Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Toronto Mike Faces His Fear: Toronto Mike'd #1342

Episode Date: October 11, 2023

In this 1342nd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Andrew Gidaro about his father Ardo, Screemers, the history of halloween in Toronto and great Halloween jams. In this episode, Mike faces hi...s greatest fear. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Pumpkins After Dark, Ridley Funeral Home, Electronic Products Recycling Association, Raymond James Canada and Moneris. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at mike@torontomike.com

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Keaton always said, I don't believe in God, but I'm afraid of him. Well, I believe in God. And the only thing that scares me is Ardo Cutaro. Welcome to episode 1342 of Toronto Mic'd, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees
Starting point is 00:01:00 from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Pumpkins After Dark. Use the promo code TOMIKE15 and save 15% at pumpkinsafterdark.com. RecycleMyElectronics.ca. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. The Advantage Investor Podcast from Raymond James Canada.
Starting point is 00:01:23 Valuable perspective for Canadian investors who want to remain knowledgeable, informed, and focused on long-term success. Season five of Yes, We Are Open, an award-winning podcast hosted by FOTM, Al Grego, and Redley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, making his Toronto mic debut from Screamers is Andrew Guadaro. Welcome to Toronto Mic'd, Andrew. Hey, thanks for having me. Excited to be here. Were you born with that voice? Like you sound like you should be on a microphone.
Starting point is 00:02:02 Is that natural? Yeah, it's totally natural. Scary. I get it from my father. sound like you should be on a microphone is that natural yeah it's totally natural scary i get i get it from my father well okay so okay we can we talk about your dad off the top do you mind 100 okay this is a story everybody get comfortable uh toronto mike is gonna tell you a story so andrew gadaro is with me and andrew's dad what is the name of your father, Andrew? Ardo. Ardo Gidaro. Yes. Okay.
Starting point is 00:02:28 Gidaro. Oh, you know what? I didn't know that until right now. I've been calling him, it's Gidaro. Gidaro, yep. I'm glad you told me that. I've been mispronouncing his name since 1989 because 1989, the summer of 1989, is when I first met your dad, Ardo Gidaro.
Starting point is 00:02:45 Gidaro, yep. Okay. Do you mind if I tell the full and complete story of Ardo? Go ahead. I want to hear it too, actually. Okay, good. Wow. Okay.
Starting point is 00:02:56 And your father's still with us. He's still vibrant. He's still Ardo. Oh, he's very much Ardo. He's always Ardo. Can't change him. Well, let me preface this by telling the listenership that you're listening to Andrew's voice right now. So, I would say Ardo,
Starting point is 00:03:12 as I recall it, and again, this is going back to 1989, 1990, 1991. I can still hear his yell in my ear, like in my mind. And it was like your voice, but angrier. So, give me a little anger here just to give us a taste uh i don't know get get mad at me for just a moment let me hear some angry
Starting point is 00:03:31 andrew for a moment can i swear there's a lot yeah you can swear what the fuck are you doing you gotta call people in i'm gonna piss my pants okay this episode is brought to you by depends because i am gonna shit my pants. Okay. I was 15, just turned 15 that summer. Me and my buddy Ed wanted to work at the X. Like we need a job. And again, we're 15 year olds and living in Toronto. And we're like, we'll work at the C&E. It's like seasonal.
Starting point is 00:03:56 And then we go back to high school or whatever, I guess, go back to grade 10. So we went to the grounds of the X, like by the Princess Gates. There was like a trailer. And then there was like postings in the trailer if you wanted to grounds of the X, like by the Princess Gates. There was like a trailer. And then there was like postings in the trailer if you wanted to work at the X. So we applied. And like right away, a guy was like interviewing us. It wasn't Ardo.
Starting point is 00:04:17 And then we might have like ran the other way. But we got interviewed. I guess they wanted it. We were 15. We don't have any experience or anything. But they hired us. And then actually, we got our buddy Chris in there too. And we were hired by a company called Astro Zodiac Enterprises.
Starting point is 00:04:31 Is that still your dad's company? Yeah, that's still a company. We've kind of changed it to Astro Amusements as an operating company, but it's still Astro Zodiac Enterprises. I mean, and you know how he got that name. Tell me. No, I need to know all the stories. Are you kidding me? I mean, this is a big moment for me because I'm going to like get some answers to some questions. But where did that name tell me no i need to know all the are you kidding me this i mean this is a big moment for me because i'm gonna like get some answers to some questions but where did that name come from
Starting point is 00:04:48 well he could tell you probably in more detail but he started working because uh a lady locally he lived in uh fairbanks up by dufferin and lawrence and they had a little fair that would come through there and so he started being the ring collector when he was like 15 and the girl said you know come down and work for me at the cne so he worked there for a bunch of years and and eventually she said you know i want out you want to take over some of my games and one of his first games was a zodiac game it was like a birthday game but with zodiac signs so from there he said okay i'm gonna call my company astro zodiac so your dad's like a cne lifer oh big time yeah okay i mean i can only hope and pray that maybe one day i can talk to your dad
Starting point is 00:05:23 about this but put a pin in that i'll finish my my rambling story here and we'll find a bit more about you and uh and the small world stories of screamers which is a mind blow to me but I actually went to the torontomic.com archives because in 2004 when I was only at that point I'm only like 13 years removed from working for your dad at the C&E I worked three summers for your dad at the C&E. I worked three summers for your dad at the C&E, and I wrote a piece in 2004. Can I read it verbatim? This is what I wrote in the summer of 04. You can actually find this on Google. I think I called it The Legend of Ardo. We called him Ardo, and we feared him. Ardo was the boss, and his persona was thug life, like a tough dude you didn't want to mess with. He did his best to never let you catch him smiling.
Starting point is 00:06:09 And with every snarl and command, his legend grew. Okay, that's the first paragraph. And as I revisit it now in 2023, I was being gentle. Maybe I thought, oh, Ardo will read this one day. I don't want to get in trouble or whatever. But basically, all of us teenagers working for him were scared shitless of Ardo. And people who had been there maybe the previous summer or the summer before would tell us stories. Because we were like 15.
Starting point is 00:06:31 You just turned 15. And we would hear stories about Ardo. And I'm telling you, Andrew, we were scared shitless of your dad, Ardo. Are you surprised to hear this? Not at all. I mean, even I'm scared shitless sometimes. We're going to get into that. Okay. So what else did I write in 2004? The typical game booth attendant worked one of his
Starting point is 00:06:51 several games, working one of his several games was either a teenager or in his or her very early twenties to keep us working hard and in line. Ardo decided very early on that presenting himself in such an intimidating fashion was his best bet. He was right. Your biggest fear, and fear will be a constant in this conversation today, your biggest fear was getting an earful from Ardo or having someone escalate an issue or incident to him. People told tales of what Ardo once did to this guy or that guy.
