October 30, 2025 • 7 mins
Paul Myers is an all-around good guy who just released a well-researched book on comedic actor, John Candy. "John Candy: A Life In Comedy" is available wherever good people sell books.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
How have you been. I'm Brett Sunders. Welcome back this
week author Paul Myers. He just released the book John Candy,
A Life in Comedy and if you're like me, you're
a big John Candy fan, going back to his amazing
days at SCTV. Hey welcome, Paul Myers.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hi, please to be here, so to speak.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I'm a big fan of yours. We follow each other
on social media. Before we move forward, I want to
mention that you have an excellent podcast, the Record Story
Day Podcast. Everybody should listen to this thing.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Thank you so much. That really means a lot to
me because that is a labor of love for me.
I really put a lot of myself into that, So
thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
The book is John Candy, A Life in Comedy. I'm
glad you wrote this book, Paul, because John Candy is
one of those people. I think he's an enigma to
a lot of us. But at the same time, and
you would know this better than I would, since you
did the research for the book. There probably isn't one
person in the world who didn't like John Candy.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah. Actually there is pretty much only one oh Star
whoever just rumbled working with him, and that was Richard Pryor,
and no one knows why, but Richard Pryor's Richard Pryor's
writer Paul Mooney wrote in his memoir that when they
made Brewster's Millions together, Richard Pryor just didn't want to
hang out with John Candy, and everyone w why and
he just said, I got my reasons, you know, like
(01:17):
he just didn't say. And but I mean, it's a
shame to lose Richard Pryor. But he basically everyone else
he ever met, you know, was in love with him.
So yeah, I really, yeah, it was kind of fun
to sort of hear from people. I felt like I
was keeping their stories. Like Captaine O'Hara would talk to me,
and I felt the responsibility of you know, getting the
(01:39):
getting what she says down perfectly and trying to really
describe her friend, you know, who I never met, and
so all these people are telling him like a detective,
you know, I have to make a story. I'm alive
based on all this information that I'm compiling firsthand and
researched as well. So yeah, so I really appreciate you
appreciating that, Paul.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
I'm did you mentioned Catherine O'Hara because when I was
a kid growing up in Detroit. You know, we had
Canadian television as well as American television because of Windsor
and all that. And I think I first saw John
Candy when I was thirteen or fourteen years old, and
I saw things like Missus Felbo's Tiny Town and Polynesia
(02:19):
Town and Yellowbelly. Yellowbelly might be my number one favorite
comedy skit of all time. And John Candy starred in
all of these. It made them great.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Amazing, Yeah, he did make them great. Sorry to cut
you off. My wife only saw Yellow Belly recently, and
I'd seen it obviously because I watched everything, but she
just couldn't believe that she'd never seen that character before,
and it was just so audacious and so funny. But yeah, no,
he did so many great things on SETV itself. Oh,
(02:51):
I wanted to tell you something about Detroit, by the way,
So during the research I discovered that Cream magazine from
Detroit is one of the great original rock magazines, and
the editors of Cream were amongst the first Americans to
give columns about SETV, and they did a set visit.
They sent Susan Whittall from Cream went to Edmonton to
visit the set when they were shooting what season there.
(03:13):
And it's so important that Cream Magazine, like before Rolling
Stone or anyone else, Cream was the first sort of
music magazine to really catch the rock and rollness of
SETV because you know, they later of course spun off
that show, like Bob and Doug character did a single
with Gedty Lee from Rush. So there was definitely a
cross pollination of Canadian comedy and rock that came out
(03:36):
of there. So it was really great that Cream picked
that up.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
You know, I vividly remembered that article in Cream Magazine.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I talked to the author of that for the book,
so yeah, so it's great. That was my favorite thing
about this thing is I got to talk to people
who interviewed John because I couldn't, and I talked to
people who worked with John. I talked to people who
directed John, like I talked to the family of John
Hughes talked to me for this. I talked to Ron Howard,
Chris Columbus, Howard Deutsche, all of his directors, and it
(04:07):
was just that was such a joy for me as
a fan to get to be the guy holding the remote. Basically,
I got to change the channels. Whenever I wanted to,
I could go to who whoever responded, I got to
talk to them and control control that sort of like
I want to hear this now. I want to hear
that now. You know so, I do love that about
writing books.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
You mentioned in the book, and I started out with
the question there was probably nobody who didn't like John
Candy besides Richard Pryor apparently, but another person who did
not seem to like John Candy very much was John Candy.
I was wondering if you could elaborate on that.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Well, that's interesting. I think, to paraphrase the movie scene,
he did like himself. He would say he liked me,
but he his whole thing was that I don't think
he took care of his own emotional well being because
maybe he didn't. I don't know. I can't speak for him.
