JR's BLOG

This weekend on the show.....

2008-11-15T13:55:00.000-05:00

I am out of the van and indoors this weekend on the show. Its fun shooting my latenight talkshow from my van but mostly is a really cheap and easy way to keep the show on the air without having any sort of budget to work with. What I really have been hoping for all these years is that some bigshot suit at the Network would see the potential in what I have been doing all this time with no staff and no budget and maybe give me a shot at doing a latenight talkshow in this Country that people would actually watch.

I shot a few shows not from the van but in a makeshift studio so that I could create kind of a pilot episode to pitch to the network. Its kind of pointless I know but at least I get to air these shows for you guys to see. Here is some of what will air this weekend......

REMEMBRANCE DAY

2008-11-11T13:35:00.002-05:00

Don't forget to wear a poppy on your coat today guys. If you don't know anyone who was in the war and deserves to be thought of to day, maybe just take a second or two in honor of my Grandpa who served in the war and was introduced to many of you on my show.

WENDY

2008-11-06T19:40:00.001-05:00

This past week, I realized maybe for the first time since I started shooting and working on my latenight show that there actually are things in my life that are more important to me than the show and this relentless and all consuming quest I've been on for the last eight plus years.

My blog on the internet here or my facebook page are great places to stay connected to fans and friends or to maybe at times even vent a little about whats on my mind sometimes. For me though, its just not a place to talk too much about anything real intimate or meaningful on a personal level. Some thoughts I guess are just too personal or meaningful to be lumped in with blogs about my show. I hope most of you can appreciate and understand that.

Wendy who died this past week after a long battle with Cancer, was the person most responsible for the tele-marketer calls I have been recording and putting at the end of my show under the credits all these years. For years before I had a show on television, I use to screw with the tele-marketers who would call at dinner time just because it made Wendy laugh. The camera I use to this day to record calls with is the camera Wendy bought me. It was the first digital video camera I ever had and it still works great. One of the first tele-marketer calls I ever recorded and put in my first show on the air was shot with Wendy behind the camera.

This is the footage we recorded......

This weekends Halloween Episode....

2008-10-24T13:31:00.004-04:00

Halloween is coming up which means its time for are entire family to gather around the television set to watch my Grandfather pull a giant size chocolate bar out of his pants for a petrified looking kid out trick or treating and dressed up like spiderman!

On The Pages of In Touch Magazine?

2008-09-29T23:57:00.003-04:00

For those of you keeping track, it's now official....the second the October 6th edition of In Touch Magazine hit the stands recently, I guess my picture has in fact been in every major celebrity magazine there is! lol I'm curious though, just because Brad Pitt is in the foreground of each and every one of the pictures, does that mean that technically I still haven't been in any celebrity magazines? lol

Exposure in the media isn't exactly something I have had very much of over the years which is why maybe I find it so hilarious to be in all these Brad Pitt pictures appearing in all these magazines lately. I guess I finally found a way to get a little ink! Last year at TiFF I somehow got a couple minutes with Brad Pitt on the red carpet, and then ended up getting featured on Entertainment Tonight, I guess because I made the most famous guy in the world laugh. This year after getting to spend a few minutes with Brad Pitt again on the red carpet at TIFF, because of where I was positioned to get to talk with him briefly, I ended up in a ton of the pictures that were taken of him. The pictures have been showing up everywhere I've been told.

Check out the In Touch magazine picture(lol)Brad PiTT is awesome!

Aaron Allen in the Van!

2008-09-27T11:36:00.002-04:00

This weekend on the show and in the van, Aaron Allen is my very special guest! Aaron contacted me a few months ago about recording and sending some original JR DiGS Man with a Van music for the show. I had mentioned on facebook that I really needed some original music. Unfortunately, unlike "Be REal with JR DiGS" which still airs on Tv Tropolis Saturday mornings and was a network produced series with a big fat network budget, my latenight show has almost no budget and is independently produced by big fat me!

