TV Talk 45:15

Hello, hello, hello everyone. Hello. It's so good to have you back. We love that you guys come along and take us with you on your walks and in your minivans and when you're lying in bed next to your partner that you've been fighting with.

You know that you just you've got your headphones in not tonight, honey. We're so glad to be providing a service for you. I'm here with Caitlin and Adam. They are in Ontario in their respective homes. I am in southern Alberta. It's snowing. Looks pretty. I got so much snow. I keep opening my gate. I have a little button on my wall. I keep opening the gate so I don't have to go and shovel. I'm just pushing it out of the way.

So I kind of watch it pushing the snow out of the way. And I'm like, I wonder how long this is actually going to keep working before I break down. Caitlin is still pregnant. What does your app tell us? The size of your child? So we're recording this in advance. So it usually tells me on Friday, it'll update me. But as of today, it says your baby is as big as a, get ready for it, spaghetti squash.

I'm trying now the spaghetti squash is the big yellow one with the stringy interior delicious I love them that I do too but it just sounds really quite big

I know. And the thing is like, so we had, we, my husband and I had a crash course with a doula. Um, so birth services are still considered like essential services. Um, and so, but we did the group group classes are a no. So everyone can stay six feet apart and wear, like we were wearing N95 masks and she can come and do a private class in your home that is allowed, but she's also had the first round of the shot. And so that was kind of interesting because she works out of some healthcare centers. So she was on the healthcare list. So

So it was interesting to talk to her about that a little bit, but also she talked to me a ton about labor and delivery and what to expect. And I saw all these like diagrams and X explainers, the stuff that happens to your body to make room for something, the size of a spaghetti squash and bigger is crazy because it doesn't make any sense, but it works perfectly. Otherwise we'd all have babies stuck in us forever. Yeah.

Imagine twins, triplets, quads, the space that is made for four spaghetti squashes. I talked to an OB technician about this back in the day, like back months ago when I was having one of my ultrasounds. They do an anatomy ultrasound where they really go into detail on the baby's brain and hard, whatever. It takes like two hours.

And I was chatting with this nice fella about it. And I said, wow, how long must this take for multiples? And he just exasperated looked at me and he was like, a really long time. I had triplets in here and you tell me how to find three brains and three little tiny hearts. I don't even know if I had the right kid. We were like killing ourselves laughing. Yeah.

Well, I know we're talking about your pregnancy a lot. I just, maybe it's because I'm childless at 58 years old, but I'm so fascinated. Like, I think it's so great to,

That we can make people. I don't know. Through history. Like I've been watching all this history stuff about the middle ages. I've been stuck in the middle ages. I've been fascinated by how they delivered their news. Like, how did they find out that the Christians in Jerusalem had fallen? You know, how did that make its way? Like across the Mediterranean over to the UK. And I was listening to this guy speaking about, it was some kind of podcast, my favorite podcast. My favorite.

My history podcast. And, but just, and then they got into this whole section, Caitlin. And of course I thought of you because it was midwifery and it was people having babies and it was how unbelievably dangerous it was. So dangerous. To have children in,

Like up until very recently, like the last 20, 30 years, giving birth was a crapshoot. Oh, and like, it was. And, you know, it's a miracle that women did it at all. I would have just checked myself right into the nearest convent and said, forget it. Because I would have had enough. Just to not be taken, like any kind of sexual...

Of course. And also to just be like, okay, well, I'm just like, you're living in the most probably like misogynistic time ever. And then you might die during childbirth for get it. I would have been like, that's it. Marrying Jesus. See you later.

But, yeah, it's still dangerous. Like, it's still dangerous in so many parts of the world now. It's still much more high risk in countries for women of color, which is horrible. So, you know, there are still risks. We just mitigate them. Like, I have friends, I have seen every...

horror heard of every horror story under the sun. And you know, you're just fortunate that you deal with it in these capable environments, like hospitals when they do arise, or you have midwives or birthing centers where they know what to do and when you need to go to a hospital when you don't. But you know, these things still statistically come up like preeclampsia is pretty common. That's a life threatening condition for lots of pregnant women like stuff still happens.

