Venue 13, Icelandic Ghosts, and the Bohemian Life — An Author Interview with David Jon Fuller - SeanGeek and FastFret Podcast

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
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(00:21):
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You know, I just think weshould have turned left at Albuquerque
and then maybe a right turn atLa Jolla.

(01:08):
Shush.
Hush, please.
Welcome to the Sean, Geek andFast Fret podcast.
Todd is away.
He's not here today.
It's his birthday today, so heasked for the night off because we
were all set to record tonightand do an episode.
And then, lo and behold, therewas a surprise party planned for

(01:28):
him.
And I was told to cancel thepodcast for tonight and let him go
enjoy his party.
But I said, well, I'm not canceling.
I'm still gonna run the show.
But happy birthday, Todd.
You turn a beautiful 21.
I'm just lying.
That's not true.
But yeah, so today.
So we're gonna do something alittle bit different today.

(01:48):
We haven't done one of thesein a while.
I was contacted by the folksat Ravenstone or Turnstone, and we
have kind of like an author series.
We bring authors on from.
From either one of thoseimprints, and we talk with them and
get to know them and try toget to the person behind the book.
Not just talk about the book,but get behind the book.

(02:09):
Who's the person that wrotethis and what inspired them to write
what they wrote.
So tonight we have.
I'm going to try to pronouncethis correctly.
David.
Ah, I can't do it.
David Yon Fuller.
Yes.
Hello, sir.
How are you doing?
I'm great.
How are you?

(02:29):
Thanks for having me on.
Not too bad, not too bad.
As you can see, I'm in my work office.
I got my background workoffice here.
I think it's a carryover fromthis other show that's on our network.
And I don't know, they keepcoming in into my software and putting
up backdrops for me, and I'mnot tech savvy enough to take them

(02:50):
out.
Could be my kids, I don't know.
But.
So let's hear about you.
So you've Got this really kindof interesting, kind of eclectic
background that when I wascontacted, I'm like, this is.
There's a lot of interestingstuff going on here.

(03:11):
You've done some acting,you've done some fringe, but you've
also done a heck of a lot of writing.
And you have an Icelandicbackground connection to Gimli, I'm
assuming, as well.
I can answer that right away.
My Icelandic roots areactually not in Gimli, they're in
Selkirk.
But I'm very familiar withGimli because I've been there many

(03:34):
times, and we can talk aboutthat, too.
Cool.
Chadwick, who's been on theshow before a number of times, has
a very strong tie to Gimli.
One of his books was actuallyset in, like, part of the book was
set in Gimli, and it's where.
It's my place I go to with my family.

(03:56):
When I'm feeling a bit of acreative lull, I'll go up there,
recharge my.
Recharge my bones, recharge mybrain, do some writing while I'm
out there, songwriting orwhatever, and just kind of recharge.
It's there.
There's something aboutIceland or Gimli or whatever or that
culture, that background, thatis so inherently creative.

(04:23):
Would you agree?
What's your take on theIcelandic culture, the creativity
within the Icelandic culture?
Well, as a half Icelandicperson, I will have to take full
credit for that and say, yes,of course, Icelanders are very brilliant
and creative and hardworking,and they are responsible for so many
good things that we want totake credit for.
But the.
The truth of the matter is, Ithink that Iceland, as an island

(04:46):
nation, island culture, issimilar to Winnipeg and Manitoba
in a way, because we're alittle bit isolated from some of
the bigger cultural forces inour country.
Iceland is its own place, obviously.
And that kind of, I would sayrelative isolation breeds a lot of
interesting creativity.
There's a lot of weird,wonderful things that come out of

(05:08):
Manitoba.
And sometimes when you talkabout music, like you guys were talking
about in your podcast a whileago, about, you know, the interesting
musical influences and, youknow, bands like the Weaker Dance,
or this band came from so andso, I think that sort of semi isolation
breeds a certain desire to be creative.

(05:29):
And I saw that a lot when Ilived in Iceland.
I kept forgetting that therewere only like 350,000 people there
because they acted like theywere Great Britain.
You know, they had centuriesof literature and music and poetry,
and when I lived there, lotsof drama, like Live theater was a
huge part of the day to daylife there, which kind of surprised
really.

(05:49):
So, yeah.
Oh yeah.
People had their favoritestage actors, which I would kind
of blew me away coming from Winnipeg.
Like, I had come up throughtheater at the University of Winnipeg
and done the Fringe Festivaland that sort of thing.
And a caveat is Iceland is asmall country.
So the actors that you see onstage in Reykjavik at the National
Theater are to be the sameones that are on, you know, tv, sketch

(06:11):
comedy and whatever movies get made.
So, yes, you will get to knowcertain names and certain faces.
But I fell into that justlike, oh, I want to see that one.
It's got that Sigur guy, he'sreally good.
There's a lot, there's a lotof, a lot of greats that come from
there.
There's, it's, it's on mybucket list of places to go.

(06:32):
But I've got, I've got a fewother places.
We've got an Ireland plan downthe road.
That's my background and I'venever been, oh yeah, we're due, we're
due.
But as people who follow oursocial media know, my, my air conditioning
and furnace died last weekduring the ua.

(06:53):
Yeah.
And it was everything I coulddo to keep my kids sane, keep my
dog safe.
It was painful.
So a lot of the money that wasgoing to go towards that trip obviously
went somewhere else last week.
Yeah, yeah.
But crappy.
Yeah.
So can we kind of, kind of go.

(07:15):
Go in the past a bit?
So you said you lived outthere in Iceland.
Was that you?
Were you born there?
You said so you said you'rehalf Icelandic, so what's the history
there?
By descent, my mom's family isIcelandic and like by descent, my,
her, her family's roots are in Selkirk.
That's where that Icelandic.

(07:35):
Okay.
Part came from.
They were all over NorthAmerica and Manitoba, but that's
where my family has roots from.
On the Icelandic side, mydad's family's English.
And so no, I was not born there.
Several generations removedfrom it.
My Longama spoke Icelandic asthe first language along great great
grandmother and my amma, mygrandmother also spoke Icelandic

(07:59):
growing up, but lost itbecause, you know, in school they
didn't want anyone to speakanything but English.
Yeah.
And so by the time I hadfinished my theater degree and had
been doing, you know, someplays here and there in Winnipeg,
I was at sort of a crossroadsand I thought, oh, geez, I would
love to go to Iceland.
I would really like to justsee It.

(08:19):
And I was thinking maybe I'llgo for two weeks and have a little
vacation and then I'll get onwith my career.
Right.
I didn't really know where Iwas going to head next.
And it turned out that therewas an opportunity to apply for a
scholarship that wouldbasically, it would pay your way
for a year if you got it.
And I thought, well, sure.
And the idea was that you'rein this program at university to

(08:39):
learn Icelandic.
And I thought, I'll get toknow my relatives over there, maybe
I'll get to meet them.
And this was a huge opportunity.
So I applied for it and I gotit and that was what I was doing.
Yeah, it was really.
Oh, that's cool.
Very huge opportunity and alsopretty humbling because Icelandic
is a hard language and it wasmuch harder than I thought.
Even though I'd taken a yearof some classes here at the Scandinavian

(09:02):
center in Winnipeg.
I had my head around theAlphabet and some pronunciation,
but the grammar is something else.
So that was, that was hard.
But of course I thought, youknow what, I'll try and find entry
points where I can.
I got to meet some of mycousins, get to know them.
I joined a student theatergroup at the university there and.
Oh wow, you even did that too.
That's fantastic.

