#76 Ron James Is All Over The Map

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All right, Billy, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get the show going each and every week and this week was no exception. Welcome, everybody to Episode 76 of live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show. As always, I am your host, Jeff Dwoskin. Great to have you back for another amazing episode, Episode 76. This is our first episode on the climb to our next milestone of 100 episodes. We're gonna get there and we're gonna get there together. I'm excited to be on this journey with you. I'm also excited to reveal my guests for this week. Ron James. That's right. Canadian comedy legend Ron James. CCAs comedian of the year starve to have his very own TV shows blackfly and the Ron James show, Ron James is legendary for his record breaking New Year's Eve specials over a span of nine years. And Ron is here to share so many great stories but also exciting news just released his book all over the map, rambles and ruminations from the Canadian road. We talk all about his book, and afterwards you can walk named Ron to get your own copy my conversation with Ron James is coming up in just a few minutes.

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So hope that helps you is always that one person out there going oh, I needed autopart saw this was great to hear. Just tell him you heard about them from live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show. All right. Well, without further ado, I think it's time to share with you my amazing conversation that I had with Canadian legend and comedian author Ron James. You're gonna love it. Enjoy. Alright everyone, I'm excited to introduce you to my next guest, comedian, actor and now author, ladies and gentlemen, Canadian legend Ron James.

Ron, welcome to the show.

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Thank you very much. Nice to be border hopping.

6:50

Good to have you in the United States for just a few minutes even if just the audio.

6:55

I'm sure my IRS infraction from 1992 is going to show up so yeah, I read them. I

7:01

read about that in your book. What happened there?

7:04

Somebody could bust your door down at any minute.

7:06

Yeah, I hate that word. What happened? The time you were in LA just they there was a miss miscommunications.

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I had my income tax done at the mall by an h&r block accountant who may I say, also played an accountant on an episode of Mannix which is one of those intersections between reality and showbusiness, that always happened in Los Angeles, you'd be at the grocery store, and you'd be behind somebody who you remembered from an episode of Mary Tyler Moore,

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right? Everybody somebody

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anyway, so he put a decimal in the wrong place. And apparently I owed them $2,000 I thought I owed them 2000. I got back to Canada in 93. So it would have been two years so it would have been get 91. And it had doubled to 4000. Right. And I'd gone back and forth to America afterwards when I was still throwing my hat in the ring. And even though I'd negotiated with the IRS agent who every conversation, I could hear the ventricles in that bureaucrats heart freezing. like he'd been transforming into a white walker. I was always scared that I was going to be pistol whipped on the wrong side of Pearson International Airport in Toronto and dragged into the waiting room for a get mode jumpsuit fitting, but it was all right. I got through it. It was the crucible of La many, many years ago, was instrumental in siring my Canadian dream to make it work here. And several experiences came into play as a result of that. ie for instance, the show I went down to do my talk show solta Ron Howard's company way back in 90. And to make a long story short, there was an internal shake up at the company and out of an original cast of eight three of us were left with a show that was sold a syndication we shot six half hour shows a week improvise them. The infamous impresario of Second City came in to to Doris del close. Anyway, we were in Newsweek on Tuesday with the caption the cult show to watch this season like Mary Hartman Mary Hartman. We were canceled on Thursday and Monday I was chest deep in a hole on the front lawn of the actor Robert uruks stately mansion in Encino, pulling out a rotted bush and the man who just played Jake spoon on the riveting mini series Lonesome Dove walked out the front door dressed for the Polo fields in Santa Monica, and my buddy Jay, whose dad owned the landscaping company pointed at this mud Street, crawl in a hole and said, Hey, Bob, this is my buddy Ron. He's an actor too, though. I knew that it was going to be a long journey. Nice signed up for amateur night at bud Friedman's improv on Melrose in January of 1991. I got on stage in April 30 of 91 with 30 other people and I was given five minutes and I thought this is ludicrous. The attrition rate I'll never I had a wife and daughter to feed I thought this is not going to work, but I kept at it. You know, I'd sign up for amateur nights or I'd read my prose that I was writing a one man show at the time adventure a Boulevard amateur night coffee houses, where I shared the stage with what I'm sure were the illegitimate spawn of the Charles Manson clan, who wandered down from their Chatsworth Warrens looking for the love that Charlie never gave whatever chrysalids might have been sired at those, Charles Manson orchestrated orgies at spawn Ranch, I'll guarantee a brother, a couple of them were on stage at that amateur night looking for the love that Charlie never gave. So it was that it was the constant competition in Los Angeles. And I knew I learned a hard and fast lesson and pursue the American dream that the ultimately the individuals responsible for themselves after getting a lot of commercials, not a lot, but I did okay, I didn't go incredibly broke. But it was tough and lean, and guest starring spots here and there, but never enough to plan a future with a family. And I want it to feed my own, on my terms, not somebody else's. And the constant grind. Got exhausting. And so we hauled out up stakes and move back to Canada. And I wrote a one man show about my time in LA called up and down in shaky town, one man's journey through the California dream, which premiered on the comedy network with two of my now ex Pat Brothers in Arms, very talented and bulletproof act of Jeremy Hots, and Russell Peters, who moved to LA and grew a money tree. And now he takes an elevator to his bedroom. Yeah, so it was instrumental in making me take charge of my career. And that's the only reason I'm talking to you now is because a long time ago, I did not snatch the sitcom Grail, and I came home instead. But America and the myth of the American dream has always stayed furcal in my mind,

