Nobody knows old Toronto

Nobody Knows Joe is the podcast that proves age is just a number.

Hosted by Joseph - a hospitality veteran who’s spent decades in the restaurant and bar scene - this show is equal parts wild stories, unfiltered laughs, and hard-earned wisdom. Joe isn’t your typical 58-year-old. He still goes out. He still parties. And he’s still the life of it.

From behind-the-bar confessions to outrageous life moments, unexpected interviews, and surprisingly sharp advice, Nobody Knows Joe dives into the chaos, comedy, and clarity that only real experience can deliver.

You think you know Joe?
Trust us - you don’t.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Nobody Knows Joe, episode number four. We're gonna know today. I'm gonna talk about why I'm doing a podcast and more about me that you guys probably don't know. And I'm gonna start with why I'm doing a podcast. Uh a while back ago, uh a friend of mine, Hayden, did a podcast for his uh Island Diaz, and he invited me on a couple times. The first time I didn't speak, but the second time I had fun with it, and then I got injured. I uh tore my quad and I was in a hospital bed for two months, so I wanted to always do it, and just it's therapeutic in my own mind to talk and to find out things about myself that no one knows, and I don't know sometimes about myself. You know, uh I'm in the finance world, so my creativity is different than a lot of people's. I have a lot of friends in the music and film industry. Uh, you just met Noah, who's in the music industry, and I have a lot of other friends. And I see them and I noticed that they're very creative, very smart in the creative world, and I see that in myself, but um I was brought up being bullied and very shy and very quiet that I didn't allow myself to do anything artistically, but in this mind that people are trying to understand and try and figure me out is like how is the guy doing this, how is he doing that, why is he in this, why is he in that? He invests not knowing, he he does stuff that you know pushes the envelope, like who is this guy? Like this guy's crazy, like on a whim we'll get up and just travel and leave, you know, like no one there's no rhyme no rhyme or reason for anything I do because there's no rhyme or reason in my head, and there shouldn't be in anyone's head why there should be a rhyme or reason to do, just live life. We're here once, and someone told me, you know what? We're all in a show, and this is our show. As soon as the final cut, that's it. The show's over and you're gone. And thinking about that, I just got through a still going through a bad breakup with someone I really, really cared about, and again, I screwed up and I'm living that and I'm learning from that, and just doing little things to make myself feel better, and this is one of them. You know, this podcast that Hayden's been very generous helping me with, and you know, me on and saying we can do it, and my friends are all supporting me, and hopefully everyone will listen and I become as famous as Joe Rogan, which I doubt, but there's always hope in the world, that it's it's it lets a lot out of me into the world that I keep inside. Like I was talking to my buddy Noah the other time, telling I I collect a lot of things, you know, like I fixate on things, I have an addictive personality, and I'm just trying to control that with different things, and my biggest thing is I always want to be good and nice, and that's my forethought, but sometimes I'm not. So this podcast calms me down a lot, this podcast lets me do things a different way, people will see me differently, people are gonna laugh, and I'm okay. Laugh at me all you want, because you know what? I look in the mirror and I laugh at myself, I crack jokes that people don't understand, I just laugh because it's life, it's short, and just have fun with it because as long as you're not hurting someone, there's nothing wrong that you're doing. So that's one of the reasons I'm doing this podcast. The second reason is again, thanks to Hayden for everything, is just to just to have fun, just to sit down, you know, let my thoughts out. If people listen, cool. Go down memory lanes. I hope to have a few more guests on soon. I've spoken to a few people, they're all happy to join me. I'm liked, I like a lot of people. You know, I'm gonna ask a few people, you know, that I know in the different worlds of uh entertainment, food, uh legal, you know, that to come on and just talk about different things and their professions and just take to know Toronto. Uh I've never lived anywhere but Toronto. You know, I know some people lived everywhere else. I've never lived in New York. I would have loved to live in New York, but again, wasn't in my calling cards then, maybe in the future, I don't know. And then like I said, growing up in the 80s and 970s, eighties and nineties is different than everything else. So, you know, we're gonna touch about that in the future also with other guests. So let's start this other episode and just start talking about different things.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

And we talked about the fasting, we've talked about well, tell me more. I know we touched on this in the NOAA episode, we touched on Old Toronto for a minute. Without any of the union stuff, just like how the vibe, the vibe of old Toronto.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

