Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Toronto Mike'd #75

Episode Date: April 25, 2014

Mike talks with Elvis about the birth of his son, the death of his friend, Q107, Jeff Marek and more.

Welcome to the 75th episode of Toronto Mike's, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavor. I'm Mike from torontomike.com. Joining me is my brother from another mother, Elvis. And hosting this audio file are the good people at Core Fusion. What's up, Elvis? What's going on, Mike? It's been a while. It's been a busy couple of weeks. We're going to talk about what's been going on.

Not much has been happening. It's been pretty dead, hasn't it? Has this theme song grown on you yet? Sure. I never thought it was bad. It's been pretty dead, hasn't it? Has this theme song grown on you yet? Sure. I never thought it was bad. I just, it's not my style. I've lost track of who hated it and who liked it. It's not my style. It wouldn't have been my choice. I like the music choice for, what was that other?

Your Blog Sucks. Your Blog Sucks podcast. You want me to play that instead? No, no, no. It's fine. Yeah, well, this is an original track. It's pretty cool. It's not a fair comparison.

It's pretty cool that you had this made specifically for your podcast. I've actually seen a lot of Ill Vibe lately for all the wrong reasons, but we'll get into that later. And a little story about how the hell I met Ill Vibe and why Ill Vibe created that song for the Toronto Mic'd podcast. I can't wait. I'm full of stories.

I can't wait. You're full of something, but I can't wait. So first off, I'm not sure what you have planned because for those regular listeners, you'll know that Mike does typically have some sort of an agenda, but we don't like to talk about things before the podcast to make it fresh. I like to surprise you. Right. But I think the order of business here is to say congratulations

on the arrival of Mr. Jarvis. Very exciting time in the Boone household. Thank you. Yes. Okay. Jarvis, what day is today? April 25. I just saw it on my computer. So on April 9th, Jarvis arrived.

Sweet baby Jarvis. Very exciting. Very exciting. Very exciting. You talked about how you came to choose his name or make the suggestion to have the name as Jarvis coming from your daughter, Michelle. And you said that you don't know any other Jarvises.

I know Jarvis Cocker. Like, I've always known Jarvis Cocker. I don't know Jarvis Cocker. Okay, Jarvis. Let me tell you, I would like to share with you who Jarvis Cocker is. Are we talking about the same person, maybe? The lead singer of Pulp is Jarvis. Yeah.

Well, the lead singer of, I can't remember the band name, Canadian band, Jarvis Church. But that's a fake name. Yes, but still, it's a name. I know, but I think... There's a lot of fake names in the world. I'm fucking named Elvis, for Christ's sake. That's true. But Jarvis Church just took Toronto Streets.

Yes. So it'd be like if my name was... I'm pretty sure you took a Toronto Street name, though. Isn't that how it happened? Technically, yes. Yeah, though. Isn't that how it happened? Technically, yes. Yeah, absolutely. But if you had a daughter and named her Jane Bloor or Jane St. Clair as the Barenaked Ladies song, would it have been Jane St. Clair? Yes.

I'm Googling Jarvis right now because I want to... Do you know if it's named after a particular person? I know it's an old British name. Because I know Bloor is named after some guy. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah, yeah. Jarvis is.

I already did this. Yeah. I went to the Wikipedia page for Jarvis Street. It's named after a family. Like like there's a guy named jarvis yeah last name jarvis now edwin jarvis is a supporting character in the marvel comics but i don't know who that is and i don't know this is a good song it's the best song i love this song so. So Samuel Jarvis is what Jarvis was named after. What did he do?

He's an old guy. He did lots of... 1792 to 1857. He was a cool cat. He was the chief superintendent of Indian affairs for Upper Canada. Wow. Now, he was a big mucky muck. And let me tell you, okay, so I've told the story of how I for Upper Canada. Wow. Now, he was a big mucky muck. And let me tell you, okay, so I've told the story

of how I named Jarvis. He fought in the 1812. Yeah, big time. It's exciting battles in 1812. Go down to Queenston Heights and check out the memorial. Just celebrated an anniversary. He was in a duel and killed John Rideout or Ridout. Yeah, but Ridout was an asshole

so nobody cared. So, okay, let me tell some Jarvis stories real quick. So, Jarvis was born a natural birth, so what was impressive to me was that my dear wife Monica didn't even take an Advil. I watched the whole show,

if you will. There was never a request for anything to alleviate the pain which i was impressed by because uh it looked painful it looked like a lot of ridiculous it was well not even an advil so most insane things ever so she does the the labor it goes a while and then there's this like uh you're fully dilated like and you're counting these centimeters down like okay you're six now you're seven you're eight you're nine it's like you're i'm these this terminology i'll forget it in a few months but you're fully eff okay, you're six. Now you're seven. You're eight. You're nine. It's like, this terminology, I'll forget it in a few months, but you're fully effaced

and you're fully dilated. Now we can push. And then there was like, I think 90 minutes of pushing and the pushing was intense. It's like, and you're like a cheerleader the whole time because you get this rhythm down where like you basically, you're getting three pushes out of each contraction and you get a breath between each push and you got this whole rhythm down you're like coaching her like this is a softball game or whatever like it's intense i'm disappointed that nobody else commented on my comment on your blog when i said that you're

an asshole for suggesting that you were exhausted i was tired which is such a ridiculous asshole thing to say and it's amazing i love it just such a dick asshole thing to say. And it's amazing. I love it. It's just such a dick thing to dad say. I said lots of good things to him, though. Holy shit, I'm exhausted. I was fucking tired. Really? It's tough to watch that.

And then you're, but you're seeing, like, remind me, your daughters, were they, like, vaginal births or were they, like, C-sections? Okay, you know why? I have Elvis. It would be surprising to know this is the third time I've witnessed the birth of a child. Third time.

All right, good for you. First two times were C-sections. Oh, really? I had never seen a vaginal birth. This is my first one. You didn't look though, did you? Are you kidding me? The lady had me holding one of the legs up

and look, I couldn't look away. No, Mike, no. I watched the whole thing. Why did you look? Why wouldn't I? It doesn't bother me and it's like I wanted to look away. No, Mike. No. I watched the whole thing. Why did you look? Why wouldn't I? It doesn't bother me. And it's like I wanted to see this. Like, this is amazing.

How many times am I going to see this? It's a crime scene. It's amazing. So you see the crowning and then the head. And then all of a sudden, like, yeah, this comes out. And then you get the cut. Anyway, I always cut. Yeah, I did that for my daughter, though.

So, yeah, I did you cut the yeah i did that for my daughter though uh so yeah i got to cut the cord and anyway it was a 24 hours later they discharged you because jervis is normal and then that was like uh i think we were discharged on a thursday night and then by monday morning jervis is back at sick kids and i see you which sounds scary because it's like an intensive care unit but he was there for like uh Wasn't he there for two, three days? We left on Saturday, so... Monday to Saturday? Monday to Saturday.

