My Life: Another weird guy on public transit ruined my chance with a girl

Ok, I've been trying to come up with ideas for funny things to talk about on YouTube. Meanwhile, ridiculous things keep happening to me in real life and I've been relegating them to Facebook statuses. One of those ridiculous things just happened to me on a bus and I was about to write a status about it when I got off the bus. But it occurred to me, why not record myself talking about it? That might capture the story better. So, at the bottom of this entry, I will post the world's first Josh Rachlis Video Facebook Status.

But first, this one will require a little background: On Aug 6, 2012, I saw a cute girl waiting for a streetcar and while I was thinking about talking to her on the streetcar, a guy (maybe homeless, but probably just weird) told me I had big muscles. For those of you who aren't my Facebook friends, here are some screengrabs of the Facebook status that I wrote on my iPhone in my condo lobby right after the incident. You can see that 31 comments ensued.

Ok, so now you'll know why I couldn't believe that pretty much the exact same thing just happened to me, less than two weeks later. As you can see, people are excited to hear the tale:

So without further adieu, here's me telling the story about what happened:



And as proof of my tale, here's the crappy video of the guy talking to me, with occasional wistful pans to the object of my stymied affections:

I auditioned for Come Date With Me Canada

According to the Facebook page for Come Date With My Canada, here's what this new TV show is about:


"Think you have the dating skills to take down the competition? Prove it. Four contestants compete for the attention of one lucky singleton... and a cash prize! Come DATE with Me features four males, from all walks of life and ages, vying for the attention of one lucky lady."


Well, I don't think for one second that I have any dating skills, but I'm always up for a challenge. So when my TV producer friend Samara suggested I contact the people at this show, I did so. An hour long phone interview with Susan the casting director ensued. Followed by this morning's 3-hour long interview in my condo. I gave Susan a tour of my place, which included me acting out the hypothetical dinner party date with my Smurf collection (Smurfette was the girl, I was the Smurf with an acoustic medieval guitar, Bay Street Lawyer was the Smurf who looked like a king, Sports Guy was Football Smurf, and Bar Guy was a beer drinking Smurf). I also improvised a little song on my guitar. And was asked to put on my Enviroman eco-superhero costume. I'm not sure if any of this will help me get on the show. But I sure entertained myself. And that's really what matters, right? At least, that's what I keep telling myself when I cry myself to sleep alone every night.

Susan packing up her camera after filming me in my Enviroman costume. She expressed surprise as to what my costume looked like. I guess she hadn't actually watched my eco music video. But I'm sure it was just a coincidence that she packed up right after the costume part.

I wrote this IKEA Back To School radio ad

Here's an IKEA Back To School radio ad that I wrote. It's called "Agreeing" and went to air on July 30. I know, I know - It's Back To School time already? How depressing! But hopefully this ad will help cheer you up. To listen to it, click here: IKEA Agreeing

On the left is Katherine Cappellacci, who played the daughter. Then there's me, who wrote this brilliant piece of comedy. Then there's Tracey Hoyt, who played the mom. And in the frame is a childhood photo of Jonas, who is the Swedish voice of IKEA and is in the radio ad too. Not sure why his childhood photo was in the recording studio, but it worked out for the purposes of this shot.

I'm acting in this Popeye's Chicken radio ad

Currently airing across Canada, a new radio ad for Popeye's Chicken features me as a guy who's so passionate about his Popeye's Chicken that he's recording himself "unboxing" it, just like those people who make videos for YouTube of themselves unboxing new products like iPhones. At the recording session, the Copywriter (who's familiar with my work) told me: "I just knew you'd understand making an unboxing video." Not sure why he'd think I could get into the mindset of someone who puts their whole life on the Internet. But anyway, thanks for reading my blog post about the radio ad I just acted in! You can hear it by clicking here.

I'm on the OKCupid Enemies site

A girl in North Carolina popped up on my Facebook just now and asked if that's me on the "enemies of OKCupid page." I had no idea what she was talking about, so I Googled it, and, well, of course it's me. That's just how my life is. Check it out: http://www.okcenemies.com/post/25447844858#notes

I'm not sure if that's something I should be posting on this site that's supposed to be about my creative work. But, well, maybe being vilified on a blog about awful Internet dating profiles is a kind of fame in this modern age. After all, as I write this, there are 76 "notes" under the posting, which is more comments than I've ever gotten on my own Facebook posts. And because the girl who told me about it is N.C., that means I'm "known" in the United States. And I'd like to believe that it was my creative writing and photographing that made me worthy of this international public ridicule.

