Ron James: Rocking The Boat

Mary Anne Ivison (Voiceover)  0:02  
The Women of ill repute with your hosts Wendy Mesley. And Maureen Holloway.

Maureen Holloway  0:07  
Wendy, I wonder if there's any connection between comedy and geography?

Wendy Mesley  0:12  
I'm not sure but there's definitely a connection between humor and nationality.

Maureen Holloway  0:18  
Are you going to make a sweeping statement like the French aren't funny?

Wendy Mesley  0:24  
They're very funny to each other. Can I say that? Well, there's

Maureen Holloway  0:26  
that there's that sort of humor within one culture, but I'm gonna say for argument's sake, the Irish are funnier than the Germans. Hmm. And I'm going to say the Scottish are funnier than the English. I'm gonna say that.

Wendy Mesley  0:38  
Brazilians. I might be funnier than Argentinians.

Ron James  0:41  
Yes. Oh, there's

Wendy Mesley  0:43  
Ron. Okay. Ron, you're supposed to be in the greenroom.

Ron James  0:46  
I'm just trying to interject. There's just so many balls being lobbed over the

Maureen Holloway  0:50  
plate here is I'm going to suggest that people from eastern Canada like you are funnier than the ones from the west. And I know this is going to irritate people from the West, but there is a disproportionate number of comedians who came from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia and then up to St. Lawrence to Montreal in Toronto. And I would even argue that the far farther east you go, the funnier you are

Ron James  1:12  
certainly gets darker because the Newfoundlanders don't think ones from Nova Scotia are funny. So

Wendy Mesley  1:16  
that's Ron James. We haven't even properly introduced you yet. And you're already there. Right. James is there

so meanwhile, Maureen is crapping on the west. Hi, Ron.

Maureen Holloway  1:33  
Yes, Sam. I am not crapping on the west. I'm just saying that there is a nationality to humor and Ron is from Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. Yes,

Ron James  1:42  
I am. I was born on the coal town road. I lived there till I was nine left in grade three, and moved to Halifax. So my early years were with Cape Breton urs and my other years were with Newfoundlanders and Halligan. Ian's see my father's people were from bergeaud. And my mother's people were from the coal town road.

Wendy Mesley  2:03  
So we should pretend that we know where all of that is.

Ron James  2:07  
But you know, your hypothesis today is humor and geography. And I was about to say, Maureen, not exactly a limb. You went out on there when you said Scottish people are funnier than German. No,

Maureen Holloway  2:21  
I said the I said the Irish are Fighting Irish. The Irish

Ron James  2:24  
are ridiculously funny. There's funny everywhere. But there's something about the culture. I came from a storytelling culture. It almost sounds cliche now. But like the Irish and like the Scottish, there was a great oral tradition of storytelling. And, like my father, he could tell a great joke. And remember it verbatim. I can't remember jokes. But comedians are observers. And so as a little kid, sitting on the kitchen counter I assimilated all these this pantheon of personalities that would cross my parents threshold, and friends and neighbors and family and all those kinds of colors that formed the tapestry of your life.

Wendy Mesley  3:14  
And the French Yeah,

Ron James  3:16  
well the French while they timber club and cheese that's a whole different kettle of fish there. You can walk on stilts and tie a balloon dog you're getting the government grant that's a cultural

Maureen Holloway  3:26  
but the French and and I'm going to specifically say French Canadians, their humor is more visual to your point

Ron James  3:33  
visual it's like amateur night to the close war during the full moon. Have you ever been to the Just For Laughs Just For Laughs Frank section? Yes, we went down there was second city once way back in 88. We were the first thing was coming in. So we overlap with the French and they pack club soda and the act that was just chillin, just destroying the room was a guy playing a guitar just crazy. Like not playing it but just whacking away at a guitar and a guy in a sombrero running around the stage tramping on her taco shells. Did me

Maureen Holloway  4:17  
when you reduce it to that,

Ron James  4:19  
John Hempel and Aiko in her stand at the back of the room and go oh, what are we missing? We're missing the chemical our DNA is what we're missing and I said earlier if you can walk on stilts and tie a balloon duck easier work until the snow flies well Montreal it's like years ago I used to have this joke in my shows that boy they love their buskers in Montreal. I was driving through all Montreal on my way to Nova Scotia one summer every street corner was filled with busters doing something. I watched a rummy take a ship and a half before I realized it wasn't a show.