Wow, that's a long time. And it's because he's severely dehydrated, and they're watching his sodium counts, and they need to bring it down really slowly so that it's not dangerous for him because apparently a fast drop is bad. And then, of course, he was jaundiced too, but they put the minus on freaking lights and he's fine james was jaundiced jaundiced too james and jervis were jaundiced try saying that really fast it's uh it's it's pretty crazy time it's fun though but the the whole uh yeah i did not watch i don't want to i was there i was present and and you know no i you know cheerleading and all that what's your fear what

are you afraid of like you're never gonna see it as a sexual part you can't unsee what you see there but it's nature man it's beautiful you know there's parts of nature that suck what yeah like the bugs outside your fucking house yeah that's two weeks i'm told two weeks fuck okay that's interesting with these bugs okay so where are they coming from listen this is my first spring here so it's new to me it didn't show up in the uh report i didn't know about these bugs but two okay so on uh what is today friday so on tuesday i did a wonderful 30 kilometer bike ride as i trained for my ride to conquer cancer thank you i want to say thank you right now elvis made a generous donation but i i don't know if she listens but i gotta say thanks to just two people one is stephanie who doubled

your pledge wow and your pledge was massive your pledge tied the record for biggest pledge you tied the great andrew stokely for the largest pledge and then stephanie came in and doubled it but then that's fine stephanie wow she's like an amazing woman who's been uh reading for like a decade and i've met her at the humble and fred party she's great lady lorn lorn i think he's the guy who does the cooking you ever see the video oh yeah yeah yeah lauren lauren yeah i know lauren he does a very generous donation almost as big as yours but then he comes back and does a second one i think he went and saw saw like how far am i from 4 000 and then he basically did a second donation to put me at my target 4 000 you add them up that was a massive donation i couldn't believe it so i want to say thanks to those people but everyone who's pledged anything i am grateful

for i have a question for you oh i want to get back to the bugs too but you have a list of your your donors yes on uh i think it was on your blog. And Urgey's on that list, but yeah. I noticed that he's just after me. And you put it in numerical order. And Elvis appeared at number 69. Is that a coincidence? Did you do that?

Is that on purpose? Did you do that? I didn't do that at all, no. It's the order that the pledges come in. So I just add to the bottom. That is amazing. I couldn't have planned that better. The only way I could have made it better if I pledged

$1 more than Stokely. I didn't realize that he was at the same amount I did. It's not too late to make a second donation. Oh, and speaking of Stokely, he lives out in Niagara Falls or somewhere. Speaking of 1812, he's right there with Isaac Brockac brock right out there with

isaac no isaac uh yes isaac brock i thought you said something else okay yeah well to come say isaac brock these were my favorite history classes in primary school and uh big was big bear there was there a big bear is that your next podcast we're gonna we're gonna interview a big bear actually uh i would totally interview a big bear okay so we'd have to dress up i got a knock on my door earlier this week stokely's at the door with gifts for jarvis i don't know i don't think he possibly could have made that trip just to drop off these gifts but he was in the neighborhood and he dropped off wonderful gifts because you was it when was it last time we recorded yeah two weeks you brought some generous gifts and monica loved it in fact your outfit was worn on uh i saw the pictures and she um does monica

listen to this podcast yeah uh she listens i think the only time she won't listen is if i have a guest she doesn't care about all right so she won't listen to this one right okay so i don't know what this means and i just find it more funny than anything else. But I was tagged in a photo on Facebook and I was called Uncle Elvis. Oh, yeah. Okay. I did this. I did that.

It was a deletion of the uncle part. Okay. I should explain. Yeah, yeah. Which is amazing. I was like. We were at my mom's house. Yeah.

We were at my mom's house. Okay. And this is. I wasn't sure if you noticed that, but this was me, not her. So she wrote the initial entry, which was, oh, thank you, uncle, whatever your real name is. I'll call you Uncle Elvis. Right. Thank you, Uncle Elvis, for the gift.

And it was a picture of Jarvis. And I saw it, and I said to her, I said, I said to her, this is a dangerous precedent. I said, if he's uncle, how many people are uncle now? I said, I said, look, I never had this chat. This is one of the few chats. We talked about everything and we never talked about this. I just said, because this is how it's been for my first two kids. I just, I said, I would be more comfortable if the only people who get uncle status are,

are, you know, the men married or hooked up with our siblings. The real uncles. Yeah, the real uncles. The real uncles. The blood uncles. So, Uncle Ryan, Uncle Steve right now. And I guess there's an Uncle Ron in Edmonton who i haven't heard from in a long time so these are your uncles elvis is not an uncle elvis is a good friend he's a good guy but i don't like

i'm personally this is a personal choice i said i'd prefer we didn't give him the uncle elvis because now who where does the uncle line stop like who else when I was a kid um well you're Italian I grew up and and everybody was Mr. so-and-so like Mr. last name it wasn't even first names yeah so like I remember you know specifically this one guy who was not related to us at all but was one of my dad's good friends and we used to go over they used to go over and uh my dad and him used to work together and on the weekends when they would go work together used to go over and uh my dad and him used to work together and on the weekends when they would go work together i would go along and play in their basement and he was uncle uncle brown uncle harry actually he came so he's uncle and then last name and then last name and then

evolved into uncle first name um but he was not related to us at all um but as a child i didn't i didn't know what an uncle was i just thought that that was what i had a few of these too as a kid so um so i don't mind uncle or not uncle that's not my my observation is that it was just funny that when i first saw it no no no you got demoted for sure but that was i said to her it's pretty awesome look i actually we never talked about it like it's fair it's fair i don't know everyone's different i personally prefer to keep the uncle title for the true uncle i don't feel it necessary like there's uncle bob my buddy from the hockey play i don't feel necessary that all these i don't sure my stuff because then you you also do run the problem like what happens if if

i like at your at your draft right your your hockey draft which which I participated in for the first time in a hundred years. Which I was impressed that you showed up. You know, and all of a sudden Jarvis comes down and, you know, even if he's just a kid and not even walking, it's like, oh, hi, Uncle Perry. And then another good friend of yours is there. Oh, you didn't say Uncle Elvis. And then another friend of yours is there and they're like, oh, hi, Jim. Right?

Then it's kind of like, then Jim's like, how come I'm not Uncle Jim? It's just to me, it's a, I mean, it's like how come it's just to me it's just it's a i i mean it's just my i i said it to her and i didn't know she was i didn't i can't edit her facebook post she actually edited it because i think maybe i made sometimes i make sense to her and she's like yeah maybe it's just elvis and then that's fair you know it's not like it's not like there's another buddy out there who got the elvis title and you sorry the elvis title the uncle title and you didn't no one's got an uncle title right now. He's basically only met two uncles, Uncle Ryan and Uncle Steve. Those are the two uncles he's met. I just noticed it. I thought it was funny and

that's it. But I have no, I have no, like, I don't care. I'm not upset about it. No, I'm glad you're not upset. So just to wrap up the wonderful jarvis story is he's he's healthy now he's been home since saturday and that's almost a full week and he's he's fine i've learned a lot about breastfeeding because uh first two kids breastfeeding uh had no issues i guess you would say but now there's actually like things we have to do because monica didn't naturally or produce an abundance of milk right away. So that caused the issue in the first place. Is he still...

He's beyond his black shits. He's into real shits now? He's into real shits. All right. Good. The black shits are the worst. That's called Clustor. Something that comes out of the breast.

But yeah, they're not even like... It's not even like... It's oily. It's not even real poo. They're gone. I've changed a lot of diapers this week. They're gone. Yeah, he's... Bottom line is he's oily. It's not even real poo. They're gone. I've changed a lot of diapers this week. They're gone. Yeah, he's...

Bottom line is, he's like a typical two-week-old in that he just really does a few things. He does like... He's cute. He's cute as anything. But he eats. And shits.

