A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITIES
I have been an audience member on various Toronto television shows ("Eye on Toronto", "Dini Petty", "CityLine", etc.) on CTV, CityTV and the CBC, for the last three years, sometimes acting as a voluntary audience "plant" who poses pre-determined questions to the show guests, or at times I have read the books written by scheduled guests and have submitted sample questions to the show's hosts, at their request. The folks at CTV are great -- exceedingly friendly -- and so, on a little-birdie-told-me tip, I felt no compunction about calling up and asking a special favour of John the audience co-ordinator; namely, to get me on the already full audience guest list for the segment Moxy Fruvous taped for the Dini Petty Show, Friday May 8th, to be aired Monday May 11th, 10:00 a.m., EST on CTV (channel 9, cable 8, locally) on CTV affiliates. It may be of interest to know that Dini is now rated Canada's top-ranked interview show (it's in its ninth year) and that it is broadcast nationally, including 20 U.S. states along the Canadian border, for an average viewing audience of between 3 and 5 million, daily!
I arrived at the CTV studios at 12:30 p.m., a tad early, but there were staff there I wanted to chat with. I noticed two huge tour busses full of senior citizens (indeed, as old as I am -- "oldest living Fruhead" -- I was by far one of the youngest audience members that day!) from Ottawa and Barrie, Ontario, and I chatted with a number of the seniors about Moxy Fruvous. Some I had spoken to knew who Fruvous was, but many did not. Off, down the hall, I could hear the lads rehearsing "Horseshoes". At one point, Mike Ford came out to 'scope' the crowd, spotted me among the 'greyheads' and gave me a big hug. In return, I gave Mike a big bag containing a wedding anniversary gift and token for Jacqui (happy second anniversary, and Mother's Day, Terri !) which made him smile. He left soon after to change for the show, and I meanwhile settled into the brunch that is provide the audience members, pre-show.
We filed into the studio at 1:30, but the boys needed more rehearsal time, so the show actually taped about half hour later than ususal. Other show guests included, notably, famous Canadian fashion designer, Ross Meyer, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Dave Matheson, particularly since he was wearing a black, reversed cap, similar to the popular Roots Olympic caps. Indeed, backstage, in the green room, Dini mistook Ross for Dave, and bent his ear for some minutes about the music industry, while Ross merely smiled and puzzled, until Dini realized her mistake. By the same, Jian recounted his own "case of mistaken identity', when, upon meeting "Ross" for the first time in the green room, by virtue, again, of that deceptive cap, Jian mistook the designer for the also-named-Ross infamous Canadian snowboard Olympian and again, spoke with him, at cross purposes.
Seasoned schmoozer that I am, I scammed a front row centre seat in the
audience stands. I brought along one of Mary "Cricket" Krause's stuffed
budgie dogs, which Mike borrowed and ensconced in a Dini Petty coffee cup on
the amp behind Murray (Mary! your creation will now be seen by literal . . .
millions!). When the lads came out for their segment, they were kind enough
to acknowledge me in the audience with waves and smiles. That was when I
noticed Mike was wearing his "cool shades"; I was pretty sure "Horseshoes"
WASN'T going to be on the setlist-of-one. Sure enough, the boys played Tom
Waits' "Jockey", not my first choice, considering the age of the folks who
largely constituted the audience, but the song was well received, and it was
a fun performance. A bit of banter with Dini (I think Jian got some tour
dates wrong, though), a plug for "Live Noise", which I only got a glimpse
of, and the show taping was soon over. I stayed behind to help many of the
elderly folks down the stairs, then managed to sneak over to where the boys
were unpacking their gear, and got a few words in with Jian, who was
obviously surprised to see me there, as they had told no one about the
taping. Ah, but sycophant that I am, I have my ways, you know Some other tidbits from the performance include:
The Pictures
Thanks to Rosemary for these (pics taken on 5/8/98):
Misc. Info
Back to the tour dates 1998 page