Wendy Mesley  4:51  
Oh, dear.

Maureen Holloway  4:52  
Is that too abrasive for your audience? No, no, no, no, no, not at all. Not for our audience. Maybe for us.

Ron James  4:59  
Oh, I've read your blogs. You don't take any shit.

Wendy Mesley  5:03  
Yeah, well, you I just finished reading all about you and and you said somewhere that you don't think that Canadians like mean humor. And yet here we are.

Ron James  5:14  
I mean, that was just gonna scare me. Well, what's

Wendy Mesley  5:16  
mean what, what do Canadians like? And why are why are you distinctly Canadian? Or are you?

Ron James  5:22  
I'll answer that in two parts. When I came back from Los Angeles in 93, I went down to chase the sitcom dream there for three years and another incarnation. And I just wanted to make it work here, that's all. And you can talk to comedians who've who've done their time in Los Angeles, and you get a little hit. And then you live on that little hip for three to six months, and you hope you get another little hit. And what's lost in translation here between Canada and America? I mean, LA and New York are seen as this shining grail of opportunity. And it can be, there's no doubt about it. I mean, the Americans do comedy like nobody's business. It's really something else when it's done. Right. And it's done. Well, it's remarkable. But I came back here and we at that point in time, I still married one to have another child. And so we did. And I was influenced down there. I know he's been done to death these days, but by Joseph Campbell to follow your bliss. And so I did. I wrote a one man show about my time in LA up and down and shake your tail one man's journey through the California Dream. And it changed my life. I started doing amateur night and everything began to click here. You know, I eventually got paid for my work and I was in the clubs for five years and I loved it. And then when I went around the tip of Lake Superior booking my own tour, in the dead of February, you know, playing lonesome sentinels on the frozen tip of get you Gumi. I turned a corner at one point. And I it was almost like I pass through this metaphysical veneer into a group of seven painting was fantastic. And I thought there's something working for me here. There's something that's called me, it was a calling, you know, and I couldn't feed my family or make a living and actualize those simple middle class dreams as an actor waiting for someone else to decide if I was good enough for the role or not. And now I'm pretty well guaranteed. I'm not the only direction network wants to see a dude with white eyebrows walking out the door. So I'm so fortunate after 25 years, I started blazing Trail and the soft cedars after the club I worked at closed down and began working with a great producer, Terry McCray. And at that point in time, it was like the early days of the buffalo. I mean, it was burdened prime territory. It was amazing. And so we built this following up one gig at a time, one kilometer at a time, driving to these points beyond the pale, and I loved it. It was rewarding. And then they saw me at Just For Laughs Bruce Hills asked me to write a one man show in 2003, after my first series was canceled black fly. And so I did. They saw it at the CBC Sulaco. We said we'd like you to do a special, I did a special I parachuted in for the next 14 years and had my five years there with my series, but I don't have to tell by the review of the Machiavellian minefields, you have to negotiate in network television. Oh, no, no, no. So that's what was so refreshing about the road. It's me, my car, my producer and his car.

Wendy Mesley  8:33  
Well, that's why Maureen and I love doing this podcast because we don't have any bosses and we can start a go anywhere and do anything and, and it's great, but it's also nice to have, you know, somebody not carry your bags, but it's nice to have somebody else drive the car.

Ron James  8:49  
Yeah, I mean, you know, you gotta tip your hat to the money you make and television, it's great, but nothing comes for free. I mean, I remember the Grail for anybody was to have your, your own TV show, and I did with my name in the title. And then you wake up one morning and your hair is dyed mahogany. So just realize this man, nothing comes for free. And of course, he goes through different, you know, culturally appointed mavens who run the place, some of them don't even know you're on. And anyway, it was a constant battle for publicity and things. But what was great about the road and what is still great about the road is its immediate, and it's unencumbered by political baggage. And the relationship between you and the audience is symbiotic. And it's visceral too, and you have to take them along on this journey without losing the room. That being said, in light of your mention about our Berta now that Danielle that Trump at Smith is running the show, you really do experience quite a difference between the rural and urban divide

Maureen Holloway  9:58  
Now Had you given us a chance and when we brought you on we were going to plug your book. And now we won't know it's called all

Ron James  10:08  
over the map, talking soundbites,

Maureen Holloway  10:10  
all over the map, rambles and rumination is from the Canadian road. And so this dovetails very nicely with what we're talking about because do you have to change your material or is it received differently say, in Kamloops than it would be in Kitchener?

