It was a real pleasure to host an In Conversation session with Eric McCormack at the Victoria Film Festival. He is an amazing storyteller, great impressionist, was funny, personal AND bought popcorn for the entire audience. A great afternoon with a great guy.
Read more about the event in an article from the “Times-Colonist” HERE!
On Saturday February 3 at 2:45 pm I’ll host an “In Conversation” with Eric McCormack, followed by a screening of the cult classic “Free Enterprise,” at The Vic Theatre at the Victoria Film Festival!
Buy tickets HERE!
Best known for his eleven seasons as Will Truman on NBC’s Will & Grace, Torontoborn Eric McCormack was nominated for four Emmy Awards and six Golden Globes, receiving the Emmy for Lead Actor in a Comedy in 2001. He served as a producer, director and leading actor on three seasons of Perception, and for three seasons of the Netflix sleeper hit Travelers, produced in Vancouver. He currently stars in Slasher: Ripper for AMC+ and in Hulu’s The Other Black Girl. On Broadway, McCormack starred in Tony-nominated productions of The Music Man and Gore Vidal’s The Best Man and spent the summer in the new hit comedy, The Cottage, directed by Jason Alexander. Films include Holy Man, The Architect, Free Enterprise and the new Canadian comedy, Drinkwater, for which he won last year’s UBCP/ACTRA Award. He can also be heard weekly on Just Jack & Will, his popular podcast with his Will & Grace pal, Sean Hayes.
On the Saturday October 14, 2023 edition of The Richard Crouse Show get to know Academy Award-winning filmmaker Errol Morris. His film “The Thin Blue Line” placed fifth on a Sight & Sound poll of the greatest documentaries ever made, and he has, in his films, documented everything from the career of Robert S. McNamara, the Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War and physicist Stephen Hawking to a topiary gardener, a robot scientist and a naked mole rat specialist.
“The Pigeon Tunnel,” his latest film, now streaming on Apple TV+, is a look at the extraordinary life of David Cornwell a.k.a. prolific author John le Carré. Through a retelling of his life, Cornwell examines the very essence of truth, and how memory and manipulation play a part in how we shape our world and our perceptions.
“The Pigeon Tunnel” is as compelling as any le Carré novel. Cornwell/ le Carré knows how to tell a tale, and like any good spy, he knows what details to include, and which to hide away. Morris doesn’t attempt to chip away at the façade and get at the underlying truth, because he knows, in the hands of master storyteller, a good story is a good story, whether it is true or not.
We’ll also meet Robert McCallum, director of the Amazon Prime documentary “Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe,” an award-winning look at the life and legacy of legendary children’s entertainer Ernie Coombs.
Finally, we’ll chat with Tatiana Maslany. You know her as the Emmy winning star of thew science-fiction thriller “Orphan Black,” and as part of the Marvel Universe as the star of “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.” Today she joins me to talk about playing Jennifer, a Monarch butterfly who suffers from acrophobia, a fear of heights, in the new animated film “Butterfly Tale.” We talk Butterflies, Broadway and much more.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
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!
Listen to the show live here:
C-FAX 1070 in Victoria
SAT 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM
SUN 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM
CJAD in Montreal
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
CFRA in Ottawa
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
NEWSTALK 610 CKTB in St. Catharines
Sat 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM
NEWSTALK 1010 in Toronto
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
NEWSTALK 1290 CJBK
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
AM 1150 in Kelowna
SAT 11 PM to Midnight
BNN BLOOMBERG RADIO 1410
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
Click HERE to catch up on shows you might have missed!
“Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe,” a look at the life and legacy of legendary children’s entertainer Ernie Coombs, now streaming on Amazon Prime, has the same brand of low-key kindness and empathy that made his show, “Mr. Dressup,” appointment viewing for several generations of Canadians.
The beauty of “Mr. Dressup,” which aired 4000 episodes chock full of songs, skits and crafts between 1967 and 1996, is that it was a simple, heartfelt program. So, it’s appropriate that director Robert McCallum leans into those qualities in this retelling of the life and legacy of the man and the show.
From his start in children’s entertainment as an assistant puppeteer to Fred Rogers in Pittsburgh and the move to Canada to the creation of his legendary CBC show and his decades long partnership with treehouse legends Casey and Finnegan, the film paints a vivid picture of the era through rarely seen archival footage and talking heads.
A generation or two of Canadians who grew up watching “Mr. Dressup,” including notable names like Eric McCormack, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Bif Naked, Michael J. Fox, Graham Greene, Peter Mansbridge and Andrew Phung chime in on the impact Coombs had on their lives.
More interesting is Judith Lawrence, Coombs’s puppeteer partner for much of the show’s run, who provides valuable insight to the inner workings of the show.
Along the way we learn about the foundations of the CBC that gave birth to “Mr. Dressup” and, much later, the budget cuts that threatened its existence.
But don’t come to “Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe,” looking for dirt. There isn’t any. There are no bodies buried in the Tickle Trunk. It’s Mr. Dressup for goodness sake.
There are, however, heartfelt and tragic moments. The passing of wife Marlene is heartbreaking, not only because of the circumstances surrounding her death, but by the loss felt by a man who had given so many, so much.
“Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe” is a feel-good blast of nostalgia, reminiscent of a kinder and gentler time.
On this episode of the Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet Bryan Trottier. He is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre who played 18 seasons in the National Hockey League for the New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins. He won four Stanley Cups with the Islanders, two with the Penguins and one as an assistant coach with the Colorado Avalanche.
His new memoir, ‘All Roads Home: A Life On and Off the Ice,’ is a poignant and inspiring memoir of the people and challenges that shaped his life and career. In this interview we talk about growing up in a town of 500 people and how he celebrated his first Stanley Cup win.
Then, we’ll meet Eric McCormack. You know Eric McCormack as Will Truman in the NBC sitcom “Will & Grace,” or maybe as Grant MacLaren in Netflix’s “Travelers” or Dr. Daniel Pierce in the TNT crime drama “Perception.” In the new coming-of-age movie, “Drinkwater,” he plays Hank, a small-town dad who didn’t live up to his potential. With its subplot about a Wayne Gretzky rookie card some physical comedy in a Tim Hortons drive-thru and a great Zamboni scene, it’s the most Canadian movie to come out so far this year.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
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!
Listen to the show live here:
C-FAX 1070 in Victoria
SAT 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM
SUN 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM
CJAD in Montreal
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
CFRA in Ottawa
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
NEWSTALK 610 CKTB in St. Catharines
Sat 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM
NEWSTALK 1010 in Toronto
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
NEWSTALK 1290 CJBK
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
AM 1150 in Kelowna
SAT 11 PM to Midnight
BNN BLOOMBERG RADIO 1410
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
Click HERE to catch up on shows you might have missed!
I’ll be hosting a Q&A with “Drinkwater” star Eric McCormack at the Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto at 7:20 pm, on Friday October 28.
Some info on the film: Awkward Canadian teen Mike Drinkwater has trouble fitting in, but his father, Hank, is dealing with his own difficulties. When a girl from the United States comes to town, her courage inspires them to overcome their challenges.
