Comedy Director Tyler Burns Shares How To Create A Great Dynamic On Set

This week we are having a drink at Jellies on Quinpool Road in Halifax with screen writer and director Tyler Burns, and the conversation goes from bar stories and many random interjections to the real deal on making Canadian comedy. 

Tyler walks us through what it took to build a six-episode series and then finding a place to put it where audiences would see it. Trailerparkboysplus.com happened to be the perfect spot for this raunchy fun comedy to go. 

We get through a lot in this one, including how fast a million dollar budget disappears, the producer director-dynamic, Tylers take on directing and some candid takes on the film industry up north. 

Open Mic'ers and is available now. You can wathch the whole series for less than a Starbucks order: https://www.trailerparkboysplus.com/open- mic-ers-1/season:1/videos/tpb-open-mic-ers-ep1-with-credits-hd-mp4

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Your Dream Home Does Not Have to Be Just A Dream. Today's show is brought to you by Kimia Nejat of Exit Reality Metro. Kimia is the realtor who knows how to get things done. Buying or Selling? Go to afternoonpint.ca/kimia and we will set up an introduction

Does Your Business Need a Boost With Foot traffic? Hosts for An Event? Or Even Actors For A Production? Or the Production itself? Go to https://www.afternoonpint.ca/services and see some of the services that the Afternoon Pint team offers. 

Transcript

Cold Open And Introductions

SPEAKER_04 0:14

The script that I haven't sold yet, but it's written. I wrote a pilot and it's it's being chopped around and I think it's gonna go through. It was actually inspired by one of your episodes.

SPEAKER_03 0:26

That's an honor. Okay. So yeah, yeah, so you if you have a gist of the show, we're just gonna introduce ourselves and just roll from there. Yeah. Okay. Matt, I don't have any of your did you send it to me?

SPEAKER_04 0:36

Yeah, I did.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

Right after you sent it to me.

SPEAKER_04 0:38

I love in the thumbnails, like it's always like Matt researching and you drinking, Mike.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

Okay, I can tell who you you even loved it.

SPEAKER_04 0:46

Serious.

SPEAKER_03 0:49

There it is. It says retrieving now. Okay. I hadn't I hadn't that chance to open it. All right. That's just that's just a guide to keep us on the rails. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Cheers. Cheers. All right. Welcome to the we did a bad clink. Cheers. Cheers. Welcome to the afternoon plank. I'm Mike Tobin. I am Matt Conrad. And who do we have here?

SPEAKER_04 1:08

I'm Claudia Chendrov, leader of the NDP. Oh no, sorry, that was last week.

SPEAKER_03 1:11

Oh no, that was a month ago now.

SPEAKER_04 1:15

Get with the program. Apologize. Actually, that's the name of the very first film I ever shot. It was Get with the Program.

SPEAKER_03 1:20

Get with the Program.

SPEAKER_04 1:21

Because my name is Tyler Burns.

SPEAKER_03 1:22

We're going straight into your biography here. You haven't given your name yet. Oh, you did that on purpose. Oh no. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

That's 2006, man.

SPEAKER_04 1:29

You've really done your research.

SPEAKER_03 1:30

Who are you, man?

SPEAKER_04 1:32

Tyler Burns, filmmaker, director. Tyler Burns.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Jay Lizzley alumni. Yeah. So you guys went to school together? Yeah. Same grade? I was going to ask you that. Was it the same grade? No, I how old are you? 38. Yeah. So you were, I thought so. You were in my sister's grade. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:47

What were you what year did you graduate?

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Uh oh three. Oh, did you?

SPEAKER_04 1:50

Okay, you were a year ahead or two years ahead. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

And you graduated too? Surprisingly, yes. Just joking. Just joking. Shocking. Sorry. I'm just having a lot of things. Shockingly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:58

Yeah. Oh, I don't remember you from high school, but I I remembered your face. So when I saw your face, I was like, there was some memory of that. So we might have. Did you work at Sobies at one time?

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Never worked at Sobies, but yeah, I know that you did. That's okay. Yeah. So I remember I remember being at Sobeys because obviously we go to Sobies. Yeah. Of course. It was the grocery store in the community.

SPEAKER_04 2:16

Back in the day, man. That's where everyone hung out.

Recording At Jellies On Quinpool

SPEAKER_03 2:18

Absolutely. And I guess I gotta plug the spot we're at again. This is our second episode, and there's a really awesome place. Yeah. I love the vibe in here, man. I just the longer I've been here, the more cozy it feels.

SPEAKER_04 2:27

Cool vibes, you might say. Cool vibes. Cool vibes.

SPEAKER_03 2:29

Good vibes.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Sorry. But you know what? I think it's really cool that they let us come in here when no one was here, come in early to sit and actually record this. This is awesome.

SPEAKER_03 2:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

So please check this spot out. Yeah. Yeah. I got a pint of Guinness.

SPEAKER_03 2:42

Yeah. And I have a non-alcohol one.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Yeah. This time. This gives a whole new meaning to dive bar because it's jellies and there's a bunch of jellyfish. So it kind of feels like you're like diving into the ocean. So it's like an ocean dive bar. That's deep. There you go.

SPEAKER_04 2:58

It's a very unique spot. I think Quimple Road in the last couple of years has kind of upped its game as far as establishments. Sure has. A lot of people go downtown because it's sort of like a royal rumble. You can every two minutes you can go to a different bar. And now on Quimple, you have Jellies, you have Beaverdin across the street, you have uh the Oxford Tap Room, which is the old Oxford Theater. This building is really old too. This is hundreds of years old. And that's I think that's part of the vibe, is there's a lot of like state-of-the-art brand new bars downtown, which is cool. But on Quimple Road, do you find it's busier now?

SPEAKER_03 3:29

Do you see starting to see a surge in activity? Yeah, cool.

SPEAKER_04 3:31

Yeah, if I think if this bar was downtown, it would be the hottest bar in town. But cool. But you're getting now, you're getting tons of people that want to come to Quimple Road because there's so like you if you want to watch the game, you can go to Freeman's, you can go there.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

And you're not being congested. You're not congested.

SPEAKER_04 3:45

I tell people I remember I watched the World Series, and after one of the games, it was like the 20-inning game. Remember that one? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And or it might have been the one, it was like one before that was like a 10-inning game. And people left one of the nearby sports bars and they're like, where should we go from here? I was like, You guys should go to Jellies. I was going home. They're like, Oh, well, we want to go somewhere with a TV. I was like, just go to Jellies for like five minutes, and I guarantee you you'll stay there. Really? I was like, there's no TV, but even if there was, you wouldn't watch it. So they showed up five hours later, they were still here. Oh, it's just cool, it's just a cool spot.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

I gotta tell you something about this place. I know I was gonna-that's what I was gonna say. Uh we should come here like when it's rocking, but yeah, you have a cool story.

SPEAKER_03 4:22

A lot of food spots in Quimpool. That's what I've always known for, is the food. I find it's one of the best places for for restaurants like in the city. I love Truly Tasty, I love KOD. There's just so many hits on this street, right? The the the the uh breakfast spot. What's the breakfast spot called? Uh Athens? Is that still there?

SPEAKER_04 4:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:37

Or is that no, no, okay.

SPEAKER_04 4:39

You might be thinking there's like a really popular breakfast spot just down the street. Cool. I think it's just called restaurant.

SPEAKER_03 4:43

I usually don't know the names of places or faces where they're called.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Oh, are you thinking of the the uh what's the place across the street there? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:51

Isn't it just called restaurant?

SPEAKER_01 4:52

No, there's a sign that looks like the restaurant from Mike Sunfeld.

SPEAKER_03 4:56

Okay, but it's in my world, they're all called restaurant. I thought it was called restaurant.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

No, and I can't think of it right now, but it is Isn't it like the Morse tea room or something like that? Pragmat, I can't remember.

First Dates And Vegetarian Misfires

SPEAKER_03 5:07

Anyways, just walk down the streets, find somewhere to eat here. It's it's really awesome, or drink. Yeah, but this spot was I used to pretend to like vegetables when I met my spouse that I'm still with, because this was a vegetarian restaurant. That's where we had our first date. Like we met, and when we went out and decided to talk to each other like a second time, we we went here. Wow. And it was the bowl, the harvest or something. The harvest bowl, what was it called? Heartwood. Heartwood. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, clearly it was important. It was very important. That's the breakfast place.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Ard more tea room.

SPEAKER_03 5:37

Yeah, I made a really bad joke the first time we because because they were all they were all vegetarians, and and I hope vegetarians aren't going to be offended by this, but I was calling them the gray people because I noticed just at this particular restaurant, they were all vegetarian and they were all very gray looking. They had no color in their skin. And I didn't, I I had never been around a lot of vegetarians, and I I pondered. I asked, you know, is that because they're not eating vegetables that way? They're all gray. And that's not a question you should ask. I think Mike just got canceled. Yeah, I do uh vegetarians. I love you. I I do meatless Mondays in my home, and I think we should move on. We know that. Yeah, cool.

SPEAKER_04 6:10

Oh that's cool. So your your first official date was here. Yeah, that's incredible. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 6:16

Yeah, and we're we're still uh we're still together, right? She's not a vegetarian anymore. Yeah, he converted. No, like I'm I was digging the barbecue, so I just kind of left that on the low and like waited a few years. I'm like, hey, you ever tried you ever tried chicken breast with a nice?

SPEAKER_04 6:31

So you pretended to be vegetarian?

SPEAKER_03 6:33

No, I didn't pretend. Oh, okay. No, no, I was open about it.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

I downplayed his medatarian.

SPEAKER_03 6:38

Yeah, yeah. Like I I did all the things. I tried a portobello mushroom burger with her. Yeah, but those are good. No, they're not. Yes, they are. It's like rubber inside of a bun. It makes no sense. No, it wasn't cooked well. It wasn't makes no sense. I mean, it should be, anyways. I don't want to I don't want to split hairs here. There's a lot of great, I like vegetarian curries, like chickpea curry, a masal, I'll still do those. They're delicious, right? Yeah, yeah, all great. And it doesn't affect the pigment of your skin. That was just a joke. Yes. If you're still listening. That's true. Yeah. Okay. We gotta move on, man. We're getting really this is getting to be a really silly. No, that was incredible. That was powerful. Sorry, yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

So we have you here because you work in the film industry and you have something kind of cool going on with a past guest of ours. And we learned that that past guest being James Mullinger, he was meeting with you when he recorded with this show. Just like before. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:30

Yeah, yeah. He I think he left our meeting to go straight to you guys.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:34

I believe. That was a meeting. I I think we had hired him already. Because he didn't have to audition. So he has a little bit of a name.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 7:44

And uh little bit. So it was just a meeting, just because we he and I never met, never spoken, had no communication. He was hired by the producer. Yeah. So they just wanted us to sit down and at least communicate before we were actually going to work together on a million dollar budget. So it was but I remember him saying, he's like, Hey, I'm even going to afternoon podcast. Yeah. So he he went straight from our thing, straight to you guys, and the rest is history.

