Behind the scenes at Toronto Dance Salsa - Life with Evan

Alright, we're done. We're hurting. Hurting. Nina doesn't talk to me on the street as we walk anymore because she has to play Pokémon Go.

I play Pokémon on the street. I said espresso, like the thing that—

Yeah, give us a shot of espresso. What hurts?

My pride mostly, but also my fingers.

Don't go bowling after a manicure. Lesson learned.

Here's a joke.

Oh, don't tell the light joke. It's not embarrassing. It's love. I have a great story to tell around this. Good morning everybody! Happy weekend! Today I'm going to do something a little bit different with you guys. I'm going to take you a little bit behind the scenes of some of the fun that we have at Toronto Dance Salsa, TDS. I sometimes talk about it, but not really behind the scenes stuff of what we're doing, so today I'm recording this on a Saturday. We've got to first go and check out some new flooring for TDS. I pulled out some options. These are the two that I like the best. This one looks really good on the floor. They have it in the showroom, but it's way lighter than I expected, that I wanted, that I thought I would like. And this one is the safer bet. So Alex and Lily, uh, Alex you guys know, Lily's another instructor at TDS, are going to be coming over. We're gonna drive to the place, which is about 30 minutes away or so, uh, probably get some breakfast, have fun and talk and stuff. And then we're going to dance on the floor because they have it on their actual floor that we're going to go there and test it out because it has to be slippery enough to dance salsa but not too slippery that you fall over. So this is Nina. Let me get lower. It's okay. There we go. You can see the background. Yeah, but if I go up here, we don't see Nina. I don't know if anybody's ever gone there and danced on the floor. We're probably the first ones who've done it. Yeah. But I'm curious. We're going to try it. Ouch! You just spit in my eye.

It hurts.

It is love. It is love. We're going to go for lunch. Nina found us a place with our helpers who are the advanced students who help out in some of our classes. Where are we going? Burritos? We're going to get burritos? And then we're going to go bowling. And we do something every month with our helpers and volunteers and every quarter I pay for it. So this is the one that I pay for. So we're going burritos and bowling. How good are you at bowling?

Hahaha.

I don't play bowling. Can you even pick up a bowling ball? Yeah. Are we doing 5-pin or 10-pin? 5 pin and 10 pin. It's amazing! I have a feeling we're gonna get some amazing Nina bowling clips today. I'm very excited. Alright! First thing is we're gonna meet Lily and Alex and go check out the floors. This is Lily behind me. Lily is one of our amazing— woah, where am I going? I'm going the wrong way. One of our amazing instructors at Toronto Dance Salsa. She's holding our flooring. She brought her dance shoes. I did. I'm wearing my Canadian tuxedo today. Yes!

This is what I learned.

I messaged her to say I'm doing the vlogging Do you mind? No, it's good. I brought my Canadian tuxedo. Apparently a Canadian tuxedo is denim. Denim on denim. Is this denim pants? Yeah, it's denim color. Okay, well, stop scrutinizing my denim pants. No, I'm good with it. Denim on denim is apparently Canadian tuxedo. Exactly. I don't know if I've ever worn that. I might have to. It might be the challenge. Okay, we're gonna go pick up Alex, and Stephanie's coming too? Yeah, she's here already. Let's go. So the girls went in to get Tim Hortons, get us some breakfast, and I think meet my sister and meet Alex. So we're gonna fill up the car, and I Get to pump some gas. You don't look that happy. This is Stephanie in the morning. How are we feeling? I haven't had my coffee yet. She doesn't have her coffee yet. Okay, well, Alex is chipper.

I got my ice cap with my, uh, uh, shot of, uh, I, I said espresso, like the thing that—

yeah, give us a shot of espresso. What happened to your shirt? Oh no, I have another exact— of course. We are here at King Wave flooring to get our floor. Alex is working on the Snapchat. We'll see who's talking louder. See, this is the floor. This is it. Doesn't it look awesome? Alex is really getting up close and personal with the floor.

Evan Carmichael, you know what, I'm not a huge fan of the way that it's connected here. The curve down, ours is completely flat. Like these little bumps here, as people start dancing, the heels will always hit these little marks here. I fit it, but It's not a huge thing.

It's actually good. It's not that slippery. It's not that slippery? Is that the other one that you have? Yeah, those are the two. That's the safer pick. It matches more what we have. So I really like this floor. I really like this floor, but it's kind of a risk. It's a risk that it's super different and may not do well, but I like risks. Kind of. Lily wants to change her floors now. Time to go get some food. So we are here at the burrito place. It brings back memories because there's this huge lineup for people who want to take a driving test. I have a great story to tell around this. Stephanie used to work for me way back. Remember those days? You blocked them out? That's good times. This is like the best part of her life.

No wonder she had to get as far away from me as possible. Africa, was it?

Listen, this guy's one word is belong, and all he does is criticize people. I failed every driver— I failed my driver's license like 3 times, and then I had to rush to get to my last test before my thing would expire. And I got on the highway and started driving that I thought was the right way but ended up being the wrong way. And I'm going— the speed limit here in Kenya is 100 kilometers an hour. I don't know if that translates into miles. What is that like? Anyways, it's 100 kilometers an hour and I'm driving 120 to get there. And then I realized, wait a minute, I think I'm going the wrong way. And I called up Stephanie back when I actually had a cell phone. Cell phones can be useful sometimes. I call up Stephanie in the office, say, Stephanie, can you look up this address? And she tells me that's in Mississauga and I'm going the exact opposite way. So now I'm like massively late, have to turn around on the highway and drive 140 to get to my driving test. And I just imagine me being pulled over by a police officer to say I'm going way over the speed limit. And, and I say I gotta rush to my driver's test, I'm gonna be late, don't pull me over! I actually— so I ended up being late for my test, I missed my appointment, and I was on standby, like these people standing back there, I was on standby there, and I finally got my appointment, and I passed. So I finally passed, this is good moments for me. I didn't realize we were coming here, but this is where we're actually going. The grand opening of Burrito Caliente. This is our menu option. Pick a dish. Beef steak, pulled pork, shrimps, battered fish, fried eggs, marinated tofu, caliente bowl, caliente salad. And then we pick a tortilla, choice of toppings, kind of sauce, and then drink. Time to order. Enjoying our food. I got— it's like a thing that we, we say with a bunch of stuff. Nina got her spicy chicken one. Alex is talking about people's quads.

