Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - That Canadian Guy Glen Foster: Toronto Mike'd #1302

Episode Date: August 4, 2023

In this 1302nd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with That Canadian Guy Glen Foster about his 40 years of funny, from the early Yuk Yuks days, to the recent Just For Laughs controversy. Glen also shares his thoughts on political correctness, Spotify royalties, Norm Macdonald, Mike MacDonald, Ralph Benmergui, and rap music. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, The Moment Lab, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.

My name is Glenn Foster. I'm a stand-up comedian from Canada who goes by the name That Canadian Guy. If you're not from Canada, you very- Hang on! Wouldn't every guy from Canada be that Canadian? Canadian? Canadian? Canadian? Canadian?

Canadian? Canadian guy? Yeah, you know, I don't think I ever really thought about it. Damn it! I already really thought about it. Damn it. I already paid for the website. Welcome to episode 1301 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 recycle RecycleMyElectronics.ca Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. Getting hip to the hip. An evening for the Downey Wenjack Fund on September 1st.

The Moment Lab Brand Marketing Strategy PR Advertising and Production. You need The Moment Lab and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, making his Toronto Mike debut, celebrating 40 years of comedy. It's that Canadian guy, Glenn Foster. Welcome to Toronto Mic'd Glenn.

Great to be here, man. 40 years. That's four times as long as I've been doing this podcast. 40 years of comedy. That's amazing. I call it 40 years of funny, but I've been doing comedy longer than 40 years. but I've been doing comedy longer than 40 years. Like COVID messes it up because of the kind of on and off we had for two years. But I can tell you that I did my first Canadian comedy tour, which started in Winnipeg in 1982. And just this past November of 1982, I did another show in Winnipeg, almost 40 years to the day.

Wow. Almost. I couldn't get the original venue, but almost 40 years to the day. So that's 40 years right there from 1982. And I know that I was doing comedy in high school. Okay. On that note, can I interrupt you in the high school? Then I want to hear about the high school. Okay, on that note, can I interrupt you in the high school? Then I want to hear about the high school.

Yeah. A woman named Helen, and if I actually go to Twitter, I can find out her last name. Okay. Unless she might have changed it. People get married, they change their name.

I don't know. But Helen, just today, tweeted at me when I said to Glenn Foster, it was finally, this is long overdue, by the way. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad too.

I went to high school in Oakville with that Canadian guy. This is Helen's tweet from today. Okay. So, okay. So tell me about in high school, you were doing, you were funny in high school. Well, okay. So originally I think I did my first, do you remember junior achievement?

You might even be too. There was a thing called junior achievement. Don't remember it. It was a thing that was kind don't remember it it was a thing that i would have wanted a community uh outreach kind of program from businesses and so that what they do is they'd set up groups of students in these little businesses and you know you would go sell your product door to door you had to sell shares it was like running a business right so um it so it was So it was a program that they ran, the business community, probably connected to the Chamber of Commerce or something like that.

But as part of that, there was a public speaking kind of offshoot. And so I got involved with that and I realized very quickly, I was very nervous nervous i realized very quickly that if i could be mildly funny in these speeches i would be less nervous like if i could get a laugh off then then it would be like okay now i have time to think about the next thing i'm going to say and and and then of course people started expecting it to be funny, which made me more nervous. But around that time, I also, or shortly thereafter, I did my first show. I went to three different high schools. So I was in London at the time,

at Sir Frederick Banting High School in London. Okay. Grade 10, I think, 10 into 11 type thing. uh grade uh 10 i think 10 into 11 type thing and um so the the day before the day before i did my little five minutes whatever it was i don't know and it was it was a lot of like really bad impressions and i remember it was a it was partially you know impressions of the time, which would be like Howard Cosell, you know, and Jackie Stewart, the race car driver. And the whole skit, as it were, was me doing all these different voices, like a sports announcer type thing of World War III. Okay. And the missiles are flying now.

And, oh, the missiles are flying now. And, you know, and so that was kind of my standard little shtick there for a couple years at a couple different high schools. But in both cases, no one knew me the day before and everyone knew me the day after. So that was like a kind of my first little brush with fame kind of thing. What's with the three high schools? Is that just, you moved around? Yeah. My father changed jobs.

So yeah, we, uh, I went to, I grew up in Cambridge. I was born in Montreal. I'm born in Montreal, grew up in Cambridge,

lived in London for a little bit. Then, uh, Oakville after that. So, okay. And I did check out the last name of Helen. Uh,

I feel like I owe her that. Helen O'Hara. Do you remember Helen O'Hara from high school? I sadly do not. Just pretend. It's been a long time. It's been a long time. I want to find out what takes you from these moments in your high school to that gig in Winnipeg over 40 years ago now.

But I'm just going to read a couple more quick notes. One is from Dan. Dan said, looking forward to Glenn Foster today. I first saw him live over 30 years ago at Yuck Yucks. Holy smokes. So that's going way back. But again, 40 years of funny. That's a long time. Okay.

Most people don't get four minutes of funny. Well, I'm starting to, this is happening, and I hope it's a trend. I don't know, but I hope it's a trend. I don't work a whole lot, so I can't tell if it's a trend i don't know but i hope it's a trend i i don't work a whole lot so i can't tell if it's a trend but yeah there have been a number of people coming up to me after shows uh especially since pandemic and since everybody's getting out more kind of thing uh mostly guys i'd say some women but mostly guys in their like lates, early 40s, and they're like, oh, man, I've been watching you since I was a kid.

Now, everyone's a kid to me now, but it's kind of interesting, right? Because then I think about, okay, well, how old would you have been when you were watching this? And most times the answer is you were too young to watch this. You had very permissive parents, I guess. Right. Right. But there was a time in the early, you know,

the comedy network was coming online probably in the late 90s into 2000 type thing. Okay. So there was a time when the comedy network was first starting when they didn't have a lot to put on it, right, as far as original content. And I had already done at that point, just for laughs, I had done it by that point probably three or four times.

So, and then I recorded a Comedy Now special in the year 2000. So from about the year 2000 to the year 2010, I was on TV in reruns on the comedy network sometimes three times a week right right so i need to find these people so people if if you remember me from 2000 to 2010 on the comedy network or at uh you know, Yuck Yucks clubs or anywhere I might be doing comedy, get a hold of me. Go to thatcanadianguy.com and if I can find enough people, I might

try to put a tour together. And if I can find more than enough people, I might drag a few friends along. I will say, Glenn, if you're looking for like the GTA Gen X crowd, many of them are listening right now. So we're reaching them right now. I want to just shout

out one such gentleman whose real name is Manfred, but listeners of this program will know him better as the guy from Elephants and Stars. So he's an FOTM. You, Glenn Foster, are now an FOTM. That means friend of Toronto Mike. So welcome to this exclusive club.

Fantastic. Hold that enthusiasm because what did elephants and stars write in he goes he says Glenn is an ex bullseye records alum oh yes I think we actually shared a bill with him once

and then so he so so Manfred's asking for a Jamie Vernon story or two. Okay. And I'm just going to piggyback on this because we just lost Bob Segherini. Bob Segherini, yes. Also an FOTM.

Yes. And he was 77, passed away last month. By the way, for those listening, there's a great Ridley Funeral Home Memorial episode of Toronto Mike that dropped on the first day of August. That's only a few days ago. And there is a wonderful tribute to Bob Segherini in there

featuring Cam Carpenter, who knew him quite well and is a kind of a records guy. You might know Cam, Glenn. But Glenn, please tell me about what exactly is Bullseye Records and if you can tell a Jamie Vernon story or two from Antred.

I don't know if I have a Jamie Vernon story, but Bullseye Records was and is an all-Canadian record company. He has all the old catalogs for Gato and Klatu and any obscure Canadian band you can think of, he's got the old catalog for them. But the reason he factors in with me yeah is he saw me somewhere and i think it was at jeff healy's club because i used to run an open mic at jeff healy's club in the early 2000s around 2003 2005 somewhere in there and um he decided that uh he

wanted to uh put out a DVD, my first DVD, which was called Shot at the Empire. Okay. And that was financed, underwritten, whatever, by Jamie Vernon and Bullseye Records. Wow. So, yeah.

Okay. And do you have any stories for me regarding Bob Segherini, who is quite the character in this market? Well, I was with Bob a fair bit again during that time, probably in the early 2000s, mid-2000s, because he was running a, what do you call it, a jam session at the Hard Rock Cafe on Yonge Street.

And every once in a while, he would have some comedians on as well, and then it sort of became, like the thing I was doing at Jeff Healy's Club was a comedy night followed by music. So we'd have some, you know, comedians have an open mic type thing, and then musicians would come in and jam after that, right?

And sometimes the musicians were great and would hang out and watch the show, but most times they were assholes, and they would just sit in another room until the comedy was over, and then they would come in, right? Now, you kind of can't blame them, because amateur comedy is not the best thing in the world, and if you're coming week after week,

you're going to see a lot of the same shit, right? That's just the way it is. Can you name-check any of these musicians? Do you want to shout any of them out? I don't think so. But I was actually friends with a band which was called The Free Press. And I met them through Heelys and almost managed them, but I didn't have

the skill. It's not my skill set. I can barely, in fact, can't even manage myself. I always call myself the weakest link in my own organization. But I did try to set them up with some managers that I knew, and nothing really ever came of it. Do you have any Jeff Healy stories here since you dropped his name? I only really ran into him once at the club because we were in on a monday night right as it wouldn't be very often that jeff would come in on a monday but uh yeah i remember seeing jeff

uh when i was touring way out in uh victoria i think i saw jeff for the first time and uh was of course blown away so but as far as as as meeting him again in Toronto at his club, maybe in passing, but nothing of significance. Okay, so I want to get you to that Winnipeg gig in 82. We have you kind of discovering this secret talent. I don't know if it's a secret, but you're discovering. So you discover that you are good at this. I guess that happens in high school.