SPEAKER_03 8:08

That's very cool. So this show, I mean, I I I think it's fantastic. I love the idea of it. I love I've seen it notice Keith Morrison behind the bar. I mean, so lots of familiar faces from like the the Nova Scotia world. I love seeing so many local actors in a show that's that's filmed here at a familiar pub. I think it's Argyle downstairs. Uh the uh the basement. Thank you. Yes, the basement.

SPEAKER_04 8:28

That one's gone under a number of changes too. It used to be Seahorse. Yeah, it was different.

SPEAKER_03 8:32

It was different when James was on the show. I think it's changed that many times.

SPEAKER_04 8:35

Yeah, it might have been Sniggly Wiggilies at that time. Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_03 8:38

Yeah, it was, yeah. Yeah. But I mean, you know, awesome spot. It feels very authentic. Oh, yeah. James fits right into the show, but not, you know, maybe not uh kind of a bizarre version of his personality, I would say. I think he's a really nice guy. He might have been true.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

Shots fired, shots fired.

SPEAKER_03 8:55

He was a little evil in the show, but still pretty funny, right? Yeah, oh yeah. Yeah, still pretty funny. Uh and geez. So, anyways, for what I saw so far, I only got to see a couple parts of it, but I really enjoyed the idea of the show and and the comedy, the jokes hit, and you guys weren't afraid to go anywhere, obviously.

SPEAKER_04 9:10

No, I mean, in fact, with James, you actually have to reel him back because he he will go there. Yeah, he'll he'll I like to do a lot of improv. So I remember before we started filming, James gets he's really prepared, so he comes off as somebody that's just kind of off the cuff, but he was really prepared for this show. He was sending me different takes from because he's from New Brunswick. We shot this in Nova Scotia, so two separate provinces, and he was on Zoom and he was sending me videos. What do you think of this take? And I was like, I love all of these, but I know the way I shoot because he and I had never worked together, right? So I know for me a lot of what I do is gonna be on the set, yeah, just feeling somebody's vibe, feeling how somebody works with their co-actor, because that changes the chemistry depending on who you're with. You and I are doing a scene, we and you and I do the exact same scene, it's gonna be different if it's you and I. Big time. So he was really prepared, and I was like, James, you're doing great, but don't spend too much time before we shoot, because a lot of it's gonna be live off the cuff. Yeah, and I think the scene you watched, a lot of that was improved. There's the yeah, there's the the basis of that scene, which is the idea of like someone that should be sympathetic, and then James is not the firing of the person of the person who's been there 11 years, it's the one year anniversary of his daughter passing away. Yeah, and and you would think it's brutal. And you would think James would be sympathetic and he's not, yeah, and it's just he but what errors in that, even though that's pushing the envelope, that's probably like one that's probably like half of where James went. So I always let people go where they want to go, and then in editing, we can bring them back. Yeah, you don't you never want to leave something not said.

SwearNet Series With James Mullinger

SPEAKER_03 10:42

So when did you film the show? It was all filmed that what year?

SPEAKER_04 10:46

It was filmed in 24.

SPEAKER_03 10:47

2024, yeah. And they took kind of a year to edit it and go over how many episodes is the entire year.

SPEAKER_04 10:52

It's a six-episode premium series. So it it took a while for good reasons. It was it was getting shopped around. Yep. So there was interest with some major broadcasters, but that was all in in SwearNet's hands. They own the show, so as soon as they buy it, it's up to them what they do with it. Okay, and you know, in Canada, it's one of those things, it's until some there was there was one point I won't say the broadcaster, but we'd actually gotten a phone call that it had gone through to a major broadcaster, and but it still wasn't official.

SPEAKER_03 11:17

Streaming service kind of deal.

SPEAKER_04 11:18

Yeah, it wasn't official. And I remember somebody that'd been in the industry for a long time said, Don't celebrate yet. Until it's breaking. Until the money's in your account. Until it's in your account, don't celebrate. I was like, I was already celebrating when I was downtown. I was like I thought we would hit the lottery, but that fell through. But at the same time, it didn't really bother me because the opportunity to be on SquareNet with people who have had the success they've had is SquareNet's cool.

SPEAKER_03 11:43

And I mean it's a small investment for people too. I think it's still under five bucks a month or something like that, right? Like it's not an expensive service. So it's like to support your friend or support somebody in Nova Scotia just to try this show. If you love comedy, man, give it a give it a go. Like, you know, try for a month and see if you like the other stuff they have on SquareNet. I mean, yeah. So SquareNet, I think it's also Trailer Park Boys Plus that's all kind of tied into that that universe, but they got a ton of shows that don't have don't touch the trailer park boys universe on there. Exactly, yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

So it's a pretty diverse selection. I actually think that's good that they've done that. I think like diversifying is good because I mean, as as classic as the trailer park boys was and is, or like all these people are still discovering everything. Oh, yeah. I think that has like an expiry date. So like for them to be able to expand and do what they've done was very smart.

SPEAKER_03 12:31

I don't think it has an expiry date just because those guys' characters are so iconic. I think they could probably retire into those roles in their 90s and they'd still watch Ricky at 90.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

I think I mean I I agree with you on that. I just I'm talking about like I think they can keep releasing movies, yeah. But like TV show after TV show after TV show, I think I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 12:50

I know, maybe. I mean, you know, but there's uh yeah, but like I like I do agree with you. Like there's a diverse, you know, diverse world that they can, you know, kind of keep pulling. There's so many more comedic writers, and I mean comedy is something that I don't really see enough of anymore. I mean, my partner and I we crave looking for comedy shows because we like watching comedy together at the end of a long shitty day. Yeah, and we're always looking for a comedy show to watch before we go to bed. Yeah, right. Whatever. Like, gosh, it it's slim pickings. Like, I'm I'm back in the 2000s right now watching older sitcoms because I can't find new stuff.

SPEAKER_04 13:25

Well it's cheaper to make uh a crime thing, you know, or something dark because as long as someone gets murdered in it, it kind of hits its mark. Yeah, comedy's tricky because comedy either hits or it doesn't. It's tough, yeah. And it's it's more expensive if you have to get writers that are gonna write comedy than you need actors that can perform comedy. Right. But I agree with you 100%. I think it is with everything going on in the world right now, as heavy as the world is, comedy is more important now than it's been in in the last number of years.

SPEAKER_03 13:52

Well, yeah, and again, and then back to you and this show, it's like you know, these are why you get these shows a chance because you know, maybe the show doesn't hit every beat for you, but you're gonna see a couple con a couple actors in here I guarantee you'll you'll like. Yeah, right. I I think you're gonna see a couple like uh good funny bits in here you're going to enjoy. And and then you know, yeah, then when you can start pushing and advocating for those people that can get them in greater comedies and help more comedy be produced.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

And especially here locally, too, like Nova Scotia and Canada, right? Like yeah, I'm a I I there's a handful of Canadian comedy sitcoms like that I like absolutely like love. Like, obviously, I mean I've talked about this before, but like I mean Jerry D, like Mr. D filmed here, which was awesome. Right, huge fan of Corner Gas. Yeah, Shits Creek's great.

SPEAKER_03 14:35

Yeah, and I'll be honest with you, I never watched any of those shows, and I don't have anything against any of them, but like I mean, I guess I go that'll be I I I go in on myself to kind of check, especially Shits Creek is the one I've heard of so many times over.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

I honestly, man, Corner Gas, I think is like Canadian television royalty.

SPEAKER_03 14:51

Yeah, and I mean they never gave it an honest chance, so I gotta give it a try.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Yeah, and then I mean obviously, and then there's trailer park voice, yeah. So it's like you know, there's that too, which is a different kind of like it's a different speed, yeah, different audience, yeah, but still long-lasting. I mean, they turned it into an empire. Turned they turned like filming like these guys in like in a low budget thing in a trailer park into an empire, a media empire.

SPEAKER_03 15:15

I don't want to say too much about it, but when I was in high school, I was my friend's uncle and like a good friend of mine's uncle. Yeah, and I'll never forget, like, we were in high school on our lunch break, and we were at his house, and he showed me a VHS tab of his uncle's like video project they were working on. Right. And it was a black and white video. It was just it was just uh Julian and and Randy at the time. This was like just starting out, and they made this really funny short of the trailer park boys, yeah. And that was like Cartboy. Well, yeah, I think so. Yeah, yeah. This was like the first, the first one, man. And I remember watching that and like literally like with my buddy, I'm like, man, let's we gotta get back to school. Like kind of like almost almost rushing the watch to go back to school. And yeah, so crazy to see what that was then, and no idea the how massive it was going to be.

SPEAKER_04 16:01

Right. Well, that was a different time too. There wasn't streaming services, there was no internet, really. Right, right. So it was either you get on a major broadcaster or you don't exist, and somehow they got on a major broadcaster.

SPEAKER_03 16:11

I'm still nostalgic for that VHS era where people used to be like, hey man, we gotta watch this, and like if you tape it, you'd stick it in your VCR, it'd just be some wild new shit that you're just like, whoa.

SPEAKER_04 16:21

I did that with Kirby enthusiasm. Oh somebody was headed on HBO and they're like, You gotta see this, it's crazy. Yeah, yeah.

Why Comedy Feels So Rare Now

SPEAKER_01 16:27

So it's a good question. Like, you know, uh the streaming services kind of get like a little bit of hot and cold kind of thoughts, and like because as you said, if you don't get on a major network, you're SOL, right? Right now we have streaming services more than ever, probably too much in a way, but you have a higher probability of maybe getting picked up than ever before. Like what are your thoughts on that? Like, you know, the the then versus now.

SPEAKER_04 16:54

Well, when I started, there was no streaming services, but YouTube had just kind of started to come out. So that's that was sort of my streaming service. So we started I was a harbor hopper tour guide. So anybody that lives here wouldn't know what that is. 100%. It's uh for those that don't live here, it's an amphibious World War II relic truck so it can drive around, it can hold 50 people, and then it can actually drive into the water and it becomes a boat. So it drives around the city and you you tell tourists about the city. And I remember I was doing the tour one day, and there was this guy who shows up after the tour, he gives me his card and it says Bob King, CMT. Yeah, he's like, Hey, you should uh give me a call, that was really good. And I was like, CMT, what's that? I didn't think it would be the country music television? Well, I thought I knew what that is, but I thought this must be like a truck company or something.

