90s pop culture is my koolaid… NO, its my Capri Sun! I live for that shit. Mainly because I was raised by TV
In my formative adolescent years, when my breasts were really starting to fill out (I ate Pillsbury 3-cheese Pizza Pops for almost every meal, and by 13 I was a socially awkward chubster on the fast track to Foot Amputation Town) I used to keep a folded up picture of Tiffany Amber Theisen under my mattress. I kept a gym sock there too (I wasn’t using it to go to the gym). And a collection of secret Charleston Chews. My trifecta of secret shame!
Every night, my ritual – mouth-f*ck a Charleston Chew in the dark. Make slow, sweet sock love to Tiffany Amber (aka Kelly Kapowski) and kiss that picture right on the lips.
In high school when most of my best buds were out on the town on Friday nights getting gooned up on Dr. McGillicuddy’s Vanilla schnapps and goin’ knuckles deep in all the cheerleaders I had a crush on in the back of their parents’ Subaru Imprezas, I was at home. Just me and the emotions I was eating, courting the on-screen affections of Dawson, Joey and Pacey and the gang down by the Creek. 90s pop culture is definitely my thing. Possibly my only thing!
(Editor’s note, now I’m 31 years old and I put my penis inside a real person. An actual human lady and NOT a piece of paper that I ripped out of the back of Tiger Beat)
I have a cat named Catton Oswalt and another one named Hunter S. Tomcat. I went to film school at a community college in northern Canada for F*CK sakes. I eat, sleep, and occasionally poop Pop Culture (that last one I do in the form of radio and standup comedy)
So, when a fast young hotshot named Eddie Pain (aka Starship) invited me to join the cast of a new TV project in the works called “IN MY HUMBLE OPINION”, I said yes. Instantly. Before I even knew what the show was about. I didn’t even ask. My career was in shambles. I was so broke I was eating cat food. And my cats were eating people food. Because I spent all my money sipping on sizzurp and now I was so unbelievably messed up that I got cat food and tuna all mixed up. So, I needed the gig
IN MY HUMBLE OPINION assembles an all-star panel of cold, heartless crowd killers. Some of Toronto’s top standups (present company a-hem hem included) to roast on retro TV commercials a-la Video on Trial, Tosh.0 and a few other “trial by comedy tribunal” formats out there in the ether. What sets I.M.H.O apart (aside from the unprovoked, unfiltered savagery of the subjects and the subject matter with which we burn our hapless victims) is the content itself. Classic TV spots we all (well, most of us) grew up watching on Saturday morning cartoons. PSAs with puppets and robots singing about drugs and stranger danger and accidental amputation. Long-dead celebrities. Long-banned and recalled products that seem so dated (and sometimes dangerous) it’s a mind-blowing trip down memory lane when we dust off these rigormortis-riddled gems. Music. Pop Culture. Celebrity Endorsements – a cross section of commercials from the 50s onwards is offered up and skewered alive right before your eyes
(One of our segments, now airing on Funny Or Die brought me the scorn of all remaining Cory Feldman fans. And raised the ire of the Haim Nation too)
Not a lot of punches are pulled on the set of I.M.H.O, but as the Roastmaster General himself Jeffrey Ross would say “we only roast the ones we love”. The commercials, clips, segments, and promos we set up like targets on a Nevada gun range are all hand picked by producers, cast & crew. This is content we grew up with, stuff pulled straight from the tangerine haze of our collected childhoods (the cast of comics is primarily 20-somethings and 30-somethings) These are shiny chunks of TV gold that bring us pangs of nostalgic joy, and the occasional cringe of embarrassment. And so, we pull no punches and set on ripping them apart like rabid junkyard dogs. Because THAT, my friends, is how comedians show affection.
The cast consists of creator Eddie Pain, producer Ari Shalemay and a panel of podcasters, comics, writers and TV and radio personalities alike. All of us, steeped in Pop Culture.
Dean Young (TALKHOLE podcast network) Allison Dore (Ward & Al, Sirius XM) Blayne Smith (MTV Canada) Nigel Grinstead (Yuk Yuks) Amanda Day (No Kidding) Troy Stark (Classy Drunk) host Caroline Benstead and a few special guests along the way.
I.M.H.O currently lives on Funny or Die, and production resumes this month on season 2
As Eddie Pain puts it best – “We Opine, You Laugh”. I have no idea wtf that means either, but I dig it. It has this classy, Frasier-infused vibe to it. That Eddie, all class! The rest of us… not so much!
Check out IMHO website.
