The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Andrew Dice Clay was my idol.

I'd like to emphasize the word was in that last statement because clearly, back when I was in grade 9 for the 1989-90 school year, I was clearly misguided. He was racist. He was sexist. Perhaps I knew how to take a joke and while laughing at his many zingers regarding women staying at home to do laundry, I didn't take it seriously, but Clay probably felt what he was saying had truth to it. If you look at the crowd not so much laughing as they are cheering at his act on one of his stand-up tapes, it truly wasn't all that funny.

Anyway, when he made a full-length motion picture that was released in the summer of 1990, I had to see it. My old school friend Cedrik, clearly having a healthy appetite for raunch as I did, needed no convincing to attend. So we took the #2 bus to the Vanier Cinemas, paid the $4.25 admission and shared a theatre with four other people. The movie itself, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, actually wasn't that bad and had some good laughs. After the show, we hopped on the bus to head home.

On the way back, I saw a sign on the new plaza built in Blackburn. It read Videoland. Cool! Another video store in the Hamlet! More movie and Nintendo games available for rent! However, the store wasn't yet open, but a sign up sheet for those interested in employment was attached to the door. I signed myself up, thinking how cool it would be to work renting out movies.

I got the job, liking it so much I'd work an extra hour or two after my normal shift for no charge. Yeah, just a little bit too excited. I ended up working there for eight years, seeing it transform from Videoland to Videoflicks and growing to twice its initial size. I helped Alex and Steve land jobs there and it fed our deep appreciation for film. No longer was I interested in the latest installment of the Predator franchise. After seeing so many films, I developed a discriminating taste for some movies and got to appreciate films that didn't have machine guns in it.

And for all that, perhaps I need to thank Andrew Dice Clay.