Speaker 1: The public has had a long held fascination with detectives.
Speaker 1: Detective see a side of life the average persons never
Speaker 1: exposed her. I spent thirty four years as a cop.
Speaker 1: For twenty five of those years I was catching killers.
Speaker 1: That's what I did for a living. I was a
Speaker 1: homicide detective. I'm no longer just interviewing bad guys. Instead,
Speaker 1: I'm taking the public into the world in which I operated.
Speaker 1: The guests I talk to each week have amazing stories
Speaker 1: from all sides of the law. The interviews are raw
Speaker 1: and honest, just like the people I talk to. Some
Speaker 1: of the content and language might be confronting. That's because
Speaker 1: no one who comes into contact with crime is left unchanged.
Speaker 1: Join me now as I take you into this world. Today,
Speaker 1: I spoke to Nicki Justice. It was a fun and
Speaker 1: enlightening chat. Nicki's a stand up comedian, but that's just
Speaker 1: a small part of her story. Nicki has had an
Speaker 1: interesting childhood. Her father who made a living as a
Speaker 1: drug dealer. Then at sixteen, she joined the circus, traveling
Speaker 1: the country of a family and working and performing for
Speaker 1: the Stardust Circus. After leaving the circus, she started making
Speaker 1: a living working in the minds. Then she got into
Speaker 1: drugs and decided stripping might be more profitable. That's when
Speaker 1: she met a former husband and father of children who
Speaker 1: just so happened to be a biky. Then she turned
Speaker 1: the hand to a taboo artist before trying stand up comedy. Obviously,
Speaker 1: NICKI and I have got a lot to talk about,
Speaker 1: Nicki Justice, Welcome to I Catch Killers.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Well, I've had a whole range of guests on I
Speaker 1: Catch Killers. I've had the bad guys, the good guys,
Speaker 1: the solicitors, all sorts of people, and they have been
Speaker 1: easier to describe than describing your life. You've certainly lived
Speaker 1: a full life, so I might try it over to you.
Speaker 1: How would you describe Nicki Justice?
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, Yeah, it's been a lot. Yeah, I feel
Speaker 2: like I've got I've lived many lifetimes, but I'm not
Speaker 2: even forty yet, so there's still still a lot more
Speaker 2: to come, hopefully, But yeah, I think I feel like
Speaker 2: there's definitely it's like different different seasons of my life,
Speaker 2: and there's been some interesting chapters. The circus was probably
Speaker 2: one of the most out there ones.
Speaker 1: Not many people you hear a lot of people say
Speaker 1: they've run off with the circus. But yeah, or they
Speaker 1: want to run off with the circus, so they should
Speaker 1: have run off with the circus. Not many people actually
Speaker 1: do it, so I'll be interested to speak to you
Speaker 1: about that. Yeah, but whole range of different careers you work.
Speaker 2: In the mind, I've done so many. I've like, if
Speaker 2: I had tried to write more down, there be so many,
Speaker 2: because I've worked in mining and construction and I actually
Speaker 2: used to be a project manager. I've been a logistics
Speaker 2: manager in fashion. I've been a photographer, a makeup artist.
Speaker 2: I've worked in like my first jobs for like in
Speaker 2: super markets, the circus, tatoo artist. I've done so many
Speaker 2: jobs and stripper stripper was one of them. And now
Speaker 2: stand up now stand up comedian, stand up comedian.
Speaker 1: Well, it's a whole whole range of things, so there's
Speaker 1: plenty to talk about. We're not going to run out
Speaker 1: of topics. And you also, you're married to a bikey.
Speaker 2: For yes, I was. That was another chapter.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well we've had we've had a lot of bikes
Speaker 1: on eye catch killers, but we haven't heard it from
Speaker 1: the other side being the partner of the biking. So
Speaker 1: I think that that'll be some interesting, interesting chats just
Speaker 1: on the on the bikey aspect. I when I sit
Speaker 1: down with guys that are in the clubs or whatever,
Speaker 1: I quite often say, well, yeah, when you join, you
Speaker 1: know it's basically going to be you're going to end
Speaker 1: up in jail or you could end up dead, and
Speaker 1: quite often that that play plays out. Yeah, as a wife,
Speaker 1: did you have those concerns?
Speaker 2: Definitely, because it's like it's like it's a common thing
Speaker 2: to see you know, your friend's partners in jail or
Speaker 2: so fortunately for me, mine wasn't while I was with him.
Speaker 2: He's been in jail before we met. But yeah, like
Speaker 2: houses getting raided and men going to jail for years
Speaker 2: at a time, and the occasional you know death or
Speaker 2: murder as well is normal, So it is differentely something
Speaker 2: that plays in your mind. I do think, I think
Speaker 2: I've mentioned this when we talked before. Western Australia isn't
Speaker 2: quite as it seems more hectic over here, like I
Speaker 2: think with like inter gang fights and killings, like we
Speaker 2: still have it, but on a smaller level. So I
Speaker 2: don't think it was like all the time you were
Speaker 2: worried about it, but like if they didn't out to
Speaker 2: their phone and didn't come home on time. You would
Speaker 2: start that would be the first thing in your mind
Speaker 2: would start going.
Speaker 1: To Yeah, I would imagine because it's you know, they're
Speaker 1: out there taking the risks or whatever, but you're seeing
Speaker 1: home waiting and you with your husband. You had three children.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so.
Speaker 1: That would have Yeah, so there was a commitment there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Yeah, it was definitely something that was on
Speaker 2: your mind. Sometimes. There was one There was one period
Speaker 2: of time where there was a bit of a thing
Speaker 2: going on between my husband ex husband's club and another club,
Speaker 2: and so there was a period of about a year
Speaker 2: where it was like quite tense and like any time
Speaker 2: they went out, they had to go out. They would
Speaker 2: not go out by themselves and avoid certain places. And yeah,
Speaker 2: that period of time was a little bit, a little
Speaker 2: bit scary.
Speaker 1: So eight years you're with him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, married for a and probably together for ten.
Speaker 1: Okay, where did you meet?
Speaker 2: So we actually met at his biking clubhouse. So they
Speaker 2: were having like a small party and I had been
Speaker 2: asked I was I just started stripping at the time,
Speaker 2: I was quite new to it, and I got asked
Speaker 2: to work there. And then when they told me he
Speaker 2: was at a clubhouse. I was like, oh, I didn't
Speaker 2: want to really do biking clubhouses, and so I said no,
Speaker 2: and then they rang me back because I couldn't fin
Speaker 2: anyone else and they were like, oh, they can't find anyone,
Speaker 2: and the girl said she knew everyone there and could
Speaker 2: vouch that it would be safe and whatever. So I
Speaker 2: went and then the rest is history. He's the one
Speaker 2: who answered the door when I got and then we
Speaker 2: moved in with each other like four weeks later.
