And so this show, why don't you tell us why and how did this come about that you're making a film about the 1972 Toronto production of Godspell?

Well, so I had always known about this legendary production because it launched all these incredible comedy stars.

And it was all of their basically first professional jobs.

Martin Short and Gilda Radner and Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin.

Victor Garber played Jesus.

Paul Schaeffer was the musical director.

Dave Thomas joined the cast later on.

You want to tell me about what that, how did you get into an improv group and what was your experience like?

And Nick, I'd love to know, how did you come to be involved and how did you get the band back together? No pun intended.

Well, so, I mean, this is one of those legendary theatrical events that if you're a comedy aficionado like I am, I don't remember not knowing about the 72 Toronto Godspell.

I mean, to date myself, but I remember watching SCTV and thinking, wait, these guys were in Godspell? Like the goofy musical that I make fun of? Why aren't they making fun of Godspell? Like none of it made any sense to me because I wasn't really a theater guy.

So I've just carried it with me my whole life.

And, you know, I did improv comedy in college and I would look around at my friends and think, hey, maybe we're like the 72 Toronto Godspells.

And and then when I formed this new production company with my wife, Jane Mendelson, who had spent time in Toronto, she had never heard of it.

And so she was blown away by it.

So whatever I'm saying, I bored myself with

production specifically, I wonder what came across your desks as you were kind of unraveling these stories about how much unintended foundation they laid for the Canadian comedy scene by doing this production.

Well, that's one of the things, I mean, you know, like Mike Myers, who we interviewed, you know, I had no idea until we interviewed him that he had had such a deep personal connection.

He was in a commercial with Gilda and I had always sort of when he was a nine year old boy.

And so he'd always looked up to her and then.

you know, as he says in the film, like if he felt spiritually connected enough, and then when he was at Second City in Toronto, and like, he felt like I'm following in their footsteps, and he was very upset and moved when she passed away.

He had just joined Saturday Night Live.

And so, and as he says in the film, he feels like he is the spiritual heir.

I think that for me, Dave Thomas surprised, like he makes me laugh so hard and his dry and philosophical tone wit and humor and also his kind of fun giggle and you know but they all they're all so brilliant that just when they sit down and talk you you can't not listen and laugh

Even in Chicago, they were, you know, I think all of them felt a little bit nose-pressed up against the glass.

Well, and I think that's a point also just about Canada in general.

Certainly back then, you know, there wasn't very much crossover between Canadian entertainment and American entertainment.

You didn't know... you know, there, there was a real, there was a real wall up in the, in the, in this period of time.

And it wasn't until Godspell and what came out of Godspell that that wall is, is torn down.

And, and so Canadians have, comedy has always been a sort of outsider perspective thing, as Jane is suggesting.

And I think Canada overall always had this attitude, like we're not England, as Marty says, like, we're not, we're not, you know, the, and we're not America.

Yeah,

In the style

of the rest of the book, it is in keeping with the oral, it's an oral history.

And so the introduction is the two of us are speaking to you.

So I'm going to read both my sections and Jane's sections, but probably without doing much of an imitation, if that's okay.

Okay.

So this is the introduction to the book, You Had to Be There.

I go first.

and

So what's job one for you and Jane and the other folks who are working with you? How do you decide to tell the hell out of this story, which you ultimately are able to do?

The first thing, and it's interesting because I hadn't thought about the parallels between, you know, making a film and ghostwriting and tell the way you put it.

It's all about trust.

It's all about gaining the trust of your subjects.

And in my mind, company, we have had for a long time a saying, you have a great story, we're here to help you tell it.

And that's, you know, when I do private films for nonprofits, it's like, you know, or, or, or anybody who wants a film, it's like, there's incredible stories everywhere.

And it's like, my job is to just sort of, it's I've sort of view myself sometimes as being in the service industry.

So, where does that money come from? Do you fund these things on your own? Do you look for backers? How do these things up and happen? Well...

Everybody does get

happy.

I didn't know that that was a complaint.

I thought the end was fantastic.

I mean, they, you know, they, they save each other.

They each have happily, you know, live happily ever after.

And, and, you know, a sweet mystery of life.

