Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Well, hello and welcome to the Jan Arden Podcast. This is the second episode in the series of our very best of episodes for your summertime enjoyment. And boy, do we have a great one for you this week. This we're calling Funny People. And Canada certainly has...
provided us with a lot of funny people over the years. Today, you're going to hear from Rick Mercer. What can I tell you about Rick Mercer? He was a man responsible for a lot of my scariest moments in my life. He's going to tell us about his terrible report card, terrible drinking stories, and kissing me on the CN Tower. Don't, don't, don't miss that. Wendy McClendon Covey.
The name probably rings a bell. She is the star of the long time running the Goldbergs. You will know her from Bridesmaids. She is hilarious and she's very sage and very wise. She talks about how she got started in comedy and the importance of having a supportive partner, which she does with her husband, Greg. Jonathan Torrens, Canadian charmer.
He talks about his hilarious and varied roles that he's had over the years in Canadian comedy. And you would recognize him. He's been in so many things. What a great guy. What a stand-up guy, no pun intended. And here's a name that you wouldn't be that familiar with. Gerard Farrelly is an Irish comic. He is hilarious. He's a writer. He's a producer. And
And he has a podcast. Anyway, trying to make stand-up comedy work in a pandemic, he's going to tell us all about it. Don't go away. Here's a special episode of the Jan Arden Podcast. When you were traveling the country endlessly with John and the gang and John, you needed to sleep sitting up. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
The places that you went, you'd start on big planes, they would go to medium planes, they'd go to small planes, and then you were like on hang gliding into some of these jobs. Yeah, yeah. And then a lot of time, and yeah, it really did serve me well, actually, sleeping. And I always get enough sleep. I always have. I'm not a good sleeper. I'm not a good sleeper at all. And especially now, I'm just like...
What about these apps? I'm doing the Calm app. We've talked about the Calm app on the show before where somebody reads you a story. You'd be great at reading stories for apps. I'm going to contact the Calm people and say, Rick Mercer, because I would listen to you. Because you have a great... Newfoundlanders probably don't think they have an accent, but you guys have a great accent. Could I read a story, like a Calm story? Yes. Suddenly on page five, go, ah! No. No.
Like suddenly get really dramatic. Yeah. No. Yeah. They might fire you on the spot and it might become one of the stories. Well, you know, people read about,
getting on a train, the Orient Express, and they start you off on the platform where the red carpet is rolled. I forget, the Orient Express, I think, has like a blue carpet that you walk on and they talk about the walnut fittings. And it's like just this thing. And you could talk about literally walking around Newfoundland
at Cape Spear and talking about the crap blowing out of your car, but in a calm voice. In a calm voice. The car door opened. And I think I was smoking at the time. And my cigarettes flew out the door. It's quite erotic as well. Is this the point in the podcast? Because every time we're together, at least once, I say to you, when are we going to write a song together? You've been avoiding this for years. And now there's a pandemic. What excuse do you possibly have
Okay, this is what we're going to do. And you're hearing it from me live right now. Yeah. Send me one stanza. We're going to start with the lyric. Okay. Send me a stanza. And be serious about it. I am serious. I'm going to write music for it. Okay. In the next 24 hours, I'm going to sit here with my guitar. Right. I'm going to write a melody, and I'm going to record it, and I'm going to send it back to you. And you can tell me. Yeah, we are. We are going to frigging do this. We owe it to each other. Like Bernie and Elton.
Well, we owe it to each other to see if we really are
Yeah, Topin and Elton John. And I have to write it as I'm writing a stanza and I'm thinking, this is a Jan Arden song. No, don't think in those terms. I think you should be, it's going to get Jan Arden-ized anyways, because even when I try not to write like me, I write like me. But you write the lyric. Okay. And I'll write the music and then we can go back and forth and then you might want to tweak it. Can we go up here? Can we repeat that? Can we do a yeah, yeah there? Is that what musicians do?
I never write with anybody, so I don't know. You don't, do you? So this is a huge honor. Whenever I've written with Buble, he just sends me music and he'll say to me, I want this to be about my wife. He has a couple of lines in there that he likes. He has such a sense of structure.
