It was Friday December 2, 2011. Dean "The Deaner" Murdoch of FUBAR fame was on his way to Montreal; booked to perform with his band Night Seeker and guests Metalian at Katacombs the next day, and to screen FUBAR 2 with live commentary! I was all set to fill in as host of the Go-Go Radio Magic Show on CJLO.
To promote the event, I was given a live interview with The Deaner. It must have been about 4 years since I had interviewed anyone (let alone a fictional character), but I had to seize the opportunity and just Give'r. I mean, what an amazing stroke of luck, right?
Well, I totally blew it. Here's how...
At the time of the interview I had only seen the first FUBAR movie, and almost a decade ago at that. Instead of staying up late to actually watch FUBAR 2, I read the synopsis on freaking wikipedia. I know. Idiot.
The plot summary on wiki is dry and matter-of-fact; let me paraphrase:
Beer, Fort McMurry, town slut, infidelity, worker's compensation, bilateral orchiectomy, marriage, lost friendship, suicide pact, and attempted murder. But everything works out OK at the end because of Santa.
So this is what I had in mind when I was coming up with questions. The synopsis takes what's obviously a damn hilarious movie and gives the reader the impression that it's a dark and depressing tale of morality and the spirit of Christmas.
I have the freaking DVD at home! What was I thinking?! Why didn't I just watch the movie?! Anyway, we make do with what we have at the time.
I left work at 16:30 to make 100% sure I'd be at CJLO in time for the interview. The Go-Go Radio Magic Show starts at 18:00! The damn metro was down, which turned a typical 25-minute B-M-W ride into 1.5 hours sweaty crowded travel time.
But I made it to CJLO breathless and quite frazzled, with 15 minutes to spare. I frantically searched the CJLO vault to retrieve the FUBAR 2 soundtrack with all those rockin' Night Seeker tunes.
The CD was gone. We had no Night Seeker to play! What a clusterfuck.
Either it was in the wrong section (I checked them all; soundtracks and compilations, rock, metal, punk, jazz...), or it was somewhere in the office to be ripped to our digital archive, or someone nicked it for themselves.
I was livid. My mood went from just a little tired to straight-up bitchy. I KNEW the CD existed at the station, because I had played it on my own show before. Argh. Luckily I could snag their Genie-nominated song No Place Like Christmas off youtube.
So I called The Deaner and was able to get him on the phone just after 20:15.
I became painfully aware after my first question that I had asked the wrong thing. My remaining questions were boring and ridiculously uninformed. To add insult to injury, I ran out of questions. It was so awkward.
Another problem was, I edited myself. Plus, I was unable to ask obvious questions about beer and drinking, or getting drunk. You know, the fun stuff. I knew that wouldn't fly at CJLO, or on AM radio. And I worried so much about being "professional" that I forgot about the fun and couldn't come up with good things to talk about. I even went so far as to neglect the fun!
I'm so sorry Dean. Please forgive me. I was rusty and sober as hell.
To end the interview, I invited The Deaner to CJLO and said that he was more than welcome to come in and spin some tunes with the Go-Go Radio Magic Show.
So what happened next?
We went there. Oh yes, we did. We talked about ways to sneak in alcohol. And he stopped to buy beer live on the air.
I'll probably get in real trouble for that, but honestly... our short discussion about alcoholic beverages took the edge off, and in retrospect I think the interview ended on a better note. I played Iron Maiden for him, so hopefully The Deaner and I are all good.
Here's a video of Night Seeker, taken back in October...
Next post: Interview highlights on MP3, and a Night Seeker show review. Stay tuned.
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