So sometime after I did that high school show in Oakville, because I did my second actual comedy show in Oakville at a high school variety thing. Sometime after that, very soon after that, very soon after I'd moved to Oakville, I was 17 at the time. I remember because Q107 was just going on the air 77 77 exactly and uh so um i wasn't gonna say so uh yuck yucks was also had or was recently opened like they had moved out of the church basement and they're already at

the Bay Street location the Bay and Yorkville right location sure so I went down there one night with a friend of mine on a Monday because that's when they oh they didn't even have they didn't even have amateur night what they had in those days was amateur hour which was after the regular show so you would people would would watch like two hours of comedy and if it was mike mcdonald or whatever he'd absolutely blow the doors off the play the first time i saw mike mcdonald i was gonna ask you about mike mcdonald i love it when comics come on this program and talk about mike mcdonald because there's such a respect and reverence for his artistry. The first time I saw Mike McDonald was about three weeks after I started comedy because I was told, well, you got to see, you know, because I was doing a bunch of jokes that weren't exact.

I had no segues, no segues at all. And someone said to me, well, you should see Mike McDonald because everything flows so smoothly and so on and so forth. So I went to see Mike McDonald within about three weeks of starting comedy. And oh my God, I'd never laughed so hard. There's been a few people in my life that have put me in absolute pain watching comedy. Bill Cosby was one. I know that. That doesn't age as well.

That doesn't age as well. That doesn't age as well. But, you know, if you separate the horror from the person... Right. The same way you can enjoy Billie Jean when it comes on the radio. There you go. It doesn't take anything away from his talent at all. He was amazing. Much like OJ Simpson was a great running back.

There you go. You can't take that away. You cannot. No. And... I like this game. Keep going. Yeah. Anyway.

So the first time I saw Mike, I was like, what the hell am I doing in this business? You wanted to quit. He was so good. Like just so good. I mean, and he did like two hours, you know, it's legendary the amount of time that Mike used to do. Right. Yeah.

And then, um, so, you know, Mike and I were never really good friends, but we were acquaintances. And I remember there was a time when Mike was being signed by this big agency out of New York. And we had a kind of a going away thing for him. So we had a kind of a little roast type thing. And my opening line was, I've known Mike for 10 years. He's known me for two. Hey, this guy can write and have him over for video games.

Cause that was Mike's game. He'd have comics over play video games and anything that anybody said, he would turn into a bit, you know? So now, okay. So I'm going to name check a couple of people. I've had these Mike McDonald chats with one is Ralph. that anybody said he would turn into a bit, you know? So. No. Okay. So I'm going to name check a couple of people. I've had these Mike McDonald chats with one is Ralph Ben-Murray.

Okay. Yeah. I worked on his show. I was going to ask you about Ralph because I feel like in that late seventies, early yuck yucks times, I'm trying to remember. He was an MC. I believe he was an MC.

Like I know he was. Yeah. So tell me anything and everything about Ralph Ben-Murray. He's going to hear this. I'll just warn you about that right now. Not that you'd say anything bad about Ralph. I can't tell you a whole lot, really. I mean, I did work on his show.

So what did you do on his, this is the Friday night show? Yeah, I was a writer. Because Breslin was involved in that show as well. Yes, he was. He was the producer. And James B., right? And James B. was the band. What a crew.

What a time to be alive. Yes, yes. Okay, and what were you doing? Writing. Being funny? Just trying to write stuff. Just trying to write funny stuff. We had a little news segment bit that they did,

so I was trying to write stuff for that. And write the occasional sketch type thing. But they had no budget, no money, nothing. So it was very hard to write sketch because it's like, well, can we have a sketch where two people are doing nothing in a place where no one is, you know. This is it. I find this whole. I made a joke about it because it was Friday night.

Yeah. It was a Friday night show. Right. And it was supposed to be, you know, nationwide type thing. And I thought. For sure. Yeah. Yeah.

nationwide type thing and I thought the only people watching this I said the only people watching this in far flung places in Canada are the people who are breaking into your house at the time that it happens to be on so why is that I got lots of questions because it was too much of a Toronto show

it was too much with the a bit artsy fartsy really in a way you know because they had the band with James B., which is not exactly, wouldn't exactly, you know, appeal to the middle of the country type thing. So it was very much Toronto-centric, very much, I don't even know what the word, new age something at the time,

you would call it. Was it a little, I mean, I'm trying to remember now. In real time, I kind of experienced it, but I don't remember digging it. Was it a little, I mean, I'm trying to remember now, in real time, I kind of experienced it, but I don't remember digging it. Sorry, Ralph, but I, was it a little pretentious? That might be,

yeah, and I don't know if pretentious is, just fish out of water for, good for a Toronto scene, or maybe Vancouver, or whatever, but I just knew, from having toured some of these places

in the middle of nowhere, that this wasn't going to fly in the middle of nowhere. And it didn't fly. And it didn't fly. And that was the criticism. Spoiler alert. Right? That was the criticism. So, yeah, that lasted a couple of years. It's interesting because I produced, I still do, although it's been a little while,

Ralph, since you've dropped a new episode, but he's got a podcast called Not That Kind of Rabbi and I produce it. And I work very closely with Ralph on that and it's really good, actually, because Ralph's good at what he does but you know this uh this ralph a rabbi you see this is called not that kind of rabbi because rabbi apparently means teacher but there's there's of course so not that kind of rabbi so ralph's a rabbi but he's not that kind of i see okay all right yeah i'm teaching you a lot here. Okay. So I feel like Ralph carries this. Like this is sort of a joke because I once heard, I think it was on Q actually, where

Jim Carrey was being, I'm going to ask you about him in a minute, but Jim Carrey was being interviewed and Jim realized he was being interviewed by CBC and he kind of closed it with this joke about back off Ben Mergey leave ben murigy alone because i feel like this is like a go-to an easy catch uh a joke to kind of make fun of ralph ben murigy in this friday night show like that but i mean you tried you just had no budget and it was too as you said i think i think also he had an aversion to doing jokes he wanted to do sketch he wanted to do crowd work, whatever, but put actual jokes in front of him,

I think he had an aversion to it. Interesting. Who else was on that writing staff? Was it all on your shoulders? Larry Horowitz was there. He lost, yeah. A couple other guys. One guy went on to,

or may have come from Saturday Night Live. I can't remember his name. Neil something, I think. And of course, Mark Breslin. Yeah, Mark Breslin. F- think. And of course, Mark Breslin. Yeah, Mark Breslin. F-O-T-M, Mark Breslin. And the other thing that they started doing was they kind of replaced Ralph at the beginning of the show.

And they didn't have him. Sorry, he'd host the show, but then he would not do the opening monologue. It was a news monologue and he did not do it. Interesting. They would bring in a different guest every week to do the news monologue. So then we wrote with that person as well, whoever it happened to be, right? And generally being a few Yuck Yucks comics type thing, delivering those, you know, newsy type segments.

I did a couple myself, actually. Interesting. Okay, so now to take us back to the late 70s there, yuck yucks, I'm trying to build a scene here. Oh, so to continue then. Well, yeah. So then I did my first five minute late night thing. And the thing was too,

it wasn't like now, you couldn't just turn on yuck yucks, sorry, yuck yucks, turn on Netflix and watch like 150 hours of specials. Right. Didn't exist. You're right. If you wanted to see live comedy, you had to go out and see live comedy.

So therefore, people did stay after the show. I mean, not a lot of people. I mean, it's 11 o'clock, 10, 11 o'clock on a Monday night. I mean, who really can do that, right? But in those days, people would stay for a little while. What the heck? We'll just watch a couple amateurs whatever right so the first one i did was kind of very much like what i'd been doing at my high school variety shows and it's like okay fine i don't even really remember

it really uh and the second one i went up a week later and i say yeah okay kind of the same thing so then i thought well you know i've been doing this material for a while now i think what i need to do is change things up so i wrote an entirely new five minutes for the third shot and it was dead silence dead silence for five minutes and then mark breslin who was the the guy running everything at the time, played a car crash. They had a small little TV in the corner, and they played a car crash. They had this little video they would use as a car crash.

It was like a gong or something. It was like an old Buster Keaton. It was, right? So the train going off the rails and a car crash, and it was all old black and white. And then Mark goes, oh, it's a disaster, ladies and gentlemen. Glenn Foster is a disaster. So I didn't go back for three years.

Oh, my God. Okay. So they owe me three years. So you were so kind of affected by this lack of applause, lack of laughter. This is like 78, 79. No, it wasn't the lack of applause or that. It was that bullshit playing that video right and

you're so young right i was very young i was like 17 or 18 at the time what i move okay you know so what do you for three years what are you doing i went to college i you know i went for uh i went to sheridan for advertising for two years i did a show there as a matter of fact because they had a variety every any time there was something there opportunity, like a variety show or something that I would try to do. If there's an open mic, you're going to jump on. But I didn't even know about it. I mean, I don't know if open mics even existed at that time. It must have, but I don't know, right?

And I mean, I was new to everything. Sure. And yeah, so then three years later, I guess, I was doing a job that I particularly hated. I thought I was going to get a job with, they were a printing company that was trying to be an advertising agency. But then they remembered they were a printing company. And so they had hired me to be like a junior creative guy. But then they did, you know, like grocery flyers and all kinds of like zero creative involved like what's the creative it's 89 cents a pound this week well

wow that's really gonna grab people i'm you know and part of it anyway i hated it and uh decided to go back to yuck x again by which time yeah they were having Amateur Night on Monday. So a full night of, you know. And in those days, it was like the very beginning of stand-up comedy. There were not a lot of comics. There were only about 10 of us. Can you name check any? I'm dying.

