Speaker 1: It's halfs, it's Jumbo. It's Melissa, It's Josh. That's right,
Speaker 1: that's right, it's Melissa. Before we go and talk to
Speaker 1: the great man, let's talk to the great woman. Let's
Speaker 1: talk to the bloody life force of TYP, the blood
Speaker 1: that flows through the TYP veins the engine room. Hi,
Speaker 1: where have you? Everybody? Do you know how many people
Speaker 1: go to me? There's Melissa?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 1: Where's Melissa? Are you all right?
Speaker 3: I am more than all right, thank you.
Speaker 4: I'm here.
Speaker 3: I've just been hiding in the TYP hammock.
Speaker 1: Have you just had your feed up, having a bit
Speaker 1: of a sabbatical. That's not true. You're working very hard
Speaker 1: behind this lens.
Speaker 3: Between that and the jacuzzi, just kind of, you know.
Speaker 1: Alternating hammock jacuzzi, hammock jacuzzi.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, it is very nice to see you back
Speaker 1: in the cyber studio, that is TYP. You've been missed.
Speaker 1: You are loved by the multitudes people. Everyone loved Tiff,
Speaker 1: of course, but they also love you because you were
Speaker 1: in the round floor. You were the you were the genesis.
Speaker 1: You were the beginning of this. So are you okay?
Speaker 1: I'm more than okay.
Speaker 3: Thank you. We've just been chipping it away at a
Speaker 3: few things behind the scenes. You would have been doing
Speaker 3: a wonderful job, have we? Yes? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And what do we call you? Do? We call you
Speaker 1: the BDM, the business development manager, the CEO, the head
Speaker 1: bossy bossy person, head bossy person. There is another name
Speaker 1: that won't get used on the show that the head
Speaker 1: bossy person will call her. Just steering the sst yp
Speaker 1: into into murky waters and choppy waters and then back
Speaker 1: out into the bay. Dear, Well, we're glad you're back.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Before we go to Josh, your dog sitting at the moment,
Speaker 1: which is one of your favorite things to do. How's
Speaker 1: your house guest?
Speaker 3: Look, he's great, Thank you. I fed him an early
Speaker 3: dinner so that he didn't interrupt this, so hopefully he
Speaker 3: settles right.
Speaker 1: Well, good, I'm glad. Hello, Josh, welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2: Good a heart, Good day, Melissa, lovely to be back
Speaker 2: on the show. What kind of dog have you got there?
Speaker 2: Between you? Hamming and Jacuzi.
Speaker 3: Just in the sun. He's a little multi sit so
Speaker 3: he's thirteen. His name's Hugo, but he thinks he's two,
Speaker 3: so nobody's told him, so he just runs around like
Speaker 3: a two year old?
Speaker 4: Which is is the.
Speaker 2: One that do we call that's the one that's like
Speaker 2: varying types of pooh. That's a multi ship, isn't it.
Speaker 1: A multi ship? I've done many of them myself, but
Speaker 1: it's a different thing.
Speaker 2: I think we all think we all have there so
Speaker 2: many varying degrees And what are we four minutes into
Speaker 2: this podcast and we've already digressed here myself for that?
Speaker 2: You got to own your ship put in my hand.
Speaker 1: I don't think this sentence has ever come out of
Speaker 1: anyone's mouth ever before. What kind of dog do you
Speaker 1: have between your Yeah, like, for sure you were going
Speaker 1: to say legs, I'm like, well, no, Hammick and Jacuzzi.
Speaker 4: There it is no digress. But I'm not I'm not vile.
Speaker 1: No, Well you could have said between your legs, that's okay,
Speaker 1: Just that's where dogs often just put their head on
Speaker 1: your knee and just fucking live there when you're trying
Speaker 1: to concentrate when you're watching a bit of Netflix. Well, mate,
Speaker 1: welcome back. We appreciate you. I know you've come off
Speaker 1: the bench. This was short notice. You had a lot
Speaker 1: of more important things than me, and this and us today.
Speaker 1: But you you graciously accepted the offer and helped us out.
Speaker 1: So thanks. You and I have been hanging out a
Speaker 1: little bit. You and I've been chilling a bit, all right,
Speaker 1: more than a little bit. We're pretty much see you
Speaker 1: more than I see any of my mates. Okay, we've
Speaker 1: been hanging out a lot, a.
Speaker 4: Lot, Yes, and you've been helping me. You've been helping me.
Speaker 2: A lot, hartsh I think listeners need to know that,
Speaker 2: you know, on a macro and micro level what p
Speaker 2: hahaps is a helper.
Speaker 4: He's very very good at helping people.
Speaker 2: And so you know, I feel like the journey I've
Speaker 2: had if listeners have come across me on the previous
Speaker 2: podcast of you know, playing the Phantom and the Phantom
Speaker 2: of the Opera here in London and Jean Valjehn and
Speaker 2: lame Is in London, and these sort of quite high
Speaker 2: pressure filled big roles in big musicals, the sort of
Speaker 2: the mecha of them on the West End. Yeah, they
Speaker 2: don't come as linear, easy journeys. They come with a
Speaker 2: lot of stories and a lot of ups and downs
Speaker 2: and struggles and writing the roller coaster and climbing the
Speaker 2: summit is never an easy task, and Harps has helped
Speaker 2: me to put those experiences into words and ways that
Speaker 2: I can share them in keynote presentations and keynotes with
Speaker 2: a twist, kenotes with the song, seminars, various stuff because
Speaker 2: you learn a lot of lessons, you know, experiencing those
Speaker 2: ups and downs of performance world like that. So thank
Speaker 2: you Harps, who've been a amazing help.
Speaker 1: Well, I said to you yesterday and this is true. Everyone,
Speaker 1: we caught up yesterday, and I've never had a better student.
Speaker 1: Maybe have had a few students who are good, but
Speaker 1: I've never had a better student. Because we meet and
Speaker 1: we talk and then I say, great, now go away
Speaker 1: and do this, and then you come back and everything
Speaker 1: I've asked you to do is done to the highest standard.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh my god. I'm so used to
Speaker 1: people not either not doing what I asked them to
Speaker 1: do at all or going essentially the dog ate my homework, right,
Speaker 1: but for you to turn up and do everything, you know.
Speaker 1: But so what we're talking about, you know, is Josh
Speaker 1: is going to do a little bit of corporate stuff.
Speaker 1: He's he's still the world renowned a stage performer that
Speaker 1: he is, and he's doing a little bit more of
Speaker 1: stage work or he's going to it's just a bit different.
Speaker 1: He's stepping into the keynote presenting and some workshops and
Speaker 1: a bit of mind stuff and a bit of soul
Speaker 1: stuff and a bit of human behavior stuff, and a
Speaker 1: little bit of who are we? How are we? And
Speaker 1: why are we the way we are stuff? You know.
Speaker 1: And it is interesting though, because you and I have spoken.
Speaker 1: We have quite disparate journeys and stories and lives, but
Speaker 1: at the same time, there's a lot of similarity. Like
Speaker 1: you're a communicator, I'm a communicator. You're on stage a lot.
