Speaker 1: Narcisst I think the description is more but self love,
Speaker 1: and I have been a narcissist most of my life.
Speaker 1: I genuinely believe, genuinely believe that I have cracked that cod,
Speaker 1: but that I am not someone like someone today said.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously I'm on the online. You're ruining your legacy,
Speaker 1: and that legacy, what legacy is? It's all that's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: There's nothing to lose.
Speaker 2: My guest today is someone I've shared more hours behind
Speaker 2: a microphone with than anyone else in my life. For
Speaker 2: thirteen years. Dave hughes and I woke up together before dawn,
Speaker 2: talking our way through breakfast radio. We laughed a lot,
Speaker 2: We argued. We watch each other raise children, navigate marriages,
Speaker 2: build careers. I know Hughsey as a colleague, but more
Speaker 2: importantly I know him as a friend. Australia knows Hughsey
Speaker 2: as one of its most successful comedians, the bloke with
Speaker 2: the unmistakable voice, the quick wit, and the ability to
Speaker 2: find the funny in almost anything. But there's always been
Speaker 2: another side to him too, a more introspective Hughesy, someone
Speaker 2: who's spoken openly about self doubt, who's questioned himself, even
Speaker 2: while making millions of Australian's laugh and millions of dollars. Lately,
Speaker 2: many of us have seen yet another side of him,
Speaker 2: a man speaking passionately about politics and the direction of
Speaker 2: the country, prompting plenty of debate about who Dave Hughes
Speaker 2: really is. So today I wanted to talk to the
Speaker 2: man I've known for nearly thirty years and find out
Speaker 2: who he is. Right now, this is Dave Hughes.
Speaker 1: Husy, Katie. It's great to be on no filter. What
Speaker 1: a what an it is for me.
Speaker 2: I'm supposed to introduce you. Okay, you are my friend. Yes,
Speaker 2: you are my longtime colleague.
Speaker 1: Yep. You are a self made man. Thank you, which
Speaker 1: is rare. You are.
Speaker 2: Increasingly, it seems, without fear or judgment, maybe without maybe
Speaker 2: maybe without common sense.
Speaker 1: Do you think, oh, some would say without common sense. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think those people don't have common sense, so I'd
Speaker 1: beg to differ with those people. I think those people
Speaker 1: are unaware of what's around them and they're too comfortable
Speaker 1: in their ignorance.
Speaker 2: Well, you know you are entitled to every comfort now
Speaker 2: because you've worked very successfully in your career for.
Speaker 1: Thirty five years. Getting added, so yes, a bit less thirty.
Speaker 1: I really started set up comedy in nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 1: So I started my comedy journey thirty three years ago.
Speaker 1: Was that when you went to wa Yes, I dropped
Speaker 1: out of UNI, spent a year on the dog trying
Speaker 1: to become a professional AFL player. Account I was getting
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars a games. There was a lot of
Speaker 1: money back then. Yeah, right, not bad, yes, but it
Speaker 1: didn't work out. So you had grown up in Warnable.
Speaker 1: This is a country town in Victoria. Yep, thirty thousand
Speaker 1: people's yes, probably twenty five thousand there. So it's gone
Speaker 1: up slightly in population, but a lot in footprint. There
Speaker 1: used to be a lot more people in each house,
Speaker 1: all right, Yes, yeah, the population has spread out far
Speaker 1: and wide, but every house has less people in it.
Speaker 1: Population hasn't I mean that? Yeah, it hasn't increased that much.
Speaker 1: Well that's the story of Australia. It is, aside from newcomers. Yes,
Speaker 1: so yes, yeah we have not. People have been here
Speaker 1: for a long time and not having children because they
Speaker 1: can't afford it, which is ridiculous. Do you think that's
Speaker 1: the only reason? Partly, yeah, I do partly it is
Speaker 1: well you have three children, Yes, I have four children. Yes,
Speaker 1: you're way above average when nation building. I'm just you
Speaker 1: are definitely with four, but four is a rarity these days.
Speaker 1: Who was it who said?
Speaker 2: Was it Winston Churchill who said one for mother, one
Speaker 2: for father, one for the country.
Speaker 1: Well, I think it's Peter Castellio. That's when the baby
Speaker 1: boners came in, remember, and I thought, I think he
Speaker 1: was quoting someone. He might have been, but that's what
Speaker 1: I remember it from. And everyone you've got a baby
Speaker 1: bonus and people bought plasma TVs with you. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: Had a kid who bought a plasma? Yeah, why not
Speaker 1: go on for it. I think there should be more
Speaker 1: reward for children. I think people who have children you
Speaker 1: should pay less tax. I think it's the only way
Speaker 1: to increase population in Australia apart from immigration. I think
Speaker 1: this is to work with the tax system. And you've
Speaker 1: got so many ideas I do. I've only really started
Speaker 1: into it, but there's quite a few of them. People say,
Speaker 1: I don't know what people say, but you know, you
Speaker 1: know what people say. People. It's a wide range of
Speaker 1: what people there's a wide range of what people.
Speaker 2: Say, so, you know, we know who have worked in
Speaker 2: the public eye that and particularly in comedy, I think
Speaker 2: people are polarizing because you expose yourself in comedy and
Speaker 2: people always want to shoot down someone and they're not funny,
Speaker 2: they're not whatever. But you have really taken a step
Speaker 2: outside of that now to the fact that you are
Speaker 2: being abused by people, some of whom have been your friends,
Speaker 2: very close friends and colleagues.
Speaker 1: Tell me, I don't give me the name list. I
Speaker 1: remember I sent your screenshop the other way. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: that was right, Yes, called a monster, called a monster
Speaker 1: by Greg Fleet, who was a comedian. Yes, I've since
Speaker 1: I've since refir at my ex account, which is my
Speaker 1: Twitter account to talk to Greg public forum. Right.
Speaker 2: And yet other people on the street and I have
Speaker 2: seen this, I have borne witness to this. You are
Speaker 2: like a popular hero on the streets.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well yeah, so I'm not. I am experiencing something
Speaker 1: I've never experienced before. It in its in its volume
Speaker 1: of congratulations on the street by so many people of
Speaker 1: so many different demographics, so many ethnicities, so many these
Speaker 1: sort of income ranges. Yeah, a lot of people which
Speaker 1: I didn't realize. And I think possible partly when you
Speaker 1: do attain a level of wealth that insulate you from
Speaker 1: the problems that most people have. And yes, and that's
Speaker 1: the problem with politicians. Yeah, and you're always pointing out, well,
Speaker 1: that's when you know And then yes, but then if
Speaker 1: you do step into that world, you realize these people
Speaker 1: have been waiting for someone to speak for them. It
Speaker 1: sounds ridiculous and I sound like a wanker for saying that,
Speaker 1: But you just need to spend a day with me
Speaker 1: and see how many people congratulate me and say that
Speaker 1: exactly that or you know, not just online but in DMS,
Speaker 1: or you know, just publicly online or but in the street.
Speaker 1: It's crazy.
