House Of Crouse

This week on the Richard Crouse Podcast: Today, broadcasting directly from Isolation Studios (a.k.a. my home office) we meet Andrea Dorfman, a filmmaker, animator and artist who joins us via Zoom from her home in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her films have played at film festivals around the world, won awards and she is back with a new one, now on VOD. “Spinster” stars actor and comedian Chelsea Peretti from “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” as a wedding caterer gets dumped on her 39th birthday. Over the next year she builds a new life based on self-empowerment and independence. “Spinster” is being called “the anti-rom-com of the summer,” so I began by asking Andrea Dorfman about subverting the rom com genre… Then country artist Sacha stops by to talk about her EP "The Best Thing." Then, we meet Sam Maggs, an author who joins us via Zoom from her home in Los Angeles. Sam is a bestselling author of books, comics, and video games. She’s been a senior games writer, the author of many YA and middle-grade books, a comics write

On this edition of the Richard Crouse Show Podcast we meet Kiesza, a singer, songwriter and pop star with a fascinating story of resilience. From the reserves of the Royal Canadian Navy to writing songs for people like Rihanna to her single "Hideaway" debuting at number one on the UK Singles Chart to collaborating with everyone from Duran Duran to Pitbull and Diplo she is a bona fide pop princess. Then, in 2017 she suffered life altering injuries when a taxi t-boned the car she was riding in. Her recovery from a traumatic brain injury was slow and involved staying in a darkened room for six months but she is back with a new album, a new self-run record label and a new outlook. Then... In a career that spans five decades Chaka Khan has sold an estimated 70 million records, collaborated with everyone from Ry Cooder and Robert Palmer to Ray Charles and Quincy Jones, from Chicago to De la Soul and Mary J. Blige. She’s a musician, singer and songwriter with a shelfful of Grammys. I first saw her, with the band R

On the Richard Crouse Podcast this week we meet Jay Baruchel. He's been acting since the age of twelve and has appeared in everything from "Knocked Up" and "Tropic Thunder" to "The Trotsky" and "She's Out of My League" to the action-fantasy "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and "This Is the End." He’s probably best known as the voice of Hiccup in the wildly successful "How to Train Your Dragon" franchise but he says, despite all the success in front of the camera, what he really wants to do is direct. Two years ago he wrote and directed the sports comedy "Goon: Last of the Enforcers." Now he appears both in front of and behind the camera in "Random Acts of Violence," a genre film that asks serious questions about how we relate to violence in art. Based on a 2008 Image Comic, “Random Acts of Violence” begins with comic book writer Todd (Jesse Williams) suffering a case of writer’s block. His series, a grisly and successful adaptation of a real-life serial killer dubbed Slasherman, is coming to an end and he doesn’

NewsTalk 1010 host Jim Richards and Richard Crouse discuss the recent allegations surrounding the "Ellen" show. Will this be the end of the show or is there life after a scandal for the afternoon talk show?

This week on the Richard Crouse Show Podcast: We meet Dawn Tyler Watson. via Zoom from her home in Montreal. To call Dawn Tyler Watson a blues singer isn’t quite accurate. Sure, she’s called the Queen of the Blues in Montreal and latest record “Mad Love,” just won the 2020 JUNO award for Blues Album of the Year, but her music also infuses elements of Jazz, Soul, Rock, and Gospel to pushes the boundaries of traditional Blues. We caught up, talking about what she learned while busking in the subway, taking home the coveted first-place prize at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in 2017, why she used to have imposter’s syndrome, but doesn’t anymore and how her perspective on everything changed after triple bypass surgery. I started the interview by asking how she and her dog Molly are doing these days. Then, Chris Hadfield stops by to discuss when science and pop culture collide.

On this week’s The Richard Crouse Show we meet: Joe Pantoliano, a working actor for over forty years. From doing plays in empty basement theatres in New York City to Broadway to guest roles on the biggest television shows of several decades like “M*A*S*H” and “The Sopranos” and juicy supporting parts in films like “Risky Business,” “The Goonies,” “The Fugitive,” “Memento,” “Bad Boys” and “The Matrix” he says “There aren’t any small parts, only small paychecks.” He jokes that he has a twenty-minute face, perfect for character work but his new film, “From the Vine” offers him the chance to show off his ninety-minute face. His first starring role in recent memory sees him playing a man who gives up a high-flying career as an executive to return to Italy, where he was born, to search for find his centre and regain his moral compass. In this interview we talk about the parallels between his life and that of his “From the Vine” character, Jimmy Stewart’s wig and how “On the Waterfront” made him want to be an acto

