Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Ron James: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1515

Episode Date: July 5, 2024

In this 1515th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike catches up with comedian Ron James as they kick out more jams and get serious about life, death and 1 Man's Treasure. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, The Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Team and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1515 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville.

The Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team, the best baseball in the city outside the dome. Join me Sunday that's July 7th. I'm at Christie Pitts recording live at 2pm. Heck even Ron James can drop by. Ha ha ha ha ha. RecycleMyElectronics.ca, committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921.

Today, returning to Toronto Mike, on his bicycle everybody, it's Ron James. Welcome back Ron. Pleasure to be here bro. So we were going to have a lot of small talk because we were happy to see each other and lots going on and I said shut up Ron, wait till the microphone, wait till I turn it on. So let's, let's unpack some of the stuff. So firstly, that's a hell of a bike ride you just did on a very, very warm, toasty Friday morning in Toronto. So good on you.

Thank you. I had no choice. I had an accident, a life-changing accident actually in Northern New Brunswick on June 30th. The heavens opened up and dropped a biblical level of water on the roadway, and I hydroplained. Have you ever hydroplained in a car? No. Well, God has the gun with one hand at your

temple and the other one gripping your testicles, and you are at the mercy of the fates. And my wheels had no purchase. I'm telling you, it literally turned the highway into a river, which the Mounties told me later was a notoriously bad stretch of highway to begin with. I cut the wheel to the shoulder and spun out, spun around twice and rolled over and totaled my Beamer X5. Wow. Yuppie car, but a great car actually

with all the traveling that I do. Sure. And I crawled out the window, the airbags deployed and just had a scratch in my arm. And you're a lucky son of a gun. But I have a bad shoulder now too, you know. So, but you can still bike. I can still bike and I bike down here today because I had no choice and I had no idea having not been in Toronto for a while I was driving back from Nova Scotia when I had the accident that this is the fifth ring of hell when it comes to summertime gridlock. Oh, because you're on the east side.

Yeah, I noticed the people coming from the east side. It's a whole different story. You know what? You need Eckhart Tolle himself in the passenger seat with you or else one of those dolls the kids used to have where you'd pull a string and they'd say something, right? Stay in the moment. The future will take care of itself.

You know I used to live in Cabbage Town years and years ago. And I always got a kick at our rubbies. They had a, it was at Christmas time and two of them were sitting by the wall in the alleyway on Berkeley Street. And one guy had a Mr. T doll. And he was pulling the string on the Mr. T doll while the other guy was drinking the wine. And Mr. T was going, stay in school, fool.

I pity the fool. Okay, well, I'm happy to be alive. That's why I brought it down today. I'm processing all this because I'm realizing June 30th was only like less than a week ago. Yeah, and thankfully. On the weekend, right? Yes, yes it was. I was driving back, you know, coming back for these interviews and I got a little crib by the Nova Scotia Sea that sort of shakes the Toronto stress from my shoulders. It's a sanctuary and I was down there for a bit doing work on it and And yeah, but there were no car rental places open. Enterprise was closed. There was no budget in Edmonton where I had to go.

And instead I ended up getting a car courtesy of Joey Charleboix and independent car rental agency. I think he'd just been in Quebec dropping a body off for the rock machine. Anyway, so we shared half a deck of non-filtered export A's just shooting the shit as you'll do in Quebec where they smoke like it's a cure for cancer. Boom, choom, I'm here for a while.

Anyway, I said, well, I'll just drop this off in Toronto. He said, no, no, you got to bring it back to Rivier-de-Lieu. Wow. So yesterday, drove to Rivier de l'Eau. Wow. So yesterday drove to Rivier de l'Eau for to catch the 323 AM VIA rail train. Wow. Back to the big smoke. Yeah. Which was late by two hours. So I slept in the hatchback all curled up like a... You're living the life Ron James, listen. Yeah, and on the train.

But I got the business seat, I got the birth, got the birth with the breakfast. And you know what? Yeah. I ordered the omelet. Yeah. And just in case your listeners are curious, if you ever want to know what a human foot tastes like, get that omelette on Via. Get that. Nice.

How long's the drive to this place in Quebec that you went to? That was Quebec, right? Rivière de Lou. Is that Quebec? Yeah. Well, kind of northern Nubance. We might as well be Quebec anyway. But that sounds to me like a very, very long drive. Nine hours. And you did it all the other day. Was that sounds to me like a very, very long drive. Nine hours. And you did it all the

other day. Was that yesterday? Yeah, I took one day off to unload my truck when I got home on July 1st. Nine hours is a long drive. That's a long one. Yeah, but I always do that when I go to Nova Scotia. I make it from here to Edmonston, stay at the Best Western with all the other fellow travelers, and then boom, on my way through the endless forests of Irving's country to Nova Scotia. But I do a lot of reading in the, you know, audible books on, as they used to say, books on tape. Right. So you're being read too. Okay, I'm going to catch the listenership up to speed here, because this is not your first visit. I'm always happy to see you. I love our chats. I think this is going to be more of a catch-up, a chat. I do have some music. I just want to get Ron James

talking. Yeah bro, we picked some songs. Yeah, absolutely. So you first visited this very basement in December 2017. So we're going way back now. That was episode 296 because now you're 1515. Wow. You'll never forget that number. Mike chats with stand-up comedian Ron James about moving to Los Angeles, returning home to hone his craft and finding his voice. I like how I wrote that. So we talked for like two hours that day. That was amazing. December 2017. Then during the pandemic, I think this one was on Zoom, I think, because we weren't like allowed to be together or something but uh it sounds funny when you say it that way october 2021 in this 939th episode uh mike catches up with ron james before he plays his 10 favorite songs of all time and tells us why he loves them i loved that very

much kicking out the jam preview that's why when you returned in july 2022 oh your phone's talking to me someone's calling you Ron. Who is it? Is that your agent? Is that your agent? You got a gig? Okay Ron, Ron is uh... I think it's the Zoomer interview I just did. Who'd you do it with? I did it with Andy and Karen. Okay. Jane was gone. Okay listen I'm getting all my Zoomer news from you. I was wondering, like, is that like the, because I'm wondering if you go on the CBC, Ron, do you turn off your-

CBC won't have me in there anymore. So my eyebrows turned white, they showed me the door. Is that true? So there's no more CBC gigs for Ron James? Nothing, nothing, haven't been there since 2017. But people probably always think you're like, oh, I saw you on the CBC last week. I know the trolls say that they troll

Say that I'm you know, just an operative of that neo-bolshevik Empire, but that's not the case. No, that's Their age just over there. They cancelled my specials We were doing about 1.3 1 point actually we hit 1.4 million viewers one New Year's Eve, but you know what? It's cool, man I poured a solid foundation on the road and for seven you know for seven years the CBC never knew I existed so it was fine I had a great run I was able to you know feed my family build a home and put my kids through school. Do you think you aged out? Is that what you think? Is that you said like you mentioned the white and the

eyebrows. Oh yeah. It was just coming to me too. Yeah I'm sure it had something to do with it. In fact I'm gonna ask at some point, we're going to talk about milestone birthdays and what the hell it all means and stuff here because we, you know, I think you're recently, you recent, when was your last, you recently hit 65. Am I right? 66 this year.

Okay. So you're now a year past almost. Okay. Cause I just hit a milestone birthday. I want to talk about that, but just to wrap this up, July, 2022, it was episode 1,081 when you came back and we kicked out five more jams. We have five more today. So let me ask you about your cycling. So what's a long ride for you?

I'm always excited and I know you did quite a long ride already this morning. You got to get back home, but what's a long ride for you? I would say, I mean, it's been a while since I've been able to get out, but I do about, I mean, in Nova Scotia when I bike Which is great biking country beside the sea so you get that double hit right you get the the cardio hit and then you get the the sea so I bike back and forth the Lunenberg from where I am in Kingsburg and So by car that's 30 minutes So what's I can do it in about an hour and 15 so I'd say an

average ride for me is about 45 kilometers excellent yeah and were you always a cyclist or is this something yeah I cycled all the time in the wintertime I mean we only had one car a little red Toyota Corolla so I'd leave that for my wife at the time and the kids and I'd bike to auditions and stuff in the wintertime and I'd bike to auditions and stuff in the winter time and I like cycling in the winter too, right? Me too. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You get layered up and everything and but I had a spill this year in February on this bike on my Cannondale. Okay. And you know, it was mild in February and I foolishly signaled at the intersection of King and Queen and Jesus, it hit the road. Is that where the four streets meet? Yes. Can you see Queens way, Queen and King all converge there where that McDonald's there.

