Apr. 3: Steve Bays

Over the past six years, we've had a lot of comics on What's So Funny? with some big-time credits. And, yes, plenty with small-time. And a few with no credits. We love them all. But this week's guest has been on Letterman, Conan, Kimmel and Leno. In fact, our old friend David Cross has opened for him in New York City.

But he's not a comic. Go figure.

Our guest is hot, hot rock-n-roll star Steve Bays, lead singer of Hot Hot Heat. Say what? What does he have to do with comedy, you ask? Well, he's as big a fan of comedy as anyone. In fact, I like to refer to him as the Jon Hamm of Canada. You see, the Mad Men star is also a funny heart throb who frequents comedy gigs, befriends comedians and shows up on all sorts of comedy podcasts south of the border. My homeboy Steverino has been on the ridiculously popular Adam Carolla Podcast and twice on our pals Graham Clark and Dave Shumka's Stop Podcasting Yourself. So it's only fitting he makes his What's So Funny? debut to talk about what exactly the relationship between music and comedy is and why he can't seem to get enough of the yuks.

I remember the first time I met young Steven Bays. My wife and I were in line after a Weird Al Yankovic show a couple years ago waiting to meet-and-greet the weird one. Up comes Paul Anthony, three-time guest of WSF?, with a curly-haired buddy in tow. Paul introduces the punk kid to us. At some point, said punk kid is digging through his backpack and Anthony says his buddy wants to give Weird Al a copy of his band's CD. Yeah, he's in a band. Figures. Who isn't?, I thought. When he digs the CD out, I notice it says Hot Hot Heat on the cover. Putting two and two together, I asked if he was in the band (I'm quick like that). He shyly replied that he was. Hey, I know that band! I even have them on my iPod. Surprising for an old fart, tis true, but I'm old school – I had never actually seen the band before; only heard them. So I took his word for it.

When I got home, I Googled the band to see what his role was. For all I knew, he was the guy who tunes the guitars. But I found this video and learned he was front and centre. And what a friggin' great video it is, too. It's a few years old by now, but if you haven't seen it, take a look. Great song, great look. You'll be singing it for days, guaranteed:

Okay, so not comedy. I know. Don't worry, I won't be doing my Erica Ehm impression (like my hip, contemporary references?) asking him questions about the band. This is still a show about comedy. I think it'll be a refreshing change and am looking forward to it.

So tune in at 11 pm PST on CFRO, 102.7 FM or livestream the show at coopradio.org. If you miss it, don't worry. In a week or so, it'll be available in the popular podcast format. I'll let you know right here when it drops, as they say in the podcasting biz.