Simon Rakoff would have been there. Okay, because later I'm going to ask you about Simon. Lawrence Morgenstern would be there. Larry Horowitz was there. Ron Vaudrey. Can I ask you about a name? Yeah. Was John Wing Jr. there?

I believe that John Wing and I started on, he thinks, and he has a photographic memory, so I tend to believe him. I think we started on the same night. Wow. We were very close on that second run for me, like the three years. Right after your hiatus. Or very close.

Or very close. Yeah, he was there, definitely. I'm trying to think of some other names. By any chance, and I'm trying to remember his involvement with Yuck Yucks, I know. Was Larry Fedorik on any of those mics? Yes, Larry Fedorik was there. I also produced his podcast. Shout out to Larry Fedorik. Okay, okay mics? Yes, Larry Fedorik was there. I also produce his podcast. Shout out to Larry Fedorik.

Okay, okay. I got to name check Larry. Okay, go on there. I love the Larrys. So yeah, Paul K. Willis, right? Who I still remember one of the things he would always do. He'd go, I'm laughing, won't you join me? I thought that was hysterical.

Just to let you know, so John Wayne came on and he's promised to come back because he says, you mentioned his memory. It's wild, his memory. It's just unbelievable. He remembers every syllable of Ralph Ben-Murray's old set

from like the late 70s. Holy crap. And John Wayne Jr. is going to come on this program. Of course, he's been threatening to do this for a while. And do the old set? And do Ben-Murray's old set.

Oh, man. Is that wild or what? That is wild. That is. Steve Shuster was a guy who was around already. And, yeah. Wow. I love the details here.

But my point being, there's only about 10 of us. Right. And we're working all the time. Right? I mean, I was up several times a week. I mean, that is unheard of now. Right. You cannot get stage time.

There's so many comics cannot get stage time. There's so many comics looking for stage time, and they're all starting their own open mics just to get stage time, right? Like, if you were a younger man starting now, would you even pursue this career? Like, would you still? I don't know. I really don't, because it's a grind.

It's a real grind, you know? And I'm kind of back in the grind, you know? I mean, it just means nothing. 40 years? Who gives a fuck? You're still, you know, i'm kind of back in the grind you know i mean just it means nothing 40 years who gives a fuck you're still you know begging for six minutes here in 10 minutes is that a canadian thing no it's not a canadian thing it's it because you're that canadian guy which i'm going to find out that because i've i've i've uh you know um throughout the pandemic particularly was a good good reveal of this there there was a was a facebook group started called displaced comedians right right and this is mostly an american group but worldwide canada as well right but there are

like over 3 000 members of that group right and you know the vast majority of them are amateurs who are you know trying to do these open mics every night. They call it grinding, right? It's called grinding, going from mic to mic. And, you know, it's something you can do at a higher level in New York City, but it exists in Toronto. And we have open mics. I live in Ottawa now for the past four years. Oh, you know, I did not know that.

Yeah, yeah. I used to live in- That's a long drive for you to come on today. Well, I'm here to do this thing tonight, right? I'm here to do- What are you doing tonight? It's the kickoff of the very first Danforth

Comedy Festival. Okay. So I'm doing a show called The Best Damn Stand-Up Show. I'm only doing about 15 minutes, but there's five people on the show. So it's still going to be probably a 90-minute show or something like that, but I'm only doing 15 minutes. Okay. I mean, this drops.

The way this works is this will be in the Toronto Mike podcast feed about, I don't know, eight minutes after we say goodbye. So we're going to take, after this chat, we'll take a photo and you'll drive away

and this thing will be in the feed five minutes later. So if someone's, if an eager beaver has jumped on episode 1301, there's still time to see you tonight. It's at the Black Swan. It's upstairs from the Black Swan. It's upstairs from the Black Swan.

It's called the Social Capital Theater. Of course. And it's upstairs from the Black Swan, which is right at the intersection of Danforth and... Broadview? Broadview. Thank you. I mean, I'm not East York Mike,

but I know that neck and neck. I haven't been out there for a while. So, yeah. So, that's why I'm not East York Mike, but I know that neck of it. I haven't been out there for a while, so yeah. That's why I'm doing it, because the guy who's running it, Luke Lindale, is a friend of mine. It's sort of a favor, but

also it's a new festival, right? So it's something to... And that's what you do. You perform and you're funny. And then I also get to visit my mom and my brother. I try i try to work gigs around trips to toronto or the way around i try to work my trips to toronto around gigs just to cover the gas money you know well it makes sense it makes all the sense in the world to me okay so again we're as we tell your story i do have a lot of audio i want to play oh sure tonight she's going to be out of order and you're going to like tell me what I'm listening to. Do whatever you want to do here.

Well, here's what I want to do right now. I want to give you something for making the trek here and making your Toronto Mike debut. I do have in my freezer a large frozen lasagna from Palma Pasta. I don't know where you're staying

at family or where you're staying. I have no freezer. No freezer. Okay, so I'm eating Everybody, ladies and gentlemen I and my family of six We're going to devour How could I possibly, no, I can't do this

And I love palma pasta Especially their lasagna is fantastic But no freezer, okay, my friend There's no way to do that The hotel has a freezer No, you don't have one in the room, of course. I should have thought of this. There is one, actually, in the room where I'm staying with my friend.

So if I gave... Here's my question. If I gave you lasagna, because of course it's yours. I can't do that. I can't, because I'm going straight into Toronto to do the show. I'm going to my friend's place. I could put it in her freezer, but... Well, can I give you some Great Lakes beer to take with you?

Even maybe... Okay, I'm just trying to give you some goods here. Okay, so we'll work out that as anything later. I'm very upset about the Palma Pasta because if I was going back to the hotel, I would absolutely. I can promise you I'll give it a good home. But let's see how

long this goes and how much time I have left because I do have to get into Torontoonto to meet my friend okay but that's not till later so maybe i've got time to go it doesn't make sense really though to go backwards you could give it to your friend i could give it to my friend that's what i could in fact because i uh you know yes i know that the the good people at palma pasta would love somebody in your circle to enjoy that. I do enjoy Palma Pasta, though. It's really good. I need to make an announcement. So, Glenn, this is a rare, I was going to say a rare mistake on my part,

but I've made a few mistakes. You know, I booked a guest recently, and it turned out I got somebody else with the same name. Oh, okay. Like, this happened. So, you are that Canadian guy, right? I have the right Glenn Foster here. You have the correct Glenn Foster because there are other Glenn Fosters.

There are lots of other Glenn Fosters. Are any Canadian comics? There are no Canadian comedians that are named Glenn Foster other than myself, but there is the littlest groom. That was Glenn Foster, an actor, Glenn Foster. Okay. In that show, The Litt the littlest groom i don't remember this show um it was a while quite a while back as a reality show okay and then there is a glenn

foster who is in nanaimo bc who is a musician who oh i wrote a song with okay you know what i have this song okay is this party out there tonight? Yes. Okay. Yes. And then I'll get back to my Chris Tate story. All right. Which will bring us to the correction I need to make regarding TMLX 13. Stand by. In a wide open space where the stars shine bright. You can come as you are, yeah, you look alright. There's a party out there tonight. Either use it or lose it and I'll show you how.

I need a cold one over here. So this is Glenn Foster Squared. Glenn Foster and Glenn Foster. So one day I got an email. Sorry, I got a Facebook message from Glenn Foster squared? Glenn Foster and Glenn Foster. So one day I got an email, sorry, I got a Facebook message, right, from Glenn Foster. So I thought, the hell, this is like a scam. Someone taking over my account. This is weird.

Turns out, nope, this is a legit guy named Glenn Foster and he's a musician in Nanaimo. His claim to fame, I guess, is that he taught David Gogo to play guitar. If you know David Gogo at all. I know this name. Lives in a mountain? I want to say Gogo Mountain?

Yeah, he does, actually. Yeah, so named after his dad. I mean, I've heard the Gogo. Something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So anyway, we got chatting back and forth. And he said, you know, if you ever come out to Nanaimo, maybe we could do a show together. So we did a show in Nanaimo called the Glenn Foster's Experience.

That's funny. Nobody got the joke. And anyway, so here's my story. I can't sing and I can't play any instruments, but every once in a while, things pop into my head, like chunks of songs, riffs, what you'd call hooks, lyrics. And so I had one of these things kicking around my head for a while, and I sent it to him, and he didn't, it doesn't really follow what I did, but he took what I did and turned it into this, right? Okay. It's a nice little ditty.

It is a nice little, yeah. So it's interesting. So you collaborated with another Glenn Foster. Another Glenn Foster. To put a bow on my little story is that I thought I had, you know, Toronto based musician Chris Tate from Chalk Circle coming over. Okay. And I ended up with Toronto based musician Chris

Tate from a completely different band. I just want, I'm looking now because I want to shout out the band, but oh, the Lazarets. Okay, so it was just, I couldn't believe it. I had the wrong Chris Tate, but I didn't find out until I was already recording with Chris Tate. But you're the right Glenn Foster. And this is a long-winded way of saying, yes, I did screw up with the Chris Tates, but I've also screwed up with the date for TMLX13. So this is very important. I've been telling everyone on this program that TMLX13, that's the 13th Toronto Mike listener experience. I've been saying it's taking place on August 31st.