Speaker 2: But also, like you said, it's unexpected, yes, that someone
Speaker 2: who has achieved a certain degree of success or wealth
Speaker 2: will put their head above the parapet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well I mean I got to the Yeah, I look,
Speaker 1: I am lucky, as you know, I don't have to
Speaker 1: carry favor to any particular company at the moment. I'm
Speaker 1: not you know, I'm not a you know, in a
Speaker 1: media job that requires appeasement of sponsors or appeasement of
Speaker 1: the government, who are basically almost the biggest sponsor of
Speaker 1: much media these days because they're the only under advertising.
Speaker 1: So I don't have to worry about any of that,
Speaker 1: you know, And so I just I can speak my mind.
Speaker 2: But I think what I really want to get to
Speaker 2: is your background. Because you were not born with a
Speaker 2: silver spoon in your mouth. You were not born into privilege.
Speaker 1: No I was. I grew up in the west of Warnable,
Speaker 1: which is the Commission area Warnable, so the poor area
Speaker 1: of one of the poor areas. And yeah, so with
Speaker 1: a street full of factory workers basically, and your dad
Speaker 1: was one of them. Yeah. He was a painter and
Speaker 1: decorator who couldn't work out invoicing and you know, apparently
Speaker 1: was never very good at chasing up bills. So basically,
Speaker 1: I think my mother said to him, we can't live
Speaker 1: like this. You're not You're doing work, but you're not
Speaker 1: getting paid for it, and so you need to find
Speaker 1: out a job where he gets a regular income. So
Speaker 1: he moved from doing that to the Neistleigh factory Nestles
Speaker 1: we called it Nestles. Sorry that good nestle became a trend,
Speaker 1: you way to say nestles. So yeah, so it was
Speaker 1: the Nestles. There's about three factories and Warnerable. There's Nestles,
Speaker 1: there was the woolen mill where you'd made blankets. There
Speaker 1: was the cheese factory. The factory was there. The cheese
Speaker 1: factory is still out, so really the only factory that's
Speaker 1: that's still there where your brother worked. Yeah, there was
Speaker 1: Fletcher Jones. They made clothes, clothes. Yeah, there was a
Speaker 1: number of factories in Warnable when this back when Australia
Speaker 1: used to produce stuff, make stuff. Doesn't really do it anymore,
Speaker 1: so I don't know why, but I sort of do
Speaker 1: because it's cheap labor, you know, the parts of the world.
Speaker 1: So we ended up, you know, just importing all our
Speaker 1: stuff rather than making any of it. So and your mum,
Speaker 1: Carmel was a nurse. Yes, she was midwife, Yeah, in
Speaker 1: Warnable and yeah Corot local towns and yeah, so started
Speaker 1: in Sandringham in Melbourne. So yeah she was. Yeah, she
Speaker 1: was a do you know she was a she grub
Speaker 1: an orphan with her sister, so they grew up in
Speaker 1: an orphanage Balarat. So she had a really tough, tough
Speaker 1: no parents, Yes, so it was it was yeah, but
Speaker 1: she was looked after a sister in the orphanage. Basically
Speaker 1: she was a bit younger than hers, and then she
Speaker 1: had four children with dys Yes, four children quickly with
Speaker 1: my father and yes, and they were like, yeah, very
Speaker 1: broke at the time. So your twin sisters, I've got
Speaker 1: sisters or twins there four years older than me and
Speaker 1: a brother who's two years older them. Mick, yes, and
Speaker 1: then you yes, So will they be four under four?
Speaker 1: She had said, yes, my sisters aren't quite four years
Speaker 1: older than me though, but yeah, so she had four
Speaker 1: children under four. They had four children under four.
Speaker 2: So and your family life was interesting because you've discussed before.
Speaker 2: We'll get onto that the fact that you don't drink.
Speaker 2: Your dad was fond of a drink to.
Speaker 1: Your fond Yeah. I think it's the Irish heritage of
Speaker 1: you know, it's a big drinking culture, big drinking tradition.
Speaker 2: And well, you know, that's another quote from a writer
Speaker 2: and I can't remember who it is who said God
Speaker 2: invented whiskey to stop the Irish ruling the world. Well,
Speaker 2: you grew up in Warnable, engaging in what was one
Speaker 2: of two past times for young men in that town.
Speaker 2: One was footy and the other one was drinking.
Speaker 1: It was a big combination of both really, So yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean most boys played footy then in Warnable and
Speaker 1: you know, got really drunk after the games, and you know,
Speaker 1: punched each other in the streets or tried to, you know,
Speaker 1: pick up, and I didn't pick up much. I got
Speaker 1: punched a lot. So have a kebab and go home.
Speaker 1: Not abab. It was a lamb jaffle. Actually who made those?
Speaker 1: Not my sister Robert. Someone else called Amrie. The courthouse kitchen.
Speaker 1: It was a courthouse kitchen, of course, and it was
Speaker 1: across the road from the lock up. Actually I ended
Speaker 1: up in a number of times. Yeah, would you end
Speaker 1: up in the lock up? But getting that drunk that
Speaker 1: I would do things. I would never a violent person,
Speaker 1: So I would get punched being a smart ass, and
Speaker 1: I might try to punch back, but it wasn't very
Speaker 1: good really, so not really not violence, just being I
Speaker 1: don't know. I'd wake up there and don't really know
Speaker 1: how I got there, and I wouldn't be charged with
Speaker 1: any like offences apart from drunken disorderly, so basically falling
Speaker 1: asleep on the road. They're probasly saving me from killing myself,
Speaker 1: really know, from just falling from my car or walking
Speaker 1: off somebody. Yeah, one of my last times a drinking.
Speaker 1: Me and my mate Mano. I can't even remember how
Speaker 1: we did it, but we must have stolen the ladder
Speaker 1: from someone's house and then we put the ladder towards
Speaker 1: next to a Norfolk pine tree. You know, the first
Speaker 1: branch is way by, you can you could, and then
Speaker 1: the ladder up to the first branch and then climbed
Speaker 1: to the top of this one thirty tree or forty
Speaker 1: minute tree. And I'd just remember coming to and looking
Speaker 1: down at the police with their megaphone saying come down,
Speaker 1: like I don't know how I got up here.
Speaker 2: Daylight at this point, like yeahach morning. Had you spent
Speaker 2: the whole night in the tree? I don't know, but
Speaker 2: I remember we had barbecue. We had burger ings actually
Speaker 2: with us soon, so we had burgerings. We were prepared
Speaker 2: climbed to the dom.
Speaker 1: Will. My mate was a farm boy and he would
Speaker 1: so he just jumped down the tree real quick, and
Speaker 1: I was like, I can't remember getting up here. Guys
Speaker 1: going to take a long time to come down because
Speaker 1: I'm scared now. So it took a long time, but
Speaker 1: end up in the back of the div van and
Speaker 1: went to the lock up for you know, another sleep,
Speaker 1: I suppose.
Speaker 2: So, yeah, and how long was that before you decided
Speaker 2: to not drink anymore? But this was all this all
Speaker 2: happened with your decision to go to Perth.