For the record, there's a bit more to the story than made it into the blog. I didn't just write "I'm not gay!" in my profile and leave it at that. I'm weird, but not that weird. If you're interested in the context, feel free to read my full profile at http://www.okcupid.com/profile/BertSeeksErnie. It seems everyone else in the world already has.

The initial warning on Facebook. Boy, I love getting messages like this. How come nobody can ever just say "Hey, how are you?"

The posting on OKCupid Enemies. (Couldn't I be an OKCupid Annoyance? Am I really so bad as to be an Enemy?

76 "notes" under the posting so far.

More of these brillant notes.

What I actually said about being not gay.

I adapted this Special K commercial for Canada

Here's a little something that popped up when I Googled myself this morning. (Yes, I'm that vain/lonely. Deal with it.) The photography studio Sugino Studio just blogged about the back-end of a Canadian Special K commercial they worked on, which I helped adapt from an American commercial. For this kind of thing, I rewrite the script so that it speaks to Canadians and takes into account any differences in the product up here, and I help direct the voice over artist, in this case the talented actress/comedian Katie Crown, whom we patched in from her new home base in Los Angeles. The spot likely won't win me a Lion at Cannes, but it's part of what I do every day, and it's always a joy to help get the message out about delightful Kellogg's products. And for Special K in particular, it's fun to be able to use my profound understanding of the female mind to talk to women in a way they can relate to. Sigh. If only I was as good at dating women as I am at marketing to them. To see the blog post and the clip from the commercial, click here.

I'm shortlisted at Cannes for copywriting and illustrating

I'm not personally attending the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity that's happening this week. But I've just learned that a couple of things I worked on have been shortlisted. Which is almost as exciting as cavorting on a beach in the South of France. That's what I'm telling myself, anyway.

In terms of my Copywriting - The Mr. Clean facebook page, for which I helped develop the Mr. Clean character and wrote many of his status updates, is in there:

http://www.canneslions.com/work/2012/interactive/entry.cfm?entryid=32848&award=101&order=0&direction=1

And get this... I'm in this James Ready Beer campaign as an Illustrator. That's right, I was asked to draw some of the newsletters that came in the beer boxes. I knew that doodling on my school notebooks would come in handy one day.

http://www.canneslions.com/work/2012/effectiveness/entry.cfm?entryid=3856&award=101&order=1&direction=1

I'm quoted in The Huffington Post about the plastic bag ban

Toronto's surprise move to ban plastic bag giveaways at stores is the talk of the town today. So The Huffington Post Canada did a story about people's reactions, and I'm proud to say that the popular online newspaper did not consider my thoughts to be "disposable." Rather, they "reused" my Facebook comment for their article. I'm glad Toronto is following their lead by doing the same with plastic bags. To read my quote, check out the article by clicking here.

I was on the TV show Judge Karen's Court

In late 2009, I rented out my condo to a girl who wanted it for just one night. Turns out, that wasn't my best idea ever. Months later, I submitted a one-sentence summary in response to an L.A. casting call I saw from Judge Karen's Court. Though the show normally only uses people in California, and certainly just Americans, the producer loved the story so much that in December 2010, they flew me and the defendant down from Canada to Los Angeles for 24 hours to be on their show. So, my apartment got trashed, but I got my first appearance on a national U.S. television show. I believe this is what's called "turning lemons into lemonade." This is the first time I'm seeing the episode - It took me this long to track down a copy. But I already knew it ran a couple of times, because I've gotten emails from an ex-pat Canadian woman in the U.S. asking how the court case in Canada went, and from a guy in New York state who just wanted to tell me that I'm cute. Being called cute? That is the greatest outcome I could ask for from a court case.

I made a video blog about Question Period with the Green Party leader

On Wednesday, Mike Schreiner (the Green Party of Ontario leader) and I sat in the viewing gallery of Question Period at Queen's Park. Mike goes all the time - the reporters and even the security guards all knew him - and he was kind enough to invite me for this trip. Why'd we go? Because even though the Green Party doesn't have a seat in Provincial Parliament (yet), we're passionate about holding the government accountable for the health and well-being of Ontarians. Also, sitting in Queen's Park makes me feel all important and stuff. But mostly it was for the holding accountable thing.

I interviewed artists at The Artist Project

In March, my friend took me to The Artist Project in Toronto, a show featuring original works by over 200 artists. While there, I figured I'd try to learn something about art. Here's my investigation.