Yeah. Can you pass me the preeclampsia? I need to put this bolt back on to the, I need, I need to change the tire. I'm going to need a preeclampsia to get that. What happened to the Duggars? What happened to mama Duggar and the Duggar family? Like eight, it was like 17 and counting 18 counting 19 and counting. And then you're just like, what does your lady bits? What, what does it look like? Like, what have you done to your,

That's a lot of children in this modern age. I know that doesn't seem so bad. The Catholics, I'm sure in the 14th, 15th, 16th century, because so few of your kids survived, you just kept, you kept having kids until you couldn't until you kind of had a couple living in your house. I know that sounds terrible.

I think that they, I think that the Duggars, like, do you know how, I don't know if you guys ever had any pet rodents when you were growing up, but I was gifted, I was gifted gerbils instead of a puppy one year from Santa Claus and I'll never forgive him. And what happened was they, and we thought it was two gals and it was a dad and a mom and they had so many litters over the course of time. Yeah.

even when we tried to keep them separated they found their way back together from their respective what did you do with them oh we ended up giving them to we gave them to pet stores we were like here you go and we would give them to a pet store um but when the we had we had to give away the dad eventually even though we felt bad because they were kind of bonded because they had so many litters that the litters started becoming a little we're not not high quality

Like she was just too many kids. Right. So, and I think that happened to the Duggars. Caitlin, that's terrible. Send your letters to Caitlin green, five, five, five 71 green street. Didn't they have, I'm not joking. Didn't they have one or two sons who were involved in some really horrible scandals. And I think that's what happened. They were involved. We need to Google this. I'm going to Google this right now.

I think that's what I just was wondering. TLC really had a great franchise going because I think when they dropped in on that family, it was it was 17. And then it was maybe it was 16. I don't know. People can write us and tell us. I think that the gals did. I think the gals did well. But I think that the I think the boy Duggars went the way I think they went the way of my gerbils.

Oh, Caitlin Duggars, if you're listening, we don't even know what, I don't even know what she's saying right now. I don't understand it. Well, you, I've talked about this before, but my gram, my mom's grandmother had 17 kids. She also had a twin. She had one set of twins in there, but she also had some stillbirths. So it was more than 17 and she passed away at 46, 46. Wow.

Anyway, I'm not going to talk about that again. I don't want to frighten you. You're going to have a spaghetti squash. I think that's beautiful. And like you said, Caitlin, you have an opportunity now, because I've talked to my friends about this before who have had kids. If, you know, the size of the baby is not manageable, you know,

If they're thinking, oh yeah, we're not going to put this poor woman through a 13 pound baby. I had a friend of mine that actually picked the day of her, the birthday of her child for her C-section. She's like, no, like I don't want February 7th, but I think I'm going to go with February 9th because I don't want, yeah.

Yeah, that's super common. There's tons of like, there's tons of stuff that they do to mitigate this. And the most important thing for like women, you know, who are going to have kids to know is that your body knows they figure it out. Like when you don't have kids, like what I didn't have, you know, when I wasn't pregnant before all this, it seemed like it made no sense at all. And then you talk to all you have to do is talk to any doula or midwife or OB where they do this a million times a day for their life.

and they tell you how normal it is and you're like, oh, it's not to undermine the fact that it is still labor. It is a long day, but mostly that what previously to you seems like the most foreign inconceivable process is actually for a lot of people, just what they do every day for work. They see it all the time. Do you think you and your husband, do you think this is it? One and done?

Probably. I think I'm statistically more likely to have an only child because I myself am an only child also. I didn't know that. I didn't know that was part of the... I think that's a thing. Okay. Yeah. But, you know, I think, yeah, probably, but who knows? I'm open to being surprised. Like, I don't like to try to plan for stuff because who knows? Can you promise me this, though? Can you not be, like, 51 and be really surprised that you have a child in college and then you're pregnant again? Yeah.

who was it? But the dual that we had told me that her oldest patient was 51 and had a, had a very healthy, happy pregnancy. And I was so surprised, but I guess, you know, it can, it can happen. My mom, so sweet to the very end, like even the last few years of her Alzheimer's, she'd look at me across the table and,

She'd touch my arm. You know, you don't have to have a husband to have a baby. You all. I'd be like, mom, I'm 54. Like at the time. Well, Janet Jackson had twins at 54. Like, I don't think she was 54. I think Janet was just 50. But she was so. Your dad and I. I'm thinking at this point, I think dad's dead. But if you still want to resurrect him. And bring him into this. Your dad and I.

