Richard Crouse Brings Back A Crazy Thing Called Conversation On A New Season of ‘Pop Life’

Posted in Blog, TV by - February 22, 2019
Richard Crouse Brings Back A Crazy Thing Called Conversation On A New Season of ‘Pop Life’

There’s something to be said for the art of “conversation”…

In this business you meet a lot of different people.  Mostly good, the occasional bad and even some people that you’ve looked up to an admired for quite some time…at least until they aren’t just someone on print or TV, it’s somebody you see weekly, knows you by your first name and you can call him a colleague (which still sounds weird to me).

That one person is Richard Crouse; Canada’s film critic and resident voice on CP24, CTV News Channel and on his syndicated radio show; The Richard Crouse Show.  He is the preeminent voice for all things cinematic and a little bit of pop culture mixed in and I think that’s what makes his show, Pop Life something special.

Launching its new season tomorrow night (Feb 23rd) he brings in-depth discussion and debate on pop culture and modern life back to the small screen as Pop Life features sit-down interviews with celebrities from across the entertainment world, including the likes of superstar jazz musician Diana Krall, legendary rock star Meatloaf, stand-up comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell, actor and best-selling author Chris Colfer, celebrity chef Jeremiah Tower, and many more.

He kicks it off with a sit down with an icon of movies, music and now the stage as he’s in Toronto with his new stage show The Last Ship, our man Richard sits down with the man simply known as Sting.

Even in on the entertainment/pop culture side of the 24 hr news cycle everything has either got to be quick hit pieces or 9 person panels with people shouting at each other that only care about being ‘first’ and it feels he’s actually trying to bring ‘conversation’ back to the general discourse, which is really how we all disseminated current issues…you know before Twitter.

When I asked Richard about the genesis of Pop Life and what ultimately inspired it he had this to say…

When we first started thinking about Pop Life I was determined that we strip away everything that might get in the way of the conversation. I wanted the show to be about the guests and their stories with no distractions. You’ll never hear me say, ‘And now let’s have a look at a clip.’ You Tube is filled with clips. Go there for clips but stay with us to hear our guests talk about their lives and how the sum of their experience influences the work they do today. I like to think it is fun but not frivolous. Over a glass of wine we do what people do every day, share stories. We just do it in front of a camera. 

In our fast food, high speed lives there’s actually an audience for programming like this that actually has a chance to go beyond whatever project anyone is plugging at any given moment, and Pop Life delivers that in spades so pull up to the bar wherever you are and enjoy some quality conversation in the pop culture zeitgeist that refreshingly requires more than 280 characters to get its point across.

Check your local listings for show times and to learn more about Pop Life you can do so here and right here.

This post was written by
David Voigt is a Toronto based writer with a problem and a passion for the moving image and all things cinema. Having moved from production to the critical side of the aisle for well over 10 years now at outlets like Examiner.com, Criticize This, Dork Shelf (Now That Shelf), to.Night Newspaper he’s been all across his city, the country and the continent in search of all the news and reviews that are fit to print from the world of cinema.
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