Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Okay, good morning, Fort McMurray, wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world. You've tuned into the max Sydney morning show. I'm your host, Elliot Pierre. And we're going to start the show off the same way we start every show off with a moment of gratitude. I know you could be doing a million other things with your time, and the fact that you spend with us truly does mean the world to me. So thank you on that note, Tanner hidden with the intro.
Speaker 1 00:00:20 No, she caught me, loves near listen to the next, the morning shower.
Speaker 0 00:00:29 All right. And we're back. Okay. We got a fun one today. This guy has been coming to Fort McMurray for years to say he's an entertainer is an understatement. So I'm excited to hear all about his adventures all around Alberta and the world based on his YouTube channel that I checked out last night. So as everybody knows, I do not introduce my guests because they can do a better job at that than myself. So on that note, sir, can you tell everybody at home who you are and what you're about?
Speaker 3 00:00:53 Very cool. Yeah. My name is Danny Hooper and, uh, uh, I am an entertainer. I've been coming up to Fort McMurray for many, many years. I started my career, uh, officially back in 1975 as a country music, uh, singer. Uh, I entered a contest down at Klondike days, uh, on the Bonanza stage there. And it was CSCW radio's first ever country star search that they had. Okay. And a talent contest. And I was a finalist in this thing. I didn't win it. Pardon me? I was, I was second place and the guy that won, you know, uh, it's, it's kind of a thing with me because the guy that won, uh, he ended up dying like about six months later, regrettably. Uh, but I am bitter still to this day that they didn't contact me and give me his trophy because I really felt it's kind of, why do you have a runner up in a contest like that?
Speaker 3 00:01:46 It's like being miss rodeo, Canada, and then they got the queen queen, and then they got the princess. And the reason you have a princess, the reason you have a deputy sheriff, the reason you always have these second place people is if anything happens to the person that's top of the pole, that other person slides right in. So I never got the guys trophy. Um, and, uh, I, to this day remain just to finalist in that competition, but prize was not a bad one. Um, the first place prize was a case of whiskey. I remember that, and that's probably what killed this poor batch. But anyway, um, my prize was a recording contract with royalty records and it was, it was country music. And I'd grown up in an alcoholic home where my dad was a huge country music fan. And, and I grew up in a home with lots of booze and partying and country music all the time.
Speaker 3 00:02:32 So it was an easy slide for me to get into the end of the country music business. Dad got me my first guitar when I was 10 years old. So by 1975, I was, I was ready to enter this contest. And so the contract, the contract was a recording contract with royalty records, right? And at the time I was attending college in Camrose, Alberta, I was going to camera's Lutheran college, which is a whole other story. The family was, I was raised on a cattle ranch out in Tomahawk, Alberta, a little Hamlet out there and, and coming off the farm, I didn't want to go into the big city, the big university. So I went to camera's Lutheran college, a whole other story there I was the first, uh, Catholic to be elected as president of the student union camera's Lutheran college, which is kind of a neat thing.
Speaker 3 00:03:17 And the reason I won that with a landslide, I will say, um, I remember that election proudly, but it was my strong campaign platform. Everybody else I was running against wanted more Bible study and more choir practice in this kind of thing. And my campaign platform was to get rid of the curfew on the girl's dorm. Um, absolutely true story. I know it is that girls had to be at an eight o'clock on week nights, and I think nine 30 on the weekends into their dorm. And I turned it into a human rights issue and I won a landslide, landslide, victory. I got all the guys voted for me. And of course, all of the bad girls, which is about half of the Lutheran girls. So, uh, anyway, landslide, victory. But anyway, so I'm going to college. And my plan at that point was I was going to get into law.
Speaker 3 00:04:06 I was going to be able to aviation laws, what I wanted to do. So I had this in the back of my mind, but anyway, he ran off to Andrew to enter this little talent contest, gets second prize, get the recording contract, go back to college. Uh, and while I'm in college, my second year, I record the album that came along with this contract before I'd finished college. That second year I was nominated for a Juno award for best new male vocalist in 1976. I think that was so all this stuff is kind of happening. I've got an album out, I've got a Juno nomination. I've never entertained, I think are 17 years old at the time you do the math that I don't think I was old enough to play the bars. So I'd never had a full band. Um, but anyway, I talked to my dad at the time and I said, uh, you know, I, I think I'd like to give this country music, uh, a run and see if I can, you know, make a living doing that.