From the grave, he'll... I would look after it. And I'm just like, oh my God, you're just the sweetest. I wonder what you would have said to me at 16. It probably would have been a far different story. And we have confirmation that the Duggars did get wonkier. I looked up the top 10 Duggar scandals and I was like, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

They weren't doing so well. Send your letters to Adam because Adam, you are complicit in your silence. Oh, cause I laughed. Oh, was that it? Adam, we got to go. That's segment one. Okay. Well, Adam, thank you. We're going to talk more and not about the Duggars. So don't go away. We'll be right back. This is the Jenard podcast.

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And we still don't have a sponsor. We were kind of hoping Starbucks might come in because I do enjoy a Starbucks. I like McDonald's French fries. It's the only thing I can eat there at McDonald's is their fries because they don't have a lot of vegan stuff. So I can have a pop and I can have a fries, but there's nothing else. And I have asked for this and don't judge me.

Um, we've gone through a drive-thru, a picture us losers in a band, in a van, two o'clock in the morning of anything that, you know, the only thing that's open, sorry, I can't speak today. The only thing that's open is a McDonald's drive-thru. And so I get a bun and I ask for lettuce, extra tomatoes and pickles. And they're like, excuse me. I'm like, yeah, could I just get a bun?

And sometimes I've really confused them asking for the Big Mac bun with no, but I can't have the sauce and stuff. And so I get like a stacker with pickles, two all beef patties, special sauce, less cheese, pickles, onion, ginger, sesame seed bun. I still remember that. But I don't get the two all beef patties. And you know what? In a pinch, the Big Mac bun with a drink and fries is not a terrible plant-based meal. Just saying. Yeah.

Back to the Duggars for a moment, Caitlin. Caitlin didn't go on. They really, the girls had offshoot shows, didn't they? I think so. So I think the gals made it out of that situation, that their family situation, and didn't get sucked into too many scandals. But I think, and you know, someone can correct me if I'm wrong, I think the boys were involved in some wonky scandals. Yeah.

I think it was some of the older kids. And I know there were some issues with like charity, like staging charity things and then taking all the money. And I just think, you know, that maybe there were, you know, maybe it's just too many, too many duggers, you know, just statistically speaking, maybe a few of them had to wind up being crooks or something. Well, when you have that many kids and I think they did get to 20.

Oh my gosh, no way. Because I remember that last pregnancy she had. Yeah, I think that last pregnancy she had was very difficult. Oh, I bet. And she was hospitalized. But what always made me laugh was every kid was named with a J. Yeah.

And the, you know, you ran out of the John, Janet's, they were all very different names. I'm not going to say odd, like whatever you want to name your kid, as long as it's not Hitler, I think you're all right. Or Slurpee, like don't name your kids Slurpee. But it was all J's. So like, how do you even go through that? Like, and I have, I know a family that's all C's and K's. Yeah. Yeah.

I know a few families that are, I know a family that's like a lot of Ds in one family. I think that it is a thing. They're, you know, not for 20 though. They must've been running out of real names. They ran the whole, they couldn't, they should have just started at A and ran the alphabet. If they had 26 kids, they would have been golden. They got, sounds like they got pretty close. I didn't know there were that many Gs. What a throwback. That is truly a name and a reality show that I had not thought about in ages. Yeah.

well I used to watch TLC a lot. Like I whenever I turn on to TLC now it takes me like an hour to find it. I'm like is this TLC? Like they're making swords. There's a bunch of guys that are tattooed making swords. It's some kind of a show to make a good sword and I'm like I don't know who watches this stuff.

And anyway, TLC is not the station that I bought into many a year ago. It used to be really good. I liked little people. I like the show little people, big world. Yeah. But then they really got into a divorce. Things got really ugly with that couple.