The vibe of the old Toronto was amazing. It was again, you can walk down Queen Street and no one no one really cared or or judged anyone. It was just a time of having oh, uh some words don't come into my head, but it's just a time of just having having fun with it, you know, like street vendors. You don't see that on Queen West anymore. You don't see people selling shorts or t-shirt just on a corner street. You know, you don't see like like Noah said and I said before, ma and pa shops with cool things. You know, now it's all like secondhand stores, it's all vintage. But back then it was still vintage, but it was different. It wasn't like it was, you know, not everyone went to them. Now everyone goes to vintage stores. Now it's like a in thing. And again, I grew up with not a lot of money, so vintage was okay. You know, now I don't think there's a lot of people that go to vintage because vintage is expensive still. You know, they're not cheap. It's not like they, you know, like the black market. I remember going into a store into the black market and you know, three t-shirts for five bucks. I don't think you'll see that again. You know? So it's just things like that. And in the 90s, I was younger, relationships were different than they are today. There was I think Instagram and TikTok and oh was it Tinder and Blumbo B or whatever all these things are called. You didn't have you didn't have that. You didn't you didn't have all this social media that you do now. And to talk to someone, you have to literally talk to someone. You really, you know, you go to a bar and you really say hello, you know, and and and start a conversation. You know, how I remember my first wife, we're at a club, which I knew the owner, and again, I knew a lot of people back then, and it was like 1.15. The drinking age was that drinking time was one o'clock. At 1.15, I'm like, would you like a drink? And she she goes, No. She goes, how can you get one? But no. I said, Are you sure I'm getting myself a drink? And she goes, Sure, if you're getting one, then I'll take one. I said, Okay, give me a minute. I come back with the drink. She's like, How'd you get that? And my first thing was to her was like, Are you a cop? She's like, No. I said, I just go to the bartender, or you know, I I know someone here and they help me out. And we started talking, and you know, everything led to that to give me I gave her my number, because uh, I didn't want her number, and then she called me, surprisingly. Very good looking lady at the time, still today. Uh she gave me her number, I put her in a cab with her friend. A few days later she called me on the landline, and we started talking, and then we went out and you know, then, you know, then marriage came, you know, like today, I think relationships are disposable. Like people have all these different all these different avenues that it's never enough. And like I said, I was in a nice relationship with a good person, she screwed up, I screwed up, but we didn't at the end, as you know she screwed up and I screwed up, we didn't try as much as we should have. And that's the one thing that I'm finding out is people just want to let go. And trying is a hard thing. And I know. I just I just I don't see it anymore with these younger kids. I know the older people are trying and trying, but are the younger kids trying and trying when they have social media like this? I have no clue. Uh again, I'm in my late 50s. Dating isn't the greatest in the world, but it's not the worst in the world. And I don't know, I don't know how to say that. Like if I date a a 35-year-old, is that too young? If I date a 45, is that too young? If I date someone in their 50s, it's like I don't know anymore what what the norm is on dating, you know, and then do I really want to date? Right now I don't. Right now I'm just relaxing and taking it easy and hanging out. And just, you know, trying to live life, trying to move on, trying to get over one before I start another. And that's that's how us old people think. But the new people, the younger people, are jumping from one to another to another. And I don't know if they understand what a relationship is, if they do that, because they're not true to themselves. And that's the relationship that's more important than uh other person. It's about yourself. And if you're jumping around from one to another, it's too hard, you know. But again, I don't know social media, I don't know the pressures of being young anymore. Would I want to be in my 20s in 2026? I don't know. I don't think I can handle it. I think uh I think it's too hard for me. Again, different mindset. I was brought up in the 70s and 80s where, you know, you didn't have uh, I don't know if I can say it on podcast, but you didn't have this much wokeness. You didn't have this much properness that you can't say this, you can't say that. It's like I understand all of that, and I do my best not to offend anyone, but it's too hard. I I don't think I can I don't think I don't think my mindset, if I was the same person I was when I was 20, to live now as a same 20-year-old, I know, I would be in trouble every day. You know, I was at a hockey game, and I stand up for national anthem, and I was with some people, and they wouldn't stand up for the American or Canadian national anthem because they like don't believe. I'm like, we have to remember one thing. People died, so we have our freedom, and we have to respect that, and by standing for a national anthem, it's standing up for them. You know, like millions of Americans and Canadians and Germans and French and British all over the world have died in the name of freedom. That we can listen to a national anthem, that we can go to a hockey game or a basketball game or a soccer game or a football game. That we have to literally, you know what, put your put your own thoughts aside and just think about others. So standing up for a national anthem, all to it. I even know the American national anthem, I can sing in when they play it, and I sing the Canadian one. Not because I love the United States, it's because I respect the people who fought for me to be able to do what I'm doing now. Talking to you guys, you know, sitting with Hayden, sitting with my friend Noah, sitting with my buddy, you know, having a drink, going home at 2 o'clock in the morning, or going home at 8 o'clock in the morning, or going home at 8 o'clock at night, watching TV. They gave us this. Well, we have to respect that because as soon as we don't respect it and we lose it, we're gonna lose a lot. You know, we're gonna lose a lot. That's the problem.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

