Strombo is coming to Fanshawe

Header image for Interrobang article
The Fanshawe Student Union and the Fanshawe Alumni Association have combined their forces to bring a Canadian icon to the college. On January 13, CBC's George Stroumboulopoulos is coming to Fanshawe to share some of his experiences from his 20-year career.

This event is an interactive one, being conducted as an interview by one of Fanshawe's Broadcast Journalism students. "A big reason why I wanted to do an interview in question and answer format is that I don't want to sit there on stage and just tell you what I think. I really do think we're in that era where you know what you want, so what do you want to know? And I'll be happy to engage," said Strombo.

He began his career working in radio, which he continues to do with The Strombo Show on CBC Radio 2. "I do the radio thing because it soothes my heart. I love doing radio and I will always do radio. My show's on Radio 2 and almost no one knows I have a show on Radio 2, and I'm cool with that. It's a pretty small station and I like that because we get away with what we want."

Best known for his CBC show George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight (previously known as The Hour) and his time on MuchMusic, Strombo has carved out a place for himself in Canadian history by maintaining a grounded perspective that is unexpected from someone with such celebrity status.

"I'm not a cynic at all ... I'm open and I'm willing to be open at all turns, so that's how I do it. I removed all cynicism from my life, I removed any of that hipster bullshit that prevents you from really learning about the world," he said. "I want epiphanies every day, and the career has sort of been able to give me that. The other thing is that I don't really look at it as a career; this is my life. I think I don't have the life I have because of my job, I think I have the job I have because of the life."

Even with 20 years of experience under his belt, Strombo still gets taken aback by some of the things he gets to experience. "I get caught up in really weird rooms where I look around and I'm like, 'This is crazy, what am I doing here?'" mentioning an interview he conducted with a member of the Taliban in a prison cell in Northern Pakistan after visiting a school that the Taliban had just blown up. As he put it, "It was quite a place to be."

Some of Strombo's most memorable moments are when he is able to learn from his childhood heroes. "Growing up listening to The Clash, they were instrumental in my development, and to stand in a park and interview Joe Strummer and just talk about life, like, that's some shit right there." He also reminisced about getting to play hockey with the player who was the first hockey jersey he ever owned.

Strombo has interviewed everyone from Kermit the Frog to Bill Maher to Tie Domi. "The highlight to me really is the fact that we can bridge this conversation with film and music and entertainment and sports and be as passionate and as white hot about politics and social activism as we are. It's the combination of what we're able to pull off, that's the thing I get off on the most."

When looking over his impressive list of interviews, you can't help but wonder how he handles the pressure. "Early in my career, before I had much experience, I thought I'd know what they would be like and I was really hesitant to interview people I liked because I thought, 'Oh god, what if I have such a high opinion of them and it changes?' But then what I realized was I started to approach interviews the way I approach my life."

What this has resulted in is Strombo developing his own compassionate version of picturing the audience in their underwear. "I truly, as best I can, exist without judgment. I remember that everybody's just tired or exhausted. Most of the people you interview are away from home, they're on the road, wherever they are there's someone else mad at them for not giving them enough time," he said. "I now go into every interview with a blank slate. Every now and then, I'm like 'Robert Plant, please be awesome because I love Led Zeppelin,' and he was awesome."

After eight years on CBC television, Strombo feels like his show has finally found its groove. "I think, honestly... it's only been the last month or two where I've found we hit a different stride where the show is representing the range we can do," he said. "It just takes a long time. This is a country that doesn't have a real late-night history. Mike Bullard did a great job and paved the way, but there haven't been a lot of nightly latenight talk shows in this country."

According to Strombo, the key to a successful career in broadcast journalism is to genuinely love what you do. "It's a challenging industry and a very challenging time. It's evolving, so you have to be ready to fight it out. And the only way to make that really work out for you on a human level is to love it. If you don't love it, it's just gonna suck and you're gonna burn out and not do it. So you need to figure that out early, 'do you really wanna do this?' and if so, be prepared to learn."

Geroge Stroumboulopoulos will be at Fanshawe on January 13 at 8 p.m. in C building. "I hope people bring their questions and wanna get into it," he said. "I genuinely wanna have a conversation with everybody, I'm not afraid of answering questions, there's nothing you gotta worry about, let's just have a talk." Tickets are $12 for students and alumni, $16 for guests and are now available in the Biz Booth. Questions for Strombo can be submitted in advance at fsu.ca/strombo.