0:05

This is News Talk Tonight

0:07

on the iHeartRadio Talk Network.

0:11

Welcome back everybody. I'm Richard Krause sitting in for

0:13

the great Jim Richards. He will be back in

0:15

the big chair on Monday. It's

0:18

time to have a look at what's going on in Ottawa.

0:20

It was the week that was with

0:23

Mike Le Couture. Listen,

0:25

Mike, all week we've

0:28

been talking about the by-election in St.

0:30

Paul's in Toronto. And I've been hosting

0:32

this national show. And at first I

0:34

didn't think we should be talking about

0:37

this by-election in this city that I'm

0:39

sitting in because we're heard across the

0:41

country and kind of who cares, but

0:44

this has a seismic effect across the

0:46

country. We've had a riding

0:49

that was liberal for 25

0:51

years, get flipped over to

0:53

Conservative. And tell me

0:55

what you think the fallout from that.

0:57

How significant is this? Yeah, I think

0:59

people need to understand what Fortress 416

1:01

is. 416

1:04

obviously being the area code of Toronto.

1:06

The fact that the Liberals were able

1:09

to keep that area red for so

1:11

long and deeply red, right? I mean,

1:13

let's think about Carolyn Bennett when she

1:16

won this in the last election. She

1:18

had, you know, a significant

1:20

lead, you know, over 20 point lead

1:22

over... I think it was 24 points.

1:24

That was the flip in this one,

1:26

right? So the fact that it was

1:28

that large and then flipped and yes,

1:30

it wasn't a huge margin that the

1:32

Conservatives won by, but that's the issue,

1:34

right? You said it perfectly there, a

1:36

24 point flip for

1:39

this by-election. This is not

1:42

a crack in Fortress, you know,

1:44

Fortress Toronto and GTA. This

1:46

is a serious issue now for

1:48

the Liberals. You know, a

1:50

lot of people have been saying if they can

1:52

lose this, then which other riding really is safe?

1:55

You think of some of those ones on the

1:57

island of Montreal, you think of

1:59

a lot of other... that are now in

2:01

play. I've heard from the NDP saying, hey

2:03

look this is good news for us as

2:05

well, but they didn't do well in that

2:07

by-election. But for Canadians to understand this, this

2:10

is something that the Liberal government now needs

2:12

to look at. The Prime Minister, he is

2:14

not gonna be, you know,

2:16

spending Canada Day with fireworks

2:19

and and popping champagne here. They are

2:21

going to be in a serious mode

2:23

right now looking at, okay what do

2:25

we do now? Because if this one

2:27

goes, then what else happens? And yes,

2:29

we are not going to have a

2:31

general election any time soon, but there

2:33

are other by-elections that are coming up

2:35

across this country and those will

2:37

be other barometers for this government to look

2:40

at and to get an idea of how

2:42

people feel about them, but also about Justin

2:44

Trudeau. And I think that that's a key

2:46

thing. People going into this said this is

2:48

gonna be a referendum not only on the

2:50

Liberal government but on Justin Trudeau. And

2:52

that level of dissatisfaction with him and

2:54

people who have this anger towards him

2:56

that is really palpable now. I mean

2:59

we had seen it in a lot

3:01

of the reporting, my colleague Judy Trinh,

3:03

going to the riding of Toronto St.

3:05

Paul's and people in there saying, love

3:07

Leslie Church, who was the candidate there,

3:10

hate Justin Trudeau. And was

3:12

that what, you know, was that their

3:14

undoing? And I think that is something

3:16

that a lot of people inside the

3:18

Liberal Party are having hard conversations about

3:20

right now. Do you

3:22

think that it is part and parcel?

3:24

I mean I've never seen this kind

3:27

of organized hate against almost any politician,

3:29

let alone a Prime Minister with the

3:31

flags and you know the the bumper

3:33

stickers and everything. I mean there have

3:35

been tastes of it here and there

3:37

over the last, you know, number

3:40

of decades, but this is unlike anything

3:42

I've ever seen before. So there's definitely

3:44

that faction, but do you think that

3:46

part of it could be that he's

3:49

simply, he's been the Liberal leader for

3:51

11 years and people tire

3:54

of the same old in politics after

3:56

that amount of time? Yeah

3:58

they really do and you know we saw it with our

4:00

Harper government when Harper was in

4:02

the last few months of his mandate

4:04

and there was a movement

4:08

that you could hear that people didn't

4:10

like Harper. They wanted him gone. I

4:12

think there was a really funny

4:14

sort of anecdote about this. Rona Ambrose who

4:16

was the interim leader at the time at

4:19

the press gallery dinner which is now on the

4:21

record so you can even look this up. She

4:24

had given a speech and she had said

4:26

we're trying out some new slogans for the

4:28

conservative party and one of them was the

4:30

conservative party don't worry the bad man

4:32

is gone. That was

4:34

the sort of level that people were feeling at

4:36

the time in terms of

4:39

their feelings towards Stephen Harper. This

4:41

is like that on steroids and

4:44

it is clear now yes during

4:47

that so-called freedom convoy that

4:49

came and occupied Parliament Hill you saw

4:51

the flags you saw the anger that

4:54

hasn't gone away. It's just not on Parliament

4:56

Hill on Wellington Street anymore. You're seeing it

4:58

around Ottawa you're seeing it around everybody's

5:00

hometown. He's at the bumper stickers that

5:03

you know have expletive Trudeau on it

5:06

and that type of thing and that

5:08

type of sentiment is out there and

5:10

again it comes back to you know

5:12

this was a party that was

5:14

rebuilt around Justin Trudeau. Let's

5:16

not forget that he rescued

5:19

them from third place in

5:21

2015. It has been a

5:23

party that became the Trudeau Liberals that really

5:25

is built around him at this point. So

5:27

there is a bit of a division within

5:29

caucus right now. Some people that say he

5:31

got us here do we need to let

5:33

him go out on his terms and how

5:36

he wants to do it and others who

5:38

are sitting there going you know what it's

5:40

time for him to go or else we're

5:42

all going down. You know there

5:44

is some interesting polling out there as

5:46

well Richard that some people wonder whether

5:48

or not if he hands it over

5:50

to someone else. Will this be a

5:52

repeat of 93 where Mulroney handed it

5:54

to Kim Campbell. They went down to

5:56

two seats as the Progressive Conservatives or

5:59

is it going to be that

6:01

thing where Justin Trudeau hangs on,

6:04

stays around, saves a few

6:06

of these riotings that maybe they think they can

6:08

hold on to with Justin Trudeau as the leader,

6:11

and then walks off and then has

6:13

a clean slate for the new leader.

