Taylor Olson, Bob Mann, and Adam DeViller Turned Friendship Into Award Winning TV & Film

A pub table in Halifax is a strange place to map out a film and TV career, but that’s exactly where we end up with Taylor Olson, Bob Mann, and Adam DeViller. Between bites of a spice bag and a lot of laughter, we get into the real mechanics of building independent work in Nova Scotia: writing roles when the acting jobs don’t come, directing to control the full vision, and editing comedy with the kind of timing that makes awkward silence actually land. We also talk about Hey Halifax, how it grew with support from Bell TV1, and why landing on TPB Plus helps local shows reach viewers far beyond the city.

From there, the conversation widens into the hard stuff that every Halifax artist feels right now: cost of living, arts cuts, and what happens when talented people have to leave because the margins get too thin. We make the case that the arts are not a hobby on the side of the economy, they’re entrepreneurship, jobs, and part of what makes a city worth staying in.

We also hear about Taylor’s feature What We Dreamed It Then, its festival run, its impact screenings focused on houselessness, and what it takes to start pushing into the US market through festivals and distributors. If you care about Halifax comedy, Nova Scotia film, Canadian creators, and how culture gets made when resources are tight, this one goes deep. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s building something, and leave a review with the one line you can’t stop thinking about.

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

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Transcript

Cold Open And Cheers

SPEAKER_05 0:14

Cheers! Cheers! Hello, big cheers. Welcome to the afternoon fight, gentlemen. I'm Mike Tobin. I am Matt Conrad. Who do we have here?

SPEAKER_07 0:23

Uh my name is Taylor Olson. I'm uh actor, writer, filmmaker based in Halifax here.

SPEAKER_06 0:27

Uh I'm Bob Mann. I'm an actor, writer, comedian based here in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

And I'm Adam DeViller, I'm a writer and director from Halifax.

SPEAKER_05 0:37

Wow. How do we manage to get all three of you here? That's just pretty cool. We we we we Matt and I were talking about this just before the show. When was the last time we had this many people on the show at once? That's true.

SPEAKER_04 0:47

You know, and I didn't think we did have, but we we we did have a podcast. A we had a podcast. We had five people on there. Yeah. Swing Entertainment. Swing the Swing Guys, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 0:57

And they just recently won an award for their four film in the 48-hour film festival. Oh, they were losing. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, so uh small world. We love talking to folks that are doing projects and especially in the arts and Halifax. Bob, I'm gonna lean into you first because I mean I met you or a long time ago, over 10 years ago now, I think. Is the math right on that? Sounds about right, yeah. I was trying to be a comedian. I joined an AA group and I failed at my comedy, but I I did meet you who was doing a standing comedy amongst many others. Yeah. And I mean, are you still doing stand-up today?

SPEAKER_06 1:34

Oh yeah, still, yeah. So I was just on stage Sunday night, down at the Sunday sesh, and I've headlined yuck-yucks, and I've traveled and done a bunch of headliner weekends and other things for yuck-yucks. I got a Just For Laughs things coming up on the 24th of April. Still plugging away at it. Still so to stay in smokes, as they used to say in the old country of Cape Breton, where I'm from. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:57

I I remember you having a huge family as well.

SPEAKER_06 1:59

Yeah, yeah. We got a bunch of kids, and most of my jokes are about them. Yeah. Uh, which is how old are your kids now? My oldest is uh twenty-five. When was he born? Yeah, I guess he's gonna be twenty-seven this year. My youngest just turned fifteen. So it's uh and then something in between, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:15

Still have all the ages of adolescence.

SPEAKER_06 2:17

Yeah, which is great, but there was a time when I kind of safely told jokes about them in ways that they could never know about, and now they're old enough and they know all about the crazy shit that I say about them. And a couple of them have even been to shows, like very, very recently. So it's uh it's a whole life cycle of of entertainment in-house, as long as they laugh, basically, is my standard at this point, as long as they like my stuff.

SPEAKER_04 2:45

You know what? I I love that stuff now. I mean, now being a uh you know a father myself and everything, I've actually found that I like some of that humor and relate to it obviously a lot more than before, right? I don't think I thought Bert Kreischer was funny until he became a dad, right?

SPEAKER_03 3:00

Yeah, I just saw Bob saying Sunday.

Bob Mann On Stand-Up

SPEAKER_05 3:04

So sorry, something you just saw Bob on Sunday. So how's the new act? What's going on these days? He's fucking unreal. Okay.

SPEAKER_07 3:10

Like I he won't say it himself, but I gotta do that. No, he's saying it. I would definitely say that. He's a master. I say this, he's a master of his craft. Like, one of my best friends in the world. I love this guy so much, but like objectively, he's fucking unreal. He's so good. I agree.

SPEAKER_05 3:26

I think you have uh a great humor about you. It's original, it's unique, it's funny. It brings everybody in the room. I mean, it's very relatable to comedy. I mean, you ever get a chance to see Bob Mann? He performs you perform Halifax all the time. Yeah, yeah, all over the place.

SPEAKER_06 3:39

Yeah, so I'm really glad I did this podcast. I almost did.

The Spice Bag Taste Test

SPEAKER_05 3:42

Almost didn't just want to give it your flowers here, man. So thank you for coming on. I really appreciate that. And uh, thanks for having me. And I'm just gonna jump into the food, Matt. So so we're back at Queens Airm. Yeah. I had a deep desire for a for a long time to try a spice bag. Okay. So, do you know what a spice bag is, guys? I don't. I've been looking at it. Certainly that the name is unappetizing.

SPEAKER_06 4:04

That's all I know about it at the moment.

SPEAKER_05 4:06

This is like the donairs of Ireland, these are like their kind of street meat style food that's really, really popular. Yeah. And I was in Ireland last year and I wanted to get a spice bag really bad. And I went to this like little booth, just you know, just kind of in an alley, and I saw spice bags, you know,$15. Okay, awesome. I was all excited and ran up and bought one. It was the worst thing I ever had in my life. But then I realized that I didn't get the right authentic spice bag, and I shouldn't buy food out of an alleyway. But this is probably good to buy something like a a very a very good-looking spice bag. Got some breaded chicken and some fries and some. Is that what that is? I think so.

SPEAKER_06 4:46

And is it spicy? Is the is the the word spice just a sort of colloquialism in this context?

SPEAKER_05 4:52

Like or this is actually like a curry, uh curry chutney kind of style. So try that.

SPEAKER_07 4:57

I dig the chicken's unreal.

Meet The Hey Halifax Team

SPEAKER_05 4:59

The chicken is really good, guys, and the curry chutney chutney is pretty nice too. I'm not sure if I'm saying that right. Let us know what we're doing. You're saying chutney right? Yeah, chutney's good. Yeah, cool. All right, let's move on to the introductions while we're eating this delicious uh so tell us a little bit about you. Uh I I I've never met you before. So, so how how'd you get it mixed in with these two?

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Well, yeah, I met Bob when I was in film school, like probably like I guess 15-ish years ago. Um, even though like everybody knew him as a comedian, but for some reason people in my class kept casting him as like this like pained dramatic actor. So we realized that he could do that as well. Yeah, and then met Taylor a little few years after that, actually. I was working on a project with Bob, and we needed somebody to play the other role. And Taylor had reached out to me like a few years prior. I had made a short film called Film Guard Renegades, and then shortly after that, he reached out saying, like, hey, I'm an actor, just graduated, and love this short, it'd be great to work with you sometime. I knew we had worked with Bob. I asked Bob, like, you know, what about what about this Taylor guy? What's he like? He's like, he's great. So Taylor and I met and we just kind of like ended off right away. We made that movie, and then you know the three of us have been kind of making stuff ever since.

SPEAKER_05 6:09

So, what's your kind of official role working with these two gentlemen today?

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Is it writer, producer, director and writer?

SPEAKER_05 6:15

Director and writer, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

So we would have created that.

SPEAKER_05 6:18

So you're really bossy.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

I tried to be, you know, I try to be as bossy as possible.

SPEAKER_05 6:23

Are you the maniac who wrote this hey hello Halifax thing? I mean that was hey helifax hello. Hey, hello.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

I did, I did, I did write a lot of crazy shit for that. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_05 6:34

But it's also really fun. This is my favorite kind of humor, is this awkward, you don't know where to place it. This is even comedy comedy. Yeah. And you guys nail it. I mean, the characters are great. The interactions, I saw a few, one with uh Ricky from the trailer pack boys was really good. And the other one with the uh OnlyFans.

SPEAKER_08 6:52

Oh, yeah, it was absolutely exciting.

SPEAKER_05 6:55

Uh and I don't know, I love this kind of is there going to be a season two of this? Hot take. Do you think we uh you guys got the green light on it?

SPEAKER_01 7:01

We're working on it, and we don't have a green light yet, but things are in the works. In about how many weeks is it gonna be? Or people are gonna be able to check out season one on an accessible platform.

SPEAKER_07 7:13

Yeah, early May, like around May 7th-ish.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Are we allowed to say what the platform is? I think I know what it is. It's uh TPV Plus, formerly known as SquareNet. Perfect there to be available.

SPEAKER_05 7:23

I mean they're like an international streamer, so one of you guys are like the second show to come on this year that's going actually the third show, if I think about Kristen Green's car wash wars. Yeah, yeah, right now. The other one, Matt, that was just on um Open Micers.

SPEAKER_07 7:37

Open Micers with Pond, seasons one, two, and three. That's ours. Oh yeah? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:43

Amazing, right? So these guys are putting a lot of Nova Scotia content on their on their platform, right? Absolutely. And this has nothing to do with the with the trailer parts boys, but it's just young writers, young, young actors, uh directors with a bunch of new fresh material.

