Latest / Chirping Zebras / MAX BOUFFARD (JJ Frankie JJ) | Chirping Zebras Podcast | Ep. #99

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MAX BOUFFARD (JJ Frankie JJ) | Chirping Zebras Podcast | Ep. #99 · Chirping Zebras

• Josh Dolan: All right. Welcome everyone to chirping zebras. Mark Riley virtually alongside Gino Binda, Jr. and Josh Dolan coming to you from the interwebs. And this is episode 99, the Wayne Gretzky episode. he 99? Yeah. And this is the last one we can name, right? Cause after 99. Yeah. Right. No one 100. Unless you are trying out. So go double zero. Double zero, yeah, double zero, Robert Parrish, right? I'd say Why don't you just double one again? Yeah, and Jason Tatum, doesn't he wear zero? I don't know. We'll save him for the... This was an awful start. No, it's a great start. We'll save him for... We don't even know who the Celtic star's number is. Well, you know, it's... Yeah. Hockey-centered. We'll save Tatum for our first episode we did. Pilot. That's right. That's right. Which was done on Josh's couch. Right there? That tape will never be released. Before we get into our guest, we want to thank our sponsors, the referees, creash, one stop shop for all your refereeing needs from scheduling and to payment to development. They do it all. Also want to thank Damon Financial Services for over 24 years. Damon Financial has helped families and business owners grow and protect their wealth with clear trusted strategies from retirement solutions. and planning and investments to tax efficient solutions. deliver no nonsense advice focused on your goals. Call 508-321-2101 today to schedule your meeting with Damon Financial or visit them at damonfinancial.com. Also want to thank AOA Studios. We'll be back there soon enough. And also want to remind you to like and subscribe on YouTube. and find us on the social medias, the Instagram, the Facebook, and of course, the TikTok. All right. And make sure you go to our website, find all the merch in our online store. And we also have, we're excited to get, we have the lace hoodies like you're wearing, Gino, right there. We're gonna put them on sale. They'll be on the website and they're not in the online store. You have to order them through, ⁓ through the website and I'm very excited to have those in the quarter zips, the special edition quarter zips in. So definitely check that out. you know, we roll from Ally Afraidy, right, into ⁓ Max Buffard, otherwise known as Jean-Jacques ⁓ Francois Jacques Jean, JJ Frankie JJ from Shorzy. let's do overrun to how many times you say that. Yeah. JJ, Frankie, JJ. I love saying it. say it all the time and everyone, was telling everyone like, it's funny cause we talked about it with them. When we talk about these characters, you know, I know all their real names, but I still refer to them as their character. You know, ⁓ it's not, you know, Andrew, it's goody. Yeah, you know, it's just it's just funny and even even John Marasti and Max did the same thing, you know talking about the different characters, but ⁓ what are some of these guys have given us their numbers and I put them in as their real names and then I can't find them because I'm looking for Michaels. Yeah Yeah, no, I am the first time I it's funny because I do that too. I have them in as their real names, but You gotta remember, like, who's who. It's kinda funny. But, ⁓ you know, Max, what a cool, I loved his perspective on behind the scenes stuff, to start as a grip on Shorzy and then get pulled on the other side of the camera by Jared Kiso. It's pretty cool, pretty cool kind of progression as to how he became a character. Yeah. mean, it's wild how, even like his journey through it, right? Like everything kind of blends together. It's like, yeah, I don't know. We're all the same. Everything, every industry is the same, right? Everybody ball busts, everybody, you know, it's funny. I think that's the brilliance of Leta Kenny and Shorzy. The dialogue, like you talked about, just... incredible. ⁓ Especially like he said in a comedy dialogue is everything. Yeah. Which makes sense because when you're doing stand up, you know, that's all you have. You know, unless you do balloon animals in your fucking prop comic. ⁓ But, you know, I think we hit the five minute mark. So I think we're safe there. Thanks, Al. Yeah. anyway. ⁓ But without further ado, let's get Max Bufard, JJ Frankie, JJ from Shores, was our guest today. And let's get right into it. There's a zebra on the ice, Bill. can't get them off the ice, this is crazy. Here comes all the zebras, it's a zoo out there. can't do that. Doesn't matter, they didn't bark. Max, welcome to Tripping Zebra's. Happy you could join us, Thanks for having me, This is awesome. We want to jump right into Letter Kenny and Shorzy. So you started on Letter Kenny. That's where your character kind of developed. Yeah. Back in the day when Jared was first starting season one of Letter Kenny and Sudbury, there was an open casting call. for background actors and I had just come home from working on the oil rigs and I said, fuck, I need a job. So let's go check the South, see what it's all about. And then from there, I on the technician side of the film industry, worked on a bunch of movies behind the camera. And then, yeah, I kind of worked with Jared all the way through Letter County till like the very end. I it was like summer of season seven where he's called me. like, hey man, I got a role for you if you want it. And then that's when Jean-Jacques Francois, Jacques-Jean was born. Yeah, man. kind of been rolling with it since. I just finished Landman. What is it like working on an oil rig? ⁓ man, characters. What kind of job did you do? Did you do it all? I ⁓ was a snubber, so we did a lot of high pressure gas wells, Considered one of the more dangerous jobs. I was going to say that's very dangerous, isn't it? Yeah, it is. I did that for about a year and a half, and I said, these people aren't human, they're fucking feral animals. I'm out of here. That's intense. Back to Leonard Kenney, ⁓ every year at training camp, ⁓ referee training camp out in the NCHC, Don Adams was our supervisor. And before he would come back from break, he would always show a scene from Leonard Kenney and we'd laugh our ass off. And then it would get us right into videos and all sorts of fun stuff. But he'd always broke up class with a Leonard Kenney clip. It was absolutely hysterical. So it got me hooked on the show. It was awesome. Cool. Cool. Yeah, no, it's good shit. It's funny. It's funny as hell. Jared. Jared's one of our writer and he's definitely somebody who's done quite well at perfecting his craft, I think. the TV really ⁓ speaks for itself. You started on that, like you mentioned, you started on the production side of it off camera and then made that transition. What was that like as far as, because a lot of people are either one or the other and some transition like you, but... You had a transition because I don't think anyone could play JJ, Frankie, JJ better than you. Seriously. No, I appreciate that. ⁓ I think the funniest thing was like, you know, my days on Letter Kenny, I'd be working as a grip behind the camera that day. And then, you know, I'd have some filming to do like when you 360 windmill tomahawk slashes me, which, you know, we can talk about that later. ⁓ I didn't want to pad up both legs because I knew he was just going to chop the right leg. But, you know, in the video, the 360 kind of reaches out a little bit further. I mean, I had the craziest bruise from like back of the kneecap all the way down to my Achilles tendon. That's a wall wound. That's what I my daughter when she gets hurt. go, ⁓ it's a wall wound. Yeah, we'll do it again too. Run it again. No problem. So that wasn't acting when you went down. ⁓ no, man, that should hurt. That shit hurt. That shit hurt for sure. On that scene, how did you keep a straight face with all the shit he said to you? Calling you a manatee and a fucking walrus. What do mean? I've been flat my whole life. got 34 years of fucking dealing with that shit. ⁓ The