“Coming out of Toronto, you know, we knew anything we did was going to be groundbreaking,” says Wes Williams on his influential hit “Let Your Backbone Slide,” “within the parameters of Toronto and within the parameters of hip hop which was at our time was Toronto, New York City, New Jersey and then there was a guy named Ice-T on the west coast. That was it really, so we thought within our parameters we thought whoever comes out with a hit first is going to be the one. I remember the first day I heard my song played in the club. Oh my goodness. They mixed it in with Heavy D and The Boyz. Me my man Farley Flex, we just jumped around the club like like idiots because we finally reached the final destination. We were considered innovators and we were disrupting what was known at the time.”
Film critic and pop culture historian Richard Crouse shares a toast with celebrity guests and entertainment pundits every week on CTV News Channel’s talk show POP LIFE.
Featuring in-depth discussion and debate on pop culture and modern life, POP LIFE features sit-down interviews with celebrities from across the entertainment world, including rock legends Sting, Meat Loaf and Robbie Robertson, musicians Josh Groban, Shania Twain and superstar jazz pianist Diana Krall, You Tube superstar Gigi Gorgeous, comedian Ken Jeong, writer Fran Lebowitz, stand-up comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell, actors Danny DeVito and Jay Baruchel, celebrity chefs Bobby Flay, Gail Simmons and Nigella Lawson, and many more.
This week on the season five opener of “Pop Life” legendary musician Robbie Robertson talks about his earliest musical inspirations, how he was booed by Bob Dylan’s audience and how he once almost turned to a life of crime when he couldn’t get gigs.
“It was a revelation to me,” Robertson says of visiting his relatives on the Six Nations Reserve, “because I grew up between Toronto and Six Nations, and when we would go to Six Nations it seemed to me as a young kid that everybody played an instrument or sang or danced. I thought, ‘I just have to join this club.'”
Film critic and pop culture historian Richard Crouse shares a toast with celebrity guests and entertainment pundits every week on CTV News Channel’s talk show POP LIFE.
Featuring in-depth discussion and debate on pop culture and modern life, POP LIFE features sit-down interviews with celebrities from across the entertainment world, including rock legends Sting, Meat Loaf and Robbie Robertson, musicians Josh Groban, Shania Twain and superstar jazz pianist Diana Krall, You Tube superstar Gigi Gorgeous, comedian Ken Jeong, writer Fran Lebowitz, stand-up comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell, actors Danny DeVito and Jay Baruchel, celebrity chefs Bobby Flay, Gail Simmons and Nigella Lawson, and many more.
Thanks JFL42 for another great weekend! I hosted two In Conversations, both very funny and both very revealing. Cristela Alonzo was so heartfelt, so powerful and so funny. Jim Norton said to me “we can talk about anything…” and then we did. He was open, honest and, like Cristela, very funny. Thanks JFL for giving me the best seat in the house for both shows.
The first episode of season five of “Pop Life,” featuring an in-depth interview with Robbie Robertson, airs Saturday September 28, 2019 (8:30 pm on CTV NewsChannel, midnight on CTV). The legendary solo artist and leader of The Band talks about finding a love of music on the 6th Nations reservation where his mother was raised, going electric with Bob Dylan, where the idea for the song “The Weight” came from and much more.
Film critic and pop culture historian Richard Crouse shares a toast with celebrity guests and entertainment pundits every week on CTV News Channel’s all-new talk show POP LIFE.
Featuring in-depth discussion and debate on pop culture and modern life, POP LIFE features sit-down interviews with celebrities from across the entertainment world, including rock legends Sting and Meat Loaf, musicians Josh Groban and Sarah Brightman, comedian Ken Jeong, writer Fran Lebowitz, superstar jazz musician Diana Krall, stand-up comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell, actors Danny DeVito and Jay Baruchel, celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Nigella Lawson, and many more.
Because she made history in 2014 when she became the first Latina to create, produce and star in her own network sitcom, “Cristela” for ABC!
Because she established herself in the stand-up world with her half hour special for Comedy Central and numerous appearances on “Conan,” “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” and “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.”
Because she has topped multiple comedy power player lists including “Variety’s Top 10 Comics to Watch,” “Top 10 Comedy Acts to Watch” by LA Weekly, Time Out’s “Comics to Watch,” and was named one of the “50 Comedians You Should and WILL Know” by Vulture.
Richard will host an “In Conversation” with Alonzo at the TIFF Bell Lightbox at 3:30 pm on Saturday September 28.
Because he is an American stand up comedian, radio personality, bestselling author and actor, and co-host of The Jim Norton & Sam Roberts Show that can be heard every morning on SiriusXM Satellite Radio.
Because his latest stand up special, “Mouthful of Shame” is streaming now on Netflix where Jim lays out a full serving of refreshingly unapologetic humour in his first Netflix comedy special.
Because he’s put out 4 Comedy Specials that can be seen on Hulu, Amazon and HBO GO!
Richard will host an “In Conversation” with Alonzo at the TIFF Bell Lightbox at 5:00 pm on Saturday September 28.
Richard fills in for Barb DiGiulio on NewsTalk 1010’s The Nightside. In this segment he talks to science expert Dan Riskin on why cats are our friends and how champagne corks can move faster than the speed of sound.
Richard fills in for Barb DiGiulio on NewsTalk 1010’s The Nightside. In this segment Richard talks about how wearing jeans at work on casual Fridays has expanded to every day of the week. Then to the nitty-gritty about how most people only wash their jeans every eighteen days!
Richard fills in for Barb DiGiulio on NewsTalk 1010’s The Nightside. In this segment he asks finance expert Barry Choi, “What’s the difference between being frugal and being cheap?”
On the season five opener of “Pop Life” the panel, Kelsey Miller, author of “I’ll Be There For You: The One About Friends,” Steve Jordan, founder and Executive Director of the Polaris Music Prize and Wesley Williams (aka Maestro Fresh Wes), the “godfather of Canadian hip hop,” discuss how to define a disruptor in the arts and what it is like to be a game changer.
