dijon

joanne goes to
rae & jerry's

What made you want to come to Rae & Jerry's tonight?

It's classic Winnipeg. If anyone from out of town asks, “where should I go for a good steak or a good cocktail?” it's the lounge here. It never changes, it's consistent. Sometimes they treat me like shit and I like it - I might even tip them more.

What kind of food did you eat growing up?

I definitely grew up eating traditional Filipino food, and now I miss it. I try to cook it on my own because I can’t have it whenever I want. Back then I thought, 'I don't like having this food all the time, why can't we have McDonalds more often, or just like, normal North American food?' But now as an adult, man I could really go for my moms Chicken Afritada, like warm home cooking. Afritada is a chicken dish stewed with tomatoes, onions and red peppers, sometimes carrots, some people put hot dogs in it - Filipinos want to chuck a hot dog in everything. Add a little bit of lemon or vinegar and a little bit of fish sauce, and that's what makes the Filipino blend - like that's what makes a Filipino house smell like a Filipino house. Steamed rice cooking and some sort of brothy, warm dish. Potatoes, gotta put a potato in there. I don't know if that's a North American addition to it, but it's killer because it soaks up the flavour, and then you mush a little bit to give a potatoey texture. It's funny because my mom made all these dishes a million times, and sometimes I'll call her and ask her for tips... but really you can Google all that shit, you know what I mean? Google it all, try it all, take what you like from one recipe and put it into another recipe. That's what is so nice about cooking is it's not a science, you can add things, taste things to see what else it could use. 

What were you like growing up ?

Just a weirdo kid. Heavily, and easily influenced by television. So if I was watching Blossom, I was dressing like Blossom. I would attach a bunch of huge flowers on to my overalls and wear some hat that Six would wear. Just ridiculous shit, do my hair kind of crazy, I was very experimental with my looks, that has not changed. 

What would you tell young Joanne?

Keep being your weird self. My parents saw being weird as drawing attention and showing off, so performing or dying my hair weird colours or whatever was not really encouraged. It's not humble for a Filipino girl to be like 'hiiiii look at me.' As I got older they were like, 'ok we get it, that's not changing' so they learned to love it. They were eventually really open minded about the weird stuff I would do. One thing that they would not say yes to was getting my ears double pierced. They said no, so I went to the mall and got my ears pierced like 13 times, it was so painful. All up my ears - my throbbing fucking ears. So that's the kind of stuff I would do. “Can I get my nose pierced? No?” Then I pierced my nose in my bedroom. A teenagers will is somethin' else.

What was the first CD you ever owned?

First 45, let's start there. It was from Sam the Record Man in Unicity where I grew up because that was the first mall I was able to hang out at before graduating to Polo Park. I bought The Tide is High on Chrysalis from this guy I just called Hot Tom. My first tape might have been Rick Springfield’s Hard to Hold soundtrack that came with a Sony ghetto blaster for Christmas. I was a huge Rick Springfield fan as a child. I was in his fan club, I LOVED Rick Springfield. I'm kind of kicking myself because he was here at the casino not too long ago. Friends of mine went and posted pictures of him, and I knew he'd still look fuckin' tight, and he does. He does. He's like John Stamos hot still. I wanted to be there and ask him "did you get the lock of my hair that I mailed you when I was eight?"

For CDs my go-to and one of my favourite music schools of life was Columbia House. You get the first batch for a penny and then you pay until you cancel your subscription. My parents let me collect CDs through that - real classic kind of stuff that I don't ever need to hear on purpose. Music ingrained in my brain that I think should be ingrained in everyone's brains like Hendrix, the CCRs, the Janis Joplins, the Zepplins, the stuff you should know. And if you listened to radio, it's so force fed but classics are classics for a reason. That's the stuff I really accumulated. I worked at Into the Music later on, so then I was like ‘let's hone what you should be listening to. If it's not the Rolling Stones it's shit.’ A real High Fidelity mentality. I guess I suppressed some of my music likings because I just wanted to be cool, and I wanted to listen to all the cool music with all the cool friends I worked with. Now I openly listen to everything with zero fucking shame. Zero shame. 

So you've been doing some wrestling announcing?

I played at someone’s wedding social in a gymnasium and it was so fun and so shitty, like as shitty as you'd hope it to be. You know the sound of electric amps in a gym? Uncles, aunts and grandmas, social prizes set up, lights totally turned up - it was awesome. One of the guys at the social is the founder of a newer wrestling company in town, Winnipeg Pro Wrestling. He approached me and asked if I would be interested in ring announcing and I was like, "fuck yeah I would, that sounds like the best job ever." I hope I get to do more of it, it's kind of the funnest thing to do. My hubby does ring announcing as well. Can you believe it? Two ring announcers in one family. I wear all white when I do it and he wears all black.

Young Joanne was really into wrestling. I was obsessed with this Saturday morning wrestling cartoon. That was during the Cyndi Lauper days when she was in the wrestling game. 

Wait, Cyndi Lauper was into wrestling?

She was showing up at matches and smashing chairs on wrestlers, it was a great time in wrestling. That's why there are wrestlers in a few of her music videos, I think Captain Albano is in Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Goonies R Good Enough is all wrestlers; the Sheik is in it, Rowdy Roddy Piper - all the big wrestlers at the time because she was into it. 

Steve Austin or Bret Hart?

Bret Hart. He's from the Hart Foundation which is from my childhood. Just a couple greasy looking jheri curled dudes in pink tights.

Jake the Snake or Bret Hart?

Jake the Snake. The guy’s a maniac. I feel bad for all the snakes he went through. I'm pretty sure they were heavily drugged, these ginormous pythons and I think he went through a lot of them.

What did he do with them?!

I'm sure they just ended up in the trash or something, like a huge, drugged out, overdosed python.

What do you think about the rise in women’s wrestling?

I think it’s a call for equality. If guys can do it and entertain, why can't the girls be acrobatic and athletic? They don't have to wrestle dudes, they can wrestle each other. And physically it makes more sense to match weight for weight. I don't watch a ton of wrestling these days, but my husband watches it all the time so I do have my finger on the pulse.

They aren't arm candy, they're the ones pumping iron and earning it - they look great doing it. In men's wrestling they have guys who are super buff, super 'roided out, super pumped and then they also have big ol kind of fat softies who are sometimes the winners, sometimes the losers, but not everyone is necessarily a statuesque Adonis. That's what’s really healthy about women's wrestling now. You don't have to be a skinny minnie, you just have to be strong. They're athletes and they're doing it. It's a really good time in women's wrestling. 

What's your favourite mustard?

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a honey mustard girl. But honey mustard with a little caviar snap in it, so a little dijon mustard seed, a little horseradish-y but with a hint of honey to cut the edge.

Interview by Katy Slimmon & Ali Vandale
Photography by Ali Vandale