Starting point is 00:07:22 Fear was his motivational tool of choice hearing that now you're his son uh how many kids does ardo have that was three three okay are you uh in the middle you're the oldest you're the youngest i'm in the middle actually yeah okay so growing up a son of ardo and now that's i got one more paragraph to go here where i do soften it a little bit but uh like did he use fear as his motivational tool of choice raising you? No, I wouldn't say at home, not so much, but I don't even think half the time he knows he's using fear or he's being loud. You know, he's an Italian, so just naturally he's loud, right? That's his go-to. You know, I can't tell you how many times we've been places,
Starting point is 00:08:04 even at a restaurant or something, and he be complaining they're like stop yelling at me and he's like i'm not yelling i'm just speaking but i'm just emphatic yeah that's his natural you know tone right it just comes across as angry and mean but really i think in a lot you know he seems mean and angry but in a lot of ways he's uh he's actually a bit of a soft okay okay so good you're stealing my thunder here i'm'm going to read the last paragraph. And again, I wrote this in 2004. But now just glancing over at you, and I met you on Friday night
Starting point is 00:08:30 when me and my daughter, Michelle, we went to Screamers in Vaughan. And we're going to talk about that in a moment. But even looking into your eyes right now, you are your father's son. Like it's wild. Like the voice, the piercing eyes. those piercing eyes. Uh, I'm a little afraid of you right now, but okay. I gotta, I gotta be careful here. Okay. Here's my final
Starting point is 00:08:51 paragraph here. This manifesto I wrote in 2004. This, okay. So I talked about how fear was his motivational tool of choice. This worked the first year I worked for Ardo, but at some point during my second summer, Ardo let his guard down i was permitted to see him in a more relaxed state and he even began laughing in my presence for ardo it was all about trust until he trusted you he played the tough guy as well as any cast member on the sopranos once you earned his trust you could clearly see he was indeed a softy underneath it all ardo's bark in all its tenacity was far worse than his bite i haven't been to the x in several years but i'm pretty damn certain he's there right now glaring at
Starting point is 00:09:31 his new game booth attendance while his legend permeates the midway that was what i wrote about your dad who i was erroneously referring to as arto gadaro and i've just learned was arto jadaro it's amazing i didn't know that it's that i mean they that's the truth the softness i mean comes across with a big bark but you know there's a lot of staff that we've had work for us for years i mean and and you know and guys like you come back year after year and visit us all the time you know hey you remember me you know and for and for someone like yourself or some of these guys, I'd be afraid to.
Starting point is 00:10:06 That experience was huge for them, but for us, it was just another fair. So we're just like, no, we don't remember you. Yeah, I guess we're pointing out, so the C&E was just one of many fairs, I suppose, that Ardo would have his games and stuff at, right? Right. I mean, in 1989, probably not.
Starting point is 00:10:24 But as the business evolved we've gotten a lot bigger so i mean he didn't have that we used we didn't used to have rides now we have 25 rides okay so much to cover here uh okay so now we've established who arto is and i was legit like there's no i'm not putting on any shtick here uh i wrote about it in 04 and i refer to it often i've never been as scared of somebody in my life as I was of Ardo. But here's a fun, lighter fact about your mom. Now, I'm going to play a clip and just preface this by saying, in 19, whatever it was, 1990, I guess, I was a huge Blue Jays fan. And your mom was too.
Starting point is 00:10:57 She would listen to the games in the office and kind of report back what was going on at the Blue Jays, because we were big fans. And this is a moment that she she was the first person your mother who who told me about this moment in blue jays history ball one strike to brown the pitch is swing and a fly ball right field junior felix is there he's done it he's done it dave steve has his no hitter dave steve has his no-hitter, finally! He has done it here in Cleveland. He is being mobbed by his teammates. Dave Steve has pitched the first no-hitter in Blue Jays history.
Starting point is 00:11:38 Wow. So that happened while I was working at one of Ardo's games, and your mom gave me that news. And it was a big deal to teenage Mike to hear that there was a blue jay who pitched a no-hitter and it was Dave Steve that's pretty awesome I actually she's still a fan of the jays by the way and what was it the year where Bautista the bat flip game yeah 2015 I got tickets to that game and I had already been to like three so my wife was like all right you're not fucking going on another one so i actually gave it to my mom and her best friend nancy god i never regretted anything so much in my life but i mean she got to enjoy it i mean they were sitting right close so they got rained down on by beers from above but man i would have been happy to get rained down by
Starting point is 00:12:18 beers after that game oh my god that was an epic moment yeah the the seventh inning they made a documentary about that seventh inning wild so. So your mom was there. Okay. Amazing. So she's still a Jays fan and she's still doing well. How is mom and dad doing? Yeah, they're doing great. Still involved in the business, you know, slowly backing away.
Starting point is 00:12:34 But I think it's the kind of thing that you never back out fully from, right? It's the kind of business that once you're in it, you kind of get addicted to it. You need the crowds. You like to feed off it. It's just fun, right? And you're in it. You kind of get addicted to it. You need the crowds.
Starting point is 00:12:43 You like to feed off it. It's just fun, right? And you're in it. So is it safe to say you're going to follow suit and help run the family business? Oh, yeah. I mean, I've been in it since I was 15 at the C&E. I was at the C&E before that, but really took an active role from then on.
Starting point is 00:13:01 And yeah, like it's something you just get into, right? And my kids now come out and they enjoy it and ride the right you know ride the rides they're getting they're getting to the point where they're they're starting to help out a little bit there's still my oldest only 10 so not there yet but maybe in a few years they'll be uh in the games and and barking at people to play do any of them have your the yours and ardo's voice has that been detected yet in any yeah well maybe my daughter she's pretty loud loud. Okay, I love it. Literally. And your dad, I have memories of your dad was roulette.
Starting point is 00:13:30 It was like a roulette game. And your dad on the mic, he was the best on the mic, like the way he would talk up the roulette games. Like nobody worked the mic like Ardo. Get him down. Yeah, can you do any of it? It's like, I always remember he always had the slogans. Ride, pony ride.
Starting point is 00:13:46 Okay. Here it comes. Here comes your wiener. That's how it goes right there. Did he ever do the winner, winner, chicken dinner? Winner, winner, chicken dinner, yeah. Holy shit. And he used to, you know, a couple years back we brought,
Starting point is 00:13:57 I forget what game we brought in, but I don't remember it. At least I was too young, but we did the doggy, doggy. And we made this recording. And we played it at this game. I thought the staff was all going to quit after day one. Just because that thing just kept going on repeat. Oh, my God. These are memories flooding back here now.