way he says it is just hilarious. ⁓ yeah, dude. He's quite the guy. You know what's funny is I watched I rewatched Letter Kenny, those scenes that you were in last night and watching Jared as Wayne now is difficult. He's hiking shorts. It's so different. Yeah. Yeah. Especially if you're watching it the other way around. That would be funny. Yeah. It was pretty wild. So those hockey scenes, like we talked to John Marastie about how Jared did a great job grabbing hockey players and kind of making them actors as opposed to the other way around, kind of like a throwback to how Slapshot did it. So on those scenes, like that's you guys. Yeah, that's us. mean, like in season one, the whole like flick breakout play where I pick up the puck from behind me, that was the first take. I swear to God, that was one and done. And I said, I can't get it any better than that. That is remarkable that that only took one take. Yeah, was, you know, I felt bad asking them to fucking for me to replicate it because I said, not a chance. Not a chance. You got it. Hope you got a good once. Yeah. Hope Focus Puller was paying attention. Now you, you, you played hockey as a kid, had the injury and then switched to goalie. ⁓ hang on here. The dogs are trying to fight. Yeah, no worries. Come on, get out. Get out of here. What kind of dodge do you have? I got a bully pit bull and my girlfriend's got a little Frenchie. Nice. Yeah, she's a real peach. She's a pain in butt. Are you sure you're talking about the Frenchie and not the girlfriend? Yeah, of course, of course. course. Gino's a big fan of dogs. Yeah, I love them. Yeah. Yeah, me too. got a pretty girl. Her name's Peach. So she's actually a She actually is a peach, yeah. That's hilarious. I got a little Yorkie. That's the official mascot, Frankie Chirps. He's official mascot of Chirping Zebras. He's sleeping, but maybe I'll bring him out at some point. ⁓ The injury you sustained, like the fact that you came back to hockey is pretty impressive. Well, yeah. So the shark bite on the side of my head, and I don't if you catch it very well there, but it was a subdural hematoma. I didn't listen when I was a kid growing up. So my parents beat me. I'm just kidding. Yeah. I ended up falling. I tripped over. ⁓ Well, you know, I'm a pretty big guy. think at, you know, at 13, I was 6'3", 240. So I already had quite a few inches on my old man. Big grocery bill. Yeah, big grocery bill for sure. But I fell playing dodgeball at school and I fell backwards and I smashed my head off the gym floor, off the concrete. And ⁓ we went for March break. You guys have March break in the States, right? Yeah, we do April and February, but some do, yeah, and some do March. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So anyways, I was, ⁓ I was going to bed early. was throwing up, you know, a lot of concussion signs and my mom used to work, ⁓ as a nurse has PEDs. And so she, we went to the hospital in Little Current on Manitoulin Island and, ⁓ they said it was a flu, let it run its course. My mom didn't really believe them because she knew something was wrong because I was going to bed at reasonable time. And then, It wasn't, it was either days or like a week later and I went back to the emerge in Sudbury for a CT scan and it came back negative again. And then ⁓ days or another week or so went by and I went to my optometrist because I was starting to see double. So the pressure in my head was pushing the back of my eyes. And so when he took a look, he said, I'm calling ahead. You got to go to the emerge now. And when we went to the emerge for a second CT scan, they found an eight inch clot at that point, which is why we had to, we had to cut it out. take the piece of brain out. was too smart. Too smart that it takes them out. you put them play contact they were like, it's a cold. Yeah, that was the trade off. wasn't allowed to... ⁓ Sorry. I've got to move around. My fucking back's killing me. That was the trade off. They said I couldn't play contact sports anymore, which obviously as a 10 year old, all you want to do is... play hockey and do all the things. And so that was when I decided to trade the shin pads in for some goalie pads. And then got drafted to the Niagara Ice Dogs in 2010, I think it was. Played some junior, stopped at 18 and then I missed it. I was a 19 year old and I said, I'm not gonna play in that anymore. So I ended up going. out for a junior team and I played my last year as a as a forward. And then, and then that was it. Wow. So, you know, it's funny Max is when you said, ⁓ you made the joke about your dad hitting you. None of us flinched. I don't tell you all you need to know. No, no, that was odd. That's hilarious. ⁓ now, so. Between so acting wise did you didn't have any real training right? No, God no No, no, none of us had ⁓ It was just Jared if you had one note, it was less as more Don't over don't overthink it Don't don't make it anything that it it's not supposed to be make it make it organic make it true and We get some real laughs out of it and you get some laughs out of it. You also get like you know how like how this game is so great and how everybody loves this game and everybody wants to come to this game. He does a great job just bringing that out in every aspect of it like coach or referee and play like adults that just want to keep playing and you've seen it everywhere now like you see in adult pro league you're seeing everywhere and you know it's a it's a great great show and it's so well done on how they portray every aspect of hockey and what makes it great. Absolutely. And I would like, I would even add to that. don't necessarily think that it has to be hockey specifically. think if you've been in any sort of team environment, you get it. You get it. And I think that's why it's done so well as a whole, because if you've played any sort of team sport, you know, you know what that family mentality is like and you know, winning and losing together. You know, you know what it's like to go to war with your, with your siblings. I mean, you can go around the locker room and I can, I can dictate, go, Oh, yep. know that guy that he was on my team. Like there's a different character in each, each one he is. And it's absolutely, and I can pinpoint, you know, somebody I played with and it's like so funny how you referenced and like, you just go back and you laugh and like, Oh, that was so-and-so and you know, all that kind of stuff. Like, especially like the gym, right? You had a couple of meatheads and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, no, for sure. And I think, um, you know, I think after. For me personally, when I stopped playing hockey, thought it was a huge piece of your life. ⁓ When you decide to walk away from the game that you thought that you loved because you get to a point where it's like, don't see this as a career because I don't love it that much. you kind of walk away from it. But I think that the show, ⁓ to be honest, really rekindled a lot of love and feelings for the game. And it really reminds you of how beautiful the game of hockey is. with all the good things and, you know, it takes the bullshit of the politics out of it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's what makes it work so well is that authentic relationship between all of you guys. It's not forced. It's not acted. Yeah. You guys are a team. very much so. And I think anybody who's come to see our games on the tour can really really pick up on that. I mean, I was fortunate to be on the ice with you guys, you know, both times in Boston and, just so much fun because it's, you know, involved with the Bruins alumni. They're kind of the same way, right? They're a team and you get in the locker room with the boys and you just let it rip and, and you guys are the same way. And it's, ⁓ it's pretty cool. It's it really is. It really is. ⁓ really is fucking cool, man. It's a, it's a. Just an awesome all around experience. love, think like my favorite part is like being able to skate around after the game and you know, taking pictures with the fans and