House of Crouse

This week on the Richard Crouse Show we meet author Eugene Marten. His latest powerful new novel “Pure Life” is the sprawling story of the rise and fall of a former professional American Football player, Nineteen, who claws his way from a working-class background to wealth and fame before losing everything.

Then, we get to know Mark O’Brien. As an actor, Mark is one of the stars of Showtime’s "City on a Hill," starring opposite Kevin Bacon and produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. You’ve seen him on the Amazon series "The Last Tycoon" opposite Kelsey Grammar, and will soon see him in the recurring guest star role of ambitious Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Thomas Milligan in the second season of HBOs popular “Perry Mason” reboot. Today we’ll talk about “The Righteous,” his debut as a feature film director… oh, and he also wrote it and stars as well as Aaron, a mysterious young man who turns the life of a former priest upside down.

Finally, director Sunnie McFadden-Curtis stops by to talk about “Broken Vows: Stories Of Separation,” a new documentary that takes you into the lives of women experiencing separation.

This week on the Richard Crouse Show we meet Kevin Doyle. He is one of the stars of “Downton Abbey: A New Era,” the big screen continuation of the adventures of the aristocratic Crawley family. Doyle plays the Abbey's former second footman, and now village school master, Joseph Molesley and was a regular on the beloved television series for all six seasons.

I spoke with Kevin Doyle during the release of the first Downton Abbey movie, on the show’s popularity and learning the ins and outs of being a footman at the Abbey.

We’ll also meet award-winning Sri Lankan Canadian novelist Shyam Selvadurai. His new novel “Mansions of the Moon” is a reimagining of ancient India through the extraordinary life of Yasodhara, the woman who married the Buddha.

Then: Did you have a toy light sabre when you were a kid? I did… it was a Kenner Inflatable Light Saber that kept me and my friends safe from the Darth Vader and the Dark Side when I was thirteen years old. Later in the show we’ll meet Roger Christian, the English set decorator, production designer and feature film director who won an Academy Award for his work on the original Star Wars and was Oscar-nominated for his work on Alien. He is the man who built the lightsaber, probably one of the most famous props in movie history. He stops by to talk about his new film, a memoir documentary called Galaxy Built on Hope, which fills in a major missing chapter in the history of the making of "Star Wars." The film tells the story of the Star Wars Art Department and how Roger worked with the brilliant production designer John Barry to bring George Lucas' fantastic vision to the big screen on a budget.

This week on the Richard Crouse Show we revisit an interview with the late, great Gilbert Gottfried. As you probably already know, the legendary comedian passed away last month at the age of 67. I saw him perform just two weeks before his died, and while he looked frail, he delivered a show that was sweet, funny and incredibly rude, sometimes all at once, and that was Gilbert’s magic. There was no one else quite like him, no one as fearless as he was on stage, or as funny.

This conversation dates from the release of the 2017 documentary Gilbert. We talk about the beginnings of his stand-up career, why he doesn’t want his kids to follow in his footsteps and his legendary telling of The Aristocrats, the filthiest joke ever told, in the weeks following 9/11 and how that brough laughter back to New York City.

Then we’ll meet Professor William Irwin of the Philosophy Department of King's College in Pennsylvania. He is a philosophy professor, literary critic, and heavy metal scholar whose new book “The Meaning of Metallica: Ride the Lyrics,” takes a serious look at the lyrics of metal’s biggest band, disentangling double meanings, explaining stories, uncovering sources, and illuminating themes such as hope, despair, rage, resilience, power, liberty, justice, love, death, and insanity.

Do you have young kids at home? If so, a new series might be just the thing you’re looking for. “Luna, Chip and Inkie: Adventure Rangers Go” is a new series for 3-6 year olds will be available free and commercial free across Canada on the Knowledge Kids app and website. Within British Columbia, the series will also be available to watch on television on the Knowledge Network station.

Creating the music for the series is my guest Daniel Ingram. He is one of the top songwriters working in Children’s/Family entertainment and he has written songs for Emily Blunt, Zoey Saldana, Kristin Chenoweth and even Weird Al Yankovic. He has scored hundreds of episodes of television and most popular songs on YouTube have over 100 million online views, with a cumulative catalogue approaching one billion views.

This week on the Richard Crouse Show we have a look at a new series on Prime Video that reunites one of Canada’s favorite comedy troupes. From 1989 to 1995 the Kids in the Hall, comedians Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson, bounced around the dial, with their eponymously named television show, bringing with them subversive comedy and loads of laughs.

These days there is a Kids in the Hall renaissance of a sort happening. A biography by Paul Myers titled “The Kids in the Hall: One Dumb Guy” is available wherever fine books are sold, a two-part documentary called “The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks” will feature archival footage from the quintet's earliest years, behind-the-scenes clips from their sketch series and in-depth interviews… most excitingly, there the Kids are back together in front of a camera for a new eight-episode season on Amazon Prime, executive produced by Lorne Michaels. The revival is set to broadcast on May 13, 2022.

Joining me to talk about the Kids in the Hall, past and present is co-founder Dave Foley and Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet drummer Don Pyle, whose song "Having an Average Weekend", was used as the theme to original Kids TV show.