Speaker 1: I think love it love at first sight?
Speaker 2: Was it in hindsight? I wouldn't say it was like
Speaker 2: true love last or yeah, yeah, I was quite young.
Speaker 2: I was twenty two or twenty three when I met him.
Speaker 2: He was in his early thirties. But it's funny because
Speaker 2: like most like my parents, my mum had some reservations
Speaker 2: when she found out I was with the barkie, but
Speaker 2: I was quite way with myself. But most people would
Speaker 2: be like, it'd be pretty bad if their daughter ends
Speaker 2: up with a bikie, But for my parents, it was
Speaker 2: like almost the opposite because being with him tanged me
Speaker 2: because I had to behave myself because I was a
Speaker 2: little bit off the rails. Myself before I met him.
Speaker 1: Okay, well that's your poor your poor parents. Glad she's
Speaker 1: hooked up with a bikey. Yeah, he'll keep they were
Speaker 1: on the straight and narrow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wouldn't say poor parents that I
Speaker 2: was like that for a reason.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, well we've jumped ahead because I want to
Speaker 1: delve deeper into into the biking world or the wife
Speaker 1: of biking. But before we do that, let's find out
Speaker 1: a little bit about yourself and your childhood. Where'd you
Speaker 1: grow up?
Speaker 2: So it's never a straightforward Westent grew up, I would say, wa,
Speaker 2: but because we moved a lot around regionally, and so
Speaker 2: between Perth and a lot of seaside coastal towns up
Speaker 2: and down the coast. Because when I was in my
Speaker 2: early years, my dad was a cray fisherman, so we
Speaker 2: moved around a lot and then ended up settling. So
Speaker 2: I had like most of my like my high school
Speaker 2: years and my later primary school years was in Rockingham
Speaker 2: and Mandra. Yeah, it was about an hour.
Speaker 1: Out of Perth for people not from Western st Okay,
Speaker 1: So that would have been a bit of a transient
Speaker 1: childhood to start with for living on the coast.
Speaker 2: And yeah, yeah, So we moved a lot, and I
Speaker 2: went to lots of different schools like I went to
Speaker 2: I think we Canada. It was seven primary schools and
Speaker 2: four high schools, but the coastal towns, like the earlier
Speaker 2: years of my childhood, it was actually like I love
Speaker 2: I love being by the sea, and I've got some
Speaker 2: of my best memories of from those those towns that
Speaker 2: we lived in.
Speaker 1: What's it like going through that many schools? But like
Speaker 1: your first day of the new school, do you get
Speaker 1: accustomed to it or yeah?
Speaker 2: I think I think you sort of just get used
Speaker 2: to it. But in hindsight, I think it sort of
Speaker 2: impacted my ability to like make and keep friendships as
Speaker 2: I got older, because I don't know, I just yeah,
Speaker 2: I didn't. I didn't really have like I've seen. I
Speaker 2: know people that have like the same friends since like
Speaker 2: childhood of high school, and I've never had that because
Speaker 2: I never was there long to maintain a long term friendship.
Speaker 1: But found it easier to make friends like drop drop
Speaker 1: you in there, and you could make the friends.
Speaker 2: When I was a kid, I always kind of made
Speaker 2: friends easy enough, But yeah, I didn't didn't stay in
Speaker 2: touch when I can move on to the next school
Speaker 2: or whatever.
Speaker 1: Now, besides cray fishing, your dad had another occupation.
Speaker 2: Yes, so I believe this was also from quite early on.
Speaker 1: In my just we cover this. We're not going to
Speaker 1: get your father in the trouble trouble here.
Speaker 2: He's dead, so he can't get into any trouble.
Speaker 1: All right, We're free to go.
Speaker 2: Don't worry about it, lord, Yeah, no, no, no. So
Speaker 2: he was a drug dealer for most of my life.
Speaker 2: So so from from what I know when I was
Speaker 2: quite young, he was originally just sort of growing wheat
Speaker 2: he used to do, like the whole he had, the
Speaker 2: whole hydropolg We had a secret garden in our backyard
Speaker 2: that we used to like, I don't think we're meant
Speaker 2: to know about it, but we did.
Speaker 1: Except let's pull that back because I can imagine you
Speaker 1: don't want your kids to know because to.
Speaker 2: Open the Yeah, and we absolutely did.
Speaker 1: Dad's secret garden down the back is that how it
Speaker 1: was sold to.
Speaker 2: Well, we knew it was a secret garden because we
Speaker 2: knew when we first found like we obviously knew we
Speaker 2: weren't meant to know about it because it was so
Speaker 2: secret because it was at the back. So we had
Speaker 2: this huge shed and at the back of the shed
Speaker 2: we discovered that the wall was fake and it was
Speaker 2: actually a sliding door. So it was a sliding shared
Speaker 2: door that opened to reveal a whole bunch of tomato
Speaker 2: plants as because we ended up asking what is this
Speaker 2: and there was all this like heavy lighting on the
Speaker 2: ceiling anyway, so that was the secret garden.
Speaker 1: That would have been like you'd be a moth to
Speaker 1: a bright light.
Speaker 2: Oh, it was, so it was. It was honestly so exciting.
Speaker 2: I remember. I remember the feeling of like sneaking my
Speaker 2: friends in there, like when we'd have friends come over
Speaker 2: to play, like come, I look at the secret garden
Speaker 2: and it was like really exciting. But then we were
Speaker 2: asking questions about why is there no tomatoes because they
Speaker 2: told us there was tomatoes, and we'd always go and check,
Speaker 2: excited to see these tomatoes and they just never grow.
Speaker 1: How old were you at the time?
Speaker 2: How old was I then? I think I was in
Speaker 2: year two one or two, so I would have been
Speaker 2: like six or seven.
Speaker 1: Did your dad get caught with no.
Speaker 2: So here only went he went to jail once when
Speaker 2: I was a kid, But that was actually he got
Speaker 2: in a bar fight and then got arrested, and then
Speaker 2: because he was drunk, I think he took a swing
Speaker 2: at the copper resting him, and so he got a
Speaker 2: few as he got a few months in jail for that.
Speaker 2: And that was my mom said that I told the school.
Speaker 2: So she told the school that dad was away from work,
Speaker 2: and then I let slip that he was actually in jail.
Speaker 1: You're not very good at cheving secrets.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, I was the family snitch.
Speaker 1: You had. You had siblings, Yeah.
Speaker 2: I had a younger brother. So I've got a younger
Speaker 2: brother two years younger than me and a sister two
Speaker 2: years older. Right, okay, so the middle.
Speaker 1: And you were the middle one causing the problems.