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from a Canadian point of view is when you decide you're going to go into acting or comedy or something like that is the mindset in Canada go to America. I mean, there's so many famous Canadian.

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Yeah, that's famous Canadians and Canadians love stroke and our own who've got famous elsewhere. It's like I say, I mean, you don't get a street named ftn. Scarborough because you've done five episodes of Murdoch Mysteries, you get a street named after in Scarborough, when you're Mike Myers, and he worked hard for that Mike and I run the company together in Second City, we still keep in touch, you work tired, it was very competitive than fiercely. So on Saturday Night Live, we started in Second City together, I started with a lot of people who some, you know, not everybody who's in Second City gets to become Mike Meyers, Tina Fey, Bill Murray, or john candy. And I think that ambition is built into the institution of the place, when in effect, you know, it should be about the work. But when you're making 350 bucks a week, doing eight shows a week, it stands to reason that you might want to make more, and some have real big boons in the land of opportunity, while others travel the roads of Second City purgatory. I wasn't ready for that though. I wanted to write my own ticket. And I eventually did. And I had to make it work in Canada because my wife at the time, wanted to raise our children here. And we had a second daughter, which then separated a dozen years or so I think, but my daughter's I'm glad you know, my daughters were raised here and but I've been back, and it's nice going back to Los Angeles with a little bit more in your pockets than you did when you were struggling. Like any big urban city, it's a tough place to raise a family when you're eking out an existence. It's been a good run, however, look, the wide world over, we're all on the same page. Now, brother. That's right, the great equalizer, the flag came calling, and it's the same in every country. The same adage from the 14th century holds true when a plague passes through an unknown person, but I read it at the beginning of COVID. It said, What's weak breaks, what strong holes and what's hidden is revealed. And I think that can be seen on a personal level, as well as a professional level and a political level. Like we were talking before you turned on the machine, you would die.

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The whole pandemic definitely changed everything and kind of opened the doors and tons of creative things came out and

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tectonic shifts of the psychic paradigm. You either survive or you don't die I ended up streaming New Year specials from my living room. I'd already done nine one hour specials at the CBC there were a record breaking number and I had two television series that I created and starred in but the specials were always my pride and joy because I could hone sometimes half the material of the hour on the road and then I come back to my writing crib and bang it out in the summertime and then film it in the fall and edit it and then it'd be ready for delivery New Year's Eve and it became a viewing tradition in Canada but I made the mistake of letting my hair go white. ageism is alive and well. You know, I opened for sctv did audience warm up? Martin Scorsese directed the special for Netflix, it's not on yet, and I shot at the 2500 seats, elegant theater than downtown Toronto and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. I decided my life standing in the wings watching the show and this tall gentleman with a multimillionaires haircut looked down at me and said that's a very good set said thank you very much was Ted seren dose they had a Netflix I said thank you very much I said you've seen a lot of great comedy said yes I have and that was a great set while I traced the head of Netflix down for weeks on end and never heard back and I came to the conclusion that yes, age is only a number but in television that number has COVID so I just keep going forward I just keep writing I've got my book coming out and I'm looking forward to the day when I can get back on stage again and I mean I played the border cities I played Windsor casino 5000 people and Rama here with 5000 where all your great acts perform it was a nice feeling that all those people from your state who gamble at Caesars and Windsor came to the show when never left which is the highest compliments apparently at casinos right because they're strapped into a depends blowing their children's University money hoping three lemons a lineup and change their life and the last thing they have on their mind is how funny the comedian is but Jesus they stayed so god bless them that's a good thing.

