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Speaker 1: I am the host of seventeen different podcasts. Now, try

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to explain that to somebody who doesn't know where your

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podcasts are. Well, it's on iHeartRadio. Oh, it's on Apple,

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It's on It's on It's on I.

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Speaker 2: Can't find it.

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Speaker 1: Well, yeah you can. Everything is now on arrow dot

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net A R R O E dot net. Paul, what

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an amazing journey that you're presently on, because I'll tell

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you what right now, especially there's a lot of stuff

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on TV about John Candy. But the thing about it is, though,

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is that what your book has done for me is

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that it put me back onto that flat screen to

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find John Candy movies. And I've got a new deep

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respect for this man because of what you put in

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this book.

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Speaker 2: Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you saying so.

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And it's a pleasure to be here too.

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Speaker 1: Well, there's a side of John that I guess I

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didn't know until I found it within your paragraphs, and

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that you know as much as we say, Oh, he's

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one of the funniest men on the planet, he also

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did some serious roles. I mean, when you go back

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and watch him, even though it's a funny movie, those

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moments where he gets serious. To me, is what reattracts

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our attention as viewers.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, It's something I've been referring to as the three

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dimensionalness of his acting. He had an emotional intelligence, He

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had empathy for his characters. He didn't punch down, he

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didn't play a common man like. He didn't think of

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that as a bad term. He brought dignity to these characters,

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working people. And because he's a good actor, he could

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also be funny as well as make it feel real,

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so that he had that broad range of emotion. And

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I think that's why we still talk about these comedies,

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because they're not just comedies. They're kind of slice of

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life films, you know, and it's all to John.

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Speaker 1: I think, well, you put so much research in this.

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I mean, even talking with people who knew John or

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still continue to know him in this modern day universe

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where hey, they're just a conversation a way. You may

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not hear them, but you can talk to them.

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Speaker 3: That's a really that's a really insightful thing. Actually, tell

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me more about that. That's really interesting.

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Speaker 1: Well, I'm a firm believe. I'm sure that you watch

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Russell Crowe in Beautiful mind where he was walking with

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people beside him at all times. I believe we do

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the same thing. And so when we go to a

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John Candy movie and all of a sudden, you know,

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I feel like that he's walking with us. It maybe

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for an hour or two afterwards, it doesn't matter. He

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made an impact on my soul and my steps growing forward,

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So now it's like he's gonna walk with me for

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a little bit.

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Speaker 3: I think that's absolutely right. I think I think that

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I think we all have.

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Speaker 2: Some call them angels, some call them, you know, just

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guid guide, spiritual guides, and a lot of times, a

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lot of times if an actor or a musician, like

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I have this thing where sometimes Joni Mitchell or Neil Young,

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for me, they're singing something that I relate to so

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much that I feel like their song is with me. Yep.

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And that's why we have these bonds with the arts

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and the culture. And that's really what that's the social

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glue of culture. It's why it's so important. That's why

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the arts are important, even like the commercial arts are important,

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you know, because.

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Speaker 3: It kind of shows us ourselves.

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Speaker 2: It's you know, I could go serious time you here,

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but art is a mirror of us, and it's a

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mirror of us as as humans. And it's also the

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slice of life from these eighties films tells us who

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we were in the eighties and who we were in

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the nineties.

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Speaker 3: And a lot of times there's a universality.

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Speaker 2: University, universality, that's the word I'm trying to stumble through.

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There's a thing that is never changed. Probably cave people

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had the same emotions, you know. Maybe they had more

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concerns like running from a dinosaur and learning how to

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make fire, but the same fears, you know, place to sleep,

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place to eat, you know, like those things, and that's

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the primal thing that John Candy tapped into. So you're

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onto something big, and I swear I'm completely sober right now.

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Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Paul Myers coming

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up next, the name of his book, John Candy, A

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Life in Comedy. We're back with Paul Myers. The thing

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about John Candy, I would like to see him being

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chased by a dinosaur because I'll tell you what. He

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would find out a way to turn it into comedy.

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But at the same time he would say, can we

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just sit down and talk? And that would be part

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of the movie. We're just gonna talk. I just want

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to know where you're coming from and why you need

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to be chasing me so I can better understand my run.

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Speaker 3: Playing trains and brought to Sourts, that's for sure.

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Speaker 1: I had the opportunity to work with John at a

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much different level because he had just started a national countdown.

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And the way that we got to work with John

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was that in syndication, you gotta do what you got

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to do in order to survive, and that means personal

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hygiene commercials. Well, we had to call John up every

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week and say, please, please, don't do the personal hygiene commercials.

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We can't do that. And so we finally, after weeks

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and weeks, decided just splice him out, just to just

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splice him out. And we're not going to take him

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out because I need to make the money. But we're

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not We're not going to take them out.

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Speaker 2: Wow, that's those the challenges everyone has, right Well, I

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think that if anybody were to really dig and go

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in there and listen to what he puts into those countdowns,

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we're talking to a man that really brought a lot.

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Speaker 1: Of his passion for music. It opened up my eyes

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to see a different person behind that microphone on that countdown.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. He he loved radio.

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Speaker 2: By the way, John Kennedy had his own radio show

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for two different radio shows actually, and.

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Speaker 3: He would do his characters.

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Speaker 2: He actually liked doing characters on radio because you didn't

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have to be in the makeup chair so long. And

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I talked in the book to Doug Thompson, who produced

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his syndicated radio show Radio Candy, And he also brought

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musicians in like you would have Zevon Helm and Clarence Clemens,

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you know, and different people like I was really surprised

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to hear about it, and you know he was. He

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was did the Wilbury's video and you know he's like

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music was a big part of his life too, and

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that's something that SETV had too.

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Speaker 3: But he loved radio.

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Speaker 2: I think he started doing commercials in Toronto for you know,

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tire companies and stuff. So you know, an actor's life

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takes them through so many different jobs, right wow, So

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it's just always fun.

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Speaker 1: How did he break that Canadian mold? I mean, because

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you had the guests who had who had to send

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a forty five across the borderline and say, well, you

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guys guess who it is. But yeah, but yeah, when

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when it comes to John Candy, he was everybody's actor.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I would say that there's this whole Canadian invasion,

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if you will, where Lauren Michael's from Toronto creates Saturday

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Night Live and imports dan Ek right down there and

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kind of re imports Gilda who had come from Detroit

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via Toronto and uh and so there's this whole beginning

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of a beachhead there and then SETV gets on down there,

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and I think that by that time everyone starts to

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you know, everyone starts to know who these people are,

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just as you know North American stars and Canadians typically

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do that, especially in that day and age. As you

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recall with the guess who like the It's pretty common

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in our history to have people like Donald Sutherland have

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to go to the States to make it or go

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to England sometimes, you know. And it's interesting because what's

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been happening in Canada now is there's a lot of

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stuff that happens up here that is for Canadians only,

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and they don't seem to they don't seem to care

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of it goes anywhere else or but then it does,

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like letter Kenny. So it's hard to know. So we're

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constantly re exporting, a reimporting, and I don't know, it's

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a really interesting time for us.

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Speaker 1: Wow, where can people go to find out more about

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all of your writing, because I really love the idea

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that you're into sharing the past with the present so

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that we have something in the present to really hook into.

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, one of the fastest ways to find

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out about me is I guess you could follow me

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on Instagram.

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Speaker 3: It's like pull my ears with one L. But just

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google Paul Meyer's.

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Speaker 2: Author and there's a couple of all ours authors, but

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look for the one who wrote The Kids in the

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Hall and Todd Rungren and John John Candy. A Life

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in Comedy is the name of this one, and it's

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out now and we're already in the bestseller list.

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Speaker 3: So it's really cool.

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Speaker 2: And so I'm really excited about the attention the books

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getting and I really appreciate your time.

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Speaker 1: Well, you got to come back to this show anytime

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in the future. The door is always going to be

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open for you.

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Speaker 2: Paul.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, Eric Will, you'd be brilliant today.

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Speaker 3: Okay, thank you. You two have a great day.