Wendy Mesley  10:30  
Yeah, like the Daniel Smith jokes do they go over

Ron James  10:33  
in Calgary and Edmonton? They killed? Look, I was doing convoy material up there. I still do you know, I got a threat from Pembroke guy had at the agilon logo on his Facebook page. Don't come back to Pembroke again if you know what's good for you. Oh, but you know, comedian has to speak truth to power. And whether it's potentate on his golden throne, like the mutant south of the border, or whether it's political incompetence in our own country, or holding our nation's capital hostage for three weeks with diesel fumes, truck horns and crappy sing alongs. That's a comedians job. And in Canada, you have to be an equal opportunity offender. But what's happened these days is sensitivities around these issues have become far more pronounced, and far more visceral. Now, it's not a question of where you just vote, it's become a question of identity. And Wilk is bandied around an awful lot. But you know, I think I've still adhered to the adage that I always did, where you want to have the plumber and the professor sitting side by side laughing at similar things in the same joke. You've

Wendy Mesley  11:51  
written about how comedians when they go on stage, they worry about can I actually take the audience there and that in the old days, you would have the plumber and the and the professor and you would tell your joke, and they both laugh? Like, do you worry more now? Yeah,

Ron James  12:05  
I worry more now. Yeah, sure. Absolutely. Take the question of the Middle East, for instance, right, the most controversial subject of all time, even before the recent war. It's the third rail for stand ups, unless you're established to an extent that you can take the hit and keep moving. That's a luxury that I think they have in America that we don't have here because of a population difference. of 37 million people here, this 375 million in America and 395 million of them are weaponized. So you know, I mean, I've had some buddies who do stand up and who tour the states and, you know, they've been told that listen, wouldn't go out the parking lot right away, wouldn't leave right away. But you know, I do 100 minute to a two hour show. And there's a little bit for everybody. You know, I'll talk about you know, playing house league hockey growing up, or, or going to church or my family, you know, the differences like Celtic heritage and things like that. You know, you'll talk about the movements of technology, how nanosecond fast it's changing. And if there's any theme to my show, it's the average man standing in one place, trying to make sense of this rapidly changing planet and the language of laughs.

Wendy Mesley  13:23  
And have you figured it all out? No, I

Ron James  13:25  
don't think you ever really figure it out. But you try to you try to connect the dots as best you can. The bottom line is getting laughs and I used to say, if you want a sermon, you should go somewhere else. But yet my opinions on the alt right? The weaponization of gospel by fundamental Christians mental being the operative syllable, and its infiltration into what should be the secular separation between church and state. And I care about that. So if you care about you're gonna have to talk about it. You're going to have to try to find the funny in it. But like, the great Jon Stewart says, no subject is off the radar. As long as you don't lose the room. I think he's great, by the way. And Billy Connolly. I love Billy Connolly. I mean, he said he didn't have any time for political correctness, my daughter's kidney 35 or 30,

Wendy Mesley  14:24  
nor McDonald defenders, a lot of people and he died recently. But before he died, he said, Who cares if it's funny, it's funny, but unless you're French,

Maureen Holloway  14:37  
but there's no absolute right? This is I mean, some people believe there's absolute beauty or absolute comedy like that is just funny, and it isn't it's 100% What you think is funny, I there are things that I think are funny, that's put Me sent me into conniptions and other people like, I don't get it. And that's just my gift, right? But there's always someone who's going to be offended in fact, the norm McDonald's of the world would argue that if you're not offending somebody, you're not truly going there. But

Ron James  15:08  
that's one style of comedy. That's his style of comedy. With all due respect to normal I admire greatly. And everybody comes to the table with their own take on this world and, and they're a product of their upbringing, right? They're a product of our education system or how they, how they lived. And I'm an easy laugh. I love laughing of it. You know, I come from a family laugh or something if it was funny laugh, and I watched everything growing up. You know, the Smothers Brothers, Richard Pryor. I mean, Jonathan Winters and he can still watch clips of him. I watched clips of Rickles all these great guys, and the new guys too, but I think it's a comedians job to punch up, not punch down. And that's always been the satirist goal, you know, to topple as I said before, that the potentate in his golden throne and his entourage of sycophantic courtiers. That's where you want to be getting your mileage. So

Maureen Holloway  16:07  
what do you think about comedians like Dave Chappelle? And I guess Ricky Gervais, who I mean, I was such a huge fan of Dave Chappelle until his attitudes. Got the wave me appreciating him. I still think he's got better pacing and better. I

Ron James  16:24  
think they got so rich if you don't give a shit. Really? Yeah, I think they lost their empathy. And empathy is important, especially today. Come on, man. You got better subjects to pick on the trans kids to chickenshit?