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Hey, well don't get Don't let this ageism thing I mean, I feel like Steve Martin and Martin Short are just hitting a new stride right now

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they are hitting a new stride and it's not it's not getting to me but you have to keep in mind that they've reinvented themselves from a level of fame they already had. And I'm not trying to negate I mean I'm feel healthy exercise all the time. And but when you're recreating yourself, Steve Martin was a galvanizing influence as a stand up of his generation. His films were wonderful. His stand up was wonderful. I remember when he and Robin Williams had been what a great time it was in the late 70s. To be a kid I mean to be coming into an interest in comedy you had Saturday Night Live with blue ocean, Ackroyd just killing it right and Gilda was on then and then Robin Williams appeared in 78, I think and that's what where's this cat coming from? And Steve Martin was there pushing the parameters of what had been traditional comedic structure. George Carlin was still there years later, I even discovered, you know, I discovered Billy Conley and so there were a lot of people and of course, when I was 15, or 16, I had the Richard Pryor replacement show in the summertime and Jonathan Winters in a room with boxes of hats and a rocking chair in front of a locked off camera. It was remarkable television. And Marty Of course, with sctv it's incredible that man's fortitude, resilience and longevity, that hugely talented, so for them to recreate themselves and their elder years I think Marty 72 and Steve Martin is 74, isn't he?

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It's hard to know because Steve Martin's always look this age.

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He has he has but there Tony Award winning totemic individuals in the comedic Pantheon. The correct thing to is they were famous in America, celebrity is an oxymoron in Canada. It's why Scientology never really caught on here, right? Because you don't have gone clear deity like Tom Cruise espousing the virtues of xenu, who dropped his people into an active volcano 10 million years ago from DC nines. Just not gonna know Canadian is gonna join a cult because somebody from CBC Television told them to, but when you've got that level of status, I'm sorry, you're not a Scientologist, right?

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No. Anyway,

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it's just one of those things. It's hard to explain. And it sounds when you explain it that you're just better. not better than happy. I'm just a realist. But the years in the industry have made me

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so when you say fame in Canada as an oxymoron, you're considered huge in Canada though, right? I mean, you had multiple television shows your New Year's Eve specials that you mentioned are record breaking millions of people tune in every New Year's Eve to watch you is it that they just think more people that were also famous in the United States like Ryan Reynolds, or you mentioned Mike Myers, or Michael J. Fox or Jim Carrey or something like that, is it just there's a more of an allure to that? Well, there's

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always been an allure to it. I don't know if it's a precedent setting mandate in the industry, and to try to figure out the industry and what executives are thinking in Canada, you, you got better chances of deducing the riddle of the Sphinx staring across the empty sands of Egypt? I mean, what are they thinking? You know, you hear different things. Nobody wants to see anything in a script that's got somebody over 50 in it. CBC is notorious for nepotism. Oh, you've got a show on the CBC. Oh, well, we know who you are. We'll give you another one. where other people who make those pitches don't get that opportunity. You know, it's like Dell close used to say all the time, if you're in show business, don't expect justice. There's always these complexities and Machiavellian minefields, you have to negotiate. And whatever gatekeeper is minding the door, who likes you who doesn't these myriad numbers of opinions, which was, truth be told, it was my motivation to blaze my trail across the big wide open, and start playing theaters by myself. You know, I booked my first tours around the frozen lip of Lake Superior in the dead of February, I was dodging logging trucks who was asked and swayed into the side of my road on two lane roads way up, smack dab in the heart of the Canadian shield scoured granite hard by retreating glaciers, you'd swear they just left yesterday. And it was an epiphany. And that's what really gave me such joy. And really poured the foundation for the specials to come was stepping beyond the myopic perimeter of the Big Smoke, which is the vernacular for Toronto, and booking myself everywhere in anywhere but a club circuit because it was very lean in Canada. You know, it's one of the things about New York, for instance, you can throw a stick and hit half a dozen clubs in a mile radius, can't you? Yes, I don't know what, like in Detroit. But anyway, and I had to start making a little bit more money than the clubs would pay because I had two kids now and a mortgage now. And I did and it made all the difference in the world. I took the road less traveled to quote, Robert Frost, that's what's been so bittersweet about the pandemic is, we haven't been able to I stepped off stage and Hamilton, the sister city to Toronto around the corner of Lake Ontario on what we call the Golden Horseshoe. We had 2000 people in the theater that night, March 7 2020, I stepped off stage and other than a gig in new Finland and the most magical place in the world. By the way, if you ever get a chance, if you don't leave that rock in the middle of the North Atlantic with a smile on your face and a spring in your step, there's not a medication in the world, we'll put one there. So it was nice to be onstage in front of the smaller audience and stuff for a Writers Festival. But for the most part, like you like every one in my tribe of solax, our tribe of solo acts, we've tried to survive by Booker crook, you know, make the most of it.

