I did not know British Columbia Premier David Eby would bring a kettlebell. A few minutes before the Paul Wells Road Show — Vancouver began on March 20, a member of Eby’s staff came into the backstage green room looking for adhesive tape. Something in her expression made me realize something was up. “This is for shtick, isn’t it,” I said. She nodded, not without a hint of mischief.
I’m all for guests bringing their own comic bits. Even better if they work. The kettlebell — a nod to the pervasive cultural influence of Poilievre and Rogan — was a hit. I would even go so far as to say the whole interview with Eby went over well with a crowd that was not exactly packed with diehard Eby fans, such creatures being hard to find in the wild these days.
The whole show was a great success. I’m so grateful to my presenting sponsors at Netflix, who made all of this possible. We sold out the 318-seat Rothstein Theatre a few hours before the show began. The staff there were superb and a pleasure to work with. Highlights of the show:
We premiered a new arrangement of Kevin Breit’s theme music for the podcast, now arranged for two violins by composer Kevin Lau. Vancouver Opera, our artistic partners for the night, have a professional resident orchestra; I was happy to have violinists Rebecca Ruthven and Andrea Siradze from the orchestra play Kevin’s arrangement.
I did a monologue about Vancouver as a frequent destination in my wasted youth, and as a place where many of the big Canadian debates have particular relevance.
David Eby came out to joke (a bit) and talk shop (more). We covered a lot of ground in the time we had.
Suzanne Simard, recently dubbed “the Indiana Jones of trees” by The Guardian, talked about her new book When The Forest Breathes, which will be released next Tuesday. It’s about how trees communicate, and whether people listen. A lot of my West Coast friends were much more excited that Simard would be at the show than that I would.
We had a panel, as we usually do for my live events. This one was excellent and extremely locavore: James Moore, Rachael Segal and Richard Zussman. Richard was into it. He spent the whole panel doing the lean-in while the others did the lean-back:
And we had new friends representing Vancouver Opera. It was Ashley Daniel Foot, the director of engagement and civic practice at Vancouver Opera, who first suggested I come do a show in Vancouver. I said I’d need a flight, a venue, and some singers. In the end I covered my own flight and rented a bigger venue but we kept the singers. Meet Aaron Durand and Chloé Hurst, whom you’ll hear from a few times in this show:
This was my first live event outside Ottawa. There’ll be more; we had a planning call this morning for an event that’s coming soon. We’re settling into a working model: a local artistic partner like the National Arts Centre or Vancouver Opera; a mix of the conversation you expect (politics!) and some you might not (fungus in old-growth forests!); and, when I’m on the road, a relentless focus on the local over the generic.
Je vais le dire ouvertement : je rêve d’organiser à Montréal un événement de ce genre, en français, pour célébrer la culture et la création montréalaises. Avis aux intéressés.
I never stop reminding myself that my original goal with these events is to thank my subscribers. You’ll always get advance notice and first crack at tickets for these events. My goal here isn’t to generate more subscriptions, although who am I kidding, the more the merrier; it’s to show my gratitude to the people who are already on board. I never stop thinking about ways to make myself useful and surprising to you.
These events generate bills. I’m pleased that some excellent groups are helping me pay them. This time out, it was my presenting sponsor, Netflix; and another frequent partner, the Canadian Bankers’ Association. They recognize the value of serious, respectful conversation and thoughtful community-building. And they and other businesses and organizations understand the value of an audience like you, precisely because there aren’t a lot of audiences like you.
I’m probably a small number of weeks away from announcing another Road Show that will take place in another Canadian city in June. There’ll be still another one somewhere else in the fall, and then back to Ottawa for the holidays. In the meantime, I’m not about to quit my day job, which is writing. Thanks for coming along on the ride.
UPDATE: Hey, we made a trailer. Here’s some video to give you a sense of how it all felt in the room.