And then I just like scribble out lyrics and send them back to him. Well, as soon as this is over, I'm going to Google and find out what a stanza is. Well, I just mean like a paragraph, like a verse. Sorry, I should, I don't even know why I said stanza. Why am I being all fancy? I know what a stanza is. Well, I don't know what a stanza is. Did you, did you, so you went to theater arts. Yeah. Did you want to write plays?
Rick, I was so scared about not knowing what I wanted to do. I thought someone who was kind of homely like me,
short, whatever, chubby. Actually, I wasn't chubby at 18. I was like, I was like Xena, the warrior child. I bet you were gorgeous. And I think everyone looks back at themselves when they're 18 and goes, I was kind of hot. I just, yeah. At the time. Yeah. Well, my mom said, I don't know why you're not showing your arms now because in 20 years, then you'll be sorry. But I, uh,
I didn't... I was mortified. I didn't know what to do with myself. It's like you. I think you were hit with that bug, that theater acting, because you were so involved with CODCO. I mean, you were a teenager. You were doing stand-up and stuff like that, weren't you? Like, you just plowed into it. I was doing sketch comedy. We were...
The theater group that I was hanging out with, we started doing sketches. And of course, when you're 16, 17, you want to be outrageous. So you were saying all sorts of outrageous things. And our theater teacher said, you can't do this here in school anymore. Like, we're just all going to get in too much trouble. So she said, go downtown. There was a theater down there called the LSVU Hall. And we started doing shows. And then we kind of fashioned ourselves on this group called the Wonderful Grand Band. So we got a rock band. And there was like music and sketches. And we would play bars. And that's what we did.
Like, played to who? To other young people who shouldn't have been in bars. Like, it was ridiculous. Half the high school, there was this one bar called Bounders, and it was this bar that was essentially empty, and we went in and convinced the owner that they should book punk rock and comedy. And everyone in my high school drank in this bar. It was ridiculous. And we would host the shows. I remember we did a Halloween show, and I was brought out in a coffin,
- Oh, Jesus. - And Andrew Younghusband, Andrew Younghusband, who was in the comedy troupe, was horrified. - Younghusband? - Yeah, Younghusband. - Is the last name? - Yeah, he hosted "Canada's Worst Driver."
But anyway, he was horrified that I would lie in this coffin. I was like, it's not a real coffin. They all carried me out. He was like, I could never get in a coffin. Oh my God, that's terrifying. He was just totally freaked out about it. And other people got in the coffin as well throughout the night. Everyone was like, blug, blug, blug. Anyway, Andrew, near the end of the night, gets in the coffin and passes out. So someone closes the coffin because that would be hysterical. And he woke up at four in the morning in the coffin, the bar closed.
I would have died. Well, there you go. I would have died in the coffin. So I would have been ready. A PB amp on top of the coffin or something. And he ran home and he had to go to school the next day because his deal with his parents was he was allowed to play in the bars, but he always said to go to school the next day and he wasn't allowed to drink. Well, that's fair. Well, but he did drink. That's why he was passed out in the coffin. But he did go to school the next day. I remember he was really...
freaked out? I have so many drinking stories that make my head like want to spin off my body. The most Canadian drinking story that I have in my life, and I don't think I've ever told anybody this, but I'm going to tell you, Rick. Okay. Well, you and the listeners. Okay. I got so hammered. I believe I was in my very early 20s. I was out here in Springbank, Alberta. You've been out here in my hometown.
I had sex with a guy in a hockey net that was turned upside down. And we kept going through the holes. Okay, well, I didn't mean to say that. I meant the... Okay, sorry. The net, it was a net. And that man was Ralph Klein. That man was not Ralph Klein. That man was not Ralph Klein. Okay.
Sorry, my dog is now barking. But I just remember it being very uncomfortable and my arm kept slipping through and he was trying to hang on to like the posts on the side. So you know you're too young or immature to have sex when you're thinking...
