Brian Gluckstein

6:17 pm

BRIAN GLUCKSTEIN SAYS that he’s an “old soul,” but he has no trouble remembering the defining act of his childhood.

“I used to move the furniture around,” says the 47-year-old designer during an interview at his offices on the edge of Yorkville in downtown Toronto. “I was rearranging everything in my bedroom. Most little boys were not doing that. It was apparent that I’d have some interest in design.”

Flash forward five decades and Gluckstein is still moving furniture around: he’s established himself as one of Canada’s most acclaimed designers and decorators.

His glowing rep rests mostly on his work designing private residences at home and abroad, but he’s also got a variety of immaculate public spaces on his resumé, including the Windsor Arms Hotel and the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto. Gluckstein is very much the public face of his firm, appearing regularly on CityLine, with Marilyn Denis, and lending his imprimatur to a popular line of home furnishing products.

It would be entirely appropriate to call him a superstar within his field, but there’s nothing about his demeanour that suggests a yen for the spotlight. He’s self-effacing but precise, a description that also applies to his aesthetic. “If there’s a consistency in my work,” he says, “it’s cleanness or a lack of clutter. I can’t live with clutter.”

Ironically, it was a desire to unclutter his schedule that led to Gluckstein starting his own business. “I wanted to work at a slower pace,” he explains. “It wasn’t because I had any grand ideas about the business. It was because I kind of wanted to take a break.”

He credits his first employer, the noted Toronto interior designer Linda Borman, for instilling an appreciation for smaller-scale set-ups. “It was an incredible environment for me because it was small,” he says. “If I had worked in a large firm with hundreds of people, it would have limited my exposure to the details of the business. So I had a good foundation when I opened my own office.”

He makes it sound like a small step, but obviously it wasn’t. Gluckstein admits that, like any business, design can be as much about who you know as what you do and points out that he was fortunate to make some solid contacts early on.

“I was very lucky because I had worked on a few projects that were considerably larger than what most people starting out would do,” he recalls. “People I barely knew had recommended me for important jobs with well-connected clients. It wasn’t on the level that I’m working on today, but they were still considerable budgets.”

Budgets aren’t the only things that have risen over the years: Gluckstein has also had to raise his game to accommodate a scarily well-informed — and more demanding — generation of clients.

“The clients have become more design savvy and aware of the environments around them,” he says. “In some ways, It’s easier to work with them, but they also have higher expectations. When I started, there was no Home and Garden Television, the magazines were limited to trade publications, and the Internet didn’t exist. People are going to hotels that are high design, restaurants that are high design … they’ve been exposed to more.”

Not that anyone is telling him how to do his job. Whether he’s designing a new space or refurbishing an older structure, Gluckstein’s approach remains the same: a carefully mappedpit three-step process encompassing planning, construction and decorating. And his design tips for the everyday decorator? “Before going out to buy furniture, have a plan,” he says. “Know that the access to the space is such that the furniture will fit comfortably, especially when dealing with elevators or staircases.”

“Also, when choosing paint colours, have samples made for the room because different exposures will affect the colour, and when investing in a renovation or large-scale decorating project, hire a professional…”

“Toronto as a city has become better and better, so neighbourhoods like Forest Hill are experiencing sort of a ‘new wave’ of people looking to live there.”

Gluckstein has design knowledge to spare, but he says he signs on to fewer projects a year than you might think but can’t come up with a hard number because different jobs of different sizes will be at different stages for as long as three or four years.

It’s also because he’s a little bit picky. “Some people have come to us with requests that aren’t suitable for our sensibilities,” he says. “In those cases, we’d have had to struggle to satisfy their aesthetic needs. But I don’t like sameness.

“We’ve done very contemporary work and some very traditional work. We’ve done a 6,000-square-foot luxury loft penthouse, and we’ve restored old houses. It’s about being flexible.”

Flexibility is one thing, but at this point, Gluckstein works almost exclusively with an upscale clientele. He doesn’t apologize for this (nor should he) but he is aware of it.

He created the Gluckstein Home line as a way of making his work more accessible to a wider audience.

“It came about because people would see our work in magazines or on television on CityLine, and we would get e-mails about where to get [these items],” he says. “The focus of the line, which was originally for Eaton’s and is now at the Bay, was to make it affordable. I had people telling me that the average-income person didn’t have the same sensibilities as my clients, and I said that that was completely untrue.”

Asked if money is a prerequisite to good taste, he just laughs. “No. [Some people] have money and no taste or maybe just no interest.” The collection’s success, meanwhile, speaks for itself. “The numbers are great,” he says and smiles, “but of course I can’t divulge them.”

He also can’t divulge the names of the people he’s designed private residences for. It’s an oft-made request, and he always demurs. “I have relationships with extraordinary people,” he says. “But you know, it has to be confidential. Sometimes, though, I look at [my clientele] and wonder how I could ever have met these men and women — some of the most interesting people in the world.”

He will admit to doing a lot of work in and around Forest Hill, an area he says is being “rediscovered.” “It’s become quite diverse, shockingly diverse,” he notes.

“A lot of people had moved out [of there] because they wanted ‘new, new, new.’ But Toronto as a city has become better and better, so neighborhoods like Forest Hill are experiencing sort of a ‘new wave’ of people looking to live there.”

Does Gluckstein’s assessment that the city is getting ‘better and better’ have to do with the influx of spiffy new public architecture?