Speaker 1: I've been on stage a lot. Your stages have been
Speaker 1: bigger than mine, that's for sure. But you know, the
Speaker 1: things that we have in common is that we want
Speaker 1: to create a good experience for people. We want to
Speaker 1: connect with people. We want to tell a story, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe inspire, maybe move people emotionally. So even though I'm
Speaker 1: the corporate speaker dude, and you're the you know, you're
Speaker 1: the singer, you're the stage performer, dude, it's not it's
Speaker 1: not light years apart, is it.
Speaker 2: No, Because the nuclears or where that seed of where
Speaker 2: my purpose and your purpose lives and what that seed
Speaker 2: is is very similar. How you go and plant that
Speaker 2: into the world might be in different spaces, but I
Speaker 2: say that, you know, I'm a storyteller, communicator, and I
Speaker 2: want to facilitate stories that enable people to feel the
Speaker 2: depths of what the human experience is. And whether or
Speaker 2: not I'm you know, telling that through my podcast or
Speaker 2: facilitating opportunities for others to tell their stories through my podcast,
Speaker 2: or whether I'm playing Jean Valjean or the phantom and
Speaker 2: embodying a character that enables you to feel deeply and
Speaker 2: connect with those characters. It's you know, the vessels can vary,
Speaker 2: but the purpose or the origin of that purpose is
Speaker 2: the same. I think we do have very similar perps,
Speaker 2: which is, you know, to communicate in ways that help
Speaker 2: people understand their own human experience and help them on
Speaker 2: that path and hopefully inspire them a bit. So there
Speaker 2: are some similarities. I want to say on the homework
Speaker 2: front that.
Speaker 4: As an actor, I was a performer. You just can't
Speaker 4: be shit at doing your homework.
Speaker 2: Ultimately, I have a say in what I want to
Speaker 2: put out there on stage, but a director is guiding
Speaker 2: me throughout that experience and they're shaping everything and turning
Speaker 2: the knobs on everything. So every day you come back
Speaker 2: into a rehearsal room, you're expected to bring back what
Speaker 2: was worked on yesterday and the notes that were given.
Speaker 2: And so you become a professional taking direction, a professional
Speaker 2: doing your homework.
Speaker 4: Yes, and so I think I've just got very good
Speaker 4: at that.
Speaker 2: On the flip side, I don't like letting people down
Speaker 2: and I don't like upsetting people.
Speaker 4: And so the appeasa or plicator.
Speaker 2: In me which is not always a part of me
Speaker 2: that I enjoy because that leads me down passing. You know,
Speaker 2: maybe in relationships and stuff that means that you know,
Speaker 2: I don't always express everything I'm feeling.
Speaker 4: So I don't want to upset the other person.
Speaker 2: Yes, there's always account found that, but in this relationship
Speaker 2: between you and me, it makes me the good student,
Speaker 2: a little pad on the head, you're a good boy.
Speaker 1: Well, a big elephant staff I'm going to tell everybody
Speaker 1: right so, and it's no biggie, but so one of
Speaker 1: the things that I've done with hundreds of people who
Speaker 1: sit down and say to me, you know, I want
Speaker 1: to I want to get into professional speaking. I want
Speaker 1: to do some corporate speaking, or I just want to
Speaker 1: get better and speaking, or you know, I want to
Speaker 1: open that door and see where it goes. And so
Speaker 1: I essentially say to people, okay, come up with a
Speaker 1: couple of titles. Come up with two, three, four titles
Speaker 1: for what we would call a keynote. A keynote is
Speaker 1: just a presentation that you do to a group to inform, inspire, educate, connect, build, rapport,
Speaker 1: and lighten whatever. Right, And it's it's a pretty uh
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's most times professional speakers. It's really varied.
Speaker 1: But a lot of professional speakers have two or three
Speaker 1: key Comma keynotes that they wheel out and that's about it.
Speaker 1: And so they have three or four two or three products.
Speaker 1: And you know, like I've been at conferences where I
Speaker 1: have over lapped with or spoken with several speakers, many
Speaker 1: speakers in fact, that we've been on the same card
Speaker 1: multiple times. And so some of them I've heard six
Speaker 1: or seven times, and I've heard pretty much word for word,
Speaker 1: the same forty five minutes with the same inflections, the
Speaker 1: same stories, the same pauses, the same video at the
Speaker 1: same time. And it's okay, but it's very performative and
Speaker 1: you're a bit of a one trick pony, and there's
Speaker 1: not a whole lot of I guess in the moment
Speaker 1: kind of authentic connection because it's essentially a performance, and
Speaker 1: of course performances can, as Josh knows, can connect, but
Speaker 1: when you're basically say, the art of them.
Speaker 2: Yes, really, the art of what I do is when
Speaker 2: you're doing playing the Phantom or seven or eight times
Speaker 2: a week, he's trying to make it fresh for an
Speaker 2: audience who are seeing it for the first time. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and that's my duty. Director's judi is to Keith mincheck
Speaker 2: and within boundaries, and my judi is to try and
Speaker 2: push those boundaries so that it feels in new and
Speaker 2: interesting to me.
Speaker 1: But one hundred percent and the divergence for you here
Speaker 1: is that you are going to get on stage multiple
Speaker 1: times and basically do a different opera or do a
Speaker 1: different you know. It's like and I've said to you, sorry,
Speaker 1: different musical and like you might go to you know,
Speaker 1: Telstra on Monday next week and you do a keynote
Speaker 1: and you kill it, and then the conference organizer goes, Josh,
Speaker 1: that was awesome. Can you come back next week and
Speaker 1: do something different? And a lot of speakers. The answer
Speaker 1: is no, like I only know two songs and I
Speaker 1: sang them. So so I asked you to come up
Speaker 1: with ten. No, originally it was five. And then I
Speaker 1: said to another, so I said, come up with five
Speaker 1: titles for keynotes and five synopsis or five overviews. So
Speaker 1: in other words, it's the title of the presentation. Now
Speaker 1: write one hundred words or so about that or two
Speaker 1: hundred words. And then we met a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 1: You turned up and you've done it and was ten
Speaker 1: out of ten. And I went, all right, good, do
Speaker 1: five more, and then also do three half day slash
Speaker 1: full day workshops that you might do. Because one of
Speaker 1: the things that people don't realize is if you are
Speaker 1: good at what you do, or they like you or
Speaker 1: connect with you, and they see you as a safe
Speaker 1: bet for their group and a good investment for their organization,
Speaker 1: they want to keep working with you. They don't want
Speaker 1: to take a risk on an unknown presenter, you know,
Speaker 1: they don't want to spend however many thousand dollars it is,
Speaker 1: and hope that this lady or that this bloke is
Speaker 1: good doesn't mean they're going to get you back thousand times,
Speaker 1: but it means if you kill it, they're probably going
Speaker 1: to get you back. And so having that diversity and
Speaker 1: having a range or in other words, having a menu
Speaker 1: of presentations and professional offerings under the banner of corporate work,
Speaker 1: you know, and also the the kind of the hell
Speaker 1: what's the word? The bloody the golden leg that you've
Speaker 1: got is that you can sing in the middle of
Speaker 1: your fucking presentations, which is very unfair to the rest
Speaker 1: of us who have no talent.
