Martin Short reflects on death of friend Joe Flaherty

I want to bring in Martin Short of course you know him as an actor comedian SCTV Lum and a friend as well to Joe flarity and Martin Short is good enough to join us today from New York Martin thank you for your time we do appreciate this my pleasure and first of all of course not only was he a colleague but a friend as well so our condolences to you and what I'm sure is is a difficult day for you wondering what your reaction was when you heard this news about Joe well I wasn't you know we weren't shocked um we knew this was approaching he'd been ill for a few months and um but thankfully in the last month and a half we did two hilarious zooms with the entire cast of satv and Joe in fact the last one was a week last Saturday a week last Saturday and do you do you mind sharing a little bit with us about what that was like um you know we were all on it um it was about an hour and 20 minutes and um Joe was in bed but he was very alert and laughing and just enjoying himself so much we were all reflecting on all the characters that we couldn't be allowed to do now on television I'm sure there were a few a few that came to mind you knew him of course as those characters we all knew him as those characters that he portrayed but tell us a little bit about what he was like as a friend and as a creative Force as well when those cameras weren't rolling oh Joe was uh you know when I was onv we we used to call him the anchor in other words he was the one that that anchored the whole show you know when I I first met Joe in 1973 uh he came and saw God spell that I was in and then he uh was up to start Second City in Toronto and I remember going to Second City and seeing he and Brian do Murray do a piece called brlas about the Treaty of bras most brilliant thing I'd ever seen in my life and um so Joe became a very good friend uh he directed two of the shows I was in when I was a second City cast member in Toronto um and he was just always there he was always in the scene and then when uh satv started um I I relied on him you know desperately because uh I came in three overlap shows with the original cast and then it was just five of us John Andrea Eugene and Joe and um and myself and so I would be in the edit room editing a piece I didn't know what I was doing and I'd say Joe get in here help me and we did specials together he was in two specials that I did one for the CBC uh 10 years ago and one uh an HBO special and we did a million things we did uh the completely mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley together you know I worked with Joe for 50 years and and so much of his career of course was intertwined with Canada and with Canadians as well he was often thought of as a bit of an honorary Canadian even though he was not born abely he loved Canada so talk to us about that about what he thought of all of that the fact that so many Canadians tried tried to claim him as as one of our own maybe at times oh I think he was definitely a proud man from Pittsburgh but he loved Canada and and he loved the great affection that people had he also did Maniac mansion in Toronto a hilarious series that my brother Michael um produced with him and um Joe Joe just loved Toronto he loved all the Canadian cities was there anything in particular about it that you think he loved so much no I think the same thing why we all love Toronto you know why do we all love Canada I think he felt the same thing do you have a favorite memory of Joe no no I mean I remember one night he and Katherine har and I at three small rooms drinking Rusty Nails till we were kicked out I remember that was 83 I have a million memories of Joe so I can't it's impossible to narrow one down to one you know his career went on for decades like you were saying just a moment ago you you worked with him for decades if someone in our audience Freaks and Geeks freak out adored if someone in our audience is just sort of hearing learning about this comedic Legend now where would you point them where would you say you know what you should go and watch that you should watch that sketch you should learn more about that character that he played what would you tell them to go and watch oh I'd say watch SCV watch count Floy watch guy caboo see his uh William F Buckley impersonation um see Freaks and Geeks see Maniac mansion that's hilarious everything Joe did was Fant we even made a movie had a scene in Inner Space a movie I made he and Andrew Martin so um Joe was rarely not fabulous on screen so I'd say go and check out his Wikipedia page and then watch them all but always satv was his Triumph of course was all our triumphs have you had a chance to speak with any of those other SCTV cast members since learning this news about how they're feeling how they're I I just no we've been texting I I've been on I'm I'm shooting my television show only murders in the building so I had a 5:30 a.m. pickup call today so I've been at the studio all day and but texting with people well just finally here Martin before we let you go because of course you've been so good speaking with us and like you say it's already been quite a long day how are you going to remember Joe going forward as you sort of process the fact that that he is now gone how are you going to remember him oh I'll remember Joe with the million laughs I think that no one was a greater you know he also taught at Humber College and no one was a greater teacher to improvisation no one understood the process of I learned so much from Joe uh so he was a great teacher he was a great director and he was a great coworker and a great friend and a great friend well and like you say probably feeling his loss today so we do appreciate this thanks for sharing some of those memories thank you that of course was Martin Short joining us there from New York

Channel: CBC News

Views: 197,788

Keywords: Martin Short, Joe Flaherty, Joe Flagerty death, SCTV, Second City, Freaks abd Geeks, television, Entertainment, News, Canadian news, actor, TV series, writer, comedian, CBC

Id: A96XIAawQR4

Length: 6min 37sec (397 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 02 2024