Speaker 2: We got raided ones. And I told my school for news,
Speaker 2: I told, like you know, show and tell me. I
Speaker 2: told my whole class and the teachers that that was
Speaker 2: my story, that that's what happened on the weekend. Please
Speaker 2: kick that door in.
Speaker 1: That's hilarious, good story. You would have scored well for.
Speaker 2: My mom said, she picked me up from school and
Speaker 2: my teacher pulled her aside and said, there are no
Speaker 2: secrets in your household.
Speaker 1: Okay, So you're making life health for your health your parents.
Speaker 1: So when your dad's in jail, is how are we
Speaker 1: around that period?
Speaker 2: I think that was I was a bit younger, so
Speaker 2: I think I might have been like five, so I
Speaker 2: barely remember it, and I just remember thinking he was
Speaker 2: working away at first, so I don't know when I
Speaker 2: would have found out he wasn't. We must have just overheard, maybe.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So no stigma at that age, like it's just
Speaker 1: I don know.
Speaker 2: And I actually forgot about it, like Mum had to
Speaker 2: remind me of all this stuff and then I was like,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, and I just sort of forgot right okay,
Speaker 2: because it wasn't for very long, I don't think, and
Speaker 2: he did used to sometimes work away, so it was
Speaker 2: like it made sense, I guess with a question.
Speaker 1: When did you start to realize that your dad was
Speaker 1: operating on the other side of the law.
Speaker 2: It wasn't until I was probably because I was a
Speaker 2: little goody two shoes up until I was about thirteen
Speaker 2: or fourteen, and I think that was when I started.
Speaker 2: I think that was when I was about fourteen that
Speaker 2: I started to realize my family was a bit different
Speaker 2: to other families and Dad was still dealing drugs and
Speaker 2: it wasn't just weed by then, so he was like
Speaker 2: dealing speed and stuff. But yeah, I can't remember the
Speaker 2: exact moment that I was like, oh, my dad's a
Speaker 2: drug dealer, but it ended up being quite open. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was obvious. Yeah, like I would be there sometimes
Speaker 2: when things were going on, or we'd always be waiting
Speaker 2: in the car and we would know what was going
Speaker 2: on and.
Speaker 1: Dropped off, picked up or whatever. Did you accept the
Speaker 1: family business or if you you said you were at
Speaker 1: AUSTRAIGHTI one eighty at thirteen, were you going, oh, this
Speaker 1: is wrong?
Speaker 2: And I think at first I was a bit mad.
Speaker 2: So at the same around the same time, a friend
Speaker 2: of mine had passed away. And up until then I
Speaker 2: was like a really very religious kid because we went
Speaker 2: to private schools. Despite the fact the things my parents
Speaker 2: were into, they sent us to private schools, and we
Speaker 2: actually went to church a lot. We went to church
Speaker 2: my Sunday, so they were religious figure. So yeah. So
Speaker 2: and then I think because losing a friend at that
Speaker 2: age through drugs, no, no, no, So this was just
Speaker 2: a friend from my Christian school and he had a
Speaker 2: car accident with a bunch of other teenage boys, so
Speaker 2: only one survived. There was five of them, four of
Speaker 2: them died, one survived but ended up in a wheelchair.
Speaker 2: And yeah, ye, so I think all this happened at
Speaker 2: the same time. And so for a little while I
Speaker 2: was quite angry and resentful at my parents because I
Speaker 2: sort of realized because they weren't behaving the way parents should.
Speaker 2: So I was quite mad at them for a little while.
Speaker 2: But then I don't know when it changed from being
Speaker 2: mad at them to joining them, because then I sort
Speaker 2: of ended up started partying myself. That eventually led to
Speaker 2: sometimes partying with my dad, not so much my mom.
Speaker 2: My mom. I think my mom tried harder than my
Speaker 2: dad to keep it separate. And still, you know, you're
Speaker 2: the kid with parents, even if they weren't always doing
Speaker 2: it right. Whereas uh, well, my parents split up for
Speaker 2: a while, and then when it was just me living
Speaker 2: with my dad, it was like a bit.
Speaker 1: Chaos party part what saw of the drugs?
Speaker 2: So he mainly dealt in speed, and I started taking
Speaker 2: speed when I was probably not a lot, and I
Speaker 2: used to I used to just drink it, put it
Speaker 2: in my drink so i'd have speed. But then my
Speaker 2: friends were also starting to get into like ecstasy and
Speaker 2: things like that, so we smoked a lot of weed.
Speaker 2: It was mainly weed for me and sometimes speed. We
Speaker 2: didn't have enough money to always have.
Speaker 1: To make do what you can do. I hope you
Speaker 1: didn't raid your dad's secret garden or secret stuff.
Speaker 2: I did convince him once to give me an ounce
Speaker 2: of weed. We asked him for an ounce. He actually
Speaker 2: gave me half an ounce, but I convinced him to
Speaker 2: give it to me because I said, I will sell
Speaker 2: it and I'll make the money back and then and
Speaker 2: then eventually be able to pay for it myself. So
Speaker 2: that was me joining the family business. But so he
Speaker 2: did it. He gave me half an ounce, and it
Speaker 2: was I didn't end up selling it. I mean, my
Speaker 2: friends just smoked it all, had a fun week, and
Speaker 2: then I couldn't pay that back, so he never did
Speaker 2: it again.
Speaker 1: You ripped off your father a drug deal? Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: that's that's something something new with that. There's no break
Speaker 1: on you, buddy there. You're dealing drugs, You're trying drugs
Speaker 1: like it's you know, I had a father that slapped
Speaker 1: me down when I've started doing doing the wrong thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you've got one that's gone here, Try this, try that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wouldn't say. He was the one who, like
Speaker 2: I definite already tried it before I did it with him,
Speaker 2: but then once he knew I was already doing it.
Speaker 2: I think his idea was that if you're going to
Speaker 2: be doing I'd rather be doing it at home.
Speaker 1: Well, I suppose, like drinking, some people's idea of well
Speaker 1: you let your kids drink at home rather than drink
Speaker 1: down the local park.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well I had friends that would
Speaker 2: put themselves in Well I was sometimes there in those
Speaker 2: dangerous situations, but my friends would lie to their parents,
Speaker 2: whereas my friend my parents always knew what I was
Speaker 2: doing and where I was, so if I was ever
Speaker 2: in trouble, I could always ring them and say, hey,
Speaker 2: can you come and get us, where some of my
Speaker 2: friends would be like, I can't call my mom. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 2: not saying it was a better way of but.
Speaker 1: No, but it's a different way, and it's a consideration,
Speaker 1: like you see that, Okay, that was the life. Drug dealing,
Speaker 1: stealing your ripping your dad's drugs off, a bit of
Speaker 1: cray fishing, all the shit that goes down there. Then
Speaker 1: you your family decided to make the big move and
Speaker 1: join a circus.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so this was during that period where it was
Speaker 2: just me and my dad living together. My mum and
Speaker 2: dad had broken up, and then the circus came to town.
