If there’s ever a show that’s going to have you feeling warm and fuzzy one minute, tearing up the next, and laughing out loud the minute after that, it’s The Tiffany Show hosted by Peterborough’s Tiffany Arcari.
That depth certainly comes from the bravery of the guests who share stories about the challenging times they’ve faced, but it also takes a special kind of person to host such a welcoming environment that make people feel safe in sharing so publicly their most vulnerable moments.
Through the screen and through her community engagement, it’s evident that Arcari has a deep-rooted passion for the community she calls home.
With the recent launch of season two of The Tiffany Show (available on Cogeco YourTV Peterborough-Lindsay and through Arcari’s social channels), the self-described “idea generator,” consultant, event planner, emcee, public personality, and true Peterborough cheerleader reflects on some of the lessons she has learned and continues to learn from the show.
1. We can’t wait for perfect
VIDEO: Recap of Season 1 of “The Tiffany Show”
The Tiffany Show was a long time in the making even before Arcari was ever seated in front of the camera. One day during the pandemic lockdowns, she woke up with the vision of a show as a way to inspire and create community connection.
After constantly talking about her plans and continually generating ideas for the show, Arcari was working at the Peterborough and Kawarthas Chamber of Commerce a year later when then-president Stuart Harrison told her to stop waiting until it was perfect and just make it happen.
“I don’t know that I would have made the move (without his advice),” Arcari says, noting she went home and began filming that night. “I realized if I’m going to wait for this to be perfect, I’m never going to do it because I know that my standard of perfect is impossible to achieve. We can’t wait for perfect.”
Since starting The Tiffany Show, Arcari has thought a lot about the role of dreams and how essential it is to go after what you want, so you aren’t lying on your deathbed wishing you had — in her case — started the variety show you had been imagining for so long.
“If your dream is worth pursuing and you feel for one second that you might regret not doing it, just go ahead and do it,” she says.
“If you fail, you fail. You’ll learn something and take that to apply it to something else. Failure is not a bad thing — it’s seriously just a learning opportunity, and an opportunity to reflect inside our souls and inside our processes. It lets us be free to try things.”
2. Vulnerability breeds authenticity
Since she has always been an “entertainer” with a theatre background, Arcari could have chosen to make a talk show, variety show, or podcast about a whole range of topics or in a whole range of styles. But it didn’t take much thought for her to know exactly what The Tiffany Show was meant to be.
“One of the biggest challenges I had growing up that bled into adulthood was having my voice heard and being given a space for feelings and real, authentic situations and having real conversations,” Arcari explains. “I seldom sat at a table that I had a voice at, so as I got older and discovered my own voice, I really suddenly developed this burn in my belly to give other people a voice.”
On the show, which is filmed at Euphoria Wellness Spa in downtown Peterborough, Arcari invites community members to have conversations around their toughest moments in life, from mental health battles to grief and moments of adversity, and others who are using those experiences to bring good into the world.
“People just open up and become vulnerable and share these things,” she says. “Vulnerability breeds authenticity which further establishes connections, and that reminds us that we’re all human beings and nobody is alone in their journey.
“We might be going through different storms, but the pain is very much the same. I think when we’re alone in that darkness, those reminders are really powerful and can ignite somebody’s light at the end of the tunnel.”
3. The key to getting people to open up is to give them what you needed
After Arcari moved to Peterborough attend Fleming College when she was 18 years old, she knew the city was where she would spend the rest of her life.
“Living in Peterborough has always empowered me to be myself,” she says. “It was safe for me to be myself here, without judgment, without ridicule, without embarrassment, without shame.”
Since The Tiffany Show is all about getting real, Arcari’s priority is making her guests feel just as comfortable and safe as Peterborough made, and continues to make, her feel every day.
“The key to getting people to open up is giving people what you needed,” she explains. “Because being heard was something I really needed, and having a voice was something I needed, it’s easy for me to open that door and create that space for other people. It really is just about being honest and being kind and having your heart in the right place.”
Arcari notes that it also helps to have these conversations while sitting next to each other, and having each other as a support system.
“The emotional energy and connection that we have when we’re in a space together really makes them feel they can drop their boundaries and have an honest conversation, because they know I’m not judging them and that everybody is welcome and safe in this space.”
4. If you can blow something up, do something differently, make it unique … you should
Earlier this year, when she learned there were not a lot of local events for International Women’s Day, Arcari made the quick decision to pull something together no more than a few weeks in advance.
With the immediate support from the community, including businesses offering sponsorship and women agreeing to speak at the event, she organized an engaging and inspiring celebration.
With dozens of door prizes donated by local businesses, she decided to get creative and use them as incentives to get women to open up and to share their stories. Women going up to the mirror and complimenting themselves, women competing in compliment stand-offs, and women sharing their stories of triumph are just a few examples of those who received door prizes.
“The whole mission of the show is telling these humankind stories between each other and that’s what we did that day,” she says. “I was riding high after that event for weeks.”
Knowing how to lead a crowd and host an event, Arcari explains that she always likes to add unique and fun approaches to her community engagement when she can.
“I don’t like things to be status quo,” she says. “If you can blow something up, do something differently, make it unique, make it your own or add your own pizzaz, you should do that.”
Arcari is already well on her way to planning a gathering for International Women’s Day 2025, and if she can pull together what she did this year in a few weeks, imagine what she could do with much more time to prepare.
5. We just have to keep pushing forward and figure things out as we go
While Arcari is excited about the second season of The Tiffany Show, she also knows it will continue to grow into the variety show she first imagined it to be.
Since the show’s inception, she has been collecting segment ideas like “penne for your thoughts” (where she cooks pasta with a guest while hearing them talk) and a rant segment similar to comedian Rick Mercer’s alley rants “but with a positive spin highlighting good things that are happening.”
“It would be like Martha Stewart meets Oprah meets Drew Barrymore meets Busy Philipps — those iconic women to me were the sum of what I wanted this to become,” Arcari describes.
But considering Arcari is the only one doing the writing, directing, organizing, post-production, and editing for the show while also working full-time at Gauvreau Accounting Tax Law Advisory, she hasn’t quite figured out how to add these segments in just yet.
“With that workload, I can’t make all of these other things happen yet, but it will come,” she says. ” I know it will come with time, and for now, we just have to keep pushing forward and figure things out as we go.”
For more information about The Tiffany Show, visit www.thetiffanyshow.ca, where you can also watch episodes.