On an upside-down hockey net. How is this a good idea? But that truly, as I look back at my fine character now... Yes. That is the most Canadian drinking story that I have. And then I think he threw up. LAUGHTER
Because he hadn't drank enough. And a lot of times, if the fellas wanted to drink more here in Springbank, Alberta, you'd have to throw up in order to have a few beers and feel okay about it. Why are we alive? I don't know. Okay, we have one minute and it's all yours. What's your most Canadian drinking story? I think it's hard to top that. I think that that's the most ridiculous thing. I don't really have a lot of them.
No, you were a good guy. You were reasonable. I'm sorry, I put you on the spot. No, no, I was reasonable when it came to that stuff. And that's it, folks. He was reasonable.
I have never seen you drunk in my life. Did you know me when I was drinking? You must have. You know what? I was hung over going up the CN Tower with you. I know we have like 30 seconds left, but I was so, so on top of being on top of the CN Tower, I was so hung over. I don't drink anymore, folks. And now you can, now you know why. Yeah.
And you're happier now. Oh, gosh. I'd be super happy if there wasn't a pandemic. I think I'd, you know, be super, super happy. But I'm happy that you were our guest today because now we have like 15 seconds. I'm happy to be here.
Rick Mercer, we still have adventures to go on. We sure do. You and me. We're an act, right? Yes. Okay, folks, stay tuned. Rick and I, we're going to think of something. Maybe we're going to do a variety show. We haven't decided yet. Like a little soft shoe, a little singing and dancing. Or a musical. A musical. Send me your stanza. I will. I'm going to get working on it. You've been listening to the Jen Arden Podcast. I've been talking to my friend,
the fabulous, talented, amazing Rick Mercer. We are so excited to welcome another new sponsor, our friends at Cove Soda. Have I pestered Cove enough to come and join us here at the Jan Arden Podcast? I love them so much. They are Canadian, first of all. They are a natural, certified organic, zero sugar soda, which includes, get this, one big
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while putting a gut-friendly, guilt-free drink in your body. Cove Soda is available in 12 delicious flavors all over North America. So for our American friends, you can find it. They've got this fruity lineup that's fantastic. I drink those all the time. They've got the classic lineup. If you like a
A cola or a cream soda, root beer, yes indeedy. And they've got their limited edition summer flavor, which will take you right back to the second grade. You got to try the ice pop one. Head to Jan Arden pod.com to find out where the closest place to you is where you can go and buy Cove. Go right now. Welcome back to the Jan Arden show. Wendy McClendon Covey is here.
Wendy, I've been so freaked out since you said that you would do this. I do want to go into like your unbelievable career. Wendy McLennan Covey is known for many, many things. The Goldbergs playing Beverly, who is one of the most iconic, crazy MFers on television ever. And the fact that she's based on an actual person is even more outlandish. Yeah.
Reno 911, which is so hilariously redonkulous, Clementine. There's a million movies. You're a writer. You are a cat lover. Bridesmaids. I would be remiss if I didn't. Absolutely. And I know you're inundated with that. And when is there going to be a number two, three, four, five, six? I know there's never going to be one, right? Right, right.
Yeah, sorry. But no, no, don't be sorry. Well, to everyone that keeps asking, I wish I had different news for you, but that's how it is. And you're also married. You live in Los Angeles. You are an extremely successful actor.
And you've been married for a long time to a really wonderful guy. And I'm always like blown away by your stories about him, how you speak about him, your holidays with, with your partner. Tell me about how you guys met and how is this possible?
Well, for one thing, I think it's possible because we don't actually, we live in LA County, but we actually live like 30 miles outside of Los Angeles. That's the trick. Yeah. I think that's a big part of it. So when I come home, I'm home. And not everybody is talking about, you know, the business, which is exhausting. So I live actually...
maybe five miles from the house I grew up in. My parents don't live there. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's, that's a big part of it. And we met in community college. Okay. So like loser school, loser college. It's not loser college. No, it isn't. But we were, we were, you know, a little too old to be there, but you know, we were, well, I shouldn't say that because you know, you're never too old to do anything, but yeah.