signing stuff and babies and you know, kissing babies and shaking hands. There you go. I love it. Now you guys, get the tour completed up in Canada, right? Now you're done for the. Yeah, we're done for, ⁓ well probably next, ⁓ next fall when we come back to you guys. Nice. As far as the, what was your favorite city to play in? And you don't have to say Boston. ⁓ But what was, what was, what do you think was the, ⁓ cause I know the last year we played at the, ⁓ we had the game was at BU this year at the garden. mean, the crowd was huge. Yeah, we were like 12 and some change, think. And for me, it's gonna. You know, last year I would say Detroit because Little Caesars Arena puts on quite the production show and it was also the first stop of the tour. there was that, but this year I would, I would give it to Boston because one, the food and the people there are fantastic. Yes. And two, I've never skated out to so many people screaming for you. that, that, and I know that, you know, my girlfriend was there and I have a couple of, ⁓ couple of videos that you can like see when like I'm actually surprised by the amount of people that are fucking screaming for us to play hockey here. It's awesome. It's a little different experience for you. So when we go out in the ice, everybody booze us. Yeah. Only when you leave your whistle in your pocket, like Mark does. Yeah. There you go. Hey, all my face-offs are spot on that night. What's crazy about that game this year was that I think the only, one of the only players that got a bigger response than Jared did was ⁓ Chara. Maybe Bergeron too. Bergeron and Chara. Um, God, you know, it wasn't by a lot. No, no, no, but, but I mean, man, it's big Z. Come on. Yeah. The guy's running ultra marathons for fun. Yeah. He doesn't need to buy you dinner in Boston the rest of his life. Yeah, exactly. He's a specimen. He actually is. He's probably in better shape now than he was in his days. It's Yeah, good point. Yeah. You watch him in some of the alumni games and you're like, this guy could just jump right back out there. For sure. For sure. And I like, you know, when we were playing against Sutterbuck and Martin in New York, you know, you're like, these guys are like enforcers and, know, generally these guys are tough guys and watching them still play hockey and being that much better still is wild. Yeah, it's wild. When we always say like they're a step slower, but the stick skills and, and, know, their ability to go tape to tape and read the play. It's just at that next level. But yeah, it's, and like I said, it's, uh, it's wild to see the way they can just pick passes and, know, the hand-eye coordination and still these guys seem like they could play tomorrow if they really wanted to. Look, I worked the American league for nine seasons and Wade Redden, he got Wade. waved and he was played in Hartford for a season and just like the the vision and the hands and the you know the passes like he'd be behind the net and I'd be standing in the corner he'd just step out boom hit a kid like coming through center ice on a dime it was like unreal just it was like so flawless and effortless like yeah and they practice and they practice all that stuff at speed right yeah right and that's that's that's the most impressive On this tour, were you able to play against someone that was someone that you looked up to as a kid? Geez. like maybe a favorite player that you know, like Chara is someone that just to be on the ice with him is just. Yeah, it was, was, yeah, it was cool. I got a couple of, uh, I got a couple of Chara interaction stories which are pretty funny. I remember we were, um, we were in Adam at the Bell Canada Cup, which is the largest, uh, Adam tournament in North America. For the finals, we got to play at the Corral Center, uh, in Ottawa. They had just. I think they were just coming off of practice. Anyways, he just put his head down and walked through all of us. Didn't say a fucking word. Alfie comes down and he's like, hey, sorry guys. Cause I guess they got bag skated and they were in trouble, whatever. he he blew right past us. then, so I was like, okay, cool. And years later, I'm playing on a Chicago mission selects team, like a 92 selects team. Gino Cavallini was our coach. And we're in Trench in Salakia playing at Marion Gabarik's arena. And the whole Olympic team's there practicing and we went there and just slaughtered everybody, know, like 17, 18, 19, one, 18, nothing kids like, know, TJ Tynan was on our team and you know, he's been in the up and down and in the American league for quite some time now and he's still ripping it up. But yeah, we. Gino asked if they would play a little scrimmage game, us versus them, because, you know, we were, winning these games by so much and everybody on the team said yes, except for big Z. He said, he said no. And so we never got to have that scrimmage. Fast forward fucking 20 years later. And, I finally got, I finally got it. You finally stopped walking by. Yeah, finally stopped walking by me for sure. ⁓ What's funny is he's so like, you know, approachable or, you know, best of all when he does those things, it's kind of funny because you can see, like I could see when he played, he was intense and like, and now we're kind of more obviously more relaxed, but, um, I got to shower with him after, uh, after the Navy seal game, the week after, uh, no, no, it was a couple of weeks after the Schorzy game there. We played the, they played the Navy SEALs and I refereed and timing wise, just worked out. was him and I in the shower. And I'll tell you what, he's impressive specimen. ⁓ What's wild is the following Thursday, I was at the Bruins game where they retired his number. So kind of, it was kind of cool. I was like, you know, I'm the only one in this building out of the 18,000 that could say I showered with him last week. Yeah, and you you've kind of outed yourself for looking at his dick too. Now, wait a minute. Every one of us does that. Don't bullshit me. When you're in the, we're in the shower, you always check out what the other guy has. That's not even the worst part. After the Shorzy game, Max, in the Bruins locker room, Riley had like all the Bruins around him doing a skincare routine in front of the sink. He's like, you do this one first? Yeah, they were all asking me for my skin routine. And have you seen his dog? listen, listen, it's not a heated rivalry situation going on here. All right. I'm just, I'm just saying you, we all played hockey. We've all been in there. You know, I'm not defending myself right now. No, but you are admitting it on a podcast. I gotta be careful. One of those unwritten rules, man. You know what? I don't hold back Max. ⁓ I've admitted plenty on this thing that could probably get me. Well, I won't run for politics, put it that way, ever. know? But it's just a great story. Who wouldn't tell that story? We all would. For sure. Hey Josh, we're not gonna put that out there. This ain't the first Shower story on the podcast either. Mowles. Yeah, Mark Mowles talked about showering with Fedorov. Fedorov, right? ⁓ yeah. And you're always talking about showering with Kevin Miller out in Montana when we went out there. That was scary. That was a little scary with Kevin Miller and Chris Willey, the active SEAL who's fucking bigger. Max, he's bigger than JJ, Frankie JJ. I mean, huge, huge dude. So I think it's funny when John was on, what's funny to me was when he was talking about you guys, he uses, cause I almost did it just now, he uses the show names, not your real names. Is that something that you guys do? For sure. For sure. For sure. think a lot of us have really just kind of absorbed that. You know how it is hockey nicknames, right? I thought that was hilarious because he's talking about guys and you're like, you know, and even us, like I was saying, ⁓ we're having JJ Frankie on, you know, even though we know your name. It's very wild. Even though I'm a real person with real feelings. I don't talk about my feelings. Now, the one thing I don't like and I get it, but We have to wait