Episode 90: Comedian/Actor-Brian Stollery

Canadian comedian/actor Brian Stollery joins the podcast for this episode to talk about his acting career, Second City, Norm MacDonald, differences between stand up in Canada and the U.S., working with Rowan Atkinson in Rat Race, and more!

Brian Stollery rarely waits more than a heartbeat before inviting his audiences to have a laugh at his expense. Observational, autobiographical and hilariously self-deprecating, Brian Stollery’s brand of comedy reveals the underlying absurdity of everyday life in a way that is as scathingly honest as it is fast paced and energetic. Mr. Stollery has spent more than twenty years mining the stuff of everyday life for laughs in a way that is universal and unique. His quick-witted delivery covers a variety of topics flowing effortlessly from one bit to another. Brian’s material is current, ensuring he covers the latest trends and events both from his life and the world. His clever word play and witty commentary on life delights audiences wherever he performs.

https://thecomedian.ca/

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
His name is Urs, a really funny guy and this
is his podcast in the Rise En Ride PoCA.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Fletcher.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Hey, thanks for tuning in, everybody. It's in the Rye
Podcast with Kurt Fletcher. Got some tour to aids coming
up October eighteenth, Turtle Mountain, Rio Rancho. Not really a
tourd eight it's right down the street. October twenty fifth, Blyn,
New Mexico, Eagles Avenue opening for Barry Neil. November fifth

(00:42):
through the eighth at the Looney Bend in Little Rock,
Arkansas with Mike Baldwin. November fourteenth and fifteenth, co headlining
at Looney's Comedy Corner, Colorado Springs with fellow Hawkeye fan
Bill Blank. It's gonna be a fun weekend. And then
December eleventh, a Revel and Albuquerque opening for Chris Higgins.

(01:03):
That's what I got so far for the rest of
the year. Also, uh, you know, I'm available for corporate gigs.
If you guys want to hire me for a corporate party,
a Christmas party, do it. Pretty funny guy. Also got
some dates for next year. I'm going to be headlining
the Comedy Catch and Chattanooga, Tennessee, and headlining the West

(01:28):
River Comedy Club in Rapid City, South Dakota. Tour dates
are on Funny Fletcher dot com. All the ticket infos
on there. Go check that out. Got an awesome episode
today with a comedian from Calgary. His name is Brian Stalary,
so enjoy the episode everybody. Brian Stollery from Calgary. How

(01:50):
you doing good to see it again, man.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
Thanks for having me on your podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Absolutely, I really enjoy you. I to all the listeners.
I'm Brian. Last year when I was at the Comedy
Cave and Calgary. Uh So, Canada does things a little
different than the US comedy wise. At their comedy clubs.
They so, you guys have like local openers open for

(02:15):
the headliners and most most of the guys are local headliners, right.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Well, no, no, no, they bring in a lot of
different guys from different places, a lot of Americans, but
some some Canadians.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah, well I meant like the openers, like you are
a headliner. Dale Ward is a headliner. Yes, there's another
guy that worked with us the other nights. I think
he's probably a headliner, that Pogo guy. Yeah yeah, yeah,
so yeah, so that's cool, you know you because there's
there's some younger comics you know that are a couple

(02:50):
of years in that will do spots and then they'll
have at least one headliner on the show, which I
think is really cool because we really don't you do that,
and you know in the States, except at some of
the bigger clubs, I think in the bigger cities we'll
do that. But like like here in New Mexico, you know,
we have like the headliner and then you know, sometimes

(03:12):
I'll bring a feature act with them. If not, it'll
just be like a local opener or local feature. But
I do like how Canada has like one of their
better comics will host the show. In the United States,
it's a little difference, like the least experienced comic usually
hosts the show.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Well, okay, yes, right, I seem to recall this. I
haven't worked in the States much, if at all, and
so I recall that you guys do it a little differently.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
Just before I go to further, what's the best way
to do this?

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Because I should I be looking at myself or you
because is it weird if I'm looking at you, does
it look weird?

Speaker 1 (03:50):
No, it's not.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
To you.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
It doesn't look weird at all.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
It doesn't, Okay, So I'll just look at you because
I mean the my natural instinct is to look at.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
You obviously, but yeah, but if it looks weird.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
So I don't think it looks weird at all because
I'm looking at you, and I think it feels like
I'm looking at the camera though, like when I'm when
I look right, Okay, I don't know, like when I edit,
it doesn't. It doesn't feel different anyway.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah, just wanted to clarify. So, so people are not going,
why why.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
Is he looking on the side?

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Oh okay, so it's all good. So yeah, no, you
guys do do it a little differently.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah yeah, yeah, I always thought that was kind of interesting.
Are the clubs in Canada like that?

Speaker 3 (04:31):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (04:32):
I think so okay, you know, it depends who shows up, like,
you know, if I show up, depending, but I uh
will often oh Stollery's here, you put them on, you
know that that kind of thing, or but not certainly
all the time, but okay, you know, I mean it

(04:52):
does it makes sense to me as a club owner
to put you know, pros on because the show is
going to.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Be better and for sure, oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
Kind of goes without saying I think, yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah, you know, I saw something interesting the other day.
I can't remember if I told you about this, but
it was a Rich Sidner. He posts the thing on TikTok.
He always posts great things on on TikTok, like he's
an old school comic, and.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
Yeah, sure, I know, yeah, yeah, okay, I think.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
I did tell you about this. He was He was
talking about how a lot of headliners didn't like working
at the comedy Works in Denver because they would always
put up really strong headlining comics, like the whole show
is just full of headliners, and by the time like
the main headliner got up there, like the crowd was
just so tired from laughing already that they would kind.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
Of yeah, well, well, I I kind of understand that
from a headliner's point of view.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
You know, I've been in those situations.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
But yeah, you know, I mean part of being a headliner.
I've been doing this for thirty years, and you know,
part of being a headliner is that you got to
handle whatever is in front.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
Of you whatever, you know.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, I mean I would mention to guys like when
I'm in Toronto, Uh, there's guys you know you're following.
It depends on the night, but sometimes you're following at
least five or six comedians, and you know, at least
three of them are headliners in their own right. And
I'm not a fan of guys doing crowd work, but

(06:31):
a lot of comedians, especially it's a full house, they'll
do crowd work and they exploit, in my mind, they
exploit everything in the audience.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
So I get up there, and I mean, I the lot.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
You know, I don't know two years ago, I would
get up and I would be kind of pissed because
now the audience has been everybody's been asked, everybody's been
asked questions, and you know, and that the the comic
idea or potential has been somewhat exploited. Now the last

(07:04):
time I was there, well, I would mention this to
other Canadians that I was talking to. And I and
as you know, I write every morning. I write morning pages,
and I write constantly, and part of the writing is
to kind of just explore ideas. And I explore that

(07:25):
kind of idea and I go, how can I get
better at dealing with that? And basically what I came
up with is that I've got to have material that
is so fucking good that I walk up there and
I do my material regardless nothing to do with crowd work,

(07:45):
and I go, Okay, this is what I'm bringing to
the table, you know, because all of that crowd work
has been exploited, and I'm good enough to you know,
match that or go above that with my material that
I've written, you know, And you know, so I'm challenging

(08:06):
myself to go, I'm going to write stuff that's so
freaking good that you know, you can go and you know,
exploit the crowd, you know, the crowd. But I can
handle it, you know, I mean, and listen, we I
think we all know that crowd work is it's you know,
it's it's become very commonplace and you don't have to

(08:29):
be a rocket science to do crowd work, you know.
I mean, I I sound a little bit obnoxious when
I say that, but I do think if if you're
if somebody like myself, it's literally like taking candy from
a baby. And the and part of the issue, the problem,
if you will, is that the audience fucking loves it.