SPEAKER_03 17:44

Right on, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:45

He's like, Country Music Channel, and I'm like, Country Music Channel? What oh sick. I was like, what are you doing here? He's like, Oh, I'm filming a TV show. He's and I was like, Cool. And he's like, Hey, let me ask you a question. He said, Do you know who PJ Phil is? And I said, PJ Phil Guerrero from YTV's the zone. Yeah, yeah, I know who that is. Oh my god, grew up watching it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And and I'm just like lighting up, and he's the producer starts grinning from ear to ear. And he's like, Well, I guess I made the right choice. I was like, What do you mean? He's like, I just hired him. I'm filming a show with him. I was like, You're filming it, you you know PJ Phil Guerrero from YTV? Oh my god. He's like, not he's like, not only do I know him, as a matter of fact, he's right there. He points over my shoulder and probably 10 yards away. Jeez, PJ Phil Guerrero, who I've grown up watching for you know, anyone from Canada in my era. Oh, he's a hero. Oh my god, 100% every single day after school.

SPEAKER_03 18:36

Every kid knew who that was in our year. He's he's mad, oh man.

SPEAKER_04 18:39

It was actually him and PJ Paul McGuire. Oh, yeah. Okay, and I couldn't talk, couldn't even move. And he started and Bob Cain's talking to me. I don't even know what he's saying.

SPEAKER_03 18:51

Yeah.

From Cable Access To YouTube

SPEAKER_04 18:51

And then he was like, Here, I'll I'll I'll introduce you to him. And I couldn't move. He had to like physically grab my arm, bring me over. Yeah, yeah. He's like, hey Phil, this is time. I I think I'd mentioned to Bob because I I'd had a cable access show in East Link at the time. Okay, yeah, and so I but I couldn't talk. He's like what was your show in East Link at the time? It was called Boot. And what was it about? It was it was sort of like it was almost like a street sense thing. This was in 2009. Right. So, but it wasn't we weren't critical of anything. We would just go to like cow's ice cream or go to like a fashion show, okay, or go to you know, some place, some event and kind of just a community type show where you'd explore. Yeah, it was it was it was geared toward like a high school university demographic.

SPEAKER_03 19:28

Nice.

SPEAKER_04 19:29

So, but we'd we I've been hired for the show. We've we've shot some like intros and pickups, but I hadn't done any interviews yet.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_04 19:36

So so now Bob's introducing a show and he has to tell Phil, like he's like, This is Tyler, he has a show. Hey, you got a show? What's the zone? What's your show, dude? And I couldn't believe that like that might as well have been a ninja turtle in front of me. Like I couldn't, I couldn't do anything. That was like Paul McCartney and Ringo Star for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is funny. I actually met Paul McCartney a month later on the Harbor Hobber, which was another funny story. He was on the Harbor Harbor, he didn't go on the Harbor Harbor, but he drove Pat. Like he had a motorcade and we had to pull off to the side. If he had actually come on the thing, you'd never hear the end of it. They'd be advertising that to this day. Oh, seriously, yeah. Yeah, but those guys were cool, and it was a real testament to and they probably wouldn't call themselves celebrities, but Canadian celebrities. Sure. Because not only did they meet me, but then they're like, Oh, tell me about your show, and I'm telling them about the show. And then Phil's like, or I think it was Paul who said, Would it would it benefit you at all if if we came on your show? And I was like, Are you kidding me? That would be unbelievable. Whoa. And then that's pretty sick. And then Bob was like, Well, you know, we're pretty busy because they were filming uh show called karaoke star, and then those two were the hosts.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Okay. Karaoke star?

SPEAKER_04 20:36

Yeah, yeah. Okay. And and then Phil was like, Well, what time do we shoot tomorrow? And Bob's like, We shoot tomorrow from four to midnight. And then Phil turns to me, he's like, I'll do your show tomorrow at two if you can put it together. And I was like, Absolutely. And then Paul tries to one up him. He's like, Well, I can't be before the show, but come to the set and I'll take you on a tour of the whole set. Oh, I'll do an interview after the show. Sweet. So they walk away, and then I remember it was that that was on a Friday, and East Link's a Monday to Friday thing. So there's I don't have a crew for tomorrow. And I'm panicking now because I'm like, my two heroes are coming, are willing to come on my show, but I have no crew.

SPEAKER_03 21:13

Didn't they have all volunteers back then, or wouldn't they come in on the weekends for dates?

SPEAKER_04 21:16

Well, they voice for like moosehead games and stuff, but for our show that was fairly new, which would go on to be relevant because Elise Hand was the co-host and she went on to do global warning and CTV morning. Oh, cool, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So she went on to do lots of big things. So I didn't have a crew, so then I had to call in favors, and I was fairly new to the industry, so I really didn't know anybody. But I knew one, I had one contact in the industry, a woman named Lara Cassidy. And I said, Hey, I called her up, I said, Hey, is there how would I assemble a crew in like 24 hours? It's a long story, but I I have to do it. And she called in a favor, someone owed her a favor. She's like, Call this number, ask for Thor. That was the guy's name. Thor. Nice, that's a dog name. Yeah, I know. And he looks on him like Thunder. Yeah, nothing like you would think. Yeah. But and I guess he owed her a favor. So then he was like, Yeah, come to this room on Barrington Street. I go in. It turns out he's like the dean of this film school. It was a brand new film school. Okay. Center for Arts and Technology or something. Cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Really expensive school, like more expensive than NASCAD. It was crazy expensive when it was.

SPEAKER_03 22:18

Yeah. It's not here anymore. No BC still, though, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04 22:21

NSCC's still here, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:22

Oh no, sorry, but the Center of Arts school is that still in is that in DC? Or is that gone everywhere?

SPEAKER_04 22:27

Oh, I'm oh, is it still in BC? I'm not sure, but I know it's gone here.

SPEAKER_03 22:30

Yeah, it's gone here a while back.

SPEAKER_04 22:31

Yeah, I think it was too expensive. People just couldn't afford it.

SPEAKER_03 22:33

It was crazy expensive. I looked at it.

SPEAKER_04 22:35

He brings me in. Yeah. We're down the hallway. He's like, I don't know you from a hole in the wall, but I owe her a favor. She's cashing it in on you. We round the corner. Suddenly we're in this auditorium, like 50 students sitting there. He's like, Hey everyone, this is Tyler. Tyler, this is the class. Hello, Tyler. All in unison. It was creepy. And he was like, Tell them what you need. And I was like, Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 22:59

Well, I was like, I didn't, I didn't know I was about to be speaking to a whole class full of people. I was like, I'm trying to assemble a crew for tomorrow for PJ Phil and PJ Paul. I thought they were going to react. They had no idea who they were. No, because it's 2009. Yeah. Yeah. And the zone went off the air in 2000. Yeah. Right. They had no clue who these are not kids of this generation.

SPEAKER_03 23:15

They don't know who you can.

SPEAKER_04 23:16

And it's such a huge difference because this is before the internet. So it once you're off TV, like the internet's around, but it wasn't what it is today. No, no, I guess. YouTube was clips of fresh prints. Like no one, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:26

But five people stuck around when it after the class to to be this crew. It was like the misfits of the class and came together. We do the interviews. After the f interviews are finished, I bring it to East Link. They don't want it. No. Because it doesn't fit their for their funding, it had to be local people. Right. So now I'm dejected. I'm defeated. I'm in the East Link office. I'm walking down the hallway. I'm done. It's I did all this for nothing. I was so close. And then there was a guy in the editing room as I'm leaving. He's just watching YouTube. He's watching Jeff Hardy jump off a ladder to like Nirvana music or something. And I was like, that's it. YouTube.

unknown 24:03

Right.

SPEAKER_04 24:04

I don't need a TV channel anymore. Yeah. Because I didn't have any contacts for like Showcase or Bravo or anything. So we just put it on YouTube. It's it's there to this day. That that became like a talk, a separate talk show from the East Link show. Cool. My own little YouTube channel. Some of the videos did really well, like 100,000, 200,000 views. Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 24:21

So that was sort of my where I was like, okay, I don't necessarily need a broadcaster. You can kind of find your own way around it today. And that's before streaming. Yeah. Um, YouTube really changed the game.

SPEAKER_03 24:33

So many people now that I'll ask you this, because I mean, yeah, so so yeah, you know, you you you saw that world that wild west or what evolved into quite the wild west early. Do you think that's now in a de-evolution stage where everything is just starting to kind of go into major pillars and get like the thing that scared the shit out of me the other week, Matt's like, hey Tobin, podcasts are on Netflix. I'm like, no, he's excited.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

I'm like, we'll never get there. All right. I'm like, I was excited because I was like, maybe Netflix will buy us. Netflix buys.

SPEAKER_03 25:02

I mean, maybe, but like, you know, the the thing is, is and I'm not pessimistic, I just think that the the idea I like about podcasts is that this is a community show or a Canadian show, whatever it is, Atlantic show. I you know, I I don't really care. I mean, to to broadcast to the world. I hope people here are listening to us, and I hope people in Canada are listening to us, and Americans, hello, and that those three guys in Russia, what's up? Yeah, right. You know, but like, you know, it really it's just it's just like, you know, once you kind of go that big, does it is it gonna take away from all those little people doing it?

SPEAKER_04 25:32

Yeah, right. It could, although I think what happens a lot of times is when you see somebody go behind a paywall, yeah, it opens the door for someone to come behind them that will go on YouTube for free to launch their podcast. True. Yeah, you can kind of take some of that audience.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Yeah, yeah, we've been we we've thought about it, but in the end we've just like kind of really I'd like to just put a paywall for the shitty episodes.

SPEAKER_03 25:53

Like I did a really bad job, not on the guests. All the guests are great. I'd just be more like embarrassed about me. I was like, I was terrible on that one.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

I just you would have paid to listen to this piece of crap for me.

SPEAKER_04 26:03

So you wouldn't be willing to uh change the show for for a broadcaster? Oh, are you nuts? Oh we don't know that's what you were saying. I thought you were saying no, I like it.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

No, no, we wouldn't. No, it's just no, it's not a great opportunity for Crave to get into the podcasting business. There we go. We we we could be Crave's first podcast. That'd be that'd be appropriate. Yeah, we we do try we want to represent Nova Scotia and Canada, right? Like that's really our biggest thing. We hope the world listens to us, but we really want to be a Canadian.

SPEAKER_03 26:28

But Canada needs to have their own entertainment. That's why like I really like propping up shows like yours, right? You know, this is I mean, I mean, this doesn't have to be a micro show, right? We could really start supporting this show, these shows on a higher level, really trying to making sure everybody watch it, whether it's on a swear net subscriptions fee, like you know, find the show, find the person. Think of it like renting a movie, like you know, or or uh renting uh buying a movie. It's it's not it's gonna be pretty cheap for you to get a subscription for a few months to enjoy the show. That's true, right? Yeah, you know, if you look at it from that perspective. No, that's very true, right?

