Pickle Barrel
“THAT WOMAN HAS to be the nicest woman in the history of the world,” says Jack Hourigan. We’re a few minutes into our interview at Patisserie La Cigogne, a little French pastry shop located on a busy stretch of Bayview, and Hourigan, the host of Slice’s new lifestyle show Three Takes, is standing at the store’s front window. She’s watching as her son’s homeroom teacher, a woman who was in the shop moments earlier, disappears down the street.
“I swear, I’m constantly running into her and I’ll be, like, ‘Can you tell me this and that about my son?’ And she’ll take the time to answer all my questions,” says Hourigan. She turns away from the window. “Nicest woman. Nicest woman in the world.”
It’s just one of many community happenstances that the hummingbirdlike Hourigan touches on briefly as the conversation buzzes along.
“People on the street are so friendly here,” she says. “My sister lives two blocks away from me.” There’s no question she feels at ease in her community.
A Leaside resident, Hourigan moved to the area in November of 2005 from Cleveland, where she raised her 11-year-old son Spencer with her now ex-husband.
The move home led to the next phase of her career as she accepted hosting duties on the shows, Ready as She Grows and How to Boil Water, on the Food Network.
“Yeah, Leaside is sort of like Cheers slash Our Town slash Stepford,” she says, incorporating some of the comparisons I offer up into the mix. “It’s neighbourhoodish, and everybody does know your name.”
“Neigh-bour-hood-ish,” she says, trying her invented word on again for size. “Is that even a word? What am I saying?” She smiles wryly. “I don’t know what I’m saying half of the time.”
It’s moments like these, where Hourigan seems most like the TV version of herself that viewers see on Slice. Witty, self-deprecating, wry and disarmingly candid, she’s an ideal host for a lifestyle talk show like Three Takes, geared to women ages 25 to 35.
Best described as a local version of The View with hosts who actually listen to one another, the show and its three hosts serve up distinct viewpoints on topics that women can relate to. From fitness tips to dating to decor and makeup, everything is fair game.
There is also a big focus on relationships, Hourigan explains. “Christine [Diakos] is the married one,” says Hourigan explaining the women’s individual rolls. “Andrea [Bain] is the single one, and then there’s the divorced one,” she says. “That’s me. I wear the big scarlet ‘D.’”
One of the things Hourigan says she likes about her current gig is how well she gets along with her co-hosts. “I know. Everybody always says that, and you think, yeah right, they’re not really friends! But in this instance it’s true. We’re all going out for drinks on the Danforth tonight,” she says as way of proof. “I bet Chandler and Monica didn’t really hang out, but I know where Christine and Andrea live.”
Three Takes also lets Hourigan speak her mind, something she wasn’t able to do on How to Boil Water. Hourigan often had to ask mundane questions like, ‘Is that sea salt?’ as a way of clarifying things for the audience,
“Contrary to what people might think, I actually do have a brain and I do like to use it,” she says smiling. One day, I tune in to Three Takes as Hourigan teaches viewers how to get a “new look for their kitchen nook” with the help of Fernando Mammoliti, a specialist in marble and granite countertops.
Despite her avowal that she is “spazzy,” she’s the image of calm next to the shy marble man. She tosses off quick remarks such as “Now, there’s a nice piece of Precambrian shield,” as he hands her a sample. A close-up reveals his hands to be shaking slightly. He’s doing his best to keep up. She’s keeping him on his toes.
Growing up the youngest of nine children on a quiet, tree-lined street in tranquil Burlington, Hourigan says she’s always been quick, always been a performer — traits she says she developed more out of necessity than anything else.
Long before she performed in plays and musicals at Burlington Central High she learned to hold her own in the Hourigan household.
“I come from a funny family,” she says, explaining how family dinners were more like verbal jousting matches. “You had to be quick if you were going to get a dig in there or the last drumstick.”
After graduation, Hourigan went to McGill University to study English and theatre. From there she hopped stateside to Cleveland with her then husband and her son Spencer — at that time, little more than a year old.
After a brief stint as a stay-at-home mom, Hourigan began doing improv gigs at Second City. The appearances soon led to a spot hosting a local TV show, which in turn led to other opportunities like How to Boil.
“I would fly to New York every few months to tape at Food Network,” says Hourigan, who continues to do Second City shows when she can find the time.
“New York has such a great energy. I really miss it. I try to go back whenever I can.”
While you get the impression Hourigan was up for the how-does-she- do-it challenge of jetting from city to city, there’s also the feeling that her lifestyle got pretty hectic at times. When her contract ended with the Food Network and Spencer was nine years old, she divorced and decided she could use some time at home. Sometimes you have to move away in order to gain an appreciation for what you left behind. For Hourigan that means new-found cravings for childhood comfort foods like, Maltesers, Kraft Dinner and Coffee Crisp.
There was also the surprise in finding out how powerful connections to her youth were for her as an adult. “You know, it’s cool to be able to reconnect with girlfriends and say things like ‘Remember when we were at Turkey Point and crank called Brendan Spellman’s house in the eighth grade?”
Although she has no plans of moving back to the burbs, she admits that the area she chose has some similarities to the sleepy Burlington of her youth.
“Leaside is tree lined, it’s safe,” she says. “There are these great little independently owned shops.”
Case in point: the Hobby Shop across the street where Spencer currently sources a growing collection of model airplanes.
“You don’t get stores like that in every neighbourhood,” she says.
These neighbourhood qualities seem to be attracting other urban hungry 905ers as well. Even some of the attractive single man variety.
One day, as Hourigan was walking down Bayview, she bumped into a guy she had dated briefly in high school.
“I hadn’t seen or heard from him in 20 years,” she says, “and it turns out we both now live in Leaside around the corner from each other.”
One thing led to another which led to a bite to eat at McSorley’s and the two were soon a couple.
The strangest twist being that his parents not only still live in Burlington, but they live in what was Hourigan’s childhood home. Needless to say, meet-the-parents turned into a trip down memory lane.
“He’s just a nice, solid guy,” says Hourigan. “He remembers this 16- year-old me, the innocent me that wanted to perform and make people laugh.” Her blue eyes begin to moisten.
“Oh my God, there I go getting all weepy,” she says and laughs.
But as quickly as the tears come, she recovers her composure. “We have more than our pasts in common,” she says. “He’s solid and analytical. I’m spazzy and emotional. But he gets me.”
Hourigan pauses for a split second
before reverting to hilarious host
mode. “It’s Stephen Harper,” she says.
“I bet he’s putting something in the
water... Something that makes people
fall in love, so they stay and settle down
here... Good for him!” 
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