“Some Canadian architects are doing extraordinary work, and I hope they can change the face of the city,” he says, at the same time noting his dismay with a lot of Toronto’s preexisting architecture: “There are some very disappointing structures we’ll have to live with for a long time.”

He implies that the solution is not to raze retrograde buildings to the ground; however, the key is to strike a balance, integrating new designs while retaining a sense of history. “A city that doesn’t embrace history is a city without a soul, he says.”

It’s the same philosophy that Gluckstein applied to his own home, which he describes as “an example of how to maintain an old facade while building a new house within it.”

It sounds lovely, but it’s a given. The question is whether he’s able to stifle his professional discretion when he visits the homes of friends.

“Unless it’s really great or really bad, I don’t notice that much. I do notice if a space is comfortable. If I sit on furniture that’s comfortable, I love it. It doesn’t matter what it looks like. If it’s uncomfortable, I can’t stand it. That’s the benchmark for me.”

Surely, though, there must be some people who get nervous having a design guru in their place.

“Some people do get nervous about me coming over,” he says with a smile. “We usually end up going out for dinner.”

Arisa Cox

5:38 pm

“RECENTLY I WAS backstage at a Victoria’s Secret event, and Martha Stewart was there. She came up to me and was like, ‘Great hair. Can I take a picture?’ I was like, ‘Mmm-hmm,’” says Arisa Cox with a sassy neck bob. “That’s my claim to fame: I am in Martha Stewart’s camera!”

Cox does have a signature mane of curls corkscrewing out of her head, but it’s hardly her claim to fame. This Bathurst and Finch native has already claimed fame as a reporter for The A-List and The Gill Deacon Show; guest host on CBC Newsworld, Studio 2 and Arresting Design; and producer on Entertainment Tonight Canada, Road to Rockstar and Wedding SOS.

But Cox is most famous as the co-host of E! News Weekend (E!NW), Canada’s PG-13 cousin to the evergrowing roster of television celebrity hype shows. A far cry from the manicured glitz of its competitors, E!NW lets Cox get down and dirty with the famous folks she’s interviewing. Whether that means getting drunk with Nickelback or coaxing complete sentences out of hungover Trailer Park Boys, Cox loves the gig.

“The best part about this job is feeling like you are in a constant state of inspiration,” she says. “That’s basically it — having interesting conversations with interesting people.”

But that’s not all. Cox also hits the road for the show, travelling to exciting locations across the country. Recently, she found herself in subarctic Churchill, Man., facing off with two of earth’s most amazing creations.

In Churchill, she was witness to the phenomenon that is the northern lights. “They were just stunning, green and pink and just moving. Basically just God and the universe saying, ‘Hold up, I’m gonna show off for a while,’” she says.

Another highlight of the trip was the chance to come face to face with one of natures most adorable killing machines.

“I also saw the polar bears,” she says. “They are supersmart animals. They are the Mensa crew of the animal world.”

While socializing and travelling are all stellar perks of the job, beneath that Martha-approved thicket of hair is the mind of a gifted auteur. If there were a Mensa crew of entertainment show hosts, Cox would be a founding member.

Growing up in North York, Cox was shy, an awkward wallflower, self-described bookworm and certified brainiac. “I was what you would call an ugly duckling for many years. You get people who reminisce about high school, like, ‘I smoked so many drugs, I had so much sex, and I partied so much!’ Not me. I was in the gifted program. I graduated with a 92 [per cent] average,” she says.

The daughter of Trinidadian immigrants, Cox, along with an older sister and younger brother, was raised by a single mother. At eight, Cox auditioned successfully at the Claude Watson School for the Arts. While it meant a long subway ride each morning, the experience was crucial in creating the media dynamo who exists today.

“It was just such a fertile time for an imagination. They really made you feel like you could do whatever you wanted to,” says Cox, who was classmates with Scott Speedman and an already famous Sarah Polley. “Plus, there was no bullying. My last name is Cox, so if anyone was going to be bullied, it was me.”

While dreams of onscreen fame swirled through the hallways, Cox admits she wasn’t focused on any of that. She wanted to be a novelist.

Like many aspiring writers, Cox parlayed her high marks into a spot at the University of Carleton’s journalism program. Yet again she excelled, but as her course work went on, two inescapable realities set in: writing does not pay the bills, and she was just too darned charismatic not to be in front of the camera.

“Journalism actually derailed me for a while,” Cox admits. “I went [to Carleton] because I loved to write, over and above everything else. I think I psyched myself out, that maybe I wouldn’t be able to be a novelist. I’d have to get a job.” So she did — as an on-the-street reporter for CJOH in Ottawa.

“It kicked my ass. It’s a lot of pressure, and it also showed me what I didn’t want to do. I didn’t want to do hard news, fires and kids getting killed skateboarding.” The realization prompted Cox to switch gears. She moved back to her hometown of Toronto and dove headfirst into the far more upbeat world of entertainment reporting.

“Going into entertainment journalism ticked a ton of boxes for me,” she says. “There is the storytelling element, there is the performance element — you get used to performing. And all of the other stuff is gravy.”

The relocation reunited her with her old neighbourhood in North York where she and her partner have moved and are starting a family.

“It’s an amazing fixer-upper on a massive plot of land. It’s kind of near Cummer and Willowdale. My sister calls me the turtle because I left where I came from and returned to spawn.”

That Cox, who spends her weeks knee-deep in chic, chose to return to the considerably less flashy place from whence she came is a testament to just how down to earth she really is.

