Countless Journeys

Montreal-born Angelo Tsarouchas is known as The Funny Greek. He cut his teeth in the comedy clubs of Ottawa and Toronto before heading to the United States, where he now lives. And his Greek heritage has been centre-stage in his comedy for over three decades.

In this conversation with Philip Moscovitch, host of Countless Journey’s companion French podcast, D'innombrables Voyages, Angelo talks about how he draws on themes of home and heritage to hilarious effect.

There’s nothing like food and friendship to warm up a cold night.

On this episode, host Tina Pittaway heads to Antigonish Nova Scotia to drop in on a potluck dinner organized by the cast of New in Town, a recently staged community theatre show.

Equal parts comedy and variety show, it brought together about a dozen recent immigrants from countries including Iran, Afghanistan, China and the United States. They formed strong bonds over the months of writing and rehearsing the show.

Cast members and organizers pull back the curtain to share the experiences, stories and ideas that inspired the show and how they are creating new lives here in Canada.

When Jordanian-born Nour Hadidi arrived in Canada to study commerce at McGill, a roommate introduced her to the world of stand-up comedy via YouTube.

From that moment, Nour knew comedy was something she wanted to pursue. She finished her degree and worked for a few years in finance before taking the leap and working in comedy full-time as a television writer and stand-up comic.

Brutally honest in her routines, Nour draws on her experience as a Muslim woman of colour making her own way on a career path that can sometimes be unwelcoming.

“You know, it kind of takes over your life. There’s a rush when you do stand-up comedy that's unlike anything else. To get up there the adrenaline is, you know, pumping through your body. And to make people laugh, it feels like acceptance.”

Sandy El-Bitar knows a thing or two about not doing OK.

Her father died on the eve of her family’s immigration from Lebanon, she’s worked in palliative care, and, as a drama therapist, she spends her days helping people deal with emotional problems.

But Sandy is also a comic — and instead of running away from the pain in life, she thinks there is something beautiful about finding the humour in it.

Toronto-born Hoodo Hersi knew the moment she made an elevator full of adults break out in laughter that she wanted to learn more about this thing called comedy.

Born to a mother from Djibouti and a father from Somalia, Hoodo has pursued her dream of making it big in stand-up to New York City, where she lives now, making a living in one of the world’s toughest comedy markets.

She tells how she landed a coveted spot on Late Night with Seth Myers on her second night in town, writing for television with Rami Youssef and opening for Hassan Minaj. She also discusses how she continues to hone her craft, putting race, religion and privilege at centre stage.

A bonus episode recorded at the Dumpling Summit at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21.

It’s been a tumultuous couple of years inside Iran, with protests over the killing of 22-year-old Masha Amini taking place in dozens of towns and cities around the world.

In Toronto, which is home to the second-highest concentration of Iranians immigrants outside of Iran, the Mohyeddin siblings, Sally, Samira and Amir, have run Banu for eighteen years. Banu is an Iranian restaurant that blends political activism and delicious food.

Alongside the heaping plates of pomegranate beef tenderloin and okra and eggplant stew are reminders of the politics of the home they left behind. Photos of Iranian political prisoners line the walls at the front entrance. There's a memorial to the victims of flight 752 shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard with 176 passengers aboard, 138 of them destined for Canada. And amidst the protests of the last year and a half inside Iran and beyond, that sense of community support has swelled.

“People have been coming in the restaurant and saying, Hey, we support you. And I'm usually in the kitchen so my sister's in the front, and then hug my sister and then just leave.,” says Banu head chef Amir Mohyeddin. “So I find a lot of non- Iranians are now getting it. And even Iranians, there's some Iranians who come in there who's never been political and they're like, wow. Thank you so much for doing this.” 

This episode of Countless Journeys takes you inside the history of Banu, as we hear what the Mohyeddins wanted to create through Banu that they couldn’t find anywhere else in Toronto, and their hopes for their homeland in a time of incredible change.

Apple and pear trees are common sights along the South Shore of Nova Scotia, but a new nursery just outside Lunenburg is bringing a vast array of new species of fruit trees to the area.

Originally from Germany, Annette Clarke moved to British Columbia in the early 2000’s to study the ecosystems within the old growth forests of the West Coast. Her love of trees is a life-long one, and it eventually led her to open a nursery in that province.

But when climate change brought the threat of intensified forest fires and longer-than-usual droughts, Annette began to look for a new home that would be suitable for herself, her son, and the 65 varieties of exotic fruit trees she has nurtured and experimented with, including guavas, figs and persimmons.

Countless Journeys host Tina Pittaway visits the Exotic Fruit Nursery to hear more about Annette’s obsession with fruit trees, and what she has planned for her new life in Lunenburg County.

For many people who are uprooted from their lives in their homeland, the foods of home are often the first things they want to share, and the last connection to home that they hang onto.

That’s certainly true for Edmonton’s Reichert family.

Saul Reichert was the sole surviving member of his immediate family when he arrived in Canada as a Jewish war orphan aboard the SS Sturgis in 1948. He was one of 1,123 orphans brought to Canada through the Jewish War Orphans Project, spearheaded by the Canadian Jewish Congress.

Saul soon found work at a diner called Teddy’s Restaurant, and would go on to become owner of Teddy’s as well as many others over the years.

In her upcoming book, How to Share An Egg, A True Story of Love, Hunger, and Plenty, Saul’s daughter Bonny explores what she considers the guiding principle of her life: that food equals life.

Through family stories as well as her own experiences Bonny weaves her family's devastating losses in the Holocaust with her own coming of age story. 

“When I was a child, there was always the idea that I would write my dad's story, that I would write the story of his survival and the things that had happened to him. And I wanted to do it, but I couldn't do it. I didn't think I was worthy of it,” says Bonny.

It wasn't until Bonny visited Poland where she saw the sights of the horrors her family experienced that she felt she could find a way into these stories.

“And I started to see that maybe instead of writing my father's story, I could write my story of being my father's daughter. And a little later I started to realize that maybe I could tell that story through food, which was this theme that came up again and again and again throughout not just my life, but my father's life too.”

In this episode we join Bonny as she prepares a dish Saul remembers his mother cooking for Shabbat, and hear Saul recount his harrowing story of surviving the Polish ghettos of Pabianice and Lodz that he and his beloved family were forced into in Poland, and his ultimate survival of Birkenau.