Speaker 1: It was before that. So I well, like, I was
Speaker 1: pretty good at school, but I wasn't focused. And you know,
Speaker 1: I remember the teachers calling me my mother up to
Speaker 1: school between year eleven and year twelve when saying, and
Speaker 1: the teachers, you know, the principal or one of the
Speaker 1: other teachers saying, this kid has intelligence. He could actually
Speaker 1: do well if he can focus. And it was before
Speaker 1: ADHD was ever a thing. So and and so my
Speaker 1: mother said, come on, you can do and it was
Speaker 1: smart as well, so and so I focused to a degree.
Speaker 1: In year twelve got the best mark for the school.
Speaker 1: It was the year with the ducks. Yeah, but it
Speaker 1: was it was a bad year. It really was a
Speaker 1: bad It was their worst year. I'm sure it was so.
Speaker 1: And I'm not kidding because the next year, how big
Speaker 1: was the school year twelve was probably sixty boys, okay,
Speaker 1: but the next year, look, generally the Ducks would get
Speaker 1: presented to the to the school cohort the next year
Speaker 1: at the start of the year. So you know, you
Speaker 1: want to be like this person. Yeah, yeah, this is
Speaker 1: if you study hard, you can be this guy. Yeah.
Speaker 1: They didn't deal it with me. Oh did you not
Speaker 1: get invited and get invited back? So they thought it
Speaker 1: was a year that's one to scrub off the But anyway,
Speaker 1: so I was a day and I ended up with
Speaker 1: the you know those days. My none of my family
Speaker 1: ever been in university, and I'm like, even my cousins
Speaker 1: hadn't been.
Speaker 2: No one had been so calm when she studied nursing.
Speaker 2: Would have done it in hospital then, which is what
Speaker 2: they did.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, so you study, but it's not like yeah no, no,
Speaker 1: not a degree. Yeah yeah, I wasn't so so yeah.
Speaker 1: So but then I thought, what can I do? I
Speaker 1: wanted to do law, but I didn't get the marks
Speaker 1: to get into law, so I was duck without getting
Speaker 1: a muss. So I'm saying it was not a great mark,
Speaker 1: but I got the first The thing I could get
Speaker 1: into is in the cutoff. Did you want to be
Speaker 1: an elite person? You know? I wanted to be a wanker?
Speaker 1: Basically was information technology. It was the first year, they
Speaker 1: offered it as a degree at swin Burn, right, and
Speaker 1: you got it. I got a scholarship to do it
Speaker 1: as well, so you got paid to do it. So
Speaker 1: you got to get a degree and you got paid. Wow.
Speaker 1: And so I didn't really know what information technology was.
Speaker 1: The computers. Yeah, it was just was on the cusp
Speaker 1: of the internet, right, the Internet really started nineteen ninety.
Speaker 1: This is nine eighty nine, so this is right there
Speaker 1: where it's like all of a sudden, you know, the
Speaker 1: next year you're seeing jobs in the paper for it,
Speaker 1: and they're like two hundred thousand dollars a year, like
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety or something. So it was like it
Speaker 1: was just as that that rocket ship took off. But
Speaker 1: I could not focus. And this again I read this
Speaker 1: recently classic ADHD. You can get through school because there's
Speaker 1: a structure that you can't avoid, but if you're real,
Speaker 1: but if you're you get to UNI, you can't focus.
Speaker 1: And I could not focus because they have no structure
Speaker 1: in place in your brain won't I could not. And
Speaker 1: also I had no interest in all the maths that
Speaker 1: went along with it, even though it was pretty good
Speaker 1: at maths. I just had no interesting coding so boring.
Speaker 1: So how long did you stick that out? I quit
Speaker 1: after six weeks, so and then you went to accounting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I worked in an abatoire for a year for that,
Speaker 1: that's right, Yes, which is a brutal way to make
Speaker 1: a living. Brutal, that's I'm a vegan, but I didn't
Speaker 1: become a vegan then. But I always say, and I
Speaker 1: still if I walk past an animal rights protest and
Speaker 1: I'll ask them you're vegan, and if any of them
Speaker 1: say no, I just go go home, because you are
Speaker 1: not helping animals. Because saying up to the cup is
Speaker 1: if you don't like horse racing, you don't like animals
Speaker 1: being treated cruelly, and you eat meat, well you're a
Speaker 1: hypocrite because meat eating meat is cruel animals. That's just
Speaker 1: that's just the end of the day. That's just it.
Speaker 1: So and my kids eat meat, So I'm not like saying,
Speaker 1: don't eat meat. But I know I love me. I'm
Speaker 1: not and you're always trying to lecture me. No, I'm
Speaker 1: just saying no, I'm not. I don't think it's good
Speaker 1: for health, by the way, and that's why I stopped eating.
Speaker 1: But I did have a crack at Adam Bant, who
Speaker 1: was the leader of the Greens back in only recently,
Speaker 1: because he wasn't a vegan or even a vegetarian. So
Speaker 1: I'm like, mate, stop banging on about animal cruelty or
Speaker 1: you know anyway, that's it. I just walk. If you're
Speaker 1: going to talk the talk, walk the walk. Alright, that's
Speaker 1: all all, Sadi, all right, so back and warnable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what was the talk you were talking? I just wanted
Speaker 1: to be a hero. I just wanted to be I
Speaker 1: said to my I used to say to my mates
Speaker 1: I'm going to have a beautiful wife one day, and
Speaker 1: they said, no, you won't. I said I will. So
Speaker 1: I would say, like you were still a virgin at
Speaker 1: this point, Yes, I was. I was desperately self obsessed.
Speaker 1: I'd like to think I am less self obsessed. Now
Speaker 1: some people disagree, and I acknowledge that, but but yeah,
Speaker 1: so I was. I would when I was growing up,
Speaker 1: I would thought, no one's ever going to love me.
Speaker 1: I'm too ugly to be loved. And it's like I
Speaker 1: used to just think about it all the time. It
Speaker 1: was ridiculous. I was so so wanted to be romantic,
Speaker 1: but I had no takers, and I was it was
Speaker 1: a self defeating principal. I would walk past. If I
Speaker 1: walked down the street and I heard a group of
Speaker 1: girls laughing, I'd think I would think they're laughing at me.
Speaker 1: I was, so I couldn't have walked past a girls school.
Speaker 1: That was ridiculous. And it was like, now, if I
Speaker 1: walk down the street, a group of girls are laughing
Speaker 1: at you, they're laughing at me. Yeah, you know, it's
Speaker 1: a different perspective in a good way. Yes, well, they're
Speaker 1: laughing with whatever.
Speaker 2: They're like.
Speaker 1: I don't suggest you walk past girls' schools a lot neither.
Speaker 1: It's not a good look for you. I didn't say,
Speaker 1: do I say girls school, but anyway by girls women.
Speaker 2: And yet you know because Australian Story did a story
Speaker 2: on you last year. Yes, and I didn't know this,
Speaker 2: but bre Our producer told us that was their highest
Speaker 2: rating episode that they did.
Speaker 1: Yes, someone told me that Jesus I should remember it, Robin,
Speaker 1: I think, Rob, you don't need to remember. No. But
Speaker 1: she was lovely and she did a great job.
Speaker 2: But they described you as this is a great description
Speaker 2: of you, someone caught between self loathing and self belief.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, there's a lot of stuff. It's a classic narcissist.
