Off-Air Style: Q+A With Dave Kelly

View the Dave Kelly Style Q+A Video

For 47-year-old TV personality Dave Kelly, change is as welcome as a Calgary chinook.

A staple on Citytv Calgary’s Breakfast Television for 12 years, Kelly waved goodbye to conversational morning TV at the end of 2009 and joined forces with his brother, director and producer Rob Kelly, to create the aptly named Kelly Brothers Productions — a video production house focusing on, well, anything that strikes their fancy.

“We’re pooling our intelligence, our resources, and our relationship to find great things for both of us to do,” says Dave. “Whatever that may be.”

With several corporate videos in the bag, as well as a short film Dave penned, The Phone Call, in the works, it’s safe to say the 3 a.m. wake-up calls from Citytv are not overly missed.

“I really loved working with Suzanne [Fox] and the crew, but it was a four-hour monster that you had to feed every day,” says Dave, who initially tried working on Kelly Brothers while pulling down his day job. “And so when I came in to this office [after hosting an episode of Breakfast Television], I’d be the yawning guy at 4 p.m. “It was splitting everything, and I thought, why not do the things that I can do?”

Fully focused and committed since January, Dave admits the change is a little unsettling. But he takes the change of pace and scenery in humour-filled stride. “I’m not always sure of what and where and how, but that’s part of the fun,” he says with a laugh. “I just can’t believe we’re not millionaires yet.”

Twelve years with Breakfast Television. There must be some highlights.
The cancer camp-outs that we did every year were an incredible highlight. The friends that I made out of that and the kids I know are priceless. I went to the Olympic Torch ceremony at the Alberta Children’s Hospital, and there were kids there who were at the cancer camp-out 10 years ago, who are now adults and young adults. And meeting kids who have survived, who have done it … amazing.
Then there was the sex lady …

OK, that one needs a little more explanation.
This woman came on the show, for a kind of “how to talk to your kids about sex” segment. She was late, and we couldn’t really prepare. So they put all of her stuff out on the table very last minute, and we barely had time to say “Hi,” and we’re on TV. So we’re talking, and I ask, “So how do you talk to kids about sex?” She’s talking and there are all these books there and I just pick one up, and I don’t notice that it says “pop-up” on the book. So we’re talking away, and I just open the book, and this huge erection just pops up. It was so funny. The next phase of that whole moment was her not letting me off the hook — her asking me why I was so flustered. And I said, “Well, it was the thing.” And she said, “What was it, Dave? What thing?” She would not let me go. I finally said, “It’s a penis.” And she said, “Why would you call your penis a thing?” I said, “It’s not my penis! I’m just saying!” And then she went into this whole thing about, “Dave, if we can’t talk openly about our own genitals, then how are we ever going to help kids to?” It was a great way to make a point, but she completely skewered me trying to make it. 

Any low points you can remember?
We’ve had some bad food.

Have you ever had to fake it when tasting it?
Only once. It tasted like shit. Like actual shit. And when it was cooking, I thought, what is that, feet? It was just bad. And I remember them saying, “Do you want to taste it?” And what am I going to say, no? So I said, sure. It was full of bones … like goat knuckles … I don’t [know] what it was. It looked like watery feces with bones in it. And it tasted like that, too. I think I remember saying, “Hmm, interesting.” That was the best I could do.

Who do you admire in this business?
There are a lot. Matt Lauer from the Today Show. He’s so solid. He can do a cooking segment and interview the president, and still look unshakeable. Really impressive. And then, people I’ve worked with — Tara [McCool] and Suzanne [Fox]. And Jebb [Fink]. You see so many comics make their mark in life because they live and die by whether they’re good. I can do a TV show for 10 years, and as long as the ratings are OK, nobody will know. But if Jebb is on stage, and they’re not laughing, he knows in about two seconds. So he brings a sense of, “it’s got to be funny and interesting right now,” which is good.

Tara is just a classy person in every way you can possibly imagine. She should be an ambassador or something. And she was good for me to be around, because in TV, it’s easy to be cynical, and she was the opposite. I learned a lot about being a decent person from her. Suzanne is beautiful and smart, and she’s a farm girl. She’s such a straight-up person, works hard and doesn’t get frazzled. It was always easy and comfortable to be beside her.