That is not true. I screwed up. It's actually taking place on Thursday, September 7, 2023, day september 7 2023 from 6 to 9 p.m at great lakes brewery in southern etobicoke down the street from the costco so september 7th 6 to 9 p.m be at glb for tmlx 13 i apologize for all the confusion and messing up my dates all right now we're sad now we're clear a couple more quick things become mentioning events. There is an important event taking place on September 1st and I urge everybody to go and buy tickets

to Getting Hip to the Hip. That's what this poster over there is for, Getting Hip to the Hip. And this is a evening for the Downey Wenjack Fund and it's 7.30 p.m. on September 1st.

Go to gettinghiptothehip.com and use the promo code FOTM10 FOTM10 and you can save 10%. I'll see you there. Again, that's September 1st at 7.30pm. Can I play another song, Glenn, as we

kind of... Sure, I've only got one other song, I think. Well, let's see. Let's find out. Let's find out what I got here. You'll tell me. I want to do something different with the CD. Yes. This. So I had like a little tune that was sort of in my head, and I thought, I would have to sing this for it to be viable, and my voice

is not. So that puts this down to like rap country or like a Limp Bizkity type thing. And as it turns out, as it turns out, actually, the guy who helped me record the CD was an oomph. So as it turns out, this is a drinking song. I don't know how that happened, but there you have it.

It's a little song about Canada, and there's a point in here that you can actually sing along. You'll catch on pretty quick, I think, because we're all clever Canadians. But I'm going to bring the band up here now, if you don't mind. How's the band doing? Are we ready with the band? Okay, now there's the band. Okay, we're on a budget. Just everybody pretend. Anyway, we're going to crank this sucker up. It's called What Are Are You Gonna Do? Here we go. What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do?

It's tough to live in Canada, my friend, you know it's true. We don't want to fight, we're much too polite, we'd rather have a brew. It's tough to live in Canada, but what are you gonna do? There is a land of ice and snow with the cold, and the cold is the only thing that can keep us warm. It's tough to live in Canada, but what are you gonna do? It's tough to live in Canada, but what are you gonna do? It's tough to live in Canada, but what are you gonna do?

It's tough to live in Canada, but what are you gonna do? It's tough to live in Canada, but what are you gonna do? It's tough to live in Canada, but what are you gonna do? It's tough to live in Canada, but what are you gonna do? It's tough to live in Canada, but what are you gonna do? It's tough to live in Canada, but what are you gonna do? It's tough to live in Canada, but what are you gonna do? It's tough to live in Canada, but what are you gonna do?

It's tough to live in Canada, but what are you gonna do? It's tough to live in Canada, but what are you gonna do? It's tough to live in Canada, but what'd rather have a brew It's tough to live in Canada But what are you gonna do? There is a land of ice and snow With noisy neighbours down below The country we call Canada The true and our strong and free Above the 49th parallel Usually pink on the map

You can make the mistake that we're part of the states It's alright, we're used to that What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? It's tough to live in Canada My my friend, you know it's true. You can sing, Len. You can sing. Now.

I don't know. I think it's better than I can do. I'm being covered up there, but it really should be as auto-tuned. So that's the guy singing with me there. He's the guy who co-wrote the song with me. Also from Nanaimo, just by coincidence. Wow. Or was it Victoria?

It was Victoria, but out on the island, so there's two tunes from the island, but that's an example of one of the little things that popped in my head and would not leave. You know, the what are you gonna do part, right? And then I just sort of built around it. So he wrote a tune, and then

I put more lyrics to it, and you know. I'm digging it. I'm digging it. Quick question came in on the live stream from Hey Ref, and he wants to I put more lyrics to it and, you know. I'm digging it. I'm digging it. Quick question came in on the live stream from Hey Ref, and he wants to know, was Howie Mandel at Yuck Yucks at that time that you were there? Never met him at Yuck Yucks. Okay, so that's the answer. He was gone.

He was gone. Jim Carrey was gone also at that time. I was going to ask you if you did see, because I mean, I'm trying to remember the story, but Mark Breslin comes on and says he thought Jim Carrey was terrible. Not terrible, but not very good. I have heard that. I have heard that, but I did not, I never met him.

I met him many years later, but only for like a few minutes. It was a weird, weird thing that happened to be. Because I feel like he kind of knows the scene. I knew who I was. Obviously, I knew who he was, And it was a bar downtown Toronto. And I forget why he was there or even why I was there. But someone I knew knew that he was in a back room there and basically brought me in to meet Jim Carrey.

And I think it was only maybe 10, 15 minutes at the most because he had a kind of little private thing going on back then. I didn't want to crash you know, crash it. It depends what phase of his career you're bumping into him. Yeah, I don't even... Post-Days Ventura? It would be in the early 2000s, I think. Oh, yeah, okay, yeah.

That Jim Carrey. Okay. Yeah. One more name for me again. I'm sorry for annoying you with these names, but I'm like, I have that Canadian guy. That's all right. We talked about Mike McDonald and you sang his praises. What about Norm MacDonald?

Well, I can't sing his praises. Elaborate, please. I will sing his praises. Okay. It's the home of real talk. So Norm's not listening. Well, we're splitting again between person and personnel, you know, deeds and person. Right?

Okay. Intriguing. Yeah. So he owes me $5,000 from a poker game in the 80s. Never paid it. Pissed off to Saturday Night Live. Never paid it. And that's real money, especially back then.

Very real money back then. That's a lot today, actually. And it was ridiculous. We should not have been involved in such a game in the first place. It was just absolutely stupid. But it was the 80s, and everybody was into excess. Was there cocaine at this table? There was place. It was just absolutely stupid, but it was the 80s and everybody was into excess. Was there cocaine at this table? There was not.

There was not. I've never done cocaine. I've seen it in massive piles around me, but I've never done it because I, you know, I can't even resist. You don't want your heart to explode. No, I can't.

I thought about this a long time ago. I can't even resist a cheeseburger. So I would hate to have something that has a real grip on me. Smart. You know? Smart. I have an addictive personality. No, you got to know your limits and live with it.

And weirdly, I never used to have an addictive personality, but I tried having addictive personality and right away, I had an addictive personality. Okay. I'm doing a circular joke here. Nevermind. Too clever for this audience. Too clever for the room clever for the brain damaged

okay so interesting but uh you said you have to separate uh much like we're doing with uh i would say with r kelly if i hear ignition remix i always think what a great song that is but then i realized what a absolutely piece of trash human being that is singing that song so not that norm's r kelly but norm mcdonald owed you real dollars and squelched on that fact. He owed me real dollars. He treated a couple people that I know very well very badly because he could.

Right. You know? And everyone's, oh, that's just Norm. You know, Norm, he's just Norm. Well, Norm just being Norm. Anyway, you know the whole let's not talk about the dead kind of thing? Yeah, I'm not trying to, you know, raise let's not talk about the dead kind of thing yeah i'm not

trying to you know raise any stink here except that uh would so as a comedian uh did you have respect for his craft oh totally right absolutely i saw one of norm's first sets or was i seeing yeah i think i saw him in ottawa because he started in ottawa and uh yeah i mean i was i was blown away like everybody else was, right? Not only was he an amazing comic, but just a completely different point of view. But more importantly to Norm in the later times was that the camera loved Norm. Norm looked like Paul Newman. Right.

He looked like a young Paul Newman on camera, right? Piercing blue eyes. Absolutely. Good looking tall guy. And I was going to ask you to compare and contrast because I hear from comics like yourself and John Wayne Jr. and Ralph B. Morgan, all these cats come over, talk about Mike McDonald and how he's the best comic they ever saw and he blew everybody away. Meanwhile, Mike McDonald didn't really translate to the screen.

And I'm wondering if Mike McDonald had a presence, a physical presence of a Norm McDonald, would that have been different? Why did it never happen for Mike? Because Mike wasn't as pretty. He wasn't as pretty. He was kind of a harsh looking... Brent Butt's not pretty.

No offense, Brent. He's also an FOTM. He's a handsome guy. But Brent is not... Mike was angry and he looked angry. Right? Right. And sweaty. And scared.

It scared the camera. It's the opposite of what happened with Norm. Mike just couldn't be put on. His act just was so big that it didn't work in a small, not venue, but, you know. A forum like that. The confines of television, the box, it just, no. Mike was big. Mike would do the joke.

Mike would tell the joke, and he would tell the joke in such a way that it was, you know, completely dissected. Like, if he was talking about banks, he had eight things to say about banks and everything you could possibly ever think, a joke about a bank from the lineup to the atm to the teller he had dissected the whole process of the bank and then after telling the joke he would do the joke physicalize the joke right and that was mike's great genius but also what this did not translate.

And it is interesting again, comparing and contrasting, uh, Norm MacDonald and Mike MacDonald, uh, both gone far too soon. Okay. Here's, so in the last couple of years,

Norm gave a very moving, uh, speech when Letterman left the air and he went on Letterman, a very moving speech. And I thought, okay, well maybe Norm's changed. So I contacted Norm through Twitter because Norm followed me on Twitter for some reason.

And Norm did everything through Twitter. And I don't know why. Play-by-play of golf. Yeah. But all his communication was handled through Twitter. So for some reason, Norm followed me or I followed him. And then he, for some reason, followed me back. So a couple years ago, a few years ago, I guess, pre-pandemic, I guess I, you know,

contacted Norm through Twitter. I said, Hey, Norm, you know, I know, uh, I thought your speech for Letterman there was, was, you know, really gracious and, and, and, uh, you know, maybe, maybe you've changed your spots or whatever kind of thing. And for a while it seemed like maybe we were having a normal conversation and blah, blah, blah. And then he just was being a dick. He was, you know, he was like trying to sell me crypto. He had, he had a bunch of a Bitcoin that he was trying to unload. He kept saying, I'm going to have you open for me. You can come down to the States and open for me. And he would, you know,

dangle that carrot and it never, ever happened. And then he'd say, oh, well, you know, I can't pay anything, but I, you know, you're certainly free to sell merchandise. Yeah, that's what people want, Norm. They go to see Norm MacDonald and they want to buy merchandise from the opener.