(08:53):
They love being a part of the show, and so okay,
so they're going to be a part of it, and
they like, you know, in the audience, the comedians look
fricking great because they're talking to the audience and da
da da da. And then the headliner gets up there
and oh, you know, you know, uh, if you don't

(09:15):
have you know, that strong of material and you everybody
in the front row and within eye sight is has
been exploited, then you know, as a headliner, you're like,
you're kind of gonna fucking not match up to those
other guys that we're doing.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
Ten minutes, you know. Yeah, So.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Anyway, uh, you know, it's a it's like the business.
It's a challenge and you either you sink or swim
with that whatever's going to be in front of you.

Speaker 3 (09:46):
You know, I think for sure, you know.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
I want to ask you, like so like in the
United States, for sure, it's kind of an unwritten rule
that you save the crowd work for the headliner. Is
that a thing in Canada?

Speaker 2 (09:57):
Well, you know what again, call me arrogant, but it
should be. It shouldn't fucking be that way.

Speaker 3 (10:06):
States.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, well, and every comic knows it.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
But no, no, and not and there's a lot of
comedians that don't know it and that, and especially in Canada.
I mean again, I'm not working in the States, but boy,
there there's and even club owners or managers don't aren't,
don't give a fuck. They just watched the crowd roar
with the with the guy that's talking to the audience

(10:31):
and oh nice shirt, buddy, you know whatever, and and
and the crowds kind of like, you know, they can
be eating it up and then you know it just
it makes the show, you know, not that great basically,
So I wish it wasn't. In answer to your question,
I wish it was a rule that was known. Yeah,

(10:55):
I there's guys that have been have done that, and
uh when I'm.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
Headlining and.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Not me, but the MC goes and absolutely rakes them
over the coals and then they go, Okay, I get
the message right again. I think as an amateur comedian,
there is that false sense of oh, I'm great, I'm great,
look at me, talk to the audience, and you know,

(11:25):
I'm so great, and you know what, You're not that great,
You're just fucking talk to the audience. I mean, I
remember Martin Short was talking on a podcast once an
interview and he said, I mean, I'll always remember it,
and I cut it up and I put it on

(11:45):
my iPhone. It was like, basically, man, you know, the
audience loves it when they you talk to them, and
all you have to do is talk to them. That's
all you have to do, you know, and they love it.
And that's what Martin Short would do. Now, he's a great,
great comedian and he has great jokes too, but he

(12:09):
was saying that, man, it's it's very easy to get
it to engage an audience when you're talking to them.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
Yeah, and sometimes it's a little easy, like especially with
a small crowd, you kind of feel like you have.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
To oh yeah, small crowd, like you know, it's funny
you mentioned that because you had mentioned, you know, you
played the Comedy Cave and as you know that they're
having trouble. They they're open Monday through Saturday, and they
the numbers early in the week are low. You got

(12:47):
a small amount of people on those early shows except
for Monday. And I mean I've just played the I'm
headlining the same club that you had lined the Comedy
Cave this week.

Speaker 3 (12:59):
You have line did last week.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
And you know, like the Monday was three people, uh, Tuesday,
last night was two people and you know, you got
similar numbers and.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
I was actually pretty good but the open mic, but
Tuesday got canceled.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
Yeah, you're right.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
Well, you know what I was going to say was that,
you know, you were getting low numbers, and I was
I always thought it was you.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
I'm just kidding.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
I thought you would enjoy that. But it turns out
it's it's me. It's me as well, or it's the club,
you know. But anyway, I thought I just throw that
just as a joke, but you know, it's the club.
The club get figure out of Monday Tuesday.

Speaker 3 (13:45):
And you know, for whatever reason, you know.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
In the United States, they are there not many clubs
that do Monday or Tuesday.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
Yes, a lot of it's Friday.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
Saturday, like even the bigger clubs, you know, Like right,
I can think of one club that I know of
that does Tuesday through Saturday, and then the rest are
just you know, Wednesday through Saturday, Thursday through Saturday, Friday, Saturday.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
So yes, right, I've heard that too. I've heard that too,
and I mean, I'm I'm fortunate that to work. My
home club is the Comedy Cave, and I'm fortunate that
I have those nights to work, and you know, I
think we had talked about just talking ourselves that you know,
you're in front of two people, that's people, and yeah,

(14:31):
these are people.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
That don't know you, and you're going to get something
out of that. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, even.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
Just get the words out of your mouth for the
new joke or whatever.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
You know.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
Yeah, I didn't have a show that I didn't like
last week.

Speaker 3 (14:44):
You know, that's fantastic.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
I did five shows. One of them was two people.
It was a brother and sister. They were a fancy
Yeah it's four people. One show with six people, and
you know, all those people are awesome, and it's a
tiny room, so it's not you know, it's not terrible
when it's you know, like like Saturday, we had like
thirty two and that felt full.

Speaker 3 (15:07):
You know I heard, yeah, I heard, yeah, yeah, and.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yeah, thirty two is way easier than performing for two.
But yeah, it's I like that club because it's it's
easy to work on stuff, it's easy to like try
new material. I don't know how many new jokes I
tried last week. Like I even wrote a joke on
the way back to the condo. Yeah that I tried.
It on Saturday and it worked, you know, like and

(15:32):
stuff that I said to you. You're like, oh that's funny,
and I was like, oh, I'll try it then you.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
Know, yeah, right, it's right, and.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Stuff at the club, even right before I go on.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
So yeah, yeah, absolutely, I mean I think, yeah, you know,
I mean, I don't know. I mean maybe I'm as
it's probably evident just talking to me that I'm quite
anal about what I do. And you know, I'm very uh.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
You know, meticulous about material.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
Like I'm headlining this week and I go, you know,
I mean, I've always got stuff in my brain, new
stuff that I could throw out. But part of me
is that, you know, the other side of my brain
is going, you're paid to.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
Be funny, yeah, and that means be funny.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
If it's in front of two people, then you've got
to make them laugh steady for the twenty or thirty
minutes you're up there. Oh yeah, and that requires you know,
not too much sticking around, you know, as far as
like new material goes. But yeah, I mean again, I've
been doing this so long that you know, new material

