JB-  Let's talk about Body Break.  How did you and Joanne get teamed up?

HJ-  I met her at a gym.  (laughing)  Met her at the gym May of 1988 and June 8 of 1988 was the day I thought of the idea.  I went to Joanne and said, "What do you think about this?" and she said, "It sounds like a great idea."  And she ran track and field for Canada for a number of years, and was a high hurdler.  So we knocked on a lot of doors and finally hit Participaction's door and they then sponsored us for two years.  And then we went off on our own and continued on our own because we owned the name Body Break and the concept continued now to do it for 18 years.

JB-  How did that get started?  What prompted you to start something like that?

HJ-  I was just watching TV one day and I thought there's gotta be something out there that… it wasn't a fitness idea that I came up with.  I wanted to show that everyone can live, work and play together, regardless of their race, regardless of their ability or gender, they could all live, work and play together.  Because I'm black and Irish and I didn't see anybody who looked like me on television and I had some incidents of kind of racial intolerance, I thought the only way to bridge the gap is to show people actually living, working and playing together.  Part of the message of Body Break, it's never really blasted out there, is we have a wide variety of ethnicities, persons with disabilities and we do a lot of role reversal - things you think Joanne would win, I win, and vice versa.  We have little competitions sometimes on our shows so we've tried to show that, again back in '88, it perhaps was cutting edge, in fact there were several broadcasters and sponsors that didn't want to be involved with us because I was black and Joanne was white.

JB-  Is television and informing and educating people something you always wanted to do or you just realized that there wasn't much of this sort of thing going around?

HJ-  It's just a medium.  You know, it could be the Internet.  Television…is still the most powerful medium out there.  So if you want to get your message out there, television was the most effective and powerful way to do it.  We could have done radio, we could have done other ways, but we thought television was a way to do it. 

JB-  And because it is one of those things that (we talked about) is making society fatter, so why not have a message like that on TV then?  Maybe that's why it's worked.

HJ-  I think (that) is for others to judge whether it's worked or not.  I think the secret to us is we just pop in on different shows.  So you don't tune us in per se, but you don't really tune us out.  TV's going to change.  I have a PVR (personal video recorder) and I don't watch commercials, I zip through them all the time.  I never watch commercials anymore.  We realize that we have to continually reinvent ourselves so what are we going to do?  Well, maybe "Podcasts" (broadcast on iPod devices), just getting the message out there.  We've established a brand and it's been a great ride, you know 18 years, hopefully we can last 20.  That's kind of what our business goal is.

JB-  And it really is a message that touches every age group.  Of course there's the slogan "Keep fit and have fun" is known by virtually everybody.  Over the last few days I've been just saying the slogan and people know your names right away.  So obviously it's had some sort of impact on people, whether or not because it's catchy or it's influenced their life somehow.  Where did "Keep fit and have fun" come from?

HJ-  I was writing the script and Joanne was reading it and at the end it was "We'll see you later" or something like that and I thought about it and we've got to have something that encapsulates the show.  So I thought, "we could say "get fit", but let's kind of compliment them in maybe a backhanded way.  (laughing)  Or maybe in a lighthearted way.  So "Keep fit" but most of all "have fun."  We're having a good time and we want you to join us.  That's really the whole premise.

JB-  And people are more likely to stay with it if they're having a good time and enjoying themselves.

HJ-  Right.  You know, sugar is a lot easier to swallow than vinegar.  That's kind of what our message was - keep it light.  We didn't want to come on there and say, "If you don't do this… you know, such and such, you're going to die early."  We want to say, "We're having such a great time, why don't you come out and join us?"  We don't go with the scare tactic.

HJ-  We just did a (TV spot at) Lake Louise, it was all about smoking.  And I tell a story about seeing the lung, in grade one, a smoker's lung and a non-smoker's lung and how that impacted me for the rest of my life.  I never touched a cigarette and I got my mom to quit smoking and told her that I wouldn't eat foods that anybody who smoked touched.  Really, that was the simple message that we are giving about smoking and we show the pictures on screen of the smoker's lung and the non-smoker's lung - well, if we could get one kid to not smoke, to think it's gross, or we could get one adult to see that.  We're not coming out and saying, "You know, you smokers you really are parasites…"

JB-  (laughing) No that wouldn't be helpful.

HJ-  No, you're going to turn those people off right away.  Realistically, people who smoke today - it's not cool.  You know, downtown Winnipeg and it's -35 and you're sitting outside smoking?  That does not look enjoyable.  "Cold" would be it, but not "cool".  Imagine walking into an office building right now and smoking.  People would be looking, "What are you doing?"  So I think things have come a long way.  But even in a very serious matter of smoking we take an approach of not trying to be condescending.  I mean, I do that with my daughter - we pull into a shopping mall and we see the people outside and I point to them and say, "Look at that.  That's just terrible.  Argh, smokers.  It's dirty and filthy."  Now she goes, as we walk by them, "That's terrible!"  But it's OK from a six-year-old, they just look at her.  I don't care what she says to other people I just never want her to smoke so that's more important than anything else.

HJ- I remember my parents had a party and I was eight-years-old and the room was just filled with smoke and they wanted me to come out and meet people and I said, "It stinks, I don't want to go out there."  They hauled me out there and I started coughing.  And you think about it today - that's child abuse.  Obviously our parents didn't think about it in those terms because everybody smoked.  To me if I'm going to crusade against or for anything it's to not smoke, for kids not to start and anything we can do to help prevent that.  I look at the tobacco industry - what's the difference between a drug deal and the tobacco industry?  A drug dealer is illegal, tobacco is legal.  Their product does the same thing.  It kills the individuals who use it.  Used correctly, it is the only product legally sold that will kill somebody.  I don't know if you can tell, I'm quite an anti-smoker.  (laughing)

JB-  It's ironic, I guess, that most people go outside for fresh air but they're going out there to have the exact opposite.

HJ-  And that was the whole premise on the spot up at Lake Louise.  The camera started on (Joanne) and "It's beautiful up here breathing the fresh, clean Rocky Mountain air" and then I came in and talked about the stinky smelling smoke!  That was kind of the backdrop.  It is such a beautiful environment talking about such an ugly subject.  We're going to do more and more about smoking and really essentially kids, and how to keep kids away from smoking.  That's kind of what we look at as victories - if in the heart of hearts I can affect on one person in a positive way, then I've done my job. 

JB-  And do you hear back from people when you have gotten through to them?

HJ-  Oh yeah.  It feels good.  We get that all the time - "I watched this spot, it motivated me, thanks for the information, I like your website, keep doing what you're doing."  And very few people have jobs where people will send them something or say something to them where they like what they do.  It's pretty neat, I've got a pretty good gig.