So he was fucking with me. He was fucking with me. And I can show it to you if you want. I mean, I've got it. I know, I trust you. The whole Twitter. Again, I don't want to get into it because he's a beloved

character and everything else, but leave it at that. This is the home of real talk here, Glenn, so I appreciate your candor because you could blow smoke up my ass like everybody else and tell me... There's lots of things I could say, but I'm not

going to because I didn't... What's the point? I respect that. I respect that. Alright, so we've got you after the three year hiatus. We're talking about the ten comics working your ass off. Is that when you... When do you start the clock on the 40 years that we've been talking about?

So, I would say the clock started when I did my first Yuck Yucks Western Tour, and that was in 1982. Was it? Yeah, 82. Now, mind you, prior to that, prior to that, in 1981, I had gone to Los Angeles to tape my first evening at the Improv. That's the brick wall on A&E? Is that A&E? Tony Curtis was the host.

Wow. And I didn't realize it at the time, but looking back now, I went way over my time. Way over my time. And Tony Curtis was actually standing on stage with his hand on my shoulder by the end of the set

and still i'm fucking oblivious i'm oblivious so maybe that's where it all went wrong maybe bud why can't you like i'm just helping you out i think you're closer to 45 than 40 in the clock here like yes i say covid complicates it three years off. You know, and it's, it's, you know. But let's say, okay, so 1982 was the first, November of 1982 was the first Yuck Yucks tour that I went on. And that was kind of a recon mission for Yuck Yucks because they didn't have any clubs west of Ontario. And that was like Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon.

So we did all these places. And shortly after that, in the years following that, they started opening up clubs in Calgary and Winnipeg and Edmonton, all these kind of things, right? So we kind of, I like to say, I didn't just work the road. I'm one of the guys that built it. You built the road. We built the road. You know, Ron James guys that built it. You built the road. We built the road.

You know, Ron James came over and was talking about how he went to LA to try to make it and he kind of, he came back home like a little wounded and then he realized he needed to like,

just like tow his own road or whatever, however you say that, like in this country. Yeah, that's pretty much it. You know, it's interesting to hear you guys are kind of similar-minded cats. I have a funny Ron. Yeah, I love it.

And can you say it like Ron James? Because I never know what he's saying half the time. Well, half the time he's talking so fast, he never knows anything. The thing I like about Ron James is he comes out and he tells like 15 jokes and there's a time to take me to take two jokes. You know, I tell two jokes and he's telling 15 jokes in there and then it's up there and down there. tell bubba we go down to the store there right and it's like it's like that star trek episode where everyone's sped up around them

and you can hear just a but so ron james who actually uh likes my comedy and did for quite some time, tried to get me in with his agent. Anyway, I won't tell you the name, but so he tried to get me in with his agent. And so on a recommendation from Ron James, I send Ron James agent my video, right? And I hear nothing. And so a few weeks later, I call the guy up and I go, listen, I sent, you know,

Ron James told me to send this and I sent it. And he goes, yeah, yeah. He says, yeah, I was watching your video, you know, and I didn't really find it all that funny, really. And then he says, and then had some friends over

a couple of weeks ago. And for some reason, your name came up, and then I put on your video, and then they were laughing, and then I was laughing because they were laughing. But I think what it really comes down to is I'm the kind of Canadian you're making fun of. Okay, thank you. I'm the kind of Canadian you're making fun of. Okay. Thank you. I kind of can't even.

Right? Oh, Ron tried. He did. He tried. I'll say he tried. I want to shout out your most recent album, which is called Unchecked. Yes. Still very fresh.

And if you're cool with it, can I just play a little bit? Play away. Just a little bit of... It's my favorite album so far. Okay, here's a bit of it. So here we are, 2020, which is approximately, I can't be exactly sure, but roughly 40 years since I first stepped

onto a comedy stage. So, thank you. So by applause, how many people have actually heard of me before? So, for the rest of you, I'm old and new. Not that old. Not too old to have some fun.

Oh, the other night we partied with these Swedish stewardesses and, well, Swiss chalet waitresses. Still. I hope I dress... It doesn't even matter what I wear these days. I just come off looking like a retired cop.

I would not be a good cop. No mind for detail, no memory. If we were out on patrol and there was an incident and I had to write a report about it, I'd just make the whole thing up. I'd make the whole thing up. I would cheat off my partner right off the bat. Hey, what did you get for number of shots fired?

Very good. How would somebody get their hands on Unchecked? Well, that's interesting because my record company and a few other record companies are in dispute with Spotify. So unchecked has been removed from Spotify. For a while it was gray and it was there, but you couldn't listen to it. But now it's been removed.

So I think you can listen to it through Apple iTunes still. You probably can buy it through iTunes. What's your website address again? It's thatcanadianguy.com. So you probably have links there. There are links, but again, I... Maybe not streaming on Spotify. You and Neil Young in solidarity.

Yes, yes. You're in good company there. Okay. I actually, you know know one of these little things that again these musical things that pop into my head that i've done no work on whatsoever but did try to get some other musicians involved who didn't want to because it's anti-spotify right but it was something like you won't find this song on spotify you know it's interesting to hear you know because I've heard many a musician

complain about Spotify. And basically, unless you are, unless you're Taylor Swift or Drake, seeing any substantial amount of money from streaming, most Canadian artists can only dream. No, it's ridiculous. And even

Snoop Dogg lately, I love what Snoop Dogg said, how come a billion plays doesn't translate into a million dollars? And it's a very good question. Peter Frampton was up before some congressional committee or something talking about how many billion plays he got versus how much he actually made from that and uh okay i'm gonna name drop now yeah my brother-in-law used to jam in his basement with brian adams so brian adams is like so he's still good friends with brian adams he

went to brian adams uh private island for his birthday a couple years ago. Wow. What's really funny is I, so my brother-in-law, before I even met my wife, I saw his band here in Toronto. So before I even knew... What was this band's name? It was called Antlers.

Okay. Wow, but this is a coincidence. Yeah, I know. It's a weird coincidence. And they were playing at the Brunswick House, right? You remember the Brunswick House? I went to U of T, of course. Of course you do remember the Brunswick House. So what I loved about this band. Probably a drugstore now, right?

So we go to see this band up above the Brunswick House. And you know, the Brunny. Just a dump. And it wasn't even that busy, right? Right. But this band, Antlerslers they open with this song and as i still remember as a you're in the presence of greatness okay can i match that i don't know if i can imagine but i a buddy invited me for drinks and he had four friends i had never met

before and this is very recently a few weeks ago i go on the esplanade for drinks with these guys and one of the guys his name is mike we're chatting and mike and i are chatting about music and then mike tells me just reveals his daughters in a band and i'm very interested in this what band and we're talking about the band and the band is called burrs b-u-r-s and then i'm i find a song i think it's called lily and i actually legit like it and i'm all into this this great band burrs and i never heard of them before and then my buddy cam gordon invited me to a concert and uh to see the headliner and on that very small bill was burrs wow this is i just the day before i was having drinks of this woman uh

the woman lauren i believe is her name that's a cool coincidence but i'd never heard of burrs and i got all into him that night because i was talking to lauren's dad mike hello if you guys are listening and then now all of a sudden i'm invited to a show with burrs on the bill b-u-r-s everybody and check out the song lily it's on youtube and it's just the kind of music i dig so to to uh to to uh button the brian adams story yes of course i'm coming back to Brian. Right. So I happen to know, but don't remember exactly, the figure that Brian Adams told my brother-in-law that he got for Spotify.

And this is Brian Adams. Doesn't get much bigger. Doesn't get much bigger. No. And it was just a shit amount of money. Can you give me a taste? It was like you couldn't believe how... Okay.

It might have been five or ten grand whoa that's like that's the money norm mcdonald over you right if you're so brian adams with huge hits how many uh summer of 69 and have you ever loved a woman and i mean this oh my god i just remember whatever the number was robin hood so whatever the number was i was like you're underwhelmed underwhelmed so what the, speaking of underwhelmed, what the fuck, if I can swear on my own show, what the fuck is Sloan going to do? Sloan, a big Canadian

rock band. I grew up loving, I catch them every time I can. What's Sloan going to do for money from streams if Brian Adams is making $5,000? Well, there you go, right? Now I'm pissed. And even if it's $50,000, like, suppose I'm off by a factor of 10. Right.

That's still not a lot of money. Because it never did make sense to me. And this is a guy who is a legit rock star, owns an island, or lives next door to Mick Jagger on the same island, or something like that. Massive rock star with dozens of American

hits. We're not even talking about American hits, global hits. Worldwide. He can go to London, England and sell out an arena. That's a big fucking deal. That's wild. Hey, I'm going to touch on something else and I did get a note from Dan who, let me read Dan, he says,

I suspect, so brace yourself here. I suspect Glenn won't wade too deeply into the Simon Rakoff stuff since he still does tours and probably doesn't want to risk the wrong toes being stepped on. So having read Dan's caveat, Dan's like your agent.

He's protecting, he works for you. He's protecting you. I don't know. But I recently had Simon Rakoff on the show. Yeah, I listened to it. Okay. Yeah. I need to ask you, I want your comment on this,

because he basically went off on Just for Laughs, and how Just for Laughs is not a friend of independent comics in this country. In fact, it's quite the opposite. And he was very succinct. I thought Simon did a great job. So people, go find the most recent Simon Rakoff episode and what Simon said. But what say you, that Canadian guy, Glenn Foster, about Just for Laughs? Okay, well, full disclosure, I've done Just for Laughs eight times.