6:15

This is all speculation, this is all

6:17

the chatter, but it certainly is not

6:19

going to be a quiet summer in

6:21

terms of politics. No, it was a

6:23

summer that I thought that perhaps, you

6:25

know, Trudeau and the Liberals would look

6:27

at rebuilding, look at, you know, trying

6:29

to make some changes, but now it

6:31

just feels like they're under siege. I'm

6:33

in conversation with Mike Locator, senior political

6:36

correspondent, CTV News Channel.

6:39

So, there's a Nanos poll that

6:41

says that, well, just what I just

6:43

said, Trudeau Liberals feel under siege across

6:45

the country. So, it's not just in

6:47

St. Paul's in Toronto. That

6:49

was a, I wouldn't say

6:52

fairly easy flip from Liberal to Conservative,

6:54

but it took some work. But

6:56

it looks like, you know, Nanos

6:58

is projecting that, you know, this is just

7:00

the first of many. I mean, is there

7:03

any way, any way of turning

7:05

this around short of changing

7:07

up the leaders or turning back time

7:09

somehow with a big magical mystical machine

7:11

that can make everything better for Justin

7:13

Trudeau? Yeah, the question is, is it

7:15

the politician at the head of the

7:17

party or is it the policy that

7:19

the party continues to push out there?

7:21

And if you're not going to change,

7:23

the leader will then do you look

7:25

to some of what you have in

7:27

the window. A lot of people have

7:29

been asking the question, do they reverse

7:31

course on the, you

7:34

know, that new tax that of course Pierre Poliev has

7:36

been pushing out there and everything

7:38

around the capital gains? That is something

7:40

that the Conservatives have dined

7:42

out on recently. Do they U-turn on

7:45

that one? Even though you've had Christopher

7:47

Freeland, the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance

7:49

Minister say this will only affect 0.13%

7:51

of the population in Canada. And they

7:53

are just

7:56

trying to, you know, basically tax the

7:58

people who would be benefiting the most.

8:00

off of their capital gains. The other

8:02

one that you have to wonder about

8:04

is the carbon tax. You have had

8:06

Pierre Poliev dining out

8:09

on this literally and figuratively. He

8:11

has been going around with this

8:13

acts the tax type of slogan

8:15

and it is riling up crowds

8:18

and really the liberals have had

8:20

a failure to try and communicate

8:22

to Canadians why it's so important,

8:24

why they need to hold on

8:27

to it. Will they try at

8:29

some point not to backtrack on it but certainly

8:31

there was a carve out for Atlantic

8:34

Canadians. Will they try and do

8:36

something else with that? Do they

8:38

try and move a little bit

8:40

on that to ease that type

8:42

of pressure or are they just

8:44

abandoning such a cornerstone of their

8:46

policy that it would be the

8:48

liberals are diluting everything that they've

8:50

done just to remain in power

8:53

and certainly the Conservatives are probably waiting and waiting

8:55

to pounce because if they do change on the

8:57

carbon tax then they're going to say well these

8:59

guys just want to stay in power. They don't

9:01

care. They're not standing for anything so they'll fall

9:03

for anything. They'll fall for everything. So

9:06

I think that's one of the questions that

9:08

a lot of people are also looking at

9:11

Richard. If Justin Trudeau doesn't go then which

9:13

one of his policies may he try and

9:15

tinker with or is it a cabinet shuffle?

9:17

Is it a cabinet tinkering? Who knows? These

9:19

are all the questions that I think a

9:22

lot of people are wondering and you know

9:24

when will this happen? Will

9:26

he try and do something in some sort of

9:28

a reset in the next couple of weeks? If

9:30

it's not him taking that proverbial walk in the

9:32

sand or the snow or is

9:35

it a paddle in his canoe? Who

9:37

knows at this point but something clearly has to

9:39

change because of all those polls that we're seeing

9:41

from Nick Nanos and others. That's

9:44

Mike Luchatore. We're talking with him. He

9:46

is the senior political correspondent for CTV

9:48

News Channel. When we come back we're

9:50

going to talk about how some liberal

9:52

insiders worried that they're seen as too

9:54

woke under Justin Trudeau. Stay with us.

10:04

You're listening to News Talk

10:06

Tonight on the iHeartRadio Talk

10:08

Network. Welcome back everybody.

10:10

I'm Richard Krause sitting in for Jim

10:12

Richards. Jim will be back on Monday

10:15

sitting in the big chair bringing with

10:17

him his own unique style of vocalese.

10:19

I know you're all looking forward to

10:21

having him back. Right

10:23

now though, it's the week that

10:25

was with Mike LeCateur, the senior

10:27

political correspondent of CTV News Channel.

10:31

And Mike, a story kind of grabbed my eye

10:33

here and I thought I'd run this past you

10:35

to see what you thought. Some

10:37

liberal insiders worry that they're seen

10:39

as too woke under Justin Trudeau

10:41

and that it may be too

10:43

late for him to go. There's

10:46

a guy called Marcus Palowowski, a

10:48

liberal MP from Northern Ontario, and

10:50

he says that part of the

10:52

problem is public perception, which he

10:54

thinks is wrong, that the party

10:57

is connected with a closed-minded political

10:59

correctness that prioritizes identity politics over

11:01

universal human values. And he goes

11:03

on to say

11:06

that, you know, this

11:09

type of politics includes cancel culture in

11:11

which people are shamed for expressing certain

11:13

opinions, blah, blah, blah, and he's connecting

11:15

it back to people's perceptions

11:17

of the liberal party. Is

11:19

this something you think that is accurate? I

11:22

mean, I think that's for a certain percentage

11:25

of the population, the people with the

11:27

flags and the bumper stickers,

11:29

I think this is probably at the heart

11:31

of their issue. It really is. And,

11:34

you know, we've seen this from either, you

11:36

know, the far right that have said

11:38

this or other people that have sometimes

11:40

been a little more conservative leaning. Interesting

11:43

that we're seeing this from former liberals who

11:45

are coming out and saying this as well.

11:48

You know, and whether or not those are sort of

11:51

the so-called blue liberals who are

11:53

maybe a little more centrist. But, you know,

11:55

the calls for this party to maybe slide

11:57

a little more to the political center as

11:59

opposed to how it's drifted to the left.

12:01

We remember 2015, you know,

12:04

a lot of people had said

12:06

that look, the Liberals under Justin

12:08

Trudeau essentially outflanked the NDP under

12:10

Thomas Mulcair in saying that they

12:12

would spend a lot of money

12:15

and not have balanced budgets and then

12:17

really sort of digging in to

12:19

that sort of left side

12:21

of the political landscape. And you

12:24

know, a number of Liberals have

12:26

said that maybe they've drifted too

12:28

far there, maybe they need somebody

12:30

to bring it back to the centre. And

12:33

I always find it interesting, Richard, you know,

12:35

when people say too woke and the cancel

12:37

culture because you sort of have to sit

12:39

back and go, well, what do you mean

12:41

about that? Like, what is that about? Is

12:43

that something that when

12:45

you think about woke, when you think about cancel

12:47

culture, well, you know, the fact that we now

12:49

know that some of our

12:51

former Prime Ministers or former leaders

12:53

of this country had done pretty

12:55

bad things in the past to

12:58

different segments of the population. You're thinking

13:01

about, you know, Indigenous communities and

13:04

some of that sort of thing. Is that

13:06

too woke? Is that cancel culture when we

13:08

decide that we're gonna put an extra plaque

13:10

next to, you know, that of

13:12

a former Prime Minister or that of somebody

13:14

who has been heralded as a Canadian hero

13:17

in the past just to add that context?

13:19

And I think that those are live

13:21

discussions that people continue to have about

13:24

it, but certainly bringing it back to

13:26

the Liberals and the Liberal Party and

13:29

where they've gone. I don't think

13:31

anybody can really doubt, especially when

13:33

you consider that they, in 2022,

13:35

had the supply and confidence agreement

13:38

with the NDP. Now, their policies

13:40

that the Liberals have because of

13:42

that agreement certainly look very socialist.

13:44

They certainly, you know, quack very

13:46

socialist. So are they the socialist

13:48

duck now in, you

13:50

know, in Parliament? And I think

13:53

people rightly now are going to sort of

13:55

mix those two together and they're gonna say,

13:57

well, this was under that Liberal government. So

13:59

if they didn't... believe in that, then

14:01

why would they still, you know, have that policy?

14:04

And I think it's, this is something that

14:06

some liberals, because the liberals are so diverse

14:09

as a party, they're obviously not a monolith

14:11

and, you know, there's a number of people

14:13

in there, like I said, they're either blue

14:15

liberals or a little more red or, you

14:17

know, maybe leaning a little more left as

14:20

well, that Justin Trudeau has sort of created

14:22

with his coalition of

14:24

liberal MPs. So some people may look at

14:26

that and go, well, maybe it's a little

14:28

too left for me. You

14:30

know, whether or not that, you know,

14:33

former MP is going to be somebody

14:35

who would try and re-up again for

14:37

the liberals, unclear, but there has been

14:39

a number of people, and there

14:41

continues to be a number of people who think that

14:43

the liberal party needs to go a little more to

14:46

the center. And what about

14:48

the NDP? I mean, how long do you think

14:50

that this alliance will last? Because it feels to

14:52

me, if we look at the by-election in St.

14:54

Paul's that we were talking about in the last

14:56

segment, the NDP did not fare

14:59

particularly well there. Do you think that they're being

15:01

tarred with the same brush? It's

15:03

interesting you say that, because I had

15:05

conversations with people within the NDP, and

15:08

they have said, well, if anything that

15:10

this election in the

15:13

by-election in Toronto, St. Paul's has shown us,

15:15

is that people are abandoning the liberals and,

15:17

you know, they're looking for another option, and

15:20

we're ready and willing to be that option.

15:22

They were telling me that their internal polling,

15:24

Richard, is showing that they have a

15:27

wider available voter pool than the

15:29

liberals, i.e. more people are looking

15:31

at the NDP as an option.

15:34

I'm not saying that I disagree with them,

15:36

however, I put it to

15:38

them, but what about Toronto St. Paul's? Yeah, we

15:41

didn't see it. You didn't see it there, did

15:43

you? And their answer was, well, you know, that

15:45

was never one of our seats. Well, if you

15:47

want to take the provincial riding map and overlap

15:49

it there, it is their seat.

15:51

So you can't say that the NDP

15:53

is not popular there as well. So

15:56

it's an interesting question. We all

15:58

know that, look. Jagmeet Singh at

16:00

some point between now and October

16:02

2025 when we expect the next

16:04

election to happen, which actually I'll

16:06

correct myself, between now and June

16:08

2025 has to

16:10

distance himself from the liberals. And I say

16:13

June 2025, that is when their supply and

16:15

confidence agreement expires with this liberal party. Between

16:17

now and then, he's got to show some

16:20

distance between himself and the Prime Minister. So

16:22

does he let it expire or

16:24

does he pull out of it sooner and say, I

16:27

am no longer with these losers to quote

16:29

President Biden yesterday because that was thrown around

16:31

quite a bit during the US presidential debate.

16:33

Is he going to say, I'm no longer

16:36

with these guys and we're going to leave

16:38

him in the dust? When

16:40

he does that, unclear, but he has to

16:42

do it at some point to create that

16:44

space. And for people now on the doorstep

16:46

to say, oh, weren't you

16:49

with Justin Trudeau in this quasi

16:51

coalition and propping him up? He

16:53

has to now create this narrative

16:55

that he's no longer going to

16:57

be there with beside the prime

17:00

minister having those same types of

17:02

policies. And whether or not

17:04

he'll be able to punch through and

17:06

convince voters that everything that came out

17:09

of that supply and confidence agreement, pharmacare

17:11

and dental care that they were pushing for,

17:14

whether or not Jagmeet Singh will be able

17:16

to truly put the NDP

17:18

stamp on those policies. That is to be

17:20

determined because I think a lot of Canadians

17:22

right now look at it and go, well,

17:24

I thought that was the Liberals that did

17:26

that. And Jagmeet Singh will have to convince

17:29

everybody, even though he's been saying it a

17:31

lot, that it was because of the NDP

17:33

that those actually got passed. We

17:36

just have a couple of minutes left, but

17:38

I think we should touch on the presidential

17:40

debate of yesterday. Joe Biden appeared at a

17:43

rally in Raleigh this

17:45

afternoon and sounded great. He

17:47

sounded in control, that raspiness

17:49

in his voice. Someone,

17:51

and I can't remember who, said he didn't have

17:53

a frog of his sword. He

17:55

had a whole amphibian farm down there. Could

17:58

barely get the words out. unfocused,

18:00

seemed old, that seemed to

18:03

be erased today by this rally and

18:05

Raleigh that he really stepped up to.

18:07

Um, but do you think it's too

18:09

little too late? I, I have a

18:12

feeling that last night kind of torpedoed

18:14

a lot of people's ideas of voting

18:16

for Joe Biden. Yeah. It,

18:18

you know, whatever cold medication he was

18:20

on, because the Democrats have said that

18:22

he had a cold, I would love

18:24

some of that stuff because if it

18:27

could get rid of whatever he had

18:29

last night in 24 hours, they need

18:31

to market that. I mean, seriously, no,

18:33

Richard, I think after what we saw

18:35

last night, no matter what anybody sees

18:37

from here on out that the, the,

18:40

the die is cast. People are looking

18:42

at Joe Biden now and saying, okay,

18:44

I think it's time to go. The

18:46

question is kind of like Justin Trudeau.

18:48

Where does the call come from and

18:51

who can actually convince him to walk

18:53

away from this? I mean, you have

18:55

to wonder whether or not there is

18:57

the time according to the Democratic, uh,

18:59

party and what they're able to do.

19:02

This is before the convention where they were supposed

19:04

to, you know, officially nominate

19:06

him. It's possible, but here's the

19:08

question that I think a lot

19:10

of people want, uh, need to

19:13

understand, right? So yes, their

19:15

election is in November. That's not a

19:17

lot of time between now and then

19:19

to bring in somebody new and to

19:21

introduce them to the rest of the

19:23

United States of America so that the

19:25

Democrats can say, this is our new

19:27

person and this is the person that

19:29

you should vote for. You

19:32

know, in politics, obviously a day is a long

19:34

time. A week is forever. And of course a

19:36

month is an eternity, but in the minds of

19:38

voters, they're going to have to get to know

19:40

somebody and they're going to have to have the

19:43

Democratic party rally behind this new

19:45

person. Very, very quick. Mike, we

19:47

have to leave it there. Thanks so much

19:49

for this. That was the week that was

19:51

with Mike Luckett or the senior political correspondent

19:53

of CTV news channel. I'm Richard Krause sitting

19:55

in for Jim Richards. Stay with me. Lots

19:57

more show to come. one

24:00

show on the fifth, two shows on the

24:02

sixth. Check out Comedy

24:04

Bar's website for more information and

24:08

those promised to be great shows. And

24:11

like you said, two are gonna be

24:13

winners and one's gonna be the whammy.

24:16

So you grew up in Milwaukee. Tell me a little

24:18

bit about your first exposure to stand up. Did

24:21

your parents have the George Carlin albums kicking

24:23

around and that's what did it or

24:25

was it from television? What was it? You

24:29

know, it was, there was like

24:31

the peripheral experience which

24:34

where I was, you know, like

24:36

my father had the Steve Martin

24:38

record. But you

24:41

know, my first exposure to the

24:43

first comedian that I just was

24:45

like, I couldn't stop laughing at

24:48

was Louis Anderson. And

24:51

then you know, then it became Robin Williams for me.

24:54

But when I watched Louis Anderson as a kid and he

24:56

would do an impression of his mother, I

24:59

just as a kid thought it was

25:01

the funniest thing I'd ever heard. And

25:04

then I, you know, Milwaukee, I didn't, I

25:07

didn't really start doing stand up until, you

25:10

know, my like late 20s really. I

25:13

spent a lot of time doing improv and they

25:15

had a, there was a good club in Milwaukee

25:17

called Comedy Sports, which is actually based around off

25:19

of theater sports which I think has

25:21

Canadian roots. Yeah, I think it started here. I

25:24

believe so. And like most things,

25:26

we have taken it and the United

25:28

States pretended like it never happened. But

25:33

yeah, so, but my first exposure

25:35

was kind of just watching like,

25:37

you know, Louis Anderson, Robin Williams.

25:40

And then I started to, you know, the

25:42

first time I saw George Carlin to your

25:44

question, I was like, what is actually happening?

25:47

Like there's, you know, some

25:49

really brilliant stuff out there, obviously. Yeah,

25:51

it's kind of the difference between hearing

25:53

Kenny G first and then, you know,

25:55

hearing John Coltrane or something afterwards when

25:58

you hear Carlin. know that Kenny G's

26:00

as good as the kids right. There's

26:03

nowhere to go but up. So tell me

26:05

how goldie goldie locks

26:08

and the three bears in

26:10

French doing that

26:12

influence to your career. Oh,

26:15

that's so funny. You know, what is also funny

26:17

is I'm like, where the hell do I say

26:19

these things? That's great reason. You

26:22

know, I, I often

26:24

say this to people who, you know, when I

26:26

was in college or when I was in high

26:28

school, people didn't know what they wanted to do.

26:31

I was like, I recognize how

26:33

enviable my position was because when I

26:35

first did a production in French

26:38

of goldie locks and the three bears,

26:42

I was the baby bear. And I

26:44

just remember I don't you know, I mean, I don't remember

26:46

what the hell I said, but I, I remember

26:49

getting the first laugh. And

26:51

I remember the electricity that kind

26:53

of went through me in a

26:57

way where I thought, I don't know,

27:00

it fully imprinted on me. And I was seriously,

27:03

you know, six or seven or something

27:05

like that. And it just, it hit

27:07

me. It just really like, I never

27:09

forgot it. I read, you know, it

27:11

is like a muscle memory. I still

27:13

have to this day, which is yet

27:16

it never changed. I knew, I knew

27:18

what I wanted to do. I didn't

27:20

know what it was. But I

27:23

knew the feeling I wanted to chase. Well,

27:25

you may or may not know that French

27:27

is our second language here in Canada. So

27:29

maybe you go on one of those shows

27:32

that isn't going so well. You

27:34

can whip out the baby bear in French and

27:36

see what happens. I think

27:38

that's for the whammy show. That's when

27:40

I'm already circling the drain. I'll just

27:42

dive deeper. Absolutely. So tell

27:46

me then about standing, starting doing stand

27:48

up comedy because improv is different. You're

27:50

not a stand up comedian. It is,

27:52

it's got its own unique set of

27:55

rules. And that was sort of the

27:57

Milwaukee phase of your career. It wasn't

27:59

I don't think until you went to

28:01

Los Angeles that you started doing stand-up

28:03

and Tell me about

28:05

being alone up there because when you

28:08

are doing stand-up, you've got a little

28:10

team around you generally speaking Stand-up

28:13

is a much different thing. Was it terrifying at

28:15

first? Absolutely

28:18

to what you're saying I mean I in Private

28:20

was like, you know you would if if a

28:22

show didn't go well You would have five or

28:25

six people to go like what the hell was

28:27

that to each other? You know, you got you

28:29

kind of lived or died with each other and

28:31

there was there was some comfort in those numbers

28:33

and Not

28:36

only is it alone when

28:38

you're on stage, but when you get off stage if it

28:40

doesn't go well You know, there

28:43

isn't air to other comedians

28:45

where they almost celebrate in your

28:47

bombing in the early phases So

28:50

it's totally opposite and and the truth

28:52

is that it you know, it scared

28:54

me off of stand-up repeatedly There

28:57

I had to get back into

28:59

stand-up, you know four or five times before

29:01

I finally You

29:04

know went through the grind of getting out

29:06

of the bombing phase But

29:08

when you are I mean it is it

29:10

is lonely. I want time bombed at the

29:12

improv and I walked

29:14

off the stage and

29:16

without saying a word to anyone walked

29:18

through the club out the door to

29:21

my car I didn't say another word

29:23

to a person. I just was thinking

29:25

what what just happened? Yeah, the whole

29:27

time and why do I put myself

29:29

very lonely? Yeah. Yeah, I'm speaking Yeah,

29:32

I'm speaking with Gareth Reynolds who is

29:34

on the line From

29:36

Los Angeles. He is doing

29:39

two shows in Toronto at the

29:41

comedy bar on the Danforth July

29:43

5th and July 6th Check

29:45

it out. You can find out more on the comedy

29:48

bar Website when we

29:50

come back We'll find out about what

29:52

it was like writing behind the scenes

29:54

on arrested development and appearing on the

29:56

Marron show and all sorts of other

29:58

Things from my guest Gareth Reynolds.

30:00

Stay with me. Lots more to come. News

30:09

Talk Tonight continues on

30:11

the iHeartRadio Talk Network. Welcome

30:14

back everybody. I'm Richard Krause sitting in for

30:16

Jim Richards. My pleasure to

30:18

welcome Gareth Reynolds to

30:20

the broadcast tonight. And I mean

30:22

it's such a varied and interesting

30:24

resume that I'm looking at here.

30:27

You'll be able to see Gareth do stand

30:29

up at the Comedy Bar in Toronto on

30:32

the Danforth on July 5th and 6th. One

30:35

show on July 5th. Two shows on

30:37

July 6th. Find out more at the

30:39

Comedy Bar website. But when I look

30:41

at this, this kind

30:43

of like extensive

30:46

and really interesting resume,

30:48

I don't even really know where to start.

30:50

Gareth has written on Arrested Development on

30:53

Hoops for Netflix as well as You're

30:55

the Worst on FX I'm Sorry for

30:57

True TV. His

30:59

stand up debut album Riddled with Disease that

31:01

came out in 2019 just

31:04

before everything turned crappy in the world.

31:06

Reach number one on the Billboard charts

31:08

that week. And there's

31:10

so much more. So welcome

31:12

back to the show. Gareth, nice to have you. Thank

31:15

you. So tell me a

31:17

little bit about being a writer on

31:20

a show like Arrested Development because I

31:22

think that writing stand up for yourself

31:25

and then being funny on a television

31:27

show when you're writing for characters pre

31:29

established are two very different things.

31:31

Is it a different muscle for you? Yeah,

31:35

it definitely it kind of goes more a

31:37

little more in the improv direction in a

31:39

way because you know, you're kind of you're

31:42

kind of delivering the dialogue like how

31:45

would people react to those things. But

31:48

on a show like Arrested Development or even

31:51

on You're the Worst when the characters are

31:53

so well defined like on Arrested Development. I

31:55

mean, you know, when I was

31:57

in the writer's room with mature with the creator

31:59

and he was start doing impressions

32:01

of the characters, you just start

32:04

eventually doing that yourself. You

32:07

know, kind of when you're pitching dialogue or you're pitching

32:09

jokes. But

32:11

it is. It's a totally different muscle. It's, and again,

32:13

goes back to improv a little bit more because it's

32:15

a much more collaborative thing. You

32:18

know, you're there with a number of people and, you

32:21

know, you get very good at sort of

32:23

best idea wins and celebrating, you know, just

32:26

the best idea or the best joke. So

32:29

writing on Arrested Development was such a trip because,

32:32

you know, I mean, I, that show was, I

32:34

mean, just to me, one of the greatest shows of all time

32:36

and one of the funniest shows of all time. And then

32:39

to be, you know, they're doing

32:41

it was, was so crazy. It's

32:43

a gold standard kind of show. And

32:46

you know, people say, Oh, it was, it

32:48

wasn't quite as popular as it might have

32:50

been. It doesn't matter. In

32:52

reruns, you watch that thing and there's

32:54

gold in every single episode. Yeah,

32:57

I think to some extent they

33:00

even acknowledged that the show was

33:02

so packed that it

33:04

almost just was too funny at times. You

33:07

know, I mean, it's definitely,

33:09

I mean, the fan base is enormous

33:11

and, you know, and writing on that

33:13

show really changed my writing career because,

33:16

you know, that was not only a show

33:18

that everyone recognized, it was a show that

33:20

in every writers meeting after that to work

33:22

on a show, you know, people wanted to

33:24

talk about Arrested Development. So, you know, it's

33:26

kind of a good touch point, but, but

33:29

yeah, no, it, it, it really was it

33:31

like it, you know, I

33:34

wouldn't say struggled, but it was always

33:36

battling to find an audience consistently. But

33:38

when you go back and watch it

33:40

now, you go, there's just, I

33:42

don't know if there's ever been a show that

33:45

is that full of that many good jokes. You

33:48

also do a really cool podcast called

33:50

The Dollop. And

33:52

is this right? Because this is a big

33:54

number. You do it with

33:56

Dave Anthony and it gets 5 million

33:59

down. unloads every month? Well

34:02

that number was back in

34:04

the day. It does not get that

34:07

many anymore but it's still it you

34:10

know it has we just did our

34:12

tenth year of the

34:14

show and so you know we've gone

34:16

through many ups and downs with the

34:18

show as far as you

34:20

know the way in the ten years we've been

34:23

doing the show the way they've started to count

34:25

numbers has become different and the market obviously has

34:28

changed dramatically but it still is a

34:30

show that most podcast

34:32

most you know hardcore podcast

34:34

fans have heard of

34:37

the dollop and you know we've been

34:39

doing we like I said we just

34:42

did our 10th anniversary show like two

34:44

months ago. Yeah that would mean

34:46

crazy really that you started before everybody

34:48

else had podcast right I mean there's

34:50

something like seven hundred thousand podcasts in

34:52

the world right now ten years ago

34:54

it was a much smaller market

34:57

right? Totally it you know

35:00

our show the the ruse of our show

35:02

is that I know

35:04

nothing about history and the guy

35:06

who I do the show with knows a ton

35:08

about history and he sort of prepares a lesson

35:10

each week and he kind of teaches me a

35:12

crazy story from mostly American history and

35:15

I just kind of react to it and riff on it

35:17

and things like that and that format

35:19

was kind of again I would never be

35:21

like we've made that but if we we

35:23

were not copying anything we just were lucky

35:25

that I knew nothing about history he knew

35:27

a lot about history I mean

35:30

I on the show one time was like I

35:32

was like well when Benjamin Franklin was a president

35:34

and he was like whoa whoa whoa nobody no

35:36

you know like what he's on 100

35:40

so but that format has kind of been replicated

35:42

in many you know there's sports versions of

35:44

it there's murder versions that like there's all

35:46

these true crime versions of it but

35:49

yeah we were really there like you know Marin

35:51

beat us to the punch and a few others

35:53

but you know we got in you know

35:56

before it became the thing and and

35:58

I think that really helped of the

36:00

show as well as the quality of the show but

36:02

that definitely helps. 10 years is

36:04

a long haul for for any show,

36:06

a podcast or anything. So congratulations on

36:08

that. Well, thank you. Yeah,

36:11

it's crazy. We we're we find it crazy.

36:13

The shows that you're doing in Toronto are

36:15

your Toronto debut. Are they your Canadian debut

36:18

as well? No,

36:20

you know, I was in Vancouver, maybe

36:23

three years ago. I

36:27

was working on my special that I recorded called

36:29

England Weed and the Rest, which is it's a

36:31

lot that you will never guess what it's about.

36:34

And, and so

36:36

I did I did some dates in

36:39

Vancouver, but this will be my first

36:41

headlining gig in Toronto. Absolutely.

36:43

And by the way, I have to

36:45

say I, I love to

36:47

run such a Toronto fan. I

36:50

just I remember the first I went there when I was

36:52

18 for the first time and I was like, this is

36:54

my town. Well, it's gonna be hot

36:56

when you're here. So just get ready for that. Terrible

37:00

news. So tell me a little

37:03

bit then about being on the road, you talked

37:05

about honing and fine tuning

37:07

jokes, finding the rhythm, but audiences

37:09

are different, right? And particularly perhaps

37:11

between the US and Canada and

37:13

whatever other country you may, I

37:15

know England is like a blood

37:17

sport almost doing stand up over

37:19

there. But tell me a

37:22

little bit about audiences. Do they really differ

37:24

from city to city? You

37:27

know, they they do. I mean, there's so

37:29

many things that kind of are

37:31

our impactful on a show. What time does it

37:33

start? What day of the week it is? You

37:37

know what? Yeah, what city you're in?

37:40

There's definitely jokes that play stronger in

37:42

certain places. And there's definitely, you know,

37:45

material that you're sort of like, well,

37:47

maybe that won't work here. But, you

37:50

know, for the most part, I don't really pay

37:53

as much attention to that. If I

37:55

want to work on something, or I

37:57

want to try something, you know, I'll

37:59

have the kind of the killer slot

38:01

in it in to make sure that

38:03

there's enough that makes people enjoy the

38:05

show. And then outside of that, I

38:07

really am just trying to either find

38:09

the rhythm of your new joke or

38:11

make a new joke better or chatting

38:13

with the crowd for some clips online

38:15

or whatever it is. I

38:18

try to make sure that I'm getting

38:20

the ones for me to help me get a

38:22

joke closer to done and then getting ones that

38:24

I know people will like. You

38:27

know, I always try to close strong, open strong and then the

38:29

middle gets to be a bit of a weird

38:31

jelly filling at times. That's when you haul

38:33

out Goldilocks and the three bears in French

38:36

for the Canadian audience. Gary, thanks so much

38:38

for this. It's when

38:40

Bob Dylan's playing the new stuff. Yeah, that's right. That's

38:43

right. Gary, thanks so much for this.

38:45

I appreciate it. I appreciate

38:47

it too. Thank you very much for having me on.

38:49

And yeah, remember, come to those shows in Toronto, one

38:52

will be a nightmare. As

38:54

Gareth Reynolds find up at the Comedy Bar

38:56

on the Danforth in Toronto, July 5th and

38:59

6th. Stay with me. Lots

39:01

more to come on News Talk

39:05

tonight. Is it Friday yet? That's part of my job

39:07

here as host is to tell you what day of

39:09

the week it is. My favorite day of the week

39:11

is Friday. What day is today? Friday.

39:13

You know what that means? I want to be

39:15

a DJ. You do? Let's

39:17

go to work. The boss. It's Friday.

39:19

Of course. It's freaking Friday. It is

39:22

Friday. Everybody got big plans for the

39:24

weekend? A fantastic show. Let's get to

39:26

it. Showtime. This is

39:28

News Talk tonight on the iHeartRadio

39:30

Talk Network. Welcome back everybody. I'm

39:32

Richard Krause sitting in for Jim

39:34

Richards. Jim will be back on

39:36

Monday. It's that time in the

39:39

show when we talk about news

39:41

that maybe isn't at the top of

39:43

the news cycle. It's slow

39:45

news day with producer Tony. Tony, what

39:47

is the first story? Let's start with

39:49

the there I ruined it guy. You've

39:51

heard his music before. He's made another

39:53

song. This time it features

39:55

the word baby from several hit songs.

39:58

Enjoy it baby. Baby

40:00

Baby Baby Baby Baby Baby

40:03

Baby Baby Baby Baby Baby

40:05

Baby Baby Baby Baby Baby

40:07

Baby Baby Baby Baby... Now

40:25

I don't know if that's news but it's

40:28

a catchy song. It is catchy baby. There

40:30

you go. A manure

40:32

truck rolled over in a Connecticut

40:34

neighborhood on Tuesday. Sounds like a

40:36

smelly one. After an accident at

40:38

an intersection it sent manure everywhere.

40:41

Here is Ann Baddard talking about

40:43

how it affected her house and

40:45

yard. We can guess. I

40:48

heard bang, like bang, bang. Loud

40:50

metal. The truck was upside down

40:52

and it finally came to a

40:54

stop after it hit my neighbor's

40:56

car. Literally a waterfall of brown.

40:59

All of a sudden we see

41:01

the sewer come out of the truck

41:04

and it just flooded down our property.

41:06

Everybody kept asking, you know, is it

41:08

really bad? Does it foul? And I'm

41:10

like, no, seriously, the windows were open.

41:15

That is really bad news for that person.

41:18

I was going to try and find a

41:20

way to make a joke with a word

41:22

that I can't say on the radio. But

41:24

I'm not going to do that because I'm

41:26

better than that. Well, I'm going to use

41:28

the word stinky news. Stinky news right there.

41:31

A California family had a bear

41:34

sneak into their minivan and wreck

41:36

the vehicle while they were camping.

41:38

That's all. Here is the owner

41:40

of the vehicle, Eric Edens,

41:42

talking about what he witnessed.

41:45

And I noticed there was something moving in the

41:47

car and asking a silhouette to the bear through

41:49

the back windows. Like, oh, we can't. There's a

41:51

bear in our car. And he was trapped in

41:53

there and probably start freaking out and start tearing

41:55

the place apart beyond all the damage to do

41:57

to death. That's causing destroying the car. He

42:00

also defecated and urinated in the car. So

42:02

it stinks in there. I'm sensing

42:04

a theme, uh, in the, uh, new stories

42:06

that you're presenting today, Tony. Uh, just a

42:08

little poopy there, but, uh, yeah, I mean,

42:11

Hey, at least it was just the

42:13

minivan and not the family. They usually,

42:15

when you're camping, go after your food.

42:17

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I grew up in

42:20

a rural kind of place and there were,

42:22

like, we were, you know, taught if you

42:24

see a bear and here's the thing. I

42:26

can't remember which is which,

42:29

but there's brown bears and there's black bears. And

42:31

I can't remember one you're supposed to run and

42:33

the other one you're just supposed to stand very

42:35

still. Trouble is I can't remember what it was.

42:37

I also was told that if you have a

42:39

package of matches on you, you like the matches

42:41

and you throw them behind you as you run

42:43

away because they don't like the smell of sulfur.

42:45

But do not take that advice, uh, for

42:47

real. Cause I don't know whether it's true or not.

42:50

I've never done it. Yeah. Brown, black,

42:52

orange, yellow. I don't care what

42:54

the color of that bear is.

42:56

I'm running. Yeah. I'm running a

42:58

candidate for the County board in

43:00

Minnesota was jailed on assault charges

43:03

after throwing a live tarantula during

43:05

an argument with a renter. Here

43:07

is Marissa Christina Simonetti defending herself

43:09

against the tarantula or against the

43:12

guy. Yeah. Fifth degree

43:14

assault means someone only has to feel

43:16

fear or claim that they feel afraid

43:18

of bodily harm. So I never hit

43:20

anybody. I never touched anybody. Hmm.

