I join Nick and Roy as they make a pre-party paranormal pit stop after dark. They encounter two unexpected guests and a host of phantom facts from their crypts of curiosity. Go ahead, we dare you … Listen, Laugh & Learn live with Nick & Roy tonight at midnight and Saturday at 5 pm.
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Vampires… but were too scared to ask!
Folks have a fear and fascination with bloodsuckers like Count Dracula and Akasha, the ancient vampire Queen of the Damned and others, so, to celebrate Halloween I’m bringing in vampire expert Prof. Stanley Stepanic of The University of Virginia to, not exactly shed some light one the subject, because, according to lore, that might make the vampires burst into flames, but to give us a lively history of the undead.
To date he has published three textbooks that have been released in recent editions – these are “Dracula or the Timeless Path of the Vampire,” “Russian and East European Film”, and “Russian Folklore”. His latest book, a novella titled “A Vamp There Was,” is set in 1920s Virginia, and looks at the vamp archetype… that of a desirable woman who manipulates men. A young man from Virginia investigates the secrets of her past and the devastating effect on the men who fall for her.
Professor Stepanic teaches a popular class on Dracula at The University of Virginia which covers the history of the vampire from pre-Christian Slavic belief to the present and often appears on lists of students’ favorite University courses.
Then, at the end of the show I share a taste of an interview I did with director Matt Reeves. He’s directed movies like “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” “War for the Planet of the Apes” and “The Batman” with Robert Pattinson, but here we talk about his unique vampire film “Let Me In.” It’s a remake of a Swedish film, but unlike so many remakes, this story of a bullied young boy who befriends a young female vampire who lives in secrecy with her guardian, really works and is perfect Halloween viewing.
Listen to the whole thing HERE! (Link coming soon)
Here’s some info on The Richard Crouse Show!
Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Chris Pratt, Elvis Costello, Baz Luhrmann, Martin Freeman, David Cronenberg, Mayim Bialik, The Kids in the Hall and many more!
All iHeartRadio Canada stations are available across Canada via live stream on iHeartRadio.caand the iHeartRadio Canada app. iHeartRadio Canada stations are also connected through Alexa, Siri, and Google Home smart speakers.
On the Saturday October 17 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we meet filmmaker David Greaves. His father William produced more than 200 documentaries and wrote and directed more than half of these. He garnered many accolades for his work, including four Emmy nominations. In 1972 he assembled gathering of artists, writers, musicians, and organizers at Duke Ellington’s Harlem townhouse to film their to recollections on the cultural, artistic, and intellectual movement of the 1920s and 30s known as the Harlem Renaissance.
Shot verité-style, the footage isn’t just a record of an extraordinary event, it’s also a tribute to the legacy of change ushered in by the people who assembled that afternoon.
That footage sat, unreleased for fifty years until William’s son David, who was one of the camera operators on that August afternoon in 1972, restored some 60,000 feet of 16mm film and completed Once Upon a Time in Harlem.
Then, Zoë Roberts, one of the co-creators of the hit musical “Operation Mincemeat” stops by to talk about the show and how a dead body, a fake love letter, and — of all people — Ian Fleming turn the tide of WWII?
Then, we’ll meet Brad Schiff and Jacob Tremblay of the new film “Wildwood.” The dark fantasy based on Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis’s book comes from the stop motion animation wizards at a company called LAIKA, whose other films Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Missing Link are all classics.
Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Chris Pratt, Elvis Costello, Baz Luhrmann, Martin Freeman, David Cronenberg, Mayim Bialik, The Kids in the Hall and many more!
All iHeartRadio Canada stations are available across Canada via live stream on iHeartRadio.caand the iHeartRadio Canada app. iHeartRadio Canada stations are also connected through Alexa, Siri, and Google Home smart speakers.
On the Saturday October 10, 2026 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet Kristen Joiner. She is a writer, activist, and producer. After two decades in nonprofit and human-rights work, she was asked to co-author the memoir of disability rights leader Judy Heumann—a collaboration that became “Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist,” and later the YA book “Rolling Warrior.”
Judy was blunt from the first meeting: Kristen had spent a career in social change and still had not understood disability as a civil rights issue. That tension—between a nondisabled writer and one of the movement’s central figures—shaped both the book and what followed. Kristen is now an executive producer on the feature film “Being Heumann,” directed by Oscar winner Siân Heder and starring Ruth Madeley as Judy and now playing on theatres.
Then we meet Teagan Johnston. She is a Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist whose work moves fluidly between music, film, and writing. Born in the Yukon and raised across South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, and Canada’s West Coast, she first emerged under the name Little Coyote before stepping forward under her own name with the critically acclaimed 2022 album “Sentimental Ballad”—a raw, piano-driven portrait of heartbreak. Her new album, “Big Time” was written during a period when she had stepped back from music and was questioning her future in the industry after spending her twenties trying to “hit the big time.” Her relationship with music was also reignited through teaching piano to children; watching her students develop their own relationships with music reminded her why she fell in love with it in the first place and gave her a renewed perspective that nothing is set in stone and not everything needs to be taken so seriously.