Speaker 2: And I actually before so I was at the shops
Speaker 2: one day with my friends. That was all the kids.
Speaker 2: All the kids used to hang out at the shopping
Speaker 2: center where they were wagging all before in our school
Speaker 2: and whatever, and some of the guys from the circus
Speaker 2: were in the shops and they were just being show offs,
Speaker 2: like they were doing flips and I guess to I
Speaker 2: think they were handing out flyers and stuff, but they
Speaker 2: were trying to chat me my friend up, and we
Speaker 2: just to usk because we were like fifteen year old girls.
Speaker 2: We were just like ill because they were like closer
Speaker 2: to thirty, so we weren't impressed. So they were trying
Speaker 2: to impress us. We weren't impressed. And then like a
Speaker 2: few days later, i'd I've come home from school and
Speaker 2: I've walked in and these same guys from the shops
Speaker 2: were in my launde room, and so I was just like,
Speaker 2: why are they here? And then because they were obviously
Speaker 2: trying to find what my dad was selling, and they
Speaker 2: that's how they met my dad, and so he started
Speaker 2: hanging out and partying with them for a couple of
Speaker 2: weeks that they were showing and then by the end
Speaker 2: of it, they'd decided that they offered Dad a job,
Speaker 2: and so Dad said he was joining the circus and
Speaker 2: I could come with him or go and live with
Speaker 2: my mum. And so at first I said, no, I'm
Speaker 2: going to go live with mum. So my brother ended
Speaker 2: up deciding he wanted to go with Dad, so he
Speaker 2: joined and because he was only thirteen, so we would
Speaker 2: me and Mum and my sister would go out and
Speaker 2: visit these little towns to go visit my brother and
Speaker 2: my dad, and then mom and Dad got back together.
Speaker 2: Then we all picked up.
Speaker 1: Okay, well I've never yeah, I never thought they'd get
Speaker 1: someone that I'm talking to who joined the circus. Tell
Speaker 1: us about the life of is Cannie in the of
Speaker 1: fensive term, because.
Speaker 2: Carnie is a thing, But there's actually a difference between
Speaker 2: circus folks and Carnie's. Okay, so Cannie ask to circus people.
Speaker 2: Carnies are the carnival people. So people travel around and
Speaker 2: put on like carnivals and all the rides and stuff,
Speaker 2: and they are different. Yes, there, I don't want to
Speaker 2: be offensive. I don't know if any carnie's listening to
Speaker 2: listen to you, but they're a bit more they're a
Speaker 2: bit more backwards. I think they do a bit more meth.
Speaker 2: They look like it anyway, carnival. Yeah, it was very
Speaker 2: different because I feel like, how do I describe this now?
Speaker 1: I'm hearing what you're saying because Carnee is often said
Speaker 1: as a derogatory town that.
Speaker 2: People when you meet them you kind of understand why
Speaker 2: they have and yeah, and honestly meeting carnies because they
Speaker 2: showed it actually happened more than once where that would
Speaker 2: be showing there would be a carnival in town at
Speaker 2: the same time a circus was so sometimes we'll camped
Speaker 2: right near each other, so we saw what was going
Speaker 2: on and got to know them sometimes and seeing what
Speaker 2: they were like has put me off carnival rides because
Speaker 2: I'm like, I do not trust my life with these people.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, well.
Speaker 2: Because those rides rely on making sure the maintenance is
Speaker 2: all good, and I just don't trust that it's happening.
Speaker 1: Okay, well it's there's regulations and I'm sure for carnival
Speaker 1: carnival rise, but I'm glad we've made that distinction.
Speaker 2: Yes, I wasn't a Carney, Okay.
Speaker 1: So I remember when the circus came in the in
Speaker 1: the town, or came in an area. They'd set up
Speaker 1: in an oval near a park, and it was a
Speaker 1: big thing. All the kids, let's go to the circus.
Speaker 1: What it was Stardust circus with so they got the
Speaker 1: animals and that.
Speaker 2: Yep. So this was going back to I think it
Speaker 2: was two thousand when we joined, and so back then
Speaker 2: they still had a lot of animals. So there was
Speaker 2: an elephant called Anna who is ended up getting re
Speaker 2: homed at the Double Zoo. And there was monkeys. I
Speaker 2: loved the monkeys. Monkeys are very cute. There was like
Speaker 2: five monkeys. They had ponies. They also had lions, a
Speaker 2: few lions. There was at one point they ended up
Speaker 2: getting some new new lines. So they already had the
Speaker 2: adult lines, and they ended up getting a bunch of
Speaker 2: lion cubs so we got to like hand raise these
Speaker 2: little line How cool that was? That was like in hindsight,
Speaker 2: knowing what you know. I was only younger, so I
Speaker 2: don't actually agree with animals in captivity like that now,
Speaker 2: but at the time, I didn't, you know, I was young.
Speaker 2: I didn't really know.
Speaker 1: No one really appreciated that.
Speaker 2: We used to get protesters come to the surface of
Speaker 2: the animal rights protesters would come and then at first,
Speaker 2: because like obviously the circus people hated the protesters, they'd
Speaker 2: be like, oh, here we go again. But then I
Speaker 2: remember reading one of the fliers and I remember starting
Speaker 2: to think about it, and I was like, I think
Speaker 2: they've got a boy. Yeah, the cubs were gorgeous.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if it was Stardus, but it was
Speaker 1: a circus that came to town round Galston set up
Speaker 1: on the oval where I'd take my dog for a run.
Speaker 1: It was a cattle dog, and the dog would offully,
Speaker 1: just running around the circus set up. And he ran
Speaker 1: up to where the circus was and smelt something from
Speaker 1: the lion's cage. Walked up there. I've never seen the
Speaker 1: dog shit himself, might just sniffing around, looked up and
Speaker 1: this Lin's just staring at him, just yelping, and took off.
Speaker 1: But that would have been a bit of fun. You
Speaker 1: were fifteen sixteen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I was fifteen. We joined and I was
Speaker 2: still there when I turned sixteen. While I was there
Speaker 2: and left a little.
Speaker 1: While after, and what what was your role?
Speaker 2: Ah? So my role every day wasn't as glamorous as
Speaker 2: it might well not that, and I don't think you
Speaker 2: were thinking it sound of glamorous anyway. But so I
Speaker 2: shoveled elephant shit every single morning. So there was there
Speaker 2: was girls and boys jobs, so every morning didn't matter
Speaker 2: who you were or what. So there was because there
Speaker 2: was the family, and then there was performers, and then
Speaker 2: there was like laborers and it didn't matter which one
Speaker 2: you were. You the girls picked up the poop and
Speaker 2: the boys had like other jobs. So every morning you
Speaker 2: had to pick up animal crap. And you were always
Speaker 2: hungover as well. So we used to party almost every
Speaker 2: night or not. You know, you'd have a couple of
Speaker 2: days off here and there, but we drank a lot,
Speaker 2: and so you'd always be picking up shit in the
Speaker 2: morning with the worst hangover. It was disgusting.