Speaker 2: Well, you did say that the important thing about these
Speaker 2: keynotes is that they're unique to you and you're sharing
Speaker 2: your unique story, and I sort of took that as also,
Speaker 2: I can share in a way that is unique to me.
Speaker 4: And songs are storytelling or a way to sell stories.
Speaker 2: So you know, I've got one of the ten presentations
Speaker 2: I've got now is run from what's comfortable live where
Speaker 2: you fear to live, and it's about stepping into fear,
Speaker 2: about stepping into discomfort. And I shared a story with
Speaker 2: you both yesterday where I'd always had a fear of
Speaker 2: singing on television, and the fear was big public failure
Speaker 2: and being embarrassed by stuffing up on television on live TV.
Speaker 4: Where you can't get it back.
Speaker 2: It winds up on YouTube or on social media and
Speaker 2: you have a big.
Speaker 4: Crack or whatever.
Speaker 2: And so I've sung a couple of anthems, but I've
Speaker 2: never sung a real song on live television. And so
Speaker 2: I had this opportunity via John Foreman, who some listeners
Speaker 2: might know. He's one of this country's great composers orchestral
Speaker 2: A's conductors. If you ever see Carols by Candlelight, he's
Speaker 2: always conducting the orchestra of Carols by Candlelight, amongst other things.
Speaker 2: And we did an album together probably twenty seventeen eighteen,
Speaker 2: and he contacted me and he said I was in Italy,
Speaker 2: in Tuscany on a bit of a holiday and he
Speaker 2: contacted me and said, hey, we're doing Australia Day Live,
Speaker 2: which is an annual concert they do on the fore
Speaker 2: Court Sydney Opera House. There's about eighty thousand people across
Speaker 2: the fore court there and along Circular Key and wraps
Speaker 2: all the way around and there's you know, the state
Speaker 2: government put it on. It's a fifteen to twenty million
Speaker 2: dollar budget or whatever else. And it's live on ABC
Speaker 2: or Channel ten every year and so there'll be you know,
Speaker 2: a few hundred thousand people watching, maybe you know international
Speaker 2: as well. Would you like to sing NESSA and drdmer
Speaker 2: which is the most famous aria, it's the Pavarotti aria
Speaker 2: or song. It's you know, and it just has that
Speaker 2: you know, massive note at the end you don't want
Speaker 2: to stap it up. So it's not like Gus out
Speaker 2: there and see bar bar black Sheep and not nasional people.
Speaker 2: It's seeing one of the most challenging songs ever with
Speaker 2: the City Sympody orchestra. And so I was like every
Speaker 2: part of me wanted to say no. Every single part
Speaker 2: of me wanted to say no. Because when you get
Speaker 2: an offer like that and you are you've imprisoned yourself
Speaker 2: in fear for that many years and set know to
Speaker 2: these opportunities or said yes and then got sick or
Speaker 2: whatever it is, you just feel that fear, That adrenaline
Speaker 2: kicks in and that fight or flight response kicks in,
Speaker 2: and you just want to do this these I was
Speaker 2: just say no, and somehow, for some reason I felt
Speaker 2: all that and just said yes. And for the ensuing
Speaker 2: month was October. So for the next three months, basically
Speaker 2: all I sung, all I practiced with my coach.
Speaker 4: All I did was ness and dormer.
Speaker 2: I lived and breathed ness and dormer to a point
Speaker 2: where it was impossible for that not to live inside
Speaker 2: my bones, my blood, my muscles, my nervous system. Even
Speaker 2: if everything went wrong, muscle memory would kick in in
Speaker 2: performance and I'd still sing it to a great standard.
Speaker 2: And that moment of before Steven out on stage, I
Speaker 2: remember I had some sort of mantras to myself, like
Speaker 2: I am free, I am calm, I am adventurous, I'm present,
Speaker 2: i am limitless. It's this sort of and I remember
Speaker 2: there's a sort of moment midway through the song with
Speaker 2: a choir kick in, just before the final part, the
Speaker 2: big ending, and then the final big note, and the
Speaker 2: choir is there, and I just looked around and went,
Speaker 2: I'm looking at a sea if people, and the backdrop
Speaker 2: is the Sydney Opera House and the fireworks about to
Speaker 2: go off, and I knew they're about to go off,
Speaker 2: and I fucking out, this is my life. This is
Speaker 2: the most wonderful thing in the world. I fifteen years
Speaker 2: ago had never sung a note, and here I am
Speaker 2: facing the Sydney Opera House singing one of the greatest
Speaker 2: years of all time on national television. Let it fucking rip, kid,
Speaker 2: and I just went blistic at the end, like and
Speaker 2: the fireworks kicked off, and it was and I held
Speaker 2: the last note for you know, twice as long as
Speaker 2: I've ever held it for. I went to town on
Speaker 2: it and it was a life changing moment. It literally
Speaker 2: changed my life because within months, a couple of months
Speaker 2: after that, I was over in London. The footage had
Speaker 2: been seen by Sir Cameron McIntosh Andrew Lloyd Webber and
Speaker 2: they were like, get this kid over, we need to
Speaker 2: see him for Phantom of the Opera. They gave me
Speaker 2: the role and I was playing Phantom of the Opera
Speaker 2: on the West End and from then on I went
Speaker 2: playing it from there for how many hundreds of shows
Speaker 2: played at the Sydney Opera House. I've got to go into
Speaker 2: the Opera House And it was just sort of looking
Speaker 2: back on that moment and going shit, if I didn't
Speaker 2: do that.
Speaker 4: Sours, I wouldn't have done this indoors Yes, played in Melbourne.
Speaker 2: Then they got me straight back to play the leading
Speaker 2: Lambers are up in London straight after Phantom finished, and
Speaker 2: so that was a five year period of doing all
Speaker 2: these extraordinary things, or because I said yes to something
Speaker 2: that was so scary and was full of fear and
Speaker 2: was full of discomfort. And so I just implore people
Speaker 2: you are always going to feel fear, but fear, as
Speaker 2: Craig says, is an optional, but courage is optional. And
Speaker 2: that was maybe the most courageous thing I ever did,
Speaker 2: was saying yes. It doesn't mean the work's not going
Speaker 2: to be. It doesn't mean I didn't have to put
Speaker 2: in hours and hours and hours about some of the
Speaker 2: area before. But I've been the ten tenors. It's sung
Speaker 2: with so many times, but not solo and under those conditions.
Speaker 2: And yeah, so running from what's comfortable and living where
Speaker 2: I feared to live literally changed my life.
Speaker 1: I love it. And there's one keynote. Yeah, yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1: I would imagine this is a technical question. But the
Speaker 1: obviously the acoustics outdoors in the acoustics indoors are different
Speaker 1: like outdoors. There are no acoustics of sorts at.
