Earlier this year, I got an email from our promotions director at CTV Vancouver which read ‘Would you be interested in being the MC for the John Cleese show in May?’ To which I replied, ‘Do bees buzz?’ Anyone who knows me well knows I’m a huge Monty Python fan and an even bigger fan of John Cleese. To me, he is a comedic genius and someone who I have longed to meet. Despite a few years and several unsuccessful opportunities to get interviews, I always hoped that one day I would get the chance to meet him. Now it was no longer chance…it was going to happen.

He is currently touring Canada with his show entitled (ironically) Why There Is No Hope, a wonderful monologue about why we should not place our trust or faith into the people or institutions we trust and put faith in to begin with. A very clever, funny and informative class, if you will, as only John Cleese can deliver it. It would be followed with a question and answer session with the audience. Now, the original plan was for me to come out, give a few sponsor credits and bring him onstage. The Q&A session was going to be hosted by his daughter, Camilla Cleese. It did not matter to me…I was just thrilled enough for the opportunity to see & meet this man. About 3 weeks ago, I got a call from the tour’s promoter telling me that Camilla had to leave the tour and if I would be able to moderate the Q&A session as well.

Do bees buzz?

If I wasn’t already in orbit, this sent me to the moon.

So, last night, in front of 2,600 people at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, I fulfilled a long held ambition. Not only did I introduce John Cleese, but I got to sit down and chat with him in front of a live audience. My first meeting with him was during the soundcheck about an hour before the show. I was a combination of excitement, nerves and stress and didn’t really know if he was going to be intimidating. His tech assistant Andy brought me over and said “John, this is Marke. He’s our moderator for this evening.” John then thrust out his hand saying “Ah, wonderful! ” Yes, he was tall but not the least bit intimidating. He then said ” So, the most important thing to remember is there are no such things as mistakes. We’ll just have a nice conversation and we’ll have fun. Alright?” With that, all the stress and nerves were gone…the excitement remained. This was going to be fun.

So, at around 7:40 I walked onstage, welcomed the audience and brought the man himself onstage. For the next 50 minutes, he told some great stories and put forth his theories on why the world is the way it is, from hopeless politicians, millennials, egos and ‘stupids’ It was typical, sarcastic, at times cutting but always hilarious, insightful, intelligent mixed in with just the right dose of optimism. While he was doing that, I was backstage with Andy as he was reading the IPad that was taking the questions being e-mailed in from the audience. I would then take the IPad onstage, scroll through the questions and ask them, along with some of my own, of course. After his monologue, I joined him onstage and sat down for the session. I had been feeling anxious about how I would be at this moment, but it was a great feeling to look over at a man you have admired for so long and you were now getting a chance to get to know him better…with a live audience no less. I first welcomed him back to Vancouver, noting that he’s said numerous times this was one of his favourite cities. He said this was one of his 3 favourites, the others being Sydney and San Francisco. He said “all three are on the ocean, have beautiful harbours, have lots of Asians so there is good food and they all have a big gay population so there is great design and fashion.” I then asked a couple of questions about Monty Python, his great chemistry with fellow Python Michael Palin and their reunion show in London in 2014. He was engaging, interesting and interested. Then at one point, while he was answering a question, I looked down at the IPad to look for a question from the audience. Then, I heard him say with that famous indignant Basil Fawlty tone “Are you listening to me right now?” The audience laughed, I was a little red faced but laughed too, then said ‘And I’m not even a millennial!” More laughter from the audience but more important, he started laughing as well. It was happening. We were having fun! And more important, I had made him laugh!

The rest of the session was terrific. We took some audience questions and I also asked him if people today were too easily offended. Political correctness is a favourite subject of his and said that comedians today have challenges. Jerry Seinfeld once told him that you have to be careful as some people, in Seinfeld’s words ‘are waiting to be offended’ He also talked about the state of the UK and why he can’t live there at the moment but did end off on an optimistic note. He closed with the Serenity Prayer and advised everyone to use that in their life with whatever God means to them. He also said to be nice to people and to pets. In his words “I am beginning to think more and more our lives are really about our pets” As one myself, I can agree with that. He then thanked the audience and we both walked offstage. After getting our microphone headsets off, he grabbed my hand, gave me a pat on the shoulders and said “Well done! You did very good! You must do something else than just the weather, do you?” I told him that, yes, I also do interviews and have a performing background which included stand up comedy, improv and acting. ” I could tell that” he said. ” You were very quick and very comfortable out there. It was a lot of fun!” I said, coming from him, that was the best compliment I could ever get. I felt like I had been knighted!

