Paul, really appreciate you joining us here at Second City Toronto. Uh, as you can see, we're sitting in the John Candy Box Theater. He had a very special relationship with the institution. Tell me about it. Well, this stage underneath me is part of the building where John Candy started at Second City and it started his career and he almost didn't do it because he wasn't really going to audition for Second City, but uh Dan Akroyd and Valerie Bramfield were auditioning and they were friends of his and they said, "Come with us to the auditions. You can just sit in the back and we'll have lunch afterwards." And and then they called his name and he's like, "You guys."

and so that's what started he got in because he just did an improv. never tried it before and turns out he was a natural. Uh you mentioned the floors. These are the floors that he has performed on. When you first came in here, first thing that you did was you knocked on the floor.

Yeah, I knocked on the floor. It's like this this little part of the stage underneath us is uh where so many of the greats of comedy frankly, not just Canadian comedy. We've exported these people like Dan Akroyd, like Gilder Rner, like my own brother Mike, you know, elephant in the room, uh, John Candy, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, and they all got their start here, you know, on this piece of stage.

Johnny Toronto, that is the nickname that many know John Candy as. How did that start come about? So when Candy first starts dominating the Toronto Second City, you know, he was one of many, but he was definitely a big he was a big personality. Uh he lived large like he would uh he would outspend his own bank account, you know, but he wanted to have the right thing. So if they needed a limo for something, he would just rent a limo and they'd say, "Johnny, where are you going to get the money?" And you know, he was like, "Ah, don't worry about it." And they they started nicknaming it might have been Joe Flareity. They started calling him Johnny Toronto, like he owns the town,

right? And uh I it's a much longer story and it's in the book so I don't want to but in some ways he did he own Toronto?

Well by by the time he owned the Toronto Argonauts um I think it was Dan Akroyd turned to somebody in the crowd and said look at him the crowd loves him and this he brought the gay cup to his hometown and said he is they said he is Johnny Toronto. He he made it he became Johnny Toronto.

So John Candy achieved global stardom. Uh we can name a bunch SCV, Uncle Buck, Lan, Trains, and Automobiles for a younger generation would be Home Alone, but he still remained deeply rooted to Canada. Uh he was part owner of the Toronto Argonauts alongside Wayne Gretzky when they won the Great Cup in 1991. Can you talk to us about the pride he had for Canada?

You know, he like so many of the people we export, he bought a house in Mandville Canyon in Los Angeles, but also a farm in Queensville. And so he had this ranch and he wanted to make sure that his family knew the Canadian life and and he spent a lot of time coming back and working with Canadian actors. Only film he directed was a film called Hostage for a Day. And he populated the cast with people like Robin Duke from Second City and some of the people who were in the the mainstage cast at the time like John Hemple, uh Don Lake, Katherine Greenwood, and he really wanted to bring people with him.

Therapist said we should be a little less mocking in our relationship. Well, is that what the therapist said? Well, I'm trying. It's just that there's so much in our marriage that calls for it.

He worked really hard in Canada. The last film that got released after his death was Canadian Bacon, right?

Which is like about our complex relationship that that seemed to have cleared up. We don't have that complex relationship anymore uh with the United States. But, you know, I think he really felt the two allegiances in a sense cuz California had been good to him and America had been good to him. But you don't I'm I live in California. I can tell you you are Canadian the whole time,

you know, and no matter where you are, you're Canadian first and and I feel like I identified with that when I was reading about him.

You write in the book, he lived large, he loved larger, and the world loved him back in return. It's beautiful. Can you elaborate on that?

Well, you know, it's elaborating on something Andrea Martin said in in her own memoir. She talked about how he was a volcano of joy. He wanted to make happiness for everywhere he went. So, he also wanted to be happy. So, part of his happiness came from connecting with people. He was on the phone for hours every night. He wanted to have after parties. Now, a lot of that meant that he was eating and drinking late at night, which didn't help his health condition, but it was all based on that wanting to be connected with people all the time. And I think he got into comedy uh because it was a way of it's it's weird because you I say control, it's not a bad kind of control, but you want to do something to uh affect the room, to affect the room or the person in that room. And comedy on a grand scale affects many people, but it also is a one-on-one thing. It's just a a way of finding joy. And joy is one of those things that it's contagious. Once you give joy, other people are joyful. They spend, you know, and you don't have to think that, by the way. That's an intellectualized version of it.

It's an I think with an animal like John Candy was instinctive.

You share uh a lovely anecdote in the book where your brother, actor, comedian Mike Myers uh met John Candy at the University of Toronto on campus. Uh tell me how that uh very short interaction kind of influenced uh a comedian. Yeah.

Okay. You know, similar to the way Spider-Man was bit by a radioactive [laughter] spider, this is Mike's origin story. So Mike Kid brother is like goes to this comedy show. He's a little kid. He's kind of funny. In fact, he was funny. We didn't even know he was how funny. He was funny on the schoolyard and he wouldn't even show us. And he goes and he says to John Candy, like he's a young teen. He's 16 or 17. He says, "Mr. Candy, sir, how do I get into comedy?" And any other celebrity would have given him possibly terrible advice or no advice. And you know, he Candy said, "There's there's a theater downtown called Second City that I came from. They have workshops and if you go to the workshops you can find out if you're any good if you or if you're interested and if you're not interested you'll drop out and you'll come up with something else. Maybe you'll be an actor maybe you'll be a musician uh or whatever you want to do. He goes and if you're good at it and you work hard you'll get better at it and you still might not get discovered but you'll be happy doing it because you love doing it and if you love doing it you'll keep doing it and you'll get better and maybe somewhere down the line you'll do something. But just find out first if you're any good and if you love it because you have to love it. Like that is like the most amazing advice.

