear that, because that sounds awfully pretentious that you won't just have a beer with the regular people like me. There's a six-pack in front of you. I see this, and it's exciting. You're taking that home with you. Excellent. And you're not a West End guy, right?

You're an East of Young guy? Yeah, just slightly. I mean, I live downtown. But pompous ass, I drink this all the time at home. Okay, I was going to say, this is local to this neck of the woods. This is a Southwest Toronto craft brewery. Amazing people, and they make tasty beer.

And in fact, I hosted a hockey pool draft last night, and the beer was flowing. It was good times. And yeah, everybody loved the Great Lakes beer. So enjoy the six-pack there. I will. They say you're supposed to pour. Do you drink the beer from a can,

or do you pour it in a pint glass? I typically drink it out of a can at home if I'm out in the world and people are looking at me out of a glass. The moms are all saying, oh, there's Richard Cross from My Morning or whatever it's called now. There's a pint glass you get as well.

Well, look at that. That is courtesy of Brian Gerstein. He's at propertyinthesix.ca. Property in the six does... No, it's not... You've said it a hundred times. It's propertyinthesix.com is where you'll find Brian's credentials,

his phone number and everything. Give him a shout. I have a message for you, Richard, from Brian, and I love the question he asks at the end of this. It's a great question, and this came up yesterday during the draft, so I can elaborate after we hear from Brian. Propertyinthesix.com Hi, Richard. Brian Gerstein here, sales representative with PSR Brokerage and proud sponsor of Toronto Mike. Hope you enjoy my pint glass with your GLB. Richard, for any real estate

needs either you or Mike's listeners have, feel free to text or call me at 416-873-0292. My listings include a pre-sale home inspection, professional floor plan, both print and online marketing to maximize the exposure and sell for the most money. Richard, during our hockey pool last night, we had a debate over which is the better gangster movie, Godfather or Goodfellas. I am in the Goodfellas camp and would place it ahead of Godfather part two and then one. What are your thoughts? I love, I love both of them, but the Godfather is a movie for me that stands out.

And I know Goodfellas is on television all the time and I will get sucked into watching it if I'm just flicking around, but the Godfather even more so. And I always say about the Godfather, I'll just watch it up until the leave the gun, take the cannoli scene, and then I'll tune out. And I always say about The Godfather, I'll just watch it up until the leave the gun, take the cannoli scene, and then I'll tune out. And I never do. And not long ago, we were kicking around the house on a Sunday and I was flicking around the stations and it was on. And we got to

that scene and I kept watching it. And my wife was on her iPad or something. She said, you know, The Godfather is playing around the corner at a theater. Why don't we go see? And I just shut it off, went over, saw it in the theater, and it is a transformative experience in the movie theater. You know, I'm a big believer in going to see things on the big screen. They look different, they sound different. You're seeing the picture that the director wanted you to see. You're hearing it the way the director wanted you to hear it. And the Godfather, you see these beautiful subtleties in Marlon Brando's performance that I hadn't really noticed before. You're hearing an audience sort of oohing and aahing or laughing or crying or doing whatever. It's a communal experience. It's the way to do it, but the Godfather holds up, man.

So for me, it's the Godfather. To me, it's like Sophie's Choice. I don't even like to think about this. I know, I know. I mean, you're right about the those are examples so Godfather 1 Godfather 2 and Goodfellas are three movies that if I'm flipping around and I see them

I have to watch I'm a big fan of Goodfellas do not get me wrong but the Godfather is a movie when Brian made this declaration yesterday that he preferred Goodfellas to the Godfather my dear friend Anthony Petrucci almost,

just almost lost it. I thought we were going to have a brawl. It was sacrilegious. Yeah, movie fans can get violent. I've seen it. Yes, they can, but no, that's great. Good question from Brian here. And just before we talk

a bit more movies here, I want to tell you about Paytm. Paytm is an app designed to manage all of your bills in one spot. You don't have to visit each separate website to make a payment. All your bills are on the Paytm app. And the best part is that Paytm pays you to pay your bills.

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So give it a go. Again, go to Paytm.ca, download the Paytm app and use the promo code Toronto Mike. All one word. Here, I have a good song to bring us in here. It's not Stan Rogers, but it didn't sound like that was going to work anyways. But just a little background music, a little radio head here as we get started here. Movies. I hear you like movies.

I do. I like going to the movies. I always have. When I was growing up in Liverpoolpool the astor theater played everything uh but we didn't get the new movie straight away back in those days in the 70s you know we were at the butt end of the distribution uh trail and we didn't even have cable like this is like a long time ago in a small town in nova scotia we didn't have cable when we finally got cable the way it worked is it was recorded onto tapes at the border from Maine into Nova Scotia. Those tapes were then sent to the first town that they came to, probably Shelburne maybe.

I don't know. They played. They were then sent to the next town. The next town, by the time we got them in Liverpool, we were watching television. It was two weeks old. And it was all pre-taped. The movies that we got at the movie theater, occasionally we'd get one of the big ones, but most often it wasn't. It was kind of whatever they could get. So you might go see a Bruce Lee movie at a matinee and then something like

Tartofsky's Stalker, this weird Russian science fiction movie, because that's what they could get. So I just went to see it all, and that's where I think that my love of, my sort of broader love of movies came from, was going to see stuff there, and going to see, I remember the Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, watching that movie movie there. There's a film where someone gets shot in the chest and the camera pans down and they show part of the scene to the hole in his chest. And I was like,

that's the coolest! Even in Liverpool, I'm assuming you didn't have to wait for a Jaws or something like that. Occasionally you would. Jaws is sort of a different kind of story though because when you grow up on a beach, yeah, when Jaws came,

you know, it lived at the very center of popular culture for the summer that it came out. And then, and everything was normal in Liverpool. The next year, no tourists came. I believe it. Because we were nothing but beaches, right? That's sort of like what happened, I guess, when Psycho was big, and women stopped taking showers when they were but beaches, right? That's sort of like what happened, I guess, when Psycho was big,

and women stopped taking showers when they were home alone. Well, that was the thing. So Alfred Hitchcock gets a note from a father, and he says, my daughter watched a movie, and someone got killed in the bathtub, and she stopped taking baths.

Now she's seeing Psycho. She won't take a shower. What should I do with her? And he said, well, I suggest you dry clean her. That's great. Alfred Hitchcock. That's fantastic. So it was like love at first sight for you, I suppose, here. You fell in love with movies young, and when did you realize

that you could actually make a career out of watching movies? It took a long time. I mean, I did a lot of stuff before then. I had always wanted to be a writer. Initially, that's where it started. And it's funny.

I told you I was going through this giant archive of things. Yes. I found a book, a book, a handwritten book, which had a cover and a title page and the whole thing. I had done the whole thing called The Encyclopedia of Humor, where I, I guess, I don't remember, transcribed jokes and thought, you know, I could do that. Monty Python and stuff, right?

Yep, and so that was probably, you know, when I was 10. And, you know, moved on. I wrote, and I'm using quotation marks, a number of books while I was still living in Nova Scotia. Then I moved here, and the thing about growing up down there is, although there was this kind of almost counterculture art scene and shows like the Ziggy Effect and things that we could do, nobody really made a living from the arts that I knew. There was a guy called Thomas Riddall, who was a well-known novelist. And, you know, he obviously made a living. He had been very popular

in the forties, fifties, and sixties. And I knew about him, but he was the only person that I knew that actually made a living doing this kind of thing. So it never really, I mean, I wanted it and I just sort of didn't know how to make it happen. And then when I moved here, I began to meet people who were, you know, making a living as actors and working as writers. And for all of a sudden, it didn't seem such a strange and unattainable thing. And you wrote for the right-wing newspaper Canada Free Press? I don't think it was called Canada Free Press.

I think it was called, I think it was called Our Toronto. I think it was called Our Toronto back then. And it's funny because I picked up, I couldn't get anyone to publish me. And, you know, people say to me now all the time, like, you know, what do you, where, you know, how should I start my writing career? And I said, well, start a blog and just write. Write all the time. Write about everything all the time.

And I was writing all the time. I just couldn't get published anywhere because there were, uh, uh, such a, a, a shortage of, or not a shortage. There weren't that many places for me. And, uh, I picked up this newspaper and I remember not even really reading through it, but seeing, uh, uh, that it was based in Toronto and I recognized the address. And so I just wrote him a letter and said, listen, you know, I I'd like to write about entertainment for you. And I did. And I did it, I think, for a year or something like that. And they let me write about whatever I wanted

to write about. And it got me published. And so all of a sudden I had like the beginnings of a portfolio. Right. And then from there you get published and more and more and more. So Art Toronto was your blog.

Kind of. I mean, it was. And it's funny, again, going through the archive and having all this stuff digitized now, I'm finding stuff that I saved. And, you know, it's random. It's interviews with, you know, Romper and Ronnie Hawkins and then a history of the Gasworks.