Then we meet Sean Menard and Darrel Fox of the film Run Terry Run. Terry Fox’s 1980 run across Canada to raise money for cancer research is a well-documented story, familiar to many Canadians. Despite our familiarity with the tragic story, ehe new documentary “Run Terry Run” offers up new footage that packs an emotional wallop. The story of a plainspoken but philosophical twenty-two-year-old everyman whose mission, driven by compassion and courage, was cut short by cancer, is tragic. But it’s refreshing and necessary to have a movie like “Run Terry Run” provide an up close and personal look at what Canadian unity and heroism look like.
Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Chris Pratt, Elvis Costello, Baz Luhrmann, Martin Freeman, David Cronenberg, Mayim Bialik, The Kids in the Hall and many more!
All iHeartRadio Canada stations are available across Canada via live stream on iHeartRadio.caand the iHeartRadio Canada app. iHeartRadio Canada stations are also connected through Alexa, Siri, and Google Home smart speakers.
On the Saturday September 19, 2026 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we meet award-winning Canadian journalist Greg Hudson. He is the author of the memoir “The Missionary: A Memoir of Superheroes, Sin & Saving Souls for the Mormon Church,” a witty and heartfelt account of growing up Mormon in 1980s Edmonton, serving a mission in Ontario, and ultimately finding his own path.
Then, we meet art curator, consultant, and author Anne Ewen. Today she’ll talk about a new book “CANOE: A Collection of Canadian Art.” It’s a sweeping visual history, which is both a landmark art publication and a love letter to the iconic vessel that persists as a source of artistic inspiration and environmental connection.
Finally, we speak to Desmond Sean Ellington, who is currently playing Davis in the North American tour of Alicia Keys’ “Hell’s Kitchen,” the hit musical from 17-time Grammy® Award winning Alicia Keys — inspired by her life, her music, and her community. We talk about his start working as a background vocalist for gospel/R&B artists before taking up musical theatre and much more.
Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Chris Pratt, Elvis Costello, Baz Luhrmann, Martin Freeman, David Cronenberg, Mayim Bialik, The Kids in the Hall and many more!
All iHeartRadio Canada stations are available across Canada via live stream on iHeartRadio.caand the iHeartRadio Canada app. iHeartRadio Canada stations are also connected through Alexa, Siri, and Google Home smart speakers.
On the Saturday September 12 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet best-selling author Anita Rau Badami. an acclaimed Indian-Canadian novelist whose work explores family bonds, cultural identity, and the immigrant experience spanning India and Canada. She moved to Canada in 1991 and is best known for novels including the bestselling Tamarind Mem, the award-winning The Hero’s Walk, Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?, and Tell It to the Trees. A recipient of the Marian Engel Award, she lives in Montreal, which is the backdrop for her latest novel Asha In Her Garden. It’s the story of Asha Mohan, an Indian immigrant in Montreal whose backyard garden (shaded by a beloved old maple tree) has long been her personal sanctuary amid family struggles and daily life. As the aging tree must finally be cut down, Asha reflects on a violent incident from twenty years earlier, an earlier tragedy in India that prompted her family’s move to Canada, and the complexities of her relationships, finding new clarity about her life.
Then we’ll meet meet award-winning composer, sound designer, and classical music provocateur Matthew Reid. Best known for a decade as music director and composer for The Second City, he has created scores for film, television, theatre, games, and live performance. His ambitious piano cycle Moods of Limited Transposition explores emotion through innovative harmonic language across a planned 36 short works.
Finally, we spend some time with Mundy McLaughlin, a Canadian author, former labour and human rights lawyer, and artist. Her debut novel, Blue Life, is a coming-of-age story set against the vibrant, gritty art, punk, and club scenes of late-1970s New York City and New Jersey.
Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Chris Pratt, Elvis Costello, Baz Luhrmann, Martin Freeman, David Cronenberg, Mayim Bialik, The Kids in the Hall and many more!
All iHeartRadio Canada stations are available across Canada via live stream on iHeartRadio.caand the iHeartRadio Canada app. iHeartRadio Canada stations are also connected through Alexa, Siri, and Google Home smart speakers.
On the Saturday September 5, 2026 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet New York Times and internationally bestselling thriller author Linwood Barclay. With more than 25 novels to his credit, including breakout hit “No Time for Goodbye,” which sold over a million copies in the UK alone, his gripping, twist-filled domestic suspense novels explore ordinary people plunged into extraordinary danger, family secrets, and moral dilemmas. His books have been translated into more than two dozen languages, sold millions of copies worldwide, earned praise from Stephen King, and have been adapted for television.