Speaker 1: So the day, the day to day life on the road.
Speaker 1: So you literally you see him come into town. Yeah,
Speaker 1: settle all up. So it looks like a lot of
Speaker 1: work was set up performance, yeah, and then it's pack
Speaker 1: up and yeah.
Speaker 2: So sometimes in a bigger town you would stay for
Speaker 2: a week or sometimes even two. But in smaller towns
Speaker 2: so we did, we do what we'd call one nighters.
Speaker 2: So you'd drive to a town, set up and do
Speaker 2: the show, and then that night you would pack down
Speaker 2: the tent that night, and then in the morning you
Speaker 2: do a clean up and then everyone be on the
Speaker 2: road to do it all again that night at another town.
Speaker 2: Long days hard, yeah, yeah, so there was a lot
Speaker 2: of there was. We did a lot of one nighters
Speaker 2: in Wa because Wa so big, lots of small town
Speaker 2: so we covered a lot because I was with the
Speaker 2: circus for almost I want to say almost a year,
Speaker 2: but I think a lot of that was in w A.
Speaker 2: I don't know exactly how long we were there for,
Speaker 2: but yeah, we did a lot of one nighters. And
Speaker 2: then when we were at when we were somewhere like
Speaker 2: for longer. It was good because that was when we
Speaker 2: actually got to So I was besides like cleaning up
Speaker 2: Elephant Pooh, and I used to help in the canteen
Speaker 2: and look after the kids. But I was also a
Speaker 2: training acrobat, so I was I was trying to learn
Speaker 2: the trapeze and I almost got there, but I couldn't.
Speaker 2: I never ended up getting I used to have this
Speaker 2: little in air fit on my way back to the bar,
Speaker 2: so you'd get you there's so many different parts of
Speaker 2: going on the trapeze and each learning each part is terrifying.
Speaker 2: So the first part you have to learn is to
Speaker 2: actually leave the So you're standing up really high obviously
Speaker 2: on this platform, and then there's a bar there that
Speaker 2: you have to grab, and there's a moment where you
Speaker 2: grab the bar and then for a few seconds when
Speaker 2: you're pulling it towards you, you're not holding on to anything.
Speaker 2: That's it's terrifying. So that's the first hurdle you have
Speaker 2: to get over, and then you learn that part, and
Speaker 2: then you go for a swing and then and then
Speaker 2: the next part after learning how to do the swing,
Speaker 2: is to then get caught. And then after you get caught,
Speaker 2: you got to learn how to get thrown back to
Speaker 2: the bar. And that was the part that I never nailed.
Speaker 2: Every time I would get thrown back to the bar,
Speaker 2: like have a little fit.
Speaker 1: I can understand. And that's of the catching nets underneath.
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, it's really because because you can see
Speaker 2: through the net, it's even though you know it's there,
Speaker 2: it really your brain is feeling like you're going to
Speaker 2: go splat, but you don't. But that was actually really fun,
Speaker 2: like once you once you got over the initial fear,
Speaker 2: it started to become fun. But yeah, we didn't actually
Speaker 2: get to do that often because we were moving so much.
Speaker 2: And I was also learning to do a da gio act,
Speaker 2: which is where you get a muscleman throws you around
Speaker 2: in the air for doing tricks just like handstands or
Speaker 2: holding you in certain positions and stuff and flipping you around.
Speaker 2: Because there was a like crabat there that was pregnant,
Speaker 2: so I was being trained to replace.
Speaker 1: Okay, and that's everyone that travels with the circus is
Speaker 1: working or got some something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, most people, most people there's so you have. There
Speaker 2: was a few international acts that would come over to
Speaker 2: join the circus just as performers, but everyone else that
Speaker 2: would join genuinely would join as a corral laborer and
Speaker 2: then they'd start learning, they'd learn an act, and then
Speaker 2: most people ended up doing something in the.
Speaker 1: Show, doing something. Yeah, okay, your brother he became a clown.
Speaker 2: Yes, my brother started clowning brother. Yeah, so he was
Speaker 2: only like thirteen and he became a clown. And because
Speaker 2: he was always in full clown, so I don't think
Speaker 2: people realized he was thirteen. So like we'd be like
Speaker 2: hanging out afterwards drinking and someone some girl would be like,
Speaker 2: who's the little one. I'd like, stay away from him.
Speaker 1: He's too young, a year old picking up women in
Speaker 1: the clown sit? Okay, what so the characters experience there's
Speaker 1: any funny stories or things that?
Speaker 2: So many, so many, it was insane. There was this
Speaker 2: man there I can't even remember his name, but he
Speaker 2: was really he was really cagey about who he was
Speaker 2: and where he was from in his past. And I
Speaker 2: think I think some people probably would have joined the transit,
Speaker 2: you know, the circus for that transient liafetele because they're
Speaker 2: unning for something. Because there was this one guy in particularly,
Speaker 2: we always used to think he's done something, like he's
Speaker 2: on the run from something, because he was just really
Speaker 2: really shut down when you try and ask him about
Speaker 2: his past or where he is from.
Speaker 1: A lot of mystery. There isn't run away to the
Speaker 1: French Foreign Legion or run away to the circus. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how did that come to come to an end.
Speaker 2: So my parents left first. They left and my siblings
Speaker 2: left about maybe eight months into it, and by then
Speaker 2: we traveled all the way up to North Queensland. And
Speaker 2: so my mum actually got into a fight, like a
Speaker 2: punch up. They got into like a scrap and so
Speaker 2: I don't even remember. I remember watching it. I was
Speaker 2: standing there. I was there, and I think I think
Speaker 2: she was having an argument and I don't remember exactly
Speaker 2: what it was about, but I don't know. It just
Speaker 2: it just happened. They were punching on and they were
Speaker 2: both strong women, they were both fit, they were both strong,
Speaker 2: so I think I think they gave each other a
Speaker 2: good crack and then so that was it. Immediately, obviously
Speaker 2: my family was leaving, but I decided to stay because
Speaker 2: at the time I just turned sixteen, which meant legally
Speaker 2: I was allowed to move out of.