He shits. He sleeps. He'll cry when he needs a diaper change and he'll cry when he needs food. And when he's happy, he's just a joy to kind of like hold and stare at and play with. He likes it when I sing, believe it or not. Like, he's just a joy to kind of like hold and stare at and play with. He likes it when I sing, believe it or not.

Like he can be a little upset and I'll sing. Wow. And he will right away perks right up and kind of stares at me. What do you sing? The big song I've been singing lately. Do you sing the theme song? No, the big song he really likes is

na-na-na-na, hey, hey, hey, goodbye. That's the one he likes. I've been watching a lot of playoff hockey. And I've been thinking because the Habs. You do that like quiet. Na-na-na. It's kind of na-na-na-na, hey-hey-hey, goodbye. And I kind of do this like, yeah.

And he loves it. Nice. He loves it. So Jarvis is great. So that's crazy, man man it's out now you know it seems like this pregnancy went forever it went pretty much even full term basically technically in nine months it probably went almost like yeah a week a week off it was pretty good uh yeah wow and two floors up from us right now that baby is sleeping with mommy and life is good

that's pretty cool man it's pretty freaking cool and it's cool that because i was hanging out with my other two kids last night and i was thinking you know i got this ball of cuteness and i can kind of cute you know whatever he's amazing he's cute and then i can go have like a super mature adult conversation with like my other two kids like i get to go both ways right well that's what she said and uh you get to go see cool movies. You can do all that kind of cool stuff. I can take James to anything. Then I can go do a shitty kids movie or hopefully a decent Pixar movie with Jarvis in a couple years.

Nice. Good times. Thank you very much. On that note, that was an amazing thing that happened on April 9th. It was amazing. And I'm just going to set this up as I get serious for a moment. If you don't mind.

Like we said before, we don't talk about where you're going to go, but I know exactly where you're going to go before I even started the music. I like to start with happy stuff. You know, I could just play songs I love on this podcast and I'd be a very happy guy. I don't care if people listen. Let's talk about that after we talk about this. Okay, and change this format to just playing tunes we like. Your blog sucks?

We need a new podcast. But after this serious moment. So, all right. So that was April 9th. So Jarvis pops out late on April 9th. It was really late. So the kids had school the next day, so I didn't bring them to the hospital on April 9th. So Jarvis pops out late on April 9th. It was really late. So the kids had school the next day. So I didn't bring them to the hospital on April 9th. I took them to the hospital on April

10th. And James and Michelle met their little brother and they were like super awesome about it. They held them and it was a great moment. Like one of those moments like you remember forever. Like you got three kids and here they are and it's life is fucking fantastic but i had a note from uh i had a note from my my buddy mike kick's wife jordy she sent me a note and said that things were not going well with his treatment he had stage four esophageal cancer in fact he's the reason i'm doing the ride to conquer cancer we've talked about this i think a couple of times yep but he's the reason i signed up because uh he's at he was at princess margaret

uh hospital and all proceeds of this ride to concert cancer go to the princess margaret cancer center and i said i gotta do something so here i'll do 220k and raise what i can and this ride to Concert Cancer, go to the Princess Margaret Cancer Center. And I said, I got to do something. So here I'll do 220K and raise what I can. And so far over 4,000 bucks in climbing. So I got a note that it was, we're in the final days, essentially. Like the doctor said, the liver was going to give out and we had like less than a week here. So I'm trying to, you know, I got this joyous moment here because my son is coming and he's out and it's amazing.

And then I got in the back of my head, I got this idea like this, this, this, this knowledge that my dear friend Kick. Did you meet him at the wedding? I did. Because I talked to Humble the other day and he's like,

I was too drunk to remember. I'm like, okay, well, it's too bad. You missed out. Okay, so I have the kids with me at St. Joe's hospital where Jarvis was born. And I, we went to the cafeteria to get a bite to eat. And then I said, uh, I told him what, how it was going on my kick. And then, uh, these kids are amazing. They're like, uh, they're amazing kids. First of all, James and Michelle. And they're like, let's go see them. And I'm like, okay, let's go.

they're amazing kids first of all james and michelle and they're like let's go see them and i'm like okay let's go and and uh you brought your kids with you yeah and i'm glad this is not a uh video i'm glad we didn't set up the cameras this is just audio only so we went to princess margaret hospital and we actually had like an amazing chat with mike kick he was in and out like super drugged so he kind of faded in and out but he when he was in he could follow your convos and we could talk about things and he could respond and like he knew the the fist pump exploding fist pump that we always did as a member of uh raging storm. And the kids were in there too. So Michelle told the story of how she named Jarvis. And then we talked a bit about Jarvis and then James talked,

they said James was going to beat me up soon because he was so big. And then James promised he would never beat me up. And then everybody laughed. Anyway, we had a good visit and I left that hospital and the kids and I talked about like life and death. And we talked about like life and death and we talked about like how one moment like you got like a newborn and he's here hope you know for the rest of your life and he'll be a key member of your life and then you're gonna lose somebody uh who you thought would be there because he's younger than me and he's I'm supposed to die first, hopefully as a very old man.

And he's in his final hours. And then the next day, Jordy texted me and said they don't think he's going to make it through the night. And then he made it through one more night, and then he passed away. So last week, I was saying goodbye to Mike Kick. And son of a gun, the guy was 33 years old, believe it or not. And he had a beautiful one-year-old daughter. And, you know, he and Jordy have known for 15 years. And he succumbed to cancer.

And we had our celebration of life at, actually it was at Filthy McNasty's at Young and Eglinton, but it was pretty amazing because this guy had the, everybody who met this guy loved this guy, and that was a full house, and everybody wore a Toronto sports jersey because Mike Kick was crazy about his Raptors and crazy about his Leafs and his Jays.

Those were his big three. And this is for Kiki, who is like one of the greatest guys I'll ever meet and gone so far too fucking soon. What a crazy reminder that there, you know, we say as often and as great as it is to say hello to new people that we always, you know, it's a reminder that we also say goodbye. And it's pretty shitty when we say goodbye too soon.

I did meet Mike, albeit it wasn't anything that either one of us would probably, you know, really remember because it was just we were happening to be guests at your wedding. because it was just, we were happy to be guests at your wedding. But when you announced this, when you talked about it, I remember that there was a call that went out for donations to help because obviously, you know, we all know that having cancer is unfortunately expensive. And I, as a survivor myself, I donated to that and certainly applauded your um your ride to to cancer and and yeah it sucks man uh so i didn't um i didn't know him know him but i knew enough about him because you do talk about him a lot um and so uh my condolences go out to uh his wife and his daughter

it's pretty shitty he was was super passionate in the sense that I think he's been throwing out of everything for just, he has an abundance of passion so when he's, we play a lot of sports together so he was on my dodgeball team. You know that dodgeball team? We've lost two members now because last year I don't remember, Daniel died

far too young from, I think it was meningitis. Anyway, he was I wasn't as close with Daniel, but he was a buddy. We worked together on a lot of PHP projects and he left us exactly a year ago. But Kick was, I've seen him kicked

out of, he was kicked out of the Air Canada Center for yelling at refs at a Raptor game and he's been kicked out of a dodgeball game for losing his shit and throwing the ball after he was kicked out. And I've seen him thrown out of ball games many times. Sometimes he'd get kicked out for swearing at the umpire. And then we'd actually, like, one time we had this passionate comeback where he was gone.