(16:43):
just ends up coming out because you're literally, as you say,
it's you're just talking to people. It's like a conversation.
It's a conversation with people. It's not as if you
were performing and doing a show with you know, in
front of a hundred people or whatever.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
Yeah, anyway, and yeah, the Saturday show, there was a
lot of like, uh, not heckling really but like I guess,
banter back and forth, you know, and Warren was Warren
did a lot of crowd work, which you know, as
a host in that situation, you know, it's not a

(17:25):
it's not a terrible thing. You know, you kind of
get the show started because you know, that's kind of
the thing it is, like, I mean, people have been
here before, who's celebrate and stuff like that. Yeah, you know,
that's kind of the thing that the host has to
do and then get into their materials. So yeah, but yeah,
once he started, like people were like they definitely wanted

(17:45):
to be part of the show, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (17:48):
So sure, yeah, So, I mean.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
We all had to do crowd work that night pretty much.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
Right well, you know, I mean it again, we've i
don't know, we've kind of as pros ourselves. We you know,
the MC is a kind of an important part of
that and the MC does set the tone, like you know,
I mean the guy who runs the club in Autawa,
the absolute absolute comedy in Toronto and Ottawa.

Speaker 3 (18:15):
He's very very strict.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
I mean he's a comedian himself, where he was anyway,
and now he's an owner and he's very strict and
how to MC. And he goes, you do this, You
go up there, you introduce yourself, you do material right
off the top, and then a little crowd work and
then material and then bring up the guys. So you're

(18:40):
setting the tone as in, this is about material, This
is not about you know, how long have you guys
been together?

Speaker 3 (18:49):
Yeada, YadA, YadA, and you know.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
And he, I mean, I've I've been working there for
over ten years. And I remember when I was first
doing you know again, I didn't know MC particularly well,
and he laid down the lawn of me and and
he's I mean, God bless him. I mean, he's still
with us. He's a great guy. He's he's just he's
absolutely right. He's absolutely right. It's setting that because you know,

(19:16):
and the issue nowadays is that, you know, especially the
Comedy Cave, they're throwing guys up to MC that are
they don't know how to MC. They're just like they
watch other amateurs MC and they go, Okay, that's the
way to do it. I mean, I've been doing it
for thirty years. I know how to m C, and

(19:38):
I know the correct way to do it and how
it's setting up for the whole show. And you know,
I've even offered like, hey, I'll do workshops on how
to do this the correct way.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
You know.

Speaker 1 (19:54):
I feel like really every city that has a common
should have some type of workshop to learn how to
MC your host.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah, yeah, I agree, because then, as we've talked about,
you're setting it up so you know, it's okay for
the certainly for the MC to do a bit of
crowd work because you you know, you're as I as
I've said to many mcs, you know, as a as
a headliner. When I'm headlining, I want those guys to
go out there and go, Okay, this is a this

(20:24):
is an oil and gas company, this is a this
is a fan, this is a.

Speaker 3 (20:29):
Friends and family group.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
These people there, there's couples here, and this is a
couple that's been married for fifty years. Okay, So now,
as the headliner, I go up and Okay, I'm gonna
I know who's in front of me, right, But you know,
if they they don't.

Speaker 3 (20:47):
Have to do that. I can do that myself. But
but uh uh, you know a lot of guys don't. Yeah,
and and then.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
Or whatever, you know, and then then you're you're you
kind of got of as a headliner.

Speaker 3 (21:04):
You're doing that mc work yourself. I mean that's the
way I look at it, anyway. Whatever, Yeah, anyway.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
Okay, so you actually you started your comedy career in Toronto.

Speaker 3 (21:17):
I did. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
Yeah, So you're telling me so Norm McDonald was around
back then.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
Yeah, that's right, Yeah, there did you start? I don't
even know.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
And I mean I went to theater school, as you
had maybe we are talking prior to this podcast that
you know. I was an actor before and I went
to theater school. I graduated, I guess ninety four. That
was the National Theater School of Canada. And I was
working in the theater or trying to and auditioning and stuff.

(21:49):
So nineteen ninety four I come to I moved to Toronto,
the center of the universe in Canada, that's the center
of the entertainment industry.

Speaker 3 (21:57):
And so I'm auditioning.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
For movies and TV movies and a lot of theater
as well. And it was when I thought I'm going
to give a stand up a shot, and so I
worked at the Old Yuck Yeks. I tried stand up
at the Old Yuck Yeks in Yorkville, which is no

(22:22):
longer there.

Speaker 3 (22:23):
That club a black box, so.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yuck Yucks for the listeners is like where you know
Jim Carrey started, Howie Mandel, right, Harland Williams, is that right?

Speaker 3 (22:36):
That's that's correct.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
Howie Miller had left for LA at that point, so
had Harland.

Speaker 3 (22:46):
And who was the other fellow you mentioned, Jim Carrey.
Jim Carrey.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
Jim Carrey had left as well, so those guys were
no longer there. But when I was starting out, I
was on stage with Brian Hart, who went on you know,
Mad TV. I think he was the head writer for that.
And Bruce McCullough. I think Brian was a WI but
Bruce McCullough kids in the hall. Yeah, And oh, Jeremy Hotts,

(23:18):
he's gone on to great success. I those are the
three guys that I can call, among other you know,
Mike McDonald. Of course, these guys, these guys were all
doing spots on the same show I was. I mean,
this is like a cattle call of all the comedians.

(23:41):
And yeah, and you know, Letterman was on, and New
York came and they showcased for oh and Norm McDonald
of course, and and these guys all showcased for uh
uh late David Leatherman show. And I was one of

(24:06):
those guys that showcased for that as well. Yeah, I mean,
you know, I was in it, I don't know, maybe
six months and I'm on this show with But I
was doing something very very different back then. I was
kind of doing a kind of addressed all in black,
and it was kind of a Stephen Wright kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
Okay, but how I was when I started like, I
love Stephen Wright. He's one of my top five comics
for sure.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
Right yeah, Yeah, I found when I was writing that
kind of stuff, I had, you know, great success with that,
but I was only doing him. I made ten to
fifteen minutes tops.

Speaker 3 (24:48):
Yeah, and I.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
Don't know what you but I found I wrote that
kind of material, which is not autobiographical at all. It's
just basically jokes and odd observations. I got to the
point where I just couldn't figure it out anymore.

Speaker 3 (25:06):
I couldn't write it anymore. I couldn't write that.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
I couldn't write that kind of stuff anymore.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
It's hard to generate a lot of time doing it
that way too. You know, write a new joke, you
got ten seconds in new material.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah that's right. I totally oh yeah, yeah, I totally agree. Yeah, no, yeah, yeah.
I kind of wrote myself into a corner and then
I stopped and then kind of started again and made
it more me you know.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Oh cool, Okay, yeah, that's interesting. So did you get
a chat with Norm ever?

Speaker 2 (25:40):
Talk about No, I never chatted with him. No, But
again yuck YX when I was in Toronto ninety.

Speaker 3 (25:52):
For to.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
Or excuse me, eighteen eighty four, eighty four to eighteen
ninety is when I was in living in Toronto and
working at YUCKX and doing gigs at their different venues
and other places.