Getting Bell TV1 Trust

SPEAKER_01 7:59

Yeah, there's a lot of like them, and I mean obviously we have to like shout out uh Bell TV One, who gave us the shot to make this show and like really like leaned into just being like total creative control and just took a huge like risk of being like, you know, do what you guys want, and they just like kind of let us do whatever we wanted and like you know, shepherded us through the process without a whole lot of notes or without a whole lot of anything like that. So a ton of trust. He he really like just said, like, you know, I believe in you guys, do what you want, and then like kind of championed us through the process, and we're shocked at where it ended up going. But like, you know, it's places like that and TPB Plus that are giving creators a chance that isn't something that you see every day anymore.

SPEAKER_05 8:45

Yeah, we need more of it, right? I mean, you know, I definitely I think right now, more than ever, we need to really start leaning inwards for our for our content and uh our our our entertainment content, right? And I mean there's a lot more here, more guys like you experimenting and trying and creating. Yeah, um it only it's only gonna get better.

SPEAKER_04 9:03

There's some serious talent here in Halifax, and I think it's um yeah, it's not out there enough. And uh Mike and I have been really really focusing this year to try to hammer home the idea that people who work in the arts are entrepreneurs. Yeah, right, right. And I don't think that's something that people really consider. Uh when they think of the arts, they think like there's business and then there's the arts, and they're like, uh, you know, it's one or the other, but it's not, right? Yeah. We see that the film industry and like and art can on the top of the fact that you just need art, like a good society, successful, great place to live investing in the art, in the arts. But also there's money that comes along with that, right? It's a business. We've seen what like from and uh Sullivan's crossing and these types of big shows that are bringing that's bringing foreign money to Nova Scotia. I don't know. And paying people here. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:02

So when you guys like make these shows for like so and this just for hopefully there might be a young person watching this that's trying to make their own creative work and get it out there. Like, how the heck did you get to the point where you were applying to Bell? What was your kind of process like? Did somebody kind of lean towards that or did you find it on your own?

Taylor Olson’s DIY Career Path

SPEAKER_01 10:45

Um, well, like honestly, like this particular show, yeah, we got entirely because of Taylor's track record making shows for them. And they got to the point that they were like, what if you like they Paul actually kind of pitched to us, like, what if you did like a funny talk show or like got it, love it, like and was just like, You're gonna let us do that, sweet. Wow. But that's all because of like who Taylor is and the work Taylor's done, getting to where his career is, uh, and several, several shows with Bell over the years, you know. So he just is a trusted entity that you know they're willing to take a shot and take a chance on it.

SPEAKER_05 11:20

Great answer and great segue. So let's go through our our third guest of the week, Taylor Olsen. Uh it's even easier when it when he's here, right? Yeah, yeah. So, okay, about this foundation that you've it sounds like you've built through Bell. I mean, I know what you're up to now, and we'll talk more about that, but like I guess where did it start for you in creating your own work in Nova Scotia? Because that's that's a big undertaking in itself, and trusting Canada or or Halifax or whatever to be the place where you create these entertainment and movie projects. Because now you've had a few.

SPEAKER_07 11:55

Well, man, I I mean it's I think it's like we've all kind of come from the same Bob and I more so obviously coming from being actors, and you know, Adam's been making making films and uh films I've admired. Like, I'm like one of the biggest fans of the world of Foam Drive Renegade. Like, I'm like, yeah, and if someone's like, What's a great short film in Nova Scotia? I'm like, Foam Drive Renegade. Like, I'm like, the list always starts there. I'm just down to Adam. This fucking amazing, super funny, talented guy. Yeah, but anyway, seeing people do that locally, like I started as acting and got to do a few roles and then got bored pretty quickly because the acting jobs don't come. Even if you're working like at a decent rate for like a Nova Scotian actor, you're still not working that much usually. Right. And so I started writing roles for myself and then hand them to directors, and then slowly realize I sort of really imagined the full picture of what it would be. So I started directing those things, and you know, you just make short films on the weekend with our friends. Like Bob and I would, you know, hang out, make a no-budget short film on the weekend. We did Adam's great other short, uh, Bad Morning. And you know, you slowly do that, and then you know, I I did this play called Bone Cage on stage. And did you write Bone Cage or was this? So this was a play originally by Catherine Banks, okay. Great uh Canadian playwright. She's uh you know from out in Sambra Sambraway. Oh really? And yeah, she's like a Governor General Award-winning playwright, and I did the stage play, and then she was kind enough to trust me when I was like, hey, I kind of can say this as a movie to let me adapt it. So I adapted it for the screen, which is you know like a crazy undertaking. I made that first feature, and then things just kind of, you know, I think like if you make a first feature and it, you know, it doesn't like entirely fail. It just opens up doors to do more stuff. So then from there it just you know got more opportunities to do more features and and then you know, got in early with the Bell stuff with King and Pawn, with my buddy Tier and Hawkins. We created that show and did a first season that just kind of sort of allowed things to sort of you know, it's one of those funny things where like you do something, and as long as it's like half decent, then people will start to trust you to do more things and and then you just keep going.

SPEAKER_05 14:01

And earn credibility along the way that eventually you'll get to do something as foolish as this Halifax show.

SPEAKER_07 14:07

You know, it's I also just think that's like so unique because Paul is so like kind of like he's a big fan of comedy, he loves all sorts of comedy. I think he really loves broad comedy, but he also like can like noticed our weird little senses of humor, and then we kind of like like this sort of awkward, sort of almost cringe comedy, and like kind of was like, Yeah, like I trust you guys can sort of pull that off. He'd seen like, you know, he you know, when he greenlights a show, he's seen like Adam's shorts. He saw Bob and I did these these shorts called like the date and second wedding, which are like absolute most awkward comedy you kind of do, and he kind of like get the vibe, and and so he was just you know, he he like sort of sort of pushed us to like go for it, like even like go further in a way, like he's like just I think with comedy hits you gotta scream it from the rooftops because comedy is almost becoming a harder thing to find in in today's medium, right?

SPEAKER_05 15:01

I I mean I'm a huge comedy fan, so is Matt. Yep. We talk about comedy like Siskel and Eber talk about movies, right? You know, this guy gets green, or this guy was so good.

SPEAKER_06 15:10

Well, not anymore, they are dead. Or at least one of them. Yeah, we talked. The other guy's doing fine. Somewhere, wherever he is. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 15:21

Yeah, but we uh yeah, like if a new special comes out, like the first thing I'm like, hey man, did you watch this yet? Yeah, yeah. And we're always kind of picking it apart and analyzing it.

SPEAKER_05 15:29

So it's yeah, so we love analyzing copy. I I think I think you guys, what was really cool was you played off each other really well. Yeah, it felt very genuine and it didn't feel like it was emulating, it felt like its own thing, and that's that's really the best compliment I can give. Oh, thanks.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

I mean very different from our internet haters.

SPEAKER_08 15:46

So I'm quick to point out, oh, I'm sure the differences too.

SPEAKER_05 15:54

I've got called out for dropping a few too many F-bombs and just recently, I think.

SPEAKER_06 15:58

And uh she's like, but it is, it's uh it's a tough, it's a tough time to be doing this kind of stuff in a way because of that. The benefit is you can get in front of a lot of eyeballs, people get excited, they're very uh interested, but because there's been so much content and material out there, someone is going to be more quick than maybe they would have been yesteryear to watch what you're doing and going, oh, I see the reference. Yeah, I see what you're doing, I see what you're doing, and therefore it's it's different too.

SPEAKER_05 16:29

Yeah, that's something you really like. I really, you know, I think all of us, I'm not sure about you, but I know uh uh uh uh you are both raising a raising a kid right now, a teenager, and when I see what they find hilarious, I'm like, whoo, I'm not sure if I find that as funny as you do, but I'm happy you're happy. Right?

SPEAKER_06 16:45

Well if I if I can if I can say one of the probably one of the neatest things about this process for me was that as we were putting things together and and rolling out the sort of the rough cuts and things like that, yeah, I was showing them to my kids. And what were your kids saying? And they were loving it, yeah, they were laughing, they were really interested, they they cover a broad range. I have a nice sample size in terms of foreign they were kind of we thank we thanked them in the credits because they yeah, and everyone from like my 13, 14-year-old at the time to my you know young men sons and stuff were like, oh wow, we love this. And it's it's a small sample size, they are biased, they do love my stuff, but but I felt like I had a sense of how genuinely they liked it, like listening to them laughing and and and they still quote it. They quote the show and they talk about the show. They say it's the new Coxwells Dream Exchange. My girls say that to each other randomly all the time. And so it's a very validating thing that I don't I we wouldn't have been able to do that 10 years ago. We wouldn't have had that in our pocket as a as a thing to rely on.

Building Community And Hustle

SPEAKER_07 17:52

My daughter would have been 11 because she just turned 12 this year, and so I'd show her like clips that were appropriate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And she then she would same thing, like beg to see more, and I'd have to like you know scroll through. Okay, I can actually show you this part. And she watched everything she could for all the episodes. And like sometimes, like now she'd be like, Hey, can I watch the show again? Like, she'll want to watch it again.

SPEAKER_06 18:13

I'm like, what? Taylor's such a good dad. I've always shown my kids everything there is to see anywhere all the time. You guys want to watch his own mama hawk?

SPEAKER_08 18:21

Sit down, six-year-old, let's go.