So when his part of the batting order came up, he was an automatic out. And he couldn't play anymore. And we did a reshuffle. We came back in a playoff game. And it was, like, one of my favorite games ever. but he gets kicked out of things a lot because he's passionate but when you're a friend of his or like just somebody he's just the nicest guy he's you know whether it's hooking up monica with uh back when people had blackberries with the new blackberry that he had his hands on or whether it was just many of me all is I would come over and borrow his CDs to rip them back in the days when you would rip CDs and MP3s and just whatever.

He had hookups for Subway gift cards. I don't know if you remember this. I mean, I ate at Subway's for weeks and weeks. It was Subway only because I had all these free coupons and stuff. But he was an amazing guy and gone too soon. One thing about it, the wedding you mentioned. So we had a photographer there. He wasn't the official photographer.

He was like an amateur. He was Monica's cousin. He was just taking pictures because it was like his passion or something or he's practicing or something. So when Mike Kick passed, Monica talked to him. His name's Ken Isla in Edmonton. And Ken had like dozens of Mike Kick photos just on a disc somewhere that, you know, we never even got to him. His name's Ken Isla in Edmonton. And Ken had like dozens of Mike Kick photos just on a disc somewhere that, you know, we never even got to see. And he got them to me. And then I shared them with, you know, Jordy and friends of Mike Kick. And these are some of the

most just amazing shots of Mike Kick dancing at my wedding that that was just in June. So in June 2013, he's he looks as healthy as a horse. He looks amazing. He just has no idea he's sick. And we played ball through September. So September 2013, we played the playoff games. We didn't win the championship, but we lost out in the playoffs. And he was still playing, unaware he was sick. He had no idea. So at some point between the end of the season in late September and the beginning of the next season, which is actually may 2014, we haven't hit it yet.

He found out he was sick and passed away. Like that's how quick this happened. I remember when you told me that, uh, that he was sick. You, um, I don't know if you remember this or not,

but I remember this conversation cause it was some, I didn't expect, I remember everything Elvis. I didn't expect it. And I, I, I didn't really know, like, I wasn't ready to, to, to sort of give you an answer, but I did. And I thought about my answer for a long time because I wanted to make sure it was the right one.

And, and I think it was, um, so you correct me if I'm wrong, but I think after reflecting on this for a while, I'm like, you know what? I think that was the right, the right piece of advice to give you. You said when you were going to go see him for the first time after he had been diagnosed, you said, what do I do? Like you've had, you've had cancer, you know, you've had to, you've went through all this. I don't remember. I don't remember. This is a deep question. I don't remember. You said, you know, you've been through all this. You've, you know, um, what do I say? Like, what do I do? Do I talk about it? Do I not talk about it? And I told you that you should tell them that you love them.

I did tell them I loved them. And that, I know that when I hear that from individuals after I found out that I was sick and went through all the stuff that I went through, there's no one, no one understands what a patient goes through except for that patient. And sometimes the patient can't even figure out what the fuck is going on and they have

no clarity. And, and there's just days where it really, really sucks. But the three words that, that really do cut through all of that pain and all that shittiness is when you hear that somebody loves you, especially, and this is the society that we live in, when another guy tells a guy that they love them, it means a lot in that type of way. It's true, because we never say that. Exactly.

So it means a lot. So my advice for anybody out there who's going through this particular type of ordeal, and I'm sure that there are a lot of them, tell the person that you love them them because it'll mean a lot. That's excellent advice. Just what's interesting is so from the time he was diagnosed to the time he passed, I never once alluded to his illness in his presence.

Right. So when we were together talking, I actually talked to him as if he wasn't sick. I never asked him how he was feeling. I never mentioned the C word. I never mentioned being sick. I actually, in fact, I hope I didn't overcompensate, but I would be jovial, if you will. I would tell jokes, which is my natural reaction.

Whenever I'm in a situation and it's like, this is a bad deal man i tell jokes and i did and i they were appropriate jokes i wasn't going to tell any sick jokes or anything like this but i i would i was funny and i was trying to be myself and i kept everything like as if he wasn't sick he's in a hospital but because at the end he he looked like a 95 year old man that was one of the hardest things was that he didn't look like Kick anymore at the end. Right. Honestly, you had to stare in his eyes to see that this was Mike Kick because he looked like a 95-year-old man.

He was just – Was his – you don't have to answer this, I guess. I will answer it. Was his daughter at the hospital? I know she's only one, so she probably can't be away from her mom for very long periods of time. How did that work out? I know she's only one, so she probably can't be away from her mom for very long periods of time. Well, I guess she's pushing too and she had, like,

Jordy has two sisters that were like amazing through this and there was a lot, so I never saw, I know the daughter did visit a lot, but I was never there

when she was there. She had, there was a really good Jordy and even the, Mike Kick's parents, there was a good support system there. Right.

I'm not a fan of... Like, my kids never... I only had one at the time, but my daughter never came to see me in the hospital because I don't think hospitals are a place for kids unless they have to be there themselves. It depends on the age of the kid, I guess.

Like a young baby. A one-year-old, yeah. I saw her at the... We went... We buried... Actually, he was buried at the same cemetery where Harold Ballard was buried. In fact, in a minute, I want to... Did you see Jeff Merrick there?

I wanted... You know what? Ready for the crazy coincidence? You ready for this? Mike Kick's middle name was Merrick. Really? Swear to you. Holy moly.

That's weird. It's Polish. That's crazy. So, yeah, it was crazy. And he was buried there. And the daughter was there. And, of course, at that age, what's crazy is that the, it was crazy. And he was buried there. And the daughter was there. And of course, at that age, what's crazy is that the daughter is so oblivious. She has no idea what's going on.

So it's good and bad. It's good. I guess it's better than... I guess it's good. Because you wouldn't want anyone to have to go through that, losing their dad. But she'll... I mean, what my plan is, and I told Jordi, as soon as, you know, she's old enough to kind of digest it, I'm just going to tell her how awesome her dad was.

Like, tell her stories about her dad. Like, I can't wait to tell her stories about her dad. So, yeah, the, what was I going to say about,

it'll come to me later, but this, I could, I could talk all podcast about Mike Kick, but gone way too soon. And, yeah, it it's cancer sucks fuck cancer man fuck cancer all right now uh we talked briefly there about jeff merrick and his

podcast episode so did you listen to the last episode 74 with jeff merrick i did listen you know what i listened to the first episode you've ever listened to the entire episode yes wow i listened my longest episode i listened to the entire jeff merrick podcast even right up to the end where you're playing the music and you turn it off and then oh that was okay so uh he started talking about music i was winding him down in an hour and you know he said let's go 90 minutes and then i'm winding him down and he basically stops me and it's like i don't want to wind down yet and essentially we went a half an hour just riffing with the music going because he didn't want it to end he would have gone four hours he would have gone four hours it sounded the conversation was great it was really really smooth it was uh it was a really really compelling

uh podcast i really really enjoyed it um that we've made contact with uh mr greg brady who is uh does the morning show on the fan all right so here's the thing mr greg brady i uh he's how do you know him again he's a he's a acquaintance uh we both went to western together and we both worked at the same radio station okay so i got you this is uh unusual where you have brought a guest in here okay so usually it's me and i work at these and jeff merrick cancels eight times right it's frustrating on my schedule and sure now here he is so uh back to we'll talk greg brady then get back to jeff merrick but greg brady is your hookup so i got looped into an email and i was like happy to have you please be here it turned out he was scheduled

to come in 10 a.m or something I came out with time but it was at the day of the funeral at the time I wouldn't be here it turned out that my son was going to be as sick kids anyways and I had a crazy day where I was literally I went to sick kids then I went to funeral then I went to burial then I went to celebration of life then Then I went back to sick kids. Right. That was the Wednesday. That was one of those days. Emotional draining.