And, I mean, it's all over the place. A lot of music stuff. That history of the Gasworks was probably to coincide with the Wayne's World release. It may have been, yeah. Guys my age discovered it, you know, hey, that's when we sort of learned about the history of the gas works. So how do you start on reel-to-reel? So reel-to-reel is where most of us sort of discover Richard Krauss.

Well, I had, before reel- before Real to Real, I had done, I used to be on a show called Imprint for TVO. I was their pop culture correspondent. I had been on the Deanie Petty show a bunch of times as their kind of like pop culture guy. With Deanie, I did different stuff. I did like, we would do a cooking segment, but all Elvis Presley's favorite foods

and that kind of stuff. And I did a lot of those. I was on CBC radio. I was on Morningside with Peter Zosky. Yeah, of course. And I did that and I was their pop culture guy for a couple of years. And that one was a funny one.

I mean, I would just do stories about, I would go around to all the vending machines in the city. I remember one of them. Going around to all the vending machines in the city. I remember one of them. Going around to all the vending machines in the city and trying all the food and then doing like a serious or semi-serious food documentary about them and reviewing them. And I got in trouble because I said that the tuna sandwiches at St. Margaret's

tasted like minced insects or something like that, and I got in trouble for that. But I did that, and then nothing. And then just nothing. I couldn't get a gig. And I was flicking around and much like the Our Toronto thing, and this is where we talked about persistence earlier, much like the Our Toronto thing. Um, I was flicking around and I came across a show called Daytime and Daytime was Rogers television, community televisions, um, sort of flagship talk show. And I thought, like I thought with Our Toronto, I was like, I could get on that.

And I just started shooting them ideas. And I got on it. And then someone from there thought that I would be good to be on Reel to Reel, and I auditioned, and I got the gig. I mean, Ed DeSoc, who is not, you know, Steve Kersner is Ed DeSoc, for example. Tom Green.

Right. Well, Tom Green, in Ottawa, though, right? In Ottawa, yeah. Right. But you're right, you know, Steve Kirzner is Ed DeSoc, for example. Tom Green. Right. Well, Tom Green in Ottawa, though, right? In Ottawa, yeah. Right. But you're right, Tom Green and even Mike Wilner, you know, host of Jay's Talk now. But these people come, Tom Green has been over, but everyone else comes over and we talk a lot about how they were able to, like, improve their skills, hone their craft, if you will, on Channel 10, like the importance of 10.

Yeah, it was an important place, I think. You know, there was, at the very beginning of it, I was kind of a two minds of it because when I was doing daytime, you just, you didn't get paid. It was just, there was no money. You didn't get paid. But I used to spend money. I would buy props. I would do, because I wanted to do something.

I wanted someone to see it and then possibly hire me. And then when Reel to Reel came along, we actually managed to negotiate so that there was actual money because we started selling the show. The IFC bought it and it got sort of taken around. We went to the Cannes Film Festival a bunch of times. We started getting interviews with people

that were just way out of our league, which was kind of, you know, interesting and funny. And for this weird little community television show, and we were, you know... Speaking of Wayne's World. Yeah. And we would have, you know, George Clooney and Angelina Jolie on. So, you know, we were able to do all that stuff, partially because there was nobody else much doing that kind of thing at the time in Toronto. And, you know, too, the show was pretty good. People seemed to like it. And so we were,

we got in tight with people that were involved in the movie business and it worked out well for us. But Channel 10 gave us the opportunity to experiment and do things a little differently. And it wasn't until later on that we started to get more and more attention and that the show started to get sold places and stuff that there was a bit more interference. From Rogers, right? Yeah, and that was a little less interesting. But the show was still kind of allowed to continue in the way that it was, and they supported us during the Toronto International Film Festivals.

We used to have our own suite. We'd do, you know, a couple hundred interviews during that every year. And, you know, it was a fun, exciting, kind of crazy time. And I think I did about 600 episodes of that show. I got more real-to-real questions. But now I've got all these memories of these Cable 10... What do you call that, Channel 10? You just called it...

Channel 10, I think, wasn't it? Yeah, maybe Channel 10. Cable 10. Like, for example, The Buzz with Darren Jones and Mr. Moe, right? I used to watch that. 10 was a big deal. There were shows like Reel-to-Reel being one example,

but a lot of shows I would watch. My buddy, he actually was good friends with my brother. They went to high school together, but Jason Agnew had shows over there. We were lucky at Cable 10 that it was before, I mean, there were a lot of channels back then still, but most everybody kind of had basic cable at least.

And so if you're flicking around, you're going to pass Channel 10 at some point. Right. And, you know, there were shows like The Buzz with Darren and Jason had The Conventioneers, I think. And shows like, there was a good show about Toronto's history, the name of which is

I've caught it many times. Structures. Structures, yeah, and it's great. It's fantastic. And so there were shows that were interesting and sort of worth having a look. And we caught a lot of eyeballs. And we were on, you know, 15 times a week or something like that, and we were on it all different times.

So, you know, if you want to, you know, in my case anyway, and a lot of other people started off there as well, but if you wanted to, you know, get things going for yourself, it was a good way to get noticed. Who was your, like, is it Christopher Heard? Who was your first, uh, co-host? Yeah. Christopher Heard was, was, he had started the show because the show had already been on for a number of years before I came on. Uh, he started it with, uh, a guy called John Foot and, uh, a guy called Ben Waterman, who was the producer of the show. And then John left and they brought me on. And Chris and I did it together for, I can't remember. This is the other thing. I say I'm not so great with nostalgia because I'm terrible with dates and times.

I think we probably did four years, three or four years anyway. And then Chris left and, uh, Jeff Pavier and Katrina Onstat came, then Katrina left and Jeff and I did it. And I think I did it for 10 years in total. Yep. I think you did too.

98 to 2008, I believe. So tell me why did Rogers cancel reel to reel in 2008? They went a different way. They canceled all, everything. Um, they got rid of all of that and they decided to concentrate on what they considered to be actual local programming, which was hockey games and baseball games and that kind of thing.

And us going to the south of France and hanging out at the Cannes Film Festival didn't have a lot to do with their mandate. And you expensing those trips. me, I was in New York. And you expensing those trips. Well, I mean, they were paid for, you know, they were paid for, but, but, um, you know, I was in back and forth between Los Angeles and New York constantly doing interviews with people. And I did what I was told to do, get big stars. I got them, uh, for the show.

And then all of a sudden it was like, ah, we don't want big stars. We need local, local, local, local, hyper local. And Reel to Reel came to a thudding stop. Now, how much of a role does the... Okay, so at this exact same time, I don't think this is a coincidence, but you'll tell me, but Bell Canada

starts sponsoring the Toronto Film Festival. And then my understanding is essentially Rogers cancels it because they had much less access to TIFF when Bell took over the sponsorship. I don't really know, but that sounds likely to me. I mean, I have a feeling that with the sort of, you know, competition, the vigorous and healthy competition

between the two companies that Rogers was unwilling to, to have Bell logos all over their screens for 10 days every year. Right. Well, that for sure. And also I think they even, Bell took some measures to limit Rogers, what they could air. So I think they had two minutes from each

conference, like a whole bunch of that. And I think that all kind of, it all bundles up together and Rogers is like no more reel-to-reel. Well, no. Okay. No, it doesn't. Okay. The show could have gone on.

That's only film festival coverage. Right, okay. I mean, we did 60 or more shows a year. The film festival coverage was a different thing. That was 10 days nonstop, flat out, you out. And they would create shows. There was a show called Rushes that was all like red carpets and things they showed. But Reel to Reel was kind of a different beast.

I mean, we did these specials from the Cannes Film Festival. I interviewed Elizabeth Taylor and people like that there. Did all that sort of thing there. And the Elizabeth Taylor thing is wild. We were on a red carpet, and I hate doing red carpets. And the Elizabeth Taylor thing is, is wild. Like we were on a red carpet and I hate doing red carpets. And I, I, I, this may have been the last red carpet that I've, that I've ever done.

And we, we were waiting for her for hours and, and she just was nowhere to be seen. And finally a publicist came up and there's a lot of us and a publicist came up and said, you know what? She's going to be late. It's five to five. You've got at least until six. So why don't you all go do something else for an hour and then come back? And most people leave. 95% of the press leave. But I thought, I've stood here. I've got a great spot.

I'm just going to stay. Everyone leaves. 10 minutes later, Elizabeth Taylor shows up. She talks to me. She talks to the BBC. And that's it. That's amazing. She comes up to me.

And we're introduced. And she said the thing that I'm, she talks to the BBC, and that's it. That's amazing. She comes up to me, and we're introduced, and she said the thing that I'm sure she says to everyone named Richard. I once knew a man I loved very much named Richard. And so we talked for some time, and she was piercingly beautiful, and it was... You were lost in her eyes. And she's Elizabeth Taylor, so I was

very happy to have that. But the other thing that made me very happy is that because everybody left and only two people got that interview, because after she did the BBC, she's like, I'm tired and I want to go. And that was it. When everyone came back, we had footage that we sold and ended up paying for the entire trip with that footage of Elizabeth Taylor. Awesome.