(09:23):
Oh yeah.
I was about to say I wasincompetent at everything for a good
four months, could notunderstand anything.
And we're trying to dotranslated, you know, into Icelandic
sections from Chekhov.
And I'm really.
Oh boy, I have never been so.
Out of my depth.
Yeah.
So I was really feeling it byDecember was like, I'm never going

(09:44):
to learn this language.
I don't get it at all.
That wasn't true.
Anyway, to make a long storyshort, after the first year I was
fluent enough and I've beenthrough some performances there.
We did some shows.
And then I applied for thesame scholarship and got it a second
time.
So I did a second year and bythe end of the second year I was
very fluent and was able toread, write, speak, and sometimes

(10:06):
pass for Icelandic if peopledidn't notice my screw ups in the
grammar.
Too often it helps if you kindof look Icelandic, which I do.
I got from my mom's side.
But sure, sure, I soundedpretty Icelandic.
I was told, I can't believe you.
Went out there like on, on that.
Like that's like phenomenal.
Like your dream is to, youknow, to go home, right.

(10:27):
And, and to actually followthrough and do it and then.
But I like that you Went andyou actually did stuff.
You didn't just, you know, go there.
Like, you.
You're participating in everything.
Like you seized an opportunityby the.
By the shirt and curlies, andthat's fantastic.
Yeah, well, I mean, it wouldnot have been possible for me without
that scholarship.

(10:47):
So I got to give thanks to thegranting body.
And part of my reasoning wasbecause I.
Like I said, it was at thissort of career crossroads.
I thought, you know, I canwait till I'm retired and go when
I'm 65 and go to Iceland fortwo weeks or however long I can do
it.
That would be fantastic.
However, if I have anopportunity to do at this point in

(11:08):
my life, it's going to affectthe rest of my life.
And that was my motivation.
And it has been very true.
It has affected so much in mywriting career.
The way I think about things,the way I understand the world and
the way I understand familyand history opened up my eyes to
so much, and it was a great opportunity.
Wow.

(11:30):
I didn't know that coming into this.
So I'm actually kind of alittle bit blown away.
I apologize if I'm a little,like, off put.
It's one of those things thatyou kind of.
I don't know.
So reading your book that wegot to talk with venue 13, I'm reading
bits and parts of it, and Iapologize, I'm only 200 pages in,
but I didn't do any reading,hardly any reading last week.

(11:52):
It was just keeping the familyalive through the heat wave.
But I got halfway through, Ithink about halfway through.
I'm at 200 and something.
But the thing that I wasnoticing in there, and just from
you telling me what you justtold me now, there's something about
that the main character, who's.
He's at a crossroads as well.

(12:13):
So I'm like, okay, I could seewhere you pulling, you know, pulling
the motivation from, but it.
It sounds like this guyhasn't, like, maybe the theater is
that same opportunity that youhad in the theater is where everything's
going to, you know, coalesce.
Everything's going to, youknow, work out.
So I like getting.
When we have authors on thisis like, this is the kind of stuff

(12:34):
I'm looking for.
So how did you get themotivation to write this book?
Where did you pull?
And that's what I'm seeing here.
This is like you're pullingfrom your history.
That's great.
I think it's really astute observation.
And I'll be honest, I hadn'tthought of that, when I was writing
it, I think you probablypulled out something that was subconsciously
there as I was writing it.

(12:55):
Now, the Venue 13 is the storyof an actor named Robert who buys
a theater.
He has this idea that he'sgoing to host theater productions
in the city's annual summertheater festival.
I call it that.
It's nicknamed Skeeterfest inthe novel, but it's inspired, obviously,
by the Winnipeg Fringe Festival.
Right.
And for those not fromWinnipeg, I think we need to clarify.

(13:19):
Skeeter Fest, you're obviouslyreferring to mosquitoes and our mosquito
season here, which is unusual.
It's sort of we get winter andthen we get mosquitoes in construction.
That's.
Those are the two seasons.
That's it.
And then we have spring, whichI hate is the worst season in Winnipeg
because it's potholes and muck.
Yeah.

(13:39):
Everywhere else, people writeodes to spring, and here is like,
oh, no, not here.
My co worker at the FreePress, Gen Zaretti, refers to, I
think, most of March as secondFebruary, like the hobbits might,
because it's just the worst,and it's not even an improvement.
So the story is about thisactor, buys the theater.

(14:01):
But what he doesn't know,aside from the mortgage and the repairs
he's got to do, is that theplace is also haunted, and he doesn't
believe it's haunted.
And this is part of theproblem for the first, as you've
seen, the first section of thebook, where weirder and weirder things
go wrong.
And he doesn't believe thatthere's anything beyond the physical.
Of course it is.

(14:22):
And part of.
Part of where I think theIcelandic experience comes in here
is I don't have, you know,Icelandic flags planted on the pages
or a lot of Icelandic namesand whatnot.
So it isn't explicitly, youknow, that.
However, one thing that struckme a lot when I lived there, and
one of the things I reallywanted to do is learn about folklore,

(14:44):
history, legends, myths.
I wanted to read all the Eddasin Icelandic, of course, because
I was a total nerd and a keener.
But what I was surprised by, Ithought that the folktales that I
would be reading would be verymuch about, say, trolls and stuff.
And there are a lot of goodIcelandic trolls.
Yeah.
I had nightmares from some of them.

(15:04):
But what they have way more ofare ghost stories.
Like every kind of ghost story.
Oh, yeah.
And it goes back to the sagas,where the ghosts are actually physically
dead people coming out of thegrave to sort of More spooky apparitions
in later centuries.
So writing a ghost story, tome, I think was sort of a subconscious

(15:25):
is pulling at my Icelandicsensibilities a bit there, because
there's something about thepast that doesn't stay buried, and
that's very much what thestory is about, or the ghost is a
real part of the story.
But there's a lot of old ghosts.
For Robert and for othercharacters that get pulled out by
this experience of thingsgoing wrong in the theater.
There's.

(15:47):
Even though, like.
So when I heard it was a ghoststory, I'm like, well, I don't usually
read ghost stories, but myperson at Turnstone, she's, You know,
she's like, no, you know what?
You're gonna connect with this.
Like, she.
She trusts.
She.
She knows what I like, what Idon't like.
I like a lot of differentthings, and I like to try things,
and I always wanted tochallenge what I'm reading and.

(16:09):
But the interesting thing is,even though it's a ghost story, it's
not just a ghost story.
I like all the little.
I identified really a lot withhim because he's working.
He's working his job at a restaurant.
He's trying to do the theater thing.
He's trying to balance both.
He can't afford to do thetheater thing on his own.

(16:29):
He does need to have his job,and it's a job that's.
It's like a tweener job, youknow, between, you know, getting
the big thing, getting thetheater going and all this.
And when I was in my early20s, I was kind of doing the same
thing.
I was writing my books, and I was.
And I was going to school, andI was doing all these things, but
the whole goal was to justbalance all that stuff until my creative

(16:53):
career took off.
Right.
And, boy, did I identify with him.
I was like, oh, my God.
Like.
And he's.
You're trying to doeverything, and you're like, oh,
my God, I can't get the billspaid because maybe I did too much
with.
With the artistic side of things.
Yeah.
And it was.
It was incredibly relatable.
Like, I.
So there must be someautobiographical bits in there, because

(17:14):
it was just so real.
Well, I. I'll be honest.
I worked in a restaurant manyyears ago.
I know a bit of what that lifeis like.
I was never quite a lifer inthe service industry, but I. I did
it for enough time that I sawhow it.
It demands a lot of energy,but it also allows you a bit of that
freedom.
I literally did have a jobworking as a line cook and then took

(17:36):
time off to do what was one ofmy first professional theater shows.
The service industry is greatfor things like that because they
can just cycle somebody elseinto your position.
So I did understand a bit of that.
And the sort of calculus youdo, as you just said, it's like,
well, this is paying the bills.
It's not paying a lot of them,but it's paying enough to keep the
lights on.