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No, I hear you at the it's interesting because they got recent shits Creek also with a second city alarms Eugene Levy, and Kevin O'Hara really got

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Eugene Levy, you know, I used to do. When I was onstage, I wanted Lombard Street, they would invite me to do some roles on on the series, I show up from time to time. I remember one particular day, it was a modeling of the night that we were doing. And Eugene Levy was in the chair and seven in the morning, getting Henry Kissinger makeup put on him. I watched him he came in talking like himself, man a few words and began working on the accent. And then later in the afternoon, he began working on the slur because he had to play Henry Kissinger as drunk and then Kissinger gets angry, but he's angry, laughing drunk, and Marty short was working on a scathing imitation of how we Mendell and I remember watching them as a kid and I had to play some kind of character over and talk like this, something like that. We're just guests on the panel. And I remember thinking these people are consummate professionals portal settle for nothing less than perfection. There wasn't a moment that wasn't delivered with absolute conviction to the craft,

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that they're incredible. The sctv I remember watching growing up and using it all of them john candy Martin Short,

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and Kimmel was very deferential when he hosted the night at the Elgon. I hope it comes on pretty soon, you know, on Netflix, I don't know why it hasn't. But anyway, he was very deferential and You don't you don't think I mean, going up the magnar Studios. I mean, when I was being asked to be on the show, it's like, oh, wow, I got rent covered bonus, I gotta pay in game nice something to supplement the 350 bucks a week I'm getting paid for being on stage at the fire hall so many years ago, of course. But what's great about those early days, when you were in the company of those people, you knew that there was a higher standard than just the cheap joke. You knew that there was a standard to the art form that one could aspire to be not all of us are going to thread that needle, but at least you know, there's something to aim for when I began to find my voice, which took a long time. Once I did get comfortable in my own skin in front of that solo spot. I had the time to reflect back on those early days and go oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, this was something I assimilated. This was a standardized simulate. I was so honored to be asked to warm up that room with 2500 torontonians come to LOD, their hometown heroes.

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That is really cool. One of the reasons I brought up besides the SCT v connection was it was interesting because shits Creek was Canadian born and then blew up in the United States but you don't be sure to point of view you don't you don't see that that often. You see the occasional thing like on Netflix like Lupin or something like that from another country.

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Not too often. You can count on one hand, right? I mean, people in the states I mean, Wayne's World was basically based on Mike's teenage years in Scarborough. He just changed the name to Aurora Illinois, right all right. But you know the sentiments the soul the stories, they were all derivative of that experience.

26:38

Having watched your stand up and this catches from the special, you're amazing. And like here's the thing that's incredible to me, Tommy Boy, you're rolling Tommy Boy, right? So the car that you know we're in the bank, right? And I got

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everybody brings up Tommy, boy, man, it's amazing. It's been 20 years.

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Here's what's amazing about it, if I may just compliment you for a second is a lot of times when you watch something and it's funny, and you go back and then years later, you go Oh, that was that person. And you're like, Oh, yeah, and you go back maybe you look and you're like I'll be doing interview I'll do being prepped for this podcast, and I'll see Oh, they were in this thing. I go. Oh, yeah, I saw that episode. Oh, yeah. That was That wasn't it? I didn't have to go back. I mean, I literally remembered that entire scene, and then the cutback scene where you're explaining.

27:25

Oh, man, thank you. That makes me feel good. That's that's very heartfelt. Thank you so much. And I'm not just like that showbiz stroke. Oh, thank you very much. I'm glad you're proud of my work. I mean, I'm serious. I can't get a fucking agent, buddy.

27:39

I can't get an agent. Well, that's that's someone's big mess.

