Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Mohit Rajhans: Toronto Mike'd #757

Episode Date: November 25, 2020

Mike chats with New Toronto resident Mohit Rajhans about Dadspotting, Bollywood, Rethinking Your Content and so much more. They're joined by Milon Talsania from Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair. Muc...h love is given to Monika Deol.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to episode 757 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. CDN Technologies, your outsourced IT department. CDN Technologies, your outsourced IT department. Joanne Glutish, a lifetime member of the National Chairman's Club awarded to the top 1% of agents at Royal LePage Canada. StickerU.com. Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business. Ridley Funeral Home.
Starting point is 00:01:05 This year's Holidays and Hope Candlelight Service of Remembrance is December 2nd at 7 p.m. And Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is Mohit Rajhans.
Starting point is 00:01:31 Close enough? Is that okay? It's always great when the host says your name with a question. Rajhans. Perfect, actually. Oh, really? Because I was sweating bullets
Starting point is 00:01:44 as I saw it coming up. I should have asked you beforehand. My apologies. I do know how to say this name, actually. Oh, really? Because I was sweating bullets as I saw it coming up. I should have asked you beforehand. My apologies. I do know how to say this name, though. And Milan Telsania. Yes, sir. Welcome, guys. Hey, thanks for having us today.
Starting point is 00:01:54 Now, so many things to cover here, but right off the top, Mo, as I'm allowed to call you, right? Mo Hitmo. 100%. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're from the hood. You are a new Toronto resident. Yes. to call you right mo hit mo 100 yeah yeah you're from the hood you are a new toronto resident yes i'm actually a new toronto toronto miked discoverer resident so i don't think i was as comfortable with giving you a shout etc until i realized that you were actually from this physical area
Starting point is 00:02:19 in that close so if i was from like willowdale definitely you never would have reached in fact we should probably do a list of the places i don't have friends in and then we can just, no, but in all seriousness, the one thing I really do respect about everything that you've been doing with this is the fact that you are so proud of where you're from and you're so proud to support that. And that's a big part of how you shift the culture, right? And so that's great. I love it. And I love being here. So thank you. I'm a few streets over and I probably will come uninvited next time. From now on, you'll just like keep your eye on the live stream on Periscope. But when you see something's going down, you just waltz over and you just crash the party. And I know how to get in the back.
Starting point is 00:03:05 to get in the back that's oh now i'm now i'm worried i gotta call the security department but so mo like like you stumbled upon the podcast toronto mic before you realized i was like a few few streets over yeah with that and i also uh your um sponsorship with great lake uh really actually was one of the first things I noticed because I'm a supporter of theirs as well, just in consumption, just in patronage. If you want one, there's cold Great Lakes beer in front of you and you can help yourself if you like. It's all you just, you know, there's a blonde lager up there and there's an IPA, the Burst is up there, the Canuck Pale Ale, but just so you know, that's help yourself. I do appreciate that.
Starting point is 00:03:45 You know, it's one of the only ways I would get friends to visit me is that I had this microbrewery around before the microbrewery was really a thing, right? That's the thing. Like now there's craft breweries all over the place, but they've been doing it for over 30 years. Like it's a big deal. And I guess, Milan, you might have noticed this too, but the street that Great Lakes Brewery is on,
Starting point is 00:04:06 cause you've been to TMLX is there. I've seen you there on the patio there. That street has been like all over, like all over the news the last couple of days. That's right. Yeah. With a barbecue place, right?
Starting point is 00:04:19 So you're, you're a small business owner. Yes. Is this small business? Like, like what defines a small, is this a medium business? I'd say Is it small business? Like what defines a small, is it small medium business? I'd say medium business. Because you have multiple,
Starting point is 00:04:28 you're fast time watch and jewelry repair. That's right. And how many locations do you have now? We have 11 locations across Ontario. Did you get affected by the shutdown, the new rules? So far not really because we don't have stores in the GTA or Peel.
Starting point is 00:04:44 So we've been fortunate. We're more in the outskirts. You know, we're in London and Northern Ontario. You in the Hammer? Yes, we are. I love Hamilton. I just want to shout out Hamilton. Lime Ridge Mall, shout out. So they can still have that mall open.
Starting point is 00:04:56 Yes. So how do you feel, and I don't even want to say the name, but there's a barbecue joint down the street from Great Lakes, and they decided to defy the rules and open yesterday. And I think they might open name, but there's a barbecue joint down the street from Great Lakes. And they decided to defy the rules and open yesterday. And I think they might open today, but there's a lot of people. They're attracting an interesting sect of our community. They're attracting some interesting people who just don't want to follow these rules.
Starting point is 00:05:17 What are your thoughts? You're asking a vegetarian guy on the barbecue situation? Yes. And after you tell me, I'll give you the good news about the lasagna in front of you. Good segue, Mike. You know, I have total sympathies, of course, for the business owners, especially this time of the year.
Starting point is 00:05:34 You know, especially with us being in retail, you keep your head above water, you know, for most of the year. And these five weeks from Black Friday to Christmas is really when you make your money. And now that's, of course, in jeopard in jeopardy of course with everything going on and and i i sympathize with the business owners everywhere now what this particular restaurant did maybe you know as a health violation that kind of thing wasn't cool but it's tough it's tough out there like let's be frank like they sell barbecued product like like meat. They sell cooked meat for food.
Starting point is 00:06:05 Right. Like they could still do takeout. Exactly. And they could still do pickup. Right. Which is what we've been doing. Like I haven't been going to any restaurants. And it's an even playing field for all the other restaurants too.
Starting point is 00:06:16 Same thing. Right. So to me, it's a bit of a dick. This is a dick move by a bit of an asshat. I think one of the things that concerned me was that, look how many communities are being affected in different ways. Businesses and verticals are being affected in different ways. And every news truck was covering the barbecue joint that was, you know,
Starting point is 00:06:36 didn't deserve that amount of attention. You can't buy that PR. No, you can't. You can't plan for it. And he did it the right way. And, you know, as a guy who understands how to bait the system and understands. Which we'll get into. I'm a content.
Starting point is 00:06:49 He got himself into my backyard. He does know what he's doing. But Mo, I produce a show for Humble and Fred. And this morning, Humble and Fred both said they didn't even know there was a barbecue joint in that neighborhood. They went to the website. They liked what they saw. And they can't wait to go there when it's safe to do so.
Starting point is 00:07:07 I heard them both say that. But do you guys think it was strictly a PR move? A lot of it's PR, right? What do you think, Mo? I don't. What else is, what is the other move? Like, he's not going to make much money just because he opened up.
Starting point is 00:07:17 Like, he was already doing takeout and delivery. Right. And now for a period of time, because we're in a pandemic. Yeah, like he's not franchising all of a sudden, right? Sorry, excuse me. No, no, no. Interject anytime.
Starting point is 00:07:26 People are bored of my voice anyways. But I think it was all manipulative and PR to be like, I mean, CP24 has them on all the time. I was following the Toronto Star on Twitter as things kind of broke down in real time. And I think it was all PR that people like Humble and Fred now know they exist and are excited to go there when they can to eat the meat, which you don't do. But it was an awareness campaign you couldn't afford to buy. Don't you think it could backfire, though? Well, that's it. There's a whole bunch of people who will never go there.
Starting point is 00:08:00 So I think he's decided because it's like he's channeling his inner Texas, if you will, because this is barbecue Texas style or whatever. And the people that will like appreciate standing up to the man and fighting the system will go there, like just will go there. It's sort of like when Chick-fil-A came and you're thinking like, I would never go there. There's some homophobic beliefs in that management system and I would never go there. There's some homophobic beliefs in that management system and I would never support them. And then you see lineups for, like just lineups, like they were printing money at Chick-fil-A because there's enough people that will just don't give a rat's ass
Starting point is 00:08:34 about like progressive things like that. Right, like that antler place, right, downtown, when the vegans or the PETA came out against that, remember downtown? It was that meat place downtown. Not the meat place, but the antlers and the sun deer. And then there were, you know, there were protests outside. It was a high end. Right.
Starting point is 00:08:51 And there were protests outside and actually kind of backfired on short term anyways. Right. My theory on the backfire though, is that we are going to go through an incredible amount of forgiveness. And what is going to end up happening is, you know, the salvaged businesses that are still around the sort of let's roar back and build the community is going to be way more effective for people than, Hey,
Starting point is 00:09:14 we're still mad at you for something you did three years ago. You know what I mean? Or not three years, like three months. Um, and he, and if he's right and if the ownership is right and they do what I think they're going to do, it's basically going to be when we rebuild, we'll ask for forgiveness.
Starting point is 00:09:28 Right. So I guess I'd like to take this moment to say now that you've seen on the news that there's this South Etobicoke barbecue place that's being talked about. Down the street from that place at 30 Queen Elizabeth Boulevard is the best craft beer in the city. So, Mo, I'm glad to hear you're a supporter of Great Lakes. They're a supporter of this podcast, and I'm a supporter of theirs. So it's all beautiful, Great Lakes. Yeah, great job. Mo, do you, speaking of barbecue, do you eat meat?
Starting point is 00:09:55 I do. Okay. I didn't grow up eating meat, but I did later in life when I realized I wanted to gain some weight. Okay. So you had the opposite problem that most of us have. You wanted to gain weight. Yes. Because a lot of us are like, I got to like lose weight. Yeah. I think one of the son of an immigrant of problems was I was sort of skinny fat, right? And so I had no definition and I fattened weird places and I just didn't want to become more of that. And unfortunately,
Starting point is 00:10:23 excuse me. And unfortunately, I also grew up in a time where I was told protein is the only way that you get of the size. Right. Right. So I know my big Macs were my first. So you're, you're a meat eater, but, uh, my friend Milan here, uh, from fast time watch and jewelry repair, who's co-hosting this program with me. I know he does not eat meat. I've taken notes on this. I've got notes. So I put in a special order. Speaking of small, you know, independent businesses, support Palma Pasta, okay?
Starting point is 00:10:56 palmapasta.com. They're in Mississauga and Oakville. I said, look, I said, I wasn't sure about you, Mo. I should have asked you, but I said, I need a couple of vegetarian lasagnas because I knew Milan was coming. So you guys, you're taking home. When you walk back to your home a few blocks away, Mo, you're taking a frozen lasagna with you from Palma Pasta.
Starting point is 00:11:13 And the beer. Yeah, and the beer. And the beer. And you know what? While we're doing this, I'll do it real quick because I've got a lot of ground to cover here. And the lovely Toronto Mike sticker that you have there, that's courtesy of Sticker U.
Starting point is 00:11:23 And the actual Mike. That's interesting. No. The Mike stays here. Are you, that's courtesy of StickerU. And the actual Mike. That's interesting. No, the Mike stays here. Are you kidding? We're on a budget here. But you are taking the sticker, and you too, Milan. You need another Toronto Mike sticker from StickerU.com. You've got a lot of great support on this.
Starting point is 00:11:37 I'm really happy to see that. No, I'm happy to see it too. In fact, those three sponsors have been here a very long time so it's very good to have them here uh before we get into it mo i got so many questions like from you uh recognizing me on lakeshore to like some of the things you're doing at the movies and i got like like in books i got so many questions for you but but first uh milan i saw on Twitter, Argos Diva put a Grey Cup ring into one of your wonderful outlets to get cleaned. Is that what that was? Tell me about that. the official fan club of the Toronto Argonauts, friends of the Argonauts. And she was sort of, I guess, Nav Bhatia before Nav Bhatia was cool, I guess, you know, you can say.
Starting point is 00:12:30 So she was the original. Super fan. Yeah, super, a real super fan. So she's a super Argo fan. And I called her Argo's Diva because that's her Twitter handle. That's her Twitter handle. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:36 Lovely lady. And she's very close with pinball. And it was nice reminiscing about old school Argo's football when she came by. When you say old school,gos football when she came by. When you say old school, are you going back to the pinball years? Are you talking like as recently as Doug Flutie? We're the same age, Mike.