Afterwards there was a meet and greet session with some audience members and, after they had their turn, I got to get my pictures taken and introduce him to my wife and son, who were at the show. Now, my son, unlike his father, has incredibly long hair. I introduced my wife Amandah first but he saw my son right away, walked over to him and said “Hello Amandah, nice to meet you!’ Always that quick wit and my son loved it. We got some terrific pictures and he signed my copy of his autobiography…with one more classic Cleese touch. When I told him that I spelt my name with an ‘e’ on the end, he once again channelled his Basil Fawlty and said “No! Really! Come on!” He then signed it ‘Mark’ and left a space and then added a single ‘e’ “Mark with an ‘e’ …is that alright?’ I told him I expected no less…it was perfect. Then, I told him how much of an honour it was to be part of his show tonight…how I’ve admired him for most of my life and how the evening had been a huge thrill for me. With that, he seemed so genuinely pleased and flattered and we had one more warm handshake. I walked out of the theatre and back to the car with my wife and son. I had a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. This was a very special night.

I posted a previous blog about being careful about the people we admire. There is an expression that one should never meet their heroes, for they are bound to disappoint us. John Cleese, for me, did nothing of the sort. My admiration for him is even stronger now. I can even say I made him laugh.

Thank you, Mr. Cleese

And there is always hope!

‘On that train of graphite and glitter Undersea by rail

Ninety minutes from New York to Paris Well by ’76, we’ll be a-ok

What a beautiful world this will be…’

-Donald Fagen, I.G.Y

Even though it was a rare, sunny late afternoon outside, I went into a dark but comfortable movie theatre to see the new documentary on Apollo 11. It lived up to all the acclaim…some new and never released film from NASA, remastered along with a remixed soundtrack results in a powerful, compelling look at the first manned moon landing 50 years ago this summer. Even after all these years, one is still struck and the power, majesty and complexity of that endeavour.

It had the desired affect on me, as it took me back to July of 1969, a few days before my 13th birthday. For many of my generation, this was the culmination of growing up fascinated and consumed by the early days of space exploration, or the ‘space race’ as it was called then, since a great part of it was the competition between the United States and the Soviet space programs. For me, that was secondary. I grew up watching every liftoff, every mission, every splashdown and recovery, from Mercury to Gemini and Apollo. And now it was finally going to happen. Man was going to set foot on another celestial body. On that day, we were visiting family friends at their cottage just north of where we lived, but my parents promised we would be home just in time to watch the moonwalk on TV ( remember, there was no PVR, VCR or streaming online). I think I spent the entire hour and a half trip home pestering and pleading with my dad to get there on time.

We did, and like nearly everyone else on the planet, we watched that grainy, black & white but nevertheless spellbinding live broadcast as Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. As i watched him and Buzz Aldrin dance around the lunar surface, I kept running outside to our front porch to look up at the moon. I had seen it so many times before, but this time, it was different. There were humans from Earth walking around up there. It was magic.

The future had arrived!

It wouldn’t be long before we were making not only regular trips to other planets, but our whole society would be transformed, much like Donald Fagen described in that song. We’d all be living in futuristic living quarters and moving about in flying cars, just like the Jetsons. Thanks to the space program, we were developing products and industries that were making are lives better, more productive. We would have instant communication anytime, anywhere. We could get anywhere in a fraction of the time it used to take. Everything we would need would be at the touch of a button, instantly accessible and readily available. Movies like 2001 A Space Odyssey and TV shows like Star Trek showed us a world that was, literally, just around the corner.

Well, fifty years later, I’d say we’re still a long way off. Yes, technology has changed things. Yes, we have instant access to information, communication. Technology has cured or treated diseases that were once considered incurable or untreatable and developed safer modes of transportation, conservation, etc. But space exploration didn’t really progress the way one thought it would since that summer of 1969. Four moon landings would follow Apollo 11 before the novelty finally wore off. The early days of the Shuttle program were exciting but didn’t come close to matching the interest and intensity of the early days. In fact, space shuttle missions became routine and taken for granted, with the exception, unfortunately, of the Challenger and Columbia disasters. Yes, we did build a permanent space station and yes, there are plans to go back to the moon and Mars.  But it seems, at least to me, that we should have been to every planet in the solar system by now. And here on Earth, we shouldn’t be still driving vehicles at require gas. I guess some things evolve slower than others.

What I think we miss most of all, and also became apparent while watching Apollo 11, was the incredible, galvanizing moment it had become for the entire world. Everyone on Earth literally stopped what they were doing and gathered anywhere they could to watch this incredible achievement. For once, the singular focus was something that was pulling us together, not all the other things that were tearing us apart. That’s not to say mankind hasn’t accomplished great things since then, but it seems today that any great step forward, either socially, politically or anything to improve the human condition, is met with skepticism or outright resistance. Instead of celebration, we spend more time in our divided camps arguing and insulting each other on various social media platforms..you know, that great product of the internet that was meant to bring us closer together?