On this week's The Richard Crouse Show Podcast we meet: James Purefoy, direct from the south west of England, via Zoom. If you were a fan of HBO’s “Rome,” you know him as joyfully decadent Roman general and politician Mark Antony. Perhaps you were a fan of “The Following,” which saw him play a college professor-turned-serial-killer and cult leader for three seasons opposite Kevin Bacon. The versatile actor has a list of credits as long as my arm including the film he joins me to talk about today, “Fisherman’s Friends.” No, it’s not about the cough drops… it is a is a good-natured crowd pleaser about a real life singing group from Cornwall in England who went from singing at the local pub, when they weren’t on the water making a living, to producing the biggest selling traditional folk album of all time. Purefoy plays Jim, the leader of the group, who was initially skeptical about their chances for success outside their tiny village. When we did this interview he was sitting in his garden, and proudly showed

On the Richard Crouse Show Podcast this week we meet Liberty DeVitto. He joins me via Zoom but you’ve been listening to him for decades. As Billy Joel’s drummer from 1976 to 2003, he’s credited as drummer on records with sales of over 150 million copies. Do you love “Just the Way You Are”? That Liberty DeVitto. How about "She's Always a Woman,” “Only the Good Die Young" “You May be Right” or “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me”? All Liberty DeVitto. He’s what they call a New York City style drummer, solid and powerful. He also an author with a new memoir, “Liberty: Life, Billy and the Pursuit of Happiness,” available now wherever you buy fine books. It details not only the good times with Joel, but also the bad… leading up to their split in 2006. Later in the show I ask Liberty about how his relations with the singer disintegrated… and how they buried the hatchet after fifteen years. We started though, by talking about something we’re all missing these days: live music.

This week on the Richard Crouse Show Podcast: My guest today joins me via Zoom from his home in Massachusetts. Dan Lyons has spent much of his recent career, following jobs as a senior editor at Forbes magazine and a writer at Newsweek, examining something that is on people’s minds these days… work. Drawing on his experience at his first job outside of a newsroom, at the HubSpot start-up he has looked at how and why we work from all angles. He has been called “the Mark Twain of Silicon Valley,” and “Jonathan Swift for our own digital age.” No less an expert than money man Dave Ramsay, of daveramsey.com,” says Lyons is “the expert on the culture of work, and how it’s changing business and lives.” Today we take the conversation he started in his last book, Lab Rats: How Silicon Valley Made Work Miserable for The Rest Of Us, and recontextualize for the pandemic to talk about what work will look like in the coming months and years.

This week on the Richard Crouse Show Podcast: “Black Leopard, Red Wolf” author Marlon James, recently named one of Time’s 100 most influential people. From Time magazine: James lives part-time in St. Paul and teaches at Macalester College, where he is writer-in-residence. He was born in Jamaica and is the author of “The Book of Night Women,” winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize; “A Brief History of Seven Killings,” winner of the Man Booker Prize, and “Black Leopard, Red Wolf,” already being made into a movie. About that book, Rushdie writes, it is “highly original, its language surging with power, its imagination all-encompassing. Marlon is a writer who must be read.” Then, stand-up Comic & host of CNN’s “United Shades of America” W. Kamau Bell’s Twitter bio reads, “I tell jokes, but I’m not kidding.” Find out what he means in this exclusive, full-length interview. And finally, Spike Lee gives us his perfect movie double bill!

This week on the Richard Crouse Show Podcast: Ian Williams is the author of Personals, Not Anyone's Anything, You Know Who You Are, and a finalist for the ReLit Prize for poetry. He was named one of ten Canadian writers to watch by CBC. His latest book is a novel called “Reproduction,” a love story about the way families are formed. That novel, which explores unconventional connections and brilliantly redefines family made him the second writer with Trinidadian roots to win the coveted Giller Prize, the biggest prize in Canadian Literature. Then, Sir Ben Kingsley stops by. He burst onto screens in 1982 playing the title role in "Gandhi," a part that won him an Oscar for Best Actor and a shelf full of other awards… other memorable roles followed in "Schindler's List," "Bugsy," "Sexy Beast" and dozens upon dozens of other great films. He was made a Knight by Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in 2002 and it is there that we began our conversation. Finally, an in-depth interview with Arlene Dickinson, Canadian