Awesome.

It's like he met, you know, on the mountain top, you know, the guru said. And so then here's how that affects me in a weird way. So this is my most recent book. My book before it was the kids in the hall, one dumb guy. The kids in the hall were in the the same classes that I went to because my brother went to. I met the kids in the hall at Second City Workshops because Mike had gotten us all to Second City Workshops. So when the kids in the hall started taking off, we all knew each other. I wrote their book and then I wrote the John Candy book. So not only did it start Mike's phenomenal career, but my career in a weird way has also like I am now the guy chronicling all those things.

This year would have marked his 75th birthday. Um John Candy passed away at 43 untimely. What makes him such a revered figure in Canadian pop culture even to this day?

I think for one thing the when he was cut short of what he could have done, he would have gone into dramatic acting, possibly directing and maybe more comedies. Maybe he might have also have been in something like Shitz Creek with his fellow SCTV people. But the absence of John persists. people who knew him and knew his work felt like they still haven't resolved that loss. At the same time, what he represents in his work, values that I think are hugely needed today, joy, empathy, uh vulnerability, he represented uh the so-called common man with with noble dignity, right? Uh Dan Akroyd, by the way, in the book describes him in these kinds of terms all the time. and those values in in in a film like Cool Runnings which you know takes place at the Calgary Olympics

when you cross that finish line where did THESE GUYS COME FROM you'll know he talks a lot about values that we should I think we should all aspire to and you know there's a lot of cruelty in public policy in places and in people's you know social media when you see a character who lived for empathy and joy and his face is like a beacon of that these twinkling eyes of So it's like if you didn't invent this character, if he didn't exist, we'd have to make up a fictional character like this.

His face is a flag for Joy. You know,

for fans who have followed him throughout his career and new fans who might be opening this book and discovering uh you know what a what a mogul he was really for for Canadians here. Uh what do you hope uh they take away from his career?

He really tried to do films that made people laugh, but he was also good to people. Um, he was good when no one was looking is a phrase that comes up a lot. I hear that in a lot of other people have said that. And I think there was something about you could be a big success and still stay scaled one-on-one with people.

And I mean, that's definitely the lesson. And also, I guess for all Canadians on a very specific level, you know, representation matters. I say that with a little bit of facicisness because, yeah, another white guy, but but the representation of the goodness and the values of Canadians that we aspire to, even if it's only aspirational. We want to be better and we we have an icon here. So, that's a good that's a good reason to celebrate him.

I want to change gears a little bit. Um, talk take a little bigger picture. Uh, comedy seems to be having a moment right now. Uh, from the cancellation of the the late show with Stephen Cobear to the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel, um, about his comments about Charlie Kirk to comedians performing at the Riyad Comedy Festival uh, in Saudi Arabia. Um, knowing what you know about John Gandi, what would he have made about all of this that is happening right now? Oh, I I I have to preface anything by saying I there's no way I presume to speak for John Candy at this point. Um, I don't even in the book I talk about some of his struggles and I never even analyze or judge those. Like, you know, whatever, however he lived his life. I can't walk a mile in his shoes. And I can tell you that if somebody's getting a hurt as a result of his comedy, he wouldn't do it

based on anecdotal what I've seen. I don't think he would ever do cruel comedy or punch down. I think Jimmy Kimmel would like him. I think he would like Jimmy Kimmel. like you know those people who are you know Seth Meyers all those comedians who are out there being positive and and just being enlightened I don't can't speak for him but I evidence evidence-based he would have done something positive

you can't speak for him but you can speak for yourself so I'm going to ask you as a Canadian living in the states how do you make a sense of what is happening

it's tough and uh are they going to show this when I enter the the country again uh [laughter] no And that answer says it all. Um I would say this. Um I recently wrote an essay u called the Canadiafornian and in it I formulated this view I have now. I love my space in Northern California that I live in with my wife. We're both Canadians but we both got US passports because we wanted to engage in civic politics there. It was during the Obama years. So so so [laughter] don't get mad at me anyway. Uh, and um, so we booked tickets on the SS Poseidon before it flipped and uh, and so I will tell you that um, I always feel Canadian everywhere I go. Uh, I so I am a Canadian fornian because I also feel a little bit when I see the Republic of California flag, I feel a little bit of pride and whenever I see the governor pushing back against the president, I feel uh, you know, our state is uh, is holding out, you know, a little bit. So, if that changes, I'll let you know. Okay.

But, but I definitely feel Canadian. I feel super proud. I was just at a writer festival in Calgary, and I was on panels talking about the Canadian condition, which is something we never tire of talking about, and perhaps never should. I I want to I want Canada to be all the cool things I like about Canada. And it is home. So, and I'm not just saying that because I'm here in Toronto, but you know, I say that when I'm anywhere.

Paul, we're going to leave it there. Thank you so much. Thank you. It was really fun talking to you.