"Part of the thrill of doing OTR is meeting people I wouldn't otherwise. For example, doing the show with
Maple Leafs players I grew up watching (Vaive, Fergus, Thomas) is pretty cool. Appearing with females I crushed
on, like figure skater Josee Chouinard, is downright surreal. Lovely, lovely woman."
"This is my first appearance on May 24th, 2002 with Frankie Ano, Pardeep Nagra and Moe Kelso. My high school friends, in particular, were pumped when then-booker Amy Saleh tapped me to appear. Landsberg got a chuckle out of my Bill Goldberg-like stretching routine before the show."
"Harold and Kumar go to White Castle ... via OTR. John Cho and Kal Penn were doing the rounds promoting their
film and did the show with then-Jays CEO Paul Godfrey. Penn was a little nervous about doing the show but survived.
Cho is a big sports fan and the two of us ended up talking Lakers and the triangle offense in the green room."
"Part of the appeal of early OTR was the eclectic mix of guests they would invite to talk sports. This was my second dose of playmate/entertainer/athlete: model Tailor James, Canadian music legend Ronnie Hawkins, and then-Blue Jay Josh Phelps. Hawkins made some hawk and bunny jokes to Tailor ... I'm sure you can figure out their intent."
"I'm a big fan of the cop drama Homicide: Life On The Street so it was especially cool to do OTR with
Daniel Baldwin, who acted on the show. His enthusiastic and erratic behaviour got downright nutty when
Baldwin rolled up a pant leg to show off a "tattoo" of the Canadian flag. Wonder if Alec has one too?"
"This episode was a good time. It's rare that anyone hosts OTR other than Landsberg but in January 2004 pro wrestler Chris Jericho did the honours for a second time, with Landsberg joining me, Playboy playmate
Cara Wakelin and former heavyweight boxing champion Razor Ruddock on the panel. Since then, I've
also appeared with guest hosts Jennifer Hedger, Jay Onrait and NHL tough guy Georges Laraque."
OFF THE RECORD 2002-2005
Joe has appeared numerous times on Off The Record, the top-rated
TSN sports chat show hosted by Michael Landsberg. Here, Joe talks about some of his
favourite appearances since first joining the OTR panel in '02.
"During my time at CBC Sports one of the people I really enjoyed hangin' with was Chris Cuthbert. I remember signing an autograph for his son at an in-house event and he told me stories about the pro sports scene you don't usually get to hear. I was proud to do OTR with him when he announced his move to TSN in spring of '05."