Speaker 2: Concert like this, Speakers everywhere, and I was on a
Speaker 2: big catwalk along the catwalk there's fallback speakers roll all
Speaker 2: the way across like right, and I had in ears in.
Speaker 2: It's like it's popping with sound. In fact, it felt
Speaker 2: amazing to sing out there that the sound that they
Speaker 2: create for you, right, it felt like a boomy concert hall.
Speaker 4: It was awesome.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, Mike, you know how your mantra, what
Speaker 1: was your mantra again before you went out? What were
Speaker 1: you what were you saying?
Speaker 2: I am calm, I am infinite, I am present. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think there's one of the often that's like, I
Speaker 2: am love for me. That's just like state, don't contract, interfear,
Speaker 2: lead with your heart open, keep your heart open, keep
Speaker 2: your heart open because as a performer up you know
Speaker 2: this is making sound, but all of what's inside of you,
Speaker 2: your soul and your heart is actually what you what
Speaker 2: you're communicating.
Speaker 1: Min mind mantor would be don't fuck it up, don't
Speaker 1: fuck it up, don't fuck it up. You knew I
Speaker 1: was going to say that melisted you don't fuck it up.
Speaker 2: I don't about what what I've learnt about mantras in
Speaker 2: terms of communicating with yourself, the make the positive not negative.
Speaker 2: It doesn't operate. It only hears the fuck it up.
Speaker 2: If you say don't, it only hears the So you're beginning.
Speaker 4: Fuck it up up?
Speaker 2: You don't, so only working positives or only actually only
Speaker 2: work in present moment, not I will, I will, I
Speaker 2: am they now?
Speaker 1: So So that so doing that thing, that thing that
Speaker 1: you were scared of, and being courageous in that moment,
Speaker 1: you know, apart from the practical outcome of getting a
Speaker 1: phone call and going basically around the world and becoming
Speaker 1: a fucking superstar, which is awesome, but what did that
Speaker 1: do for you in terms of, you know, resilience and
Speaker 1: confidence and self awareness and self understanding and having a
Speaker 1: different perspective about your own ability and potential?
Speaker 2: Yeah, potential is like it's like talent, right, It's just
Speaker 2: a seed that's.
Speaker 4: A beautiful looking seed.
Speaker 2: But if you don't plant it well and nourish at
Speaker 2: well and fertilize it and water and give it the
Speaker 2: sun it needs, it just ends up being a seed
Speaker 2: of potential. It just ends up being potentially wasted talent.
Speaker 2: So I've always been big on because I wasn't that talented.
Speaker 4: To start with.
Speaker 2: Really, I had a little seed, but I work took
Speaker 2: us off the water and fertilize and feed and put
Speaker 2: the sun that needed to be on it to make
Speaker 2: me the best I could be. What I struggled with
Speaker 2: was my own academic mind and getting in the way
Speaker 2: of what lives beneath that mind, that could talk me
Speaker 2: into it or out of it. And so what that
Speaker 2: opportunity gave me was just trust, trust of my own capabilities.
Speaker 2: That you know my mantra. Since then, there's many times
Speaker 2: just spent I'm capable. I am capable. I'm so fucking capable. Yes,
Speaker 2: And I can reflect upon those moments and go, what
Speaker 2: did you feel, what happened? What was the outcome. I've
Speaker 2: got a history bank there of going you're going to
Speaker 2: be okay, no matter what it is, it ain't going
Speaker 2: to be.
Speaker 4: As big as that.
Speaker 2: And I've said to you guys, I've sat on tables
Speaker 2: with King Charles and sung for him. I've done opening
Speaker 2: nights of big shows on the West End, and I've
Speaker 2: sung Boxing Day at the mcg and all subsequent things
Speaker 2: Final at Rod Labor Arena and all subsequent big, big performances,
Speaker 2: And nothing has ever felt as scary as that first
Speaker 2: one because and it's not that I don't get nervous,
Speaker 2: of course, you get a nerver, you know, the fucking
Speaker 2: line gets nervous. Before it's about to eat a zebra
Speaker 2: because it cares. So if I wasn't nervous, I think
Speaker 2: there's something worrying about it, because that's just me caring
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 4: But those stabilitating nerves and.
Speaker 2: That that part of me that goes, no, don't do that,
Speaker 2: that fear republic failure, I don't.
Speaker 4: I don't get that like that anymore.
Speaker 2: It's more I can't wait to get out there knowing
Speaker 2: what I'm capable of sharing and that feeling because I
Speaker 2: wasn't really in life. You know, all these things that
Speaker 2: we achieve and all these things that we're striving for,
Speaker 2: they can be replaceable, but the feeling you can't replace.
Speaker 2: And that feeling is of transcendence, that amazing, blissful feeling
Speaker 2: where you're beyond your own self and you expand to
Speaker 2: this other level of self.
Speaker 4: And I love that feeling.
Speaker 2: And I know that the only thing that stops me
Speaker 2: from having that feeling is getting my own way. So
Speaker 2: it's taught me how to get out of my own way.
Speaker 2: Just step into that space.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, tell I don't know if you can tell
Speaker 1: us everything you told me about sitting at a table
Speaker 1: with the king in Charles called kinghy and singing for him.
Speaker 1: But tell my listeners about that, because I loved that story.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So it was the Friday, I'm going to call
Speaker 2: it like that, sixteenth of March or something, twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: So I'll be playing the Fantom for you know, six
Speaker 2: or so months, and COVID was coming.
Speaker 4: You know, we sort of knew that was coming.
Speaker 2: But it was the Friday before the Monday that Boris
Speaker 2: called everything. Boris Johnson called everything closed. And I'd say
Speaker 2: that sort of like writing. At the top of a career,
Speaker 2: I get a In fact, so Cameron Macintosh gets a
Speaker 2: handwritten letter from the Australian High Commission asking that I
Speaker 2: be released for a night performance to perform for Prince Charles.
Speaker 2: Prince Charles at that's a beautiful, hand handwritten letter and
Speaker 2: it was for.
Speaker 4: The book. It was a bush fire appeal.
Speaker 2: I think we all remember those hideous bushfires at twenty
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty. And as you know, King Charles is a
Speaker 2: big advocate for climate action, and so he was the
Speaker 2: keynote and the guest of honor and and so they
Speaker 2: plumped me on a on a table with him. I
Speaker 2: didn't get there until a bit, a bit later through
Speaker 2: the main course because I was warming up and whatever.
Speaker 2: And so it was at the Mayor of London's place
Speaker 2: in this grand ballroom for some of the.
Speaker 4: Most distinguished guests.
Speaker 2: You could like, there's a song from My Fair Lady
Speaker 2: and it's the as Scott Gavotte and it's ever really
Speaker 2: duke and pr and it was literally like that every
Speaker 2: duke and and I was just like, this is ridiculous.
Speaker 4: How many you know? And news cameras and all this
Speaker 4: sort of stuff, and it was a big bloody deal.
Speaker 2: I was getting five fed on Channel nine back to
Speaker 2: Australia and so Adam Hills actually.