His latest white-knuckle thriller, “Not a Word” follows a man who discovers his parents dead in an apparent murder-suicide — only to uncover a web of dangerous secrets tied to Big Pharma and his own family’s past. Master of the “what would you do?” thriller, Linwood Barclay remains one of crime fiction’s most reliable and compelling voices.
Then, David Kittredge, an Emmy-nominated director, editor, producer, and screenwriter known for his work across independent film, documentary, and queer cinema stops by. His credits include writing and directing the cult LGBT thriller “Pornography: A Thriller,” editing the acclaimed director’s cut of “54,” and serving as lead editor and co-executive producer on Shudder’s award-winning series “Queer for Fear: The History of Queer Horror.” Today we’ll talk about his feature documentary “Boorman and the Devil,” about John Boorman and the making of “Exorcist II: The Heretic,” premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
Here’s some background on the documentary:
After the success of “Point Blank” and “Deliverance,” Warner Brothers offered John Boorman the opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to direct a sequel to their smash hit, “The Exorcist.” The result was one of the biggest disasters in movie history. A critical and financial failure that not only changed how Hollywood did business, but nearly ended Boorman’s filmmaking career… but to be an artist is to be a risk-taker. In the documentary John Boorman, Linda Blair, Louise Fletcher, Joe Dante, Mike Flanagan, and more reflect on the ambition of the film, the artistry and craft, and the value of big creative swings.
Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Chris Pratt, Elvis Costello, Baz Luhrmann, Martin Freeman, David Cronenberg, Mayim Bialik, The Kids in the Hall and many more!
All iHeartRadio Canada stations are available across Canada via live stream on iHeartRadio.caand the iHeartRadio Canada app. iHeartRadio Canada stations are also connected through Alexa, Siri, and Google Home smart speakers.
On the Saturday August 29, 2026 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet award-winning documentary filmmaker, director, producer, and editor Alison Elwood. Her standout music documentaries include the Emmy-nominated “Laurel Canyon: A Place in Time,” the Critics’ Choice Award-winning “The Go-Go’s,” “Let the Canary Sing” about Cyndi Lauper, and the acclaimed History of the Eagles. Her latest film is “Boy George & Culture Club.”
Then, we’ll meet writer, screenwriter, and copywriter Edward Chisholm. His new book, “Murder in Paris ’68,” is a work of narrative non-fiction that dives into the unsolved murder of Stevan Markovic, the Serbian bodyguard and associate of French film star Alain Delon. It was an immense scandal at the time, and Edward’s book captures the whole story.
Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Chris Pratt, Elvis Costello, Baz Luhrmann, Martin Freeman, David Cronenberg, Mayim Bialik, The Kids in the Hall and many more!
All iHeartRadio Canada stations are available across Canada via live stream on iHeartRadio.caand the iHeartRadio Canada app. iHeartRadio Canada stations are also connected through Alexa, Siri, and Google Home smart speakers.
On the Saturday August 22, 2026 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we meet stand-up comedian Andrew Barr. A recovering addict who turned his struggles into powerful, hilarious material, Barr has built a reputation for fearlessly tackling tough topics like addiction, sobriety, and everyday absurdities in a way that connects with audiences.
Today we talk about his comedy special ”Andrew Barr Goes Nowhere,” streaming globally on YouTube in partnership with ComedyBarMAX.
The premise of the special is unusual: Barr ran continuously on a treadmill for 12 hours straight—covering exactly 104 kilometers (the equivalent of two and a half back-to-back marathons) and burning over 7,000 calories—before immediately stepping off the machine to deliver a live, hour-long stand-up comedy performance. Beyond the grueling physical challenge, the 12-hour feat carried profound personal significance and we’ll talk about that in this interview.
Then, we meet Don Levers, a Vancouver-born author who dives deep into one of Canada’s most audacious and mysterious crimes inn his new book “The (Almost) Perfect Heist: The Incredible True Story of the Vancouver Safety Deposit Robbery.” What began as research for a novel became a years-long investigation into a bold caper involving seasoned criminals, an impenetrable vault, and millions in unrecovered loot. Part true-crime thriller, part investigative memoir, this book explores how close the thieves came to pulling off the perfect crime — and why so many questions still remain decades later.
Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Chris Pratt, Elvis Costello, Baz Luhrmann, Martin Freeman, David Cronenberg, Mayim Bialik, The Kids in the Hall and many more!
All iHeartRadio Canada stations are available across Canada via live stream on iHeartRadio.caand the iHeartRadio Canada app. iHeartRadio Canada stations are also connected through Alexa, Siri, and Google Home smart speakers.