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Joel Goldberg (Original Producer): I was producing another show called Toronto Rocks at the time. It was a very important show that I took over and was honoured to produce. It was pre-MTV, pre-MuchMusic, and it was on from 4:00-5:00 PM everyday, and it was huge back in the day because that's where everyone got to see their music videos in Toronto. After MuchMusic came on there wasn't the same exclusivity anymore, so MuchMusic pretty much stole most of the audience from Toronto Rocks. Citytv head Moses Znaimer came up with this idea to do a dance show in the Toronto Rocks time slot. I was very reluctant in the beginning. I didn't know a lot about that scene. It was a very fringe, underground thing at the time.Monika Deol (Host 1988-1996): I was a real club kid. I loved dancing, music, disco nights, house music: it was just about playing fantastic music really loud and just dancing your face off. I was a club DJ and I had my own band. I took my demo reel to Toronto hoping to get a record deal, and instead I got a job offer to work at Citytv and MuchMusic. I started on the weekend, anchoring entertainment, and that quickly progressed to adding on Electric Circus, City Pulse Entertainment at 10 then at 6, then Ooh La La. So, basically I was doing five shows at the same time. I did Electric Circus from the very beginning. I was part of the founding crew. Moses just wanted to do a dance show and he had the name in place: Electric Circus. He had the idea to do this live to air dance show and he asked me to host it, largely because I was a club DJ and I was very into club culture.
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Monika Deol: I knew we had something when the producers of Club MTV came up to Toronto and said, "How do you do this live?" Then, a travel show called Rough Cuts came to Toronto and did a special feature on Electric Circus, which ran all over Europe. [One time,] when Will Smith was in town, he called us and said, "I've been watching this show and I wanna come down and hang out.' And we were like, "OK, but you understand it's not a night club? There's no drinks, no food, just people dancing…." So he came down just to hang out on Electric Circus. Shemar Moore, who was on The Young and the Restless at the time, was in Toronto shooting something and again he called us. "Listen," he said, "I really want to come down and hang out on your show." We were like, "Really?!" That's when we realized things were out of control in a really great way, in a really energetic, great way.
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Sharon Kavanaugh: That was written by Carl Armstrong (Jet Fuel) he's an amazing guy. He's really into dance music as well and a really musical guy, so he really loved the show. He was working in the creative department for MuchMusic at the time and he just wanted to help out however he could. He went into his little home studio started playing around and created the theme. He was doing some of his own stuff around that time, too. He did the theme, and then we worked on the opening together, he shot the opening that had all the dancers in the window. [That song,] "Hang on Here We Go," was featured on some of the compilations, and on the Much Dance compilation.Dancing in the spotlight
Joel Goldberg: It became a destination for the dancers before going to the clubs. A lot of them would meet at Electric Circus, maybe go out have a few drinks, and then go to the clubs all night.. [Being on the show] would raise their profile as club dancers.
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Monika Deol: We did everything and anything. Our theory was try anything once and if it doesn't work, it's OK, we'll never do it again. Because I was a co-producer, I had the ability to tell the crew downstairs what I think we should do during commercial break. One time we were in a two-minute commercial break and I saw a streetcar coming down Queen West and I looked at the streetlight and said, "By the time that streetcar gets here, that light is going to turn red. We're going to cross the street on camera one for a wide shot, we're gonna pick up camera four on the street, walk onto the streetcar and ask who wants to come dance. We're gonna take them off the streetcar dance across the street and bring them inside." And everyone's going, "Ah Monika! Monika!" And the technician starts counting down, "10, 9, 8….." and were up and we did it! And it worked.
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Sharon Kavanaugh: I wasn't on it right at the end, I'd left to go on a maternity leave. I came back but they were trying to take it in a different direction. They had alternating MuchMusic hosts and were trying different things to make it work. They were experimenting with it, and I took over Much on Demand. Instead of bringing me back and having the idea of how I wanted it, they wanted to take it in a new direction. They were focusing a little less on underground music and were trying to go more mainstream. They were probably trying to bring it back to the way it was originally. It started to go down when dance music took a dip. It kind of went away and everyone was listening to Good Charlotte, Fall Out Boy, and stuff like that—people weren't listening to hardcore dance music as much. If you looked at the charts, there wasn't a lot of dance on it. That's when it took its hardest hit and when they ultimately decided to stop the show.Monika Deol: I was quite sad to hear that they were taking it off the air. No one's done anything like it. I left in 1996 and I left it at the top of the ferris wheel. I made the decision that I was going to step away from work and focus on having a family life for awhile.Joel Goldberg: It was a product of its time, just like Speaker's Corner. After the internet came in, it took over. Which is cool now because there's completely different ways to do both things. We had Destiny's Child, Pink, Daft Punk, acts that were really amazing for that community at the time. I had Grandmaster Flash on and he's my hero.Sharon Kavanaugh: I would've wanted the show to change with the time and with what music was doing. I probably would've tried to maintain the relationships with DJs and indie labels in the States and tried to keep the pop side of it connected as well as what was happening in the clubs.
Joel Goldberg: For me, Electric Circus had the perfect timing to go on the air. There was stuff like Soul Train and American Bandstand, stuff that was on before we were born, but there was nobody else promoting dance music on Canadian television. There was a couple radio stations bringing it to life, but with dance music, it's very visual. If you went out to clubs, people were wearing crazy outfits, and the dancing itself was amazing. The timing was perfect for it.Monika Deol: I see this resurgence with EDM and just how huge these festivals are and it makes me smile because I think for Canadians, Electric Circus was the first show that brought urban music, hardcore dance music, and club music to the forefront. And gave it a venue, it gave it the star treatment. We had Frankie Knuckles, David Morales, every big DJ from Chicago, from New York, from Europe, and local people, Toronto, Vancouver DJs. We gave DJs a spotlight and we gave them sets from four to eight minutes to play as if they were in a club. We made them the stars that we thought they were. They would say to us, "Wow, we can't believe there's nothing like this." We were the first show that really played up DJs and the importance of a fantastic DJ.Sharon Kavanaugh: It's amazing that of all the things that I've worked on, of all the shows I've done—producing red carpets at MMVAs, live at Much with Katy Perry—whenever I say I used to produce Electric Circus, that's when people go, "Oh my god!" That's what always gets the biggest reaction. I think it was unique. I think the music made people feel good. Watching people dance made people feel good. I think it was a great thing to watch before people went to a party or a club. There was nothing else like it, so I think people really connected with that. It was informative, too. We were giving out information on the hottest club tracks; people were being introduced to DJs that they might not have known; fashion—what people were wearing. One other thing that people really loved about it was there were so many cultural backgrounds in that room and it didn't matter—everybody was just all one thing. That was very unique for Canadian television.Monika Deol: It was a fantastic moment in my career and my life. What's really nice is all these years later is, not a word of a lie, everyday somebody, a complete stranger says to me, "Oh my god, I used to love that show." All these years later. Everybody says it with a smile on their face. It was a happy time in their life.Sharon Kavanaugh: They've tried to bring it back a couple of times for one-off specials and it just doesn't feel the same. I would like to hope that it can be recreated because it was such a great thing. They tried to do a special once a month, and if it connected they would start the show up again, But it never quite found what it had. Maybe because it was unique to its time.Monika Deol: I sure wish someone would do it again. I know my kids would love to watch it. If someone did a one-off reunion show, I would totally do it. It would be fun! Maybe just a cameo….