Speaker 4: Hosted it.
Speaker 2: He was the MC and so I performed a few
Speaker 2: songs and and it was awesome, and then just sat
Speaker 2: on a table like like just next to Prince chow
Speaker 2: king charts and just had chats about.
Speaker 4: He's like, you know, how do you go with all
Speaker 4: the pressure and all that. I was like, how do
Speaker 4: I go with the pressure.
Speaker 2: I'm just getting pressure on my performance, You're getting pressure
Speaker 2: on your existence And he goes.
Speaker 4: Oh, yes, different, very different.
Speaker 2: Well then he's like sort of talking about I sort
Speaker 2: of talked about that with him and dealing with external
Speaker 2: noise and studden. We sort of had a human experienced
Speaker 2: conversations buddy awesome, but subsequently he's very overtly gay. P
Speaker 2: A was like lovely guy, but he just proceeded to
Speaker 2: get more and more drunk throughout the night. And I
Speaker 2: was with my exit at that stage.
Speaker 4: D'm Charlotte, and he he just he would not allow
Speaker 4: her to be my girlfriend.
Speaker 2: He was just like a mate, Oh, your friend, your friend,
Speaker 2: you know, and like he sort of off started offering
Speaker 2: me these gigs, and he was touchy everywhere.
Speaker 4: Anything he said.
Speaker 2: Had to be like a hand somewhere. And yeah, I
Speaker 2: was just and he works for the king, and he
Speaker 2: was just so overtly affectionate touch you.
Speaker 4: But it was just, you know, there was gigs in Rwanda.
Speaker 4: It's like you can come in a couple of.
Speaker 2: Months and and so it felt like he was sort
Speaker 2: of setting me up to become you know, the King's
Speaker 2: you know, private entertainer, which would have been a gig.
Speaker 4: But then but then Rona, the old mate Roner kicked.
Speaker 1: In and the world, the world's gone on to do.
Speaker 2: I forget his name, Scott, Scott I for anyway, it's
Speaker 2: it's a double barrel surname. Yeah, he's gone off to
Speaker 2: do other other things. So I don't have a I
Speaker 2: don't have a direct line to the.
Speaker 4: King to Kse.
Speaker 2: But you know, yeah, maybe I'll get to sing him again.
Speaker 2: Do you remember we just talked about pressure. I have
Speaker 2: a technical question. So with the the the style of
Speaker 2: music that that you're singing, the style of songs and
Speaker 2: that you perform, you step in to a.
Speaker 1: I don't know, an R and B band or a
Speaker 1: rock band or and.
Speaker 2: Curlling stale on the door.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well there you go.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I mean, of course you can, like once
Speaker 4: you understand.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't sound like bon Jovi because bon Jovi,
Speaker 2: you sound like bon Joviy. But once you understand the
Speaker 2: mechanics of the voice, and it is very technical, you
Speaker 2: understand what is going on in the human voice and
Speaker 2: how to alter it and whatever. All classical training is
Speaker 2: is a training that opens up the space at the
Speaker 2: back of the throat so that there's more breadth and
Speaker 2: width and richness and roundedness to the sound. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: no time like, it's just space, whereas rock singing there's
Speaker 2: no space at the back. It's really thin like and
Speaker 2: the cords are like it's all going out that.
Speaker 4: Way rather than opera that's operating. It's all space at
Speaker 4: the back.
Speaker 2: So that's I mean, that's a very it's an untechnical
Speaker 2: way of talking about the pharynx and the vocal tract
Speaker 2: and whatever. But you geek out on all of that
Speaker 2: and then you just learn how to manipulate that. And
Speaker 2: so I've got a really good understanding of the human voice,
Speaker 2: but with how it contains to everyday people.
Speaker 4: And we talk about this yesterday.
Speaker 2: This is one of my seminars, is that you have
Speaker 2: so much power if you know how to use your voice,
Speaker 2: and yet ninety nine percent of humans don't know how
Speaker 2: to use their voice. You have so much power speaking
Speaker 2: at a dinner party, speaking with your partner, speaking in
Speaker 2: a room of people, giving a presentation, giving a speech
Speaker 2: if you just know how to use your voice, and
Speaker 2: that I'm talking about pitch, rage, tone, cadence, or speed.
Speaker 4: Where it's resonating.
Speaker 2: You know all of these things, All of these nuances
Speaker 2: can pull an audience into you.
Speaker 4: In a way that gives you all the power.
Speaker 2: And it's it's so easy to learn, and yet so
Speaker 2: few people know how to do that. It's a technical
Speaker 2: thing it's a skill, a quiet skill. It's not just
Speaker 2: a talent, you know. Oh my god, he was wonderful.
Speaker 2: I felt his voice was great. And this isn't that like,
Speaker 2: it isn't a quiet skill, and it's something that literally
Speaker 2: I could feel like I can teach you anyone a
Speaker 2: few houts, Like it's not challenging.
Speaker 4: You just have to know what to do.
Speaker 1: And then there's that there's like what's happening with your voice?
Speaker 1: But then there's also I guess, knowing when to talk
Speaker 1: and not to talk, you know, like that kind of
Speaker 1: situational awareness as well.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, that's fine because I've been talking straight to
Speaker 2: the last twenty minutes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you're doing okay. You're the guest. Now feel
Speaker 1: free to tell me to fuck off.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Is there any chance that you could sing a bit
Speaker 1: of something, whether it's like anything? I know, this is
Speaker 1: an I had, didn't I just sing the Living on
Speaker 1: a prayer for you? Well, I mean, feel free to
Speaker 1: say no because I feel like I'm I'm exploiting you. Uh,
Speaker 1: feel free to say no and we'll take this out.
Speaker 1: Could you sing a bit of something from Phantom or
Speaker 1: or whatever, or Ness and Norma or anything what does.
Speaker 2: Nice time shuts each sense.
Speaker 4: Darkness and weeks in the U shue sign to me
Speaker 4: the same sense abandon.
Speaker 5: The Wow, dude, Wow, that's buddy. How long did it
Speaker 5: did it take for you?
Speaker 1: Because you said fifteen years ago or fifteen years before that,
Speaker 1: you didn't even know that you could sing? Yeah, how
Speaker 1: did you? How did you even open that door? We
Speaker 1: spoke about this a bit last time, But when did
Speaker 1: you start to think, Oh, I'm a singer, not like
Speaker 1: I'm a guy trying to sing. I'm actually when did
Speaker 1: that happen?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 2: I never thought about singing growing up. It wasn't even
Speaker 2: on the radar. Couldn't be further from the truth of
Speaker 2: my existence.
Speaker 4: I was a very.
Speaker 2: Passionate, charismatic young kid who like to play sport and
Speaker 2: that was it, footy, basketball, tennis, cricket like they were before.
Speaker 2: I like balls, and that's that's what I did. That's
Speaker 2: what I cared about. I was thinking about doing sports
Speaker 2: physio or maybe sports and medicine or something like that.
