| Stuart Mclean is a best-selling author and the host of the CBC Radio show, Vinyl Café, which features stories about Dave, the owner of a used record store, his wife Morley, their kids Stephanie and Sam and a host of relatives, friends and neighbours. Since 1998, Stuart has taken Vinyl Café on the road, performing in towns from St. John’s, Newfoundland to Whitehorse in the Yukon. Fast Forward caught up with McLean, who was in town to promote his new book, Secrets from the Vinyl Café (Viking Canada, 256 pp.). He talked about his work, some unusual early influences and what Dave plans to do for Christmas this year.
What is it like to stand up in front of packed audiences night after night, knowing that they are there to hear the stories you’ve created?
It’s really great. I treasure the time on stage. It used to be that it was considered uncool as a writer to enjoy presenting stories. It used to be that writers would go on tours and profess to hate it. When they presented, they would do the least amount possible to lift it off the page. It could only be the song, not the singer. When you’re onstage, it’s the singer and the song. I enjoy that. I enjoy giving to the moment my best self. The other thing is that there is a moment of giving and receiving, and in that moment the work changes. It becomes not just a presentation but collaboration. How it’s received makes you think about what you are putting forward.
Do you have a favourite show?
I did a show in Red Deer one night, and I told a story about Kenny Wong. His father and grandfather owned a Chinese restaurant in the imaginary town of Burnt Creek. Being Chinese, they suffered from racial discrimination. The story is a humorous story, but also a cautionary tale. It’s a tale about that of which we don’t speak much in Canada – prejudices from the past. I was proud of myself that night that I chose to debut the story in the place where anti-Chinese sentiment largely would have existed.
Any embarrassing shows?
I don’t get embarrassed onstage. When things go wrong, they go even more right. I was an awkward boy who failed as an athlete and as a student and appeared to be destined for mediocrity. I got lucky and eventually found a corner of the world where I could excel – being a radio guy.
How do you find such great local music for your shows?
We work at it. We made a decision that we had an opportunity to shine a light on Canadian musicians. It was more than just an opportunity – it was an obligation, because we’re on the CBC. It’s something we take very seriously.
You travel all over the country with the Vinyl Cafe. Any favourite Canadian locations?
I don’t have a favourite location. What makes me very happy is that I know the country so well now that it’s all like my neighbourhood. When I visit almost any place, there is a person I want to see or a place I want to go to.
What led to the creation of the Vinyl Café?
I’d done documentaries and columns for 10 years, and someone suggested we do a different kind of show. It just took off – there was no plan for it to become all of the things that it has. A true artist has a restless spirit. Once you conquer one area, you look to skate on thin ice.
In the first nine shows there was no Morley, just Dave. Morley was only conjured into existence by one of the stories in which Dave had a house and needed someone to share it. But Dave and Morley elbowed their way to centre stage – they wouldn’t let me ignore them. If I’m not writing about them, the stories feature their mothers, their neighbours and their community. By writing about others, it allows me to extend the world. When I write about their parents, I can write about old age. When I can write about their Afghani neighbours, I can write about other cultures. I can write about "the edge of the sea" – the place where Canadian culture collides with immigrant culture. The ice gets thinner again, and that’s a good thing.
Do you have a favourite story from the Vinyl Café?
There are some that I don’t like and some I like very much, like "The Laundry Chute" and the Kenny Wong story. E.B. White talks about humour and says that if you are serious about your reputation as a writer, which I am, you shouldn’t write humour, that it’s dangerous to your reputation. "We award our serious writers with laurels and our humorous writers with Brussels sprouts." The Stephen Leacock medal doesn’t have the same cachet as the Giller or the Booker or the Governor General’s Award. It’s very nice and I feel honoured to have won it twice, but E.B White is right.
Are there any parts of your own life in the Vinyl Café?
Some of the stories are autobiographical, but very few. My life doesn’t amount to five novels. My sensibility, my fragile human insecurity, my search for grace, my desire to connect and to be forgiven are all things that are in Dave and Morley’s life. I share these things with them. Their great capacity to gracefully accept the trouble that I deal them is something I hope that I can come close to.
The Vinyl Café evokes radio from another time. Do you have any personal connection with particular radio programs from the past?
It’s inspired by my listening to radio as a boy, but it’s not modelled on any show from the past. As a shy kid who really had no friends and who lived a secret life, I felt connected to a bigger world through the radio. It was a gift to me as a kid. I listened to Joey Reynolds’ show on WKBW from Buffalo, New York, where he would invite you to melt a purple candle over the radio dial and join the Royal Order of the Night People. Listening to Dave Boxer in Montreal playing the Beatles for the first time and feeling you were connected with other boys and girls who were excited to hear it. Some of those phone-in shows – there was a nasty one-legged guy named Joe Pine who cut people off, and it was so exciting and dramatic to hear. It gave me an awareness of how powerful radio could be.
You’ll soon be starting your annual Vinyl Café Christmas tour, which is in Ontario this year. What’s Dave doing for Christmas?
Dave is going to raise his own turkey.
What do you see in the future for Dave and Morley?
We’re working on an animated special. We’re trying to bring radio to TV. The thing about radio is that it all happens in your mind. We’re doing a pilot where I stand on stage and they film me telling the story, and then we cut away to a very minimalist animation so (the story) can still exist in your mind. You still fill in the details. I’m preoccupied with getting (the show) on the radio in the States, sending the books off around the world to see if they can stand up in a bigger world. Watching the family grow and finding out what happens. |
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