Urban Rush – Wednesday April 24, 2002
 

Mike: Next is the screenwriter, producer and star of a fabulous film called "Zacharia Farted." He's also a regular character on "Stargate SG-1" and "Cold Squad" – ladies & gentlemen, Mr. Colin Cunningham.

Colin: What is a shaved eye sandwich?

Mike: Well, I have to get this thing, they shave it like a deli, like seriously they strap this thing onto my eye and then they shave back and forth.

Fiona: We're talking about your eye all day.

Colin: You mean like a sty or something?

Mike: Well it started out as a site and it turned into this weird thing…

Colin: Aren't you supposed to take like a gold ring or something and rub it on your eye?

Mike: Well where the hell were you three months ago when it was a sty?

Colin: That's what my mom always used to do if I ever got a sty as a kid, she'd take off her wedding ring and say, "gold on a sty," it's an old Irish thing…

Mike: Did it work?

Colin: Well, of course…look (points to his eyes).

Mike: You don't have an ugly tumor…

Colin: 25 years later, I'm still here.

Fiona: Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Mike: Well I'm gonna remember that, I'll try it out next time.

Colin: How are you guys doing?

Fiona: We're doing good, how are you doing?

Colin: Pissed off, can you say that on television?

Fiona & Mike: Yeah.

Colin: Oh god, his morning I was so irate, I've got a Canadian flag. I'm up on the 15th floor of my building, right?

Fiona: Yeah.

Colin: It's strata. I've got a Canadian flag out there, and I've been told I have to remove it.

Mike: The strata told you have to remove it?

Colin: The strata told me I have to remove the flag. They're sending a letter to the landlord and all that crap to take down my Canadian flag.

Mike: Do you live in a Nazi-Germany complex or something?

Colin: I know, it's unbelievable. I can't frigging believe it. I'm like, "you've got to be kidding me."

Mike: Where do you live?

(Colin laughs)

Mike: No, I don't mean that, I mean what part of town.

Fiona: What's your address?

Colin: The ....... building on ....... it's unreal man. It's incredible!

Fiona: The last time you were here, not the last time, but the time before…

Mike: Was he pissed off then too?

Fiona: No, you weren't pissed off, but you were moving down to LA for 6 months, and you were cleaning out your apartment, and you were pissed off about it.

Colin: Oh my god, that was such a miserable time in my life. I was so miserable, yeah, the girlfriend broke up, and…

Fiona: Now you've got your own place.

Colin: Yeah. But it was good, yeah, no I disappeared. I took off for a long time and had a lot of fun.

Mike: How's the girl thing? That's getting better now?

Colin: That's still, well I mean, she's, you know, still the girlfriend, there's just somebody else doing it, you know. It's not me anymore.

Fiona: Yeah, okay. That's a good way to put it.

Mike: I meant are you getting lucky, I wasn't asking about her.

Colin: I'm doing okay, I guess. I'm a single guy.

Mike: Good. Well that's fun.

Colin: But it's weird though. Vancouver's a weird town, ‘cos you ask people out, or ya just kinda connect with someone, you're sitting down talking to somebody, and it's like "hey, maybe we can hook up for a cup of coffee sometime, and they look at you like (makes a face)…what are you, psycho?"

Colin: I went up, I was coming back on the ferry from Victoria…

Fiona: Here's the restraining order…

Colin: Totally.

(Laughter)

Fiona: Tell us what happened.

Colin: No, hold on a second…I was coming back on the ferry, alright? And there was one woman at the cash-register, the little café there. I went up to her and (makes motion like he touched her on the arm) and said "excuse me, do you have any, like a decaf latte?" And she said "don't touch me!" I was like, "whoa" (makes motion like he pulled his arm away). She says, "what's your question, but you don't touch me, I don't know you." And I was just like, wow man, what's happened, you know?!"

Fiona: She needs to hug her inner child.

Mike: I can understand people saying that to me, ‘cos I have a disease, after all.

Colin: Here, kiss my eyeball (pulls on his eye).

Mike: (sidles up to Fiona) – excuse me, do you have a latte?

Fiona: Get that festering thing off of my arm.

Mike: So maybe the whole thing…maybe it's your approach.