(17:56):
And then I'm going to takeanother six hours in my day and do
this creative stuff.
It's like, that's a hardworkload for anybody.
So some of that is definitelyin the book.
And part of it is people haveasked me, when they read, it's like,
oh, so this is based on thisbuilding, right?
Or this is based on that?
Oh, yeah, Sometimes they'reright and sometimes they're not.

(18:17):
Or else they have friends,like, no, no, it's got to be this.
I deliberately keep some ofthe Winnipeg geography vague in this
because.
Okay, you know, I want peopleto imagine where it would be.
I say the building is on this.
This downtown street north of Portage.
Okay?
You can imagine what that kindof building would look like.
But to be honest, the venue 13that I described, which has got like
a restaurant on the main floorand an unused second floor and then

(18:40):
a theater space on the floorthird, is very much modeled on the
old Freemason slash formerMother Tucker's building, downtown
Winnipeg.
That's the first thing I thought.
That was the first thing I thought.
You guessed where my mentalgeography was.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
Because I had worked on a showthere called the Reverend Otis show
by DJ Dayton when it wascalled Venue 8 and it was part of

(19:03):
the Fringe, Fringe roster.
But the rest of the year itwas still venue 8, but on its own,
and they were hosting allkinds of shows there.
And so I fictionalized that,and I don't have it.
It's not a Freemasons thing inmy book.
I made up a different othersociety that built a thing, and I
play around with some of therealities of it, but that was the

(19:25):
inspiration, partly becauseduring the time that I did that show
there, I had heard also rumorsthat it was haunted.
I never saw any signs of it.
Tons of stories.
You never.
So you never.
So you actually performedthere and you never saw any signs
of Supernatural?
No.
Come on, there must have been some.
No, the closest that it came,I don't think I was actually at this
rehearsal, but I heard about it.

(19:46):
From.
From my other cast member, youknow, fellow cast members, that people
were sitting around in theseats on the theater and saying,
hey, I heard this place is haunted.
Oh, yeah, no, they did allkinds of weird things back in the
day.
And, you know, nobody knew.
It was just rumors.
This is before the Internet,so you can just look it up.
On the conspiracy website,people were saying, I heard this.
Oh, I heard that.
And one of the actorsapparently just quite slipped out,

(20:08):
and then he went through thedoor that would lead to the backstage
area so he could creep up intothe wings.
And while people were stilltalking about it, saying, I don't
think it is.
Oh, I think it is.
There was a lull in theconversation, and he had put his
hand into the sleeve of ashirt that was hanging off a chair
on stage, so it was visible,but he was not.
And when the conversation dieddown, he started waving the arm of

(20:31):
this empty shirt and going.
And apparently one of theactresses just shrieked because,
like.
And then he said, no, no, it'sjust me.
And then people saying, ah.
Oh, my God.
I used to go to that place allthe time.
It was great.
Used to eat there.
He used to.
Used to see Fringe there.
Used to.
Absolutely.
God.

(20:51):
And what I loved was thesecond floor at that time that I
remember it from.
Had the macaroni bar, whichwas like a buffet where they would
make pasta any way you wanted.
I thought this was amazing.
I eat far too muchcarbohydrates there during the.
It was.
It was.
It was more forgiving in thosedays, I'm sure for all of us.
Right.
Well, I was also, you know, Ididn't have any money or a car, so

(21:13):
I was walking or riding mybike everywhere.
Maybe I burned off enough ofthose carbs.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
I didn't.
I don't think I. I didn't getmy driver's license till I was, like,
25.
I used to just.
I was.
I was an artist, so I wouldbike to school or bike to university
and then bike to my job andthen bike to my gig.
And I.
You know, as a drummer, youcan't carry your drum set on your.

(21:34):
On your bike.
No, but a little limited there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It caused some problems, but.
But, yeah, but I mean, that was.
That was like the wholebohemian lifestyle he's kind of got
going on is.
It's kind of an attractive thing.
It's funny because I just.
Sometimes I think there's aconfluence of events, and it's really
weird because I knew you werecoming on.

(21:56):
I was Reading the book, I'mquite enjoying.
I'm probably going to finishit over the next couple of days.
But then I started somefriends of mine who run a podcast.
They were doing a podcast onIn Excess and Michael Hutchins and
whatever.
And I don't know tons aboutthe band.
I just remember when the DevilInside tour came through Winnipeg
and everybody was going crazy.

(22:17):
Right.
That was the first concert Iever went to, actually.
Are you serious?
Okay.
Yeah.
See, Confluence of events.
Here we go.
But I didn't realize.
So I get to learn a bit abouthis, about his past.
And he was a total bohemian guy.
He was a guy that is fromAustralia, but he spent a lot of
time, I think it was in HongKong or Japan, I can't remember.

(22:39):
He lived there and he alsolived in England and he also lived
in Los Angeles because his momwas a makeup artist for movies and
stuff.
So he was traveling quite a bit.
So he had this.
He wouldn't really set rootsvery well.
So I think when he came out onthe scene, everyone was enamored
with Michael Hutchins becausehe was like, he was so cultured and

(23:02):
so different and whatever.
And I'm seeing this sort oflike the main character here, he's
doing the same thing.
He's, he's.
I'm going to do my dream andhe's, he's doing all these side things
and the whole bohemian thingis just kind of.
I don't know, it's just weirdhow I'm.
Now I'm also seeing thecharacters, a little bit of Michael
Hutchins and I don't know, Ithink that's interesting.

(23:25):
You can see you can put a lotof things into it.
Like one of the things that Iwanted to include in the book and
it comes up.
I don't know if it's come atthe point that you've read, but he's,
he's living in this theater tosave money.
Yeah.
And that's not a greatdecision because of course the place
is haunted.
But it's also a crummy way to live.
Like he's got a full out cotin his third floor office and like

(23:46):
that's no home.
And at one point a couple ofthe characters start going like,
you okay, Robert?
And one of them actually callsthem on and says, are you nuts living
like this?
And as much as we, you know,we can look back on our earlier days
and go, yeah, yeah, we reallytoughed it out.
We did some hard things.
I think it's important not toromanticize that too much, because

(24:08):
what I don't get into in thebook, but I think we all can agree,
is that, like, artistsprobably aren't paid enough to excel
and survive.
And that's why so many artistskind of just go like, yeah, I can't
make a living this way.
And that's awful.
We're missing out on so muchwonderful music, poetry, writing,
plays, movies.
Because it's expensive to make art.
And it's expensive.
I think, like you werealluding to, when you're doing music

(24:32):
and your main mode oftransportation is the bicycle, like,
you actually don't.
You can't get all theopportunities you might like because
it's expensive to haul yourstuff around.
Yeah.
And I think.
I think musicians andfilmmakers probably have it worse
because as a writer, an actor,your toolkit is pretty poor.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I feel that, you know,actors and writers probably have

(24:53):
that a little bit easier interms of overhead costs and getting
to places, but it's not awhole lot easier on the bank book,
if you know what I mean.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
I mean, yeah.
Eventually I went and got a 9to 5, you know, but I mean, I still,
you know, I still do mycreative stuff.
Like, it's still happening.
And what's really cool aboutdoing this show, the reason I'm doing

(25:17):
the show is because when I hadkids, it was really hard to be creative
and come home at 3, 4 in themorning and then wake up at 6 with
the kids and all that sort of stuff.
The balance.
I started failing at thebalancing act.
So I gave up the music for abit and I started the podcast just
to keep a foot in the arts somehow.