SPEAKER_04 18:26

Every single person has been around. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_06 18:30

Yeah, right. Kind of what made us. Yeah. I do want to say something about Taylor, though, that that I think kind of got glissed over a little bit when you were talking about what can young people do or what can people do, and then when I make stuff. The thing of the thing about Taylor, and I never admit this though, and I think this is what drew me to him, and it's gotten Adam involved, is this real enterprising, hustling, hardworking, building relationships, pulling people in. When Taylor has a project he wants to do, he's built relationships so that he can bring in capital, you can bring in gear, bring in people, bring in and have multiple people lined up to do something. And honestly, having spent so much time with Taylor over the years, it's the number one thing I would say to someone who's got an idea, something they want to make, whether they want to write or they want to act, find other people, build relationships, make a little community, help them with their things, yeah, they'll help you with it make it. I mean, our actors union has a really cool thing where it says we're not allowed to act in anything other than act our projects. But if if a bunch of actors want to get together, and that's not cool, it's not cool. But but our but our actors our actors union has a little program, and pretty much all the branches do that say if you if if a bunch of you want to get together and make something, right, you can do that and you own it, and the union has a little share. One of the first big projects we ever worked on was a feature film that was done under that system. Taylor was one of the first people in the country to do that with a feature film. It was created for shorts, and Taylor said, I think we can make a feature movie using this system. And we did.

SPEAKER_05 20:04

And and it really that said so much to me about being imaginative and figuring out instead of just seeing the Roblox and now with folks in unions that are actually doing this kind of in in-house creation where they're people they're kind of turning into themselves to create their own content?

SPEAKER_07 20:20

I think so. I think it's like really common in the East Coast, especially you have to like wear so many hats just to survive. Like I think. Like, you know, if you want to do this for a living and and try to stay out here, you know. Um but I also like I think them this program, the member initiated program and actor, like a lot of people have been using for shorts for years. And it might be you know what's kind of sad is that I think it's used less now than it was when we were like in our in our like short film Heyday. And I think that's just because like the cost of living and like the way that the economy is for people right now, like a lot of artists just can't afford the time to be like, oh, I'm gonna do something on the weekend for free. Which is tough because for emerging creators, it's like that's how we did stuff. Like we did these things ourselves for like we did a bunch of shorts, and then eventually someone says, Yeah, we'll give you like you know, some pocket change. It's still pocket change to a degree at first, to go make something, and maybe you'll be able to like pay yourselves, you know, like like a dollar fifty an hour for all the work you put in. That's great, you know, it's exciting. So I think that's one of the things that's sad right now is that you just see a lot of young people who have the hunger and want to do it, but they're just struggling to get get it off the ground just because it's like how can they afford to like do things for free right now? I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 21:31

Yeah, but that's a good point. You said something about the important creating community, and I think that's something even I I could probably have been better at when I was younger and creative. I'd take projects and I keep them to myself when I wouldn't share anybody's and what what what's the point?

SPEAKER_00 21:43

That's the best part about that.

SPEAKER_05 21:45

Pretty pretty stupid of me previously to not go and share creative works and do things and collaborate and ask for feedback and keep keep looking to see if somebody's interested in whatever project we wanted to do. We we we started this podcast pretty late in life, right, man? I mean, but we stuck with it, we didn't stop doing it, and now it has a pretty good following. So thank you for still listening.

SPEAKER_04 22:06

It takes time, it takes time, it takes time to build up, and yeah, it's the thing. Like we it takes time and we're talking about this today. Like, I really feel like we've built some some credibility. I think you know, we have we've had a lot of cool guests, yeah. And we're so lucky, man. Yeah, we've been really lucky to kind of build up you know, some really good people to come on the show, some people we probably wouldn't normally get the chance to talk to. And I think I feel we're we're you know, we've become respected as a as a podcast in the city. So that's cool.

SPEAKER_07 22:33

Well, what you're saying, too, like that's an important part of it all is like good the goodwill from people. Like, yeah, you know, like if I look back and like Trying to make stuff like just how much goodwill I got from people, and like there is a community out here of people who want to help each other and support each other and sort of cheerlead each other. We're all fighting for small pockets of money, which is brutal. Yep. But I still feel like people actually genuinely want to see each other succeed. And and like people from the older generations, like you know, John Dunsworth was like a huge cheer to me at the mic. Before he passed, and like he's one of those guys that you're like, yeah, that's like the kind of the spirit of the he's like the spirit, he was the spirit of the maritimes, and that's sort of like giving back to the younger generations.

SPEAKER_05 23:11

Like I did an acting class with John, and he and like when he put his number in my phone. Like just he's like and he was just so kind, right? And it was so kind I wasn't used to it. I was like generous guy, yeah. Yeah, and and but yeah, super generous and and wanted to help people. Yeah, amazing guy.

SPEAKER_06 23:27

And we still we still have that. I would say Jonathan Torrance has to a certain extent step stepped into those shoes and is a great mentor and his game to do things with people and very uh friendly, generous of his time.

SPEAKER_05 23:38

When he came on our show, we were like he shared his time with us and and trusted enough to come on. He was phenomenal, told some great stories, even though he didn't think he had any more stories to tell. Oh, he's always got something. He had a few when they were quite entertaining, right?

SPEAKER_07 23:52

He was kind enough to come on Hey Halifax and some of Rob Wells. I mean, like these are guys who they don't have time, and they also don't need to do that. They're just doing it to help us out. Like, literally, like, yeah, they're just like, is this helpful to you? And then you're just trying to make it fun for them. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:08

Well, you guys did a good job in both of those ones. I worked great. I saw both those clips too. Now we guys interviewed inspired at all by Eric Andre. Did you ever watch it? That to me was one of the like the master strokes in awkward comedy uh over the last decade.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

It's it's like Eric Andre between two firms, yes, like Nathan Fielder, like Tim and Eric a little bit, like it's really we're not pretending that we're reinventing the wheel with this at all. It's very much like it's an homage in a sense, in your take. Yeah, 100%. A little more Canadian. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's uh yeah. I mean, we're just trying to take the stuff that we find funny and put our own spin on it.

SPEAKER_05 24:47

Nathan Fielder is someone whose name I don't hear enough because I think the work that he does is is absolutely brilliant. Oh my god. And his ties to Halifax are pretty interesting in 22 minutes as well, right? Like uh back in the day, uh I don't know how long ago that was, but he had some of the funniest clips of his time on 22 minutes when he was on. He was he was unbelievable.

SPEAKER_07 25:09

Yeah, one of the things for our show that's like important to like sort of point out is that like Adam edited it, yeah, and that like that was like such a key thing for our show because the timing of the edits and the reactions, everything is so so particular. And like Adam did such a fantastic job of creating this pacing and this feel and stuff and recreating that, and like just was so dialed in. And and even in our rehearsals, like you could see that Adam had a really strong vision for like how that would be in the edit while we were like rehearsing before we're even rolling, and so I think that's a big part of that type of comedy.

SPEAKER_05 25:43

Lots of quick reaction cuts I noticed and stuff like that. You do and you move it around. Uh yeah, I I I know I could pick up on the editing, and I thought it was brilliant. Yeah, thanks, yeah. And that that's a hard thing to do also in comedy because it's like when is that beat end? And when does that pause end? And like you know, is it you know you know it's on stage you can kind of sense it, dude.

SPEAKER_04 25:59

Like, you know, it's so hard, and I don't think anyone who has never tried to do it, uh edit anything doesn't understand how hard it really is.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

I'm in the middle of an edit right now that's not going well. Uh it's uh yeah, it's like I'll tell you, it's just like I on my horse of like comedy and narrative scotch and I was like, I'll try this other thing. I'm like, oh maybe I should stay in my lane.

SPEAKER_04 26:23

Well, like the emotions you kind of go through where you're just kind of like it's like okay, I need this to be under 30 minutes, and it's like, but I can't get it under 30 minutes because this is not funny or this is not good if you don't see this, and if I cut this, and that and it's oh my god, yeah. It's it feels impossible sometimes.

Feature Film On Houselessness

SPEAKER_01 26:57

Yeah, they say like one of the best things I've heard about editing is you gotta get used to killing your babies because sometimes you might think it's it you it's gotta serve the cut, you know, like it even if it's something that you really like, and maybe it is the funniest joke, if it doesn't move that cut along, like it probably has to go. That hurts in writing, too, man. Not the doctor.

SPEAKER_05 27:15

I like it when I write the funniest thing, and I'm like, the tone, it's completely off tone. It has nothing to do with this, and it's gonna you're just gonna bankrupt the rest of what you're trying to say. And you're like, how's that?

SPEAKER_07 27:25

Yeah, it sucks. When you do that and you but you don't notice it in the writing, and no one clocks it, and then you shoot the most expensive part of your movie multiple times, and then you cut all of that because then none of it works in the movie, and all the producers are like, Why did we shoot that? Like, I'm so sorry. I know that costs probably a hundred thousand dollars altogether.

SPEAKER_05 27:45

Sounds like this might you feel bad.

SPEAKER_07 27:46

Yeah, yeah, that's how I mean.

SPEAKER_05 27:47

Which is not a great segue. So let's talk about your latest project, though, that's touring America. Well, that's so that's when we first met you. I mean, uh when they were giving you Oh, yeah, we met you at AFC Film Co-op. Yeah. They were giving a red carpet for the Atlantic Film Festival.

SPEAKER_04 28:01

Okay, sure, thanks for that. We yeah, we like when they were giving you all these compliments and saying how much a nice guy you were, I felt that right away because we met you at the red carpet on the Atlantic Film Festival. We were the you know, the weird guys trying to you know be erratic. Yeah, on everyone's asking like kind of serious questions, and we're just just like, what's your favorite karaoke song to sing, right? So we were just trying to throw curveballs with people on there, but I don't know, I think it kind of worked. I thought it worked great. Yeah, it worked great. I hope everybody else had some fun. But yeah, you were you were super welcoming. We were obviously the new guys on the block, like we were kind of at it last minute, and we were grateful to be there, but yeah, you were very welcoming, chatted with us a long time, so we appreciate that.

SPEAKER_07 28:39

Oh man, no, you guys are great, of course.

SPEAKER_04 28:40

Yeah, yeah, so it was cool. So, yeah, so that we got to, you know, you were on there obviously because there was a uh you had a movie that you guys created, and now it's like blown up, right? It's it's it's awesome. Tell us everything about it.

SPEAKER_07 28:53

Oh man, well it's been a low one, yeah. Yeah, so it's called What We Dreamed It Then, and yeah, we shot it in New Brunswick, which was a whole sort of thing on its own, with sort of like a New Brunswick Nova Scotia and co-production. But yeah, I mean, you know, it's one of those things where like it's a kind of film where we had close calls multiple times for bigger festivals, like including like you know, we were one of the last rounds cut from like Berlin, so like it's tough to compare where we could have been versus where we are, but I'm really grateful for it. Like, we had a great distributor, Vortex, who did like a really great theatrical release for us, limited release across the country, and we got to sort of travel and do these sort of impact screenings where we talk with experts on houselessness and and and and and that, which was really important for this. And then, yeah, now we're in the states, and you know, we got a little bit of success in the states. We just won Cinequest Film Festival, which was nice, and so now it's just kind of kicking off the states, like it's just kind of started in the states, and hopefully that'll continue for the next six months or so. And we're just now we're gonna try to find US distribution.

SPEAKER_05 29:54

It must be cool seeing your your movie open on these like like cool town theaters across the US because I saw a couple images where like it would just be opened up and like you'd see your name on the bill, like on top of this kind of theater.

SPEAKER_07 30:06

The Alamo draft house. Is that the one I saw? Yeah, it must have been the Alamo Draft House, but just kind of a semi well-known. Yeah, yeah, it's a big genuine. Yeah, so that was cool being like, oh, it's playing there. Like I wish I was there for it. Like at Cinequest, we also had Hey Halifax playing actually. Oh wow. Yeah, but uh but yeah, it's nice. I mean, you have to be grateful when you get an audience, and this one's been nice because for the theatrical screenings in Canada, like people really showed up to see it. I was kind of shocked. Like we had a bunch of sold-out screenings, and I've not experienced that before. And it was so it was nice that it actually connected with the general audience, and that like it seemed like people, whatever they were drawn to it, I think you know, if they care about the issue, that was the whole point of making the movie is.

SPEAKER_05 30:48

Regularly so.

SPEAKER_07 30:49

Yeah, you know, creating empathy for houseless people. It was nice to have people show up for that.

SPEAKER_05 30:52

Well, it's a huge issue though, right?

SPEAKER_04 30:54

And I mean, we're we you know we just talked about it with Donna, like you know, we had the CEO of uh of the Habitat for Humanity. Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 31:02

We we don't have even in Canada really enough candid uh conversations about affordability.

SPEAKER_07 31:07

No.

SPEAKER_05 31:08

Right? And you know, you guys talked earlier about being an artist and trying to survive, and I mean, I'm not I'm not this is not anti-government, I'm not picking political sides here, but you know, when when we see cuts to the arts, I say, geez, that's that's the pulse, guys. That's the that's the part where so many young people it's kind of like cutting sports. I mean, you know, if we said we were cutting the moose heads, I mean, how would you feel? I mean, if you were if you were a hockey fan and you enjoyed getting out and being a part of that, or if you they cut the wreck hockey. Arts is just a I'm I'm I'm sweating because I too much I was eating chic picking jelly peppers off this sponge thing. Now I'm dying.

SPEAKER_06 31:43

And for the listeners at home, it's getting moist. Speaking moistly, I'm saladating on the mic. But it's but it's funny, you know, the the talking about the cuts to the arts and things. I remember a number of years ago, and you and I think what you're saying is that these cuts they affect people in a real meaningful way. I remember a number of years ago, it was after Trudeau got elected, one of the first things he did was he said, Okay, we're gonna change the tax rules so that you can't have your spouse on as an employee of your mid-sized company, even though she doesn't do any work and split your income with her because you folks don't need that tax break. And those people went bananas. Right. They went crazy. Talk about, you know, lobbying and yelling and screaming, and we're talking about accountant firms and small the folks that don't i you know that are that are not affected in a meaningful way, right? That the idea that these cuts are just going to happen and that they don't have any pre anyone should be able to relate to being affected in in that way. But it's amazing how tone-deaf uh some some of the reactions are.

SPEAKER_05 32:56

You're saying the these cuts in the yards community are pretty devastating.

SPEAKER_06 32:59

They're devastating. Oh, yeah, for yeah, for a number of people, right? But but any anyone who's sitting around and saying, Oh, come on, we don't need that stuff. Yeah, how about how about we take a thousand dollars away from you a year? Yeah. Suddenly those people sit up pretty fast.

SPEAKER_04 33:15

I saw a video this week sometime, and it was about a guy who was talking about that he made two million dollars a year. Yeah. And he was yelling at people saying, like, do you think I should be paying 70% taxes once I start make like you know, once I go over two million dollars a year or something like that? And the person was like, Yes, and he was like yelling, saying that that was ridiculous, whatever.

SPEAKER_08 33:35

Yeah.

Why Arts Cuts Hurt Everyone

SPEAKER_04 33:36

But this is the problem is like people anyone making two million dollars a year, if you can't afford to pay 70% tax and still be alright, like the the difference, and this is what uh the video talked about is that there are people we have in this in this society, in this country, in other countries, where it's like, you know, we need to help them because they're trying to figure out how to pay basics. And this guy's upset because his cushion, which is larger than someone else's, yeah, is getting slightly more deflated. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, like, if everyone had like, you know, if everyone, say everyone lives the same type of life, you have a car, you have a house, whatever. All you're doing when you're building more wealth beyond paying what you would normally pay, is building your cushion, right? Building your safety net. Yeah. And this guy is worried about losing a little bit more of a safety net when it's already so big versus people who aren't, right? And so it's kind of funny like when you see governments make decisions that are hitting people that don't have that cushion and and they're trying to contribute to the economy in a diff just in a different way. That like, you know, the arts make life worth living, right? In a way, in a lot of ways. Like, I'm I'm a big proponent that we need to invest in the arts because that's how you keep doctors, right? That's how you keep people here. Yeah, if they don't have shit to do when they're not working, they go to places where they can do shit.

SPEAKER_05 34:59

If you have cool shit in your backyard, you're gonna stay there, right? Like, you know, lots of things into the places to go. You're doing comedy here in Halifax. The comedy scene in Halifax is still great. Yeah. I mean, we have yeah, we I mean But it's not paying a ton of money. No, right?

SPEAKER_06 35:12

People are still you know, they're working in hostile trying to figure out.

SPEAKER_05 35:16

And think and if you think of like what what had has happened in in California, I mean, you know, this might be a bit of a reach for a comparison, but you know, they they had a magnificent comedy community and it it dissolved very, very largely. Now there's still comedy being done in in California, but not to the extent that it was. But they left because you know, there was no longer an affordable option for them to stay there, right?

SPEAKER_06 35:38

Yeah, and the Largo days are not as robust as they were, right? Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:44

So, I mean, you know, in in in Nova Scotia, I think it highly benefits for us to find ways to pay for the arts, to find ways to say there's a tremendous amount of value in live entertainment. Yeah. And as we approach our AI singularity where we all become half robots, right? You know, we no, but like jokingly, but also a lot of the amen work is going away, kids. Like, you know, like because this stuff can be done more efficiently uh uh with a computer than you, right? Because you're an idiot, right? And the computers are really great, yeah, and they don't mess these things up. So this is a great time to lean into humanity and get ahead of the curve instead of behind it. And I think we are missing a major opportunity right now by not pulling as many of our chips as we can afford to put into the arts community, making it a hub here in Halifax. This is a place where people come for the arts, not have to leave because they got an arts degree. Right? Yeah. So I mean, you guys are doing commendable work, and I I really I that's why I asked early on, like, you know, how are you guys, you know, how are you guys doing this, right? Because it's so far must be frustrating in some senses of how difficult it can be. But I mean, you guys have a lot of talent, and I mean it shows because you're you're producing content. So hopefully we see more of that and more young people with that option that they can produce that stuff.

SPEAKER_06 37:05

Yeah, well young people will leave, like we all we lived through the film tax credit table table flip in 2015. And you know, I mean there were some changes there that in the long run weren't weren't terrible, but at the moment, I mean, people are living so close to the edge doing that kind of work. We know we I e each of us could easily name ten people, if not more, who left and didn't come back.

SPEAKER_08 37:30

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_06 37:30

Who are talented, gifted, hardworking folks who just were like, I can't I can't wait a year for them to bounce back. I gotta go now.

Breaking Into US Distribution

SPEAKER_07 37:39

Yeah, that's right. I also think of the people who like right now with these cuts, it's like, okay, well, you know, there's an argument to be made from people from the outside who are like it's a handout. And if you chose to be an artist in any form already, you should have known it was hard. So it just got a little bit harder. And it's like, well, actually, my argument is even less for us. Yeah, it's for the person who like was like, I want to be parts of the arts community, and they went and they got an administrative job. I'm making this up, but like they got an administrative job at the Atlantic International Film Festival. Right, sure, yeah. That budget just got cut by 20%. That job that was supposed to be stable that they chose to be in administration instead of doing what we're doing, it's cut. Yeah, it's supposed to be the job that's stable because it's not the thing that we're doing or freelancing or whatever. Right. That's supposed to be like the thing that I go to do when I'm like, okay, I got kids and I gotta be responsible because things are hard right now, and I take that job, and then that job gets cut. It's like it's kind of a big fuck you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 38:30

Good. Yeah. Well, we all agree on that.