Starting point is 00:14:14 So we'll get back to your dad in a minute. But what is the family business right now? I want to focus on Screamers. Because tis the season. And I was there Friday. So we're going to dive into that. But give me a taste of what is the, whatever you you're calling it now astro zodiac enterprises or whatever what does that entail i mean so now we you know my dad started he just had games he actually worked full
Starting point is 00:14:35 time but then once you had these games you started to need to use them more so now we've really grown so we're a full-scale amusement company so we have 20 rides 25 rides uh we do corporate events we mainly stay in the city of toronto thank god so we're not living in trailers or any of that nature because uh some people think all the uh carneys that you see at the x are conklin carneys but i i mean i've written stories in the past about how there were a lot of conklin carneys but we were not conklin we were yeah for your dad at the cne it's there's an independent line and then there's and and Conklin's since sold. So now it's over,
Starting point is 00:15:07 I don't know, 12 years ago. So it's North American Midway Entertainment Company based out of the US, which is kind of sad that the C&E would be, but I mean,
Starting point is 00:15:16 they're a good company. I think it's hard to find someone big enough to provide the large rides and they do a good job. So, but yeah, Conklin,
Starting point is 00:15:23 he's no longer, he actually just passed away, Jim Conklin. Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. This year, so, but yeah conklin he's no longer he actually just passed away jim conklin oh i'm sorry this year so but yeah i mean uh so that we you know we do a lot of big events roncesvalles taste of king's way uh taste of little italy you know all we knew labor union picnics stuff like that and then obviously screamers okay i need to know the history of screamers but here i actually googled i just just Googled Conklin Carney saves my life. And I see now, I don't know, I'll show it to you later, but there's 15 or 15 year old Mike
Starting point is 00:15:52 working at one of your dad's games. Yeah, that's the real deal. Let's send that over. But can I just read what I wrote? I wrote a lot of stuff about the ex because I was fascinated by like every day I worked there. And I got it. I mean, if I ever get a chance to talk to your dad,
Starting point is 00:16:07 I got to say thanks because so many like memories of my teenage years are working at that C&E. It was 20 days back then. You had your pass and it was all 20 days. Like you don't get a day off. You work all 20 days. Can I read this to you?
Starting point is 00:16:19 Yeah. Okay. So it's called Conklin Carney Saved My Life. And I wrote this as one of my, and I wrote this on August 25th 2004 uh during the height of Madonna's blonde ambition tour in 1990 that time stamps it nicely I was working a game with a Madonna wannabe she copied that complete look including the fake blonde ponytail at this time his blonde ambition was also my manager and in charge of managing our shifts. This particular game had a microphone.
Starting point is 00:16:48 This was called Pop-a-Ball, by the way. I don't know the last name. This particular game had a microphone, and one of us was to be on the mic at all times, creating excitement and attracting the next victim. I didn't write victim. I wrote victim. I was on when I saw a couple of people decked out in
Starting point is 00:17:03 680 CFTR gear, and they were handing out swag. In a shameless effort to score some free goods, I hollered CFTR rules, which I did believe at the time I was a listener. Okay. Into the mic and I got their attention. It worked because they came right over and handed me two tickets to see the Blue Jays at Skydome that night and attend a pizza party beforehand. Ms. Blonde Ambition had to rearrange the schedule so I could get my free pizza and check out the J's, but she had a condition.
Starting point is 00:17:28 She wanted the second ticket, and I agreed. And that night, I gorged on pizza and witnessed the first bug delay in Blue Jays history. That's a fun fact. They had to shut the dome, and there was a bug delay. It's like a part of history. Like your mom at the bat flip game. The game is rather infamous for the 35 minute bug delay and I'm
Starting point is 00:17:45 proud to have been a part of it. Here's where this tale from the X kicks into high gear. The next night I was closing up the game booth after midnight
Starting point is 00:17:52 when I saw Ms. Blonde Ambition's boyfriend walking towards me. He was clearly drunk and he was slurring something to the effect that I should stay away
Starting point is 00:17:59 from his girl and he heard I asked her out and there was no point in reasoning with this guy. He was there to kick my ass. I was 16, not the biggest dude around.
Starting point is 00:18:07 Fun fact, I'm still not the biggest dude around. Maybe that's why I was scared of you, Leonardo. This guy was older, bigger, and full of booze. And it was after midnight at the C&E, and I needed backup. But where was I to turn? A Conklin Carney was closing up his booth. And I quickly approached him. And in as few words as possible, I told him Ms. Blonde Ambition's boyfriend
Starting point is 00:18:25 was there to pummel me and I needed a little help. Even though I wasn't working for Conklin, there was this code amongst us Kearneys. We looked out for each other. I'll never forget what this 100 pound, 40 something year old mullet headed Kearney said and did next.
Starting point is 00:18:38 He picked up a pipe. By the way, as I tell you, I'm getting like, it's remembering this happening. He picked up a pipe. He pounded the pipe into his hand and he called back behind the trailer to a collection of carnies enjoying an end of day brew you guys ready for a fight this collection of conklin carnies came through for me that night
Starting point is 00:18:56 when i needed the most i worked for a rival company but we were all in the same gang they saw i was in trouble and they took care of the car took up the cause to this day i'm unsure how that night ended for his blonde ambitions boyfriend, but he didn't bother me again for the remainder of the C and E. I guess he learned his lesson. Carney style. There is that code. That's,
Starting point is 00:19:17 that's the truth. I mean, I've had a couple of tussles down there at the X and you know, they always come running when you need help, which is good. And it's comforting to know that because usually you can't find a security guard for miles and people like to pick on carnies right like uh you know even I did in that entry I regret it now I think I referred to uh I don't know he might be missing a few teeth or two but honestly these are
Starting point is 00:19:38 just uh good people and uh we should stop giving up carnies a hard time. Oh, for sure. No, I mean, that company, North American, that took over for Konkin, they mainly use, they bring in South Africans. So these guys come over, they live on the ground. They save a bunch of money, get paid in US dollars and bring it back home and it's worth a lot more money. But what happened to our many homegrown carnies that I remember from the late 80s or early 90s?
Starting point is 00:20:04 It's hard to find. I mean, I'm the head of the Amusement Association of Canada. And almost every company brings in foreign workers. You just can't get the guys anymore. It's like farming. No one wants to do the kind of work, especially living on the road. It's tough, right? It's a tough industry.
Starting point is 00:20:20 What about you guys? Let's turn the channel here to screamers for a moment here specifically because it's a halloween season maybe a little one-on-one in screamers before i share my experience again i went with my 19 year old daughter on fridays so i was at screamers i experienced all of it i still have my uh ticket my ticket here and we're going to dive into the details but can you give me the history of screamers in the city and how you're you're you're talking about arto he was that he was that dad on the street you know who always went above and beyond and so like in the amusement industry there's a big convention every year called iapa international association amusement parks uh it's down in orlando now every year it's massive and
Starting point is 00:20:59 it's everything like people from disney universal they all go there to buy rides buy inflatables buy the newest food and they had a huge section of it was halloween because halloween in the u.s the industry was massive right second only to christmas so he would go there is that right so it's huge it's massive down there way bigger than here i mean we're catching up but it's still not even in the vicinity of what they can what they put out there as far as like you know like a city like chicago would have you know 15 haunted attractions like a screamers. Whereas we might have three or four really in the city. Right.
