 YCDTOTV.com
spoke with cast member Kevin Kubusheskie about his time on the show,
and below is what he had to say!
How
did you get the job on You Can't Do That On Television?
I
first noticed Roger following me around Dorval airport in Montreal.
I was 11 years old. I was returning from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
where I spent part of the summer with relatives. I was a little
out of control and my mother needed a well-deserved break. Roger
observed as I argued with flight attendants that I was old enough
to get on the plane by myself and would not be requiring assistance.
When we landed, Roger approached my mother, offered her his business
card and asked if I would join the drama class at CJOH-TV from which
cast members were chosen.
Describe
what it was like to be involved in such a popular TV show.
As other cast members have mentioned, we really didn't experience
the popularity of the show here at home and I didn't travel to the
states much, so I didn't feel the impact of fans face to face. What
I did experience was fan mail, which was mostly flattering, but
sometimes disturbing. Also there were interviews and articles in
magazines, which were exciting. However, there were also older,
jealous boys at school who thought that the little bit of attention
I received as a result of my involvement with the show would be
best remedied with some good old fashioned bullying and terrorizing.
Getting bigger was a blessing as far as that was concerned, though
it also sealed my fate with the show.
What
is your first memory of YCDTOTV? Your best? Your worst? Your funniest?
I have a terrible memory, and most of the things I remember I can't
repeat. I'm not sure if this is the best, worst or funniest, but
Roger fired me once in the middle of taping a block of episodes
because I came back from the pool hall late and they were waiting
for me to tape a scene. I think I was fired for about fifteen minutes,
until the end of the lecture. In retrospect, the actual making of
the show seemed incidental to the social life that surrounded it.
We had great parties and some of us spent a lot of time together
socially. We lost our youth and most of us made it through relatively
unscathed.
Let's
try some name association. What comes to mind when I mention: Christine
McGlade? Lisa Ruddy? Alasdair Gillis? Doug Ptolemy? Brodie Osome?
Les Lye?
Christine McGlade: When I knew her, she rode a motorcycle. What
more can you ask for in a woman? If it weren't for Christine, I
never would have known how many freaks there are in the world, or
even just in Ottawa for that matter! Christine was always sharp.
She saved me and my non-existent memory from ruining a live link
in the early years of Captain Video!
Lisa Ruddy:
The antithesis of Christine. Conservative and suburban: everything
I swore I'd never become... but have! Always the sweetest girl in
the room.
Alasdair Gillis:
My last memories of Alasdair were in his Mod days and we were racing
from a party at my place on a Sunday night to get to the beer store
in Quebec before it closed. We lost all four hubcaps, but made it
to the beer store and back to the party in one piece.
Doug Ptolemy:
I have good memories of a vacation in Miami with Doug. He was one
of those deviant kids that was cute enough to get away with just
about anything. So of course he tried just about anything!
Brodie Osome:
He and I were inseparable for a couple of years. I was so happy
to read on your website that he's doing well. We all knew he would
be successful. His father is a brilliant man and had high expectations
for him.
Les Lye: I
could sit in his office for hours (& I did!) and listen to his stories.
In the years I was a performer on the show, we all had enormous
respect for Les and still do.
What
were your favorite sketches to do?
My favorites were Barth's, the classrooms and the lockers. Barth's
because we were always eating which was great for someone like me
with an insatiable appetite and also because we could be as disgusting
as we wanted to be (& I wanted to be!). In the classroom we would
pass notes to each other and always try to make each other laugh
and in the lockers I would always get one with an open back so I
could hold my script in one hand and refer to it between lines.
That terrible memory again!
How
was your relationship with Roger Price? How about Geoffrey Darby?
Roger and Geoffrey both had their talents and their quirks. They
had extremely different personalities, although neither was difficult
to work with. Roger was very much a father figure for me throughout
my involvement with the show. He was always very energetic, concerned,
generous, honest and straight-forward in his observations, and maintained
a healthy disrespect for all forms of authority. I also enjoyed
listening to Roger's tales and he certainly had a colorful history
to share.
What
is your opinion about the general direction of the show after you
left?
I think the show continued in the same direction, building off our
earlier success and continuing to get better. It's important to
keep in mind that throughout the life of the show, Roger remained
at the heart of it, maintaining his vision despite often misguided
network meddling.
When
you look at the entire cast of the show's run, what era of the show
do you feel was the best in terms of creativity and acting?
I was fortunate in that I was around in one capacity or another
for most of the duration of the show, so I had the opportunity to
work with almost everyone. The cast members I performed with and
partied with were first rate and I wouldn't trade my experiences
with them for the world.
Do
you have an interesting story about your Livewire interview for
Nickelodeon? (Editor's note: Livewire was a talk show with a kid
audience on Nickelodeon. It aired from 1982-1985.)
The Livewire interview was a treat in that it was my first visit
to The Big Apple. I can't remember how young I was at the time,
but I certainly shouldn't have been smoking cigars in my dressing
room! What was I thinking? The other guests were Megadeth and the
older brother from the movie E.T. The interview itself was uneventful,
but the trip home was a bit of a nightmare. As we were getting into
this tiny old plane, Les was joking about the poor paint touch-ups
over the swastikas. Sure enough the weather was bad and we bounced
around for a while until finally we hit some dead air and just started
dropping. There was a bit of screaming, a lot of crying and in the
end we made it home safely. I remember looking at Les when things
got really spooky on the plane and thinking that I really didn't
have to worry because Les was there so nothing bad could happen.
Do you keep in contact with anyone still? Anyone stand out as lifelong
friends from YCDTOTV?
No lifelong friends, but I do still see Adam once in a while which
is nice and I have also had the good fortune of being re-acquainted
with Jennifer Brackenbury who has grown into a dynamite woman -bright
and beautiful!
Christine, as well as a couple others, told us that she thought
you were, and I quote, "Crazy. Definitely crazy." How did you obtain
such a maniacal reputation?
Theoretically, I could imagine how booze and public nudity could
lead to events that could create a reputation for a guy... but for
someone like me, I couldn't even begin to imagine how they might
have developed that impression. (!?!)
What
have you been doing since your time with YCDTOTV?
The day after I cleaned out my office, I bought myself a motorcycle
and left shortly thereafter on a tour across Canada. When I got
to Vancouver I started to celebrate and about 6 months later I couldn't
remember why I was celebrating anymore so I headed home to Ottawa.
Since then I've achieved a degree in Psychology and began working
with people with physical, developmental and psychiatric disabilities
until more recently when I began working with children in schools
and with young offenders in group homes.
Thanks
for your time, Kevin.
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