Writing By Collecting Small Scenes

SPEAKER_04 27:01

Uh yeah, I mean you you'll definitely get some laughs, and and you know, we didn't it's sort of like we were saying with James, I think it might have been off camera, but we take I take my show seriously. Yeah, but when we're filming it, I'm not uh I I try not to take a comedy that serious. Like we're here to have fun, and you can feel that on camera. That's good. You can feel that the the the cast and the crew, everyone's the only thing I try to not have happen is people laugh during a take. Because then it because then it becomes we enjoyed it, but now the TV audience never gets to see it. That's right. Right. But as soon as we say, as soon as I say, God, that's when everyone erupts. Bust, yeah. Yeah, and and that's that was the whole idea of the show, is just you know, it was inspired by I grew up on Wayne's World, yes, you know, things like that. Where it's it's take we take the idea of entertaining people serious, but as far as the show itself, it's just serious enough that it's worth watching.

SPEAKER_03 27:49

I want to talk about creating the series. So, like, you know, writing, you know, you just said, Oh, like and we'll we'll get back to the other thing you're writing here in a moment, but you you just told us about just before we started, I want to hear about that.

SPEAKER_04 28:00

But see, all the good stuff was before we started rolling. There you go. And if you want to see that, folks, join their Patreon and for just$4.99 a month.

SPEAKER_03 28:08

$679. Five minutes before they push records. We're gonna charge a ridiculous fee, and you'll just get like three terrible episodes if you pay. It's just a huge troll. Yeah, just a troll of people. But but no, in creating this new series, so like just walk us back. Like, so I am I I am writing now. I'm writing a uh book, I'm writing I've I've been writing a screenplay, I've written screenplays that I've wanted to do, I've never done anything with. Like You're lazy. Yeah, sure. I'll take it. And but like No, it's hard.

SPEAKER_04 28:37

It is hard.

SPEAKER_03 28:37

It's hard, right? So you get to a part where you stutter, and even when you have that those pieces of paper in your hand, it's like, what the F do I do with this now? Like, yeah, so you know, you get that seed. How do you what's your writing process like? Like, what was your writing process for a show like this? How did it start? Yeah, good question.

SPEAKER_04 28:53

That was a good question. For me, it's you sort of have the blank page, and I the best advice I ever heard was to lone said just start writing something, worry about the context later. So I'll kind of think of silly little ideas, or oh, this would be a funny premise of a scene, and I'll just write that down without knowing who the characters necessarily are going to be or how that's gonna fit into something larger. Yeah, and if after a while you'll have like a hundred of those, and then when you start writing a strip, you have a hundred cool little scenes to choose from. Hey, oh, this idea, this premise.

SPEAKER_03 29:50

Kind of like the sea manities pushing bubbles in that old family guy sketch. You know what I'm talking about? It's like, no, exactly what you're talking about. That's what came to my mind when he said you can get up all the ideas, yeah. 100%. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:59

A lot of the the show, this show, open micros that I'm promoting, I would come here a lot. Yeah, my office is right across the street. Yeah. And sometimes you'll just hear somebody say something, and oh, that's oh, that's an idea. That's a funny idea. I remember one time somebody behind the bar, I don't remember who it was, but I think it was the owner, he said something to somebody like, Oh, well, you you assume I'm wearing pants, but you don't know. Because you can only see the bartender from the waist up. That's right. And so that's in the show. That makes it into the show. One of the characters is reprimanding the staff at the bar, you know, guys. Joe, who's played by Keith Morrison, he leaves us here to watch the bar every day. He shows us that respect. I just once I'd love to see you guys treat this bar with a little bit of decorum, a little bit of professionalism, so we can try to keep this bar in business. Yeah, and it sounds, it feels like this. He's just really chastising them. Then he walks over from behind the bar to go into the kitchen, he's not wearing pants. So it's just like that. And then that came directly from something that I heard in real life. So that'll happen a lot too. That's why I got good advice from a friend of mine a long time ago, a musician, Seamus Erskine, really good. I was like, no, I'm gonna I gotta start staying home more to write. I gotta stop going out because I just gotta stay home and write. He's like, Well, when you do go around people, that's where you're gonna get that's where all the ideas are.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

That's that's interesting. Because you know what I've often like, because I've always I wish I could write things because I have ideas that pop in my head and I think that's really fun. Yeah, and there's always something like I've always kind of wanted to write something, yeah, just because I feel like there's a creative kind of gremlin in there, and I just don't know how to get them out. But I've often thought like you know, a writer should be like, I don't know, booking a Airbnb in the middle of nowhere to like you know, get yourself away from things. But right, you're saying the opposite.

SPEAKER_04 31:35

For me, yeah, uh I like I'm those unfortunately I'm no stranger to the bar scene, but I do find it helps. I I just you you meet so many different people and I try to carry that on the set too.

SPEAKER_03 31:46

So do you take a note like a note, like you write a note down, or you just try to remember the stuff?

SPEAKER_04 31:50

I don't usually write it down. Sometimes I'll like text it to somebody because then I can see if it actually is funny. Yeah, yeah. And I'll just say, oh, you know, this just happened, and if they go, oh, if they go lol, yeah. Then you gotta figure out whether it's a sarcastic lol or if they actually laugh or it's a real laugh.

SPEAKER_03 32:06

Exactly. Yeah, yeah. I test I do that too, like test jokes with like six different people all the time. Oh, I uh I just see how far I go. Sometimes he doesn't know even what I'm talking about. If it's like I don't I won't even follow up. He's like, I don't even understand, Tom. What are you talking about? Yeah, sometimes he'll text me something. And then I won't even talk to him for three more hours.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

Wow. He'll just be like, never mind, it didn't land. Oh, you defended that he wasn't, he didn't find funny. Not offended.

SPEAKER_03 32:28

No, no, I've never been offended. It's just I'm I'm fishing, right? Like, you know, and if it's not working, it's not working. Right. I would I consider it better though to know if it didn't land. 100% because if I get it and I connect with somebody, yeah, nothing better when you can make a bunch of strangers laugh, right? Like, you know, and and just kind of get get in through that, you know, that wall, right?

SPEAKER_01 32:48

It it is important to have like you know, at least a handful of people that you know you know won't get offended that you can kind of throw those jokes out there and kind of be like, you know, is this all right kind of thing?

SPEAKER_03 32:57

Oh yeah, and you send one's my way too. You got a lot of great stuff. I said I use some of your stuff. Remember when I you the biggest honor for Matt is like when your joke's funny enough, I'll steal it. Wow. I'll be like, oh, that's what I'm gonna use that honor friend to see if that makes them laugh too, because that's funny to me.

SPEAKER_02 33:12

I'll tell that to my writer friends. No, it's an honor that I stole it. The honor you stole their jobs that I'm profiting from.

SPEAKER_03 33:16

Yeah, yeah, you just just comedians love it when you steal their material and do it somewhere else. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:24

Yeah. But yeah, you know, I mean, it's I try to carry that to the set too. Like people will have ideas on the crew. Yeah, some directors don't like anybody giving them any ideas. Sure. And it's I understand that approach to it because it can turn into a free-for-all chaos because everyone has an idea. This show had a crew of 20 people. So when we're filming a scene and we're doing lots of improv, and sometimes we're taking a minute to figure out what that punchline's gonna be. Yeah, there's 20 people behind the camera that all have an idea. And for me personally, I'm open to it, is but we just try to keep it within reason.

SPEAKER_03 33:59

But your shoot time's gonna get longer, and that could stretch out your budget, too.

SPEAKER_04 34:03

This is a problem, although I shoot very quickly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:05

Did you see recently the uh Catherine Hara passed away, obviously. Like, rest in peace. She's a Canadian legend. She's awesome. But did you see how like how she handles rewrites and stuff like that? Like, uh, I was Seth Rogan who because she she was recently in the show that he wrote and produced or something like that.

SPEAKER_03 34:22

Yeah, the studio there. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

And he accepted the award that she won on her behalf, and he talked about how professional but still offered criticism back or offered things. And every night after filming, she'd go back to her home trailer, whatever, and would write an email to Seth Rogan saying, like, for your consideration, I really think that tomorrow when we shoot this scene, this would be like this would be funnier. I hope you take my like idea and like think about it. And that's what she would do every night. So instead of doing it right on sad or whatever like that, she'd actually email after after hours and say, like, here's what I think would be better. And he was like, Who am I not to listen to Katherine O'Hara about what's funny? 100%, right?

SPEAKER_03 35:05

Like that's a respectful way to do it. 100%. I mean, it's a balance though, because you know, you it's tough because I'm sure as a director, because you wrote this and then you direct this is your baby, this is your mind. And now all of a sudden your mind or your your your world is left to burn and it starts becoming its own animal, right? And now you gotta see how everybody else kind of kind of like that animal. But they kind of twist and contort your beast.

SPEAKER_04 35:28

It's gonna be an honor that I stole that from you. I'm gonna say that on a competing pod competing podcast.

SPEAKER_03 35:33

Uttering death threats to you in a podcast ten years from now, I'll be so mad. Just as long as you're on the next podcast. Just listen, I was on the best podcast I've ever been on.

SPEAKER_04 35:41

I was on a much higher quality podcast recently where one of the co-hosts had an incredible quote about a barn and an animal, and it's somehow related to it.

SPEAKER_03 35:49

No, but it does. It it anyway, sorry. So it really it just really morphs into something else, then, right? You know, it's no longer your and and you have this thing now that all these other people are inserting their minds into it.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:01

I mean, I mean, hot take. Do you feel like sometimes you're like, uh I love some of this, but not all of it?

SPEAKER_04 36:08

Like Yeah, I mean, and that's kind of why because you're right, we would run into time restraints when we're doing improv. And sometimes if I know someone's going in a direction that I'm not gonna use, then you instead of I'll never say, Hey, I didn't like that, or that didn't work. That that'll never come out of my mouth.

SPEAKER_00 36:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 36:25

Because unfortunately, it's it's almost like being an athlete. If if you're gonna put that hockey player at center ice for a penalty shot and the game's on the line, the athlete at least needs to know that Lindy Ruff believes he can score the goal.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

Using real coach's name and everything.

SPEAKER_04 36:41

Yeah, oh yeah. Well, I'm a Sabres fan and it's been embarrassing for the last 11 years, but finally I can be proud of it. Um last time I think we made the playoffs, Lindy Ruff was the coach then, too. Yeah. But it really helps actors when the director 100% believes in them. Yeah, that's when they're gonna give you the good improv. So they might give me four things I know I'm not gonna use, but I'm if I'm really encouraging and supportive of that, they're also gonna give me the two things that I'm like, oh my god, that's cool.

SPEAKER_03 37:06

Siphon gold, then, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:07

Whereas if I if I say, Hey, that hey James, that didn't work, I don't like where you're going with that. Don't say that, don't say that. Yeah, now the next time he has an idea in his head, there's gonna be a little thought for a half second, oh, maybe this isn't good.

SPEAKER_00 37:18

Right.