Speaker 3 00:04:59 And he was all for that because he is Mr. Party. So he thought this was great. And, uh, I quit college after two years and hit the road. And when I say hit the road, I, I remember this is a another true story I advertised in the Edmonton journal. Cause I had this album, I had this Juno nomination. I placed a classified ad in the Edmonton journal and I said, country recording, star needs band. So, and I had a guy respond that had a band and they were running off their lead singer. So he hired me and we hit the road and back then you'll remember that every little town, uh, every little bar had live entertainment, six nights a week. So I remember back then, one of the first places I played was the Riv, uh, here in town back when it was 800 or 850 seats, that was a while.
Speaker 3 00:05:43 Those were wild days, but we'd hit the road. We'd play Vermilion for a week, uh, or Vegreville for a week Vermilion for a week. Provost Ruiz Lloydminster for a week, uh, metal lake for a week, prince Albert for a week, Saskatoon for a week. Regena for weeks with current, we'd do two Taber Brooks Lethbridge. You go out on that whole swing, that whole circuit. Well, you'd be gone for four months. Get back into Edmonton just for long enough to have dinner and then head up north and do the whole swing up through the north country. So during 1970, uh, between 76, 7, 8 and nine, I was on the road an average of 48 to 49 weeks a year as a country music singer. Uh, then in late 1979, November 19, about this time of year, uh, my dad and I opened up our own country music nightclub in downtown Edmonton.
Speaker 3 00:06:31 It was called Danny Hooper stockyard. And, uh, it turned out to be a really popular nightspot. We used to get a ton of business from people coming down to the city from Fort McMurray on the weekends. And, uh, the Merle Haggard played there and Tammy Wynette and Ray price and Jean Watson and Faron young Ferlin Husky, Ian Tyson, all these big stars we had there. And then when we didn't have the big stars and I was playing with my band, so I started off in the country music business. And I've just kind of since branched out into all different areas of the entertainment world. So
Speaker 0 00:07:02 Interesting. Cause I would say most people, especially myself,
Speaker 3 00:07:06 Don't have an audience,
Speaker 0 00:07:08 Not as a country music artist. Now you've transitioned into something else which is a fast talker,
Speaker 3 00:07:16 Real fast talking back at many, many years ago, a is actually back in 1987. I have, I have an uncle that's a, who is an auctioneer. And he convinced me to come along with him one night, he was doing a ducks unlimited auction and he said, come along and just MC this thing and entertain a little bit. And, and uh, so I joined him that night and halfway through the night, he called me up on the stage to auction off a ducks unlimited print. I'd never auctioned, but of course being an entertainer, I just tried to get the people laughing and, and that, which I was able to do. And at the end of that evening, he said, you should seriously think about getting your auctioneer's license and focusing on fundraising, these fundraising auctions. And he said, I get calls for these things twice a week.
Speaker 3 00:07:55 And he said, I think somebody could turn this into a business. And to my knowledge, I think I was probably the first auctioneer around to start charging a buck to do this. And it's turned into a major business now, you know, prior to COVID, we were still doing 85 90 events a year, all across north America, uh, probably working for the smallest little school groups and sport teams and church groups on up to the national football league as a client. And I've worked many times with the David Foster foundation and rotary clubs and hospital foundations, like the Northern light health foundation have been a client for many, many years. And it's just been a really cool business.
Speaker 0 00:08:32 Yeah. It's really neat. And like, I love the story because when you're going to school, there's no way somebody is going like, you know what I'm going to do when I grow up, I'm going to be an auctioneer.
Speaker 3 00:08:41 No, yeah. There's no part of my career. I've, I've had the most wonderful career. Um, you know, I'm turning 65 years old here in just a few weeks. And uh, I look back on my career and it's just been a ton of fun, but none of it was planned you other than giving country music a shot. And it's just, it seemed like, you know, God just opened one door for me after another. And uh, and I'd walked through those doors and it was always something cool on the other side. So I've been very, very blessed.
Speaker 0 00:09:08 Okay. Now, outside of this, you started a new venture throughout COVID and I watched a bunch of them last night, you started a YouTube channel. What's like, how did you start it? Why did you start it? Like, where did you get this information inspiration?
Speaker 3 00:09:21 Well, the YouTube channel, uh you're right. I did, did start through COVID it's called Danny Hooper edibles. That's right. And I got admit, initially it attracted a bit of the wrong crowd or the right crowd, but the name's attracting a crowd. We're getting people checking them out and that's all I care about, but it's a cooking channel and I have always loved cooking. Uh, when I was a kid, one of my first jobs, I was 15 years old and, and, uh, I got a job with a, um, as a bull cook and a seismic, uh, camp up on Ellesmere island, not far from the north pole, uh, 68 men, uh, seismic crew. And I was up there, uh, peeling potatoes and dicing onions and setting the table for 68 men and packing lunches and helping to cook dinner. And so I've just always been around food and food prep.
