Oh, we are late this week, Ian and I. Blame it on Rio! Or blame it on Seattle where we spent last weekend visiting the Emerald City Comicon. This is the first time a links post has been posted after the newest episode of Sneaky Dragon is up. But as Julius Caesar said after the betrayal of his closest friends, “Oh well”.
Our guest on this (last) week’s episode was Toby Berner. Besides his extensive work as an improvisor, Toby is a member of Titmouse with Ian. Here is one of their sketches called A Higher Power:
Nice one! Written by Ian, I bet.
Oh yes, we talked a little about skateboarding, which somehow became a conversation about The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I guess the old saying is true, “You can never have enough Mutant Ninja Turtles.”
Yikes! That looked terrible. Why did they feel the need to go with the old low-budget animation cheat of having a bunch of characters with no visible mouths? It’s a moving picture, fellas! Yeesh.
We talked a little bit about Kerrisdale, Toby’s old stomping grounds – also known as “The Ghetto of Vancouver”. I mentioned I’d seen a few bands at the old Kerrisdale Arena back in the day. Bands like:
That’s right. The Jam touring for their last LP, The Gift. And also:
The Clash in 1984 on the Combat Rock tour. Joe Strummer’s mic was dripping with saliva. (Gross!) I saw Joe Strummer about five or six years later with The Pogues. But the first concert I ever went to without parental supervision was Motorhead:
That’s the original classic line up, which unfortunately I didn’t see as Fast Eddie Clark had left the band amid some rancour shortly before the tour started. I saw Lemmy and Phil Taylor with fill-in guitarist Brian Robertson, who played in Thin Lizzy. It just wasn’t the same.
Our guest, Toby, is well-known for his portrayals of many different characters. One of his best-known is:
Agh! My eyes! I didn’t think it was possible that there could be worse animation than The Mighty Hercules, but that’s got it beat, I think. Pee-yew! Another Filmation “classic”.
Ian brought up this story originally written by Oscar Wilde. I saw this cartoon once as a very young child, but it made a deep impression on me. Thanks for digging it up, Ian!
Here`s Part 2:
Part 3:
What a wonderful story. I think the subtext was completely lost on me as a young boy, but some truths never perish.
We learned how important Chapstick is in the cold and dry city of Calgary. Remember to buy the extra large “leg-sized” container!
“Can we call you Catfish Chapstick!” They cut out the baseball hitting her in the face.
Here is Ian’s tribute to my first real job:
Selling encyclopaedias taught me to never take a job in the spirit of irony!
Toby talked about selling gadgets at fairs – completely useless gadgets like this:
Remember to call within twenty minutes to get the Graty! They know when all the commercials air, of course.
Here’s a useless gadget that every boy wanted to give to his father – whether he fished or not! (There’s a reason these ads ran during afternoon cartoons.)
Wait! Useless? These guys seemed to like it:
I wish we could have seen it being used to bring in a fish though. It seems kind of awkward not having the leverage of a real fishing pole, but what do I know? I don’t wear clothes with ornate decorations all over them!
Ian told us about his dismal experiences in door-to-door sales. The whole sorry tale ended with an unwelcome visit from Mac Tonight.
Who exactly were these commercials aimed at? Bobby Darin fans? Big Kurt Weil freaks? Moonies? Were there no demographics in the eighties?
While Ian was purging, he also told us about being dragged to a Forum meeting.
I went with Ian. It was painful, so painful. I’m not all that keen on sincerity. I like a patina of irony on my life, but insincere sincerity is THE WORST!
Okay, enough depressing stuff. Let’s explore 1960’s Canada with one of my favourite comedians, Buster Keaton.
A highlight of the film for me is when Buster finds his trademark flat pork pie hat in the utility box on the track speeder. Reminiscent of this scene from Our Hospitality:
He later got rid of the hat as he played roles in his feature films that wore hats that suited their characters, but the hat made a funny appearance in Steamboat Bill Jr.
“Enough Buster!” I can hear Ian saying, but he started it!
Ian once toured as the opening act for Farquhar and Felicity. Shawn Farquhar has gone on to a successful career as a magician. Ian does a podcast with me. Here’s Shawn Farquhar, fooling Penn and Teller (no slouches in the magician category):
Ian broke down on the side of the road with that guy!
I talked about doing the tricks that Penn and Teller would include on their great specials. Like this one:
I actually did that successfully a few times as an ambitious and annoying teenager.
Well, I tried to turn the usual nerdy tenor of our conversations to something a little more sporty, namely our local hockey team, the Vancouver Canucks. Instead we spent a lot of time rehashing the stupid Stanley Cup riots. Ian posted a different clip on our Sneaky Dragon Facebook page, but here’s the version I remember – from the late, lamented Sportspage in 1994:
Here’s how we riot now:
Losers! In both senses of the word. Still, I blame the Kaiser Chiefs – for their name and for this song:
Everybody knows that kaiser is the Germanization of caesar, right? Basically their name is the Chief Chiefs. No wonder they cause riots in Vancouver.
One more Clash song – White Riot:
That pretty much sums up a hockey riot in Vancouver!
Okay, that’s all for this week! I mean, that’s all for last week. We’ll see you soon with a new links post.