CASH CAB is Rolling with a New High-Tech Look, But Host Adam Growe Has a Plea: Don’t Punch the Ceiling When Celebrating!

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede   CASH CAB has undergone a technological tune-up and is on the road again. Having returned for its 10th season last week after a lengthy hiatus, new episodes of the beloved trivia series stream Thursdays on Crave. Streetwise host and driver Adam Growe turned off the taximeter and took the time to answer some questions about the path ahead.   Q: Have you been driving around in the CASH CAB all this time, just waiting for the show to come back? ADAM GROWE: “Exactly, all I do is drive around in the cab. Honestly, I don’t have access to the actual CASH CAB to do that. I’ve continued to live and breathe trivia and comedy in my live quiz shows, so I’ve always kept the brand alive. But it’s almost un-Canadian not to make CASH CAB now, because it’s so important to the landscape.”   Q: So you’re saying CASH CAB is an essential service? ADAM GROWE: “It’s a natural resource. It’s something that we need to build and export.”   Q: The new season looks amazing, especially the inside of the cab. I actually was wondering if it’s an A.I. effect. ADAM GROWE: “The ceiling of the cab is the real star of the show, as you can imagine, especially the new ceiling. But isn’t this the danger now? If things look too slick, you say, ‘well, I don’t trust it any more.’ I loved the old pixelated LED panels that we had, and even those were ahead of the game at the time, going back over 18 years. But now the technology is better. The screens are just better grade, and you can program movies and images. People are blown away. It looks fantastic, and it’s real.”   Q: It’s nice to know that people in the cab can see the same thing as people at home. ADAM GROWE: “And they can touch it. I know it looks great, but we’re a mobile TV studio. So I have to remind people, please don’t touch it, and especially don’t punch it when you’re celebrating, because it’s still high-tech.”   Q: Adam, you might be the singular person in human history to answer this question. In the world of smartphones, have we all become dumber? Or is it the opposite? ADAM GROWE: “Well, I feel less intelligent because of GPS technology. I used to be the kind of person who would go to a new city, drive around once, and then get the lay of the land. Now it’s so different, and as a cabbie I shouldn’t even say that, because we’re supposed to know our routes. But in terms of general-knowledge trivia, you know what the good news is? And it’s not just a matter of hope and optimism, it’s the truth: there is the same level of surprisingly incorrect answers, and the same level of amazingly correct answers that seemingly come out of nowhere from people that you don’t expect. It has been the same.”   Q: That’s reassuring in an odd way. ADAM GROWE: “With any group of people, in every single game, and there are usually three games per episode, you just never know what you’re going to get. Often we’re two weeks into production, we’ve played dozens of games, we’ve met hundreds of people, and we’re like, ‘wow, there are a lot of strikeouts this season.’ But we’ve been saying that for 10 seasons, and it always evens out. In regards to the initial question, in terms of me being the singular person in human history to answer it – I love that – it’s not so much that we’re not able to access information, because we can. But maybe we’re too integrated into our own digital media ecosystem that we can’t, you know, ascertain, or we can’t dilute where we came up with certain things. Now, the fun part about trivia is, who cares, right? ‘I don’t care why I know this, just give me $600.’ But I would rather people think about it from an experiential standpoint. You might have read a newspaper to get that nugget, or it might have been a conversation. But now people might remember something because they saw it on CASH CAB. I love that part of it.”   Q: The new karaoke double-or-nothing element seems quite hard, considering the vast array of songs, from any era, that you could pick. ADAM GROWE: “Just like any trivia question, under the pressure of the lights in the CASH CAB, it takes it to another level, you’re right about that. But I do make it clear to them that if they opt for it, they don’t have to know the exact lyrics, as long as I’m convinced they know the song. There’s an aspect of it that’s very forgiving. You would never see that on JEOPARDY! There are some trivia spaces where leniency is actually frowned upon. But CASH CAB is more about the fun experience. We want to reward knowledge, as long as they’re not completely off-base. The reality is, I would love for everybody to win, but we do need losses. Teaser, what we’re thinking of doing in the future for the double-or-nothing option – and I’m not the executive producer – but one of the things we’re noodling is giving people an option to either go for the karaoke, or go for the (previously utilized) video bonus. So if they’re really not music people, there would be a choice. But so far, I haven’t found that the karaoke has really changed the outcomes too much.”   Q: Finally, why is now the right time for CASH CAB to re-emerge? ADAM GROWE: “For me, now and any time is the right time for CASH CAB, because it’s such a joy to make. It’s as much fun as it looks. I do know what fans are saying, and I do know what contestants are saying, which is, in a world where we have to think so seriously about tough and challenging issues, it’s nice to get a break and have some pure, high-density fun. I’m a consumer of important world issues, I follow the news every day, but I also will scroll and look for some joy. So for people who are fans of CASH CAB, now is a perfect time to have something that is just pure fun, pure joy, and just a little bit of an escape. So that’s why now.”   billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv