Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - TOAST 16: Toronto Mike'd #1234

Episode Date: April 11, 2023

In this 16th episode of Toast, Mike is joined by Rob Preuss and Bob Willette as they kick out Musical Jams. Shadowing the producer this episode of Toast intern Matt (and his mom Moose Grumpy). Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, the Yes We Are Open podcast from Moneris, The Moment Lab, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.

And a two and a three and we sail the ocean blue And our saucy ships of beauty We are sober men and true And attentive to our duty I'm called Little Buttercup Poor Little Buttercup Though I could never tell why But never, no never, but never, hardly ever, he's hardly ever sick at sea.

For he himself has said it, and it's clearly to his credit that he is an Englishman he remains an Englishman just I'm gonna think about it so F-O-T-M do you know what time it is? it's Just toast. I'm going to think about it. FOTMs. Do you know what time it is?

It's toast time. Toast. Featuring Stu Stone, Cam Gordon, and Toronto Mike. That's toast. Yeah, just toast. What up, Miami? Toronto. VK on the beat.

I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love. I'm from Toronto where you wanna get the city love. I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love. For my city love, I'm back. For my city love, I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love. Welcome to episode 1234 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. Season four of Yes, We Are Open, the award-winning podcast from Moneris. Electronic Products Recycling Association. Committing to our planet's future means

properly recycling our electronics of the past. The Moment Lab. Brand marketing and strategy. PR. Advertising and production. You need The Moment Lab. And Ridley Funeral Home,

pillars of the community since 1921. Tonight, joining me for our 16th episode of Toast is Bob Ouellette and Rob Pruce. Welcome back, Bob and Rob. Good evening. How are you, sir? Good evening. Good, Bob. You sound like you had a party. What an opening. I just ruined everything.

You're the radio professional in this team here. I am. Bob, good to see you. We've seen each other since the last toast. We'll talk about that now. But Rob, you're here in person. This is not Zoom. Talk to me, Rob. How's it going? Talk to me while I fix the camera as I screwed up for live.torontomike.com I came up on

Wednesday night to visit and be with my family and prepare for my gig at the Moonshine Cafe in Oakville which is coming up on Thursday this week. Excellent. Once again. Last time I was here it was February it was the same thing. That's right.

The night was sold out. And did the weather keep anybody away? Not too many. No, good for you. Because it was really bad weather. Yeah, two months ago, right? And it was weird to think. I got stuck, remember? And I needed Canada Kev to push me out of the snow.

That's right. You were there. I was there. And so I have a return engagement. And it's going to be a whole new ballgame, just like bits and bytes. Excellent. Exciting. No, this is exciting. And I'm going to introduce. whole new ball game just like bits and bytes. Exciting. This is exciting.

And I'm going to introduce two new bodies in this room. There's a very special body and then a less exciting body. I won't tell you who is who. You'll have to find out for yourself. But before I introduce these people that have crashed our toast party, I'm just going to

play a little music in the background and I'm hoping Rob Pruce will talk a little bit about this gentleman who passed away since our last recording of Toast. Maybe I'll be quiet. We'll listen for a moment, and then we shall discuss. Rob, do you recognize what I'm playing yet? I do indeed. What are we listening to? We're listening to the theme from Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.

Yes. Soundtrack composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto, who passed away several weeks ago now. But they announced it. Well, since we last recorded. Since we last recorded, yeah. He suffered with cancer for several years

and several different bouts of cancer. But yeah, I think he was like 71 when he passed away. Art is long, life is short. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, the accolades have been pouring in but i have to plead some ignorance like i had to this happens quite a bit i'll say somebody passes away people i respect like rob pruse and people like that will tell me this is a what an inspiration what a genius and then i'll go oh like i missed this uh let me catch up and then i'll dive in he's been around right i mean that's the thing like like for us in the music like as musicians we knew him because he was involved with in the 80s he was in a band called yellow magic orchestra which was a super cool japanese electronic band and then he did work with the band japan from london as well uh then he started getting into his film scores and doing solo piano work

solo electronic music and collaborating with so many people and soundtracks and david bowie was in this film with him as They were both in the film, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence as well. But yeah, just like an amazing body of work that he did. And maybe not known to people, you know, who don't at first glance think, oh, who is he? But then you start reading the things he did and it's mind-blowing.

That's how I felt. Bob, did you have a similar experience to me? Are you like, Rob, you're a real cool guy who was all over Riatsu. Sorry. Ryuichi. Ryuichi Sakamoto. I have to admit, also a blind spot in my life.

I feel like I know a fair amount of movie scorers. What about Japanese electronic artists? Outside of some J-pop bands and K-pop bands. No, definitely not. They didn't play this on Edge 102. This was not played on any of my former radio stations and there are a fair amount of them. You're going to add it to the Kingston playlist? There you go, yeah.

It'll definitely go in well with the stuff we play on Fresh Radio. Well, it sounds gorgeous. It's beautiful. His variety of music is crazy. And also this piece of music is crazy like this and also this piece of music he did so many versions of it like the one in the film has like drum machine and synthesizers and stuff but then he orchestrated it with orchestras did it i've heard classical guitarists play it and because there's it's just such beautiful melodies you know yeah that he

kept on sort of reinventing it well i'm gonna let uh this beautiful song um take us home merry christmas are we done thanks for coming take us home yeah take us home and then i'm going to introduce our very special guest so here's a few seconds rest in peace shout out to ridley funeral home Nice version you chose, too. The live version I found on YouTube. Nice. We should hear an applause here any moment. And not just in the room. There you go.

That applause is for our very special guest. I was going to call him Intern Matt, but I'm not sure he likes that name. But we're going to find it in a moment. Welcome, Matt! Hi, Matt. Hello. Bit of a tough act to follow there. You have to die to get that kind of respect from us. Yeah.

And we're not going to give you a two-minute... Shout out to Ridley Funeral. Matt, we introduced this concept last episode of Toast, our 15th episode. We said you were going to sort of be a shadow producer for this episode. And you even picked our theme for today. So let's begin by asking, why do you want to shadow the Toast crew? What's your interest in all of this? Well, a few weeks ago, I went to an open house for college at Sheridan.

I was kind of shambling through some things I might have found of interest. And there was this one that I just kind of stumbled upon. Journalism. And I don't know why I went there. I was like, that seems interesting. I'll check it out. And, like, I saw everything. Saw the cameras.

Went backstage. Not backstage. Back in, like like the studio room sure and like just starry eyes just like wow just like stuff like the the audio equipment the mics it was calling your name yes exactly you found your calling exactly at such a young age spur a spur of the moment decision just you know what i'm going to do this okay and the closest thing to journalism is us. I was going to say, you're in for a really shit time, kid.

Sorry, but there's no journalists in this room at all. I do play one on the internet. Okay. Have you ever heard an episode of Trotter Mike?

A total of like 20 minutes. Okay. What 20 minutes? Is it last episode of Toast when we were talking about you? Not even that. He couldn't even do that. He's Gen Z kids, eh? No, it was

one before that, I believe. I decided to check one out just to see what the general thing was about. Yeah, you want to know what you're getting yourself into here. So who got you in here is the question. You've been to two what you're getting yourself into here okay so so who got you in here is the question okay you're getting some uh advice here from your hand mom's like oh my god is that your handler uh is that your pr representative agent i can help you she found me in the street one day

and just took me home okay introduce the young woman you brought with you and then we'll discuss why you chose this theme for us tonight. Who's with you today? Her name is Dawn. She doesn't like when I call her that. I don't know this name, Dawn. Moose Grumpy. Yeah, Moose Grumpy.

There's a sound. There you go. Wow, there's a name we know. So you're Son of Moose. Son of Moose. Yes, that is me. Because we've already established your mom is the Moose, your dad is the Grumpy.

The nodding doesn't work on a podcast, but we're going to work on that. Okay, so Matt, we were calling you Matt Grumpy, and then I heard possibly you don't love the nickname. It was growing on me to a point where i was thinking of you as matt grumpy what like do you get like what happens bob you're the radio guy do we give him a name or does he pick his own name no no no you don't get any choice if you're have you thought about it i liked doormat i thought doormat was pretty good whoever said that i said welcome that yeah well no i like doormat it's like

much more you know it brings you it just brings you down a notch. Which, of course, you can't do that anymore. I mean, in a corporate environment we don't even have interns anymore. I mean, so it's been a long time since I've even had an unpaid intern at a radio station.

Like years, literally. So what about intern Matt? Is that fair? Is that safe? I like either Matt Grumpy. Say it again, Rob. I'm Matt. I'm Matt. It's not bad. It what about intern Matt? Is that fair? Is that safe? I like either Matt Grumpy. Say it again, Rob. I Matt. I Matt. Not bad. It's like intern Matt, but I Matt.

You know what? Like a lowercase I. Oh, and also the lowercase keeps him in his spot too. So that's good. I Matt. It's too Apple, okay? That's true. Don't want to give Apple anything.

Also, since he's going to be doing my laundry, what about laundromat? Laundromat. Automat. Yeah, there's lots of good, yeah. Lots of options here. What do you want, Matt? Why don't you tell us? Since I'm afraid of your mother,

why don't you just tell us the nickname you want? What? You're surprised? You have to say something. You can't just make faces. Oh, yeah. How about that? She sums up.

She doesn't want to go on the internet. So, Matt, are you okay if intern Matt? Is that safe? Or do you want something more I don't know. I'm perfectly fine with intern Matt or even doormat. I just want my degrading

nickname to be like kind of more like different from Moose Grumpy. Oh, you don't want to be tied to your mom because you're a nepo baby. No, nepo baby. It's the reason I'm on here. Okay, well, let's go with doormat

and we'll see if that sticks. I like that. I do have to let you know that one of his favorite intern nicknames I told him about was one of the most hated out there is Chicken Shawarma. Chicken Shawarma, yeah.

He just said he didn't like shawarma. He didn't like the food. Right. But he didn't know what it was. He was on the phone with his brother or something. But shawarma's dad is Lebanese. Yeah, I know. But he didn't know.

This is his story when he came over. He actually had to ask his brother what is shawarma. They never had it. This kid's pores ooze shawarma. So it would fit. Well, that was taken. So Dormat, what made you choose and then i have to thank your mom for something okay uh doormat what made you choose the theme you chose and while you tell us why you chose it you can tell the listenership

what our theme is today good question on why I chose it. I've seen a couple musicals, and by a couple I mean like two or three. I'm not used to this microphone. It's okay. It's okay. You're doing a great job. Feel free to move it wherever you need it to be. Yeah.

So I thought it'd be interesting because at the show at Open House, I was looking at technical production before I went into my random journalism craze that's been ongoing. Learned about a bunch of behind-the-scenes stuff. And I was like, hey, I learned about that the other day. Why don't I have that be our theme? And that theme, for listeners who forget or just haven't heard it, is musical theater from, I believe, musicals in the 90s. Okay, here's how it went down. You chose musical theater. We all thought it was too broad, right?

It was a little overwhelming. Right. So we decided it's musical theater, like musicals that played Toronto in the 1990s. Because we'll discuss, and we got an expert on hand, Mr. Rob Pruess, who knows what he's talking about. And Bob's a big fan too. But we're going to talk like the 1990s was like this amazing time in Toronto for live theater for a variety of reasons, some of which are rather interesting when I dig into it. So we're going to get into like what was going on with this musical theater boom in the 90s in the city of Toronto,

and we're all going to kick out jams from this period in these particular musicals. So I'm excited. I'm leaving my comfort zone because I actually found out very quickly I never went to any musicals. I don't know what I'm doing. Yeah, we'll get into that.

We'll get into that. But so, yeah, yeah. So here's what we're going to do. I'm going to thank Moose Grumpy, your mother, doormat. It's going to have to grow in me. Because Moose Grumpy,

you were very kind. My son's birthday was yesterday and you gifted him a Blue Jay ticket. What? That happened. And is that your way to butter me up so I'll be kind to your boy today? No,

it was a thank you for having my boy here today. Well, you're welcome. And I'm excited to have Dormat here. And you can chime in any time. That fourth mic will be open the whole episode. We're going to crack some Great Lakes beer here. Who's going to do it on the mic first? How old are you, Dormat?

Are you over the age of 19? I'm 17. Just say you're 19. Just say you're 19. I forgot mom's having one. Now you can't have one. You blew it. On the mic, Moose. And I'll get

more. I have more in the fridge. Okay, good, good, good. Thank you, Great Lakes Beer. By the way, I recorded live. This might be interesting to you, Bob, because you work for Chorus, and I was live at the GLB Brew Pub on Thursday night for two and a half hours chatting up like 19 people

affiliated with 640 Toronto, which is a chorus station. Yes, it is. I know. I heard about that. Did it go well? I have to admit, I haven't had a chance to listen. On Humble and Fred this morning, I heard Fred laughing about it, saying that they have way more listeners than 640. Who could spend two and a half hours talking to 640?

But I mean, it was actually, I thought it was a pretty cool two and a half hours talking to 640? But I mean, it was actually, uh, I thought it was a pretty cool, uh, two and a half hours because it was people like Greg Brady and Kelly Couture and Alex Pearson and Danny Stover and Anthony Farnell, who's the weather guy at global. And who's the news guy, uh, Dave Bradley, who's the news guy at global. Like, I mean, these were interesting voices I got to capture. So I had a good time. So that's all that matters.

Fun fact. I DJed Kelly Couture's wedding. And that came up. That came up. I had a good time. That's all that matters. Fun fact, I DJ'd Kelly Couture's wedding. And that came up. That came up. It's a small world story. What was the first dance? I don't remember, but I do remember the wedding party. I had to play

What's Going On? So they could all go, Yeah! Shout out to Steve Leggett. And I love his logo at live.torontomic.com because it is the Ridley Funeral Home logo. So much love to Steve Leggett. Much love to Ian Service, who says,

son of moose, will you do the fandango? There you go. That's pretty good, right? Rob liked that. Shout out to Neil, who says, says multiple camera angles he says it's very fancy we already shouted out midtown gourd and of course moose grumpy is the live on-site reporter tonight so i'll be checking in to live.torontomic.com to see what moose grumpy is saying that she's too shy to say out loud into the microphone so i'll keep my good eye on that matt you chose a

great topic today i think uh we have the right guest for this. Can we start by discussing why was there such a boom like in the 1990s in the city of Toronto? Why all these great musicals playing here? Rob, give us a little insight. Do you know? I think it was because

we got Phantom of the Opera pretty quickly after it opened on Broadway. So Phantom opened in New York. Well, it opened in London like in 86, I think. And then it was in Toronto, in New York, two years later. And then one year later, it came to Toronto, like Garth Drabinski. And not just, it was Drabinski, right? And it wasn't just a touring production.