Okay, so it's a little different for me, but I haven't done Just for Laughs since 2014. Oh, okay. And they have a new guy now, and I met him. He's very nice, and I've been in contact with him and had sent him various videos and so on and so forth, and I thought, well, they got a new guy. Maybe I'll get another shot at this because I'm doing, I think, the best material I've been doing in years, and it's unique,

and it's a perspective that not a lot of people are touching. So I thought I had a decent shot this year, but it just finished last week, and I did not do it. You were not there. I was not there. And I don't think I'm ever going to be invited again, quite frankly, because their agenda is always new. And it's, you know, been new and ethnic or new and LGBTQ or new and right.

So, and, and Simon's right. They do not book a lot of Canadian acts. Of all the acts that are at the Jester Lab, the only Canadians of note, you know, guys like Russell Peters kind of thing, but they don't have to, you know what I mean? Like that's not like booking unknown Canadian talent. That's like booking known,

worked all over the world Canadian talent. So if they're using that as their Canadian barometer, that's not very good. But to the point of the radio station, I mean, walk me through this. There's a lot here, a lot to unpack here. So Jesper Laff's radio used to be known as Canada Laff. That's right. It's on Sirius XM. Right.

Canada Talks, I think, is the other station. Yes. They're the ones that had Humble and Fred for five years in the morning. Okay, and I know this because I produced the Humble and Fred show and you've been a guest in Humble and Fred. That's right, too.

Oh, right. So that's how we communicated, I think, originally. Okay. So, they, Just for Laughs Radio is one of the ways that independent comics like yourself receive money because it's very difficult to make money touring this country as a stand-up comic but when they play

cuts from Unchecked for example so that's your most recent album. If Just for Laughs Radio plays a cut from that like I just did, although I'm not paying anybody for that, I don't know what the degree area but when Just for Laughs Radio plays it you are compensated somehow Yes.

Financially. But, so I got very lucky in that Unchecked is my first American release. So it's getting played on US satellite radio. So yes, I'm getting decent compensation for that. But not thanks to Just for Laughs Radio. But it's not getting played i don't think or not very much on just for that and that might be i haven't looked at the chart specifically but here's an interesting thing because i did all those early just for laughs and they are had started replacing

local talent whatever canadian you know with their their recordings. Right. Well, I'm on some of those early recordings that they did, and I do get something for that. But you get far less money than you would have got if it was your cut. It's a smaller piece, but I have noticed over the last, well, I just happened to look, I had a reason to look at the charts, whatever. And in the last month, I was getting a fair bit of play on Just for Laughs Canada because of the old Just for Laughs stuff that I did. Now, I don't know how much money I'm getting for that specifically,

but because I've done Just for Laughs the eight times, that they have a lot of my material recorded, right? Right. So I am getting something for that. I don't know what's going on with Unchecked. I think there were some cuts that were being played. I mean, a lot of the cuts aren't even being played on the U.S. side. And I think there's cuts on this album that could only be played on like Raw Dog

or something like that because it's a relatively controversial, you know, some of the topics I'm hitting about, you know, uh, white privilege. I'm going to get to their next, my friend.

Okay. You know what I realized? I'm going to, so, so, and then here's the flip side that, that no one really talks about and I'll probably get shit for this, but just for laughs or sorry,

Canada laughs. There was a lot of stuff on there not a lot but enough stuff that was just unlistenable it was just horrible recording in front of you could tell it's a very small audience horrible recording and you knew the only reason it was is because they wanted to get those those royalty, right? But who? People were throwing together recordings, getting them on the air, just to get the royalty checks. With no real thought to quality control, right?

There should have been, I think, you know. I mean, this is just your opinion. Yes, this is just my opinion. Big Lebowski here. I had rented, when you rent a car sometimes you get xm radio i don't have it but i actually have a car that i don't own in my driveway right now and it has xm radio right so i i when i'm when i'm in the car when i have xm radio i try to listen to a comedy station to see what's what right who's being played and i would listen to

and this is a few years back but but I was listening to the Canadian, uh, Canada laughs. And there was a lot of good stuff on there, but there was a lot of terribly recorded, small crowds, hollow sounding rooms. Right.

And some of it that I frankly just didn't find funny at all. And then it's funny, subjective. I'll give you that. But you know, it, it has to reach a, it has to be a quality product.

And if it might have been part of the reason that Just for Laughs was able to come in there, because if they were doing a job that was getting good listenership and so on and so forth, I don't think Sirius XM would go, well, we need to replace this. Replace this, right? So there is a bit of a flip side to it, right? And I say I'm in an awkward spot because I am making a little bit of money off those Just for Laughs reruns. But you're not making Brian Adams money. I'm not making Brian Adams money, no. Certainly not, right?

It's tough sledding for you guys. I, you know, any regrets? I mean... Oh, tons. My biggest regret is not moving to the States. Not really. I mean, I did go down for a brief period in 1984, but I really should have somewhere along the line.

I feel like that's when Humble Howard went down. In 1984? Around mid-80s, because he's back in Montreal with Jeff Lumby doing a show, because he gets recruited. He's back in Montreal? No, I was in my storyline. So in the mid 80s he's in LA and then he goes and does a show in Montreal with Jeff Lumbie and that's where he's poached for the Humble and Fred show which starts in 1989 so I feel in that timeline he's in like LA in like 86 or 86 maybe maybe but I wasn't I mean

it was only there for 11 months so but um but i mean you know there's and that's another issue that it's so easy for american comics to come up here it's so one-sided oh what a shock america doesn't play fair in their foreign negotiations in their trade negotiations what a shock uh so it's so easy for americans to work up here and so hard for us to work. Like, it would cost in the neighborhood of five to ten grand to get just the permission to work there. Right.

And that involves getting letters from producers and all of this stuff. And you risk being denied, right? Like, you could spend that money and get denied. Yeah, you could get denied. Yeah, I mean, it's not likely, and I probably, I mean, I could do, if I wanted to do it, I could do, if I wanted to do it,

I could do it. I just feel that I should have done it a long time ago because I'm getting into a timeline now where I'm in my sixties and really I could die tomorrow. So, you know, like shout out to Ridley funeral home. Yeah. We hope you don't die tomorrow.

I did. Simon did mention that as well. There's unfair, uh, where, where American or, uh, american comics are coming up here easily crossing the border easily i think it costs them 100 or 200 bucks well all

they have to do all they have to do is say i want to work at this club a club owner says yeah we'd like to have you work at this club they fill out some okay so let me get straight paperwork let me say so if if if just the just for laughs festivals are fucking independent comics and now there's they're playing stuff another thing about okay now this this does annoy me is that that when they bring their big acts in and they do these big tours across canada it's always brits americans australians very rarely once a year maybe they send out rick mercer with four comics right and nobody makes any money on that tour except Rick Mercer because it's all like, you know, eaten up in promotion

and everything else. And they're moving into smaller and smaller markets, sucking out every ticket dollar, and they get government money. This is the problem. If you're getting government money, there should be strict rules attached to that

as to how many Canadians you have to hire. 100%. Right? 100%. And that's my beef specifically, right? And I say, I have a decent relationship, I like to think, with Just for Laughs, but who knows after this little interview.

Well, listen, I want to shout out now the hour of Simon Rakoff just running down all the ways Canadian independent comics are getting squeezed in this country, and many of those ways he puts at the feet of just for laughs, but I want people to know

that's episode 1293. So this is only 1301, so we're not going back very far here. Not too far. No. In fact, we recorded that July 18th. Okay. So July 18th, Simon Rakoff.

It's called Simon Rakoff versus, uh, just for laughs, Toronto Mike podcast, episode 1293. And I was very interested in, in what you had to say about this. And then I was, when Dan told me you're, he thought you were still in bed with just for laughs. He thought you're not going to, you're not going to bite the hand that feeds.

The hand doesn't feed. The hand's not feeding. The hand does not feed. And it really bugs me. If this is government money, then there absolutely should be some caveat. Absolutely. But you know the problem? It's Quebec.

We don't look at government money we throw at Quebec. We just throw it at Quebec. Right? I don't know. You're the man. We just throw it at Quebec. Right? I don't know. You're the man. You're here to tell me. I'm telling you. I'm telling you. You're telling me right now. I'm telling you. Whenever Quebec is involved, it's like, well, just

throw the money and don't ask questions. Alright. Well, we talked about politically correct this and that, and you mentioned what seems to be happening in your opinion with Just for Laughs festivals and it

sounds like, if I read between the, I'm going to read between the lines that you as a 60-something year old

straight cis white male, you feel like maybe that at this point is working against you with these festivals.

I think it's working against me in general. In general. And you've got blue eyes too. That's right. So it's all, it's all bad news.

Oh yeah. Yeah. And not much you can do about that. Not much. Well, maybe there's a few things, but all right. So I'm going to play just a little bit as we kind of talk about this,

but here, so I'm going to play a little clip of you and then we're going to talk about this. play a little clip of you and then we're going to talk about this but I first want to tell you that if you, Glenn Foster, have any old electronics at home, like old devices,

old phones, old technology. Tons. I have so much stuff. I'm a pack rat. And if it doesn't work anymore, don't throw that in the garbage, Glenn. Oh, I don't. I keep it. You keep it, but if at some point you have to clean up or whatever. At some point, in fact, I want to start getting rid of some of this stuff, but I've got some amazing stuff.

I've got a Sony Walkman, an original sport Walkman. I loved my sports Walkman. I loved it. I've got a Palm Pilot. Okay. I've got a movie camera from the early 80s and a projector system from the early 80s. You've got like a museum going on there.