Awesome. So while at Rogers, you also did, I saw you did The 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen. That was with Rogers. Yeah, it was. And that was based on some books that I'd written. I wrote these books called The 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen.

There's volume one and two, 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen, and then Son of the 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen. And we did, I think we got through about half of the first book. The show was really super cool. It was a fun show that we were allowed to do pretty much whatever we wanted to do on. And we had me in front of a green screen and movies playing behind me, things coming to life. There would be a painting on the wall that would

talk to me. It was just really cool, cool stuff, but they were so labor-intensive to make. We got about halfway through it, and I think we just ran out of money or time or effort or something. Could you off the top of your head throw one movie, one fantastic

movie that you don't think I've seen just so I could see if I've seen it. Oh, from that book? Sure, yeah. Well, I mean, there's a million of them. Of course. Well, I'll tell you, The Devils. Ken Russell's The Devils.

I have not seen that movie. You're right. It's a fantastic movie. It's a great movie. I love this idea. So I got to catch up on all these movies I haven't seen that are great. Let's go back

really quickly, briefly here to the TIFF. So firstly, one of my favorite movie reviewers, present company, accepted of course, is Roger Ebert who I just loved. And I would watch whatever they called it.

It was called Siskel and Ebert at the movies. And I would watch, you know, whatever they called it, the Siskel and Ebert, was it called Siskel and Ebert at the movies? Right. And I would, it was syndicated and it was on at weird times, but I would track it down

and watch it. It might be even like midnight sometimes. Like on Sunday nights at midnight. Right. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I remember having to find,

okay, oh, so it's Sunday night at midnight, but I would make sure I watched Roger and Ebert. And I'm wondering, sorry, Roger and Ebert is another show. wondering... Cisco and Ebert. Sorry, Roger and Ebert. It's another show. Just him by himself.

Were you friendly with Roger Ebert? Because I know he loved TIFF. Yeah, I wouldn't say friendly with him. I certainly met him a lot of times. And we were in the same... We breathed the same air often at things. But I wouldn't say I was friendly with him. I talked to him.

I remember having a long conversation with him at the Cannes Film Festival one year about something. We talked about what was being nominated for Academy Awards, what was going to come out of Cannes that year that was going to end up being nominated for Academy Awards. And I think we had a slight difference of opinion

about it. Who was right? Well, I don't remember now, but probably him. But I don't remember. But he was someone who, I just liked the intellectual discourse. He just liked arguing. And there was no malice or anything behind it.

He won a Pulitzer, right? Yeah, yeah. That's crazy. The documentary about him is fantastic too. It is. I mean, he's an interesting guy, you know, sort of, you know, from writing Russ Myers movies to, you know, a drinking problem to not,

to becoming, you know, that kind of rare beast, like a famous film critic, you know, is kind of a fascinating life story. And a great writer. And one, you know, is kind of a fascinating life story. And a great writer. And one, you know, near the end, when he was so ill and, you know, wasn't able to speak anymore, his writing became just, you know, absolutely beautiful in a way that it had always been great, but it became deep in a way that was really interesting to read.

Now, I referenced The Simpsons earlier, and now it just came to me. I'm curious, did you watch the show The Critic? I've seen The Critic. I don't remember watching it as much. I mean, a lot of stuff got missed because I worked nights in bars for a long time, and I don't remember when the critic was on but I do know that you know at least once a week somebody sends me a gif or a clip or something from it it stinks I think was the catchphrase I was just curious I have a very rare opportunity to ask a

film critic what they thought of the critic but I'm not listen I'm all about poking fun at film critics well there's so much material there. There is. It's easy. Sean Hammond had a question for you on Twitter. I think this was Twitter. How does he stay awake watching multiple movies during a film festival? But he goes on to say, that's the end of Sean's question.

Is it tough sometimes when you're in a dog of a movie that's dragging on? Is it tough? Oh, it can be. I don't leave anything. I stay. Just because I've been on TV pretty much every day here for 20 years or more, people recognize me from being a film critic.

And if I leave, especially at a film festival, Twitter starts lighting up. Crows just left. But it can give an unfair start to a movie. I think film festivals are interesting. And I know that the Cannes Film Festival this year is trying to do this thing where they're not going to pre-screen anything. They're just going to allow film critics

to see these movies on the premiere because what's happening is that they're showing them to them early. They're tweeting crappy things about movies. And then the movie's premiere, and all of a sudden the news has gone around the world that it's not very good, even if that's not entirely true. And so I try and stay, well, I don't try. I stay in theaters until the movie is over. And I don't really discuss the films until my reviews come out. Because at a film festival, you know, everyone's tired. Everyone's on edge. I will often see movies at film festivals a couple of times, especially if I've really hated something.

And I know it sounds counterintuitive, but if I've really hated something, I'll see it again. Because, you know, if it was the fifth movie I saw that day, it's not really fair to review it that way. That's great. I was going to ask you about that situation exactly. You didn't like a movie, but you gave it another shot and then decided you were

wrong the first time. Does that happen ever? It doesn't happen often. I'll be honest. It doesn't happen often, but it can happen and you can find sort of layers of things and messages in films. It's not necessarily – I was at the Victoria Film Festival recently, and I saw a movie that I didn't like very much, and then eventually – well, not eventually, right afterwards, had to jump up on stage and do a Q&A with the actors and directors and things. And I thought that the discussion about the movie was way more interesting than the movie was. And so there's always something. There's always something to talk about no matter what the movie is.

You know, I realize now I could spend hours just talking to you about movies because now I'm curious, has there ever been an example of a movie that you hated but went on to, like, become a favorite and went on to become nominated for Best Picture? Like, is there any example of that movie that you really didn't like that suddenly became this? Oh, I'm sure it's happened. Nothing's coming to mind right away. But, I mean, you know, my job isn't to like everything that people are going to like. My job is to filter through my own sensibility what I think of a film. And if you don't agree with me, if you never agree with me, then read my reviews and do the opposite.

If I love something, don't go to it. If I hate something, go to it. Or vice versa. Right. Don't go to it. If I hate something, go to it. Or vice versa. And for me, it is – I remember when I first started on Canada AM.

And one year or one of the first weeks – I don't know when it was. I reviewed a movie called The Pacifier. It couldn't have been one of the first weeks. But I reviewed a movie called The Pacifier. And I hated it. Vin Diesel film. I remember. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And so the next week I came in and The Pacifier had been number one at the box office the week before. And someone on the show came up and said, well, I guess you were wrong about The Pacifier. I said, no, it's still a crappy movie. It just made a lot of money. And so audiences and film critics, sometimes there is a divide. But just because a film makes a lot of money doesn't necessarily mean it's a great movie. And just because a movie doesn't make any money

doesn't mean that it's a bad movie. For sure. I mean, absolutely. And some of these terrible Transformers movies dominate at the box office. But yeah, you're right. I was happy to see A Quiet Place do well at the box office this weekend

because it's not based on anything. It's not based on a video game. It's not based on pre-existing whatever. And it's a nervy little movie. No dialogue for 40 minutes. It's very quiet. It's a strange little horror film.

And it made a lot of money. And that made me feel good. That's a movie that I think the critics really helped. Critics don't do much for the Avengers movies. Critics don't help the fast and the furious. But we can shine a light on movies that you might otherwise have missed. And I think The Quiet Place could have been one of those without the early critical buzz out of South by Southwest.

Even though it's an Emily Blunt movie, she's made movies that nobody went to see. Sure, sure, sure. Do you ever get sent to another city for a weekend and they put you up to do the junkets? I did those for years. I don't do them anymore. I stopped doing them some time ago.

About 10 years ago I just said no more because I had been for a long time on the road between New York and Los Angeles back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. You'd fly in on a Friday. You'd get there, drop your bags off at the hotel, go for a drink, go see a movie, get up in the morning, do 10 interviews, go out to the airport, hop on a plane and come home. And it's a grind, but for real to real, it was a good source of material for us. But I stopped doing them when I realized that they really don't fit the kind of thing that I want to do.

You know, pop life, which I'm sure Rob will get to eventually. Pop life is what I want to do. Pop life is long-form interviews with some actual substance to them and not promotional. And I know a lot of people in town make a living doing junkets. I will not disparage them, but it's certainly not for me.

No, bless you, because you're preaching to the choir here. Those junkets and the quick soundbite and the person said the same thing a thousand times in a row. That's it. And I've had person after person after person. the quick sound bite and the person said the same thing a thousand times in a row. That's it. And, you know, I've had person after person after person.

I mean, I'll do a quick television interview with somebody if they're in Toronto. I won't travel to do them anymore, but I'll do them in Toronto. And I interviewed Charlie Hunnam and Guy Ritchie for the Robin Hood movie. No, it was a King Arthur movie a while ago. And they were just goofing around in the television interview, and it was not very good. And then later I went to interview them again for print, and we had substantially longer. We had 20 minutes or half an hour or something.