43:24

Hmm. I didn't know that there was a

43:27

fifth degree assault that just meant that you,

43:29

if you felt fearful, Yes. This is a

43:32

us story by the way. So we don't

43:34

know if the law applies here, but imagine

43:37

like defending yourself against

43:39

charges for throwing spiders.

43:42

Yeah. I, yeah. I'm

43:45

not sure that that doesn't look

43:47

great on a resume. You know, if you're

43:49

trying to get a job at McDonald's, you're like, wherever

43:51

you've been, well, I was in jail for a little

43:53

while. Cause I threw spiders at people. Or for that

43:55

matter, the County board in Minnesota,

43:57

a fortune teller in Florida is

44:00

charges for robbing a

44:02

client at gunpoint. Police

44:05

say she's been using her services as

44:07

a ruse to get into people's homes

44:09

and steal cash and jewelry.

44:11

Here is one of the victims, Judith

44:14

Ramirez, talking about what

44:17

Carola Mitchell did to

44:19

them. She said something

44:21

about that she could read her hand,

44:23

so I was just like I'm not interested in that.

44:26

So she started reading my forehead. I was just like

44:28

okay she told her that if

44:30

she doesn't give you the money she was

44:32

gonna hurt us too my baby

44:35

and I and then she's like

44:37

okay so she gave her the money. So

44:40

she's gonna read your

44:42

forehead? Yes. That's the point.

44:44

She's gonna come into your home Richard

44:47

and she's gonna say I'm gonna read you your future

44:49

and I'm gonna read it from

44:52

your forehead but can you tell

44:54

me where the money is first? I would be you

44:57

know what my forehead is telling you? Something

45:01

else I can't say on the radio. Something

45:03

else. I get a theme here Richard today

45:06

with the things you can't say on the

45:08

radio. A Missouri woman

45:10

named Michelle Y. Peters is

45:13

accused of attempting to poison

45:15

her husband by spiking his

45:17

Mountain Dew with Roundup. That's

45:19

the weed killer stuff. Here

45:21

is Jackie Sproat who owns

45:23

a business next to the

45:25

accused and County Sheriff David

45:28

Millsap talking about this crime.

45:30

Wow that's all I can

45:32

say. I just recently found out

45:34

that she was working next door to me

45:36

but that doesn't make a difference. Is there

45:38

more to the story? Yes there is and

45:41

all that comes out in court. I just hope

45:44

things work out the way it's supposed to through

45:46

the judicial system. I

45:48

just hope things work out. I would if

45:50

I was that guy I would never drink

45:52

anything again. If you couldn't taste that

45:55

there was like bug killer in your

45:57

Mountain Dew you've got dead taste buds.

45:59

Right. At least I hope his lawn

46:01

is nice and green now, right? Okay,

46:04

there we go. TikTokers are promoting rice

46:06

zempic, a concoction of rice, water,

46:09

and lime juice as a

46:11

cheap alternative to medications like

46:13

Ozempic. Here is one of the

46:16

TikTokers that claimed she lost seven

46:18

pounds in a week using

46:21

this concoction. So

46:23

I lost 7.2 pounds in seven days.

46:25

Other benefits I've experienced throughout the week

46:28

are a curve to my appetite, a

46:30

decrease in my cravings for sweet things,

46:32

higher energy levels throughout the day, and

46:35

less bloating. The thing

46:37

about this, because you hear these fad diets all

46:39

the time, and it's like, oh, yeah, I totally

46:41

lost 20 pounds, you know,

46:43

only eating bubble gum, you know, or

46:45

whatever it is. But the thing is,

46:48

wait two weeks from there and

46:50

then see what happens. Right. So

46:53

you put that seven pounds right back on. Do you

46:55

get so sick of eating rice and lime that you

46:57

can't even look at rice ever again for the rest

46:59

of your life? Well, that's probably the trick. You don't

47:01

want to eat the rice and lime again, so you

47:03

just don't eat anything and lose weight. There you go.

47:06

The host of The Price Is Right,

47:08

Drew Carey, revealed in a recent interview

47:11

that there have been contestants on the

47:13

show that were under the

47:15

influence. Now, I'm not gonna say that

47:17

I've ever watched the show like that.

47:19

He said he smelled booze on their

47:21

breath, that some have eaten gummies before

47:23

the show, and one guy was high

47:26

on mushrooms. That clip is on YouTube, and here

47:28

it is. Big Papa hat, Dolly

47:31

Parton shirt, bit of dollar. I'm

47:34

a mystery, dude. Raptor and enigma, get

47:36

used to it. Joshua,

47:40

I can't wait to hear, what'd he do for

47:42

a living? I'm a skateboard rabbi. You

47:47

know what? I'll take it. Skateboard

47:51

rabbi. That

47:55

guy should just win. You should just give him the

47:57

prize for having the... coolest

48:00

job or the most unusual job.

48:03

Yeah, what is a skateboard? I guess they... I

48:05

don't know. I mean, it's like a mobile

48:07

rabbi, I think. You can get

48:09

quickly from one place to another. Listen,

48:11

I do not disbelieve for a

48:14

minute that people on the Price is

48:16

Right have been drinking or doing edibles.

48:18

Under the influence of something. Under the

48:20

influence. Because they are so

48:22

hyped up so often that you think, okay, there's

48:24

got to be something unusual there. And

48:26

I know that from my experience

48:28

in television that there was once a television

48:30

show done here in Toronto while I was

48:33

working in a bar that they used to

48:35

bring every... all the guests to beforehand,

48:37

get them all juiced up and sloppy

48:39

and then send them back to make

48:41

TV because it was better if the

48:43

people were kind of hammered. Tony,

48:46

thanks a lot for this. Oh, thank you. That

48:49

was Slow News Day with producer Tony having

48:51

a look at some of the stories that

48:53

didn't make it to the top of the

48:55

news carousel. I'm Richard Krause, sitting in for

48:57

Jim Richards. Jim will be back on News

48:59

Talk tonight on Monday. Stay with me, more

49:01

to come.