Something else to consider…while technology has made a huge difference, we must also be careful not to surrender to it. We can’t solely rely on cars, trains or planes to fly themselves. A good case in point comes from the Apollo 11 mission, which is also mentioned in the film. A few moments before the landing, Neil Armstrong noticed the onboard computer’s landing target was a bolder strewn area right next to a crater. Needless to say, the landing would have been a catastrophe. Armstrong then took manual control of the lunar lander and, with about 30 seconds of fuel left, guided the lander forward to a smoother spot a few feet away to a much smoother touchdown.

Sometimes, you gotta take the wheel.

So, fifty years later, I look forward to that next giant leap for mankind, whatever or wherever that may be. I hope it’s as exciting and as inspiring as Apollo 11 was and I hope it will again unify a world that is in dire need of unification.

What a beautiful world it will be.

A few years ago I attended a 25 year reunion of my high school grad class in PIckering, Ontario. During one of the events, I was getting caught up with someone who I not only knew in high school, but went to grade school with. We had many chats over that weekend about how we were, where we’ve been, what we’ve done, who have we seen, etc. But during this particular evening, he looked at me and said ‘You know Marke? I’m really proud of you. You went and did exactly what you wanted to do. As opposed to me, because I did exactly what I didn’t want to do.’ What’s that, I asked him. ‘Go work at GM’

He wasn’t the only one who made that choice. We were all near the end of high school, the time when you’re supposed to have everything figured out, right? Did you have a goal in mind? Which university or college were you going to? Or did you just want to get out of school and out on your own into a good paying job? For a lot of guys, the last option was the most attractive. The promise of a good paying, ‘steady’ job on the assembly line at the GM plant in nearby Oshawa made that prospect even more alluring. Some didn’t even wait to finish out their final year. No more school to endure. You could make money, have your own place, your own car maybe…you were set. Wasn’t that what it was all about? Isn’t that what your parents did and wanted for you? Get a good job, a nice house, start a family, all that stuff?

When GM announced in November that they were planning to shut down the Oshawa plant, I thought about my friend and all those other guys I knew. Many of them either lost those jobs through the recessions and slumps in the auto industry of the 80s. Many, like my friend at the reunion, found other work and got back on their feet, but the sense I got from our discussion that night was that he could have done better but, instead, took the easy way out. Somehow, he felt he should have known that perhaps a clearer vision and more education would have made things different.
Maybe he felt like he could have done something a little more outstanding. He probably could have, but none of us can make that judgment. Nor do I feel I’m better than him or any of my other friends who did that. We all had our choices and our paths. Sometimes our choices are limited. A few of us never had much choice to begin with. We all wanted a good life, to be our best, to enjoy ourselves and provide for ourselves and those we care about. We just had different ways of doing it.

Oshawa is not the only community going through this either. This scenario has played out and continues in many one industry towns across

Ontario and the rest of the country. My first job in radio was in Sault Ste Marie, not long after graduating high school and completing college. I was one of those rare young men in their early 20’s who lived there but was not working at the town’s largest employer, which was Algoma Steel. Any guy my age was probably already 3 or 4 years into his job there with a family and mortgage payments. I wonder how many of them survived the years of downturns, restructuring and adjustments that followed.

We’ve all seen the concepts of work and career change over the years. A steady, well paying job at one place until retirement seems like an ancient concept, but it many ways is still a noble one. But in these days when industry and corporations see their employees as liability rather than nobility, respect for that work ethic seems like an ancient concept too.

For many people of my generation, Remembrance Day is not lost on us. We are the sons and daughters of men and women who either fought, served or lost their lives in war, but also many of our parents had lived under occupation in Europe. Both my mother and father were teenagers in the Netherlands during that time.

My biggest worry when I was a teenager was whether or not I could get Rolling Stones tickets. For them, it was staying alive. So I learned very early on how important this day was and how significant Canada was in the liberation of The Netherlands. But even I could get a little distracted or distant as the years went on, concentrating less on what the day meant and looking at it more as a day off. Now, the big concern is whether the meaning is losing significance with each generation after, even though we’ve lost soldiers in recent conflicts like Afghanistan.   Sure, it will be taught and studied in history classes, but how does one really continue to understand as more time passes and those who saw it first hand continue to pass as well?

Not everyone can experience this, but I had a reminder about 4 years ago. We were fortunate enough to do another trip to France with Scenic tours on CTV Morning Live. This time, we toured the north of France and our last stop was Juno Beach and the memorial centre there. But it was a trip to the Canadian Military Cemetery at Beny Sur Mer that it really hits you.

Walking among the headstones, each of them with the name, hometown and birthdate of each soldier.  The youngest I read was 18, the oldest was 35.  Row after row, after row. Each of them was someone’s son, brother, uncle, father, grandfather. Men and women at the start or prime of their lives. No one can look at that and not be overwhelmed by what is the true and tragic cost of war. It is also why we should, in another sense, fight like hell that this could never, ever, happen again.

Like I said, not everyone can experience this, but it was a reminder of how lucky I am and we all are. Let’s hope we can continue to remember this not only on November 11th but every day. Every generation..from now on.