Starting point is 00:21:29 So, but my dad would come back from these conventions and he'd buy cool props. Not that we had screamers at the time. He just put them on the front front lawn. So our front lawn was like a mini haunted house. You know, people would walk up. My dad would be in a coffin. He'd come up and chase people. Wow.
Starting point is 00:21:43 And that's scary. So he turned that to, you know, back in those days those days 30 years ago now screamers been around the cne grounds literally just did basically 18 days of the x the royal winter fair and for the rest of the year kind of sat empty right so he went to the general manager who was a family friend and said why don't we do screamers and let me let me do this haunted house here right and the guy was like okay we'll kind of help you along. That way we can make use of some of these buildings. So we started out in the horticultural building.
Starting point is 00:22:09 And now talk about haunted. That building is a fucking. Well, tell me. It's a horror shack. Because there's, I mean, you can do the haunted walks down at Exhibition Place. It's a pretty cool tour that they offer down there. Because there's a lot of history in those buildings, right? And that building at one point, I guess a boat went in lake ontario and they used it as a morgue and i can tell you
Starting point is 00:22:28 there was some nights where you'd be late in that building when we're closing down or you were alone and like you definitely there's all kinds of stories of people seeing ghosts and while we were operating screamers so it was it was pretty neat so yeah he started screamers up and and you know at first we kind of tried to straddle this line where it was for kids during the day and and more for adults at night and that became complicated because people were confused so eventually we had to make a choice it was we go really scary or we keep family and arto wanted to go super scary so we went full-blown scary well you went big uh you went really scary like this is not i will just preface this but this is not like a an alternative to pumpkins after dark like this is this is going to scare the shit out of you we'll we'll get into the details i'm still very interested in this history but uh absolutely
Starting point is 00:23:12 was not even a consideration for my youngest two kids like no not gonna happen but i did uh again i did experiences with the 19 year old and it was really it was well we'll get into that in a moment but okay so you're at you're at the cne grounds and how long ago is that i seen your you got a sweater it's just 30 years yeah so 30 years so that was the first year was 30 years ago i mean we missed a year for covid so it's 31 really but 30 years um yeah so we were in the horticultural building for a bunch of years probably seven eight years and then we moved over to the better living center which is just across the street and eventually moved over to the Better Living Center, which is just across the street. And eventually moved over to the Queen Elizabeth, back to the Better Living Center. And then COVID obviously derailed us.
Starting point is 00:23:51 And doing a haunt indoors in those times was impossible. So we found a solution where we moved up to Vaughan into this outdoor space that we could manage it through COVID. And once we moved there, the difference was drastic. You had more access to people. I think, you know, it was just easier, right? Free parking. And it was a good space and there's a subway there. So we stayed there and now that's where we operate and it's grown. I mean, the difference between Screamers from year one to now obviously is drastic. Over the 30 years, we've accumulated some incredible props and, you know, we really built up quite a an incredible
Starting point is 00:24:25 business with a good reputation i think you know we're the we're the ogs of of halloween in this city you know 30 years of doing it there's no one else who can make that claim so and i did notice that uh you know there's a so can we what do you call them uh can we call these people actors there's a like i don't know there's like it seems like there was hundreds of these uh people uh at screamers that were you know dressed up and they're there and they're in these uh what do you call them too what do we call them actors okay actors okay i noticed none of them had a south african accent no no we the screamers for us is by far the easiest thing we hire for i mean the people who like halloween and horror they are in it and like we have guys who have full-time
Starting point is 00:25:07 careers they'll finish work and like race up the screamers just to scare for a few hours okay so my experience again uh this was just friday night so so so it's a nighttime thing which really adds to it all but uh so it's opens like when is it open 7 p.m yeah 7 p.m 7 to midnight um yeah i mean it's just people love the horror you know and the idea of coming out it's just fun right to give a laugh and enjoy it but i mean i'll tell you the actors they probably get more joy out of it than some of the people coming through right and they're very good i honestly uh okay so i it's kind of interesting this is my perspective so again i'm pushing 50 here but i went with my 19 year old and you know like you you know you remind yourself you're telling yourself oh this isn't real okay all
Starting point is 00:25:49 right no one's gonna hurt you you're gonna you know but still because you're you're going through and what do you call them exhibits what do you call the there's like oh the haunts there's seven haunts okay seven haunts so we're going through the haunts and just the lighting the the decor the uh the uh you know the fact that you're turning corners there's there's people i don't know where they're coming out of like people are just hiding in plain sight and suddenly they're scaring the shit out of you it's it's unbelievable i mean it's all about the anticipation right okay well my move was when you're turning a corner i would make sure I pushed my daughter ahead of me, right? Because she would turn the corner
Starting point is 00:26:27 and she'd get the jump scare or whatever. But now I now know, okay, so there's a jump scare there. Like, let her take the brunt of it. And she knew what I was doing, but I kind of had to do it. Like, use her as a human shield. It was legit. It was fucking scary.
Starting point is 00:26:41 Well, I mean, we train our actors to try not to scare the first person, right? Because typically the first person is the brave one. So if it's a group of four, you know the scarities. Save it for the followers. They're in the middle, right? The two in the middle are typically the ones who want someone behind them and someone in front of them.
Starting point is 00:26:54 So that's what we teach them. But I mean, obviously now I'm managing screamers. But growing up when I was 15 to 21, was in the scares man i tell you it's a good time like when you got that chainsaw and you hear a group of girls coming along whoo it is a great time and there's a lot of like they have this one move where they'll have i don't know what it is like some kind of a metal staff thing and they'll be just a lot of uh like almost like a jail cell the bars and just like dragging along the bars or against the metal floor like these are just scary noises and it's already dark and it's just it's like the best time so i mean just here i had
Starting point is 00:27:30 the i want you to know i had the best time and although i didn't see him there rumor has it that haunting the uh the grounds and there's pretty much 407 like if you know where dave and busters is in vaughn near 407 like you're kind of right in that space next door there but rumor has it haunting the screamers grounds is Ardo I can't believe you biked
Starting point is 00:27:55 that's the scary part my daughter refused to bike because she's sensible it was 30k each way but it's like from where I am now where you're sitting right now at the TMDS studio it's just straight north for like 30 minutes and like you could take royal york that ends at like dixon i want to say so royal york ends and then it's humber trail and you pop up near like weston road and 400 and then you just gotta get over the hardest part is that part because it's like oh i gotta bike on highway 7 now like Like that was almost, I will say,
Starting point is 00:28:26 screamers scared the shit out of me. And then I biked home in the dark. And I have lights, but you're going on the Humber Trail in the dark and you only see so far ahead of you. That was almost as scary as screamers. Like it was quite the night, but it was a great. Wait, did you hear that? Did you hear something?
Starting point is 00:28:38 Something's dinging. Something's dinging. Okay. Oh my God. So screamers was fantastic. And it was great to meet you there. I got to find out, this is unprecedented, but somebody's here. Let me just let them into our conversation. Do you mind if I do this,
Starting point is 00:28:50 Andrew? I don't know who this is. Okay, let's see here. This is scary. It's like we're being haunted right now during our conversation here, but let's find out who is joining this. Excuse me, who has joined my conversation with Andrew Jadaro?
Starting point is 00:29:09 Ardo Jadaro. Ardo! Ardo, I can't believe we're chatting. I just told a story to your son about how you scared us shitless when we were working at the X in the late 80s and early 90s. How the hell are you?
Starting point is 00:29:24 I'm terrific. Weather is great, Screamers is on, and Halloween is around the corner. I just shared with Andrew that I understand you're still haunting the grounds of Screamers in Vaughan. You're still haunting there. We're still there.
Starting point is 00:29:39 But you're still there, right? Like, you'll drive around and scare the shit out of people. I saw that a hundred times. That's how long it's been. But I'm there because the scare is everywhere at Screamers, and
Starting point is 00:29:55 we try to live the fear. He was driving around on a blue tuk-tuk, you know, like they get in Southeast Asia. He was scaring on that no the knees are bad oh the knees are bad okay well at least you got some transport there so arto i'm still processing the fact that we're connected here because i just told the story about how you uh at least the first year i worked at the C&E, and again, it was an amazing experience actually working for you.
Starting point is 00:30:25 But was that your plan to scare the teens that you had employed at AstroZodiac that you would scare the shit out of us? Was that by strategy, or is that your default setting? I don't know whether you call it a default setting, but whatever works. Got to get the kids working. When you're dealing with young, sometimes immature staff,
Starting point is 00:30:51 you have to do whatever you can do to make it work. Were you aware of the legend of Ardo? Were you aware at the time that some of the older workers or people who had been there a few years were telling us stories? I think they were just having fun with us, but we believed it cause we were all 15, 16, but you,
Starting point is 00:31:09 the legend of Ardo was a real thing. Like, were you aware? Um, not totally. I just heard of some stuff, but not totally aware. I'm glad there is a legend.
Starting point is 00:31:23 Is it still in play? Like, for example are you still yelling at the kids to get them working he doesn't yell he speaks loudly
Starting point is 00:31:32 exactly it's my vocal cords that are loud your son inherited your voice by the way it's all these years of experience on the microphone right and spinning the gambling
Starting point is 00:31:48 wheels down there you go do you have any like could we get a taste of that i don't know can you give us a little bit of how it sounded when you were on the microphone at those gambling wheels at the cne all right get them down get them set get ready. Here comes your winner now. Easy come, easy go. Get your money down. Get them all down. Five, five, five a line. Still got it. This is so surreal for me
Starting point is 00:32:15 because 1989, believe it or not, was a long time ago. I'm doing the math. That's like 34 years ago or something. That's what I would hear because I guess in 89, I was on a game you had called Papa Ball. Oh God, that was a game that we experimented with. It cost me a fortune to get it manufactured in the States because we were, you know, at that time, in order to get concessions at the C&E, they wanted something new and exciting.
Starting point is 00:32:46 Well, somebody came up with this game called Papa Ball, and I forget at the time, I spent a lot of money to get it built and beta tested at the C&E. We got it delivered, and unfortunately, it's not there anymore. It didn't last long. I remember the balls, like the weight of the balls would change periodically. Like they'd be really light, and then they'd be heavier, and they'd be bigger, they'd be smaller. Well, I think it was just experiment.
Starting point is 00:33:17 That game had never been out in other carnivals or other events, so we were sort of experimenting to see what would make it work. I think some of the, you know, it was easy at some point.
Starting point is 00:33:30 It was too hard at another point. So we tried different balls and different sizes to see, I mean, to create an average of who's going to win and who's not going
Starting point is 00:33:40 to win. Ardo, while I have you, you know, finally, you know, all these years later, would you mind sharing us like just a brief bio of Ardo J while I have you, finally, all these years later, would you mind sharing us just a brief bio of Ardo Jadaro? By the way, I was calling you Ardo Gadaro and I just learned it's
Starting point is 00:33:52 Jadaro, so that's 35 years I've been screwing that up. How did you get involved with games and attractions, etc., at the X, and then how did it become the enterprise it is now? Give us a little Ardo bio. Who knows if I'll ever get the chat with you again?
Starting point is 00:34:09 Well, basically, I mean, I started working at the C and E as a ball boy picking up balls at a milk can game. Um, from there, I mean, I worked every year for me, the C and E was a way to make, uh, good money in a short period of time. So basically, where people were struggling to find jobs in the summer, I always seemed to have two or three jobs. And my go-to job was the C&E, working at the C&E. And I worked there for many, many years.
Starting point is 00:34:44 the C&E, working at the C&E, and I worked there for many, many years. Subsequent to that, I graduated from, you know, from university and always came back to the C&E as a student. And then I finally managed to apply for my own concession. And after many, many efforts, I managed to get a concession or license at the C&E. And my first game was, believe it or not, a gambling wheel because we were so good at it, working it. So anyhow, subsequent to that, we got a concession
Starting point is 00:35:22 and I developed my career as a building manager, believe it or not, and worked for one of the biggest developers in the city at that time, Olympian York Developments. They built the first Canadian place, and I worked for them for 33 years. I managed Scotia Plaza downtown. I managed the Rogers head office on Jarvis Street. And while this was going on, Andrew and my wife basically
Starting point is 00:35:53 took over the business and operated the business. And we got into the screamers business because we tried to establish ongoing events that could keep at least a handful of employees employed and consistent. So basically, that's how it worked. And then 33 years later, I quit my job at ORY and we continued to grow the business at the C&E and the events,
Starting point is 00:36:30 the amusement business. So we got into doing street festivals, we got into buying rides, and now we have rides, we have games, and we have screamers. Amazing. So we're focusing on screamers. tis the season but andrew was just sharing the story about like how much bigger these halloween type haunts were in the us of a compared to toronto and uh maybe can you speak to that like the the history of screamers in toronto and uh introducing something to toronto that was much bigger in the States? Well, we were the first, pretty much was the first haunted attraction in Toronto. And how it came about is that we went to a trade show once and we saw a
Starting point is 00:37:20 manufacturer or supplier who sold haunted house kits. And, I mean, I showed some interest. I was always a Halloween fanatic, and I always used to do a house haunt with Andrew going around the neighborhood and setting up attractions in front of the house. And people kept coming over and, you know, our house was the house to go to because it was always very elaborate. So when we started doing that, I just realized, you know,
Starting point is 00:37:59 there could be money to be made with this business. So like I said, once I went to this trade show and got introduced to the supplier, he later called me about a year or so later and said that somebody in Hamilton had built a haunted attraction at a market off the side of the road to try to attract people to their fruit market. So apparently the guy got very ill and he had to sell the haunted attraction. It was called Screamers. And at that time I approached Exhibition Place
Starting point is 00:38:38 who was trying to get shows and events at Exhibition Place. And they loved the idea of doing a haunted house. And the rest was history. We decided to do it. They joined part of our marketing team and helped us promote it. They gave us a good deal on rent on the Horticultural Building at the time, which is now Muzak. And we were there for many years, and we moved from building to building.
