Episode 51 - Comedian and Actor - Eric Johnston

Rocco and Tony sit dow with comedian, actor, director and creative mind behind Run with the Bull. A six-part comedy docuseries starring Canadian comedian Eric Johnston, available to stream on Bell Fibe TV1. After losing his own father at age thirteen, Johnston embarks on a journey to improve his physical and mental health to ensure he is around for his newborn son.  Eric was the son of legendary wrestler Bullwhip Johnston. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Well, hello everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Bring Your Guard Down podcast. You know who I am? Tony Incomparable. This is uh Rocco Rocco.

SPEAKER_02 0:28

A happy one today.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Yeah, why are you happy?

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Well, because uh I'm watching the soccer over there. Yeah. I like one team, a champion.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Argentina.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

Yeah, they win now. Wow against those fucking bedsheets over there, laid down on the carpet over there.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Right on. So uh, well, we're gonna get right to it. We have a very special guest. Oh, yeah. It's our second guest in a row. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

They have a nice history too, this guy. Yeah, good guy.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

So um, yeah. So today we have Eric Johnson. Say hello to Eric. Eric, can you look into the There we go? I'm looking at you. I need to look over here. You gotta give them both sides, don't worry.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

See inside of my head, see my schnazz. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

So thanks for coming in. We appreciate it. You know, we appreciate you doing this for us because you know, I think podcasts are interesting when you have guests that have different stories to tell, and you know, oh yeah, I think it's importante. Oh yeah, you know, so so how you doing? Like, tell us uh how long of I mean you you've been um kind of I found you on our Instagram.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Yeah, and I know you're a comedian, but you got quite a history, and you know, why don't you tell us a bit about yourself or your our audience, you know? And uh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

For those who don't know me, my name is Eric Johnson. I'm uh comedian mostly, stand-up comic, actor, professional MC, uh a big fan of Rock Haram Pamoro, baby. Best fan of champion. Oh yeah. I am thrilled to be here. I've uh I've been following Rocco and his story, and since the Bucks have matched when Punjers singing. Oh, that fucking guy. He's still alive?

unknown 2:01

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Uh but yeah, I've been doing stand-up comedy for 15 years and tour all around North America and performed at the comedy store and the laugh factory. Beautiful. I live in Hamilton, I was born and raised in Stony Creek, which is like Hamilton's Woodbridge. So I grew up a lot around a lot of guys like Rocco, and uh yeah, I I I was in high school when we became on the cassette tape on the fucking tape to go around.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Okay, what year what year did you kind of experience the uh Punjabi power hour?

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Punjabi power hour. I mean, I m I was in high school for sure. I was in high school 2004 to 2008. That's it. So I remember like I grew up all around all the Italians. Like that was like I grew up in the most Italian neighborhood. It's not so it's it's not so Italian anymore, but it used to be change a little bit. Yeah, but I grew up around all the Italian guys, and I'm uh I'm a caker, I'm Munja Cake, Irish, Polish, Russian.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Hold on, but okay, it sounds like you put on a pretty good Italian accent. I'm inspired by Rocco. Oh, I see. Like you try your Italian wanna be big time. Yeah, I mean, that's my whole life.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

I go on all these all Italian tours. I open for Sebastian Manaskelko. Oh, yeah. He thought I was Italian and we're we're backstage. Beautiful. He goes, You Italian? I go, yeah. And he goes, All right, you could do 15 minutes. So I opened for Sebastian.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Well, that was that tell us about that guy. Well, Sebastian. Sorry, how did you come to open for him?

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Like where Yeah, so it was at the Burlington Performing Arts Center. I was working with a company uh called Comedy Fest Canada, and they were bringing in some uh big names. And we had Frank Spinone and we had Angelo Sarukas, and and then we took a flyer and reached out to Sebastian. This is rape, like he already had multiple specials out and he was he was blowing up uh but just before he was doing arenas.

SPEAKER_03 3:48

Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Uh we said, hey, we got this venue in Burlington, it holds 750 seats. Um, would you like to do it? I knew that he was in Buffalo, then he was going to Toronto or vice versa. It's right in between. You want to stop for a night, make some money? And he goes, Yeah, let's do it. And it sold out instantly. And I mean, half of Vaughn and Woodbridge was up down, they made the drive down to Burlington, and and I was just there as just like uh, you know, kind of part of the crew, and you know, we're shooting the shit before the show. And you know, he goes, You're pretty funny. I go, Yeah, I've been doing stand-up for a while now, and I tour all around. And he goes, And you're Italian? And I go, Yeah. And he goes, All right, well, you can do 15 minutes. Oh, that's nice, yeah. So then I opened for Sebastian. It's one of my biggest credits that like, you know, when I'm getting when I'm touring around North America, that when they're bringing when they're bringing me to stage, they go, This this comic has opened for Russell Peters, he's opened for Sebastian Manaskelko, and here he is tonight. Oh, yeah. So that's it. It was it was life-changing, and and and I did really well because it was my crowd. Like, I grew up in Stony Creek, it's all Italians. I was doing a lot of Italian material at the time, and I went up and I killed, and there's actually a hilarious picture on my Facebook of Sebastian shaking my hand as he's called I'm because I introduced him, so I did 15 and I brought him up, and he's looking at me like, Who the fuck is this kid? Like, I've never seen him, never heard of him. I killed, and then about six months later, I was performing at the comedy store in LA. I'm opening for Russell Peters, and I'm in the back parking lot, and I see Sebastian and I go, uh, hey Sebastian, I don't know if you remember me. I uh he goes, Burlington, Ontario, you killed! And I was like, Yes, I did. Oh my god. So that was it. He gave me his number, but those celebrities they change their numbers like every six. Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

We change wines every 24 hours. I changed my I changed my life a couple of weeks, yeah. Yeah, you have to, right? Because yeah, well, I got a lot of different pressure from him. He's a famous uh comedian, you know. Yeah, my me, everybody wants my training video. Rocco teach my box, you know. But and then and then the marriage proposals, you get oh yeah, no, I don't do that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

No, but don't girls call you from the podcast?

SPEAKER_02 5:45

No, they don't call my my wife screens in my fucking call, okay? I see, yeah. My wife is six foot three now, she's not 295, she's about three to 320 now. Wow, because she does bodybuilding now, change it up a little bit. Oh fuck, yeah. Yeah, she gets inspiration from the world. Fuck it.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Yeah, what kind of perspiration does she have?

SPEAKER_02 6:03

Oh, she got all kinds of perspiration. She got all kinds of she uses the spray deodorant. Yeah. When we have make a love sometime, yeah. I put I put my wife on the top. I try uh a couple of years ago. I almost die because I couldn't breathe. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Well, anyway, so that's a cool story, yeah. So comedy's tough, you know. Yeah, very tough. Like, like comedy's tough to go and stand in front, and like, you know, you got potential hecklers, you got you gotta your material. If it doesn't go, you gotta pivot quick. Like, you gotta be different breed, eh? Oh, yeah, it's a tough one. Yeah, there's only one comic ever really pissed my pants, like really literally peed my pants. What'd you comic though? I don't know. This this I can't remember his name, but uh is a comedian or yeah, no, I saw him at the Titan Singer. No, I saw him at the Gotham Comedy Club, and he was practicing his bit for his HBO uh yeah, HBO tour, but uh I can't remember his name, like a Spanish guy, and he did he does he does like that improvisation, you know, the voice like coming soon to a theater near you. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

I know who you're talking about, yes, I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah, I like uh and I can't remember his name either.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Shit. He he just he pee I peed my pants. I was literally I mean that's like he was like funny. It's tough, eh? Very tough, you know. Yeah. So how did you get into comic? Because I understand you have a you have a pretty uh history, pretty family history.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Yeah, so my my dad and my grandfather, not bugs, they do professional wrestling.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

That's hard and that's a training.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

My grandfather and father were Canadian Hall of Fame professional wrestlers out of Hamilton, so I grew up kind of around the the circus side show. There was always wrestlers by the house, and every weekend we were out at matches, and but you know, sometimes my dad was wrestling the small matches and like the fucking potato festival and PEI, and then the next weekend he'd be doing a WCW event at the Buffalo Auditorium, and uh, you know, he's in the Ilio DePaulo Wrestling Hall of Fame.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

And uh is he uh Bull Whip Johnson? Bull Whip Johnson was my father. Mikey, show that. Show Bull Whip Johnson. Is that your dad? Yeah, yeah. There you go, right? Hey, Champia. You kind of look like him. Yeah, a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

I need a mustache.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Yeah, you need a mustache. He looks like a big man.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

Yeah, he was 6'5, 275. Big man. And uh yeah, he was my hero, and unfortunately, he passed away shortly after my 13th birthday. And uh I wanted to get into show business and kind of honor his legacy and do all that, but uh I didn't choose wrestling because wrestling fucking hurts, you know. I mean it's no bullshit. So I uh I found comedy and I I started as an actor. I was doing dance and theater and musical theater and stuff, and I just wanted to get on the stage, and then after that, I I on November 1st, 2010, I did my first ever open mic, and uh I haven't stopped since. I really I really haven't stopped since. So I do probably a hundred to two hundred shows a year and travel around North America. Oh goody.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Yeah, so this picture I found online is this is this you in this picture?