Colin: Maybe, I have no idea. It's either that, or people are just becoming like very…

(puts his arms up in a defensive posture)

Fiona: Guarded.

Colin: Yeah, it's weird. And I'm just like, I don't know, my folks are European, it's like "hey, how's it going, good morning?" (waves)

Mike: That's just an excuse for a lot of physical contact.

Fiona: So if you wanna date Colin Cunningham, you can call us here.

(Colin cracks up)

Colin: Aaaah.

Mike: You know my family's European, and that's why he slaps everyone's ass.

Fiona: Look, we've got our call to win over here. (points to the monitor – where the phone number to the show is posted)

Colin: Oh my god, the Urban Rush Dating Service. You know what, absolutely. If somebody calls I'll go and have a cup of coffee with them. Absolutely, I swear, where's the camera…I will, honest to god. Somebody call in and I'll take you out for a cup of coffee, as long as you're not "ooh god" (makes that guarded pose again). I figure if somebody has the guts to call in.

Mike: He's a successful actor.

Colin: I honestly will. So just call in, leave your info they'll give me the number.

Fiona: The Official Colin Cunningham Website, if you wanna find out more about him before you call. It's always good to do some research.

Mike: Now we have to talk about what you're actually here to talk about.

Colin: Oh yeah, what AM I here to talk about? Oh…

Mike: "Zacharia Farted." Like we've been talking about this film for…three years?

Colin: Yeah, I know…streeetch it out..(makes stretching motion).

Fiona: This is good.

Mike: This is for a good reason.

Colin: It is the 1st Annual Vancouver Film School Film Festival, and I was an alumni of the school and this is their first ever film festival. And so they're screening everything…well, not everything, but I mean, choice selected takes of films…

Mike: Make it sound exclusive Colin..

Colin: Films of the past. Shorts and all that kind of stuff, and I think they've got..

Fiona: You're a former student?

Colin: Yeah, a former alumni. So I think there's anywhere from, I'm not sure, maybe half a dozen or a dozen feature films, and "Zacharia's" one of them. And so they wanted to do a special presentation at the Pacific Cinemateque on Saturday, and I thought, hey, wonderful, that's great.

Fiona: And the lovely Benjamin Ratner is in this film.

Colin: Benjamin Ratner, Madison Graie.

Fiona: We have to explain that it's not a fart movie.

Colin: No, absolutely not. No it's not. You kinda have to see it.

Fiona: You do.

Mike: It's about finding yourself.

Colin: It honestly is. And I don't even know how to explain it. It's a metaphor for not judging a book by its cover. It's amazing, you go see a movie that says, you know, "clouds in the sky," and it's loaded with god knows what, people getting their heads blown off and raped, and all that kind of stuff. And people don't think anything of it. But if you have a title that's maybe a little bit provocative, all of a sudden it's like…(makes a backing off motion), oh what is this…you know. But it's actually a nice film.

Fiona: Speaking of not judging a book by its cover, um, as we mentioned, if you wanna call in to win a date with Colin, he'll take you out for a coffee. Let's take a look at his website right now and see if we can find any hunky pictures. Let's have a look.

(Shot of website on screen)

Colin: You guys have my website up? Oh GOD.

(A few pictures are clicked on and they all crack up)

Fiona: Now we have to talk about why you're dressed, you know you're wearing a bandana today. It's because you're putting on the director…

Colin: I'm going straight from here. I'm producing and directing a music video for a guy by the name of Sean Hogan, who won the West Coast Music Awards – "Country Album of the Year." It's the second video that I'm doing for him. And we're gonna go over and shoot in Victoria. So I go straight from here, hop on the ferry and start doing this, you know…(makes motion like a director framing shots).

Mike: Was "Zacharia" your first film?

Colin: Yeah. First feature.

Mike: You're kidding me. That kind of success right off the bat kind of spoils a guy.

Colin: 89 Grand. We went out there and put that in the can, cut it up…it was just…

Mike: And it's won LEO's and accolades from press around the world, awards from film festivals…

Colin: Yeah, we've won 3 or 4 Audience Favorite awards, LEO nominations, and this that and the other thing. It's been really, really cool. Can we see a clip?

Mike: Yeah.

Fiona: Yeah, let's see. Do you wanna set it up?