Speaker 1: Home travel with a circus.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I didn't really get along very well with
Speaker 2: my mum at that time, so I was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: I decided to stay. And they left and then I
Speaker 2: was there for a few months by myself. But I
Speaker 2: actually it wasn't a good environment and I ended up
Speaker 2: I was struggling with my mental health and I ended
Speaker 2: up so I attempted to take my life, but it
Speaker 2: didn't work. I have jokes about this as well, because
Speaker 2: nothing's off limits. And then it was after that that
Speaker 2: I was like when I survived, I spoke to my
Speaker 2: sister back home and decided to leave because I was
Speaker 2: quite unhappy. So I moved back to Perth by myself
Speaker 2: or with my sister. My sister and I lived together.
Speaker 1: You're struggling with mental health, but yeah, I tried to
Speaker 1: take your own life. What things must have been pretty
Speaker 1: grim for or what.
Speaker 2: I think before we even enjoyed the circus, I was
Speaker 2: already quite unhappy. I think, you know, that discovery of
Speaker 2: your parents being not who they you know, not what
Speaker 2: you thought they were, and I was still quite I
Speaker 2: think I was quite angry and upset at my parents,
Speaker 2: but also you know, my friend having passed away. I
Speaker 2: don't know. I just my teenage years was quite. I was.
Speaker 2: I struggled a lot with my mental health in my teens,
Speaker 2: and I used to self harm and stuff. Before emos
Speaker 2: were in old.
Speaker 1: You weren't.
Speaker 2: It wasn't a trend. Yeah, but yeah, I don't even
Speaker 2: know exactly why I was so unhappy. But yeah, I
Speaker 2: think it was a combination of yeah, my the things
Speaker 2: my parents were doing, and feeling like I think because
Speaker 2: things like I gloss over my childhood a lot, especially
Speaker 2: because I have a show to talk about my childhood,
Speaker 2: I gloss over things. But there were definitely periods where
Speaker 2: it wasn't good, and uh, yeah, I think that obviously
Speaker 2: impacted me a bit, and and my parents being they
Speaker 2: were not happy either, So there was a lot of
Speaker 2: it was quite a volatile home sometimes yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Okay, well it's not it's yeah, we're lucky if we
Speaker 1: grow up in an environment where you got the care
Speaker 1: and not the volatile type of situations you had. And yeah,
Speaker 1: you have an expectation that your dad's not dealing drugs
Speaker 1: and different things.
Speaker 2: But yeah, look, I don't think I cared as much
Speaker 2: about the dealing.
Speaker 1: It was the taking, Okay, on that, like, there would
Speaker 1: have been times when they yeah, you would have had
Speaker 1: to look after them because they're.
Speaker 2: Yeah, or more so just look after ourselves, because there
Speaker 2: was definitely periods where they took too much and they
Speaker 2: would you know, have venders and not coming out of
Speaker 2: their room for days and then when they did come
Speaker 2: out of the room, they'd be coming down, so they'd
Speaker 2: been grumpy. So yeah, there was there was definitely a
Speaker 2: period of time where we kind of just looked after ourselves.
Speaker 1: And did you share that with your siblings, your sister
Speaker 1: and your.
Speaker 2: Brother, probably more so me and my sister. My sister,
Speaker 2: her version of events is that she looked after us,
Speaker 2: which maybe she was a little bit older, so she
Speaker 2: you know, she probably I think as siblings often experience
Speaker 2: childhood differently to each other. Like I've spoken, you know,
Speaker 2: as I got old, us had chats with my brother
Speaker 2: and you know, learned things from him and his perspective
Speaker 2: that I never considered. By the time he was going
Speaker 2: you know, through his teenage years, and my sister had left,
Speaker 2: so he was on his own with my parents. But
Speaker 2: by then they'd you know, joined the circus and then
Speaker 2: they left the circus. But then so, yeah, he had
Speaker 2: his own, he had his own experiences of childhood without us.
Speaker 1: Yeah as well, makes sense. Yeah, okay, well you've you've
Speaker 1: left the circus, you're going through some turmoil, gone back
Speaker 1: to Western Australia. Yeah, okay, what where did the Nikki's
Speaker 1: Excellent Adventure gave from me, so.
Speaker 2: Me and my sister got a house together. So we
Speaker 2: were sixteen and eighteen, and we managed to get a
Speaker 2: little rental ourselves right near my right up the road
Speaker 2: from my nana's house, because we moved in with my
Speaker 2: nana at first, and then my sister, so she didn't
Speaker 2: plan this, so we I think it might have been.
Speaker 2: I think we both when I left the circus because
Speaker 2: we're in Queensland. When I decided to leave, my sister
Speaker 2: flew over and she was going to fly back with me,
Speaker 2: and we just ided to go and visit mom and
Speaker 2: dad and then you because they had settled down in
Speaker 2: this town, beautiful little rain for ust town, and so
Speaker 2: we were visiting them there before we flew back to
Speaker 2: Perth and we've moved in together, and then she suddenly
Speaker 2: found out she's pregnant at about I think she was
Speaker 2: like two months into it. And I said, I will
Speaker 2: help you raise a baby, and I'll be the dad
Speaker 2: like I said I would I would, you know, I'll
Speaker 2: go to work, I'll bring home the income. So we've
Speaker 2: got a house together, and I got a job and
Speaker 2: I was earning like seven dollars an hour or something
Speaker 2: at a sleepermarket.
Speaker 1: I'm just looking at my introduction. Had I didn't say
Speaker 1: that you also became a young father?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 2: And then but then I we had a falling out.
Speaker 2: So so my sister ended up moving back to Queensland
Speaker 2: and she ended up getting with the guy who fathered
Speaker 2: the baby and they ended up having another baby. So
Speaker 2: my sister moved back, I don't know just before, so
Speaker 2: I think that only lasted maybe seven or eight months
Speaker 2: because she moved back just before she had the baby,
Speaker 2: so she was like ready to pop and she moved back.
Speaker 2: We were still getting along, but we'd fallen out over
Speaker 2: me having a much older boyfriend that she didn't approve of,
Speaker 2: which fair enough at the time, I thought she was
Speaker 2: just you know, being judgmental. How were you and I
Speaker 2: would have been sixteen seventeen and he was like almost thirty.
Speaker 1: Big life difference.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, but AMA's materna for my age.
Speaker 1: Look at your life choices.
Speaker 2: So she moved back, and then what did I do?
Speaker 1: Then?
Speaker 2: I would have been so I was working a supermarket
Speaker 2: and then it was while I was working there that
Speaker 2: I met my first like proper boyfriend. Not at the supermarket.
Speaker 2: I was just out. I think it was New Year's Eve.
Speaker 2: I was out drinking for New Years and I ran
Speaker 2: into someone on the news, so she's like dragged me
Speaker 2: along to meet her friends. And then the countdown happened,
Speaker 2: and the countdown was happening, and everyone around us was
Speaker 2: like cheering, and some people were kissing, and this guy
Speaker 2: that I had n't met just was like looked at me.