And they had two like normal sized children. And then they had one small, a little person. And I followed along with them until I mean, their fighting was epic. And then let's go back a little bit further to John and Kate plus eight. Oh my gosh. Yes. I've always wanted to talk to you guys about that show because she had two daughters, right? And then they had, was it sex tuplets? Yeah, it must've been.

But she went through like a big thing. And then Honey Boo Boo. This was all TLC stuff. Okay, yeah. TLC, we are open to sponsorship TLC, even though you're making swords now.

Well, I was going to say, so because TLC, obviously the acronym stands for the learning channel. So I'm not, I'm not sure what we're all learning, but are the, okay. Is 90 day fiance on TLC is one question that I'll have to Google now. And the other one is, is T does TLC do the, my strange addiction where people eat like their couch cushions and stuff. Yes. I love that show. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Okay, just wait. I've never even heard of that. I don't even know. Oh, this woman ate like her couch. Like she would pluck the stuffing from inside the pillows and eat the stuffing. Come on. Oh, I swear to God. And there was another one with the guy who only ate, not only, but like he ate glass. Like he would eat light bulbs. Oh no. I'm not kidding. So really we're learning about people's like isms. Gosh, it's hard to be a person. Yeah, that's true. It's just like on my worst day,

On my worst day, I will eat a Dorito. Like, I can't imagine. So what happens to the brain? What a deep cavern of...

of silliness we are well and 90 day 90 day fiance is also on tlc for the record and that's one of the biggest shows on television like it is constantly trending can i because i've never seen it caitlin and maybe some of our listeners just walk me through like i don't understand what it is i have seen ads for it but i don't watch any reality stuff but what and i know you like it right

No, I've never watched an episode of it, but I think I can, I think I can roughly, Oh, I'm probably going to butcher this. All the 90 day fiance fans are going to come for me on social or something. I think what it is is people who are, they, they begin a relationship long distance from abroad and they're only engaged for 90 days.

and then they are supposed to get married and it's supposed to be these like dramatic tumultuous couples where you know one person is coming from the other side of the world to be together with the other and I think there's obviously some disastrous results out there now perhaps the format of the show has like evolved over the years and so it's not that anymore but I feel like that's how it got started uh I admit to having never watched a full episode

Is it mail order brides, Caitlin? I don't like, I don't know if that like. But people that want to get into the country, like I'm just playing the devil's advocate here. Is it, you know, to. I've definitely heard of those. But I mean, usually it's, it seems like these, these white guys that have like a Yugoslavian background.

or something. They always seem to be women from Eastern Europe or something like that. I got to watch it. I thought there was a famous couple of a woman who was from the UK and her partner was coming from a nation in Africa.

So I thought there was one famous couple there, whether or not they were famous because they were like super in love or they fought all the time or something dramatic happened with this couple. And all the 90 day fiance fans are just screaming at their headphones right now being like, Oh my God, get this right. But I don't, I don't, I don't know. It's not my show. Um,

But I should. Long story short, long story short, the learning channel is not what it used to be. Shame on you, the learning channel. But we still love you. We still have hopes to have a sponsorship with you. You're listening to the Jan Arden podcast. We'll be back. Welcome back. I'm Jan Arden. I'm here with Caitlin and Adam. Read the synopsis of 90 Day Fiancé just so that we don't get sued or have...

infuriated 90 day fiance fans. Okay. So this is a description of the show and I believe it's one specific season from 2014 and it says dating across the border becomes possible as four non-American women get a K one visa for 90 days purely to meet and marry their fiances or return straight home. So it's four women from out of the U S and,

are given 90 days to travel to the U.S. and meet, you know, the partner of their dreams. Or they go right back to, like, Moldova or something, wherever. Yeah. Caitlin Moldova. I don't know. That sounds like a fictitious Cinderella story. It's a real place. But I know that it was Anne. Anne Hathaway was from Moldova, wasn't she? I don't know. The Princess Diana? Yes, the Princess was from Moldova.

Oh, Genovia. No, Adam would know this because he's got two little girls. We've seen it all together. Well, television has to take... I think...