Speaker 3 (26:11):
And I worked you know, there was a lot of.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
Positive vibes about Norm McDonald, like they thought, oh, he's fantastic.
And you know, this is where when comedy was you
weren't really performing at that time, probably were you.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
Two thousand and one?

Speaker 3 (26:34):
Right, So I mean there was a lot.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
This is comedy heyday, right, you know, a lot of
clubs and a lot of buzz, and the clubs were packed,
and you know, so YUCKX had two clubs, the Yorkville
Club which is no longer, and then they moved to
Young and Eglington and they had a club there, and

(26:59):
that is where I had seen Norm at the Yorkville Club,
but he was also at the York at the or
I seen him at the Yeah, the Yorkville Club, the
original club, if you will. And then he was at
the Young and Anglington Club as well. And I remember
that particular time when he was headlining that night and

(27:20):
I was coming to do a spot and somebody had
told me, you know, I said to someone and a boy,
he's funny, and they said, oh, yeah, did you know
he has cancer?

Speaker 3 (27:33):
He has stomach cancer?

Speaker 2 (27:35):
And I was like really, I had no idea, you know.
And that was probably nineteen eighty nine, you know, and
or eighty eight even and I was like wow, and
then you think, okay, he hasn't got long. And of
course this is before he went to Saturday Night Live
and recorded all these albums and got fired from Saturday Live.

(27:58):
You know, he had such a huge career after that.
But I mean when I you know, at that time,
he was just another comedian, you know, and but a
very very well respected one and somebody who had you know,
there's like I think I've there's probably in my career
there's four comedians that I've ever seen.

Speaker 3 (28:21):
Two of them.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
I can certainly mention right now that you know, right
out of the gate they had it right. And we've
all worked with those guys. But like Norm MacDonald and Brent,
but these guys like they come, you know that literally

(28:43):
the first time they're on stage, you just go, what
is that? Like, yeah, wow, that that instinct, that ability
that you know, that knowledge of writing comedy and knowing
the funny and knowing themselves too, right, that was all

(29:04):
of those things were aligned right out of the gate.
And like you say, I mean for me, I don't
know about for you, but for me, uh you know
again me, it was like it was just a experimenting.
It was it was like a try a little bit

(29:25):
of this, a try.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
A little bit of that, you know, I worked with.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
I'll always remember things in my career that have really
hit with me or stuck with me. And I worked
with Jimmy Door. Oh yeah, Jimmy, Jimmy Door and I
toured Saskatchewan, Canada. I was driving and we're driving and
Jimmy is you know, he's from Chicago. He was not

(29:52):
anything at that time either. It was just a comedian
who from a large family. And so I'm driving and
jim and we would talk and one of the things
he said to me is that, man, you got to
write right for the truth, don't write for the joke.
And I still write for the joke because I could

(30:15):
do that, but I don't end up. But I'm aware
now that I'm doing it, and I don't use it.
I don't end up using it. I just go, that's
fucking funny. I know that's funny, but I'm not gonna
put it in my.

Speaker 3 (30:33):
Act because it's not true.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
Right.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
Yeah, And so anyway, you know, we learn these things.
But again, like you know, to the comedians that I've
mentioned that they're just stars and they have that it
factor right out of the gate, you know, and many
of us don't know about you, but many of us
we have to.

Speaker 3 (30:56):
You know.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
It's just basically a work ethic. You know, you just
keep fuck I'm doing it and writing you know, and
then you know, eventually you'll figure it out or you won't, right.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
But yeah, it took for you to find your voice,
so to speak, like.

Speaker 3 (31:17):
Yeah, well, I don't even know, man, I I don't
even keep track of time anymore.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
We had talked about you had mentioned that you figure
out how many times you've been on stage and how
many years you've been doing it. I wouldn't even know.
I mean, I I stopped counting. I stopped counting at
thirty years. And it's well, I think it's good.

Speaker 3 (31:36):
It's just like.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
It's like get get just getting out of my own way,
getting out of my way, and and just doing it,
and and and getting loose enough and comfortable enough to
go whatever you know, I mean, you know, and and
have a mass in my The way I've I function

(32:03):
now is that I've a masked a massive amount of
material that, like you know, I'll go up and I
don't know what I'm gonna do, so I don't I
have no idea. I mean, I know what my current
opening is. I know I have at least at least
four or five strong endings that I can do. And

(32:25):
the rest in the middle is you know, this guy
looks like a stoner. I'm gonna do maybe some drug material,
and you know some there's lots of couples here.

Speaker 3 (32:39):
I'll do some relationship stuff and you know, and then you.

Speaker 2 (32:46):
Know, there's an older lady there, I'll talk about my
mother and you know what I mean. It's yeah, but
if that older lady isn't there, I'm not going to
do that material, and you know what I mean. So
it's it's all over the place.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
Okay, So can I ask you this? So when you
have mine, you know you usually do forty five minutes,
do you just do you kind of have a setless
planned or do you base it on the crowd because
you've got three albums worth of stuff to pull from?

Speaker 3 (33:14):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (33:14):
From different four albums?

Speaker 3 (33:17):
Yeah, yeah, okay, all right.

Speaker 1 (33:19):
Mentioned three on your Wikipedia page.

Speaker 3 (33:22):
Well I'll have to yeah that Wikipedia, that's right.

Speaker 1 (33:24):
Yeah, yeah, I mentioned three of them. So you do
you came from each of those albums when you're on stage?

Speaker 3 (33:30):
Or I do? I do?

Speaker 2 (33:33):
But I have I'm not never I'm self diagnosed like
many people, but I definitely have ADHD and you name
all of those issues mentally, so I'm very much I
just constantly producing material right. Like I was talking to

(33:55):
my mother on the phone. She mentioned something funny. I
wrote a punchline, you know, yeah, I got I've just
put it on my phone and just eventually, you know,
if that comes. But that's just today, I mean, and
I do that all the time, not just my mother,
but talking to people whatever. So my I'm not pulling

(34:15):
from I mean, I am. I have that material that
I can draw from from my albums, and I've also
got all the stuff that I haven't recorded, and I've
also got all the new stuff that I'm writing, like
yesterday and today.

Speaker 3 (34:39):
You know, I mean it just literally.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
I'm I'm talking as I'm talking to the audience, if
they remind me of something that comes out right, and
you know, it's not always funny, but often it is.
And I record, so I go, okay, I'll I'll keep
that and and then then when I'm going to record

(35:05):
another album, I go, okay, I'll. Now I gotta figure
out a little to stick to this. Yeah, stick to
the script. But anyway, sorry to go on and.

Speaker 3 (35:17):
On, but no, no, no, it's interesting comedy.

Speaker 2 (35:20):
Is It's like, uh, I think I had mentioned that,
you know, you know, part of it is like I
just I get I don't know, I can't. I couldn't
imagine going up and doing the same thing all the time. Yeah,

(35:42):
because I'm so pardon my French, but I'm so fucking
bored of my material that what the funk?

Speaker 3 (35:50):
Why would I do that again?

Speaker 2 (35:52):
I was like, you know, I mean, part of it
is playing the comedy cave. You know, you're in front
of four people, it's got to turn into conversation. Yeah,
and if you're doing a performance in front of four people,
they're like, what the fuck is this? You know, it's like,
why aren't you talking to us?

Speaker 3 (36:11):
You know?

Speaker 2 (36:12):
Now that's what That's how that whole thing came about. Now,
if I was performing in front of you know, seventy
five one hundred people every night, I probably turn into
more of a guy who does material.

Speaker 3 (36:27):
You know, yeah, set set.

Speaker 2 (36:29):
Material that you know, that's the way anyway.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
Also, I just noticed that you say about and most
Canadians say a boot. Why don't you have much of
an accent?

Speaker 3 (36:42):
It's a good question.

Speaker 2 (36:43):
I don't know, I've never even I probably just not
even aware of that other than a like, which yeah,
is stereotypical of comedians, right, Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, do
I have an accent to you?

Speaker 3 (36:59):
I don't have, Okay, yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
Yeah, like I mean a little bit like when you
say a you know, but that's about it. Like, you know,
like a lot of the people I met at the
club last week very heavy accents, well the ones from
Canada anyway, right, Yeah, yeah, you know they say sorry
and a boot and you know, stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
Yeah, that's that's so cliche because you know, I've certainly
heard people make that observation. But yeah, I mean, as
whoever I am, I don't even recognize that people are
doing that.

Speaker 3 (37:34):
Really. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:35):
Maybe I just don't. I just don't because I don't
do it myself. Maybe yeah, yeah, I did it myself anyway,
Go ahead, Sorry.

Speaker 1 (37:44):
No, you're good. I was gonna ask you about did
you ever have any desire to do like so they
don't have like, uh so we have Saturday in athletics
live here, they had what was it SCTV?

Speaker 3 (37:56):
What was popular there? That's right? Second City?

Speaker 2 (38:00):
Yeah, that's right, Second City Television.

Speaker 1 (38:02):
You ever have any desire to do Second City or
anything like that, any improv related stuff.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
It's funny you mention that because when I was eighteen,
right out of high school. I was still probably still
in high school. I did some Second City workshops or whatever,
and I ended up getting cast in their young company.
This is before I went to theater school. I was

(38:26):
eighteen and I and I.

Speaker 3 (38:28):
Ended up doing Second City kind of.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
I was part of their young company. Cool and these
people were a lot older than I was. But yeah,
I remember auditioning, and you know, my comedic sense is,
with all due humility, it's it's always been there, probably
because I was the youngest and of four boys, and

(38:56):
I never could compete intellectually with my brothers. So it
was always like Brian would say something funny, you know,
and that's how I developed my comedic ability or whatever.

Speaker 3 (39:08):
And I so I auditioned.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
For that Second City and I got it and I
was so happy, so funny.

Speaker 3 (39:18):
There's so many memories from that time.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
But I remember, this is so funny because my dad
came to me with the to the.

Speaker 3 (39:29):
Audition and I auditioned.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
And and then my dad came to watch them. This
is back in Edmonton when Second City had an Edmonton
stage company. They they they were in Toronto, they were
in Chicago, Toronto, and then they decided they were going
to expand to Edmonton, and they had a stage show

(39:51):
in Edmonton with local actors that they had cast. And
it was in Lucifer's Restaurant, which was some steak restaurant.
In their basement. They had a stage and they had
this is where they put Second City on. So anyway,
my dad, after I got cast, my dad came with

(40:12):
me to check the whole thing out.

Speaker 3 (40:14):
We watched, we watched.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
Them perform and and I'll always remember I said to
my dad, you know, you.

Speaker 3 (40:20):
See that guy up there. Dad. He said, yeah, yeah,
that guy. You know, you know, he's he's thirty five,
he's old. I'll always remember that I said that to
my dad.

Speaker 2 (40:36):
And now I as an older person myself, I go
would with I thinking, but if.

Speaker 3 (40:41):
I'd only known.

Speaker 2 (40:42):
And this guy went on to his name was Bob Bainborough,
and he went on to be in that Red Green show.
He was really the second fiddle in that to Red Green.
He was his buddy or whatever.

Speaker 3 (40:56):
Oh yeah, yeah, okay, but anyway, so you know, he
was accomplished.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
A lot of those people from that company went onto
Toronto Second City and but that eventually that yet that
Second City closed in Edmonton, but in the meantime, when
I was part of their young company, we would go
and do shopping mall openings, like we went to Red

(41:21):
Deer the Bauer Center which is still in existence, and
we opened that they were having their opening and they
hired us to come and perform in the middle of
the shopping mall, right, and we were doing old Second
City sketches. So from Chicago, Yeah, so yeah, And then

(41:46):
I got into theater school and I I remember on
that on the main stage in Edmonton, they said, you know,
Brian Stallery is leaving us and he's going to theater
school because he went to be a real actor.

Speaker 3 (42:02):
And then they.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
Did the Second City tradition, which is they put a
cream pie in my face, and that's what they do,
I think when it's probably still a tradition when people leave.
And then I went to Montreal and started to train
as a real actor.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
But anyway, so I do have a history with Second City,
but that.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
I have a buddy that works a lot with Second City.
He does like cruise ships like with like Jim Belushi
and some other people. Wow, yeah, that's pretty cool. Did
anyone from your group like going to be famous.

Speaker 2 (42:38):
Or anything from the Second City group, well, the one
cast member. She went on to direct a lot of
the shows in Toronto at the Second City in Toronto.

Speaker 3 (42:58):
Her name escapes me. Now.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
Another guy, basically nobody that I recall, went on to
great success. Another guy, one of those guys, went Sparky Johnson.
He went on to teach drama at the University of
Alberta and I looked him up the other day. He's
retired now. So he would teach improv there and the

(43:23):
actors there, the rest of them, but one end up
becoming a playwright.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
She's passed away now.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
But yeah, so those are the people. And the piano player.
You know, Toronto or Second City had a piano player
beside the stage. I don't know whether they still do.
Have you been to a Second City show? Yeah, well they.

Speaker 3 (43:51):
Often have it.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
At least they used to have a piano player that
between sketches they would play and or you know, they
know scene and then they'd walk off and go and
prepare for.

Speaker 3 (44:04):
The next scene.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
And then he would play music while they were off
stage and maybe bringing out a couple of more chairs
for the next sketch, and then he'd play in them
into the lights, come up and he'd play as they
came out and then started the scene.

Speaker 3 (44:22):
Right.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
Yeah, So that guy went on to Toronto.

Speaker 3 (44:26):
A guy I don't remember his name, but.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
He played in Toronto Second City the piano there for years.

Speaker 3 (44:34):
So cool. Yeah, so those guys.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
Yeah, Actually, an old friend of mine who was a
comic who died years ago, was a piano player at
the Comedy Store in Hollywood. Oh well, and he had
this great story about Jim Carrey because Jim Carrey first
moved out there. So the guy's name is Kelly Moran.