And Charlie Hunnam said, I'm so glad we get to talk again because I felt like we kind of were just goofing around in the television interview because we've done five million of these. And he said, I could tell you're a serious dude and I don't think we gave you that opportunity. And then we spent the next – and I wrote an article about this, which is online. You can look it up. We ended up talking about what it's like to do these interviews and what it's like to be a part of that thing. It's a necessary evil for these

movies. Daniel Radcliffe told me one time, he said, anyone who thinks that they don't have to get out and promote the hell out of their movies is wrong. They're just fooling themselves and they're wrong. And he's right. You have to get out there and do it, but it certainly doesn't appeal to me. And I know that 90% of the actors that I've talked to about it really don't enjoy it. Well, since you mentioned it, I think one of the Great Leagues beer, there is a Harry Porter.

I know there's one right there in front of me, yeah. And now as I talk to you, I realize as tough as that is for you, and the quick, you know, imagine being the celebrity who, I can't imagine how many people they have to, you know, talk to. Oh, they'll do 40 interviews a day on these junkets in New York.

They're hitting the same talking points or whatever? Yeah, over and over. There's some people that are great at it. Leonardo DiCaprio is really good at it, and he makes you feel like you're getting something completely new every time. And then you go home and look at the tape, and you think, okay, first of all, he didn't answer a single question that I asked him. You know, you'd say, what color is the sky? What I like about this movie is that, and then you sort of get lost in it because he's

charismatic and he's, you know, he says relatively interesting things. And then you see his footage that he shot with you sidled up next to footage that he shot with other people. And he's saying the same thing in every interview. I've done for one of my books. I did a thing where I had to do 40 some odd interviews in a day. And it was brutal. They sent the book and a list of questions around to like every morning show and afternoon show and whatever across the country. And I sat in a studio and had to just answer these questions over and over and over again. And the thing about it is that about 20 interviews in, you can't remember what you've said in this interview. And I'm sure that I said the same thing a couple of times in the same interview because they all just bleed into one long corridor of agony. I can see that.

Okay, last TIFF question. Then I want to get you to, I want to get you to 1010 actually, but last TIFF was with the Louis C.K. got, you know, feted. He got, there was a whole Louis C.K. thing. I just wondered what you thought of that considering from what I'm told,

everybody knew the hammer was coming down on that one from what I'm told. Yeah, I don't know about that. I don't know that everybody knew. Like, you know, it was the relative beginning of Me Too. And what has happened, I mean, you know, I'd seen, I'd personally witnessed Harvey Weinstein being really terrible to people. I've been in the same room when he's been awful,

absolutely terrible to people Not grabbing them, not sexually But just rude, miserable You know, kind of son of a bitch stuff That he would do every now and again And when it all happens Everyone came to me Because this is what I talk about

Well, you must have known I said, well, I didn't know And nobody knows Nobody knows for sure There had been rumors about Louis C.K. for years. But he's also, you know, was the top stand-up in the world at that moment. And, you know, whether or not people just willfully chose to ignore it or what, I don't know. When the movie played in Toronto, I didn't see it then, and I still haven't seen it. I have one of the rares. I'm a member of the Broadcast Film Critics

Association in Los Angeles, so I get the screeners of everything. And I have what I'm sure will be a collector's item. I have a copy of the screener that arrived the day before everything went ass over kettle for him.

But you haven't seen it? But you haven't seen it. But I haven't seen it. I haven't watched it yet. But at TIFF, there was some talk that anyone who had heard the rumors thought, wow, this is kind of a nervy thing to do. But I don't think that anyone knew at that moment. And then, of course, when it all breaks, everyone says, oh, well, of course I knew. Everyone knew. Now, if you did, you should have exposed it earlier. As an outsider, I can tell you that I'm always surprised. That's exactly what I'm

surprised by. Everyone knew because I'm finding out for the first time as an outsider. I'm not on the inside. I don't know. But apparently, it's an open secret. It's all these open secrets. It's like – Well, I mean there's – listen. Yeah. This business is gossipy. This business is a terrible cesspool of rumor and innuendo and gossip. And when I was on the road all the time doing these things, when you're at TIFF at a party after 11 o'clock at night,

you see things, you hear things and stuff. And is it true? I don't know. It's the kind of stuff that gets run as blind items and gossip columns. And so I think that there is so much of it. I think sometimes there's scandal fatigue or there was gossip fatigue and people would hear things and go, I mean, it was a juicy little story while we were sitting around drinking our Great Lakes pompous ass English ale, but it doesn't, I don't know if I believe it or not.

Gotcha, gotcha. All right, so we already spoke about Real to Real, which had a good run 1998 to 2008, and then Rogers decides to stop making reel-to-reel. Yep. And then, is it shortly thereafter you end up on News Talk 1010? I think they may have overlapped. I don't remember.

I was on Canada AM. Absolutely. I was working for them. I did that show for about 14 years, I think. So I think that overlapped. News Talk 1010, probably. I mean, it was likely around the same time. I don't really remember.

I just wondered if there was some kind of, you work for Rogers, therefore we don't want you on Bell Media properties. It wasn't a Bell Media property then. It was Astro. Astro, right. But shortly thereafter. When I started there, it wasn't even Astro.

It was still Gary Slate. Standard. Standard. Yeah. And so I had pitched a show over and over and over and over and over to Steve Couch. And I was told over and over and over and over, movies don't work on the radio. You can't talk about movies on the radio. Nobody cares about movies on the radio. And then one day, people cared about movies on the radio.

And we started doing the show. on the radio. And then one day people cared about movies on the radio and we started doing the show and it was a half an hour and then it moved to an hour and it stayed, you know, it's changed its form over the years. It's changed its content. I mean, I stopped wanting to review movies

entirely on the radio, making the whole show one big long movie review. So now it's a panel show, but it's all about pop culture and entertainment and it's called the richard krauss show inventively titled the richard krauss show good for you always get the shows named after you because then they can't slide somebody else in well you know i it's funny cbc doesn't do it you know i don't know why uh more people don't if you're trying to build and i hate this so much but if you're trying to build a brand you got to build much, but if you're trying to build a brand, you've got to build it one brick at a time,

and part of that is your name. Well, they did have the Strombo show. They did, which they called The Hour. Is that right? Okay, yeah, it was definitely called The Hour. You're right. Maybe it had another name. I can't remember, but you're right.

In fact, I had this chat with Mad Dog and Ryan Doyle. We talked about how some radio stations, they really promote it based on the personalities. Like Roz and Mocha is an example. Or the CHFI, Maureen Holloway and Lamb, whose name is Darren B. Lamb. Right, of course. So you're right. And then there's other shows like the Virgin Radio Morning Show, which is really billed as Virgin Radio Morning Show. There's not a lot of Tucker and stuff.

Well, I think that because Virgin is such a well-known brand on its own, and I mean, listen, I'm not the guy to talk to about this. No, right. Because I don't know. But I would just suggest that Virgin is a well-known brand, and there's a Virgin radio station in every major city in the country. It's like McDonald's. You don't have Dave's McDonald's.

Hey, let's go to Bill's McDonald's in Oshawa. They don't do that. Remember Colonel Sanders opened up Scott's Chicken Villa? Yeah, I remember those. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, oh, that was not quite KFC, but like it was KFC. It was a strange. Yeah, yeah. I worked at a KFC when I was 15 or 16 years old.

And 15, I guess. Which means we weren't even calling it KFC probably. No, it was still Kentucky Fried Chicken. Yeah, yeah. It's just I remember the Scott Chicken Villa showing up and it had a picture of the colonel. Yeah. And it wasn't Kentucky Fried Chicken. He was probably living here then, right?

He was living in Mississauga. Yes, that's what I understand as well. Very interesting. So you have your show on News Talk 1010, The Richard Crow Show. Great title. Love it. And that's how you got this jacket, I bet.

And it got syndicated across Canada, right? Yeah, it's on all the Bell Talk radio stations now. That's awesome. That's awesome. And today, if I want to listen to it, is it Saturday afternoon still? Where do I hear it right now? No, it's Saturday nights at 9 o'clock.

Yeah, I should know that. And yeah, you know about the winds of change and the Ziggy effect, yeah. No, it's Saturday nights at 9 o'clock in Toronto, but it's at various times all across the country. Sure. And you do, of course, now that you're in the Bell Media family,

one place you can be heard regularly is on More in the Morning on News Talk 1010 with John Moore. Yeah, I've done that for a long time. I mean, I was on with Bill Carroll previous to that. And Bill, I think, now that I'm remembering, Bill Carroll brought me in. Bill and Ryan. Ryan Doyle, I'm just, it's like a flash I just met the man and we both love Public Enemy so say good things about Ryan, please

Ryan brought me in when he was Bill Carroll's producer, when Bill was the morning guy at News Talk it was still called CFRB then Ryan brought me in and I reviewed movies there until Bill, I can't remember what happened.