Starting point is 00:39:15 Unfortunately, we were a seasonal operation at Exhibition Place. So we had to develop it. It's been a long development process, but we're still there. So now Screamers is made up of close to 30 tractor trailers because they're on wheels. And seven haunts.
Starting point is 00:39:40 I understand you were down. I was there Friday with my 19-year-old and we both had a blast. Absolutely wonderful attraction. You guys have done a great job with Screamers. Like I said, once we opened, we opened, what, 30 years ago, we were the only ones in town,
Starting point is 00:39:57 and then Canada's Wonderland decided to come into the game as well, as did most of the theme parks in the States. So the haunt industry developed and came a long way since 30 years ago. You were a pioneer in this country. And I want to know what you think of your son, Andrew, and how he's doing. Are you proud of this boy? Absolutely. Well, I mean, you can't do it unless you have family and people that share the same interest in it.
Starting point is 00:40:37 And Andrew, of course, loves it. He steals all my props now and takes them to his house. He's not lying. So he can dress up. My kids were on me this morning already. When are you going to bring some scary props? I'm like, there's nothing left. Ardo, this was amazing for me to get to finally talk to you.
Starting point is 00:40:58 Although I will say after this conversation, I don't find you nearly as scary. Well, I'm not as young either. I've tried to mellow down. Well, I heard you yelling on Friday night from one of those... Tuk-tuks. Tuk-tuks, yeah. I would say this, if you don't mind, Ardo, I'm going to finish up with your son here.
Starting point is 00:41:20 Screamers, again, I had a blast. My teenager was in town because she's going to school in Montreal and it was really amazing just to kind of experience it with her. We laughed, we cried, we crapped our pants. It was scary as hell and it was a great time. On the way out here, Ardo, before we say
Starting point is 00:41:37 goodbye, do you think you could yell at me one last time? Maybe yell at me to get back to work or something? Put those earphones on properly. Pay attention. Thanks, Ardo, for this. Come back to Screamers. Live the fear.
Starting point is 00:41:53 Live the fear, everybody. Get to Screamers. Thank you, Ardo. You have a great boy here. And it was great talking to you after whatever, 34 years. Amazing. When you listen to this episode, you'll hear something interesting. I played a clip of Tom Cheek
Starting point is 00:42:07 calling the first no-hitter in Blue Jays history, which was, of course, Dave Steeb in the summer of 1990. I was a big Jays fan, and I learned about Dave Steeb's no-hitter from your wife. She told me she must have been listening to the radio in the office. So make sure she listens, too. Yeah, she loves the blue cheese. All right.
Starting point is 00:42:28 Thank you, Ardo. Thank you, sir. Take care. Andrew, I'm kind of going to need you to carry it for a moment here. Maybe I got to get to some Halloween jams.
Starting point is 00:42:38 So why don't we do this? Cause I'm actually like processing that whole experience, which is wild to me. Cause I've been living in fear of him for so long. And then I hear his voice, but he seems kind of human and decent. And I realized it was a persona to get us idiot teenagers to work harder
Starting point is 00:42:55 because it worked. And what else can you do? We were 15 and we were stupid and he did what he had to do. But can we do this? While I set up a little music, would you mind telling us, like sell Screamers to everybody? How do you get tickets?
Starting point is 00:43:09 Do you need to book schedule in advance? Can you just show up and buy tickets? Just give us the 101 on Screamers. Yeah, for sure. So, I mean, people can go to the website screamers.ca. It's actually not spelled the traditional way it should be. It's S-C-R-E-E-M-E-R-S dot C-A. You can buy tickets in advance, obviously.
Starting point is 00:43:30 It makes it a little easier when you get there. But you can also just show up and get tickets at the door. So, I mean, either one works. It's up to you. We're open Thursday to Sunday this week, Thursday to Sunday the following, and then from the Tuesday right through to Halloween night. So, you know, people come down, enjoy. We actually encourage people
Starting point is 00:43:48 to wear costumes. You know, we don't let you cover your face because that wouldn't be cool walking through the haunts. They wouldn't know if they're scaring one of our own actors. That's true. But we like the costumes and like one of the big things that's obviously become a trend nowadays is the Instagram, you know, things. And there's been these pop-ups all over
Starting point is 00:44:03 the city for the past several years where people just go and take pictures and weird ball pits and things like that. So we've sort of taken them. We've always done scenes, but now we've made the scenes that they're interactive. People can get right in them and get involved in the scenes
Starting point is 00:44:16 and take some cool pictures to post online. Because if you didn't post it online, it didn't really happen, right? That's what they say, I think. What do we tag on Instagram when we have our screamers pick? Usually uh usually hashtag screamers or the scare is everywhere or live the fear one of those hashtags works for us but what is the uh the handle for screamers like it's at screamers okay and member screamers is two e's not e a i think i did it right then because i
Starting point is 00:44:41 definitely had a couple the best part is i was taking a photo because you don't take photos in the haunts right so you're doing it on the grounds where you would hear music like this actually which we're going to talk about but I took a few photos with my daughter and there was at least one photo we were taking in front of like a it was like a car wreck it was actually pretty scary I hope it was an exhibit oh my goodness okay but
Starting point is 00:44:59 one of the actors photo bombed us and that unto itself is pretty fucking scary when you look back at the photo. Well, that's where the, you know,
Starting point is 00:45:10 that slogan, the scare is everywhere. Yeah. We tell our guys, even when they're walking to the bathroom on their break, they're in character
Starting point is 00:45:16 until they're out of view and like, you know, when we used to be down at the C&E grounds and the Better Living Center and those buildings, you know,
Starting point is 00:45:22 our guys would go to the bathroom in the public bathroom with the rest. So like, they'd be in full costume you know go to the bathroom taking a piss right next to you and they're like looking at you like they're about to scare you while you're peeing right so that answers the question do zombies piss yes exactly yes yes here okay now when you're not in the haunts again one of the haunts was like you wore 3d glasses and everything was 3d one of the haunts the scariest one maybe was called darkness and it was so freaking dark like you basically are like it's
Starting point is 00:45:50 it's the the darkness was so complete that it was just the scariest thing in the world i kept reminding myself that they can't like hurt you can they can they cannot no no one's gonna hurt you in these well that's the goal right at screamers we try and have you know there's the one that's 3d which kind of has clowns that's the goal, right, at Screamers. We try and have, you know, there's the one that's 3D, which kind of has clowns. You know, we try and hit, everyone has a different fear, you know, ones that really hit them. And darkness is one of them for people who are claustrophobic. You know, when I was a teenager at Screamers back in the horticultural building, we had seen this tunnel at this, because my parents have a place down in Clearwater.
Starting point is 00:46:22 So in Tampa, there was this fun kind of museum-type place, and they had this crawl-through tunnel. I was pretty bad with claustrophobia, but my dad said, let's build this and put it at Screamers. It was only maybe four foot by four foot square. So they built this thing in the backyard where we lived growing up in Scarborough. It was this wood tunnel at the time.