I'm gonna check interject right now to kind of divert on this. But uh, you said earlier that, you know, um the dating world, it's all digital, blah blah blah. You recently just found help with a therapist.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

And now that's digital.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Yes, my therapist is online.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Now would you prefer it online or in person?

SPEAKER_01 14:16

I would prefer you know uh you're right. I don't know the difference. The online is easier because I'm not fighting traffic. It's easier, the digital is easier because I'm not fighting traffic, and she's not fighting traffic, and we sit there because an hour of therapy is three hours. An hour to get there, an hour for therapy, an hour to get back. Right? So this is you know, I get up in the morning, my therapy's at ten, I turn on the computer, you know, uh five to ten, and then we talk for an hour, and then we shut it off and I go to work. I'm not saying online dating isn't bad. I'm just saying therapy and dating are two different things.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

For sure. I I went to therapy in person. I've never done the online stuff. Right. I felt like I was if I'm gonna connect with someone I wanted to be there with them.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

That was my first thing. The first the first time we spoke, I said to her we gotta meet in person. And then after that we do it. Again, she's a good therapist. She lives in Cambridge, I live in Toronto. So for her to drive in, it's you know, she has kids, you gotta, you know. It's it's it's I'm not saying online is bad.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

I'm just saying I'm not saying you are, I'm saying what's what like the difference. And I'm also I'm not uh I'm not really on mic right now, so I don't want to talk too much, but um those two different things, right? Like you have because therapy is almost more personal than dating.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Yes, but therapy is you you're there for a a reason and that's to help yourself. So most therapists, even if you go see them, I think you're doing most of the talking, and you're and you're figuring out in your head and you're calming yourself down and you're analyzing yourself, they're just there to guide you. This is just like you're here right now, guiding me is the same thing. Online dating is someone you want to grow with, someone you want to build a future with. Someone who, you know, my therapist a girlfriend I have to trust more than my therapist, because she has my life in her hands, because with the with a partner, you're telling them secrets, you're telling them your life goals, you're being vulnerable. With your therapist, you're talking about the issue you're dealing with. You're not you're not getting to the nitty-gritty of, oh, you know, like where are we going for dinner? I don't like pasta. Your therapist doesn't care if you like or don't like pasta. You know, your therapist doesn't care if you don't look good in a turtleneck, but your partner does. That's the difference. Like dating is therapy too, because you gotta sit with them and you, you know, you gotta trust them. And trust is a big thing. And I just find with online dating I've done it. I've done it. And what was what's the word that they used? Catfish. That was catfish. I remember I went and I went to meet someone and I said, you know what, let's meet at a a coffee shop. We met at a coffee shop. She did not look like her picture. And I just said to her, I said, Look, you can't start a relationship on a lie. You don't look like your photo. And she turns to me, she says, Well, your profile says you're 6'5. Well, you don't look more than 5'10. I'm like, you're right. I lied. I'm sorry, I'm gonna leave. You know, if anyone knows me, if people have seen me, again, I'm 6'5. Maybe I've shrunk a little, maybe 6'4 and three-quarters now, not 6'5 anymore as you get older. But I'm still tall. I'm taller than the average bear out there. You know, so again, you know, like again, I don't know what Tinder is about. It's like going grocery shopping and you swipe left or swipe right, or again, when you pick up that apple and you see it with a bruise, you pick up another one. But the one without the bruise could be sour, could be really bad. But you have to bite into it to know how many dates do you want to go on? And again, I'm not that guy of 2026 that goes on a date and oh, by the way, here's half the bill, you have to pay the other half. I don't know that way. You know, like I take a girl out, I pay. That's that's how I was brought up. Like, I don't know different. So, you know, that offends some women. I don't know, doesn't offend. Like, I don't know what to do anymore sometimes. If I was on online dating, it's like, what do you do? I have no clue. You know, my last uh relationship, I met her. A funny way I met her. She she she said she knew me, which was funny, because I said, No, I don't know you. And she goes, Yeah, I know who you are, and I'm like, oh. And we'd hit it off. It's like, and then on and off for four years, great time again. And it ended sourly, but it ended, and we're trying to move on, and you know, nice girl, I'm a nice guy, things didn't work out, we just move on and try and be civil and try and be kind and not, you know, badmouth each other. So, you know, I have nothing bad to say about her. She's a good person, and I was lucky that I knew her. You know, and I treated her like a king or a queen, and she treated me like a king, and that's all. Let's move on to another topic of dating because I cannot talk about her anymore.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

