ALEX BIRD + MARK CRITCH + JOHN IRVING

On this week’s Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet actor and JUNO nominated, jazz singer and songwriter Alex Bird. The subject line of the email from his publicist really caught my eye. “Move over Bublé,” it read, “JUNO-nominated artist Alex Bird has released Canada's FIRST Thanksgiving song.” That’s right, Thanksgiving finally has its own anthem courtesy of Alex Bird. In this interview we talk about the inspiration behind “The Sweetest Moments” and why Canada deserved a Thanksgiving song of its very own. We’ll also meet Mark Critch, star of the hit CBC sitcom “Son of a Critch” and “This Hour Has 22 Minutes,” which celebrates its 30th season this year. We talk about his time spent on the political satire, and some of his antics, like photo-bombing Justin Trudeau, interviewing Great Big Sea's Alan Doyle (while impersonating Alan Doyle), offering Pamela Anderson a million dollars to stop acting, and crashing a White House briefing. Then, since publishing his first novel in 1968 John Irving has been a literary force. He is the Academy Award winning author of The World According to Garp, The Cider House Rules, A Prayer for Owen Meany and many others which have been translated into more than thirty-five languages. Today we talk about his latest novel The Last Chairlift, the epic story of a slalom skier with an eventful past, that displays his trademarked imagination, storytelling gifts, and intelligence.