I guess that's why I appreciate so much Aaron's contributions to the show these last few months. He is an amazingly talented guy and his music has become the entire sound track for the show. Its incredible to see how quick and how hard he works at getting new music to me each week so I thought maybe you guys should meet this guy. He deserves as much recognition as I can give him without a doubt so make sure to tune in this weekend guys.

Thanks again Aaron, you are awesome!

IN The CAn with JR DiGS (Tuesdays@ 9:30pm)

2008-09-23T22:39:00.005-04:00

Hi guy's, thanks for all the emails and facebook messages lately. Its so awesome to know so many of you are still as interested as ever in what I'm up to these days. Its cool to hear that their are a few of you who have been watching In The CaN with JR DiGS on one of Globals digital channels (mentv) over the last few weeks. I haven't blogged a ton about the series being on the air again I guess because I have been so consumed with so many other things lately. Plus originally, the series was scheduled to go back on the air in January but partly because of all the buzz about TiFF ect. the series went back on the air a few weeks ago. I'm glad that the series is getting a new life on television for sure. It airs Tuesday nights at 9:30pm. Hopefully I can find a way to get the network to create a bit of a budget for me so we can make a second season next summer which would be awesome.

Just because I haven't been blogging about the series going back on the air, it doesn't mean that nobody has written anything about the show. I've posted a link here to an article by Amy Bonin that was written and printed in her college newspaper.

Check out the article and read what she wrote......click here

Without question, the hottest girl in Hollywood?

2008-09-20T01:02:00.005-04:00

In one of the episodes we shot over the ten days of TiFF that ended a week ago, I jumped out of the van at the end of the episode and onto a red carpet to have a quick and very candid conversation with Kevin Smith. What I didn't know was that the hottest girl in Hollywood would also be on the red carpet. Turns out she is in Kevin Smiths new Movie and was there with most of the cast helping to promote the film. After meeting Elizabeth Banks I realized that its not just how she looks that makes her so friggin hot. Its tough to know what people you have only ever seen in movies are actually like. Just because they seem like they might be cool, it doesn't mean that they are. Well she 100% is!!!!!!

She is the hottest and coolest girl in Hollywood I tell ya. Next time you see her in a movie and she is being funny, know that in real life she actually is. How can a girl this hot also be so friggin funny. If you don't believe me then just wait until I post some of the footage we shot with her. Did I mention that she is funny and very very cute as well ?

Oh and as much as I like Kevin Smith and find him to be a very interesting and an amusing person to talk with and interview, Ivan Reitman for me was the Director I most wanted to meet at some point in my life. It was a thrill, I gotta tell ya! Ghost Busters, Meat Balls, Stripes, Private Parts....are you kidding me! The guy has directed most of my favorite movies of all time!

8 Episodes in 10 days & 1 night oFF!

2008-09-13T10:42:00.004-04:00

On Friday I finished shooting eight new episodes from my van over the last ten days with each one ending in Toronto at TiFF where I stepped out of the van and onto a red carpet to chat a bit with A List celeb's who maybe would be a little tricky to convince to get into the van and on the show for an interview!

The last ten days have been far more exhausting than I predicted they would be for sure. I pretty much had to shoot all these new shows in a row while TIff was in full gear if I wanted to be able to have major A list celeb's like Jeremy Piven and Brad PiTT on my show. My access to the red carpets these guys have been on at TiFF ha given me access to them and with some luck and a few publicist who have grown to kinda like what I'm doing here in Canada, I've been getting to spend some time with the biggest A listers in Hollywood. I'm independently producing and shooting the Countries only latenight talkshow and even though I have no budget,a crew of one (Patrick the co-op) and I'm shooting the show from my van (lol) I need to have celebrities on the show because well, its a latenight talkshow!