I think he moved to a different shift. He did the mid mornings and then he moved to Los Angeles. And then John took over and I just stayed. And in and around there somewhere, the radio show happened. I'm not sure what happened first. I think it was Bill Carroll, then the radio show. Yeah. And you're, what is it, three times a week you show up?

I'm there a lot. I was on earlier. I've been on a few times already today, earlier talking about the Simpsons and- Oh, the Apu controversy. Yeah, I'm all over that. By the way, I mentioned my mom was so excited. I got a message from my mom earlier today.

Just saw Richard on Marilyn. That's right. Yeah, I'm on the Marilyn Dennis show as well. I'm their film expert and Marilyn loves movies and she had long wanted to have me on her show, but because I was on Saturday Night

Live, I was going to say, on Canada AM, I couldn't really do it because the shows were almost back to back. There was an hour difference there, but they didn't want that. So as soon as Canada AM ended, Marilyn was on it and I started there, you know, a few weeks later.

Marilyn, yeah. Speaking of Roger Ashby, there's a duo that's been together a long time. Listen, I have nothing but love and respect for both of them. You know, Marilyn has been very kind to me and has always treated me so well. She's got me on her show.

You know, in amongst, you know, the lifestyle experts, here's the, you know, the dorky film critic that shows up every now and again, and I'm really grateful to her for that. How does it feel being Toronto famous? I'm going to ask you this. You must get recognized everywhere.

You also have a distinctive brand. I saw you walking down the street and I'm like, there's no doubt there's only one person that could possibly be. There's Richard Krauss. But how does that feel to be kind of a... I mean, your national presence, okay. But you're Toronto famous. Listen, it's part of the yeah, I mean, your national presence, okay, but you're Toronto famous.

Listen, it's part of the job. I mean, I'm, you know, when I was a bartender, I liked being bar famous, you know, I liked having people come in and wanting to sit at my bar, regulars that came in every night or every week, people that I got to know. Now it's just a little difference. The bar is a little bigger, you know, and I'm really happy that people have stayed with me. It's been 20 some odd years that I've been doing this and people have stayed with me. They, uh, are, are kind when they come up to me on the street. Most of them are. And, you know, on the subway, I took the subway out here today and, and people were, I was talking to people on the subway coming up to me, and there was a film shoot on the subway today. I'm not sure exactly what was being shot. Were the spoons doing romantic traffic sequels?

They were not. And the director came over and chatted a little bit. That's amazing. Coincidence. I made him nervous because he knew who I was, and I was there. Be careful when you take the subway back home. Protect your great legs beer. I believe there will be an Uber in my future here shortly.

It's worth it, don't worry. You got to protect the beer. Another question on, no, actually came by email. It says, you appeared on Zane Kaplansky's Let's Eat. Yeah. What is your favorite food-related film of all time and what do you like to snack on

when you're watching a film? I don't eat popcorn so much anymore, although I will eat popcorn. But, you know, with the amount of movies that I have to see, I would wait.

It's very bad for you, popcorn. Yeah, you know, it's like little razor blades for your colon. Nobody wants that. And so, no. No bad for you, popcorn. Yeah, you know, it's like little razor blades for your colon. Nobody wants that. So, no. No popcorn or rarely ever popcorn. When I do snack at the movies,

it's terrible, but I love Twizzlers. I will Twizzle it up. For food-related movies, I think Big Night probably is one of my favorites. The Timpano is a thing of beauty that I've tried to make a couple of times. This big stuffed pasta shell that is gorgeous to look at, beautiful to taste. Mine have turned out okay.

They're not brilliant, but they're okay. And I love the scene at the end when Tony Shalhoub and Stanley Tucci make the omelet. After the big night has happened, they make the omelette. It's a gorgeous thing. I agree with you. That is, that is a great film. That, that's a great film. Good answer there.

Okay. Books. Let's talk briefly about some books. So you mentioned the hundred best books, sorry, the hundred best movies you've never seen. You also had real winners, but you have like,

you have, you wrote what, nine books? How many? Just nine or ten. Nine or ten books now. And you, you write your, you know, you can read your stuff in the Globe and Mail and the National Post. And you got a weekly column now for the Metro newspaper chain.

Is that still going on? No, it's not. That's gone. That ended today, in fact. Whoa. Was it my fault? No, no, no. After 10 years, 10 years of doing a weekly column called In Focus, another column that I did for years called Real Guys, and then writing something like 1,700 features for them, they've rebranded. And they're now called Star Metro.

Right. different thing. It just launched today. And they're doing or concentrating on investigative reporting. And I'll tell you, I picked up a copy today. It looks sharp. I wish them well. We had a really super good run. And I'm happy for them. I would have lost a lot of money because I would have bet you'd be involved in the relaunch. I would have lost that bet. Well,

you know, listen, I would have bet on that too. We'd both be drowning our sorrows in Great Lakes beer here. And what about the future of print? So print media is going through a tough time. What do you hope for the future of print media as a guy who's... I hope that it exists. I mean, listen, everything old and new media will be different 10 years from right now where we sit.

Will people still be reading newspapers? I don't know. But I think that very likely if they do, that will be in a much different way than we read them now. I think one of the things that Star Metro was trying to do with its layout, which kind of looks like a website, is to push you towards the Star's website a little bit. I know that I do crosswords. The crossword says, hey, to find out the answers, go to Star.com or whatever it is. And that's OK.

I think that there's room for everybody. I think that you just have to find the niche. think that you just have to find the niche. And I think that newspapers, after having dominated for so long, just have to find their niches. Now, I think that investigative journalism is probably a good way to do it. And I think that investigative journalism is absolutely crucial to having a healthy society. And people don't want to pay for news anymore. They don't want to pay for having a healthy society and, you know, people don't want to pay for news anymore. They don't want to pay for, uh, newspapers or, or the kind of journalism that it takes. But, you know, when, when Kevin Donovan is covering a story, it can take him six months before he even writes a word of it that gets published. You know, this costs money to do. And, you know, if it uncovers

something like the orange scandal, then it's worth the money. And so I don't know what's going to happen. I really don't. I wish I did. If I did know what was going to happen, I'd know where to invest my money right now. And I don't know whether it will be on print or new media. And frankly, a lot of new media is not doing all that well anyway. So I don't know. I don't know.

I noticed Dave Bedini started up like a Western Toronto newspaper. Yeah, which is very cool. But again, you know, again, Dave's doing something smart, I think, and keeping it hyper local, keeping it interesting. It's not just news. There'll be short stories. There'll be all kinds of cool stuff in there. And, you know, he's got a whole list of, you know, interesting people that he can call on for writers and that sort of thing. And he's keeping it of, you know, interesting people that he can call on for writers and that sort of thing. And he's keeping it local,

you know, and I think that local newspapers are very important. And when they start to go, uh, you know, how are you going to find out what's going on in your community? Now,

every quarter I have a gentleman on this show to talk about the ongoings in Canadian media, this and that, uh, Mark Weisblot, who, uh,

he now has a newsletter. One, two, three, six or something, right? I was going to ask you, if you subscribe, do you read that? Yeah, yeah. Because he's going to want to know if you're reading. I think he's going to listen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I do.

I do. And that's where I saw today on Twitter, on his Twitter feed, is where I saw the initial layout of the new Metro Star Metro. I saw it there too. And it was not any negative. Sorry, it was not a positive. It was more of like, where do I go here? People can put whatever spin they want on things.

And I know it's funny because I'm a critic and people think that you have to be negative or you have to. and people think that you have to be negative or you have to – and I don't – listen, whatever is happening at Metro or any show or radio show or whatever it is that gets redesigned, people don't do it lightly. People don't put people out of work lightly. They don't change things for the sake of change very often. It sometimes happens. But they don't do it – here's some good stuff.

change very often. It sometimes happens. But they don't do it very here's some good stuff. But I think Metro or now Star Metro I think is trying something new. There's a market out there for it. I noticed it's in the subways again which is where it desperately needed to be.

It hasn't been for the last couple of years. I think that they'll find their feet. Maybe they didn't do it on the first issue, but you know, by issue 10, they'll, they'll figure out where they're going. Bring this up a little bit here. stick of valentines cause I don't know if you were loving somebody

I only know it isn't mine Alison I know this world is killing you oh Alison I know this world is killing you, oh, Alison. My aim is true. Elvis is king.

Yes. Tell me about your book, Elvis is King, Costello's My Aim is True, and what you think of Elvis Costello. Well, we could fill another hour with that easily. You know, the book came as part of a series that ECW Press is doing. And they came to me and said, you know, we want you to write about something that you love, a piece of art that you love. It could be a painting. It could be a movie. It could be a television show.