No, no this was further east. Oh further east. Yeah this is right by Broadview. Okay gotcha. And Signal took one hand off the wheels and boom at Jackknife it hit the tracks over the handlebars I went and hit my shoulder and my thumb and my head so the rotator cuff had been damaged before and the car accident only aggravated it. Okay but you do wear a helmet I saw you in one so did you?

Buddy, you have to. Oh what you're talking you're preaching to the choir here. Oh no no you have to have a helmet. Yeah but I still am surprised when I see like adults biking along the trail with no helmet. Well you know and they it's like gambling. I know. I know. And they think, oh, I'm only going a short distance. Right. Right. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. So OK. So I'm glad you

imperative to have a helmet and a light. You didn't know this episode. We cap all of your accidents. So you had the bike crash in February and then you had the car crash at the end of June. Right. But here you are, man. You know, no worries for where you you look okay, you look great. Thank you sir. I feel pretty good all things considered. That was a sobering experience. It was in Oroostook actually. A-R-O-O-S-T-O-O-K. So if I'm going to meet my maker, it had a comedy name which I thought was great. Aroostook.

Aroostook. Yeah, is that where the guy who did the liquor burn dance bought it? Yeah, right there in It had a comedy name, which I thought was great. A roostook. A roostook. Dad, is that where the guy who did the liquor barn dance bought it? Yeah, right there in a roostook. You know, there'd be a little white cross coyotes that happily hopped the highway to piss on. Maybe somebody put something up, I don't know.

No, listen, man, you got another 35 years left. I hope so. I love my work. If you keep up this physical activity, as long as you don't crash out, you'll be fine. So we are going to catch up in Shoot the Breeze and Play Songs, but you actually do have an exciting new project, One Man's Treasure. Yes, sir.

I actually took the time here, Mr. James. I'm going to play just a little teaser about this thing. Oh, thanks. I found buried treasure. 300 grand. I got to the top of the mountain. Do I have a big sucker on my head? Oh, thanks. I found buried treasure. 300 grand. I got to the top of the mountain. Do I have a big sucker on my head? Oh, not you.

What the f**k is this? Manager Bobby Smith to the rescue. And when you're at the top of the mountain... I'll bring you out this way, buddy. Same thing as you. Searching for Niagara's Golden Grail. The only way back is down. Follow my lead and everything and be... Alright Ron, so the big exciting news is that this is, Bell 5 is streaming this,

and this is their longest running number one series to date. This is what they say in the press release and that's, I mean that sounds awesome. It's pretty good, hey. Okay so, and, so what are you eating right now? I'm curious. Oh, sure. No, I wanna know what you're eating right now. I just finished the rest of my pear while you were playing. Okay, okay.

Okay, you don't do that on the CBC, do you? That's my question now. Would you have to bring your own? No, I would not, I would not. I'd be reprimanded. Okay, that's right. They would take you out and shoot you, I think, in the back.

All right, tell me what you can. Tell me about One Man's Treasure. Is it true that season two just premiered? It is. Like late June? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, a week ago. We shot the first season down in North Scotia. A writer by the name of Thomas Conway,

who happened to be in my in my writing room during the specials and the series, I believe. Anyway, he pitched Lynn Harvey, the indomitable producer from Enter the Picture, and he wrote it for me. I said, sure, I'll do it. Come on, we'll have fun. So we worked our asses off down in Nova Scotia last year when it was directed by Jonathan Torrance, who, by the way, is nominated for a CSA award for that direction, as is Pat McKenna.

Wow, these are big names. Yes, exactly. Now Pat has yet to visit the basement. Oh man, you gotta have him in. I do wanna get him in, but I just wanna show Jonathan Tornes was an early guest on this very program. Oh yeah, he sold it. It's one man industry back in Nova Scotia.

He is, man. And he rents like trucks? Oh yeah, he's got it all figured out. He's got it all figured out. Sells mackerel from a horse drawn cart on Saturday afternoons. And I think he shows up in like- That's bullshit. Is that- Yeah, he doesn't sell mackerel from a horse-drawn cart on Saturday afternoons. And I think he shows up in like... That's bullshit.

Yeah, he doesn't sell mackerel from a horse-drawn cart. When I was a kid, they used to wake me up on Saturday in Halifax. Mackerel, mackerel, fresh mackerel. But how will I know when you're doing a gig a bit and when you're being serious? That's true. I'm not one of those schticky dicks. He's on, why the hell, Shorzy. I feel like maybe Jonathan Torrance is on Shorzy.

Yeah, I think he is, yeah, yeah. He does everything, that guy does everything. Okay, so. So we shot that and the premise of the piece is that I'd packed in, ironically, I had a bad experience, which is the truth, in a blizzard driving a Prince George years and years ago. I was stuck in a blizzard a yeti wouldn't wonder and my wiper fluid

wouldn't work and my window wipers wouldn't work and the truckers were coming out of the road on my side of the road in the blizzard it was awful. Anyway we used that as the premise for me packing in stand-up comedy and moving back to Nova Scotia where I bought a house and a little dory where I found a cylinder that held a treasure map belonging to the notorious pirate of the 17th century, Captain Kidd, whose treasure is buried on Oak Island which they've managed to squeeze how many a dozen years out of the treasure of Oak Island on the History Channel. And we just make fun of it back home because when I was growing up you know there'd be holes dug by some Texas years out of the treasure of Oak Island on the History Channel. And we just make fun

of it back home because when I was growing up, you know, there'd be holes dug by some Texas billionaire chasing the friggin treasure and they dig a hole and they'd find Elvis and a Sasquatch playing cribbage in there or something. I mean, it was just, it was just an apocryphal pipe dream. However, it does have a certain degree of validity. So I find the treasure map, but spoiler alert, it does turn out to be not gold and diamonds, but 17th century opium pipe belonging to Captain Kidd that gets me arrested. But my ADHD keeps getting in the way,

my hunger, my enthusiasm. So reality collides with a dreamer's motivation. This year we're in Niagara on the lake chasing the Golden Grail of Niagara. I have supposedly packed in my treasure hunting experience. Then I hear the story from Second City alumni Marty Adams, who tells me about the Golden Grail of Niagara. And I get the hit for treasure hunting again and off I go. And in this clip you just played the incredibly talented actress from

Second City, Catherine Greenwood. She plays a very devious antique dealer. Then of course Pat McKenna's back in. He plays my manager. Does he live in Toronto? No, he's up north and outside of Owens Sound. Okay. And Tony Nappo you just heard, one of the great character actors. Who's been over here? Oh man, he's the best. Shout out to Stu Stone who puts Tony Nappo in every single one of his movies. Absolutely. Solid cat. puts Tony Nappo in every single one of his movies? Absolutely. Solid cat. And of course you also heard Paul Seung-Yong Lee who is now in The Mandalorian but was the star of Kim's Convenience. Of course. And I'm telling you man, I had the best time improvising with that dude. He's got a black

belt in that. Can you get that gentleman on Toronto mic long overdue? I want Paul Seung-Yong Lee. Oh, you've got to get him in man. Yeah, we've got to do this. Okay, you're're gonna connect me to Paul. Yeah, sure. Okay. Yeah. And the last night's episode had Aurora Brown and real-life husband Chris Siddiqui playing very peculiar reenactors that I bumped into. And we got several other character actors in the piece as well. So we really, we really did expand the template this year. Okay, congrats and you deserve the success.

Thanks, it's nice to be working again because the only direction most networks want to see someone with wide eyebrows walking is out the door. And so to have the opportunity to collaborate with people who always bring their A game. It's like when you were a kid, remember you being grade 7 in the grade 9s, they'd ask you to play Shinny? Sure. So you always upped your game? Of course. And these guys, I mean they bring a lifetime of experience and and so what's great when you're working with with people of this ilk and this level of talent

they, there's this, the shorthand language, where you know, it's almost. Pig's Latin, what are we talking about? No, no, no, no, it's a trust. It's almost supernatural, where you just trust each other enough that you know where the scene is going to go,

and you're both working together to make it as best as you possibly can. Okay, you mentioned Tom Conway. Yeah. I got a nice note when Brian Dunn heard that you were coming on Toronto Mic'd again. He said, here's a question from my old university friend, Tom Conway, creator of One Man's Treasure. Is it true that as a kid you saw a Russian or maybe German sub while sneaking around an off-limit island near Halifax?