They set up at the Pantages. So Garth got into the live entertainment business because he wanted to do Phantom of the Opera. This was like his mission, right? So he formed like Live Ant Theatricals, right? And very quickly thereafter, we kind of got a reputation as a place to develop new musicals.

And Garth was investing his money in whatever shenanigans went on with Live Ant over the years. In the beginning, he was a champion for musical theater and he was bringing creators to Toronto and at one point,

I remember hearing that Toronto was like the third destination in North America for production of developing new musicals. What's second? Chicago.

Okay. New York, Chicago, and Toronto. I thought maybe we could slip into second place there, but no. Boston's pretty big now too. Boston's big now as well.

Yeah, Jagged Little Pill started there, so did Moulin Rouge. They're both on Broadway now. Yeah. And for me, like being in New York now for 20 years and seeing shows in development in New York, I see how like a lot of people will go to Boston and Chicago as their place to form and develop a thing.

Well, and then back in, and we're going to get into this at a certain point, but back in the 90s, you ended up having the shows like Ragtime andtime and uh showboat that was garth yeah it's all garth and uh sunset boulevard yeah which actually was like was those were all first put on here yeah that's because of garth garth was like i want this stuff garth was the one who created uh kiss of the spider woman and he was the one that was like like like bringing creative people on board to sort of go further with with the theater world. And other than Live-In, and I do have some questions about Live-In in a moment here.

That's Garth Trubinsky's company there. But is it also the Mervish people would always bring you? And I think having Garth being as active as he was really spurred the Mervishes on. Pushed them. Yeah, pushed them. A little competition, because then you've got all these beautiful theaters.

You know, Garth had reinvented the Winter Garden Elgin Theater and he had redone the beautifully restored Pantages Theater and then he had the theater up north. The Ford Center

is what it was called then. And then the Mirvishes built the Princess of Wales Theater. So on King Street, they had the beautiful little run of those two theaters. They had the Royal Alex. And the Alex forever, right?

Now, it's not all like good news stories stories here right like this whole garth drabinsky live ant there's a little uh little dirt there right uh corruption or some maybe some something went on yeah i don't he did jail time he did jail time i actually auditioned for garth drabinsky when i here's a fun fact here's a here yeah here's a uh a mind blow. In 2000 and something, when I was still with Mojo Radio, that's the year that he was involved with the Argonauts. I think he was like, I don't know if it was David Sinema. It wasn't Sinema and Sokoloski. It was another owner at the time.

And that was when they were bringing in all these. So the Blues Brothers, you know, he brought them back. They did 91 back when it was John Candy. But he had like a Mike Tyson appreciation. Not Mike Tyson. Sorry. Ali. He had Muhammad Ali.

All right. That's a bit better. No, he had a Muhammad Ali night. I remember this. Yes. But during that time, I auditioned to be the in-house announcer. Oh, wow. For Garth. For Garth.

For Garth. I was up in the booth. He was out sitting somewhere in the 500s and feeding lines. Wow. Yeah, yeah. It was the strangest thing. Well, he was a real hands-on guy. I mean, my memories of him in the Phantom era as well.

And I was involved with the recording of the cast album of Phantom in Toronto. And I was sort of assisting the music director. I album of Phantom in Toronto and I was sort of like assisting the music director like I was like his intern. Oh wow. Go to kind of guy. That's why we have you on the show buddy.

But Garth was there at every step. I mean whether other people wanted him there or not as a producer he wanted to like be in the creative room with people.

Now was the Toronto cast who was the Phantom wasn't Colm? Colm Wilkinson. You recorded with Colm here. Oh wow. Colm and Rebecca Kane, yep. Oh, my gosh.

I'm going to nerd out on that. Okay, yeah. So we're going to, I mean, at least let me do the math on this. We're each bringing three jams. So there will actually be nine different productions we'll talk about in great detail. Now, I have a little less to say than you two about this stuff, but I did a little homework and I dug up some fun facts and I got some mind blows. So it should be a, I'm embracing this.

At first I was cursing out Matt. I'm like, who's this Matt guy to make me do musical theater? But then like I sat with it and I started digging in. I'm like, I like to leave my comfort zone once in a while and discover some new stuff. At least it's 90s based. You're comfortable there. Right.

I do live in the 90s. So Bob, before we get to our jams, since the last recording of Toast, you and I had a date. We did. We did. We went, us and about 12,000 other people, headed down to BMO on a cold Tuesday night to see the Canadian men's national soccer team defeat the team from Honduras 4-1.

And it was great. It was a really fun time. I had picked up tickets quite affordably. They had kind of outpriced themselves i don't care about really great seats i like actually being in the corners where you can be near the uh you know close to the crazies the supporters but not yeah but yeah also somewhere in between yeah so you met you biked down and we met there i go trained it down it was fun i had a great time and it was uh you know my son's just getting into these uh world cup uh athletes the he plays fif, like on his handheld there.

And I told him how close I was to Alphonso Davies. I could throw a rock and hit him. And he was very impressed. And it was a great victory. We had two goals from Kyle Lahren. Yep. And it was just a clear victory for the good guys. It was an easy win.

They played very well, Canada. And now that takes them to the... This was part of the CONCACAF Nations League Cup, I believe it's called. And they're playing in June. Now they'll play Panama on the Thursday. And if they win, they will play either Mexico or the United States for

the gold medal in that tournament. There's a lot of trophies and medals in soccer. Yes. In the hockey world, there's only one we care trophies and medals in soccer okay so because like in the hockey world like there's only one we care about we only care about one once a year they give out the stanley cup and that's all we care about but in soccer i find there's like oh we could get this and this and you could win like the the president's cup or whatever they call it an mls and then you can win the mls cup and then you could win the conch kick half this and there's a lot going on

tournaments a lot of different yeah it's all based lot of different yeah, it's all based on the English, you know it's the FA started it, the Football Association is what really started it all and then you'd have that's, if we in hockey had a relegation system like they do in soccer, I would greatly improve hockey if you ask me and the types of games we'd have. Okay.

Now, Rob, did you ever meet Garth Drabinski? Oh yeah. So you'd have one-on-one conversations meet Garth Drabinski? Oh yeah. But like, so you'd have one-on-one conversations with Garth Drabinski? Yeah. Well, I wouldn't say specifically one-on-one, but maybe in a room making a comment to each other.

So you shake his hand and say, hello, Mr. Drabinski. And that would be it. Yep. Okay. Like my, my greatest memory of like in a small encounter with him was when we were

doing the cast album and I was in the control room, like, like as the orchestra was recording and stuff and he was in the room and sort of commenting on stuff and whatever and I was scared shitless to be in there as well I mean with him and in the pressure of that room even though I didn't really have anything to do it's just sort of nerve-wracking having the guy right there yeah and just everybody in that environment but it was exciting you know because on the one hand I had I was used to being in recording studios from my band days yeah so to me it was a completely comfortable environment

just seeing the theater nerds in there and knowing that they're more nervous about it because that's not an environment they're comfortable in. Yeah, but it was cool. Okay, why can't I remember the nickname we were given, Matt? It wasn't Welcome Matt. It was Door Matt. Door Matt.

I'm going to write it down. I'm going to type it out. Take a note. If it's not sticking, it's going to have to be something else. Yeah, well, I was kind of into Matt Grumpy, but it got kiboshed here. By him? By this Grumpy family.

Why do you let him have a say? Because I don't want Gene Velitis to tweet nasty things at me, so I'm trying to behave myself. Dormat, any, like, I don't know, words of inspiration or anything you'd like to say to us

before we start to kick out these musical theater jams? Yeah. Okay. Give Matt more beer. You do Second City, Matt? What level Second City have you done? I was in some like classes like some improv

classes over the summer yes and he yes'd but he didn't and there that was what I was getting at he said yes and then stopped yes and okay that's fine if anything inspires you as we kick out these jams don't hesitate even just stick a finger

up like go like this and then I will you know wave my hand and say come on doormat let us hear it so anytime so we got the beer

thank you Great Lakes you know what I'm feeling kind of generous right now I'm going to send the grumpy family home with a large meat lasagna

from Palma Pasta when do I get to do my advertisement for Palma because we enjoyed it yesterday yeah right now it was a good time it was unbelievable when do I get to do my my advertisement for because we enjoyed it yesterday yeah right now is a good time it was unbelievable my sister the last time I was here and I got one from you and it's been in my sister's freezer

and for Easter Sunday we were like what are we gonna have my she had a great spread and she whipped up the lasagna and it was yesterday just yesterday in fact I had some for I had two little pieces left over today so you had a large meat lasagna frozen in your sister's freezer from your whenever you were here last time a couple months ago and you had it yesterday and you're not bullshitting me right like you're not just trying to make you know no i'm gonna help mike out and tell him his sponsor was delicious or whatever

no no you legit loved and your sister loved it too legit everybody loved it i had my nieces and and relatives were over and my mom and my mother, my sister's mother-in-law. That's a hell of an endorsement. It was a huge spread and yeah, but the lasagna was a hit.

And there was enough left over for the next day. Yeah, because it's filling. Like, I mean, it's a lot. It's a lot.

It's a lot. It's a heavy meal. Okay, that's great news. So on the weekend, yes, Moose Grumpy. What's your name?

Dormat? Dormat. I know, I wrote it down. Dormat. Dormat. I know I wrote it down. Dormat. Dormat was discussing what our schedule was today. And he was looking forward to his dinner tonight because he's only ever attended Toronto Mike and Pamika's kitchen.

Okay. Let's touch on this then before we get wrong here. So there was a tear ran down his eye that he was getting a pasta dinner. You can have it tomorrow. Like you've got a frozen lasagna and you can put it in the fridge. Sorry, put it in the fridge when you get home. And then tomorrow evening, you stick that at 375 Fahrenheit, 45 minutes or so. That's a delicious meal, Matt.

Okay, you're all set to go. So am I right? You've been to two TMLX events. I have, yes. One was, I want to say before the lockdown uh like in 2019 was it at palma's kitchen yes okay yeah december 2019 yeah and the and the second time was more recent a few months a few months ago december 2022 exactly that date i i remember that 100%. You'll never forget. And did you enjoy meals both times? Did you sneak yourself a

Great Lakes beer or you don't want to do that because you're not 19 and we would frown upon that? You know what you're talking about. Tell the truth. The cops aren't going to bust in and arrest you. No, no. There's a thing. Tell them. Well, when I was younger, you know how like uh parents will

like make little bets with their kids uh for stuff like like non-serious stuff like um well i'm just gonna call 9-1-1 so they can listen to this confession hold on go ahead uh basically like if i didn't drink until i turned like legal age i would get get $100. At the time when that deal was made, I was like, that's a lot of money, $100. You made the deal. Yes. You're going to stand by that. Is this going to be adjusted for inflation? It should be.

It's going to happen though because Moose, I'm talking to you right now. The thing is, he's got the most easygoing parents and we don't care. We would happily let him have a drink. You know those kids growing up whose parents said you can't watch TV so they would come to your house and they would watch a lot of TV. Those kids when they went to university or whatever, all they did

was watch TV because their parents said they weren't allowed to watch TV. So what's going to happen is this doormat's going to turn 19 and he's just going to drink like I don't know, four or five liters of Great Lakes beer a day. Yeah, we'll see. Yes, we will. I say you give him a little bit now and just let him know it's nothing scary,

just in moderation. He knows it's nothing scary. When he makes a deal, he sticks to it. He's a man of honor. Usually. A man needs a code, right? All right. Molly Johnson's brother created that series.

It's very cool. Okay, so May 11th at 6 p.m at marie curtis park we're holding tmlx 12 this is going to be a lot of fun moose you're going to be there of course okay of course she's going to be there i'm going to bring i might bring some i won't say what but there might be some cold beverages with me and we're going to enjoy them responsibly and everybody uh all fotms are welcome so mike at toronto mike.com if you have any questions because it always sounds sketchy when I say it out loud. It always does.

But we've done this before and it is a great time. And if you want to meet up and say hi, just yeah, ask me, send me an email and I'll give you a map,

like a secret map on how to find us. But 6 p.m. May 11th, 2023 TMLX12. Nice. Hey, doormat. Here's a bluetooth speaker for you okay because i know yes seriously and you know what i'm in a generous mood bob you get one too thanks i already have one but i'll tell you i will share it no i'll share with somebody who would love it rob's getting

okay so unbelievable now there's a catch what you got yeah you can listen to your jams okay rob you can listen to your musical theater jams bob can listen to his pearl jam but you also need to listen to season four of the yes we are open podcast this is a moneris podcast hosted by award-winning podcaster al grego all right who will be at tmlx 12 on May 11th at 6 p.m. So Al Grego has been traveling the country talking to small business owners and learning their stories of perseverance and how they've succeeded. And it's inspiring AF.

It inspires me. And Dormat, it would inspire you too. So you're going to listen to season four of Yes, We Are Open. This surprisingly packs a punch. I can't wait to hear it. It's actually really good. I like the little blurb on the back.

Did they get permission from Sting to use the lyrics? Oh, Roxanne? They said Boxanne. I don't think you can have a copyright on the word Roxanne because I saw the Steve Martin movie the Sereno de Bergeniac remake there. All right. And also because Dormak came all this way.

We're going to get to jams in like 18 seconds, but Ridley Funeral Home has sent over some measuring tape. So Matt, insert joke here. If there's anything you need to measure, okay, you can just whip out this measuring tape and you can measure it.'s for you uh doormat i gotta i gotta figure out how big the coffin will be so they moved on from the flashlight you went there right i was worried you just threw you to a new sponsor because we had the

flashlights in the past yeah there's flashlights uh and there's measuring tapes so okay so i will actually we'll get to the jams and I'll shout out a couple of other Toronto Mike partners later, but we're going to start with you. Who are we going to start with? Who should I start with? Do you guys care? Should I start with you? I don't remember.