I think we should talk a little bit about your collection of stuff. Because that was really the first time I ever met you, you looked at me, you said, You collect a thousand dollar bills? I said, nope. You said I do, I don't have three. I'm looking for a fourth.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Yeah. I collect, I collect again, I have uh I have uh uh tendency to uh oh what's the word? Sorry for my I uh fixate I fixate and I uh I have an addictive personality. That's why I don't do drugs. Because if I did drugs, God help the world because people would die around me because I'm I have an addictive personality. So I was sitting home and I'm like, you know what would be cool? And then I'm like, what would be cool, Joe? I talk to myself all the time. Uh I'm like, you know what, let's I I want some old money. So I started looking online and then I learned, you know, there's graded money and all that. So I started buying from 1935 and 1937 and 1950s, five dollar bills, ten dollar bills, and then I woke up, oh yeah, I need a thousand dollar bill. And I'm like, I'm like, oh, a thousand dollar bill. That's cool. You know, I haven't I've never I've never even known anyone to have one. So I went online, I found one, I bought one, then I'm like, you know what, I gotta get a better one. So I got it. By the end of it, I have four. How many were they? Um The first one I bought was a thousand and fifty bucks. Then the other one I bought, which is the better quality, was uh $1,100. I think the last one I bought was the best quality, was I think twelve hundred dollars for a thousand dollar bill. But I spent seven hundred dollars on a two-dollar bill from 1935. You know? What am I gonna do with this stuff? I have no clue. You know those 18 water 18 liter water bottles that you put on those tanks? I have one full of pennies. Oh, from the bottom to the top, full of pennies. It's probably weighs like 200 pounds. Right? Why? I have no clue. People like, you know, get rid of it. I'm like, no. You know, I collect coins, you know. I used I collect I used to collect CDs. I have over a thousand CDs, you know, like people collect record uh albums, which all the power to them. I uh I had a buddy who we used to go to concerts. I've been to over close to a thousand concerts in my life, and my buddy's been to similar and he's collected old ticket stubs that he we used to go. So he has like thousands of ticket stubs, like hundreds and hundreds of ticket stuff. Today's kids don't know what a ticket stub is because it's on your phone. You know, it's like wow, you know, so yeah, collecting is is unique because then I started collecting alcohol. So I'd buy like crazy bottles, you know, like uh uh a Van Winkle. I, you know, a buddy told me about a Van Winkle. I'm like, what is that? He goes, Oh, it's a bourbon. I'm like, oh he goes, yeah, very rare. James James uh Jack Daniels does I think two million bottles a year. They do 10,000. So it's very rare to get one. So me being my craziness, I'm like, I gotta find one and get one. So someone I know whose brother who deals with that got me a bottle. You know? So a bottle that costs $50 in the store, I think I paid fifteen hundred dollars for this Van Winkle. Not opened. I don't think I'll open it. And you know, and I told my kids, you know what? When I go and you guys want to open it, make sure, you know, you do a church for me on that bottle. You know, you guys enjoy as much as you can. Everything I collect, you know, I'm into uh card holders. You know, like let me show you one.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

What remember that gray goose bottle I got you?

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Yeah, the cognac bottom. The cognac gray goose.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Have you seen that anywhere else?

SPEAKER_01 24:54

I have two of them now.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

Where'd you get the other one? In the States?

SPEAKER_01 24:57

Yeah, no, no, a friend of mine brought it from Europe for me.

unknown 25:01

Because he saw the one or no?