No, I will tell you, okay? Here's what it was. That's a great question. Thomas, remember that? So we rented two canoes from the St. Mary's Bow Club, beat up metal canoes. Two buddies were in one canoe and me and my other buddy were in the other canoe. And they didn't smoke up, but we had a joint going back and forth between us. So we go from the St. Mary's Boat Club, which is a fairly substantial paddle,

around Halifax Harbor and land on George's Island. And for those of you who've been to Halifax, knoworgia's island is just an isolated island that's off the harbor that was a defense position and stuff like that you know during all these wars anyway this is way back in the seventies and it wasn't a kid but i think it probably would have been about seventy six or something so we go into the we go into the there's a we put the canoes in the shore

and the hut's open and there's, honest to God, there's a microphone. There's a microphone in this little hut, like a, like in a little stand, like, right, and a sound system and it's open. Okay. So I turned it on and I start going, Ausdont lieben da ausdont schliegt. Schliegen da ausdont. Halifax, we have you surrounded. Ausdont lieben da ausdont. No, no, give up or die. And as I'm saying that, I swear to Christ,

a periscope rises in the harbor. Oh my God. And it's one of our own. This is all true, this happened. It's one of our own subs that was on maneuvers. Right? No, no, no. I mean, you know, one of the guys who was there as a judge, he can vouch for it, man. Right, right. Wow. Okay, great question there from Tom, who... I was the guy who was like, give up, you're surrounded.

But Brian Dunn himself has a question. Okay. So he sent in a clip, which I will play, but he goes, I can see in this clip that you, that's you Ron, are pretty good friends with Santa. What is one of the most memorable childhood Christmas memories? But before you answer that question, I got to play this clip for, for Brian here. I'll be home for Christmas. When we think of a jolly old guy in a red coat, we think of Henry. Merry Christmas.

Got all kinds of terrific gifts. He's got all kinds of friendly advice. Don't forget our great prices. Get Ever Ready's new generator rechargeable batteries from 357, rechargers from 897. Looking good, Santa. So where are all your gifts? I've got some friends in the biz.

Hey, thanks. I'll be home for Christmas. Do you have a favorite childhood Christmas tenor? Well my voice hadn't changed yet. Okay that's either a hardware home hardware commercial or a bay commercial. That's home hardware. All right I did I did um that saved me those commercials. I was church most poor in Los Angeles in 1992 and my buddy, God bless him, who we said goodbye to last year, Matthew Vibart. And Matthew Vibart was the director and John Wilshire was the writer. And they gave me a call in LA and I flew up. First time I was back in 21 months.

Wow. I flew up, first time I was back in 21 months. And I did a dozen of those commercials one year and a dozen the next year. And it literally saved me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they were. So maybe that's your favorite Christmas memory right there. Yeah, I don't remember that particular ad, but I do remember that they had to have a fence especially built because I had to jump over it.

Oh wait, a lower one? Yeah, it was a lower one. It was like a midget fence. It was like a circus fence. It's like a midget. You can't really jump a fence. That's funny. Yeah, yeah. But I'd been, I'd been out of work in Los Angeles for a long time. So I'd been on the elliptical and at least trying to keep in shape. So I was- And now you own multiple homes. Listen to this. No, I'm multiple homes. I don't own multiple homes. No? Okay. Well you have you own multiple homes. Listen to this. No, I'm multiple homes. I don't own multiple. No, okay

Well, you have access to multiple homes. I got a little spot a nice little crib in Nova Scotia and a condo here that I got during the series and So that's good. You know, I'm I'm happy. I'm not complaining a It's it's been a great run and it feels good to be working again. I mean, you don't get rich, but you do get, hopefully if you stay in the game long enough and you work hard, I mean, I don't want to sound like an old guy, but if you stay in the game long enough and you work hard, maybe boons will come your way.

There's no guarantees, but I've been fortunate. Well, I wanted, maybe this is a good segue to talk a little bit about milestone birthdays. So when you turned 65, I'm just curious, Ron, did that mean anything to you? Like, did you take this as like an opportunity to take stock of your life? And I don't know if it was a benchmark in the reality of your life. Like, what did turning 65 mean to you? Well, first of all, I think as a comedian, you're constantly taking stock of your life? Like what did turning 65 mean to you? Well first of all I think as a comedian you're constantly taking stock of your life, right? You're always analyzing it and but I've always been conscious of mortality it seems. You know my folks for some reason or another because they were good people were always paying their respects

at funerals or going to hospitals for people and things. And now at this age, I think the boomers, I mean, look, we're 15 to 20 years away from roaming the home in our Led Zeppelin onesies, aren't we? So I think we've become very conscious of mortality. I mean, I've been to, I just mentioned my buddy who directed the Home Hardware ads, Matthew Vibert, in celebration of life a year ago, June for him. I have three friends that I grew up with who are now in closed wards with early onset Alzheimer's and a good buddy from university we buried last year and you watch the pictures come up at the funeral home of all the times that we were bulletproof

immortals, you know, super token and chugging beer at folk festivals and such in the day. So yeah, I mean, I'm conscious of making life matter. And I think that turning 65 so close turning 65 so close to coming out of COVID too, it really did, not that I ever took my work for granted, but it made me so aware of how lucky I was and those of us who are performers to be in front of people again and to see people sitting shoulder to shoulder processing the trauma of their daily march through life's bright fury in the language of laughs and it occurred to me that you just have to make the moments matter everything else is a spoiler on a dodge neon right and so yeah I'm I'm I'm far more conscious of time and the ability that we have left to maximize

the gifts we've been given. So I turned 50 last week. Holy jumpings, you're a punk. I'm trying to catch up here. But I would think if at the age of 65, if I know I can do the ride you just did, then I think that's like that's my personal goal. I want to at 65 be able to do exactly what you just did. Oh, thank you.

Well, you will. You will. Absolutely you will. You know? Yeah, definitely. And I mean, I've had some wonderful trips, right? I mean, I hiked Torres del Paine 15 years ago, Patagonia and Chile. That was amazing. I mean 10 to 12 miles a day up and down

these mountains and the toughest part was that I was stuck with Republicans. And I mean this was just during the Tea Party, you know, infestation that metastasized of course into the into the Trumpecine aberration that we see today and so yeah, you know, I've taken canoe trips and things and I've always been active, I'm not really one to you know, I like a museum and things but you know, I can You need to be moving. Yeah, I can hit my tipping point staring at stuff all the time so I like to get out. I've been up to the Matawaska Canoe Center taking courses too from time to time.

That's a lot of fun. I went down the Broken Skull several years ago, a tributary of the Nahaini, which was awesome, but the real cool trip was about, I think it was before, I don't know if it was after Patagonia, where I took a rafting trip down the Firth River in the Northwest Territories. I saved up for that for a couple years. It was magnificent, man. You're just there in an area. I mean, this river was open during the Ice Age, so it's seen people move

through and over its landscape for a millennia and you sit humbled in this 15,000 year old tent ring of stones and you you become aware of of of the resilience and fortitude of man to make his life better. When these people, these paleolithic people, pulled a living from this Arctic world with nothing but bone stone and sinew. And it's remarkable though, you come up to a char pool and the guides are out and you're out with your rod and you're catching Arctic char for dinner. I mean it's Canada's Holy Land, the North. And I haven't been up there in several summers,

but it's really, really good for the soul. It's a battery charge for the spirit. Okay, on that note, battery charge, I'm gonna tell you what I got for my 50th birthday and what I've been up to, because I need to talk to somebody. I thought Ron James is here. I can talk to him about this.