(05:02):
I try not to analyze. I'm not a doctor. But
one of the things that got the sense was he
didn't have a lot of emotional self care, or wasn't
trained in it. Maybe nowadays we know better. He didn't
guard that part of himself. He gave away a lot
of himself, and I think he didn't leave much in
the tank for himself, and I think he later started
(05:23):
to get therapy, and you know, constantly was fighting with
body image, and of course the media didn't help, you know,
like in those days especially, there was no such thing
as the term body shaming. There was just you called
someone a fatty, and the public just did it. And
he had to endure that, sometimes to his face, sometimes
in print. So I think that built up inside him,
(05:45):
and I think he internalized a lot of negativity while
he's out there trying to be making positivity for everyone else.
So I don't know if he didn't like himself or
he just didn't know how to take care of himself
as much as maybe we could today, you know. But
that's the sad undercurrent of the story, which makes his
comedy even funnier to me, that he worked so hard
(06:07):
to make everyone.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Laugh, you know, you know, there are so many skits.
I'm this SCTV dude, and I think I know that
you are too. And you know, when he was the
drummer for the Queen haters, or when he portrayed Divine.
I mean, the list is just endless of Johnny LaRue.
Of course, I mean, the guy really was a genius,
and I really do wish that he were still around.
(06:28):
What is the status. I know that there's a new movie,
a documentary on John Candy. Whatever happened to the SCTV
documentary directed by Martin Scorsese.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Well, it's so funny, and I know we're running out
of your time here, but I just wanted to say
that that film. When I got in discussions for this book,
I said, I want to do an SETV book, but
I guess the Martin Scorsese film will be out by
the time my book comes out, so I won't do that.
So I did John Candy separately instead, and I just
heard recently it still hasn't come out, but I just
(06:58):
heard that somebody else is now salvaged it and is
planning to try and put it out. But I never
got a release date from that person, and perhaps it's
their announcement to make. So I do know that I
know who's involved, and I'm not allowed to say, but
I do know that that Scorzes documentary will come out
that he started. You know, I don't know if he's
(07:18):
he's going to finish it, but it'll it'll come.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Out, all right, you can tell me nobody's listening. You
can tell me, Paul Myers, I really appreciate your work
and like I said, I'm a big fan of the book.
Is John Candy your life in comedy? Nice to finally
meet you on the phone. I'll see you back on
social media.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Sir, thank a lot.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
I appreciate you listening. You can drop me a line.
Brett at kbco dot com.
How have you been. I'm Brett Sunders. Welcome back this
week author Paul Myers. He just released the book John Candy,
A Life in Comedy and if you're like me, you're
a big John Candy fan, going back to his amazing
days at SCTV. Hey welcome, Paul Myers.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hi, please to be here, so to speak.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I'm a big fan of yours. We follow each other
on social media. Before we move forward, I want to
mention that you have an excellent podcast, the Record Story
Day Podcast. Everybody should listen to this thing.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Thank you so much. That really means a lot to
me because that is a labor of love for me.
I really put a lot of myself into that, So
thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
The book is John Candy, A Life in Comedy. I'm
glad you wrote this book, Paul, because John Candy is
one of those people. I think he's an enigma to
a lot of us. But at the same time, and
you would know this better than I would, since you
did the research for the book. There probably isn't one
person in the world who didn't like John Candy.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah. Actually there is pretty much only one oh Star
whoever just rumbled working with him, and that was Richard Pryor,
and no one knows why, but Richard Pryor's Richard Pryor's
writer Paul Mooney wrote in his memoir that when they
made Brewster's Millions together, Richard Pryor just didn't want to
hang out with John Candy, and everyone w why and
he just said, I got my reasons, you know, like
(01:17):
he just didn't say. And but I mean, it's a
shame to lose Richard Pryor. But he basically everyone else
he ever met, you know, was in love with him.
So yeah, I really, yeah, it was kind of fun
to sort of hear from people. I felt like I
was keeping their stories. Like Captaine O'Hara would talk to me,
and I felt the responsibility of you know, getting the
(01:39):
getting what she says down perfectly and trying to really
describe her friend, you know, who I never met, and
so all these people are telling him like a detective,
you know, I have to make a story. I'm alive
based on all this information that I'm compiling firsthand and
researched as well. So yeah, so I really appreciate you
appreciating that, Paul.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
I'm did you mentioned Catherine O'Hara because when I was
a kid growing up in Detroit. You know, we had
Canadian television as well as American television because of Windsor
and all that. And I think I first saw John
Candy when I was thirteen or fourteen years old, and
I saw things like Missus Felbo's Tiny Town and Polynesia
(02:19):
Town and Yellowbelly. Yellowbelly might be my number one favorite
comedy skit of all time. And John Candy starred in
all of these. It made them great.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Amazing, Yeah, he did make them great. Sorry to cut
you off. My wife only saw Yellow Belly recently, and
I'd seen it obviously because I watched everything, but she
just couldn't believe that she'd never seen that character before,
and it was just so audacious and so funny. But yeah, no,
he did so many great things on SETV itself. Oh,
(02:51):
I wanted to tell you something about Detroit, by the way,
So during the research I discovered that Cream magazine from
Detroit is one of the great original rock magazines, and
the editors of Cream were amongst the first Americans to
give columns about SETV, and they did a set visit.