Starting point is 00:12:54 So I think, no, I'm going back even further. I'm going back to the Conrad, Holloway, Lance Chomik, Hank Lissick days. The 1983 Grey Cup. Yeah, yeah. Obie. Right, yeah. Bobo Billovich. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:13:07 And I was sort of, I guess, part of that lost generation when they had the blackout and didn't quite follow it as closely later on and became a big rapper. There's a very serious problem there. I'm going to be very frank with you. And I had this chat with Bingo Bob Willett today. Right. Bingo started a podcast. He wants, because he's a long time, he's our age too, and he wants to, he's not like a 25-year-old like Mo here.
Starting point is 00:13:24 Just kidding. I know Mo's my age because he recognized the to he's not like a 25 year old like mo here uh just kidding mo's i know mo's my age because he recognized the sesame street song i was singing off the top here but uh bob wants to give free publicity to the argos and he's been trying to get a hold of anybody at argos media relations okay anybody right to give them free publicity okay which they badly need because no one's talking argos we had a little chatter about the logo going back to the boat but bob was saying hey who's your contact at argos i told him the truth which is last time i reached out to argos i couldn't get anybody either okay i i went through mike hogan mike hogan i basically connected with mike hogan
Starting point is 00:14:02 and said here's what i'm trying to do. He got me connected to somebody who's no longer there. Anyway, I just think they're in some serious trouble if they don't start to figure out how to reach out. Well, Laurie's a great ambassador. You know, when Don Landry reached out to us as well, gave us a like. He's a friend of Toronto Mike I think as well. You don't know? Of course he is. Of course he is, yeah. Multiple
Starting point is 00:14:19 chances. Yeah, so he might be someone to get a hold of. I actually ran into Mike Clemens a couple of weeks ago. Really? Yeah. Whereabouts? For credit. Okay, because he might be someone to get a hold of. I actually ran into Mike Clemens a couple of weeks ago. Really? Whereabouts? For credit. Okay, because he's an Oakville guy, right? I don't know.
Starting point is 00:14:31 It was the weirdest thing because I was on my bike. I'd stopped to change a song, and I looked up, and across the bridge, he was on the phone, and he was doing his thing. And he was smiling. Smiling. Because he's always smiling. And, I mean, I was done up like somebody who was either a bike courier or somebody who is athletic somewhere a hybrid in between and so i was waving and he was waving at me like i'm some other fan
Starting point is 00:14:55 so right so i didn't think because i've met him before i okay i actually speaking of which i've i have a picture with his ring on nice um and and, I thought I'd just name drop a little bit. No, do it because he's a president of this team, right? Isn't he president? Yeah, that's why. That's why I'm mentioning this. But here's the weirdest thing. So I wave hi and I leave, right?
Starting point is 00:15:16 Knowing full well as I commence on my ride that he probably didn't recognize me or doesn't remember who I am. And an hour later, I'm riding back and I see him again. And I finally, I take everything off. Right. Look at my face. I'm like, Mike, it's Mo. Remember? Like, and he puts his phone away and he's like, and he's still on the phone at this point, which was funniest, but here's the best part about the story. Yeah. And I'm so glad that you started talking about articles. So we are talking over a bridge. So imagine the distance between you and I right now.
Starting point is 00:15:46 Yeah. Okay. And people are going underneath on, like, are rowing. So at one point while Mike and I are talking, he's like, how are you? How's the family? Like, he's very, very polite. He knows how to do it. He's a trained politician, if not soon.
Starting point is 00:16:01 And all you hear underneath us, in the water, you hear a girl go, excuse me, are you Mike Clemens? Wow. And we looked down, there's a girl in a kayak. Okay. And on the back, she has Rio 2016 on it. She saw, she stops and she goes, I just want to let you know that we were leaving for Brazil and you came and spoke to our team and we were all worried about the Zika virus.
Starting point is 00:16:25 She was explaining this whole story that you could tell she's been dying to tell him. But imagine this one moment in the middle of COVID happening like that. And this is a couple weeks ago and poor credit there. This was, where are we now? Pretty recently. End of September. I love it. And you know, Clemens
Starting point is 00:16:41 came up organically. I'm sorry for hijacking. No, that's a great story. They'll be happy to get this free publicity if anyone's paying attention over there. I love it. And you know, Clements came up organically. I'm sorry for hijacking. No, no, that's a great story. They'll be happy to get this free publicity if anyone's paying attention over there. Yeah, yeah, no, no, for sure. You know, there's been a lot of talk, especially recently about, you know, the greatest Toronto athlete ever.
Starting point is 00:16:54 Oh, Steve Simmons? Oh no, he did most influential. Yeah, most influential. But you know, we've talked about Kyle Lowry and you can talk about Roberto Alomar from the Jays days. Yeah, Doug Gilmore. Gilmore and Cindy.
Starting point is 00:17:02 Usual suspects. You can talk about the usual suspects, but there really hasn't been anyone, you know, would you say like a heart and soul who captures the city like Pinball? Pinball is a... And from an ambassador of the city of Toronto. He's absolutely beloved.
Starting point is 00:17:15 Like, I don't think there's anyone in the GTA who has a negative thing to say about Pinball. Like, I mean, he's so likable. He's so optimistic and cheery. And I know you mentioned politics earlier, Mo. Like we've been talking forever about when's pinball going to enter politics, but maybe that's his next chapter. And someone who's chosen to live in the city.
Starting point is 00:17:35 Close enough. Yeah, he's in Oakville. He could have gone back to the States, I guess. But all these other superstars, they leave, right? Right. As soon as the season ends. I kind of feel like pinball is an amalgamation of every good quality of a hockey player. Right.
Starting point is 00:17:46 You know what I mean? Like anytime you've had a nice quality Wendell Clark type, Dale Sittler type, et cetera, all those good things amalgamated is a nice like Mike Clemens. Right. Not the bad stuff in the lost teeth. Well, no one has a bad thing to say about pinball. And he's named Mike, so you know he's okay.
Starting point is 00:18:06 Most Mikes are pretty okay here. So good work on the Argos Divas ring. She's a satisfied customer? Yes, she is. I believe she is. She sent us a nice note. And yeah, hope to see them again. So what else do you guys repair?
Starting point is 00:18:19 You repair watches? Yeah, we do all sorts of watch repair, jewelry repair. We also sell related items. So things like watch bands. We have a huge line of watch straps and bands and that kind of a thing. And we also sell watches, obviously,
Starting point is 00:18:30 different nationally branded watches also at our location. So resell? So do people sell to you as well? No, no. These are all brand new things, nothing refurbished. But we do get asked that a lot.
Starting point is 00:18:42 That's a great question. So, you know. Is that the cash man's fault? We buy your used jewelry. Oh, i'm sure it is right it's a branding thing that they've hijacked i think yeah i do have one other question for you is there value in um other people's personalized um jewelry and i'm sorry this might be no no no that's i've always wondered for example like if somebody is to find a Johnny Carson personalized watch, you obviously know that he owned. Is that a huge market?
Starting point is 00:19:12 It can. It definitely can. Even this Argos pendant that we did, it's a heavy piece. It's a beautiful piece. It's the 100th anniversary. You can visit our social media pages to take a look at it. It was a really nice, cool piece. So something I think that...
Starting point is 00:19:24 You mentioned the Johnny Carson piece, something that's very rare and someone who would be a big fan definitely from a sort of legal appraisal value probably not you know right uh but definitely if someone's a huge fan of that person or that kind of a thing because it's it would be so rare and especially something like johnny carson has passed away sort of you know that that sort of item can definitely bring a lot of value. Like we've had, it's been cool because in the past, you know, we've had,
Starting point is 00:19:47 you know, Ben Johnson come to our location and Jim Carrey came to our store when we had the business back. To restore stuff? To have things repaired. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:19:56 Lennox Lewis came to our store at Shoreway Gardens before when we were in Sears. Does he live here now? This was years ago. Yeah, I don't know. He's a Kitchener guy, right? Yeah, and then he became
Starting point is 00:20:04 very British because it helped his, and then he became very British because it helped his career. And then he retired and he became more Canadian again. Right. So I just wondered if he's living here. So, no, that's a great question, Mo, I think. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:20:15 And for the record, because people are like, you know, Milan and Mo, it sounds like you're old, like longtime friends. Are you meeting each other for the first time right now? We are, yes.
Starting point is 00:20:24 We're your two brown friends. I have a jam. If he plays J-Ho, I'm leaving. He's playing Apache Indian. You know how many people don't know that this is Apache Indian? This is not Shaggy. Let's hear a little bit and then we'll talk to Milan
Starting point is 00:20:44 who requested this song. I don't want it to look like I'm playing this song on my own. Oh, yeah. It sounds like Shaggy. That's right. But I should have played maybe Mi Want Gal. That was the first big, much music hit I remember from Apache Indian. Because he had two big video, you know, mainstream hits.
Starting point is 00:21:15 Milan, why did you request Apache Indian? You know, Mo can shed more light on this. He's the first South Asian rapper that came to my mind. Apache Indian is the only South Asian rapper that came to my mind. Apache Andy's the only South Asian rapper that I know. That's the only one I know. Yeah, I could see that 100%. First guy, especially out of the UK,
Starting point is 00:21:35 which did hip-hop, did brown hip-hop first, right? But there's a huge scene now. Okay, tell me. And hip-hop in India is massive. In fact, they've already had their first version of 8 Mile came out a couple of years ago, and it was all hip-hop soundtrack.
Starting point is 00:21:53 There's a huge underground scene there that's an amalgamation of both hip-hop from the UK and North America. 50 Cent was the big introduction of the MTV generation for them. That was their hip hop. And like that album, Indie Club was the first. That's a banger right there.
Starting point is 00:22:10 That generation, there's a huge generation of it. It's beautiful. I mean, it's horrible, some of it. But you have to remember the one thing about all of this music and hip hop, right? Hip hop is regionally focused. So you can listen to hip hop in Paris and hate it and listen to it in New York and love it. Right. Yeah, there's like an Atlanta hip hop. There's a New Orleans
Starting point is 00:22:30 so you can keep the New York hip hop. There's country hip hop. There's legitimate country artists who rap now. It's a brave new world. But it's kind of sad that no other mainstream South Asian. This is over 20 years ago, right? Apache Indian?
Starting point is 00:22:45 Oh, it's got to be like 1990 or something. Yeah, yeah. So that's 30 years ago, if my math is correct. I'm going to get in a lot of trouble if I don't start plugging people. Plug some people. No, I don't want to plug anybody.
Starting point is 00:22:56 I don't. That's the problem because it's not worth it right now. Okay, let me ask this then. As a gentleman of South Asian descent, is there some... when this guy breaks, because guys like me are listening. I bought the CD for Apache Indian.
Starting point is 00:23:13 I liked it that much. Because I was exposed to it on much music. They played it in high rotation, and I dug it. Was there any pride? Did you feel some pride? I don't know. Were you feel some pride that uh but you know somebody from your uh your i don't know were you born here mo yeah i was okay so but maybe your parents were
Starting point is 00:23:31 the country of your parents birth uh somebody's you know and much music and look uh john mike just bought the cd i don't know alongside mc hammer i i was more proud at that time of people like monica deal and people that were really representative like the culture was being brought to us by certain faces that was way more a sense of pride than just Apache Indian and then the other thing with this you have to remember is were you around when we had day jams? were you in Toronto when they had day parties?
Starting point is 00:24:04 so the brown sort of culture around this music was around people used to skip school and go to parties from one o'clock to four o'clock when their parents thought they were in school right and so this music was around there for two years before much music played it and so you got to imagine there wasn't a lot of people going hey yeah we made it and said they were like why are these guys playing this all of a sudden? It's more underground. It's the same people that laugh at us when we start talking about a TikTok song. And they're just like, we've been dancing to that for six years.
Starting point is 00:24:34 Oh, okay. So thank you for requesting the Apache Indian. So Miwon Gal and that one, which then of course that's not Shaggy, but you can see the resemblance to the vocal performance. Arrange Marriage? That was a huge hit.
Starting point is 00:24:46 Arrange Marriage? Of course, you're right. Arrange Marriage too. Mewongal was Arrange Marriage. Mewongal. Is that Arrange Marriage? I remember that being the big hit and this being the follow-up.
