Knuckles Irving, hilarious quipster

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This article was published 28/03/2014 (4450 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FIRE AND ICE: Bob (Knuckles) Irving, well-known sports director for CJOB and recipient of the Pan Am Clinic Foundation’s Professional Sports Achievement Award, cracked right up when they played a YouTube clip of him from 1987 at the Fire and Ice Gala Friday night. It was a Minute Muffler television ad showing Irving as a callow young buck with lots more hair and huge, square glasses, saying earnestly, “That’s Minute Muffler, your car’s best friend. You have MY word!”

Instead of a serious speech, the man being honoured at the Fort Garry Hotel for his commitment to community and sports got grilled big time. He chanced a personal interview with CBC sportscaster Scott Oake, with a lineup of probing questions — no topic too delicate. And he survived, with killer comebacks. “I had no idea how funny Bob Irving was!” laughed delighted event organizer Kelly McMullan.

SPOTTED: Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Gary Doer, Dr. Wayne Hildahl, chief operating officer of Pan Am Clinic, David and Ruth Asper from Pan Am’s board of directors, Fort Garry Hotel owner Ida Albo and Mark Chipman of True North Sports & Entertainment. Bomber alumni on hand included Bob Cameron, Trevor Kennerd, Joe Poplawski and Doug Brown.

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Gimme Shelter charity bash: Hundreds of noisy, high-spirited Manitoba realtors gathered at the picturesque Punjab Association Cultural Centre on King Edward Street for their annual entertainment competition — with bands, solo acts and poetry. Little-known fact: The Manitoba Real Estate Association’s Shelter Foundation has donated to 20 shelter-related charities and programs in Winnipeg since 2007.

The winner at the 2014 MREA entertainment competition was hot singer Ed Dale Jr. from Re/Max Professionals, Buffalo Place location, who sang a Bon Jovi hit song with a line the ladies in the audience jumped on. Dale would strum his guitar and wail: “I’m a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride, and I’m… “

“Wanted, dead or alive!” screamed the ladies. Judges quickly awarded him three 9s out of 10. On the celebrity judging panel was George Belanger, lead singer of Harlequin, Tim Hague Sr. from The Amazing Race Canada and Matt Sutton, the popular Aussie host from Fresh FM, or as he pronounces it, “Frish.”

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NYGÅRD SPRING FASHION SHOW: “Parts of my body are like a 25-year-old’s!” said Peter Nygård, smiling as cameras flashed at his fashion show last Thursday in the Kenaston store location. He has been widely discussed for his controversial stem-cell treatments, which he believes are making his body younger.

“My blood sugar is not a concern anymore. My heart was a big concern, but now it is not,” he said. And why does he always wear the black leather belt? “I had a lot of back pain and now it’s gone. I am an experiment and am being monitored all the time.” Nygård’s hair is growing — worn in a long flowing mullet — and so are his fingernails, report his staff. Nygård wore a studded tuxedo jacket over a V-necked T-shirt under an open tuxedo shirt. “I had this jacket designed for me for my Academy Award party. I get sick of wearing penguin suits all the time!”

Nygård is quick to point out he never would have done the stem-cell experiment if they hadn’t discovered it could have helped his mother. “If we had that for her a year before she died, she would be alive today!”

SPOTTED: The University of Winnipeg’s Lloyd Axworthy shaking many hands, former lieutenant-governor Pearl McGonigal bussing fashion mogul Peter Nygård, city Coun. Paula Havixbeck, Jay Prober, who is part of Nygård’s legal team, as well as Carolyn Rickey from Cedars Communications and Shaw TV’s fashionable host/director Tracy Koga.

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EYES ON THE ARTS fundraiser: The CNIB hauled in 250 artworks to auction Friday night and raised $90,000 with art and ticket sales. About $60,000 will be the profit, says co-organizer Wanda Mills. “We have done these dinners for 15 years and have raised half a million dollars and counting this year,” said Mills, who co-organized the event with Glenda Gascoigne and well-known events guru “Downtown” Rhonda Brown.

Brown, an enthusiastic volunteer at the CNIB, gave a speech about having a stroke in her early 40s, losing part of her hearing and eyesight mid-career.

SPOTTED: Lt.-Gov. Phillip Lee and his wife, Anita, with their daughter, Maggie Lee Grant, who has vision loss and is a CNIB client, High Speed Crow CEO Bryan King, Scotiabank VP Daryl Dunn, Glenn Hildebrand, CNIB board chairman, and comedian Jon Ljungberg, who headed the evening’s media art challenge with media vet Laurie Mustard, the evening’s host. Free Press humour columnist Doug Speirs created an artpiece so uh… noticeable, it made the grade to live auction, selling for $100. The highest bid for an art piece? An original oil of a Venice canal by Parvin Shere, selling for $925.

 

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