SPEAKER_00 9:07

That's me, yeah, yeah. That's me. That's the a book I wrote. Uh it's called Rum with the Bull, Three Generations of Sports and Entertainment. And it's about my grandfather and my father and my journey through show business coming out of Hamilton.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

So that's your dad and you on the barrel? Yeah, it's that's me.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

And that's him, and actually that guy's arm on the very far side is a wrestler by the name of Johnny Canine. And Johnny Kine was a professional wrestler, but also a career criminal. He was the president of the Satan's choice motorcycle club. I remember them, yeah. In Hamilton. So he was uh a tough guy, and he was in and out of jail my whole childhood, and I'd got stories about him, and and just yeah, it just took this crazy, crazy lifestyle that I grew up in around. And I it was pretty it was, you know, I said on another interview recently, I they go, Was it nature or nurture? And I said it was both, you know what I mean? It was I was when the apple fell from the tree, it fell straight down, and then I just embraced it and ran with it. Now I've been doing comedy for 15 years, and like I said, I've toured all over North America and make a make a living.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

Yeah, so tell us what's kind of your uh like I always ask, I always ask professional performers, like because we I used to be a professional performer a long time ago, right? And so I always have my my nightmare scenario, the one gig that was a fucking shit show, and then of course the best gig, you know. I I I I measure sort of my experiences based on the two, you know, extremes, right? So I always ask performers like what was your kind of most nightmarish performance? You know, what happened?

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Well, when you start, when you start doing comedy, you're starting on you know at bars on wing nights, and people are not there for comedy, they're there to watch the fucking leaf game and eat wings and talk to their friends and stuff, and and then they're going, Okay, we're gonna start an open mic comedy night, and everybody stinks and whatever. And I just found when I started like that, the I had to be the highest energy and the loudest and the most like animated to even get these people's attention that they would turn around and go, What the fuck is this guy doing over here? So that's kind of how I started. But all those gigs suck, and and but you just gotta cut your teeth and show up every week. Like I was showing up somewhere every single night to do five, ten minutes, fifteen minutes, and and then you grow. And you know, I've had some amazing, amazing shows. Um, you know, I've like I said, performed at the comedy store and the laugh factory in Chicago, and and those were like big sold-out shows. And I've been on some right now, I'm on my fifth national headlining tour across Canada. Oh, so you're touring now? Do you have a website or anything? Like, what's yeah, it's ericjonstonhoo.com to get all my upcoming tour dates. Um Eric Johnson what? Who? Like W H O. Like who is he?

SPEAKER_02 11:37

Yeah, beautiful. Oh, like yeah. That should be your opening song. Who are you? That's that's there you go. Joni Mitchell. I listened to Johnny Mitchell. Johnny Mitchell, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:51

Johnny, that's your neighbor.

SPEAKER_02 11:52

You're my neighbor, fuck her. And I moved to Provincial Malibu that time next. You live next door, fucking you covered whatever stuff. I kill a pair of masks and I throw them in your parking lot. Yeah, I remember.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Yeah, yeah. So Eric JohnsonWhoo.com.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

Yes. Yeah. My Instagram is at Eric Johnson Who and all my tour dates and stuff. Like in a couple weeks, I'm in Peeley Island, Ontario, which I've never done before.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

I went there one time.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

You went there?

SPEAKER_02 12:15

Oh, yeah. Did you work there one time?

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Did you take the ferry or did you jump one time? Jump.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

I don't take the ferry. I do a holiday jumping. One jump. One time I jumped from here to Vancouver, fuck. Yeah, one one jump.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

I'm trying to try to flip a holiday. You said Eric Johnson who?

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Yeah. Eric, Eric with a C, John, or Eric with yeah, Eric with a C, Johnson with a T W H O. Um, but yeah, I've had some great shows. I mean, a lot of corporate gigs I do are really tough.

unknown 12:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

You know, I I had one, I had a hilarious one. I'll try to keep it brief. I got booked for this big financial company. They were doing a show at the White Oak Spa in Niagara Falls, and they brought me in, and the the guy who owned the company was a big comedy fan, and he was new about me and had seen me before, and he wanted to book me as a surprise for his staff for their Christmas for their Christmas party. I looked them up on the website, on their website, and they were like Forbesless Canadian version of Forbes list for how much money they they make. So I just I tripled my quote as to what it would be, and the guy said, Yeah, no problem. I was like, God, I should have quadrupled it. But um, and then anyway, so they booked me for the show, and then the day before the show, the guy got COVID, and he, the owner of the company, couldn't come to his own Christmas party, which is okay, but he didn't fucking tell anybody that I was coming. So he told his one like controller girl, and I show up and they're all eating dinner or whatever, they're having like their Christmas party, and the girl goes, So who who are you? What are you what are you doing? I go, I'm a comedian, I'm about to perform, and then she goes, Oh yeah, that's right, okay. Anything you want me to say about him, about you? And I go, Yeah, this is all my tour around North America and uh vope for comedians like Russell Peters and Sebastian Menescalco. She goes, Okay, so they finish dinner and fucking she just goes up onto this little makeshift stage and she just grabs a microphone and she goes, Russell Peters, uh Sebastian Manoscalco, Eric Johnston. And then she just fucking walked off the stage. So I ran up there, grabbed the mic, and I'm like, hey everybody, blah blah blah blah. And they had no idea. And he had only paid me a uh deposit. He only paid me 50% of what I was supposed to get paid. No, it's better than that. So I he paid me the deposit, and uh I go up there, and in the in the industry, we say I start bombing my dick off. I literally started bombing. So because they didn't know who I was, why I was there, what was happening, why there was even stand-up comedy at their Christmas party. And I'm booked, I'm booked to do an hour. 60 minutes of me, which is fine. I do an hour every night. That's that's my that's my shit. I can do an hour, and I get to about the 15-minute mark, and I go, All right, guys, I don't want to be here, you don't want me to be here. Let's just tell, say the guy's name is Tony, just as an example. I go, let's just tell Tony that I did the hour and it was amazing. And if you agree to that, I'll leave for right now. And they all started clapping. So I went, good night. Brutal. I walked off the stage. I was so embarrassed and disheveled, whatever. Yeah, yeah. I have these banners that go up on the stage behind me that say, like Eric Johnson, another one's for my book, and says buy your my my book now on Amazon. And I left. I went out to my car and I went, Oh fuck, my banners are still on the stage. So I go back in, walk a shame. They're all now talking about what just happened and how bad it was. And I just slowly go on the stage and just take my banners down, I put them under my arms, and I just wave. I get wake up to the mor next morning from an email from the guy, and before I open it, I go, Oh, this is not gonna be good. This is not gonna be good. He's not paying me the rest of my money. Okay, let's open it up. And I open it up and he said, Talk to my staff. They said it was amazing, and you did the full hour, and here's the rest of your money.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

There you go. See, there's that's a point about never freaking out about what you can't control what you can't control. Exactly. It's smart what you do. You know, you don't have to freak out. Everybody always thinks the worst is gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

