The life and work of Josh Rachlis: Copywriter, voice actor, comedian, TV and radio personality, screenwriter, cartoonist, singer/songwriter, environmentalist, politician and cupcake judge.
CBC Radio's As It Happens just started following @joshrachlis. And I wasn't even following them. Uh oh. Am I about to be in the news for something? What did I do after my friend Jessmade me drink almost an entire glass of wine last night? Must... try... to... remember...
Last night while shopping for overpriced cereal in a variety store, I started reading the Special K box and thought, "Wow, this writer really understands women." And then I realized I wrote that box. Sigh. If only I could translate my understanding women into, say, getting a woman to like me.
In January 2012, Philip Kates, my friend of ten years, passed away from liver cancer. He was a commercial director I met when I hired him to shoot a Maple Leaf Chicken commercial that I wrote. His funeral was in Alberta, where he was living with his wife. A few weeks later there was a memorial in Toronto. I got some laughs during my improvised speech. And I think Philip would have been very pleased about that. To watch Philip and I talking to the audience about our film at the HollyShorts Film Festival in August 2010, see my old blog post about that by clicking here. And here's the speech I gave at his memorial:
Philip and I meeting fans at the HollyShorts Film Festival in LA in August 2010, for the premiere of 3 Dates, a film that I wrote and he directed.
Feb. 17, 2012 At the Toronto memorial for Philip Kates.
Feb. 17, 2012 At the Toronto memorial for Philip Kates.
From those dates, you can see how old he was. Funny, I always thought he was younger.
The January 12, 2013 episode of CBC Radio's DNTO (Definitely Not The Opera) was about "How are you managing your debt?" (To see the web page for that episode, click here.) I was on the show telling the story about how I rented out my old condo for a night to help pay for my new condo that was being built. That one-night rental resulted in a huge party in which my apartment got trashed. Which resulted in me being on the American TV show Judge Karen's Court. Yes, my life sucks. But at least it provides entertainment for all of America, and now all of Canada. To hear my story on DNTO, click on the orange arrow:
And here's the Judge Karen's Court episode mentioned in the story:
Here's me telling the story in the CBC studio a few days before the show aired.
A couple of days ago, a woman emailed me asking me to host the Robbie Burns night at her Scottish pub, saying The Toronto Star would be covering the festivities and she wanted a fun host and she thought I could do my angry Scottish Mini Man accent for some of it. She asked if I had a kilt. I told her that I don't and confided that I'm actually Jewish. She didn't seem to mind. But she had only told me the area it was in, not the name of the pub. So I thought I'd head up to the 'hood and see if I could find the place to check it out and have a drink. "The Piper's Pub & Grill" sounded like a Scottish name so I peered in the window and saw... A poster with my name on it. So, I guess that means I'm hosting this thing?
Aye, Laddie! Go "Like" them on Facebook here and come out to the night. I have a feeling I'll need help finishing my haggis.
Here's the poster in the window, Laddie!
Here's me and my friend having a non-alcoholic drink while scoping out the pub and investigating the atmosphere. We were fans of the passionate musical duo in the background.
As a reminder of the Angry Scotsman the pub owner is talking about, here's wee me acting in commercials I wrote for Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Mini Granola Bites and Mini Cereal Bars a few wee years ago:
To promote the IKEA Winter Sale, I wrote this commercial featuring Jonas (the IKEA voice) interviewing a Snow Woman he built. Snow big deal, that's just how I roll.
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