I don't know what I think about. There's so much great television out there. I think television is so superb in we're watching stuff that normally we would have raced to like Cineplex Odeon to go watch, but now everything's made for the small screen. Yeah. There's such good TV, but the reality stuff I never have understood. Like, I don't even think I ever watched a season of survivor. Even when it first started, it was so good.

huge there wasn't a person on the planet that wasn't watching survivor and now i think they're on season 37 the champions return and whatever yeah i i only watched the first season of survivor i was in high school and i remember when it took the world by storm and i watched the first season of it and i was really into it and then i just never got into that show again my reality show of choice is below deck and we've talked about it before and it is my love of life be sponsored

so this is the people that work on yachts yeah and they work for do you ever see the rich people on the yachts do we ever go above oh yeah oh yeah and it's it's a it's what's called a charter yacht it's not like one owner it's like so it's a charter yacht so there is an owner of the yacht that you never see and but these

people charter it. So every two to three days, you get a new group of rich people who come on the yacht and they're served by the full season staff that you come to know and love or hate on below deck. And so they have the captain and you have, you see the captain and then you have all the crew members and it's just great. It's just people hooking up, fighting, drinking. Why do we want to watch other people's lives?

I don't know. And I don't know who nailed this or who thought of it. It's just, it is so, it's been such a runaway success story. And, uh, for, for so many different franchises from the real housewives to the Kardashians to, you know, the OC and the Hills. Um,

Yeah. And even like shows like, you know, like RuPaul's Drag Race or, you know, competition series. Like it's just people love reality television so much. It's changed television. I just I guess looking in at somebody else's foibles, somebody else's mistakes, because let's face it, we're watching it for the debacles, Caitlin. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

I want the debacles. I like the fact I'm a sucker for anything that involves a work environment as well as people's lives. So I don't love the shows that are kind of like, I don't like, I've watched the Kardashians. I don't love it because they don't do a whole heck of a lot. And it's the same with a lot of the housewives, but I like the working environment on the yacht where you like watch them manage the boat and like dock it and they have their different roles. And so I like an element of working as well, which is kind of cool. So yeah,

yeah I think those things are always fun it is now Bravo's number one rated reality tv series it has surpassed below deck it surpassed housewives like people are into it so what age group are we talking here

I, when I talk about it on like our morning show, I get messages from people from, you know, 18 to 65, like people, it seems to span a wide range of demographics. I'm going to find it. I'm going to watch a few episodes and I am going to have a conversation with you next week.

I'm going to watch like two or three below decks. Cynthia Loyce talked me into, and we've talked about this before, it's the only reality show that I really watched was Love is Blind. Is that the Netflix one? Yes. I watched that. And it was talking through a wall. Now they're shooting another series of it apparently that was...

so successful and it was the woman that just drank so much she was drunk the entire series and when they talked to her afterwards she said you know watching back I guess I really did have a problem and I think she's sober now and stuff like that just watching herself I mean it would be so terrible but the reality producers they

love when people are hammered and screwing up and doing all the, which is kind of heartbreaking, but that's the part of it that bothers me. So I guess it's TV's version of driving by an accident when everyone's rubbernecking.

Yeah, I mean, and I always wonder, I'm like, what is the boxed white wine budget for a season of The Bachelor or The Bachelorette? I mean, I used to work in television production and I'm like, there was a line item for that. And I'd love to tell, I'd love to know what it was. And, you know, you guys know Big Brother, right? Where they are in the house and stuff. And I remember...

I remember seeing that when it very first started and it was a huge runaway hit too. Yeah, really successful. And I have friends again who work in television production. So they had worked in camera on camera crews for big brother Canada, and they are literally planted in the walls of this house, shimmying around, trying to go with a director in your ear being like, now go to the den, go to the den. And they're like, what's happening under that blanket. Like they like, it's like,

So it's, Oh, they want them to hook up. Oh, absolutely. And I, they, they want it all. They want the, the, they want the porn element. They want the adult content. They want all of that.

I had heard rumors and there was actually a television show that I think was based on this concept or this fact that the producers for The Bachelor and Bachelorette who bring in the contestants, like they choose their contestants that they want and they like coach them throughout the season. And I feel like there was some sort of a potential financial incentive for those producers if their person was like the villain or one of the finalists or, you know, so there's a lot of casting that goes into it.