Speaker 2: And then I then I got into a little bit
Speaker 2: sort of role at a what's the end of whatever
Speaker 2: we do at the end of the school a speech? No,
Speaker 2: right in year ten and I had learned how to
Speaker 2: moonwalk that year because I got right into ax. So
Speaker 2: I did a little bit of that and then subsequently
Speaker 2: in year eleven, did the same morve just trying to
Speaker 2: attract some attention and the school cafeteria and got a
Speaker 2: tap on the shoulder from the guy who directs the
Speaker 2: school musicals.
Speaker 4: He said, we're doing a musical called Fame. You do
Speaker 4: you ever heard of it? I'm like no, you know,
Speaker 4: just like that's sort of sixteen year old, like you
Speaker 4: know the type, and you're like yeah, yeah, yeah, doing
Speaker 4: the stuff. Yeah, And I just he just said, well,
Speaker 4: this is this is what it is.
Speaker 2: You know, if you can come and then you know,
Speaker 2: as I often do, just came around and I said, okay,
Speaker 2: I'll go for that and got a roll on it.
Speaker 2: And I couldn't believe how cool is you know, when
Speaker 2: you when you are in a community in sport, that
Speaker 2: community is generally unless you're playing co co sex sports,
Speaker 2: it's just a bunch of bunch of blocks. Suddenly all
Speaker 2: these all these girls, and the girls I didn't know
Speaker 2: that were the theater girls, right, and the music girls.
Speaker 2: There's a whole bunch of different girls and I was
Speaker 2: the flirtiest kid going around. I'm like, oh my good,
Speaker 2: how many people are.
Speaker 1: Going to get your kids?
Speaker 4: And so I get to be front.
Speaker 2: And center all that passionate charisma, you know, you get
Speaker 2: to literally, you know, like what what what does?
Speaker 4: What does? Maury Bolstein saying in Zoolander heads are.
Speaker 1: So heart right.
Speaker 2: Now we can take a ship in some tinfoil and
Speaker 2: self like Queen Elizabeth's earrings, like I could.
Speaker 4: You could do whatever you wanted out there, and.
Speaker 2: To all your peers, They're like, yeah, Josh, Like so
Speaker 2: you're getting all this adulation, You're getting all the.
Speaker 4: You know whatever, with the with the.
Speaker 2: Various girls you've met for the first time, and it
Speaker 2: just was the funnest thing in the world.
Speaker 4: Plus I was like, I'm creating this character. This is cool,
Speaker 4: and so I just sort of got into the world
Speaker 4: of it.
Speaker 2: And then that world led to like getting geeking out
Speaker 2: of learning about all the musicals and studying. All I
Speaker 2: wanted to do from then on was doing musicals changed
Speaker 2: my subject. In year twelve, all I was thinking about
Speaker 2: was playing the lead in the musical, which was Jesus
Speaker 2: Crist Superstar, And I'm going to go off and study this,
Speaker 2: I still had no idea how to really sing. And
Speaker 2: then I had a really great singing teacher that was
Speaker 2: given that was I was told to go to in
Speaker 2: first year at UNI in Melbourne. I stat it in
Speaker 2: Ballorad and he was amazing. He just as I said,
Speaker 2: if you've got a really good coach who understands the voice,
Speaker 2: they can communicate like, that's what good coaching is. It's
Speaker 2: not giving you information you can't find elsewhere. It's speaking
Speaker 2: to you in a way that helps you to understand
Speaker 2: and you know that from your world.
Speaker 4: Of coaching and whatever. That's what good coaching years.
Speaker 2: And he talked to me in a way that I
Speaker 2: really understood for my voice, and it just in a
Speaker 2: year I went from a shit kicker to someone who
Speaker 2: could sing a fair bit. And in another year I
Speaker 2: became one of the sort of top two singers in
Speaker 2: the UNI. And by end of third year I was
Speaker 2: ready to go out there and work. And so I
Speaker 2: was very diligent. You know, they were going out and
Speaker 2: to pubs on you know, lost people. In my year,
Speaker 2: lots of nights of the week I was doing my scales.
Speaker 2: So I had that sportsman work ethic, but with great
Speaker 2: teaching a seed, some talent there, and a lot of
Speaker 2: desire to get better. I improved very very quickly, and
Speaker 2: then improved again sort of in the subsequent decade a
Speaker 2: lot as well, to a point where you go, by
Speaker 2: the time I'm in my early thirties, I'm playing leads
Speaker 2: in the West End.
Speaker 1: Yeah, incredible, incredible. Let's put that pause. Let's pause on
Speaker 1: the music stuff for a minute. I was fascinated when
Speaker 1: you and I sat down because I thought you were
Speaker 1: just an interesting dude who could sing great, which was well,
Speaker 1: I probably didn't really think that that much, but I
Speaker 1: had no insight into who you were beyond music and
Speaker 1: beyond I didn't have much.
Speaker 2: Insight into who you were beyond your gyms. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: knew of Harpers gyms. Yeah, I think we all know
Speaker 2: of that, if you know.
Speaker 4: I'm into fitness, relatively into fitness, and I had no
Speaker 4: idea about this whole other world. I think we don't
Speaker 4: like unless you ask questions.
Speaker 1: Yes, teachers, I sat down with you and we spoke,
Speaker 1: and I was and I'm not saying this to make
Speaker 1: you feel good, because I just wouldn't bring it up
Speaker 1: if it wasn't true. But I was so impressed with
Speaker 1: your curiosity about your understanding of human behavior, in the
Speaker 1: human condition, and psychology and spirituality and for loss, fear
Speaker 1: and stoicism and and you know, not a superficial kind
Speaker 1: of glancing kind of interest. It's like you are you are.
Speaker 1: You've done a very very deep dive and continue to
Speaker 1: do this deep dive on not only understanding others, but
Speaker 1: understanding yourself in the middle of others. What was the
Speaker 1: and anyway? And I came back and I rang Melissa,
Speaker 1: and I went I told her, and she's like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's cool. I go, no, No, you don't understand like he
Speaker 1: is his Like I can sit and talk. I can
Speaker 1: open all the doors because you know, and I mean
Speaker 1: this respectfully. You know when you sit with some people
Speaker 1: when you're like, I'm obsessed with all this shit, right,
Speaker 1: so I need to I need to rain it in
Speaker 1: a bit. I need to be careful. I need to
Speaker 1: be careful which doors I open or people think I'm
Speaker 1: a fucking lunatic, right, So I just you know, you
Speaker 1: open the door a little bit and you see them
Speaker 1: look at you quizzically, and I just pull that one
Speaker 1: shut and then I'll just open a let's open a
Speaker 1: cupboard door, not the bifold doors. And you know, but
Speaker 1: with you, like I was just I was impressed, as
Speaker 1: a dumb word, but I was I was intrigued by
Speaker 1: your intrigue, your curiosity, and your level of competence, confidence
Speaker 1: and understanding around all things human experience. Tell me about that,
Speaker 1: Tell us about that. Where did that come from? Because
Speaker 1: you've you know, you've studied, you've researched, and you've got
Speaker 1: a lot of hands on experience.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I mean, it's.