That being said, It's kinda nice to be done shooting finally. Lost of good stories to tell for sure but right now I'm just going to pack a bag, fill the van up with gas again and head up north to the cottage for a couple days. Didn't have a ton of time or energy to do anything other than work on getting these 8 shows shot these last 10 days. After shooting the last episode we did kick back a little at a TiFF party finally which was fun but like I was saying, mostly what I am looking forward to doing right now is nothing for a few days.

More pictures and video still to be posted so stay tuned.......

Yip, thats me with my new Pal Brad!

2008-09-11T14:38:00.009-04:00

After years of being almost completely ignored by the media, finally a little hype about good ol DiGS! (lol) Well not really hype I guess but a ton of pictures were taken of Brad PiTT this year on the red carpet at TiFF and guess who is clearly visible in the background of a ton of these shots. Its hilarious!(lol)

Last year on the red carpet I got to spend a couple moments with Brad PiTT that ended up being featured on ET and a few other places as well. The really awesome thing about that is it lead to getting a few more moments with him again this year even thought he wasn't doing hardly any interviews with people on the carpet. Its amazing how big a star Brad Pitt is right now.

What's funny about some pic's that have appeared in magazines ect. so far is that I am so much in some of these shots that they clearly had to blur my face a bit to make me look out of focus making sure the pic was all about Brad Pitt. Here is me and Brad in people magazine for example..... http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20224015,00.html

I'm even on one cover without Brad which is kinda cool. View Magazine had me on their cover this past week along with a nice little article about me, my van and the show. I'll post a link here for you guys to check out the article if your interested... http://www.viewmag.com/viewstory.php?storyid=6374

Its been a crazy bunch of days in a row at TiFF this year for me and although I had planned on blogging each and every day, I guess I just didn't realize how exhausting and all consuming it was going to be to shoot eight new episodes over the ten days of TiFF with all the celeb's in town. I'm in the middle of episode number seven right now and on Friday I will be hitting the road in the van to shoot the 8th and last episode I planned on shooting.

I'll have to wait to tell you guys later about my brakes failing and almost crashing the van the other day. I gotta get going now to continue shooting this episode.

DAY FIVE or SIX I THINK?

2008-09-09T08:32:00.003-04:00

This great idea I had to do a daily blog hasn't worked out so good as of yet. I thought I would be home by around midnight each night and could reflect on the day and blog about it but I'm not getting home until the wee hours every night and knowing I might only end up getting four or five hours of sleep I haven't quite been so diligent about blogging every day.

Shooting eight new episodes in ten days is way way crazy! Feels like my left eye is starting to twich for some reason. I gotta jump in the shower here and get going, I'm running late already. The brakes went in the van and I almost crashed and died! I gotta go pick the van up this morning from Cam's garage, fill the tank up and getting the show literally on the road. Today on the show and in the van will be Kevin Smith which should be awesome. Then I gotta finish up the day again on another red carpet at 9:00pm, rap the show up on the road and hopefully be home before midnight for the first time since TiFF started.

I still have three more new episodes to shoot yet this week.

RED CARPET RED JACKET!

2008-09-06T08:49:00.001-04:00

I'm hoping that its true and a picture is worth a million words because all I have time to do today is post a few pic's here from Day two. Feels like I'm already way past the point of exhaustion but four hours after falling asleep, it's tough to shut the brain off after so many hours in a row of thinking about questions, idea's and anything and everything else that needs to be done here at TiFF.

I'm awake now and need to grab a shower, check my inbox, try to book more guest for the show and get moving so I hope I don't fall too far behind on these daily blogs but forgive me if I do K guys.

This coffee I'm drinking taste great right now!

DAY TWO OF TIFF!

2008-09-06T05:02:00.005-04:00

I guess maybe this isn't actually even day two anymore, since I just got home a few minutes ago and it's in the wee hours of the morning of day three! We took off in the van around 10:00am Friday morning, day two of TiFF and some nineteen hours later day two just blurred into day three!