SPEAKER_03 38:34

Cheers! Cheers, motivate there, animal power.

SPEAKER_04 38:40

Oh my god, no, no, okay. Oh no. I need to call it. I don't I do want to scale back a little bit too like uh before we went off on that whole tandem, but uh because it was something we wanted to cover. But breaking into the United States, it is something that I want to talk about because like I people may not be aware, like, because we just have Cineplex. At one point in time we had like competitors when it comes to theaters, but we just don't anymore. It's just Cineplex, right? But in the United States, like there's single-off theaters, things like that. Like how do you navigate, like, you know, do you door knock on like small theaters to say, like, please show my movie? Like, how does that work navigating the states?

SPEAKER_07 39:19

You know, I don't really know because we haven't really like on my features, haven't really broken in through that door yet. Like, you know, we've ended up on we're you know, like my first two features were online in the States on like, you know, Prime and all the all those guys, Apple, iTunes, all that kind of stuff. But we didn't do theatrical runs in the States because we needed a distributor and we You're knocking on distributors' doors. Yeah, so we're knocking on distributors' doors. And that's what we're doing right now with this this late latest feature because it's just you know, the first two were true micro but micro budget movies, and this one has a little bit more money, not a lot, but now we can sort of talk to those distributors and try to get someone to like, you know, do a small limited release in the States, and you know, that looks looking like it's possible with this, but that's kind of what it is, it's like for these kind of features, it's like, okay, we play at this film festival, so we played at CineQuest, we went at CineQuest, now we can talk to distributors. Before that, it's like it's not even non-starter, it's like a Canadian movie with no stars. Yeah, right. So we had to like go there and win something, and then they're like, Oh, yeah, no, we'll talk to you. And that's really what it's what it is. And I think you just need to sort of hit in the right way. Like, my second feature premiered at Slam Dance, a very small movie. Our Canadian distributor does North American distribution, and there he was like, Do you want us to just distribute it across North America? And I was like, Please, I don't want to have to try to get a distributor in the States because I need to go make my next thing to pay my bills. Of course, yeah. So that's the tricky thing with I think the thing in the States is like just hitting at the right festival in the States. Like if you hit a South by or something, well, if you're at South by Southwest, you're probably more likely to get distribution. But even years ago, this guy named Jim Cummings, who's kind of my independent film hero, he made a film called Thunder Road based on a great short film that won Sundance. That that film went to South by Southwest, won the grand jury prize, and the offers he got from distributors were so bad that he self-released it in the States and they did make a bunch of money. But it was like his last one was like, basically, some of the distributors were like, go in at Can and we'll talk. And he's like, Okay, we just won South by. So I think it is even more complicated now, but I I have this feeling based on like people who were much smarter than me and actually understand the market that independent film's gonna have like its own moment in terms of that sort of distribution in the near future because of everything you were saying before with AI and also just like movies being made for streamers that resate the plot five times because they're told to, you know, like people do want things that are scrappy and made independently now.

Global Audiences And Authenticity

SPEAKER_05 41:44

Sometimes those scrappy projects, I mean, you know, well, I think the films that inspire probably all of us. I'm I'm I'm I'm making a wedging a bed here. I saw Clerks by Kevin Smith in 1995, and I blew my frickin' mind. Yeah, sure. Right? And uh then, I mean, uh, you know, right up till Dogma, right? I thought I I lived in Kevin Smith's universe for so many years there, I just thought he was the smartest guy. Oh yeah, dude. Yeah, and like so so I mean, you know, you when you and and those are scrappy films, right? Especially in the beginning. Yeah, and uh, I mean, these are the movies that change the pulse, that set the next trend, that make the comedy fresh again. Because comedy, what really happens in movies, if you watch it, it goes from great to recycled 3,000 times. You're like, I can't laugh at this anymore, guys. I saw the same joke happen in every movie I saw in the last 20 years. Like, this is not funny anymore. Uh I'm like, you know, it it it it it kills itself, right? And so you need new, unique characters, perspectives, and you don't get that without reaching deeply into the human personas and personalities and finding those the next great weirdo of society that's actually pretty funny, and you want to watch that, right? You want to experience what that person's life is like. And I just uh I don't know, I commend what you guys are doing highly. That's why we wanted you guys on the show. So thank you so much for this. And and don't leave Canada.

SPEAKER_04 43:06

We're gonna try.

SPEAKER_05 43:10

Yeah, I know, but just on the market thing, man. You talked about USA, and I just want to talk about one other thing. Like the rest of you know, we talk about Mark Carney's world where he's no longer looking at the US, he's looking at the rest of the world for you know, trade. Is this what we should be looking at for movies? Like the cinema. Like I think of Ben Kaplan right now, who's over in Belgium or wherever the hell he is, Germany?

SPEAKER_04 43:34

He actually has more German fans than he has Canadian fans, right?

SPEAKER_05 43:37

Yeah, brilliant guys from Halifax, great singer. That his his album that came out last year, it's amazing. Like it's a really good album. And I and I and I'm not paying him fan because he's from here. I would like that record no matter wherever on earth that dude turned up from. I'm like, this is a cool record, right? So so now he's over there and he he's not trying to chase the American dream, but he seems to be getting doing okay. Would you guys be able to pursue that option, you think, with film?

SPEAKER_01 44:04

This is a good question. I did see some uh dark comedy from like Dutch dark comedy the other day that made me laugh in a way that I like I thought it was the one of the most clever gangs I've seen in a while, and it was something that was so dark, like way like that's kind of my sensibility is really dark, dark comedy. You're in good comedy. Maybe, yeah, maybe, maybe it made me think that maybe it was possible because I never would have thought, like, I mean, up until seeing that, I mean, honestly, not to like, you know, whatever anybody thinks about the US. I think we all kind of want movies to be successful in the US.

SPEAKER_04 44:42

It's the largest market, I mean one of the largest markets, and it's close, it's next door.

SPEAKER_01 44:45

And it's similar taste to what we have here in a lot of ways, too. But it's like seeing this Dutch comedy, it was the first time that I was like, maybe, maybe, like, because it was something that was ridiculously funny. Way that you know I hadn't seen from overseas.

SPEAKER_04 45:00

Yeah, I can tell you German Germans have a pretty messed up sense of humor. You kind of have to, right? In case you haven't heard, they have a pretty messed up history.

SPEAKER_01 45:09

A few things I don't agree with. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 45:12

But they they've drastically changed and they've you know they have a pretty good sense of humor. So Dark County is live and well.

SPEAKER_06 45:18

I mean it is why one of the things about sort of modernity when it comes to the there's a place for everything now, yeah, right? Like you don't have to cut through to to whatever the room is where all the things happen. There are a whole bunch of rooms now. So if you have something you're making that's interesting, somebody it you might be able to find an audience, but it might not be in your own backyard, it might be somewhere else. But I guess that we can do that.

SPEAKER_05 45:43

We have to do a better job of sharing the Canadian identity with the world. Right. I I really think we do. Because I mean, I watch shows like you just said, I watch shows from Australia with brilliant comedy. I mean, you know, some of my favorite shows of all time came from the UK and were translated into for an American audience, such as The Office that everybody knows. Yeah, you know, like I mean not comedy, but Wentworth is one of my favorite shows ever. It's not comedy, but still so well done. It's such a smart, smart show. And and and then the the the American version would be probably Orange is the New Black. Would you say that's a fair statement? I know. Yes and no.

SPEAKER_04 46:16

Yes and no. They're as close to like the fact that it's a women's prison, but very different from there. Because the the the Orange New Black is actually based on someone's experience who actually went to jail for that. She wrote a book and then they got it. And yeah, and then that they turned it more into a it was more of a kind of a comedy or dramedy or whatever. Right. Whereas Wentworth is just straight up drama, ruthless, and anything can happen, right? I think they actually did it way better. Yeah, yeah, way better. Like if you're just if you're staying in if you're saying the category is women's prison show, Wentworth wins, but I think it's kind of you know, they're just so different kind of thing. It's like saying, like, yeah, this is beard, but this is a stoat and this is a pillsner.

SPEAKER_05 46:58

Yeah, well we're we're ripping off a UK tradition right now with our African plate show. Entirely ripped off of yeah, yeah, we like uh you know, walking around London, why's everybody at the pub at four o'clock? Oh, this is what they do after work, they go have a fighting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 47:11

That's pretty cool. But I mean, it's such a good example though, because I you know, I don't think that and it Taylor and I've had a lot of conversations uh about this sort of thing. I don't know that anyone who's sitting down at a pub at the end of the day in the UK sharing some drinks is turning and looking to themselves and saying, Isn't it great how we're fostering uh you know uh United Kingdom culture? Isn't this wonderful? No, no one's thinking that. When when the kids in the hall, you know, sort of I mean, they weren't 100% original, they were borrowing from Monty Python. They were I mean, we're talking about Titans of Canadian comedy. They weren't sitting around saying, isn't this great that we're getting Canadian culture and comedy out there? No, that's not what they were doing. So, like, one of the things that we always try to come back to, especially when we're maybe struggling a little bit with like what are we making here? And we've written screenplays and shows. Adam and I, you know, wrote a screenplay 10 years ago that won the film festival script development program. So, like, we all go way back. The question is, are we making something that delights and thrills and brings us joy? Does it make us laugh? Do we are we enjoying doing this? And just back to the human spirit. Will there be an audience for it? Will someone in the United States like this? Will someone in Germany like this? I don't fucking know. I have no idea. I just know that that that we're getting a big kick out of making this. Yeah, but then you go from there, right? You go from there.