SPEAKER_04 37:19

I remember people wanted to come onto the set like the second week, word got out around town that this because my sets are relatively fun, it's kind of like a Pee-wee's playhouse. Oh, right. So yeah, actors are showing up. I remember actors would show up when they weren't even scheduled just to hang out, just to hang out. So we have people coming down that wanted to just watch. Yeah. And unfortunately, I had to be Mr. No.

SPEAKER_03 37:39

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Directing Improv And Actor Trust

SPEAKER_04 37:39

Actually, I think I had we had project manager Tieran Hawkins, who was a really good Mr. No. I didn't I because I didn't want them on a set. Right. And it wasn't anything to do with not wanting people to be there. It's just I could tell the actors were starting to think, do I want to say this line that I'm improving? Uh-huh. Or am I going to say something that isn't funny? Yeah. And there's people that watched it, and are they filming with their phone? Am I going to say something inappropriate? Right. It just changes that vibe where it's not this little family where we all have a common goal. Now there's some outsiders who I don't even know who the hell they are. So you have to be careful with that. But when you when you create the environment where people can show up and they feel like they can just say anything or try things, that's when you start getting some really good stuff. And you're right. Sometimes I would think to myself, it wasn't it wasn't from a funny standpoint, but I remember one scene Ariel who plays Vanessa, who's incredible in the show. She had a scene with James Mullinger, and he's the villain, and she's one of the heroes. And in the series, I will you know, I won't get too much away, not that anyone's gonna watch it anyway, but he's stealing money from the bar that her father owns.

SPEAKER_00 38:45

Right.

SPEAKER_04 38:46

And so she I have a scene where she was sitting next to him at the bar, and it wasn't to flirt with him or anything, it was just to make him feel like she wasn't on to him. And she pulled me aside and she said, Well, you know, I would never sit next to a man that I thought was bad. If there was a man that I felt wasn't a good person that gave me a bad vibe, I would never want him in my space as a woman.

SPEAKER_03 39:10

Right.

SPEAKER_04 39:11

And I was like, okay, I can't relate to that. I can't, I can't be in that mindset. So there was a part of me I could have said, Well, listen, I wrote Vanessa, so I know what she would and wouldn't do. And she would sit next to James. I could do that. I shouldn't be calling him James. He's his character is Barnaby. It wasn't a documentary, mate.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

Barnaby, by the way, is a villain name.

SPEAKER_04 39:31

Yeah, absolutely. 100%. Absolutely. So I thought about it and I was like, you know what? She A, she probably has a point. It hurt the scene in my head originally, so I was I wasn't happy about taking James out. So I pulled James aside. I was like, listen, Arielle doesn't feel like her character would sit next to you. And what I told him, I can say it now. I said, I disagree. However, this is the first time she's taken autonomy over this character. This is like day two or three. So everyone was really getting into the show. She was a little bit more reserved. This was the first time she told me something that her character would or wouldn't do. That's what I want. Yeah. I want her thinking, this is my character now.

SPEAKER_03 40:07

Such this is really good advice, man. This is awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:10

She's now taking control of this character. If I shoot her down, even though I felt like I would have been 100% in the right, yeah. Now when she goes to shoot that penalty shot, all she's thinking is, Am I doing this right? Is this what he thinks this character is?

SPEAKER_03 40:21

Also, it makes that character have a little bit more dimension when they get to kind of put that like kind of like you said, like I'm not in her head. Right. I would have I would have never thought that. I mean you told me that and the kind of light bulb went off.

SPEAKER_04 40:52

I was like, okay, yeah, the personal space thing. And that's why a lot of women don't sit next to Matt, you'll notice because they just don't feel comfortable.

SPEAKER_03 40:57

Oh, the ladies love Matt, I tell you. They're all over them. Oh, yeah. I remember back in high school. I really should. Yeah, yeah, yeah. His wife, he she gets so mad at night, I tell you. Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 41:06

This this took a turn.

SPEAKER_03 41:07

No, it's sure he did.

SPEAKER_01 41:08

I am punching up though. My my wife is, you know, could do better than me, but she's a wonderful lady. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Beautiful lady.

SPEAKER_03 41:16

All right.

SPEAKER_04 41:17

I remember the butt the, you know, when when when that happened, yeah, I had to really take a stance. James understood to his credit as soon as I explained it, you're brilliant, mate. That's why you're on this spot. Brilliant mate. That's she. But who didn't understand was the producer who was spending a lot of money to have James Mullinger in the scenes that he was in. And not to uh on top of that, we only had James for six days because he was on tour while we were shooting this. So we had to shoot.

SPEAKER_03 41:40

So how does the relationship work between you and the producer now? Because like not good. No, okay, really? No, I'm kidding. Yeah, no, okay. But I mean, there has to be moments of tension, like you know, uh uh I produce this show, and every once in a while I'll be like, I don't want us to do that, or I don't want us to go there, I don't want us to say that. Right. And and Matt and I might not holistically agree on something.

SPEAKER_04 41:59

Do you guys fight off camera? Not really, no.

SPEAKER_03 42:01

But no, no, like I mean, we just respect each other a lot.

SPEAKER_04 42:04

Like, I mean, and that's not what he was saying outside of it.

SPEAKER_03 42:08

That's fine. And I probably deserve it. But but like, you know, I I think with with Matt and I, I mean, we we produce and direct, and it seems to be all in one to me. You know what I mean? Because it's almost like, you know, although I might have a different feeling about something going a certain way, we both have the same absolute goal in mind to make something good, right? Right, and we have the same like kind of little drops in a bucket where we want to the show, this show isn't meant to bring people together at the end of the day, right? You know, it's never meant to do anything or hurt anyone, right?

SPEAKER_01 42:37

It helps that we've been friends for over 20 years. So, I mean, and like honestly, either one of us, like, we don't really get off.

SPEAKER_03 42:43

So, so like I mean, you know, so do you like uh a producer should trust the director in my mind? You would think, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:51

I'm gonna steal that quote too. I'm gonna put that on the wall of the office.

SPEAKER_03 42:55

I'll never I'll never direct now. I just shot myself in the foot. Yeah, but like, I mean, like how do you how do you just strike that balance with these creative differences? Like, how does that how does that kind of play out in the uh on things? Like, I mean, but I understand you got James here, he's uh you know, uh, uh a Canadian well-known name. Absolutely, you know, his his his his his on-screen time probably has a little bit more value because he's better known, right? It's just and that's those are just facts.

SPEAKER_04 43:19

And TV, a little bit of name value can really go a long way. 100%. You know, he his attachment to the project got it more attention. Absolutely. Um when it came out while we were filming it, and you know, it's just he's he has a name. It's hard to establish a name here. It's really different, and he has done that through a lot of hard work.

SPEAKER_03 43:38

He has those shows right across the country, he's torn left and right. He has uh the magazine, he's he's a super interesting guy. If you heard us mention, if you heard us mention James like 40 times and don't know who the heck he is, go and listen to our old episode with him. He also diagnosed my ADHD in that episode. Yeah, he did real talk. Like, I hope he comes back on so I can tell him. He talks to me, he's like, Well, you might have it too, mate, or whatever, right?

SPEAKER_04 44:01

Yeah, that was a great impression, by the way.

SPEAKER_03 44:03

That's the best I got. And uh I got checked out after I thought like that episode, dude. Wow, yeah and it was true, it was legit.

SPEAKER_01 44:11

Inadvertently, he essentially like I mean, my wife kind of originally uh diagnosed me, but him diagnosing you, you going and actually doing it, forced me to be like, well, I should so we both get diagnosed ADT.

SPEAKER_04 44:23

Well, I'm after this, I'm gonna go see. There you go. Yeah, you seem pretty great.

SPEAKER_03 44:27

I don't know. I don't know if you got the it's the it's the you're pretty alcohol. Yeah, yeah. No, it's your calming demeanor.

SPEAKER_04 44:33

I always like when Matt, when he's telling something important, he kind of goes in this almost like this whisper type thing.

SPEAKER_00 44:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:38

And it's like that's very calming.

SPEAKER_03 44:39

You got him, yeah. You got him. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:41

But producers, yeah. Well, Jason and I, the producer of this show, we've also known each other for 20 years. So who's Jason? Jason? Jason Mosier.

SPEAKER_03 44:47

Okay. No, I know Jason. Okay.

Producer Pressure And Budget Reality

SPEAKER_04 44:50

And we worked together, we ran a wrestling company together prior to this. So we've already had so you guys love each other. Yeah as well. We're the top three Elsley alumni right now.

SPEAKER_01 45:02

There you go, Elsley alumni. There you go.

SPEAKER_04 45:04

Carrying the torch. But he that one he he was upset. So everything was cool. James understood.

SPEAKER_00 45:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:09

And so we shot the scene. And it actually, honestly, the scene turned out better. And it actually finishes one of the episodes now because James isn't there in the beginning. She leaves and then he comes in. And it kind of creates this cool little dynamic. So it's even, I think that's in the trailer he walks in. But when Jason found out that I had cut James from a scene, and we don't have James for very long, I got a phone call. Yeah. And the call to get a phone call from the producer while you're filming is not usually good. Yeah. Because they don't know if they're interrupting a take to call you. Right. Oh. So you I answer the phone.

SPEAKER_02 45:43

What the bullshit I hear you cut James.

SPEAKER_04 45:46

He's very J. Jonah Jameson type name. Pictures of Spider-Man. I was gonna say, bring me to Spider-Man. He got it. There you go. You do know him. You do go to school. Spider-Man. But once I explained it to him, then he understood. He said, Look, I'm just gonna trust you. Yeah, but it better be good. That's all I know. It's his money, it's not my money. Yeah, yeah. It's easy for me to make a decision creatively because I'm not using my money. But that's a good point. I think the reason people do hire me is because I usually try to treat the money as if it's mine.

SPEAKER_03 46:14

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 46:14

You know, that's all I'm doing. I'm not gonna spend money on something that I don't think is gonna work or that I don't need to do. This show had a fairly large budget, it was just over a million dollars. Yeah, but it's which sounds like a lot, but it's death by a thousand cuts because everything, no especially when people know you have a little bit of money, no one's gonna do anything for you for free. So every truck you need to rent, every space you need, every prop, every article of clothing, everything you need, somebody wants to get it.

SPEAKER_03 46:41

Money will fly pretty fast and you gotta feed a crew.

SPEAKER_04 46:44

James Mullinger was 800,000 just for him. So no, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. But he would have been worth it. He would have been worth it. He's worth it. He would have been worth it for six days, 800,000. That's pretty damn good.

SPEAKER_03 46:54

That would be good. Yeah. But man, jeepers. Uh so so, anyways, like so this show, yeah, awesome job. I mean, congratulations on getting there. Watch the show, guys, if you can. On SwearNet, cost you five bucks. Five bucks. Just do it. Just do it.

