January 2016
To say that Tom Green has had a storied career would be an
understatement. The comedian/talkshow host/podcaster/actor/
rapper got his start with his own cable access TV show in Ottawa from 1994-1996 , which was then brought to MTV in 1999.
He released an album with his hip-hop group Organized Rhyme
which had a major hit in “Check the O.R.” (which was nominated for a Juno in 1993) as well as two albums he released as
solo records. He wrote and directed the box office ‘flop’ but cult
sensation Freddy Got Figured in 2001. He has starred in several films
since then, started the New Tom Green Show, has put up vidoes
on his Web-O-Vision and has a weekly podcast show called The
Tom Green Radio Show. Oh, and he has his own beer.
I was estatic to be able to talk to him on the phone while he
was in New York City. He was in a taxi during a leisurely day
before performing that night.
Growing up, Tom had a huge influence on me, I can’t tell you
how many times I watched Freddy Got Fingered, or how many stupid pranks we pulled when we were teenagers inspired by him
– for better or worse. I sat there wide-smiled, with my phone and
recorder in front of me and we just talked. I’ve said it before, but
16-year-old me would’ve been proud.
So when you’re on tour, you just pretty much get to
travel, hang out, and then perform at night? Yeah, pretty
much. It’s super fun. That’s the nice part of touring and doing
stand-up is that you get to see the country and the world and have a
lot of fun travelling around. I’m going to tour Australia in March and
get to go all over the place, it’s really cool. The audiences are amazing
everywhere and it’s just good times.
The Sound STC•Vol.2 Issue 01
your show here at the end of January? It’s possible that I’ll
be doing music by the time I get to you guys. I’m actually moving
my podcast studio into a new location in Hollywood right now, so
starting January 5 when I get back from holiday I’m going to be in
there recording music and beginning to work on a bunch of new
funny musical sort of adventures. Hopefully I’ll have something to
perform on this tour. As the year progresses I’ll definitely be doing
more music and be releasing some stuff at the end of the year and
throughout the year. I have a lot of people asking me to do music,
different people that have followed me over the years for different
reasons. Some people are big fans of Freddy got Fingered, the old public access show, the MTV show, and some people really have been
watching the Web-O-Vision that I’ve done over the years, or have
been listening to my podcast or my stand-up, But, I also get a lot of
people, especially in Canada, who go back to the Organized Rhyme
days and remember the rapping and the few albums I put out over
the years, and request that I do more music so that’s pretty fun and
exciting, So, I feel like I have to put music out this year.
Like you said, you have so many fans from so many different avenues. Does it ever get difficult to hone it down
into smaller areas, or is it, ‘Today I’m going to work on my
podcast, tomorrow I leave for tour to do stand-up, this day
I’m going to go work on a movie or this or that?’ I feel like it
must get overwhelming at times trying to focus on the topic
at hand sometimes. You know, I was just in Belgium for the last six
touring again seven years ago and it really just took off right away.
Its been going great and I’ve been having a blast doing it. I’ve always
loved doing comedy. I’ve always loved getting up on stage and telling
jokes. I started doing ]