Wendy Mesley  16:38  
Yeah, I just watched Ricky Gervais. And because I've always been a huge, huge fan, but he's just he's saying, yeah, the more I talk about trans people, the more people show up and the and the more money I make, so maybe, maybe that's not you.

Maureen Holloway  16:50  
Oh, that's awful.

Ron James  16:52  
Did he say that? Well, it's

Wendy Mesley  16:53  
more or less. Yeah, yeah. He made a joke about it. Hahaha. But

Ron James  16:58  
yeah, we'll go pet a German Shepherd. Well, yeah. Look, he's only talks about dogs.

Maureen Holloway  17:03  
The Irish shepherds are much funnier.

Ron James  17:05  
I mean, I don't think he's losing any sleep over everything. They lost their empathy, I think. And it gets back to toppling the potentate and not punching down. I mean, what do they have to gain from that? What do they, you know, I always think that it's the role of the comedian to move the world to the right side of history, not pander to an angry status quo. And that's tough. Sometimes, you know, especially on some of those corporate gigs where anything can tip the applecart which is why I probably don't get them as much as I used to. But yeah, that's my feeling about those guys.

Mary Anne Ivison (Voiceover)  17:41  
The women of ill repute.

Wendy Mesley  17:43  
Do you think that's why you're not getting as many corporate gigs? What because

Ron James  17:47  
we tip in the Apple card about more? Yeah, probably. And I don't know. Maybe, look, I found that there are certain aspects to the corporate world. And, look, I paid my mortgage on corporate gigs a long time ago. It's always a Faustian bargain. Right? They said to me once, no politics, no sex and don't make fun of Harper. I said, Well, what did you hire me for? It's not like my act is overt with that. But there's a tone that exists. I'll give you an example. During COVID, I had a gig for Home Depot. And we were shooting at a soundstage in Mimico. And just before I went on, they said don't say anything about Trump or Georgia, too late. And I okayed everything with the client. I said, Look, I'm doing these jokes. Is that okay? Oh, yeah, it's fine. Your shorts, okay. All right, great. And at that point in time, they were all tuned in from Georgia, the head offices all over Canada and everything, and it's job to rock the applecart not right in it. I mean, I don't know who they would be. They want rich little dough and Jimmy Stewart impressions. Anyway, so my opening joke. It was taken us a long time to get the vaccines at the time. And I said, well, that vaccine rollout is something else. And boy, oh boy talk about dropping the ball. Doug Ford, he had a better grasp of supply and demand when he was selling hash for the back of his father's Cadillac. And the phone started ringing. I didn't know I just see the camera man shaking and laughing. I'm playing into the room and they're behind Plexiglas and everything and I'm just out there. And I said, but at least Canada's got it together man. Look at the Maritimes they shut the borders down faster. No whoo hand rub and tuck Goof Off it goes slow calls come in to the agency.

Wendy Mesley  19:37  
That was the end of your corporate career. It was but you know, it's

Ron James  19:41  
like Stewart said the other day when he was being interviewed. Some girl asked him he was talking to a university I think and and how far can you go and comedy? And he got indignant and I liked that. He said why are comedians always asked this? Why are they always asked this particular question? Why don't they ask a president or a member of the Pentagon? Why did you drop such a big bomb? Now that's extreme in America, but it's the same here. I mean, we pussyfoot around our politicians. And look, a comedian drops an F bomb at a corporate gig or ruffle some executive feathers, and he's vilified.

Wendy Mesley  20:22  
The politicians are vilified in another way. Yeah,

Maureen Holloway  20:26  
I don't think we pussyfoot around them.

Ron James  20:29  
The Prime Minister's Office protects them there. Yes, they are vilified. And they lose votes as a result. And I don't want to dig a hole. Now in terms of where we're going politically because of one mistake or another. Or because of ineptitude, rather, but people always seem to be on the lookout for comedians. What we're going to say it's just words, you know, it's word.

Wendy Mesley  20:56  
I gotta ask you something completely different. I one of the last times you and I had a chat was your marriage just ended and yeah, life was changing. And and now you're dating? Like, are you? Are you like on Tinder or something? Are

Maureen Holloway  21:12  
you Oh, no. Tinder. Well, how's it going?