SPEAKER_04 48:38

We were talking about that today, but just just being authentic. And you know what? Like, if you would do it for free, do it. And if money comes, great. Yeah. Kind of thing, right? Like, that's awesome. Yeah. But I mean, obviously you have bills to pay, so you gotta do it. Like you gotta make money somehow, too. But yeah, yeah, if you're gonna if you if you feel compelled to create bleeding into that passion, yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_06 48:59

I mean, interestingly, success will kill you every time. I mean, I don't know if I don't know I don't know if anyone's ever had the experience of watching a show that they once loved in its fourth season or fifth season and going, Ah, what's it? What happened? And it's it's because the thing becomes fanfiction. They're people writing it.

SPEAKER_01 49:17

Yeah, they're trying to perfectly pulled it back. They brought it back though.

SPEAKER_03 49:24

What show did Stranger Things?

SPEAKER_04 49:28

Yeah, it was like Yeah, like it was yeah, it had some good things like that. See, first three seasons were pure gold. Four got really weird. I think it was four, was it four or five?

SPEAKER_01 49:38

Like at one point they got rid of the showrunner, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 49:41

And it was so literally like the next season, they basically said like that was the gas, the gas leak year, and they basically said that that didn't happen, it was all a dream. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:50

It's yeah, I'm watching, I'm rewatching it now, actually. It's like one of my favorites. Like, that is so good. It's great writing. It's like also one of the like fighting to stay on the air every single year. Yes, and if you look at all the shows that like are kind of like straight up classics, and nobody really denies whether or not they are, that had to fight to stay on the air if you're I mean there's community arrested development, but I always sunny's.

SPEAKER_05 50:14

That's maybe the funniest show, I think, of all time in a respect. Like it is Man, how do they write that show?

SPEAKER_01 50:21

I don't know how they're able to kind of like keep those characters going. I don't know. Deal be like an edgy show that deals with whatever the tropes of like everyday life. I mean, if you look at what they did in the first season, you could never do any of that.

SPEAKER_05 50:33

Oh gosh, I know.

SPEAKER_01 50:34

But they're able to kind of like walk that line.

SPEAKER_05 50:36

It's a harder show to share with somebody that they should start watching because it like just says such horrible things about you. Who can really go watch that show? It's a great show because then they're like, what's wrong with you after they watched that first season?

SPEAKER_06 50:49

It's terrible, right? Even a show like 30 Rock, I'm not I'm not sure that I mean we're talking about NBC, Thursday night, right? Like these are all A-listers, but I always felt watching it like, oh, this seems like a show being made as if their life depends on it. Right? And and there's a lot of boys in that show. Yeah, as if any moment, as if any moment someone's gonna come along and go, this is too edgy and weird and odd and strange. No, no, but we're not gonna let you exist.

SPEAKER_05 51:16

The arc of that show, because I've watched all of it as well, but is like they eventually kind of have intellectual antidotes about how human life should be as aliens. Oh, there's tons and tons of crazy. And it just kind of keeps tying in this this this like humanity play, and it's a brilliant show. No, it's uh incredible. Brilliant show, and uh, and and great characters, right? And characters that can just live forever. I miss Elf too, man.

SPEAKER_06 51:39

Yeah, that's what we were trying to do with Hey Half Hello today. Yeah, that's a C word, that's what we were trying to do. We were trying to say comment comment on the human condition. Yeah. A la elf. Oh. That's sort of uh you guys nailed it. My kids listening to this right now are like, what the fuck are you doing?

SPEAKER_03 52:00

What the fuck is elf?

SPEAKER_06 52:01

Are they talking about the movie Elf with like Will Farrell? You know what?

SPEAKER_04 52:05

I actually still have like my stuffed like elf.

SPEAKER_00 52:09

Oh, yeah.

Awards Talk And 22 Minutes

SPEAKER_04 52:10

Oh yeah, I have him still, and my son actually has him in his bedroom. Oh shit, that's terrifying. Yeah, yeah. So like I still have a few of them. Like, I kept some, like I have elf and I still have my uh Ultimate Warrior and Ted D.B. Yossi wrestling buddies. Damn. Like 1990 kind of a month. Yeah, my son still like wrestles with them, he's four and a half. Yeah. I'm like, this is awesome. It's like repeat all over here. Welcome back to the millennial fringe show. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 52:36

Can I talk about my Montreal Expo Yuppie that I had for all for fucking years? I had that a good 10 years after the team folded. Like never forget it.

SPEAKER_04 52:46

Yeah, well, listen, when it was like uh yeah, it was probably like 15 years or something like that when uh Washington finally won the World Series, and I had a Expo's glass. I mean I'm a Red Sox fan, but still I was kind of like nostalgic. I watched that World Series every night drinking out of my Montreal Expos glass. Because I'm like, this is this is what they should have won in '94. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:07

It should have been theirs, right? Yeah. Oh dad, do we have to watch this again? Like, yes, sit down, son. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:16

You guys are up for some wo awards. Like you guys have the uh Canadian Screen Award dominations kind of going on.

SPEAKER_01 53:21

So, like, yeah, that's nice. Yeah, thank you. We're very excited to lose to 22 minutes. Yes, that's right.

SPEAKER_06 53:28

Very excited, but but thrilled to be in their company. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 53:31

It is, it is, it is like, yeah, it's what we want. Yeah, it's what we wanted out of the show for sure. That we got it.

SPEAKER_07 53:38

It's really nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 53:40

It's the first effort, too, man. It was the first throw at the wall you guys got there. Like, that's that's brilliant.

SPEAKER_06 53:44

Yeah, it's nice to get that recognition. Yeah, it's it's valid it's validated.

SPEAKER_07 53:47

Yeah, we get to go to the fancy uh thing, and we'll all sit together in our little suits and be cute, and it's gonna be great. Where's that in it?

SPEAKER_04 53:54

Is it in Ontario? Toronto.

SPEAKER_07 53:56

Yeah, Toronto, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:57

See, like I I would actually like I actually think, and we've talked about this before, I think the fact that you guys are in the mix with 22 minutes, and I think 22 minutes is actually in its GOAT status right now. I think so, too, man. The last two years.

SPEAKER_05 54:11

Yeah, yeah. Oh my god, this guy's a fantastic dude. He's so funny, yeah. And he does such a great job. Like, he's he's like every time he puts on a new character, I'm just equally impressed. I did not see the Ukrainian Prime Minister coming out of that liver, dude.

SPEAKER_00 54:26

Yeah, they take some swings, yeah, character-wise.

SPEAKER_04 54:32

Yeah, and I mean, and bringing Mark in to do Mark Harney's That was a good place. That's great.

SPEAKER_06 54:37

Yeah, I got I got to do a sketch with uh McKinney. Yeah, it was kind of uh, you know, for me, it was that I remember saying to some of my pals before we went out onto uh in the studio, I was like, okay, you know, I've been doing this long enough that I don't really get starstruck by people, but I'm just warning you guys, I'm I'm if I have a moment, take me by the arm because this guy's one of my comedy heroes. Like that's grow up on. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah. I mean such a great show.

SPEAKER_04 55:05

It's so good. It's so funny. And like it literally goes like Mark is my favorite character in the show, and then my second my wife hates us. My second favorite character is I can't even remember his name, but it's the guy who goes the literally my second favorite guy. She's like, it's not funny when he does that. I'm like, yes, it is every time.

SPEAKER_07 55:24

You know, we actually owe this show kind of existing, you know, obviously in part to Paul Gardner Belt, but but to 22 minutes because I was directing sketches for them for a couple seasons, and I loved doing it so much that it made me really want to do more sketch. And then when Paul talked to us about like the talk show thing, and it was like, but can it be a sketch comedy? Like part of that came from just like how much fun it is at 22 and what a great culture they have there. So I mean we kind of owe this existing in part to them being around and being here, and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 55:56

I mean, and yeah, yeah, guys like Marge Critch, it's like he has the best Trump in uh I've ever seen. And uh, I mean, there's a lot of there's a lot of Trump impersonations there. James Fox is surprisingly number two. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think March Critch knocks it out the park, dude. Like he just he just has such a great delivery.

Subscribe Plug And Friendship

SPEAKER_06 56:14

Yeah, no, we're very lucky to have that right in our backyard and having it happening down the street. I mean, we've got lots of friends who I've been on a few times, but I've we uh know a number of people who week in and week out are you know in there, getting to be in sketches, getting to a few lines every now and again. I mean, we're just we're so fortunate to have such a big Canadian show. Hope it keeps going here. Yeah. Oh, forever.

SPEAKER_05 56:36

Cheers in 22 minutes and cheers, you guys beat them just once. Yeah, and then after that, we can get all the awards. But it would be kind of cool to see uh if Hang Hello Facts. Could you imagine if that just won? Because I think that would be really cool. Yeah, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_07 56:50

The craziest speech ever could do like thank you so much, and then we leave because we wouldn't be prepared.

SPEAKER_06 56:55

Well, if we win, I'm going up on stage in character. I'm gonna just stand there with the trophy and just stare. I'm gonna pick one person in the crowd and just stare at them.

SPEAKER_04 57:05

Yeah, just go up there and just be like, make some sort of shot at then just be like, this hour has 22 nuts. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 57:16

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, that's the thing. We're all happy family.

SPEAKER_04 57:21

Before we move on to our ominous 10 questions, is there anything that you guys, you know, we haven't talked about that you guys want to make sure that our listeners here that you want to talk about?

SPEAKER_03 57:30

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 57:31

I don't know. I guess just uh subscribe to TPV Plus if you haven't already. Get rid of K Halifax. A lot of people I'm gonna do this. I'm starting to feel like we're working for TPV Plus. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_03 57:41

But uh if you guys are listening, do you want a podcast?

SPEAKER_05 57:46

Guys, if you're doing okay, we'll just promote the shows because uh all these guys are great.

SPEAKER_07 57:50

Uh that's funny. I also say we can promote friendship and making things with your friends. Yeah, I you know, I mean, that has been like one of the great joys in my life, other than being with my partner and having my kids, is making things with my friends. Like it was just truly important thing. That's what you guys are.

SPEAKER_05 58:07

Cheers for that in 150 episodes, Matt. We didn't prevent last week. You guys are 151, but we've been.

SPEAKER_06 58:15

Sess we sess we centennial. I don't think I don't think I said that.

SPEAKER_05 58:18

I missed my anniversary with Andrea. I was like, uh I was like today. She's like, the cat's turning nine tomorrow. And I'm like, I'm like, fuck Andrea, how long have we been together? She's like, well, 10 years was last year, but she was she was she, you know, she had surgery last year, so she wasn't feeling too great, so that's probably why we didn't do anything. But yeah, we're celebrating the 11th this year with that, you know, so happy 11th year. Happy 11th year after that. And uh lots of anniversaries. So uh 10 silly questions. Yeah, so uh that wrote and they're super weird.

Weird Halifax Rapid-Fire Questions

SPEAKER_04 58:49

Okay, I was I like I said I've all the last four days I've been on a binge listening to your guys' stuff on Instagram, following everything. Yeah, yeah. And so generally with these questions, we try to mix some fun things to get to know people and whatever, philosophical, some fun ones, whatever. I wanted to write these there are 12 questions because there's three of you, and I wanted to make it even, but I really wrote these in a try to mimic the style of the show. Ah, that's beautiful. Yeah, I wanted to throw some weird ones out there.

SPEAKER_05 59:19

And he puts check boxes there for me because I can't read. Yeah, so uh three times in a row. Oh, yeah, okay. He's a good guy all around, eh? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:30

It's the Adam Sandler effect. That's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 59:32

Oh my god, yeah. That's a dream. Yeah, 100%. That's my dream too, man.

SPEAKER_04 59:36

So if you want me to kick it off, you go in. All right, all right. So question number one What's your emergency small talk when you run into someone at Sobies that you know?

SPEAKER_01 59:51

Well, I mean, I I I it it's avoid eye contact and walk away.

SPEAKER_07 59:57

I would say I will come around. Like it's like oh, they're in the motorcycle, so I will go over here and get that in a car as much big as possible with exactly what you're doing.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:05

Let them just kind of yawn and walk off into the distance. Yeah, I usually don't remember someone's name, and I'm also I I also have a bit of trauma associated with this kind of scenario because the number of times that I've run into somebody, tried to make small talk with them, knowing I know them, but not remembering where, and then and then tens of minutes later, realizing that I just see them on the bus all the time. And that that was the first conversation we've ever had.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:32

You honestly probably have like the most memorable name of all time.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:36

You can literally be like, I'm Bob, man. Yeah, the person, yeah, the person usually knows my name, but I'm just like, oh hey, you know, I kind of mock their name under your breast like.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:45

But I remember Bob Bann's name because it's his easy name. I'm like, gosh, that's an easy name as well. It's a one-faction. It's a comfortable name, Bob. Okay, question number two over here. Question number two if if Halifax was a person, would you trust them to watch your dog? Gosh, that's weird. This is all of Halifax? Yeah. There's certain places in Halifax. Interpret this question, everybody's like, what type of dog and how long?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:11

Open question. Let's say Rottweiler. Rottweiler, yeah. And for like, are we talking like a week? Are we going on a vacation, or are we like, I'm going into the bank and the dog's gonna stay outside right quick?

SPEAKER_05 1:01:21

You're asking too many questions. Just answer the question, please.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:24

I'm gonna say no.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:26

I'd say if it's my dog, yes. Yeah, your dog, yes, it can handle dog.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:29

I think Dartmouth can handle Rottweiler, no problem. I think Halifax, a bunch of wimps. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:34

I'm pretty pro-Dartmas.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:35

Don't have a dog, but I have kids, and I would say uh yes, I'd be okay knowing with eyes quite open that they're gonna forget a full day. Yes. There's going to be a lapse at some point. They're gonna go full Spryfield and they're gonna forget a full day. Oh, that's terrible. I know, I know. Okay, that passed. You get it, you get it.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:54

Yeah. Okay, question number three. Yeah. So if raccoons suddenly gained the ability to vote, what issue do you think that they campaign hard on?

SPEAKER_06 1:02:02

Municipal politics?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:04

Open roof policy. Well, I mean, you guys tried to get a dog to run, right? Like that's yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:10

He said it was the dog, but yeah, that's true. That's true. Yeah, probably bike lanes, you know, they've got to be like one way or the other. I'm not sure where they would land on the biggest thing. Yeah, I mean, that's like the number one issue in Halifax, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:22

There's bike lanes. How many bikes? How many bikes are killing raccoons on the road? Right? Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:27

You know, I spend a lot of time in Toronto when raccoons rule the roost out there.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:31

I think they fight against the clear garbage bag issue because they'd be like, hey, listen, a little privacy in what I'm pulling apart and eating. I'm like, geez, you gotta look in my shit? Like, yeah, I think it would be more of a surprise with that.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:41

Like all black bags. I agree. Compost bandit testability. Yeah, too few black bags.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:46

Yeah, that's right. Our other guest was waiting, but he just walked out on the country.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:50

Woohoo! More time. Alright, next question.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:56

So, yeah, next question. Yeah, oh sorry. Is it still networking if you is it still networking if you're just talking at a brewery? That's an easy question. Sure. And Halifax was.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:06

And Halifax is absolutely it's gonna be the most networking.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:09

I feel like this is a networking accomplishment for me. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:12

And is it tax deductible? Yes. Yes, 100%. So far. I like the moment.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:20

Let's just see if the CRA catches up.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:22

I bet you more shows get sold in bars than they do at the meeting table. I have a question, the beer of receipts, yeah, so I'll let you know. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:30

The amount of receipts I have with writing on the back being like talked about an idea.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:37

It's okay. CRA doesn't listen to us.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:39

Uh okay, next question. So at what this is kind of goes to something we just mentioned not too long ago. At what point does local celebrity, quote unquote, become guy everyone recognizes but doesn't remember?

SPEAKER_06 1:03:50

Yeah. Oh boy. Well scene on the bus. Yeah. That's right. Well, well, I I will say that one of there's a friend of ours, her name is uh Genevieve Steele, who has been an actor for a long time in Halifax. And when I was a kid, she's she's probably like, I don't know, how Genevieve was five years older than me or something like that. But when I was a kid in Cape Breton in high school, she was on a number of commercials shot here. She was in a like a butter commercial and a cheese commercial. And I remember seeing her on the sidewalk in my first year of university and thinking, oh fuck, this is a famous person and just being afraid of you know bumping into her. But yeah, yeah, you can just see someone in a few things, and people, yeah, people people talk pretty big about celebrity status. We're doing a cheese commercial? Damn. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's all so intimidating.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:37

Oh man. So intimidating. You're up. Okay. Uh what's your most irrational beef with the Nova Scotia roundabout? I'm assuming you're referring to Armdale? Any roundabout.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:47

We have tons of them. Do you like the most irrational beef?

SPEAKER_05 1:04:49

I'm pro-roundabout. I'm pro-roundabout. They make a lot of sense to me, and I hate it when they don't make sense to other people. That's my beef. That's my people.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:58

I love the roundabout. I don't like guys in big trucks at the roundabout. There's just like, I don't want to stereotype all the guys in big trucks, but generally speaking, they're the shittiest roundabouts.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:07

I've noticed in the last few years an increase in like kamikaze roundabouters that just go for it. I'm like, don't chill, like you're gonna die.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:14

Like I almost prefer that if it's like in the interest of moving traffic. I think my like beef with it is a general traffic beef where I don't like people that are trying to be too courteous. Stick with the rules. Don't slow down. That's one thing.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:27

In Halifax, I agree with there's a traffic rule everywhere. We need to be a little less courteous. You need to stop waiting where you need to go. Yeah, stop that. It doesn't decide you're gonna do it. It doesn't save anybody time, dipshit.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:38

Just just just go. Yeah, and I'll go after you. I know somebody who did that, drove out into it like some thought they were being a good Samaritan, stopped and tried to let somebody in. Yeah. They didn't have the right away, caused an accident. They were at fault.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:52

I think that happens more often than the aggressive driving in a weird way.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:56

Yeah, but I might be showing my age, but I I remember when the Armdale rotary the rules of the art of the room of the video was you go when it's your turn. Yeah. Right? Take turns, and see your it's like those eight-way stops near Costco where you're pulling up going, okay, am I fifth? Am I third? Am I seventh? That's what it was all the time.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:15

And this is just one of a little instructional video. Like, you know, hey, are you about to go in the roundabout? We're gonna tell you how it works. Dumbass. There you go. Two-minute video instructional on all lanes.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:27

Anyways, go right. So next one. So if you had to fight one seagull, the size of a car, or 50 normal seagulls, what would you choose and what would your strategy be?

SPEAKER_05 1:06:37

Which one would you pick, I guess, first? Yeah. 50 or one massive seagull. I definitely pick a massive seagull.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:44

Yeah, I think I'd go with one seagull. I don't know what the strategy would be, though. One big seagull the size of a terrack, I guess you could.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:52

You can like go get weapons. Go get garbage. Go for the eyes. The hell's it?

SPEAKER_06 1:06:57

I I I think that I think seagulls are fucking stupid though. Like uh uh we're not talking about 50 seagulls that are coordinating with each other. Yeah, are communicating, right? Oh, crows remember.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:13

I want to fight them at night. Yeah, I want a giant disco ball and a light.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:16

Oh, there you go.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:18

Yeah, shining. And they and they run in it. I get it. But I have to actually beat them, they just tire themselves down. I even how did Taylor come prepared for that question?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:30

It's like the nightmare he had the other week. Like, okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:35

Little we knew he was rating his next horror film on C. He's all ready to go. Alright, next question. Okay, when did you last say? When did you last say it'll be the wind that gets you? It'll be the wind that gets you.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:56

It's the wind that gets you though. You know what? In the winter. Yeah, like not long ago.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:00

It's like a few weeks ago, bro.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:03

But with the but with the wind chill, yeah. Honestly, shout out to Wayne.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:07

Wayne Paddock at the gym. Lovely, lovely older gentleman who's always talks about the weather and the wind. And I think he said something like that, and I probably just repeated it. So it's probably like a week.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:19

So it's in the last month, okay. That's that's maritime linkable. Exactly. Alright, next question. What's the most Halifax way that you've ever been mildly disappointed?

SPEAKER_06 1:08:30

Oh, what would that be? I mean, you know, a bit a big one is uh, you know, I'd say a toss-up between Theodore Tugboat leaving town. Everyone was so heartbroken, most of whom had not set foot on Theodore Tugboat in their lives, if maybe once. And I don't know, when Ralph's place closed down over in Darkness, again, I don't think I'd ever once set foot on the inside, but it felt like we'd lost something that I could immediately get over. That I could immediately get over. Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Yeah, sure, sure.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:01

But it's sort of like, oh, yeah, you know, this theater tugboat one is sad because I remember when I took my daughter there when she was a certain age. Yeah, he's taking it. An extremely exciting thing. We have a picture in a house to take my kid to the theater. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:13

And now you can't do that. They sunk the damn guy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:18

Yeah, like they got him back, but he Well I mean they sunk him, like a like a lake? No, he had it was in Lake Ontario, and Lakey started to spring a leak, but they ran him, ran him on some rocks or something like that.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:31

Can you imagine being a diver? You're diving and out of the mur out of the murky middle distance as you're swimming along. This like fucking maximum overdrive phase emerges from the mud platform. Oh my god. You'd shit your pants like that.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:53

This world is ruled by a tugboat. What like what is wrong with this?

SPEAKER_06 1:09:57

Oh man, what a missed opportunity they had in Hamilton.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:01

That would have been a what a tourist attraction that would have been.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:04

Alright, you go ahead. Next question. Okay. If your personality was a street in Halifax, which one is it and why is it slightly under construction?

SPEAKER_06 1:10:14

Let's do SD. Yeah. So many to pick from. Or did I misunderstand the question?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:22

No, there's so many to pick from. So many. I think I'm probably Portland Street. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a little bit of everything. Yeah. It's like there's nice stuff there, but there's also grimy areas, rough around the edges, presents well.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:35

A lot of baggage.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:37

Yeah, a lot of baggage, you know, it's like, yeah. Too much going on. Yeah. Portland is our what's the street in Toronto?

SPEAKER_06 1:10:43

The long one? It's Queen. Queen. It's young. Yeah, it's young. Young, young. The longest, yeah. Yeah, Portland Street is our young team. Yes. Yeah. It's which is, and I think Portland is actually the longest street in the street.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:54

It goes right all the way into like Pearl Harbor. It's got a little bit of everything.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:58

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:59

I grew up in Dartmouth.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:00

That's that's cool. That's a long street. We're learning stuff. And my dad at one point told me that it was the busiest street in all of Nova Scotia. Well, really? Where that data is pretty sure it's from Spring Garden. Yeah, no, it was just in terms of number of cars and traffic and stuff, apparently. I don't know if it is anymore. This is going back around.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:18

It's weirdly how busy that is in the middle of the day, that street. Absolutely. Like you're like, what are these people doing?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:22

Right around the superstore, just like driving by to make sure it's still there. Stop in that one little pocket. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:31

Why are we grid left here? This makes no sense to me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's terrible. It's Tuesday, too. Yeah. But anyways, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:39

All right, next question. So second last question. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's true. Why is it like this?

SPEAKER_04 1:11:45

Two questions left. So if uh if you had to rebrand Halifax, what would you call it and why would people hate it?

SPEAKER_06 1:11:54

Halifax, love the way we bitch, which was from the Coast, I think. The Coast. Yeah, the Coast had. I always thought that was a real that was a gift of uh of a slogan that was a gloss on you know, love the way we live. I always thought that was a winner.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:09

I think that's really, really apt.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:11

Yeah. Yeah, that's wildly apt, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:13

That's pretty cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:14

Because we're lucky living here in ways that are immeasurable compared to so many other parts of the country.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:21

We talked a few misfortunes, but if you think about it, Halifax is a sandbox. Oh, the fact that you had your friends and were able to create what you created here. I would not have to leave and stick around. Yeah, I'm not sure. I feel the same way about Matt and I with his show and so many endless avenues here. Like, you know, it's it's really, really cool. Yeah, very lucky. Alright, last question.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:39

All right.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:41

Make it good. Okay. If aliens landed and demanded one human tradition explained immediately, which one would make us look the worst?

SPEAKER_07 1:12:51

A human tradition, like one human tradition.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:53

Yeah, just any one human tradition that would just make us look for the worst aliens.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:58

Afternoon drinking, I guess. Sure, yeah. I mean, we're pretty good at it here, I gotta say.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:04

It would probably I don't uh is it Christmas? Because we've like taken this thing that you know it's supposed to represent something beautiful and family coming together, and we've just capitalized the fuck out of it, and that's kind of like a great metaphor for like North America.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:21

I don't hate that answer. I don't hate that answer to it. The stuff in the turkey party. If you think it was stuff the act of stuffing a bird, it's pretty gross. Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_06 1:13:28

Yeah, probably probably the the delicious gross the tradition of stress association.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:33

And patriarchy, we're just yeah, we're just idolizing an old white guy with the beard and a big belly. I mean, great, he's sweet and he's cuddly, and I love him too. But holy shit, it's all about capitalism. I think it would be that.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:45

And it's transactional. LS it's all right, it's transactional.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:48

And we're doing it in the name of Jesus. Which is also transactional. It's also a big leap at Easter, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:13:55

But I I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, you know, if anyone's listening still now, I'm gonna trigger them a little bit. Jesus was a communist, so he'd actually be against it. Right, yeah, and this is kind of what I'm thinking too. Yeah, yeah, right? So very much against the way things.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:08

Jesus is like a huge communist socialist.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:10

Yeah, and this is the most literally like told his disciples to sell his possession, sell their possessions, and follow him and go feed the poor. Like, I like the thing where it's like, you know what my favorite part of the Bible is? When Jesus said, like, I'm just gonna keep all this bread and fish for myself. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:25

Jesus could be appalled at Christmas as it stands in North America.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:29

So I like that answer. Good job. Do you want to take the last call? Last call, gentlemen. We asked every guest, what's one piece of advice you received in your lifetime? This could be from family, a friend, a relative, a famous actor that you just want to share with us today. Just a cool piece of advice. I mean, from any perspective. You guys gave a lot of great advice in this show, by the way. I mean, you know, about creativity, I think.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:50

It's our main thing we do. Thank you for that.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:53

But uh you got one more chunk for us, that'd be uh that'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:57

Never block doorways. That's a good one. Never block practical doorways.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:02

That could be like taking literally and like kind of philosophically.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:06

I I read it literally, but I will take the metaphor post offical. Like it really, you just it's a deep, it's deeper than you guys think. Just trust me.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:13

Please, please, please. It's absolutely a physical quote uh quote. He's not talking about anything else. Yeah, just stay out of his way.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:23

There's a great song by Kay Tempest, who's a UK uh spoken word poet, slash playwright, slash musician. And they have this great song called Grace, and in it it says a line that I think about and try to remember every day. Now I'm gonna butcher it. But it's essentially goes something like, and love said, if you if you speak what is within you, it will save you, and if you don't, it will destroy you. And I love that because it sort of talks about, especially as someone who makes stuff or writes or creates, it's like whatever is in here and whatever is honest and real and feels truthful or excites you or thrills you, that thing that we talked about, and you express it, it can save you. And I think for me, getting to do this has probably saved not to be dramatic about it, but it's probably saved my life. And I think that when I keep these things inside and shame or whatever it is, usually shame, um, it eats away at me and destroys me. So I think that would be the thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:23

That's brilliant. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:25

Top that, Bob. Oh my I could easily top that. Um it's funny, I was talking to uh a group of, I also work at Dow kind of on the side, and I was speaking to a group of law students, and it's clearly a bunch of people struggling with trying to figure out what's my career gonna be, what am I gonna do, you know, what's the path I'm gonna chart, and and we had a big conversation about cathedral building. And my suggestion to them was if you feel lost, if you feel like you don't know what you're doing or what this is for, what your purpose is, think of yourself as being in the business of building a cathedral. You're working on something that started before you came along and you're contributing to it, and it will continue happening after you're gone. You don't have to assess your value or your worth or your purpose in the context of such a narrow bandwidth of your own lived life. That is that is kind of limiting and and is it is really opens the door for a lot of disappointment, a lot of introspection that is not going to be helpful to you, social media fucking analysis stuff. How am I doing right now in this moment compared to other people? Fuck that. Forget about all that stuff. Uh are you contributing to something that leaves, makes a mark, makes a contribution, whether it's with other people that you love, or you know, adds a piece that wasn't there before, make it about that, you won't be disappointed. You'll be you'll be happy going forward. There you go. Yeah. Wow. Cheers to that.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:52

Brilliance all around you.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:53

That was way better than your thing.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:56

I think it was three for three. I think you guys will be able to meet. Cheers, guys. Cheers, you love you. All right, thank you so much. And and please come back anytime. Anytime. This is a this is a record.