Nardwuar the Human Serviette desperately wants to play Hip Flip with Pierre Poilievre
The quirky Canadian interviewer has played the 1960s party game with Liberal, Green and NDP leaders
For more than two decades, Nardwuar the Human Serviette has been on a mission to play the 1960s party game Hip Flip with every Canadian prime minister and would-be prime minister he crosses paths with.
The Vancouver-based TV and radio personality, whose real name is John Ruskin, is widely known for his quirky persona, unique aesthetic and well-researched interviews with celebrities.
But whenever there's a federal election afoot, he turns his efforts to interviewing the candidates vying to be Canada's next prime minister and challenging them each to a round of Hip Flip — a 1968 Hasbro game in which two people prop a metal rod between their bellies and attempt, in unison, to swing a plastic flipper upside down.
So far this year, he's engaged in the physically awkward ritual with Liberal Leader Mark Carney, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, and Green Party co-leader Elizabeth May.
Only the Conservative Party leader remains.
"We're just waiting for Pierre Poilievre, possibly, to do the Hip Flip. I have tried," Nardwuar told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. "I'll keep trying. I won't give up, because that's what I do. I want to complete this."
Games and gifts for Carney, Singh and May
Nardwuar, known for his frequent appearances on MuchMuch in the '90s, got his start in 1987 hosting his own show on CITR 101.9 FM, the University of British Columbia campus radio station, which he continues to do today.
He also has a presence on YouTube and TikTok, where he often shocks and impresses celebrities with his intimate knowledge of their lives and careers, and bestows upon them obscure gifts catering to their interests.
He developed his eye for detail, he says, during his early days of college radio.
"If the interview was boring, people would phone in and just say, 'This is boring!' So I always have the tidbits because I live in fear of people phoning in saying, 'It's boring! It's boring!'" he said.
He brings that same energy to his political interviews, all of which he conducted this year in the basement of Neptune Records in Vancouver.
First up was Carney, the newly minted Liberal leader.
"I couldn't believe that the prime minister of Canada actually came to me," Nardwuar said.
Nardwuar dug into Carney's years as a minor hockey goaltender and gifted him, among other things, a 45 RPM vinyl of the 1982 single Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye by King Richard's Army, a major arena anthem featuring Vancouver Canucks goaltender Richard Brodeur as the cover art.
When he asked whether Carney would do a Hip Flip with him, the Liberal leader responded: "That looks like so much fun. Yeah, why not?"
Next up was Singh, in his third election interview with the Human Serviette.
"This is honestly one of the things I look forward to in the campaign. I know I have a guaranteed visit with Nardwuar," the NDP leader said.
Nardwuar shocked Singh with musical trivia about his own NDP colleagues and also offered gifts, including vinyls by every artist featured on the 1998 Canadian hip-hop hit Northern Touch, each pressed by Clampdown, a company based in Singh's Burnaby, B.C., riding.
Most recently, Nardwuar spoke to May, the only leader who seemed to match him with her knowledge of obscure Canadian trivia.
As he was gifting albums by B.C. environmentalist David Suzuki and Nova Scotia songstress Rita MacNeil, the Green Party co-leader spun yarns about each of them, including the time she tracked Suzuki down at a Halifax hotel when she was a young activist, interrupting his shower while calling for a favour.
While accepting Nardwuar's Hip Flip invitation, May said: "I've got two artificial hips. We're going to give it a go."
Decades of Hip Flippery, and the occasional snub
Nardwuar has been doing the Hip Flip schtick with Canadian politicians for more than two decades, during both federal and B.C. elections.
"For me, it's just like business as usual," he said. "Get the Hip Flip done."
He's played with former prime ministers Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin and Justin Trudeau; former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff; former NDP leaders Jack Layton and Thomas Mulcair; and former Green Party Leader Annamie Paul.
He struck out with Stéphane Dion in 2008 at an event at UBC, even though the audience shouted at the Liberal leader to do it, then jeered him when he declined.
When he tried to initiate the game with then-Conservative leader Stephen Harper in 2004, he was carried away by security guards. He tried again Harper during the 2006 and 2015 elections, to no avail.
Now he has his eyes set on the new Conservative leader — the only prime ministerial candidate who has not yet spoken to him during this election. (He has not asked Yves-François Blanchet, though says he would welcome the Bloc Québécois leader should he ever find himself in Vancouver).
Nardwuar says Poilievre's team acknowledged his interview request in an email on March 30, and promised to get back to him. But, so far, he's heard crickets.
"I have followed up about 10 times," he said.
CBC has also reached out to the Conservative Party about Nardwuar's request, but did not hear back before deadline.
The Human Serviette, however, hasn't given up hope.
"I'll keep trying," he said. "I would love him to come on."
Interview with Nardwuar produced by Chris Trowbridge