And you know, I mean, bombing is terrible, but it's never that bad. Right, you get over it pretty quick, especially with me. Like, I have an hour that I tour with that I I know, you know, top to bottom now I can do it with my eyes closed, especially when I'm on tour doing a show every single night. Right. By the end of a tour, I can go up and read the fucking phone book and get laughs because you're just so much in that zone. Um, but you know, sometimes there's things that happen in the room. I did a show recently in um in Hagersville, Ontario, and there was some drunk guy came in and he was trying to ruin the show, and and I threw him out, and I just say, you know, just get out of here, just whatever. And he didn't want to leave, and he started coming up to the stage, and I thought he was gonna he just wanted to shake my hand. He was coming up to me, go, I just want to shake your hand, and I go, Listen, I'm from Hamilton, I know the move. You go to shake my hand and you hit me with the other elbow. Thank God he didn't, and he left and whatever. And then I found out at the next day that he's the son of some big wig up in Hagersville, and I go, Oh shit, they're gonna come after me now. And I got an email or a message saying, Hey, we apologize for that guy, he's a known fuck up, it's all good, whatever. So, like these things happen, but they're really never that bad. Like, yeah, bombing sucks, but I haven't thankfully I haven't done it in a while. Uh by my control, sometimes fucking things fall from the ceiling. Oh, you pass out. I was doing a show in Toronto, some guy overdosed on edibles and collapsed in the front row. That's it.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

What the fuck? He loses control himself. Well, he lost control. I like sometimes you know I like the comedian. What the highest point? I measured the value of a great comedian by the way he controlled the heckler and the audience. Yeah, a lot of people give you one-liners, right?

SPEAKER_00 17:49

Yeah. I shut it down pretty quick. I think because I'm a bigger guy, too. People think I might know how to fight or something. Oh, yeah. And I don't. Uh, but I think I can I have such control. Plus, my style on stage is so quick and so energetic and stuff that people don't often have the opportunity to try to jump jump in. That's it. I'm on to the next bit. By the time they even have a thought, I'm on I'm two jokes later. So it's just I get very lucky that way. But yeah, it's just God, I've been doing it for 15 years. I could go on for hours about good shows, bad shows, whatever. But it's uh, you know, you love it. I'm very lucky to be able to make a full, full living in Canada as a company. God bless you. I don't have to tape go on compensation.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

Fuck a compensation. Oh, you even say that like an Italian. You know Jimmy Carr, the famous Jimmy Carr, he's an English, eh? British, yeah. He's a very special and people attack him too, right? Yeah, he's not scared of nobody. No scared. I remember one time I watched him. You don't fucking scare nobody. I'm no fucking scared. That's why I love it because he's no fucking scary. So he said one guy yell out, hey Jimmy, from the Balkans, I think in Scotland.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

He said, You're putting on weight. You're getting fat. And Jimmy Carr said, Yeah, because every time I come over and fuck your wife, she bakes me a lasagna. What do you mean, harsh? That's fucking comedy, buddy.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

Yeah, you gotta be pretty quick up there. And the biggest thing is you you as a comic don't want to lose control. Exactly. Don't lose control.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

That's why Rock always used to say in the beginning when I started to train. I tell everybody, don't lose control. So that's great.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

So I can say comedy's a tough gig, you know, and you're making a living out of it that's pretty fucking bad.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

Ask him if it's a which is more tough comedy or fucking wrestling, though, guys.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

Wrestling for sure, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Yeah, wrestling's a tough gig.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

Well, my dad was in the car all the time going somewhere, and I mean I sometimes I'm driving eight hours, I go to Sault Ste. Marie or something, and I'm driving up there and I'm going, God, whatever. And then I get there and I'm thinking, I'm like, my dad did the same drive in the 80s, and when he got there, he had to fucking wrestle somebody and then go to the next town and go to the next town. Oh, yeah, set up the ring and tear down the ring and stuff. So I just came from a family of hustlers, which makes me a hustler. It's just that's it.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

Eric Johnson. You know, there's uh he speller Tony. Yeah, he spelled a Johnston with the T. But I know you found it, but I thought it was Eric Johnson because there's a famous guy play guitar from Texas. His name is Eric Johnson in number one, a beautiful guitar. When you say Eric Johnson is gonna come here, oh the fuck, I said maybe I should bring out my drum from uh 1968. Cliffs of the drum session.

SPEAKER_01 20:29

Well, maybe we should. But um yeah, I'm trying to find that comedian. Yeah, I'm trying to find Cat Williams. I'm trying to find that comedian.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

No, I know what you're talking about too. I'll look it up quick.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

Uh he was like uh he's an older guy. He he used to tour with Da Merrera. You mean Paul Rodriguez? No, fuck no, no. He's like Juan Valdez? No, that's uh coffee guy. Yeah, sorry, I make a mistake. Anyway, so so you uh how did you come to get to write your book? And how did you get a TV show? Like how did you show it? Who directed it? Oh yeah. Like tell me how you've transitioned. You're a busy guy. That's right. That's right. How how it came to, you know, you wrote a book and called Son of a Bull, right?

SPEAKER_00 21:09

No, it's a book is called Run with the Bull. Run with the Bull. Son of a Bull is the tour I'm on right now. Okay, okay, okay. It's all bull, it's all bullshit. Uh but no, so I I I was originally setting out to make a documentary called Run with the Bull. Or actually, the documentary was gonna be called Becoming Bull Whip. And the idea of it was me, 35-year-old stand-up comics, says it's finally time to follow in his family footsteps and become a professional wrestler. And I was gonna go through the training and I was gonna go with Sentino Morella and all these guys, and we were gonna actually work out a match, and I was gonna perform the match, and it was gonna be a documentary. And I in doing the research for all, like the documentary I was gonna make, I reached out to this guy named Greg Oliver. Greg Oliver is a legendary Canadian sports writer, he's written fifty 15, 20 books, and I reached out to him for some information. He goes, I got so much information about your dad. He goes, I think there's a book here between your dad, your grandfather, and you could easily write a book. I know he goes, I got all these interviews, I got all this shit. Let's try to hash it out. So we spent two years putting together this book uh called Run with the Bull. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

And so, yeah, so the book's premise. Is just is it a biography?

SPEAKER_00 22:19

Yeah, so it's it's my grandfather's story and his story through professional wrestling. Then he wrestled from you know the 60s till 79. Uh and then my dad took over in 79 and wrestled to 99, and then I started doing stand-up in 2010, and so the book is my grandfather's story, his life and death, my father's story, his life and death, and now my story through show business.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

So, how did your grandfather get into wrestling?

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Honestly, it's like it was one of those things where in Hamilton, these guys who were like steel workers and stuff, they would no one even really knows like the day it started, even with all the research we did, but they were just calling these big tough guys from like from the steel mills or whatever. My grandfather was a scrapper, and they would go, Hey, come train to be a professional wrestler, you can make some money. It's this new thing in the in the in the 70s, 60s, 70s. And uh Jack Wentworth was a guy who had a wrestling gym in Hamilton and he trained my grandfather. And and then it's a family business like anything. As soon as my grandfather starts wrestling, my father sees it and he goes, I want to start wrestling. And so then he started wrestling and he trained out of Hamilton, and then the two of them went on tour together. The five and son? Yeah, but yeah, my grandfather and my father, yeah. They would go on tour and set up the ring and they'd run matches all over Canada and into the United States.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

So were they ever part of that? I remember Channel 11, Hamilton. Yeah, of course. They used to have that wrestling show on Saturday afternoon with the Love Brothers and Reggie Reggie.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Reggie Love and the Golden Greeks Chris Tolis. Yeah, what about haystack? Yeah, Haystack's Calhoun.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

I remember one guy when I was a small in Calabria. Famous guy. I remember Bruno Samartino. Bruno San Martini. Johnny Power, I remember, sweet daddy Siki. Sweet Daddy Siki trained by the colour.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

The chic! Yeah, the chic, the original chic, the one from the one from Windsor. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:07

And then the guy from Sicily, Rouche, cool. Another one. And then there was like uh Tony Parisi Parisi. Tony Parisi, Tony Canabal Parisi.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