Quads. It's important.

Rosanna's waving. And Lily is on Snapchat now. Go check her out. Alex, tell everybody about your push-up challenge.

I'm doing the 22 push-up challenge, which brings awareness to victims of PTSD, veterans who commit suicide. So the statistic is that there's 22 suicides every year in the States of veterans due to PTSD. So the challenge is for 22 days, every single day I do 22 push-ups. And part of the personal challenge is I will call out Every day that I do the push-ups, someone else, so you make the movement a little bit bigger. It's for a good cause and doesn't only affect the veterans, it affects the families, our society as a whole, and something to look into.

Post-traumatic stress syndrome. Post-traumatic stress disorder. Oh, disorder, right. D, yeah. And Nina's doing some Pokémon.

No, I'm not.

You were, there was a Pokémon on Stephanie.

Oh yeah, yeah, I did.

And you did the Pokémon on her. Let me show you some pictures. Look at that, this is pink Pokémon on Stephanie. Pokémon. Nina doesn't talk be on the street as we walk anymore because she has to play Pokémon Go. Alright, walking out of the burrito place. I'm really full, how are you doing? I'm full, are you okay? Who wants to go to Tim Hortons?

Yeah! I do!

Okay, Taybee's first! People don't know you on the YouTube channel. Hi, I'm Rosanna. Who are you? What else? I am myself. Rosanna is an instructor-to-be. An instructor-to-be, almost there. She's just finishing her training. Never too late to introduce yourself. Hi, I'm Lily and I'm a storyteller. There you go, tell us a story.

That's the worst, I'm like, I'm known for my jokes. Tell us a joke right on the spot.

Come on, Alex, give us a joke right now.

Here's a joke.

Oh, don't tell the light joke.

No.

That took forever.

You know what, listen, okay, 3 guys are standing at the gates of heaven and Saint Peter is there judging them. So the first guy goes up and he's like, okay, I'm gonna give you a vehicle to travel on in heaven based on how you treated your wife. So the first guy said, I love my wife, we were married for 60 years, and if I could give up my life first, uh, second time for her, I would. He's like, okay, here are keys to a Bugatti. Second goes up, he's like, I cheated on my wife once, but we went to therapy. We were married for 40 years. I, I loved her till the end, till we, you know, uh, I died. He's like, okay, here are keys to a Ford Focus. This third guy goes up, he's like, I hated my wife. I slept with her sister and I only married her for money. Uh, I just couldn't stand her. He's like, okay, here's a scooter. So the guy on the scooter is driving around in heaven, seeing all the majestic, incredible things, and he looks out into the field and there's the guy with the Bugatti. And the guy in the Bugatti, he's lying on the hood of his car He's crying like a baby.

Yes.

So the guy goes up— so the guy on the scooter drives up to him and he's like, why are you crying? You're in a Bugatti, you can pick up any woman you want, you're in heaven, what's wrong with you? And the guy in the Bugatti says, oh, I just saw my wife and she was on rollerblades.

Oh man, that's pretty good, that was pretty good.

It's a thinker. The rollerblades, what? And then you're like, oh, she must have done it so bad that not only did she get a scooter, she was on rollerblades. Wow, what could she have done? Wow, it's a thinker.

Nina takes every chance she can to play Pokémon Go. Yeah, she hides it, but we know she's playing. Let's go bowling! So the women went to go get socks. They brought extra socks because they don't want to put their bare feet into the smelly bowling shoes. Nina has her socks. She's ready to go. With Pokémon Go, I see it Here we are, Planet Bowl. We need to have a drink before we go in.

Oh wow!

Everybody finish your drinks. Nina is so obsessed with Pokémon that she wants— it's out of order too— she wants this Pikachu. Here we go, Alex. What's he getting? Come on, Alex. Here it is. What are you picking? There it is.

Lily gets it.

What's it going for, the Darth Vader? Yeah, I think so.

Oh my god, this is gonna be hard.

Alex, don't go, don't go. No, no, go with your guts. Uh-oh. No. Oh, it's hard.

No, you have to— it doesn't grab. I know. Uh, no, it doesn't. It's only one chance.

And it's time to bowl, bowl, bowl! Lily's hiding behind Alex. That's very scary, actually. Alright, we're done. We're hurting. Hurting. Nina's back hurts. Where's Nina? Her neck and her back hurts. You sat out the last round. My arm hurts. My arm hurts.

Stephanie, what hurts?

My neck. The manicure is gone. Don't go bowling after a manicure. Lesson learned. What hurts?

My pride mostly, but also my fingers.

Pride and fingers.

I could have done better. I'll do better next time.

How's Lily feeling? Defeated. Defeated? Wow. It's beautiful to learn something new. It is. But put yourself out there.

Optimistic.

But the process hurts. It's beautiful to put yourself out there and try something new.

It's—

yes. I like it. Thank you guys for watching. Thank you for joining us on our Exciting, exciting trip. Alex's one word is belong. Liz's integrity. You guys continue to believe, or whatever your one word is, and I'll see you soon.