SPEAKER_04 47:07

Not even five. I think it's like$4.95.

SPEAKER_03 47:09

$4.95. Not even tax? No, it's five. There probably is tax first.

SPEAKER_04 47:13

I apologize.

Mediums Skepticism And What Feels Real

SPEAKER_03 47:13

Five bucks. Maybe get it back if it's Canadian content. We've got to work on that. Yeah, federal government, you know? No, budgets are cut. Don't get it. Canadian screaming services should have no tax. So you would just tax the other guys, you know. Maybe we'll get something like that going. We've got to help these Canadian, Canadian artists and culture people.

SPEAKER_04 47:28

I'd like to vote you into office.

SPEAKER_03 47:30

I hate I would never I want to make it a week as a policy. You've heard me in this episode. I've said like nine things that you probably should never say in politics. Yeah. Yeah, you'd get canceled pretty quick. I'd be done. I'd be done in a week, right? That's true.

SPEAKER_04 47:40

You'd have to be his PR guy.

SPEAKER_03 47:42

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 47:42

What he meant to say because he loves vegetarians, right? Exactly. They're not gray.

SPEAKER_03 47:47

He just thinks they need more sunlight. Right. Yeah. It's a photosynthesis thing.

SPEAKER_01 47:53

Exactly. Okay. He has a show he was going to talk about that we're super excited for, and I can't believe we took like 40 minutes to do this.

SPEAKER_03 48:01

Oh, yeah, man. So you said just before we started this show that you had a show that you were listening to this show. And we were his muse.

SPEAKER_04 48:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 48:11

I'm trying to figure out how much I can say because tell me everything.

SPEAKER_01 48:18

Tell me your secret.

SPEAKER_04 48:21

Just tell me everything. Where did it all go wrong? Yeah, I wonder if I can say what episode it was because it just I could I could probably say the episode.

SPEAKER_03 48:29

It's like we have these two idiots drinking at a bar. Yeah. They're micro assholes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 48:36

It was the medium that you had on. Oh my gosh, yeah. That's probably all I can say. Yeah. Although I will say the show that it inspired is probably something she wouldn't be overly thrilled with. Right. You'd be surprised with that.

SPEAKER_01 48:49

Maybe she has a great sense of humor, but she has a good sense of humor and she loves skeptics. Yeah. We did two episodes with her. Yeah. The first one was uh basically us saying, like, you real? Right. And the the other one was just kind of like, all right, just do just do your thing with us. Right. Yeah. So I've said that before too.

SPEAKER_04 49:06

Yeah. Yeah. So that that was that was the that's probably all I can say for now. But fair. But it yeah, I was like trying to come up with a a concept for a show, the next thing I'm gonna do, and I had that playing in the background.

SPEAKER_01 49:17

Right. Well, listen, if you need some podcast guys before that show, right here. There you go. Right? 100%.

SPEAKER_04 49:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:25

Yeah. No, whatever.

SPEAKER_04 49:26

So did you can I ask, did you guys believe it after the second episode? Are you guys all in on that? Or what's what's your what do you mean?

SPEAKER_01 49:32

Like, do you think she's legit?

SPEAKER_03 49:34

Ooh, that's a tough question.

SPEAKER_04 49:36

On air, it felt like you guys were being sold. And not to say it's not real, but I think on.

SPEAKER_03 49:42

Yeah. I think one thing is that I mean, if someone's giving their time to us like that, I want to respect the experience. So I didn't go into it being an A-hole. Right.

SPEAKER_04 49:49

I got into it like I was like, What would you take that approach for this episode? You've been completely Really?

SPEAKER_03 49:54

I thought, I mean, swearing it, but that was a good plug. But uh, but you know, anyways, no, I I really, you know, really wanted to respect her. I I'm not sure if I'm a sold on it. You know, I feel like there's always this thing where you can kind of connect anyone to anything. Like I don't know. I play a card game when we were younger, like a relation game. Try to say something that's not related to the last word that I just said, and you can almost always lose. It's because you say sky and someone says cloud. You know, cloud's in the sky, jackass. Right? Try something else. But then the harder you try and the better you get at playing the game, you can almost never win. Because you eventually say automobile. Automobiles on the ground, that's on the ground, that's in the sky, jackass lose, right? So as if you kind of keep connecting the dots, 100%. I think that's the same kind of thing I feel about psychic mediums and sometimes astrology and sometimes these certain things. Not saying I'm a non-believer, I'm just a very I'm still quite a skeptic.

SPEAKER_01 50:43

Yeah. Kind of in the same. The only thing I would say is at the time, like there were some things that she said that I was kind of like, okay, that's pretty accurate, right? Because for you, she did a reading about you, like and who you are.

SPEAKER_03 50:55

I didn't remember.

SPEAKER_01 50:55

And and and for me, she actually like talked to some of my dead relatives. Yeah. What was interesting about that is I would say there were there was a point where she talked about my uh I had I had a cousin who I was quite c close with who ended up taking his own life, and she talked about him. And some of that stuff was like, okay, you know, that's pretty pretty on the nose kind of thing. And and she said some things that I was just kind of like okay, like kind of like I don't know, right? And then she said some other things about like my grandparents, and I was just kind of like, I'm not really picking up what you're putting down on that one. But then afterwards, we released the episode, and my mother listened to it, and my mother was like, No, dummy, like like this stuff was what she said was true about like her mother, my grandmother, right? Kind of thing. She's like, No, no, no, this was true. Like, she actually nailed that. I was like, Oh, I didn't know at the time. Like, I was like, I don't know. The other cool thing is my cousin who took his own life in like 2008, he was bald, and she said that he has she said, like, oh, he has a full head hair now. And I was kind of like, haha, laughing, whatever, whatever. Thought nothing of it. Except my mother told me that her like my cousin's like it was second cousin, so my like, but my cousin's mother just like I guess around the same type of time, had a dream about him that he visited her in her dream, and he had his hair, full head of hair. And that I was kind of like, well, okay, that's kind of weird that she would like that that would happen at the same time or around the same time. That was so I am not willing to say, like, okay, I think this is like true, but I'm also not willing to say like maybe not. I am willing to say that 99.99% of these people are charlatans, but maybe some of them aren't. Maybe. I don't know, right? That's where I'm at.

SPEAKER_03 52:53

So I think in the end, he's harsher than I am about it. Maybe a little bit, yeah. Yeah. The charlatans comment was just like, you know, the real pssst at the end of it.

SPEAKER_01 53:01

It is, but there's some but I mean, Laura would say the same thing that there are people out there taking advantage of people who Miss Cleo was so legit pecking.

unknown 53:08

Remember her?

SPEAKER_03 53:08

You remember classic, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:10

What do you think?

SPEAKER_03 53:10

Now you asked us that question. I think it's a fair question to ask you.

SPEAKER_04 53:12

Yeah, I mean, I've never done a reading, so I know you know, so it'd be hard to say, but yeah, I mean, I think people will believe if they want to believe.

SPEAKER_00 53:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:23

And if they want to believe in it, whatever whatever they say that's accurate, they'll pick up on that.

SPEAKER_00 53:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:29

If somebody doesn't want to believe, it's the opposite where they'll they'll focus on the things that that weren't accurate. So I think it's a lot of it's whatever somebody's preconceived notion is heading into it.

SPEAKER_03 53:40

Yeah. I think I think in a lot of ways it could still help people, right? If they want to find something out of it and get something out of it, and they choose to find something from it, then I'm like, doesn't hurt nobody. As long as they're not being predatory, yeah, like you know, and and taking advantage of somebody. Yeah, I that's the thing.

SPEAKER_01 53:54

Like, if if someone says, like, hey, it's gonna cost you$100 to go see this person, and if you walk away feeling better,$100 well spent.

SPEAKER_03 54:01

But if you walk away feeling like I gotta go spend another hundred bucks every week, or something bad's gonna happen, I gotta go hang out with that lady every week.

SPEAKER_01 54:07

Unless you can afford it, and that makes you feel better.

SPEAKER_03 54:09

Yeah, yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_01 54:10

It's one of those things, like in the end, like in the end, if it's gonna make you feel better, you're gonna pay a therapist 200 bucks an hour to make you feel better. True. What's the difference? End result, true, right?

SPEAKER_04 54:21

Yeah, well, I'll say this, it's funny that what the opening scene, because the reason I don't think she'd be thrilled with it is it's a comedy in a similar style to open micers. But in the opening scene, I've got the guy on the couch and he's saying, you know, and this and then my parents, this and this and this, da-da-da. And then you see cut to a two shot and the woman there with the clipboard, and he's like, So what do you think? And she's like, Well, I'm not your therapist, I'm a fortune teller. Well, give me something, what give me something I can use.

SPEAKER_03 54:46

That's pretty good. No, that's good.

SPEAKER_04 54:48

That's what it yeah. I think people probably do go to mediums for a similar reason that they would go to like uh psychiatrist or therapists.

SPEAKER_03 54:55

A little guidance and want answers, yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_04 54:57

And who's and you could probably say a lot of the same things about a psychiatrist or therapist on the on their legitimacy. So it comes down to nobody's forcing any anyone to go to a medium. So if you want it's kind of money.

Arts Cuts And Nova Scotia Film Funding

SPEAKER_03 55:08

Like nutrition and the brain and so much of this like things like that we don't know about. Like, you know, so it's like yeah, you gotta do what works for you, right? Exactly. Right. If it's if it's having a beer, if it's meditation, if it's whatever.

SPEAKER_04 55:19

I prefer the sauce over meditation or psychiatrist.

SPEAKER_03 55:23

It's underrated. Beer and uh like even a little bit of whiskey before bed, tell you, man. I mean clears the mind that you wouldn't believe, right? I mean, I know that there's complications with that, but also like, god damn it, I'm relaxed for 15 minutes. Like I get that little bit of my day where it's like, I don't everything's fine, right? You know, nothing does it like a nice little a nice shot. Yeah, no, you know, or nice little anyways.

SPEAKER_01 55:49

All right, so 10 questions?

SPEAKER_03 55:50

Should we go with 10 questions?

SPEAKER_01 55:51

One second. Okay, sure. Before we move into it, I'm gonna do what you did with uh with Dustin there. So before we get into it, because this is very topical right now. Ask him about mines.

SPEAKER_04 56:01

I'm confused.

SPEAKER_01 56:02

What do you think about gold mines? No, well, it's funny you should ask. Uh I wrote a series about this. Yeah, no, uh, I just want your thoughts a little because obviously, right now it's on a lot of people's minds are budget cuts. We made some jokes about it and everything like that. I did actually reach out to some people in the film industry to act talk to them about it. So I know the arts are kind of having some cuts and stuff like that, but it from my understanding it actually the film industry is not kind of left the film industry alone. They left the film industry alone. So I mean, just some. Did you see that joke online?

SPEAKER_03 56:30

It's because he got that role in that Hallmark movie. He's just Tim Houston's cue with the I didn't even know that. Oh, that was a I've never watched a Hallmark movie. A couple jokes. I'm in one of them. Are you? Oh, yeah. Because I used to be an actor before I no Houston made a cameo in one. I didn't know this. You didn't? You remember Barry Dunn when he was on our show? Yeah, yeah. So he told us about it.

SPEAKER_01 56:48

I forget about it.

SPEAKER_03 56:49

I it's either in the episode or after the episode, because I didn't know either. Yeah. Because Barry Dunn was right mad right mad that Tim Houston was in this movie. And I didn't really care. Like I said, oh, that's kind of cool. He was in a movie, and but but he wasn't he wasn't happy about it. I think that was not in the episode. Oh shit.

SPEAKER_01 57:02

Oh well.

SPEAKER_03 57:03

Now it is. Oh, now it is. Yeah, you're gonna get an email from Barry Dunn. I love Barry Dunn. I hope he comes back on the show. He's not going to now. No, yeah, we will. He'll be fine. I mean, I'm not saying nothing bad about him. He's a nice guy. Yeah. Yeah. Hope he comes back on.

SPEAKER_01 57:15

So, yeah, what what yeah, thoughts on like you know how the film industry is going right now and just you know, all that stuff. If if you've seen any impact at all or with anticipated.

SPEAKER_04 57:23

Yeah, I got I I was out of town, so I got a lot of it secondhand just coming back into town. But yeah, from what I understand, I guess some of the film programs did get some cuts. Okay. I think AvCoup and the Spinner Fire tapes received some cuts. And I was a previous member of both of those back in the day. So they are important, but it's like anything else, is something we're at a I guess we're in a situation now where we're a little bit in dire straits. There's not enough money to go around.

SPEAKER_01 57:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:51

And so anything that's going to be seen as an extracurricular non-necessity is probably going to get some cuts. Having said that, those are sort of like because I I know you can only understand hockey references. Some football guy. Yeah. Center for Art Tapes and like AfCoup and stuff like that. They're they're they're almost like the QMJHL for like the film industry. So people like myself will have started there, learned how to do things there, and then now I'm generating, we just did a million-dollar budget show. So it can generate money, but it's a really long-term game.

SPEAKER_00 58:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 58:26

So I can understand both sides of it. I can understand why if you're trying to put together a budget where you would cut something that isn't gonna have an immediate kickback. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 58:34

With that said, I remember when they Yeah, I mean, uh not none of it has an immediate kickback, unfortunately, right?

SPEAKER_01 58:40

You know, but the arts, we've been saying this all this year. The arts are entrepreneurs, they are like they are an entrepreneur.

SPEAKER_03 58:46

And they put culture in your city. Like, I mean, you know, you look at the design of this spot, it's phenomenal. And this is a business. This is a small business. But you know, I love seeing that designs on buildings and and and art in our communities and the ability to go down to bus stop theater on Godogen and see a show, right? Like, this shit's awesome. Like, you know, we have so much here. Like, we have like like Nova Scotia has a real sandbox vibe. It's like you can kind of do whatever you want to do. So, however, we can continue to support that while growing, what we gotta get more innovative in these areas. So, I mean, if the budget cuts, if they if they can't happen, we gotta really step up and see where people need support the most and help them. Like, you know, it's uh it's it's it's a shitty situation. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:27

Well, when they when they cut the tax credit in 2015, yeah, that was seen by a lot of people as like the sky is falling.

SPEAKER_03 59:33

Right.

SPEAKER_04 59:34

And the YouTube channel I just mentioned earlier, offset TV, it's still there. Yeah, the last video we did was a round table the day that they cut the tax credit. Oh my gosh, yeah. And I or it was like the next day or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 59:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:45

And I was a little unpopular in the scene because I came out and said I think this might actually help us. Because and it and it did. It helped people like me because the original tax credit was well, and we'll really simplify it just for entertainment purposes. But it was you spend five dollars and you get a dollar back. Okay, so a big American film like a Hallmark movie would come here because it kind of looks like Maine and maybe New Jersey or New York, right? Yeah, and they could film here, and for every five dollars they spend, they get a dollar back. So it made sense.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:13

And their dollar American dollars go further.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:15

Right. Right, yeah. But for me, I was an independent filmmaker, so I can't afford to spend the five dollars to get a dollar back. Right. So a lot of local filmmakers did not really benefit as much from the tax credit the way it worked then.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:26

Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:26

So when they abolished it in 2015, they replaced it with a film production incentive fund.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:31

Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:31

Which in again, in very simple terms, for entertainment purposes only, it was more like there's$35 in a bucket, like the bucket you guys used to use to pull questions out of. Yeah, what was it called? Bucket of democracy. Bucket of democracy. So there's$35 in a bucket and it's up for grabs. And if you qualify, apply, and whoever can apply applies and meets the qualifications gets some of the$35. So then that's when you started seeing Bell with instead of having like four local shows, and I was one of them back then, now they have like 20. Uh-huh. East Link went from two to like 15, 20. Because now the local the production incentive fund wasn't enough of incentive for a big American film to come here. But now there was money up for grabs for all the little guys that actually live in Nova Scotia. So it benefited someone like me. I went from not making any money at all to to making my living doing it. But I can understand why other people who like if you're a crew member, so say you're a sound recordist, or if you're an actor that wants to just kind of get seen in bigger pictures. In big things. Although a lot, I mean, I was I was that in a lot of the big films that would come here, they you you would never be a film company in New York or Los Angeles and cast your film in Nova Scotia. You cast it before you get here with Americans. And then if you had one in a few for and rightfully so, like if we were doing a film right now and we were gonna go film it in Picto County, we would be foolish to say we're just gonna find the cast when we get there and hope that we get what we want. That's what Nova Scotia is to Los Angeles. So they would cast most of the film there, and then the small one-liners they would cast here. Yeah, but there's other people that were like, if you're a sound guy or a camera guy, you want those big American films coming to town because now you're on a shoot for 40 days, right? Making really good money. No stress. It's only for like a cre a creator, a director, or a local producer. Yeah. The production incentive fund actually benefited us. So there's two sides of it. I don't know what this recent thing that happened the last week, how that's gonna play out. Yeah, I don't know if it'll be it hurt it or does it help, or do you know yet?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:26

I don't know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:27

I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:28

I think what will probably end up happening is they'll probably end up combining a lot of the art programs together.

Ten Questions And Rapid Tangents

SPEAKER_03 1:02:34

I I think you know, it's it's a weird, it's an unfortunate thing, and we've been evident, you know, against these cuts that go without uh go without really great understanding, but I think that's just we really share what's happening out there in these individual places and you know support support the areas we can support, right? Right, however we can. So yeah. Man, this has been an awesome conversation, I think. I mean, you know, I hope you're happy with it.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:59

I'm I'm very disappointed in it. I'm gonna leave right now, actually. Okay. If you could stick around for 10 more questions, I'll stick around for nine. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:09

Kind of technically 11.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:10

But anyway, is it technically 11? Okay. Okay, we know you were doing that. I wouldn't have heard that, but because you said in the mic, it was in my earphones. Yeah. It was a good whisper, though.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:18

There you go. All right. Okay, I'll start, Matt. What's a food combination you love that most people think is weird? Hmm.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:26

See, I told you before that these 10 questions were my biggest fear. These are these are hard, man. A weird food combo. I don't, I that's a tough one. See, I'm pretty pretty basic when it comes to that. Food combo that people think is weird. I can't think of it. Nothing. I remember well, was it somebody said they eat chocolate chip cookies and they put salt on it?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:48

I thought that was pretty strange. I I I might try that. Okay. It sounded like it actually might be.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:53

I think it would. He's open to weird food combos.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:56

I'm open to wood uh weird food combinations.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:58

All right. Question number two. So if you had to live in one fictional world, where would it be?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:06

Wow, that's another tough one. I mean, I probably would have said trailer park boys, but it's so based on where we are anyway. Pee-wee's Playhouse was a fun little environment.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:18

Maybe if you were on shrooms. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:21

I like, I'm like, I would not like it there. You wouldn't like it in Pee's version. No, I don't think so. I don't think I'd like that at all. That would terrify that freaking couch, dude.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:30

Well, remember there's two iterations. There's like the children's show version, and it was like I think it originated as like an adult show.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:36

Yeah, it was yeah, it's yeah. No, I think that's what got him in trouble. No, that wasn't adult show.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:43

Kind of crazy too. Like he did that in a theater like in all that time, and like, you know, yeah, like that he got in trouble for that now looking back. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, sorry, it's all really there was no uh computers.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:54

So we'll go with we'll go with Pee Wee's Play World. I like it. Question number three over to you. What song do you know every word to?

unknown 1:05:02

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:03

Song you know every word to just off top of your dumb. Probably any Michael Jackson song.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:08

Do you remember the time?

SPEAKER_04 1:05:09

Yeah, I do.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:10

We first fell into love. That was a Michael Jackson song.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:16

I just threw one out at you. I was gonna track a quick track four. Yes, you got it. Duration, four minutes, twenty six seconds. I know all that. You got the technical part, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:25

Yeah, exactly. Perfect. All right. Question number four. So if you could cast any actor and actress, who would they be? Because you know, something for the you something that you wrote and directed, obviously. Yeah, and you have the ability to pick any actor and any actress as the lead roles, who would they be?

SPEAKER_04 1:05:44

I'd probably go a little bit old school on that one. So they have to be alive? No, no, no. I'd I I'd probably I'd probably go Jane Seymour and Sylvester Stallone. Awesome. Okay, right? In the movie together? Together, but never in the same scene. Right? Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, because they're there are two great examples of a nursing home on Flybury.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:08

There's two badasses in there, like you know, like Stallone on one end and Seymour on the other. Like end of the nursing home. Oh, yeah, yeah. They combine, right? Yes. They're just kicking ass in the hallway and they move it. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:17

Well, they're yeah, they're both probably in their 70s or 80s by now.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:20

And they start kicking ass together and you know, save the rest of the residents. That'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:24

They're great examples. Neither of them get their due, like Stallone gets sort of seen as like just this jacked-up guy. They really can do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:31

Brilliant writer. Brilliant Rocky. Wrote Rocky. Wrote Rocky. I mean, I love that story. Like the fact that he wrote that and how he came up in the industries is a crazy story. It's an incredible story. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:41

They have a statue of him in Philadelphia, and he's not even from Philadelphia. Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:46

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:47

He he's great. If you ever watch his movies, and Jane Seymour made a career of this too. When the other person's talking, they're still acting.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:56

So

SPEAKER_04 1:06:57

You could always end the shot on Skallone. He doesn't have to say anything. I mean, he never he hardly spoke in Rambo.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:04

And James Feymour and Dr. Penn Medicine Woman, that was the whole shtick, was you could always end the shot.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:09

Where that we watched that show when we were young.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:12

I think she had such a like a particular like image of her then, and then she left and just started going like wild kind of thing. Like she was in uh uh wedding crashers and all this other stuff. And that's when I actually feel like you were kind of like we got to see how good she really was because you were like, I saw her as Medicine Woman Forever. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:31

She's like, yeah, yeah. Well in back way back in the day, she was one of the Bond, she's in a Bond movie. Yeah, yeah. That's kind of what got her her start, and then Medicine Woman was like the big thing. But any actor that can emote without verbiage is a huge tool.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:47

Cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:47

Because it can make the other actors better.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:50

All right, question number five over to Tobin. What's something you believed as a kid that turned out to be wrong?

SPEAKER_04 1:07:57

These are these are hard, man. I thought wrestling was real. I thought, you know, Hogan was actually body slamming Andre the Giant.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:06

And then realized that while it was fictionalized, it was still quite impressive. You know? That particular thing in Yeah, I think we all thought wrestling was real.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:16

Everyone did at some point. It was I I was more upset about that than Santa Claus being not real. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:21

I mean wait a minute. Shh, don't talk. Yeah, man. Come on, man. What are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:26

Kids didn't make it this far.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:29

I hope if they're watching the afternoon pipe, I really hope not.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:34

I will say, as much as Hogan turned out to be a big, you know, turd to the wrestling thing, is R I think Hogan. Sorry. Just gotta say, yeah. He he had he had to get his spine fused so much that he was actually like he it was a whole five inches shorter by the end of his life. Wow. Yeah. Crazy, eh? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:54

Yeah, well, there's a thing like body slamming Andre the Giant, they're working together a little bit, but that's still a 500-pound man that you have to hoist up over your head. You know, the the toll that that takes on their bodies, even though it's it's scripted. Yeah, it's like you guys were saying in a previous episode, it's they should be SAG numbers because it's scripted entertainment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like any other television show. They're actors, but their particular nate the nature of what they do happens to be highly physical.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:20

Yeah, 100%. All right, question number six. I think that's me. So, what's a movie that you've, in your opinion, that you've seen just too many times?

SPEAKER_04 1:09:30

Probably Jaws. Okay. Watch Jaws a lot.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:34

Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:35

It's a great it's a masterpiece of character. The shark is in the movie for about 12 seconds.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:41

And you're just hooked with Chief Brody, and it's just every scene in that movie is is unbelievable. Scarface would also be honorable mention. Ooh, Scarface is green too, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:52

Alright, seven over to you. I'm gonna remix seven of it, buddy. Civilization collapses tomorrow. Okay, boom. Happened. You're one of the survivors, right? So you you got a good set of skills, you know, necessarily survive. But how do you think which which skill would you lean into, do you think, to help humanity if we had to rebuild from nothing?

SPEAKER_04 1:10:12

Did you write that last night? That was that's incredible. What skill would I lean into? Well, I would probably try to keep everybody on the same page. So I think we whenever you watch those disaster movies, it's part of what kills everyone is this society collapses under the pressure. You watch War of the Worlds or whatever it is, people start you know, they're pillaging each other's houses and killing each other because once you don't have that stability, you start to panic, you know. So I think I would try to use my ability to direct and keep everybody on the same page. Just be like the Buddha, kind of like keeping shit calm. Try to do it as much as I can. Love it. Great. Probably hard to do when when I'm not paying them, but you know you have to do that on a film set.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:56

10 points.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:56

That's a great answer. I love that answer. Good job. How many points did I get for the previous question? Good question. Good these this is like whose line is it anyway? The points don't count.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:05

I thought it was like a family feud.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:06

You took out my most topical question, though.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:08

Oh, use it. Use it now. Yeah, I'm gonna use it because it now.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:11

You mentioned karaoke earlier, yeah, and I was like, Oh, I got a question about karaoke in the 10 questions. Okay, do it. So if you were forced to sing karaoke here at Jellies, what is your go-to song?

SPEAKER_04 1:11:23

Probably O Canada. The national anthem. It gets everybody on their feet, everyone knows the words. It's a classic, man. It's been around for a while.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:32

It's a banger. Everybody likes O Canada.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:33

Absolutely. You know what? I do. I really like it. It's not, it hasn't been the same since Peter Bayliss died, but you know what? You know what?

SPEAKER_03 1:11:39

My kid says they play a dance version of O Canada in the schools now. Wow. I don't know, I've never heard it. It's like techno. Yeah. It's like a kind of saying, yeah, it's like a dance version, it's not the real version, what she was telling me. I I gotta I gotta learn more about what version they're playing in in junior high schools.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:54

All right, yeah. Cool. All right, so over to you. Pick whatever your question. We have eight, nine, and ten. Okay. Pick whatever you want.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:03

Is is there a conspiracy theory that you fully believe?

SPEAKER_04 1:12:07

I loved that show. Did we really land on the moon? Did you ever watch that on Fox back in the middle? I know it. I never watched it.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:14

I mean, I know I know the the conversations of how flags are blowing, but there's no wind on the moon.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:19

Yeah. If you speed it up, it looks like it's a car just driving. So that's one. There's a really good documentary on YouTube that says, Did the Titanic actually sink? And there's some really good I've seen this. There's one that's really compelling.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:33

Didn't James Cameron like like watch the Titanic at the bottom of the ocean like with like HD cameras and all that? I thought I saw some clips on that. But did he really? We never know.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:43

There's a ship, there's a ship down there. I'll I'll give you the finish. There they have three really good points. Yeah. One is the like the silverware and the wallpaper and everything. When they went down there and they took that little thing and they film everything.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:57

It's the wallpaper and silverware from a different ship called the Olympic, I think. Oh, yeah. They have all this other, there's like some really great evidence. And then the last shot of this documentary, their their biggest thing that just makes you say, okay, there's something to this.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:15

Their theory is they said they there was a ship called the Olympic and it had a big hole in it.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:20

So it was going to sink. And so for insurance purposes, they wanted people to think it was the Titanic. And if you go down and you look at that James Cameron footage and you look at the front of the Titanic, this documentary says that they put the Titanic letters over the Olympic at the front of the ship. And if you go down there and look now, the T has come off. And behind the T is uh oh. Dun dun dun smokes.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:44

Did they just but like Kate Wint Slit, right? Okay, the character she played in the movie. That was a fictional no, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:51

He thinks it was a documentary. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:53

It wasn't a real movie. No, but but but she was like she was playing a real person, wasn't she? Is she playing a fictional person? No, no.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:01

Well, there's a reference to this theory in the movie because when they first see the ship, yeah, she looks at the Titanic and she says, That doesn't look any bigger than whatever this other ship is. And then the the villain, what's it? Billy Zane. Billy Zane. Incredible. He says, Don't be silly rose. It's over a hundred feet longer than that ship. But that's a little reference to the idea that some people thought, wow, this really looks like that other ship. So that when you tell people it's bigger, it's sort of like the medium thing. If you tell people it's a hundred feet longer, people will look at it and they'll see it as a hundred feet longer.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:30

Yeah. Damn. I like Finland's not real.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:36

Finland's definitely real.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:37

All right. Question number 10 is I think it's me. Yeah. So, question number 10, save the best for last. Can Mike and I be in your next film or TV show?

SPEAKER_04 1:14:47

Well, you're gonna be like Zen meditation guy.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:53

I've been meditating, man.

Everything’s Negotiable Closing Advice

SPEAKER_04 1:14:54

Yeah, I mean, yeah. Well, you guys mentioned it to Aaron. You guys were working on something quite a while. Did you follow through on that? No, we don't follow through on that. No, ADHD, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:02

You know, we just ping, ping, ping, ping, ping. We had 3,423 ideas since then. Right, right. Exactly. Oh, and you're busy doing this. Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:10

No, uh, you know, I always most of the cast I always get local. Yeah, and most of like this show, other than like one or two actors, they were all relatively brand new. They'd either done nothing or they had done like one short film or one small thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:25

I've been in three short films and they're all on YouTube. Cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:28

I was in Crime Stoppers video.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:29

Crime Stoppers. Yeah. How'd you know that? Well, that was a documentary, wasn't it? Real footage.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:35

You researched me, man.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:37

They captured you live on camera.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:39

That's getting creepy now. I think I want to end this. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, let's go to the last uh last call. Okay, last call, man. A piece of advice you were given in your lifetime that you'd like to hand on to our listeners, you could have heard it anywhere. Or you could have read it in a scene in a movie. Or you could have just wrote it. Or you could have wrote yourself. You can make it up on the fly.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:58

Mr. Koochler. Oh, Cooch.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:01

Emil.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:01

Let's go. Who we had as a teacher. I remember he said everything's negotiable. So whatever you think can't happen, most things you could make it happen if you really even even things that so many things that I've achieved in my career were things that shouldn't have happened that just weren't plausible. And sometimes if you just attempt or put that effort in, an extreme example I just remembered. One of the people that worked on that that web series won something similar, like a karaoke star thing, but the dead she was going to apply. It was like a music contest.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:38

And the deadline had already passed. She's like, God, I would have loved to apply for that show. Like I would have loved to. I said, just apply anyway. Yeah. Well, no, the deadline was last week. I was like, it's probably going to some email that they don't even, they're not even going to check it for like another two weeks. Fair. They're not going to if you if they think you're going to be good on TV or whatever this is, they're going to cash you. They're not going to care whether you missed a deadline. Just apply anyway. She ended up winning the whole show.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:00

No way.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:01

That kind of stuff happens all the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've gotten grants for things that they were like, no, the deadline's passed, and there's actually no money. That grant's not even doesn't exist anymore. And I would go in and meet with the person, and then sometimes they would say, Well, this funding isn't available. But you know, now that you're here, hey, let me put you in touch with somebody. Yeah. And then, you know, that that's all the time. In the film industry, especially great advice. Yeah, just if you're in the mix, things will start to happen.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:24

Yeah. Tell me, man. Cooch was he was awesome. He was a great teacher. He was one of the few guys that like when you talk about negotiation, if you were late for his class, he believed in you were either here or you weren't. The only exception is if you so if you showed up late, he would never mark you late. You had you either attended it or not. And like back then high school, you would be marked if you were late.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:47

He would let you in and mark you present, but you had to sing a song in front of the class. And if you if you were like, nah, I'm not doing that, see you, you're not coming to class. But if you would do it, take a seat. You're here.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:00

He actually only did that with Matt. That was a rare idea.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:03

And we were all by ourselves and we heard about it. He was the best dude. He was heard about it. They haven't told you about what school you actually went to yet, did they? We'll get to that in another episode. But man, this was really nice chat with you. Yes. Cheers. And best of luck with the show and all the future endeavors. Yeah. Cheers. Watch on Swearnet. Watch it on Swearnet. Watch it on Swearnet.