Check In From Away Episode 32
AUDIO	VIDEO	
STEFFI D: Hi, everyone. I'm Steffi D. 	Lisa and Steffi appear in different chat windows on screen	
LISA H: And I'm Lisa H. 		
STEFFI D: And welcome to "Check In From Away." 		
LISA H: This week we are checking in with Ali Momen and Torquil Campbell from "Soft Revolution." 		
STEFFI D: Thanks for joining us. 		
[THEME MUSIC] 	CREDITS SEQUENCE
TEXT: Check In From Away with Steffi D. and Lisa H.
Steffi and Lisa’s windows slide together and they mime clinking their mugs together.	
		
Hey, Lisa, guess what? 		
LISA H: What? 		
STEFFI D: I'm super excited about today's episode of "Check In From Away," because we have two incredible guests. We have come from Come From Away Toronto's Ali Momen, as well as Torquil Campbell from the band Stars. And together, they have a podcast called "Soft Revolution." And, honestly, Lisa, after speaking to them today, they have renewed my hope, and my joy, and everything I love about theater. 		
LISA H: Yeah-- they're pretty inspiring guys. And I have to tell you, I'm fan-girling pretty hard right now on Torq. Stars, the album "Set Yourself on Fire", 2004, was the soundtrack of my life when I moved to Toronto. And I probably listened to it 50 million times. So I'm pretty stoked to get to meet him today. 		
STEFFI D: Also-- no big deal-- I guess we should mention that Ali Momen is running for the Ontario Liberal Party. No big deal! 		
LISA H: Right. It's like Premiere by day, Come From Away by night. 		
STEFFI D: Let's check in with them now, Lisa. 		
ALI MOMEN: Hey. My name is Ali Momen, and I was in Come From Away in Toronto with these two cool kids. And also, I'm the co-host of "Soft Revolution," the podcast, with this guy named Torquil Campbell, who is the lead singer of Stars. And I'm currently running for the Ontario liberal nomination. So busy busy, lemon squeezing. 		
STEFFI D: So a whopping 14 months since we did the show. Do you remember any of your lines? 		
ALI MOMEN: Yeah, I think so. 		
STEFFI D: Really? Oh, OK. Because I, like, don't, I don't think. 		
TORQUIL CAMPBELL: Hello all you "Come From Away"-ers. My name is Torquil Campbell, and I am the host of the "Soft Revolution" podcast along with a young man named Ali Momen, who is a past member of "Come From Away" in Toronto and a dear friend of mine. But I come by the podcasting world kind of circuitously. I'm a musician by profession. I play in a band called Stars. And I've also been an actor for a long time-- come from a theater family, so kind of been doing it since I was a kid. 		
And in the last few years, I've started writing more. I wrote a play called "True Crime" a few years ago that I performed all over the country. And I've got a new play called "The Disappearances" coming up at Crows Theater next year. So I kind of do whatever people want me to, as long as it involves imagining things. That's my gig. 		
LISA H: I love it. And Torq, did you know that your sister, Beatrice, was a guest on our show two episodes ago. 		
TORQUIL CAMPBELL: No way! I'll try and meet her high standards, though I'm sure she would agree I'll fail. 		
[LAUGHS] 		
STEFFI D: Oh my god! 		
ALI MOMEN: "Soft Revolution" basically is formed on the premise that there needs to be more art in politics and politics in art. So it's just basically viewing the world through the artistic lens and through artist's lens. So it's not just a podcast about art, but it's also about fusing the two things together. In the beginning, it really became like a plague diary. Because we literally started right when this sugar sandwich began. And, yeah. 		
But it's really turned into a place where artists all across the world-- some very well-known artists, some lesser known artists-- just come and basically put their lens and their perspective on the world. Because we need more art and we need more artists engaged everywhere. 		
LISA H: That's amazing. 		
STEFFI D: So, Ali, why is it that me and Lisa have not been a guest on your podcast? 		
LISA H: [LAUGHS]. 		
ALI MOMEN: Yeah-- because you guys are too hard. You guys are too popular, too famous. There's a threshold that we can't go above. But there you go. I see the subliminal-- OK, we'll call you soon. 		