27:44

You know, I've done very well without one. But it's, it's just so bizarre, like, What? What do you want? And so you talk to some I just stopped reaching up. And I said, No, no, no, I'll create another television show. Maybe I'll do something. I mean, I was supposed to shoot a film with john Cleese in Northern Ontario here in August, then there was a COVID outbreak and on the onset, and the weather was really bad. It was a week of biblical downpours. And john sports had been infected and giving them trouble. But I had a real nice role in that that my friend the director had written me in and over the years, you'll learn to take disappointment in stride, because it's so many planets up the lineup, right? But when you give me a compliment, and I think well, Wow, man, that's so nice. What? What is being lost in translation between me and agents then, and then I go, okay, to hell with it, it's going to turn around, I'm going to step on stage, not this fall, then January, and I'm going to fill these theatres again, at Channel the life force and make my living and maybe someday be able to help my kids get a down payment for their houses in a city where they can't afford it. And just follow my bliss, right? Follow my bliss. And that's all I've done. And it used to depress me that people wouldn't see my potential. And now when they wouldn't take a call. I laugh at the so it's edit really proud of my book. It is you know, sometimes I

29:26

think we'll get back to your book in a second, but I like it because you definitely should be proud of it. And it's great it is. I think you should just keep calling that Netflix guy every day because everyone's calling him right. I mean, you gotta break through. I mean, you got the talent. I mean, it's like you're like this triple threat, or whatever number threat. Thank you. So yeah, I would just kind of keep going there. You know what, you

29:47

have to have somebody who has influence making the phone call on your behalf. That's, that's it. You know, it's like when you were a kid trying to get a summer job. Hey, this guy works for the highways. He'll get you On your next door neighbor, what for the highways, right? My dad was a phone company guy. The phone company had a policy where they hired the sons and daughters of employees for summer jobs. It's the only time I had ever had any drag and influence in my life of that nature. Right? So that kind of helps. But I'm coming out with a brand new show fresh out of the wrapping. I wrote two brand new shows last year going COVID in a book. So I've stayed productive. I've stayed creative. And when I can hit the ground running again, I'm going to be ready.

30:30

Awesome. The book so everyone can look it up is all over the map, Rambo's and ruminations from the Canadian road. Who Was this something you had started prior to COVID? And then just Well, hey, this is great. Now I can finish this.

30:44

Yeah, yeah, it was for your listeners. There's an awful lot about America in it as well. You know, there's a great deal about the business, my experiences in Los Angeles, the influence of the American dream. When I met Americans for the first time as a kid in Nova Scotia growing up, it's about family, I think there's stories that have a universal ring to them as well. But I was really diligent in the days before social media of keeping journals. So if I was in a coffee shop in the morning, after my run, I just cracked my moleskin and right and I had the good fortune that fellow travelers just seem to want to unload their stories. And that was in the days long before I had any notoriety on television. So there was a spirit of community that prevailed in the big wide open, where people approached me with the knowledge that maybe I could in the sharing, they wanted to make their lives matter, that they just weren't insignificant. And when I started out years ago, there was a great guy on NPR and in the States, I think he lived to be about 100. His name was Studs Terkel, remember him, No, he wrote the book, American Dreams Lost and Found. And the second book he wrote was the last good war. And he went around to people and just interviewed them about their life experiences. And I was really taken with those books. I mean, I used to use them for monologues and things when you start dishing as an actor. But I was really taken by the soul note that those folks shared and I grew up in a very oral culture. People told stories, dad had a trapdoor memory for jokes, he could work a room like a seasoned comedian, it was remarkable. My house was always dogs raised and was always bursting at the seams with, as I say, in my book, faces flush with pints of plenty, you know, these Celtic, these natural Celtic storytellers who love the good laugh arrival joke. So I was raised around that, anyway. Yeah, so that's, so I guess I, I had the, when the opportunity came to hear their stories, and they would just start talking to me, I knew that there was something special about it. So I thought, there's something going on here, with my travels across the country that's greater than the gig that brought me there. This was the hidden boon. This was what Joseph Campbell talks about in hero of 1000 faces. When you cross the threshold to a wider world of wonders, and finally decide to follow your bliss. These magical kingdoms open up for you challenges as well. And you have your mentors you have your talismans, you have your guide to have people who impede you and those who progress your journey. And these people who I met in my travels, or merely manifestations of these archetypes that Campbell talks about in that seminal book of his, which I read twice. First time, I wasn't ready for it, but later on. Now, it's been borrowed from so many different aspects in screenwriting and storytelling, catchphrases and such. But another thing that stayed with me was from that book is a recognition that death is a celebration of life. And I knew that I only had one run here, and I'm going to make it matter and the inertia of Los Angeles, the constantly waiting for the agent to phone the constant audition don't get stuck at seven before I got one, the constant hoping, hoping, hoping, trying, trying trying. I wanted something far more tactile. And I didn't want to be broke anymore. I stayed broke for a long time, though. And I'm not rich man, but I'm comfortable. And I like that and all I liked it until I had to dip into my credit line to

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go, which I think a lot of people do.