Speaker 2: We just started started to start kissing. And then that
Speaker 2: was my boyfriend for the next couple of years.
Speaker 1: Of the thought went into that, Yeah, that's good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's good planning thought. Okay, so you're you're living over
Speaker 1: in WA, you've got casual work, you found the boyfriend,
Speaker 1: giving up your custody over your sister's child, ye, or
Speaker 1: did you take it to the courts?
Speaker 2: Yeah, let it go. I still offered child support but no.
Speaker 2: So I was with my boyfriend for about a year
Speaker 2: and then so my parents still lived in Queensland and
Speaker 2: by then they started working on the mind and then
Speaker 2: they were trying to get me to cut move over
Speaker 2: and they said that they could get me and my
Speaker 2: boyfriend a job on the mind soart that they were
Speaker 2: working on if we moved over. And so that's what
Speaker 2: we did. So I think when I was like eighteen,
Speaker 2: we moved over to Queensland so that we could work
Speaker 2: on this mind site. So we did the whole like
Speaker 2: my mum, my dad and me and my brother ended
Speaker 2: up not immediately, but a few years later he ended
Speaker 2: up also where was that lived in cans and would
Speaker 2: fly and fly out.
Speaker 1: It's a tough gig, isn't it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well I go. I ended up doing Flying
Speaker 2: and fly Out for the next well, basically until I
Speaker 2: met my ex husband. So I did it for five.
Speaker 1: Years and money was good at that age.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the money was good, but probably too good for
Speaker 2: an eighteen year old because I was so me and
Speaker 2: the boyfriend broke up the company I worked for in Queensland.
Speaker 2: They were opening a new mine in wa a couple
Speaker 2: of hours out of Perth, and so I saw that
Speaker 2: as an opportunity to go home. So I put my
Speaker 2: hand up to go back over there, and so did
Speaker 2: my parents. So we all ended up coming back to
Speaker 2: w A. I was, you know, when I was with
Speaker 2: my boyfriend, I was quite like settled, and then when
Speaker 2: I came back single and heartbroken for the first time,
Speaker 2: with all this money, I just partied. And that was
Speaker 2: my first sort of real party, proper party phase, I.
Speaker 1: Think, And where did that lead to meth?
Speaker 2: So I made friends, Like one of the first friends
Speaker 2: I made in that town was this girl, uh, and
Speaker 2: I didn't know that she was like that, you know,
Speaker 2: she had a bad reputation in town and she she
Speaker 2: did a lot of that And I didn't even know
Speaker 2: that that's what I was doing when I started doing
Speaker 2: it with her. Like I'd heard of I'd heard of
Speaker 2: meth and I'd seen on TV, like all these horror
Speaker 2: stories about crackheads and stuff, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: I'd never do that.
Speaker 1: And then it's almost there's almost like a social stigma,
Speaker 1: like you could be a junkie on yeah at the
Speaker 1: moment you yeah.
Speaker 2: But I think this was when I quite knew or
Speaker 2: if it was around before, we didn't know about it.
Speaker 2: And but I think this was when it was sort
Speaker 2: of like it was sort of emerging, and it was
Speaker 2: more on the news about cracket, especially the American crackets.
Speaker 2: It was when all those pictures would be Facebook of
Speaker 2: the American meth heads, which were quite confronting, and so
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, I would never do that. But
Speaker 2: then I was doing it without even knowing that that's
Speaker 2: what I was doing, because I guess I didn't ask
Speaker 2: what am I taking right now? And it's very addictive.
Speaker 2: So out of all the drugs I've ever tried, that's
Speaker 2: the one that actually was really addictive and was really
Speaker 2: hard to stop doing.
Speaker 1: What these are about it, because I've had other people
Speaker 1: say that that they would try different drugs, but meth.
Speaker 2: You get the hit and it definitely yeah, so it
Speaker 2: definitely gives you like a feeling of euphoria and there's
Speaker 2: something addictive just in so eventually when I started smoking it,
Speaker 2: like the smoking is addictive and even just watching the
Speaker 2: swirl and but the feeling is like like it's very
Speaker 2: It gives you so much confidence. And I'm someone who
Speaker 2: I can be quite socially anxious. I didn't used to
Speaker 2: think I was, but I did realize I only when
Speaker 2: I thought I was a social butterfly was when I
Speaker 2: was drunk and on drugs all the time. As soon
Speaker 2: as I tried to socialize sober, I was like, oh
Speaker 2: this is really hard. So uh yeah, it gave me
Speaker 2: a lot of confidence, I guess while I was on it,
Speaker 2: but it was such a high that the payoff or
Speaker 2: you know what it cost you was that the calm
Speaker 2: down and the low from it afterwards was worse than
Speaker 2: anything else I've ever had. So the calmdown was extraordinary,
Speaker 2: And yeah, it would put you in a really bad
Speaker 2: place mentally.
Speaker 1: When you when you started using meth, When did you
Speaker 1: realize that it got hold of you?
Speaker 2: I think my parents they tried to shape me out
Speaker 2: of it. So but at this because they went through
Speaker 2: periods of so when they left the circus, they weren't
Speaker 2: doing drugs anymore, and they went through a quiet period themselves.
Speaker 2: So at this time they were on the straight and narrow,
Speaker 2: and then I wasn't, and so they weren't silly. They
Speaker 2: could see the signs. They knew what I was probably doing.
Speaker 2: And then because we all worked together, I was like
Speaker 2: taking a lot of sick days and being a bit unreliable,
Speaker 2: And so my parents ended up trying to intervene, and
Speaker 2: they told my boss and they wanted they actually my
Speaker 2: boss said that your dad thinks I should fire you,
Speaker 2: and I was like, that's a bit harsh. And then
Speaker 2: my boss ended up giving me a weird promotion. So
Speaker 2: it didn't make much sense at the time because he
Speaker 2: was He was just like, oh, well, are you unhappy
Speaker 2: with your job? And so this chat that started with
Speaker 2: well with being told that you're on drugs and that's
Speaker 2: why you're being unreliable, But is it because you're unhappy?
Speaker 2: And would you like to do this role instead? So
Speaker 2: I never really understood that, but later it turned out
Speaker 2: so the boss was also a massive sleeve. So I think.
Speaker 1: I would imagine in that that industry, the fly and
Speaker 1: fly out, like I speak to female cops and female
Speaker 1: prison wardens, and in that male dominated industry, it would
Speaker 1: have been a lot of that in Yeah, yeah, you'd
Speaker 1: have to Yeah, you'd have to stand your ground.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well I was. I did science for a
Speaker 2: few years, and uh, all them a lot of the men,
Speaker 2: would you know, pretend to be single and then you
Speaker 2: find out that they have families and kids at home.