No, I think it's probably Rob. I mean, Rob actually was a musical director on some, in the 90s. Not in the 90s. Not in the 90s? Nope. In the 80s? In the 2000s? Yep.

In the 2000s. In the turn of the century. Okay. All right. All right. Let's start with turn of the century. Okay, all right. All right, let's start with Rob Pruess. Okay. Rob, any words before I kick out this first jam? No, because I don't know what you're going to kick out.

Yeah, and I'm actually sweating over here hoping I have the right order. I don't care. You can play whatever you want. Here's the thing. So normally I kick out the jams. I see the titles and I can kind of hear the song on my head. I know the song. I actually, looking at the titles here. Did you listen to any of these?

No. I listened to mine, obviously. But I actually have no idea what I don't know what show this is from. I don't know what this sounds like, but here we go. I feel like I should hit the post on this one.

You could put a gun to my head right now. I wouldn't be able to tell you what song I'm listening to. Good. Do you know Dora Matt? No idea. Does Moose Grumpy know? Shaking her head. No, she doesn't know.

She doesn't know. Bob, do you know? I have an idea. Can I talk to you? I don't know. She doesn't know. Bob, do you know? I have an idea. Can I talk to you? I don't know. Bangkok, Oriental City, but the city don't know. That's my musical theater, but it was the 90s. That's the 80s. Leslie wants to know if it's Tommy.

Okay. Leslie, you got it. Are there words in this song wrong? Nope. It's the overture, isn't it? Yeah, it's the overture. Talk to us about this. This is Tommy. This is Tommy the Musical.

This is how Act 2 starts. This is called the underture. Oh, right. How cool is Pete Townsend? Like when they did the original Tommy recording in 69 or 70 or whatever it was, it's called the underture. So this takes some of the themes that have already been in Act 1. I think you can hear Pete actually singing on this.

This is the Broadway recording. Okay. There was no Toronto recording. And it was the Elgin, right? It was the Elgin that they played at. Was it a permanent? Was it for a season or two? I saw it. I remember. I loved it. It's nice. This is like a rock musical.

It's a good way to kind of get into the world of theater for you, I guess, Mike, because this is like rock music. It's rock and roll. And it was a big thing when it came to Toronto because it had been, it opened on Broadway a few years before. And it's the music of The Who.

And it's Tommy the Musical. Like from the movie. Who's singing this? Who? Who? Who's singing The Who? That's what I'm trying to tell you. And they think quite highly of Toronto. Oh, yeah.

To them, it's important. Well, Des McEnough, the director, is Canadian as well. It's very important to them on all of their tours for Toronto. That's right. You know why I didn't recognize him at first? Because I'm having one of those, I can't be this old moments, because I honestly thought I saw Tommy in the 2000s. It was the 90s. Yeah. But it was. It was. You can't be that old. You can't be this old moments. Cause I honestly thought I saw Tommy in the 2000s. So it was the 90s.

Yeah. But it was, it was late 90s though. You can be that old. I would say, well, shows get done again too, right?

Like if there, it may have come back because touring, it toured as well for a while. And this was mid nineties. Like, I mean, it opened. It was mid nineties.

It opened in 95. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So one of those moments of no, no. Yeah. And while we're talking about the Elgin,

because it was at the Elgin Theatre, the story of the Elgin and the Winter Garden and the stacked theatres, if you've never been in that building, it's phenomenal. I've been there many times. I even saw Conan O'Brien there. Oh, cool.

But if you get the chance to see something in the Winter Garden Theatre, yes, it's a whole other experience. It's so different than any other theater. Do you know who I saw there a few months ago? Cynthia Dale in her one-woman show. That's the circles I roll in, Matt. There you go.

I saw Pete Postlewaite do a one-man show. I think I saw Stephen Wright there, actually. Yeah, do a one-man show at the Winter Garden Theater. Reservoir Dogs soundtrack has a lot of Stephen Wright. That's right. Kay. Billy Superstars. I love the 90s. Matt, what do you think of the 90s? Yeah!

I just gave the hang loose. So Tommy the Musical, just to bring it back to the world of musicals in the 90s and Toronto themed, at this point when Tommy came, Phantom of the Dark had been running for a while. At that time, I had just finished doing a run of Miss Saigon at the Princess of Wales Theater,

which we did from 93 to 95. And then Tommy was up and running. You weren't a musical director then? Were you playing in it? I was in the orchestra. You were playing? Okay, yeah, yeah. Keyboard one.

I was keyboard one. So I did Miss Saigon. Miss Saigon closed. And I knew I was going to be doing Beauty and the Beast at the Princess of Wales because that was the next thing coming in. We got the perfect co-host for this. But I played Tommy a little bit too. I subbed on Tommy in the band

and because a couple of, I mean, by this time I knew the dudes who were like in the bands and the music directors and stuff. Yeah. The music director of Tommy was the original associate music director at Phantom.

Wow. So I got to sub on the show a few times for a friend of mine. But this underture, which starts act two, was my favorite thing in the show to play in the pit because I didn't play very much, but the drummer, of course, doing his Keith Moon work, I would just sit back and watch him.

How come Kid Rock said, get in the pit and love someone, right? You remember this, Bob, Bob went to Bob. But now he's all pissed off about whatever. He's shooting cans of beer. Yeah, he's a caricature of himself. What happened to the love that was in his heart back in the 90s? I don't know if there was love that was in his heart.

Get in the pit and try to love someone. Yeah, but do you think you meant make love to you in the middle of a mosh pit? I thought it was just love your fellow mosher. And today, he's got a lot of hate in his heart. As long as they're not trans, according to him. It's a good sentiment I heard you say he's a dink

I wanted to shout out quickly something firstly Tobias Vaughn, Bob you and I met Tobias Vaughn at that Canada Honduras match at BMO Field he's a nice fella, is he going to Vegas? ask him if he's going let us know Tobias Vaughn if you're going to Vegas he did look at the t-shirt

being worn right now by Rob Prues and we'll take a photo by the tree after so we can see what this is and he guessed it was the National Film Board logo that's exactly

Rob tell the world though I guessed it right away when you came downstairs yeah you guessed it right away you called it right away it is the NFB logo and brings back a lot of warm thoughts

it's like a person just doing that yeah yeah it had a little sounder with it too remember oh yeah yeah for sure for sure It's like a person just doing that. Yeah, yeah. It had a little sounder with it too. Remember? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

For sure. For sure. Do they still exist? They still do stuff? Yes. NFB has a fantastic app on Apple TV and Roku TV and all those things. But is it just for old stuff or they're making new stuff? Both.

You can only watch the Whitewater thing. That's nothing but that. That's the law driver's wall. But they have that one with the fence to the neighbors. Norman McLaren. Yeah. All of his animation

is on there. Shaking your eyes. Yeah. So much. No, there's fantastic stuff on there. You got to go. Oh my God.

Did they do The Cat Came Back? Yeah. Oh, look at this. All the stuff. I also want to shout out Basement Dweller. That's a treat

whenever we see Basement Dweller here. Nearly 50 and only sipped a beer once as a kid. Never again. Okay, I don't think uh basement dweller is a new client of uh great lakes brewery so no great lakes for basement dweller ian says uh nothing like a measuring joke directed at you while sitting next to your mom i was very subtle with it ian i just want you to know i was very subtle with it here and leslie says that she saw Wicked in Toronto

and New York City, and it's her favorite musical of all time. And she also saw Tommy, which we just played a jam from. Blah, blah, blah. Steve Leggett, 10-year-old, is going to see Rock of Ages on Saturday. So there's a lot of musical theater love going on

in the FOTM community, and clearly I've been missing out here. One thing is DJ Dream Doctor says that NFB logo looks a little like The Residence, he says. Cool. And last but not least from Steve Leggett, and then later I'll pick up more, but he says, how hard

is it to fill in for a show? Can you just play from sheet music or does it take some rehearsing? Yes and yes. It is hard. You do play from sheet music and does it take some rehearsing? Yes and yes. It is hard. You do play from sheet music and it takes a lot of rehearsing. But when you fill in, the hardest part is the fact that you don't really get a rehearsal. You just have to show up and play.

So like your first performance is a performance, right? So like my first time playing Phantom, I was scared shitless because it's the full on, I mean, the show had just been open for a few months at that point. Right. And you have to basically watch and learn.

Then you go home and practice with a tape or whatever. And then when you're ready, you do a show and you're, it's a show. And so.

And on that, were you on a full, on keys or? I was playing piano and synthesizer. Piano and synthesizer. Yeah, nice grand piano in the pit.

Right. I was gonna say like a real grand piano would have been, right? Yeah. In those days, yeah. When I started, now we're, that was 89, so it wasn't quite the 90. Right. I was going to say like a real grand piano would have been, right? Yeah. In those days, yeah. When I started. Now we're,

that was 89, so it wasn't quite the 90s, but it was close enough. Close enough. Yeah. But it is hard and it's a lot of pressure, but it's fun.

It's still amazing. It's 89, y'all, not Beethoven's 5th or 6th. That's right. Okay. Thank you, Maestro. Ian Service is barbecuing outside and broadcasting this episode

of Toast to the Neighborhood. Oh, they must be enthralled. Hello to FOTM Mike Schreiner, who might be able to hear us now in the Guelph atmosphere. Okay. Lots of keyboards and phantoms, says Steve Leggett. All right. That was great, Rob. So we've heard from

Tommy, a rock opera, and that's a good start for things. And now if it's okay with you, Mr. Willett, I'm going to kick out your first jam. Go for it. Oh, thank God I made the cut. Okay. I love Oklahoma. The Pirates of Penzance.

Rob is... Air keyboarding. Air keyboarding. Is there words in this one? Yes. I don't know. I don't know what it is. Look down, look down Don't look them in the eye

Look down, look down You're here until you die The sun is strong It's hot as hell below Look down, look down There's twenty years to go I've done no wrong Sweet Jesus, hear my prayer

Look down, look down Sweet Jesus doesn't care I know she'll wait, I know that she'll be true Look down, look down, they've all forgotten you When I get free, you won't see me here for dust Bob Willett, what are we listening to? So this is the opening of Les Mis, which was my first

big musical I ever saw. So picture this. This is 92 or so, I think, when it first came out. It came earlier, I think. It was 89.

89. So in 92, I'm in grade 10. And I've already done, in grade nine, I did my first, I did drama for the first time. We did Grease,

the musical, and I loved it. I was in it, and did drama for the first time. We did Grease the musical and I loved it. I was in it and I was addicted to it at that point. So now by the time the show comes around 92 or so, I'm in grade 10 and the Mirvishes were always great about having cheap tickets for students. So $20, $25. And I, look, I grew up,

I had never been in a real theater in my life. So walking into the Royal Alexandra Theater and that upper deck, if you've been in the upper level balcony, it's so steep. It feels like it's a ladder you're going down, but the stage is like right underneath you. You feel close even

though you're way up in the rafters. You sit down and this starts and there's a rotating stage. I'd never seen a rotating stage in my life. What about the Ontario Place Forum? No, no, but not the whole stage, just part of it. That was the thing. It was part of it.

And then all these different, the sets were just incredible. They blew me away and I was addicted. And so like back in, that means, you know, 90s Bob, 92 Bob in my five disc changer would have both of my I dropped my phone I'd have

the London cast original, which is what this is the original London cast recording I'd have a Pearl Jam CD, I'd have a Digital Underground CD, I had it in my five disc when it was so neurotic so this is yeah, so this, so I've reacquainted myself with Les Mis over the weekend

knowing that I was going to do this. Amazing. It gets so stuck in your head. There's the whole Seinfeld episode with Master of the House, George Getting's Master of the House stuck in his head. I've had this music stuck in my head for weeks now because of this. But this was the thing that really, I feel like, is Claude Michael Schoenberg and Alan Bubiel

based on, obviously, Victor Hugo's epic book, Les Miserables. The movie's been made. Everybody's seen that with Russell Crowe and the other Aussie guy. Hugh Jackman. Hugh Jackman, thank you. Who's a better actor, Hugh Jackman or Russell Crowe? Generally speaking, I would say I'm a bigger fan of Hugh Jackman or Russell Crowe? Generally speaking, I would say I'm a bigger fan of Hugh Jackman.

Really? Okay, I'm sorry for interrupting, but I needed to know. What show was it where they always called him Huge Ackman? Yeah. His name was Huge. That's right. Mr. Ackman. The Wolverine? Yeah.

Yeah, but here in Toronto, you actually got got some Toronto I would say musical celebrities people like Michael Burgess Michael Burgess played Jean Valjean famously for many years and he did many O Canada

at Leaf Game he passed away at 70 only with cancer but so Cole Wilkinson also played Jean Valjean

he was the original he was the original Jean Valjean but Michael Burgess is kind of he became like this Toronto staple. Totally. Les Mis is just a beautiful play. So Mirvish has announced it for next season.

Oh, really? Will your girls be... That's interesting. So my older one, that's a great question. She's turning 13 and she loves the musical Six, which is coming as well. Is it coming here? It's coming here. Mirvish is bringing it here later this year.

And Jagged Little Pill. Yeah, and Hamilton is one that she loves as well. So I will try to introduce this to her. A lot of prostitutes in the boobiel, both that and this and Miss Saigon, both have a lot of prostitutes in it. So he's got to figure that out. Not that I'm against sex work or anything. No, you should be like... Pause it.

Pro sex worker. But they're not being treated properly. That's bullshit. That's where his exposure for musical theater came from. To prostitutes? No. From me remembering these

and taking him to see them now and being able to say when Lion King came around again to take him to that and the tears that I cried over the puppets and the display so to be able to share it now with our kids. It's amazing, absolutely.

For sure. Why did I love that man? Song's still going? Hold on, let me try. It never ends, it's like an opera. They never stop singing in this one. Same with Phantom as well. Wow.

