My mom called and left a message–something about there being a photo of me in today’s Toronto Sun.
This seemed unlikely. The Mayan calendar doesn’t end for another 10 months.
Still, I found a copy at my local convenience store (still just 50 cents!) and there I am in the middle of a full page ad on page 33 as one of the guests on The Being Frank Show (late tonight at 1 a.m. on CHCH. Set PVR’s accordingly).
The Being Frank Show is a once-a-week, late night talk show hosted by Toronto entrepreneur Frank D’Angelo. You know Frank–he’s the guy behind all those Ben Johnson “Cheetah” ads. He’s been seen for years on other ads where he’s a goalie getting drilled in shinny games, all in the name of hawking one of his beverages.
Among his other enterprises, D’Angelo has a restaurant down on King St. West right opposite the Bell Lightbox. I was invited to his Forget About It Supper Club a few weeks ago to tape tonight’s show along with fellow guests Peter Howell, film critic at the Toronto Star and stand up comedian Jeff Elliott.
Have to say this for D’Angelo; he treats his guests well. Lunch with wine, a full gift basket on the way out.
The show is shot down in the basement of the restaurant, but, really, if you’ve ever been in Craig Ferguson’s tiny little studio in CBS Television City, there’s not a whole lot of difference. There’s even a fish tank in Frank’s Green Room.
One thing D’Angelo has that Ferguson doesn’t have is a band, and a pretty good one at that.
The first guy I see at the restaurant is Jim Tatti, the former Global sports anchor. He is D’Angelo’s announcer and stands behind the bar on the set. As the show begins, Tatti gives the show a nudge toward broadcast legitimacy. D’Angelo comes out and banters with the band.
D’Angelo is no Leno or Letterman. He is, however, a big personality. He has the ego of a late night talk show host, an essential ingredient based on the ones I’ve been around. The man also looks good in a suit. What he could use is a Peter Lassally, a veteran late night showrunner, somebody who could cut the excesses and just say no now and then.
What surprised me and also Howell, I think, was that D’Angelo is great at the desk, mainly because he actually listens. There’s no one-upmanship or joke attacks. He respects his guests and drives the conversation forward.
Given the dearth of late night talk shows in Canada, it is interesting to see the D’Angelos and others step up, buy time and try to create something. You could say that fools go where networks fear to tread. Would I say that about D’Angelo? Fagetaboutit.
Hamilton’s J.R. Diggs has been trying for years and is still at it over on Another Crappy Canadian Later Night Talk Show (airing Saturday nights at 2 a.m. on Global). Former self-confessed drug dealer Jay Stoyan co-hosts The Jay Stoyan Show with Ashlee Monroe. It airs on Rogers and as of the last few weeks over on the Fox Buffalo affiliate WUTV (also tonight at 1 a.m.). Stoyan and Monroe are the Sonny and Cher of the new millennium, with a little Borat thrown in.
Stephen Kerzner, of course, paved the way as Ed the Sock, taking a local little Toronto show and exporting it all the way over to Australia and beyond. Ed’s Nite Party and various incarnations ran for 16 seasons!
All of these guys have lured big names onto their shows. D’Angelo managed to get Tony Bennett to appear and says he’s working on Al Pacino. You tell him it can’t be done.
Tonight the guests aren’t big names, but D’Angelo treats them that way. Check him out, then judge.
7 Comments
If I’m reading the 11:03 p.m. timeline correctly, you’ve made the plug with under two hours to broadcast?
Frank does a great show.
It’s genuine, unlike the contrived Strombo show.
He treats the guests like they were important, and not his fake peers like Strombo does.
I like Frank’s show a lot.
And he did it himself, without any money from the CBC.
I don’t like the way Bill can’t bring himself to say what a good show Being Frank is.
It’s like Bill thinks he’s better than Frank, when Frank was so nice and respectful to him inviting him on the show.
You sure don’t see Strombo or anyone else lining up to have Bill Brioux as a guest.
And here he writes this snide piece as if Frank smells or something.
Frank is a very classy and accomplished entertainer.
Why be afraid to say so.idli
Hey, I think Frank does a great job too, which is why I wrote that he was a surprisingly good interviewer–the one skill that eludes a lot of talk show hosts. I wasn’t putting him down, Allan, I just know there are some viewers out there who might be judging him from his Cheetah ads and might dismiss his talk show talents sight unseen.
Give him credit, too, for walking this tightrope without a dozen Harvard grads writing jokes for him every night as they do for Conan, Fallon, Leno and the rest.
Frank D’Angelo is a complete joke. He’s absolutely brutal as a host, commentator, performer, singer, actor and businessman. He thinks too highly of himself and is too self indulged given his very limited skills. I know a couple of the band members and they think he’s a complete hack.
This guy is a complete loser. He bought himself goalie equipment many years ago, and paid for his entire teams registration, so he’d have some good players in front of him. They would badly outshoot teams, and he would let in enough pathetic goals to lose games to the tune of 8-7 or worse. I don’t know how playing goalie was fun for him. His teammates must have wanted to throw his pads in the fire place after some of the eggs he used to lay in the net.
He’s a joke, a loser and a rapist. He talks over his guests, his jokes are lame and he raped a girl he’d known since she was a child. Pathetic shill, hack-y and talentless, the sort of guy who has to buy friends. Just sad.
Oh, and a rapist too.
How much did Frank D’Angelo pay you for this review? Because if you really, truly believe that him or anything on his show (other than the band) is actually “good” then you are completely insane. I don’t care if this was published a decade ago, this article still made me lose a lot of respect for you and this site.