About
Johnny Sizzle
Instruments: Vocals, Guitar, Composition/Songwriting
details
Back in the Spring of '91 as a poor 19 year old living in downtown Winnipeg, Johnny Sizzle started playing acoustic guitar on the streets. The songs he was playing were not folksy or Beatles-esque Rolling Stones-esque but raunchy energy filled original punk rock and alternative which really stood out. Local street kids began to really dig Sizzle's personal songs and a following spread out from there. Another thing that made Johnny Sizzle stick out in the streets of Winnipeg is that people would recognize him from a public access TV show he did from 1988-1993 which was like an independent music American Bandstand crossed with the Tom Green Show. The show was called "Johnny Sizzle's Entertainment Watch" on GWC Cablevision Chan. 11. And it was a brimming success. He did his show to show that creative & talented people live right in your own community.By 1992 Johnny Sizzle was asked to play cafe shows in downtown Winnipeg while still playing on the streets causing chaos. In 1993 he began playing less for pocket change as he was regularly supporting himself performing in cafes and nightclubs around Winnipeg plus being asked to play all ages shows across Western Canada, hitchhiking from one show to the next. He was playing so much live music that he decided to quit his public access tv show for he felt the message had been received. He ended the year recording a six song demo with Crash Test Dummies' Ben Darill.
In 1994 he released a cassette entitled "Pervert Teenburger" which sold well after shows plus he had people bootleg the tape in any way they would see fit, winding up on indie music store shelves as far South as Arizona and across the ocean as far as Eastern Europe. Its estimated that 3000 cassettes were sold and orders are still received for it. "Pervert Teenburger" slipped in and out of the college indie charts for over 2 years.
In '95 Sizzle left Winnipeg to hitchhike to Montreal, where he lived on the streets for a couple of months playing his acoustic alternative punk style in the subways to eeke out a living. He finally beat homelessness when he was asked to model for Hollywood Jeans, the ads of which appeared from bus shelters to print media. It paid enough for Sizzle's own shelter and with the extra money he put out a cassette called "This One's for the Kids", with 100% of the profits going to streetkids in a grassroots charity kind of way - Sizzle himself handing out the proceeds. He estimates that $5000 of proceeds were given out. That year he toured nonstop through Quebec, Ontario and the Northeastern U.S.
In mid '96 Sizzle moved to Toronto, quitting music and working downtown. A few shows were played that year in Quebec and Southern Ontario. In '97 Sizzle said "Fuck
Work!" and went back out on the road playing shows in New York City and surrounding areas and all throughout Pennsylvania and Eastern Canada. He released another cassette entitled "Nobody at the Punk Shoo" which did well on college radio stations throughout Eastern Canada and NY State. Sizzle also appeared in a series of lucha libre wrestling films called "Ariba" which had showings in film festivals from Toronto to Chicago and Texas.
In '98 Sizzle went back to working for a corporate bar as a promotions assistant for Liberty Entertainment Management in Toronto and did the rare live performance as he had previously. He did more masked wrestling films and did the title song in a National Film Board documentary called "Kid Nerd Project". Requests still come in for the song.
In '99, a tough year for Johnny Sizzle due to a broken relationship, Liberty Entertainment unfairly fired his ass and he went homeless in New York City. With acoustic guitar in hand he played on the streets of New York feeling crazy and wearing his wrestling mask. Eventually Sizzle made enough money to bus it back to Toronto but did the same there. He busked in his Wrestling mask right across from the City TV building every day, appearing on TV on a semi regular basis. Sizzle also released his first CD that year on a record label called Pan Records out of Winnipeg. The recording sold poorly albeit "The Dirty Collegue"'s (as it was mispelled), one bright spot was that it was at #1 for late night listening on both Toronto college stations for the months of March and April, beating out GG Alin's last studio recording. Too bad Johnny Sizzle was freezing his ass off in Manhattan at the time! In October of that year Sizzle unexpectedly bumped into Ben Darvill who proposed a new CD recording for Sizzle in the future. With the winter of '99 approaching Johnny Sizzle had enough of big cities and moved to a tiny hotel room at the Townhouse Tavern in Sudbury, Ontario.
In 2000, Johnny performed regularly in Sudbury but little elsewhere except for a 9 date all ages DIY tour that carried him across the midwest United States and western Canada. Johnny did primarily artist painting(SiZZle paints with his cum, this is true, not made up) for most of that year and also came out with his website www.nerdrock.com. He went homeless again in 2000 in Toronto and was interviewed on MuchMusic where his pants fell down live on TV! Sizzle recorded his CD for Ben Darvill at Husky Records. 2001 saw the release of the self titled CD with a launch party at the Free Times Cafe in Toronto. The mass produced CD bombed on college radio.
Sizzle's next rash decision saw him move to Vancouver where he began his work for years (2001 - late 2004) at the Cobalt Hardcore Bar. If you saw the guy bussing tables dressed in Heavy Metal/Punk drag at times that was JohNNy SIZZle you were looking at. JohNNy often talks about those days as his life living in complete Punk Rock paradise. On his days away from the Cobalt he would participate in drag queen shows benefitting various well-meaning charities.
2004 saw the release of Sizzle's 2nd CD titled "MetamorpheSIZ". The recording got great reviews in the U.S. but not oddly not in Canada where it was slammed. nonetheless he did a 14 date tour of the Canadian live night club circiut. He missed a few shows on that tour and the beginnings of severe pyschological problems complete with suicide attempts. With these harsh feeling SiZZle decided it's time to hang up the wig and guitar and move back to Winnipeg for much needed mental treatment.
From 2005 to 2008 SiZZle spent most of his time recoving from mental illness with music being a rare part of his life.
In 2009 JohNNy SiZZle recorded new material, put out a new CD-r and did an over 3-week Summer tour of Ontario, Quebec, NYC/NJ, Illinios and Iowa.
In 2010 JohNNy SiZZle feels he'd very much like to PLAY LIVE SHOWS in BC. HE'll come out at anytime. HE demands that his live shows be scheduled a month and a half before the show's date for travel finance purposes. SiZZle also demands if he's going to be coming out from live shows outside of Winnipeg that he has some place to sleep later after the show. He'll take care of his own food but it not against chewing down with others whether that's vegan or big chunks of meat.
Active / Available
Past Events
The Former Cobalt
05
Oct
2004
10:00 13:00
10
Sep
2004
21:00 01:00
19
Aug
2004
21:00 23:00
10
Aug
2004
20:00 00:00