Starting point is 00:24:55 That's how I remember. Look at Mike. I bring it, man. I watched a lot of my... You mentioned Monica Dio, who was booked on this show. This is back when I didn't do remotes. You had to be here in person
Starting point is 00:25:07 and she lives in Vancouver, but she was coming in to do a Sephora makeup line that she was promoting and we had it all booked and she actually, I got bumped for something bigger and better, I'm sure. And then we never did reschedule it,
Starting point is 00:25:20 but I was like primed. I was loaded. I had the clips loaded up. I was ready for Monica to drop by. Were you going to ask about being booed at the 1995 NBA draft? Ed O'Bannon, right? That's who he wanted. I remember very well because I was a big NCAA fan at the time
Starting point is 00:25:36 and he was with UCLA, if I remember correctly. You're right. We were still learning because I was of the belief Ed O'Bannon was the pick, too. I wasn't booing anybody. Do you remember this when Damon Sotomayor was drafted? Why did she get...
Starting point is 00:25:47 Remind us about the... It was insane. I remember being there and that's the first thing that comes to my mind. And she's become really big on MTV. I'm sorry, on Much Music, like you said.
Starting point is 00:25:57 You know, and she came, they announced her, I guess, I don't know, she wasn't making a pick or anything like that. But okay, if I remember correctly, in the early years, like 1995, it was airing on the new VR. Yes. The new VR was a Chum City property.
Starting point is 00:26:10 Okay, maybe that's what it was. Monica Dior was a Chum City person as well. So maybe there was some convergence there. And I think it was between commercial breaks or something like that. And she came out and she- Wow, you're bringing the heat today. I don't remember the Monica Dior connection to this draft. Oh, she got booed out of the building.
Starting point is 00:26:23 It's a Skydome, right? Oh, it's Skydome. What? I have never heard this story. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. I don't know if Monica Dio connection to this draft. Oh, she got booed out of the building. It's at Skydome, right? Oh, at Skydome. What? Yeah, over 20,000. I have never heard this story. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. I don't know if it's on YouTube somewhere.
Starting point is 00:26:29 I don't know. Hey, first of all, that's so unfortunate that you remember that. Yeah, it is. It really is. Yeah. Shout out to Monica Dio. You know, I've had the creator of Electric Circus on here. You know, Maestro's come over to talk about being discovered by Stevie B
Starting point is 00:26:44 because he was on Electric Circus and getting his record deal that way. Joel Goldberg, who directed the video. Dwight Drummond, who was doing security for Electric Circus and ended up in the early Maestro videos that Joel Goldberg was on.
Starting point is 00:26:58 Erica M's coming on next week. Erica M's on, actually, after many years in the making here. But one final connection to that whole scene here, if I connect all the dots. Yes, okay, so Great Lakes Brewery has a beer called Electric Circus in honor of this whole scene. And on the cover is the cowboy.
Starting point is 00:27:19 The cowboy was a dancer in the early days of Electric Circus. The cowboy went on to father two i know i know you know let me see if mo knows mo uh can you name one or two of uh the baseball playing sons of ken the cowboy and i won't say his last name because i might give it away i don't know i don't like loves this i love this because in 1990 or, he released a 12-inch single called Summertime, Summertime. The cowboy is Dalton Pompey's father. Dalton Pompey, as I am haunted, 2015 or 2016?
Starting point is 00:27:54 Which year is he on third base of Nobody Out? 2015 in Kansas City. Are we down by one? Yes. Game six, right? Yeah, Ben Rivera's thing struck out. Deanna Navarro struck out. It literally kind of haunts me the way that 1980, there's a few things that haunt me. Who's the other six, right? Yeah, Ben Rivera's thing struck out. Deanna Navarro struck out. It literally kind of haunts me the way that 1980,
Starting point is 00:28:07 there's a few things that haunt me. Who's the other kid though? Tristan. Tristan Pompey, who was just drafted. So I don't even think he has a major league at bat yet, but he's a future major leaguer. So I'm haunted by a few Toronto sports moments that just like literally haunt me,
Starting point is 00:28:23 like they won't leave me. But one of them most definitely is Dalton Pompey on third base of nobody out. We're down by one in the sixth. I don't know how we don't cash in that run. Like I'm haunted by that half inning. It's horrendous umpiring, remember? I can't remember. Because I can't revisit
Starting point is 00:28:38 it. It's like the Doctor Who theme haunts me. I'm haunted by this. But there's a few of those. Mo's looking at us like we're on crowd. From Monica Deol to 2015. I'm bringing you this. But there's a few of those. Mo's looking at us like we're on crowd. It's just amazing that we went from the old to 2015. I think that's the beauty of this. I'm bringing you back, Mo, because we're going to talk dad spotting in a moment. I'm going to bring you back. But the other one,
Starting point is 00:28:53 of course, is being up 4-1 against the Bruins in Game 7. I'm so haunted by that last 10 minutes. I was in a Halifax bar and I had my Toronto flag so flying high and annoying people. I'll bet you did because you have 4-1 in game seven.
Starting point is 00:29:09 I'm 4-1 game seven, an hour above, like I'm an hour ahead of you guys. I'm 10 o'clock intoxicated, not 9-15 third period. I am in Halifax, landed, got to the bar to watch it. Okay. My story is I had a slow pitch game that night. So I actually got home during the second intermission because we had to play slow pitch. I remember game seven, how do you play slow pitch?
Starting point is 00:29:31 Well, I owed it to the raging storm, okay? So I get home for the third period, and I'm with Monica. I don't think we were even married yet, but she was over at the apartment I was in between marriages. And I think it was, I want to say Matt Fradden. Who scores the fourth goal? Fradden?
Starting point is 00:29:44 I want to say Fradden. Because anyway, apparently,? Fradden? I want to say Fradden. Because anyway, apparently, so Fradden scores, put us up 4-1. She says, I leap like three feet in the air. Like the vertical, I've never had a vertical like that before. I literally leap and then I come to the ground like, this is happening. It's 4-1 of 10 minutes left. This is happening. I'm almost crying.
Starting point is 00:30:02 We're going to win this game seven and beat the damn Bruins. Yeah, I know my story. We were at a buddy's house. They're leading four to one and we're actually making arrangements because they were going to play the winner of New York and Washington. Oh, you're online already. And we were online trying to get tickets. Yeah, for either Madison Square Garden or Maryland. It was him. He
Starting point is 00:30:17 did it. Yeah. That's what happened. We were looking at Ticketmaster in different hotel rooms, what was available and then. You were on Travelocity. You were there, man. You had the packages booked. You didn't even buy the insurance, did you? You're like, forget it, Michael. Thankfully, we didn't press enter or click, but yeah.
Starting point is 00:30:34 Wow. Okay, so let me ask Mo, my esteemed guest from the hood. Tell me about, so you spot me before you send me like a Twitter DM to say, hey, I'm Mo. This is what I'm about. I live down not too far from you in New Toronto. Like you see me on the streets. Is that right?
Starting point is 00:30:51 I saw you. I've seen you with your kids and I saw you recently pulling kids. Hopefully they were yours in a way. I'm glad you finished that sentence. But what was funny about it was how incredibly frustrated you looked. Oh, really? I need to know, what time of day is this? This was after school.
Starting point is 00:31:09 But here's the deal. I observe dads quite a bit. Okay, tell me about this, because you call this dad spotting, right? Yes. So Milan's a dad, I'm a dad, you're a dad. Are you a dad? I am a dad. Okay, speaking of.
Starting point is 00:31:21 I'm a dad of three. Okay, good for you. So two years ago, I started to blog about, actually, five years ago, I started to blog about parenthood. And two years ago, I started to organize those thoughts because I was getting paid to blog. And then I realized, well, wait a minute, why am I getting paid to do other people's stuff?
Starting point is 00:31:40 Why don't I start doing it for myself? And then I opened up this whole market to the idea that, well, wait a minute, all of the trends that people advertise against have to do with mom shoppers. So why not do something for dads? And so what I've been creating in the last two years is basically this amalgamation of data around dads, new shopping habits, trends, and all that stuff and putting it to good use. And that's Dadspotting. Dadspotting.com, yeah.
Starting point is 00:32:08 Okay. Starting next year, we have both like a deals magazine with Dadspotting deals we have. We've got- Get some fast time watching jewelry repair deals out there. Well, I mean, if you're an example of the importance of community, Dadspotting represents a piece of that. Okay, so when you,
Starting point is 00:32:25 when you said I look frustrated now, I'm curious. So, uh, what am I doing exactly? Like you're just kind of, you just spot dads from a distance and watch them. You're not like in bushes or anything.
Starting point is 00:32:33 You know what it is, to be honest with you is that, um, son of an immigrant, right? So I know that I'm already raising my kids entirely differently. And I didn't really feel comfortable about the fact that there's just this general lack of resource and respect around the conversation. You know, these three professionals
Starting point is 00:32:49 that sit here in whatever field that we're in are all functional dads. We do great things and we're community builders and we're building voices. You know, when it doesn't seem like, I mean, to other people, it might seem like it's a bunch of dads just chatting. And no, this is a proper, viable voice and entity and part of the culture. And that's what I'm hoping to build with Dadspotting as well. And so far, it's been great because I haven't had to do it on someone else's dime. So all the research that I'm doing, I'm doing from a place that I can start to offer partners in the future and say, hey, here's a campaign we'll do together. Here's a trend report. Here's how dads are starting to buy apps now,
Starting point is 00:33:25 are working with their kids now. It's more of that. Okay, I'm going to take us away. Then we're going to come right back. That's what I do. But just, this is some behind the scenes stuff. Okay, so don't even tell Cora as we're talking about this.
Starting point is 00:33:38 But this coming Sunday at 8 p.m., there's a show. It airs every Sunday night called The Parenting Show. Oh, I know them. You know, okay, The Parenting Show. And it's hosted by... Chic Mama. There's a show, it airs every Sunday night called The Parenting Show. Oh, I know them. You know, okay, The Parenting Show and it's hosted by
Starting point is 00:33:46 Chic Mama. Yes, Chic Mama who's also known to listeners of this program as Pina. Pina. Pina Crispo. Pina, the inside edge chick
Starting point is 00:33:56 as she was known when she was at CFNY 102.1. So, Pina and I are friendly. She's been over. She actually made it to the best of. So, shout out to Al Grego who put together the best of Toronto Mic Volume 3.
Starting point is 00:34:09 He was back here Friday. We had really nice weather for his visit Friday. And I'm pleased to say that here we are talking on November 25th. And I was thinking, okay, like, I got to get heaters out here. You know, it's going to be below zero possibly. And very nice day. Am I right? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:34:27 Especially for two brown guys. We're not quite. But two brown guys born in Canada. Yes. Yes. Which I think, I feel like that takes away though. It is cooler by the lake though.
Starting point is 00:34:35 I got to admit, it is cooler by the lake. He means it's cooler. You know, it's cool. You mentioned Pina and the mom show. Oh yeah. I mean,
Starting point is 00:34:44 in the middle of that, but yeah, go ahead. I was just going to say, her and Jen Valentine do that show, I believe. Well, Jen's cool. You mentioned Pina and the Mom Show. Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm in the middle of that. But yeah, go ahead. I was just going to say, her and Jen Valentine do that show, I believe. Well, Jen's gone. Oh, Jen. Chorus parted way with Jen. I'm sorry.
Starting point is 00:34:52 I mean, it's not a secret, I don't think. But she's no longer invited to the parenting show. Okay. Because she was on that. They had a new morning show on global TV that she was on and then they let her go and then that meant no more chorus things so she can't do the parenting show anymore that's how it works it's a doggy dog world out there but it is net so it's now it's pina but the quick behind oh and then don't finish your
Starting point is 00:35:16 story about the i'm lucky enough to have been with them on the show and you're a guest of the parenting show i have been a guest on the show. Wow. Yeah. But she also has a book coming out too. Pina? Yeah. What's it about? Do you know? No.
Starting point is 00:35:30 Okay. I thought that I was giving you something. I don't know. She didn't tell me about the book. But okay. So you were on the parenting show. I gave you something. Milan, have you ever been on the parenting show?
Starting point is 00:35:41 I should be. You should. Yeah. One day. How old's your child? He just turned six a few days ago. I have a six-year-old. How old are your kids, Mo? 12,
Starting point is 00:35:50 10, no, sorry, 14, 12, and 10. Wow. Okay. Well, what gets you the wow there? You're impressed by that. Well, you have four. I have four. I win, so I have four. I gotta get going here. One is enough, I always say. I envy you.
Starting point is 00:36:05 Oh, okay. If I just had that six-year-old, I feel like I'd be on Easy Street right now. It's that four-year-old who's dragging me down. But Mo's got, you know, now he's got these independent kids. You didn't feel that way with that emotional post you wrote. Which one was that? When your son went to you.
Starting point is 00:36:18 Oh, you know, I love that boy. I miss him too. He's coming home for the holidays. It's a very Wonder Years type moment. Oh, you'll see what it's like. Oh, I feel that boy. I miss him too. He's coming home for the holidays. It's a very Wonder Years type moment. Oh, you'll see what it's like. Oh, I feel. You know, he's only an hour. I could probably get in my car.
Starting point is 00:36:30 I don't have a car. My wife's car right now, and I could probably see my boy in like an hour and 20 minutes. Like that's probably where we're at. But it's not the same. It feels like he's on the other side of the world. Well, Mohit knows us.
Starting point is 00:36:41 Yeah, son of an immigrant too. You know, it that that detachment i remember my my parents and i was in my late 20s when i moved out of the house wow because and they got emotional yeah no maybe we do it now though because no one can afford to move yeah yeah and i remember how emotional they got you know and i can only i feel it now you know the day he moves out um yeah it's gonna be tough okay so the back to the parenting show real quick so i also learned of course uh i did also learn that uh fotm cam, so back to the parenting show real quick. So I also learned, of course, I did also learn that FOTM Cam Gordon was on the parenting show too. So I think everyone's been on the show, but finally they got to me.
Starting point is 00:37:11 And she remarked that they hadn't had a dad in a long time. Like this parenting show hadn't had a dad in a very long time. But the interesting thing I found is that this show airs Sunday night. I recorded it yesterday, so I don't know if they like me saying that. I don't know if it's smoke and mirrors, but I'm here to tell you what it's like. Literally, I had to phone, with a phone, I had to phone a number,
Starting point is 00:37:31 because you're not going to the studio anymore because there's COVID everywhere. We talked on the phone. We were actually connected via Zoom so we could see each other for the convo, and she could do things like two minutes till break and stuff because there's these radio rules. But I just thought it interesting that the way they record it is via the telephone i just found that kind of interesting so uh i did just spend an hour with pina talking about fatherhood and
Starting point is 00:37:55 parenthood and stuff so this all happened just yesterday and that airs on sunday and this segues nicely into the dad spotting so when you saw saw me on, I guess on Lakeshore, I had a wagon. Were there two kids in there or one? Because that tells me where I'm going because I know my routine. You're going up to Lakeshore and to be honest with you...
Starting point is 00:38:16 One kid then, one kid. I haven't collected the second one yet then. Because I go to two different schools that collect these two little ones. And I think I threw... The wagon broke, by the way. I threw it out. The wagon's the end of an era. I guess I got to two different schools that collect these two little ones. And I think I threw, the wagon broke, by the way, I threw it out. The wagon, it's the end of an era.
Starting point is 00:38:26 I guess I got to be clear about the fact that like this is the first time I've thought about that since. No, no, I'm not even, no, you just spotted somebody whose podcast you listened to. Today, when I was walking on Lake Shore this morning,
Starting point is 00:38:39 a guy comes out of a door and he goes, Toronto Mike. And I said, yeah, that was this morning that happened and I said hey how's it going and I don't know
Starting point is 00:38:47 who it is so I think they forget I don't know and I said hey what's your name and he goes it's Kevin
Starting point is 00:38:51 I like it when you have the radio guys on and I said hey thanks for listening and then that happened this morning
Starting point is 00:38:57 so I think it's all good that's a boost to the ego I guess so yeah I am pretty fucking
Starting point is 00:39:02 big deal Milan get out of my backyard I'm gonna get John Derringer back here. We got to find out why you were angry that day. No, he didn't say angry. Hold on.
Starting point is 00:39:10 Slow down, Milan. You caused it. He wasn't angry at me. He said frustrated. That's possible, but do you know the context of this frustration? I'd love to know what made me frustrated that morning. It wasn't angry.
Starting point is 00:39:20 Very different. Was it morning? I think it was after school. Mike's never angry. It was after school. I think it was after school. Mike's never angry. It was after school. I don't use the wagon in the morning because the little one gets dropped off first in the morning.
Starting point is 00:39:29 But I have to, so I was using the wagon. I used to use the wagon to pick up, to collect them, as I say. And yeah, the four-year-old frustrated. I think that's my default look, frustrated, you know. You know what, guys?
Starting point is 00:39:40 I'll be honest with you. For the first year, while I was doing research on rolling dad spotting out, I got to talk to some great and amazing people. And the perspectives that you get from people from all around the world is just fatherhood is changing so much. Okay, well, do that now.
Starting point is 00:39:54 You have two fathers here on the mic here. What do you do? You ask certain questions to find out parenting style or whatever? I'm just trying to get it. Yeah, sure. What I do is I take four or five common themes, everything from change, help, finances
Starting point is 00:40:10 to everything. And I have the same question and I ask everyone. Okay. Ask Milan. Okay. We're live here. So what is the single biggest change your father, I'm sorry, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:40:26 Yeah, yeah. Six-year-old boy, Jaden. Would say between the way he's raising you and the way you're raising him? You know, the biggest thing I find is that I've never felt until he was born and in the last few years is just how much you can care about someone and put yourself, like put, make, make major sacrifices on your behalf for someone else. Like I've never been really used to that, you know.
Starting point is 00:40:54 But I'm talking about change. Like, so would your dad say, for example, that that's entirely different from the way I would approach. Oh, from a generation kind of thing? Yeah. I think they're definitely more coddled now in a way. You know, I think we have a lot more information readily available to us, you know,
Starting point is 00:41:10 online and that kind of a thing. And I think sometimes, you know, I feel sometimes we may over-parent, you know, compared to maybe what my parents did when we were a little bit younger. Right. I don't know if that makes sense. No, it is, right?
Starting point is 00:41:24 Is that like a bubble wrap thing? Or is that like what they call the helicopter parenting or whatever? Yeah. A little bit of both. Yeah. You know, he's got the best toys and he gets to go to a private school and this and that kind of a thing. Right.
Starting point is 00:41:37 You know, I'm not making it up. I'm just saying it's just different, I think. And I'm not saying in a good or bad way. It's nothing. It's just, I think I see that. And it's just different, I think. And I'm not saying in a good or bad way. It's nothing. It's just, I think I see that. And it's not just us. I see that with other friends we have who have kids the same age. And that's what I mean.
Starting point is 00:41:53 Maybe it's a cultural thing or I don't know. I'm just, yeah. It's interesting that it's not. It's not a cultural thing. It's just a matter of where we are. And that's what I'm hoping to do is gather some of these stories. I'm just kind of curious, Mo. I don't mean to put you on the spot.
Starting point is 00:42:04 This is a great idea, I think, with the whole dad spotting thing. Do you, do you think that, and be careful how I put this, like, do you feel there's a void in terms of dads not getting their respect in the mainstream, you know, that, that moms do? I just feel like the moms have done a better job at carrying the conversation.
Starting point is 00:42:23 Right. To different platforms. Right. And one of the things I do by day, like to make money is work with different audiences to build them, to figure out how to use the platforms properly. Right. And I think dad's coming into both podcasting and blogging and all that is just starting and that voice is starting to occur.
Starting point is 00:42:40 And I'd like to be there to nurture it as a guy formerly from media. Right. Right. We can't all be the influencer. So I'd rather nurture the network of influencers. True, true. What do you mean formerly from media? Could you elaborate on that little nugget you dropped there? Oh yeah. I used to be a producer at Breakfast Television. See, I didn't know this.
Starting point is 00:42:58 What? I know. So Kevin Frankish, who was here in the backyard like two weeks ago. Kevin Frankish and I worked together for about seven years. Segments, mostly. That's how he knows Jennifer Valentine. That's how I know the whole crew, yeah. It's all, like the pieces are all coming together. I was a Queen Street guy. I worked at Queen Street for a year before Rogers bought Citi.
Starting point is 00:43:19 $2.99. Yeah. Of course. I mean, you know, I was there the morning after the cigarette butt was put out at the MMVAs on the same floor, right? The floor is sticky. And you're wondering why Mark Daly's just leaving when you're just getting to work. This guy worked with The Voice. I have that, hold on, standby.
Starting point is 00:43:38 I didn't know any of this. You got an in now, Mike. Well, all those people are gone. But here, let me just play a moment here. The following program contains adult themes, nudity and coarse language. Viewer and parental discretion is advised. Wow. So, okay, yeah, you've been holding out on me, buddy. So, you were in the mainstream media? Oh, yeah. I worked at both CBC, City TV. You know what? I've actually contributed to every
Starting point is 00:44:03 major media organization in this country. And I'm a juror for the International Emmy Award. I do a lot of different things in this business. And I'm not trying to... No, no. Because this is very Canadian of you to be worried you're, I don't know, not being humble enough or not showing enough humility. But I want to hear your... These are some awesome accomplishments that I'm naturally curious. I'll give you a two minute, very quick thing. McMaster University graduated, hated my job.
Starting point is 00:44:30 First six years, corporate guy, started at the bottom, literally answered phones at the Directors Guild of Canada, went on to work multiple jobs in media at the same time, sometimes lying to other media organizations so that I could go work at other media organizations. At one point go work at other media organizations. At one point in my career, I had six different media jobs that started at five in the morning at CBC and ended at midnight at Omni TV in an editing room. You just didn't sleep, I guess. So you tried to sneak a few hours between those.
Starting point is 00:45:02 You know what? I was too worried that I was going to get taken away from me and I risked too much at the time. Good for you. And I mean, I just had to go, go, go. And God, you know. That's why you were so skinny. Actually, you know what? At that time I was fat because, because I kept going to the parties.
Starting point is 00:45:17 Right. And I got to drink and I got to eat and I got to do all the good stuff that media people were allowed to do back then. Who was the biggest celeb you met? Oh, you know what guys? If I like, honestly, I'm allowed to do back in the day. Who's the biggest celeb you've met? Oh, you know what, guys? If I, like, honestly, I'm really lucky. Spill the tea. Let's hear it.
Starting point is 00:45:29 I have. Mo unfiltered. I have been really, really lucky. In fact, you know what? What do you want me to say? I've met everybody from Warren Buffett to Wayne Gretzky. Like, I don't know how. Oh, Wayne Gretzky.
Starting point is 00:45:43 We're Canadian. We see him walking down the street. But what about, like like somebody like Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise? Again, I haven't. So the biggest, I mean, I've met every big Bollywood star. Yeah, Shah Rukh.
Starting point is 00:45:56 Yeah, yeah, for sure. I've been very lucky with that. And because I was one of the only people in Toronto who could get interviews with them. How about AJ Vermani? I know AJ very well. I know the Vermanis very well. See, I need more education here.
Starting point is 00:46:08 I watched his hockey movie. I went to the theater and supported him. Oh, Breakaway. Why are you telling me? I don't know. I'm just saying. Hey, tell your buddy. Tell your buddy, yeah.
Starting point is 00:46:16 I went and saw his movie. He needs to get a watch repaired with us. Okay, okay. And this Mo, I know about Mo Hits Movies. Yes. That's literally your Twitter handle. So tell me a bit about that. Is that your independent movie review channel?
Starting point is 00:46:30 I saw a big void early in the fact that no entertainment shows would cover any minority, let's say, or whatever, world cinema. And so that's how I got my foot in the door that way. And I started the Toronto South Asian Film Festival with my buddy Dinesh back in 2001. And we decided not to let another generation go by where these filmmakers didn't have a venue. And it was way before
Starting point is 00:46:58 TIFF started to include some of this stuff. It was way before. This guy was in my backyard all this time. I had no idea. I'm telling you. That's a good thing. He spotted me frustrated on the lake shore there. No, but it's true. That is missing. You know, like he moved like from Deepa Mehta and all those kind of things. Yeah, it's getting that mainstream.
Starting point is 00:47:15 It's difficult. So with reference to the Mohitz movies thing, sorry to cut you off. Yeah, no, no. Go ahead. It became one of those things that when I first started Twitter, I was like, this is the only way I'm going to get people to read my blog. And I just kept it and I was lucky to get a small amount of followers, but I also only utilized
Starting point is 00:47:32 it to promote films at the time. And now I'm just kind of like, well, those days are kind of... I mean, I do it, right? When someone needs a hand, I still have an audience for it, but you can't make money at it. So why can't, like if you have this, like let's call it, I don't know, but you can't make money at it. So why can't, like if you have this,
Starting point is 00:47:46 like let's call it, I don't know, can you call it a niche? Like this is a highly targeted segment of the movie. Cause like, like these movies, which I know they're very popular, but like I don't know any Bollywood stars.
Starting point is 00:47:57 Like I just, I just, they're not on my radar. You do now. You got two in your back. I would believe that. I can see uh what is it you ask oh bollywood oh yeah oh like at the end of slumdog millionaire right all right that's
Starting point is 00:48:11 our dance sequence right the dance sequence at the end that's all we got but i would think if you in that niche i mean there's there's so many people new canadians and children of new canadians who are this is a key part of their movie watching experience that there would be a, you would think there'd be a market to like, there would be money in it is what I would think, but I've been wrong before. Um, I have one small opinion.
Starting point is 00:48:33 You could probably, uh, there's nothing but, fantastic content to be had within, within that genre. The problem is in Canada, there's no buying power around it. And so what's happened is that there's no cinema to go to to watch it.
Starting point is 00:48:47 The subscribership for streaming networks is all illegal. And so you got to imagine that you can't say to somebody, hey, come and market and be a part of this show. We have no idea where this audience goes after. You know what I mean? You're promoting the ghost. Okay, but I just assumed that theaters were airing Bollywood movies. I mean, not in this.
Starting point is 00:49:08 Maybe not in Toronto, like downtown or whatever, but definitely. They did Scarborough. Yeah, but not to the mass that you need to sustain a weekly, hourly, like whatever mass community. We couldn't keep Omni and we had all the cultures in one place, right? They couldn't keep that afloat. Think about that. They had every niche market in one station and they couldn't sell it. That's true.
Starting point is 00:49:32 I'm sorry. I worked there for years. No, this is the, I'm always interested in this inside perspective. I'm sorry, I thought that's what, but Mo talked about Monica Dior. Yeah. Like how Sunil Joshi was the only brown person. Sunil was, yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:42 For how many years? And Nalini Sharma at the time. Right. She was doing weather. Right. Sunil was, yeah. Yeah, for how many years? And Nalini Sharma at the time, too, doing weather. Right. She was on Breakfast Television, right? You count on one hand for how many years? Sunil Joshi, to me, growing up, like, that was like, wow. Baton Broadcasting System.
Starting point is 00:49:55 Baton, yeah. Yeah, or even someone. Baton, yeah. Yeah. Baton, whatever. And then Russell Peters, you know, I remember when he made it big. And I'm sure maybe you have a story about him. But he was, you know, like, that was huge to me. So when, you know, Mo talked about Monica Dio, like that, you know, when I remember when he made it big and I'm sure maybe you have a story about him, but he was, you know, like that,
Starting point is 00:50:05 that was huge to me. So when, you know, Mo talked about Monica Dio like that, you know, cause it's so, it was so rare and I'm glad now it's becoming a little bit more, a little bit more mainstream when you saw,
Starting point is 00:50:15 when you see someone like, you know, Hasan Minhaj, you know, doing his stuff on Netflix and, and, you know, well,
Starting point is 00:50:20 the problem with it, to be honest with you is the fact that it's way too late. I mean, like there's a Mindy Kaling, Hasan Minhaj, whatever. And then it becomes, oh, now it's Crazy Rich Asians and let's focus on Introduce. And then it's, oh, you know what? We forgot. There's no black people in this year's Oscars.
Starting point is 00:50:35 Let's go back and figure that out. It's just cyclical. And you know what the worst part is? The world could have learned from Toronto. You know, there were so many great things that have happened in this city. Imagine the world embracing Maestro the way the world embraced Drake. Just imagine it from that perspective
Starting point is 00:50:50 and think about how much further the music industry would have been. But do you think an Indian movie could go mainstream here? Like a Crazy Rich Asians type of thing, but on South Asians, if it's any good? If it's told from a genuine place and it was told without apologies, yes.
Starting point is 00:51:02 And I think the biggest problem- But isn't that Slumdog Millionaire? Am I being naive and silly? Well, it's not a Canadian- No, you're talking Canadian? No, I'm just was told without apologies, yes. And I think the biggest problem- But isn't that Slumdog Millionaire? Am I being naive and silly? Well, it's not a Canadian- No, you're talking Canadian? No, I'm just talking about, no, Hollywood. You're talking about
Starting point is 00:51:11 a big Hollywood movie starring South Asians taking place in- Right, because there are stars when you look at Priyanka Chopra or Dev Patel or you look at,
Starting point is 00:51:19 there are a lot more out there in terms of- Or the guy from, yeah, Dev Patel. But Hollywood, let's face it, loves money more than anything, right? Yes. And Crazy Rich Asians prove that you can make money.
Starting point is 00:51:31 There is a market. South Asians, that's a huge population, like just North American wide. You know what my worry is, to be honest with you? We haven't been at all catered towards, at all, in my opinion. Yeah, I don't, to be honest with you, I don't think there's a value to cater to just South Asians.
Starting point is 00:51:49 I think you just got to start putting brown people in things because we are, we are at Tim Horton's working and we are in Mike's backyard and we are working, you know, at the IT job and we are everywhere. So if you're going to infiltrate like Latinos into American television, just start putting brown people into television as well.
Starting point is 00:52:06 Well, it's sad growing up when your most famous South Asian on screen is Apu. It's an animated character. And that's, I mean... Or the white guy from Short Circuit. Yeah, yeah, Fisher Stevens. Or Peter Sellers in The Party. Still a classic movie. Yeah, you're right.
Starting point is 00:52:21 How racist it is. Fisher Stevens, right. That was shot here too, right? Well, number two was, but not number one. Number two, you can even see all the... Number two for sure. I'm a big Cal Penn fan, but I remember some of his earlier work
Starting point is 00:52:35 on Van Wilder with Ryan Reynolds. He's Kumar. It's awful. Kumar was good. Harold and Kumar, that kind of a thing was... But here's the deal. Why are you... Yeah, I, yeah. He's Kumar. Yeah, yeah. It's awful, you know. Kumar was good. Harold and Kumar, that kind of a thing was, you know, but.
Starting point is 00:52:47 But here's the deal. Why are you, like, yeah, I don't know. We finished that thought there. My thought is this, like Deepa Mehta has a new film coming out and it's already
Starting point is 00:52:55 marred in controversy. It's like she's got this preset of controversy that I don't understand. I feel like the one problem with trying too hard to wave any sort of generation or race or culture into a mix becomes this weird standard that they have to live by. The person has to be clean cut, non-offensive, good for the aunties, good for the middle age, good for the people that come from.
Starting point is 00:53:18 I mean, you know, there's thousands of Caucasian and not whatever actors everywhere that aren't judged in the same standard. I don't understand how we're still like, we're just basically a part of the system. That is the problem that way. Like, let's just let people be good characters, good actors. And if it doesn't work,
Starting point is 00:53:34 they shouldn't have. But Russell Peters is a good example of why hasn't he made it like a Seinfeld or anything. And when it comes to television or that kind of a thing, he's been quite critical that he can't even get a meeting at, you know, with a Hollywood studio, you know, to do a, that kind of a thing. He's been quite critical that he can't even get a meeting with a Hollywood studio to do a TV. That's a great question
Starting point is 00:53:49 because everybody loves Raymond because Ray Romano was a big, or even George Lopez, right? He had a successful sitcom as a standup and then he said, yeah, great question. Because there was a CTV production called The Indian Cop or- The Indian Detective.
Starting point is 00:54:01 The Indian Detective, my apologies. Yeah, the Canadian miniseries thing. But you're right. Why is there no US sitcom based around Russell Peters? I have no idea. I don't have answers here. I'm asking these questions. Mo knows.
Starting point is 00:54:13 Mo knows. Mo knows. That's a good ad campaign. He's had several development deals, right? Okay. He had one, yeah. But I don't know. But at the same time, you know, there's so much of a market to be had now.
Starting point is 00:54:27 And I got to admit, he would be losing money if he went and did sitcoms. True. Well, not according to this last physical year. Yeah. Where nothing makes sense. That's a good point.
Starting point is 00:54:39 Okay, so you mentioned, Mo, that you're from my hood. So you mentioned you support Great Lakes Brewery. Well, because you're from my hood, you you mentioned you support Great Lakes Brewery. Well, because you're from My Hood, you're familiar with the fact that we have the good people at Ridley Funeral Home just down the street here. They're at like 13th and Lakeshore. They're right there.
Starting point is 00:54:53 I just want to take a moment to let people know that this year's Holidays in Hope Candlelight Service of Remembrance will be a live online event, so you're invited to join the good people at Ridley Funeral Home to receive comforting messages, enjoy live music, and reflect on your loved one's life and legacy. This all happens December 2nd, so Wednesday, December 2nd at 7 p.m. If you want to attend, you can RSVP by calling 416-259-3705 or contact us at ridleyfuneralhome.com. Now, speaking of the hood, you know, Mo and I are very proud of our South Etobicoke hood here.
Starting point is 00:55:33 I know you, Milan, live way, way, I can't even, like somewhere way out there. New Market. Different time zone once you get to North of Steeles, right? Do you need a passport to go home? Yeah, yeah. You can take the red eye and you can get
Starting point is 00:55:46 up there pretty quickly so you don't have to quarantine when you go home for 14 days let me ask you something
Starting point is 00:55:52 why don't you do your own podcast I don't understand this you seem like somebody wow
Starting point is 00:55:56 it's because Mo's making me blush no listen Mo hears what I hear in the headphones which is the
Starting point is 00:56:01 voice of God okay this is a tremendous voice no you do have a great voice but I also meant about your industry because I would imagine that a lot of people
Starting point is 00:56:08 would have questions, especially if they, excuse my language, but nerd out about it. Like, especially if they're genuinely interested. Right. You could have Argo's Diva on
Starting point is 00:56:16 to discuss the pendant it was. Was it a ring? I thought it was a ring. Yeah, a pendant. Okay. But ask, you know, I do know a place that produces podcasts. Yes, yes. Maybe Dana Levinson, I can call her. She. Yeah, pendant. Okay. But ask, you know, I do know a place that produces podcasts.
Starting point is 00:56:26 Yes, yes. Maybe Dana Levinson I can call. She's the queen of all media. You can join the family. You're all invited to join the family. I appreciate that, Mo. Thank you. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:56:35 I tell my wife that all the time, but yeah. Will your wife listen to this episode? I think with Mo being on, yes. Just for Mo. I don't think she was a big fan of the baseball talk, but yes. I think this is more down her. Give me a story that she would like about somebody that she would like
Starting point is 00:56:50 and I'll tell you the story. Does your wife, serious question, I don't even know, is your wife of South Asian descent? Yeah, she is. She was born in India, but raised in Botswana in Africa. Okay.
Starting point is 00:57:00 Does she watch Bollywood films? She does. Like, does she have a favorite Bollywood actress? Actress? I don't know. It's always the actor, right? I don't, honestly, is that true? Oh my gosh.
Starting point is 00:57:11 Because I always see beautiful pictures of South Asian Bollywood actresses. They're the supporting. I did see. A lot of them are One Miss Universes. No, and not to like, I'm not happy about that. No, no, you're just reflecting the fact. It's very tough for the woman to get the lead role. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:57:26 That's a great question. No. Okay. Does she have a favorite actor? She's a big, I don't know if you're familiar, Mike, with Shah Rukh Khan. He's sort of our- Was he in Stump Dog Millionaire? He's our Brad Pitt.
Starting point is 00:57:34 Was he the guy who hosted the- That's the only movie I've heard. Who wants to be a millionaire? Mo is just like shaking his head. I think Mike's ready for the Saved by the Bell reboot tonight. He's not coming back. I only asked because I was told. Welcome to the diversity episode.
Starting point is 00:57:50 I'm as embarrassed as anybody. I'm sorry. The host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in that movie, I was told. His name is Anokapur. Yes. Okay.
Starting point is 00:57:59 Was a famous actor. I'm going to just shut up on this topic. I will disclose. I don't know anything about Bollywood. I can tell you a good story about Slumdog Millionaire. I would like to hear that. Bail me out.
Starting point is 00:58:12 This will tie it all together. One time on Breakfast Television, we had Danny Boyle on air and he was schlepping a film called Starship or Star Battle. It was the sci-fi film after Trainspotting. Which inspired the name Dadspotting. Which didn't.
Starting point is 00:58:30 Really? We'll get back to that. That's breaking news. We will get back to that. So Danny Boyle, off set, comes up to me and he says, hey, thank you very much for having me on, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, yeah, great job. What are you doing? He goes, oh, I'm actually leaving here
Starting point is 00:58:44 and I'm going straight to India. And I was like, great job what are you doing he goes oh i'm actually leaving here and i'm going straight to india and i was like oh why are you going to india and he goes uh oh i'm going to do a film there uh it's based on a book about a guy who wins who wants to be a millionaire now you have to imagine this is post regis philipman like this is a weird time in north america for the show who wants to be a millionaire and i I have no concept of what it's like in India. I imagine they're getting our repeats from three seasons ago. That's stupid Mo, okay? That's the way I'm thinking about this.
Starting point is 00:59:11 I can't be the only stupid one here, so thank you. No, I'm definitely beyond stupid in this. So he proceeds to tell me that he thinks he's going to get a big Bollywood star to be in it. And I'm laughing inside because I'm like, this guy's going to go around and do the rounds and no one's going to know who he is and he's never going to get a big Bollywood star to do this. So fast forward to September. Um, I get a phone call from somebody at TIFF. I I'm accredited. I'm covering the
Starting point is 00:59:36 festival. They're like, we need you to come and see this film. We think it's going to be the audience choice winner. I'm like, it's not on my radar. I'll go see it. I have no idea what it's about. Right. I'm sitting there. I see the credits pop up. It's Danny Boyle's name. I'm like, it's not on my radar. I'll go see it. I have no idea what it's about. I'm sitting there. I see the credits pop up. It's Danny Boyle's name. I'm like, oh my God. And so I sit there the whole time going, I am so stupid. I am so stupid. But to redeem myself, at the end, there was a Q and A and I put my hand up and I go, I have a question. You mentioned you were trying to get a big Bollywood star to play the role of the thing. When, um, no, I heard is what I said to him. I used hyperbole in it because I didn't want to be like you mentioned back in the day when we spoke Danny Boyle and your moment, I want this
Starting point is 01:00:15 information. No, I, I asked and he said, I went and they all said no. And finally Anil Kapoor, who at that time wasn't as big as he is. This guy was at the end of his career. And this film put him on a complete different trajectory. Wow. Yeah. And then he got 24. No, 24 he got. He did Mission Impossible after.
Starting point is 01:00:36 It completely changed his career. But I love the fact that I immediately thought that this film was going to be crap. Yeah, you were wrong. You were wrong. Don't bet against them. So what is the origin for the name Dadspotting? Because I actually was telling Monica, my wife, about Dadspotting,
Starting point is 01:00:51 and I just assumed wrongly that it was your spin on the name Trainspotting. No, I actually, and I don't even, yeah. Dadspotting came from sessions. Yeah, like we, it was actually a work, dad spotting came from sessions. Yeah. Like we, we, it was actually a work,
Starting point is 01:01:08 a lot of sessions of workshopping. So it's one of those weird things that you would think to yourself, Oh, it's just an idea. Somebody put it to two words together and put, no, this, we took some work.
Starting point is 01:01:18 We did it. We did the brand steady. We did. You know, we had a, our first logo was a takeoff on the public enemy logo. Which Chuck D designed. Which Chuck D designed and Chuck D called me out on as well.
Starting point is 01:01:31 Really? Yes. Wow. Good for him. He's an FOTM. So you're in the same club. He's a what? He's an FOTM. Friend of Toronto. Milan. I'm going to have to explain this to our new FOTM Bo here, but he's a friend of Toronto Mike.
Starting point is 01:01:43 Oh, really? He's been on the program. Yeah. Oh my God. What an amazing, yeah. Oh, my God. What an amazing, amazing, amazing person. A poet. Yeah? Yeah. I quoted him today
Starting point is 01:01:52 because somebody, I guess the weekend is upset he didn't get any Grammy nominations or whatever. And there's that line in, but I think it's on Fear of a Black Planet or maybe on It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Starting point is 01:02:03 where Flavor Flav comes in and he goes, who gives a fuck about a goddamn Grammy? Like this line has been ringing in my head ever since I heard it in like 1988 or 89 or whatever. Like that Grammys don't mean shit. Bring the noise. No, it's not bring the noise. No, don't believe the hype.
Starting point is 01:02:20 They talk about what they like, right? The power is mold, the rhyme's politically cold. No, just could ever try to handle this. About to become the one and only missionary, you're a son of a gun going on and on. It's Terminator X. You don't use your faith as a DJ to sell drugs. Terminator X.
Starting point is 01:02:37 I think it's Terminator X to the edge of panic. Hour of chaos. Terminator X. In the hour of chaos. Not to the edge of panic? No, that's on Fear of of Chaos. Not To the Edge of Panic? No, that's on Fear of the Black Planet. You want to do hip hop? I can do hip hop too.
Starting point is 01:02:49 That album, okay. Anyway, who gives a fuck about what we like? You guys are good. Well, those two albums. I actually also really liked, I really liked the debut album. The one and only missionary lord. Son of a gun going on and on.
Starting point is 01:03:05 You don't use. You're one and only missionary lord. Son of a gun going on and on. Going on and on. You don't use You joke users. Using your fame as a DJ to sell drugs. Terminator X. That's on. You sure it's not
Starting point is 01:03:14 Terminator X to the edge of panic? I'll Google it later. I'll Google it later. I'll Google it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because it's Flash. That's the bomb squad
Starting point is 01:03:24 cutting up Flash. Don't even get me started about bomb squad and the importance of... You mentioned the Public Enemy logo. That was my band. I'm telling you, the two discs back to back, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Starting point is 01:03:39 and Fear of a Black Planet, they were in my Walkman so often. I really did have every lyric memorized. And now if somebody drops one line from one, I just go like autopilot. I start doing the song. Did you have the vinyl? No, no, no. I had Fear of a Black Planet on, I had cassette and then a disc. I was having this chat the other day. Whenever Paula Abdul's Forever Your Girl came out, that's when I transitioned from cassette to disc to CD.
Starting point is 01:04:08 So whenever that was, I think that was... MC Scat Cat? No, that was Farfew. That was Farfew. Yeah, but Opposites Attract. That's who you're talking about. Yeah, the MC Scat Cat.
Starting point is 01:04:17 Are you a big Paul Abdul fan? I went to a concert, actually. What? Kingswood? Yeah. Kingswood Music Hall? No, at Skydome. Wow.
Starting point is 01:04:25 How did she fill up Skydome? Yeah, it's amazing. Okay, my question is- That was her dating or sending you holidays. Okay, so when she does Opposites Attract, do they put the character on a screen? Like is the cartoon doing it on a screen? I think he can, didn't he? Didn't he twerk?
Starting point is 01:04:40 Because it's a cat, right? It's a cartoon character. I just turned 45 last week. I can't remember what 20 years ago 30 years ago but when you see the gorillas in concert you're seeing a screen
Starting point is 01:04:50 with cartoons on it right like I think this is how they do it like when the band we should do a I should do a pandemic Friday on cartoon bands like I think that's
Starting point is 01:04:58 how MC's there enough material to fill out I think there is you got the Josie and the Pussycats you got the Urchies I remember them
Starting point is 01:05:03 I think there's a bunch you got the Way Outs do you guys remember the think there's a bunch. You got the Way Outs. Do you guys remember the Way Outs from Flintstones? We are the Way Outs way. Love the Flintstones. All right, back on K. So I think I asked you, I said you're from New Market, and I'm actually curious, Milan,
Starting point is 01:05:18 if you would consider moving to our hood so we can all live close together. If you do consider this, and I'm not going to put you on the spot because maybe you're happy where you are, but if you wanted to move to South Etobicoke or anywhere for that matter, Joanne Glutish,
Starting point is 01:05:30 her full-time focus is Toronto real estate, especially Etobicoke where she lives, but also the West End and she focuses a lot on Mississauga and Oakville. She knows every neighborhood inside out. She's always in the community volunteering at events and working to find out
Starting point is 01:05:43 what her clients need to make real estate decisions. I strongly encourage the FOTMs listening to reach out to Joanne Glutish. She's been at it for 30 years. She knows her stuff. She's hardworking. She's tenacious. She's committed to the care of her clients. JoanneGlutish.com. Reach out and say Toronto Mike sent you. And speaking of awesome, awesome woman, I just want to shout out Barb Paluskiewicz. She is at, she's the CEO of CDN Technologies, your outsourced IT department.
Starting point is 01:06:18 If you have any computer or network issues or questions, reach out to Barb, 905-542-9759, or writer. It's barb at cdmtechnologies.com. And since I'm in this mode, is there any sales at Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair? Anything that you want to- I'm glad you asked, Mike. Fast Time. Fast Time.
Starting point is 01:06:40 You mentioned the holiday season. Yes. This is when, I guess, we all say goodbye to our hard-earned money because this is the time to buy things for people you care about. What can we do at Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair? Yeah, we have a great line of promotions going on on basically everything at our location. So if you visit FastTimeWatchRepair.com,
Starting point is 01:07:03 that's FastTimeWatchRepair.com. We've got great sales going on and everything. And yeah, we have locations all across Ontario, like you mentioned, Mike, before, including one in Richmond Hill. I know where that is. Where yours truly is based out of, yeah. So if somebody goes, you can allow customers
Starting point is 01:07:18 into this place right now? For sure. We've had a number of Toronto Mike listeners who have dropped by. Okay, so that's like the value add, is you can meet Milan from Toronto Mike. I don't know if it's a by. Okay, so that's like the value add is you could meet Milan from Toronto Mike. I don't know if it's a value add, but... It's worth the drive to Richmond Hill.
Starting point is 01:07:29 Yes, yes. So if anyone has any... You want to buy the... Jewelry repair or cleansing... Right, yeah. Yeah, cleaning. Yeah, yeah. Cleansing.
Starting point is 01:07:38 Is that not the term? You don't use that term? Yeah, I'm not... That's not quite the jeweler's term. Cleaning. Cleansing is something else, but reach out to Milan and he'll take care of you. Like he takes care of all the FO teams.
Starting point is 01:07:50 For sure. We got to get Mohit and Mike with a watch here. Oh my God. I don't even wear my wedding ring. Like I just don't wear anything. Like I just feel it's constricting here. But if you gave me a watch, I'd wear it. But just when you visit and then you'd be happy
Starting point is 01:08:05 to see it mo so many things like the dad's like i gotta ask you about rethinking your content right thank you like this is like uh like you wrote you wrote a book yeah i can barely read a book this gentleman wrote a book are you impressed my line very yeah i'm impressed about how judgmental you were the way you just you the guy right here. Well, it's because I was doing some homework and it's like, it's number one. I'm like, Stephen King over here. Like, talk to me about this. Did you not see Mo on Breakfast Television the other day? I was on Breakfast Television.
Starting point is 01:08:34 That was an awesome segment. How long has it been since you worked there? Five years. So when you were there, Kevin was still there. Kevin was, yes. I forgot to ask Kevin about Roger Peterson because Roger shows up to take over for Kevin and then Roger is showing the door and I just find it like, I don't know what's going on over there. A lot of turnover. I have no idea. I'm not judging. It's a tough industry. Like, let's be honest. This is the last of a generation where salaries meant something and you could live on the eight weeks of vacation and you had six figure salaries for people in news. Those days are, yeah, get the, you want somebody who is doing your weather, making six figures at your station and you can't keep a graphic artist for $40,000.
Starting point is 01:09:24 There is a disconnect. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And I'm not calling anybody out on this, but I'm telling you that's exactly what's happening. We're going to see everybody over the age of 60 gone from television in Canada within the next two years. Is that because the 60-year-old
Starting point is 01:09:36 doesn't want to make $35,000 a year? Like, is that, like, is it just simply that? We've created a system that doesn't work, dude. Well, tell me, man, I've never been in this. You're a mainstream media guy. We talk about it in media and sports.
Starting point is 01:09:49 I invented, I invented everything. Sports media is the thing. Yeah. You see it all the time. Look at all the people that retired from some sort of professional sport at some point, 15 years ago,
Starting point is 01:09:59 and still expect to make over six figures while you're on a zoom call talking to me about who you think is going to get traded in the third round of a draft. Get out of here, man. No advertisers going to pay you for that. I don't care how tinted your sunglasses are. Move over Hebsey. We got a new member of the sports media round table here.
Starting point is 01:10:19 No, I don't know your sports. I just, I'm just talking facts. So you say, okay, the system's broke. So,
Starting point is 01:10:24 but aren't, I always see like on, let's say breakfast television, for example, like they're, I don't even know if this is the right brand or not. I get confused, but they've, they're drinking their Tim Hortons coffee. Like there's gotta, like, there's gotta be money flying around, right? Tim's, Tim's isn't, you know, they're not paying a, you know, that's big money, right? It is big money. And to be honest with you, Tim Hortons was my client after I left breakfast television to sell back to breakfast. So I know how it all works. Cause I distinctly remember they had to have the Tim Hortons cups in front of them.
Starting point is 01:10:56 I remember this well. And not only that in every market. And so you got to imagine the impressions, the way they were being calculated. It doesn't matter if nobody was watching BT Winnipeg at that time. It was considered national because it was in all those pockets. So we had so many ways to talk about the way that people were really getting paid. Integrations were happening. But to be honest with you, it very rarely trickled down to the talent.
Starting point is 01:11:17 There was a lot of salespeople at Rogers that had some great years. They were selling digital and didn't know what they were selling. Okay. But I'm so like, I mean, let's take, um, what's her name? Uh, Palaise.
Starting point is 01:11:29 Dana? What's her, I should know her name, right? Dina. Dina. I should know this. I don't see morning television.
Starting point is 01:11:34 She's probably the number one morning show host. But she's got to be making real money, like an adult, uh, trauma salary. I'm not disputing anybody's current salaries. What I'm saying is. Are you saying the new,
Starting point is 01:11:43 the newbies that come in. I'm saying it's going to be really tough for us to sustain a place where... Why do I call her Dana? I have Dana on the mind. You know that. I was thinking of Dana Levinson. But Dina Pugliese. Pugliese.
Starting point is 01:11:53 Pugliese. One of my favorite people. I will go on the record always and say that. I've never had the pleasure of meeting her, but she's been there a very long time. And it sounds like she's the key on-air presence. She's the Mike Clemens of morning television. Sorry, we interrupted you about your new book out. Oh, hold on. Okay, who's
Starting point is 01:12:11 hosting this show? Oh, yeah, you are the host. Come on. I don't know if you know this, Milan. If you listen to Toronto Mike... My POC taken over. No, this is part of the problem. They'll never invite us back. We'll be back on the New Year's Eve show. I'll get Monika out here.
Starting point is 01:12:27 It'll be three against one. Will we be on the Al Greco volume four? You might be there. Once I get to episode 1000, he's got to cook that up. Okay, so the book is called Rethinking Your Content. Firstly, where is it number one? And secondly, what's it about? Yeah, so I self-published a book. It was number one on Amazon.ca at five separate times in the last four weeks, both in Amazon
Starting point is 01:12:48 Kindle edition and a hardcover. I've- Move over, Bob McKenzie. No, but you know what it is? It's just because it's literally a playbook. It's a snack book, if nothing else. You can read it in one sitting. And all I'm doing is telling people to stop wasting their time and energy and effort in
Starting point is 01:13:04 a world where social media doesn't give you anything back. So now we have to get back to a place and stop and say, what is the purpose of creating content, culture and commerce? And that's what I write about in the book. Okay, so let's use yours truly as an example here. So you, at some point you discovered an episode of Toronto Mic'd. Yes. Do you remember which episode you discovered? an episode of Toronto Mic'd.
Starting point is 01:13:21 Yes. Do you remember which episode you discovered? No, but I've tuned in quite a bit during the pandemic, including watching conversations, both with musicians and sports related topics. I love those musician episodes. Those are my favorites. Love them.
Starting point is 01:13:34 Okay. So like, so basically here at Toronto Mic'd, I'm essentially recording with people I think will provide interesting content to me and I hope others agree with me so like I pretty much design these episodes as the kind of podcast I would want to listen to like okay because I don't have your MSM background and and so I'm running on instinct here so how would like rethinking your content like if you were speaking and be as critical as you wish like be as blunt as you I'm still going to give you that lasagna and beer regardless of what you say next but like if you were uh talking to me about my my content on Toronto Mike uh what would you what
Starting point is 01:14:10 would you say if you came in as like a like a consultant of sorts well the first thing I'd say is that you're already ahead of the game and that you've understood the value of partnerships and there's a lot of people that don't a lot of people think that just having a mic and a soundboard gives them the license to do a podcast of uh and think that people are going to listen. So I love the fact that you've introduced partners here from a very genuine level. What I would say though, is that there's multiple use for your content that doesn't have to live and die on the podcast. This is a wonderful conversation that's been filled with four or five very distinct stories. You have the ability to repurpose and reuse this
Starting point is 01:14:45 in so many different ways that you could be thematic and you can sell those up in different ways as well as being short form content that you can use. That aside, you're also documenting history. So in blog form, the transcripts of your conversations, edited properly, obviously you don't want to hear about, you know, Milan and I talking about Shah Rukh Khan. Trust me, that's the good stuff.
Starting point is 01:15:05 That's the only stuff that's going to make the edit. All of a sudden, the key is going to be you and I holding hands in a Bollywood. We are going to do a little dance for the cameras at the end of this, right? But I mean, that's off the top. But what I'll tell you is that... No, great points. Because right now it's a live stream. So that's essentially people watching us record the podcast,
Starting point is 01:15:24 which will be unedited and will drop like 10 minutes after we take our photo together at the magic tree. But you're right. I don't ever put that content anywhere else. It just lives as an episode of Toronto Mic on the podcasters. Which is also interesting because you've made the effort to pay yourself. Like you have a business that you're running is what I'm saying. If I do nothing else through rethinking your content,
Starting point is 01:15:45 I'm just trying to push you to do more with that. When it gets to the smart speaker world and what you're going to be able to do with that or how you're going to go platform-specific on Spotify to include full music, all of that stuff is what I work with people on because I realize that these platforms don't owe us anything. So if we don't start investing the time and effort
Starting point is 01:16:03 in doing it properly, what's the point? Facebook doesn't owe you anything. There's no such thing as viral. There's no such thing as organic anymore. You got to work in these tools. And if I'm not saying you got to work everything, don't get me wrong. I do understand that there is, um, there's a problem associated with trying to be everything on everywhere, uh, which is also what I try to drill down as well. And I'm, and I'm lucky. Well, my challenge, my struggle, if you will, is personal bandwidth. Like I'm basically spent. Like I got the four kids we mentioned
Starting point is 01:16:32 and I try to get, I've got a lot of balls in the air, if you will, and I produce a lot of other people's podcasts. And then you have Toronto Mic'd where I do enjoy these recordings, but simply there's just no bandwidth to go in and edit out a section for some thematic thing you mentioned. Like you're right, there's a lot of stuff in these.
Starting point is 01:16:51 Like let's say this episode ends up being, I have no idea, let's say it ends up being 75 minutes. There might be a five minute in there that could be excerpted out and put somewhere else that would be more targeted perhaps and then could result in more monetization possibilities etc etc but even the whole thought of that i just it's bandwidth it's almost like you need you need more bodies more hands on deck yeah my last thing about that before i'm sorry milan no it's your show no i was just gonna say my last thing about that is there's no time stamp on what you're
Starting point is 01:17:23 talking about though you're what you should be moving towards is thinking that, okay, if I do get the two weeks to do something and I want to do a full music, you're at least archiving for that. And the last part I wanted to mention about that is put yourself in a situation where you see the value based on what you're, you want to get back. So if you know that you can build 30 minutes of short form content that'll yield to $3,000 that you want to make, there's ways to figure that out. What you shouldn't do is just say, I want to make this, right? And put it out because then you will waste both your time, your energy and your resources, right? And that point, you're not going to be rethinking your content.
Starting point is 01:17:57 You're going to be talking yourself out of doing it. This book, Rethinking Your Content. Like if you, if somebody wanted to give it a read, where do you want them to go to get it? Like what is your preferred avenue? Everything's on thinkstart.ca. Okay. What's thinkstart.ca? That's my, um.
Starting point is 01:18:12 This guy's, this guy's, he said he had six jobs in the MSM at the same time. He's got lots of, uh. No, it's just, it's just, I consolidated all of my, the same way that we're. So that's like your hub? Yes. That's the mohub is thinkstart.ca. Yeah. And people can go there and they can purchase your book through that channel there.
Starting point is 01:18:31 Through all of them. Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, it's all there. Okay. And I self-publish too. And I can teach people how to self-publish as well. Wow. Should I write a book? I think you are.
Starting point is 01:18:41 Here's the funny thing about it. I think you're already writing it. And that's the beauty about how I work. Wow. Science. That's some about it. I think you're already writing it. And that's the, that's the beauty about how I work. Wow. Science. That's some heavy shit right there. I'm already doing it. Most,
Starting point is 01:18:50 most. Well, he dropped the T word, which of course is, he dropped the T word, which is transcript. I know there's services out there that will, you know,
Starting point is 01:18:57 transcript audio. Mike, do you, do you, I know there's so many podcasts out there now, and you were one of the first ones. Yeah, but,
Starting point is 01:19:04 and I was kind of curious getting both your opinions like how do you stay above the fray kind of thing how do you differentiate yourself is that something that you you think about okay so i've been at this eight plus years now and i'm really just out there doing my very best like i know that sounds so simple or whatever but i i still like you know i'm gonna have back to back lee aaron and erica m and i'm gonna do my homework and i'm gonna be you know i'll have the interesting audio nuggets ready to go and i'm gonna just do my very best uh like i did with joey jeremiah last week like uh which was fairly well received because i do my homework and i i give a shit like i would say my secret weapon is uh engaging with the conversation and even now like mo's here but
Starting point is 01:19:46 i'm i would treat mo the same as i would treat who are going to pick on ron mclean for example like i don't have a hierarchy here like like i'm as interested in the mo convo and most nobody i can't emphasize that enough just kidding just that's a joke but mo and ron mclean i have the same interest in the conversation and i will treat them both the same it's not not, you know, knowing that maybe there's more name recognition with Mo than there is with Ron McLean. Of course, I understand that. So that's not a mistake. I'm just curious. Yeah. Cause yeah. So I'm just doing my, I'm just out there trying to, and I'm trying to get better as I do it. And then I do like when I go for these bike rides, I do, I know you said you saw pinball Clemens when you're on a bike ride.
Starting point is 01:20:26 How often do you bike, Mo? Every other day. And like, what kind of distance do you do? I'm just naturally curious. Somebody else in the hood. I'm not saying you have to measure it. I happen to be an idiot who measures every ride. I don't measure anything anymore.
Starting point is 01:20:39 I run every other day. I bike every other day. And the only reason I drop both of that in is because if I didn't live in this area, Milan, I would never do it. Trust me. I would never. I stay on a path. If one person gets in my way, I'm out. I'm like, forget it. It's over. I can tell you this. If you're
Starting point is 01:20:53 going to Port Credit and back, the round trip is $20,000. So I go to Jack Darling Park and back. And do you ever go the other direction? Yes. I go to Ontario Place. I do the loop go the other direction? Yes. Do you have like a preferred, because when I go to the other direction. I go to Ontario Place,
Starting point is 01:21:06 I do the loop. The Trillium. Yeah. That's exactly my preferred, like I'll do that. That's exactly what I do. I like to ride to Trillium, do the loops.