I wrote Cinnamon Pops commercials that will pop your head

Kellogg's needed to let the world know about their new Cinnamon Pops cereal. They wanted to highlight the crunchiness, the cinnamon, the deliciousness. And of course it all had be entertaining. Right after the briefing meeting, my art director and I cracked the problem in 5 minutes while eating hors d'oeuvres at an agency party. Inspiration may or may not have come from a segment on my Rogers Community Cable show 20 years ago where I would draw a face on an egg and then crush it. See that segment below and decide for yourself.

There are more commercials to come. Currently online are the spots "Spelling Bee" and "Ghost." And on TV and in movie theatres is the spot "Opera."

Oh, and I'm also the voice of the announcer in all the spots and of the sleeping man in the Ghost spot. If you could tell that already, well, you're probably my mom.





And here are those clips from my old cable show. The egg crushing segment starts at 3:22.

A teaser for a top secret webseries

Sometimes projects take a long time to work their way through the production process. But I hate to leave you loyal blog readers starving for news. So I'm treating you to images from a webseries I've been shooting for the past couple of months. After shooting an episode, the director wanted to grab a few quick photos of us. I can't tell you much about the show until we officially launch it. But if you know anything about my lovely co-host, you might come up with some clues. Vanessa Farquharson is a well-known author/journalist/speaker with a particular interest in helping the environment. In fact, I first became aware of her when I saw her eco column in the National Post and I emailed her to say hi.
She wound up including me in a story about green dating, we later mulled over doing some kind of green show together, and, well, years later... Ok, if I say any more I'll be killed. Just enjoy the pictures.

I took Debra Toffan's animation voice class!

Yes, you've heard my voice as a Scotsman in the animated show Time Warp Trio and as a chameleon in the commercial for Hubba Bubba Max. But I'd like to do even more voices for animation. And I always enjoy taking classes to learn new skills in any discipline. So when I heard that Debra Toffan was offering a class for animation voice, I jumped at the chance to take the April 7th one. She's casted tons of animated shows and has voice-directed superstars like Matt Damon, Joan Rivers, and Holly Hunter. I was afraid that she would confuse me for Matt Damon, since he and I look so much alike. But fortunately, my vocal gifts made me stand out. Or maybe it's just that I'm a bit more muscular than Matt. ANYway, I had a lot of fun in the class, and I recommend it to any voice actors who get a chance to take it.

I review my script while other members of the class take their turn doing voices in the booth.

Debra listens to the actors in the booth and offers her sage advice.

I wrote this Eggo commercial that's music to your mouth

Got a song about Eggo waffles stuck in your head these days? That might be the fault of me and my Art Director, George Longley. George and I are a creative team at Leo Burnett (Canada's most award-winning ad agency this year) and we were asked to make a commercial communicating that Eggos can inspire kids to be creative. The result is a TV spot we call "Eggo Tunes" below. Take a bite. I mean, a listen.

I'm acting in the Tim Hortons latte radio ad!

Wondering why you know that Tim Hortons lattes are just a dollar? Maybe it's because of my great acting in the radio ad that's currently getting lots of air play. Or maybe it's because a dollar is a great price for a latte. But I'm going to pretend it's the former. Because to my self-esteem, that's worth a... Well, you know. To hear the ad, click here.

 

I made one of the Top political YouTube videos of 2011!

This week I was thinking back on 2011 and wondered if my Love Song for Elizabeth May really just happened this year. Seems so long ago. But then tonight, on the last night of the year, I got a nice reminder that, yep, it happened in 2011: According to Yahoo! News, it was one of the Top political YouTube videos of 2011. Check out the article by clicking here. Glad I could be a part of a big Green step forward for Canada. Here's to more steps in 2012!

I'm on the Green Party of Ontario's Shadow Cabinet!

When Green Party of Ontario leader Mike Schreiner called me personally to ask if I would join his Shadow Cabinet, I turned Green with pride. The Shadow Cabinet will be staying on top of the Liberal government to advise them on how to make Ontario as healthy and sustainable as possible. And my folio is Consumer Services. Who better to keep tabs on that than an Advertising Copywriter, right? You can see the press release by clicking here or reading below:

Ontario Green Party’s New Shadow Cabinet will hold the old Parties at Queen’s Park Accountable

 
 

Submitted by Becky Smit on Mon, 2011-11-21 08:50

Toronto - “Why is a gas plant being built in Mississauga after the McGuinty Liberals promised to halt it during the election campaign?” asks Mike Schreiner, Leader of the Green Party of Ontario.  “Does the same fate await promises on the Melancthon mega quarry?”