34:37

Yeah, I think so too.

34:39

So that's great. So it's interesting when you say death is a celebration of life, because I think a lot of times people hear that and they think about as someone who's already died, they don't think of it which is how I think you just meant it, which is I'm going to live so that when I do doubt Yes, they'll celebrate this by now.

34:56

Yeah, I mean initially when you say the phrase it can sound morbid But it just means that it's time to make it matter. The older you get, the more you have to motivate for that because absolutely, you know, you want to sit down and watch the river run, right? You want to put the fishing line in there and maybe not off by the tree to borrow from the rock well in tableau, but I think that it's, I think it's crucial to stay engaged and to get back to Marty and Steve, look at them. They're doing it there. They know that they know that working is what makes them happy. Carl Reiner, busy till he was 90. All right, yep. It's in our blood. Mike used to tell the story about being at the friars rose down in LA. I forget who they were roasting. Wasn't Sinatra, somebody like that. But Sid, Caesar was sitting in a chair and he's in his handler was beside him or his nurse, practically drooling on the table. really old few wheels up to the stage. He can barely make his way up the steps as soon as he steps in front of that spotlight. Hate kills. He kills and Rob Reiner. I still remember Rob Reiner that night just lauding him. Look it up. Look at that fire in the old dude's belly is incredible. That's right. It's like seeing ripples that just relax. He hosted my gala set years ago, and he was 70 at the time and he walked through the through the theater with these with this theme music and it was like a Matador entering the ring. That is just magnificent. I was doing a bit in those days about does it go camping spun in the daytime. Soon as the sun goes down, though everything that eats meat wakes up. I was pretty safe. I can't besides some Germans god bless him with their accent will scare anything he put live in a house that owns it but live in the shell upon the house on the house, the stream and they eat but luminate Eastern stuff. rickles is backstage dying. I come backstage and an agent dragos rickles was laughing at your set. I went What? Anyway, I see him he's coming toward me. Whereas for the cheeks, he goes as a great sec. Puck and believe it right? It's a great set this cherubic little face. And he goes, how old are you? No, no, he says, I got my I didn't get my first break and show business until he was 40 years old Kelly's Heroes. How old are you? I said 42, sir. And his look changed from happy to the kind of face you'd give a widow standing in front of her husband's closed casket. And he slaps me on the face and says you're finished.

Anyway, so I go, I knew he was kidding me. But anyway, he's in his room afterwards. And I say to them, I said, Look, I want to get records to autograph by poster. Anyway, there's a guy shorter than me, which I always find incredible. He was a guy shorter than me goes, how you doing? You should be Frank Sinatra, stage manager. Come on. I take it back to CEO Don. Kevin, follow me. So if he's got the walk of someone who used to, you know who knows how to walk through a casino? Well, I love that. I love that shot with the narrow and rickles and casino. When they're just walking through. I read a biography on Richard Pryor and this comedian said he knew how to walk into a club, conviction, messianic mission. This is where I belong. Boom right here. Anyway, so I go into the dressing room. And rekkles writes on my poster funny is as funny does and you are, that's amazing. Six months later, I'm stuck in a blizzard on my way to Prince Georgia northern point in British Columbia stuck in the kind of Blizzard a yet he wouldn't wander. My wiper fluid is frozen solid as Frankenstein's temporal lobes, my wipers won't work. And there's a gigantic Leviathan, of a logging truck, barreling out of the snow on my side of the road. And that's the phrase that I use to keep me going. I turned off felt the sinking the sickening give of the wheels on the soft shoulder, and I made my gig but that's that's what you have to believe funny is is funny does as you and you are there. And there's a lot of people who tell you you're not like agents not returning my phone calls, you can deduce that as you don't matter. Sorry, I beg to differ. I do. And apathy. That's one of the things about America I admire is your lack of apathy. It's one of the lead motifs of the Canadian character is this apathy. And past political parties have capitalized on it. And I think it's changing though, of course, a little more trumpism that diseases kind of spread North somewhat, we'll see if it has any legs. You know, there used to be a saying that there's no such thing as a bad meeting in Los Angeles. It's like when I talked to Jeff who who set up this interview, I went, oh, wow, man, it's great talking to Americans. You guys make me feel bulletproof. And they understand that they understand talent. And here's the other thing too, and I may be incurring the wrath of whatever whatever people are listening from Canada, but I think a lot of Canadian comedians would agree with me is our art form is paid lip service in this country. It's not respected. And even Groucho Marx said comedians are always going to be eaten at the little table. Even when Bill Murray won his Academy Award for lost in translation. He said, You drama guys live in on your island, which broke pitino up, but it's true. I mean, drama. What was it? What's that great saying of that vaudevillian comedian, as a British vaudevillian, who said comedy is the longest apprenticeship in the world. Nobody understands the great set of steel Kahunas, you need to step in front of that mic on your first amateur night with the audacity to believe that you're a comedian and deal with coiled contempt of quiet that's coming up from the audience who silence is screaming Get the fuck off. And so you you persevere and the longer you stay in the profession the more comfortable you become in your own skin to you know it's why you're saying fuck I'm so what they don't get me So what? I'm going to work so again, I'm going to be in front of an audience in here in laughs again,