(25:39):
Maybe I can talk to peoplethat are doing it.
Maybe I can't do it myselfright now, but at least I can, you
know, still feel.
Still feel connected.
And now that the kids areolder, you know, I'm going back and
pursuing my stuff.
I'm still doing music, andit's just still doing this kind of
stuff.
So.
Well, to that point, there wasa really good workshop I went to
some years ago by Anita Dare,and she was talking to writers of

(26:03):
all levels of experience.
And it was about, you know,how do you progress as a writer?
How do you find opportunitiesand that.
That sort of thing.
And one of the things she saidwas that when her children were young,
she would try to get just 10minutes, 10 minutes in a day where
she could kind of shoo themout of the office when they're just
little and say, like, I justgot to work on this, just, you know,
tap, tap, tap on thetypewriter or the laptop, get a few

(26:26):
words in in 10 minutes.
It keeps your brain engaged inyour creative process.
So when you're talking aboutdoing the podcast or doing, like,
little bits of what you usedto do, hours of your brain is still
doing it.
So the next day you come backto it, and you still probably had
some subconscious things going on.
And when she said that, I felta lot better about my inability to
make a lot of time forwriting, because it was the same

(26:46):
thing.
You know, when you've gotyoung kids or any kids, like, of
any age, your family demands alot of your time as.
As they should.
You only get one shot at that.
Period of their lives.
Yep.
But it's also healthy for kidsgrowing up to see that parents have
got creative outlets thatthey've got to go.
Like, this is just for me forthis short time.
So it is good.

(27:06):
It is good to try and findthat time or that connection so that
many years go on.
Like, you're saying, maybe youhave more time afterwards to say,
okay, now I can take an hourand write something, music, whatever
it may be.
Actually, thanks for saying that.
Actually, it got me thinking,because I've always kept, like, just
a little bit.
And my kids are 10 and 12 now,and they're both incredibly creative.

(27:30):
Like, so what we have.
My wife tends to work, like, evening.
Like, evenings.
So I'll have the kid.
It'll just be me and me and my girls.
And then usually Wednesdaynights is that podcast Tuesday.
So on Wednesday nights, we allsit around the kitchen table and
we all do something creative.
So it could be individually,but we're all doing it together at

(27:52):
the table.
So it's like, Abby likes to.
She's an artist.
She likes to paint.
She's very good.
And Ellie's a story writer, soshe's writing her.
And we're all at the table together.
We're still doing thatcreative time.
And maybe it's not.
I'm not focused, and I get theblinders on and.
And focusing really hard.
But that creative energy inthe table around the three of us

(28:14):
is fantastic.
So when my wife is done workand, you know, she comes up to the
table, everyone's in a goodmood, because I don't care what anybody
says.
I. I find when you'recreative, it just gives you this
crazy inner peace, fulfillment that.
I don't know.
Like, I don't.
I. I have a heart, like, and Iwant to get your opinion on this.
This is Actually this was on our.

(28:35):
Topic board, a topic to talk about.
But do you know people thatdon't do anything creative at all?
And are you, do you thinkthey're happy?
Well, that's a tough questionbecause I don't know everything about
everyone's lives that I know.
But I think, I think just tostep back and maybe I don't want

(28:57):
to reframe your question toomuch, but I think there are creative
things that we don't alwaysthink of as being creative, but like
cooking, gardening, even.
Oh, that's creative.
Yeah.
Budgeting, Budgeting,accounting, rearranging your house.
Any.
Those things are very creative.
And so is just for a walk.
Like if you go for a walk,your mind is engaged in your surroundings
in a different way than it isif you're driving and sometimes your

(29:20):
mind can wander when you walkand you're just like they used to
say, wool gathering.
You're just kind of lettingyour mind wander.
That's can be very creative.
So I think there's a dangermore now than there ever seemed to
used to be when I was growingup that you're just inundated with
input from the universe allthe time.
Yes.
Like doom scrolling oroverwhelmed from media or never having

(29:43):
a moment to get away fromwhatever it is you're watching or
listening to.
And when you talked about thatinner peace from sitting down doing
creative stuff, I think thatcomes from expression.
And some people like to talkto others and that's their expression.
People like to write or paint,but the act of expressing whatever
is inside you is very cathartic.
Like I think that was part ofthe whole point from ancient Greek

(30:05):
drama, is that you get those,you get that, that feeling out and
it's good for you.
So doing something creative,even if it's not, you know, if somebody
does something and they'redeeply involved in it and it involves
them thinking of new ways todo things.
They might say, oh, that's notartsy or anything.
It's like maybe not, but it'sstill creative, you know, like for

(30:26):
example, tuning a car, fixinga car, fixing machines.
That's extremely creative.
Well for.
Of course it is, yeah.
But we might think it's surelyengineering or it's surely mechanical.
It's not.
It involves a lot of creative thinking.
Oh yeah, for sure.
My wife's a hairstylist, solike she's creating art every day.
You know, honestly she is.

(30:46):
And, and, but it's interestingbecause she does that.
She's also a painter and youcan see how she does Painting and
it's colors and all thesesorts of things.
And how she creates amasterpiece on someone's head and
on a page, and it's actuallynot that far removed from each other.

(31:07):
I think there's a lot ofcreative things.
Like, you're saying, like amechanic that is creative.
Absolutely, it is.
I like the thing aboutconversation because that kind of
gets into the acting thing,because I know some people say, well,
I'm acting.
It's someone else's words.
Yeah.
But you're taking those wordsand you're doing something with it.
Like, my mom's a singer, andshe was never singing any songs that

(31:30):
she wrote, but she wasreinterpreting those songs in her
style.
So if you're acting, it's thesame exact thing.
One of the things that I love doing.
You're right.
I mean, every play done bydifferent actors and different director
comes out a bit different.
Oh, yeah.
You have a different.
Different energy.
And the same thing with singing.
Like, you know, I love a lotof different kinds of music.

(31:53):
And sometimes, if I like.
For classical music is a greatexample of what you were just saying,
because there are someperformances of some pieces by, like,
whatever Beethoven or Bach.
And I grew up listening to aparticular version.
And what I love about placeslike the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra,
when they have their vinylvault, you go down there, into that

(32:14):
room which is like stacks ofrecords, and the volunteers know
where everything is, and theysay, I'm looking for.
I think it was a concert from1959, and this guy was playing piano,
and they go like, yep, I knowwhere that is.
And so they found this oldconcert for me on vinyl that I had
mangled my tape version of,and I put it on the stereo, and it's
like, yeah, the way he playsit is just how I think of it.

(32:39):
So I think the player brings alot to it.
Oh, God, yeah.
Yeah.
Like my brother, like, in ourmusic, I write the music and my brother
plays it.
But if I performed, if Iplayed the guitar or the piano, it
wouldn't sound anything likethe way he's doing it, because he's
got his own touch.
The way he touches thestrings, the way he bends the notes,

(33:02):
that's completely him.
And when my brother plays, youknow, it's him.
I could hear the same songplayed by 10 people.
And I could always point mybrother out just because he has that
his own artistic flair, hisown signature to what he does.
It's the same thing with anactor, too.
And the great actors,sometimes you don't know what that

(33:23):
flare is because they'rechameleon like, and they can just.
I saw a great example of this,actually, in third year theater.
And I apologize if this is tooprecious or too much of a rabbit
hole, but I don't care.
This is what we do in theshow, so go with it for sure.
Okay.
If people are familiar withthe play, Rosencrass and Guildenstern
are dead.
It's about two minorcharacters from Hamlet.