Starting point is 00:46:42 We hadn't carpeted yet, and raccoons were in there living. It was wild. But anyway, we finally moved it to Sced yet, and raccoons were in there living. It was wild. But anyway, we finally moved it to screamers, and we operated it for a bunch of years. And you'd be crawling, and we'd put plexiglass and have rats underneath. It was great, but we ended up finding too many people were fooling around in there. Oh, of course. So other people are trying to get by, and these guys are hooking up. So it was a pretty classic.
Starting point is 00:47:06 I mean, I'd love to bring that one back. It'd be hard to reproduce. But, man, for those four years, it was great. You know, people on their hands and knees literally crawling through. That was the haunt. Of all the haunts there now in 2023, what's the one you're most scared of still? For me, I don't get that. I mean, I go to a ton of haunted houses in the U.S.
Starting point is 00:47:23 But the new one that we just built Halloween Horrors I mean the sets we designed in there are phenomenal I think it looks incredible but I still think the scariest would be the haunted house it's just the classic now I'm going to give you a few gifts because you're here and again
Starting point is 00:47:39 everybody check out Screamers it's tis the season as I say with the good people at pumpkins after dark but uh one of the songs you'll hear when you're in the outside is a thriller by michael jackson is that the definitive halloween song in your opinion i'm just curious oh 100 this is my go-to start the night every night at screamers with this song and you know you as soon as you put it on you know we do it usually just before our nightly meeting with the, with the cast and everyone right away is bopping their heads or trying to do
Starting point is 00:48:09 the dance moves, which no one can really seem to recreate properly. But, uh, yeah, this is a hundred percent. The song, do you have any memories of the hilarious house of frightenstein?
Starting point is 00:48:18 Like, uh, you're a bit young, obviously you're younger than me. Uh, but, well, is that obvious?
Starting point is 00:48:22 I think it is. But, uh, Vincent price used to do these cameos on the hilarious house of freidenstein and uh yeah his his his cameo in this song that's next level vincent price that was him right there remember tarzan dan of course he's back in and came down to screamers back in the day we had this video somewhere it was incredible it was halloween top 30 countdown.
Starting point is 00:48:46 And he did it, you know, he was at Screamers so they would come back to him every time. And we used to play that video for years at Screamers in the bar and it was just awesome.
Starting point is 00:48:53 And this song was obviously always number one. He had like Meatloaf and like a bunch of weird songs on there. Oh, speaking of Meatloaf, he's got a cameo in a film where
Starting point is 00:49:01 the next song I'm going to play is from. But here, you are of Italian descent. That's been established. So you know a good lasagna. 100%. Okay. Another family
Starting point is 00:49:12 run business. They're in Mississauga and Oakville. The Pacucci family. They run Palma Pasta and they got a location called Palma's Kitchen. We're going to have an event. There's Vincent Price right there. Wow. So we're going to have an event. There's Vincent Price right there. Wow. So we're going to have an event, a Toronto Mic listener experience at Palma's Kitchen on December 9th at noon.
Starting point is 00:49:31 Everyone's invited. Andrew, you're invited. We're going to get Palma pasta lasagna, and we're going to get fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery. I'm sending you home with a lasagna and fresh craft beer. You're going home with you, Andrew. Oh, great. Thanks so much.
Starting point is 00:49:43 My wife will appreciate it. Well, your whole family's going to love it. And there's also a wireless, Andrew. Oh, great. Thanks so much. My wife will appreciate it. Well, your whole family is going to love it. And there's also a wireless speaker here. That's from Moneris. So you can listen to season five
Starting point is 00:49:51 of Yes, We Are Open, which is an award-winning podcast from Moneris, hosted by FOTM Al Grego. He's been going east. He went to the Maritimes. He's gone to Newfoundland and he's collecting stories
Starting point is 00:50:00 from small business owners. And then he's sharing their stories to help inspire you guys and what you guys are up to entrepreneurial spirits like the jadaro family so that's great that's your wireless speaker i feel like for like a a screamers episode that really funeral home is right in line here so that's a measuring tape for you ridley funeral Home are pillars of this community they've been doing it since 1921 so shout out to Ridley Funeral Home
Starting point is 00:50:29 quickly speaking of things that die if you're old electronics and you're old I don't know your old iPad or your old 8-track player maybe Ardo's got an 8-track player that's dead and he needs to get rid of it don't throw it out Ardo go to recycle my electronics .ca and find a place to
Starting point is 00:50:46 safely recycle that so the chemicals don't end up in our landfill. And last but not least, before I get to... Maybe I'll start the jam, actually, because I kind of teased it there with the meatloaf. Oh, yeah. We used to play
Starting point is 00:51:00 Bat Out of Hell by Meatloaf at Papa Ball in 1989. That would be spinning there. Speaking of Meatloaf. Okay. Learn how to plan,
Starting point is 00:51:12 invest, and live smarter with the Raymond James The Advantage Investor Podcast. Whether you already work with a trusted financial advisor
Starting point is 00:51:19 or currently manage your own investment plans, The Advantage Investor provides the engaging wealth management information you value as you pursue your most important goals. And last but not least, we've been talking about screamers because it scared the shit out of me.
Starting point is 00:51:34 If you need gentler fare, Pumpkins After Dark is in Milton through Halloween, and you can get 15% off with the promo code TOMIKE15 at pumpkinsafterdark.com. Talk to me, Andrew, about this jam. Love this jam. It's a very weird movie. Oh yeah,
Starting point is 00:51:54 it's one of those cult classics. If you go to a viewing, you gotta like... Actually, I drove in. I was at University of Guelph one time and I drove in to meet my dad. He had bought tickets, or my mom had bought tickets to go to a production of this. It was in some hotel out in Mississauga. It's a weird show to watch with your dad, right?
Starting point is 00:52:12 You throw toast at the toast parts. This has got Susan Sarandon's in it with the Damn It Janet stuff. But Meatloaf's got a cameo in this, as I remember. Oh yeah? Yeah, he's got a cameo in this. But it's a good show. It's pretty strange But good Do you pick the music
Starting point is 00:52:27 You hear at Screamers? No I think we let the It plays through the bar So the bartender curates that Not always to my liking But Oh you don't ever pull rank? I think the other night
Starting point is 00:52:38 She put on like NSYNC At one point I almost lost it Is there a scary NSYNC song? No I don't think there is Actually Bye bye bye Maybe Yeah cause it's You're dead buddy you're dead yeah exactly amazing uh okay so i'm gonna bring down this one more jam i want to play because it's more recent we played a couple of
Starting point is 00:52:55 older songs but this one here is a song you told me about yeah this my kids love this one yeah let's get a taste of this. Punctures come to kill the king upon his throne I'm ready for their stone I'll dance, dance, dance with my hands Hands, hands above my head Like Jesus said I'm gonna dance, dance, dance with my hands Hands above my head And together we'll give them before you're dead
Starting point is 00:53:41 Because I won't cry for you I won't crucify the things you do I won't cry for you See when you're gonna feel Like Mary What's interesting is this is the version you wanted and I guess this is the one
Starting point is 00:54:02 your kids are digging and it's sped up. Speaking of Instagram, the sped up version I, is the one that went viral, right? With that dance, you know? Oh, TikTok. Yeah, TikTok. TikTok and all that. Yeah, but I think this got popular with that show Wednesday, which was...