TORQUIL CAMPBELL: The podcast came out of the fact that me and Ali are pals, and we had so many nights together at Shaw Festival when Ali was working there and my wife was working there, where we would meet at the bar after the show and Ali and I would get into these endless conversations/arguments about various political topics that neither of us knew very much about. 		
But it became clear to us over the years of our friendship that our two big passions were art and politics. And I think the one big thing that Ali and I really agree on, and really feel strongly about, is that there needs to be more cultural voices in the political world, there needs to be more artistic thinking in the world of politics, and that artists should play a bigger role in public policy. 		
And so the podcast really came out of that idea of blending culture, art, politics-- finding that intersection where all three of them meet. And really arguing for the idea that the world would be a better place if art was more present not just in our theaters and in our galleries, but in our halls of power and in our public policy. 		
So, yeah, that's kind of what "Soft Revolution," ultimately is about. It's an advocacy podcast, to some degree, arguing that art matters, and that artists have more to contribute to society than just things that are pretty. That they have a compassion, and an imagination and improvisational thinking on a really high level, and those things can add a huge amount to the public discussion. 		
ALI MOMEN: Let's just say I love-- if you listen to Torq, Torq is famous for his rants. And let's just say sometimes I'm very happy that Logic has-- you know, you could splice things up, and you could just, like, truncate and you could do a little editing here and there. Because sometimes I'm like, the world is not ready for this one, Torq. The world is not ready for this one. 		
TORQUIL CAMPBELL: "Soft Revolution," the name of it, is actually taken from a Stars song. On "Set Yourself On Fire," there's a song called "Soft Revolution." 		
		
STARS: (SINGING) We are here to take the blame. To take your taunts and live your shame. We are here to make you feel. It terrifies us, but it's real. 		
TORQUIL CAMPBELL: For me, what that means-- "Soft Revolution"-- is what my father, Douglas, who is a great actor, taught me was that, in art, you must never, ever pick any fight that you are not certain you will lose. That is what makes you an artist. Winning is for jocks, losing is for the rest of us. And we're here to talk about y'all. So if you ain't losing, you ain't an artist. And that can be hard to face. But it's true-- art is about surrender, and "Soft Revolution" is about surrender. You know? And once you surrender, there's nothing anybody can do to you, man. You're free. 		
ALI MOMEN: Opening night, in Toronto, just seeing the face of my niece after she saw the show. And knowing that we were doing something special. I had a mentor of mine when I was at Shaw, early on, and he said, Ali, you're going to be able to hopefully, luckily, count in the palm of your hand amazing experiences in your career. And I feel like we had five, or six, or seven, or eight, or 10 of those amazing experiences in one show. 		
LISA H: I know. 		
TORQUIL CAMPBELL: My greatest memory that I'll hold really, really dear in my life is getting to do plays with my parents, with my mom and dad. Over the years, we did tons of things together. And getting to know them as colleagues, and not just as my parents, was an amazing privilege that not many people have and I'll really, really always be grateful for that. 		
And I'll always be really, really grateful for having had the opportunity to do a play with Philip Seymour Hoffman. For a long time, in New York City, he and I did a play together and worked very closely together. And he was just an incredible, incredible mentor to me and inspiration. And it was very devastating when he died because Phil really represented to me everything that an actor should be. Which is open, cheerful, irreverent, hard-working, kind, fierce, honest. 		
He just brought every single quality that you need to be a great artist to the table, and he shared it with everyone around him. And he's a great loss-- his death was a massive, massive loss to the theater. He was looked at as a movie star but, really, Phil took all that money that he made and put it back into the theater, put it back into his own theater company, put it back into supporting young artists. That's the kind of guy he was. 		
And when you're working with someone like that, sometimes you don't realize at the time how privileged you are to have the experience. But every moment that I spent with Phil, I was aware of how much of a lucky thing it was to be in his presence. He was a wonderful guy. 		