“She just doesn’t really buy the hype,” says Jason Ruta, Cox’s cohost on E!NW. “The thing about her is that she is cucumber cool. She doesn’t rev up easily. We were doing our first-ever Gemini red carpet show, and it was exciting and all that, [and] we were all feeding off the energy. She just kept low-key and quiet. But when we go live, she’s on.”

Cox’s ability to avoid getting caught up in the hype probably stems from the fact that she still thinks of herself as the bookish, shy outsider who clung to the walls of Canada’s high school star factory. And it’s this attitude that has given her an edge.

“I hope my kids are late bloomers for that reason,” she says. “You have to see life from the other side. You have to not be hot, like you can talk or charm your way out of life’s real issues. If my kids are really gorgeous early, I’m going to give them the ugliest glasses. I’ll give them no money for clothes.”

All of the above might be a challenge. Cox’s good looks and magnetism coupled with her fiancé’s Persian-Norwegian heritage are bound to produce exceptional kids. Plus their mother may have a decidedly new and more lucrative career in the near future.

The circumstances are topsecret, but this high school writing nerd might just get her revenge, with a writing project of titanic proportions that could vault her from outsider to A-list insider overnight.

“In my downtime I write. I write constantly. I’m a screenwriter, so I’m working on a few really, really big projects.”

Such as?

“[My publicist] has trained me on this,” Cox says. “It’s to say that, ‘This is off the record.’”

The tape recorder is turned off, the notebook is tucked away, and Cox spills the beans. And it’s juicy. Ruta knows about the upcoming project as well and offers this as a clue:

“I’ll tell you what. Arisa Cox is a star. She was born a star, and she’s going to be a huge star. She’s really just using [E!NW] as a springboard. For her it’s all about the writing. She tells me, ‘Jason, one day you’re gonna be in one of my movies.’”

Crack the Vault

5:38 pm

IT WAS AN image, solitary and haunting, that started Toronto writer Anne Michaels down the path that would lead her to writing her long-awaited second novel, The Winter Vault.

“It was all attached to an initial image of Avery painting Jean’s back at the site of a temple being moved,” says Michaels, of the book’s central characters. “All the relationships between the characters and the dismantled temple were right there in that first image.”

Of course, that was years before her debut novel Fugitive Pieces was published in 1997. A book that would rocket Michaels to the top of the best-seller lists around the world, establishing the poet turned novelist as a force in Canadian letters.

Not that she was sitting idly by over the past dozen years. Michaels kept busy writing a couple new books of poetry, a play, a few oratorios and five as yet unpublished children’s books.

“All the time this book was my main project,” says Michaels.

In The Winter Vault, Michaels returns to historical fiction as she pens the love story of Avery and Jean, weaving in parallel histories of the moving of the Abu Simbel to escape the rising waters from the construction of the Aswan Dam in Egypt and the building of the St. Lawrence Seaway. A project that would bury a number of small Ontario towns under water.

“I knew from the start it would take a lot of research,” says Michaels, who spent years outlining the work. “With that much research, I like to let the facts settle in. Facts, I think, take some time to transform into meaning.”

Michaels, not surprisingly, isn’t one to rush a story as it unwinds in her mind.

“Certainly for the initial part of the process, the gathering the facts and also really absorbing what the experiences of the characters are and what the stories are, I think a lot before I start to write,” says Michaels. “After that you’re living, breathing and sleeping it — that’s all your doing.”

The Winter Vault is telling evidence of Michaels’s considerable skill as a writer, rich with metaphor, moving and detailed in its portrayal of the intimacy of relationships. All according to design, she says.

“I want the reader to come with me into this book,” Michaels explains. “When I write, the whole structure and pacing of the book takes into account this desire of mine to have the reader really enter into the book with me, the ideas and emotionally into the experience.”

WHAT IS DEB MCGRATH READING?

“I am reading Girls Like Us by Sheila Weller. Great insight into the complicated talented trio of Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and Carole King. Loving it! Every time I put the book down I turn on their music. Also reading Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe. Yes, I know, a day late and a dollar short. But interesting reading during a recession. Classic.

Deb McGrath will take part in Scrabble With The Stars!, April 6 at the Suites at 1 King West.

Of strikes, streetcars and plunging polls

5:37 pm

IN 2003, I did not support David Miller’s bid for mayor. I was concerned about two things: He was a great talker but never actually accomplished objectives, and his focus and understanding would be targeted at the old city of Toronto, instead of the amalgamated city.

In 2006, after serving three years on council with Mayor David Miller, I could see that my concerns were real. I challenged him for the position, when no one else would, because I wanted to get the message out that under Mayor Miller’s “leadership” we were headed in the wrong direction. It had come to this — if I couldn’t take the city in a new direction, I didn’t want to serve on council for another four years.

In a recent Ipsos-Reid poll, David Miller’s popularity has plunged to 43 per cent. Another poll indicates that the majority of Torontonians do not approve of his handling of the city strike.

Rather than the mayor defining the issues, the issues are defining the mayor. The strike should have been avoided, and it was unwarranted. Why should Torontonians suffer weeks of disruption, and why should employees be put in this position?

In 2002, Miller said that if he were mayor there would be no garbage strike. He is known as union-friendly and was strongly supported by unions in the 2003 and 2006 elections. But there is no regular engagement of the city employee unions by city hall.

Employees have low morale that is not addressed, and employees know how to run the city better. They need to be listened to. That way, morale will increase and there will be better service results. All reports from staff to council are now vetted through the mayor’s office. Political control of council has never been as strong. There are councillors who vote with Miller despite their political leanings or ward interests.

