13: Michael Palin

Tantoo Cardinal is ready for her close-up. At 68 years old, and after 48 years as an actress on stage and screen — a run that’s earned her everything from the Order of Canada to the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television’s Earle Grey Award for lifetime achievement — the Indigenous actress has finally landed her first starring role in a feature film. It seems improbable, after a celebrated career that includes roles in films like Dances With Wolves and Legends of the Fall, that Cardinal had never received top billing, but Falls Around Her, a film about an Anishinaabe musician (Cardinal) who returns to her northern Ontario community in a futile attempt to return to the land and leave fame behind, corrects that oversight. Mike conducted this interview with Cardinal last September via cellphone, as the actress was out and about preparing for the film’s world premiere at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. Nevertheless, Cardinal discussed everything from Falls Around Her to her childhood artistic influences, activism, the importance of Indigenous filmmaking and so much more.

Canadian comedy legend Mary Walsh has enough Awards to, well, last a lifetime. The 66-year-old CODCO alum, who created and co-starred on This Hour Has 22 Minutes — appearing most famously as political reporter Marg Delahunty, taking Prime Ministers and other politicos to task in hilarious fashion — has previously been honoured with both the Governor General’s Performing Arts Lifetime Achievement Award and the Order of Canada. And now, at the Canadian Screen Awards on Sunday, March 31, she’ll receive the Earle Grey Award for her extensive career and influence on Canadian comedy. Using the term “wrinkled radicals” to describe women in their third act of life, Walsh is on a personal crusade, both personally and professionally, to redefine the boundaries of what can be accomplished by people in their 60s, 70s, 80s and beyond. As such, she sat down with Ages & Icons in the Zoomerplex in downtown Toronto for one of the funniest episodes we’ve ever recorded.

It’s two for the price of one in this Ages & Icons double-header, featuring a pair of hunky 1990s Hollywood heroes discussing how they’ve stepped up once again to save the day. The Hoff - David Hasselhoff is back to save Berlin, and the world, against the backdrop of the Cold War in the brand new Audible audiobook Up Against the Wall – which he also wrote, narrates and voices all the characters for. We talk to the 66-year-old about this new international adventure as well as his career, Knight Rider reminiscences and more before Gina does the unthinkable and, you guessed it, hassles the Hoff. Next up is Billy Baldwin, the 56-year-old brother of Alec, Daniel and Stephen and the sibling who’s most earned the moniker “the Canadian Baldwin.” In our interview, the star of the 1991 firefighter drama Backdraft recalls decades spent filming movies and TV shows in every corner of Canada, as well as championing countless philanthropic efforts in the Great White North, and the one obscure film of his that Canadian fans love.

In the most candid and personal Ages & Icons interview to date, Canadian broadcasting great Erin Davis, 56, sits down for a poignant and, yes, humorous one-on-one discussion about her journey from unimaginable grief to rediscovering happiness following the sudden death of her 24-year-old daughter Lauren in 2015. Davis, the long time, top-rated morning host on Toronto’s CHFI station and author of the new book Mourning Has Broken: Love, Loss and Reclaiming Joy, received the worst news a parent can hear just before going on air one morning in early May, 2015. Using her unique insight and trademark wit, Davis holds nothing back in guiding us through the struggles and successes on her road to regaining happiness in her life, offering an uplifting example for overcoming grief to smile, laugh and be joyful again.

Welcome to season two of Ages & Icons! We’re back with legendary Foreigner founding member, guitarist and songwriter Mick Jones, as he continues to ramp up the music. The 74-year-old is preparing for the band’s upcoming Cold As Ice Canadian tour and the possible release of new Foreigner music with another of the group’s founding members, Lou Gramm. The songs Jones contributed to Foreigner – include “I Wanna Know What Love Is,” “Hot Blooded,” “Waiting for a Girl Like You,” “Cold As Ice,” and “Feels Like The First Time”, helping to propel the band to record sales topping 80 million worldwide, making Foreigner one of the best-selling groups of all time. Here, Mick Jones discussed his legendary career, his memories of meeting the Beatles in the 1960s and how it feels to be musically relevant and performing at the age of 74.

Join Ages & Icons hosts Mike and Gina as they dig into the year that was, pop culture of the holidays and of course silly wishes for mankind. Also, they invited some special Zoomer guests to riff on this year’s royal wedding, which royal baby names they prefer (Wayne, anyone?), the progression of the Me Too movement, aging rock & rollers, a holiday trivia game and so much more.

Funny, fascinating and thoughtful, this is the most personal interview we have ever conducted on Ages & Icons. Ages & Icons caught up with actor Alan Arkin to discuss everything from his terrifying past life experience to his long psychological journey and how it’s affected him as he ages. And, of course, we asked him about his career, The Kominsky Method, why he and his wife love keeping a residence on Cape Breton Island and so much more. A terrifying past life experience. Unexplained miracles. The fruits of Freudian analysis. It’s all part of Oscar and Tony-winning actor Alan Arkin’s latest Audible audiobook, Out of My Mind, in which he chronicles 50 years of living as a spiritual and psychological work in progress, attempting to carve out a belief system of his own.

Rick Mercer spoke with Mike about his book, the state of political satire today and the one person he wishes he could have hung out with on his show. Mercer is definitely not retired. Sure, he stepped away from his top-rated Canadian comedy show, The Rick Mercer Report, this past April after 15 seasons. If you think, however, that that means the 49-year-old is sitting at home twiddling his thumbs, think again. In fact, Mercer’s used his newfound free time to build a cabin and compile a new book, Rick Mercer Final Report, a collection of his most memorable rants — a RMR trademark — from the show’s run, covering everything from politics to elevator etiquette. “We would call certain rants evergreen, meaning that they could go anytime and that would be a perfect example, how Canadian’s don’t know how to get on and off elevators. And you know, that’s as relevant today as it was when it was written.” Zoomer Magazine's arts & entertainment editor Mike Crisolago (along with trusty sidekick Gina B) sits down with legends from stage and screen, literature, music and more...

Ages and Icons is commemorating Remembrance Day with celebrated author, journalist and broadcaster Ted Barris, 69. Barris has dedicated himself to chronicling the oft-untold heroics of Canadian men and women in the theatre of war.  From shedding light on the Canuck contingent behind the famed Second World War POW prison break dubbed “The Great Escape” — popularized in the classic Hollywood film that ignores the Canadian effort — to the largely forgotten Canadian effort in Korea to the stories of the men and women who fought in Afghanistan, you’d be hard-pressed to find a conflict that the Barris hasn’t covered. Seventeen bestselling non-fiction books later — not to mention a Veterans’ Affairs Commendation (2011), the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012) and a Libris Best Non-Fiction Book Award (in 2014 for The Great Escape: A Canadian Story) — the Toronto native returns with his latest tome, Dam Busters: Canadian Airmen and the Secret Raid Against Nazi Germany.

We welcomed Monty Python great Michael Palin, who celebrated his 75th birthday in North Korea earlier this year — an occasion that proved surprisingly festive, as the comedian told us recently during a stopover in Toronto.