Prior to the fall of 2010, I wouldn’t have known Jay Onrait
if I’d run over him in the street, but a few weeks up in Canada and my love of
sport sent me in the direction of The Sports Network (TSN), that country’s
answer to ESPN, and their late SportsCentre
show. I’d heard of the old days of ESPN when Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann
transformed their slot from a basic read-the-highlights rundown of the day’s
sports news into something fun and funny.
Onrait, alongside broadcast partner Dan O’Toole, took it a
step further and in Canada, at the time, there were arguably no bigger sports
broadcasters than those two. Their late-night show gained traction pretty
quickly and became must-watch viewing, blending comedy and sports in an
irresistible mix. Onrait and O’Toole have incredible chemistry, and they were
downright hilarious. No matter what I’d done that day, I managed to catch Dan
and Jay live, or else catch one of the many replays on TSN the next morning. They
weren’t sports broadcasters trying and failing to be funny, bringing about
cringes – they were legitimately laugh-out-loud funny.
That SportsCentre slot is one thing I really miss about
being in Canada – an extension of their obsession with hockey – and Canadians
now miss Jay and Dan, who have migrated south, now working for the
relatively-new FOX Sports 1 network in America, where, it’s probably fair to
say, they don’t quite have the same national appeal in the States as they do
north of the border. I mean, when they resigned from TSN, they received a congratulatory
tweet from Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. That pretty much describes
how beloved Jay and Dan were/are up there.
After reading James Duthie’s “The Guy on the Left” earlier
in the year, I discovered via Goodreads (which is sensational for
recommendations, by the way) that Onrait had written a book, and not only did I
buy it immediately, I finished it in less than two days. Similar to Duthie’s
autobiography, Onrait presents a bunch of different stories, mostly (but not
exclusively) about his broadcast career, and he’s as funny in print as he is on
television. Oh, and their podcast is fantastic, too.
Anchorboy runs
sort of parallel to Duthie’s work, both men having risen to the top of their
profession at around the same time, and at the same network. Of course, the
Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics features heavily – it’s probably going to be the
pinnacle for a generation of Canadian broadcasters – as does the summer
Olympics in London two years later.
However, some of the best stories are from Onrait’s days
rising through local television in Canada, like when he was beaten up by an
Olympic martial artists live on air. Really, though, there are a host of great
characters popping up throughout the story, like the over-zealous senior
citizen who did make-up for Onrait for many years. There’s a litany of stories
that made me laugh. What a life it must be to get paid to watch and report on
sport.
The final chapter deals with Onrait’s move from Canada to
America, and sets up nicely a 2015 release called “Number 2” that’s on my
Christmas list.
If you love hockey and sports broadcasting, and enjoy a good
laugh, you can’t go wrong with Anchorboy.
I’m looking forward to reading the sequel and laughing some more.
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