Chapter Thirteen - "Closing Time"

The Juno Awards show of 1993 was a true Canadian spectacular. Celine Dion hosted and performing that year were Michelle Wright, The Barenaked Ladies, The Tragically Hip via live satellite feed from Australia, K.D. Lang, Hollie Cole and nominated For Best Song, Leonard Cohen for Closing Time. Anne Murray was there for a special award along with Glenn Campbell and special guests included Oscar Peterson, Alana Myles, Tommy Hunter and many others.
I auditioned for a part as a bartender at CBC headquarters the previous week and won the role and so found myself front and centre behind a bar on the stage at the O’Keefe Centre (as it was called then) to rehearse the Closing Time performance. We worked on the staging along with the Robert Desrosier dancers for two days, Friday and Saturday in readiness for Sunday night’s live performance.
On the Sunday afternoon, Leonard Cohen arrived accompanied by his girlfriend of the time, actress Rebecca DeMornay. She asked the director if she could participate in some way and actually served as an extra sitting at the bar in front of me. It was a small reunion in a way as I had worked with her on a Sidney Lumet courtroom drama several months before starring Rebecca and Don Johnson of Miami Vice fame.
We rehearsed the number a few times until Leonard was satisfied that everything was fine and we had a few hours until show time and many of us went to the ‘green room’, the gathering place where you can relax before a show.
All of the performers and special guests were there and it was a like a party for the who’s who of Canadian music. Everyone was friendly and the mood was upbeat and exciting.
I was standing at the espresso machine when Rebecca and Leonard came up and asked me if I knew how to make a cappuccino and I made them both drinks. We made small talk and Rebecca and I reminisced about the recent film project.
It was show time and Celine, who had been locked in her dressing room protected by two Mounties, finally came out and made for the stage. She was completely inaccessible to anyone, did not mix or speak and the Mounties stood as a further barrier should anyone approach her. It just seemed so out of place with the cultivated image of small town friendly Quebec girl with the big family, that I have been jaded about Celine ever since.
We finally came to our number and the thrill of doing a live show in front of 3000 adoring fans is one of the most exhilarating experiences anyone could have. Factor in that you are performing with one of the greatest songwriters of all time and one of your fellow extras is a true Hollywood superstar; and you know your Mom and your whole family are watching you live on primetime television; and there are few highs that can match the feeling. When I look at the tape of that show now, it is so obvious I am having the time of my life.
Speaking of my Mom, she lived at that time and until she died in a little town in British Columbia at the base of three mountain ranges on the Yellowhead Highway, McBride. The population was about 500 at the time and I am quite sure my Mom knew all of them. Even the devout and clannish Mormons would occasionally visit her.
Mom had made my television exploits known to everyone in town and she would watch Top Cops and various Canadian shows to see if she could see me. In this case I had warned her that I would be on and she had a group of her friends over to watch.
Later that night she phoned to tell me how wonderful it was to see me and I have to say that was one of my greatest thrills to know that I had made her proud. When I next visited McBride, it was like I was a real celebrity and people would come up to me on the street and say, "You must be Isobel’s son. I saw you on Counterstrike or Katz and Dog or Secret Service. They also often knew really personal things about me and my family that had a tendency to make me a little edgy.
As a native Torontonian, I have a complete understanding of the old joke: “Why does a Torontonian cross the road…….To avoid speaking to an acquaintance.” As a result the small town McBride experience was always just a little too much for me to handle. Sometimes I just felt like a performing monkey there; a total curiosity to the people of this remote area. I would make a point to stay in the West Edmonton Mall Hotel at the end of my trips to the West, to withdraw from the intensity of those visits.
While I was ‘almost famous’ at home, in McBride I was a genuine celebrity, all because of my number one fan and personal press agent, my dear Mother.