Okay. What a coup that it was for Garth to get Colm to do Phantom because he wanted Colm to be the original Phantom when he started in 86 but Colm was doing Les Mis already. So he already had him in mind. Wow. And actually

one of the phantoms in Toronto was Jeff from I did the tour with him from today's special I know who Jeff Hyslop is that's how you say it right? Hyslop? Muffy the mouse has been on this program

you gotta get Jeff he took his hat off and he was frozen like a mannequin. Yeah, but he was also a phantom. That's amazing. Yeah, that was at the Sears by the

Eden Center. The Simpsons, sorry. The old Simpsons. That's where they filmed that. Wow. Okay, get me Retro Ontario

in line two. Matt, would you mind getting me Retro Ontario in line two? Stat! I don't know how to work a phone.

Just dial nine before you get to get an outside line. There's Les Mis. I don't know how to work a phone. Just press, dial nine before you get, to get an outside line. There's Les Mis. I was surprised nobody else picked Les Mis. I thought. Now I can't remember now, but Rob did pick something that was already picked.

Yes. I can't wait to see. But it wasn't this, right? Nope. Okay. Yeah, this was all yours.

Although I will confess, cause I always put my three down right away. Like literally sometimes the night that we choose the topic so I had I'll just play a bit of it but I was going through

like my I was like what do I do I'm out of my comfort zone I'm sweating I felt like Stu Stone having to kick out 60s girl groups

or whatever and here let me bring down Les Mis stand by do you guys know what I'm playing here? This is also Les Mis, right? It is also Les Mis.

So I had Les Mis on my short list, and then Bob picked it, and I was happy to give it up because I had never seen Les Mis. I've never seen Les Mis! So what made you pick this song? I was Googling. First, I had to find out what played Toronto in the seen Les Mis! So what made you pick this song? I was Googling. First I had to

find out what played Toronto in the 90s. This is Castle in the Cloud, right? On my own. So I literally was Googling best songs from Les Mis and I was listening to them on YouTube and I'm like oh, this sounded to me to my ears to be the best song from

Les Mis. What do I know? I've never seen Les Mis. Anyway, I'm not kicking it out. There's lots of beautiful songs. There's a lot of beautiful songs. I have so many memories. I didn't even get into it. Well, go ahead, man. It stood out to me when somebody died in it,

and they used that bright white light, you know, when they show them. And it just, I get chills when I think about it because it was the first time I'd ever seen anything like it at all. And all of the amazing things that they did including obviously the moving sets and everything but this beautiful bright white light that i'd never even seen anything like it in my life it's just like it was uh this was like for me this was like a life-changing show and i think i saw it on its on that run three times did you really oh yeah toronto production oh yeah yeah yeah and then

it's come back since that Toronto production. I saw that. I saw it once. Wow. Yeah, huge fan of it. Amazing. Nice song, right? Matt, what do you think of this song, Matt?

Is this a good jam? It gets the doormat seal of approval. Nice. That's all I'm looking for. Doormat seal of approval. Shout out to doormat. All right.

Yeah, okay. So that was your first choice and then you got bumped because... And then when Bob sent me his, and it had a Les Miserables prologue, I said, screw you on my own. You're out of here. And I went and got a different jam. Which, by the way, now I just want to say, as I bring this down, and I'm going to kick off my first jam,

I'm a little nervous because you two seem really like knowledgeable and passionate and I'm a little scared. Like, I'm going to kick out some jams from night and I'm worried that what if they... Are we going to make fun of you? Yeah.

You're in front of the world. Can I join in? Yeah, you're entering the world that we will bring you into it. And you know, Matt, I haven't given you that lasagna yet

so you better behave yourself. But I want to turn the tables and ask you a question. Who, how did you miss the theater experience of toronto in the 90s you are the you are toronto mike you're the music you know everything that's going on it's a big chunk of wasn't the mayor of the fucking city how did how did you miss the 90s musical theater experience I want to shout out Lieve Fumka because she went on to live.trottermic.com

and she left the following note she wrote hi moose and little moose so she's calling you little moose I think that's to me that's offensive at least you can be Big Moose.

Yeah. I'm taller than you. Get in that mic, Moose. Yeah, I'm going in the ring here. I'm defending my honor. He's getting into it now. Bob, you're hiring in Kingston? Actually, I am.

Yeah, yeah. Would you move to Kingston for a radio gig? It's only a part-time gig, though. I don't know if it's worth it. You're 17. Fair. I'll be fine on my own But anyways I am

On my own On my own Matt, did you do that on purpose? You're breaking his song You'll get the job right now If that was intentional Those improv classes I'm telling you

They pay off Good job You have a good mom there In Moose Because she's making sure You get the proper Toronto theater experience So good job Moose because she's making sure you get the proper Toronto theatre experience. So good job, Moose.

As you make fun of me for not getting that proper experience. Toronto Mike didn't know his 90 step. Sorry, I didn't get the number of the bus that just ran over me. Oh, well, stay tuned. There'll be more buses coming. Okay. I'm kicking our jam and it's not from the, again, this is interesting because I heard

Rob say earlier, like, this is not from the Toronto recording. So none of mine are from the Toronto recording. This is actually like not even, but this is a song from a musical that played Toronto in the 90s, but it's actually, I'm going to, well, there'll be some mind blows here, but I'm kicking out a version by somebody for the film of this musical. Anyways, ready? Go. I love this.

There's an old man called Mississippi That's the old man that I'd like to be What does he care if the world's got troubles? What does he care if the land ain't free? Old Man River, that Old Man River He must know somethin' but don't say nothin' He just keeps rollin' He keeps on rollin' along.

He don't plant taters, he don't plant cotton, and damn that plant, I'm soon forgotten but old man river he just keeps rolling along this is a song from showboat did you know showboat is a musical

that is part of it ok so the music in Rob you can intersect anyone who knows more than I do the music is by Jerome Kern, and this is based on the lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein, right? This is the famous Rodgers and Hammerstein duo that we hear so much about in musical theatre. All right, so there was a big book in 1926 called Showboat

written by Edna Ferber, and this is based on that. And now a little bit of the premise. The musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands, and dockworkers on the Cotton Blossom, a Mississippi River showboat. And it's over 40 years, from 1887

to 1927. So, this particular song, this is Paul Robeson. Robeson, yeah. Robeson, okay. And this is probably the most famous rendition of Old Man River. And this is actually from a film version of Show Boat that came out in 1936, okay?

Moose Grumpy was a teenager. That's how far back we're going here. Hi-yo! Hi-yo! All right. Oh, she's getting mad at me. She's going to take back we're going here. Hi-yo! Hi-yo! All right. I wish she was getting mad at me. She's going to take back that Blue Jay ticket. Sorry, Jarvis.

We can't see the game anymore. All right, so in the 1951 version, there was another recording that was kind of famous. So this is the Paul Robeson version, the one I kind of gravitated towards. But a lot of people like this one right here. There's an old man called Mississippi That's the old man that I wants to be

What does he care if the world's got troubles What does he care if the land ain't free? Oh, my river They could get Brad Roberts to sing this. Yeah, right. I sure can sing along. Maybe Bob. I noticed Bob's got...

I'm a baritone when I sing it. Do you want to try give it a go? Not without warming up. Oh, bad river. There you go. I'm shaking the house here. Amazing here. So, does anyone have any, like,

I don't have any clue about, like, where in Toronto it plays in the 90s. I can tell you exactly. Oh, Moose Grumpy knows, and Bob knows, and Rob knows, and Matt knows, but you go first, Moose. Well, this was unusual at the time, if I'm not mistaken, Rob, because it was the North York Performing Arts Centre. It was the brand new, brand new, yeah.

And after the explosion of the theatre downtown, to have it so far north, so far north, but to that, it was so far away from where the... Young and Shepard or whatever. Yeah. That's north. That's all north. But to that, it was so far away from where the... Young and Shepard or whatever. Yeah. That's north. That's all Mel.

Mel did that, right? Mel and Garth. First mayor of the mega city. Yeah, Mel. That was all Mel. Yeah, and it was when it opened, it was one of the first theaters

to have a name sponsorship as well. It was the Ford Center for the Performing Arts. That's Garth Drabinsky doing it all again, right? Yeah, he was ahead of his time with that stuff for sure.

Can't believe they sent that man to jail. Look at all the great things he did. But yeah, so Showboat was the first big one. time with that stuff for sure. Can't believe they sent that man to jail. Look at all the great things he did. But yeah, so Showboat was the first big one and it was a Toronto production.

I don't think it came from anywhere else. It started here. It originated here. And then went to Broadway. To Broadway, yes. That was Garth's dream, really, to do this show.

I believe Hal Prince directed it. Yes, that sounds right. After doing Phantom, he's like, I want to do a version, a new version of this musical.

Yeah, and it became, it was quite a breeding ground here, actually. I mean, like I mentioned earlier, there was Ragtime that played out of that theater and Sunset Boulevard with Diane Carroll, which was actually, that's Sunset Boulevard is an Andrew Lloyd Webber show. So yeah, that particular theater did pretty well. And fun fact, at least a fun fact for me, I've performed in that theater a couple times. There's three of them.

There's three spaces. I've performed in the small and the middle one as part of the Canadian Improv Olympics. Cool. Oh, I thought you played Shrek when Shrek played. Oh, wow. You're really hurtful today, eh? He's going after all of us.

I know. No makeup required. You know you don't have to make yourself feel better by making other people feel bad. It doesn't hurt. Oh, there's a version of this Old Man River, though, that's more contemporary that I thought was pretty cool

when I was doing my homework. And I'll just play a little bit of that because it's my fucking show. So I'm going to do it. Who's going to be first to name that artist? I'll be listening in the headphones. Frank Sinatra. Nope.

Here we all work to the headphones. Frank Sinatra. Nope. I love it already. Get no rest till the judgment day. Once the Ray Letts finish up here. That's a clue, everybody. Oh, it is? Really? It's really? Okay.

I didn't know Ray Parker Jr. did it. I want a new drug. You lose? Yeah, but he stole mine from Ray Parker Jr. I'm always like playing 3D chess. Who are you going to call? Who are you going to call? Ray Charles. Ray Charles is correct.

This is Ray Charles. I think at some point there's actually Ray Charles on this. Ray Charles, just give it a moment here. Mike said, hey, give it a moment here. This is the intro. Mike said, hey, I found a Broadway song. I'm going to play every incarnation of it I can find. Yeah. I have 14 more versions of Old Man River.

Just get comfortable. Matt, there's a bed around the corner if you need a nap. Just let me know. Okay. If he doesn't start singing. If he doesn't start, I'm going to bail. There he goes. Oh, wow.

See? Wow. Holy fuck. Mike did it again. Cambrio, I won today. Okay. Wow. Really, show tunes were like pop music in the 50s.

He must know something. Everybody did versions of theater songs in their own way. And yeah, both versions are outstanding, but completely different. Totally, yeah. All right, well, raise in the background, before we throw it to Rob for his second jam, I will just let everybody know, you guys got some really sweet wireless

speakers, courtesy of Moneris, and those are going to last a lifetime, but should you have any speakers or technology that breaks on you, don't throw it in the garbage. Matt, this is important. Pay attention. That'll end up in our landfills. Those chemicals, that's bad for Mother Earth. You go to

recyclemyelectronics.ca You find a safe place to drop off that old antiquated tech and they'll take care of it thanks to EPRA. So thank you. Roger that. You got it? You taking notes here? I'm saluting here. You know what? He's starting to... I think I'm going to replace Bob Lillette

with our new intern Matt. I'm kind of busy next month anyway. And that's it. Returning next week, Stu Stone and Cam Gordon. Speaking of Stu, real quick here, and then we're going to get to Rob's second jam. But do you know who represents Stu when it comes to PR? I just found this out by going to Stu Stone's Twitter account,

and I got to see who do you contact for PR purposes if you want Stu Stone on your show or whatnot. Is that the only way we can get a hold of him now? That's how I get a hold of him. I talk to the Moment Lab. So the Moment Lab specializes in public relations. They have a team of experienced professionals who know how to craft stories that resonate with your audience and generate positive media coverage. Whether you're launching a new product or building your reputation or managing a crisis,

the Moment Lab has got you covered. So if you want to give your business a boost, don't wait any longer. Contact my friends Matt and Jared at the Moment Lab. That's what Stu Stone did. And that's what our intern Matt's going to do. He's going to learn how they can help him achieve his public relations goals.

Ah, yeah. Yeah. Alright, I was waiting for that gold and I got it, so I feel good goals. Oh, yeah. All right. I was waiting for that gold and I got it. So I feel good now. Okay, Rob, any words before I kick out your second jam? No, because I don't know what you're going to play, but I'm excited. How come you don't know your jams, Rob? I like, well, because I don't know if you're going to play them in the order I sent them.

I don't know. Well, usually you number them, actually, don't you? Do I? No, I don't think I numbered them this time. Oh, now. Usually you number them, actually, don't you? Do I? No, I don't think I numbered them this time. Oh, now.

I don't want my arms around you. Is this the Beach Boys? I don't guess the day I found you. No, not much. Moose, do you know what this is? Matt, do you know? No clue. Bob's got it.

Don't cheat. Don't Shazam it. Jersey Boys? Jersey Boys 90s or is that like 2000s? Yeah, it's 2000s. And I was up at the Ford Theatre as well. Right. This was a much smaller theatre on Yonge Street.

And it's closing now. Or it's closed to now. And it's not. They're condoing it. Of course. That group. Of course. Okay, Rob, what is this?

This is from a musical called Forever Plaid. Oh. Which ran in the 1990s. Believe it opened in 90... Wait, I wrote it down because I didn't... And what is that venue that's closing down for Converse? It used to be called

the New Yorker Theatre. Has it been screened? Yeah. It's the CAA now. It was the CAA, which they've actually changed that name to the Pantage.

Oh, this is on Yonge Street. Yeah. So the Blue Man Group played there for a long time as well. Beautiful little theatre. And I think this was

the first thing that ran there, right? In 95. Forever planned. Yep. It was such a fun show. And when I was trying to think of a 90s musical in Toronto, and I sort of wanted to avoid the big ones

that I had been a part of, that even though I knew they'd come up, I remembered seeing the show and just loving it. Why are you avoiding the ones you were a part of? I just wanted to do something different for myself. You should kick out the ones you're a part of because you'd have so much insight to share. I know.

