If you live anywhere in the Greater Toronto Area, or if you follow Tim Horton’s on Twitter, or definitely, if you are a fan of barbershop singing, you’ve likely heard the story of the Oakville Entertainers. Perhaps you’ve even seen their Tim Horton’s YouTube clip captured by Danfi Parker that went viral with almost 1 million hits at the time of this writing.

Well, I thought it would be great to dig into this story and video a bit deeper. Through a friend of a friend, I tracked down one of the The Entertainers named Sam McComish. Through Sam’s daughter Alison, I arranged a call with him to discuss the recent fame of the group and to get some of his background and his motivation for singing barbershop with The Entertainers.  The time I first spoke with Sam, he had just returned from the funeral of an old friend, Julian Selano, a co-worker from Sam’s time at IBM. More importantly, Julian was a fellow barbershopper who brought Sam into the society 32 years ago via the Scarborough chorus called the Dukes of Harmony; the Dukes had just won their second international gold medal at that time. Sam said that Julian's funeral was attended by friends and family, of course, but also by over 150 barbershoppers from around the GTA and North America and that the service and the wake was full of great barbershop singing creating, an ideal tribute for his singing pal. One of the best performances at the funeral was from Julian’s son Jeff who was an international gold medalist at Barbershop Harmony Society's international convention in Philadelphia in 2010, with his group Storm Front Quartet.  But first, let’s get started with a little history on Sam.

Sam, came to Canada from Scotland in1957 with his wife Julie; the two met while out dancing in 1951 and got married in 1956 after Sam completed his 5 year apprenticeship with shipbuilder Alexander Steven and Son on the river Clyde. In Canada. Sam earned his Mechanical Engineering degree through UofT, but, he did it the hard way, self-taught by studying at home and going down to UofT once a year to write the exams. He wrote 17 exams that way and got his Mechanical Engineering in designation in 1967. Sam began working with Kilborn Engineering and later with John B Parkin and Associates where he worked on some great construction projects including Toronto’s new City Hall and the Toronto Airport. After earning a reputation as an accomplished construction engineering manager, Sam was recruited by IBM’s Real Estate division. There he eventually completed one of his best projects, IBM Canada’s headquarter building at 3500 Steeles Avenue in Markham. Sam told me “It was a fabulous complex at the time with the latest building technologies including off-peak chiller water cooling that produced and stored cool water during night and used it during the day for cooling of the computer rooms and offices”. Sam also told me that he was proud to say that he resisted jumping on the computer band-wagon and was probably one of the few IBMers that never used a computer at work. In 1988, Sam retired from IBM but went right back to work with them as a private consultant; he still takes on construction management projects from time-to-time now at 77 years old.

When Sam, Julie and his family moved to Oakville in 1990, he transferred from the Dukes to The Entertainers. Sam has 3 grown children: his oldest son Callum works for GM and lives in Oshawa, his daughter Alison is a social worker who lives with Sam and Julie, and his youngest son Craig who is self-employed and living in Oakville. On January, 18, 2013, just before we met, Craig;'s son Paul and his girlfriend had a daughter, Keeley, and Sam and his wife Julie became great-grandparents for the 1st time.

So what about the viral Tim Horton’s video? That, Sam said, “had little to do with us and a lot more to do with these new devices and Internet things”. After The Entertainers' Monday night practice sessions, a number of them usually cross the road for coffee and donuts, and in true barbershop tradition, they almost always break out a couple of barbershop tunes for the patrons and staff.  Well on this night, the now YouTube-famous Danfi Parker, happened to pull out his iPhone and capture a beautiful rendition of Can You Fell the Love Tonight, written by Sir Elton John for the Disney hit the Lion King and the rest is Internet and local media history. Shortly after that, they were interviewed by CBC, they appeared on George Strombolopolous Tonight, they were covered by Global TV news and they returned to Tim’s on Monday, January 21 to tape another performance and interview for CFTO. The latest is that on February 11, The Entertainers will board the Go Train at Oakville Station, accompanied by a CBC crew, and they will sing barbershop for the commuters all the way to Union Station. But here’s where the story got interesting, at least for me.

In order to get a bit more follow-up information and background on The Entertainers, I wanted to meet Sam in person, perhaps at a Tim Horton’s because I am a huge fan of this Canadian institution. Instead, Sam suggested that I come by the Syl Apps Youth Centre in Oakville, where the chorus rehearses on Monday night “and maybe you can meet some of the guys and get some comments and pictures”. That sounded like a great idea to me. To be honest, I didn’t even smell the trap; not too good for someone that is supposedly an experienced native trapper from Northern Ontario. So I drove out to Oakville after work, and walked into the auditorium at the Syl Apps Centre where I was very warmly greeted with sheets of music for that night’s rehearsal.  I said, “Oh… I’m not here to sing, Sam mentioned I could come by to watch and maybe get some shots of you guys”.  “Sure he did, just have a seat over there and we’ll figure out where we can fit you in” instructed one of the seasoned members of the group.