I think we're cut from similar cloth, but so I had an event on Thursday, which was the day I turned 50, TMLX 15. So thanks to everyone who came out. Quickly, while I say that, we were fed that day by Palma Pasta. Everyone you showed up,

there was like a hundred strong Palma Pasta for everybody. Did you bring a backpack with you? I did. Okay. You're going home with a frozen lasagna from Palma Pasta. Oh, right on. It's in my freezer right now. Fantastic. And you've had it before, right? I have. It's delicious. I see that. I see the, they're on your wall. They're on my wall. Yeah. You had a comment when you came in and I said, don't tell me, save it for the recording. Did you see something on this desk here that you were going to comment on? It's

an incredible juxtaposition of paraphernalia. You know, you've got a thank you from Brian Lanahan. You've got a mug with Andre the Giant on it. And you've got a signed autograph of, you know, the best captain the Leafs had in years, Wendell Clark. Captain Clark, yeah, absolutely. And I love your hat. Things are as bad as they seem. That's from Hayden. Hayden. Okay, well listen, this is just a... And how great is it that these are your sponsors? You've got a funeral home sponsoring you, which is the continuity of life, honest to God. We recorded a fresh

episode of Life's Undertaking, which is the Brad Jones from Ridley Funeral Home has a great podcast, and it was really deep because Brad Jones of course was invited to That event last week by the way may I say yeah best people to do a corporate gig for Undertakers undertaker they laugh their ass off because they know life is short right and they need they need it They need the laughter and that was the theme of yesterday's conversation was Brad did not show up at tmlx15 Which I'll get back to because I want to talk about my gift, but, uh, because he wasn't in the mood to party because that day, uh, a young family visited him who needed to bury their child.

So it's like, you know, it's one thing when the 98 year old is there and you're celebrating the life. And then, and then I realized, Oh, he needs to live and breathe this all year round. And, uh, remarkable resilience. How do they do it? Well, that's it. How do you cope and how do you prevent yourself from, you know, becoming a heroin addict or alcoholic or something to numb the pain? Like what are your coping mechanisms?

We had a heart to heart about this on life's undertaking yesterday. I urge everybody to check it out. But Ron really, I'd love to hear that. Yeah. I love it. It's Brad Jones. just being very open and honest with us. That is a measuring tape from Ridley Funeral Home. So you take that home. You never know when you need to measure something. Well, how many years left? Can I do that?

Does it tell you that? Because I think you've got a good... I said 30. No, that would be funny. That would be funny if you get up to 17 and... That's what we need. You're dead. Okay.

Don't get comfortable. No. Okay. Great Lakes Brewery also hosted us at that event. Been drinking them for years. So there's some fresh craft beer from Great Lakes. You know, LCBO is on strike. You know what?

I think that Costco called in its shit on that cabal of guidos that the former hash dealer runs with. And that's what I think, Mike. I think, hey, come on, hey, you know, we want to sell liquor from the place. So that's it. I mean, and they're going to ruin it. It's and she was right. I heard the union rep on the radio today. She said, it's not just going to be mom and pop operations. You know, I, I love the LCBO. I mean, you get a, they're all authorities on the wine. They're very helpful. It's Zen efficiency.

I have no issues with it. And yeah, I just think some of the big players called in the chit who wants some money. It's endless. It all seems a little greasy. It's always feeling greasy. We could talk about the Ontario place, we could talk about the Ontario Science Centre.

It's just greasy. All these floored face guidos that he runs with. Can you say that word in 2024, guidos is that's not a slur is it I don't know I guess you're gonna find out you're gonna find out CBC will not have you back anyway we're not yeah that's who gives a shit we'll get back that's still drinking for free above the treeline brother now I'm jumping over place but I am coming back that's right I'm curious though Pierre Poliev has promised I think it'll happen day one for all we know but should he become Prime Minister if you trust any polls it

looks like he will be the next Prime Minister of Canada. I don't know if you have a take on that but essentially he wants to defund the CBC. So I know you have some personal bitterness towards the CBC, but what are your thoughts on that? We'll get back to my birthday. Okay, just let me clarify. I'm not. I had a great run. I had 15 years there. I would parachute in with my specials. When I did the series, they bounced me around the dial. Whatever. Nobody gets, you know, as clean a shake as everybody wants to have, and no matter where you are, you know, as I was frustrating, no publicity,

blah, blah, blah. But, you know, I made the best of it. I did well. And sure, I think ageism had something to do with it, but I'm not the only one. That being said, the country needs the CBC. I mean, it's, it's a lifeline for a lot of people up North, uh, uh, and in the far flung places of the country. And, um, I don't know what the alternative is. Uh, I mean, the, the right is always whining that it's a, um, a left leaning,

uh, newscast and, uh, what's the opportunity? What are we going to have? Fox? Sure it is. Sun took a run and they couldn't make it happen. And is that what they want? They just don't want to be called on anything. That's it. They just don't want to be called on anything. And Pierre Poliev never held a real job in his life, never so much as flip the hamburger at a McDonald's, never had a paper route. The guy was a political operative since they, you know, they wiped him down in the hospital. He's a craven political opportunist born with a face you'd love to punch. However, who's he fighting? The silver spoon Doe fan who's long since worn out is welcome and when I take my litmus test traveling Canada

he's flatlining man and his regal arrogance has been his hubris and the Liberal Party should have been making moves a long time ago. And I don't understand why he won't listen. It's like Biden agreeing to do that debate. I mean, it was just two days after being over in Normandy, should have had a nap. Man, I'm gonna need a nap this afternoon and I'm 66. So he should have walked. And may I say that when 2025 That when 2025 comes along after 2024,

both countries are in the same position. What the hell are we voting for? I'm telling you, Meryl Streep had an easier decision to make in Sophie's choice. It's shocking that we're at this point. And I voted for the Liberal Party. I didn't vote for Katie Telford in the Prime Minister's office. It's shocking that we're at this point. And I voted for the Liberal Party.

I didn't vote for Katie Telford in the Prime Minister's office. I didn't vote for the absolute authority that comes from those in the small influential circles. So I don't know what's gonna happen. I don't know what's gonna happen either. So it sounds like you think both Justin Trudeau and Joe Biden should give way to a new leader

is what you're if I'm reading between the lines here this is what this is what you think you think Justin Trudeau should step down as leader of the liberal party let somebody else I think Justin should have made the move a while ago so that they could have groomed somebody that the that the country would be amenable to look this seismic shift in the by-election last week in St. Paul, it's very prophetic, it's very prescient. And as Justin said, the people have spoken and we're listening, are ya? Now, my take on this is a little different.

So I think you're 100% right about Joe Biden. I think Joe Biden would do us all a good service by stepping aside and having somebody else run for the Democrats in the USA. I don't get a vote in that one, but you know, it's gonna influence my life as you know, but here up north where I get a vote, but the I think that this is similar to when Doug Ford defeated Kathleen Wynne's liberal party provincially a few elections ago. And Kathleen Wynne took the hit provincially a few elections ago and Kathleen Wynne took the hit. I believe that the insiders, the trackers, I think they know the Liberal Party

is going to be defeated. I don't think there is any path to victory and Justin Trudeau will take the hit instead of putting somebody new there to take the fall. So it's not a double whammy. So I think that's... That's interesting. I think that's also Kathleen Wynne's... I had her down here and I think that Kathleen Wynne, they knew they were going to be defeated by the Provincial Conservative Party provincially. So don't put your next great hope in there to get slaughtered at that election. Like, you take the hit yourself. So I think...

So they're playing the long game. This is what I think. I think the Liberal Party know they cannot win the next election. So Justin Trudeau will take the defeat and then he'll step down and then they can rebuild from there. Just my take. What do I know? Well, the alternative, you know, is this malignant populism, this populism that is so pernicious and you know to see him and was the sidekick during the convoy, what was her name? She was the liberal, she was the conservative party whip, Candice Bergen, the one that was with her MAGA hat on and when they went shaking hands with the convoy, held the nation's capital hostage for three weeks

with, as we know, diesel fumes, blaring truck horns, shitty sing-alongs. My uncle was in a convoy in 1941, it was called the Battle of the Atlantic, right? I mean, that was a freedom convoy, and there wasn't a nary bouncy castle in sight, never knowing when a German U-boat was gonna plow a torpedo into your bow and send you into watery grave. But this

Craven suckhole was walking up and down, throwing red meat to his fundamental Christian base. And look, I played the Westman, Albertus drank the Kool-Aid., and I mean, you know, how can you argue with those fundamental Christians who see science as fiction and walking on water as fact? You can't. And what's the thought of Pierre Poliev's cabinet that socially regressive base is going to drive the mandate of so much of the policies and when I reflect back on Harper's tenure how he distrusted science and muzzled the press and now are we going to be bracketed by the orange mutant and his fascist proud boy mobs in the south and uh...

this liver little prick born with a face you'd love to punch up north mean is that what we're looking at yeah well are you getting calls to get Ron James off? CBC's calling they have an idea they want to pitch us. I bet. I think you've got a little bitter edge for the mother core as well there, brother. You know, it's funny. The only radio I listen to is CBC Radio 1. It's great. It's great, man. How great is Tom? How great is Tom? How great is Tom? He's just amazing. He's just fellow maritime.