They sent Susan Whittall from Cream went to Edmonton to
visit the set when they were shooting what season there.
(03:13):
And it's so important that Cream Magazine, like before Rolling
Stone or anyone else, Cream was the first sort of
music magazine to really catch the rock and rollness of
SETV because you know, they later of course spun off
that show, like Bob and Doug character did a single
with Gedty Lee from Rush. So there was definitely a
cross pollination of Canadian comedy and rock that came out
(03:36):
of there. So it was really great that Cream picked
that up.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
You know, I vividly remembered that article in Cream Magazine.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I talked to the author of that for the book,
so yeah, so it's great. That was my favorite thing
about this thing is I got to talk to people
who interviewed John because I couldn't, and I talked to
people who worked with John. I talked to people who
directed John, like I talked to the family of John
Hughes talked to me for this. I talked to Ron Howard,
Chris Columbus, Howard Deutsche, all of his directors, and it
(04:07):
was just that was such a joy for me as
a fan to get to be the guy holding the remote. Basically,
I got to change the channels. Whenever I wanted to,
I could go to who whoever responded, I got to
talk to them and control control that sort of like
I want to hear this now. I want to hear
that now. You know so, I do love that about
writing books.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
You mentioned in the book, and I started out with
the question there was probably nobody who didn't like John
Candy besides Richard Pryor apparently, but another person who did
not seem to like John Candy very much was John Candy.
I was wondering if you could elaborate on that.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Well, that's interesting. I think, to paraphrase the movie scene,
he did like himself. He would say he liked me,
but he his whole thing was that I don't think
he took care of his own emotional well being because
maybe he didn't. I don't know. I can't speak for him.
(05:02):
I try not to analyze. I'm not a doctor. But
one of the things that got the sense was he
didn't have a lot of emotional self care, or wasn't
trained in it. Maybe nowadays we know better. He didn't
guard that part of himself. He gave away a lot
of himself, and I think he didn't leave much in
the tank for himself, and I think he later started
(05:23):
to get therapy, and you know, constantly was fighting with
body image, and of course the media didn't help, you know,
like in those days especially, there was no such thing
as the term body shaming. There was just you called
someone a fatty, and the public just did it. And
he had to endure that, sometimes to his face, sometimes
in print. So I think that built up inside him,
(05:45):
and I think he internalized a lot of negativity while
he's out there trying to be making positivity for everyone else.
So I don't know if he didn't like himself or
he just didn't know how to take care of himself
as much as maybe we could today, you know. But
that's the sad undercurrent of the story, which makes his
comedy even funnier to me, that he worked so hard
(06:07):
to make everyone.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Laugh, you know, you know, there are so many skits.
I'm this SCTV dude, and I think I know that
you are too. And you know, when he was the
drummer for the Queen haters, or when he portrayed Divine.
I mean, the list is just endless of Johnny LaRue.
Of course, I mean, the guy really was a genius,
and I really do wish that he were still around.
(06:28):
What is the status. I know that there's a new movie,
a documentary on John Candy. Whatever happened to the SCTV
documentary directed by Martin Scorsese.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Well, it's so funny, and I know we're running out
of your time here, but I just wanted to say
that that film. When I got in discussions for this book,
I said, I want to do an SETV book, but
I guess the Martin Scorsese film will be out by
the time my book comes out, so I won't do that.
So I did John Candy separately instead, and I just
heard recently it still hasn't come out, but I just
(06:58):
heard that somebody else is now salvaged it and is
planning to try and put it out. But I never
got a release date from that person, and perhaps it's
their announcement to make. So I do know that I
know who's involved, and I'm not allowed to say, but
I do know that that Scorzes documentary will come out
that he started. You know, I don't know if he's
(07:18):
he's going to finish it, but it'll it'll come.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Out, all right, you can tell me nobody's listening. You
can tell me, Paul Myers, I really appreciate your work
and like I said, I'm a big fan of the book.
Is John Candy your life in comedy? Nice to finally
meet you on the phone. I'll see you back on
social media.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Sir, thank a lot.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
I appreciate you listening. You can drop me a line.
Brett at kbco dot com.
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