I do. I call it that. I call it the Museum of Ancient Technology. Okay, well, you can't throw that out. But if you did have something you did need to throw out, I'm going to just tell you the website to go to to find out. It's recyclemyelectronics.ca. Thank you, EPRAra for accrediting these depots nearby where you can drop that drop that shit off and it'll be recycled safely properly

so recycle my electronics.ca i also want to shout out the moment lab if you are looking for help with your pr your your strategy i can introduce you to matt and jared at the moment lab they do great work they They're working with the great Stu Stone, who has just been rebooked for Toronto Mike. So, Stu Stone, I'm going camping, and then we're going to have Stu Stone on the program. That's coming up. Thank you to The Moment Lab.

And now I'm going to play that clip, because I'm dying to know what you have to say about it. I found it very interesting. Here we go. Well, let me tell our viewers why you're here. I'm excited to announce that you will be,

I mean, I think we've announced it on our website, but I don't know if I mentioned it on the show, that you are coming to The Rebel Live this Saturday to do a politically incorrect comedy.

Which will be interesting because if I'm doing politically incorrect comedy for people who are against political correctness, will it have the same punch? You know what? I make a prediction is that people are going to be so refreshed by having someone tell jokes. I mean, let me tell you a pet peeve of mine. This hour has 22 minutes, and I know I casually know a couple of the people.

Right. Boy, they love making fun of Donald Trump but he's not the president of Canada that's true and so they're they're very bold about mocking the powerful in another country I've never seen them take a really good hard run at Justin Trudeau and I think it's because they work for the state broadcaster well this is the thing and I work for the state broadcaster on Well, this is the thing. And I work for the state broadcaster on occasion as well. And I have noticed everything I've ever done for the CBC, when I listen back to it, for some reason, only the left speaker is working. You know, can I ask you, can I throw something at you? Sure.

I'm not a scholar on this subject, but I'm interested in it. I want to learn more about it. My understanding is that historically, the role of the court jester, or the fool, was not just for entertainment, but he had a special immunity that he could say things to the king that no one else was allowed to do because it was just joking. And so he had an incredibly important role in that he could basically be the one saying the emperor has no clothes. Like if everyone was afraid to tell the king something right the fool could say it in a

ta-da goofy ridiculous joke and the king would say oh all right and i'm not going to kill you because you have this special like yes well that is the that that apparently is the original role of of the jester and that it was speaking truth to power, and he was the only one who could get away with it because he was the jester, but not on Game of Thrones, if you recall. Right, that's right. Which would you rather you lose, your tongue or your head?

All right, I'll bring down, it's enough Ezra Levant on this program, but Ezra Levant, that's the rebel, I believe. Yes. Tell us, what are you doing there with Ezra? Well, I got involved with sun news when they were uh when they uh had sun news channel 15 yeah because uh one of their guys uh brian lilly had come to see me in ottawa uh not just brian it was um well i can't remember who was the guy who was involved. Anyway. But he's at the Toronto Sun now.

Well, yeah, but they were, I mean, the Sun has, you know, been there long before the TV station and afterwards as well. But so I was involved with Sun News because they had come to see me do a show in Ottawa and they thought, oh, yeah, this guy's, you know, a little like not the typical lefty left. It's a pretty rare thing to even be centrist in canadian comedy you know i like to think i'm centrist and i know people think i'm right wing i don't think i am i think a lot of my comedy comes off that way but but you know you make the slightest fun of anything on the left and you're Attila the Hun and Hitler, right? So, okay, because Ezra made this comment. So, yeah, I ended up entertaining it there. They had a live event and I did a small...

Politically incorrect? Yes. Okay. And how does that, when you do that, because I didn't actually see the bits you did for The Rebel there, but is your politically incorrect uh showcase different than your normal your normal gig like is it uh or is it pretty much like your default setting is that my default setting is that i've been waging a war on political correctness

since the early 90s i would say right right and when i started noticing this whole and it's been going on for a while but i i think one of the triggers way back then was the first time i saw an ad for the cbc looking for someone and specifically said white males need not apply it specifically said that and if you said that for any other group you'd be hauled away by the the human rights commissions which i don't think even existed at that point but they certainly exist now and that's another but if i may just get into mix it up a little bit here is that uh like once in a while you'll hear some somebody will say hey uh we don't have a white pride parade or we don't have a, uh, straight. Yeah. I actually had a joke in the, in the nineties about straight pride.

I wouldn't do the joke now, but at the time it just seemed like, I mean, you look back on stuff and you go, well, I wouldn't do that now because, and, and not,

not because of the way the world is, but because the way I am, you know? Um, yeah. Okay. Because I mean, and again, you and I are in the same boat in that because the way I am, you know? Yeah. Okay. Because, I mean, and again, you and I are in the same boat in that, and again, I'm making a few assumptions here. I mean, for example, I made that straight pride joke

just because straight pride was a new thing. It's in the news. And, you know, I mean, sorry, gay pride was a new thing at the time. And so it's in the news. But, I mean, my best man was gay at my wedding. And he's my, you know, one of my best friends is gay. He was my best man. So this is what I mean when I say that I'm much more centrist.

I'm probably much more, what's the word here? Socially left-leaning, but fiscally right-leaning. So that means you're okay with a guy marrying a guy. Oh, I don't care. Yeah, you don't care. No. But yeah, so you're conservative from a fiscal perspective

as opposed to a social perspective. Yeah, I'm... There are some gray areas, right? But overall, I'm pretty live and let live, kind of left-wing, not as crazy as some of the lefties. I think it's just gone completely off the left edge really you know so here again i said we're in similar boats here

because you and i were both uh both straight white guys of blue eyes right we're both cis male uh we're both and that that makes me nuts that cis male thing makes me nuts. Okay. I'm male. All right. The vast majority, the vast, vast, vast majority of the world is in two categories. Okay. So why do I have to put cis in front of my name, in front of,

in front of my, my gender or whatever it is that I'm a cis. You sure don't have to. No, but you do like, this is the thing. Okay. So if you're in the,'re in the very small percentage of people

that cis doesn't apply to. Yeah, if you're transgender. Whatever. Then it can be. Why do I have to make an adjustment to something? But I don't think you do. I do. You get like.

I get referred to as that. Why should we refer to. I think that's just to say that you are the status quo. That is why that CBC... But it's not need to be said. It doesn't need to be said. Let me advocate this though because I'm with you but I would be grossly offended if

somebody was having a straight pride parade or a white pride parade. That would offend me because I believe the whole reason the pendulum has swung is because for hundreds and hundreds of years straight white guys have ruled the universe and people kept hiring themselves and the only way to affect any change is to sort of uh but i look at other people i think that's a simplistic way of looking at it because it's not all straight white guys it's straight white guys of a certain economic social you know there

so how do you change that i guess i'm curious i'm curious okay this is i got a huge shit for this a few years ago too but i actually suggested if two candidates for a job say right are so close together that you you know and and one's black and one's white what's wrong with having a lottery what's wrong with flipping a coin even if you wait it like you know because you cannot tell an entire generation of any group of people that they have no future and that's what is being told to straight white males now is like what's jordan peterson said he said i i why how could i in good conscience teach a course to straight white males knowing that they have no shot at getting into any of these postgraduate programs and so on and so forth because of their straight

white maleness right so what is wrong what is so horribly wrong with some kind of lottery system where you could wait it to account for past injustices whatever whatever whatever but it's not no chance of getting that job it's a small chance perhaps it's some chance right okay but i guess i disagree with your premise here because I don't agree it's no chance because white guys are still doing pretty damn well. No, they're not. No? No.

First of all, the vast majority of university graduates now are women, right? I mean, just look at comedy, right? I mean, just look at comedy, right? You know, again, I'm not saying that there haven't been problems with straight white people, whatever, in the past. That would be stupid to say that. smaller subsection that is it's it's a large it's a large group of people being punished for the actions of a relatively small group of people i think i think i mean i did i wasn't even in this country my parents came to this country in the in the 50s so how am i responsible for anything prior to that right no point taken here i taken here. I will just, again, point out that, like, the most recent Juno for Best Comedy Album

went to John Doerr. So, I mean, straight white guys are still being celebrated in comedy. Okay. Only because John Doerr came on recently and we talked about it. So it's not like all the awards are going to, I don't know,

people, diverse people. But you know, awards are their own little can of worms. You were a two-time, again, I went to my notes for this, you're a two-time Canadian Comedy Award nominee for Best Male Stand-Up. Yeah, you can nominate yourself for that. Is that right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm learning

a lot of scams with awards because a couple of, recently there's been a couple of times where people are like hey toronto mic would be should win this podcast award and should be nominated and then when i drill in i find out that it's like they want like 50 bucks right to submit it and i i will say it's not a money thing i don't want to pay 50 cents to be eligible for an award like give me the awards i don't have to pay money for because the show's good. But there's also a lot of, you know,

you nominate me and I'll nominate you and it's a small pool to begin with. So you nominated yourself for the best male standup. Uh, this is okay. So this is the sixth Canadian comedy awards and the 10th Canadian comedy awards is 2005 and 2009. Those are two awards that you, you nominated yourself for and you did not win. I don't awards that you nominated yourself for

and you did not win. I don't know if I nominated myself for both. As I say, it might have been a switch off. You know, you nominate me, I'll nominate you. But maybe I did. Whatever. But again, I would only have done it if I had done something significant in that year. You know, something that would be on

television like Just for Laughs episode or something, you know. Alright, Glenn, I'm just now looking at my soundboard. I have a piece of audio and I have no idea what it is. So this will be a fun game where I play it and then we'll find out together, okay? I hope I got the right Glenn Foster here. Jeez, I hope so.