Speaker 1: That's morbid self love. I think is the term narcisst.
Speaker 1: I think the description is morbid self love. And I
Speaker 1: have been a narcissist most of my life. I genuinely believe,
Speaker 1: genuinely believe that I have cracked that code, but that
Speaker 1: I am not someone like someone today said, I'm I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously I'm on the online. You're you're ruining your legacy,
Speaker 1: and that legacy what legacy is? It's all that's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: There's nothing to lose. I don't believe what they're talking
Speaker 1: about is you're probably your comedic legacy. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Right, So in comedy you are one of the titans
Speaker 2: of in Australia. There's no doubt, and you're at the
Speaker 2: top of your game and your stage craft is.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. I love stand up
Speaker 1: comedy the most and I always recommend someone if you've
Speaker 1: never seen me, do stand up comedy live. Don't judge me,
Speaker 1: don't judge my comed comedic ability until you've been in
Speaker 1: a room with me for an hour. I believe I
Speaker 1: can convert most people if you give me an hour
Speaker 1: of your time.
Speaker 2: But when you started, so when you were growing up
Speaker 2: and you were kind of you were always kind of
Speaker 2: an outline, like you always had a pack of mates
Speaker 2: through footy and whatever. Mentally you were an outlier because
Speaker 2: you had these dreams for yourself that took you well
Speaker 2: beyond warnable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I didn't tell people about them for quite
Speaker 1: a while. But no, so yeah, not didn't want but
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say.
Speaker 2: Where did they come from? Because the person in your
Speaker 2: family who always believed in you, because.
Speaker 1: My mother was always absolutely so well, she was always
Speaker 1: Mum always thought that I I think she thought I
Speaker 1: had greatness in me. I think she did so, and
Speaker 1: she always she knew I was smart from the from
Speaker 1: like I was apparently I was really I would always
Speaker 1: ask questions about, you know, the world. When I was
Speaker 1: like three. You could see that I had a curiosity
Speaker 1: that you know, to be curious is to be intelligent.
Speaker 1: To be to wonder about the world is a sign
Speaker 1: of intelligence. And she she could see that in me
Speaker 1: as a very young person. So yeah, she could see
Speaker 1: through the way. I was a quiet kid, really quite shy,
Speaker 1: really shy. I remember I remember being in prep, which
Speaker 1: is Victoria. That's the first year of school. Others stays,
Speaker 1: so different descriptions for that year. But in prep I
Speaker 1: was too shy to talk to anyone, so I would
Speaker 1: walk around the playground on my own and it was
Speaker 1: like yeah, so, and it was like I was just
Speaker 1: yet I was an overthinker. And that's the problem I
Speaker 1: think sometimes with people who are intelligent, you can think
Speaker 1: too much and it's not relaxing. So yeah, I was
Speaker 1: that kid. Then I started playing sport, even at the
Speaker 1: age even in prepper, I start playing sport, and that
Speaker 1: got menected, right, that's the language that yes, yes, so
Speaker 1: that you could speak with others. But Mum could say
Speaker 1: that I was a smart person and she was yet
Speaker 1: so she was always on my side that.
Speaker 2: Way, but for them and for your mum and what
Speaker 2: she knew and the world that she knew, and she
Speaker 2: was a very salt of the earth, grounded woman who
Speaker 2: had worked incredibly hard her whole life and forged this family.
Speaker 1: Yes, along with dad and with your dad absolutely.
Speaker 2: But that was also came with its owner chair absolutely
Speaker 2: different shoes. But when you said to her, I'm going
Speaker 2: to w a did you say because I want to
Speaker 2: be a comedian.
Speaker 1: I don't think so no, I did, I, dad said,
Speaker 1: and she'd help me. I did, said, I think I
Speaker 1: wrote a letter to the Strain Radio School trying to
Speaker 1: get in before that. Yeah, before yeah, yeah, And it
Speaker 1: was a very brief letter and it was funny. I thought.
Speaker 1: She showed it to me years later said I'm good
Speaker 1: at dealing with people or something like that. It was,
Speaker 1: I was right, but it was like it wasn't They didn't.
Speaker 1: They rejected me, but not that I gave much to reject.
Speaker 1: Was this when you work at the ABS would have
Speaker 1: been yeah? So yeah, so and I did a I
Speaker 1: did a community I got a community radio show actually
Speaker 1: Dan and Warnable so, which is a three way FM
Speaker 1: and with mates. Yeah. Well, I had applied for it
Speaker 1: because I was funny at foot you I was. I was.
Speaker 1: I was quietly funny and I knew it, and I
Speaker 1: knew I was funny from the edge of bats. I thought,
Speaker 1: I've got some I've got a comedy gif. I thought
Speaker 1: I had a comedy GIF. And I remember lying in
Speaker 1: bed seriously about the age of thirteen one night. You know,
Speaker 1: I had terrible trouble sleeping every night. I was a
Speaker 1: terrible sleeper. Sleep from the age from so young, I
Speaker 1: had trouble sleeping. Why what was going on? Everything just
Speaker 1: couldn't stop thinking, okay, generally about worry or worry combined
Speaker 1: with wanting to be a hero. How can I be
Speaker 1: the hero I believe I should be? And why aren't
Speaker 1: I the hero? Why don't other people acknowledge my greatness?
Speaker 1: Why did they see it? Yes, that was from a
Speaker 1: very young age, so yeah, like why didn't I get
Speaker 1: slept in that footy team? I should have been there?
Speaker 1: Why didn't that girl pick me? Rub out of the dickhead?
Speaker 1: You know all that stuff. So but I remember think lying, eying,
Speaker 1: and juice. I think I know what I want to
Speaker 1: do with my life, and I kid you not the
Speaker 1: vivid memory of feeling gratitude at the age of maybe thirteen,
Speaker 1: country lad, thinking I want to be a comedian and
Speaker 1: it was like, wow, I know what I want to do,
Speaker 1: just rare for people. How did you know that was
Speaker 1: what that was? I remember in the family, no god
Speaker 1: at all, There was no one from Warnable what ever,
Speaker 1: as far as the back then, no one had ever
Speaker 1: gone into comedy. It was I had no role models around.
Speaker 1: I remember in a grade six play like an in
Speaker 1: pro play on a camp. You know, we didn't go
Speaker 1: many camps. It wasn't like these days when they got
Speaker 1: a minute or whatever. And just making people laugh on
Speaker 1: stage in this little play and thinking, geez, that was good.
Speaker 1: I can be funny. And so every time I got
Speaker 1: on stage to win a trophy at footy, I'd made
Speaker 1: it people laugh. Since I wore on stage, I could
Speaker 1: just for whatever I had the knack of going, I
Speaker 1: can make this funny. So and it was just there
Speaker 1: was speech. I did a speech in year eleven which
Speaker 1: is probably still my greatest ever gig. It was with
Speaker 1: a Christian brother, croed brother O'Brien was the class because
Speaker 1: you went to Catholics. Yeah, so he was. He was
Speaker 1: a religious education a teacher who he once punched me
Speaker 1: in the side of the head, like really hard, Like
Speaker 1: you can't hit me. I don't want to vic and blame.