(44:58):
He was really funny to median. He's from Amarillo, Texas.
He would play the piano in between comics and stuff,
and Jim Carrey one of his first times ever performing
at the Comedy Store, he bombed like really bad, like
embarrassingly bad, like so bad he crawled into the piano.

(45:20):
And I don't remember who the next comic was, but
I guess like so that when the next comedian's performing,
you can just see Jim like he keeps like peeking
out of the piano every once in a while, the
crowd is like dying laughing.

Speaker 3 (45:34):
Oh my god, that's hilarious. Yeah, yeah, that's funny. That's funny.

Speaker 1 (45:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
Yeah, there's lots of bombing stories. We've all had them.
Oh yeah, when did you bomb?

Speaker 3 (45:47):
Have you bombed? I'm sure you haven't.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
Oh the bomb every other time i'd go on stage, probably, yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
Right, Why do we after we bomb? Why do we
continue to do it? You know, That's what's I think
for me.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
Like, I had a really good set my first time
I ever did stand up, So I think that helped
me because I was like, Okay, I know I'm funny.
That night said I was funny. The club owner knew
I was funny. Other comedian knew I was funny. That
had been doing it for a long time. So like,
deep down, that told me that I've got what it
takes to do it. You know, like, not every crowd's

(46:24):
going to like me. Most of the times I would bomb,
it usually be at casinos when I was first starting out. Yeah,
casino crowds can be pretty tough, and a lot of
older people, you know, they don't get my references and
things like that, and I don't know how to like
adapt my material to make them laugh or whatever. I
still don't really.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
But.

Speaker 1 (46:46):
You know, so casino, you know, casino gigs usually not
my favorite. Those are ones I really bombed at. Yeah,
any anytime it's an older crowd, it's going to be tough.
But yeah, those are the one as I really struggled at.

Speaker 3 (47:01):
I see, is that right? Yeah? Yeah, oh yeah, well.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
Especially early on, like I said, you know, it's like
there's these.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
Guys that right out of the gate.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
Norm MacDonald and Brent Bott, they just are so good
out of the gate, and they're so.

Speaker 3 (47:20):
They really know who they are. Yeah, And I.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
Was just you know, doing stuff and as I said,
writing for the joke a lot of the time instead
of writing for the truth. And and then I would
I mean, man, yeah, I mean I remember they used
to have shows on Vancouver Island that they still do,

(47:47):
but Vancouver Island and then there was some different towns
or places where people would put on shows. There was
a booker out there and he would book shows around
the island. And I went to one place. I can't
remember the.

Speaker 3 (48:06):
Name of it, but you know, I mean it was
I can't even remember I was.

Speaker 2 (48:14):
I just remember the ride back with the headliner. You know,
in retrospect, this guy was sucking terrible as a Carlon
you know, oh yeah, like and he was the headliner,
and he was supposed to be really good, you know it.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
Wasn't he a terrible person or a terrible comic.

Speaker 3 (48:33):
Well kind of both actually, but.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
He he was more to do with, you know, just
a hack, right, yeah, And this is probably a mid nineties,
nineteen nineties or whatever, you know. And you know, I remember,
you know, the drive back, how uncomfortable that is.

Speaker 3 (48:55):
Whatever we were going back to Victoria. We're driving back
and he was driving. He's given me advice. Yeah, you're
supposed to do right, you know.

Speaker 2 (49:04):
It's like, holy shit, man, you know, and I sound
like a I'm so full of myself, but you know, uh,
you just go, you know, even even at that at
that time, you know, ah, this guy's a hack. H

(49:25):
and and I'm not you know, I'm I will get there,
you know. Again, but I like, I bombed on stage
and you know, I don't can't remember where they cut
the mic.

Speaker 3 (49:39):
On me or whatever, but whatever it was, it was
extremely hard on me.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
Right, But again we talk about like why do we
continue after that huge embarrassment? And I don't think I've
ever bombed and thought, all, Okay, I'm gonna go work
at Canadian Tire. You know, I don't think I've ever

(50:06):
because you know, we want to do this.

Speaker 3 (50:11):
I not.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
That's the difference between amateurs and and or people that
bail on the career of a comedian or don't they
They bail because they go, this is too hard. I
don't think I can get there. I just can't handle
it anymore. And somebody like me, I just go, you know,

(50:38):
fucking forget it, man, I I'm just gonna keep going.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
Yeah. Yeah, Like as I got older, you know, it
pushed me to work harder too, you know, yeah, like
I don't want that to happen again.

Speaker 4 (50:49):
It's embarrassing, right, yes, right, right that that was the
other thing, and I've I mean, I remember a corporate
that I bombed at and I remember keeping notes, right,
don't fucking do that joke again.

Speaker 3 (51:03):
You know that doesn't work in this setting. And you
know what I mean, like.

Speaker 2 (51:08):
It's like keeping a detailed record of I mean certainly
initially this works.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
This does not work.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
Do not do this, you know, keep writing, keep producing,
and you know, I don't know you'll get there whatever,
I mean, you know.

Speaker 1 (51:26):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, you know I was gonna ask you
since you did like improv and sketch type stuff that
did that help you when you started doing stand up?

Speaker 3 (51:41):
No, not really, No, I mean I didn't.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
I separated doing improv from stand up, okay, which is
I suppose probably not the smartest thing in retrospect, but
you know, I don't know. Back when I started, it
was all about material. It wasn't about you talk to
the audience or whatever.

Speaker 3 (52:02):
And so.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
I mean I would watch guys that did talk to
the audience and I admire them, and I go, yeah,
that's good, that's not that's not what I do. They
were you know, when I started, there were guys that
did that, like Mike Bullard who made a whole show.

Speaker 3 (52:20):
About that, and then and then there.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
Was other guys that just did material, right yeah, and
I thought, okay, that's what stand up is, is doing
material for sure. And so you know, so I never
combined the two, you.

Speaker 3 (52:35):
Know, Okay, yeah, yeah, I yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
It's funny because I actually I took like an improv class,
but I had been doing stand up for probably thirteen
years at that point. Oh yeah, And it was so
hard to do improv because I'm so used to just
trying to laugh right away. I just couldn't do it.
I just I would ruin the scene every time because

(52:59):
a joke would pop in my head. I'd say it,
yeah right, there's nothing we could do to yeah, in
the scene.

Speaker 3 (53:05):
So right, it's like acting.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
I mean, acting is about listening, you know, speaking and
then listening, right, And that's the same.

Speaker 3 (53:16):
Thing with improvince.

Speaker 2 (53:17):
Somebody would say something and you would genuinely respond to
what they said in a in a scene way.

Speaker 3 (53:25):
As in a character way. Right, Yeah, you know.

Speaker 2 (53:28):
I mean that's what they say about great acting, is
that great acting is a lot of the time, it's
just listing, active active listing.

Speaker 3 (53:36):
Okay, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
So so you acted in a decent amount of movies
and things like that. Like I'm going to ask you
about some of the movies you're in here in a second.
But I'm curious, Like it's like, like in a comedy movie,
like you're in rat Race, which is one of my
favorite comedy movies. In a movie like that's how often

(54:03):
I guess it's probably different for every movie and different
actors and stuff, but like how often do they improvise
like in the movie rat Race? Like I don't know
how Like I don't know how many scenes you're in
or anything like that. But did you get to see
like a good amount of improvis it improvisation or did
you get to do any of that yourself.

Speaker 2 (54:25):
I did not do any of it myself. And I
was working with mister Bean Rowan Atkinson. I just had
that one scene with.

Speaker 3 (54:34):
Him, and you know, I was kind of.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
Well, you know, I'm the straight person for him to
work around, so I was not. I don't think I
had many lines. I had a few lines or one
line or whatever with him, and the rest was watching him.
I think I woke up. I was sleeping. I don't

(55:01):
even know, it's been so long, but I was sleeping
on the train with him, and and he's looking for
this key, right, that's the whole movie and they're looking
or part of the movie anyway, So.

Speaker 3 (55:19):
I don't even know. I don't know if I can't
remember the story or anything.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
But basically, my baby had the key, and he oh,
he had the baby had the key, and I was
asleep and I wake up and I see him touching
the baby and I say whatever I said, you know,
so I've kind of freaked out or whatever, and that's

(55:47):
basically the scene. But yeah, so no, I wasn't improvising.

Speaker 3 (55:56):
As far as that goes.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
You know, I never had had I never had big
enough parts in movies two really get to that.

Speaker 3 (56:07):
Point.

Speaker 1 (56:08):
I did the bigger stars kind of get to do whatever.

Speaker 2 (56:12):
Yeah, right, as far as that, Yeah, yeah, Improvising on
film is a little different because you know, you've got
a camera there and the camera has to capture what
you're doing and.

Speaker 3 (56:27):
And so.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
Ah h you can't move like you would on a
stage show or whatever. The camera is like what the
what the fuck is this fucking guy doing? You know,
it's like cameras know, and they've got to have you know,
you've got to be in focus and everything. So you know,
the guys that know how to do that to work

(56:51):
with that, they can. And there's also directors that are
able to adapt to specific actors. Yeah, so but I
was never at that point. The biggest role that I
ever had was in a movie, a remake.

Speaker 3 (57:08):
Of High Noon.

Speaker 2 (57:11):
Oh okay, yeah, and I played the hotel clerk and
I had a couple of good scenes there.

Speaker 3 (57:18):
Cool, you know, and.

Speaker 2 (57:20):
Yeah, so you know that was acting, and yeah, it acting.

Speaker 3 (57:28):
Yeah, I did.

Speaker 2 (57:30):
I mean, if somebody called me tomorrow and say, hey,
can you want to be in this film, I would
definitely do it. But the acting world is such that
I don't know, you know, it's like, uh, it's it's
very I don't know what to say.

Speaker 3 (57:50):
It's it's just like it's like anything.

Speaker 2 (57:55):
I mean, you really got to pursue it, like make
sure people know who you are, you're around and yeah,
and you know, if you're not casting any movies, you're
you're producing your own stuff, you're doing filming your own stuff,
and you know, it's.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
Yeah, it's insane how much time goes into it, yes, right,
Like just like the scenes, like I gotta hang out
on the scene, like I did some independent films, which
wasn't two time consuming, but like I gotta hang out
on the set of a movie called Love Ranch, and
so like the scene I got to see was set

(58:29):
at this boxing match and I was there for like
twelve hours probably like just watching this like Joe Pesh
is in it and a couple of other famous people
and like, yeah, it was really cool to watch. But
like that whole twelve hours was probably like a three
minute scene.

Speaker 2 (58:47):
You know, yes, right, probably it was a feature was it? It
was a feature movie? Yeah? Sure, I mean you know,
I was in Ledges of the Fall, and yeah, it's
back when I was younger of obviously and not obviously,
but I was in I played this Canadian soldier in that.
And then I was in the fox Hole with the

(59:07):
guy Henry Thomas, who was in ET when he was
a kid, so he was older and now he's in
Leedges of the Fall. We're in this fox hole together,
and this is a feature movie. And again, you know,
I think they had three or four cameras on us
to record everything. This is back when they were filming

(59:28):
in film, not how they do it now. Well maybe
they still do. But anyway, I just remember, beside me,
somebody who's doing continuity moves a leaf, a fucking leaf,
to the same spot that it was because this leaf

(59:51):
is like, you know, it's ten feet high on the
big screen right right now, it's a leaf that's an
inch or two inches big and on the big screen
it's five feet so people notice the leaf on the screen, right,
So it's that, you know, this is the kind of
thing that you know, a feature movie. You know, this

(01:00:16):
is the kind of thing that they're doing, right, so
you know they have to be aware of that, right, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:22):
It's a fun thing to see and be a part
of the for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:00:25):
It is.

Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
It's time consuming, it pays a lot of money when
you do it, right, I think it pays a lot
less now that it used to.

Speaker 3 (01:00:32):
Like I'm still.

Speaker 2 (01:00:32):
Getting residuals from Legends of the Fall and these movies
that I've been in, because you know, back in that day,
you would you signed an agreement that you would get
paid every time they played it. And even though it's
only I don't know, a couple bucks or whatever, they

(01:00:53):
they play those movies a lot, right in different places,
so you know that that money adds up. But yeah,
now nowadays it's different. I know actors have complained that
they're very you know actors that have done like lots
of movies and parts, and this is after the agreements
were gone or revised, and they're not making nearly the

(01:01:18):
kind of money that the people used to make in
the business.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
So anyway, yeah, actually, I just I watched rat Race
about a month ago. Probably, Yeah, he should be getting
a twelve cent check here pretty soon.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
That's great. Yeah, we're what service did you watch it on?

Speaker 1 (01:01:36):
I don't remember, maybe like Peacock or Paramount.

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
Sure, right, yeah, I mean they play these things. There's
lots of times these are good movies too, right, because it's.

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
Such a good movie, such a good cast. And yeah, yeah, yeah,
it's funny because they're actually they're going to Silver City,
New Mexico in the movie.

Speaker 3 (01:01:58):
Yeah, that's right, they do, but they don't.

Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
They definitely didn't film it in silver City, New Mexico.

Speaker 3 (01:02:05):
Oh yeah, is that right? Yeah, yeah, it didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
Look anything like Silver City, New Mexico.

Speaker 2 (01:02:10):
Well, when we were on the train. When we were
on the train, it was a sound stage. It was
an old barracks in Calgary, old army barracks where they
had huge you know, they had converted it into a
sound stage and and you know they had the train
and the green screen and they you know, play in

(01:02:33):
the playback of the scenery going past it. I don't
think we saw that, but in the final cut, that's what,
you know, it's all put together right, and I'm sure
they're like their leaps and bounds beyond ahead of what
they did back then even And but funny story, I'll

(01:02:53):
always remember because Whoopee Goldberg was in that movie and
she was on the set that day, and I remember
walking in.