ALI MOMEN: Just how incredibly prescient, brilliant, artists are, and that in many ways in many respects we kind of put ourselves in a box and we need to step outside it. And that there is a manner of thinking that exists inside us, and a manner of being, that is a fusion of the head and heart and soul that is very much lacking. 		
And what's amazing about us artists-- one of the best exchanges that I had was with Daniel Handler, a.k.a. Lemony Snicket. And I asked him, I said, so what are you thinking about in respect to the pandemic, now? And he paused, and he said, you know, I'm not really thinking about now-- I'm always thinking about the future. And that is something that, as artists, we inherently do. We are constantly going beyond just the moment, constantly going beyond what's in front of us, and we're always seeking to go deeper and seeking to go farther. 		
So, for me, it was just a really proof-of-concept that we need more of this type of thinking in our lives. Wouldn't it be great? You know? Also, think about it, look, "Come From Away." What was "Come From Away?" It was an idea. It was just a harebrained idea that all of a sudden turned into a multi multi multi multimillion dollar enterprise. We are doers. We are thinkers. We are creative folk. And we need to have more creativity intersecting in our government-- it's very important. 		
TORQUIL CAMPBELL: This year, artists have faced a crisis of identity. And not just artists, but I think artists in particular, actually, because we were the first to leave our jobs and will be the last to go back to them. I think it left a lot of people in their mid-career, people like me, people like Ali, and a lot of the people we've spoken to this year in a place of real questioning about who they were without the art they made. 		
I, for example-- you know, I've been an artist since I was eight years old. I was a child actor. And so pretty much all my life, I've been used to the show-- to going to the show, to having that experience of getting up on stage and performing. And this is easily the longest time in my life that I haven't done that since I was eight years old. And it's really, the worst parts of this for me have been about getting to a place where I felt like I didn't really know who I was without the work that I did. 		
And I think a lot of artists that we've talked to this year have expressed that. But I also think that there's been gifts from it, which is that I think artists have had to go and find who they are beyond how the world sees them. A lot of the time, artists are dependent, in terms of their career, on public perception-- whether it's a critics' review, or it's audience response, or it's how the industry sees them, we we are often in a position of trying to impress. And I think a year without that has been tough because it's what we do. 		
But it's also been, I think, kind of a great break for a lot of people, and given them a chance to step back a little bit from the work they do and ask themselves who they really are outside of it. So we've had a lot of discussions this year with people about identity, about how much your work informs your sense of self as an adult. And maybe that's not so healthy-- that maybe we need to all have a sense of identity apart from the work we do. 		
ALI MOMEN: The question of why are you running really quickly became, how could you not be? And just that desire to do something became so palpable. If more interaction is going to be work-from home than less, what is a city? Why does it exist if it no longer matters where you live? So we have to start to think about, how do we oxygenate the city? And I think culture is one of those ways we do it because that's what gets people out and their butts outside and engaging with each other. 		
But we have to start to now think about the future. I get it-- this pandemic is crazy. Like, every day you're like, oh my God, I've got to get my vaccine. And it's really hard to think past the current moment. But we have to be thinking about the future. So if it's like, why am I running? It's because I'm not thinking about just now. I'm literally constantly thinking about what's next. 		
It's crazy what we're doing. It's unbelievable. Like, think about it-- the amount of collaboration. And what's also amazing about what we do is, like, we are in rooms where people have disparate ideas, and we disagree, and sometimes we hate each other, sometimes we love each other. But at the end of the day, what's most important is the best idea needs to win and that there's something more important than our egos that needs to be completed. 		
Now, imagine if we took that spirit, that creative spirit and that creative process, and we put it into the legislature. In which it isn't just about scoring a point for an immediate end, but it is actually about going farther. You know? So that's really why it's been like this thing about, Ali, why do you want to go into politics? Now, people who know me, I guess both of you are like, oh, finally, Ali Momen is doing this. 		
But for me, it was like, why me? It's because what's missing-- we have enough lawyers, we have enough Bay Street, we need to get some artists in there. We need to get some creative mojo going. We need to spark that place up a little bit. Because I think we'd be in a much better place. 		