like a month and a half down here in the States to get the new season. I don't know, I'm not going to say sucks. I'm not going to say sucks to suck because we're not diving into politics, but you know. ⁓ Is it a tariff? It's the tariff. It's the hundred percent tariff. Yeah, they get the show earlier, but they pay more for literature. Yeah, for sure. I'll run it up the ladder though and make sure that doesn't happen for the next one for you. Yeah, we'll get on the black market. know somebody. You see the clips and it just looks hilarious. And you know, you just can't wait to have it it dropped. I think they gave a date. I think it's... February 21st, believe it is. so that, I don't know, I'm looking forward to it. It's been a cool progression with, you know, especially with his character, you know, starting as a player and then moving on, you know, kind of mirroring what happens to a lot of guys, you know, playing and then, and of course we love the fact that he referees too. Yeah, of course. Of course, you know, that's where he started in letter canning was the roughing scenes. And it was so funny watching him put that wig on and the tinted visor so nobody knew who he was. then I swear to God, he would just punch himself in the nuts to raise it a couple of octaves. It is kind of funny he can he can hold that voice for the whole time It is it is because I know I know you got a squeeze for that one And then you're in talk like at the game and you're like, a minute I got that a lot. I get that a lot when I talk to fans too because nobody expects me to speak like fluent English. Hmm. No, am bilingual. It's French is definitely not my first language. It's more of a second. My dad said the family's all French Yeah, it's funny. A lot of people get really thrown for a loop. That and a tooth, because a tooth's not real either. So you take that out? No, my teeth, I have all my teeth. My mom said if I have a tooth pulled like Jared did, so that she would kick the shit out of me and... You know, I might be able to take my dad, but I'm scared. I'm scared of my mom. Yeah. So what they, yeah. So what they did is they took a, an imprint and then essentially they just, ⁓ the, my broken tooth is, is the height of my regular teeth and just kind of extended all the other ones. So it looks like it's a half broken tooth, but it's, it's actually just a partial. So it's kind of like almost like a mouth guide. Yeah, yeah, but it's like it's thin and not chewy. Like it's it's hard. It just snaps over my teeth. And I can't remember. Do you wear that in the one on tour? No, I don't wear it on tour. OK, on the show. Just on the show. I got to I got to worry too much about breathing and stick handling and moving my feet at the same time. So like the one I don't have to worry about fucking swallowing a partial. Yeah, you guys. You guys play and you guys obviously everyone can play. Yeah, for sure. For sure. We definitely have some talented hockey players. Jordan Nolan, he played in the American league. Did he play? He played for the Kings too. Tough kid. Like he was a fighter. Two rings with the Kings. Yeah. He was a tough, ⁓ he played, he played in Manchester, I think when Biz, Biz Nasty played, they were a tough team. Like they had, yeah, they had some, they had a lot of guys that could fight. Yeah. then like a lot of those guys, so they wanted the American league and then they all went up to the Kings and won the cups. Yeah, back to back. Is there actually an unusual number of hot girls in Sudbury? I mean, is it unusual? Yeah, probably a little bit. Probably a little bit. Well, yeah, it's definitely true. You can catch yourself at, you know, good life in the South End. Definitely stuff floating around there for sure. know you got a girlfriend, so I don't want to get you in trouble. It's okay. You're not going to get me in trouble. I tend to do that myself. your character in the show, it's hilarious why you're willing to leave Quebec because you dated everyone there. So I assume like being on the show would like, again, I know you have a girlfriend but that doesn't change other people's behaviors did do you notice like does your Character like attract more women or does it like? Do the opposite I mean ⁓ Honestly, it's moat do Hey stop that what dogs been a baby. ⁓ To be honest, man, most of the DMs that I get are mostly guys. They're mostly dudes. They're mostly gay guys. And some of them come up with some funny shit. I will give them that. This one guy's Instagram handle, I'll never forget it, was bareforce1. And I was like... Is it Riley's? Fuck that is clever. I'm just gonna say it's Riley's. That is very clever. Super clever. I am definitely not a bear in that community. We all know that. Well, do you have a video of bears in the woods? I do. I do. went to Alaska last summer, Max. And I videoed two bears banging in the woods. I just happened upon them. You're bear fucker. Yep. So I was watching them. And I'm doing a selfie video with them. You're pretty close. The guy walked up, he looks at me and I'm like, new category in the hub, huh? Yeah, a bear blocker. Put that on your resume. Yeah, he quickly walked away. Yeah, you turned around, you looked at him, you said, I'm next. Those are some pretty big bear, I'll just say that. yeah, those... Those Alaskan Grizzlies and Kodiaks are no fucking joke. No, no, ⁓ they're quite big. ⁓ And they run like fucking 60 kilometers, which is what, 40 miles an hour for you guys? Yeah, we're still too arrogant to switch over to the metric system. I shot two in full sprint. ⁓ I was standing on a trail and we heard this like rumbling. and I looked up, literally had to jump into the woods like to get without getting run over and they were flying. yeah dude. Free chains. So growing up playing hockey in Canada, who was your favorite player? Well, my favorite team would have been the Colorado Avalanche, Joe Sackett, Peter Forsberg, Patrick Rawat. Rob Blake. Rob Blake. Ray Bourke, the cop. Ray Bourke. Huge. The team was awesome. I love that team. that was the one for sure for me. Early 2000s, 90s, late 90s. those rivalry games, when they show them playing like Detroit, I love that. I sit down and watch the games again because they were so good. Like they were awesome. Yeah. No, they're good shit. I know being a goalie, you, because we as referees usually tend to kind of get, try to get along with the goalies. Yeah, for sure. You know, what was your interaction like with referees? They were always good. ⁓ fuck. I remember a minor band, AAA playing major band. I was on the bench and this kid skated by and he hit me in the face with a stick. And remember on the next play that I reached over the boards and I grabbed him. I pulled him into the bench as the backup goalie that day. My buddy ended up having to suspend me because he was reffing our games. But for the most part, I'd say pretty good. I only fought one teammate, tried to one teammate during a game one time. And that definitely throws refs for a loop. I fought two teammates in practice, but never in game. So Max, outside the show, since it's taken off and you've worked in film and stuff beforehand, you think you would like to continue acting or do you see what direction you're... I mean, my regular day-to-day, Monday to Friday is working as a Reagan grip. I love what I do. So I'm pretty, uh, pretty fortunate in that sense. I mean, when it comes to acting, think I would, uh, I would consider, uh, trying out some more stuff for sure. I, the, uh, the whole process of like submitting, uh, auditions by tape and this and that, I'm just, don't know, man, I hate, I hate watching myself on, on the screen for some reason, but I guess, I guess that's something that, uh, probably goes away the more you practice, but yeah, there's something about that. just changes me out for some reason. Yeah, going for roles and painting the gas. It really is. Yeah, it's tough work, know, no disrespect to the people that do it, you know, it's hard work. Or do you think that Shorty will go like 20 seasons? I am not at liberty to say. I don't know what the