Speaker 1: But what had you done? I've done nothing made of
Speaker 1: my See, one of the angry ones, Moose, had been
Speaker 1: flicking spit balls at him, little spitballs of paper while
Speaker 1: it was and I was the only one who saw
Speaker 1: what was happening. I could see my mate Moose flicking
Speaker 1: paper at the Christian brother who was at the front
Speaker 1: of the class, and the christ brother was vague, hadn't
Speaker 1: known what was happening until he was covered in spitballs
Speaker 1: and he looked up and Moose was poker faced. But
Speaker 1: I was the only one who could was watching it,
Speaker 1: so I was smiling. I didn't want to be. I
Speaker 1: just I couldn't stop it zom giggling. And this Christian
Speaker 1: brothers came up from behind me and just can't hit
Speaker 1: me so hard on the side of the head from behind.
Speaker 1: It's like he's round armed me, nearly knocked me out
Speaker 1: for But I never I never lagged on Moose. Did
Speaker 1: you lag on the Christian brother? No, you're not a lagger. No.
Speaker 1: I also there was probably not what was going to happen.
Speaker 1: So it was back in the day when you could
Speaker 1: get punched in the head by a teacher and he
Speaker 1: copped it. That was a different time. I mean he
Speaker 1: would be suspended now when probably might be in jail.
Speaker 1: I don't know he's passed. I believe he's there now,
Speaker 1: so I don't know what Whether he was ever dodgy
Speaker 1: in any other way, I've no idea. Possibly not.
Speaker 2: It's yes, I mean we like to go down the
Speaker 2: culder sacks. We don't need to go down every single one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a lot of payouts happening. I know that.
Speaker 2: Yes, there's a lot of payouts happening. But that never
Speaker 2: affected you. No, No, nor any of the kids that
Speaker 2: you were at school. No, I don't know anyone who's not.
Speaker 2: So they were in the business of education. Yeah, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 2: there was a lot of level of frustration with the
Speaker 2: Christian Brothers. A lot of them were very angry, but
Speaker 2: I'd never I never saw any There was one Christian
Speaker 2: brother who was looking back.
Speaker 1: It was weird. He would make boys do angry cats
Speaker 1: on the ground, so you'd have to crawl around and
Speaker 1: what's an angry Oh, I don't know what. Something about
Speaker 1: you on all fours and you'd have to arch your back.
Speaker 1: Oh that's yoga, ye, classrooms. Maybe it was downward dog.
Speaker 1: It was doing down with dogs. Maybe kids doing downward
Speaker 1: dogs for no reason. And also on yoga, the cats
Speaker 1: not angry. Yeah, it was weird. It was a weird thing.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so you grade eleven, your greatest ever gig. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I knew I wanted to be a comedian. I really did.
Speaker 1: My dream actually was to become an AFL footballer. First
Speaker 1: get into the media through af right, then it comedian.
Speaker 2: Wow, so you've really had it all plotted out. We'll
Speaker 2: be back with more from Hughesy in.
Speaker 1: Just a moment. Did you know that you couldn't start,
Speaker 1: you know, on that quest if you were still in warnable? Yeah.
Speaker 1: I wanted to get a degree because I wanted to
Speaker 1: be a huge who had a university degree. So but
Speaker 1: I just could not focus. I couldn't focus that it
Speaker 1: read I was at six weeks and then I had
Speaker 1: a year at the aboutage made me realize that I
Speaker 1: probably don't want to I want to use my brain
Speaker 1: because I don't want to spend every day dealing with
Speaker 1: you know, animals and killing them. And then you know,
Speaker 1: so are you doing that? And then I then I
Speaker 1: did two years of a business degree or accounting, which
Speaker 1: my mates are still my accountants to this day. And yeah,
Speaker 1: and then I quit that. I actually got asked to leave.
Speaker 1: Oh did you well? I was. I got through a
Speaker 1: year that first year of YUNI. You can do without studying,
Speaker 1: I reckon right, because you just it's pretty simple.
Speaker 2: Yeah, especially now because I want to keep kids at
Speaker 2: UNI longer. Yeah, believing that, so you choose a pathway,
Speaker 2: so you u first.
Speaker 1: She was fine, but for second, first semester, second, no,
Speaker 1: the whole actually second semester of second year, I failed
Speaker 1: every subject and I was I was Also I was
Speaker 1: blatantly cheating in exams, like just asking someone else, can
Speaker 1: I just look at your exam in the exam just
Speaker 1: get I think I think didn't they see the air
Speaker 1: someone did useless, but also I don't think that they
Speaker 1: were any good anyway, So he got wrong. It was
Speaker 1: cheating off the wrong. But I think possibly the people
Speaker 1: watching saw that and just failed me with every for everything.
Speaker 1: So I was still quite surprised. I failed everything. But
Speaker 1: then that was I had to write a letter to
Speaker 1: go back, and I couldn't be bothered. So that's when
Speaker 1: I decided to and why w A. I had a mate,
Speaker 1: a few mates living over there, and my mate Rat
Speaker 1: was driving his panel van over there. I had a year,
Speaker 1: actually a year after I flunk union. I had a
Speaker 1: year just playing football for one hundred dollars a week
Speaker 1: when that was not the way no I was. So
Speaker 1: that was my most depressed year. That was nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 1: I was really depressed. I was really I was playing
Speaker 1: at another footy club away from my mates. I wasn't
Speaker 1: going well with this footy club. Well, I got told
Speaker 1: I was the worst recruit they've ever had. So that
Speaker 1: was not good. Wow what did that do to your
Speaker 1: unerring self belief? It was not in a good way.
Speaker 1: I was, and I was drinking way too much, and
Speaker 1: I was like, I was just I was in a
Speaker 1: bad You talk about people who if there was ever
Speaker 1: gonna you know, And I think the early twenties are
Speaker 1: really vulnerable time for men and probably women as well,
Speaker 1: but for men because you're not, I don't know, you're
Speaker 1: taking life way too seriously at the same time, just
Speaker 1: doing way too many, you know, things that are dangerous
Speaker 1: for you. And yeah, anyway, and I was I was
Speaker 1: not way so. But then I went my actually said
Speaker 1: to my mom, I think I might have schizophrenia because
Speaker 1: I was really freaking out and I was, yeah, I
Speaker 1: was not pot, yeah, but pot alcohol and just a
Speaker 1: morbid self love and just thinking I'm a loser and
Speaker 1: so all combined. And she took me to a doctor
Speaker 1: and he said, you don't have schizophrenia. That's all you
Speaker 1: just said, basically said that, But you need to probably
Speaker 1: ease back on the weed. And so I quit weed
Speaker 1: then and and I did you, Yeah, that was it.
Speaker 1: I quit weed, cigarettes and alcohol within six months of
Speaker 1: each other in nineteen ninety two. At the last part
Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety two, after so we won the Grand
Speaker 1: I got I left this team. I was getting a
Speaker 1: hundred dollars a week for to come back to my
Speaker 1: old team and we ended up winning the Grand final.
Speaker 1: So it was like, in a way, that was great.