41:11

Don Rickles writing that he didn't have to write it and he could have written anything

41:16

give up. I thought I told you you're 40 I thought I said you're finished that's what he could have written.

41:23

Right right. But I think in his way that was he went the other direction and you know, it's it's a theme that I hear alive when I talk to people it's there's like one thing that people say that just helps keep them moving forward and people don't realize like how powerful were negative words can be and like the right words at the right time, can just keep you going. Well, I've

41:45

always I've always encouraged you know, my father had a way of encouraging me to you know, as well as he could say, Jesus, Ronnie, stop whistling you can't whistle. You can do other things. But Westland Jesus, you can't whistle and they're feisty little newfoundlander. But you know, I'd be playing hockey and I and I'd get off the ice and they go they got the winning assist. You made the winning play. I didn't get the goal, but I got the winning assist. I got the winning play. Yeah,

42:09

he said the assist is where it's at. Sometimes it's you and sometimes it's okay to make someone else so good. But it's still you is long as you're part of the team.

42:18

Yeah, really. Conley also influenced me, or, or confirmed what I'd already known. And I put this in the book and it was one of the great things about performing just for laughs was you got to be around your heroes. I saw Billy Connolly and I went up to him and I said, How did I it was a post show party, and he was standing there, like the like the sage wandering pilgrims seek for words of wisdom, standing tall above the crown, chewing on a cigar look like he'd rather be anywhere. But so I told him, I said, Look, the only reason I'm here is because I I saw your one man show on HBO during some pretty lean years in Los Angeles, the beginning of a long, lean struggle in Los Angeles. And it was my St. Paul epiphany on the road to Damascus. And he took the cigar out he goes, I hope you don't open with that they? And I said no, no. And I said look at it, a Glaswegian welder become an international sensation and comedy. And he looked at me He goes, that's a question about fame. To hell with fame. Just sing your song, sing your song. I guess that singing my song is what I've been doing all these years, singing a song that was in 2007. I'm still doing it. Once this COVID is over. I think it's time to time to break away into a bigger pond. I don't know whether or not America is going to be interested in seeing a 64 year old guy talk about dating and midlife but I'll give it a whirl.

43:33

But speaking for all of America, we're interested in being entertained. And so I think there's this weird moment where Yes, ageism used to be a thing. And like once you reach a certain age, but but I for some reason, it feels like that's not the case now. So you come out swinging and sing that song. We're gonna all be ready to hear it. I'm looking forward to it. Thank you, brother. I pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for hanging out with me. This was great. I had a great time.

44:00

Well, let's plug that book before I go. I'm shameless in that regard. Do you want to do you want to take the honors? Yeah, my book is called all over the map brambles and ruminations from the Canadian road. And it starts selling September the 28th. It's available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble on the shelves in America, as well as the Penguin Random House website. And it's also available in audio book form and ebook, but if you get the audio you get to get the Canadian vernacular that's influenced by mine maritime upbringing. So there you go. It's the kind of thing if you listen to you'd want to have a drink of scotch while you did.