Yeah, it was just everything. And that was obviously the day he was supposed to, it was never going to happen. So I wrote a nice email just saying, unfortunately, I can't do this time because I have a funeral to go to. And I never got an email back. I don't know how it works in the mucky muck world of morning radio and 590,

but isn't that worthy at least of a i'm sorry to hear that or don't you have to put back a my condolences or don't you have to reply to that i didn't reply i'm not trashing greg brady here but that doesn't it wasn't to you you were cc'd greg i'm afraid i can't make this time anymore because i have to go unfortunately i have to go to a funeral we'll have to reschedule don't you have to reply to that come on i know he went to western but you can at least admit that i know i'm not saying maybe it got stuck in a spam folder maybe he never saw it i'm just saying come on greg brady has to reply to that with it i'm sorry for your loss or something maybe i don't you would i i respond to every email even when I shouldn't respond.

So I'm not the right person to ask. Because I try to be overly polite. Greg's on... And I know he doesn't listen, but he's on dangerous grounds, shaky grounds. Because he's... But he did congratulate... He acknowledged the birth of your child, however.

Yes. He did acknowledge that. So maybe he just wanted to avoid the whole death thing altogether. But the the no response forget the fact he wasn't going to talk about the death thing fine but uh at least uh where's the reschedule like where's the well i think i i think that it's up to us to reschedule we're the one who's asking for his time to come and and be part of the podcast that's why i'm gonna bring jeff merrick back because it was more like we were doing him a favor he wanted to come on and talk. Well, I mean, you could look at it.

He could look at it that way. But I look at it as they're doing us a favor. It's a mutual thing. But at the same time, he was genuinely excited. And he had lots of compliments about you, your blog, and your podcast. That was his first mistake. He's really... My natural reaction to that is, hmm, what's wrong with this guy?

I don't want to be the member of a club that would have me as a member. What? I'm doing a bit, right? If he's a big fan of this blog, then that tells me there's something wrong with the guy. What? This is a joke. I don't get it. You don't get it?

No. This is what I think happened, though, with him. Because I tweeted back and forth with him and said, give me your email address because it would be easier than sending DMs that are 140 characters. And he said, sure. And he was really quick to respond. And then I sent him an email with more of the details about the podcast. And it took him a couple of days to get back to me. And so this is what I suspected. So you've got to follow up now.

Well, this is what I suspected, is that he may not have necessarily known, remembered who I was for one, although he said he did. And two, he may not have actually heard of the blog or the podcast. And it took him a couple of days to ask around and say, hey, is this guy a fucking weirdo or what? Did he Google it? And then he's like, oh, shit, this is the blog that I actually read. Or maybe he doesn't read it and he's like, oh, he asked other people and they're like, yeah, yeah, this is fucking good. So maybe that's what happened there too.

Every time I talk to somebody in the land of Toronto media, they've heard of torontomic.com. There you go. So yeah, hopefully we rescheduled him. I got, aside from the fact that he didn't respond, I got the feeling that he was genuinely excited to be on the show. I'm excited to have him. I just want to ask him what it's like being raised with the name Greg Brady.

It's amazing, right? Or horrible, one or the other. In his age, is his age like he's a little older than you? A couple years older than me. So he's born knowing that Greg Brady is a name. Oh, yeah, for sure. He's not one of those guys who was named Adolf Hitler before he rose to power. If you listen to him, he's pretty in touch with pop culture.

So he definitely fucking knows who Greg Brady is. So his parents named him Greg. It's sort of like if I named my son Daniel. Daniel Boone would be his name. I'm 99% sure his name is Greg Brady, but there could be the possibility that he took that name to be on the radio. We'll find out. Why would you take that name? I don't, because it's, like a lot of people on radio have fake names.

It reminds me of the Buffalo sportscaster who was named Jim Kelly. So that to me is, that's his real name, Jim Kelly. I can't answer with him too. Yeah, actually. And the other one who's dying right now. What other one? The football, the quarterback. Oh yeah, fucking Jim Kelly. Yeah, because you're talking the sportscaster passed away yeah yeah but jim

kelly's got cancer yeah he does yeah so both jim kelly's are dying of cancer and the jim kelly who already passed the older jim kelly the sportscaster you heard on the 590 uh he was hit that was his name before there was a quarterback in buffalo and he was already in Buffalo doing sports as Jim Kelly. And then yes, they draft Jim Kelly and the court. And then, so the rest is history. They have the same name.

It's kind of unfortunate because it covers sports. So it's very confusing, but that was his name already. Uh, so it just, uh, I wonder how many people wouldn't choose that name who are casual fans opened up a newspaper in Buffalo and like read a Jim Kelly column.

And we're like, Holy shit. The quarterback wrote a story about himself. casual fans opened up a newspaper in Buffalo and like read a Jim Kelly column and were like, holy shit, the quarterback wrote a story about himself. Because there was no, as you know, there was no bigger athlete for that decade. There was no bigger Buffalo athlete than Jim Kelly. Oh, Jim, he was the man. And I mean, you had a thermal Thomas. I don't want to say, I don't want to say supporting cast, but you had Thurman Thomas. Yeah, you had Reed and Thomas.

You had Bruce Smith. Yeah. It was a good team. It was amazing. Four Super Bowls in a row. Four Super Bowls in a Thomas. Yeah, you had Reed and Thomas. You had Bruce Smith. Yeah. It was a good team. It was amazing. Four Super Bowls in a row. Four Super Bowls in a row. They lost all four. No, but they...

Heartbreaking. Norwood wide right was the first one. Heartbreaking. If he hits that, they might have won two or three because that to me was like a moment, just crushed a lot of the... Yeah. Anyway, yeah, that's so sad about Jim Kelly

because he's so... The quarterback, sad about jim kelly because he's he's so the the quarterback well it's sad about both this is a very confusing conversation so greg brady we're gonna get greg brady back uh let's talk again about jeff merrick real quick uh i wanted to just say that of all the podcasts and 74 podcasts i and it's tough to quantify this but i believe that is the podcast that had the most positive feedback. Generally, the most positive feedback. Because once you saw it was two hours, you sort of had to commit to this thing. I could see myself passing a two-hour podcast. That would take a long time, I think. I don't know. Two hours to me is extreme for a podcast.

I would agree. It was really, really good. Thank you. Because in real time time i live these things in real time so in real time it was sort of like this where it was effortless you know it was just it's like fallon cross and a couple others it felt like sort of like work not that you know just that you're sort of have to it felt different. It didn't feel effortless. Jeff Merrick was like... And I've only met him a couple of times. It was like we were long-time old friends. And he just sat there.