I know what you mean. Yeah. You know, it was just like, all right, time to get our lives started. And I had just come off a breakup that I had made into such a big deal. Although there was really nowhere for this relationship to go. But I had managed to. It stings. Yeah. I had managed to really make it a big thing. And at the end of that, I met Greg.
And just when you least expect it. Yeah. When you're not looking, when you're absolutely not looking. So then we got engaged secretly, like three months after we met. 12 weeks, 90 days. But then we didn't get married for like another two and a half years because we didn't have any money. I was living with my parents. He was living with his parents. We had no money. And so, um,
you know, that's how that happened. And 25 years later, here we are. But we see the story over and over again.
You meet young, and then all of a sudden you have this career that explodes. You are pulled in 100 billion different directions. You meet all these great-looking people that are in this industry, and you're away on shoots for weeks, maybe sometimes months at a time. And then the seams start coming undone. But you guys look so goddamn solid. Like, I see you don't do a lot of him on Instagram, but when you do, it makes my heart squish. He is...
The greatest guy. Okay. In existence. Okay. And everything he does is perfect. So that's it. That's it. No, I, he is literally, he's not in the industry. Not at all. Not at all. He is literally the only person that ever encouraged me to go and follow my dreams.
And when I was in the Groundlings, which is for people who don't know, it's an improv comedy theater in Los Angeles. Very, very tough. One of the best guys, one of the Groundlings is the people look it up. Yeah, look it up. The people that have come out of the Groundlings are exactly like Wendy. They're just stellar, unbelievably successful people.
He worked two jobs to pay for all that stuff. I was working part-time. He did it all without complaint while I was buying costumes, buying wigs, doing all these things. He would help me rehearse my lines. He would go to my shows. You don't get that kind of support. And I will never hurt that man. Yeah. Never, ever, ever. There is no one else that is better.
you know, if I'm away on a shoot, I get how, how people stray. Yeah. I'm never gonna, cause there's no one ever, ever that can give me what he gives me. That's it. Full stop. I don't understand why people don't get that. When, when you meet a solid person, when you've had someone with you your whole life and you see these stories again, anyway, it's very inspiring. Your, your husband's inspiring. Yeah.
The cats, you have one of my very favorite Instagram pages. And I just want to tell folks, like when you follow me on Instagram, I phoned everyone that I knew that would accept my call still. And I just said, Wendy McLennan Covey is following me on Instagram. Like I just was thrilled and it is, but you have my favorite Instagram. I look at you. That's one of the last feeds that I look at before I go to bed because you have hilarious heartwarming posts.
pet stuff. And I'm inundating people with like, stop eating effing meat. You guys are cruel bastards. My feed's just like, I had to stop following you, Jan, because your animal activism is horrifying me. But you're like, but no, but you're like this wonderful small things in boxes, like cuddling up with bananas and
Chimp. I don't even know how you find this stuff. Yeah. My stories, I just, you know, I used to get real militant in my stories about politics and blah, blah, blah. And sometimes I still do, but I figure, you know what? If a baby cow with a frog on its back is giving me joy, it's going to give somebody else joy. So I try to just
Only put like cute animals or, you know, uplifting things in my stories. They're great. I'm trying to chase the blues away always. And I figure someone else, you know, would probably rather see that. No, it's a great way to go. And I do. I love it. It's you're very I like how you curate your page. It's amazing what we choose to show each other.
And you, you're not like your, your whole page is just filled with your life. And I'm always surprised at your vulnerability. Like you see little glimpses of your house. The cats are hilarious. How many cats do you have, Wendy? Seven. Seven cats. And we sure did not start out. No, it never does. But they keep showing up and I can't turn, I can't turn a baby away, you know?
So it was Butters the latest? Butters followed me home on July 30th and has never left.