Starting point is 01:21:14 Sometimes I go into Ontario Place just to see like the remnants and stuff. And then you come out through Trillium and then I'll make my way back. I was literally leaning on the Cinesphere once and I was like, I can't believe I'm leaning on the Cinesphere. This is a really weird thing. Yeah, every once in a while I'll tweet a
Starting point is 01:21:28 photo like, this is the current state of Ontario, please. And I'll tweet a photo. Okay. So why was I talking about biking? Oh yeah, because I'll go on these bike rides and I'll have these ideas. The other day I had this idea of, do you guys remember Mr. Goo Head on Humble and Fred? Does this mean anything to either of you? No, I didn't listen to Humble and Fred.
Starting point is 01:21:43 Okay, so Fred Patterson had a character he invented in 1987 called Mr. Goo Head who would crank call people. And this is the silly crap I would, as a teenager, I found very funny, okay? So I had this thought of, oh, I have a bunch of them because I work with Fred
Starting point is 01:21:56 and I have a bunch of these old goo heads. I'm like, how do they hold up? Because I distinctly remember part of the humor, as I remembered in my mind's eye, was the new Canadian accent on the phone like this I felt like okay because if that's the joke that ain't cool like that that ain't cool in my 2020 perspective whatever so I just simply like played episodes of Mr. Goo Head and reacted like I would listen to them for the first time in years and react like could this fly in 2020 and
Starting point is 01:22:23 that was basically and I had this thought on the thing and i just cooked it up in my basement and that was actually the last episode so like i'm just trying to think of what what content would would i as a podcast consumer who always liked local stuff i always liked hearing like i can listen to a big american podcast that you know you know and they're not going to mention they're not going to mention the barbecue joint and so you know i always liked you know they're not going to mention, they're not going to mention the barbecue joint. And so, you know, I always liked, you know, they're not going to talk about Trillium Park in Ontario places.
Starting point is 01:22:50 Dalton Pompey's dad. Right. Like I personally like listening to local podcasts that are referencing things for me. And so you hit the nail right there. Your podcast doesn't have to be one thing anymore. And that's the beauty about audio brands in general, like Toronto might, you could spin off a whole section of different types of things. Right. And so gone are the days where somebody can only have one of one thing. I have
Starting point is 01:23:15 three websites. I have three web projects. What are you going to say? I'm not allowed to have like that. You know what I mean? I have a podcast for rethinking your content. That's going to happen. That's going to be entirely different. Okay me about your podcast no i just the only thing i did with rethinking your content was i said okay no one wants to read a book i'm going to explain what i'm talking about in the book and i'm going to post it on spotify so what i did was i put i posted a playlist with words about my book and now it's a promo on spotify that's one podcast that i'm doing that's not the podcast. Right. And you can get at that at thinkstart.ca.
Starting point is 01:23:49 Yeah, or Spotify. Well, Moe have Mike and Milan on the air on his show. Well, I only talk about what I write. We're not that big yet. I don't do guests, right? That's okay. When you're a historian, when you do,
Starting point is 01:24:01 like when you're a historian, you'll do that as well. Let me, can I just give one more plug? Anything, yeah. One more plug. Yeah. Um, I have a book coming out on audible and it's, uh, it's, it's for people who are in personal branding or influencers and stuff that have really struggled in the last year with, uh, keeping up with their digital footprint and their identity. It's called, um, finding growth beyond your personal brand. And it's just, it's a little snackable one-minute, I'm sorry, one-minute, one-hour listen.
Starting point is 01:24:28 Because that is snackable one-minute. Yeah. And it's coming out on Audible next week. I'm super excited. It's being narrated by Gary Chatters, who's a very well-known Audible narrator. And yeah, I was excited about the project. So yeah.
Starting point is 01:24:41 Okay, awesome, awesome. Milan, so either of you guys, just before I wrap up, because I'm going to just tell people about Toronto Miracle, which is happening December 5th, anything else on the agenda you want to spit into that microphone? No, I'm just curious.
Starting point is 01:24:55 Mo talked about earlier about generation, raising your children about different generations, about the way you were raised. What would you say in your particular situation? 60s, my parents came in, the 60 60s and that was a very different time uh my dad came to elliot lake in ontario and queen's university which was even more different in fact when they wrote uh i mean
Starting point is 01:25:15 when my my mom came to elliot lake they wrote an article about the fact that there was somebody coming to this um just in case anyone saw something a little bit, they were just, I mean, it was a celebratory article, but it was very much at racial undertones in it. Um, but that, that being said, the, the single biggest difference is my dad was the first one at Queens university in his program that was from India, right. At that time. And, and so nothing will ever be in the same sort of the 60s a very weird time for indian immigrants
Starting point is 01:25:46 i think the 80s was more established and so the single biggest change would be from like my parents came from villages dude my parents were from bihar and i mean don't get me wrong like not slumdog millionaire villages but villages in india um and recruited by you know uh ministries at that time you were recruited by the church to come to different schools at that time. So I don't know if I answered your question, but a very big change in terms of the way that, and I mean, I'm in an interracial marriage, so I'm not even, my partner is an Indian,
Starting point is 01:26:17 so we have a lot of differences in the way that we are raised. Does that bring challenges? It doesn't bring challenges because we're different races. It brings challenges because of different conversations that we have to have with other people. Sorry, I didn't mean to get personal. I'm just curious. That's okay.
Starting point is 01:26:34 It's a celebration of life. We have three kids and a wonderful family. We live in South Etobicoke, which Mike is running for local. I'm running for nothing except because my wife is a woman of color and so we're in a mixed marriage yeah mixed race marriage i guess is the terminology whatever but i do know that we sometimes see these demographic maps or whatever from the city of toronto and like
Starting point is 01:26:56 in terms of ethnicities and neighborhoods and something and this neighborhood is extremely white like i if you look at these debt like it, there's a lot of Polish, Russian, and basically, I've noticed it changing in the seven years I've lived here, but it's a pretty damn white neighborhood here. Well, did you watch the NBA draft? No, I did not.
Starting point is 01:27:19 No, I'll tell you what. Was Monica Dio there? They didn't boo her again, did they? I love that woman. You two are the broadcast experts here, I know. But the number of mixed interracial, you know, when you see the families of the players being drafted. Oh, like, okay, I hear you.
Starting point is 01:27:36 Yeah. I would say, you know, I don't have the exact number, but it was a significant percentage, and I thought that was really cool. Well, without a doubt, I've noticed, you know, because my first marriage was to a white woman, and now I'm married to a woman of Filipino descent,. Without a doubt, I've noticed, you know, because my first marriage was to a white woman and now I'm married to a woman of Filipino descent and I've noticed, I've noticed in just my circle
Starting point is 01:27:49 of people I know that mixed marriages are on the rise if you will. Like I think there's a census from 2016 I saw that said like 4% of Canadian marriages were mixed marriage, 4%. And maybe that's because that's a Canada number, that's a Canada number. That's a Canada number.
Starting point is 01:28:07 Because, I mean, I can just anecdotally, that seems low for Toronto, at least for Toronto. But maybe that's because this is the big smoke here. You see how I brought that back to sports. Okay. No, that's awesome, though. That's a very good observation. You're mildly exempt from this next part here because you don't live in Toronto.
Starting point is 01:28:21 But although we would accept you as a volunteer, okay? Because you can volunteer. If you're listening to me and you're not in Toronto proper, you can still live in Toronto. But although we would accept you as a volunteer, okay? Because you can volunteer. If you're listening to me and you're not in Toronto proper, you can still volunteer for Toronto Miracle. But Mo, you are a Toronto resident. So what you need to do is you need to go to torontomiracle.org and you need to register
Starting point is 01:28:37 your intent. It's very clear. Register your intent to donate non-perishable food items on December 5th. So literally the morning of December 5th at 10 a.m., we ask you Torontonians listening to me right now to leave a non-perishable food item. We ask for one, but of course you can put out 100.
Starting point is 01:28:59 There's no, at least one. Put them out on your doorstep. Mark that it's for Toronto Miracle. And we have volunteers like Milan who are going to come by and collect these donations. And then we're going to redistribute them to people in need in this community. The struggle with this, I've been working on this for months with some very kind, hardworking people. And it's all about awareness, right? Like getting the word out there. So if to get you know Toronto Star to write something there was a lot of effort there but you might get you know a CBC to talk about this or uh I know my friend Kelly Catrera she talked
Starting point is 01:29:34 about it on 640 and then so so on so forth so I guess three things one if anyone listening to me has any uh MSM control like maybe you can help get this to a producer to talk about it because this is all happening December 5th. We need to raise awareness. Secondly, if you can leave the non-perishable food item because you're in Toronto, we need you to register that intent at torontomiracle.org.
Starting point is 01:29:56 And then finally, we need more volunteers. So I don't care where you live for this part, you can go to torontomiracle.org and click volunteer and sign up and we'll be in touch with you shortly. So lots going on with Toronto Miracle. How was it, Mo? Like, was this everything you dreamed it would be? Are you leaving, like, your expectations are fulfilled or are you feeling a little, oh, I thought it would be better than that.
Starting point is 01:30:26 Give me the straight up. How was it? When do we start recording? Milan, was it as a, I make that joke a lot. Yeah, yeah. I need a cigarette now, I think. Wait a minute. What's going on behind that table?
Starting point is 01:30:42 I can't see. Holy smokes. It's the Bollywood show. It's the Bollywood show. Welcome to the Bollywood show. We've taken over, ladies and gentlemen. Are you guys friends now? You're not? By the way.
Starting point is 01:30:51 What are we going to say? No. Did you say no? I feel like I should clarify this. It's not like I said, hey, Milan, there's a brown guy coming over. Do you want to come? Because you're a brown guy. And you can vouch for this. You were coming over for the next opportunity. Because you're a brown guy. You, and you can vouch for this,
Starting point is 01:31:05 you were coming over for the next opportunity because you were going to coast. And coincidentally, it was Mo on the calendar. Yeah, great timing. The fact you're both brown, and these are your terms
Starting point is 01:31:14 that you use. I don't refer to people as brown guys, okay? But the fact that you share common answers. This is the only part that someone's going to listen to. Maybe I will break my streak
Starting point is 01:31:22 and actually edit this part out. And that That brings us to the end of our 757th show And you can follow me on Twitter I'm at Toronto Mike Mo is at MoHitMovies MoHitsMovies, yes With an S at the end of MoHit, so it's MoHitsMovies
Starting point is 01:31:43 Yes, or at thinkstart.ca. You can always go to thinkstart. It's like the hub. It's the Mohub. I like that. And Milan, remind us, what's the Fast Time Twitter handle? It's at FastTimeWJR or visit our website, FastTimeWatchRepair.com. Fast Time Watch Repair.
Starting point is 01:32:01 That's it. Everybody should patronize you because you are a family-run independent retailer and it's tough, tough times. Yeah, support small and local businesses. Fuck Amazon. And yeah, we'll see you soon. Speaking of Amazon, you can get my book.
Starting point is 01:32:16 Oh, it's Audible, by the way. No disrespect to the success Moe's had on Amazon. Oh yeah, he's about to drop the push to buy his book on Amazon. Did you hear that? I guess you can't fix watches yet on Amazon. That's, he's about to drop the push to buy his book on Amazon. Did you hear that? I guess you can't fix watches yet on Amazon. That's the big thing, right? The big box stores
Starting point is 01:32:28 are all open like normal. You go to Costco right now. The smaller guys seem to be taking the blood to the center. Yeah, I don't get that. I got to find out what's going on there.
Starting point is 01:32:37 Okay, so our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are there. They're at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta. Again, seriously, that's a large lasagna you're taking home with you. Enjoy that. They're, Palma Pasta. Again, seriously, that's a large lasagna you're taking home with you.
Starting point is 01:32:46 Enjoy that. They're at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. CDM Technologies are at CDM Technologies. Joanne Glutish is at J Glutish, G-L-U-D-I-S-H.
Starting point is 01:32:57 And Ridley Funeral Home, they're at Ridley F-H. See you all tomorrow for Pandemic Friday with Stu Stone and Cam Gordon. I know it's true, yeah. I know it's true. How about you?
Starting point is 01:33:14 All that picking up trash and then putting down roads. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Roam Phone. Roam Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RoamPhone.ca to get started.

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