Oh, I think casting is the number one thing that you're looking for. They, someone told me there was like 13,000 applicants for the last Canadian big brother. Wow. Sent in self tapes. I don't know. They're not running that this year, right? With COVID they can't do stuff like that. I think they might be. Oh, just because they would do testing. They would. Yeah. I guess that would work when you're all tested in the same house with

dropping groceries off at the door. Kind of a bummer, Jana. You'll be bummed out by this because I know you obviously really support Alberta, you know, film and television industry being that you film your show there. So the Jasper Park Lodge was booked for nine weeks for this like mysterious reason. There's like one booker books the entire Jasper Park Lodge for nine weeks, whatever. Turns out it was The Bachelorette.

And so they were going to go there and film for nine weeks and set up shop. And I think they just announced this week that they can't do it any longer because of the travel restrictions that are being put in place in Canada to try to combat the UK and the South African coronavirus variant. So there's a good reason, but it's a bummer for business in Alberta. Okay.

No, I'm very fortunate. I'm just in pre-production for season three of our show, the Jan show. So I had my COVID test. Well, by the time this podcast airs, I had my COVID test like three days ago and it was negative. I didn't expect it not to be negative because I don't do anything unless Mitty, unless Mitty has been out doing the town and dragging herself in at three in the morning. But it is, it really is unfortunate for us.

It's kind of beneficial for Alberta because all our casting is local. So we're not even, we're not even considering things from Toronto or Winnipeg or BC. We're casting in Alberta. We're casting this season, all the extras, all the people, all the crew. Normally people can throw their hat in the rings from, you know, all over the place and we would fly them in.

So that's too bad. I think it would have been really nice for Jasper to have some bodies in there. And I would imagine the bachelorette would be tens of millions of dollars. And they promote the heck out of it. They definitely tell you where they are. They advertise for it. So when they go to these beautiful, like international locations, it's really good promo. And so it's disappointing that they couldn't do it, but I think they'll go back. Cause I mean, they clearly have already built that relationship. So they'll go back. I mean,

For me, if I was in the government, which I thank God every day that I'm not, but if I was, I would be like, you know what, let's get everybody tested in LA or wherever you're coming from. Let's get tested. Let's give it that, you know, even if you're doing the 14 and 14 days of quarantine, get them on a charter, like not a commercial flight, get them on a charter, get them in the airport, you know, have them even stay in a hotel for a few days, test them again when they land. Like, I think there has to be,

Some extenuating circumstances that require people to kind of overlook that. I mean, they're not coming in on an international flight from Ireland. They're coming up from LA and they should be able to quarantine them and do it safely. I don't know. I just, Adam's giving me the...

The wrap up. I'm giving you the wrap up. Yeah. The wrap up. I was going to say the finger, but he's not. No. You're listening to the Jan Arden podcast. We're talking all things television today, I guess. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the Jan Arden podcast. So the golden globe nominations came out this week.

Is Schitt's Creek in there all over the place, Caitlin? You're in the know. What's happening? Well, so for frame of reference, they've only very recently come out. And so I haven't had a chance to pore over all the details as of yet. But I know that they were nominated definitely for Best Comedy or Musical for the television category, which was a big deal. I don't know about the specific performers yet.

The show itself was definitely nominated and that's a, it's great. It's fantastic. You know, there's always stuff competition with the globe, but it'll be great to hopefully maybe they can win. I would love that. Award shows are so bizarre these days. Once again, I think I'm, I'm sure they'll announce it officially, but I'm pretty sure the Junos will not be running in March as they normally do, which is such a,

bummer because I mean we have to be safe there's just no doubt about it don't get me wrong but it's the 50th anniversary of the Junos in 2021 so for 50 years we've been doing a celebration of Canadian music and you know for a little country not geographically of course for one of the biggest countries in the world but we have a population of 38 million people for a while there like in the 90s it was

Celine, Shania, Sarah McLachlan with Lilith Fair. I think there was just a handful of women that were selling like hundreds of millions of records. There was like five Canadian girls. It was, it wasn't, I was not one of them, but holy moly, like Alanis Morissette, Avril Lavigne,