Speaker 1: And I still haven't won a grand final that club,
Speaker 1: old Collegiance, so that was their last grand final win
Speaker 1: and it's now thirty odd years later. So and I
Speaker 1: was with my mate, so that was good, but I
Speaker 1: was that was the last, my last hurrah with partying
Speaker 1: really so. But I got to the tree incident where
Speaker 1: I'm eating the burgerings at the top of the tree,
Speaker 1: and I said to my mate then a few weeks
Speaker 1: where I probably were still getting hammered all the time,
Speaker 1: I said, I'm going to stop drinking for six weeks.
Speaker 1: I'm going to stop till Christmas. And this thing probably
Speaker 1: six weeks out from Christmas. He said, I will too,
Speaker 1: he laughed at about a day. That's fine. Mate was
Speaker 1: that mana oh mar oh, yeah, Marna. So he's still drinking,
Speaker 1: you're parting, So good luck to him, good luck to anyone,
Speaker 1: do whatever you like. But I six weeks later, I
Speaker 1: got to I got through that six weeks and I'd
Speaker 1: driven my mates around from pub to pub craziness as
Speaker 1: a designated driver, got to got to Christmas Eve and
Speaker 1: I just thought to myself, if I start again now,
Speaker 1: I'll just be like I was before. And I just
Speaker 1: said that was nineteen ninety two. I said, no, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to drink anymore. And that was the moment
Speaker 1: I just stopped drinking. And how did that go down
Speaker 1: with your mates? They took a little while to compute it.
Speaker 1: And because I was one of those guys, if someone
Speaker 1: wasn't drinking on a night out, I'd be like, come on, man,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? Why are you ruining our lives?
Speaker 1: Get drunk? You know. So I would put the pressure
Speaker 1: on people to get drunk, and whenever they decided, I'm
Speaker 1: going to get drunk on party like it just one powerball.
Speaker 1: Loved my mates getting hammered alongside me. But very quickly
Speaker 1: they got used to the idea and it was not
Speaker 1: in this is a country town where everyone got drunk.
Speaker 1: I think it was Warner will Per Capita back then
Speaker 1: was one of the biggest drinking towns in Australia. It
Speaker 1: was a big drinking town. But they got used to
Speaker 1: it really quickly, and I didn't feel pressure from them
Speaker 1: at all, really, And I'm still friends with all those guys,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: And what when you went to w A, which is
Speaker 2: for me, that really marks a.
Speaker 1: Fork in the road for you, which really led you
Speaker 1: to here. Yeah, my mother cried when Rat came around
Speaker 1: with his panel van to take me to ways and
Speaker 1: she must have known that I was that was going
Speaker 1: to be a moment. Yeah, and I went to w A.
Speaker 1: I did you drive across a nuther board where the photo? Will?
Speaker 1: You hit an eagle? Not didn't mean to, but a
Speaker 1: big eagle got stuck in the real of the panel van.
Speaker 2: What in the middle of the road, so the nuther
Speaker 2: boar It could have been anywhere when it happened to be.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, we hit a big eagle got stuck in
Speaker 1: the there's a photo that was holding his dad eagle totem.
Speaker 1: That's a bad totem. Well, yeah, anyway, so we went
Speaker 1: we went through Espirants and pembered and beautiful part of
Speaker 1: Australiat the bottom of the w A and we ended
Speaker 1: up in a two bedroom flat in scarb which is
Speaker 1: a beachside suburb of Perth, and started playing footy for
Speaker 1: the Scarboroughooty Club. And that was hard actually going to
Speaker 1: a new place where no one knows you as a
Speaker 1: twenty two year old and telling your these new teammates
Speaker 1: at a footy club you don't drink. That was harder
Speaker 1: than stopping drinking with me. What would people ask? Why? Yes,
Speaker 1: I said, I'm not good drinker. But you had a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of my dad said don't never
Speaker 1: trust anyone who doesn't drink. It was a lot of
Speaker 1: that stuff going somehow you're not to be trusted.
Speaker 2: So but your father said about me, never trust the dart. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but at you before.
Speaker 1: It was about my father. Who wasn't about your father.
Speaker 1: It was before I've never met you. Yes, but he
Speaker 1: did say never trust Dutch but he since denied that.
Speaker 1: He said it. Why would I make that up? But
Speaker 1: so yeah, So I was, yeah, in Perth, playing footy
Speaker 1: over there and not drinking, which that was hard. But
Speaker 1: you know what, I ended up so much more social,
Speaker 1: Like I remember it in Warnable. I one day I
Speaker 1: got a job selling raffle tickets to you could win
Speaker 1: a Bart Simpson doll at the local show. And so
Speaker 1: I'm just standing there during the show, you know, the
Speaker 1: Royal Show and Warnable saying the people as they were
Speaker 1: pass who wants a Barts Who wants to win a
Speaker 1: Bart Simpson doll? My first real sales work. And this
Speaker 1: young woman, attractive young woman, said you can speak. I said,
Speaker 1: what are you talking about? She said, I've seen you
Speaker 1: at the pub every weekend for the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: and you've never been able to speak. I would get
Speaker 1: that drunk I would just stand there, but like just staring.
Speaker 1: Oh no, no, not good. But also without the capacity
Speaker 1: to speak that drunk I couldn't speak. Was she flirting
Speaker 1: with you? Did she want a bart Simpson doll? I
Speaker 1: probably sold her a ticket or two or I know
Speaker 1: she won, but yeah, so yeah. But then I was
Speaker 1: as a sober person, I'd say to any young male,
Speaker 1: if you think that stopping drinking is going to stop
Speaker 1: you meeting women, for me, exact opposite. And you know what,
Speaker 1: even back then, when I would say to women. I
Speaker 1: didn't drink respect, like proper respect like you. This guy
Speaker 1: is and I think a lot less people drink now anyway,
Speaker 1: But back then everyone drank. But when I said I
Speaker 1: didn't drink, I would get I was more chance than
Speaker 1: I was if I was like, they're going, all right,
Speaker 1: this guy's got something. This guy's different, he's not one
Speaker 1: of the crowd. So and yeah, so word work from
Speaker 1: When did that start to work for you? No? It did.
Speaker 1: I know you're thinking it didn't, but you did, honestly did.
Speaker 1: I was right. You could sense that there was a
Speaker 1: shift in the way that you were kind of yeah,
Speaker 1: and confidence started to come with it. And then you
Speaker 1: got on stage. Got on stage not long after I
Speaker 1: got to Perth, and I said, I'm going to have
Speaker 1: a crack. A part of being so white, far away
Speaker 1: from anyone I knew, was that I could fail in private,
Speaker 1: I suppose, But got on stage first night was frendous.
Speaker 1: All my insecurities came flowing back. Can you remember what
Speaker 1: gear you were doing first night on stand up comedy stage.
Speaker 1: I was trying to talk about being teased at school,
Speaker 1: like being called frog or other losers. I would have
Speaker 1: a losers and like whatever, just talking about being mocked
Speaker 1: at school, and obviously I hadn't worked the jokes out
Speaker 1: or I was so uncomfortable that no one laughed and
Speaker 1: they didn't laugh when when you that science was like
Speaker 1: i'd been I was being bashed, you know. I was
Speaker 1: so mortified. I'm on stage on stage thinking I'm deluded.
