The Todd Donald Show

So much excitement going into a long-awaited chat with my Knight in sea foam/pink armour.. wielding such visual art TALENT - who’s talent you might have seen in the character design of recent Mickey Mouse shorts, most recently Looney Tunes… heard of those!? (lemme add, why not, Ducktales, Spongebob, Scooby-Doo, Community, Rick & Morty, Yo Gabba Gabba! and more…; wielding such musical TALENT - who’s work you’ll hear throughout this podcast and that i’ve been a huge fan of since she was the guest on one of my favourite podcasts, Jonah Raydio in 2013. Kali’s also a quarter of the Git Back Gang and a Channel 101 vet.

Hey! So instead of an abrupt slow-down of the podcast, I'm using my platform to chat about it for 9 breezy minutes. I realized after the fact that I completely disregard those who probably do as much editing as I've been doing, AND something else, or AND having kids... Maybe I am just lazy. The point!: slowing down the output of this podcast for me is not only necessary for my mental health, but it allows space finally, for me to be an ARTIST again. If I were chatting about this to NO ONE in the room, or hypothetical listeners, I probably wouldn't have made any sense.. so I'm joined here by a pal in L.A., funny-man, current primetime Channel 101-er and swell guy - Chad Rietschel!!

I was introduced to the wicked hot music by a young Ontarian by the name of Riley Michaels. Riley is everything at around 20 y/o that I was most definitely not! He’s super talented at singing, writing songs and playing guitar, as well as articulate and charming.. so it was a pleasure to have Riley on the show, to chat about music, some of his influences (Prince, John Mayer, etc.), and a breakdown about making and presenting the video for his brand new single: “Turn Off The Lights”!!! *available now on all streaming/digital purchase platforms.

L.A.’s Kate Freund is a multi-talented and wonderful show creator, writer, director, actor and more. I fell in love with her shows on Channel 101 of course, such as: ‘Mega Bitch Meltdown’, ‘The Vacationaires’ and ‘Legend of the White Tiger’.. there’s so much, just seriously, check out the links below, do yourself a favour and watch/enjoy all of it. Outside of 101 is even more great work in various genres like the Alex & Ariel film ‘On The Rocks’, ‘Creepshow’, ‘The Sarah Silverman Program’, and the holiday short she JUST put out prior to our conversation - A Christmas Wish! You can also catch Kate as she was that night, on her husband Rob Schrab’s delightful SHV show Found Crap.

Justin Briner, 1/3rd of KW’s Pull The Plug podcast (although I’m hearing things about a 4th ;), is a singer/songwriter whose made delicious solo/acoustic music and currently fronts a wicked 90s-saluting rock band called The Wilt Aways. We chat about our shared history on CJIQ, what it’s meant to be a part of PTP podcast for so long with Shannon and Justin G, making music of course!, as well as 90s Batman flicks and grabbing a coffee for relaxing vinyl record-hunt walks. Ps: WTF, TDS is 100 episodes old! Farewell listeners! JK. A small congrats to m’self though, no celebration, other than the ongoing joy and satisfaction of making the podcast I want to make. A salute for those of us who would like to be rich, but aren’t motivated to make things only in order to become rich.

I had the pleasure of chatting with JONY STUDIOS owner JONY MANSILLA, about the studio itself, him as an artist and how all facets have been evolved during the pandemic. (Side note from 2023 - this was originally an add-on to the Rosie Cerquone episode, when I was doing shorter Q&A's in addition to the longer convos. It remains here now, a stand-alone Ep, with Jony more than welcome back on the pod for a long-y. :D -Todd)

Washington’s ROSIE CERQUONE is a classically trained multi-percussionist and a fantastic young singer/songwriter with a mesmerizing voice to boot! We met through mutual friend (last episode’s guest:) John Maksym, on the premise of Rosie singing the vocals for my “Rumspringa” tribute song, WHICH SHE NAILED! On the eve of us chatting on IG DMs, I listened to her first single “12” from the soon-to-be-released (January 8th, 2021) “The How & The Why” album, was enchanted, and knew I had to chat with Rosie on this podcast ASAP. Here finally, is that conversation!

Singer/Songwriter John Maksym is a veteran of powerhouse alt-rock/punk band Breaching Vista (prior: Close To Home and Klutz), with a dedication to making music and performing that is motivating and moving to say the least. Now available, is a compilation of his 2020 releases, in an EP called ‘Fear’, with a dazzling photo-shoot to boot, by Meg McCormick. You’ll hear all five tracks on this episode, and I encourage you to see the links below (in the show episode notes) and get yourself a copy! In this episode though, you’ll hear us chatting about life, the EP, making music as well as John and I’s 20 years of friendship (as advertised), and it becomes a tedx/press-kit at some points, but it’s all in good fun and in the pleasure of chatting with the super uplifting, kind and hard-working person John is and always has been. What a year, baby! Let’s all look forward to kicking this cough in 2021. Cheers!

ELLEN HOLLMAN who you’ll remember as Saxa on ‘Spartacus: Vengeance’, Dana in ‘Love And Monsters’; next year she’ll be in the fourth installment of ‘The Matrix’. She is on The Todd Donald Show today to tell me all about her fantastic new love/revenge action/thriller from Uncorkd Entertainment called ‘Army of One’ - available today! I freaking love this flick! Who wants to hear me nerd out about it like a 14-year-old at Comic-Con?