And we just shot the shit for two hours. And he was so open and interesting. I mean, I didn't know about Josie Dye. And he had some great stories about the fan with Strombo. And it was just... It turns out a lot of our histories uh overlap the same hockey ring everything is the same because he's a west end toronto guy and i am too and he's only

he's got a couple years on me but not too many and it was just crazy and it was just amazing and in the fact that i was gonna do an hour like i normally do and then he said let's do 90 minutes and i'm like fuck yeah because this is interesting and then the fact that he like basically i i think i cut him off at two hours i looked at his eyes and they looked a little sad when i started playing down the music did you guys talk about 90 minutes before the show started we talked i always told him an hour yeah we don't know and he came in here and he's like hey let's do 90 minutes or was it i can't he didn't say during the show uh i think he did like i think he said at one point let's keep going keep going. But I didn't know if that was, I can't remember what time it was. I was going to let him free at an hour.

And then he said something during the show that he could go 90 minutes. Yes, yes, yes. And then I said, okay, 90. And then at 90, I start playing him down. And then he's like, lowest to the low. And then he's like, you know. Was it the real statics? He wanted real statics.

And I confused Wayne Gretzky rocks with the Ballad of Wendell Clark. And I felt so stupid because it's just in real time. I don't know. Because, of course, I know the two songs and two bands. But they're both Toronto-based bands. It was really good. So thank you. So I just wanted to hear your feedback on the Merrick episode.

I listened to every, every minute of it I don't follow wrestling anymore but I've now done Jeff Merrick and Jason Agnew the law is alive I know very interesting to do them both you know who does a good podcast that apparently is really good

speaking of wrestling is Chris Jericho I keep seeing a lot of really do you know who chris jericho i was a canadian wrestler i went on humble and pretty show okay and uh the two guests that day were a wrestler a famous wrestler do you know who i'll show you a picture i think it might have been chris jericho honestly i think it might have been this guy and uh the band uh that does the uh the guy who sounds like he's tom waits and then the nice chick whose dad works for the toronto sun what the fuck is that band called um paper roll your paper heart away

from me and the new uh guns and ammunition so they actually did guns and ammunition live you know this band no really no i don't know this band i'm. I can't believe I can't remember the name of this band. Anyway, they were there too, and I took photos of them, and they were amazing, Guns and Ammunition. They're a great band, great Toronto band. Name will come to me later. Why can't a Paperheart? But you think it was Chris Jericho?

I think it was Chris Jericho. But I don't know. Who's the Edge? He's a different guy, right? The Edge is from U2. No, there's another Edge. There's a wrestling Edge. Oh, the Edge. The Edge yeah yeah okay the edge does he look like chris jericho i think this guy was chris they're taller um he's taught the edge is taller but i think it was chris jericho do the

paper heart google quick just so we can get this band name right come on they're a duo from toronto and they're they're young and up and coming and they have three radio tori kelly no paper heart uh guns and ammunition is another song that they that gets a lot of radio play and they have a new tune i heard on 88.1 the other day uh that's getting radio play so there's three singles deep now july talk july talk july talk fucking right july talk so july talk was there that day too but yeah so i think i met chris jericho what were you gonna say about chris jericho i was just gonna say that he has apparently his his podcast is really is really quite good from what i haven't listened to it of course but uh because i don't listen to podcasts anymore but um including this one but uh i hear a lot of good reviews and he's got some

good guests so i follow you on twitter and you were tweeting about undertaker apparently he had a streak and he lost so i just wanted to tell you two things one is uh are you aware that uh wrestling is fake are you aware that the movies you watch are fake yeah yeah so am i so when undertake you know undertaker was brought up that fucking point and i loved it it was you know what though i you know i didn't want to embarrass the great jeff merrick on the podcast but the reason you interviewed tom cruise as tom cruise instead of his character is that he's not one character he's dozens and dozens and dozens of characters but in wrestling these guys are one character so macho man and i can't remember macho man's real name right now but you might know it but randy pop randy that guy yeah leaping lanny poffo's cousin right sorry brother brother amazing so uh like you're not gonna interview him as

macho man because it's not like he plays different character every month or every six months he's one character for years like it to me it's not the same uh michael richards played kramer for nine years in a row but michael richards plays many things right for those nine years he was kramer and that was it there's nothing else all right it doesn't matter how many characters you play there's some actors that just have one role and that's it right and that their career is short and fast just like a wrestler's career i i mean like you can like it or not like it i don't like it's kind of you're kind of like a pearl jam i'm not anti wrestling it's entertainment fan like why don't you like pearl jam you need to like pearl jam

because then it justifies my like of Pearl Jam. Who cares? No, I don't care. I don't care. Do you like this? Listen to this. No. Do you like this, Elvis?

Of course. Hey, hey, mama said the way you move gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove. Where are you going with this? It's the greatest band of all time right here. So Q10 Zeppelin changed their format since we last recorded. Oh, we're going to talk about this? Just for a moment, yeah. All right.

You know, people come to Toronto, Mike, to hear about Toronto radio news. They do. Not just the great... This is a big... A lot of people think that this is a big fucking deal. And maybe it is. I don't know. But if they're going to play the trues now, it is a big a lot of people are think that this is a big fucking deal and maybe it is i don't know but but if they're gonna play the trues now it is a big deal because the guys who listen to q107

aren't used to hearing anything that's like i guess they started playing some u2 and stuff at some point they started they some u2 they never really they played nirvana maybe once or twice i'm surprised they did that but um yeah I'm that guy who listens to Q107. Okay, I never listen to Q107, but I used to because I used to listen to the Top 10 of 10. When Guns N' Roses was big and stuff, I would listen to Top 10 of 10 to kind of hear the big rock songs of the day.

I remember Rat would be on. I remember Way Cool Junior. Do you remember Way Cool Junior? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But Guns N' Roses was a big band at that time. This was like late 80s, I guess. And I'd be like, oh, you know, Paradise City is now number one or whatever. And Aerosmith, they'd play, oh, Janie's Got a Gun, just cracked or whatever.

Okay, so that's when I used to listen. That was when I was last listening. Brother Jake Edwards. You can listen to it again now because it'll be the same thing. Yeah, I don't think so. You pull a playlist or something? No, I was going to just say that. What do you think about the change?

I don't have any thoughts on the change because I didn't listen to the classic rock Q107. And if they add new songs, whatever. So the change is... Let's bring everybody up to speed in case you don't know. The change is that Q107 was a classic rock station. They basically played music from, say, 1965-ish maybe to 1989, I think they they played it all the way up until grunge and um and they they recently changed their format from classic rock to today's toronto's best rock i think they call it now um and so they still will play the stuff now they'll play the sheep

dogs but they'll also play new rock so they'll play um you know they will play foo fighters they'll play nirvana they'll play pearl jam they'll play the killers all that kind of stuff so you you're you're okay with this as a q107 listener i'm i'm okay with it as long as they don't go too much to the modern rock like you still want to hear your zeppelin i fucking love it yeah i mean now i don't listen to the radio zepp now I don't listen to the radio very much. I'm not anti-Zeppelin. I don't listen to the radio very much. No. At all. But when I do, I'm listening. There are basically three stations that I cycle through.

Q107, 97.7, and then, what is it, 94.9 in Durham? Oh, The Rock. The Rock. Yeah. Merzden's there. Yeah, those are the three stations that I'll cycle through because they play the playlist that I like to listen to. I go back and forth between 88.1, 102.1, and 99.1. Those are my three that I cycle through.

99.1, is that? CBC Radio 1, which I call me whatever, a nerd or whatever, but I love it. Now, if we're going to talk about talk radio, though, I mean, the first place that I go to is 590. Now, if we're going to talk about talk radio, though, I mean, the first place that I go to is 590. That's the only AM station I'll listen to unless there's a game on 1050 that I'll go to 640 sometimes. No, I don't. Depending on what show it is. I don't.