Followed you from where home? I was on a late night hike around because where we live right now, there's like a lot of hiking trails. And I was off, you know, on a dark night of the soul, just looking for signs from the universe for something. And I this big friendly kitty showed up and followed me home and he's never left. Now, we looked for an owner and we looked for a chip. He was not fixed and he was old enough to be fixed. I don't know what the problem was.
Um, so I don't know where he came from, but he's my little angel boy. And, um, we got him fixed, got him all his shots. He lives here now. Now we're moving. Oh no. We're moving to a different place. And I think, um, cats will stop showing up because there's something about this house that
Wendy, thank you so much. Thank you, Jan. I just love you. Well, it's so mutual. And you have been, like I said, just so unbelievably supportive, kind, generous. When you meet someone that you've admired for such a long time, and especially when you do from afar as a fan, and you know this because you admire so many people's work, and then you do get a chance to meet them at a function. And sometimes it can be really great. And sometimes it can be like, oh, for Jesus sakes, really? Yeah.
Right. When they're, when they just, they just like, they're not what you thought because you have an idea when you watch someone's work of who they are, but you are that person. Anyway, keep doing what you're doing and just enjoy yourself and much happiness to you and Butters and the other six cats. And I know next time that we speak, you're going to have nine cats and I can't wait to hear why. Please don't say that. Please don't say that.
Please, Jan. You're a good person. You are. Thank you for having me. Welcome back. This is the Jan Arden Podcast, heard both internationally around the world and here locally right in Springbank, Alberta. And we're talking to another entrepreneur
Frickin' fabulous, hilarious, super talented guy. I don't even know why I'm having him on the show because it's quite intimidating. Jonathan Torrens joins us from somewhere in the Maritimes bubble. Jonathan, welcome. Celebrity couple named Jonathan.
I think this union is long overdue. I feel like the peanut butter to your chocolate. And I think people will be demanding a spinoff by the end of this conversation. If it goes the way I secretly hoped. Yeah. No, I feel the spinoff happening already. Jonathan Ormond Torrens. Can you tell I was on Wikipedia? I was going to say. Yeah, that's my mother's maiden name, Ormond. Okay.
I think it's a beautiful name and it sounds, and I'm just going to put this out here. This is really random, but you, that sounds like a Mormon name. Are you guys Mormons? We are not. Although on the ratings juggernaut letter, Kenny problems, I've been playing a Mennonite for the past couple of seasons named Noah Dick. Okay. Oh, wow. Noah Dick. Noah Dick. Yeah. And my wife is. I just wanted to say, I just, I just wanted to say, say that name.
I know, it's really fun to say. Ormond is a French name. I think there was an actress, wasn't there? Julia Ormond. She pronounced it kind of the same way. And I debated during like Michael J. Fox when it was cool to have like an initial in your name. I debated briefly going by J. Ormond Torrens, but I'm so glad I didn't. You are...
a really, really amazing singer. Like if people want to think back to the 80s, the 90s with Andre Gagnon.
who was a, he really rose up through the ranks of a singing impersonator, which we don't see a lot of, but you do amazing singing impersonations. One of mine, which we have played before you came on the show today of Could I Be Your Girl? And it's freakishly good, Jonathan. You kind of made me, I don't know, I felt very weird listening to it because you nailed so many of the little isms.
It's the sneaky runs that you do that, like there's so many people, Anne Murray is another one who
people don't realize until you try to mimic that. I would argue I'm a decent mimic. I don't have my own voice. But until you try to sing a Jan Arden or Anne Murray song, you don't realize just how sneaky tricky it is. So I started with the kind of staples like I have a weird Canadian niche group of impressions. Like I was doing a light foot for a while, which most people kind of have in their toolkit. I was doing Lyndon McIntyre from the Fifth Estate.
a no-legged hurdler, a bungled burgle, and milked at curdles. Tonight on the Fifth Estate. They're like impressions that you never will need in the world. There was also a... What's the guy from On the Road Again? I'm Wayne Ross from On the Road Again. So I wanted to cast a wider net and see if I could do an impression of a woman. And you were my first...
attempt at a female impression and I have a high voice naturally. This sounds a lot like my dating history. Exactly.