We stared with some technical warm-ups led by Bruce Ott shown here directing the group; someone heard me and figured me for a lead, and before long I was up on the risers working on some of the tunes for the Entertainers’ upcoming Spring Show on April 27^th at the St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Oakville. 

It was a fantastic evening! That night, the group had an old friend, Fred Lilly (another Scotsman), who normally directs the Grimsby chorus. He took us through some sections of a song they were working on for the Spring Show and it was amazing to see how he improved the group’s performance after only a short period. As a music fan and an amateur guitarist and singer, I had heard a lot about four-part harmony, but I had never tried performing it. Fred got the leads going first, then he brought in the tenors, the baritones and finally the base. It was really rewarding to start to hear my own voice chime into key with the other leads and then to hear it all come together in harmony.

Soon it was time for some serious work on one of their pieces for the big show so all of the amateurs and guests were invited to take a seat (okay, I was the only amateur that was invited to sit) while they worked on a classic number for the big show. Click the link The Sound of Music for a behind the scenes look at the Entertainers during their January 21 rehearsal. 

After that, it was break-time; there were updates from some of the members on various upcoming activities. There was also an update on the gratitude that was coming from Tim Horton’s for all of the positive PR they were getting from the YouTube video; Tim Horton’s will be donating summer shirts for the chorus and they are invited to sing at Tim Horton’s annual meeting. I also learned that Sam's quartet, called the Gray Tones, that have sang together for 15 years, will be going out on Valentine’s Day to perform for many happy couples on that special day. Some other quartets from the group will also be going out. However, the highlight of break-time was when Dan O’Brien got up to deliver one of his jokes, an activity that has become a tradition with the group. Although, I won’t retell the joke here, I will say that Dan admitted that he would have to change up his repertoire as June Dale will soon join the Entertainer’s as their first female Director, replacing outgoing director Bruce Smith. June has led Toronto North Metro female chorus, with over 100 members, to 4 international gold medals in the past 10 years and she'll be helping the Entertainers get ready for the Spring Show.

Overall, I found the Entertainers to be an extremely welcoming group. I must have been approached by at least ten members including current President Al Holden, and seasoned members like Dan O’Brien, Bruce Ott and Ken Beard who all welcomed me and thanked me for coming by to join in. Bruce Ott and Ken Beard were also with the Dukes of Harmony with Sam so they've known each other and sung together now for 32 years. Given that the response I received when walking in, I’m sure that any readers who live in the Oakville or Mississauga area, that would like to check out what it feels like to sing barbershop, would be more than welcome to drop by the Syl Apps Youth Centre on any given Monday night at 7:00 p.m. and they would surely fit you in just as they did me.

While I discussed the activities that The Entertainers got involved in with Sam, I found out that some of the proceeds the group takes in, and all of the fund-raising that the group does, goes to support a charity known as Harmonize for Speech, a fund that was established in 1977 as a project of the Ontario District Association of the Barbershop Harmony Society. To date, barbershoppers have collectively raised near 5 million dollars to help those with speech impediments either from birth, from hearing disabilities or from other medical or health difficulties such as strokes or brain injuries. Their motto is “We sing so that they shall speak” and it is clear by listening to the group talk about their fund raising efforts that this is an important contribution that they feel very strongly about. I also learned that the best chorus in the GTA, and probably in Canada right now, is the Northern Lights out of north Toronto; they have won 4 international silver medals but the gold still eludes them at least for now. They too like all choruses in the Society support Harmonize for Speech. 

In addition, to the charity, I asked Sam during our last discussion, what motivates him and why he’s stuck with barbershopping for over 30 years now. He said “There’s something special about working with a group of people to learn new things; there’s always new coaches (like Fred Lilly and soon June Dale), new styles and new arrangements to work on and when you improve and master these, it’s a great feeling. There’s also the performances; it’s a great feeling to perform well and to watch the audience and see that they’re enjoying what you’re doing for them”. Sam added "It is also the friends you meet along the way - in fact, it all my years, I haven't met a barbershopper I didn't like - it seems that all the good guys want to barbershop."

While, I may not be back to sing with The Entertainers in Oakville, I have a totally new perspective on barbershop choruses, what they do and why they do it. While I may not be able to fit in this hobby right now, I do believe that I will add to my list of future retirement projects, finding a group in my area and I’m sure they will be as warm and welcoming as Sam and The Entertainers to take me in and find a spot for me on their risers. I will, however be at the Spring Show mentioned above on April 27 to listen to the fruits of their passion and cheer on my new acquaintances. Like many of the other people written about on Kamazooie, Sam McComish is an inspiring individual; the rich sound of his voice is only exceeded by the warmth of his welcoming heart. I wish him and The Entertainers many more great performances and many more years of singing barbershop for their own enjoyment and competition and for the enjoyment of their family, friends and fans.