Way too zonked to blog right now about everything that happened on day two but I will say that Rapping to Queen Latifa and then having Alicia Keys singing the "JR DIGS Man with a Van" theme song not to mention my Brad Pitt interview were among some of the thing that stick out and should be blogged about for sure. Just not right now!

Need to crash guys. Stay tuned!

TIFF 2008-Day 1

2008-09-04T23:44:00.010-04:00

The mayhem begins! It's only Day 1 but I'm already going on just 4 hours sleep, which as you will see from a bit of footage I'll be posting here in this first blog entry, my brain is already spinning and the math skills seem a little fuzzy which is evident in this footage shot here with Gerard Butler (of the movie "300" fame).....

I just got off the phone with....

2008-08-29T18:03:00.002-04:00

well let me see, think of a really huge massive celebrity and chances are I just got off the phone with either their manager or publicist at some point today. As a matter of fact, over the last few days all I have been doing is talking on the phone or emailing people trying to get some of the celebrities that will start rolling into Toronto for TiFF to jump into my van for a quick interview.

Its amazing to learn and find out just how many "people" some of these people have. I guess they don't all have a ton of managers and agents and publicist ect. but compared to what I have, it seems quite astonishing. I talked with six different people who work with Rachel McAdams until I finally got in touch with the person handling the details of her press schedule and stuff like that while she is in Toronto for TiFF. How awesome would it be to have Rachel McAdams right there in the van for an interview. A couple years ago at Tiff, I had a small part in a film that was in the festival and during the screening I had to pee really bad so I snuck out to quick go #1 and on my way to the washroom I walked right by Rachel McAdams just sitting on a chair all by herself I guess waiting for someone. Needless to say, I couldn't stop to even say hi because I had to pee really bad but in retrospect maybe I should have. I don't imagine she spend too much time alone with all the folks working with her these days on her career.

When I first started making calls and sending out emails this past week I think I felt a little bummed about not having more help with this kind of stuff on the show. It would sure make things alot easier if it wasn't up to me to do just about everything that ever needs to be done to keep this show on the air year after year. Then I thought about the years before I first got the show on the air waiting and wanting my friends to do all this stuff with me. We talked alot about it but it never ever happened until I realized if I didn't make it happen myself, it probably never would. So I got the show on the air and this week I got busy being my own publicist/segment producer/ show booker and started making calls.

Its turned out to be kinda fun talking to all these folks in LaLa land about my van and the show and whatever else I could think of to say to get them to start thinking an interview in my van would be a cool idea. Can't wait to start doing some interviews now. TiFF kicks off in less than a week!

So here we go.....again...

2008-08-26T18:24:00.002-04:00

Looks like my two weeks of taking it easy and a bit of a break from it all have kinda been cut short by about a week! The emails are piling up and the mayham of TiFF is looming way to heavy on my mind to be able to relax. I was up north at the cottage on the weekend and what usually is a 100% relaxing paddle along the shoreline, turned more into a frantic J-stroke to get back to my laptop and check emails and crap. There is only dial up at the cottage so Monday morning I took one last dive into the lake and headed back here to the city. The good ol days of "Be Real with JR DIGS" and having sixteen people on the crew working on the show with me are long gone. If Collin Farrell is climbing into the van for a interview when I begin shooting my second season from the van, well I guess it's going to be me who has to make sure everything gets set up with the publicist and the assistance and everyone else who needs to be contacted to make this happen. I need to make sure things happen this fall.

With just over a week to go before I start shooting new shows from the van again, I can't begin to explain how much I wish I had someone to help me book guest, act as a publicist or someone to be a bit of a segment producer over the ten days at TiFF in September. For the next three hours I will be calling and emailing peoples peoples people! I plan on shooting eight new shows over the ten days of TiFF and I will be on the red carpet every single night as well. I'll probably blog each and every day to keep you guys up to speed so stay tuned guys.

Now back to the glamorous life a guy who shoots his talkshow from a van! I've got three cameras, a fake plant, a half a tank of gas and yes....I'm JR DIGS, a man with a van!

"It's totally a good idea" says Patrick!

2008-08-23T12:54:00.004-04:00

With The Toronto International Film Festival coming up again in a few weeks, I think I might actually need to recruit a few people to help out on the red carpets and stuff. There is a bunch of stuff I could need help and I definitely am looking for someone who may be able to help me set up interviews,be a segment producer and act as kind of a publicist at times.

With my new found credibility that last years Gemini nomination has given me as a talkshow host and television personality, I have been given press credentials again this year at TiFF which is awesome! That however, doesn't change the fact that this little one man circus act of mine can get a bit exhausting at times.

Patrick the co-op has been a big help since first pitching in as a volunteer, then a co-op student and these days as a 100% full time dude who actually gets paid to live this glamorous life I have introduced him to.(lol)

I'm looking forward to hearing from some of you who may be interested in volunteering from the 4th-13th of September at TiFF with me. Although I've never heard Patrick use the word "totally" I'm sure he would tell you just how "righteous" an idea it is to contact me about volunteering, especially for TIFF. Just so you know what fun times that may lead to, I've posted a bit of footage of Patrick here this week for you guys to check out.....

Dock Blogging...

2008-08-18T23:44:00.002-04:00

I wish, it would be great if I could be out on the dock right now with the big bright full moon shining down over the lake while I quick update my blog from my laptop, but we only have dial up here at the cottage. It sucks, its so slow, but that's ok, I'm not here to spend my time on the internet, I just needed to check my email quick.

Most of my family is here right now which is cool. I wish I could spend an entire week up here kicking back, swimming, boating, sitting around the fire and doing nothing but taking a couple weeks off means getting out of the edit suite for a few weeks not stop working on stuff. I have to be back in the city by Wednesday it looks like.

Patrick the co-op student who is not actually just a co-op student any longer, is holding down the fort these days. The kid has turned out to be super reliable and a pretty good friggin editor. I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not but Patrick has turned all his hard work into a paid gig now. I gave him a bunch of stuff to work on while I am off and out of the loop these last couple weeks of the summer but maybe I'll tell him to pull some footage of himself and mash something together so you guys can see the kid in action. Look for me to post it sometime yet this week, maybe when I slide into the office on Wednesday.

K, it's time to go see if the beaver is swimming around somewhere out there or maybe challenge my sister and my mom to a game of battling tops. They are really crappy at battling tops!

Later guys, happy swimming.

Airing over the Long weekend....

2008-07-31T16:54:00.004-04:00

Saturday night in most of the country on Global before SNL and on Sunday night @ midnight on E! there will be one of those rare episodes that I really think is awesome and worth checking out or taping to be watched whenever. After all these years of making the show I have to admit, alot of the times when I deliver an episode to the network, I wish I just had a bit more time to work on it or maybe tweak things because I know it isn't really as funny or as interesting as I would like it to be or think it could be.

I didn't have that feeling this week when I dropped off the show which is a awesome feeling for me. Shooting the show from the van these days has simplified things alot for me for sure. I'm not so preoccupied any more with lighting and mic's and anything and everything other than having fun and making an interesting show that will be watched by you guys on the tube over any given weekend.

Having George Clooney on the show that airs this weekend is kind cool I guess but to be frank, thats not the reason I hope people have a chance to check out this episode. Every now and again I meet someone who I know in an instant will be someone I want on the show over and over again. Randomly meeting people like this is one of my great thrills in life!(lo) I love when it happens while I'm shooting footage and its all caught on tape and that is exactly what happened while I was shooting the episode that airs this weekend. I really hope you all have a chance to see it.

I've been posting some video again on the site recently for you guys to check out so I wanted to post something to be viewed over this long weekend. In the vain of people I have randomly met while shooting footage and interviews with characters that for some reason completely entertain me, check out this footage and have a great long weekend everyone.....

If U missed last weekends show.....