Speaker 2: Probably not disimilar to anyone who has had to look
Speaker 2: inside their own soul and learn some really, really hard
Speaker 2: truth about themselves. It comes not from a series of
Speaker 2: easy moments gifted to you, where you go, hey, here's
Speaker 2: this great book about the soul and stoicism or the
Speaker 2: human experience.
Speaker 4: Haven't read it?
Speaker 2: And you go, oh my god, Yeah, I can't wait
Speaker 2: to learn because anyone who is going through the experience
Speaker 2: obviously has that accent. It comes from crisis. It comes
Speaker 2: with crisis. It comes with looking in the mirror of
Speaker 2: your own soul and not liking what you see, and.
Speaker 1: What have you said that you didn't like?
Speaker 2: Narcissism in a toxic way, control like a controller, a bully.
Speaker 4: Wow, I saw parts of myself.
Speaker 2: That I couldn't bear to be and I couldn't bear
Speaker 2: someone behave like that to me, or that I had
Speaker 2: to witness that behavior.
Speaker 4: And that is extraminated. That is very good.
Speaker 1: Storry to interrupt. That is very good self awareness, dudent,
Speaker 1: that is very good. And it takes courage and humility
Speaker 1: to say those things about yourself that you just said.
Speaker 4: Well, we're not perfect.
Speaker 2: And the only way I've learned that we moved through
Speaker 2: perfection and rid ourselves of the shame of our imperfections
Speaker 2: is by opening up and being vulnerable about those things.
Speaker 4: Because I think that vulnerability is the antidote.
Speaker 2: You know, if you can own your stuff and have
Speaker 2: the capacity to openly express it and work on it,
Speaker 2: then you can free yourself of the shackles of your
Speaker 2: own shit and your own perfectionism.
Speaker 4: And so a.
Speaker 2: Narcissist who is a boy and a control freak who
Speaker 2: thinks they're perfect, it's it's the trap of all traps,
Speaker 2: isn't it, Because no one's perfect And if your perfectionism
Speaker 2: is leading to those sort of behaviors, you're not going
Speaker 2: to last very long. So I got in twenty fifteen,
Speaker 2: and that was a catalyst.
Speaker 1: Right. I was going to say, you will tell us
Speaker 1: about that, like, what did that? So you have that?
Speaker 1: To have that awareness is one thing, but then too,
Speaker 1: how does one work on that? Is that a conscious
Speaker 1: process is a very hue process. What does that look like?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so it's firstly realizing that.
Speaker 2: Most relationships, in fact, all relationships are two way street,
Speaker 2: where at least fifty percent of what's happened is a
Speaker 2: result of your behavior in some way. If you're owning
Speaker 2: up things like narcissism and it's bullying and controlling. If
Speaker 2: you're a pure victim, and well then it's a different
Speaker 2: story altogether. But and some people are a victims of
Speaker 2: domestic violence of abinis and this doesn't, this isn't. So
Speaker 2: you know, I'm the perpetrator here, not to say that
Speaker 2: my ex and shit put it out up and go.
Speaker 4: There were things that I do with it, but these
Speaker 4: were my tendencies.
Speaker 2: And so to actually go, hey, this is this is
Speaker 2: my stuff, and then you go, all right, how I'm
Speaker 2: going to work on that?
Speaker 4: You got?
Speaker 2: I went to a SiGe and I saw a therapist regularly,
Speaker 2: but meditation was the key, And a lot of people
Speaker 2: think that meditation is simply this thing to stay present,
Speaker 2: this this you know, tool to get rid of thoughts
Speaker 2: or whatever. I mean, no one's getting rid of your
Speaker 2: thoughts unless you're a fucking munk in a Tibetan monastery
Speaker 2: meditative eighteen hours a day. And even then, I question,
Speaker 2: you know, if you have to travel to Times Square,
Speaker 2: whether you wouldn't start getting some thoughts cook.
Speaker 4: So it's not functional unthinking.
Speaker 2: So it's about understanding your thoughts and then understanding that
Speaker 2: there is one who is the thinker to the thoughts,
Speaker 2: the witness observing those thoughts and those feelings and those
Speaker 2: emotions and those actions and those behaviors, and our thoughts
Speaker 2: become our words, and our words become our actions, and
Speaker 2: our actions become our habits.
Speaker 4: And if those habits are.
Speaker 2: Narcissistic, bullying or whatever, they really hurt people, and they
Speaker 2: all come from a lack of self awareness.
Speaker 4: They all start with thoughts, thoughts about yourself. Thoughts.
Speaker 2: Ye, So I had to learn who I was beyond
Speaker 2: the thinking mind, and that took a lot of meditation.
Speaker 2: When I say a lot of meditation, I mean twice
Speaker 2: a day every day for years practice as the practice
Speaker 2: of practicing certain diligence and dedication, and that that is
Speaker 2: the that is the work.
Speaker 4: You know, the work isn't I read the secret and
Speaker 4: now I've done the work. The work is.
Speaker 2: Every single fucking day, and the work never ends. And
Speaker 2: then you're Then you're humbled by the fact that you're
Speaker 2: just a student of life.
Speaker 4: Then you see yourself.
Speaker 2: As you know, the drop in the ocean, and the
Speaker 2: entire ocean as a drop. You see, you see yourself
Speaker 2: as this whole universe.
Speaker 4: Yes, it is you, and you're.
Speaker 2: As big as that because all of that is inside
Speaker 2: the molecular level of you.
Speaker 4: You're seeing.
Speaker 2: You're suddenly looking at this world at this quantum fucking level,
Speaker 2: and you see how important your life is and how
Speaker 2: fucking insignificant you are at the same time. And I
Speaker 2: think that was a huge wake up call to me,
Speaker 2: and so it just got me interested. So I ended
Speaker 2: up studying meditation, become a teacher. So if I pitcher,
Speaker 2: I ended up stud eating a lot of Yunian psychology stoicism.
Speaker 2: I just got interested in lots of things, and I'm
Speaker 2: constantly interested in lots of things, and things grabbing my
Speaker 2: attention and you gave me a book that I'd never
Speaker 2: heard of, Yes, the forty eight Loads of Power, Laws
Speaker 2: of Power. I can't wait to read that. And that's
Speaker 2: some reading. And I'm constantly studying and wanting to grow.
Speaker 2: The other part of it is that what I was
Speaker 2: noticing is as I opened up the channels to my
Speaker 2: own authentic self and went deeper and deeper inside my
Speaker 2: own soul and went through the dark knight of that,
Speaker 2: I noticed that it opened up the characters that I
Speaker 2: was playing, And in fact, I began to start getting
Speaker 2: roles that were far deeper, that were far more complex.
Speaker 2: That asks me to be really vulnerable and go to
Speaker 2: some really dark places.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: The phantom is not just a dude to sings music
Speaker 2: of the night. He's an abandoned boy who has a
Speaker 2: deformed face, who is a murderous, narcissistic, self indulgent, selfish tyrant.
Speaker 4: And I used Jung's.