44:36

I think the audio version sounds amazing. And it's funny when you say Barnes and Noble, it's gonna be at Barnes and Noble. I miss going to bookstores and like feeling books like Amazon's great we have deliveries every day, whatever. But man being able to walk into

44:50

a rainy Sunday in November, a good bookstore that reeks of history. Come on, and you'll walk out with seven of them and you might read two

45:00

Exactly Yeah, it's just there's nothing better just being around books. So Alright everyone get the books. I'm gonna put Ron I'm gonna put your website and all the links in the show notes everyone talking. It's Ron james.ca my first ca not calm everyone, right?

45:18

I almost got calm, but I was a little late. The other Ron James is runs a long island orchestra and he does weddings,

45:26

the real Ron james.ca Let's do it.

45:30

Not playing a clarinet in a wedding band.

45:33

Here's an honor. Thank you so much.

45:34

Thank you so much. Thanks. Stay well stay well, brother

45:38

How amazing was Ron James? So many great stories. It's always great to talk to a legend. definitely get a copy of his book. It's great. all over the map, rambles and ruminations from the Canadian road all the ways we mentioned in the interview I'll put links in the show notes you know where the show notes are just go to Jeffisfunny.com or any of the platforms in the show notes are all there with links so you can get to it really quickly.

Well, with the interview complete I mean, one thing we're nearing the end of the show we're almost at the end of Episode 76. Can you believe it? I can't believe it. Time just flies when I'm having fun with all of you guys. I know. Right? But it's not over yet. Right? I mean, because we still got one more thing to do. We still have a trending hashtag from the family of hashtag games that hashtag around up to go over. That's right hashtag Roundup, follow hashtag roundup on twitter at hashtag Roundup, download the free hashtag roundup app on the Apple or Google Play Store. App Stores play along with us and one day one of your tweets may show up on a future episode of live from Detroit the Jeff Dwoskin show fame and fortune awaits you to celebrate having a Canadian legend on my show. I went to one of our weekly games that's a Canadian based game, moose chuckled tags and their Canadian hashtag #CanadasGuiltyBrowserHistory had to theme the hashtag with Canada sorry, not sorry. So I'm gonna read off some #CanadasGuiltyBrowserHistory tweets, they inspire you go to Twitter, tweet your own, I'll look for it. As always, all these tweeters will be retweeted at Jeff Dwoskin show on Twitter. They'll be listed in the show notes, retweet them, show him some love and one day you'll be on the show and they'll show you some love. That's how the world works ladies gentlemen All right, so here is some amazing hashtag Canada's guilty browser history tweets. What happens if I stop apologizing? I don't even think Google would have a response to that in Canada. Here's another one is there a tunnel under Lake Michigan so I can smuggle maple syrup for a profit? Oh illegal Canada doings didn't think it even existed. Here's another hashtag Canada guilty browser history tweets what's the location of shits Creek? Ooh, that's a good one if you find out what out let me know also, here's another guilty browser history Joe not porn. Whoo. How many R's and sorry, what if I don't like apologizing? Whoo, my comeback. I you share your Canadian Oh, great hashtag Canada's guilty browser history tweets, examples of things that Canadians would find in their browser history that they would feel super guilty about how to explain the metric system to Americans. Oh, you're so kind to even want to explain it to us. Is it weird that I don't like strange brew that might actually get your Canadian citizenship revoked. And finally, the most guilt written Canadians browser history will have this how to call the Mounties and your downstairs neighbors. Oh, Canadian. Karen's they don't really exist, do they? Oh, man. All right. Well, those are some #CanadasGuiltyBrowserHistory tweets. Definitely. If you see some Canadians looking guilty, they may have those in their browser history. So definitely check for us report back and we'll be waiting to hear from you.

Well, that's it. That's the end of the hashtag. So that means it's the end of the show. How did Episode 76 and so quickly, I don't know. It was so exciting. And now it's over. I guess we'll just have to look forward to Episode 77. I guess if you haven't listened to all 76 episodes of the podcast, you can catch up so much to do. Thanks again to my guest, Ron James. It was so great talking to Ron definitely check out Ron's book. And thank you to all of you listening are coming back week after week. I can't thank you enough means the world to me, and I'll see you next time.

49:38

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Jeff Dwoskin show with your host Jeff Dwoskin. Now go repeat everything you've heard and sound like a genius. catch us online at the Jeff Dwoskin show.com or follow us on Twitter at Jeff Dwoskin show and we'll see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai