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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Fitzi and Whippo podcast. Let's talk

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Speaker 1: about the late great Steve Irwin. This was an amazing

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Speaker 1: story about his cameraman. So he was a good mate

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Speaker 1: of his for ten years and for one I didn't

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Speaker 1: realize how Steve Irwin also started his career and he

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Speaker 1: was actually discovered. So this guy's name is Justin Lyons,

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Speaker 1: and he was his right hand man. So they spent

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Speaker 1: a lot of time together, as you can imagine a

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Speaker 1: decade of being his main cameraman. So they would film

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Speaker 1: encounters of the deadliest creatures all around the world. But

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Speaker 1: he goes on saying this article that it was Steve's

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Speaker 1: personal demons and the weight of expectation that actually changed

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Speaker 1: the person Steve Irwin was. So he says there were

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Speaker 1: so many things that Steve also had a sixth sense about,

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Speaker 1: and he believes had a premonition about his own death.

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Speaker 1: So in the final doco, he goes on to say

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Speaker 1: he's looked back now and there were signs that were

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Speaker 1: quite confronting and troubling because Steve wasn't the man Steve

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Speaker 1: used to be and started to do a few reckless

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Speaker 1: things just because of fame. Yeah, this is because of fame.

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Speaker 1: So they first met. There was a Power's beer commercial

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Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety one and he was obviously a cameraman

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Speaker 1: on this commercial and there was a bloke, John Stanton,

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Speaker 1: who was the guy who was the director of the ad.

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Speaker 1: So in the ads there was a Brisbane broncos player

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Speaker 1: sitting by a river drinking a beer and then a

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Speaker 1: crocodile jumps out of the water and steals the can.

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Speaker 1: So the man's arm fends off the reptile before opening

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Speaker 1: the stubby and they drink the beer right, So they

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Speaker 1: needed a stunt actor. The stunt actor was a very

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Speaker 1: young Steve Irwin, so this is how he became discovered.

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Speaker 1: So him and Stanton, the director got chatting. Steve told

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Speaker 1: him stories about catching crocodiles and he had all this

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Speaker 1: home footage he's taken of himself. So he then went

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Speaker 1: on to have a look at some Stanton the director

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Speaker 1: looked at some of this footage and went, oh my god,

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Speaker 1: hold tight. Mate. Took the tapes straight to a network

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Speaker 1: producer who said, we've got it. We've got to do

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Speaker 1: something here. So the network that he gave it to

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Speaker 1: they sent professional equipment and they shot their first documentary

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Speaker 1: and that was how Steve was discovered. So then in

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six the Discovery Channel Animal Planet, they took

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Speaker 1: on the Crocodile Hunter program and Steve became hugely famous.

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Speaker 1: And if you remember back in the day, when Steve

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Speaker 1: first started, it was like, who's this guy who's like

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Speaker 1: over the top? People thought he was putting an on

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Speaker 1: room man. He's kind of started out and people were like, Oh,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to get right down next to this deadly

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Speaker 1: snake and I'm going to lift it up. And krikey

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Speaker 1: obviously became I mean, he was such a big catch.

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Speaker 2: Fuck he was cheesy, but then there was an element

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Speaker 2: of Steve that you really loved because you know what,

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Speaker 2: when he met Terry as well, he was so funny.

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Speaker 2: But there was a sight of Steve that you just go, oh,

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Speaker 2: he was a beautiful man, was tearing. Yeah he was.

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Speaker 2: Because the Americans picked that up straight.

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Speaker 1: I love that he went mad. In America. There was

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Speaker 1: the Steve Irwin dole, if you remember, and they said

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Speaker 1: there were college kids that used to play drinking games

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Speaker 1: watching the show where you had discovered be Every time

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Speaker 1: Steve said cross right, go well, plod gossip. So in

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Speaker 1: the States he was mobbed, and he goes on to

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Speaker 1: say we were at Lax one time and it was

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Speaker 1: like Beatlemania. That's the airport in la and it was

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Speaker 1: just out of control. So then the fame started to

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Speaker 1: wear on Steve. He said he would constantly travel from

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Speaker 1: Australia in the US and he hated the spotlight.

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Speaker 2: He said.

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Speaker 1: The fame got to him in the final years. He said,

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Speaker 1: I don't think he knew how to handle it. He

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Speaker 1: was always in pain. He would flog himself, his knees,

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Speaker 1: his ankles. The combination of that and the pressure of

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Speaker 1: the Disney Channel upp in the end, he to make

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Speaker 1: things bigger and better every time really wore Steve down.

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Speaker 1: He said he took the brunt of fame himself. He

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Speaker 1: had friends, but only a handful that he trusted, and

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Speaker 1: he never saw his best mates anymore. He didn't have time.

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Speaker 1: He got famous, and then he became a bit of

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Speaker 1: a loaner. Sad, he said. Steve repeatedly described having a

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Speaker 1: sixth sense and a premonition about his death, and he

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Speaker 1: was convinced now watching these old tapes. He said, just

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Speaker 1: before Steve's death and the final mission that they were filming.

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Speaker 1: He saw him shake everybody's hand for the last time

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Speaker 1: on a set that they were filming on like he'd

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Speaker 1: never done before, and said how great it was to

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Speaker 1: be working with them. Then Steve, Terry and the kids

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Speaker 1: were put onto a seaplane one time, and he said,

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Speaker 1: this was completely out of character for Steve. He stood

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Speaker 1: on the top of his car as the seaplane took

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Speaker 1: off and waved until the plane was out of sight,

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Speaker 1: and he said to him afterwards, a uok, Steve. He said, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm fine, I'm persuaving goodbye. So he said, I kind

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Speaker 1: of saw these things happening. And then the day before

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Speaker 1: he died, there was a massive sea snake that they

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Speaker 1: were actually filming, and he said, when it let go

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Speaker 1: of Steve, he pushed the snake on top of me

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Speaker 1: and I had to dive underwater. This is the camera

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Speaker 1: and I had to dive underwater to get away from it.

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Speaker 1: It would have killed me. He said, I've never seen

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Speaker 1: Steve do something so reckless. I shouted at him and

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Speaker 1: he was laughing. It wasn't quite right. Something was wrong.

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Speaker 1: Steve's throwing when you made it hard to say sea snaker,

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Speaker 1: you know, to get out of there. So the crew

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Speaker 1: had been a lot together. They'd been through a lot together.

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Speaker 1: They'd been in a plane crash, they'd been in a

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Speaker 1: chopper accident as well. They were robbed at knife points.

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Speaker 1: At knife point, no one was allowed to talk about this.

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Speaker 1: Steve was then bitten by a black Mumba mamba.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, mumba Mumba mumba. We had run over in Africa.

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Speaker 1: Remember, most venomous snake in the world. Steve was lucky

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Speaker 1: to survive. Everybody that was there filming with the crew

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Speaker 1: and friends had to sign off on a confidentiality. No

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Speaker 1: one was allowed to talk about this. He had a

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Speaker 1: huge fear that he would he would die by an animal,

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Speaker 1: and people would say, well, of course, that was the

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Speaker 1: number one thing he didn't want to happen. So he

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Speaker 1: goes on to say, the pressure is the reason Steve

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Speaker 1: ended up dying because what happened in that moment with

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Speaker 1: the sting ray, he would never have done if Steve

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Speaker 1: was the Steve Wold what got into the water with

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Speaker 1: the stingray? You mean, yeah, the way where how close

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Speaker 1: he was, and their mindset that Steve had at the time,

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Speaker 1: he became more brazen, didn't he?

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Speaker 2: But you have to, don't you in that scenario because

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Speaker 2: they're pushing like It's like every season of a TV.

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Speaker 1: Show in any capacity has to be more dramatic, more

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Speaker 1: extremee One thing was to be killed by a croc

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Speaker 1: or a snake because people would say, of course we

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Speaker 1: told you, isn't it. I mean, you could imagine Steve

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Speaker 1: was Steve and for the I remember one night at

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Speaker 1: the step there was only one Steve. When you're known

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Speaker 1: by your first name and that's it, and you're the

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Speaker 1: Steve that that represents the Steves.

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Speaker 2: You've made it name another famous Steve. He's known as Stephen,

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Speaker 2: only steven S. Instead of.

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Speaker 1: Swap it? Would you you were straight away?

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Speaker 2: You know three wishes from a genie? That'd be one?

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Speaker 1: What are your other two? Well, allo case the other

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Speaker 1: one anyone else?

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Speaker 2: You'd like, here we go, world peace. I mean there's

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Speaker 2: one hundred and sixty million up for power and your

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Speaker 2: conditioning over the Steves.

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Speaker 1: Steve the world peace one hundred and sixty million lotto

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Speaker 1: and could we swap the Steves fitzies three genie requests?

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Speaker 2: Imagine how big I would be in Australia ballback Steven

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Speaker 2: massive massive win mate.

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Speaker 1: Congratulations. You're listening to the Fitzi and Whipper podcast