plan is. I know that we'll be back to play some hockey for sure. And that'll be an ongoing thing as far as what I've heard. What is, actually that just brought up something else before I get into the behind the scenes on movies and whatnot. When you were in Letter Kenny, at what point did you know when you came on Letter Kenny that, you know, the spinoff was happening or when the spinoff happened, did you know you were getting pulled in? ⁓ I knew, ⁓ man, I knew about it probably years before it happened. Jared pulled me aside one day and he was like, we're going to make the best hockey show ever fucking made. And I was like, Hey man, I've seen what you can do. I fully, fully believe you. I fully trust the process, you I'll go to battle with that guy any day of the week. So cool. Yeah. No, that's good shit. I mean, those things don't happen overnight, right? Like they become ideas and then you got to think about it, write it down and then, know, game plan and see what, what might hit, what might not. Yeah. There's a lot of planning that goes into that. ⁓ absolutely. Absolutely. And I know, I know Jared said on his first, ⁓ believe he said on his first round of scripts when he pitched it to Bell, he was, he was fully expecting some corrections to be made. with some of the language and some of the jokes and all that jazz. he said the network had no notes. And so they just, it goes a long way to show how much other people trust his creative process and what he can do. I mean, like you said, it is pure and that's what, I mean, that's what like a locker room sounds like. That's what a lot like everything sounds like. So like if you want to do a good show, you have to have it or organic like that. Yeah, no, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, I know there's a few scenes in Goon when you watch it and I'm like, that goalie's got his pads on the wrong fucking legs. It's true. Like, come on. And when was the last time you saw someone drop kick someone in a hockey fight? You know, I think I see John think about it sometimes when he goes up against guys like, you know, La Rock because he's, you know, vertically challenged. Just tap in Nolan. Yeah. Well, you, it's funny because Doug Smith, right? You know, Dougie, ⁓ the real Goon. When I watched Goon and I watched it after getting to know Doug pretty well. And I was like, this isn't Doug at all. And we asked him and he was like, yeah, he didn't, he didn't like it at all. Cause it was kind of like, I said he was like Forrest Gump on skates. Well, he publicly criticizes it and he did it on, he publicly criticized it on our podcast too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, it was. ⁓ I still think it was a good movie. was it Hollywood. It was Hollywood. It was good. I mean, it's a great story. It's an unbelievable story and everything he did like fought his way to the National Hockey League. And like it's all true. And they just glorified it with, you know, Hollywood. And that's that. It's just like the, know, one shot two and three. we're saving Private Ryan. But not saving Ryan's privates. No, that's a whole different thing. That's a different movie. ⁓ that's what Riley's acting in. Yeah, I know. I wish. You're getting a lot of calls, right? You bring up, well, I got a movie script actually called Penalty Box that I wrote about the East Coast League and refereeing in East Coast League. I'd love to, I'll send it to you for no other reason than I love getting input on it. Fuck yeah. Yeah, it's pretty funny. Now, what's your favorite hockey movie? Seeing that we're talking hockey movies. Hockey movie, Youngblood. Rasty said that too. Mystery Alaska's up there too. ⁓ best opening scene ever, right? Yeah. Yeah, you got to give it that, for sure. Yeah, see, ⁓ I'm a slap shot guy. Yeah, me too. movie. Did you know, fun fact, did you know that ⁓ in season one, ⁓ San Adol, the girl that Frankie's cheating on Larrance with, her grandfather is the goalie? No way. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, that's one. We had Peter Burrell on one of the associate producers on Slapshot and he gave all kinds of background, you know, behind the scenes stuff. It was pretty cool. Laura and Sly both. Those two guys that followed her around were fucking hilarious. Yeah, they're, they're, ⁓ they're caricatures. So like behind the scenes of a movie, cause everyone talks about the actors and who's in front of the camera, but very rarely, you know, do you get an insight into what goes on behind the scenes? What's that like? ⁓ I think it'll, it would, it would knock your socks off the amount of work that goes into. ⁓ These are big, big budget productions. ⁓ You know, ⁓ with Shorzy, we film five times more dialogue per day. ⁓ Per day. And we film the whole season in five weeks. So when we do these big budget productions that, know, some of these run for like 90 shooting days, which is, and you know, they're an hour, hour long episodes. And so they're basically like shooting a feature film every, for every episode. So it's, know, a hundred plus crew members, hours and hours of pre-lighting, lighting, rigging, stuff to move, camera support, you name it. It's just... It's pretty lucrative, but it's really cool to see for sure. And you work with lighting mostly? Yeah, lighting and camera support. That's really cool. so I would imagine like some of these films, as you know, like have 50 different sets and they're building, they're going to different places. Shorzy seems to be, ⁓ know, I don't want to say easier, but with less sets. For sure. Because, and I think that's because when you're writing like actual like comedy stuff, the setting doesn't matter as much as the dialogue and getting that across does. You know, you don't need to like have these big dramatic, you know, rolling thunder and rain towers and shit like that to do a comedy movie to get your funny across. And all the, like the hockey scenes, filming them. obviously a fun, because you're playing hockey. ⁓ Like you said, the flip breakout was one take, but how many times do you guys have to run the same play over and over? Usually not too too many. Sometimes you get a warm puck that bounces or poor carpenter always blaming their tools. I taped it wrong today and so that's why we're messing this. For the most part, guys are definitely professionals and we tend to get things done fairly quickly. would imagine if you were to ask Jared, I'm sure he would say that we're a very production friendly team to have hired for sure. Well, that's the difference between having hockey players acting and acting. Actors playing hockey players. Absolutely. Absolutely. You can't, you can't fake it. You can't fake it. it's, and you know, hockey players take direction while we're coachable. We're, ⁓ know, so you can really just do whatever you want and tell us to do what you want and we'll, ⁓ we'll figure it out pretty quick. There's actually a good point because I was, I said this multiple times, like last year at the house of blues. And then like, even this year when we were all at the bell in hand after I I kept saying, I was like, feel like I'm in the show. It's just like, it's the same exact thing. Everybody's sitting around. It's just like when everyone's sitting around on the show and I'm like, that's really good writing or they just captured these guys really well. It's almost like there's no acting. Like an extension of it, Yeah, and I think that just goes to show how thorough Jared is in his process and choosing people. He's definitely thought of every... every avenue and every little detail. The guy is quite meticulous. Do you even have to write for Terry Ryan or does he just go? ⁓ Terry definitely goes. he sees something, obviously he reads what Jared writes. If he sees something that wouldn't make sense to him to say, he'll switch up some shit. TR is just a rights for himself kind of guy. ⁓ I would check out 100%. They now, uh, actually John said sometimes like Jared's really good about if, if, you he said, if I see something, I really wouldn't say. Yeah. So that he's pretty, you know, uh, great about allowing input. Yeah, no, he's, he's, he's awesome like that. He's a, he, the guy does the guy super humble, doesn't have an ego. If you see something that doesn't make sense. He's always, he's always, ⁓ always very welcoming and hearing what you got to say. A good leader. Yeah. Fantastic leader. Like I said, I'd follow him in the battle any day of week for that reason alone. Yeah. He w what blew my mind was this year at the shortsy game, right? You know, in warmups, you know, we hung out last year and you know, the whole thing, but for him to come up and, know, Hey Mark, how's it going? It shows you what kind of person he is and he even said that show you're on on YouTube is hilarious. I've gotten clips from it and I'm like, holy shit. And it's wild because the guy's not on social media. It surprises me all the time that he's so up to date. He just knows. That's crazy. The guy's always just out there fucking pounding down information and knowing things that, you know, like Narwhar, but not the same. That's because he knows enough about social media to stay the fuck off. There you go. Well, it's really cool that like, you know, obviously we asked him if he wanted to come on and he was honest and said, I don't do podcasts. you know, and he gave the reason why and... You know, it makes perfect sense because the guy doesn't have to really promote. Yeah, no, it's, You hit the nail on the head there for sure. So like what? ⁓ sorry. ahead Josh. No, no, go ahead. I was just gonna say like how you were saying like when Jared remembered us and we were both like, what the fuck? That must happen to you a bunch, like seeing these guys that like you grew up watching in the NHL and they're fans of the show and you go up to them to be like, hey, I'm a fan, but they already know you. Yeah, you all, mean, perfect example of that when last year first stop was Detroit. They took us down in the dressing room and got to see their big facility, like 40,000 square feet total dressing room space. Wow. Yeah, it's gnarly. And we're in the room. there with the gyms and, know, Patty Kane stands up and he says, yo, what's up, JJ? And I'm like... I was like... some puppy No, did, ⁓ he didn't play in the game though, right? No, no, no, no. He was just, yeah. Cause I would say what they were just practicing. What's it like playing against him? That must be amazing. I would not. guys like that guys are currently still playing. That'd be crazy. So what's on tap for you as far as like Shorzy you've done taping this season? The Shorzy classic, the games are over. So what's on tap for you now? I'll be going back to my regular day job. And I was working on Boston Blue actually. ⁓ Cop show with Mr. Wahlberg. Where's that set? It's filmed here in Toronto. No kidding. Yeah, we film the boys here. We film all the Star Trek's, ⁓ all their spin-offs. ⁓ Toronto used to be BC because being so close to how they production companies would come up there and stuff like that. I think over last few years, ⁓ Toronto has really become the the, the Mecca of all the, all the filming that goes on. We do it. Yeah. Boston was like that for a while. Like a lot of movies are being, they're still being made here. like, say even like the actors and celebrities, they all love being in Boston because we don't bother them. For sure. It's, ⁓ yeah, man, there's a, there's like 28 productions going on right now. Holy smokes. Yeah. It's nuts. like a lot of these are like, ⁓ You know, usually like eight month, eight month contracts, six to eight months. did a, ⁓ I did a feature film for MGM and Amazon, ⁓ early last year with, ⁓ Kelly Roland and Method Man. Yeah, dude. And let me tell you, Method Man's one of the realest guys you would ever meet. Yeah, man. was, he was a cool dude. He was a cool dude for sure. Would you say that's the, what's your favorite thing you've worked on outside of Shorzy, but as far as like movies or television, because I know you've been involved with quite a few. I think one of my favorite movies would have been my first ⁓ feature film that I worked on, which was Nobody with Bob Odenkirk. They just came out with a Nobody 2 not that long ago, but I worked on the first one and our directors, the Skeen brothers, were stunned, we're stunt guys on that ⁓ in Winnipeg, because that's where they're originally from. So they got their old band and everybody was down working on that movie. So it's kind of funny to bump into them down there, but that would be, that'd be probably one of the, be the coolest movies that, that I did for sure. It's a good one if you haven't checked it out. Yeah. I haven't seen that one. ⁓ it's cool. And who's the biggest actor you've You've worked with, ⁓ we did, ⁓ or will, will, will Farrell was on set on the boys. He had a little cameo. So that was pretty cool to see. You don't really talk when, when you're, when you're a technician and you're below the line, you don't, you don't, you're not allowed to talk to these people. Right. It's like, it's just like, it's just a rule, just set etiquette. Cause they're there to do their job. So you don't, you don't bug them. They don't bug you. But I would think now that you have that You know kind of Fame really with the Shorzy thing. Does anyone look and go? ⁓ Why is JJ Frankie JJ the fucking grip? No, it's funny. I actually Just this past week. I had ⁓ one of my union brothers call me I've never I've never met this guy, but he tried to call me I didn't get his I didn't get the phone call, but then he sent me a text message. He's like, hey It's so and so listen, he's like, I know this is weird. He's like, I just finished watching shorts. He was my 11 year old son and he doesn't believe he thinks I'm full of shit. I say that you're So I was like, okay, I got you. So I made him a little video, you know, first, first kid. he's like, Oh, thanks, man. You made my day. think it's, think, uh, I think that's why we do it. You know, this is, this is, know, we get We get lot of DMs of people sharing their hardships and what the show has been able to bring to them. And I think it's cool to be able to give back, sign stuff, take pictures, make people's days because it could all go away tomorrow. We never know. Yeah, you guys definitely get it because we've seen it firsthand where, know, matter of fact, that night at the Bell in Hand, some girl came up to Jared and said, hey, my, I think it was her brother or something would die if he knew I was with you. Can you do a ⁓ video call? Jared's like, yeah, sure. And then he takes the phone away for like a two, three minute message. And good people around. Now, do you think because of Shorzy, as you work on more films, someone might go, you know, we've seen you in Shorzy. You want to jump on the other side of the camera, would that be something you'd like? ⁓ for sure. I wouldn't say no to something like that. You know that Doug Gilmore's son, Jake, is a grip too, right? No way. Yeah, we work together on a bunch of stuff down here in Toronto. That's awesome. He's really close with some of my good, good rigging buddies down here. One of the best. It's a weird small world. Yeah, I bet it's like the hockey world. I was just, he took the words right out of my mouth. I was just about to say that. you know, the, hockey world, the small world. And I swear to God, think Phil might be just a small, if not a little bit smaller. And when you work as a grip, is there like a almost like a hockey team, right? Like a team of guys that work on all that stuff or? Yeah, for sure. I know some days I had to build this basically this giant tent to ⁓ to make it it's called day for night. So basically it's daytime outside, but it needs to be nighttime for the scenes that we're shooting. So I did I did all three seasons of Chucky. with Jennifer Tilly. It was all filmed down here. And ⁓ in one of the mansions, I built this giant 16 inch box truss exoskeleton that essentially went all the way around this mansion over the roofs and this so you could hang lighting points and this, that, whatever. And ⁓ I rambled and forgot where I was going with this story, but here we are. ⁓ You had me at Jennifer Tilly. Yeah, right. I didn't hear anything else you said after that. No, I asked him about like if it's like a team. it's definitely a team. Yeah, sorry. It's definitely a team. mean, shit. The one day when I was building that rig, had 25 guys working for me building this, you know, and that's just the rigging group department. You know, there's rigging, all that tricks, which the guys that hang the lights and all that stuff. You know, there's props and there's set tech. There's a greens department because you know, there needs to be a certain type of grass because this isn't the right grass for where we're shooting. Yeah, there's, there's a lot, there's a lot of logistics needs and there's a department for every single one. You know, there's picture cars and like, you know, I need, I need a crash car. We need to crash this BMW. It needs to look like this, this, this. And so, you know, they'll, they'll run up like a few options and a few different cars. Like on nobody, we had like a that the white challenger that he fucking, he was ripped all the shit. We had like a few of those on hand that were like various, um, levels of, of destruction and beat up so that they would match for, for any retakes and, and, know, reset resets. That makes sense. Cause like you see those resets and you're like, Whoa, retakes. So some of those resets will take hours. Like the big stunt days, like, like, yeah. Oh yeah. Jesus. Crazy. It's crazy stuff. The amount of time that goes into it. Yeah. It's nuts. That's like the Duke's of Hazard. course, the original, I'm dating myself. You guys are all too young. The original Duke's of Hazard with Catherine Bach as Daisy Duke. They said they had like something like 20 generalese. For sure. Yeah. They just kind of rotate them through when they get busted up from a jump or something that fix it. put another one in. It's cool shit like that that you don't think of when you're watching a movie. Absolutely. I think, know, I know that sometimes now when I'm watching a movie with the old lady, I'm talking on how they're setting stuff up and then, you know, I don't want to say it ruins the movie magic, but sometimes I might give away some secrets. watching a hockey game with us like we're just sitting there dictating like ⁓ nope that's a Pelley offside like before it even happens right yeah for sure that's funny for sure like well you know like I know how to do like cool little lighting effects like you know when you see like water on the on the reflection on the wall I was like I can do that with ⁓ a fucking six by six inch mirror a water tank and a fucking you know just a little flashlight You get a fan there and it blows the water and it fucking moves it and it gives you this giant effect and you think it's all this work but it's literally just like a shoebox. What's your thoughts on AI and what it's doing to this whole fucking world, let alone business? You think AI's really gonna drive an hour to my job just to cut a $300 beam short? Or maybe not your job. ⁓ I mean, you know, it's, think, I think the computers are coming for us all eventually, aren't they? Robot uprising, What's your next movie? My next movie? I don't know. I don't know what, what I'm jumping onto next. I was waiting for that. How'd you learn like all the lighting stuff? Cause lighting is like tough. I'm, The number one thing I fight with, especially in this room is the lighting. I have all the things I'm supposed to have and they still don't fucking work. Well, I learned that's how I first started in the industry as a technician was I was a lamp up. got into that side of things. And then from there I learned about gripping and it was much more ⁓ kind of like onset engineering, MacGyvering stuff. that was, you know, Lego for adults was way up, way up there for me. So. It, ⁓ it was a much better fit. like when you build that structure around the, like, is that improvised by you or is it kind of like, it's a design. We think of it, design it, count, count what I need to get it done and get some, for something that big, we'll get, ⁓ we'll get our drawings and design stamped by an engineer for safety reasons. Nobody wants, ⁓ nobody wants that. Yeah. Yeah. You don't want to crush Jennifer Tilly. No. If you do, it's not gonna be with the structure. Did you go to school for that stuff? Like how'd you get into that? Fuck no, man. I hated school. I hated school. Jumped around. If you weren't in school, you had to pay your bills. We got into like masonry labor right out of high school working for my dad's buddy's company. And I swear to God, I still have never worked so hard for so little money. Yeah. Just jack of all trades. Kind of got into a little bit of everything. And from there, just found my way into the film industry and I've been doing it ever since. been about, you know. better part of a decade now. That's Wow. Do you ever get annoyed on Shorzy with like what the grip is doing or like, you know, like we know you said, we watch a hockey game or like referee, know? No, no, they're all they're all my they're all my suburb people. That's where that's where I started. They're all very capable and very talented film technicians, nothing but the best. And I never have to worry about that. And I guess that was a loaded question. It was, but yeah. You handled it beautifully. Thanks. little, you know, shake and bake. Yeah. I didn't, as I'm asking it, I'm like, yeah, that's probably not a good question. I remember, I remember season one because like it's a, it's a rule that, you know, when the talent goes for lunch, they get to go to the front of the line and get their lunch. So I purposefully waited. until all the technicians were lined up for their lunch because, like I said, I've been working with these guys for a long time and I just gave them the stare down as I walked past them all. Right to the front of line. look at one of my grip buddies as he's picking up, as he's picking himself up a to-go container and I just hold my hand out, take it. ⁓ Just to get a laugh out of everybody. Great move. I've often wondered, and I know I'm kind of sophomoric when it comes to the joke, but what the hell is a best boy on a movie? A best boy is, okay, so for Grip and Electric, the head of their department for the electrician is called the gaffer. So the best boy gaffer, also known as the best person, you know, PC. but what we call them is the assistant key or the assistant gaffer. So he's like second in command of the electrics department. Now the rigging gaffer is in charge of the rigging electrics and his assistant key rig, the key rig, key rigging grip would work hand in hand with the rigging gaffer to basically take what the director of photography ⁓ his vision is with the director, cause you know, the director is the artsy guy. He knows what he wants. The director of photography then lights, sets up stuff for the shot. And then when you need cues and changes to lighting, he relays that information to the gaffer and the key grip. Key grip will talk and converse with the key rigger. There needs to be any rigging and then so on, so forth. Like a big giant pyramid Ponzi scheme. Would you ever want to direct? ⁓ I think it would be pretty cool. I have an idea for a really funny script. I think it would do well. be a good little scary slash funny movie. You know, I'm a big fan of Tropic Thunder because the key grip got to punch the director in the face really hard because the producer told him to. But I think it would be something along the lines of like Scream and Tropic Thunder. were to make a movie to be here. And yeah, not going to give away all my secrets there, but I think there's definitely potential to make it funny. Very cool. But we, ⁓ unless you guys, you guys have anything else, do know Josh? No, mean, Max has been barking at him right now. She's, she's itching. She's itching to go out. She waits for nobody. Well, you know, we appreciate you coming on and I can appreciate back pain as well as anyone with three surgeries and, ⁓ no kidding. I got the x-ray and the CT. The CT reports here from the emerge. couldn't play the last game in Vancouver because I tried too hard in Edmonton. No, it's it's brutal. The last time I played was with Josh and the Boston comedy all-stars with against the Bruins alumni. And I, I, I had to take like eight Viking him before the game. Just even skated. I've never, I've never experienced an addict pain before. And let me tell you, it is. I don't need to tell you, but I got what appears to be two bulging discs, L4, L5, S1. so definitely got some fixing up to do. Maybe go get one of those fancy injections from Germany. Oof. Well, that's right where my injuries were. I've had the cortisone shots have worked, but I'd have what they call a discectomy. Careful saying that. ⁓ But I'll tell you what, the first one I had in 2007, I woke up with no pain. I mean, it works. ⁓ Then the second one, I got meningitis. So that's a whole nother fucking story. Was that the game that me and you fought in the bridge one night? Yeah. ⁓ you were on Vicodin for that. I was on Vicodin. Well, luckily I didn't hit you for real. Should have slashed him. Yeah. But, yeah, no, Max, this was cool. I mean, I love hearing, you know, the Shorzy stories are great, but that behind the scenes shit is really... Oh man, can kind of cool. Yeah, we can, we can go all day with those. got, uh, you got lots of stories of stories that I've heard, uh, you know, some that I've seen. Uh, fuck I did a, I did a small feature film in Sudbury with, um, Mickey Rourke. Whoa. Yeah. Whoa. Right. I, oh man, I don't even, I don't even know if I'm to say this or I'll get in trouble, but I remember, um, The guy is fucking old as hell, right? And I remember him like getting off of his little chair to go to the bathroom, except he doesn't even leave the tent that they've set up for him to be in. He's pissing on the side of the tent. And he's just, and you're just like, man, like, what are you doing? Somebody's got to clean that up. Like, that's not me. I don't go fuck. But you know, there are definitely, I would, I would say that it's, it's fair to make the assumption that ⁓ typecast actors are very much how they are in movies in real life. Like you can, yeah, you can almost, you can almost put that as a guarantee. Like they did the math. Samuel L. Jackson got paid like $1.8 million per motherfucker. Yeah. They begged some somebody broke it all down. That's wild. Well, I mean, that makes the acting easier, right? mean, yeah. You know, if you try to play something you're not, it's similar to comedy. You know, I always tell younger comics, be yourself on stage. Don't try to be something you're Yeah. Less is more. That's right. Exactly. That was my favorite part of The Mandalorian. Bill Burr was just Bill Burr, but there was Star Wars going on. Well, Max, this was awesome, man. We really appreciate you coming on. Glad we got to get it. We definitely look forward to Shorzy dropping here in the lower half of North America. Perfect. Yeah, it was cool to finally talk to you without a bunch of people thinking I'm stish. I got so many numbers. That was at the dolo concert last year. Yeah, the house of blues. They were sending the numbers up to me and I was like, and then I told him about it. He's like, you use them. I was like, that's stolen valor. No, that's hilarious. Play, play, play hard, play smart. I'm standing next to him going, I was on the fucking ice with them. Yeah, he's not in the show. I am for right now. ⁓ I the back feels better soon, Yeah, me too, All right, guys. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Thanks, Max. Max Bouffard. JJ Frankie JJ. What a beauty. Yeah, he was great. I felt bad he the back pain though. If you're wondering why he was moving around, the back pain, it's a horrible thing. and any one of my friends that has back pain, I mean... I you'd listen to them both, but yeah, not good. Also, I would just like to say Max was on super early for this interview because I was setting up the, I was setting everything up for today's episode. And then I went and showered and everything. And then I came back in here and I was just wearing a towel and I was going to get dressed. I look over, Max is sitting on my screen. was like, he was texting me like, you know, 20 minutes before we're going to start. he's like, yeah, whenever you want to, whenever you want to go. then I said, well, Gino's got a tough schedule, you know, running the, you know, running the American. It was actually in the shower, but then I had to set this up, I had to come upstairs because. But then I said, if I tell Josh now he'll be on on time and you're already on. So it's already on. I've been on the last couple, like 10 minutes early and then, you know, people jump on. Yeah. Well, I, should talk Josh and I trapped him about being late and she was early. That'll, that'll, that'll learn me. Right. Wow. That's going to do it for episode 99, the Wayne Gretzky episode. Um, want to thank our sponsors again, the referees, crease and Damon financial LLC. I'm disappointed we didn't get the great one on, but yeah, we'll get him for $199. Yeah, yeah, Gretzky. Yeah, we'll get him $199. It would have been nice to have him on for $99, but you know. What are you going to do? keeps ignoring the calls. I'm surprised I don't have a restraining order put on me. says ref, don't answer. But our next episode, 100, we do have. ⁓ A legend I won't give it away. You'll have to tune in but we do have a leg pretty big. Yeah huge huge gas for episode 100 as we should episode 100 Yeah, we wait till next week when that drops that all family that's pretty huge Hall of Famer and just Stanley Cup. got all in hockey. Yeah, absolutely. Yes But for episode 99 that's gonna do it. I want to again ⁓ Referees, Treason, Damon LLC, Damon Financial LLC, sponsors, and want to remind you to like and subscribe, smash that like and subscribe button on the YouTube. Follow us on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. And make sure you check out chirpingzebras.com, get all the information. And also you can go to our online store, check out our merch and also buy yourself a nice lace. hockey hoodie like Gino's wearing today. They're a limited edition. We're only making so many. So get them while you can. So I think that's going to do it, All right. So for Gino Binda Jr. ⁓ follow us on the socials. I took away your line, Follow us on the socials, the Facebook, the Instagram, and of course, the TikTok. Can't believe I almost ended without you saying that. You nail it every time. Well, TikTok went down this week, they're lucky to get a mention. Yeah, that's true. But now at least they're owned by Americans. I don't know. I'm not following that. I'm not even on TikTok. I don't even have TikTok. My daughter kicked me off this summer and I haven't come back on. said, fuck you. kicked you off? Not doing it. Your daughter got kicked She was a stupid video by the pool and I'm like, all right, I'm on. I'm not going in, logging in, doing it again and trying to find my... No, see you later. Done. It's over. I get videos sent to me on TikTok. I'm like, can't open it. I can't tag him on the TikTok. No. So, that's why... I'm out of the TikTok, but I like saying it. Well, you nail it every time, which is outstanding. Like the Larry David episode. I know, right? We got to... do a Bill Stewart and just drop the saw Stu ⁓ at Kevin Joyce, my former teammate at Curry who unfortunately passed away a few years ago. He was inducted into the Curry College Athletic Hall of Fame last week. I saw Stu at that and ⁓ still Stu. Stu is Stu. So we love Coach. All right. Let's finally end this thing. It's like a date in ninth grade. We don't know how to end it. Episode 99 for Gino Binder Jr. and Josh Dolan. I'm Mark Riley. We'll see you next time right here on The Chirping Zebras. think Max's dog's pissed the floor because you wouldn't shut up. ⁓ I love the way I finished the statement and you both stare at me like I'm fucking talking French. I was like, oh, we're supposed to time. I felt like felt like away too much of the show.