It could be anything. And I think that they assumed that I would write about film because, you know, that's what I do. And instead, I wrote a book, a very concise, I think it's only about 30,000 words. It's a short little book about why My Name is True was so important to me. And again, growing up in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, we couldn't get new music. One thing that we could get though, and I don't know really how this worked out or why it worked out, was going to M&O's Pharmacy. The place in town, sort of in the middle of town, was a store that was a pharmacy and a magazine store. And they had all the new cool English and American music magazines. And I used to eat those up along with Rona Barrett's Hollywood and stuff like that. And so Elvis Costello, I would read about him for

eight months before I'd ever heard a note of the music or the talking heads or the Ramones or anything, because we just simply didn't get it down there for a long time. And my brother was living in Toronto and I used to call him and say, okay, when you're coming down next, this is a list of records that I want to get. He'd go to Sam the record man and pick them up for me. And he came home in 1977 with a stack of these records. And I can't remember exactly what was on them, but I imagine there was something by heart in there and, you know know the bands that you might imagine and as soon as I got to My Name is True

I put it on and I played the first side flipped it over I played the second side first side again second side again and I thought here it is I never have to listen to REO Speedwagon again here is the music that speaks to me. And you know, for every generation, you'll find that. My dad found it with Bing Crosby. My brother found it with Jimi Hendrix. I found it with Elvis Costello, a guy that actually spoke to me. And I loved that record. And I would say quite honestly, I imagine not a week goes by that I don't play at least part of that record at some point during the week. And so the book, for me, struck me as kind of an obvious choice.

So the first chapter and the last chapter are personal chapters about it. And then the stuff in between is focused on the two years that it took Elvis to make the book. One of the things that's been kind of interesting about going through this giant archive of stuff that I told you about that I'm digitizing is having a look at some of the stuff. And, you know, at the time that I was writing it, 25 or 30 years ago, some of it, I thought it was pretty good. In the moment, it sounded okay to me. But I realized that I've gotten better at how to tell a story in print. And the book is honed down to just the information that you need to understand this story. And I love that. And the reviews, I remember one of the reviews said, this book is

like a punk rock song. Just the essentials. Nothing to three chords. All killer, no filler. Yeah. That's great. That's fantastic. And we've answered most of Avery's questions, actually. But at the very end, he does say, because he wanted you to talk about Elvis and your favorite album, blah, blah, blah. My name is True. Well, it's one of my favorite albums. But I'll tell you, and we'll get back to Avery's question in a second. I saw Elvis Costello recently at the Sony Center within the last year. He's 63 or 64 years old now.

I've met him a few times, but this time there was no professional intent at all. I just went to see a great artist perform. And he was playing the Imperial Bedroom album. First hour of the show was that. And every now and again he'd play a hit. He'd play Peace, Love, and Understanding or something. Or this. Yeah, or this.

And then he would play a radically rearranged version of something from Imperial Bedroom. And it was good. It wasn't blowing my mind. The second half of the show, he kicked it off with Allison, which is my least favorite song. It's the biggest song. The radio one, right?

It's my least favorite song. It's the biggest song. The radio one, right? It's my least favorite song from the album. But he started off with a beautiful solo version with just two backup singers and him. And then he was like reading lyrics off an iPad because he had just written the song earlier that day. He was playing piano. He was rocking out in a way that you rarely see 63-year-olds rocking out and still pushing boundaries.

And it reminded me of why I fell in love with Elvis in the first place. Here's a guy unafraid to be different. Here's a guy that is going out there and pushing his musical agenda. And it blew my mind, and it was so inspiring. Best second half of the show, one of the best concerts I've ever seen. Sounds amazing. I love watching that clip of him on Saturday Night Live where they tell him not to do radio, radio.

Got him barred from Saturday Night Live for years. That's punk, right? That's punk right there. Yeah, he wasn't actually punk rock, but he certainly came up with this sort of jittery spirit. And yeah, he had the attitude, if you will. That's great. Oh, yeah, so Avery's final query here was,

what are your top three Costello tracks? Oh, well, you know, listen, I would say just off the top of my head, you know, pick and choose from My Aim Is True. I would say less than zero probably from that record. I would say, man, it's like choosing your baby. It's like Goodfellas and Godfather. Yeah, yeah. Listen, I

kind of love them all. I kind of love them all. That's fair. That's fair. By the way, I do a pro... So when guests come over, we do about 90 minutes, what I call a deep dive, long form, and we're going to talk about pop life because I know you like that as well. But they often come back to kick out the jams.

So 30 guests have come back. And what we do in Kick Out the Jams is basically you tell me your 10 favorite songs of all time. And we play them. And then you tell us why you love that jam. We'll do an Elvis Costello Kick Out the Jams. Or David Bowie Kick Out the Jams. That'd be fantastic. Andrew Ward has a music question.

I'm just going to slip in here, which is that he just found out that Fleetwood Mac fired Lindsay Buckingham. I know, crazy, man. Speaking of, you mentioned 1977, so Rumours came out in 77. Yeah, I mean, and Rumours was a record that I just had no time for whatsoever

when it came out, because it just wasn't my thing, you know? But it's a great record. Listen, Fleetwood Mac were a great band. That they fired Lindsey Buckingham, I don't know how you get fired from Fleetwood Mac. I really don't. After the stories that you hear about their lives on the road,

I think maybe they've all gotten older and mellowed except for him, or maybe it was just time. He's left the band before. He's gone for 10 years once before, so he may well be back. I realize now, this is actually quite a long question, but so he talks about how 77 was a great year for music, and he runs down Steely Dan and David Bowie.

Talking Heads. Yeah, right, and Television, Marky Moon, and Kraftwerk, Trans Europe Express. Kraftwerk, who I think, Kraftwerk are one of the most influential bands of all time. And listen to what's on the radio now. Listen to those records and listen to what's on the radio right now.

And you can draw a direct line. Throw in a little James Brown and you've got, you know, half the stuff that you're hearing on the radio. I think you're absolutely right. But then he, then Andrew Ward goes in and talks about My Aim Is True, which came out in 77. We've already covered My Aim Is True.

But he says, okay, this is him talking. This recording is on the short list of greatest first albums of all time. It left such a mark on you that a few years ago you wrote a book about it. Did you know? Of course you covered that. Yes, I did.

What other debut albums left a similar impression? Is there any other, I'll rearrange this question to say, is there any other debut albums that, like either punk or new wave genres that blew your mind? Yeah, I mean, for me, a lot of that music was like tremendously important to me. And, you know, a lot of it I don't listen to that much anymore. But I loved Mink DeVille, uh, were a band that, that, uh, I loved.

And I'm, I'm listening, this might be a stretch. I think the Spanish, the album was Spanish Stroll when it was their debut, which is something I still listen to today. Um, I think more recently, uh, Nathan Rateliff and the Night Sweats, their debut album is amazing. And let me just think. Again, you know, I'm not so good with years. I'm just trying to think about debut albums.

But, you know, for me, listen, when something comes along that sounds fresh and beautiful, I mean, you know, I'm also a giant David Bowie fan. And there was an argument that could be made that he jumped around genres so much that almost every album was like a debut album for him, you know. And, you know, if you listen to The Man Who Sold the World today, you can draw a straight line between that and Black Sabbath. If you listen to Ziggy, that, you know, kind of helped really jumpstart glam rock. If you listen to, you know, Young Americans, it's a completely different sound, a completely different artist making it. So Bowie was so influential for me in so many ways. Would you say Ziggy Stardust is your favorite Bowie track? If I put a gun to your head.

Listen, it depends on the day that you ask me. I love this song. I love the album Low. I've been listening to a great deal lately. Life on Mars I've been listening to a great deal lately. Man who sold the world, I just talked about that whole album. It blows my mind still. I mean, you know, I, on Saturday night, went to see a band called Bowie Lives at the Cadillac Lounge.

My wife and I went, and they were great. But Bowie, David Bowie tribute, and it's a greatest hits kind of thing. They just, they play the songs that people want to hear. A month or so ago, I went to see Mike Garson, Bowie's old piano player, along with Earl Slick and a number of other people that have played with him, do a tribute show. I've seen Holy Holy with Tony Viscone. I saw David Bowie nine or ten times. But

lately, I've been seeing tribute bands coming up. And I have this theory that David Bowie impersonators are the new Elvis impersonators. For a whole new generation, there's a lot of people out there that really love this music. And, and you know,

when we went to the Cadillac lounge the other night, the show started at nine and we've been out somewhere before and we didn't get there until about five to nine. And I thought, Oh, whatever it's, you know, like we'll be able to get absolutely jam packed.

People were literally hanging from the rafters to see this. And, you know, in a way that, you know, it's hard to get people out to see live music when there's a big cover involved. And it was a $20 cover at the door to see a band playing songs

that you already know, but were not involved in the creation of those songs at all. And yet people did it. That place was packed. Bowie impersonators are the new Elvis impersonators. It's fantastic stuff. It is. Nick Ronson, the guitar player

on those first albums. Unbelievable. The guy was a genius and an underrated one too. I watched this show called Vinyl on an HBO show and they had the Suffragette City I I think, was the jam,

and they had the guy playing David Bowie. Yep. It was great, too. And by the way, Elvis Costello, I'm re-watching, because I really like Treme. Yeah. I love the music in it, so I'm re-watching that. It's on Crave TV, speaking of Bell Media.