Speaker 1: I'm not a comedian. I'm never going to work a
Speaker 1: day in my life. I'm just I'm unemployable. This is
Speaker 1: all on stage and it's not doesn't So no one laughed,
Speaker 1: and I walked off stage humiliated, and I walked out
Speaker 1: of that little comedy club and someone at that as
Speaker 1: I'm walking out said they were right to tease you
Speaker 1: because you're a loser. Because that was really hurt. So
Speaker 1: this was a tough day. And then when how long
Speaker 1: until he got up again? I thought, I don't do
Speaker 1: it next week. I'm never going to do it again.
Speaker 1: I knew I had to do it straight away. I
Speaker 1: had to get back a straight away, and I did.
Speaker 1: I went next week, I'm gonna I'm gonna do it,
Speaker 1: and I talked about having been terrible the week before, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I've said this before, but Rove actually told me.
Speaker 1: He said he was there. He was started comedy at
Speaker 1: exact same time he started the week after I started.
Speaker 1: So his first gig was my second gig, and he
Speaker 1: saw my second gig. And he's told me recently for
Speaker 1: this a strange story that you've talked about. He said,
Speaker 1: he reckoned I'd cracked the code of comedy within one
Speaker 1: week because I got a laugh out of the fact
Speaker 1: that they didn't get a laughter week and so you'd
Speaker 1: worked out what to do. I'd worked out what to
Speaker 1: do it. And yeah, so he was impressed with that,
Speaker 1: even though he said he I remember saying once he
Speaker 1: was he sort of started. He booked in because I
Speaker 1: was so bad the first time. He thought, well, I
Speaker 1: let anyone do it. So I've impressed him twice. I've
Speaker 1: inspired twice. So yeah. But the third gig I ever did,
Speaker 1: which is a few weeks later, maybe six or eight
Speaker 1: weeks later, I was so nervous that I just need
Speaker 1: a break from And then there was an ad in
Speaker 1: the paper in West Australian. It said new comedians required.
Speaker 1: I rang the number and I didn't even know it
Speaker 1: was the same comedy club, but it was, and they said,
Speaker 1: oh we remember you, I said, I do, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you weren't that bad. Come back and the third gig
Speaker 1: really just it just it took really and that from
Speaker 1: that third gig, it was like I walked on stage
Speaker 1: and I had a thought, I'm a winner just for
Speaker 1: doing this. I don't have to prove anything. It actually
Speaker 1: just occurred to me and that relaxed me. And then
Speaker 1: it just I feel like I'm still chasing the last
Speaker 1: I got that night. So and but that was a
Speaker 1: night where I floated out of that venue that night,
Speaker 1: and that's where the night I knew I think, you're right,
Speaker 1: You've got You've done the right thing. This is for you.
Speaker 1: And I've never looked back from there.
Speaker 2: But it's not normally just an upwards trajectory.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it takes a look. It was quick for me
Speaker 1: in Perth to be honest, because I was. I actually
Speaker 1: when I started, I don't think I could repeat a joke.
Speaker 1: And you know, as you, I don't like to repeat.
Speaker 1: That's why I don't do stand up and I would
Speaker 1: I would go on stage every time I got on
Speaker 1: stage at this little club, I would think if I
Speaker 1: repeated something I've already said that the barman's gonna hackle me, right.
Speaker 1: I was so naive, so naive to the craft, and
Speaker 1: so I would every time I got on stage. You'd
Speaker 1: be new and you're waiting for that first laugh. Once
Speaker 1: you get the first laugh, you're fine. But some nights
Speaker 1: you wouldn't get that first laughs and it'll be hard,
Speaker 1: and people going, what are you doing, mate? What do
Speaker 1: you do? You did last week? You got to laugh?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, I can't, And so I would churn
Speaker 1: through material. And I was doing so many odd jobs
Speaker 1: during the day to try to make a living. I
Speaker 1: was doing all these laboring jobs. I'd get sacked every
Speaker 1: second day. I was trying really hard. I got sacked
Speaker 1: from dish washing and I tried hard. I tried really hard,
Speaker 1: and I could not. I was like, it's like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I can't even wash dishes. What about your
Speaker 1: male modeling job? Yeah, that was terrible. Yes, it was.
Speaker 1: I put an ad in the cab in the paper
Speaker 1: labor requires work, and I would get calls from all
Speaker 1: sorts of people. And I got a call from someone
Speaker 1: who said they were an art student. No, I'm a laborer,
Speaker 1: and they go, yeah, I need a model. Was it
Speaker 1: I'm twenty two, it's form and I said ten bucks
Speaker 1: an hour, yep, sure, And I turned up to her
Speaker 1: house in Subiaco. I really it was expense. It was
Speaker 1: it was a well to do house. It was like
Speaker 1: this person must have done really well with her student house.
Speaker 1: It was an older guy and yeah, he ended up
Speaker 1: winded up dude in his swimming pool. Was he taking
Speaker 1: photos of you? Well, I don't know if it was
Speaker 1: a film with the camera. I've never seen the film.
Speaker 1: I've never seen what point did you realize this is
Speaker 1: not wrong? It was pretty soon, but I understand how
Speaker 1: it happened. It happened to me, Yes, you take you
Speaker 1: you know, he looked at me. I was pretty fit then, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm still looking how it looked. Yeah, so I was lean,
Speaker 1: I was, you know, a muscle. It wasn't that much,
Speaker 1: but it was muscle. And but he was must have
Speaker 1: been happy enough. And he said take your shirt off. Sure,
Speaker 1: and take take your shirts off and you're on a
Speaker 1: but you're on a lie wind up on a lilo
Speaker 1: in the back of this in this pool, in my undies.
Speaker 1: And he said, let's lose the undies. And I'm like, oh, sure,
Speaker 1: you lost the It was just I mean it was it.
Speaker 1: I'm laughing through the prism of it being a different time. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, yes, I mean I can't hold I mean
Speaker 1: it's obviously not people have had many traumatic experiences. But
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, even then, I was did you
Speaker 1: do that in stand up? I did absolutely everything straight up,
Speaker 1: so straight away you got the scene. What ever happened
Speaker 1: to me became stand up. I've said this before in
Speaker 1: a podcast or whatever I said, And many times. I
Speaker 1: lost my virginity in a brothel in Perth. And because
Speaker 1: again I was, I had girlfriends. I just could not
Speaker 1: complete deal through narcissism. But that's true. I couldn't scissism
Speaker 1: through morbid self love. What do you mean I thought,
Speaker 1: I'm not worthy of ever having sex. I'm not. I'm
Speaker 1: not lovable enough to ever have sex. I'm going to
Speaker 1: die a virgin, even when you're you're seventeen eighteen, Like,
Speaker 1: even when you're in the lying in bed with a
Speaker 1: girl who's my girlfriend, right up with the girls who
Speaker 1: would be officially my girlfriend, I could not have ex
Speaker 1: It was weird. Obviously it was weird, but I was
Speaker 1: so stressed about it. I just wanted to get it done.
