Open Mike with Mike Bullard

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Open Mike with Mike Bullard was a Canadian late-night talk show which was broadcast live from 1997 to 2003 late-nights on CTV and on The Comedy Network in primetime. It was hosted by comedian Mike Bullard and initially taped at a crowded studio at the back of Wayne Gretzky's restaurant in Toronto, Ontario before CTV moved the show to Toronto's legendary Masonic Temple. Open Mike with Mike Bullard featured two or three panel guests and one musical or comedy performance nightly. The show's bandleader and musical director was Orin Isaacs.

One of Mike's great strengths is his rapporte with audiences. At the beginning of each show, where one usually sees only a scripted monologue on the news of the day, Bullard conducted live patter with audience members. That was a bold move and it worked only because of his quick thinking, and his talent at pushing ridicule to (and to some beyond) the point of attacking the participant.

In the summer of 2003, Bullard's contract with CTV expired. He did not like their practice of shutting the show down for summers; he knew that it interrupted his exposure and he did not like to see reruns that were no longer funny, out of context. He arranged and signed a multi-year deal to start a new, similar show on Global called The Mike Bullard Show. The new show retained many of the people and sketches from Open Mike, but CTV had replaced his show by carrying the Daily Show with Jon Stewart in his old time slot. Canadian late-night television was no match for that competition, and his show was cancelled in 2004 after only 13 weeks. Bullard's multi-year contract with Global prevented him from working elsewhere at that time, so he ended up with no exposure at all for much too long.

The show was instrumental in exposing new Canadian talent, particularly musicians, to a national audience.

[edit] Segments

• Open Mike Viewer Of The Week - Sean Tweedley would make fun of one of the viewers in the audience, but they would be given a digital camera as a prize.
• The Canadian Quiz - The last guests would be asked three questions about Canada at the end of every show. Officially, the guests were supposed to get all three questions right, but they usually ended up winning the prize regardless. As the segment was sponsored by Canadian Tire, the prize would usually be one of their exclusive products.
• The Insider - An entertainment-themed monologue.
• Who The Hell Do You Think You Are, You Drunken Bastard? - a game played at a local bar where the name of a celebrity would be taped on the head of each contestant. They would be given three clues from Mike and had to use them to guess who they were.
• What did you buy at Canadian Tire and why?* - a crew member would visit the Canadian Tire across the street from the studio and ask shoppers when they left what they had bought and why