Well, not a maritime, we're, it's Newfoundlander. Oh my goodness, I always screw that up. Yeah, but the Newfoundlanders will call you out on that. I mean, he's the same with everybody. He's so bright, so affable, so humble. He's incredible. And I like Matt, you know. Matt Galloway, F.O.T. Matt Galloway. Yeah, absolutely. Ian Hanneman sings a Maritimer. Yeah, absolutely. And I...

Ian Hannah-Mansing's a Maritime. Oh, is Ian from there? Yeah, he's from like, I think it's like Truro or something like that. No shit! Something like that. I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah, no, it's...

He discovered this podcast because he was trying to find radio bits he remembered when he was living back in Halifax. How about that? I think he was with his brother, Jake Edwards. And I had an interview and he listened to Toronto Mike and then he fell in love. Hello to Ian. Oh cool. But yeah brother Jake

Edwards who was on the air at Q102 I want to say or Q104. No the radio is great and I always have it on in the car when I'm driving and I pick it up wherever I go and no no it's soothing it's you know and I've been listening I've been a hardcore listener at CBC radio since the Zowski days. Actually, it was Zowski talking about Canada's North that inspired my interest in it.

And of course, reading Farley Mowat growing up as a kid, who was my buddy. I used to go visit him when I played Port Hope. One of the great crusty raconteurs and one of the original environmentalist actually. Amazing. Now I realize I was, you said soothing, so I'm gonna get back to this quick story about my birthday thing and then we're gonna get on this. By the way, I see your new season of your wonderful, wonderful show One Man's Treasure, which everybody should stream on Bell 5. It's available now this new season. Okay. There is a guest appearance by another FOTM, that means friend of Mike you're an FOTM but Jane Eastwood is in the season because we didn't mention Jane. No she's not in it. Okay and literally the press

releases guess this season include Jane Eastwood, Paul Sun Young Lee and Tony Nappo. Okay she's in the press release I'll send it to you later. Well she'll be in it next year. She'll be in next year. She said no to you guys is that what I'm hearing? Anyway I was excited that we didn't. Well, she'll be in it next year. She'll be in it next year. She said no to you guys? Is that what I'm hearing here? Anyway, I was excited that we didn't mention Jane Eastwood would be in this season. Okay, well, I give everybody a free bag of smelts at the end of an episode. They get free smelts. And so hang in there, Jane.

Jane, maybe next season, season four or whatever, season three. Okay, so I won't fix that in post. You know that, right? Okay, so I'm at this event and the listeners are there and they surprise me. I have no idea this is coming. They all chipped in and bought me a kayak. Oh, right on! I know, and I always had a vision for, since I was 35, I had a vision that I will get a

kayak for my 50th. Excellent! And I live so close to the lake and I had this whole vision. But this kayak, I just got to tell you a little bit about this kayak. The last two days I've been out on Lake Ontario in this kayak and this kayak It's like origami. Okay, you fold the kayak and I bought a special backpack for oh man And you you you wear it on your back. I bike to the lake with the kayak. No Yeah, I gotta show you this TV who makes it man

Oru are you makes it, man? Oru. O-R-U makes it. And it's unbelievable. Like I said, I've been on the water two days now in a row and I'm going to get back out again tomorrow. What? It's just, it's kind of mind blowing because some people are, you know, they're at the lake and they watch you.

So I go to, there's a spot I go to, this Prince of Wales and they got this easy ramp into the lake. And so I bike there, I lock up my bike, I take my backpack off. I make the kayak I've got it down to I can do it in four to five minutes now. I can make this kayak Yeah, the paddle I bought is special from Oru breaks into four parts and slides into a pocket in the backpack So my paddle is in the backpack my kayaks in the backpack I have a little clip where I attach my PFD my personal fl flotation device, and I basically at five minutes I've

got this kayak in the water, I hop in and I go for a paddle and then I come back and I undo it all. Isn't that like a miracle? Oh, truly. Yeah. The world's not going to hell in a handcart when you can put a kayak on the back, on your back and bike to the lake. Yeah, and that's so I'm doing this and I've done two days in a row I've done

this like actually in the water and if you follow me on Strava I even I even measure these things but I'm out there in the water and you know I can see the skyline there's the CN Tower and I'm out there and it's almost like I'm still in Toronto but like I'm I'm at a cottage man it's like nature that's that's that's unbelievable it just keeps on giving and it's so it's so good for your head to get out there on the water and see the world from a different perspective I I can't wait to see that kayak I'm before you go so we're gonna do two things we're gonna we're gonna put some air in your tires yeah yeah show you I didn't know that were that soft the tires Ron you're soft buddy we're gonna do two things. We're gonna put some air in your tires. I'm gonna show you my- I didn't know that were that soft, the tires.

I didn't know. Ron, you're soft, buddy. I mean, you're soft. We're gonna fix that. I know we have songs, but I wanna say once again, and I know I've said this a couple of times on the show, but thank you to everyone who contributed for the kayak. It is like a dream come true.

And then I'm out there and I'm like, is this, it's almost like in Field of Dreams, where he's like, is this heaven? It's Iowa. It's like, is this heaven? It's Iowa. It's like, is this heaven? This is Toronto. It is unbelievable to just be out there paddling. And it's balanced.

It's... Wimbrill. It's... I didn't... Two days ago when I went out, there might've been a storm beckoning, so we had quite a bit of wind and I say, I'll get my first go. I want a wavy day for my first... Just see how it goes.

I didn't end up in the drink, but I did buy myself a special pouch for my phone that is 100% waterproof for people who are out in the water. I am prepared to be dunked and not lose my phone, but I am telling you, two days now and I can't wait to get out again tomorrow, it's like heaven on earth and I'm loving it so much. Well, congratulations. Thank you, man. It's great.

So kayaking and biking, I could just fill my days. If only you didn't need to make money, right? Life would be perfect here. Okay. I actually want to get to a jam here. So if I give you one more gift, because you've been amazing. You ever get to Christie Pitts?

My daughter used to live at Christie Pitts and she and her boyfriend were there and he has a baseball blog and they would go watch baseball all the time under the lights in the summertime and the crack of a bat hitting a ball in the evening under the lights one of the best sounds in the world next to a baby's laughter. Oh those that I'm not even going to argue those are two great sounds now that is the history of Toronto Made Bel Leafs baseball. They've been playing at Christie Pits since the 60s and I'm going to be there. In fact,

Mike Richards is my co-host, but I have a lot of cool people dropping by to say hi. Heck, Ron, if you're around, you can drop by and say hi. I'll be recording from just beyond the left field fence if you're looking for me. I'm there at 2 PM Sunday for a Toronto Maple Leafs baseball game. Best baseball in the city outside the dome and lately it might even be better than that. So that sounds like fun. We're going to see Steve Earle on the seventh. I mean on the eighth. And so let yeah, we'll make it a weekend. Okay Sunday at 2 p.m. Drop by. I got a third mic and you jump on we we catch up for a couple minutes.