Ron James  21:15  
It's interesting. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting. But you know, it's, it's nice. It's, it's fun. You know, you have a good relationship and everything goes all right. You know, it's different than when you were young. But it's fine. Yeah. When did I run into you in the beaches?

Wendy Mesley  21:32  
Yeah. So we used to live in the sort of same neighborhood. Yeah, we did. Yeah. raised

Ron James  21:35  
my daughters there and beaches was a great place to raise a family to still raise yours there.

Wendy Mesley  21:40  
No, I don't live there. I haven't lived there for a few years. So I'm in

Ron James  21:44  
my condo. Now my, as I used to say, my show, I'm the oldest person in the building and I haven't seen a dog bigger than six inches.

Maureen Holloway  21:52  
Condo dogs. It looks like a cabin

Ron James  21:54  
now. But I've had it done before I got my little place in Nova Scotia and my, my place in Nova Scotia is a dandy little spot down by the water. And I'd like to get down there as much as I can. And I think in terms of the way Toronto's going, I mean, the whole block here is going to go pretty soon with 240 storey towers, and you know, I can still see St. James Cathedral from my deck, and the building here won't go up any higher. But I haven't slept without earplugs in and 15 years since I've been there.

Maureen Holloway  22:26  
Yeah, that's that's an occupational hazard and you live downtown.

Ron James  22:30  
Yeah, it is. Why do you live downtown to Maureen? No, I'm

Maureen Holloway  22:33  
in. I'm in the park. I'm not. I live near Hyde Park. Yeah. So David is going well, you've got daughters, don't you?

Ron James  22:43  
35 and 30 Gracie is going to be 30 The April 14. And Kaylee is 35

Wendy Mesley  22:49  
Kaylee. That's the name of a party I think right?

Ron James  22:54  
It's old joke of mine. Kaylee means kitchen party in Gaelic. We'd like to name our children in the manner in which they were conceived. Brothers boys, means the back porch, but a rubbish. Anyway, whatever. I set out when do you thank you? Yeah, they're great girls into the Toronto and but you know, changes in such we had had to put my mom in a retirement villa. She's 92. In July, he took a spill in her kitchen last summer. And was absolutely defiantly opposed to leaving. And but from 90 to 91. That was a huge seismic shift in her abilities and such, you know, and you know, and other thing, too, I mean, you probably find it, I'm sure getting tired go into celebrations of life for friends that are leaving too early. Yeah, absolutely. Interesting. Getting older. I mean, mortality is no longer another man's worry. You know, I have several friends with early onset Alzheimer's and I buried for in the last 18 months. And so it makes you aware of yes, yeah, you know, it's crazy. And during COVID With all those deaths and eldercare facilities, they should have been called I don't care facilities where they hired undervalued workers to care for undervalued lives. And I thought, Geez, they better get their shit together. Because in 20 years, the bulk of the baby boomers going to be roaming the home and are Led Zeppelin onesies, just to say along the way, taking a stairway to heaven. So but do you find that too? I mean, is your children have grown older and you've grown older that you're more aware of making it matter?

Maureen Holloway  24:33  
Well, we still have 25 year olds, Wendy and I and I have a 31 year old

Wendy Mesley  24:38  
there's a joy to starting late except you know, if she waits as long as I did, I'll I'll be dead but

Maureen Holloway  24:46  
that's the thing there's not and Wendy and I neither of us have our parents anymore. And so you've there's nothing between you and the end. So, you know, you're very much aware of that. I don't know very many people who do have their parents left, and if they did, they'd be very old. But you just remind me when you refer to celebration of life, when my dad turned 80 Quite a while ago, because he's gone now. I had a party for him and I invited all his friends and and I called it a celebration of life. Because at that point, we had lost anybody. And we didn't know that was the terminology. So I invited all these people to come here for celebration. And then my father said, he goes, Neil, what the hell that's funny. Come on in. Free, this is a reminder to maybe have a celebration of life with the with the person whose life you're celebrating could be there, too. It's been lovely to have you lovely

Ron James  25:46  
to talk to both of you. I'm a big fan of your blog. You're so bright, and you just don't take any shit. You got rebel voices man. Voice is an anomaly in a country with such a difference for authority. Well,

Maureen Holloway  25:59  
thank you very much. You are now a woman of ill repute.

