{"id":1523,"date":"2011-11-25T13:14:59","date_gmt":"2011-11-25T21:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=1523"},"modified":"2011-12-04T21:21:03","modified_gmt":"2011-12-05T05:21:03","slug":"web-exclusive-stuart-mclean-brings-the-vinyl-cafe-to-canadian-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2011\/11\/25\/web-exclusive-stuart-mclean-brings-the-vinyl-cafe-to-canadian-cities\/","title":{"rendered":"Stuart McLean brings The Vinyl Caf\u00e9 to Canadian cities"},"content":{"rendered":"

The distinct voice and familiar characters of CBC\u2019s Stuart McLean have made his radio show, The Vinyl Caf\u00e9<\/em>, a household name. But McLean, who\u2019s so commonly referred to as a storyteller, is a little discontent with this label.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m a writer before anything,\u201d he says on the eve of his winter Canadian tour. \u201cIn fact, the moniker of storyteller seems to be put on me because I do a lot of performance and read my stories in person, but \u2018storyteller\u2019 conjures up dragons and pixies and elves. I’m a writer, these things don’t just come magically out of my head, they\u2019re written over and over again; it\u2019s a long and hard process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the long line of work he has done with CBC\u2014over 30 years\u2019 worth\u2014McLean feels that there\u2019s something special about The Vinyl Caf\u00e9<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a writer, you slowly work towards finding your voice and I think I’ve found it with The Vinyl Caf\u00e9<\/em>, so I think I’m doing my most important work now,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Stuart McLean (photo by Ilia Horsburgh)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The long-running radio broadcast consists of live music, essays, and, more notably, the Dave and Morley stories, which follow a fictional family and their life in Toronto. These characters have been the subject of 12 CDs and 12 books, three of which won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey feel like friends to me, they feel like people I know,\u201d explains Mclean. \u201cThey definitely have a life of their own. I don’t want to sound silly, but they tell me things. I think about them and what they could be up to and things come from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though it isn\u2019t his intention McLean is, as he describes himself, \u201ca Canadian fish swimming in Canadian waters,\u201d and that\u2019s reflected in his stories. He also features young Canadian musicians on his shows as a way of supporting the next generation of artists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was the guy holding the spotlight, and I was able to decide where to shine the light, so I decided to shine the light on those who might not otherwise have it shone upon them,\u201d explains McLean.<\/p>\n

On this winter\u2019s tour the light will be shining on Hawksley Workman, a two-time Juno winner from Toronto.<\/p>\n

When he hits cities across Canada, including a stop in Victoria, McLean will be reading two new stories, as well as some favorites.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecial things happen during the live performances that don\u2019t happen in the books. There\u2019s a coming together between the audience and I that can never happen in a book,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

And after 17 years of The Vinyl Caf\u00e9<\/em> and the Dave and Morley stories, McLean and his team don\u2019t have an end in sight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t know how much longer well keep doing this,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt would be very hard to stop the show because it would mean leaving the relationship with these people who have become dear to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stuart McLean\u2019s Vinyl Caf\u00e9 (w\/Hawksley Workman)
\n2:30 and 7:30 pm, Monday, November 28
\nRoyal Theatre, $55 and up
\n rmts.bc.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The distinct voice and familiar characters of CBC\u2019s Stuart McLean have made his radio show, The Vinyl Caf\u00e9, a household name. But McLean, who\u2019s so commonly referred to as a storyteller, is a little discontent with this label. \u201cI’m a writer before anything,\u201d he says on the eve of his winter Canadian tour. \u201cIn fact, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1523"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1526,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523\/revisions\/1526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}