They were huge and they all came from small town Canada, probably. And like now, I mean, obviously there are still some incredible Canadian female artists, but I was just thinking ahead that, you know, this, this coming Sunday, the halftime show performer is the weekend. You know, you've got a,

You've got a guy from Scarborough who is the halftime show performer. And I also thought if The Weeknd wanted to, he could have brought out on stage with him if he did like an all Canadian cast of guest stars. He could have brought out Shawn Mendes, Drake and Justin Bieber. And these would be the guys who are like top of the charts for pop and hip hop and R&B. And they are the biggest artists in the ring. And they are all every last one of them. They're all from Ontario. Yeah.

Okay, well now you're just rubbing that in. No, it is pretty incredible. And I get asked about it a lot when I'm traveling. I get asked about it a lot when I'm doing interviews. They're like, so Jan, what's with the, is there something in the water up there? There's so many great Canadian musicians. I mean, even if you go back three decades, four decades,

You're looking at some of the best songwriters that have ever graced the planet. Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell. Gordon Lightfoot. Gordon Lightfoot. Neil Young. Neil Young. I love Neil Young. And I'm talking globally. Like these were people that are so revered. So what, I mean, I never know how to answer the question, to be honest. They're like, what do you think it is? I'm like, I don't know. Winter? I don't know.

Is it that we have eight months of winter and we just are in our cabins writing stuff and...

but it's pretty incredible it is and I think it's the same thing and we talked about this on the show before but I certainly think it's the same thing with comedy to a degree and again humor is subjective so not every Canadian comedian is going to be your favorite or actor or performer but we've got lots like we've got for again a country of our size we have lots and lots and Mike Myers Jim Carrey

john candy katherine o'hara eugene levy dan levy the entire show andrea martin russell peters um you know the entire cast of kim's convenience uh are hilarious uh i i don't know there is something why if you go back to tsc tv in the 80s my god i used to laugh and that was shot in some of it anyway was shot in edmonton they still have some of the

props there tired of ordinary television don't touch that dial sctv is now on the air i remember going for an interview with i was i was doing interviews in the 90s for probably insensitive or something going through these stations and i was at this tv station and you know you walk through the bowels of the building and i was going past the stuff i'm looking at i'm going oh

Is that some of the props to like Edna Boyle's furniture Emporium skits? Like there was, there's things are like, ah, I guess so. I think so. This is just sort of a junk room. And I'm like, oh my God. And they had SCTV props. And I thought I had walked into, you might as well have had me on sitting on Johnny Carson's desk.

Honestly, and you look at like Lorne Michaels, who's like, you know, the brains behind so many incredible, like obviously SNL, but if you look at his executive producer credits, he's done so much. So there's a real knack for humor and for performing in general, I think.

and it could come from being locked in the snow. But I just think Canadians have our own thing. I think we're a little, like it reminds me sometimes of how, like that British humor influence as well. And then we have the US humor influence, and it kind of melts together to make us our own thing. And it's very cool. Oh, it really is. I was talking to a journalist the other day,

Just doing promo for the Jan show. I hate to keep bringing that up, but I was just, I've been doing a whole bunch of promo for it. Cause it just came out on Hulu last week and the States. So obviously a lot more eyes on it, but I was saying to this guy, he's like, you know, a lot of Canadian comedy, same thing as you were saying, Caitlin, so many Canadian shows coming down here, Schitt's Creek, obviously leading the way right now. And I said, you know what? Canada, you were, we're, we're kind of the old lady in your attic, right?

You know, you hear her walking across this creaky floor and you're like, what's, oh yeah, they're up there. And I said, but we've also become your comfort animal. You know how people have puppies to take on planes or they have their companion chicken to take on flights or whatever. I said, we are your companion country. Canada is your companion country. We're here to quell your fears forever.

And to keep you, you know, to keep you from feeling anxious. Well, this guy just laughs so freaking hard. He goes, you guys are our comfort country. And I said, you're stuck with us because we're together. We, we are joined at the hip. Literally. Yeah. Yeah. You guys stress us out down there and we calm you down. Yeah.