You have a high voice, and I do too, but I'm so glad to hear that you took it in the spirit it was intended. My first bump in that way, I did a Stephen Page impression from Barenaked Ladies, and I was worried that he wouldn't take it in the spirit with which it was intended, which is you can't impersonate someone unless you've listened to the records thousands of times. Yeah. Yeah.
What is it, you know, mimicking someone? It's the greatest form of flattery. I know that's not the quote at all, but I'm just going to throw that out there. But plagiarism is often, you know, it's like if you're going to copy somebody's work, it means that you really like it. If you're going to steal somebody's stuff and do it, it means that you like it. Hey, I'm really flattered. I once went into a club years and years ago. My friend said, you got to come. There's someone doing, there's a really great drag queen doing you.
And, you know, can you come on Friday night? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, I guess. And she goes, great. It's at 1 a.m. I'm like, what? 1 a.m.? I was thinking like 7.30. So when did you start? Honest to God, anyone that goes out
At one o'clock in the morning. When did you start this stuff, Jonathan? Like, were you in a little town where you live? Like, were you an only child? I don't know a lot about your growing up, but obviously it takes a lot of hours to perfect impersonating people. And I'm just wondering how you started doing it.
I suppose it was something that the people I lived with, in other words, my family, kind of weren't surprised by. I always liked an accent and always kind of was someone who observed the people around me and sort of drew from real life characters.
I started on Street Sense when I was 15 and still in high school and did that show for seven years. And it was on CBC. It was a show about consumer affairs. It didn't have any, the sexy cachet of Beverly Hills 90210, you know, but as a TV school,
I got to create original characters every week, got to do impersonations. I did Don Cherry on that show and whatever TV shows and whatever pop culture was big at that time, we would use that to tell tales about financial awareness. So instead of Party of Five, it was like Party of Five Man Tent. So you have to sort of develop these impressions. The same question could be asked of you, though.
It's not fair. Like I have this impression of you because we haven't spent much time together at all. We met a couple of years ago at that thing where those people were. But in my mind, you're like, you're having bubble teas with Cynthia Loyst and you and Anne-Marie play Sudoku. But I know you live in kind of a rural place like I do. How did you develop the acting chops? Like where did that come from? I knew you were funny.
Oh, those aren't acting chops, Jonathan. That is sheer terror. And, you know, I don't, you're very kind. Honestly, I don't think it's a huge stretch to play a weird version of myself, although I still have to learn the lines. I guess I have these visions of
just showing up on the set with a show with my name on it and just being able to make up lines and ad lib the entire time. And that's just not the way it works because other actors have to say things with you and know what they're doing. But yeah, it's been, it's been a lot of fun. So thank you for asking. And, and right back at you, I feel like I'm on your podcast, the tag it and Torrance podcast.
And how's that going? Is that, are you guys having fun doing that? And you'll have a record out too, for God's sakes.
We do. I'm at the age and stage in my career where I'm just looking for kicks, as maybe you are. The thing I like about a podcast is if you do Trailer Park Boys or Mr. D, for example, as you know, there's six months between taping and when it comes out. I like the immediacy of a podcast. I like that it's awards and all environment. And it's one of the only places you can have a long form conversation these days.
So I never thought I would tour the country, something you're very familiar with. We were able to do that through Taggart and Torrens. We wrote a book a couple of years ago. We've made a record. Oh, I didn't know that. What was the book about? Yeah.
It was about 200 pages too long. It was called Canadianity and it came out in the fall of Canada 150 when people were like, honestly, enough with the Canada already. But each chapter was about a different province or territory and our experiences there. You're in the book. I am? Of course. Well, that's, I feel ridiculously misinformed or uninformed that I didn't even know you had a book, but
In my defense, Jonathan, you do a lot of stuff. Like going back to Mr. D, Mr. D was one of my favorite shows for years. And you guys did 10 seasons of that. What do you attribute, like getting back to the Canadiana thing, you seem to specialize in what makes Canada super Canadian, right?
and the minutiae of it. It's not just about saying sorry all the time, but why do you think a show like Mr. D just lasted so long? Like I laughed my ass off at that show all the time. You guys were such a terrific cast, Lauren Hammersley and just, just everybody was just so, Naomi Sneek is like just brilliant people, but it was so Canadian.