This week on the Richard Crouse Show we meet comedian Jessica Kirson. We talk about how her grandmother influenced her to follow her dreams and how she cultivated her talent. Keep up with Jessica check out her website jessicakirson.com and check out her entertaining podcast, “Relatively Sane Podcast,” which is available everywhere you listen to podcasts.

Then author Michael Barclay stops by. His book “Hearts on Fire” is about the creative explosion in Canadian music of the early 2000s. In the conversation we talk about how the fiercely independent Canadian spirit of the early 2000s plus musicians and bands like, Arcade Fire, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Feist, Tegan and Sara and Alexisonfire, who embraced, what Barclay calls their weirdness to great success. If you love music, you’ll want to hear this interview.

Then we’ll meet Raeann Brown who joined me from Wabush, Newfoundland to talk about her new book “Bedtime in Nunatsiavut,” which is described as an “Indigenous fairytale of dreams."

This week on the Richard Crouse Show we get to know Jamie Chai Yun Liew. She is a lawyer and law professor specializing in immigration, refugee, and citizenship law and the creator of the podcast Migration Conversations. She brings that experience to her critically acclaimed debut novel “Dandelion,” the story of an Asian woman who traces her mother's past journey in order to learn who she really is and where she belongs.

Then, we meet Mayim Bialik. She has played neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler on the incredibly popular “Big Bang Theory,” written books, earned a Phd in in neuroscience from UCLA and currently stars in the new sitcom Call Me Kat and hosts the primetime version of Jeopardy. Today she joins me to talk about her directorial debut “As They Made Us,” a family drama starring Candice Bergen and Dustin Hoffman.

We wrap up with NoViolet Bulawayo, whose new novel “Glory,” is set in the fictionalized country of Jidada. It is a brash and boisterous take on NoViolet’s home country of Zimbabwe and its political life.

On this week’s Richard Crouse Show we meet Katherine Ryan. She is a Canadian who moved to England in 2007 and now Brits know and love her from the many panel shows she’s appeared on, her wildly popular no-filter podcast Telling Everybody Everything or her Netflix comedy-drama “The Duchess.”

On this week’s Richard Crouse Show we meet Katherine Ryan. She is a Canadian who moved to England in 2007 with a boyfriend who wanted to start a comedy

She's known for being hilariously herself in a non-apologetic way, so it doesn’t comes as a surprise that her latest project, a memoir that details her rise to U.K. fame and her Canadian life before that as a Hooters waiter and Ryerson student, and before that her life in Sarnia, is called “The Audacity.”

We’ll also get to know actor Tim Roth. The English actor is perhaps best known for his collaborations with Quentin Tarantino… movies like “Reservoir Dogs,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Four Rooms” and “The Hateful Eight.” He is a Golden Globe and Oscar nominated actor who returns to theatres in Sundown, an intriguing film about a man who radically changes his life. We’ll talk all about that movie, his memorable turn in Pulp Fiction and his upcoming role in “She-Hulk,” opposite Tatiana Maslany later in the show.

The we meet comedian Charlie Demers. CBC radio called him “one of the smartest comics out there.” He is an acclaimed Vancouver playwright, author, radio personality, voice actor and comedian and also has a new comedy album called “I Hope I Don’t Remember This My Whole Life” available now wherever you legally buy and download albums.

An in-depth conversation with the late, great Gilbert Gottfried.

On this episode of the Richard Crouse Podcast we’ll meet Ke Huy Quan, the star of the most aptly titled movie of the year. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is a wild and woolly adventure where the quirk factor is turned up to 11 and literally anything could happen. It’s a full tilt boogie story about a laundromat owner in trouble with the IRS who is sent off to another dimension to battle an evil spirit called Jobu Tupaki.

You know Ke Huy Quan as Short Round, the plucky kid companion to Indiana Jones in The Temple Of Doom and from a role in cult classic comedy-adventure The Goonies. We’ll talk about why he chose to return to acting in “Everything Everywhere All at Once” after a twenty year break from Hollywood.

Then, we’ll meet meet Nicole Lundrigan. She is the author of several critically acclaimed novels, including her latest book, “An Unthinkable Thing.” It is the story of a young boy scarred by tragedy that brings him into the home of a "perfect" family--one whose dark secrets begin closing in, until a horrifying moment changes everything.

On this week’s Richard Crouse Show I’ll tell you about a new movie playing in theatres right now. “Run Woman Run” is the story of Beck, an Indigenous single mom at a crossroad. Ambitionless, when she isn’t binge eating, she’s hopping in the car to go check the mail… from the mailbox at the end of her driveway. Following a health scare, she decides to change her life through marathon running.

"Run Woman Run" is a lighthearted film with serious messages of recovery from residential school trauma, self-discovery and the erasure of Indigenous languages. It doesn’t shy away from the big topics, but at its heart it is an underdog story about overcoming obstacles and belief in one’s self.

I spoke with the film’s director Zoe Hopkins and breakout star Dakota Ray Hebert in separate interviews, which I have stitched them together to tell the story of the making of this wonderful film.

Then, Chris Hadfield, astronaut, engineer, singer, and fighter pilot and now author of a thriller called “The Apollo Murders” stops by to talk about his book and much more.