So I urge everybody to come out because no ticket required and you can drink in the park and you don't have to worry about breaking any laws because it's gonna it's 100% legal to drink a beer in that park watching a great ball game great players provided you bought it yesterday is that right well where you where you gonna get it oh no you can order from now you can order from Great Lakes. Great Lakes isn't on strike that's for sure. That's for sure. Come on there Ron. Keep up here. Okay we got to get to some freaking music but do you know Bruce Dobigan the name Bruce Dobigan yeah I know the name why do I know that he was at CBC sports for many many years

that's why I know him great he actually brought down who's why am I blanking on his name who's the guy the crooked agent who helped set up the 72 summit series oh Alan Eagleton thank you you know what? I must have turned 50 that that name didn't jump out of me. So he brought down, he was one of the key journalists in bringing down Alan Eagleton. That was his story. That was a big story, man. But there's a book here that-

Carl Brewer got that one going. You got it, 100%. 100%. So, you can finish it. By the way, once I get to the first song here, you can finish that pair. So that's called Deal With It. This is a book about the biggest trades in NHL history, trades that stunned the NHL. You got the Gretzky trade, the Gilmore trade, the Patrick Waugh trade. So he and his son wrote this book and they self-published.

And as you know, when you self-publish, awareness is everything, right? So I'm actually never took a penny from Bruce. I just said, let me give away your book and that'll give me an excuse to tell people it exists. So- Endors endorsed by three great writers too, Roy McGregor. Yeah who's been on this show? Great journalist. Yeah. Paul Quarrington of course. Wow. And right in the front. I did not know that David Adams Richards was a senator. That's wonderful. Yep and Steve Paikin wrote the forward there so I should have to. Oh did he? Okay yeah cool. Steve Paikin let the foreword there. So I should have to. Oh, did he? OK, yeah, cool. Steve Paikin, let me just tell you what he did, because you're going to get me Paul for Toronto Mike.

Oh, I met Steve Paikin for the first time at... I opened for SCTV when they shot... when Martin Scorsese shot their special at the Elgin. Can I ask you about this right now? Where is this freaking documentary? It hasn't been released. No. And the SCTV cast were there. Jane Eastwood was there, I bet.

Oh yeah, she would have been there, yeah. And the place was packed, had a great set. And what was I going to say? And Scorsese directed it. Yeah. And by all accounts, it went well, right? Yeah, yeah, it did. And Marty, of of course was on and the whole cast was there and they showed clips

and the audience was just electric. They just, you know, for their hometown heroes who did so well and I don't know what happened but they shelved it. I still don't know what happened. It's really a shame because we got Rick Moranis out for that, who doesn't do many of these appearances anymore, Rick Moranis and, you know, Dave Thomas, who's been on the show a couple of times. Oh, good. I know that there was a benefit for Dave's brother, Ian,

whose son had a very bad accident. And Rick, Bob and Doug reunited for the benefit. But other than that, I think the Scorsese thing is the only, maybe they do beer ads actually now they think about it. But bottom line is this should be released. We should have access to this. They were so nice to me when I was a kid at 110 Lombard in the early days of second city.

I was on the main stage and they'd invite me in to do roles and things. And I was in one memorable sketch called Das Boobs where they had... Because you do that German so well. Well they did they juxtaposed Porky's with Das Boat and we shot in the in the engine room of the Haida which was in dry dock at Ontario Place at that point in time. And you know I mean in those days I was just trying to do a good job and very happy to be making extra money for rent.

But there we were, as you know, me, Joe Flaherty, Marty Short, Eugene Levy and John Hempel. And through the peephole was Andrea Martin had an extra. It was wonderful. Just wonderful. It's so funny, you know what people remember. I'm walking past the pub in my neighborhood about six months ago. It's just a winter's day, walking past the pub, there's a guy having a smoke outside the pub,

pub's called Jason George. I walked past, he goes, hey, that's Boobs. I went, fuck. I said, man, you're going back. I said it was 40 years ago, bro. You know, you mentioned Joe Flaherty's name. Oh, God bless him. The longer we shelve this doc, that's

what's going to happen, right? We're going to lose these people who are there. You know, we've already lost Joe since the filming of the doc that we'll never get to see here. That's a damn shame, man. Yes, it is a shame. And I know that Joe and Dave and I know that everybody was hoping that it would be released. And I mean, it was such a dynamic time to be on that main stage at 110 Lombard in a

day when it was really, as far as comedy was concerned, it was yuck yucks and 110 in Second City, you know? Right. And everything that you ever aspired to be was personified by both those rooms. And people would drop in and do sets with us and such and watch us. I mean, I remember I was there for a couple months only and Robin Williams came down

and improvised with us every night after doing- Wow! After doing two and a half hours on stage at what was then the Hummingbird Center and then improvise with us, then did another hour. I'll bet you it was the O'Keefe Center. O'Keefe. Then did another hour himself after improvising with us. And then an hour of new stuff.

And then went to a speakeasy with us afterwards. And then got up in the morning and did SCTV. You've lived a life, man. That's amazing. That was pretty exciting. But you know what? I called my father up in Nova Scotia. I said, who is a working class hunter, fisherman guy?

Really funny though, but I said, Dead, yeah, how you doing? I said, you never guess who I improvised with tonight. Who's that? Robin Williams. Doesn't say anything. Who was that? Robin Williams. Doesn't say anything. You know Robin Williams? Yeah.

Morgan Mendy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that. Yeah, Robin Williams. Robin Williams. Yeah, I know it is. Long pause, long pause. Guess what? I went duck hunting the Grand River on Saturday

and I got two of them. It's like. That keeps you floored though, man. That keeps you humble. It does. He was really, really funny. I mean, when he had 24 hours to live, I didn't realize at the time, but we brought him into pallet of care in Halifax. He had a perfect storm, a COPD and renal cell carcinoma. And it took him a long time to leave us five weeks and but a slow progress to infinity prior to that. Anyway I went in to see him and this beautiful young nurse had just administered a catheter to the end of his Johnson and I went in and see him said how you doing daddy? He points at the

nurse and says look at this beautiful young nurse just picked up for me at Canadian Tire. 24 hours to live, he's still looking for a laugh. Right on, brother. That's the way I want to go out. You know what? In 30 years, I think you'll go out that way. All right. 96. There you go. I'll take that. As long as I'm regular. All right. You want to kick out a few jams here, bud? Yes, bud. Let's do it. Ah, you gotta love it, eh? He looked down into her brown eyes and said, say a prayer for me

She threw her arms around him, whispered, God will keep us free They could hear the riders coming He said this is my last fight If they take me back to Texas, they won't take me back alive There were several Spanish angels at the altar of the sun They were praying for the lovers in the valley of the gun When the bells stopped and the smoke cleared there was thunder from the throne And several Spanish angels took another angel home. She reached down and picked a gun up that lay smoking in his hand.

She said, Father, please forgive me. I can't make it without my man. And she knew the gun was empty. And she knew she couldn't win. But her final prayer was answered when the rifles fired again. When the rifles fired again There was seven Spanish angels at the altar of the sun They were praying for the lovers in the valley of the gun. When the battle stopped and the smoke cleared, there was thunder from the throne.

And seven Spanish angels took another angel home. There were seven Spanish angels Ryan, I don't normally play this much of the song but I'm kind of lost in it. It's beautiful. It's haunting, isn't it? To the more iconic voices of my generation. And Willie's still standing, still on the right side of the grass. Right.

Incredible. He's got to be in his late 90s now, I would guess. Actually, he's 91, I think. Okay, early 90s. Okay, good for him, though. That just tells you cannabis is good for you. Yeah, and I didn't realize it. He's got a seventh degree black belt. I didn't know that. There was a great article in the New York Times magazine on him during COVID.

How much he missed the road. 91, you're correct. Look at you know your stuff here, okay? 91 years. And this is a great one to listen to when you've got a coal pop and you're a wobbly pop in your hand at sunset. I know and... I love song about getting shot to death in Texas, but it's still pretty good. It's pretty me. I like it when Ray Charles does the country thing. He loved the stories. That's what he said, right?

You know, and I feel like there's my age. We kind of learn about Ray Charles. I feel like we get discover Ray Charles from if it's not from Sesame Street, then it's from like Pepsi advertisements. And we're like, yeah, and then you go back and you're like, holy smoke. He's so versatile. What a talented. And blind.

And blind, okay. Amazing. Listen, I love kicking out the jams with you because I just love how you react. And you know, I'm always like, oh yeah, he loves this song. I'm like, oh yeah, he actually literally told me to play this song. So he better love these songs.