Ron James  26:04  
Oh, I mean, you got to tip the applecart. You got to hold power to account and you have to, you know, I don't think you sugarcoat things. It's interesting, you know, to bring it back to comedy again. That, you know, politicians are allowed to be as vitriolic and as pure aisle as they wish, the floor of the House of Commons or in some media scrum. But a comedian for some reason is always expected to toe the line. Right? It's like you're still getting your knuckles wrapped by the ruler in grade seven, for imitating the teacher, although my teachers like me, because I made them laugh, too. But I find that any kind of voice is welcome in front of that microphone. As long as you're playing to the top of your intelligence, and from my standard anyway, moving the world in the right direction, and not losing your empathy for those who need it. I'm

Wendy Mesley  26:59  
glad you're not toeing the line and you do want to sell your book. So do you want to hold up your book that many people have? And it's called all over the map. There you go. rambles

Maureen Holloway  27:10  
in ruminations from the Canadian road. One last question, just to sort of wrap this up. What's funny are north or south? Canadians versus America? Oh, geez, North man.

Wendy Mesley  27:21  
But they're all in LA.

Ron James  27:23  
You know what? You can have LA. I did it for three years. It's a marvelously intoxicating place when spring comes overnight. And look what's happened here, until you put your time in there. And until you've had an endless run of unemployment in paradise, you really don't know what price you have to pay in order to get where you want to go. And there's no such thing as middle ground there. You're either winning or you're not. And I think that's America's motto, right? And I had an epiphany seven years into my touring in Canada. Word I still miss Los Angeles. You know, I've been driving to Edmonton in one of those primal Western blizzards a yeti wouldn't wander, where a three lane highway became a snow cross that goat path that Taliban refugee with a winning lottery ticket wouldn't cross in some mountain pass. And I got into the Winspear center on that Blizzard died, I had to walk through snowdrift get in the stage door. And we had 1200 people in there. And I remember leaving that show, thinking, You know what, 1200 people laughing in a minus 30 Blizzard Edmonton sounds exactly the same as 1200 people laughing in Las Vegas when it's more. And just for the pure joy of hearing laughs which is what makes me the happiest really is such a great reward. And I don't mean to see modeling about it. But that's the rule that you have to be comfortable with when you're making a living in Canada, because I don't think the network's really respect stand up. They'll pay lip service to it. And although my specials got great numbers, I was drawing 1.4 million people on New Year's Eve and still got cancelled, and people still ask about them. And you know, networks make their choices. They move on, they change, I get it. And nothing lasts forever. But just stepping out from the curtain to room packed with people sitting shoulder to shoulder processing, the daily trauma of the life journey in the language of laughs is a great reward. And after 25 years and on the road and 30 and stand up and 44 looking for a laugh. Boy, it's worked out.

Maureen Holloway  29:49  
You're still finding the Ron, thank you.

Ron James  29:52  
Thank you. Take care. Hope to see you to show some time.

Wendy Mesley  29:56  
That would be wonderful. Thank you. You too. Oh, jeez. loquacious.

Yeah. Yeah. No, he loves the language. But he also loves the laughter and I think that's really important. Like looking for laughs He's spent his whole career looking for laughs which is, which is great.

Maureen Holloway  30:16  
It's still at it.

Wendy Mesley  30:18  
I know you hate it when I do the Yeah, but you're in your 60s. Why are you still there? Why

Maureen Holloway  30:23  
are more somewhat the same vernacular?

Wendy Mesley  30:29  
I'm 12. But it is interesting about how he's like He mentioned John Stewart, it was also in his He's not a child anymore. But people are still fighting. And he's still fighting, which I think is great. His politics, I would say are fairly pronounced, but who cares that he doesn't think he has any is interesting.

Maureen Holloway  30:48  
I think also that there's a fearlessness that does come with age and experience where you know, I think younger comedians and actors and broadcasters coming up with are worried about being canceled because that's been the climate for so long and when you get to this point, I mean, I certainly feel that way. I mean, I don't want to offend anybody if they don't deserve to be offended, but I care less about you know, losing my job over it or yeah, basically, I mean, who's gonna fire me Yeah, we don't have a job.

Mary Anne Ivison (Voiceover)  31:24  
Women of ill repute was written and produced by Maureen Holloway and Wendy Mesley. With the help from the team at the Soundoff Media Company, and producer Jet Belgraver.