Here we go. Does it end? Does it end? Da-da-da-da-da-da-does it end? It's a fat song, baby, it goes on and on It's got a lot of words and it's way too long Just continuous talking all the way through Only wrote it cause I had nothing better to do So if you wanna dance, you might as well If you just sit and listen, it's gonna be hell Cause the beat is boring and the words moronic Twice as bad cause it's stereophonic

Cause I'm hot, hot, hot, another junk mixed in You gotta wonder Does it end? Da-da-da-da-da-does it end? Whose voice am I hearing here? Mine. How long ago is this? 1986. Because you sound like a different guy.

1986. Young Glenn Foster. So this is my response to Aerosmith selling out their fans. With Run DMC? Yes. Fucking love that song. Yep. In later years, yes. But when I first heard it, and you must admit probably when you first heard it,

when you first heard the rap. I remember it well. Because you'd be listening on the radio and you'd be here. And you'd go, on the radio and you'd be here and you'd be here and you'd be here and you'd be here and you'd be here and you'd be here and you'd be here

and you'd be here and you'd be here I love that you're here. I sometimes get accused of having too many leftists over here and I'm glad you're here. Are you not a rap fan? I am a fan of some hip hop now. There of some hip-hop now.

There is some very good hip-hop. There are some excellent rappers. But at the time, it just seemed like such a sellout of the whole rock era type thing. And this song, although a response to the whole Aerosmith Run DMC thing doesn't parody the Run DMC, it more parodies the Sugar Hill Gang,

if you remember. Of course, like one of the first big hits. Right, so I was still kind of in advertising around 1985, 1986 when this came out. And so I knew some people. I knew some people who had studios and

they were doing jingles. They were jingle guys. Right. So we put this together and I still have 700 copies of it. Do you? Yeah. It's like a 33 Yeah. On 45, it's like a 33,

45, you know, it's like one of those 45s with the big hole and the, you had to stick the spider in there. No, small hole. For a 45? 45 with a, with a 33 RPM hole in it.

Yeah. Okay. But yeah, so this was my, because at the time as well, and I still feel this to some degree, that rappers aren't that talented for the most part. I mean, it's rhyming.

I learned this in kindergarten, right? So I just didn't get it. I just did not get it. To some degree, I still don't get it, right? But there are some very good rappers. I will admit that. There are some guys who are making excellent points, excellent social

commentary, etc. But at a base level, if I can do it, it doesn't take that much talent. Well, we heard you sing earlier, and it doesn't mean that you're Neil Young, right? Right. It sure doesn't.

So that might be, might be the worst rap song I've ever heard. Yes, it's like you know it's like it sure doesn't so that might be it might be the worst rap song i've ever heard yes it's meant an interesting thing is i could not get it played anywhere because think about it i thought okay you're you're making a parody of a rap song well the rappers aren't going to play it because it makes fun of rap no but the rockers aren't going to play it because it is rap rap So instead of being a crossover hit And Dr. Demento's not going to play it Because it's lacking that weird Al charm

You know what though I did send it to Dr. Demento And I don't know if he ever did play it He might have played it I don't know if he ever did or not I loved listening to the Dr. Demento show I loved Dr. Demento Fish heads, dead puppies Dead puppies.

I'm trying to think of something. I stepped in a pile of shaving cream. Yeah, shaving cream. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Don't whiz on the plexiglass toilet. Leave it nice for everyone. I don't know.

These things tattooed in my head. The one that's tattooed in my head is fish heads. Fish heads for sure. Fish heads. Yummy, yummy fish heads. Fish heads for sure. Fish heads. Yummy, yummy fish heads. Fish heads. That might be the staple of the Dr. Demento show. All right, Glenn, remind us where you are tonight again.

So SOCAP? The Social Capital Theater, which is above the Black Swan Tavern Pub, whatever, at Danforth and Broadview at 8 o'clock tonight. There are other acts on besides myself. Can't think of them off the top. I'm sorry. No, but you'll be there.

Because I'll be there. But yeah, and it's the kickoff of the Danforth Comedy Festival so that runs tonight tomorrow night and also next weekend as well amazing at various places

around here and there before I play us out I didn't ask you it was going to be my first question and now it's actually turning to my last question but when in your career

do you start using the moniker that Canadian guy ah okay I think I've referred to you a dozen times as That Canadian Guy

and we've never really established it. You've never really addressed it. Yeah. All right. So in the late 2000, or sorry, late 1998, 99, I was going over to England from time to time.

And I remember one time doing this really crowded pub and as i'm leaving the pub i can hear people going that canadian guy he was funny i thought that canadian guy and i thought because i made ed and impulsive or whatever i just thought well that's you know interesting that no one remembers names but they remember that canadian guy so I'm going to see when I get home, because the internet was just a burgeoning thing at the time, I'm going to see if I can get the website thatcanadianguy.com.

And I did. And then shortly after that, I was recording my first Comedy Now special in 2000, which is still airing, by the way, speaking of no residuals at all. It airs on much music all the old comedy now is air on much music they should be calling it comedy then because why can't uh like what's the deal you sign off i signed off no resids that sounds like bullshit this is just

again i did mention this i don't know if it still happens but it did then like you can you can air ctv can air uh corner gas 18 times a day but the actors in corner gas don't see a penny there you go and that's probably the deal that they signed right but you sign these deals because you think it's all about exposure right right and you think okay well is it worth it's a complex thing because when you do a special you're like okay i know i'm getting next to nothing for this compared to what other people would get for a similar thing in the united states you probably get 10 times the amount that you know that i got for and most comedy nows were 30 minutes i did two one hour comedy now right? Comedy network specials, yeah. Yeah, so it was called a comedy now special because it was, I mean, let's face it, it's only 50, what is it, when they say this hour has 20, it's 44 minutes with commercials, whatever.

But it's still 44 minutes of material, right? Right. And so anyway, so I had this, managed to get the website, thatcanadianguy.com. So I had this, managed to get the website, thatcanadianguy.com. But because of the no residuals thing, and because I realized at that point that, you know, to that point I had done comics twice on CBC. I had done probably three or four just for laughs. So I already knew that these tiny residual checks were coming so i made up my mind that i wasn't going to do another second of canadian television that didn't benefit me every single time it aired so i wanted to call it that canadian guy i even worked in the joke about my website in the middle of it right and because the internet

was fairly new at the time everything was kind of novel to people i probably got two or three hundred emails the next day from when it aired there were people like oh man i've never heard of you this is amazing how come i'm you know where can i see you blah blah blah and this was all in the year 2000 in the year 2000 right uh and of course i got seriously passed on the internet super highway by many other people made some mistakes along the way but the point of it was I still have that domain

and the point of it was to make things easy for people because if they don't see you a lot you have to have some kind of I kind of parodied what Yuck Yucks did Yuck Yucks is not about you go to see Mike McDonald you have to have some kind of hand. I kind of parodied what Yuck Yucks did. You know, Yuck Yucks is not about you go to see Mike McDonald. You go to see, you know, Larry Horowitz. No, Yuck Yucks was you go to Yuck Yucks.

It's branding. It's like the no-name. It's a good housekeeper seal of approval. It's like, you know, Loblaws used to have the no-name brand, right? Well, they still do. Right, exactly. So it's branded. So I basically made myself a brand is what I did.

Yeah. And so many people, even occasionally still, you know, will come up to me and say, hey, you're that Canadian guy. You know, they don't know my name, but as long as they know that Canadian guy, we're all good. Do you still do the debaters? I have actually done quite a few debaters. I've heard still do the uh the debaters i have actually uh done quite a few debaters i haven't heard you many times on the day i haven't done one in a while but i would if they asked me again i'd certainly do it you know well if your outrageous opinions on rap music

don't hold your breath here yeah whoo i just checked in so i just i check into the live stream period oh yeah yeah okay and uh firstly my my my seven year no my nine year old popped in to say hi daddy and then wrote help get daddy to notice me like this is what he tapped he tapped in the live chat i'm like jarvis i'm recording a podcast i'm gonna come up i heard him upstairs i'm gonna come up and uh give him a kiss in a minute here but uh and i see leslie was here uh les Leslie's sister actually played at Just for Laughs recently and I think she tapped out at some of the

politically incorrect commentaries. Oh, well she should listen to the album. But Glenn, glad you're here, glad you're an FOTM and we're going to find somebody to take your Palma Pasta lasagna and thanks for congrats on 40 years and thanks for coming by

and making your Toronto Mike debut. My pleasure. And that brings us to the end of our 1,301st show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. What is your social media handle, Glenn?

Where can people follow you? Well, if you go to thatcanadianguy.com, it actually goes to a link tree and it has all my social media on there. But Foster Funny is Instagram. Go to thatcanadianguy.com. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer.

They're hosting TMLX 13 on September 7th. So forget what you thought you knew. 13 on September 7th. So forget what you thought you knew. It is September 7th, I promise. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Getting Hip to the Hip is at Getting Hip Pod. Recycle My Electronics are at EPRA underscore Canada. The Moment Lab are at

The Moment Lab and Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH. I actually have Brad Jones dropping by in a half an hour. We're going to record a fresh episode of Life's Undertaking. See you all Monday when my special guest is

Ben Nicholson-Smith. He's at SportsNet. He covers the Blue Jays. See you all then. today and your smile is fine and it's just like mine and it won't go away cause everything is rosy and gray well I've been told that there's a sucker born

every day but I wonder who yeah I wonder who maybe the, I wonder who. Maybe the one who doesn't realize there's a thousand shades of gray. Because I know that's true, yes, I do. I know it's true, yeah. I know it's true.

How about you?