It was, and it had that thing that shows that last a long time do, which is it takes place in a specific setting, but allows for new characters every week. So there was always, story-wise, like if you look at Trailer Park Boys, after 10 seasons, you take the guys out of the park and viewers are like, well, but it's Trailer Park Boys. You bring new characters into the park and people are like, but that's not the old characters. And you do the same storylines again and people are like, man, we've done that before.
So it's really hard, as you know, to kind of keep something fresh. Thank you so much. That was Jonathan Torrens.
Such a funny guy, such a really great, nice guy. I keep asking him out, but he just refuses to go bowling with me. Up next is Geroid Fairley, one of the funniest guys I've ever met, other than Jonathan. Come on now. He's Irish, but don't, you know, you might need a translator. He's got a bit of an accent, but my gosh, this guy is hilarious. He's up next.
Welcome back. It's the Jan Arden podcast and show. Gerold Farrelly is here with us from Ireland. It is seven hours later in the day. So he's in the future speaking to us. What I was going to say before we went to break is that at the very beginning, like two months in, I would say, into the pandemic, you started doing
on Instagram, a baking show. It was like, but you really got some traction on it. You started doing, you know, morning television chat shows, people talking about, you know, this baking show. So basically you chose a recipe, whether it was really lofty, like a Nigella Lawson fricking, I don't know what the hell you were making, but you made all these really difficult recipes.
baking things and people would follow along and then there was a winner and they didn't get a prize, I don't think. No, they didn't. They just got the laudy, the adulation, essentially, of being the winner. I want cash! Yeah, it started out because I...
I was doing Insta Lives because my tour got cancelled and people were like, I have tickets for this date. And early in the pandemic, we didn't really know what was happening. So I was just doing Insta Lives to say, well, okay, that one's gone, that one's gone. And we, I just mentioned I'd baked a cake and then somebody suggested that we do a bake-along. So I thought, okay, then we'll do that tomorrow night. And then one of my friends is one of the hosts of the bake-off, the professionals. So he was a judge and,
Oh, Jesus. It just snowballed.
And then we were doing it every week and it was, we had great guests. And then it did get a bit, I did a few tellies where it came up in interviews. And then I remember one TV show contacted me to ask if I wanted to cook, do the cooking segment. And I thought, that is people that have not seen The Bake Alarm because that is not what this is about. But isn't it, I mean, things like that because of the pandemic, how could you have ever imagined
In a billion years, Farrelly, imagined that you would be cooking in your kitchen. And never mind that. If you guys were similar to what we were going through with the groceries, with sugar, flour, yeast, you know, those first few months, the shelves were like cleared out. Everything was a meme. Yes.
And, you know, people were bartering with, you know, I'll give you two pounds of flour for a tablespoon of instant yeast. 100%. I had this really weird thing that happened where one of my friends texted me and said that there was a cafe, maybe...
maybe seven or eight kilometres away that was selling bags of flour. And I thought, okay, I better go get some. And we were within a five kilometre restriction at that point. I thought, oh God, I'm going to have to break it to get the flour. So I went, bought the flour, which they sold me in these clear plastic polythene bags. So they were on the passenger seat of my car. Middy's chipping in. Well, there's somebody at my gate, but just bear with me, stay...
Hi, welcome. Welcome to my world. Hi, Bob. Welcome to the Jan Arden podcast. It's a very secured, I have a very secure perimeter here. And...