I just wanted to challenge myself, though, in the larger picture. So here, let me read the overview of the musical because you won't know what insight to share. I know. I just wanted to challenge myself, though, in the larger picture. So here, let me read the overview of the musical because you won't know what it is. It says this. The show is a review of the close harmony guy groups that reached the height of their popularity in the 1950s.

The quartet of high school chums, their dreams of recording an album ended in death in a collision with a bus filled with Catholic schoolgirls That's the bus that ran over Moose earlier. on their way to see the Beatles' American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. Oh!

So the show, the review begins with the plaids returning from the afterlife for one final chance at musical glory. Wow. And it's such a fun show. So these guys are basically, they're dead and they come back

and they're like, this is our final show before we go back up to the afterlife. And so they're versions of pop songs that were done in the 50s, the boy groups, the boy groups, the boy vocal groups, and they're such

great arrangements. Bob, how did you nail it so quickly? Have you seen Forever Plaid? I did see Forever Plaid. I saw everything in the 90s. Pretty much. You should be Toronto Bank.

No, I mean, I saw every musical in there. Broadway Bob. Yeah. I saw everything that came through. I even saw some really bad bad stuff along the way like weathering heights the musical yeah like that was horrible but uh

you know but i yeah i would go see everything that's just what we did me and we would and when i was in grade 12 we actually did a school bus trip an arts trip to new york city and we saw um on our we saw a funny thing happen on the way to the forum with Nathan Lane. Yes. And I went to New York City on my own with my buddy. On my own. I'll play it again.

Yeah. It's a good jam. Yeah. So I heard this. It's amazing. And I probably had the Forever Plaid soundtrack as well. Well, I was listening to it again. Because people bought CDs then.

Oh, yeah. Exactly. We bought the CD. And I was listening a few nights ago and I forgot how good it was. Yes, really good. That's what made me think of it. Can I ask you,

did they advertise Forever Plaid in Honest Ed's? Probably. Like, why do I have a feeling, like I remember walking in Honest Ed's and they'd have like posters for certain shows.

Why wouldn't they? It was a Mervish show. Was it a Mervish show? I don't even know. Or is it pre-Mervish? You're right, because if it's a Mervish show, that's why I'm seeing the LSA.

I don't know for sure that it was Mervish. It might have been an independent producer who got into that theater. Because a Mervish show, that's why I'm seeing the LCS. I don't know for sure that it was Mervish. It might have been an independent producer who got into that theater. Because the Mervishes ended up with that theater. It's one of the jams. Tell me this.

It's one of the jams from Forever Plaid. Forever Plaid. I want to be Forever Plaid. Absolutely, yes. They covered Forever Young. Alphaville. Or isn't it Rod Stewart had Forever Plaid Oh yeah

I just made a connection I just made a connection in my first jam To this jam that I have a friend Who was the lead in Tommy His name is Tylee Ross And Tylee played Tommy And Tylee was also in Forever Plaid I just thought of that

But he was also in Miss Saigon Which I did as well I got Miss Saigon too Stay tuned I think we're really off to a good start So that song is called No Not Much I just thought of that. But he was also in Miss Saigon, which I did as well. Everything's connected, Rob. I got Miss Saigon too, so. I know, I guess. Okay, well, stay tuned. I think we're really off to a good start. So that song is called No Not Much for those who want to find it on Spotify or whatever. And was Forever Plaid,

was it a Broadway play originally? It was an off-Broadway. Yeah, it was an off-Broadway. It began in 1989. It's a smaller, yeah. Yeah, and here's a thing that I learned that I didn't know. The musical arrangements

and the vocal arrangements and everything were done by a gentleman named James Raitt, who is the cousin of Bonnie Raitt's dad, John Raitt. So what do you call that to Bonnie Raitt? Just one album of the year again at the Grammy. So James Raitt was in the family.

He did the vocal arrangements for Forever Plaid. That's unbelievable. Let me ask you, Matt. Oh God, why do i forget that name what a doormat god you know doormat welcome maybe we should change it can i change it to welcome it yeah sure i have to ask bob's permission no no he's your intern i'm out of your i can't remember doormat for some reason i don't even call me dm for sure no because then

people think it's like he's dming you and that that's creepy. He's sliding into DMs. I slide into anyone's DMs, please. So welcome, Matt, as you're now going to be known. How are we doing so far? You picked the title. This is your first live toast experience. We're almost halfway done now. How are things going from your perspective? I feel like a true member of this podcast.

Don't get too comfy. I mean, if I might be an upcoming uh substitute for bob uh based on what kid welcome matt do you see what i'm holding in my hand right here tell us what it is bread it's toast actually but okay but bread is toast bread is toast so this is like a hot bread this is a stuffy uh toast do you know why i have this is like the mascot of toast toast believe it or not toast used to feature two different gentlemen before cory and vance here took over do you know who gifted us this mascot for toast no okay well what if i told you are you sitting down what if i

blew your mind right now by telling you, Moose Grumpy, your own mother gave us this. No way. Toast. I need a moment. Toast. Toast. I need a moment.

I need a moment. Okay. So let's get back to the jams. Any more words on Forever Plaid? I'm not trying to rush you at all. No, no, no. Nope. Just happy to have it included in our conversation well absolutely you're the man rob

honestly okay so here we are now with rob no although he is a rob because on linkedin i noticed he's robert willett yes on linkedin but here we are not on linkedin he's bob willett bob any words before i kick out your second i think this one will be a little bit like, although it did play it at the bigger theater, but I think this is a little off the beaten path as well. And it had a couple runs here in Toronto, and I don't think it was a touring one. I know it did tour, but we'll see.

That's about it. I'll leave it at that. Oh, no, that's not it. I thought I had the wrong order. Never mind. Ignore everything I said. This is not off the beaten path at all. Not off the beaten path, everybody.

You got it? Yeah. I love this path. The heat is on in Saigon. The girls are hotter than hell. Whoa. One of these steps here will be the Saigon. God, the tension is high. God, don't mention the smell. Whoa. John, you come to win me, Saigon. I gotta get nothing late as a last souvenir.

I love you, pal, but your bullshit I've had up to here. The heat is on in Saigon. But till they tell us we're gone, I'm going to buy you a girl. You can't buy me a beer. Showtime! The heat is on in Saigon. Somebody, the guy sitting next to me played the actual piano on this. Or not me, this version, but yes, this.

Yeah. Well, we're going to need his insights as well. So here's my take. I'll give you the fan take on it as the guy because of my exposure to those. Again, this is Claude Michael Schoenberg and Alan Boubille. They were originally written in French, right? I think so.

Yeah. They wrote all their... And then somebody would have had to have translated to English and still kept a rhyming scheme, which is phenomenal when you think about it. But they built this theater. This is at the Princess of Wales Theater. Things were going so well in Toronto.

They built this theater specifically for this production because the famous end scene spoiler alert um there's like a life-size helicopter that comes down from the ceiling and onto the stage and they built the this theater for and i can remember being a high school drama student and having a lot of conversations about whether or not it was excessive to build an entire theater for one production that's not going to be there forever. I mean, it's turned out to be just fine for the Mervishes. It's been okay. And I think they were involved

in the original build, right? It was totally them. They totally designed it. Yeah. And so it's just down the street from the Royal Alex. Two blocks away. Two blocks away. So you create this little theater district now. And again, same thing, walking in. So this was my first time going into a more modern theater.

You go in. Brand new theater. Brand new theater. Slick. Special design. Yeah. Back by Frank Stella. Yes, that's right.

Yes. And this particular, the music in this, again, very repetitive. Same as the, but I find a show, there's a character, he's not the main character, but he's called the Engineer. Yeah. He's sort of, well, he's like the narrator. He's the glue that keeps it together.

He's like the narrator. He's the narrator. And he, I find if you have a strong engineer, you have an amazing production. If you have a guy who's not strong, I actually find this show can kind of drag a little bit almost. Kevin Gray was the guy who played... He was our engineer. He was our engineer. He's on this recording too, right?

Yes. It was the worldwide. This is the worldwide one, I think. Yes. So Kevin Gray played the engineer. And I remember being that much of a drama nerd knowing when it was the... And going once and seeing the guy, and the guy was fine, the fill-in. The understudy, yeah. The understudy, thank you. But seeing

Kevin Gray do it, and he basically made the character what it is. Because again, is this another, it played here before it played Broadway, or did it put, it was already on Broadway. It was already on Broadway. And it was already in London, and well, sorry to interject, but Kevin was very different from who did,

originally it was Jonathan Pryce. Right. Right? Who was like a different type of a British actor. Right. The two popes? Yes. Jonathan Pryce.

Yes. Yeah. He was the original engineer. Okay. And so Kevin was like a whole different kind of a persona. His energy was very different. But it was amazing. Yeah.

Yeah, for sure. So that's my take on it is being a drama student, drama nerd doing, you know, in high school, doing like little abner and music man uh and and little shop of horrors all that time and then these are going on and musicals were everything for me for a good five years and when saigon came to toronto that was sort of the mirvish version of garth renovating the pantages bringing in phantom because because miss saigon was the hot new ticket yes it only opened on Broadway in like 91.

So two years later, they built the theater, put in the show. It was amazing. And what was your role? I played keyboard. I played keyboard, the first keyboard,

the piano. Very first. Yeah. Wow. So I had just come off touring with Phantom of the Opera for two years across Canada with Jeff Hislop.

He was our Phantom. Nice. From Today's Special. From Today's Special, exactly. So I left the tour. I was like, I need to settle down. I'm cool. And he was our Phantom. Nice. From today's special. From today's special, exactly. So I left the tour. I was like, I need to settle down. I'm going to move back to Burlington. And I heard Miss Saigon was coming to Toronto.

And it was sort of weird that it was almost like back in my old days when I auditioned for Honeymoon Suite and auditioned for The Spoons. And I called a friend of mine who I knew in the musical theater world. And he's like, well, Miss Saigon's coming. And I don't think they've hired the first keyboard yet. So I contacted the contractor

and I auditioned for the part and I got the gig. You were in the spoons? A long time ago. That was a whole other world. But I auditioned for Miss Saigon

and I played the show for two years and it was just an exciting, it was 30 years ago this year actually. We opened May 26th, 1993. Wow, that's amazing.

Now will you, will your show feature any Miss Saigon? Have you ever taken anything from those shows? Not Miss Saigon. I would in the Moonshine Cafe. Now, will your show feature any Miss Saigon? Have you ever taken anything from those shows? Not Miss Saigon. I would in the Moonshine Cafe. Yeah.

No, there's no Miss Saigon music involved, but there would be in the future for sure. Yeah. It's some great songs. Oh, there really is. Yeah. And Jean-Claude Michel and Alan. Jean-Claude Van Damme?

Yes. The composers. The composers. They came back, and they were always tinkering with the show. They always wanted to improve upon it. And about a year into the run,

they called a big rehearsal and they changed the whole ending of the show. What? Yeah, it was the weirdest thing. So I don't know if you had seen it or would remember,

but they rewrote the whole death end. Really? Yeah. The music, they weren't happy with it. Spoiler alert. I've seen a few.

I'm trying to remember. That's amazing. It's the weirdest thing to me. It barely sounds like the original by Glenn Frey, The Heat Is On. I know. Well, it was different. It's the weirdest thing to me. It barely sounds like the original Glenn Frey, The Heat Is On. I know.

Well, it was different. It's a variation. Yeah, exactly. This is the 12-inch version. Welcome, Matt. Are you familiar with a Burlington band? Their heyday was the 80s, but you can still see them these days.

But are you familiar with a band called The Spoons? Be honest with us. Have you heard of The Spoons? I don't think I've ever heard that band name in my life. I'm sorry. Don't apologize. Time moves on. Time moves slowly, but carries

on. It's okay, Matt. But has your mom heard of The Spoons? Is that a Guess Who song you just sang there? I got that. I'm sorry, I didn't raise them right, Rob. You took me by surprise. Yeah, you took them to the musical theater, but you didn't take him to areas and symphonies and all that good stuff here. Okay.

Yeah, that's right. That's right. Great Winnipeg band. Okay. So that's okay, Matt. I mean, I'm trying to do the math here, but that'd be like talking to Bob and I back in the day and like, do you remember this band from the 50s? The Glenn Miller band.

Do you remember the Glenn Miller band? But we would have known it. Yeah, we would have known it though because we didn't have On Demand. That's the biggest difference. Like that has changed. That's why kids don't... Oh, and that's another question

we're welcome at before we kick out the next jam. Do you ever listen to terrestrial radio? You know, like over the air radio that you pull in through your radio. Through a receiver.

Receiver, that's what it's called. Be honest. There's no shame in this game. Not like barely ever. You've never had a favorite radio station. Yeah, no. No. And you live in Mississauga?

Mm-hmm. Okay, so you've never been like, I like to wake up to Roz and Mocha on 92.5. No. I can't say I have. No, it's fine. It's fine.

17 years old. Why would he? So many other options. Other world. Okay, well, that's not going to change, right, Bob? He's never going to listen to the radio if he's not listening now. I was just reading that they were going to phase out the radios in cars and stuff now.

The AM and FM. Yeah, that's been happening. They've been talking about that for a while. There's actually a whole... Oh, no, no, sorry. There's a whole conference in Detroit called Dash, and it's about the dashboard and it's about who can be... And our position, I say our as radio, as a guy who works in radio,

how important it is that we're on that dashboard. Because if we're not, we're in huge trouble. Well, then Freddie P's right. I wasted 2.5 hours of my life on Thursday night recording with this AM radio station. What was the point? It's dying. What was the point? To help them, I think.

And you got some content out of it. I'm being funny, Bob. It's okay. It's all right. I was happy to scoop it on you. We just need 20 more years radio, then Bob will be done. We're going to get to 20 more years. But I don't even think his audio comes just audio.