Speaker 2: There was a lot of that. But yeah, it's it's
Speaker 2: not it's not a it's not a great environment.
Speaker 1: I think the and could you from a personal point
Speaker 1: of view, could you manage it like the sleeves, you
Speaker 1: could still take the job.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I think I've always been able to handle
Speaker 2: sleeze bags. I think because you learn to deal with
Speaker 2: them so young. But I also when I was working
Speaker 2: on the mine, I started doing skimpy bar work. So
Speaker 2: because I worked in a bar as well, I got
Speaker 2: a bar job, so that I was I had more money.
Speaker 2: And then because I can't remember what I was, because
Speaker 2: it was before I got on the meth quite badly,
Speaker 2: that I was like, I want to save up and
Speaker 2: I want to buy a house and all these things.
Speaker 2: And so I had a second job. And then I
Speaker 2: don't even know how I even found out about it.
Speaker 2: Might have just been looking in the papers and seeing
Speaker 2: ads for skimpy bar mades. So I started doing skimpy.
Speaker 1: Barmoe, skimpy bar maids.
Speaker 2: So it's huge in Wa, not as big over here.
Speaker 2: So skimpy bar maids is bar stuff that where next
Speaker 2: to nothing. So it was like lingerie outfits and stuff
Speaker 2: behind the bar serving drinks, and it's it's huge in
Speaker 2: w as A. It's a big thing. Skimpys like make
Speaker 2: a lot of money in w A just for serving
Speaker 2: drinks in their bikinis or whatever.
Speaker 1: And get tips.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the tips, tips are good. And so I did that,
Speaker 2: and that I think helped me deal with sleeves, bags
Speaker 2: and just like laugh it off and.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you could push someone away and not take
Speaker 1: offense and just yeah heading stupid, Yeah you got no chance.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, Okay. So you're working in the mines, you're
Speaker 1: on meth, you're working this in the terrible Okay.
Speaker 2: So the myth, uh was it was probably I reckon
Speaker 2: maybe like six or seven months that I was doing it,
Speaker 2: Like I would have started off doing it, and it
Speaker 2: was on weekends, and then the weekends started getting longer. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so instead of just you know, Friday Saturday, then it
Speaker 2: would be Sunday, and then it would be Thursday, Friday Saturday,
Speaker 2: and then it would be Wednesday, Thursday, Friday Saturday. And
Speaker 2: these vendors would get longer. And then I think the
Speaker 2: wake up call for me was my mental health just
Speaker 2: got so bad, uh. And I knew that it was
Speaker 2: because like it coincided with every time I partied, and
Speaker 2: so I knew I had to make a choice. So
Speaker 2: it took me a little while because I, you know,
Speaker 2: tried to stop doing it, but were still hanging around
Speaker 2: the same friends. And then I realized that if I
Speaker 2: was going to stop, I needed to change my friendship circle.
Speaker 2: And so I did because I didn't want to keep
Speaker 2: feeling so bad, right right.
Speaker 1: Okay, now from the skimpy bar, you also ended up stripping.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that happened. So that happened after so I'd
Speaker 2: gotten another I was working somewhere else. By this time,
Speaker 2: I was doing five fay from Perth to Queensland for
Speaker 2: a construction site. I'd got made redundant. So this was
Speaker 2: two thousand and nine global financial crisis. We're in the
Speaker 2: middle of it, and so redundancy was a big thing
Speaker 2: at the time, and I got made redundant, and I
Speaker 2: just before I got made redundant, I'd met some strippers
Speaker 2: and I was hanging out, like on my week's home.
Speaker 2: I was partying with these strippers. So I was parting
Speaker 2: a lot again. Yeah, But because this was every time
Speaker 2: i'd so, I got in another relationship and settled down
Speaker 2: for a little while, and then I was single again.
Speaker 2: So every time I ran amuck was when I was single,
Speaker 2: because as soon as I would get in a relationship,
Speaker 2: i'd settle down, I'd be good for a while, and
Speaker 2: then single me would just be chaos. So I was
Speaker 2: saying I was newly I got made redundant, and I'd
Speaker 2: been hanging out with these new strip of friends that
Speaker 2: I'd met, and then I lost my job. I went
Speaker 2: to first, I went to Vegas, and I ended up
Speaker 2: in America for almost three months because while I was
Speaker 2: in Vegas, I was only meant to go for eight
Speaker 2: days eight day holiday come back. While I was over there,
Speaker 2: I lost my passport while I was drunk in a
Speaker 2: night club and I couldn't get home, and so I
Speaker 2: had to end up going to la for like a
Speaker 2: week to try and sort that out because it was
Speaker 2: a long weekend in Australia and they observed the public holidays,
Speaker 2: so the embassy was shut. So it took me quite
Speaker 2: a while to figure out a new passport to get home.
Speaker 2: And then by that time, I'd met these new people
Speaker 2: and they invited me to stay, and so I did,
Speaker 2: and so I stayed for almost three months before I
Speaker 2: came back. And then when I was I said I
Speaker 2: was obviously coming back to no job. I was chatting
Speaker 2: to my friend and I'd ran out of money and
Speaker 2: she was the stripper, and she booked me into a
Speaker 2: strip job the day I flew home from America. So
Speaker 2: I flew in jet lagged and did it. My first
Speaker 2: strip job that night. Okay, well it wasn't stripped, it
Speaker 2: was topless nude waitressing.
Speaker 1: Okay, And how did that feel? Jet lagged, tied, emotional.
Speaker 2: I probably took a big line of cocaine. I don't
Speaker 2: really remember. I do remember I remember having like I
Speaker 2: had fun. But yeah, I remember. I remember being because
Speaker 2: it was my first time, I was like, well, I
Speaker 2: won't go nude. I'll just do topless. And then within
Speaker 2: a couple of hours I've been offered enough money that
Speaker 2: I was like, okay, I'll go no, and I kind
Speaker 2: of just escalated from there.
Speaker 1: I can imagine how it would escalap from there. We're
Speaker 1: going to we're going to take a break, we'll leave you.
Speaker 1: We'll leave you as a stripper. But there's so much
Speaker 1: more to you. And that's such a fascinating, fascinating story
Speaker 1: and a good way you tell it. It's all life experiences,
Speaker 1: like you know, listen to it. Not everyone lives a normal,
Speaker 1: straight and narrow life. Things things happened. So thanks for
Speaker 1: being so open, the enormous of us. When we get back,
Speaker 1: we'll explore your stripping career a little bit more. We'll
Speaker 1: talk about I want to get more of a sense
Speaker 1: of the life of the partner of a bike. And
Speaker 1: also we'll talk about your new career as a stand
Speaker 1: up comedian and I'm enjoying the chat.
Speaker 2: Thank you, sounds good.
Speaker 1: Cheers.