“It took less than two months for election promises to be put on the back-burner and for a return to business-as-usual at Queen’s Park” says Schreiner.  "No wonder less than 50% of Ontarians voted in the provincial election."

The Green Party today announced an expanded Shadow Cabinet of passionate and dedicated citizens committed to long term solutions that put Ontario communities first. 

“Our team is committed to working with people of all political backgrounds on long term solutions to tackle the big challenges of our time.  We are not afraid of straight talk to address tough issues like rising energy prices,” says Schreiner.  “We can’t continue to subsidize energy prices and punt this challenge down the road to our kids and future generations.”

The Green Party’s Shadow Cabinet will focus on offering alternate policies to the status quo at Queen’s Park, with the goal of building a financially, socially and environmentally sustainable Ontario.

The Green Party’s Shadow Cabinet:

Aboriginal Affairs  - Jo Jo Holiday  (Kenora--Rainy River)

Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs  - Meade Helman  (York--Simcoe)

Attorney General  - Bassam Lazar  (London--Fanshawe)

Children and Youth Services  - Jennifer Mooradian  (St. Catharines)

Citizenship and Immigration  - Pauline Thornham  (Bramalea--Gore--Malton)

Community and Social Services  - Mark Daye  (Toronto Centre)

Community Safety and Correctional Services  - Jason Matyi  (Essex)

Consumer Services  - Josh Rachlis  (Eglinton--Lawrence)

Economic Development and Innovation - Dave Bagler  (Ottawa--Vanier)

Education  - Matt Richter  (Parry Sound --Muskoka)

Energy  - Steve Dyck  (Guelph)

Environment  - Stephanie-Lynn Russell  (Nickel Belt)

Finance  - Kevin O'Donnell  (Ottawa Centre)

Government Services  - Pauline Thompson  (Scarborough--Agincourt)

Health and Long-Term Care  - Judy Smith-Torrie  (Northumberland--Quinte West)

Infrastructure and Women's Directorate - Judith Van Veldhuysen  (St. Paul's)

Intergovernmental Affairs  - Angela Salewsky  (Etobicoke--Lakeshore)

Labour  - Kevin Labonte  (London North Centre)

Municipal Affairs and Housing  -  Stacey Leadbetter (Whitby-Oshawa)

Natural Resources  - Rob Strang  (Dufferin--Caledon)

Northern Development and Mines  - Pat Rogerson  (Sudbury)

Francophone Affairs - Nancy Matte  (Lanark--Frontenac--Lennox and Addington)

Seniors Secretariat - Gurleen Gill  (Etobicoke North)

Tourism and Culture  - Meredith Cross  (Niagara West--Glanbrook)

Training, Colleges and Universities  - Alex Hill  (Ottawa West--Nepean)

Transportation   - Tim Grant  (Trinity--Spadina) 

For more information on the Green Party of Ontario’s Shadow Cabinet please visit:

www.gpo.ca/about/organization/shadow-cabinet

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Contact

Becky Smit

416-977-7476http://www.gpo.ca/media-release/ontario-green-party%E2%80%99s-new-shadow-cabinet-will-hold-old-parties-queen%E2%80%99s-park-accountabl

I turn down a bath with a swimsuit model to save water

A test pilot for the series My Life Is Garbage (formerly called Ecosexual) that educates about eco issues by harnessing the clean, green power of my pathetic life. Thanks to actresses Camila Mendes and Katie Uhlmann for offsetting my unattractiveness.


SYNOPSIS: Josh's passion for the environment can get him into hot water. Or not, as we see in this episode, where his sexy, Brazilian swimsuit model date takes him home and wants to have a bath with him.

I'm a Green Hero!

My mother always said I was "unique," and now I have proof. On April 22, 2011 at Toronto's Green Living Show, I was awarded the Unique Hero award by the Green Heroes TV show for how I help the environment with my green actions and my eco-comedy. And this was slightly BEFORE I released my Love Song For Elizabeth May that went viral and helped elect Canada's first Green MP. So imagine how unique of a Green Hero I must be now! Right, mom? (Yes, I'm posting about this award 4 months late. But hey, I've been busy saving the world. Uniquely.) Check out the award presentation by clicking here or viewing below.