May 1st, opening night in Hamilton. On jD's left, a fan of The Hip who doesn't do musicals. On his right, a woman who's never heard of them.
His buddy David is the first one, and he mentions the musicals thing on the drive in (great timing, David). The second is 82, the mother of a Theatre Aquarius subscriber, and she knows nothing about The Tragically Hip. Nothing. Then intermission. Guess which one of them ends up at the merch table. Two people, same row, opposite ends of the room, and when jD told that story to the cast, Brandon McGibbon said it was the whole job in one sentence.
That's day two of It's A Good Life, five episodes, one a day, all week, from The Tragically Hip Podcast Series. Yesterday was where the idea came from. The Players is about the people who have to stand up there and carry it. Seven of them sat down with jD between April and May, and when he asked how they found The Hip, most of them didn't tell him a story about a band. They told him a story about Canada.
Ali Momen came here from Iran when he was three, and The Hip were the backdrop to how he understood "the canvas of Canada." Years before there was a script, he had a very specific note for the producer. Karim Butt came over from Pakistan, heard 'Bobcaygeon' and 'Poets' on the radio and thought they were pretty cool, then got booked for the workshop and went straight to one documentary. You can guess how that went. Tahirih Vejdani's first memory of the band runs through a high school teacher in Regina with a claim to fame. Rebecca Auerbach found out she knew a lot more of the words than she thought. Talia Schlanger calls the whole thing zero burden and pure joy. And Sameer Cash grew up calling Gord Downie Uncle Gord.
Then the harder part. Somebody behind the script asking if they were cool enough, rocky enough, grungy enough to touch these songs. A bar band voice on a musical theatre stage, and an apology to musical theatre for every bad thing ever said about it. The one song by The Hip a cast member could play at 18, learned on a trip to Nepal, and the day she found out where it was going. Why somebody calls The Hip the cast's emotional support animal. And a note from Gord that Sameer hadn't gone back to until now.
Most of them brought their own families into the roles. A mother's convenience store in Regina. A father and a brother-in-law. A country left behind for something better. One of them was in Kingston on August 20, 2016, and carries what Gord said from that stage into this show. And one cast member shares a story about their grandfather, the show, and a lot of gratitude. It's theirs to tell, so it's in the episode.
WHAT ELSE IS IN HERE
• A cast member who met Tom Thomson by way of 'Three Pistols' and kept on reading.
• The workshop audition Mary Francis Moore promised would not get them the job.
• 'Little Bones' cranked in the car on the way to a first audition, and the guitar hook that said this might work.
• Jesse LaVercombe on how fast they found Jonathan, and what Brandon did to the writing.
• Bob Foster's arrangements, Marc Kimelman's choreography, and a song at least one of the cast had never heard before.
"That's the two people that you're thinking about, and you want to do a show that's for both of them." - Brandon McGibbon, Jonathan
WHO YOU HEAR
• Ali Momen as Waleed.
• Talia Schlanger as Kate.
• Brandon McGibbon as Jonathan.
• Karim Butt as Sam, the narrator.
• Rebecca Auerbach as Abigail.
• Tahirih Vejdani as Didi.
• Sameer Cash as Fadi.
• Plus Ahmed Moneka and Jesse LaVercombe, who wrote the book, and producer Michael Rubinoff.
Big thanks to Ali, Talia, Brandon, Karim, Rebecca, Tahirih, and Sameer for giving a fan with a microphone their time this spring in Hamilton. jD went in to ask about a band and came out with seven people talking about what it feels like to find a home. Some found it in Canada, some found it in a song by The Tragically Hip, and most of them found it in both. So there's that. Tomorrow on It's A Good Life: The Craft.
"IT'S A GOOD LIFE IF YOU DON'T WEAKEN" - KINGSTON
The Thousand Islands Playhouse brings the musical to the Kingston Grand Theatre, in association with Theatre Aquarius, October 22 to November 8. Opening night, Friday, October 23, is already sold out. Tickets: kingstongrand.ca/events/TIP2026
THE TRAGICALLY HIP ALBUM COUNTDOWN
A new show for 2027, and you set the order. Rate all fifteen records by The Hip before November 30, and the countdown starts Monday, January 4, at 8pm ET on YouTube. Ballot: forms.gle/KdMfMuApxGb4Nf5w7
THE TIP JAR
Editing is hard. Help keep the battery charged. Tips, never donations: buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40
FIND US
Home: home.tthpods.com
Email: tthpodcastseries@gmail.com
Facebook community: community.tthpods.com
Instagram: @tthpods
YouTube: youtube.com/@tthpods
Yer Letter: subscribe.tthpods.com
MORE FROM THE TRAGICALLY HIP PODCAST SERIES
Yer Hipstories - Kingston: https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/c37eccb0-036d-45d0-827b-08582d3f8bba
Yer Hipstories - Hamilton: https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/fae76ee3-738f-4007-80c8-7140729bb295
Cast and roles via the Thousand Islands Playhouse. Run dates via the Kingston Grand Theatre and the Thousand Islands Playhouse. Kingston, August 20, 2016 via setlist.fm.
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