Is there anyone along the way who’s helped you to get where you are?
No, it’s been all me. [Laughs.] A big influence for me was my Dad. He was a plasterer, raised 10 kids, and had dreams his whole life of being a guitar player. Now, he sings in retirement homes. He taught me the value of working hard. And not so much the value of being a martyr, but the joy of doing something really well.

It has stuck with me, because we’ve had so many authors come through the show, and they would come on and say, “You’re the only show across Canada that actually reads the books.” And we read all the books. For the first eight years, I was the only host. In that time, I was the only one doing the book interviews, so I was reading all the books and it became the thing on our show that that’s how we would prepare. I knew if I’d read the book, I’d get an awesome interview.

That had to be rewarding for both you and the authors.
I got an awesome e-mail from Christie Blatchford, who wrote Fifteen Days about 15 soldiers who died in Afghanistan. She said it was the best interview of any print, media and TV, because I had read it. But that’s Dad. He would say, just do it. Get in there. Make it right.   

How would you describe your own sense of style?
There was a producer on the show when I started, her name was Paula Davies, and Paula taught me that you should always look like you’ve thought about it. That’s always played out more with me than anything else. I’d like to think that I think about what I wear. Otherwise, I would say I’m as casual as I can get away with. Although it’s fun to dress up, too. I have my own tux, and I learned to tie my own bow tie, and that whole routine.

Do you like to shop?
I like to shop when I … OK, no I don’t. [Laughs.] I will go when I need a new pair of jeans. It’s need-driven, not want-driven. Tara would leave the show, and then go through the mall and then go home. And I’d think, what are you looking for? I can’t imagine just going through and just looking at what’s out there.

Do you ever buy clothes as an investment?
Sometimes. Dwayne Norman is the guy at Holt Renfrew that I go to. He is the most non-pressure but smart guy in fashion. I remember he phoned me once and said, “There is a Hugo Boss tuxedo in Winnipeg on sale for, like, $300 to $400, and it’ll fit you, and I’m going to order it.” Like, what else do you need in a fashion guy? And I’ve gone through some terrible clothes on the show because of various sponsorship deals. I remember one time, it all came from a nightclub-type store. So for at least six months on the show, I was wearing clingy, shiny shirts.

Do you follow fashion?
I would never watch a fashion show, but I will read Esquire, or Details or GQ, and get a sense of what’s going on. And by getting a sense, I mean, “Hey, that looks nice.” It’s not like, “Oh, check out the collars this season; they’re really spreading.” But if I did see something that I think would work for me, I’d rip it out and put it in a file and bring it to Dwayne.

Do you have a favourite shop?
Because I go to Dwayne a lot, I say Holt’s, but that just makes me sound like I spend billions, which is not the case. But that is the place I go. If I want T-shirts and jeans, I don’t go there, but for everything else, I do.

Any fashion trends you’re liking right now?
I like jeans. I like the way denim fits. I call them my after-school clothes. But I don’t like the fact that they try and make them look so torn up now. Isn’t that lame-ish? It just looks like you’re trying too hard.

Any fashion trends you’re hating right now?
Dwayne is trying to sell me on flood pants. He said in Europe, you can see people’s socks now when they wear their suits. Isn’t that funny?

What would you never be caught dead wearing?
Short pants. Or sweats in public.

Is there a studly fashion personality you look up to?
I would have to come back to Matt Lauer. Of course, he wears $5,000 suits that I don’t own, but he’s somebody that always looks killer-sharp.

What’s the ideal situation for Kelly Brothers in five or 10 years?
To have an awesome team of people who create excellent video experiences. TV is shifting. People don’t watch TV like they used to. We’re in the business of video pictures … but, five years from now, who knows that that’s going to look like? What I’d like to do at some point, is sit in a dark theatre, have the music start, and the movie comes up, and it’s our movie and it’s doing well.

Where do you see yourself in five or 10 years?
I’d love to say with kids, but what if we don’t have them? And is that pressuring [my wife Blythe]? Or is that sweet? I think it would be great for Blythe and I to have a couple kids and see what that world is like. Everybody tells me it’s pretty awesome. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

My Favourites:

Drink - Caesar, Non-alcoholic - Water
Restaurant - Thai Sa-On
Band - Lyle Lovett, Music - Blues
Song - "Let Me Love You" by Stevie Ray Vaughan
Salon - Red Bloom
Car - Don't care, but needs the stereo.

View the Dave Kelly Style Q+A Video