Award-winning author, journalist, humorist and Canadian icon Stuart McLean will make a much-anticipated return to Powell River this fall.
McLean is best known as the host of the Vinyl Cafe on CBC radio, a variety program blending essays, fiction, music and, of course, stories about Dave, Morley and their fictional Toronto family. The pair and their outlandish adventures have become somewhat of a staple of Canadian culture since the show began in 1994.
From 1998 onward, McLean has recorded portions of the Vinyl Cafe on the road, touring to cities and towns across Canada to tell his stories in front of a live audience. After an overwhelmingly positive response with a sold-out appearance at Powell River Recreation Complex’s Evergreen Theatre last October, he and the show’s producers have decided to include Powell River once again as part of this year’s tour. The show will take place at 7 pm on Saturday, October 13 at the Evergreen.
Although last year’s show was McLean’s first time visiting Powell River, he said that instantly, he could sense something unique about the place. “It’s different,” he said. “I wasn’t there long enough to be able to give you any reason for why it felt like that but it just felt special. We all remember it as beautiful, the setting and the town.”
During that visit, McLean, his crew and musical guest Matt Andersen stayed at The Old Courthouse Inn in Townsite. “We kind of took it over,” he said, “and I think it was the last night of the tour. The woman who ran it [at the time] was really lovely to us and after the show she invited us to sit in the parlour of the inn. She served us snacks and drinks...and we all sat around and talked.”
McLean said his departure the following day was memorable as well. “We had a wonderful ride out to the airport the next morning in this old pink station wagon that the hotel provided. I remember it fondly.”
For McLean and the Vinyl Cafe crew, not only is touring a way to explore Canada but also an opportunity to refine stories and test out new material on the road. For the first few nights especially, audience reaction is what helps to fine-tune the delivery of the stories and shape them into their completed form. “We learn every night...what is working and what isn’t,” he said. “We’re doing a lot of tinkering.”
The stories featured on air during the Vinyl Cafe radio program are a mixture of live and studio recordings, each of them read by McLean in that unmistakable voice of his. And while one might think that being able to put them to tape in the quiet comfort of a studio would be the more desirable option, he said he much prefers telling them in a live setting.
“The performance of [a story] in front of an audience is so much more intense and things happen during that performance,” he said. “There’s this moment of giving and receiving and it spins around. The way [the audience] receives it affects the way I present it and the silences and the laughter affect my cadence and my rhythms and the intensity that I bring to it.
“When an audience is good and when it’s really working, which means when we’re all connected as one, it really is a special kind of thing,” he continued, adding that such a feeling can surface in the biggest of cities or the smallest of towns.
“A lot also has to do with the moment at the beginning of the show when the audience greets you,” he said. “It just depends on the night and the people who are there that night and if they really want to be there. You can tell the moment you walk out if they’re there that night. It’s odd. Houses have moods that change and you can tell. Sometimes there’s just something magic in the air and you walk out and you...just know it’s going to be a fun night.”
McLean said that he and his crew “had one of those nights in Powell River” last October. “It was the first time we’d been there and that’s why we’re coming back so soon after,” he said. “We usually take two years between visits and we just are not doing that here.”
Word has already begun to spread about McLean’s return and tickets for his appearance next month are selling very quickly. Once again, a full house is anticipated and residents are urged to reserve their seats sooner than later. Tickets, priced at $43 for adults and seniors and $31.50 for youth under 18 years, are available at the Evergreen Theatre box office, Monday to Friday between 7 am and 7 pm, or by phone at 604.485.2891.
The musical guest this time around is Harry Manx and Vinyl Cafe producers said the show might even be recorded for a future radio episode, depending on scheduling. For more information on McLean or the Vinyl Cafe tour, interested readers may visit www.cbc.ca/vinylcafe/.
