This week on the Richard Crouse Show we revisit an interview with the late, great Gilbert Gottfried. As you probably already know, the legendary comedian passed away last month at the age of 67. I saw him perform just two weeks before his died, and while he looked frail, he delivered a show that was sweet, funny and incredibly rude, sometimes all at once, and that was Gilbert’s magic. There was no one else quite like him, no one as fearless as he was on stage, or as funny.
This conversation dates from the release of the 2017 documentary Gilbert. We talk about the beginnings of his stand-up career, why he doesn’t want his kids to follow in his footsteps and his legendary telling of The Aristocrats, the filthiest joke ever told, in the weeks following 9/11 and how that brough laughter back to New York City.
Then we’ll meet Professor William Irwin of the Philosophy Department of King's College in Pennsylvania. He is a philosophy professor, literary critic, and heavy metal scholar whose new book “The Meaning of Metallica: Ride the Lyrics,” takes a serious look at the lyrics of metal’s biggest band, disentangling double meanings, explaining stories, uncovering sources, and illuminating themes such as hope, despair, rage, resilience, power, liberty, justice, love, death, and insanity.
Do you have young kids at home? If so, a new series might be just the thing you’re looking for. “Luna, Chip and Inkie: Adventure Rangers Go” is a new series for 3-6 year olds will be available free and commercial free across Canada on the Knowledge Kids app and website. Within British Columbia, the series will also be available to watch on television on the Knowledge Network station.
Creating the music for the series is my guest Daniel Ingram. He is one of the top songwriters working in Children’s/Family entertainment and he has written songs for Emily Blunt, Zoey Saldana, Kristin Chenoweth and even Weird Al Yankovic. He has scored hundreds of episodes of television and most popular songs on YouTube have over 100 million online views, with a cumulative catalogue approaching one billion views.
This week on the Richard Crouse Show we get to know Jamie Chai Yun Liew. She is a lawyer and law professor specializing in immigration, refugee, and citizenship law and the creator of the podcast Migration Conversations. She brings that experience to her critically acclaimed debut novel “Dandelion,” the story of an Asian woman who traces her mother's past journey in order to learn who she really is and where she belongs.
Then, we meet Mayim Bialik. She has played neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler on the incredibly popular “Big Bang Theory,” written books, earned a Phd in in neuroscience from UCLA and currently stars in the new sitcom Call Me Kat and hosts the primetime version of Jeopardy. Today she joins me to talk about her directorial debut “As They Made Us,” a family drama starring Candice Bergen and Dustin Hoffman.
We wrap up with NoViolet Bulawayo, whose new novel “Glory,” is set in the fictionalized country of Jidada. It is a brash and boisterous take on NoViolet’s home country of Zimbabwe and its political life.
On this week’s Richard Crouse Show we meet Katherine Ryan. She is a Canadian who moved to England in 2007 with a boyfriend who wanted to start a comedy career in the UK. His comedy career didn’t take off, but hers did, and now Brits know and love her from the many panel shows she's appeared on, her wildly popular no-filter podcast Telling Everybody Everything or her Netflix comedy-drama “The Duchess.”
She also has a new series, Backstage with Katherine Ryan, which will showcase live stand-up sets from beloved and emerging comedians.
She's known for being hilariously herself in a non-apologetic way, so it doesn’t comes as a surprise that her latest project, a memoir that details her rise to U.K. fame and her Canadian life before that as a Hooters waiter and Ryerson student, and before that her life in Sarnia, is called “The Audacity.”
We’ll also get to know actor Tim Roth. The English actor is perhaps best known for his collaborations with Quentin Tarantino… movies like “Reservoir Dogs,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Four Rooms” and “The Hateful Eight.” He is a Golden Globe and Oscar nominated actor who returns to theatres in Sundown, an intriguing film about a man who radically changes his life. We’ll talk all about that movie, his memorable turn in Pulp Fiction and his upcoming role in “She-Hulk,” opposite Tatiana Maslany later in the show.
The we meet comedian Charlie Demers. CBC radio called him “one of the smartest comics out there.” He is an acclaimed Vancouver playwright, author, radio personality, voice actor and comedian and also has a new comedy album called “I Hope I Don’t Remember This My Whole Life” available now wherever you legally buy and download albums.
On this week’s Richard Crouse Show I’ll tell you about a new movie playing in theatres right now. “Run Woman Run” is the story of Beck, an Indigenous single mom at a crossroad. Ambitionless, when she isn’t binge eating, she’s hopping in the car to go check the mail… from the mailbox at the end of her driveway. Following a health scare, she decides to change her life through marathon running.
Run Woman Run is a lighthearted film with serious messages of recovery from residential school trauma, self-discovery and the erasure of Indigenous languages. It doesn’t shy away from the big topics, but at its heart it is an underdog story about overcoming obstacles and belief in one’s self.
I spoke with the film’s director Zoe Hopkins and breakout star Dakota Ray Hebert in separate interviews, which I have stitched them together to tell the story of the making of this wonderful film.
Then, Chris Hadfield, astronaut, engineer, singer, and fighter pilot and now author of a thriller called “The Apollo Murders” stops by to talk about his book and much more.
On this week’s Richard Crouse Show we chat with “Big Gold Brick” star Andy Garcia. In the off-beat comedy he plays an enigmatic, middle-aged father of two who enlists the help of a fledgling writer to pen his biography. He stars alongside Emory Cohen, Megan Fox, Lucy Hale and Oscar Isaac. “Big Gold Brick” is available on digital and on demand.
We also talk about the scene that scene that made him a star, the Odessa Steps sequence in “The Untouchables.”
Then, we’ll meet actor and writer Jim Piddock. For four decades he has appeared on Broadway and on the big and small screen in movies like “Independence Day,” “Lethal Weapon 2,”
“A Mighty Wind,” “Austin Powers in Goldmember” and shows like “Modern Family,” “Mom,” “Two and a Half Men,” “Lost,” Monk,” “Friends”… the list goes on. Jim looks back at his career in a funny and frank new memoir called “Caught With My Pants Down & Other Tales From A Life In Hollywood.” It is available now wherever fine books are sold.
This week on the Richard Crouse Show we meet Shawn Levy, the Montreal born producer and director, known for Stranger Things, Real Steel, the Night at the Museum franchise and the recent mega hit Free Guy with Ryan Reynolds. He has reteamed with Reynolds for the Netflilx sci fi family drama The Adam Project. He joined from Los Angeles via Zoom to talk about the why the film isn’t simply a sci fi epic and finding a child actor who could keep up with Ryan Reynolds.
Then, Canadian comedian, actor, writer and YouTuber Julie Nolke also stops by to talk about how she amasses one million followers on You Tube and her new role in the hot sitcom Run the Burbs.
Then, multi award winning humanitarian and community activist Akilah Newton joins me today to discuss her latest project, Big Dreamers: The Canadian Black History Activity Book for Kids Volume 2. It is a celebration of the Black Canadians who overcame adversity and went on to achieve greatness while changing the course of history.
To wrap things up, we meet Mark Williams who played the English wizard Arthur Weasley in seven of the hit Harry Potter films and can now be seen in the BritBox drama “Father Brown,” one of the UK’s longest running Daytime Drama series.