TORQUIL CAMPBELL: I know this-- that it took a lot of bravery for all of us to shut down. It took a lot of bravery for everyone in this society to not see the people they loved, to wear masks all the time, to do all the things we've done to try and save our health care system and save each other. That took a lot of courage and a lot of bravery. But it's not normal life, and it's not a plan. And it's going to take courage and bravery on all of our parts, as arts workers and as lovers of the arts, to go back. 		
And we have to. We have to find that bravery within ourselves. When it's safe to return, and when we feel safe doing it, we have to go in there and not live in fear, and not let our fear of this virus control our human impulse to be together and to tell each other the story of our lives. Because those things are just as crucial as any aspect of our society. To be together and to hear each other's stories is as important as being educated, as eating right, as exercising-- all the things we do to keep ourselves alive. 		
We die without other people. And the performing arts has been for so long the most joyous way for people to be together. So what I really, really hope is that, when the performing arts come back, what it looks like is a celebration of being together and not a place where we are trying to avoid one another but still have the experience. That's not going to work. 		
There's no economic model where a 20% full room works. There's no spiritual model where the sound of a cheering crowd can never be heard again. That just isn't human-- it's not possible. So I think everyone's going to have their own speeds about what they're comfortable doing, and what they're comfortable going back to. 		
And whether it's our audiences or it's ourselves, I think we're going to have to have masses of compassion for each other and kind of let each other go on our own pace. And be understanding that for some people, this trauma is deep. And for other people, they're ready to jump right back into the pool. 		
So it's going to be complicated. But at the end of it, what it's got to be-- the light at the end of our tunnel-- is a room full of people clapping their hands and singing along. That's where we're going. And if we don't get there, we're not home yet. 		
ALI MOMEN: I miss theater because I miss the serendipity of a moment that I don't know the result of. I miss-- that's the serendipity of what happens when human beings are congregated together and experiencing a shared moment. I miss theater because I miss smelling and hearing breath, and feeling breath. 		
TORQUIL CAMPBELL: Oh, it's the Haagen-Dasz ice cream bars at intermission. That's what I miss. 		
[LAUGHS] 		
You know, when someone just has a Haagen-Dasz stand, where else in the world are you given 20 minutes to consider whether or not you should have an ice cream bar? Nowhere! That never happens. But at the theater, they're like, there they are for the whole 20 minutes! They're like, come on, I'm right here! It's not even a lineup. 		
So what do I miss about the theater? My god, so many things. You know what I miss the most, and what I love the most, about theater and about live music is the moment when the lights go down and you can feel the audience collectively deciding to be children again-- to let their state of wonder take over themselves. That's a beautiful moment. 		
And in student matinees, I love it when the lights go down and all the kids scream because kids are sensible enough to let themselves express that sense of wonder instead of keeping it inside. They just go, woo! You know because it's exciting. The lights go down, and we're in another world, and we've given over to the story, and we are all helpless. And I think that's a beautiful, essential part of being a person that I really miss. 		
STEFFI D: Thanks for joining us on this week's episode of "Check In From Away." 	TEXT ON SCREEN: @steffid5 @lisahumber
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LISA H: See you next next Tuesday. 		
- [IN UNISON] Cheers! 		
STEFFI D: So thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate it. We wanted to talk about soft res-- wow. 		
I did that with Ali too. For some reason, I cannot, say "Soft Revolution." I always want to say Soft Resolution. 		
TORQUIL CAMPBELL: I think that's because you have a mind that goes towards harmony and accord-- trying to find a resolution. 		
STEFFI D: You know what? Probably. It's a Freudian slip. 		
TORQUIL CAMPBELL: That can be another podcast. Like, "Soft Revolution" is all the bad stuff and Soft Resolution is all the good stuff. You can have it. Go ahead. Start. 		
STEFFI D: That's amazing. So anyway, great. We're going to edit that out. Let me start over. 		
[LAUGHS] 		
[MUSIC]	FINAL SLIDE
Check In From Away logo on the screen.
TEXT ON SCREEN: @checkaway @checkinfromaway
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