He's YouTube. No, absolutely. So many people discover new music now just through the YouTube algorithm. Absolutely. It's wonderful. Why wouldn't you? What is your favorite music welcome at when you're listening to tunes? What are you listening to? That is a question I will take to the

grave unanswered. Okay, well, shout out to Ridley Peterholme. Who's going to kill him? Me or you, Bob? Thanks for participating. Well, that's okay. I can't shake that idea. Apparently, I'm not allowed to rough you up. I was told you can rough up your interns,

but you're not allowed to do that. You can mentally abuse them, though, I think. Traumatize me. Well, okay. I'm going to call him Bingo Matt from now on. All right, so guys, I'm really embarrassed because my third jam is going to be right in the right wheelhouse, but my second jam is a bit of a cheat because I was struggling

to find jams I liked from the musical theater. But, this is a bit of a cheat, but I'm going to play it, and then I'm going to explain why I'm playing it, and it's all going to make sense. Here we go! Thank you. The way you kiss and say goodnight Ray Vaughn, it's a crazy feeling I know it's got me reeling When you say I love you Ray Vaughn Well, Ray Vaughn, it's a crazy feeling

And I know it's got me reeling I'm so glad that you're revealing your love for me. Rave on. Rave on and tell me. Tell me not to be lonely. Tell me you love me only. Rave on. All right, we got some Buddy Holly here.

Shout out to Weezer. So I'm kicking out Ravon. And why am I doing that? Because in my research, my extensive research, I learned that Buddy, the Buddy Holly story, played Toronto in the 90s. Yep. Yep, it did.

I remember my parents going to see it. I never saw it either. I never saw it. My parents went to see it. I never saw it either. Why didn't we see it? I don't know. It was another generation's musical. Yeah, maybe. It would be like a Spoons musical. Who's going to that? All the old people. Moose would drag your son to the Spoons musical. For sure.

I don't actually have the details. If anybody in the chat can tell me, I don't know where it played. It was obviously a smaller theater or whatever, but it was definitely playing in the 90s in Toronto, extended run. Yeah, was it like a permanent? It wasn't a touring show? It was actually part of a longer stay?

I think so. Yeah, interesting. Alright, so here's a fun fact. So, okay, of course, that's Buddy Holly, okay? We all know Buddy, we lost him the day the music died, okay? But did you know, this is a bit of a mind blow, and I'm going to play a bit of an artist named Sonny West. The little things you say and do They make me want to be with you, Ravon

It's a crazy feeling and I know It's got me reeling when you say I love you, Ravon. A little bit of a mind blow maybe is that this is the original version of Ravon, the first version released, and it was written by this gentleman, Sonny West. Ravon is a song by Sonny West and covered by Buddy Holly. Did you know that? I did not, but it doesn't surprise me, though. Like, there's so many, especially in the 50s, there's so much of that going on where somebody

here, I'm going to buy that song, you know, Colonel would go grab somebody, you know, that kind of thing. And they don't waste much time covering songs back in the day, right? So this was recorded in 1958 by this gentleman, Sonny West. And then later that same calendar year, Buddy Holly jumps on it. And the Buddy Holly version became a big hit. That's amazing. It's one of his six charting singles in 1958.

1958 was a big year for Buddy Holly. I just did some quick searching for the Toronto production. So it started in England. Like it's vaguely coming back to me like remembering how that happened. It was in England first. The North American trial was in Toronto

before going to Broadway. There you go. So Toronto was like the testing ground for the show. The guy who played Buddy was a guy named Paul Hipp, which now I remember he looked like Buddy Holly. Right.

And he was, I think he did the show in London, came to Toronto, and then went to Broadway as well. Amazing. Yeah. Amazing. Okay. So final little, not a more mind blow, but just a fun fact, I suppose.

We'll bring down Sonny West. And anybody who had like, listening to music in the 80s probably bought the soundtrack that featured this John Cougar Melon Camp song. We'll see who can name the soundtrack first. Looking at you, Willett.

I don't know what soundtrack this is on. Let's give it a moment. Maybe it'll come back to you. Yeah. I'll bet you owned it. I mean, 80s soundtracks. 80s soundtrack? Yeah. It sounds like it should be Dirty Dancing or something.

But it's not on Dirty Dancing. See, that's a great guess. Dirty Dancing, Footloose, it's not on either of those. I had both of those. Top Gun. No.

That's not a bad guess. Moose, you want to make a guess? Purple Rain. La Bamba? That's a good guess. Oh, that is a good

guess. Because, of course, Richie Valens died. The Big Bopper and Buddy Holly. And Buddy Holly. They died the day that he died.

La Bamba's a very good movie. I don he died. La Bamba is a very good movie. I don't care. La Bamba is a very good movie. He's Filipino. Yeah. Should he be playing a Mexican singer? That's right.

Lou Diamond Phillips? Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. It's acting. It's called acting. It was the 80s. Are you comfortable with that, Rob Proust,

a Filipino gentleman? I am. It's called acting. Yeah, it's called acting. It's called acting. I don't know. So same. Give us it out. It's called Acting. Yeah, it's called Acting. It's called Acting. I don't know. So same. Give us a hint.

Give us a hint. I think a good hint is that you said Top Gun, right, Rob Bruce? Yeah. You've got the right actor. Oh, Cocktail. Cocktail. Oh, great to it. Cocktail, yeah.

Good job. Kokomo was on that. Yeah. Which for some reason, maybe you'll be able to. For some reason, Kokomo has been stuck in my head after listening, maybe you'll be able to, for some reason, Kokomo has been stuck in my head after listening to the Les Mis song. What?

Yeah, I wonder if there's some sort of like, Aruba, Jamaica. Oh yeah, I'm gonna take it to Bermuda. Look down, look down, don't look them in the eye. I don't know why, I feel like there's an association. Also now, Bob,

one day more. Here's a mashup for you. I think your mom told me this, like there's an association. Also, now, Bob. One day more. There's a mashup for you. I think your mom told me this, but when you were a young man, you had a poster of John Stamos on your bedroom wall. No, Hulk Hogan and Michael Jackson, thank you. I fully admit that. No John Stamos.

No, no, I wasn't an Uncle Jesse guy. Because he plays drums on Kofi. Yeah, he plays with beach boys. Yeah, that's right. My mom says hi, by the way. Okay, shout out to Mrs. Bob's wife. Say Marlene. Mrs. Bob's right. My mom says hi, by the way. Okay. Shout out to Mrs. Bob's wife. Say Marlene. Mrs. Bob's mom.

How about does your wife say hi too? No. Okay. No. No, she hates you. No, I'm kidding. Does she? No, I'm kidding.

Okay, so yeah. John Cougar Mellencamp. I think it was only John Mellencamp. I don't know if he had Cougar going on there. John Camp Cougar Mellen. Yeah, it was very confusing for me. It was John Cougar. Yeah.

Then he was John Cougar Mellencamp. And then he was John Mellencamp. And on there. John Camp Cougar Mellon. Yeah, it was very confusing for me. He was John Cougar. Yeah. Then he was John Cougar Mellon Camp, and then he was John Mellon Camp. And now he's John Camp Cougar Mellon. That's the school camp he started for... He's like a poor man's Bruce Springsteen, right? I guess. He's a poor man's... He's fine.

Yeah. I never said he was shit. I just said he's a poor man's Bruce Springsteen. I guess. He doesn't have the band backup, right? Yeah. He's always... he's always he's always no little big man going on

Don Cougar Mellencamp and the F Street yeah there you go F Avenue Brad Faye's on the road right now seeing Bruce Springsteen

cool I heard his new shows are amazing like oh yeah he's like 70 something years old cut him down though

he's did same thing as Pearl Jam he's not doing the three hour yeah, he's like 70 something years old. He goes like three hours. Cut him down though. He's did the same thing as Pearl Jam. He's not doing the three hour shows anymore. He's brought it down quite a bit. Like maybe 20 minutes shaved off that.

Yeah, maybe 20, not a ton. Pearl Jam's still, yeah, they're still doing big long sets but not the three plus

hour shows anymore. Hey, so before I kick out Rob Pruce's final jam, I can't believe we're at the final jam so it just seems to have gone very quickly.

I think that's because Welcome At has been such a bright light. Hello. Honestly, you might have to come back next month. I'm not sure we could do this show without you. And also, I like my coffee black. Black coffee. And not too much starch in the laundry.

Not too much starch. I know what that means. What is starch? I always heard in movies and stuff, too much starch or I know what that means. What is starch? Like I always heard in movies and stuff like too much starch or whatever but where's the starch going?

Is that like a mousse do you know? It goes in your collar. Well, isn't that interesting that you looked at me? That's a good point. Why'd you ask the woman?

Yeah. That's the whole shirt. Because you're the smart one in this room. I don't know any collars. I believe that Jake Garpey is listening to the feed and he is the laundry fellow now.

I will say this. Growing up, I thought ring around the collar would be a much bigger problem than it is. You know, every commercial had ring around the collar was a big thing. Do you have to, when you go to like radio, important radio meetings, do you have a collared shirt on, Bob?

I wear collared shirts, yes. Not all the time. It depends on what's going on. I eat collared greens. Oh, I love collared greens. Do you, Rob Pruse, ever wear collared shirts? Once in a while.

Like weddings? Yeah, funerals, weddings, funerals. All right. Easter. I wore one yesterday, actually. Did you? When I was eating my palm up pasta.

I can't remember the last time. I'm actually invited to a wedding in July and I'm wondering, do I have to wear a collared shirt? It's been a long time. It'll feel nice. Yeah, you'll look good.

Okay, do you remember that song, a lipstick on your collar, throw a tail on you? Is that Tommy Wynette? I don't know who it is actually. I'll have to Google it during this next jam here. But I have a Little Simpsons that I'm going to play. Which we started with as well.

Right, which we opened with. I'm going to play a Little Simpsons, and then I'm going to right away start kicking out Rob Pruse's final jam. So here we go. We've only brought in $5. And that came from Mr. Flanders buying back his own stuff. My LP of Dreamcoat. How I love my coat of many colors.

It was red and yellow and green and brown and scarlet and black and ochre and peach and ruby and olive and violet and... And lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve and cream and crimson and silver and rose and azure and lemon and russet and gray and gold... And purple and white and pink and orange. Red and yellow and green and brown. Scarlet and black and ochre and peach. My yard sale is a failure. I guess I'll have to give everything to the Salvation Army. We don't want it. No.

Tell me it's not true. That's mine. No? That's mine. Oh, for God's sakes. I'm embarrassed. Pretend you didn't hear that, okay? I didn't hear that. We'll fix it in post-match.

Nobody knows what it is except for Rob anyway. I just assumed that was some kind of a Technicolor song. What do I know? Okay. There you go. Shouldn't let the intern work the board. Yeah. Dormat's fault.

Whatever the hell it is. Whatever the hell it is. Dormat, what did you board. Dormat's fault. Whatever the hell. Dormat, welcome at Flimflim. I told you. I don't know what these songs mean. A little low in the mix too. I'll boost it in post. They hide their hopes and their heads in the sand Now I don't say who is wrong, who is right But if by chance you are here for the night Then all I need is an hour or two To tell the tale of a Dreamer Like You We all dream a lot

Some are lucky, some are not But if you think it, want it, dream it Then it's real You are what you feel But all that I say Can be told another way In the story of a boy Whose dream came true

And it could be you I closed my eyes I closed my eyes Drew back the curtain to see for certain what I thought I knew. Far, far away. Far, far away. Someone was sleeping.

But the world was sleeping. Any dream will do. I wore my coat with golden lining, bright colors shining. Wonderful and new. And in the east. And in the east. The dawn was breaking. And the world was waking. Any dream will do.

A crash of drums. a flash of light. My golden coat flew out of sight. The colors faded into darkness. I was left alone. May I return. May I return May I return To the beginning The light is dimming

And the dream is true The world and I The world and I We are still waiting, still hesitating. Any dream will do. Any dream. Any dream. Wow.

Any dream will do. Any dream. Any dream. Any dream. Any dream. Any dream. Any dream will do. Thank you.

Thank you. Honestly, thank you guys. You caught it right away. You were singing along. You knew it. Wow. Okay. Talk to me, Rob Pruce, about this fine song from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor

that was I believe the first Mervish production that came in after Phantom had started and he brought it in from England

it was a huge success the newer version was playing in London but Garth brought Donny Osmond in to be the star, to play Joseph, and it opened in 92 at the Winter Garden Theatre. Wow.

Was that the first one that came to the Winter Garden once it was refurbished? I think he was doing the Winter Garden and the Elgin around the same time. Yeah. That sounds right. I saw the Elgin. Winter Garden.

Yeah. Elgin, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I saw the Elgin. That's right. Yeah, the bigger one. Yeah, because the Winter Garden, I don't think it has a... It was the small one.

Yes, yeah, yeah. That's Yeah. Yeah. Cause the Winter Garden does, I don't think it was a small one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Well, Canada Kev points out that Donnie Osmond is a little bit rock and roll. Yeah. He's not a little bit country.

And Leslie says Donnie Osmond shares the same birthday as her. And I've, I've heard Donnie talk about the fact that this show came along in his life. I mean, he was in his mid early mid thirties, I guess at that point. And, you know,

had been for many years, a teen idol and all that, but this show sort of gave him another life in his, in his musical career and his, and kept him going, you know, like it's funny. I remember when it was starting and we,

on the phantom tour, we all were in Toronto, like for some time off. And I remember going to see like the preview performance or something. And it was so exciting to see the show. Cause I didn't really know the show, but Angela Weber, it was the very first musical he wrote And it was so exciting to see the show because I didn't really know the show. But Andrew Lloyd Webber,

it was the very first musical he wrote when he was a teenager, right? Yeah. Started off as like a 20 minute musical for his high school. And then he kept expanding it and expanding it. Yeah, him and Tim Rice. It was their first time. And like my favorite musical of all time

is Jesus Christ Superstar. Me too. And the movie is, I just listened to it the other day in the car. Oh, nice. For Easter. Yes, of course, for Easter. Tis the season.

Yes, tis the Jesus dying season. So watch it. Don't worry, he comes back. I know. Spoiler alert. Exactly. But thinking about, so I've heard Andrew Leroy talking about that, particularly thinking that Joseph was the first thing they did.

Wow. But they were also, you know, they weren't just writing it. They were talking about how it was going to be staged too because he talked about, going back to me talking about the Les Mis using the rotating stage, they would use an old record player

as the stage, they'd make models. And yeah, when they first started, and that's how they kind of came up with that, they came up with that idea and using that. And then yeah, the next musical they wrote together was

Jesus Christ Superstar. That's amazing. Yeah, so Joseph became a favorite of mine and I got to do the show in the late 90s. I did it in 98 in Salt Lake City with Donnie. So he did the show in Toronto. Oh, that's the land of the Mormons. Exactly. The land of the Osmonds. So he did the show in Toronto from 92 to

97 basically and then he left the show and then he didn't do it again and then the next year the tour was still going on and they came to Salt Lake City and he's like I'd like to do it in my hometown and I got asked I got to play the keyboard

for that what an honor for you yeah it was super cool and Marie came in the pit and she like snuck beside me get in the pit and try to love someone

and she got up on the conductor's podium to like make Donnie laugh at the end of one of the shows oh that's great super cool yeah it was fun wow okay

it's funny just last time we did Toast which wasn't that long ago my brother was over yesterday because my son's ninth birthday party, and then I said, oh, what's going on tomorrow? I go, yeah, Toast is back. He goes, didn't we just do Toast? We did. It was close, yeah. And I said, well,

Rob Pruce is in town, so we have to make it. That's right. A week late and then a week early. But we kicked out Carpenters last time, right? Yes, we did. That's brother, sister, and then you have the Osmonds. Okay, so But we kicked out Carpenters last time, right? Yes, we did. Spring Jams. That's brother, sister. Yeah. And then you have the Osmonds. Yes.

Okay, so what's her name? Who's the Osmond that we're talking about? Marie. Marie, okay. Marie's not in the Osmonds, right? The Osmonds are the boys? It was the boys, yeah. Right.

Marie wasn't invited in that group. But she and Donnie had many hits in the 70s. When I was a little kid, I had some of their singles that I loved. Is that a little bit country, a little bit rock and bit rock and roll that was on their tv show yeah right i think i have puppy love on vinyl that was donnie yeah yeah yeah wow marie did a cover of paper roses when she was a kid it was beautiful song yeah and they had some songs some duets they did together as well so what other josephs did you get to work with because for a while there it was like a rotating cast of former pop stars that's the only only one I did. David Cassidy. That's right. David did it in New York, I think, as well.

Michael Damien. Did he? Oh, yeah, he did the tour as well. That's right. That's right. Michael Damien. Danny Romelotti. That's right.

Is that his soap opera? That's his Y&R name. I know he did the cover of Rock On. Yes. It was good. Yeah, it was on CFTR. And what else? Rock...

There's some connection there. Who was the other actor we just named before Michael Damien? John Stamos. David Cassidy. And our next song has a David Cassidy connection as well. Okay, then we're going to get to the next one. But David Cassidy owned a horse. And FOTM Perry Lefkoe suggested he name the horse Peter the Gross

after Peter Gross, who was big on horses. He suggested it was a David Cassidy. And David Cassidy said, okay. So David Cassidy owned Peter the Gross after Peter Gross, who was big on horses. He suggested it to David Cassidy. And David Cassidy said, okay. So David Cassidy owned Peter the Gross. No way. And that's all named after FOTM Hall of Famer, Peter Gross. I want to say hi to Canada Kev.

Not only did he help me get my car out of the snow last time I saw Rob Pruitt live at Oakville at the Moonshine Cafe, but he's here on the live stream. Hi, Canada Kev. He's saying here, yeah. And he's a on the live stream. He's talking to us. He's saying here. Yeah.

And he's a good boy. And Ian Service here who loves that song we just kicked out and says that Donny Osmond was the man for a while. Yeah. Yeah. He had a big moment there. Yeah. All right.

You ready, Bob? Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Before I kick this off. No. Again, now going back to this one's a little off the beaten path. I think you were.

We just heard it about 20 minutes ago. Yeah, we heard about 20 seconds of it. It was, yeah, so this, but this did play at the Royal Alex Theatre a couple times and with a couple different casts. And I know, again, we have another connection

with Rob Pruce here, but this really stood out to me. Oh, yeah. Tell me it's not true Say it's just a story Something on the news Tell me it's not true Though it's here before me

Say it's just a dream Say it's just a scene From an old movie from years ago From an old movie with Marilyn Monroe Say it's just some clowns Two players in the limelight Bring the curtain down Say it's just two clowns Who couldn't get their lives right

Say it's just a show on the radio That we can turn over And start again That we can turn over I'm going to ask Moose Grumpy if she has any idea what this is, because I know Rob knows it. So I'm not alone here. Okay.

Oh, whoa. Hold on. It's beefing up here. Yes. This is not, admittedly, not the best. I don't know if this is what version I sent you here. It's good, though. It's good.

Yeah. All right. What is this, Bob? So this is the final song of a play called Blood Brothers, which is called Tell Me It's Not True, I believe is the name of the song. Tell Me It's Not True. Yeah. This is written by a guy by the name of Willie Russell.

And he also played the narrator in London's West End. He played him his own. Yeah, he did. Yeah, yeah. So the version I saw of this show that I remember, and the reason why it stood out to me was, so it had an American touring version with David and Sean Cassidy and Petula Clark playing the voice. More Cassidy talk.

Yeah. And the one I saw come through had David Cassidy in it with Amy Skye playing the female voice. FOTM Amy Skye. Yeah. And Michael Burgess was the narrator for this. So again, the guy who played Jean Valjean, very well known in the city, sang a lot of Toronto Maple Leaf Game anthems.

So it's a story about a set of twins that are separated at birth. And it's heavily steeped in a lot of... There's a whole song about shoes upon the table. There's a whole thing about bad luck and about how it's bad luck. It's obviously to separate. It's about a poor London woman who she has to give one of her kids

up. She can't keep both. She can't afford it. And then there's the old wives tale of when if ever the twins meet, they will die. Like that, they will, the twins who are separated at birth will die. And I live like an old wives tale. an old wife yeah exactly so the uh i can still remember seeing the ads in the newspaper remember newspapers and it said 27 performances 27 standing ovations and it was and i was like

well they're just bragging me i'm gonna go i'm not gonna stand up maybe i'll stand up if i want to stand up and if you've been to the theater, you know that often, usually the standing ovation comes at the end of the curtain call. So the thing ends, everybody's done, people start coming out,

and then when the, usually the two leads come out, people then, everybody stands up and they do the big, this is the only show, well not the only, I've seen something else,

but one of the only shows when that last note hits and everything's done and it goes dark, you are so compelled to stand up. It is such a phenomenal ending. Isn't it crazy?

It is one of the most powerful moments I've ever had in a live theater is the end of Blood Brothers. I know. The whole show's good. The end of it

makes the show great. But it's because of the ending. Oh, God. The ending is so good. I dare you to see a good production of this and not stand up. It's that good.

But it's because of the writing. Really, it's the story and the subject matter as well. Would Cam Gordon applaud at the end of Blood Brothers? Well, he's dead inside, so it's hard to say. It's not about laughing. It's not about being happy. Oh, that's true. It's about feeling the emotion.

I still can't imagine it. I'm just closing my eyes. I don't see him. But about who knows. Yeah, who knows? And you played... I played the't imagine it. I'm just closing my eyes. I don't see him. But about who knows. Yeah, who knows. But yeah, and you played. I played the show.

Yeah. So when it came to Toronto, it was the spring of 93 that it started. Yeah. And I had just come off. So I just told you the story about auditioning for Miss Saigon. Yeah. While that happened, I got the job of playing Blood Brothers. Right.

The Royal Alex. Yes. And I didn't know anything about it, but it's like, this show's coming in. And it was a limited run at that point. Yes. And what they did was they brought in the original London cast.

Right. So the woman, I think, singing on this version was Stephanie Lawrence. Right. She played the mom. Okay.

The guy who, and then the guy who played the one brother was named Conor O'Neill. And so it was all British. And then they replaced them all with the people you mentioned. Yes.

So I think that, I think the show closed and then it became a touring production and then they reopened and Cassidy came back and it was at the. And then they replaced them all with the people you mentioned. Yes. So I think that, I think the show closed and then it became a touring production and then they reopened and Cassidy came back and it was at the Alex again. Yes. But I was, I had that same experience. The band,

there was, it was a small band. It was like an eight piece band. We were up. Remember the set was like an apartment building. Yes. The two sides and there were windows. We were on one side.

I was on the side with the woodwinds and maybe a violin or something. No, there was no violin. It was woodwinds and saxophone and stuff. The other side across the stage was the conductor playing keyboard, the other keyboard, and the drummer and the bass player. So I had a little monitor to see the conductor.

But out the window, I could watch the show. Wow. Every performance I watched. And I had that experience every time. It's amazing. And I was in tears at the end of every show. Even though I knew what was going to happen.

They were so freaking good. Yes. And like I got to watch the audience have that experience every time but playing the music was the same. It was like that exciting

and it was like an honor. It was exhausting I bet. Oh it really was but I loved it so much. It's a great show. Yeah. It was first done in 83. Yes.

It's like a 40 year old show but it's just timeless. But it's like a 40 year old show, but it's, it's just timeless. But it's like a play with some music. Yes. Because the fact, the fact that the playwright wrote the music makes it sort of interesting that it's so well interspersed into the, into the show.

Right. I'm sold. Like, where is this right now? Nowhere. I need to see it right now. I was looking it up. It was on the,

in London's West end in 2019. I think they do keep coming. And I think they keep bringing it back in London. And at one point, it was like one of the longest running musicals too because they kept... Yeah, 20 years. It played 20 years in London's West End. Yeah.

Well, you guys did a good sales job on that one. And I picked that song as well and I got bumped. Did you? Oh, you got bumped? Oh, that's the one. I couldn't remember what it was. You had already got it. So I just want to say quickly, I also wanted to talk Rent.

I don't know. I think Rent was one of my favorites from the 90s. It would have played also wanted to talk rent. I don't know. Like, like I think rent, rent was one of my favorites from the nineties. Yeah. Uh, it would have played later nineties, obviously. Yes,

for sure. Uh, there was, it was really hard. I want, I wanted to include those two. Yeah. So I got like the two bigger ones because of how big they were in the city.

Exactly. And then, yeah, this, well, we're not done yet. You know, I get,

I get one more jam here. So when we introduced, yeah, see Rob, I'm here too, man. Okay. You guys overlooking me here

because i don't know what i'm talking about but i will say this yeah but you did showboat showboat was a really good one thank you okay thank you yeah so the first thing i did was what what what musicals played toronto in the 1990s that was the first step and then i had a list and then i looked at them and said do i know any songs from any of these musicals and one did jump at me and there was a song i knew like this, this is a song I knew. Like, it transcended the stage. And it made its way into the zeitgeist. And I pulled it down and said, I like this song. And it got parodied everywhere.

And it was just one of those songs where I thought, okay, I'm going to close with this jam. Because I legit like this song. Are you ready? Are you ready, Welcome Matt? Are you ready for my final jam? Are you ready, Moose Grumpy? Are you ready? You need to hear that cheering. Where are you, Moose Grumpy? Are you ready?

I'm ready. Are you ready, Bob Willett, for my final jam? Let's do this. I'm looking forward to this. Rob Bruce, Mr. Musical, are you ready? Let's do it. This is a jam right here. This is a good fucking song. Woo!

Bring it up, bring it up. 525,600 minutes. 525,000 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes. How do you measure, measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights In cups of coffee, in inches In miles, in laughter, in strife

In 525,600 minutes How do you measure a year in the life? How about love? How about love? How about love? See, this is the jam, right? Maddie is not... Yeah, this is a good song.

I'm not saying all those songs weren't good. Oh, they all sucked. I hate them all. Well, I took a few naps, okay? This fucking song, Seasons of Love, okay? Jonathan Larson. This is from Rent. Rent is like, and I haven't seen Rent, but I saw Tick, Tick, Boom, the movie.

Did anyone else here see Tick, Tick, Boom? No. You should see it. Bob, you'd love Tick, Tick, Boom. What is it? It's about the guy, Jonathan Lick Tick Boom it's about the guy Jonathan Larson because he dies

like the night before this thing debuts or whatever on Broadway so okay so go see Tick Tick Boom it's fucking great it's got Andrew Garfield

oh cool and he's really good I know about yeah yeah yeah it was great it was really great listen to this fucking song this is a good jam

so lyrics, music it's all Jonathan Larson. It's based on some opera from 1896, but it tells, you know, not that AIDS was around in 1896, but it tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists struggling to survive and create a life in Lower Manhattan's East Village in the thriving days of Bohemian Alphabet City under the shadow of HIV and AIDS.

So this jam, it's a big fucking jam. When we were going to kick out sad jams, I was going to pick one song, Glory, from this soundtrack. From Rent. Yeah, from Rent, because it's an unbelievably sad song

so I believe this is a Mirvish presentation from 1997 1998 maybe 96 but do you know Rob Proust

is my about right this is a Mirvish yeah like we're probably mid to late 890s it's hard to say when it came here because I believe

it started in New York in the 96 maybe if only there was a device that was small and portable that we could type into. It's a Mervish presentation. Can I tell you my rent story? Yeah, go ahead

and then I'm going to do some mind blows. So I have a couple of rent stories but my first rent story is I'm such a nerd. Again, it's 1998. Yeah. Okay.

I know because I take my car, my 1975 Buick Century, which I bought off the 75? 75 Buick Century. We drive down and their tickets go on sale at the Royal Alex. Okay.

Oh, yes. Yes. And they did a first 100 people get a free CD, get a this, that. So I'm such a nerd. Me and my buddy go down to do this at like six in the morning. I left the bingo hall. You know, we went and had some lovely... We left... 97.

You could have said that in the microphone, Moose. You're making me read what's going on here. But when tickets first went on sale, you could line up if you wanted, so I got them. While we were in that lineup, the Tragically Hip announced a show at the concert hall at the Masonic Temple.

You had to line up to go get that. So I went from there to go line up and saw the Tragically Hip that night at the concert hall. That's amazing. And up in the,

so up, and we took two people from the lineup with us because we had the radio on and it was on Edge 102 when Humble and Fred announced. I wasn't an intern then yet in 97.

Wow. And then off we went. Were they number one in 97? They were number one in 97. Then I got there, they were never number one again. Coincidence? Yeah, maybe. I hope. Number one, though, but in that demo, if you drill in, it's like... 1834.

Yeah. Dudes, 1834, who also like hockey. They were legit number one in 1834. Beyond that, no. They were legit number one in 1834. Beyond that, no. But everyone's number one in radio. Like, they just have to find that demo. Any marketing, any marketer can do that with anything.

Shadow to the Moment Lab. Sorry, go ahead. But that's an amazing story. And then, but just to top it off, to make the most Toronto experience possible, we get there early so we can get in. We get up and there's like a side loft kind of balcony area because it was at the concert hall.

And at the end of our row is Ty Domi, Darcy Tucker, Kurt, not... Swinghammer. No. Russell. Not Kurt Russell. 411 Chalk Canadian, Toronto, I believe. Kurt Muller.

Kirk, not Kurt. From Kingston, Ontario. Yeah, a whole bunch of Leafs. So we Muller. Kurt Muller. Kirk, not Kurt. From Kingston, Ontario. Yeah, a whole bunch of Leafs. So we ended up drinking beers with a whole bunch of Leafs watching the tragedy happen. I love it. And all because I was already awake in the morning to line up to get tickets to see Rent.

Wow. Thank you, Rent. Steve Leggett's on the live stream, live.torontomike.com, and says that this song, Seasons of Love, does nothing for him. I will tell you, I'm not a big musical guy. I'm learning a lot, loving it.

But that song does something for me. I think Seasons of Love is a great song and powerful, packs a punch, and it's like, boom, it lifts me up. My heart rate goes up. I'm digging it. Now, I'm going to just do a little fun fact about one of the many great parodies of that song. Was anybody listening to the episode?

Listening. Watching the episode of The Office when Michael Scott left? By his own admission, this person actually tried marijuana in college. So, the Doobie Doobie Pothead Stoner of the Year Award goes to Andy Bernard! There's a lot of people I'd like to thank, but I think we all actually want to thank you, Michael. Oh! Thank you. I mean, we actually really all want to thank you

for everything. Oh my god, something's happening. Nine million, nine hundred986,000 minutes. We actually sat down and did the math. 9,986,000 minutes. That's how many minutes that you've worked here. In costumes. And impressions.

In meetings. In costumes, and impressions, in meetings, in cups of coffee, for birthdays, more meetings and email boards you made us read. 9,986,000 minutes. That's like watching Die Hard

80,000 times. You hit me with your car. You helped me get off drugs. I watch you when you sleep. I forgive you for kissing me. Remember to call. I got to remember to call. Remember to call.

Call. Music here for life. Remember to call. Text or call or email or call. Measure. It's Will Ferrell, by the way. to call yeah you've got to remember to call remember to call nice yeah okay that's good

there you go and that was actually a great episode of The Office now one last thing The Office lore is that Steve Carell didn't know

that that was going to happen see that's why Moose is here she knows the lore. Love it. That, you know what, even makes it pack a bigger punch. Sorry, Steve Leggett, but it does pack a punch, okay?

Now, when I think of parodies of that song from Rent, I actually always think of this. Everyone has AIDS. AIDS, AIDS, AIDS. AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS. AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS. Everyone has AIDS. And so this is the end of our story. And everyone is dead from AIDS.

It took from me my best friend. My only true pal. My only bright star. He died of AIDS. Well, I'm going to march on Washington, lead the fight and charge the brigades. There's a hero inside of all of us. I'll make them see everyone has AIDS. My father, AIDS.

My sister, AIDS. My uncle and my cousin and her best friend, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS friend The gays and the straights and the whites and the spades Everyone has AIDS My grandma and my dog are all blue The Pope has got it and so do you Come on everybody, we got quilting to do We're gonna break down these barricades Everyone has AIDS. AIDS. AIDS. AIDS. AIDS. AIDS.

AIDS. AIDS. AIDS. AIDS. AIDS. AIDS. AIDS. AIDS.

AIDS. AIDS. AIDS. Welcome back. Did you ever see Team America, World Police? I think a single clip several years ago. Was it that sex clip? The sex scene.

That's one of the epic sex scenes in cinema history. Is that what you saw? Don't believe so, no. Okay, thank goodness. Okay, good. Your mom's sex scene. That's one of the epic sex scenes in cinema history. Is that what you saw? Don't believe so, no. Okay, thank goodness. Your mom's right there. Did anyone else here see Team America World Police? Sure. Just checking. Okay.

Welcome, Matt. So we're done our jams now. You chose the topic. Did we deliver? Like a cess, be honest. Did we deliver? Like assess. Be honest. Did we deliver? One of your songs is a bit of a stretch since you said it was like 1987. Which one was that? I'm actually offended

right now, Welcome Man. No lasagna for you. No! All of my jams are from musical productions that played in Toronto in the 1990s. I followed the rules to a T. So if you don't have any more information on where I went wrong, I'm going to have to mute your microphone.

No, please. You're hardcore, bud. Bob, did you have a good time? You guys, you and Rob were in two minutes. Yeah, I mean, it's nice. You're knowledgeable on this shit. He knows his shit. It's neat talking to some,

like I said, I'm a passionate music fan. I can't play any music, but I know, I feel like I can tell when something has a visceral reaction and sitting next to somebody

who's played it and really having that conversation, it's great. I feel very fortunate to have such a conversation. When is Rob Pruitt going to be in your basement?

Yeah, good question. You know what? Yeah, you know what? My basement's... Why don't you just record it now? I'll do this and you can record it. Sure, yeah, yeah. Do you have the intro there for me? No, good question. You know what? Yeah, you know what? My basement's... Why don't you just record it now? I'll do this and you can record it. Sure, yeah, yeah.

Do you have the intro there for me? No, you can do it in post. Yeah, yeah. It's fun to talk about Toronto musicals though, but you are correct. Walmart. Walmart.

Walmart. Walmart. Walmart. That's his name. Walmart. Welcome back. Because some of these musicals did begin in the 80s,

but it took a while to get them into Toronto, right? Which like... They also played in the 90s. There was no rules that they couldn't play in the 80s. Exactly. They just had did begin in the 80s but it took a while to get them into Toronto right which like they also played in the 90s there was no rules in the 90s they just had to play in the 90s that's right

because sometimes it's a catch up game when a show starts either in New York or in London it takes a little while to get it moving somewhere else so we were always playing catch up

mind you some of them like your showboat which began in Toronto in the 90s was something that began in the 20s so already it's like oh my god it's so many years old but it was alive in the 90s, was something that began in the 20s. So already it's like, oh my God,

it's so many years old. But it was alive in the 90s. Want to hear some more productions that we didn't touch on, but City of Angels. Yes. That played at the O'Keeffe in the summer of 92.

Wasn't that Crazy for You? Crazy for You and then Murphish Productions. Lots of, the Will Rogers Follies. Okay. Kiss of the Spider Woman. Yes. Developed by Drabinsky again.

Yeah. Wow. Passion. Beauty and the Beast. Do you guys know Passion? Oh yeah. I don't of the Spider Woman. Yes. Developed by Drabinski again. Yeah. Wow. Passion. Beauty and the Beast. Do you guys know Passion? I don't know about Beauty and the Beast. Is that true? Beauty and the Beast and Lion King. I played Beauty and the Beast. Okay. Of course. Lion King was 2000. Sunset Boulevard. We

talked about that. That was Andrew Lloyd Webber jam up at the Ford Center. What about Titanic? Did that happen? Yes. I never saw it, but yeah. No, it was not good. Not good. Okay, you mentioned Lion King.

Fosse. Oh, a production of Fosse would have been in the, that might be 80s. I have it as premiering in the summer of 1998. Oh, wow. That's amazing. And then playing. And I mean, there were touring productions

that came through Toronto as well. Like I played a production of Starlight Express, which was an obscure Andrew Lloyd Web production of Starlight Express, which was an obscure. And I came to the O'Keeffe Center in 19. So I played it in the summer of 90. So it was in the 90s, but it was a it was a touring production. I wanted to we talked about I saw a touring version at the O'Keeffe Center of Jesus Christ Superstar with Ted Neely and Carl Anderson. I saw that up at the Danforth Music Hall.

They came back. Yes, I saw that. That one just had Ted Neely didn't have Carl Anderson. Oh, no up at the Danforth Music Hall. They came back as well. Yes, I saw that. That one just had Ted Neely. Didn't have Carl Anderson. Oh, no. You know who it was? Dennis DeYoung. It was Dennis DeYoung

from Styx. Oh, my God. Wow. He played Punch's pilot. Yeah. But now that Mike has the taste of musical theater, can we get a deep dive

with Rob and just Phantom? Sure. I'll come back and play. Well, Phantom's closing on Broadway this weekend. Maybe Toronto Moosed? Episode one. There you go. It feels like a big gaping hole to me tonight. We didn't talk. We didn't talk about Phantom at all. sure I'll come back and play well Phantom's closing on Broadway this weekend maybe Toronto Moosed episode one it feels like a big

gaping hole to me tonight we didn't talk we didn't talk about Phantom at all Phantom all night Phantom and Cats both do you want to do like I can play

I can fade this down if you want to do five minutes on that for Moose you want to on what I don't know what are we talking about

Phantom you got questions do you have questions Moose yeah be specific because I will fade this down have you ever done this before have you ever questions Moose yeah be specific because I will fade this down have you ever done this before have you ever faded the end

I'm sure I have it's been a thousand 234 episodes I'm sure it's happened so Moose is going to ask Rob some specific questions she's checking her the phone

the notes on her phone no it's not it's not specific questions it's just the music the Phantom the music in Phantom did you write the music

in Phantom Rob well not all of it I mean I gave the credit to Andrew. Not all of it. Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, Andrew wanted final say, like, you know, so it was his name. But, so I'm sort of, yeah.

And this may be sacrilegious to a lot of Phantom fans, but Sarah Brightman wasn't my favorite. I enjoyed it much more in Toronto. With Rebecca Kane? Yes. Yes. And our Phantom... Slightly less of a soprano.

Yeah, for sure, for sure. When I did the tour with Jeff Hislop from. Today's special. Yeah. Our Christine was named Patty Cohen Hour. And she was the alternate Christine on Broadway. And then she and Garth got her up to Toronto to do the tour. And so we were in Vancouver and in Calgary.

She was amazing too. But yeah. Sarah was a little. Her sound was a little extreme soprano. One of my not proud moments was Phantom though when it came back through Toronto in 2006. I had a five month old who didn't sleep through the night and we went to Phantom and it was lovely and warm and comfortable in the seats. And when the chandelier spoiler alert crashes

that's when I woke up. Before you say it. I actually slept through the first act of Phantom because I was that exhausted. I think Phantom's a little sleepy. Especially act two. Wishing you were somehow here again.

It's a dark moment before it picks up to the end. It's overrated, right? It's personally not even in my top 10 favorite musicals. I don't enjoy it. I did get to play the show with Paul Stanley from Kiss when he came in.

Oh, that's cool. That was super cool. He came in in 99 or 2000. I can't remember that. Yeah, and I got to play a few shows with that because two of my friends were the leads with him

and I got to meet him after backstage in his dressing room and that was exciting. Any last questions for Rob Pruse from You Moose Grumpy this is your moment here I'm not gonna do an episode on this like if you have a question now now's the time now's the fucking time yeah we'll talk we'll talk okay this conversation will continue I want you to be fulfilled by your visit to my basement, Moose. Thank you for coming. Phrasing, Michael! All right. And thank you.

Thank you. Welcome, Matt. You did a great job. And I enjoyed meeting you and having you here. Thank you for suggesting it. Yeah. It was a good one for us.

So have you decided to change careers now that you were... How do you feel about being around all these wonderful journalists? I think I'm the most journalist of the group. You're actually a journalist.

You are. Yeah, you are. Thank you, Ron. You are. I've never been in a room with more journalist-like people. I've never been in a room with journalists, so you are off to a great start here. If you were here last week, I had both David Schultz and Gear Joyce here. Two journalists. He has no idea who they are. Yeah, I had both David Schultz and Gear Joyce here. Two journalists.

He has no idea who they are. Yeah, I have no idea who they are. As I said, this interest was very spur of the moment. And that brings us to the end of our 1,234th show. 1234. Wow. Almost 1236. You know, I'm getting so many fucking questions, emails, tweets. 1234. Wow. Almost 1236. You know, I'm getting so many fucking questions,

emails, tweets about 1236, 1236. Mark Weisblatt's not my guest for 1236. Not that he's not invited, but he doesn't want to come over for 1236. So stop asking me. Because it's starting to sound like I've kicked him out or something. The door's open.

He's got a key. He can come here. He can come here. He can do every episode. I can't make him come here. Am I supposed to kidnap him and tie him up? Yes. That's how I got welcome at in my basement.

But okay, I've said too much. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Rob is at Rob Pruse X. The X is important. Bob is at Bob Pruse X. The X is important. Bob is at Bob Willett. Rhymes of Gillette.

It's Willett. Matt, are you anywhere? Like, how can we follow you? Are you on Instagram? Where are you? Are you on the TikTok with the kids? No, I'm not on TikTok

surprisingly. Okay, you're nowhere. Yeah, I'm nowhere. I am off the grid. No one can find me. Your employer's gonna love that Right, Bob? Exactly

Moose, are you at Moose Grumpy? I know, that's why I call you Moose Grumpy So follow Moose at Moose Grumpy Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta Mineris is at Mineris Season 4 of Yes, We Are Open is available now.

Recycled by Electronics are at EPRA underscore Canada. And The Moment Lab are at The Moment Lab. I'm happy to introduce you to Matt and Jared at The Moment Lab. They're here for you.

And Ridley Funeral Home, they're also here for you. They're at Ridley FH. Brad Jones at Ridley Funeral Home, they're also here for you. They're at Ridley FH. Brad Jones at Ridley Funeral Home absolutely loved doing Joseph and the amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat when he was in high school. We did a whole episode of Life's Undertaking

about it. It changed his life. Go, go, go, Mike! You know what they say. See you all next week. The class struggle explodes. And I'll play this guitar just the best that I can. Maybe I'm not and maybe I am.

But who gives a damn because everything is coming up rosy and gray. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow warms me today. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine. And it won't go away because everything is rosy and gray. Well, I've kissed you in France And I've kissed you in Spain And I've kissed you in places I better not name And I've seen the sun go down

On Sacré-Cœur But I like it much better going down on you Yeah, you know that's true Because everything is coming up rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold

but the smell of snow warms us today And your smile is fine and it's just like mine and it won't go away We'll see you next time. guitar solo