Yeah. And yeah, there's a scene. It's just kind of a random. Elvis is just kind of there. There's a lot of musicians. He's made a lot of movies. He's done a lot of stuff, including Spice World.

People forget. Oh, I do. Yeah. I did forget. Yeah. Oh, here we go. My friend, I hope I'm not keeping you from anything because I've got a few more questions here.

Are you okay? Yeah, no, I'm good. Good. I don't have to rough you up. That's good. All right. Where'm going to close with Pop Life and I have some questions from the audience, but is it okay? May I ask you? Well, I'm going to ask you and you can answer if you wish, but how is your health? Fine. Fine now. And listen, I had a scare about four and a half years ago. So we're coming up

on the five years of being cancer free. That will happen at the end of this year, into next year, actually. And things are good now. It was something that I have to say, no one can prepare you for the words, we know, we found cancer, you have cancer. You never want to hear it. And I went to get a colonoscopy, which I never would have done if my doctor hadn't made the appointment for me because there's always something better to do than to have a colonoscopy. And so I stuck with it. But listen, I had lunch reservations for right afterwards. I thought, I'm in, I'm out, whatever. It doesn't matter.

And I was told I had cancer. And then things go into a whirlwind. Like it all happened fast. A week later, I'm having surgery. After that, you know, chemo started. I'm juggling the Toronto Film Festival and all this stuff that's happening all at the same time. And I didn't stop working. I was determined to not stop working. I didn't tell anybody much. I told a very small amount of people that needed to know that I was undergoing all this. And even though I had a port in my chest, and so after I would get my chemo, I had a bottle of chemo about the size of one of these Great Lakes brewery cans attached to me, pumping chemo into me for a few days. Wow.

And so I learned to disguise those. I hosted the premiere of Hunger Games 2 with one of those in my back pocket with the actors on stage and that kind of thing. And I can tell you that having come through the other side of it, you know, every, not every month, you know, not every year, but every week, 423 people, and that's the old number. It may be more. Hopefully, it's less, get diagnosed with colon cancer.

It is curable if you catch it early and if you actually go get the colonoscopy. And nobody wants to do it, but go get the colonoscopy. But having cancer changed my life, uh, in all positive ways. Uh, it, it made things, uh, better, uh, with my wife and I, when the crappier things got, uh, with my health, the stronger things got with her, uh, the, the outlook that comes out of something like that changes. You learn more about what's important. And, and there's a, there's a, there's a way of looking at things that I have developed, I think, um, from almost having everything ripped away from me. I was, uh, I don't know, you know,

a week, a month, six months away from that tumor piercing my colon. And then it would have been all over. So, you know, when, when, with that knowledge in my head, you know, I've learned to appreciate things a little bit more and it really does, it has changed everything. Well, it goes about saying how happy I am to hear that you're about to hit five years cancer-free.

That's great news. You look great. Yeah, and I feel good too. You know, that's the thing. I mean, I didn't for a long time. You know, the chemo is draining. It is draining. And it's funny.

My last chemo was about a week after the Oscars, whatever, four years, four and a half, five years ago. And I was on CP24 in the morning doing an Oscar like, hey, this is what's going to happen. And the thing, and I guess it was on a Sunday and then the Monday would have been my final chemo. So the next day, but I'd been through it, man. I'd had a lot of, I'd had a lot of chemo and I thought I looked great. You know, I felt okay. Well, I didn't feel great, but I'd been through it, man. I'd had a lot of chemo and I thought I looked great. I felt okay. Well, I didn't feel great but I thought at least I looked great

and we took some photos and they put them on a line and I just looked like a cadaver in them and I realized at that moment it was time to lay down a little bit. It's that up in the air thing. Well, the book more than the movie, I guess because the movie doesn't refer to the cancer,

I don't think. But this whole idea of if I don't stop, if I just keep moving, it can't get me. There's a whole mentality there. Well, there's that. And also, I mean, I didn't tell anybody much. Work-wise, I told just the people that needed to know, just in case I didn't show up.

Because I didn't know how I was going to respond to this. Is all my hair going to fall out? Will I be asleep all the time? Well, I don't know what's going to happen. And so I told very few people, cause I didn't want people looking at me with that pity look in their faces. I understand that. Yeah, completely. So I didn't do that. And I wanted to not make cancer the focus of my life. Um, in that moment, I didn't want, I looked after myself. I did look after myself and I did what the doctors told me to do and I did all that stuff, but I did not want it to be the focus of my life. For me, it was more important to maintain an active and interesting life outside of just that. And a good chunk of your recovery and a good chunk of the way that you're

going to feel afterwards, I think stems from the way that you feel going into all this. And if you are downcast and downbeat about it all, and it's very easy to fall into, but if you are, you will delay your recovery, I think. And you had no symptoms, right? No, I felt fine. And it's just because of your age that the doctor... When I turned 50. Yeah, when I turned 50, the doctor said, oh, well, it's time for a colonoscopy.

And I think, actually, that people should start getting them at 45. I mean, 50 is the benchmark. But because I did go public with this eventually, after it was all said and done, I did a stint on Canada AM where I talked about it. And then every year I end up talking about it in various places. So people get in touch with me. And what I'm finding is that younger and younger people are coming to me. And in fact, I may have, I mean, we don't know whether the tumor was there for a month or a year or five years. We don't know.

But I'm noticing a lot of younger people are coming to me. Thank goodness you took your doctor's advice and got the colonoscopy. Nobody wants to do it, but do it. Oh, man. Well, glad that you, they say whatever doesn't kill

you only makes you stronger. Absolutely. This is a good example of that being very true. So I'm now going to pepper you with questions. You can quickly answer questions from your fans, and then we're going to talk about pop life before I let you leave my basement studio here. But where's a good question to start with?

How about Douglas Hughes has a question. but where's a good question to start with? How about Douglas Hughes has a question. Okay, what are your top 10 and bottom? I know these top 10, you don't have to do a top 10 but what is an Academy Award Best Picture winner that you thought was very deserving and is there an example of a winner that you did not think deserved?

I'm trying to bring this down to earth. I would say Crash, you know, kind of in recent memory, Crash is a movie that I think people were kind of swept up and swept away by in the thing because it seemed like it was complex. This is the traffic year? Is this the year of traffic? No, Brokeback Mountain, I think,

was up against it. And I've seen Brokeback Mountain since on the big screen. I hosted an event with the guy that did the soundtrack for it, and we watched it, and it's a beautiful movie, and honestly, deserved to win. But Crash, I think, is an example of a movie that I think people thought was a lot more complex

and interesting than it actually was. And it's one of those movies that, and Paul Haggis, hey, whatever, this isn't a complaint and Paul Haggis, you know, hey, you know, whatever, this isn't a complaint against Paul Haggis, but it's one of those movies that nobody talks about anymore. You know, it's not something that comes up, you never see it on top 10 lists. It just, it was a thing that happened in its moment and it won. And that's, I mean, listen, the Academy Awards aren't terribly important. I mean, you know, this is what happens at them.

You know, the people's favorites win or everyone likes Sandra Bullock that year. And that's why, that's why it, uh, it won. And then as for movies that should have won, I will keep it easy, man. The Shape of Water was, I thought, a beautiful movie, uh, that was the kind of movie that reminded me of why I fell in love with movies in the first place. You know, it is a fable. It is a story of these misfits and outsiders who draw together to actually, you know, create a better life for themselves and the people around them. It's a mystery and a thriller,

and it's quite funny, and it's beautiful looking, and it's strange and weird, and it's got a cool monster. It's part Beauty and the Beast, and it's part Creature from the Black Lagoon and I was thrilled when it won Best Picture. And it's got some great Toronto cameos. It does.

Massey Hall's in there. Apparently you can live on top of Massey Hall. And when they're inside, it's the Winter Elgin Theatre. Which is the cool thing if you saw it at the Toronto Festival. Sitting in the Elgin Theatre watching a movie shot in the Elgin Theatre. Did you notice everybody starts looking around?

Like, whoa, that's kind of crazy. Now, Yerouj Islam wants me to ask you about the superhero comic book movie genre and its complete current domination of the industry. So is this something that has a, and this is me now talking, he just wants me to ask you about it in general, but does this have a limited lifespan?

Because I'm personally not into all these superhero movies. Listen, it probably has a limited lifespan only because trends, no matter what they are, all die out after a while. The Marvel movies have extended their lifeline a little bit, I think, by shaking things up a little bit. You know, Thor is essentially a comedy with some action, you know, which is much different than the Avengers movies have been. I think that they're going a little overboard with the amount of people in the movies, the amount of characters in the movies.