This week on the June 15, 2020 episode of Richard Crouse Show Podcast: We meet Clarke Peters, one of the stars of the new Spike Lee joint “Da 5 Bloods.” It’s an adventure movie that also examines the role of African American soldiers in Vietnam and how that conflict affected the rest of their lives. We talk about how he was accused of draft evasion by the FBI, how life during the pandemic has taught us to think about more than just ourselves and why he considers himself a stage actor first and foremost. Then we talk to Steve Earle, a Grammy award winning singer-songwriter, a record producer, author and actor whose song Copperhead Road is still a jukebox favorite thirty-three years after it made him a superstar. Earle Zooms in from his home in Tennessee to talk about how his new album “Ghosts of West Virginia” might bridge the political gap, going to Walmart and how doing yoga helps to center him in these anxious times. NSFW Please note that some of the language used on this podcast may not be appropriate for

What to watch when you’ve already watched everything Part Fourteen! Binge worthy, not cringe worthy recommendations from Isolation Studios in the eerily quiet downtown Toronto. Three movies to stream, rent or buy from the comfort of home isolation. Today, a coming of age story, a comic playing against type and the secret history of disco. #Pariah #Drive #TheSecretHistoryofDisco

This week on the Richard Crouse Show Podcast: My guest today isn’t a psychic but fifteen years ago in a book called “Pandemic,” he wrote that the world was well overdue for a killer virus. On the Richard Crouse Show Podcast I speak with Daniel Kalla, an emergency room doctor, the head of the ER department at St. Paul’s hospital in Vancouver and the author of bestselling books including his most recent novel “The Last High.” We talk about his pandemic prediction, why we have been lucky as a planet and if he ever feels like a character in one of his own books. Then... as the lead guitarist and singer for the platinum selling Big Sugar my next guest has employed his signature six string stomp to giant hits like “Diggin’ a Hole”, “The Scene”, “Turn the Lights On” and “Roads Ahead.” Gordie johnson zooms in from his Soundshack Studios, just outside of Austin, Texas to discuss Big Sugar’s new album “Eternity Now,” their first in five years, his love of doubleneck guitars and how being in isolation is kind of like b

On the May 24, 2020 episode of The Richard Crouse Show we meet comedian and author Mark Critch, photographer Paul Perrier and “The Trip to Greece” star Rob Brydon. Critch talks about life in isolation in Newfoundland, photobombing Justin Trudeau and offering Pamela Anderson $1 million to quit acting. Photographer Paul Perrier talks about “The Mask Project” on Instagram (search thetorontoportrait) and then British comedian Rob Brydon joins us from England to talk about Al Pacino, whether he’s keen to fly on a plane again, meeting Michael Caine, and, of course, the fourth instalment of “The Trip” series, “The Trip to Greece” available this week on VOD.

What to watch when you’ve already watched everything Part Fourteen! Binge worthy, not cringe worthy recommendations from Isolation Studios in the eerily quiet downtown Toronto. Three movies to stream, rent or buy from the comfort of home isolation. Today, going underground, a gang war in rhyme and the beginning of a franchise. #Buried #ChiRaq #FirstBlood

What to watch when you’ve already watched everything Part Thirteen! Binge worthy, not cringe worthy recommendations from Isolation Studios in the eerily quiet downtown Toronto. Three movies to stream, rent or buy from the comfort of home isolation. Today, a financial crisis, a blacklisted writer and a troubled trumpeter. #TheBigShort #Trumbo #BornToBeBlue

This week on The Richard Crouse Show Podcast we meet comedian and actor Sean Cullen. We find out his #COVID19COMEDYFEST, how “Full Metal Jacket” influenced his humour, why he hates “Mrs. Doubtfire” and what it was like playing twins in the new Netflix animated movie “The Willoughbys.” Then, internationally best selling author and forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs visits via Zoom. We talk about finding the real life inspiration for her wildly popular series of Temperance Brennan "Bones" novels, why she doesn't wear rings anymore and why crime books are so popular. Come visit with us! In isolation we are united!

What to watch when you’ve already watched everything Part Twelve! Binge worthy, not cringe worthy recommendations from Isolation Studios in the eerily quiet downtown Toronto. Three movies to stream, rent or buy from the comfort of home isolation. Today, a strange biography, lovestruck bank robbers and a cabin in the woods. #ALiarsBiographyTheUntrueStoryofMontyPythonsGrahamChapman #TheTown #ACabinInTheWoods

This week on the Richard Crouse Show Podcast: Almost Live from Isolation Studios! Richard speaks to Kristian Bruun, star of “Orphan Black,” “Carter” and “Ready or Not.” Join us to hear about life as a Los Angeles-based actor during the pandemic, how packs of coyotes have been spotted in his neighbourhood and how his character Donnie from “Orphan Black” would fare during self-isolation. Then, we meet Laura Vandervoort, star of “Rabid,” new to VOD this week. We talk about her recent consultation with a dog psychic, why you should never drink the fake blood on a movie set and her hand washing tips. Come visit with us! In isolation we are united!