If I was in the car and Stafford was doing something interesting, I would listen to Stafford. I find Stafford. Stafford to me is. I got Stafford stories. Stafford is. But maybe another time. He's not fun anymore. I don't. See, I haven't heard in a long time because I used to commute. I used to commute and hear Stafford stories. Stafford is... But maybe another time. He's not fun anymore. See, I haven't heard in a long time

because I used to commute and hear Stafford a lot. And this is going way back. He's too much of a curmudgeon these days, I think. I'm not sure what's going on with him. Maybe there's something that's going on, but he just seems like he's... Okay.

He's very much a curmudgeon. More than he usually is. Well, he's a different cat. So two things, and I won't go into the detail but at some point we actually should because i still have a rick hodge story i'm supposed to tell but oh yeah right um another episode because we got like 10 minutes here but uh with mike stafford one is that we he used to comment all the time on toronto my.com and we used to write emails to each other back and forth on stuff that we didn't want published or whatever and then in 09 when martin streak died uh he actually wrote me very succinctly a nice

email to tell me that he will no longer comment and he's done with toronto mic.com because i there was an anti-chorus i guess there was a sentiment that chorus was taking some blame yeah which by the way since i interviewed alan cross and stuff it actually uh i mean i'm gonna create a little martin streak podcast episode for like the anniversary of his death in july but uh if you extract some of these thoughts because i've had a lot of martin streak's friends on the podcast and you know alan will say he refused to fire him like because he knew basically i'm not gonna blameorus for the death of Martin Streak, but I think those sentiments were fair game at that time with

everything we knew. And he took it very personally. Which I find funny. I mean, because he's an employee. He isn't, you know, he's not a manager or anything. But I guess he's obviously passionate about his employer. No, that was it for him. And really, that's it.

He actually was true to his word. That was oh nine. And I've never seen a comment from him since, but also at round that same time, he was BFFs with Freddie P. That's right. My good friend. And then he was getting married.

Mike Stafford was getting married and Freddie P was asked to be his best man. And first, I guess humble and Fred's podcast debuted and they were hard on terrestrial radio so they were like negative about terrestrial radio and chorus in particular maybe because chorus was where they got they got screwed over by chorus uh anyway there was a so they were a bit same thing and freddie p got fired as mike stafford's best man because of stuff expressed on the podcast that stafford disagreed with so toronto mike is one thing you're not going to comment there because of stuff about chorus

but firing your best man who has been your uh good friend since i think the early 80s or something since they were in brempton together yeah they were in the little house together uh that's now you're in a whole different like category of crazy hardcore that's hardcore so stafford's a different cat so he's got this natural curmudgeonly me against the world vibe i think which which uh you know he i think when you listen to his show it works um because he does you know but he the thing that i don't like about him is that he's just sort of he's settling into this sort of old guy mentality where he, he talks down to, to, to the kids. And I,

I just don't, being an older guy myself, I just, I don't like that. I don't like that move. So, yeah. And,

but what he was really amazing at was Simpsons trivia. That's my greatest Stafford memory is if he ever went down the road of Simpsons trivia, he was amazing. Yeah. It'd be, you know what? I'm not sure if I would, I would like to talk to him.

I don't think so. I want to talk to him about those two things we just mentioned. I want to talk to him about the chorus thing. Well, yeah, maybe not. You know what I would like to talk to him about, I take it back, is a lot of the early Radio Day stuff. I like those kind of stories. Okay, so the old Spirit of radio uh cfny

days of marsden as the program director as i remember it was pete and geats pete and geats for the morning show freddie p did sports and mike stafford did news i believe that was the setup for years cool yeah so i would like to talk about that maybe marsden should come in here yeah hey where does so he's on the show on should come in here. Yeah, hey, where does... So he's on the station in Durham, but where does he live? Does he do this? I don't know if he does the show from that station or not.

I don't know. I don't know Mars Barth. Maybe he should come in here and tell us. You know, speaking of guests we should have, like, so Merrick has promised to score me Strombo. Right, and my next go after next, uh, conquest is, uh, after we get Greg in here is,

uh, to go after Elliot Freeman. Cause I know him. Oh, the fridge. Uh, I, I,

I, who I had brunch in the booth beside him once. Right. I had lunch with him. So I wound up doing that. I, is he the odd man out with his Rogers thing next year? Because he,

I never hear him talked about in the Rogers deal. Yeah. Cause he's, he's certainly signed with CBC. I don't know. I don i don't know but he's maybe we could hire him as a permanent third guy on the mic we have three mics can you imagine he's talent man he's the 30 i like the thoughts guy he's amazing i i like elliot freeman a lot he's come a long way um and he's really really smart he's really really connected um i i just really, really connected. I like Elliot a lot. I think he does good work.

Really, really good work. So hopefully we can get him in here. Hey, what do you think of your mother-in-law? She's a nice lady. Is that true? Can you wink if that's just you have to say that? No, she's a nice lady. You know what?

It's funny. My mother-in-law and my mother have the same idiosyncrasies that at times drive me up the wall. Oh, my mom has those too. I love her, but she has these idiosyncrasies that at times drive me up the wall. Oh, my mom has those too. Like I love her, but she has these idiosyncrasies that drive me up the wall. Yeah. So my mother-in-law is no different,

but I do like, I like Pam. She's a nice lady. Pam, that's a good name. So real quick though. She's a great grandmother. On my mother. So my, just quick,

we had, there was a blackout recently. Surprise, surprise. So my, I never lose power in this house. I guess I'm in a lucky spot. Did she lose it last it last night no this wasn't last night actually although i heard south of tobiko was out last night i never lost power so i'm south of tobiko but okay uh my mom lost power she's like jayna dundas or whatever she lost power uh last week i think so at night i get a call by the way my kids are sick kids i got home got home at like 11 PM from sick kids hospital just to sleep. And I go on the computer to catch up on some shit because everything's piling up. And she phones me and is like, Mike, the power's out and there's something

beeping and I can't go to sleep with this beeping. And I'm like, okay, well, what happened is I said, something needs a battery changed. It's one of those beeps or whatever so she's i tell her i try to walk her through it on the phone she's i'm like it's 40 minute round trip i gotta go 20 minutes there 20 minutes back okay so she's now got on a chair first of all no flashlight in this house okay how many power outages have we had in toronto in the last 10 years you know you should have bought her one well she has flashlights the batteries are all dead okay so i'm like go find a candle so it takes a long time she gets a candle whatever she's on a chair because she's decided she's located the beep is coming from this uh smoke detector okay and i'm like we gotta change she has a battery to put in

there by the way which is amazing i'm like well just change the battery the beeping will stop she cannot find where the battery is it's connected electrically but there's always a backup battery there's a battery she can't find it. Bottom line is, I actually have to drive over. So I drive over because I cannot coach her through it on the phone and she cannot sleep

with the baby. And I said to her, you know what I said to her? Can you call Steve? I just asked nicely. Ryan isn't even an option. He's not an option. I said,

can you call Steve? It was 11 p.m. I just got back from Sick Kids Hospital. Is Steve closer to your mom? A little closer. He's not far. He's like 17 minutes.