Yeah, but it's so funny. There's still so such a disparity with what they perceive of us. Like I talked to a lot of people from Arkansas. I talked to people from South Carolina. I was like talking to all these, you know, New Mexico and the questions they would ask me, I would literally shake my head, you guys and go, are you being serious right now?

You know, do you get a lot of American TV up there? I'm like, where do you think we are? I said, we get everything. So you get, you know, you get, I said, we get everything. I said, probably more than half of our programming, with the exception of the CBC, but certainly, you know, it's American content.

Absolutely. But they have no idea. They have no idea. When I told them how cold it was, and I said, now this is in Celsius. And she goes, I've heard of that. I said, sorry, I said Celsius? She goes, yes. I said, well, it's the metric system. Yes, I have heard of that. She said to me, I've heard of that. Like the system that the rest of the world uses for measurement.

And I shouldn't be, and I don't mean to be judgmental. You know, so many people don't really travel outside their communities and that's fine. You know, there's lots of statistics that tell us that even people in Canada live within 200 kilometers of their home for most of their lives. They don't, a lot of people haven't traveled. So I'm not going to point fingers. I don't know a lot about, well, anyway, I just,

it just doesn't surprise me. And I have to be more open because I'm going to be doing a lot of U.S. press. And the questions are,

Good day. Welcome to the Great White North Canadian Corner. I'm Bob McKenzie. This is my brother, Doug. How's it going, eh? Well, okay, I have to ask, don't you ever get tempted, and I certainly would, don't you ever get tempted to have some fun with them? If it's like, don't you get, do you ever get much US television up there? I'd be like, no, like we have a moose that hand cranks the TV and they do it for about an hour. We just got our...

yeah the moose he's just he's spinning that hand crank and it keeps the house warm and we get to watch we have one channel yeah I mean maybe I should I'll let you know I'll get back to you I um

We just got a university here. Well, good for you. Congratulations on your first university. I would want to, I would, it would be very, very challenging for me not to do, I would say 50% of my interviews just as a full Canadian stereotype. I would have a really hard time. I promise to do a couple for you. Okay, good. Because, because they're all taped. They're all on, they're all on some little television station somewhere. No, I, I just, I,

completely awestruck getting back to how much talent we have here and it's always so inspiring you know anyone that's coming up through the arts right now I know it's a tough time because you can't perform at theaters and you can't perform live and you can't do open stage mics you know all you people that are aspiring to be actors and singer-songwriters and comedians we will get back to it um I think we've got a year to plow through though don't you Caitlin?

Probably. I look up to the sky and think, we've talked about this recently with some friends and we were like, when do we really think we'll be able to maybe, fingers crossed, get on a flight and not be worried, right? And I was like, I hope it's Christmas. I hope that at Christmas time we can, but I could be being unrealistic because our vaccine rollout here has been moving at such a glacial pace.

I could be off, but I don't know. I really hope Christmas maybe. Yeah. I mean, I hope that I'm vaccinated by the fall, like October, November. I'm going to stick my arm out. I'll be like, give it on, get it, do it. I still have my Christmas tree up and I did make a promise on the show.

you know, before Christmas that I was leaving this up until I was vaccinated. And I am now, it was a running joke because I live alone. My one friend that, you know, comes for dinner quite often and comes and hangs out. She's like, let's take your, let's, we can take your tree down. It'll take us like 20 minutes. I'll get the ladder. And I'm like, you know what, Lisa, I'm going to leave it up. She goes, well, that's not a terrible idea. I said, I kind of made a joke that I was going to leave it up until I was vaccinated.

And I think I'm going to leave it up till I'm vaccinated. And if that's November, anyway, that's it. That's our news. That's our show. Thank you for listening.

Sponsors, we are here for you. If it's MyDoll, if it's Kool-Aid, if it's, you know, if it's The Bachelorette, we love you. Thank you for listening. Caitlin and Adam, we are all so grateful. We'll see you next week. You're listening to the Jen Arden Podcast. Look after yourselves, wear a mask, wear shoes, pants, and underwear as well. And wear a smile under your mask. Toodly-doo. ♪

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