Elio De Paolo. Yeah, all famous, yeah. I'll send you, I'll show you a picture. There's a picture of my dad with Bruno San Martino. And that was his hero. And my dad was old school. He didn't like any cameras in the dressing rooms, nothing. No, no, no. Because he was heel and he didn't want to kill the illusion. But they did a huge thing in Buffalo at the odd for the Elio DePolo Wrestling Hall of Fame. And my dad was inducted that night, and Bruno San Martino came, and my dad asked for a picture with Bruno. Wow. He was thrilled.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

Yeah, I remember I remember watching that, but I was a heavy wrestling fan. Like big time. I went to WrestleMania 1, Messer Radia 2, WrestleMania 3 in Toronto. Oh, and I that's uh we would just that's all we did. We acted like wrestlers growing up and playing and oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:57

I like even the Mexican resolution with the buttons gang. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

I'm trying to think of the other Saturday, and then it's Saturday afternoon, always the Love Brother. The tag team was always the last match of the yeah, tag team, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

There's a couple great stories, and actually, uh Reginald Love, his son is in his like like like late 50s, 60s now. I was at the TyCat game the other day, and some guy came up to me and goes, Hey, I want to introduce myself. I'm Reginald Love's son, and I know that you're a bull whip's son, and I was like, holy shit. Wow, and and and um not Reggie, uh his name is Johnny Evans, the other Love brother, his real name's Johnny Evans. His grandson is a musician, and he has we've worked together. Like he's done shows with me and he plays the piano and stuff, and so it's all like Canadian show business is all intertwined, especially in Hamilton. Like Hamilton is the world's largest small town.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

So remember they used to be in Maple Leaf Gardens, you'd have the Maple Leaf Wrestling. Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

Maple Leaf Wrestling, Stampede Wrestling out in Calgary. Yeah, Calgary. I'd say my dad was the biggest when he worked for international wrestling out of the forum in Montreal, and it used to air on City TV on Saturdays on Toronto and Montreal, and he he lived in Montreal, and he was one of the main bad guys in Montreal. So that's all like, and also on top of that, my dad was really funny, which makes sense as to why I'm a comic, but my dad was an actor as well. Yeah, and he used to do a TV show called Bazaar with John Biner. Oh, yeah, I remember that. Yeah, back in the day. I know a lot of mosaician over there. Super Dave Osborne and stuff like that. Super Dave. Super Dave Dave.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

Oh, the stunts it was the best. I used to watch that show like crazy.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

So yeah, it was it was just again, that I was just born into this place that was funny, entertaining, around by like big, strong, powerful, funny guys. Yeah. And it makes sense. Here I am today, you know, touring around doing stadiums.

SPEAKER_02 26:42

Oh, you did good. I wish we had the kind of wrestling Calabria. We don't have a Calabria. We don't have wrestling over there, Tony Calabria. Just you and your wife. Yeah, but my wife, we we fucking fight. I go, I I go, I put my short on, I put the glove, everything, my shoes, and we we we've I told you we fight 36 fucking rounds one time. But we don't have wrestling in Calabria. She smashed a truck. She's my oh yeah, she's uh fucking a bestia.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Check this out. Put it in the put that on, Mike. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

There he is. So that's that's not my dad. That's uh that's another guy. There's Bam Bam Bubba O'Neal on the call. He's the six o'clock news guy on CHCH to this day. But isn't your dad wrestling here? Yeah, he's coming out right now. Here he is. And you can actually see me in this video. Oh, we can hear it. I'm right the right there to the left, jumping up and down with the shirt on.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

Oh my god. We can hear it. We can hear it. We can hear it, but we're actually hearing the video. ICW. Oh, who's coming out now? That's him. That's Boy Whip. That's a boy. Check it out. Look at the swagger. Look at the swagger. Oh, he's a Hulk.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

So this was actually my dad's last match ever. Oh, yeah. May 1st, 1999.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

Yeah. This was his last match?

SPEAKER_00 27:59

Yep. His last match ever in Hamilton at the Hamilton Convention Center. You can see me in this video in one sec. Oh, yeah, there's more. Yeah, they come around. So he was a big, big, brawling guy, right?

SPEAKER_01 28:13

This is this is showing different uh Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

That was a flashback of another match. Yeah. And the referee is a guy named Harry D, who I'm still friends with. He was in my TV show recently. Wow. Wow. Look at that. How tall is he? Six five.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

That was six five?

SPEAKER_00 28:29

Six five. Holy shit.

SPEAKER_02 28:32

Oh the smoke, eh?

SPEAKER_01 28:33

Yeah, he So you can't fool around doesn't matter. So what why was this his last uh match? Well, I'm gonna probably get a mold at this point. We're gonna probably get a note uh an eye uh a YouTube notice. So I gotta can't show too much of it.

SPEAKER_00 28:47

But yeah, that's all my tour dates or whatever. But you know, um it was he was injured and he had a big comeback and then he came back and then wrestled this big match, and then uh things kind of slowed down and then he passed away.

SPEAKER_02 29:01

So uh so now okay, are you okay talking about your father? Yeah, a little bit more personal. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so your father passed away. Uh he ever sick, some kind of sick.

SPEAKER_00 29:11

So my dad was an alcoholic. He was uh he died of liver kidney failure. Uh yeah. And that comes with professional wrestling. I understand. They say in professional wrestling, you know, one vice will kill you, two makes you immortal. So they say, like, a lot of these guys do pills and booze and and drugs and booze, and my dad was just a drinker, and he a lot had a lot of injuries, like a lot of internal injuries from wrestling, and his liver was damaged. He was in an industrial accident. Yep. I talk about all this in my TV show, which is available now on Bell5 TV one. Um but you know, he he was an alcoholic and he he drank, and the doctor said, you know, if you drink, you'll die. And he would go, I'm 6'5, 275, I'm a professional wrestler. This is not gonna kill me. And uh he was sober for a while and then he fell off the wagon and he died shortly thereafter. Shortly after. Nah, I guess. Body couldn't do it anymore.

SPEAKER_02 29:58

You know, it's uh what I always tell everybody, life is a la matematica. Yeah, the math, arithmetic of the life is very simple. Yeah, you know, I tell everybody, well, you know, one guy tell me a couple of weeks ago, eh, what's the situation? You don't drink. And I go, no, I don't drink. You know me, uh I'm a boxer, I don't drink. Because you drink all the time. I said to him, You must be alcoholic. He said, No, fuck you, I'm not alcoholic. I drink a two or three drink every day. I go seven days a week. Yeah, I go, the mathematics, three times seven is a 21 drink. Yeah, four times 21, four weeks every month. That's a lot of that's 84 fucking drinks. That's too much. But it's only one liver. That's right. You know the math over there?

SPEAKER_03 30:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:40

He goes, uh, you're saturation all the time, Morocco. I go, okay, big deal and cool. Fuck you then. You don't want to live, don't live. But I see your point. Everybody don't understand a lot of people. They think a drug, a drug, a cocaine, yeah. Fentanyl is a very bad, you know it's a big problem. But alcohol problem, alcohol is the worst fucking drug. Yeah. Because for two reasons, in my opinion. Alcohol is a fucked up for two reasons. First reason, because the government controls the alcohol. Number one. And number two, it's the only fucking thing that could really can kill you. I knew a lot of people that take a heroin, it's like a preservativo. Yeah. The fuck? You look better than you did when you were 25. You're maybe 60 years old, you still take a heroin, a methadone, you look fantastic. Must be preservativo, fuck. But the people are drinking, I know, alcoholic, they all reduce to nothing.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

It's uh and it's also such a presented thing. I think in Canadian culture, the first thing you do when you go to someone's house or show up somewhere and go, let me get you a drink. Let me get you a drink. I think it's very polite as Canadians to we think. You know, some people can hold like I'm drinking a beer right now, but I know I'm not an alcoholic, especially since my son was born. My son's 19 months old. Hey, congratulations, William! I've been drunk three times since he was born, and every single time, because I can drink, and he doesn't, he'll get up at 6 30, and he doesn't give a fuck what I did the night before. You're not a big how much I drank. Right. So I just learned pretty quick I don't want to do this. And you know, I I I tour as I'm on the road, like, you know, I get to the venue, I set everything up, I have a drink to take the edge off, and then I have a drink with me on stage, and then I have a drink after, and that's it. It's you know, it's it's I'm not going out like people think that a comedian's life is like a rock star's life, or it's like and I lived that way a little bit in my 20s when I was single, going town to town. Like, I couldn't believe it was working. I couldn't believe that I was getting booked in in Kelowna. So I'm going out there, and you know, you finish a show, you're in the mountains, there's chicks around, you're like, Oh, yeah, let's do this.

SPEAKER_01 32:43

There's also like fox and and uh deer around, chicks, chicks and deer, fox, yeah, foxy lady, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

Chicks, fox, deer. Cougars, couple cougars out there. Cougars. Don't forget that.

SPEAKER_02 32:56

Alcohol can we talk? I ask I ask a personal question about how your father died. He told me you could tell us.

SPEAKER_01 33:02

Yeah, no, no, I I I know how he died, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:04

But that's the thing. But still, uh Lapusa is not gonna kill you. Alcohol can kill you, but women they don't kill you. Yeah, it's true. You kill somebody else because you want to kill you.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

They kill you in a different way, you know what I mean? Yeah, I think that uh yeah, alcohol it's funny. Now, you know, now uh they're killing themselves with fucking cannabis and shit.

SPEAKER_02 33:26

Oh, people die talk about a show. Yeah, they do the the the the candy they give, mint candy candy check and you take one to take it uh, you know, calm down and slip, yeah, but then you don't get up for three fucking days.

SPEAKER_00 33:40

Well that show he was so high, and I was killing on stage. I was I was killing, and then I thought I fucking killed this guy because he's like smacking his eye, he's dying laughing, and I'll go, Whoa, wow, I'm really killing this guy. All of a sudden he went boom, and they stopped the show, the ambulance had to come in, they carried him out, and then the show stopped for like 10 minutes, and then the owner of the club goes, Okay, you ready to go back up? And I went, All right, fuck it. They the host went back up, I would be doing that guy in the whole fucking the next 20 minutes. Yeah, I I riffed on in a little bit saying, like, because what happened was he's there he was with a group of 10 people and he went down and fucking nine people left with him. And I went, No, I got an empty spot in the front row, and I go, I say everybody come on, move up, move up. This is gonna affect my merchandise sales and shit. Uh but yeah, you referenced it, and then you I just went back into the act and then just finished the show. And everyone was like, Wow, you handled that so well. It's like, well, what the fuck am I supposed to do? Like the guy almost I thought the guy died. Like, I thought he had a heart attack or a stroke or something. Oh, yeah. And then it was someone came back and they go, No, you took too many edibles. And I went, well, now I feel less bad about all that.

SPEAKER_01 34:44

So do you have uh siblings?

SPEAKER_00 34:46

I got a sister, my sister Holly. She's six and a half years older than me, and she's got uh she's got a vintage clothing company, and she's clothing all over the world. Beautiful. She does mortgages and uh she's a hustler too, you know. She didn't get into show business, but uh that's okay. But she's like my number one fan, and she comes to shows and tells people about shows and stuff like that. Oh, that's great. My wife's a real estate agent, and she's my wife's a civilian, straight civilian, there's no interest in show business, which makes us perfect. Because if we're if she was like me, we would just be like this.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

So what's your what's your sign?

SPEAKER_00 35:19

What what's that? My background?

SPEAKER_01 35:21

Birthday.

SPEAKER_00 35:22

Oh, my sign. It's actually in a couple days, July 11th. Oh, you're a cancer. Yeah, my cancer. And your wife? Uh she's August 21st, so she's a tour, uh, Gemini. No, Leo, like me.

SPEAKER_01 35:34

So at a cusp, okay, what's the what's a penal?

SPEAKER_02 35:36

What's the prognosis of the I have to know the year because I do Chinese astrology. Okay, what year?

SPEAKER_00 35:42

I was born in 90. My wife was born 86.

SPEAKER_02 35:44

Okay, so you're born like your father, your horse, and you're the horse. That's right. Come on. But this year, because this year's a horse year, fire horse this year. Fire horse. This year is gonna be a very lucky year for you. I need it. Very good one. I need it. Oh, it's coming nice, believe me. I'm here, I'm on the show. We're not lucky, we're not you for luck, we're friends, but but it's gonna get better for you. I appreciate it. And what about the the relationship? Um depending on 87. 87? You're very your wife and you are good friends.

SPEAKER_00 36:11

Yeah, we are.

SPEAKER_02 36:12

Very good friends. You talk a lot about everything. That's right. That's very important. Your wife is a very smart lady. I didn't know you had this talent.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

Oh, and it's accident. He knows everything. No, no, it's not. Rocco's not only a boxer, he's a good cook. He thinks he's a good cook. Uh, but he thinks he's a good cook.

SPEAKER_02 36:27

He thinks when he ate my eggplant, the parmigiana asked him how it was.

SPEAKER_01 36:30

It was delicious. Uh but I can't didn't prove you just you brought it. I didn't know you made it. There's no proof.

SPEAKER_02 36:36

Oh, it's gonna look even worse on him when he sees him a cookie.

SPEAKER_01 36:38

That's what we have to do. We have to make a nice bar. We're gonna do a cooking show, actually. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:42

You play the drums too. That's my hobby, yeah. You play tabla? I don't play tabla. So I used to play a little bit kanjera, you know, the little tambourine. Yeah, yeah. I started with uh a long time a taking for lessons from one guy he teaches York University. His name is a Trichi Shankarin. You can look him up at York University, I tell you. And uh, I play, I start to learn a little bit of tabla when I fight against Pandir Singhir Singh but he's a fucking cheater. So I cut my lesson a half. Yeah? I gave him I give him a couple rudiments in the fucking face in the third fucking round, if you remember correctly. He punched me in my eye 565 fucking times. And what'd you do? I blink with the other one. Thanks for the tape. That's right. I'm just sending you up to the ears.

SPEAKER_01 37:27

And how many times you slip in that fight?

SPEAKER_02 37:30

I cannot catch myself a little bit. You want to put this short? Yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 37:37

So this is Rocco, ladies and gentlemen. Uh I uh playing a little uh some a clip playing the drums. Yeah. You can hear it if you want to listen. No, I I I played it, I remember. Okay, I know we can't hear it. I can hear it to the headphones. Yeah. Oh, look at that. Look at that drum kit. This is look at rock over here. He thinks he's professional. Look at the Chinese symbols on the uh the Chinese symbols on the pants. Oh yeah, that's my hobby.

SPEAKER_02 38:06

Yeah, this is a minute and 34 seconds. Yeah, that's an introduction to one of my songs I write to. Yeah, yeah. I play piano too, you know. That's my hobby. And then in my full-time job, is I kill people.

SPEAKER_01 38:17

There we go. Look at that. Yeah, rock with headphones.

SPEAKER_02 38:20

Fucking beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 38:21

You know? But this is why I put this so you we can put headphones and we can listen. Yeah, that's nice. I love it. Anyway, this is their tunnel of steps. That's yeah. As opposed to tunnel of no steps. Tunnel of love. No, you're shit, my phone.

SPEAKER_02 38:34

You're gonna put that thing on silence. I would tell you why I call it the tunnel of steps. I'll tell you. Because when you go inside a tunnel, you can never see the fucking footsteps. Right. When it's open, you can see the footsteps. In the snow or rain, you can see. But in a tunnel, you don't see stuccoats. You come out at the other end, you get a fucking punch in the face. Okay, so anyway.

SPEAKER_01 38:56

You need to keep uh I need to break for one minute, so Eric, you gotta kind of take the mic for a sec. Can you do that? You guys talk. Put the camera on, Eric. I'm gonna leave for one minute. Unfortunately, this is the first time we've done a podcast during the day.

SPEAKER_02 39:12

Go ahead. We're very busy podcasts the people are coming from all over the fucking place. I have a lot of. Let's ask a couple of wrestling questions to Eric too. Okay, Eric, tell me something. Sometime when I do boxing, right? And he plays drums and box, there's a lot of parts of those two sports, one art, one sport, that help each other. So you are comedian, when you do acting, sometimes I find uh my experience, when the guy's a funny guy, he's uh do very good drama too.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:47

They're the best of dramatic actors of comedy.

SPEAKER_00 39:50

Like Leslie Nilson. Yeah, I've done a lot of that. I mean, I always play the you know, the funny best friend or whatever. Recently I shot a TV show and I played the romantic lead of this of this thing. And I was like, I'm like, you want me to play the romantic lead? And the director goes, I see this guy, this this comedian, this funny, outgoing, crazy guy. He goes, but I know you got so much heart in there. And he goes, and I want to see if I can capture that by you playing the romantic lead and playing like the straight man, and and everyone else around you is funny, and you're just trying to experience it and get through and fall in love. Right. And I was scared to be honest, and it was one of the most like fulfilling things. It was just a pilot for a TV show, didn't end up getting picked up, but doesn't matter. The fact that we did it, and uh I was like, wow, and like and also like the wrestling background helps with my standup. Now, I'm not a wrestler, but I watched a lot of wrestling, I still watch a lot of wrestling, right? But I watched a lot of wrestling growing up, but I learned how to control an audience by going, picking up the speeds, slowing down, and going to the quarters and coming back. So for me, as a stand like as a stand-up, like I'm doing an hour and I'm I'm holding them for 60 minutes. Yeah. And that is with you know, sometimes things get a little loud and crazy, but then I come right back down. Oh yes. I go to this side of the stage to tell these people one thing, and then I come back to the other. And so, like a lot of those elements of professional wrestling are working in stand-up and they work for acting. Yes, and my professional MC work, I just you know, I host charity events and whatever, and and you know, I don't have any uh I don't have any like plan. I just go up there and go with what's natural, like improvisation. Some of these big corporate gigs I do, they go, what are you gonna do up there? I go, I'll figure it out. And I just you just know because I have the stand-up background, the how to control an audience background, and also like have the ability to go, okay, here's what we need to say, let's get that in there and and just keep you know moving forward. But I think they all perfectly weave into each other, whether it's wrestling, comedy, acting, mcing, and and you know, also just being a guy. Like I have the ability, which not a lot of comics do, unfortunately, is to when I'm off stage, just be a fucking guy, just be a normal part of my community, be a father, be a husband, and whatever, and not feel the need to always be like, hey, let me tell you a joke, let me tell you a joke, let me tell you a joke. Yeah, because those people get real tired real quick. That's a very good point.

SPEAKER_01 42:13

Uh limited attention span. Sorry for the departure, but now that's dealt with. No, but I saw the foldering.

SPEAKER_00 42:19

I thought this has got to be important. It's your lawyer, so it's important. Yeah, you know, it's a lot of drama.

SPEAKER_02 42:24

I tell him if the lawyer, if they give him a hard time, it's just a car rock, I'll fix it up.

SPEAKER_01 42:28

Yeah, the best picture I've seen in my lawyer's office is there's someone pulling on the head of a cow, yeah, someone pulling on the tail of the cow, okay, and the lawyer milking the cow.

SPEAKER_03 42:39

Oh that's how it works.

SPEAKER_01 42:41

You know what I mean? They they get paid no matter who wins or loses. Uh yeah, yeah. You see, that's a pain. It's like, I don't know, people in their conflicts.

SPEAKER_02 42:52

You know, listen, you know, you gotta understand something. People don't realize the world is the same fucking world that was 4,000 years ago. Nothing changed. Why the human being don't fucking change? Okay, I'll read to this guy now. I'm gonna tell a little bit something because he's a very special guest, Eric, right? Eric, we're talking about the ebb and flow on the stage, yeah, how you control the people emotionally. I just read about one guy, okay. His name is uh Edward Bernays. You know what they call him? And he died in 1995 at 103 years old. They call him the doctor of spin. He developed and can and concludes how to control the people's emotion through propaganda, through commercial. Sure. That's why you believe a breakfast is the best, most important meal of the day. Or you need eight hours of sleep. Or you need eight hours of sleep. Or the ladies they didn't smoke before it was against the law, then they start to smoke cigarettes because of the campaign that he started Bernice. He also started the campaign for Chiquita Banana. That's why from a fruit it became a the symbol of nourishment for uh United States of America. Bananas? This my banana, so yeah, my friend. Yeah, listen. Edward Bernice, sir. Ladies and people are you gentle people out there. If you want to find out about the heavy philosophy and propaganda, how you control the mind, then you understand the more Eric Johnson, what he does on the stage. I ask him, uh L influenza, right? Between the wrestling, a combination of wrestling, and when he do comedy, and he do acting. Because a lot of great uh the best uh uh drama actor, dramatic, they're comedian. Like a Leslie. Yeah. Right? He he's a uh he's a uh trained Shakespearean action, but he put on the funniest fucking movie to kill you, because he doesn't try to tell you a joke like Eric said. They say, fuck it. I just improvisation for the nation.

SPEAKER_00 44:44

That's how it look at Robin Williams, one of the funniest guys in the world. You see, Goodwill hunting.

SPEAKER_01 44:51

I don't agree with that one.

SPEAKER_00 44:52

You don't agree?

SPEAKER_01 44:53

I thought he was the worst comedian. Who? Robert Williams? Oh fuck, I didn't like him at all.

SPEAKER_02 44:57

I kind of like it.

SPEAKER_01 44:58

Overacting.

SPEAKER_02 44:59

Who's your favorite comedian?

SPEAKER_01 45:01

That guy. I didn't try to look it up again. I still can't do it. He used to do coming soon to a theater near you. Uh, that made all these sound effects with his. I mean, it's lowbrow comedy. Lowbrow. I'm not like, what's the name? The guy that's highbrow like that. What's his name? Glenn Miller or Glenn, whatever the fuck. Glenn Miller, Bland the leader. Oh, that other guy there. Dennis Miller. Dennis Miller. Or that guy Steven Wright, you know. Stephen Wright. One joke I goes.

SPEAKER_02 45:29

It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it.

SPEAKER_01 45:32

I used to work at a fire hydrant factory. I couldn't park anywhere near the place. Yeah. That was the best one ever. Uh fuck. I wish I could remember that guy's.

SPEAKER_00 45:42

I'm looking it up. I was gonna bother me too.

SPEAKER_01 45:44

Yeah, he used to do the Transformer sound effects. And then whenever he's doing peep, made all these sound effects. I don't know this guy. I know.

SPEAKER_00 45:51

I'm gonna look it up.

SPEAKER_01 45:52

Oh, I know Fluffy. I know him. No, he was like this fat Mexican, like it had a Mexican last name. Oh, wow. For crying out loud. Can't remember. Anyway, that he was like I said, he's the only guy that I peed my pants at a live show. Oh, that's the literal.

SPEAKER_02 46:07

That's why they bring they start a lot.

SPEAKER_01 46:09

You know, and the guys like Sebastian, all these guys, these Italian guys, like the guy Joe Avadti, guy from fucking Australia. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're doing bits we did 40, 25 years ago. Oh, everyone is inspired by Rocky. Even me. Everybody copies. No, it's true. Exaggeration.

SPEAKER_00 46:24

Anyone who's doing a voice, like an Italian guy on the internet or on stage, they know Rocky. Rocky for sure. Rocky. That's the thing.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

Everybody, but the problem is that every those guys, they just do bits, you know, like they just do the bits that you know they talk about the for example. Remember, we did that thing about Italian words? Yeah, Italian, yeah, Italian words. You know, like Fernage or Utroco or basement or like Chaban? Yeah, you talk. Fuck, we did that. Everybody's fucking lifting that, right? It's okay, it doesn't matter. You know what I mean? Like, but it's okay. All these bits about the, you know, like what's his name using how many times we talk about our dads using our hockey sticks, fucking cutting them? Tomatoes. Oh, yeah, fuck. You know, they would go around the neighborhood stealing the fucking cake or hockey stick. So we did these.

SPEAKER_02 47:18

You know, I remember one. I saw one friend of mine last week. He reminded me one time when I was young. Uh when I live here before I come visit from Calabria, we used to we used to go to a place called the uh the Tremari Bakery. Tremori St. Clair, yeah, famous. Sure. So and they used to push the bread to cool them off. They put them in the laneway in the back on the rack. And then all the backyards were in the laneway. So we used to start at the back yard, steal uh many 30, 40 fucking tomatoes and cucumber. One guy brings some salt, another guy bringing a little bit of olive oil. And then we run to the fucking bakery, he goes inside the Lufu, we steal a cup of bread, go to a store park, we open them up, we put the tomato and make some egg.

SPEAKER_03 48:02

Of course. Fuck here, sandwich.

SPEAKER_01 48:04

They don't grow anything but cannabis in their backyards. No more fucking tomatoes, cucumbers. I mean, but that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna start my own garden again.

SPEAKER_02 48:13

Listen to me. You have to, if you want to get really high, yeah, like the way these drug people get high, when you take fresh mortatella, fresh calabreso panino, and mental lupumodure, a couple cucumbers and a sale, drop olive oil, fold them up, and you eat that, you're gonna be fucking happy for four days.

SPEAKER_01 48:31

You're gonna eat good. You know what I mean? We should do drive-thru Italian sandwich place. A drive-thru. Italian sandwich. Like instead of going to McDonald's, Burger King, you drive through and you go, I want a veal sandwich with fucking tomato. And like you make a fresh, imagine? That would be successful. But very successful. A drive-thru. What would we call it? We call it uh Rocco's drive-thru.

SPEAKER_02 48:51

Yeah, we could do it.

SPEAKER_01 48:52

And then we'll we have four or five sandwiches on the menu. You have not too many. Not too many. No, fresh. The bread cut, fresh tomatoes, mortadella, salami, projuto. Oh, yeah. You know, with that's it. Rocky's a knockout sandwich. Knockout, that's it.

SPEAKER_00 49:07

Rocky's knockout sandwich shot. Every sandwich comes with 35 shots of its prism. Oh, that's a mess. That's a message.

SPEAKER_02 49:13

I cut them back in our air.

SPEAKER_01 49:15

I'm not cut down now.

SPEAKER_02 49:16

I do 26 coffee, maybe 25, 26 cups.

SPEAKER_01 49:19

And then the special we do the sazig and the hoil.

SPEAKER_02 49:22

The saze and the that's what gives me the fucking power and make you. Because when you go to the scaricara, you go take a shit, but the hoil comes out nice and smooth.

SPEAKER_01 49:31

Nice and smooth.

SPEAKER_02 49:32

Oh, yeah. Still to this day. For the old people out there, they take a stupid fucking elastic. They take a metamusle. They take metalucatsu. They all kind of stupidity. I tell everybody buy the sazits in Taluidio, eat one sausage in the hole with the bread, you're gonna go beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 49:52

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 49:53

And I'm I think I might be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 49:54

I think in my my my parents' basement in the Candina, I think there's still a jar from like the 70s. They're still there.

SPEAKER_02 50:01

Can you eat it? Oh, I'll keep it now. Are you sure? Even 40 years old? We go together. We eat it. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 50:08

Holy shit.

SPEAKER_02 50:08

The oil is a preservativo. Listen, how long can it preserve it? Tony, if you can take a fucking cocaine for 40 years and not die, imagine you saw it because it's gonna die in the oil. What cuts or aginamento you're making now? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 50:21

I'm just asking because there's there's there's stuff in my parents' basement that's been there from the 70s.

SPEAKER_02 50:26

That's still good, fuck.

SPEAKER_01 50:27

You know what I mean? Italian didn't know. I don't remember. But not tomato sauce.

SPEAKER_02 50:32

What are you talking about? You can't leave. Like the how about the peppers in the oil? Li Pipazzi, they're the best. Listen to me. The saziza lipipazzi, you can't go fucking wrong, Tony. The only thing that doesn't last is lupin bread. Yeah. Because one time I found one bread, my brother in Italy pissed me off. I throw it at him. I knocked him out for four days. It was like a rock. Oh, yeah. I hit him in no lupe. I hit him in the fucking head.

SPEAKER_01 50:57

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 50:57

Oh, he's lived for four fucking days. That's hard. Like those uh those guys in the Gaza strip over there. Boom, lupanini hit him in the fucking.

SPEAKER_01 51:08

That's it. The torpedo panini. But now the panini you get, they last for fucking six weeks. They put so much shit. The real bread it doesn't even last like what doesn't put it in your head. You gotta eat it. Yeah, they put every shit in it, huh?

SPEAKER_02 51:22

It gives you blood, you get it bloated like a fucking guy. See, Eric, let me ask you one very important question. You you travel a lot, right? What are you gonna do when you go out there? You gotta do fucking comedy. You gotta make people fucking laugh, right? But if your stomach is not full with the good food, it's not gonna go a good show. A pack of lunch. You'll pack a lunch.

SPEAKER_01 51:46

And then you're where do you shopping when you want to have a nice food? And then you're probably farting like crazy on stage, too.

SPEAKER_00 51:52

When I go to British Calabria, it's all hippie stuff, it's all granola, not good. Granola, you need the good Italian food, you need the best stuff, you need lots of oil. Yep. I drink 35 liters espresso coffee. See? Hey, no.

SPEAKER_03 52:09

See the best energia, you see?

SPEAKER_00 52:12

You have to. Uh yeah, no. Yeah, I eat all over. Everywhere, honestly, everywhere. It's like you gotta come to this place. You gotta. I'll tell you, really good Italian food is in Sault Ste. Marie.

SPEAKER_02 52:22

Very good.

SPEAKER_00 52:22

Because there's a lot of Italians there. Because the miners up in Timmins and stuff, everyone's short. They got jobs to go in the mines. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:30

I don't know. I say, well, where did this think that Italians are short?

SPEAKER_02 52:33

What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_01 52:34

Where the fuck did this look around? What do you mean look around? Where did this idea that Italians are short come from? First of all, where the fuck did they get this notion that's like?

SPEAKER_00 52:43

I don't think any new Italians are short, but they don't understand if you're comparing shorter.

SPEAKER_01 52:47

I think if you're comparing an 85-year-old woman, you know, who shw went from 5'6 to 5 feet, sure. But where is this far uh, you know, that this idea that Italians are short?

SPEAKER_02 52:58

No, you have to ask yourself what's the necessity of somebody that's short and taller, what's the difference? Everybody has a different power.

SPEAKER_01 53:07

That's not what I'm asking. I'm saying, where did this be?

SPEAKER_02 53:09

If you go to certain parts of Italy, you're gonna find people that used to be a little bit smaller.

SPEAKER_01 53:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 53:15

Okay, because they were smaller and they had to lift and carry stuff. We're talking about the 16th, 17th, 18th century, my friend. Talking about the history of Italian.

SPEAKER_01 53:26

I understand, but they say like it's like the the every every the con uh everything's mafia Italian. If you're Italian, you're in the mafia. Same thing. If you're Italian, you're short. You know what I mean? If you're Italian, you're hairy. If you're Italian, you got blue uh brown eyes. I got blue eyes, and I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_02 53:42

But that's what that's one level of consciousness. And then some of the people, if you're Italian, you know Machiavelli. If you're Italian, you know Leonardo da Vinci. If you're Italian, you know Luciano Pavarotti, La Scala Milano, fuck's it. Yeah, and you know Ottavio Rispini.

SPEAKER_01 53:54

Okay, but my point, my question to you, because you're you're an you're an expert. You're an expert at culture. Okay. So why is there this connection with Italians and like the mafia? Or hey, you know, we grab our balls.

SPEAKER_02 54:10

Yeah, you speak, you mean? Yeah, stereotype. I'll tell you why. Because people who are jealous of the most civilized country in the fucking world. By the way, everybody, you're still living under Roman rule, if in case you forgot that. They don't realize. One fuck, never mind the gang is Khan Lukats, or never mind the Egyptian, the fucking stupid. They they pray to a steel fucking bird over there. And then a king king taught to 19 years old, he fucking his own mother. Fuck them. Fuck them. But anyway, I'm just saying a couple of things nice and clear because we don't need uh stereotype. Stereotype comes from other race of people, they're jealous, so they want to put the Italian people down, they minimize what the Italians are. But actually, there are tall people, short people in every culture. Culture, exactly. Okay? That's my point. But he was a five foot three, okay? And another my friend, the big guy from the North Italy, is a six foot eight. But my friend from Calabria, five foot three. I've he has sazitza like this. Yeah, my friend is six foot eight, he doesn't have a sazitza like that. So you better watch yourself and don't make fun of people. Yeah, because short people sometimes have a big buckstone.

SPEAKER_00 55:23

That's how they get it. Pablo Francisco was the name of that guy. Pablo Franco. That's him. That's a fucking guy. I didn't even have to look it up. I went to go look it and it came up to me. That's the fucking that guy there.

SPEAKER_01 55:34

Pablo Francisco is the first only comic that made me piss my pants live.

SPEAKER_02 55:38

He's famous, right? Eric. Oh, yeah. I know.

SPEAKER_01 55:40

He's he's been kicking around. He's like clubs. It's like when I saw the first stereotype, stereotype before Menascalco and all these fucking guys was Da Merrera. Dom, yeah, I remember him, yeah. You know what I mean? Fantastic. He was the he was the guy that kind of used the, you know, he's talking about the Italians and culture, and you know, he's talking about a lot of funny stuff. Yeah, like when he when he's talked about when Italians have males, they used to boys, you know, they used to say, well, that kid grows up, he's gonna be like a stud like meal, he's gonna be banging my girls like they're gonna be round lined up around the corner, banging the girls like crazy. And then they said, How come they don't talk about their daughters like that? When my daughter grows up, she's gonna be a whore, she's gonna be spreading her legs. They don't say that. They don't say that, right? That's that's right. But see, the stereotype of Italians is like we're lovers, we're bangers, we're fucking we didn't make that stuff. Grease monkeys, like even some of the family guys, Simpson, they always make the Italians look like they have just you know what I tell everybody.

SPEAKER_02 56:39

Did you watch The Sopranos? Of course. Who were the writers with those people? The Jewish fucking Kirick, Jewish fucking parents. English and Jewish, they're writing about Italian. What the fuck do you know about the Italian experience? Fuck you. You know, one time I went to this comedian, his name was Paul Rodriguez. Yes, I know. He said he said I was doing a show in the one of the jail prison in Texas, and I was talking to this serial killer. And I asked him, Why are you here? He goes, I kill my whole family with an axe. Thirteen people, I kill him into little pieces. I put him in a garbage bag, I kill him. But then, how many people, Paul Rodriguez? He says, I killed 13 people in my family. Then I found the Jesus Christ. Paul Rodriguez said, Why didn't you find Jesus Christ before you killed him? Why do you wait so long? Because he wants forgiveness. And who's that guy? Uh the other comedian. He was on the TV too.

SPEAKER_01 57:38

Which one?

SPEAKER_02 57:39

That's that narrows it, that narrows it down. He's a Mexican, he got long hair now with a big beard.

SPEAKER_01 57:44

I don't know. Oh, uh, big beard. Yeah. Mexican.

SPEAKER_02 57:49

Mexican comedian. He had a TV show. He used to be married to a woman, he lost one kidney, and then uh he he divorced a wife that gave him her kidney.

SPEAKER_01 57:59

No, he didn't.

SPEAKER_02 58:00

Yeah. He fucked up. Thanks.

SPEAKER_01 58:02

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 58:03

You don't know who it is.

SPEAKER_00 58:04

Anyway.

SPEAKER_01 58:04

Anyway, anyway, I'm looking it up myself. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:07

No, I will say this about Italian culture. So I grew up. George Lopez. George Lopez. There it is. Yes, okay. I I grew up in Stony Creek, and I was a munch of cake, and I had to make a quick decision, pretty quick, when I was growing up. Who do I want to hang with? And it was the cakers with Tim Horton's coffee and the whatever parents showing up in pajamas. And then you had the Italians, kids showing up in cap-track suits, and the dads were in suits, and everyone smelled good. Cologne. These are not stereotypes. This is my experience.

SPEAKER_02 58:35

Ah, it's true.

SPEAKER_00 58:36

And I went, I'm gonna be with these kids, the Italian kids. So I grew up, all my friends were Italian. So when I, you know, like I do a doing a cartoon coming out soon called Tony Creek, and it's basically a cartoon about a guy who is in his 50s, 60s, whatever, grew up in Stony Creek, and I voiced the characters, and I will openly admit, very inspired by Rocky. Uh, because in my high school, I started doing this voice, and they go, that's how I found you. They go, Oh, so you know Rocco Rumpamoro? I go, Who's Rocco Rumpamoro? And then I got a CD that I played on my deck of the two episodes of Punjabi Power Hour, and I just went, and I knew all the references because I grew up around all the Italian kids. So I just wanted to say it's an honor to even be here. That's why I keep trying to set you up for Rocky stuff because.

SPEAKER_01 59:24

Yeah, he's there. Yeah, look online. There's all kinds of materials out there. You know what I mean? Should be on the television.

SPEAKER_02 59:29

Well, that guy This is a television. I told him that fucking Pandere is a radio. He said it's a radio. I'm not gonna fucking show up for 200 fucking bucks.

SPEAKER_01 59:40

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 59:40

If you knew it was a real sandwich of 16 fucking dollars for the telephone minimum. Fuck you.

SPEAKER_01 59:45

If it wasn't, if you knew it was uh only radio, I would not show up. I wouldn't for sure anyway. Anyway, um Eric, put that hey, uh Mikey, put the uh these are your tour dates. Just for our people to see. Good job, Eric 15th in uh Pelle Island, then you're in Brent, Canada, then you're in Pulse Pulse Pulse Lynch, Pulse Lynch. Viagra on the lake on the lake with the peach festival.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:10

Maybe we'll come to one of your shows, Hamilton. Yeah, they gotta go to Winnipeg for a night. I'm doing the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival in Mississauga coming up. Beautiful. There you go. I got a bunch of stuff. I'm always on tour, Eric JohnsonWhoo.com or at Eric JohnsonWhoo on Instagram. All right, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:23

We're gonna do Viagra on the lake this year. That's a new thing there. The new new comedy club.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:29

No, I'm I don't need the the battle.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:31

Anyway, uh Eric, thanks for stopping in. Thanks, Eric. I'm honored. It's great. So it was awesome. And um Eric, number one, the champion, baby. That's it. And uh was great talking, and we had a little interruptions, but anyway, that's the way it goes. Live uh live uh podcast is what happens. Sometimes, you know, you get distraction.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:49

It's gonna happen because we've assigned it today. By the way, before we leave it, let's do a warm congratulation today for uh Argentina. They win against uh let's that's good.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:00

I mean, at the end of the day, FIFA's all corrupt anyway. It's a fucking disaster. Okay, but they are just another discussion. We're gonna have a show. Next show we're doing is the is we're gonna review our we're gonna review our predictions from pre-World Cup. And we're gonna see how good you were. To see you put the Karnak the Great or Karnak the Karnic. Remember Karnak? Oh Karnak was king wrong. Yeah, I don't know what it's wrong. Okay. All right, well anyway, thanks and uh thanks for listening. If you like what you hear, Steve, just keep uh subscribe or whatever, whatever. I mean, we're we're gonna keep putting shows out, whatever. We we enjoy this. And we don't do it anything other if other than for fun, right? And so anyway, thanks for stopping in. Bring your guard down podcast, Eric Johnson at Instagram at Eric, what is it? Eric Johnston Who. Eric Johnston Who is your Instagram? And uh Rocco.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:48

Uh we love you, nobody else, and special tank to Luprodos. I'm comparing Mike. Yeah, I love you, Mike.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:54

He never shows up on time, but when he does show up, uh we can't do it without him. We can't do the show without him. We're one day we're gonna have Mikey in that hot seat. Oh, yeah, we're gonna cook him up. We'll have like five minutes of material.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:05

Chow mean and we're gonna make it from, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:07

Yeah, we're gonna do come a sum young guy.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:10

All right.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:12

Ciao. Chow, ciao.