Colin: Yeah, I believe…again, it's a road movie, so this is uh…Benjamin Ratner's character trying to convince my character to go on…Michael, my character, just wants to go fishing…and this guy wants to take off and travel 2,000 miles.

Fiona: Here's a clip from "Zacharia Farted," which you can see at Pacific Cinemateque on Saturday. Here it is…

(Clip from "Zacharia Farted")

Mike: I like that peyote button thing, that's not a bad idea.

(Laughter)

Mike: Is it just me that thinks that?

Fiona: You're on tv right now.

Mike: Oh sorry about that. Kids don't try that at home.

Fiona: Now "Zacharia Farted," you did it a few years back.

Colin: Yeah.

Fiona: When you look at clips like that, are you still AS proud of it as you were proud when you made it?

Colin: Yeah, yeah. I really am, I really am. And the nice thing about it as a whole, it was a non-union show, and we brought in a lot of people that didn't have a whole lot of experience, or other people that did, but wanted to move up that weren't given the opportunity elsewhere and everybody's gone on to bigger and better things. I mean, after "Zacharia," I mean, I honestly think that it did pave the way for me for working on "The 6th Day" with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and "Big Sound" and "Beggars & Choosers," and all that kind of stuff. Just as an actor and in terms of just the people I've met.

Fiona: Now we have to talk about some of the other stuff you've wrapped, including a very interesting project called "Stealing Sinatra."

Colin: Yes. "Stealing Sinatra" was great! I had never heard of this, but Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped back in '65 or whenever it was. I'd never heard of this. Ya know, I figure I'm kind of hip to the past and stuff…

Fiona: I'd never heard of it either until I read about the project.

Colin: I had no idea. So this guy was kidnapped, and it's basically the true-life story of these two moron idiots that kidnapped Frank Sinatra, Jr.

Fiona: I wouldn't mess with Sinatra.

Colin: You know, it's funny, get into that, but they're still trying to do a few things, even to this day. Yeah, but the film's gonna be fantastic!

Fiona: With William H. Macy?

Colin: William H. Macy, David Arquette, and Ron Underwood, the director who directed "City Slickers" and a bunch of other really great films.

Fiona: Oh cool.

Colin: Yeah, so it was awesome. You know, period piece, of course I had to learn how to, I played a trumpeter..

Mike: And you learned how to blow your horn.

Colin: Yeah, I had to take up the trumpet..

Fiona: Call us now to win a date with Colin…

(Laughter)

Mike: So you learned the trumpet, I mean you know how to play saxophone..

Colin: I learned how to play the trumpet and I learned how to smoke cigarettes and all that kind of great stuff….'cos everybody during that time smoked.

Fiona: Of course. That's when the cigarette companies used to say it's good for you.

Colin: Yeah, (deep voice) "9 out of 10 doctors recommend Camel…"

Mike: Were you able to put ‘em down, the cigarettes??

Colin: Yeah, well they have these herbal ones, but they smell like a fart in a gym sock, we were just like "whoa."

Mike: I won't encourage you to smoke anytime soon.

Fiona: I won't encourage you to fart in your gym sock to see what it smells like.

(Laughter)

Fiona: Colin what are you doing. And that's why he's single….sorry.

Colin: So yeah, but it was great. At the Commodore and they completely decked it out like this Tiki Lounge and all the pillars were made into palm trees or coconut trees. It was awesome. It was really, really cool.

Fiona: And it's just wrapped, so people will probably get the chance to see it sometime next year, I would assume.

Colin: Yeah. I don't know when the release date's gonna be. Hopefully, it looks like it's gonna go to big screen.

Fiona: Watch out for it, it's called "Stealing Sinatra." And if you're looking for something to do this Saturday, April 27th, film shows at 3:30pm at Pacific Cinemateque.

(Screening info up on screen – date, time, location, etc.)

Mike: Great film.

Fiona: And if you wanna find more information, Vancouver Film School has a website, just dial her up.

Mike: DIAL HER UP.

Mike: I just want to put out the fact that this has been the greatest day I've ever had, this has been the most fun I've had in a long time. Colin, thank-you.

Fiona: Colin, thank you.

Colin: Thank you guys, both, very much.

Mike: It's so much fun to talk to you all the time.