I can't keep them all straight. Right, now the Guardians of the Galaxy show up. Man, well, there's that, and then I can't remember. Is she the one that shoots flames from her wrist? I don't know. But I think that there's a real danger in making these things too big. I think Black Panther is a great example

of a story well told. There's one hero, there's one villain, there's other cool supporting characters, but there's not 25 superheroes in one film. And I think if, you know, less is always more in my books. And I just think that these movies,

whether it's the Justice League or the Marvel films, I think they're getting a little too broad. On the note of the same topic here, so Elias Bernie wants to know, have you heard anything about Deadpool 2? He says he hates all these comic movies, but he actually enjoyed Deadpool. Well, Deadpool is the super anti-hero, right? So it's a much different thing. And I love Deadpool as well. And when

the first one came out, I thought that it was a really interesting nod to counterculture comics, although Deadpool was never really all that counterculture, but it seemed it. It seemed like it was coming from a different place than the Marvel films and the DC films. And the new film, I haven't heard that much about other than Ryan Reynolds saying that he didn't want to just make another Deadpool. He wanted it to still feel as shocking and provocative as that first one did. And I don't know what that means because the first one was kind of shocking and provocative.

So I'm hoping that it's not just shock for shock's sake, that they've actually woven in a cool story, good action, all the stuff that you expect from it, but, you know, still push the envelope a little bit. Mike Grigotsky wants me to ask you, and, well, I know you already answered this as a critic, but maybe as a citizen. Have you ever walked out of a movie? No. I mean, it would take a lot for me to walk out of a movie.

I'm just trying to think. I must have at some point. Well, Mike does say here at the end here that he walked out of one in his life, Natural Born Killers he walked out of. Interesting. Yeah, I know. My wife loves that movie.

I love that movie too. So we would never walk out. No, I've had movies that I've wanted to walk out on, but I don't. Have I ever walked? The only, no, I'm going to say no. I mean, maybe at the Toronto Film Festival, I may have buggered up my schedule

and started to see something and then realized, oh, damn it, I've got to get out of here and go do an interview. But beyond that, no. Yeah, I think he means like walking out because you hate it so much. I will sit through anything. Listen, I was in New York last week

and I sat through four hours of The Iceman Cometh with Denzel Washington live on stage. And it's a beautiful production, but it's four hours long of Eugene O'Neill. Your bum is numb at the end of that. Yeah, yeah. You need an intermission. The JC says,

can you explain why critics and audience ratings are sometimes completely different? I think we all know why, but there have been a lot of movies that critics love and the general public do not. He has some examples. Moonlight, Blade Runner 2049. Is it just that the general public is tasteless?

Is that what you want to say here? No, not at all. Not at all. Listen, nobody's wrong in this. The thing about film appreciation is that it's subjective. And, you know, because I like something doesn't mean that you're wrong for not liking it and vice versa. And, you know, critics, we tend to see more movies than the average person. We tend to have to think about them in a way, you know, I love going to see movies with my wife. She studied film. She works in the

industry. She is, she's, you know, she probably knows more than I do, but she walks out and she loves the idea of going to a movie and she likes, and even if it's something that I've absolutely hated, uh, she'll, she will find something in it to enjoy. And I think that, that film critics sometimes forget to find the thing in it that you absolutely like. And movies like Moonlight, which critics loved, I would argue that Moonlight, considering the kind of release it got, which was a very limited plateau release, made a lot of money. Audiences liked that film as well, as did film critics. Blade Runner 2049, I think that, I'm not sure which way is going there

with this because it didn't make a lot of money. So I'm guessing that it was audiences that didn't like it, but critics did. Yeah, I think that's what he's saying. Yeah. I, you know, for, for that case, I mean, I think that, you know, for me just being in the theater and watching the beautiful images that were on that screen was kind of enough. The story, too drawn out, not told well enough. There's all sorts of things wrong with it. But man, that was a beautiful looking thing. There's a chap on Twitter who goes by the name

Marlon Brando PhD, and he wants to know, what's your favorite Brando film? Well, we've talked about The Godfather. Right. I mean, listen, you know, Brando, well, I mean, I have to stay with The Godfather. It's the obvious choice. But I just love that when he signed on to do

the Superman movie, he suggested that he do it in voiceover and that Superman just appear as a big, giant, glowing bagel, which I think is amazing. He just didn't want to, you know, lose weight and show up on set. Right. That's funny.

And now I'm going to ask you about Pop Life because I've seen, I actually saw you promoting this on, what's the, is it called My Morning? Your Morning. Your Morning. So it's My Morning, but it's called Your Morning.

I get you now. And I heard you, I saw you talking with Ben and the gang and Anne-Marie and you were talking about Pop Life. So tell us what Pop Life is. Pop Life is my new talk show and it's not so new anymore. I mean, we've been on for a little while. We're on the CTV News Channel, 8.30 on Saturday nights, two o'clock in the afternoon on Sunday afternoons. And then we're on at CTV on midnight on Saturdays, up against Saturday Night Live. And we are holding our own in a very interesting way there.

People are tuning into this show. It starts off with a feature interview. This week it's Randy Bachman talking about his life and career and his influences. Each week there's also a theme. And so we talked to Randy about his influences and people that have really steered his career. And then there's a panel discussion. Randy happened to stay for the panel discussion with Biff Naked and a woman named Chloe Charles, who's a beautiful singer. She's got this kind of orchestral pop music that is really, really lovely. Okay, yeah, yeah.

And then there's a thing that I do called Last Call where I talk about, I sort of sum up what we've just heard. But the whole thing happens in a bar. Right. Because when we were discussing what to do with this show, I thought, well, you know, a lot of the, as we talked about earlier, a lot of the best conversations I've ever had have been in bars. So let's set it in a bar. And they built me an absolutely beautiful set at the, the agent court studios, Bell Media North, they call it now Studios North.

And it's the same style and stage where Definition used to be shot, where Headline Hundreds used to be shot. But please, hold on a second. It was just like Mom shot there. It was. It was indeed. That's, hold on a second. It was just like Mom shot there. It was. It was indeed. That's all I needed to hear. And the movie Network was shot in part when Howard Beale says, I'm mad as hell and I'm

not going to take it anymore. Of course. It was on my soundstage. And I bet you Uncle Bobby was shot there too. Uncle Bobby was shot in the building, but not on that stage. Gotcha. So we've got a beautiful bar. People come and we sit.

We drink wine. Beautiful Domaine Calus wine. And it's a really fun show. It is a show that feels a little different. We don't show film clips. We don't use covering viz. It is people sitting around talking about interesting things. You're having conversations. And Randy Bachman is a fantastic storyteller.

So he'd be a great guest. He's a fantastic – and he told me stuff that I didn't know. It's pretty hard to get a new story out of Randy. He told me stuff that I had never heard before. And we're getting really interesting guests. In a few weeks, we have Lena Waithon, who is the first African-American woman to win an Emmy for writing a sitcom. She's the cover of Vanity Fair this month and she's fascinating. And we give those people time to talk.

We give our guests an avenue by which to express themselves and talk about kind of whatever they want. And it's working out. People are drawn to it, I think, because of its kind of unhurried nature and that it feels, I don't know if it feels

more like a podcast than a television show or if people sit back and have a glass of wine and watch it with us. Because you're drinking wine on the show and that always helps the conversation. Trust me, I know that. But I was thinking, my experience is, having done this for five and a half years, is there are people out there who are starving for longer form, more authentic conversation? I think so.

I mean, you know, I mentioned we're on the news channel, we're on CTV, we're also on Gusto, we're on E!, we're on Bravo. And the numbers are good across the board because I think that people are looking for something that feels a little different than the kind of soundbite journalism that they get day by day. Sounds amazing. And you mentioned Biff Naked. Just the other day, Tara Sloan was over here, and I told her, because she's, her band, she

answered an ad in Now Magazine, the band was looking for a rock goddess. And I said that basically they were looking for their Biff Naked, because that was a similar era in Canada's rock goddess. And I said that basically they were looking for their Biff Naked because that was a similar era in Canada's rock goddess. I could not have loved Biff Naked any more than I did. I had never met her before somehow. And she was fantastic. She's so fun and so cool.

And listen, I'd have her on as a co-host if I could. Yeah, and I just remember really digging her music, Biff Naked. That was some great stuff. And Richard, I dug this convo, man. This was amazing.

Woo-hoo! Well, thanks for having me. Do you do two hours on Pop Life? Do we do? On the nose. That was a long time. On the nose. So thanks so much.

Well, thanks for having me. Protect the beer on your way home. I know I will. And that brings us to the end of our 323rd show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Richard is at Richard Krause. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery

are at Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthe6.com is at Raptors Devotee. Paytm is at Paytm Canada. And Camp Ternasol is at Camp Ternasol. See you all next week. Everything is kind of rosy and green. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the snow won't be the day. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away.

Because everything is rosy and green.