Starting point is 00:54:14 Okay, so that's my 17-year-old is going to be Wednesday for Halloween. That's how popular that show is. That show was really good, actually. Yeah. I mean, it was kind of teeny-bobber, but it was a pretty cool show. I was into it. Totally watchable for us dads.
Starting point is 00:54:26 If your daughters are going to watch the show. No totally. Yeah in fact my daughter was trying on her Wednesday dress yesterday.
Starting point is 00:54:33 Oh nice. Well my daughter's being a zombie cheerleader so I don't know what that looks like. There's like a Disney show that might that's
Starting point is 00:54:41 I'm trying to remember because the guy Tony Nappo is in that thing but there's the just not the descendants there's a couple of disney show which is all about like zombies and it's kind of like uh they sing anyway it's on uh disney plus anyway maybe i mean my two boys are going to be demigorgons from uh stranger things yeah okay very good very good how often do you update screamer stuff like do you like to see what's in the zeitgeist and see okay we need to add a strangers thing thing or something like oh yeah i mean every year we try and upgrade i mean we go to this big halloween show down in st louis
Starting point is 00:55:13 every year and you know you go through and there's just so much amazing stuff and like even like i we were talking about how the halloween industry has always been big in the u.s that show you know we've been going to for 30 years but it used to be tiny and it was in Chicago. It's massive now. Like, I mean, they used to take a tiny little hall and you go in there and some of the props are incredible. I mean, just mind-boggling. They have, you know, they have Scooby-Doo
Starting point is 00:55:36 and his whole, you know, mystery crew or whatever they're called. All zombified, though. Like, heads blown off. I mean... They were smoking weed in that band, right? Yeah, 100%. But, heads blown off. I mean... They were smoking weed in that band, right? Yeah, 100%. But, yeah, so we go every year and we upgrade stuff.
Starting point is 00:55:50 And you end up running into other haunters from Toronto and Canada. So it's a pretty tight-knit community of us here. Is it a rivalry or do you take, like, a pipe and you smash them in the shin? No, no, no. There's none of that. No Tonya Harding stuff. I think it's actually... It's not really a rivalry because I think competition sometimes actually a good thing right you want people to
Starting point is 00:56:08 have options to go places because maybe they'll come to you one year they go to these guys the next and they'll come back to you in a year to bring it back to the conklin carnies right it's like you're all in the same gang you got to look out for each other oh exactly you got to share that pool of money right it's got to come from somewhere so you know i think and that's you know like i said you know my dad said he was the pioneer. He was the first one to bring it here. So you had to almost educate the buyer base as to what it was they were getting into. And now as more haunted houses come, they're actually looking for you as opposed to you having to look for them.
Starting point is 00:56:36 I remember realizing that Halloween could be a bigger deal from episodes of Roseanne in the 90s. bigger deal from episodes of Roseanne in the 90s. They always, the Roseanne family, with the Connors, I guess they were, went big on Halloween, maybe much like your dad did. And they always had like a thematic episode every Halloween. It was a big deal. And the older I get, the more I like Halloween. You know, it's just good fun for everybody.
Starting point is 00:57:02 Oh, it's a great night. I mean, I used to live over in Swansea. Yeah. And Lavinia, the street there, was on the cover of the Star Black when we were living there. That street needed
Starting point is 00:57:10 to be shut down. There was, like, thousands of people. And I used to stay home to hand out candy with the kids before heading down to Screamers
Starting point is 00:57:17 for the final night. So I would drive the hearse because we had the Screamers hearse and I would drive it right up the street just honking the horn. And you could barely
Starting point is 00:57:23 get through and people were just going nuts, right? It was awesome. What. And you could barely get through, and people were just going nuts. It was awesome. What time do you arrive at Screamers tonight? So it's 7 o'clock. We don't open tonight. Yeah, Thursday.
Starting point is 00:57:33 Wednesday. Okay. So do that one more time here. What's the website? So it's screamers.ca, screamers, S-C-R-E-E-M-E-R-S.ca. You can buy tickets online or at the door. And we're open Thursday to Sunday this week and the same next week. And then we open again from the Tuesday
Starting point is 00:57:50 right through to Halloween night. Often imitated but never duplicated, right? You're the OGs in this city. The OGs, yep. And you might see, if you see a guy in a, what do you call it again? In a tuck tuck. If you see a guy yelling, just go up and say, the legend of Ardo permeates the grounds of screamers in Vaughn.
Starting point is 00:58:09 Awesome what you did. What a small world story that we hooked up. I didn't even tell the story. I think I told it to, who did I tell it to? Ed Keenan was on and we're telling him. But when my phone rang the other day, the name on the phone was what I now know as Ardo Jadaro. And I absolutely had this moment of like, do I answer
Starting point is 00:58:26 this? Like I was afraid I was in big, big, big trouble. And it was you on the other line. And I'm glad we could do this. And I had a blast Friday with my daughter. She had a fantastic time. If you want to get scared shitless in good fun, go to Screamers in Vaughan. Thanks for dropping by today, Andrew. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. I think this is cheaper than therapy. My conversation with Ardo has me feeling like a whole whack of like fear is just like dissipated. Well, that's good.
Starting point is 00:58:54 And let your mom know About the baseball stuff? About the Dave Steve no-hitter. We still haven't had a no-hitter. Oh, really? That's the only one in history. So that was a big one. Wow.
Starting point is 00:59:04 All right. And that that's the only one in history that was a big one and that brings us to the end of our 1342nd show now I'm on Twitter and Blue Sky as Toronto Mike but you guys gave up on the Twitter machine but gave up I think Instagram first
Starting point is 00:59:22 Instagram and Facebook follow Screamers and remember Screamers has got two E's gave up I think you're like Instagram first like so Instagram Facebook Instagram and Facebook follow screamers and remember screamers has got two E's it's not EA and much love to all who made this episode of Toronto Mike possible that's Great Lakes Brewery Andrew's
Starting point is 00:59:38 got his fresh craft beer Palma Pasta don't leave without your frozen lasagna Raymond James Canada. Mineris, you got your smart speaker. Recycle My Electronics. Pumpkins After Dark. And Ridley Funeral Home.
Starting point is 00:59:54 See you all. I'm going to go to the calendar and find out who's my next guest here. Stand by, everybody. See you all tomorrow when my special guest is Jesse Hirsch. But I like it much better going down on you Yeah, you know that's true Because everything is coming up Rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold
Starting point is 01:00:35 But the smell of snow Warms us today

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