(33:44):
And the point is, we know bythe end of Hamlet that they were
executed.
The whole play is an absurdistplay of what they were doing behind
the scenes of Hamlet.
And part of the point of the.
Not to put words in theplaywright's mouth, but part of what's
going on in the play is thatit doesn't really matter which one
is which.
They don't really havedistinct personalities, even though
they argue, even though they debate.

(34:06):
And so that sort of weirdabsurdity of not being a distinct
person when you're constantlyarguing with your.
Your companion is part of the humor.
And in my acting class, therewere two women who did that play
for scene work.
They did that.
A section of it, and it was great.
They were wonderful.
It was so funny.
Beat, beat, beat.
Everything was snappy.

(34:27):
But our professor pointed this out.
He said, you know, this ispart of what the play is doing.
It's saying it doesn't matterwho's who.
And we can absolutely tellwhich of you is which because you're
so distinct in your mannerisms.
So what he asked them to dowas, you, I want it to do the way
she would do it, and you do itthe way she would do it.
And the tension remained.
And what was hilarious wasthat they knew each other so well

(34:50):
that they started spoofingeach other's mannerisms.
And the closer they got toparodying each other, the harder
it was to tell who was who.
And it was so funny.
And all of the class, we werejust dying laughing.
I've rarely laughed so hardbecause not only did the scene work
because of that, but seeingthem send each other up was just
lovely.
I had a chance to catch upwith both a couple of weeks ago at

(35:12):
a reading that I did of venue 13.
And I said, do you rememberwhen you guys did Rose and Fence
and Gilbert and they're going,oh, God.
And I said, no.
It was seriously one of thebest pieces that theater that I.
You still remember it to this day.
It was memorable, though.
That's awesome.
That's a.
What a great idea.
What a good teacher to to recommend.
No, this is what you got to do.
Because yeah, it would makethem immutable.

(35:34):
Like you wouldn't.
You could.
Oh, that's genius.
I like that.
Oh, I miss acting.
You're making me miss acting alittle bit.
I sometimes do too.
Like, I haven't gone on stagefor a long time.
In fact, at the book launch,one of my, A friend of mine who had.
We'd been in a show or twotogether, we were in, we were in

(35:55):
a fringe play.
We did Henry IV Part one, andhe was Prince Hal and I played Hotspur.
So we were nemeses, we weregood friends.
And he asked at the launch forvenue 13, you know, what would it
take to get you up on stage?
Yeah.
And I kind of made a joke.
I said, oh, a million dollars.
Because, you know, like, forme it's sort of a chapter that's,
that's closed.
But I do miss it.

(36:15):
I miss that feeling.
And as anybody at the launchor any place I've done reads, can
see, it's like, put me infront of a microphone with my book
or something.
I can read and I'm a total ham.
I want to put on the reading.
You're still performing.
You're still performing, right?
I still love that.
Yeah.
I don't know if I would go back.
It's one of those things.
Like I did it, it was fun, butI still get the itch.

(36:37):
But I think, and maybe you'resimilar to me in that way.
I actually like kind ofcontrolling the words behind everything.
You know, like having a bitmore control.
Like it's fun to do someoneelse's lines.
But every time when I've actedbefore, I would always kind of change

(36:59):
my lines a little bit insubtle little ways.
And sometimes the writerwasn't always on set so the director
didn't really know any better.
And then later when you'redoing ADR and something and they're
like, we're trying to matchwhat you said, but like, this isn't
in the script at all.
Like, what, what were you doing?

(37:19):
But I, I don't know.
Like I, I doing the words is,is fun for me.
Like, I really like, I reallylike that I started.
Now the kids are a little moreself sufficient at this age and we
have our creative time on Wednesdays.
I'm going back to writing somemore because I used to write all
the time and you know,obsessively I was writing.
But again, everything takes a backseat.

(37:40):
You got to look after yourpriorities and that sort of thing.
But reading this.
David, I don't know.
Reading this really got meexcited to write again.
I like the style.
There's complexity in there,but it's still a simple read.
But because I've written forso long and I've read a million things,

(38:04):
I like.
I'm like, okay, I like.
It's a simple.
You can just jump in and justread and just enjoy it.
But if you delve a little bit,like there's the choices of words
or how a scene is going toplay out, like there's some really
kind of smarter things inthere that I'm liking, enjoying as
a writer going, oh, I likewhat you did there.
Like, that was kind of a cooltwist and stuff.

(38:26):
Like, it's not a simple.
It's not a simple book, butyou can read it simply, if that makes
sense.
I Very glad to hear thatbecause one, I was hoping we would
get there when we went through revisions.
And also I think that's important.
I think, I think a story,whatever form it's in, should be
enjoyable so you can get intoit and then have things that you

(38:47):
may think about later.
I love that.
About stories that I love.
Where I go, like, that was agreat movie, play, whatever.
And then you.
And then you come back to it,even maybe later in life and you
reread it or re watching,like, oh, I didn't see that.
But it's there.
You know, I love that.
I love the sort of depth thatsome things can have.
But to talk about it later,like to actually.
So I read a scene and thenwhat I would.

(39:10):
I like reading at night before bed.
It's my.
Yeah.
Like I have.
I have a. I work really early shift.
So I go to bed before everyoneelse in the house, including the
kids.
But I.
But I have this.
And my wife understands.
Like, I have to have this kindof half an hour at least before bed,
45 minutes, where it's kind ofmy meditation.
So I read.

(39:31):
But when I'm reading yourstuff, I can only read for half an
hour.
And then I have to take 15minutes to process to go, okay, do
there.
So I'm thinking and I'mreflecting and I'm like, okay, so
he did that there.
And then he's.
He's sleeping in the theater.
And then who is this?
Who's this?
This Ariana.
And so I just.
I don't know.
I like that when you readsomething simple sometimes if it's

(39:55):
truly simple, maybe you won'tdo that.
But there was enough.
It was simple enough to readthat I Could read it quickly, but
enough that I wanted toreflect after.
It's like when you watch mywife, like I said, my wife's a creative
too.
So when we go see a movie orwe read books together, we do book
club with each other, we'll read.
But we always talk aboutwhatever we watch whatever, like

(40:17):
doesn't matter what it is andtalk about it.
And I think a good art that'slike, that's good art, that it creates
conversation afterwards.
I agree.
And I love that about, I lovethat about the Fringe, for example,
where people say, what did you see?
What's good?
What do you see?
What did you like?
And you might have people whocome out of a show going, that was
amazing.
Or others that go like, didn'tconnect with it.

(40:39):
And then if they talk aboutit, then you can sort of see like,
oh, I see, I didn't get that.
Or oh, yeah, I see what you'resaying, but I don't like that.
And that's.
It engages a different part ofyour brain than simply enjoying it.
So that reflection you'retalking about, we have 15 minutes.
You're kind of being your ownbeer tent there at the Fringe where
you're like, what about this?
What about that?
But I do love that aboutsharing books and sharing stories.

(41:01):
It's something that's different.
Maybe in our age of streamingwhere everybody can binge whatever
they want and you don't havethe same, you know, 13 channels that
everybody has access to.
So you all watch the samething Friday night and talk about
it at school the next day.
Well, but I kind miss thatabout, about nowadays because like
the binge culture or likeyou're saying like the doom scrolling.

(41:23):
I don't get.
I mean, I will doom scrolloccasionally, but I don't do it that
often because it's not for me.
It's not satisfying.
Like I want to.
I want to watch something and think.
I think the doom scrolling.
Yeah.
And that's what doom scrollingprevents you from.
I've been sucked into it myself.