Here, let's kick it another one. Ah! Ha ha. Let's kick it another one. Ah! Haha! Gotta love the king, right? When your heart gets restless, time to move along When your heart gets weary, time to sing a song But when a dream is calling you There's just one thing that you can do Well, you gotta follow that dream wherever that dream may lead You gotta follow that dream and find the love you need

Keep it moving on, keep it on, keep it on Gotta find me someone, whose heart is free I also have a visual that goes with it where I'm I'm traveling around the Tepa Lake Superior which is where I had my first tour and my the Jordan airs are played by a moose a bear a raccoon and a cougar and The places are flashing on the back of where I played like my first tour at a token man a toage Dryden store at a coke and manatee wash dried while walking follow that dream right that's perfect right now that's not the american dream and it was my dream is my dream

but point in the point in the truck uh... to points beyond the frontier and uh... following my bliss it's uh... i i i remember that first to report together it's uh's almost 30 years now. It's around the tip of Lake Superior and, you know, just that frozen lip of Gitchy Goomy in February.

But I turned a corner on a bright sunny day and it was literally a group of seven canvas I was driving through. So it was a metaphysical dropkick to the solar plexus. It was wicked, man. I love it. Love hearing you talk about that. Now, earlier you mentioned the name Porky's. I think it was related to that. That's boob. Right.

That's boobs. So, I just, right, just useless to everyone except me, but this is the second episode in a row where the guest organically dropped a reference to Porky's. That's not true. That's true. And yes, so yesterday, and I want to shout this episode out because yesterday morning I chatted with a gentleman named mid year.

Do you know the name mid year? I do not. Okay. So he's most famous for being a member of the band ultra Vox, which had a couple of big hits, including Vienna was a big hit back in the eighties. Yeah. Early eighties. You got it. But mid year is the guy. So this is kind of interesting. So Bob Geldof from the Boomtown rats is watching the BBC one night, mid eighties, I guess, I don't know, 84 or something like that. He's

watching the BBC and he sees they're covering, they're talking about this famine in Ethiopia that they're starving to death in Ethiopia. There's this famine in Ethiopia and they're showing footage for the first time on BBC. And Bob Geldof says, oh my God, this is atrocious. And he phones up his friend from the music, you know, the UK music scene. He calls up his friend, Midge Year.

Oh my gosh. And he says, Midge, we gotta do something. Midge is the guy who composes, Do They Know It's Christmas? Honest to God. Yeah. So do they know it? And so, and you had him on your- Yeah, yesterday. How cool is that? That's what's really cool is he talks about, uh, he, there was a bad UK movie that was trying to be Porky's and you referenced it, trying to be Porky's. I pointed out to him that Porky's is like a

Toronto thing, man. This is the land of Porky's, But it's just two days in a row Porky's was referenced. But to close the loop on that, the guy writes, Do They Know It's Christmas? Bob's job is to basically phone up George Michael and Eldon Justice VIII, Bono, we need you to do this charity single, All the Proceeds Are Gonna Go to Famine Relief in Ethiopia. And that crowd gets together, they had 24 hours in the studio for free. And they make Do they know it's Christmas Which as you know, you still hear ad nausea every December But do they know this Christmas is the reason that Quincy Jones is tasked with producing we are the world

Wow, and that's why David Foster is tapped on the shoulder and said hey you need to produce something for Canada and tears Are not enough is what happens. So there you go. Midyear is that's the role he played. Also he helped organize Live Aid which was that was in uh... Does he live in Canada now? No. He well when I chatted with him yesterday he was in Portugal actually but he is going to be here in August for a gig at the Elma Combo but Midyear mentioned Porky's and Ron James mentioned Porky's. That's all I'm here to say that. I just I had to call it out because it's just too too bizarre to me. Hey, let's kick out another one. Let's do this because you're gonna see this guy soon. I woke up this morning and none of this was good

And death machines were rumbling across the ground where Jesus stood And the man on my TV told me it had always been that way It had always been that way And there's nothing anyone could do the same And I almost listened to them Yeah, I almost lost my mind And I regained my senses again Looked into my heart to find And I believe in one finding all the children of Abraham We let down their souls'm in Jerusalem

Maybe I'm on a dream So you're going to see Steve Earle at the Danforth Music Hall, right? He's been one of my road saints. I've seen him about five times. I thought in light of the news these days that the song Jerusalem would be appropriate just in terms of hoping that humanity gets a chip together someday. You know from your your mouth to to our ears man you do need to get a titch closer to the mic. Oh sorry bro. You know what you're getting comfy that's what happens. I am I'm sitting back. Yeah but you can also move this if you want to sit back. Alright. Yeah yeah it's yeah. But you sound great.

Steve Earle, of course, was in my favorite show of all time, The Wire. Yeah, it was a great show. It's unbelievable. I've done multiple viewings and I get more out of it each time. It's so great. It's seamless.

That should be on my agenda again. I watched it during COVID again. Watch it again. Yeah, well, now I watch it in HD. When I initially went through it, I was SD in my DVD box set, which I lent to Lieve Filmka, but I will get that back soon. But now on Crave, it's streaming HD, which is quite something. Cool. I didn't know that. Okay. All right. You're watching HD. But what is your favorite show of all time? Do you have a favorite television show of all time? Oh my goodness that's a great question yeah well um oh my

goodness and it's tough to you know but but maybe other than The Wire like a personal favorite show that you you loved consuming, within the last 10 years, I have to say Breaking Bad. Seamless. Breaking Bad though, I personally had issues with the finale. Like the finale was too fantastical. Like it, there's a, there's a fancy, I don't know if we can spoil the show that old now. Maybe skip it five minutes if you're going to watch Breaking Bad. But there's a scene early on where he's if he's in the car, it's freezing, right?

Like he's freezing in that car early on. And then the keys drop from the leg almost drop in the sky, the keys. And he's got the keys to the car. But if you kind of watch that series, if you watch it as if he's froze to death in the car and the rest of the show is his like dream as he's dying, like his like fantasy, because everything from that point on is kind of too good to be true for Walter White. Like even this guy who was apparently the most wanted man in America and all over CNN and everything, everybody's looking for Walter White and he's in that diner, right?

He's in the diner scene. And I'm like, you can't even be Ron James and be in the diner. And there's a lot of wild ridiculousness that happens after after. So if you watch it as if you're freezing to death in the car and everything after that is his, it's his fantasy. I will watch it again. It's actually a much better finale. I will. So here I am sitting on one of the great, great shows and great than I was able to. I will watch it again. But also, uh, are you a Sopranos fan? Have you watched Sopranos? Yeah, I did. I loved the Sopranos. I thought it was great. I almost said the Sopranos. I just pulled Breaking Bad. Yeah. Well, it's more recent, more recent. I don't

know. But Breaking Bad's great too. I loved it too. But when I was a kid, uh, I mean, when I was growing up, I, I still watch clips of it now because it's just so, uh, it was just so well written, was all in the family. Absolutely. You know, Norman Lear was a certifiable genius. Carol O'Connor, the cast, Reiner and, and, uh, Jean Stapleton. Don't forget Sally Struthers. Yeah. And, uh, it, uh, I mean, it dealt with issues of the day, uh, with such clarity and such, and such humor. I mean, it was just so funny. And of course, you know, curb, curb has its merits as well. I mean, it's so, but all in the family had a far more expansive canvas. I thought that it worked with, yeah. Without a doubt. That's a great, great, great pick there here. All right, man. We got a couple more here to go. I'm joined this very much. And then I'm going to show off my kayak to you

because I think you're legitimately interested and I'm excited to show it off. And then I'm going to, we're going to get you back on the road. And I actually will be right behind you. Maybe I'll pass you on the trail. I got to get myself to the make. I'm still shaking the race though. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm still shaking the aches and not a race though. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm still shaking the aches and pains off from my accident. And it's amazing you're out there. I mean, to hear about that accident and that you only had what, like a scratch on your arm or something.