2008-07-24T23:39:00.001-04:00

U missed a tribute to my Grandfather. I use to have Grandpa on the show all the time which was awesome for the both of us. For my entire family actually. People keep emailing and facebook messaging me asking if I will put last weekends show on line. I know you guys want to start seeing episodes on line one of these days so how about I do this. I'll post some of last weekends episode as kind of an online look back, kind of a tribute to Grandpa.

I'll include sort of an opening montage as well put to a song recorded and sent to me by Aaron Allen and The Small City Saints...

Un-aired footage from last weekends show....

2008-07-21T16:31:00.000-04:00

Each week out on the road shooting footage for the show from my van, I end up with tons of footage that doesn't get aired on the show because well, its only a half hour show. I've decided that it might be interesting to start posting some of that footage here on the website each week. While rapping up last weekends episode in the field, sitting there behind my desk beside my fake plant, a couple guys pulled over to say hello. They had noticed me setting up and had apparently decided to quick go back to their house to get some more fake plants to give me for some reason.

I didn't have time to include in last weekends show any footage of this encounter other than when I initially met them so here it is, uncut and online for you you guys to check out if your interested.......

Patrick the Co-op Student

2008-07-15T17:07:00.005-04:00

...a casual conversation with JR regarding recent comparisons of JR's old show and Tom Green's new show on the internet.

If U love ToDD, U will love this weekends shOW!

2008-07-12T14:38:00.002-04:00

Everyone I think likes the fact that I have always randomly met people on the street who for various reasons made me want to have them on the show and then eventually become regulars over the years. I know that fans for sure like seeing some of the regulars on the show more than others but it might be fair to say that everyone loves Todd!

The first time I met Todd, I knew I would want him on to appear on the show over and over again. As you all know by now, I'm shooting the show from my van these days and I have room to take one person with me each week so every week I've been stopping by to pick someone up to go along for the ride. This weekend on the show you guys will be happy to see that I stopped by to pick up Todd!

Also, my failed attempts to lure a celebrity or rock star into my van to be a guest at the Music awards turned out not to be a complete bust after all. Aside from it maybe being slightly humiliating to have to dress up in that giant banana man costume, my efforts did pay off with a guest for the show this week. They aren't quite rock stars yet but they might be soon after winning a juno for best new group. The Band Mobile, joined us in the van this week for a bit of an interview and a music performance. Thats the first time thats happened in the van so thanks to the folks at Universal music for setting it up for us.

Hope everyone enjoys the show this weekend, and keeps spreading the word because I appreciate it!

Saturday mornings with JR DIGS!

2008-07-05T10:09:00.002-04:00

Yes guys, you have in fact seen my mug on television Saturday morning, it wasn't your Friday night creating some morning after blurred screwed up visions. "BE REAL with JR DIGS" is being aired for some reason on Saturday mornings on Tv Tropolis these days, I think maybe at 10:30am, I'm not sure.

In other news, it looks like I may have found a new way to have Andrew the Psycho fan back on the latenight show after yet another freak out all because I wanted him to put on a giant size banana man outfit. If you watched the show last weekend, you would know that I ended up having to wear the big yellow outfit and humiliate myself. Oh well.....Andrew is back this weekend on the show kinda...

....tune in to see what I mean.

Tuning in this weekend?

2008-06-28T11:05:00.002-04:00

For those of you who maybe like seeing me completely humiliated, be sure to watch the show this weekend. I'm planning on taking a few days off and go up north to the cottage. With the van running smooth these days and shooting a new show each week, I'm not able to do really anything other than work on the show. A couple days up at the cottage would be nice.

Next week I'm hoping to dive back into working on getting a new website on line. The site needs a new look and I want to do more video blogging from the van and even start putting previously aired episodes on line. I'll update you guys next week as well on a film project I have been working on for a while now. After all these years, it's cool to know you guys are still interested in what's happening in this crazy ass little world of mine.

Have a great weekend everyone.