Speaker 3 (01:03:00):
And they were going to shoot my scene. And I
remember I stood beside the director.

Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
The director is looking at the monitor for the scene
and he's got the continuity person beside him and whoever
I whoever that director was, was it?

Speaker 3 (01:03:19):
Uh? What was his name? Anyway?

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
Famous guy? You know, Legends of the Fall, same same guy, famous,
These are famous people. But anyway, I'm standing there behind them,
you know, just staying out of the way, you know,
don't say anything. You know your place. You're a bit
player in this movie. But you know, so will Pee
Goldberg comes up to me and she looks at me and.

Speaker 3 (01:03:47):
She said, ah, how are you?

Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
And I said, well, I'm good, thank you again, keep
my place, zip my mouth, don't say anything to this stars, right,
and then she said, she said.

Speaker 3 (01:04:04):
Who are you?

Speaker 2 (01:04:07):
And I went, I'm in the next scene. And then
she just fucking ignored me for the.

Speaker 3 (01:04:16):
Rest of that. You know.

Speaker 2 (01:04:18):
Basically what she was saying was are you a producer
on this movie? Are you somebody important?

Speaker 3 (01:04:24):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:04:25):
And when she realized I was not anybody important, she
didn't have the time of day for me. I just
always remember that, you know, But these these interactions with
these stars that on that movie after My mother was
a huge a Roanakitson fan, you know, mister bean, he's

(01:04:46):
a star, he's huge. So we're in the scene together
and we did it. And he had literally just got
off the plane from London and walked, was driven from
the airport to this movie set, and he's filming this right,
so he's kind of jet lagged, but he he did,
you know, great of course. And then we were walking,
both of us were walking to the trailer where I

(01:05:10):
had my little cubby hole, you know, and he had
his trailer.

Speaker 3 (01:05:14):
And we were walking and I.

Speaker 2 (01:05:17):
Promised my mother that I would get something from Rowan
Atkinson when I was on set, and and I went
out and I searched for like his biography or something
something that I could get him to sign, right, And
I found this only book that was written that was
any kind of biography of him, but it was a

(01:05:40):
it wasn't an autobiography. It was a biography written by
somebody else. And then I looked at it it was like, oh,
it was not very flattering. It was like, you know,
rowanak and whatever he touched children or whatever. You said, no,
no he didn't, but you know, it's like not very flatter.
And remember looking at the reviews book and yeah, he

(01:06:04):
had know how to do with this book at all.
So that was the only I bought the book because
I needed I want to get something from my mom.
So I buy the book and I have it with
me and I said, mister Atkinson, thank you so much.
It was a pleasure being in the scene with you.
I would you mind signing this for my mother? And

(01:06:25):
he took one look at the book and he he said.

Speaker 3 (01:06:33):
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:06:35):
He opens it up and I give him the pen
and he goes, I can't vouch for the content, That's
what he said, and he wrote, too real from Rowan Atkinson,
you know whatever, and then he gives me the book.

Speaker 3 (01:06:49):
He signed it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:51):
He was very kind to sign it. But yeah, I
just remember he was. You know, if I could find
something else for him to sign, I would have.

Speaker 3 (01:07:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:07:00):
Yeah, anyway, Oh funny, Well cool man. We hit an
hour already.

Speaker 3 (01:07:07):
Yeah right, good chats.

Speaker 1 (01:07:09):
Yeah, I could talk to you for hours, man.

Speaker 2 (01:07:11):
Yeah, we always have great chats when you're in Calgary.
And I so appreciate you hanging out.

Speaker 3 (01:07:18):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:19):
I don't know anyone there, so like I'm just at
the condo all day just so it's nice to get
out and go see some stuff and yeah, right, you know,
and chat and everything. So yeah, I really appreciate it.
Go check out Brian's website. Everybody thecomedian dot c A.
And you're on social media as well, right Instagram.

Speaker 3 (01:07:41):
Yeah that's right.

Speaker 2 (01:07:42):
Yeah, I guess I should update that Wikipedia, but it
costs me. There's a guy. I don't know whether you
know anything about Wikipedia.

Speaker 1 (01:07:50):
It's I don't know anything.

Speaker 2 (01:07:51):
Really, it's hard to do it yourself, and whenever you
do it, whenever you do it yourself, they kick it
back because there's some editor somewhere that doesn't.

Speaker 3 (01:08:00):
Like what you did or whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
So it's very it's all monitored by people, and there's
only there's a guy, quite honestly, I found him. He's
in Nigeria, of all places. And this guy does the update.
He puts the website together. I gave him all the information,
he put it together, and then every update that I
have I have to go to him to do it,

(01:08:26):
so and it costs me two hundred bucks US every
time I update something. So yeah, but anyway, so that's
why I haven't updated it.

Speaker 3 (01:08:39):
But my website all the information.

Speaker 1 (01:08:42):
Yeah, your website probably has better information than Wicked.

Speaker 3 (01:08:45):
Oh yeah, yeah yeah. My website is me and I'm
updating it, so it's we're current, you know. Anyway. So yeah, yeah, well.

Speaker 1 (01:08:53):
Awesome, man. Yeah, I hope the rest of the week
at the Comedy Cave goes well.

Speaker 3 (01:08:58):
Yeah, thanks man.

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
I know they're on a show on Saturdays, so.

Speaker 2 (01:09:02):
Yeah, that's right, they're not because there's construction or something.

Speaker 1 (01:09:05):
So yeah, he said there is a wedding or something
going on.

Speaker 3 (01:09:09):
Oh is that right? Yeah, yeah, the.

Speaker 1 (01:09:11):
Whole family is going to be in Toronto.

Speaker 3 (01:09:14):
Oh I didn't know that.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
I thought he said they lied to me. Oh my god, no, whatever,
I thought they said construction. So at any rate, that's
the way the cookie crumbles. That's this business, right, So
it's just the way it is, right.

Speaker 3 (01:09:32):
Yeah. Where are you next?

Speaker 1 (01:09:36):
I got a couple of local shows in New Mexico,
and then I go to Little Rock, Arkansas and Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Speaker 3 (01:09:43):
Nice? Nice? Are you a headline those rooms?

Speaker 2 (01:09:47):
Those?

Speaker 1 (01:09:48):
I am featuring in Little Rock and co headlining in
Colorado Springs?

Speaker 3 (01:09:52):
Oh great?

Speaker 2 (01:09:53):
Yeah yeah, well that's the luck to you. Always a
player to form and I look forward. We always had
a great coffee together and just chatting and lunch and
stuff and just hanging out and chatting about the business.

Speaker 1 (01:10:07):
Absolutely. Yeah, we'll do a part two sometimes.

Speaker 3 (01:10:11):
Yeah, it'd be great.

Speaker 2 (01:10:11):
All right, yeah, all right, okay, right here, buddy, Okay
you too, all right, so yeah,