He's like five minutes closer. Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. And I'm just like, can you call Steve on this one? Because someone's got to go over there and fix this. So I know it's, she says, I can't remember how she worded it. Cause Steve does listen.

So I gotta be a little careful here. So Steve's a good guy. But Steve didn't get the call. So it's not like Steve said, no, he didn't get the call. So it's not like Steve said no. He didn't get the call. Steve. So both of your brothers are good guys. I like, I like. They're good guys.

But so Steve, she won't call Steve. I am the oldest and I, this has been the way for 20 years. I always get the call. Always. Right. And I think in her head, Steve is still 12. And I'm like 16 or whatever. So I can be the man or whatever.

But Steve is now, he's about to turn. Steve can't drive yet. Right. Cause he's 12. Yeah. How is Steve going to get here? Steve's about to turn 36 years old.

Oh, he's an old guy. He's going to be 36 this summer. But in my mom's head, he's 12, 36 years old. So, uh,

I get, and at some point I'm like, fine. How about Ryan? Ryan is going to be 38 this year, so uh i get and at some point i'm like fine how about ryan is he ryan's guy he's ryan is gonna be 38 this year but ryan doesn't own an automobile okay so he never gets the call but and he doesn't have a driver's license by the way so he doesn't have a driver's license yeah no driver's license oh wow no automobile how did he get to the draft transit he uh got a lift he might have been a

transit he uh does do some transit stuff but he but i think i know he got a lift he might have been a transit he uh does do some transit stuff but he but i think i know he got a lift like he showed up i think steve drove him actually wow so where am i i have to make this trip to my mom's house because the beeping i get there i'm tired but whatever i get there i brought my flashlight at this point by the way the power is back on so during my drive the power comes back on but the beeping doesn't stop right so i still have to do the beeping i took me 10 seconds of being in that house to tell her that the device that's open that she's hammering away at with her i go that's not beeping so she's basically wrestling to find the battery for a smoke detector that is not beeping okay and i point to the side on the

same hallway and plugged into the side. I point to her carbon monoxide detector and I say, that's what's beeping. Like you can just hear it. She's not that old. Like her hearing's good. Honestly, it took me 10 seconds to realize that the beep is coming from there.

Not here. Fine. So two things. One is I got to put back the thing she took down and I showed her really, really instantly, by the way, the very obvious battery compartment. Oh, this is where it is. it is next time it there probably wasn't even a screw it was just like no it's just a slide right yeah okay and it's like really obvious to me i found it obvious to

find that that she could not find so i'm like it's not needing to be changed now but here's where it is for next time i turn it back in i go to the carbon monoxide very easy to find it there too pop in the new battery beeping stops she looks at me and says i can't sleep here tonight because there might be carbon monoxide in the house okay that should be dead already so i say i i'm trying to be nice to her but it's getting ridiculous now i said to her no i said the one beep every 30 seconds i said that's just battery out. When there is carbon monoxide, it's going to be four in a row or something. Like, beep, beep, beep, beep.

I can't remember. It's four in a row, I think. I've actually never experienced it, but it says it's going to be four in a row. So I'm like, there's no carbon monoxide in this house. It's just the battery needs to be changed. First of all, the fact that we changed the battery and the beeping went away tells you there's no carbon monoxide in here. So I'm letting her know, there's actually, you don't have to leave the house tonight. The beeping's gone now.

Thanks, Mike. I think I then I went home. And then I told the story to Monica and it was quite funny to tell it. After Steve listens to this, he's going to be like, thank God. I think he heard it because I saw Steve on Sunday. Thank God I never get a phone call. Yeah, he's very lucky. So I went back to that same scene of the crime

for some pasta thing on Sunday. We all got together. It was Easter. And we're all atheists. My mom's not an atheist, I guess, but everyone in this family is atheist. And Easter's just like, hey, let's get together and have pasta

or let's eat something together. So baby Jarvis made his first appearance and we were at this thing. And then I told that story. And then I said to my mom, I said, if there's a power outage tonight, do you have a flashlight that works? No, no batteries yet. So I don't know if she lost power last night because I know there was a big outage in Etobicoke. Although she's not Etobicoke.

She's York. She's not Etobicoke. She's on the other side of the Humber River. But I think that's the divider. But I have a feeling that we'll get a power outage again and she'll have no working flashlight. But that's my mom. But I was going to say if you have a good relationship with your mother-in-law because, yeah, I give up on my mother-in-law. I would be the closest.

Well, maybe her. She doesn't have any sons that are close. She has two son-in-laws that are close my mother-in-law so i'm not sure she lived close she does she does live close to to both uh our family and and her her other daughter and she's she's nice to you she is very nice yes that's you know i thought i've had another mother-in-law before it was always nice to me like this is not my first rodeo as they say like she's very nice she's very nice all right so there's an issue not an issue but because she lives in edmonton but she's here now but she's very nice she's very nice all right so there's an issue not an issue

but because she lives in edmonton but she's here now but she's like super manipulative and mean oh she's here right now she's in she's visiting she's at her yeah monica's sister's house right in liberty village but yeah super manipulative like like you wouldn't believe like maniacally manipulative and i have a feeling she's and talking to monica she's been that way her whole life but no one calls her out on it because i guess i don't know if it's a cultural thing but you accept from the elders their manipulation and their bullshit and you just don't call them out on it because it's like i gave some cultural rule or something and then i some guy came around who's like you can't just be so manipulative and lie bald-faced lie and say such trash to me all

the time and it's become this thing that i don't just take it so you're not but not with monica by the way monica doesn't think anyone should take it but with just it's the whole thing i just wondered like like does anyone else have mother-in-law problems people get some weird when they get old i think is what the but she's always it sounds like she's always been that way like i get stories like she's just this is her it Like, I get stories. Like, she's just, this is her. It's weird. She's just a mean, angry person. Weird.

I have no time for those people. I dream. Well, it sucks at this time because we have a newborn and in a normal world, I think there'd be like, this would be like, family's getting together, happy time.

But it's actually like, stinky, ugly times. That's not cool. So it's just like, whatever. She wants to play How much longer is she here for? I just asked that question last night.

Although I never got to see her because she doesn't want to see me. So it's like, not a big deal to me. But it's just inconvenient. Is this her first grandchild? Yep. It's her first. Yeah, she's got three kids.

And Monica's the first one to get married. And this is the first grandchild. Right, so this should be exciting for her. But she's not a happy person. Poopy.y all right so we just hit our deadline here so i didn't get to such awesome things i actually want to i'm going to tease this for next episode because we're going to talk about this we're going to talk about this next episode okay this will keep the people coming back because this is going to be an interesting discussion. We're not even going to tip people off as to where we're going with this,

but this will be discussed by Elvis and I. You're crazy. You can just say that. I'll let you say that. And it's not about the song, I should point out. It's actually going to be about the movie. So great. It's going to be a good discussion.

I'm moist. Moist is a good band. From Calgary, right? Calgary's own? I thought they were Toronto. I guess they're Alberta, but I actually didn't know that. I'm looking them up. I'm looking them up quick because then I'm diving into my new closing theme,

The Real Statics. Vancouver. Oh, I'm looking them up quick because then I'm diving into my new closing theme. The real statics Vancouver. Okay. So West. And that brings us to the end of our 50. No 75th show. I have dyslexia. That's our 75th show. You can follow me

on Twitter, at Toronto Mike, and Elvis, at Oshawa Elvis. See you all next week. Peace. Thank you.