Is there, were you ever tempted, I mean, working with Wilder, were you tempted to nod to it in some way on the bio or?

and uh it's uh you know now um the thing though i guess now and at what point were you were you already very um aware of all of the backstory how did you um where did you first learn of all of this and

Yeah, I am a huge comedy fan and, you know, love Saturday Night Live and SCTV as a kid and don't really remember not knowing about the 72 Toronto Godspell.

And I remember even as a kid in the late 70s being mystified and sort of thinking, well, this is some weird thing.

It makes no sense that all of this incredible comic, brilliant talent came from...

This musical that I did not really know what it was, you know, called Godspell about Jesus and his disciples and and seemed to me as like a comedy aficionado, like the exact kind of thing that SCTV would have parodied mercilessly.

You know, a kind of hippy-dippy musical about Jesus.

Like, what should be more mockable? And so it, to me, was almost like this thing that made no sense, a sort of asterisk in comedy history, but also legendary.

I don't want to give much away because I don't want people to discover it when they watch it, but it's a whole other tone, right? And when you were confronted with this, and basically, you know, this gospel, it's such a glorious, happy, joyous story, and then, oops, you know, Something happens and most people don't know about it.

Absolutely.

Totally.

I mean, I think, you know, Marty is the one who in the film says, you know, it was a little bit of a Paris in the '20s thing.

And, and I think they're all very humble and don't wanna, m- m- you know, proclaim themselves the equal of Fitzgerald or Stein or, or Hemingway.

But something extraordinary was happening.

There was a group of people, and they were bouncing off each other before the wall between American entertainment and Canadian entertainment had been knocked down.

It was like bubbling up and ready to explode, and Godspell was the moment when it exploded.

Why did you bring that into the story, and why do you think that's gonna matter so much to the audience?

Lots of – there's a fair few people clamouring to get back aboard that Swans bandwagon, though.

There was.

It was – I spoke about it on the call.

It was a great call with Adam Simpson, Quarters, the boys on SEN.

There are the two distinct parts of culture.

There's the on-field and off-field, and that was just a great on-field with the question marks and whatever happens in the off-field.

But in terms of on-field culture and just the – 37,000 people that were there that stuck solid and either agreed or disagreed or looked through what the issues were.

No, no, do it.

There's a fair few people clamouring to get back aboard that Swans bandwagon, though.

There was.

It was...

I spoke about it on the call.

It was a great call with Adam Simpson, Quarters, the boys on SEN.

There are the two distinct parts of culture.

There's the on-field and off-field, and that was just a great on-field, the question marks and whatever happens in the off-field.

But did they play above themselves or did they play the roles that was expected of them and they fit into the game

Footy family.

Footy family.

Yeah, he's a, I know you can throw around the footy jargon a lot, but he's a genuine seven.

He controls the game.

Right side, left side.

He passes the ball well.

Tackles strong.

think Clariton is going to help at about 8 o'clock

A follow on.

Which, one, I don't like being... beeped unnecessarily.

And I think the unnecessary nature of people beeping has become everyone's so entitled.

They're like, yeah, I can beep.

Back in the day, someone beeped you.

You'd throw the car back into reverse and just give them a little, hey, get off me back.

And anyway, the other thing is, so when you get the beep and then you move on from the lights, you're only going 500 metres down the road and you look back in the rear vision mirror and they're 300 metres behind you.

hope was that the long-dead Pacific grey whale would be almost disintegrated by the blast and that any small pieces still around after the explosion would be taken care of by seagulls and other scavengers.

And Nick, this film is just a wonderful genealogy of, you know, how everybody got together and stayed together and over many, many years became stars in their own right.

Yeah, it's incredible how many stars came out of this production.

You know, Martin Short and Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin and Gilda Radner and Paul Schaeffer is the musical director and Victor Garber plays Jesus.

Dave Thomas joins the cast.

Jane Eastwood, who's a huge star in Canada.

I mean, it's crazy out of a cast of 10, how many we've heard of.

And so that was the inciting thing was like, how did that happen? Was this just a crazy coincidence? Why would they come? I mean, for me, not being a theater guy, I was like, why would they come from Godspell? Couldn't this have happened from Sweet Charity or Hair or any other show from the early 70s, Jesus Christ Superstar even? And so for me, it was a process of discovering, no, no, no, it's not a coincidence that it came from Godspell.

They're

Footy family.

Footy family.

Yeah, he's a – I know you can throw around the footy jargon a lot, but he's a genuine seven.

He controls the game.

Right side, left side, he passes the ball well, tackles strong.

And probably the other thing that sort of gave everyone confidence and, well, there was sort of Armin and Aaron and the coach, obviously, he had the ultimate say of what the squad was going to look like.

But Toby, Rhys Foley and Benaiah have played probably a month probably nearly two months together at the New South Wales Cup level and they were, I think, a draw away from making the finals.

Maybe

Footy family.

Footy family.

Yeah, he's a, I know you can throw around the footy jargon a lot, but he's a genuine seven.

He controls the game.

Right side, left side.

He passes the ball well.

Tackles strong.

Maybe

have?

I have traffic for you.

Okay, good.

That's what I have.

Thank you.

It's Nickyola filling in for my Uncle Johnny.

Hey, kids.

Cheese.

let's start with something basic that people today might unfortunately not know, which is what is Godspell and what makes it distinct from other Broadway shows? Or I suppose it started off Broadway.

Well, that's a great story.

It's a great question.

That's a great question.

And to me, I was not like a theater guy, so I didn't know Godspell.

I knew the movie a little bit, and I just had this sort of inherited pop culture belief that it's kind of goofy and hippy-dippy and sort of sappy and day-by-day.

I had no idea what the show really was.

So as a documentarian, what do you think that you lost or gained?

Yeah.

And that can happen and that gives confidence going forward that we're not trying to come up with different players or different things or whatever it is.

Whereas if you're in a position where your best gives you a chance to win or you rely on some things or the other team need to be off, then you're probably not going to make a dent into the finals.

But confidently we can go out there and say, look, if we are mentally switched on as the Roosters and we play our best football and we execute our best plays... then we are good enough to win.

So that's the confidence that comes out of it.

And, again, you need to take away – look, the sentiment is who it was being the West Tigers.

That's sort of nothing to do with it.

Emotional

Yeah.

And that can happen and that gives confidence going forward that we're not trying to come up with different players or different things or whatever it is.

Whereas if you're in a position where your best gives you a chance to win or you rely on some things or the other team need to be off, then you're probably not going to make a dent into the finals.

But confidently we can go out there and say, look, if we are mentally switched on as the Roosters and we play our best football and we execute our best plays... then we are good enough to win.

So that's the confidence that comes out of it.

And, again, you need to take away – look, the sentiment is who it was being the West Tigers.

That's sort of nothing to do with it.

Emotional –

What does that mean to you?

Fucking absolutely love winning them.

How good?

What happens tonight?

There'll be a few good activities happening tonight, I reckon.

All the boys will be back at the club and turning one, I'd imagine, for maybe the next three days at least.

You going to behave yourself? Always do.

Well done,

unfortunately.

Knocked out on Friday night.

Oh, you got done? Yeah, we got done.

So rehab begins.

Season 17 will be underway soon.

You've got to go again.

Of course, mate.

Remind me again of their record over the past few years.

My thoughts,

right.

My thoughts will be prefaced with, one, I am not a journalist.

And one of my yeah and ahs is going to be the difference between journalists and media personalities.

There's been a clear distinction with how...

People have handled two different things.

So one, I'm not a journalist.

explain to a parent? And this

The academy coaches? Imagine rocking up to academy training this week and trying to...

Explain to a parent.

And this is not to the point of, oh, yep, they've lost an opportunity to win a premiership.

That is like – that doesn't even count.

Who cares? That really doesn't count and that's sort of not what I'm talking about.

These are people that turn up, they work in an industry where you generally get – undervalued and subsidised pay-wise for what you do because of what the opportunity you do get to do is match days and all these sorts of things.

I do really feel for certain people and staff and areas of staff in the Sydney Swans Football Club because it sucks for them.

Yeah.

Let me ask you that Christmas morning qu- question, which is, when did you discover comedy, and when did you get into the world of, of this wonderful group of people?

Well, that's, uh, the, great questions.

I think, uh, comedy, I don't remember never liking comedy.

I, I, I feel like I always liked comedy.

I, early Mel Brooks and, and, uh, Woody Allen, if we're still allowed to say that.

Like, I just, Young Frankenstein was kind of my first really important movie [laughs] that I loved and had memorized, and even the sort of boring parts where you...

It's not boring, but, you know, if you look at the base of the brain.

[laughs]