You're so lucky. Yeah. Well, the Germans make a good car. I guess they understand the word impact. But even that bike crash you had, was it February? You had the bike crash? Like even hearing you, you're relatively unscathed. And it sounds like, cause I just, I did that same crash you're describing in February of 2020 not

February no March March 2020 just know what happened was my helmet like I was wearing a helmet of course like you do but my helmet split into two oh no and I went in I saw what I the result was a broken wrist so I was in a cast for six weeks and then they did the CT scan to make sure that it came out okay. But yeah, always wear a helmet everybody. Always wear a helmet. Always wear a helmet. That's our PSA for this episode of Toronto Mite. And you cross your shoes, stand before the mirror And you call me here, grab your corner You've been trying to remember

All the while not feeling less than your memory ever And everything looks so complete When you're walking out on the street And the wind catches your feet Says you're flying, flying We went back to this corner How great is Van Morrison? Amazing. The song is amazing. He was in Vegas five years ago just before COVID and he was in a good mood, he was laughing, the band was tight and I play this song in my pre-show music before I perform when the audience is coming in. He had a rough time with COVID though, as I recall. Oh, did he?

Yeah, only in that I think he was very, he wrote lots of music, angry about certain requirements for masks and lockdowns and stuff like that. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. But what a musician, honestly. Did you see the movie Belfast? Yes, I did. Okay.

Well, Van Morrison littered throughout and it really, really works. And yeah, and them, like them like i mean early tragically hip was like covering them basically and uh yeah amazing so you can draw a line from fan morrison to gordonny good shit man good stuff we're gonna roll right into the finale here you ready to rock yes uh and i'll just set it up. My favorite album of all time, one of my favorites, Bruce Springsteen, Live in Dublin. And this song has been recorded by a lot of people, Johnny Cash. I think Clapton did it.

I don't know who wrote it. I forget now. I meant to know that before today. Well, I'm going to Google it during the song. I don't know who wrote it. I forget now. I meant to know that before today. Well, I'm going to Google it during the song. I'll find out. OK. OK, let's roll. I'm sorry. I'll meet you further on, on the road Where the way is dark and the night is cold I'll meet you further on up the road

Where the road is dark and the seed is sowed Where the gun is cocked and the bullet's cold The miles are marked in blood and gold I'll meet you further on up the road Further up the road, further up the road I'll meet you further on up the road, further up the road, Further up the road, I'll meet you further on up the road, Where the way is dark and the night is cold, I'll meet you further on up the road. See, sometimes they call it... Further on up the road. Right.

But originally, farther up the road. So that's where it gets confusing for the song page. But Further On Up the Road, it was first recorded in 1957 by Bobby Blue Bland. Wow. But the songwriters, a gentleman named Joe Medwick Vesey and Duke Records owner Don Robie and Duke Records owner Don Roby are credited with the songwriting here. But yeah, this song is great. Tell me a little bit about, like, is this one of those, you're on one of those long road trips and you've got this jam on the... I close my shows with this after I say goodbye to the audience. It comes out and this is the music we play as the audience is leaving. And like Steve Earle and N. Springsteen and Johnny Cash and my gosh, of course Neil Young

and Warren Zvon, I listened to them an awful lot when I was starting out on the road and CD days. Now I listen to Audible, I'm always listening to books, podcasts and things. But it's so appropriate for the road itself. It's long, it's rewarding. And I'd be a liar if I said it's not getting old. You step out from behind the curtain and the audience is there and you're in the pocket for two hours, you're on that stage and it's so rewarding. They're so grateful, they take anything for granted. As I say earlier, you're allowed to make sense of the chaos we're all walking

through in the language of laughs, make sense of it all, and as the world gets increasingly fractured and polarized along political lines, you can get people from different walks of life all laughing at the same thing and That's gonna get harder as Things swing to the right because the conservatives can't take a joke they can't No, no, they whine out on you and

You know, it's the first thing I mean, you know, they don't like you to tip the apple cart man They want you to tow the party line and step in line with, you know, the mandate. And that's not a comedian's job. A comedian's job is to rock the apple cart, not ride in it. He's got to poke the gorilla in the cage. Of course, in Canada, with 37 million people, you have to be an equal opportunity offender however that being said with 37 million people in the country one has to be judicious as to how often and where they poke that girl in the cage notice when I play Alberta I get far bigger laughs on upsetting the apple cart in Calgary and Edmonton and still in Red Deer, believe it or not.

But, and then in the urban centers you've still got that reluctance to adhere to the conservative mandate. It's more of an enlightened progressive way of looking at the world. And so in the States, 375 million people can have half that country hating your act and still have seven times the population of Canada buying a ticket to see you. I'll continue to tour here until I can't anymore and I'll continue to do what I've always done which is try to get some laughs out there you know I mean if you don't laugh Jesus what's the point Ron I always love these chats man you're welcome here anytime thank you sir I love

65 now any regrets at all, like looking back? That's a big question to close out in, but any regrets? Oh yeah, yeah. You know, like anybody who's gone through a separation and that, I wish that hadn't happened. I wish it had happened in a different way than it did. I don't think I'll ever make peace with that. But you know, try your best to be a good father as time goes on and

make the world a better place and be kind and keep doing what I do and enjoying it. And I try not to weigh too much on mistakes of the past but that doesn't mean that I I'm at peace with it. That makes any sense. Makes a lot of sense man, makes a lot of sense. And that brings us to the end of our 1515th show. You can follow me all over the place. I'm at Toronto Mike. Go to torontomike.com. Hey, Ron, is there any social media channel that you're actively updating? And is there a place you want to send people to find it?

Oh, Jesus. Yeah, my Facebook page. Facebook, Ron James. And IG, Ramblin. I think it's Ramblin Man. Ramblin Man. Yeah, my Facebook page Facebook Ron and IG Ramblin I think it's ramblin man Ramblin man, R-A-M-B-L-I-N-M-A-N. Well when we take our photo here, I'll tag ya and thanks, bro people can find out what's going on, but I guess the takeaway here is to stream One man's treasure it's on Bell 5 and they air one episode per week for seven weeks and they dropped the first one just last week. And I should plug my tour I guess while I'm here for those of you who are listening outside the GTA.

For the Ron James heads. Yeah, I've got 20 dates around Ontario in the fall and you can get those on my website, RonJamesjames.ca or my producer's website, shantero.com. And I'm going to just throw this one out. I'm looking at dates with the Mervish people for the CAA Theatre in May. Okay. Tease that sucker right there. And we got to find out what happened with Jane Eastwood on your show because it's in the press release. She was trouble. She kept asking for a longer winnie. Poor Jane, the sweetest woman in the world. Great actress. She's great. She was married to a Flaherty.

She sure was. Paul. Good fella. Wow. Okay, it all comes full circle there. I will write a sternly worded email to Jill about how dare you tease me with the Jane Eastwood here. Jill, the hardest working publicist in North America. I just got an unreaded email to Jill about how dare you tease me with the Jane Eastwood here. Jill, the hardest working publicist in North America. I was during one of the songs, I quickly replied to one of her notes, making sure you got here on your bicycle. She's making sure you got here. She's down for her 127th James Taylor concert, honest to God.

She is, she's down in the Hudson Valley, down in Tanglewood. Oh my God, she just reached out, she was selling her Alanis Morissette tickets and yeah because they almost had an aneurysm trying to get back from the last concert at Budweiser stage. Wow I might take my kayak and go you know there's a spot you can go in your kayak you can hear it. Go to the kayak that's a great idea. Yeah and these are the ideas I'm having I will attend all the Budweiser stages from the water I'll be there. Much love to all who made this possible that That's Great Lakes Brewery. Don't forget your beer. That's Palma Pasta. Don't leave without your lasagna. Recyclemyelectronics.ca.

Ron, you know that's where you go if you have old cables, old electronics, old tech. I didn't. I know it now. Don't throw it in the garbage because the chemicals end up in our landfill. Go to Recyclemyelectronics.ca and put in your postal code and they'll tell you where to go to drop it off. Excellent. The Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team, everybody come on out July 7th. Hopefully Mother Nature cooperates this time. I'm going to be recording, enjoying awesome baseball and I don't have to buy a ticket. I love it. And Ridley Funeral Home, see you all. Jill Demps, no, I'm live

from Christie Pitts on Sunday. That's the next episode of Toronto Mike. And then Jill Dempsey will visit the the basement. She's been on CBC radio forever. I just thought of a good tag for Ridley Funeral Home. We do such a great job you'll want to be dead. See you all next week. I love it. Just like mine, it won't go away. Because everything is rosy now. Everything is rosy, yeah. Everything is rosy and gray. Yeah. You