SPEAKER_01 25:03

No, because he knows I like Grey Goose. He's like, oh, this must be a cool bottle. So these uh these wallets that I use as wallets, these card holders, right? I start collecting those and I buy different ones. And who the luckiest person on this planet is my daughter because she comes shopping with me and she always gets something cool too. And you know, she would always pinpoint something for me. And the other day I bought uh a Christian Dior one that had uh had what's it called uh Dracula on it. Was yellow with the red Dracula. Like, I don't know, can I show on here and I can let's see if I can I don't know if I'm allowed to.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

Oh do whatever you want.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

I can do whatever I want.

SPEAKER_00 25:54

I'm asking if this if if this is a limited edition that Dragus.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

But I bought this.

unknown 26:02

That's cool.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

Isn't that cool? I think there was the last one in Toronto and I'm like, I gotta get it. And my daughter's like, yeah. And then uh Yeah, and then my daughter, the lucky one, then I got her a purse too from somewhere else. So what what's the limited edition?

SPEAKER_00 26:21

Uh yeah, it looks like they only um put out once in a while. Like they don't um English.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

Sorry for drinking water, but I'm thirsty.

SPEAKER_00 26:33

Yeah, it it like gets released once in a while. Did you have you opened it? No. Either then?

SPEAKER_01 26:40

No.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

Next time I go to the somewhere and I find what we have to get one and open it.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

We'll open it. You know what? We'll open it together.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

Yeah. I I go to Cabo a lot, so I buy the Cazazul and every year they do a different one and I buy it. And I bought one, it was fifteen hundred bucks American, one bottle. Beautiful bottle. But uh now when you go online because they're they're only done once. It's like people are paying four or five thousand dollars American for it. So everything does go up in value, you know, it's okay, you know, but again, it's like my craziness, my inability to censor myself when it comes to shopping. I have a shopping addiction that I just buy things. And I'm curving in now because I'm going through my depression and my my growth with the therapist and all that, so everything else is pushed aside. Like I travel crazily too. You know, I get fixated, like again, I want to go for a cousin's wedding to Israel, but I can't because of this war, and I hope everyone is safe and everyone is uh stays alive and you know everything goes okay. So I say, okay, if I can't go there, I'm gonna go to Japan. So now I'm planning Japan. You know, I want to have some Kobe steak. You know, I want to have some good Chinese uh Japanese food and Japanese sake and hey, welcome to come, Hayden. We can go together if you want. You're more than welcome.

unknown 28:21

Maybe we'll do a podcast over there.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

Okay. You know what? The plane holds a lot of people. Everyone's welcome. I I will travel. I have a passport, I will travel with anyone. As long as you get your own room, I get my own room, we're good. You know? No, no, no, you're good, you're good. You're good. You're good. I heard you. You're great. Yeah, he's a great film guy. Good friend, good person, lovely wife, you know. But traveling, that will be our next one. I'll I'll tell you about some travels I've done and and with some people I've gone with and had so much fun with. That'll be the next episode. We'll call it travel, Joe's travels. Right. But you know what? Thank you again for listening. Uh I know I ramble on. You don't get to know all of me all at once, but slowly you will get to know me. And if you see me on the street, don't say hi. Just walk by me like they used to in high school. You know, like I went to school with my sister. This is a funny story with my sister. She'll never admit to this, but I'll tell you this one last story. We'll be in the same school. She'll be in grade 12, no, 13, and I was in grade 10. And it was the first day of school, and you we had a cafeteria, so we eat in the cafeteria. So I saw my sister's friends, so I went to sit down, you know, and started talking to them and all that. And then my sister came, she's like, What are you doing here? I'm like, I'm sitting having lunch with you. She goes, No, get out of here. And all her friends are like, It's okay. And she's like, No. So my sister, my own sister, kicked me out of her group. So I went to eat lunch by myself. And then probably in the a week later, I'm walking in the hallways, I say hi to her, and she just walks by me. So now you know how I grew up. It wasn't the easiest thing in the world, you know? And being the youngest isn't the isn't the easiest, but we are the wildest. We are the craziest. And you know what? Being the youngest is okay. You know, we get a lot of we get a lot of freebies from our parents. So, again, thank you so much for everything, guys. Have a good night, enjoy, and we'll see you soon. No nobody knows Joe. Bye.