Trevor Strong on Creativity, Humour, and Tom Lehrer's Poisoning Pigeons in the Park

Re-Creative Spotlight: Trevor Strong

In this episode of Re-Creative Mark and I talk to Trevor Strong—writer, educator, and long-standing member of the musical comedy troupe The Arrogant Worms. Trevor introduces us to the musical comedy gem “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park” by Tom Lehrer, a huge influence on Trevor’s own work. Trevor points out the song’s “gleeful” subversion of innocence as a template for his own (occasionally dark) repertoire.

Trevor holds a PhD in Education. For his thesis, he explored the concept of “creativity” from a historical perspective, which yielded surprising results. Trevor walks us through it; it turns out that creativity is really quite a modern concept.

It happens that Trevor himself is extremely creative, his work with The Arrogant Worms but a fraction of his output. His recent solo album, too many songs about cats, is a perfect example. He recorded it all in his own home, using a table as a drum and performing all the cat parts himselfs because (and I think I have this right) he was too cheap to hire a real cat.

We include one of the tracks (“Kitty Loves Me More Than You”) on the episode, which I purchased for a buck on Trevor’s Bandcamp account (cuz I’m cheap too). I highly recommend you check out the entire album. Yes, he did it at home, but it’s actually very well produced and, not surprisingly, quite charming and funny.

Support Our Guest

Trevor Strong is a member of the musical comedy troupe The Arrogant Worms, with whom he had toured extensively across Canada and abroad. Possessing a PhD in Education allows Trevor to call himself “Dr. Strong,” which he admits “carries certain supervillain overtones.”

Trevor has published three books and one doctoral thesis pithily titled Creativity in the Ontario Elementary Curriculum 1853–2018: A Historically Situated Document Analysis. Currently, he maintains an adjunct professorship at Queen’s, operates a comedy writing school, and conducts workshops on the mechanics of humor and music.

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