Speaker 3 00:10:08 I've always loved it. And of course we had the nightclub, it was a steakhouse. So, um, got to learn there. And, and, uh, so during COVID, uh, my wife, by the way, comes from Fort McMurray, uh, yeah, she's a crotchet girl. Her dad was an engineer with Syncrude. And, uh, anyway, uh, during COVID we couldn't go out to the restaurants. They were all closed and we both are foodies. So, uh, I decided to dig in and I realized that in all my travels, I've traveled fairly extensively. I've been to Bali four times and Italy five times, and I've been to Greece and all over the place. And whenever I travel, the, one of the things I really love to do is take a cooking class or a cooking lesson. And I collect cookbooks from my travels. That's the souvenir that I buy. And so I've got this massive collection of great cookbooks and scribblers full of cooking lessons from Bali and all these places. So I started digging into that stuff during COVID and, and started cooking for Barb and, and I for these meals. And she said, wow. She said, this is, you know, you gotta get these recipes out there. And, and so I started this cooking channel and it's called Danny Hooper edibles. So I do a lot of, a lot of a wood-fire charcoal, a lot of smoking in Spain though. Yeah. We just got back from Stanford
Speaker 0 00:11:17 So that I was watching a lot of highlight reels in there. Yeah. And you went to that, I'm like that outdoor area where they were like a Tappas place. Like that was,
Speaker 3 00:11:27 Isn't that amazing? Oh, Spain. Yeah. We've been twice in the past three years. And, um, I went to this trip was two weeks and I took cooking classes the whole time we traveled with a guy who's a chef and we stayed in Airbnb. So is that Lewis, the guy who is the chef that was traveling with me, uh, could take me to the fish markets and all the Mercado's the markets every day to pick out what we were going to cook that evening. And so I've got a whole bunch of episodes in the can that just need to be edited and I'll be loading up a lot more of the Spain stabbed there.
Speaker 0 00:11:54 Cool. And I finished watching the brisket episode two, like you've cooked a, uh, an array of different things. That's for sure.
Speaker 3 00:12:00 Yeah. Like a lot of open fire. I got the trigger smoker and you know,
Speaker 0 00:12:04 It's very cool. So now what brings you to Fort McMurray this
Speaker 3 00:12:07 Time around? Well, this time around, this is one of my favorite reasons to come to Fort Murray and I've been doing it for many years now and that's to serve the Northern lights, health foundation in their festival of trees. Um, I came up here with my manager many years ago. Now we did a little event called a lunch and learn. And as a fundraising auctioneer, uh, took my manager. We traveled throughout Western Canada, uh, hosting little luncheons for nonprofit organizations in different communities and, uh, Northern lights folks attended that lunch and learn and kind of learned, uh, you know, what we had to share about, uh, kicking up your auction events, your fundraising auction events. And so they hired me. I Cindy and I were Cindy. Uh, and I were talking yesterday. I don't know how many years I've been coming up here. It's been a long time doing the festival of trees, but, uh, this year, of course, with it, we're having to go virtual again. Um, unfortunately because of the ongoing pandemic. So, uh, I've been up here just shooting some, uh, all of the different trees that are available for the online auction, starting on the 19th to the 21st. Maybe this week
Speaker 0 00:13:05 Is this upcoming weekend. Yep. Cool. Well that's thanks for coming. Thanks for doing the work. Yeah. Now we're at the part of the show. It's Tanner segment. It's called the Mac city minute. He's going to ask you some questions. I have no idea what he's going to ask you, so I wish you nothing, but the best of luck in what the max 80 minute are.
Speaker 4 00:13:21 Question number one. What is the most memorable piece of meat you've ever eaten?
Speaker 3 00:13:28 The most memorable piece of meat I've ever eaten was on an elk hunt, uh, years ago. And, uh, we took the backstraps out of that, uh, elk that, uh, we got just cooked it on the open fire that night. So that was it. Nothing but a box of took along a box of Maldon sea salt, and just put a little bit of that molten, sea salt on that and cooked it on the open fire. That's that's the best piece of meat I remember eating, but I am a carnivore. I love meat. There you go. Question number. As a matter of fact, if I can interrupt my Tanner, I don't want to interrupt you. I just want to tell you how much of a carnival I am. Is that on my, on my YouTube cooking channel, Danny Hooper, edibles, I have different playlists. I have a playlist for, for global recipes and the barbecue meat, smoked meat, all these different types of things. I have a vegan, a playlist, but there's no videos in there. Probably never be
Speaker 4 00:14:17 Question number two. What is one story from your many years of entertainment that stands out the most to you?