Speaker 2: Idea of the archetypes to play him because he is
Speaker 2: a king in his shadow, is a magician in his shadow,
Speaker 2: he's a warrior in his shadow.
Speaker 4: He's a lover in his shadow.
Speaker 2: So he's an addict, he's a saddest, he's a manipulator
Speaker 2: and he's a tyrant. And to go that way, I
Speaker 2: had to understand Jungian psychology to it and understand the
Speaker 2: shadow self to play, to lean into the shadow, and
Speaker 2: I just am fascinated with the world of the human experience,
Speaker 2: the human condition, understanding what it means to be human,
Speaker 2: and ultimately what I feel like the purpose of it
Speaker 2: all is is to help other people understand their human experience.
Speaker 2: And so, as I said at the start, whether my
Speaker 2: purpose is a storyteller, as a communicator is to help
Speaker 2: people understand that, and whether it's by having a podcast,
Speaker 2: having these sort of chats, by coaching people, or by
Speaker 2: stepping into characters that, through their artists free enable people
Speaker 2: to see themselves or feel things that haven't felt or
Speaker 2: need to feel.
Speaker 4: I have a lot of opportunity to help people on
Speaker 4: their journey.
Speaker 2: And when your life becomes about helping others, not what
Speaker 2: you can get for others, then I go all right,
Speaker 2: I really start to step out of narcissism. It's like
Speaker 2: this becomes a world of service and giving rather than
Speaker 2: a world of purely receiving.
Speaker 1: What was that is so well articulated? And thank you?
Speaker 1: As we wind up with the narcissism, the control, the bullying.
Speaker 1: What was the upside for that? Like, what were you
Speaker 1: getting from that? What was that doing for you at
Speaker 1: that period of time.
Speaker 4: It means that.
Speaker 2: You get to have everything go the way you want it,
Speaker 2: right what you think is and that's generally the easy road,
Speaker 2: means you don't have to really compromise. It's not a relationship.
Speaker 2: That's not a relationships are all about compromise. So you
Speaker 2: get everything it's my way or it's a dictatorship. It's
Speaker 2: a dictatorship. And when you start getting everything you want,
Speaker 2: the ego loves that. The ego is addicted to getting
Speaker 2: everything else, so you're constantly getting everything you want.
Speaker 4: But yes, well it's not about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so so that was that was the benefit, But
Speaker 2: that was that's not a benefit, Yeah, because because those
Speaker 2: around you pulled away. So also, oh didn't have very
Speaker 2: many meaningful relationships. I didn't have depth to my relationships
Speaker 2: and there was no vulnerability in right issue. There's a
Speaker 2: lot of toxic positivity, but not vulnerability. So yeah, that's
Speaker 2: I much prefer my life now. But it's still as
Speaker 2: still student, like never stopped being a student. I mean
Speaker 2: Pavarotti said he was a student to the day he
Speaker 2: died of singing, and it was a pretty great singer,
Speaker 2: so to be become a better person. But I don't
Speaker 2: think they ever stopped. I hope it never stops.
Speaker 1: Well he was no Josh Pitterman, but like he was
Speaker 1: all right.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's actually like there's a voice that I
Speaker 2: listen to. It just hap to sit down and listen
Speaker 2: to it and like that, like I'm transcended by voice.
Speaker 2: I think it's fun. And John Farnon' is another one too.
Speaker 2: Something about that voice that like the they're the voice.
Speaker 2: I just think, I don't know, I can listen to
Speaker 2: fancy seeing that Beatles cover of Help just go fucking hell,
Speaker 2: Like I just I'm somewhere else.
Speaker 1: So well he was. I mean, obviously Australians love him
Speaker 1: and understand his ability, but he was like he could
Speaker 1: have been a global you know. I know he did
Speaker 1: all right, but he could have been a global superstar
Speaker 1: with that voice because he had to. He was.
Speaker 2: If I compare it to like, you know, Steve Perry
Speaker 2: or bon Jovi or you know, like it's better voice
Speaker 2: than any of those or maybe Freddie Mercury, like Freddie
Speaker 2: Mner was a great showman and a great voice, but
Speaker 2: Fansi's voice was it was I sort of put up
Speaker 2: there as some of the great one of the greatest
Speaker 2: voices of all time. But on that point about could
Speaker 2: have been that if he was that would he have
Speaker 2: lost that sort of ossie alaric and humble charm that
Speaker 2: also made him great, so awesome. I think whatever he
Speaker 2: was what is because he hasn't gone. I'm just don't
Speaker 2: seeing anymore. Yeah, I've seen him twice live and unforgettable
Speaker 2: inspiring moments.
Speaker 4: Is also very inspiring.
Speaker 1: Just performance.
Speaker 4: What she's been through.
Speaker 1: God, that's a weird thing. That's another topic for another comedy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what's that called, Melissa? Is it like stiff body syndrome
Speaker 1: or something? Yeah, stiff person? Yeah, crazy. We love you. You're amazing.
Speaker 2: Tell people big chats, Yeah, all of them. Next time
Speaker 2: I jump on, can I trill you? Because maybe people
Speaker 2: have heard your story, but.
Speaker 1: People have been more story too much. But feel free.
Speaker 1: We'll do another one. I think we're booked for next
Speaker 1: week if you want to, if you want to take
Speaker 1: over the t y p Rains for one episode, fucking
Speaker 1: feel free, like you just.
Speaker 4: Make it a little bit more too way Street.
Speaker 1: No, No, you have to intro and outro the show, okay,
Speaker 1: and you need to up you're swearing a little bit.
Speaker 1: But you did pretty well today. The fuck quota was
Speaker 1: better than last time. I see.
Speaker 4: I swear much more in this podcast than I do
Speaker 4: on my podcast.
Speaker 1: Of course, I always say I open the fuck door
Speaker 1: and people come stumbling in. I've had people on this
Speaker 1: show who buy halfway through the show and they've never
Speaker 1: ever sworn ever on a podcast. By the end of
Speaker 1: the show, they're saying fuck every third sentence, and then
Speaker 1: they get off and they're like, that was quite liberating.
Speaker 1: I don't mind that. I'm like, right, Yeah, how do.
Speaker 4: People connect to Welcome to the Fun Project.
Speaker 1: That's it. How do people connect with you? Find you,
Speaker 1: follow you listen? What's the name of your show, what's
Speaker 1: your website? How they follow you on socials?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you can just go to Josh Pittman one
Speaker 2: T and one in in and one je and one
Speaker 2: agent Josh just in case you didn't have to spell
Speaker 2: that one, Josh Pittman dot com, dot a you all.
Speaker 2: My podcast is Behind the Mask. It's at go behind
Speaker 2: the Mask on Instagram. TikTok and YouTube. You can watch it,
Speaker 2: you can listen to it, where all good podcasts are found.
Speaker 2: But yeah, start with that Josh Pittman and pretty much
Speaker 2: everything's there on on Instagram you can find you at.
Speaker 4: All the Olypics.
Speaker 1: Thanks Buddy, love you you mate, Thanks mat
Speaker 4: Mel, thanks for having me, guys,