Sorry. Don't edit that out. That's how I talk to my dog all the time. It's just very gentle. I thought Middy was upset because I'd broken restrictions. I just thought you thought, you know what? I've had enough of this. This is outrageous. I'm picturing you with your, your, you know, your, your watch that's your fitness tracker. You're going, I'm at 4.7 kilometers. I'm at 4.8 kilometers. I'm going to go over.
over the restriction. Never mind that. Flour in a Ziploc bag sounds like you're visiting a drug lord. And I had to come back through a police checkpoint. No. Yes. And I thought, oh my, I'm going to be arrested. This is the end of it now. But no, they never batted an eyelid. That's the Irish police. Just not that interested. Well, what would they do? What would they do anyway? Like,
Yes, I've broken the five kilometer rule, which just seems like that's what I mean. We're going to look back at this and we're going to did we overreact in some areas? Did we completely under react in other areas? I feel like history is going to be the only accurate thing that we have to tell us what the hell we did.
I know. I'd love, I would love to know how they're going to write about this in the future because it's been like, I do think that this is our world war. This was the thing that happened in our lifetime that was, was the war. This was, this is what it was. Well, I just, it's been so weird and it still continues to be weird. I mean, I think the grocery thing has kind of righted itself and,
I, we, we did the flower thing went on for about eight weeks and I don't know what happened exactly. Someone's going to have to fill me in. Did the flower mills just suddenly, were they out of wheat? Were they just not able to keep up? And then I've talked to a friend of mine who said that this guy that she knew had hoarded all this flower and
He had literally bought a hundred bags. He went to all these grocery stores when it started happening and he bought all this flour and he had it in his basement and he was literally selling flour out of his back door.
for quadruple the price that it was. Like to families, people with like four kids, he's selling a bag of Robin Hood flour, you know, off the back stoop at midnight. You know, people coming in. He only took cash, obviously. And I'm just like, I can't wait for some of these stories to actually really come out. Well, I did hear that the reason that there was a problem with flour was it was the bags.
It was the bags that it gets transported in that they were, I think, from China or something. And that the flower was there, but it actually couldn't be packaged. So that was the story I heard. That's that is a new one. That is a new one for sure. So you got the flower from the cafe. You went back. Avoided jail. You avoided jail. Yes. Have you ever been to jail? Have you ever had to go to jail? No.
No, I've never, I've never, I've never, I've lived a very, a very honest life. I'm very, I'm very nervous of policemen. I always have been. I have a lot of criminals in my family. So, you know, it's just sort of a, it just seems like a regular thing to hear about. Oh yeah, your uncle broke out of the remand center on, tied some sheets together. To me, I'm like, oh, that guy, what a, what a nut. What was he thinking? Yeah.
Okay. I promised people that we were going to talk about this and that is Bennifer. I want to know what your take on this is, if this is some kind of publicity stunt. And I'm sounding like I actually care about this stuff. I don't really know what I'm talking about. All I know is that they went out 20 years ago. And I know people that absolutely hook up with their exes.
But this just seems like the biggest debacle. There's pictures of them wandering through. They're in Italy somewhere. And it is an absolute crap show. It's very strange. It's really strange. I think that it does give, I think anyone that's ever been dumped,
And many times, many, many times. I've never been broken up with. But go ahead. You wouldn't know. You wouldn't know. You know, it's a thing that happens. You've probably heard about it. Yes. But I think it gives everybody hope because we always have that thing in our heads. One day they will. They'll come back. They'll have their regrets.
Thank you so much for checking in with us. I can't wait to see you again in person. Just keep looking after yourself. I love your social media. Say hi to Boots. Don't bungee Boots from the balcony, please. Absolutely not. And thank you for everything you're doing. Like what you're doing with the horses in Calgary is amazing.
That is amazing. I always think that if we had more Jan Arden's, we could solve every world problem. And it's not even many more. It's like three. Well, my goal is to just make people sick of hearing the horseshit message. Like, I know it seems like a kind of an inappropriate word, but it really sums up
you know, what, what the live export to other countries is. And you know what? You wouldn't put your grandmother in a crate and send her over there. Uh, I know that's our, that's probably a really terrible analogy. Anyways, he's winding us up. Thank you. Thank you. I will talk to you very soon. And, um, you're listening to the Jen Arden podcast. Totally do. This podcast is distributed by the women in media podcast network. Find out more at women in media.network.