Speaker 3 00:14:26 Oh, oh, there's been S there's been so many, many that I would love to tell, but obviously can't, uh, one from the auction business, uh, years ago, I was doing an auction a few years ago for the David Foster foundation in Toronto. And Andrea Bocelli was the auctioneer or not the, I was the auctioneer. He was the entertainer that night and he donated an auction item. It was two seats on his private jet to fly back to Florence, Italy, to stay with he and his wife in their home for four days, four nights. And he said, I hope you don't mind my singing. He said, I sing for two hours every morning out by the pool. We have lunch, some wine siesta, and then I sing for an hour in the afternoon. So if you don't mind that, and then, and those are the two seats sold for a hundred thousand dollars. So that's, there's been lots of cool things in the auction is cool.
Speaker 4 00:15:12 Question number three. What is your craziest story you have from your time running a club?
Speaker 3 00:15:20 Oh, wow. I think there's lots of crazy ones. Um, my dad, uh, used to book the acts for the club and he booked this guy who some grand Ole Opry star, many years ago. I don't even remember the guy's name, but we booked him off his promo picture. And that's never a good idea because we picked this guy up at the airport and he had an oxygen mask on and, uh, got him on the stage and he was way past his best before date. And, and that was one. Uh, so we had to refund a lot of tickets there. Another one was a nother country, music star. I probably shouldn't mention his name, but, uh, he was sitting on the edge of the stage and, uh, singing to some little kids because he had a children's song that was a hit years ago. And he was so drunk. He fell off the stage and little kids just sit there and thought that was part of his act. But it wasn't. I thought I could write a book on how good,
Speaker 4 00:16:19 Yeah. Question number four from all your travels. What's the best restaurant you've eaten at
Speaker 3 00:16:26 The best restaurant I've eaten at was in Florence, Italy. And I want to say it was called the bushy area, but that name doesn't it. It's not the right name. It was. But anyway, it was down in the basement. You had to go down a boat. Oh, it was deep, deep, deep basement and very, very old. And I was going for their bistecca floor and Ella Florentine, which is there. They do a huge, what we would call a porterhouse steak, a big T-bone and they come off their, uh, Cantina, a beef there, and their animals are enormous. So this steak is like that. It's about that thick and they cook it on open fire and then they slice it. They drizzle it with olive oil, sea salt, fresh Rosemary and lemon juice. So I, and, and Florence, this place is famous in Florence for their bistecca. So I'd gone there. And I said, why the name for the place? And the waitress said, well, the name means that it's like this. This is, and this is where they used to be head people. It was a prison centuries ago. And they used the restaurant was right down in the room where they used to do the beheadings. So that was kind of a weird one, but that was definitely a memorable restaurant. Very cool. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:17:29 And your final question, what is the weirdest thing you've ever auctioned off?
Speaker 3 00:17:34 Uh, there's been some weird ones, um, an open-heart surgery, uh, I auction of the university of Alberta or the university hospital foundation in Edmonton. Uh, this was an auction date. It was a chance to, uh, right in the, or to stand right there, dressed up to watch an open heart surgery. And that actually sold for 1800 bucks. And I, I think I sold that at the spruce Grove rotary auction. I did their auction for 24 years in a row, but that was one weird one. Another weird one that I sold was in cold lake. A local doctor donated a painless vasectomy for two, and I, which made me laugh because I thought that's how they come. Like, do you need to clarify it's for two, what's the point of getting one done? You know, maybe I'll get one done. We'll see how that goes. And then I'll come back up the other one, but it was a painless vasectomy for two. And I thought who's going to bid on this, uh, here and in Alberta where you can get it done for free, but it sold for 3,800 bucks. Uh, and when I said sold, so I had two guys going on this thing, right? And so I finally said, soul dropped the hammer at 3,800 bucks, and I could see why he paid so much money. His wife jumped up and went, woo. She was about eight and a half months pregnant. So that was kind of a weird one.
Speaker 0 00:18:49 And those have been your five questions. Well, listen, man, that's the end of the show, 20 minutes flies. So next time you come back to Fort Macquarie, please, please, please come again. You have way more stories. I have so many more questions for you, but before we cut you loose today, everybody gets a shameless shout-out or plug. So the cameras are on you. The lights are on you.
Speaker 3 00:19:10 Please support the Northern lights, health foundation, festival of trees. Make sure you get online here. And that the website for it is give to N L H f.ca to bid on the amazing trees that we have in this year's online auction. Uh, we did video clips for all of them. They're all incredible. And we hope you get out and support your health foundation. Uh, I can't think of a more important organization here in your community.
Speaker 0 00:19:39 All right. Well, Fort McMurray, wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world, that's been another episode of the Mac city morning show. Thank you so much for tuning in. It does mean the world to me. I hope you have a great day and we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.