(41:43):
It's meant to capture yourattention and to prevent reflection
in my.
Like, I'm not saying it's anefarious conspiracy, but the nature
of the experience is that youdon't have time to reflect, which
is why you have to.
Go on to the next thing.
Yeah.
Or you argue with the personbased on a basic, very surface level
interpretation.
That's not really about communication.
If you experience something inthe theater, movie theater or stage,

(42:06):
whatever, and you come out ofit having that emotional experience
and Then you talk about it.
That's different than ifsomebody shares a single line and
you're like, I disagree withwhat that means, but there's zero
context.
That's what I, that's what Idon't like.
Nothing has context anymore.
I really like when my brotherand I will talk about, like sometimes
we'll analyze music on, on the show.

(42:26):
Like there's new song that Ijust really heard that I just heard.
And I really want him to hearit because I want to, I want to know
what he's going to think aboutit so we can actually talk about
it.
Like that's what art is for.
Like this, I don't know, this.
It's communal.
Yeah, it's communal.
One thing that I startedtrying to do more and it's not like

(42:47):
an obligation, but I didn'tlike how I was getting up in the
morning and obviously I wouldcheck my email and check the weather
because I want to know what mybike ride is going to be like to
work.
Sure, yeah, yeah.
But then I'd get into doomscrolling and I'd find like, you
know, 20 minutes goes by.
It's like, ugh, I don't feel great.
I'm upset about something.
Yeah.
So I tried to switch andInstead read for 10 minutes, whatever
I'm reading.
And I used to doing it likeyou, where I'm reading just before

(43:10):
bed.
And I do do that still.
But what I found is that ifI'm taking like 10, 15 minutes to
read something just for fun inthe morning, I feel better.
And I think that kind of setsmy day in a way that just reading
endless news or whateverbecause I'm going to read the news
in a bit anyway.
But reading something just forfun engages my mind in a different

(43:30):
way and I feel better a little bit.
Like what you said about thecreative time around the table, like
you engaged your mind adifferent way and then, you know,
you emerge from that and yourmind is maybe refreshed.
We also try to do that when we watch.
Like we'll take the kids.
We're very selective.
Like, okay, this movie thefour of us are going to go see, but
then we always book time afterthe movie to, I don't know, go to

(43:54):
A and W or something.
But, but it's.
But the purpose is not to eat,the purpose is to talk about the
experience.
We just had to create a bitmore permanence to, hey, we all went
to the movie, we all saw thisto talk about it.
So we'll remember this fiveyears from now or ten years from
now.
And we've always done it.

(44:14):
And I don't know if it was intentional.
That's because I don't know mywife and I, if we're intentionally
doing it.
But we've noticed, like, the,you know, like I said, the kids are
10 and 12, but they'll say, doyou remember that time that we went
to the theater and we sawBlah, blah, blah, and then we went
hereafter?
And then they still rememberthe whole thing.
And it's like, oh, you know,we did something right.

(44:35):
Like, we're creating a permanence.
And I think really great arthas that permanence to it.
Like, if you listen to.
I don't know, I'll pick a random.
The first time you heard theWeaker Than.
Because we brought them up earlier.
The first time you heard theWeaker Thens, I bet you you have
a memory associated with, whenyou listen to it, how you felt, what

(44:55):
was happening around you atthat time.
Whether it was maybe you wereat a bookstore and you heard it or
a venue or you heard it on,um, FM or something or whatever.
Like, there's a whole storyaround listening to that song.
I'm sure there is.
There's some albums that Iprefer to listen during a certain
months of the year, and it'susually because that's the first

(45:18):
month that I ever heard that.
That album.
And I listened to it a lot.
And for me, like, I didn'trealize that that was an odd thing
until, you know, my wife'ssaying, why are you always playing
Def Leppard at Christmas?
I was like, oh, well, becauseI got Hysteria in December that year,
and.
I played it a lot.
And it always.
I always want to listen to itin December.
It's not Christmas music, butit's December music for me.

(45:41):
Okay.
So I have this.
I have the same thing.
My.
I don't know if I want to callit guilty pleasure.
People make fun of me all the time.
It's like, you're such.
You know, you're such aserious musician.
You're writing this seriousstuff and you like Kiss.
I'm like, well, oh, come on.
But.
Well, like what you said aboutsimplicity and complexity.
I'm not going to read too muchinto Kiss, because I'm a big Kiss

(46:02):
fan, too.
And, you know, let's not getinto the lyrics.
You can.
Yeah, even that.
Even as a teenager, I waslistening to some of these songs.
Like, is he really saying thatabout this teenager?
Yeah.
However, musically, it's veryeasy to get lost into like, oh, yeah,
he's such a facile player of this.
And then you listen, it'slike, yeah, but how hard was it to

(46:22):
write something that simplethat you can't stop thinking about
that.
Yeah, that it's.
That it stays replaying inyour head all the time for me.
So I was going to say, withKiss, it's October, because they
used to do.
I don't know when they startedthis, but they.
The.
The deal with PolygraphPolygram, I think, is who they were
with.
They always had to release anew record every October, which was

(46:44):
my birth, which was mybirthday month.
So every, you know, everybirthday month, I get a Kiss record
or, you know, every other yearor whatever, but it was always in
October.
And.
And that was like.
Because it was the new releasecycle, it was not intentional by
Kiss, but it was what.
The cycle of the.
The.
The release the record, do thetour, get the tour done, go back

(47:08):
in the studio, record andrelease the next record.
So there was a whole cyclethat a lot of followed.
Right.
So Kiss was notorious forthat, though.
Like, I. I remember in highschool, I wrote a.
A review of Hot in the Shade,which I think probably came out in
October or September.
It was that fall.
No, it did.
Yeah, it was that fall.
Yep.
And the headline I wrote forit was the annual Kiss album.
Because it seemed to me, Istarted noticing, hey, they come

(47:30):
up with something every year.
It's either like a new albumor greatest hits or something.
But, yeah, yeah, theyunderstood marketing, that's for
sure.
Oh, yeah, they.
They did.
I did see them on that tour,by the way.
Oh, get out.
That's.
I wish I had.
Actually, I was.
I was living in Montreal atthe time.
That was possibly one of mycreative peaks.

(47:50):
Montreal is.
If you.
If you want to be creative inMontreal, it's.
It's hard not to be creativein Montreal.
It's just such a. Wow.
But, yeah, I saw them.
I was living there at thetime, and Kiss came through and I
saw them there and it was.
It was something else.
It was awesome.
That's very cool.

(48:10):
I have not been to Montreal.
It's one of the great worldcities I want to go to.
Oh, yeah, it's worth it.
It's old European in a lot of ways.
And the people are probablythe most passionate in all of our
country, that's for sure.
They're passionate about something.
They get angry or they get.
They fall in love withsomething, like just crazy amount,

(48:33):
and then they move on to thenext thing.
It's a Very interesting place.
Yeah, that's for sure.
Kind of going through your.
Some of the other writingyou've done here.
So I didn't get a chance todelve into this stuff, but there's
a lot of.
It's Fenrir, you morons.

(48:55):
That looks.
I want to go check that out.
That one is actually availableon Polar Borealis magazine for free.
You can read it for free.
That's awesome.
I'm going to be checking that out.
So you said there was aninterest in the old.
Was it the trolls or whatever,like the Icelandic trolls and all
those sorts of stories?
Yeah.

(49:15):
With some of the otherwriting, was it kind of based on
kind of those fantasticalelements or.
Like, I've done.
Done a lot of short storiesand I usually, if not always write
something with a speculativeelement or there's a science fiction
or fantasy element to theshort stories.

(49:36):
And so I draw a lot fromwhatever interests me.
Like people say, write whatyou know, but I.
The caveat, which is probablyunspoken, is write what you care
about.
And a lot of what I care abouthas to do with those things.
It's very much like I said,you know, I had this idea that going
there would affect the rest ofmy life and it absolutely affected
my creative life.
Because it's one thing to kindof be interested in that stuff and

(49:58):
it's another to sort of beswimming in it alongside people who've
grown up with it and are alittle bit blase about these things.
And then they're at the pointwhere you satirize it or make parodies
of it and you're like, oh,that's not.
It's not treating it with therespect it deserves.
But if it's their own culture,then of course they can take the
piss out of it sometimes.
Oh, yeah.
Oh.

(50:18):
When I'm writing shortstories, I'm usually grabbing on
to some little element of a.
Something about a ghost or amyth or a monster or something and
trying to weave it into amodern context or sometimes a historical
context.
And I really enjoy doing that.
So some.
Sometimes I'll write a trollstory or sometimes I'll write a sort
of a Norse myth inspired story.

(50:39):
But I don't.
I'm not super interested in astraight up retelling.
Yes.
And I have.
I have some stories that areon submission that I hope will get
picked up because I had a lotof fun writing, you know, about mythological
things in a.
Either a modern context or asI say, historical that I would love
to see published because oneday I'D love to put together a collection

(51:01):
of short stories and have thatcome out.
Have you.
Have you met Chadwick Gintherat all?
In fact, I have.
The way I met Chadwick wasthat he asked if I would copy edit
his books that came outthrough Ravenstone, because I had
a background in, you know,sort of Norse things and.
Yeah, Icelandic.
Icelandic matters.

(51:21):
Then I was more than happy todo it.
So I copy edited and proofreadall of those books that he did with
Ravenstone.
Oh, wow.
That's cool.
Wow.
Small world.
Well, yeah, the Icelandicworld starts collapsing in on itself
at a certain point.
I mean, I joke about it, but,like, I'm.
I'm two degrees of separationfrom Bill Clinton because I met the
president of Iceland and Iwent to high school or went to university

(51:42):
with his daughter.
Okay.
Former.
Former president.
No longer.
But.
But at the time.
So it does get to be very.
Like, everybody knows eachother by 2 degrees or something.
And I think.
I think in Winnipeg, too, Ithink there's like, one connection
to everyone also.
Yes, also true.
That's another thing aboutIceland and Winnipeg that's very
similar, and maybe it's withother island cultures, is that wherever

(52:06):
you go in Canada, if you meetsomeone from Winnipeg, like, you
can have a conversation, andat some point you're like, oh, yeah,
yeah, I went to high schoolwith the person you're talking about.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's so true.
It's ridiculous.
I think.
I think Winnipeggers are theAustralians of Canada, if that isn't
stretching them too much,because we go all over the country
and kind of settle differentplaces and then still maintain these

(52:27):
connections to, you know, thisweird place, Prairie Town, there's
probably similar.
My wife is Portuguese, and herfamily's Portuguese, obviously.
So there's Portuguese everywhere.
And it's kind of cool becausethey always know, hey, they see the
person over there, they're Portuguese.
They are.
They already know.
They already recognize, andthey can just go have a conversation
with them.
It's kind of cool.

(52:49):
Like, one of my favoriterandom encounters was I was in Toronto
with my wife.
We weren't married yet, but wewere going to a wedding, and we were
staying in my cousin's place,and he wasn't there.
So this is alreadycomplicated, and we should have been
completely anonymous.
And we were walking to gocatch a train somewhere so we could
get to the wedding.

(53:09):
And this man walks out of thesubway station, and I sort of recognized
the body language.
And he goes, david Joan Fuller.
And he was actually this hugeIcelandic director.
That I'd met while I lived there.
And Bronwen, my wife, waslike, how do you know this guy's
like, oh, yeah, we knew eachother in Iceland and we just randomly
meet in Toronto.
But it was like, oh, yeah,haven't seen you for a couple years.
How's it going?
I'm just blah, blah, blah.

(53:31):
And the thing was, too, asidefrom knowing him in Iceland, he also
lived in Winnipeg.
So there was this double.
Yeah, yeah.
You.
You.
We were talking earlier.
You said you'd listen to ourepisode with Daryl Dwarf.
And you had a connection withDaryl Dwarf, too?
Well, you know, sort of, yes.
I mean, because he talkedabout the concert that he played
here with Helix and Kick Axand how they did really well.

(53:53):
I agree.
I was at that concert and Iwas blown away by the Killer Dwarfs.
And so I started listening toall the music and I started realizing,
like, hey, it's hard to getsome of this stuff on cd.
Why don't they have a box set?
They need a box set.
Yeah.
And they played again inWinnipeg in 2022, and I think it
was the third time was a charm.
But I saw them in 2022 and Ithought, this is.

(54:13):
These guys are good.
I really want to.
Wait, you saw them in 2020?
Wait, 2022.
2020.
I'm pretty sure.
Pretty sure it was.
Because it was sort of postpandemic in the Bulldog.
At the Bulldog.
I'm gonna retract a bit.
They played twice in 2019.
Before the pandemic.
Before the Pandemic, Yeah,because he talked to us about that.

(54:36):
But yeah, in 2022.
I think it was around becauseI was at the Bulldog too.
So we're there.
That's funny.
So the story about to tell isabout that.
What I'd gotten intocollecting all their stuff, it was
piecemeal.
And I was like, you know whatI'm gonna do?
I'm gonna make a box set.
And I think I shared the linkto you of this little Killer Dwarfs
box, the crate that you see intheir old music videos.

(54:57):
Oh, really?
Oh, nice.
Yeah, yeah.
If you click the link that I'dsent you earlier, if you're interested.
I recreated it.
So I thought if they're gonnahave a box set, it would look like
the crate from their videoswhere Rustwarf comes out.
Yeah, yeah.
So I. I built this thing outof wood and bought all the CDs, filled
it up, and I took it to that concert.
And then after they were done,I said, can you guys please sign

(55:18):
my box set?
And they were like, where didyou get this?
And I said, well, I made it myself.
And the guitar players, like,we should be making these.
And I said, yeah, you should.
So I got all of them to signit and it was a blast to get to talk
to them.
They're really nice.
Such lovely people.
Yeah, yeah, we actually he.
Well, when they were coming toWinnipeg, he messaged us, hey, I'm

(55:40):
coming to Winnipeg.
Like I said, so we're gonnasee you at the show.
So we, we get to hang out withRuss a bit more.
And like, just a sweetheart ofa guy.
Like.
Yeah, they're just such lovely people.
At least from what I could,you know, for them to take the time
when.
When I was just Joe Schmo witha thing.
Can you sign this for me?
I thought that was quite nice.
They do that with all their fans.
It's, it's, it's.

(56:02):
Anyone talks about killerdwarfs, that's generally what it
is.
I'm looking at your picturenow with the killer dwarf inside.
So cool.
Oh, they're so good.
So I'm gonna try to see if Ican get him back on because he just
released his third book, whichI just picked up, which it's a nice
easy read, I think.
It's only they're not big, sothey're quick reads.

(56:24):
You can probably read them ina day or whatever.
But it's really good.
He's actually not a bad writer.
He's.
You.
You wouldn't expect it.
But yeah, he's on his thirdbook and he's got another one coming,
so, you know, good on him.
So self published, you know.
Yeah, I've been meaning topick those up.
I should have bought them atthat concert because they had, I
think, everything availableand I was, I was so set on getting

(56:46):
them to sign my thing and Ibought whatever the latest CD that
I didn't have was, but Ishould have bought the books too.
Yeah, well, they're definitelyavailable from his website, so.
Okay, yeah, I'll send you thelink after.
But yeah, no, he's a good guy.
And even though, like, eventhough, like we're not friends or
anything, if I send him amessage, he always replies and thanks,

(57:06):
brother.
You know?
Yeah, he reminds me.
I don't know why, but he kindof reminds me, like if someone from
Newfoundland, just that superfriendly vibe.
Cool, you know, just laid backand, I don't know, kind of cool guy.

(57:26):
Just going through your otherstuff here.
So are you, are you going tothe fringe?
I know you're not Performingat the Fringe this year.
But are you, you stillregularly go every year?
I'm sure.
I, I do.
I, I, some years it's easierthan others to kind of get out and
see more shows.
I don't know why July ends upbeing a crazy month for me for one
reason or another.
Like two years ago, I wasactually doing.

(57:47):
There was substantive edit onvenue 13, but I was also reviewing
Fringe plays.
So I was trying to get myword, word count every day on the
manuscript to meet a deadline.
And then I was also runningout to the Fringe and seeing a show
type, type, type, type, youknow, send it off so it can be in
the paper.
Yeah.
On deadline.
So that was utterly bonkers.
And I don't know why I thoughtI could do all that.

(58:09):
But it, you know, it workedall right.
Just like the main characterin your book.
Yeah.
Seriously over committing.
Yeah.
So there's some livedexperience there for sure.
And I do enjoy going to the Fridge.
It's got this weird vibe thatother festivals in Manitoba don't.
And it's a great way toexperience live theater.

(58:29):
I love seeing the free stuffat the Old Market Square, but it's
also wonderful when you cansee a traveling production or even
a local production that isjust great drama between two or three
characters and it'sconcentrated into like an hour or
less.
It's a very different way ofexperiencing a story than movies
or episodic TV or even a book.

(58:51):
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
We were supposed to go thisweekend, but it's like going from
a hot house to wait outside inline in a heat wave.
We're going to try going thisweekend with the kids and try to.
There's a few interesting ones.
Well, that they want to seebecause a lot of the stuff.
I like seeing a lot of theedgy stuff.

(59:12):
Yeah.
You know, where boundaries arebeing pushed.
But, I mean, I can't take mykids to the, to those ones new,.
Maybe when they're a bit older.
But yeah.
I got hooked on the Fringewhen I was 17, like I probably would
have earlier if I understoodwhat it was about.
But it was actually my dramateacher in high school after I graduated,
because I was going on to do atheater degree.
This was U of W, you said, Right.

(59:33):
I went to ufw.
Yeah.
I went to a high school atRiver East Collegiate in North Carolina,
and our drama teacher there was.
Part of what you did in grade12 theater was you had to go to a
full season of the MTCWarehouse and then write about each
thing.
So you were going to theaterand seeing actual theater while you
were doing stuff.
And at the end of the year,she said, you should come up to the
Fringe because it's got everything.

(59:53):
And so I took her advice andwas hooked.
It was just so much fun.
And so from that point, if Iwasn't already signed up for a theater
program, I would have then golike, no, this is what I want to
do.
It's a blast.
Yeah, it's amazing.
I. I have several friends that.
That are in plays this year,so I'm going to try to hit those
if I can, as much as I can.

(01:00:16):
Sorry, I just got to receive.
Okay, never mind.
I just received a phone call.
I just want to make sure itwasn't an emergency.
No, it's good.
We're good.
Good.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, one of thethings that you sometimes get asked
if you do a degree in the artsor in theater, it's like, well, what
made you decide not to do it anymore?
Because obviously I'm not anactor anymore.
And for me, part of it was thestability, the kind of stability

(01:00:39):
that Robert in the novel ischasing but can't get.
And like, what we've discussedjust now, you know, But I also lucked
into something because after Icame back from my time in Iceland,
I applied for jobs, got a jobin a restaurant, and then I got a
job working for a dramapublishing publisher in town.
And it was this greatcombination of, like, well, I like

(01:01:00):
writing, I like editing,believe it or not, I like proofreading.
And this is exactly my milieu.
So how great is this?
And so I did that for a fewyears and I learned that as much
as, you know, I joke about,well, theater was a little precarious.
So I went to a notoriouslystable industry like publishing.
But.
But I do love the publishing process.

(01:01:22):
And I got very involved in theIcelandic ethnic paper here in Manitoba
that, you know, is all acrossNorth America, but it's based here.
And then, like now I work atthe Free Press, and I do love working
with words all day, and I domiss theater sometimes, but this,
this sort of work also keepsmy brain very engaged.

(01:01:43):
And.
And like I was saying, youknow, that 10 minutes a day on your
own creative things, sometimesthat's enough to keep going for when
you have more time in your dayto do creative work.
That's awesome.
I was trying to see if therewas anything else here I wanted to
bring up.

(01:02:06):
So you've got the book in allthe stores, which is good.
It's available.
Oh, you even have it on Amazonas well.
Yep.
Flintstone has got.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, the reach is pretty good.
Are you selling through yourwebsite at all?
I didn't notice.
I am not.
I'm not set up to do that, but partly.

(01:02:26):
Also, like, I'm a big believerin local booksellers and, you know,
frankly, big booksellers, likechapters in Amazon.
I'd love for them to sell the book.
But I really do like directingpeople because, you know, I've got
cousins and friends andrelatives all over Canada and in
U.S. you know, people say,where can I get your book?
And I say, you know what, Justgo to your favorite bookstore and
ask them to order it for you.
It's not going to be.

(01:02:46):
It's not going to be instant,but hey, they're going to get a sale
out of it.
They're going to say, here's this.
Here's this oddball book from Winnipeg.
And it's just a. I just likethat way of buying books myself.
So I always encourage it.
I also actually encouragepeople to ask for it at the library
because in Canada thatactually helps authors quite a bit.

(01:03:06):
Yeah, that's true.
I'm a big library.
Or we go usually.
Well, once a month.
We'll get a whole.
Just stack.
Everybody gets a stack.
The four of us go.
It's.
It's a.
An adventure.
And then we usually go forlunch afterwards.
It's a, you know, it's.
It's a big thing.
And the kids love to read,they love to create, they love to
write.
So.
And, you know, it's all.
You're showing that it's fun.
You're showing that it's funto go and do that and then just make

(01:03:28):
an event of it.
Like, that's.
I think it's a lovely way toengage with reading.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
We're probably going to cap itoff here.
I think we've kind of coveredjust a little bit of everything.
What's the best place to get ahold of you if people want to ask
questions about the book orask about any of your other stuff?

(01:03:49):
What's the best place to go?
You can find me on my website.
It's davidyounefuller.com andthe Yon is spelled Jo N. I'm on Blue
sky fairly often and I'm on Instagram.
Instagram.
But I'll be honest, sometimesInstagram I don't quite get the.
The flow of feed.
Sometimes I'll see stuff thatI thought was current and it's two

(01:04:10):
weeks ago, even though I'm onFriday, you know, people can message
me via my website.
That's probably reliablebecause it goes to my email.
But yeah.
And if people also see me at areading or somewhere, just come up
and say hi.
I'd love to talk to people whowant to talk about books.
Yeah.
You've been very accommodating.
Thanks for coming on the show.
This is great.
I learned a lot of stuff.

(01:04:31):
I get to talk about stuff Ilike talking about, which is good.
Happy birthday, Todd.
Yes.
Happy birthday, Todd.
Even though I haven't met, Ihope it was a fantastic day.
Thank you for listening andwe'll see you next week.
And bye.
Have a good day.

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Venue 13, Icelandic Ghosts, and the Bohemian Life — An Author Interview with David Jon Fuller

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Venue 13, Icelandic Ghosts, and the Bohemian Life — An Author Interview with David Jon Fuller