On transit, there is a compulsion to put streetcars everywhere. Recently, federal funding was missing, and $400 million plus was taken from other projects. Taxpayers had no input on this decision. An increased subway network for Toronto is preferable to streetcars. Subways better accommodate population growth and do not compete with other vehicles on the surface.

The Gardiner Expressway provides the only bypass to downtown Toronto and links the Don Valley Parkway to the QEW and Highway 427. Decisions around its future will impact business and tourism and should be decided by a greater audience than Toronto City Council.

By the time of publication, the strike may be resolved. The world has been watching — Miller was interviewed on CNN — and we look like a dysfunctional city.

Toronto needs a new mayor who has an understanding of the needs of the amalgamated city. We need a mayor who can provide urgent attention to make necessary changes, one who is not mired down in political correctness, but who has the courage to act on behalf of our concerns.

Post City Magazines’ political columnist, Jane Pitfield, is currently involved in volunteer projects focused on homelessness, heritage and seniors. She is also writing a book.

Prisoners escape to… local kitchen?

5:37 pm

MARC THUET AND his wife, Biana Zorich, have been media darlings since the French chef hit Toronto’s restaurant scene in the 1980s. A tattooed, hard-living, cigarette-smoking bear of a man, Thuet’s rock ’n’ roll take on French cuisine solidified his spot as one of Toronto’s few celebrity chefs. With his latest foray — a reality TV show chronicling a restaurant run by ex-convicts — his star is once again on the rise.

Just a few months ago, Bite Me, the couple’s take on “recession dining,” closed its doors only to become an even simpler and more accessible version of itself. With the opening of their new concept restaurant, Conviction, Thuet is about to make his TV debut.

“Marc and I had this idea a few years ago,” says Zorich. “We wanted to help people who are paroled, or about to be paroled, find a trade, teach them a skill, something they can learn and use once they reintegrate themselves into society.

“For security reasons, the government wouldn’t allow us to go into the jails, and as time went on, we decided to open our own restaurant around that idea.” They searched high and low for a new location, but nothing fit until they were approached with the idea of doing a reality show, and it all just clicked.

“We were not looking for a change. I had just renovated our restaurant less than a year ago and turned it into Bite Me, and it got reviewed and did great business,” says Zorich. “This came up, and I really wanted to find something small, like 30 seats, but nothing fit.”

Conviction Kitchen brought in 84 former inmates for the job interview of a lifetime, and they were eventually whittled down to 13 — in front of the watchful eyes of reality show cameras.

Of the 13, seven will work the kitchen of the restaurant, alongside Thuet, while six will work the front of the house with Zorich, serving tables and greeting patrons.

“It’s not rocket science,” Thuet explains. “People with steady jobs and a steady income are less likely to wind up back in jail.”

When I previewed the show in Biana’s office, it looked just as polished and entertaining as anything Gordon Ramsay puts his name on.

Fights, tears, yelling, throwing of kitchen utensils and lunacy all make for good television, and Conviction Kitchen promises just that. One ex-con was dropped from the show for threatening Zorich after a request to cut his hair, another after he was found shooting heroin at the back of the restaurant.

“We do weird food here. We kill lamb ourselves, we pick our own pigs, we pick our own vegetables, so we help local farmers to begin with.”

David Jackson, a 44-year-old from Baltimore, answered an Internet job ad never thinking he would end up being one of the few convicts left standing during the show’s first season.

“I was looking for employment, so I could stay in the country,” he says. “The prize of this reality show is as simple as that. It’s not about getting kicked off the island or winning a million dollars.”

Jackson spent time in jail after getting caught four years ago for possession. After that, he got a criminal record; had 18 months of supervised probation, urine analysis twice a week; and went through all the required drug classes.

“I wouldn’t say this opportunity helped me turn my life around, but at the state that I was in about a year and a half ago, where my confidence was shot, because I had just gone through a divorce, it made all the difference,” he says.

“I got my confidence back. It made everything feel more stable. Now I have a little money in my pocket, whereas before I had absolutely nothing. It stabilized me at a time when I needed to be stabilized.”

Thuet knew that he couldn’t expect people who had never stepped into a kitchen to cook his high-end menu that he had spent years cultivating, so he adapted it to make sure that the contestants could create and prepare food he was proud of.

“The menu is a bit simpler, obviously,” says Thuet. “If you train people to do a certain style of food, it has to be more about the basics and fundamentals. So now we have a more Mediterranean influence. There is pasta and pizza, staples that we never had before.”

On top of the publicity the show has already and will continue to provide, the reality show also gave the chef and his wife a new perspective on how some people in Toronto live.

While the couple have kids and live in a nice residential neighborhood where most families are just like them, the show’s contestants really opened their eyes.

“The show is not just about the restaurant, it’s actually about these people,” Thuet explains.

“It follows these guys home, whatever it is they call a home. Some of them live in crack houses because they can’t find a landlord who will take them on. You see some of the reality of what life is like when people come out of jail. And then they became a part of the family even more so. And right away Biana became ‘Mamma.’”

Zorich didn’t know that her reaction to the process would be so strong, and the experience humbled her a lot.

“It surprised me how much patience, understanding and genuine sympathy I had toward people,” Zorich confesses. “Before this, we were really business oriented. Now it’s still business, but we realize our journey here is so short.”

This has been a big year full of changes for the couple. They closed the doors on their Bloor Street BBQ joint, Cluck, Grunt & Low, and opened two new patisseries. And to have new employees that knew nothing about the business they have worked so hard to cultivate was an adjustment for everyone. Contestants worked the front and back of house and had masters of the trade helping them along.

“I had never served before, so this is something new,” says Jackson. “Biana has taught us so much; it’s fun and I enjoy it.” As the show demonstrates, the restaurant business is about so much more than food. Long hours, high heat and never-ending stress create bonds that are similar to family.

“Once you work in a restaurant, it transcends race, background, gender, everything,” Zorich says. “And the ones who have survived this process are foodies at heart, they just didn’t necessarily know it. And we do weird food here. We kill lambs ourselves, we pick our own pigs, we pick our own vegetables, so we help local farmers to begin with.

“For the most part, they all appreciated it and were excited about it as much as we are.” Conviction Kitchen premieres on Citytv in September. Conviction, the restaurant, is located at 609 King St. W., 416-603-2777.

Dynamic Duo

5:37 pm

STEP INSIDE PAUL and Holly Miklas’s $15 million, 18,000- square-foot Bridle Path mansion and it’s hard not to feel at least a bit intimidated.

As the host of HGTV’s Mansions, a Toronto-based home design show that builds and designs — well — mansions, and founder and president of Valleymede Building Corporation, Paul has sizable credentials. But when the 47- year-old father of three bounds in through the back door, whistling, and skips over to shake my hand, I’m put at ease almost instantly. As the son of a developer, Paul learned his way around construction sites as early as age 13. He spent his summers surveying land.

By the time he was 19, he had been recruited by one of the top builders in Canada to work as an assistant supervisor. Upon finishing university, Paul was hired to one project as site supervisor, a position usually reserved for people in their 40s or 50s.

Paul’s construction experience is central to his role as host of Mansions. The show, which airs as part of Real Estate Wednesdays on HGTV, offers a behind-the-scenes look at the design, construction and decoration of some of Canada’s most lavish homes. The first season of the show comprises 10 episodes.

“In each episode we’ve chosen one area of the house to focus on, such as the library or the indoor pool,” Paul explains. For each show, he travels somewhere to gain inspiration, places such as Casa Loma or Paris, France.

Before I can ask how he went from site supervisor to ultraexclusive home builder (responsible for five mansions in the Bridle Path area alone), Paul whisks me out of the formal dining room and into the grand foyer, where we are joined by his wife Holly, who is Mansions’ head designer. The elegant finishes, carefully chosen colour schemes and stunning original artwork are all attributed to Holly’s meticulous eye.

Holly and Paul are as compatible romantically as they are creatively. They met in their teens at a church dance and still laugh about that night that took them down to the CN Tower’s first birthday celebration. “Of course, when it came time to propose, I chose the CN Tower as the spot to do it,” says Paul, his wife blushing as he divulges the details of their romantic story.

But Paul certainly isn’t in the business of being shy. His grand Bridle Path home is the setting for many of Mansions’ episodes, and, like a proud artist, he eagerly shows off his work.

Our tour begins in the kitchen, with its soaring 15-foot ceilings, stunning granite countertops and elaborate custom cabinetry.

Just off the kitchen, the gorgeous octagonal breakfast room with floor-to-ceiling windows is flooded with light, even on this dull January day. The high-velocity heating and cooling system, coupled with heated marble floors, ensures the temperature inside the room remains optimal.

Despite the meticulous order of this spectacular home, there are signs of family life. Smack dab in the middle of the highly masculine, French-style study sits an elaborate drum kit.

“Our daughter is learning to play, and we didn’t want to send her down to the basement to practice,” says Holly, smiling. “This way her practice is integrated into family life.”

Though they’ve only been in this house for about four years, the Miklas family has resided in the Bayview and York Mills area for years. “I actually grew up in this neighbourhood,” says Holly. “We love the community feeling and the easy access to all the amenities.” As members of the nearby Granite Club, the Miklases stay active by swimming, skating and playing tennis. When the weather is warm, they take advantage of the walking and bike paths in Edwards Gardens. “We drive down on a summer day with the kids and try to see who can count the most brides in the gardens,” says Paul, laughing.

Our tour continues to the master suite. From the stunning walkout balcony overlooking the manicured property, to his and hers ensuite bathrooms (his equipped with a flat-screen TV where Paul watches sports highlights while shaving) to the most organized walk-in closet I have ever seen, this space is a haven of luxury.

While a show such as Mansions, with its overt displays of luxury and excess, might seem out of touch with the economic realities of the day, Paul hopes that it will be seen as a source of inspiration and entertainment. “And,” Holly adds, “the great economic benefit to building homes like these is that there are so many hands needed to complete a project and so many jobs created.”

While the average viewer may not be planning a multi-million dollar home purchase any time soon, the techniques and craftsmanship used on the show can be replicated in any home, no matter the size.

“We hope to inspire people with our decorating and renovation ideas,” says Holly. “It’s all about choosing the right colours and finishes — and you don’t have to spend a fortune to do this.”

“When I was a kid, I always wondered what went on behind the gates of mansions like this one,” says Paul. “So with this show, I really wanted to give the public a first-hand glimpse.”

“I hope the show never comes off as arrogant,” he continues. “These homes are a big part of our city’s landscape.”

Though they say they’re too old to be awed by the television experience, both Holly and Paul admit being surprised by the attention they’ve received as a result.

“We’ll be having coffee at the York Mills and Bayview plaza, and someone will come up to us and say, ‘Aren’t you Paul and Holly from Mansions?’” he says. “I can’t tell you how many free coffees we’ve been given.”

Dream of a play our cup of tea

5:37 pm

CANSTAGE’S DREAM IN High Park shows are high on the list of must-do summer outings for many Torontonians, despite the sometimes low quality of theatre.

Thanks to the company’s latest efforts, the bar has been raised on quality and staging. Indeed, Sue Miner’s direction of this year’s Shakespearian selection, The Tempest, is one of the more satisfying and intriguing in recent memory.

It looks at our city’s attractive, multi-hued (and gendered) public and holds up a welcome mirror: a black woman turns the male/magician/hero Prospero into Prospera (Karen Robinson) who has a white daughter, Miranda (the utterly charming Taylor Trowbridge).

Her shipwrecked and soon-tobe lover and husband Ferdinand (played by the delightful Asian actor Patrick Kwok-Choon) is the son of a white father, King Alonso (Robert Dodds).

There is no end to the role reversals, and it is all pulled off with aplomb thanks to the fine performances.

Let’s face it: Shakespeare presented in an open, forest setting can be wondrously correct. For Midsummer, and even The Tempest, it could not be more apt.

The occasional jet — and helicopter, the night I was there — can be off-putting, but as the wind rustles delicately through the trees and the moon rises, it provides additional power to what is the Bard’s most magical play.

The plot is one of the weakest and most awkward in all of Shakespeare’s canon. But director Miner makes her own minor miracle with the chainsaw cutting of the play down to 100 intermission-free minutes.

The opening shipwreck is “dramatized” by having a miniature, colourful, balsa wood ocean liner passed down, hand to hand, from the top of the seating in the High Park hillside down to the stage; what a delightful way to involve the audience!

The audience roars with laughter and sensual joy when the youthful and pretty Miranda visually lusts after the young Ferdinand, panting, “This is the first man that e’er I saw!”

And although many speeches are muffled by the wind or muddled by poor pronunciation, lines like “We are such stuff as dreams are made of / and our little life is rounded with a sleep” still move us.

Canadian Stage’s latest Dream is no teapot production. Sue Miner’s intelligent staging, the often breathtaking costumes, giant puppets, Caribbean music and beautiful, original songs using Shakespeare’s breathtaking words help make a trip to the area near Grenadier Café in High Park a must.

It isn’t perfect Shakespeare, but the price is right, and I would happily and safely take children as young as nine or 10. Dream in High Park’s presentation of The Tempest runs until Sept. 6. For more info, go to www.canstage.com.

Child’s hysterical laughter inspires new film

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THE ROOTS OF laughter is a topic that is hard to resist. The subject was turned inside out at a recent Hot Docs festival screening of Albert Nerenberg’s movie Laughology.

Nerenberg is the Montrealbased filmmaker behind Let’s All Hate Toronto and Stupidity. As you can tell, Nerenberg is no dry documentarian, but a fun pop culturist whose work suggests a lighter, gentler Michael Moore.

As the film begins, Nerenberg tells us he was in a personal funk. His wife was pregnant, but her father died late into her pregnancy. He had lost the power to laugh but then noticed his newborn laughing hysterically, seemingly for no reason at all.

And so began Nerenberg’s quest to find out the secret of laughter. Note, though, that it’s laughter that interests him, not humour. It’s the actual physical and somatic reaction of the body that he decides is the interesting part of the equation.

He knows one thing for sure: it feels good to laugh. From this obvious but overlooked beginning, Nerenberg travels the world to get to the bottom of it all. He meets with academics, mystics, everybody, it seems, but actual comedians.

He decides that “laughter without cause” or “reason” is the most worthwhile and trustworthy form. It is laughter free of agenda, a laughter that does not need jokes, a laughter that is pure of heart that can unite the world.

I investigated “laughter without reason” a few years ago in this column, meeting with the principals in the Toronto Laughter Society who espoused the values Nerenberg found in India and around the world. I thought it was a valuable contribution to psychic release and a benign form of therapy. I still do, but with the passing of time, I’ve begun to see its limitations.

The release feels great but is short-lived and involves the body, but not the mind. “Laughter with cause,” namely comedy, involves the body and the mind, perhaps even the emotions, too. Watching a brilliant comedian makes me react in all these ways; better yet, I might still laugh tomorrow or next week. The experience, I feel, is so much deeper.

The best part of Nerenberg’s film is an interview with Doug Collins from Memphis, “the world’s most contagious laugher,” and darned if it isn’t so. You cannot watch this man laugh without laughing yourself. It defies description.

Scenes of Nerenberg laughing with Ugandan children are moving and make the point of laughter being a universal language.

Underscoring that point was the short film by Barry Avrich that opened the evening. Amerika Idol which is about a small town in Serbia that believes that erecting a statue of Rocky Balboa will change the 4,000 years of bad luck endured by the village.

A masterpiece of deadpan humour, this real-life Borat had me howling throughout its 30- minute running time. The statue is finally cast in concrete instead of costly iron or marble. The finished product is a homely version, but it gets done, everyone is happy, and there are lots of laughs along the way.

As I write this, I’m still laughing. But I guess that’s what happens when you laugh for a reason.

Post City Magazines’ humour columnist, Mark Breslin, is the founder of Yuk Yuk’s comedy clubs and the author of several books, including Control Freaked.

Promise kept

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THE MOST OFTEN used word to describe the work of Emily Schultz has been “promising.” But with the publication of her third book, the time has come to lose the promise and accept that Schultz is a talented writer, plain, simple and staying that way.

Her new novel, Heaven Is Small, is a gem, inspired by Schultz’s stint as a night editor at Harlequin in suburban North York. Its lead character, Gordon, travels to a similar destination from his downtown abode after he dies. The suburban, corporate headquarters of the Heaven Book Company is his own, personal afterlife. And he has to take public transit to get there!

Of course, Gordon doesn’t know this at first, and that’s half the fun. To make matters worse, good old Gordon has literary aspirations of his own. This, combined with his stinging divorce from Chloe Gold, who has since hit stardom as the writer of chick lit, makes Gordon a very unhappy camper.

“Gordon was inspired by every writer I know,” Schultz explains. “He’s such a schleppy guy, and most writers I know are like that. I’m included in that as much as anyone. He’s the Charlie Brown of writers flung into romance land.” A land Schultz found herself in during a short stint at Harlequin in 2000–2001.

“I have nothing against them,” says Schultz.

“It was a strangely surreal place. It was a good place to work, and because I worked the night shift I didn’t have to pretend to like the books.”

Schultz grew up in southwestern Ontario, heading to Windsor for university before moving to Toronto and attending the magazine publishing program at Centennial College.

She published her first book in 2002, a short story collection entitled Black Coffee Night (Insomniac Press). Her follow-up, her debut novel, Joyland, was published in 2006 (ECW Press). An ode to a video arcade in her native Wallaceburg, Schultz structured the novel to approximate the electronic games of that ’80s era — think Centipede, Galaga, Ms. Pacman.

Named one of Canada’s top writers under 30 by the Globe and Mail, Schultz is hitting her stride as a novelist.

She will be reading from Heaven Is Small around town this summer and is hosting Joyathon, in conjunction with the Scream Literary Festival, on July 9 at the Stealth Lounge in Yorkville.

WHAT IS ACTOR MICHAEL BIEN READING?

“I’m reading Five Past Twelve by Robert N. Shapiro, which covers a year in the life of Jack Geary. This book makes me happy that I went to theatre school. I also read When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris. The stories range from a childhood babysitter to tapeworms. He’s such a jerk and isn’t afraid to let you know it.”

Michael Bien stars in Goodbye Rounds at the Toronto Fringe Festival this month.

One-man Aussie band searches for the perfect tone

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HONED OVER THE last decade, Xavier Rudd coaxes more sound out of an acoustic slide guitar than one would think possible. His pursuit of the ultimate fuzzy, thick wall of sound reaches its apex on Rudd’s latest recording, Darker Shades of Blue. He checks into town, in support of the release, for two nights this month.

“It is a heavier album for sure,” says Rudd, over the phone from Houston, Texas, where he is rehearsing before his tour begins. “Over time, I’ve developed this tone, this big sound out of acoustic guitars, and this album is the pinnacle of that. It is one guitar line right through, no bass, no extra guitars, just one thick tone and Dave Tolley drumming.”

A native of Jan Juc, Australia (yes, it’s as small as it sounds), Rudd grew up surfing the legendary break at Bell’s Beach in Torquay, Australia. Teaching himself to play an eclectic array of wooden instruments, Rudd developed his own style. He used music as his own personal therapy tool, in the beginning. And he still does, but now millions hang on every note.

“I’m self-taught as a player. As a kid, I always just fiddled on things,” says Rudd. “I always liked the idea of interpreting an instrument my own way. Even if I was playing it wrong, that’s what comes through me, so I just play it.”

After three independent releases and five studio albums, Rudd has a global following for his unique amalgam of blues, roots and reggae as well as his one-man band style of stage show that sees him positioned behind an array of guitars, didgeridoos, stomp boxes and percussion instruments.

“Ya, I just added bits and pieces, you know, to create a mood based on the story of the song, and I’d selected instruments for that to thicken my sound,” says Rudd. “I always played on my own. It was always like a secret, my own little thing I would do to release emotion.”

For his latest release, Rudd worked with one additional person: drummer Dave Tolley, from Kitchener, Ont. On this current tour and for his next album, Rudd is adding two new musicians.

“I’ve got a whole new lineup; we’re a three-piece now,” says Rudd, who added two South African musicians that were legendary reggae star Lucky Dube’s rhythm section.

“It is going to be supergroovy, really cool. It is brand new, and I’m really excited about it.” Xavier Rudd plays at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre at Exhibition Place on July 22 and 23.

Channelling blues legends from small-town Saskatchewan

Born in Alberta, Jolene Higgins, who records under the moniker Little Miss Higgins, was raised in Independence, Kansas, surrounded by the blues. But that didn’t impact her nearly as much as a band we all know and love: Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.

Can’t place the name? Think Muppets, you know, Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear.

“There was a lot of great music that definitely influenced me in those shows,” says Higgins, on the phone from beautiful downtown Kenora, Ont., following a sold-out show. “The Muppet Show had a great band; the female guitar player … wicked.”

It wasn’t until Higgins was back in Canada that she started playing guitar and discovered the blues greats of a bygone era, such as Memphis Minnie and Big Bill Broonzy, by investigating the influences of her own favourite artists: Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. And Little Miss Higgins was born.

One of Canada’s unique talents, Higgins has flown under the radar in Eastern Canada from her homestead in the 400-strong town of Nokomis, Sask., but is beginning to receive the attention she deserves with a Juno nomination and a Western Canadian Music Award for Best Blues Album for her 2008 release Junction City.

Little Miss Higgins appears at Hugh’s Room in support of a new live concert album on July 16.

PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE, Y’ALL

DEPECHE MODE WAS one of the first bands to do away with those pesky electric guitars. In their place, synthesizers ruled the new wave roost, along with bleached hair and plenty of black and white. Although we’ve long since buried our bleach and moved on, the band has survived, somehow. Not only that, people “Just Can’t Get Enough.” Ahem. They play Molson Amphitheatre July 24.

Old classic still relevant today

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I THINK IT was the Greek philosopher Heraclitus who famously wrote that “One cannot step into the same river twice.” It’s a profound thought, since moving rivers are always changing and so are our ages, tastes, experiences. My favourite example of this is how, as a teenager in the late 1950s, I read J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye and wept through every page: this poor, misunderstood, confused kid who is so much like me! Decades later, I read the book aloud every night to my then-teenaged son Judah, and we both howled with laughter from the first word to the last, recognizing Salinger’s brilliant mockery of classic teenaged angst and egotism. Rivers change, and so do we.

These thoughts flooded me as I sat through Soulpepper’s production of the “classic” Jewish-American, Depressionera play by Clifford Odets Awake and Sing.

I have seen the play several times, and I loved it, finding it moving, poetic, profound. In the (now-embarrassing) tradition of my rather different responses to Salinger’s novel at two points in my life, I was often deeply disappointed with the play on this occasion.

I have come to the conclusion that the play is deeply flawed (but still occasionally moving and well written), but even more, the production at Soulpepper (where it runs until July 31) is far from the usual level we have come to expect from some of the country’s finest performers.

Odets’ play seems dreadfully dated now, yet what could be more “up-to-date” than a struggling family arguing over finances? It just doesn’t come to life in Soulpepper’s production.

Yes, there are many still-funny lines. And the audience roars with laughter, even today, when the ineffectual father weeps in a Chekhovian fashion: “When I started losing my hair, I felt that I was destined to be a failure in life!”

In this production, the usually reliable Miles Potter, one of Canada’s finest directors, gets so many things wrong: the Bronx and Yiddish-Russian accents, the heartbreak, the poignancy. The usually superior Nancy Palk is not believable nor moving, and William Webster’s grandfather Jacob is often mortifying. Only Ari Cohen’s brilliant, angry Moe, who lost a leg in the Great War and never stops referring to it, rises to the occasion and creates a believable, unforgettable character.

A play with a view

Also running, from June 27 until July 12, one of Canada’s most interesting and gifted playwrights, Morris Panych (of The Overcoat and The Dishwashers fame), has his fine comedy Vigil performed at the Ward’s Island Playhouse. A perfect reason for heading off to our beautiful Toronto Islands. Go to www.longearedplays.com for more information.

Economic downturn boom or bust for humour biz?

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EVERYWHERE I GO, I get asked the same question, “How’s the recession affecting comedy?”

Ah, yes, the recession. A topic that has officially replaced the weather as the starting point of small talk from coast-to-coast. The quick answer is: not that much.

The truth is that this recession has not affected all of us equally. Sometimes a simple luxury can be less expensive than a complicated necessity. On the retail level of putting customers into seats, not much has changed. It’s always been hard to sell tickets. When times are bad, comedy clubs don’t do much worse, but when times bounce back, they don’t really improve much either.

On the plus side, it’s important to remember that the product is inexpensive. Only the hard-core unemployed can’t find the $15 for admission. I spoke to a major theatrical agent, who told me that a price point of $30 seems to be the threshold at which consumer resistance now stands. But, interestingly enough, Seinfeld, Russell Peters and Dane Cook tickets have been flying off the shelves at up to $200 a pop.

Perhaps comedy (and entertainment in general) has crossed over in our media-rich environment from luxury to necessity. The young, of course, are the biggest consumers of live comedy, and for many of them, the recession is business as usual: they’ve always lived on ramen noodles. Your portfolio can’t take a beating if you didn’t have one to begin with. If you still live at home, you’ve always enjoyed the paradox of being poor with a large disposable income.

Then, there’s the theory that during hard times people crave laughter and escape. This is based on the evidence that movie tickets soared during the ’30s, mostly for comedies. And, the film business is posting record sales over this past year. But it also applies to a lot more than comedies. It’s the price point theory in action, again. At less than $15, movies are a bargain when compared to travel and expensive meals.

But if we venture beyond the retail level of comedy, the effects of the recession begin to become more apparent. During the past year, I opened up new clubs in St John’s, Calgary and Edmonton. The franchisees in these places had a hefty price tag to meet, which could only be secured by bank financing. I doubt whether that would be possible in today’s economic climate. And if you’re a fan of comedy on TV, watch out. It’s brutal out there for producers. It doesn’t matter how great your comedy idea is, networks are in no position to finance it.

So with the recession as the number one topic on everyone’s lips, will you see a number of recession-themed routines at your local comedy club? The current Second City show has at least two recession-specific sketches in its show, and they get big laughs. But it stops there. And local stand-ups are shying away from the topic, except for the odd reference. “It’s a downer, period,” one local comic told me. “Why remind them of the very thing they’re here to forget?”

Recessions are not new to me. I’ve been in business for more than 30 years. I weathered the bad times of the dot-com bust and the recession of 1981. That was the year when comics had to sleep in my club to prevent the sheriff from locking us out for nonpayment of rent. Ah, memories.

Post City Magazines’ humour columnist, Mark Breslin, is the founder of Yuk Yuk’s comedy clubs, and the author of several books, including Control Freaked.

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