Speaker 1: But I couldn't because I was so like stage front,
Speaker 1: you know, and so ridiculous. And then I lied about
Speaker 1: Some of my mates thought I wasn't a virgin. They
Speaker 1: had every right too, because I had a girlfriend. She
Speaker 1: doesn't tell anyone, No one will know, right did they
Speaker 1: think it was odd? The women, well, they were like
Speaker 1: trying to get it to happen. They were like nice
Speaker 1: people who like, we can make this happen. And I
Speaker 1: think eventually I got frustrated. Myster finally liked you. Yes,
Speaker 1: they saw the talent, they saw them the potential. Yeah, so,
Speaker 1: but it hadn't happened. So and so I'm there, I am,
Speaker 1: I'm twenty two, I'm still a virgin in Perth. And
Speaker 1: I had mates from Warnable who probably didn't even know
Speaker 1: that I'd been lying about being a virgin coming to
Speaker 1: a shot and I've been doing comedy like three months
Speaker 1: about being a virgin. Well no, they didn't know what
Speaker 1: I was going to talk about, right, But I'd been
Speaker 1: to a I mean getting deep. But my mate Graham,
Speaker 1: who was no longer with us, who was he was?
Speaker 1: Graham was an extreme character who would now would be
Speaker 1: diagnosed with something he was proper He was right. Have
Speaker 1: you ever seen a train spotting when the beg Bee,
Speaker 1: like the young blokes and this older guy would knock
Speaker 1: on their door. His name was beg Bee. He was
Speaker 1: crazy and that they have to open the door and
Speaker 1: let him. Right. Remember the dangerous character. Gray was a
Speaker 1: dangerous character. You knocked on it, open the door, you
Speaker 1: let him in. But anyways, he was. He cottoned on
Speaker 1: to me in perse from Warnable cotton on me in Perth.
Speaker 1: And one day he said, let's just go to a brothel.
Speaker 1: And I'm Tosnock. I told you, but actually I told
Speaker 1: people by then, I think I told him. He said,
Speaker 1: it's not gonna happen. I can't do it. I can't
Speaker 1: do it when when I'm not on the clock, you
Speaker 1: give me half an hour, I'm not going to be
Speaker 1: able to do it. He said, let's see how you go.
Speaker 1: And and this and this young woman I should never
Speaker 1: I sure wish I could find it. I don't know
Speaker 1: where she is now.
Speaker 2: I don't know that she wants to be found.
Speaker 1: Well, she helped you. She just said just lie back
Speaker 1: and just just let me do it. So I lay back,
Speaker 1: and before you knew it, it was happening. The funny
Speaker 1: thing is once it's happening, it's like, yeah, well I
Speaker 1: need it. I need to I know we're being crassy,
Speaker 1: but I need to whatever. I need to complete this mission,
Speaker 1: if you know what I mean. Of course, And then,
Speaker 1: but you think it would take two seconds because it's
Speaker 1: my first time, it was exact was. It still took
Speaker 1: a long time because I wanted because it was part
Speaker 1: of me like, oh no, you you want it to happen,
Speaker 1: so it's not so I'm not getting to the end.
Speaker 1: So you were still in your head. Yeah, but in
Speaker 1: that way it would work for me because it was
Speaker 1: like I've got control, I can't, so we end up
Speaker 1: in a number of positions. On my first time, I'm
Speaker 1: just saying it was a wind. I was like, it's
Speaker 1: now filter felt sufficed to say I was overjoyed, right,
Speaker 1: and then that would have changed everything as well. Well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but also the next night I had a comedy git
Speaker 1: with all my friends there, and you talked about it.
Speaker 1: I went through the whole story on stage as a
Speaker 1: new comedian, right, you know, and it was really funny,
Speaker 1: Like I made it really funny. Within twenty four hours,
Speaker 1: I had an ability to turn my life into comedy
Speaker 1: straightag I still do. Yeah, so not still so still
Speaker 1: Whenever something happens to me, I think there's comedy here,
Speaker 1: no matter what it is. And that's why I love
Speaker 1: about comedy. Whatever happens in my life is funny because
Speaker 1: it's all your perspective and I know how to I
Speaker 1: can see the funny bit.
Speaker 2: We'll take a quick break, then we'll be right back
Speaker 2: with more from Dave Hughes. You were already doing incredibly
Speaker 2: well in stand up and then you and I started
Speaker 2: doing Breakfast Radio ticket. Yes, they really took me to
Speaker 2: another level two thousand and one. Yeah, it did, and
Speaker 2: so every morning we were making things funny.
Speaker 1: Yes, we had a mean you had an ability with
Speaker 1: Dave Vanielle as well to start to yeah, make and
Speaker 1: that was really our show really took Melbourne by storm.
Speaker 2: Yeah we're not number one in the first server on
Speaker 2: a new radio station, which was only remarkable because every
Speaker 2: that was technically impossible.
Speaker 1: Yes, and yet it happened. But also we were doing
Speaker 1: it differently. We're doing it a unique way.
Speaker 2: And we'd come from community radio, all of us commersion.
Speaker 2: We didn't really have rule didn't we didn't know what
Speaker 2: to do. So we just did what we always did,
Speaker 2: which was we just talked.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, so yeah, and people obviously still want us
Speaker 1: to work together again and still fondly remember now, you know,
Speaker 1: twelve years on radio, thirteen years, whatever one was.
Speaker 2: But at that point, well that was in Breakfast and
Speaker 2: then we did draft after that, Oh yes, as much
Speaker 2: twenty yeah on stuff. Yeah yeah, but at that point
Speaker 2: you were coming from a stand up background and with
Speaker 2: your attendant, you know, whirly gig of thoughts, you were
Speaker 2: not very collaborative. Yeah, not naturally collaborative, because the comedian
Speaker 2: stands there with the light on them and everyone else
Speaker 2: sits in the dark.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I had come from a different background, so I was
Speaker 2: very collaborative, and I think at the start you're a
Speaker 2: little bit suspicious of me about what I would want
Speaker 2: or what I wanted from the show, or or if
Speaker 2: there was going to be an ego disparity.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I can't. I don't remember about those days. I
Speaker 1: just remember it taking off, but also taking off as
Speaker 1: a group, not as a singularity. The group things that
Speaker 1: we took off, And I mean, obviously we had our
Speaker 1: issues over the years, as every duo or trio does so,
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean partly was you know what issues
Speaker 1: we have definitely were partly my ego to with it.
Speaker 2: Not in your ego, your ego. Your ego is what
Speaker 2: you always were consumed with, the taming of the ego,
Speaker 2: the recognizing of the ego.
Speaker 1: So it's caused all my misery over my whole life,
Speaker 1: back to when I was a child, lying in bed
Speaker 1: crying about not getting picked in the footy team or
Speaker 1: not no girls at school wanting to kiss me or
Speaker 1: whatever you know, in primary school. So it's morbid self love.
Speaker 2: But you it's also hard because the nature of your
Speaker 2: work you need a certain degree of ego to be
Speaker 2: able to.
Speaker 1: Do that work. Yeah, so I have this argument a lot.
Speaker 1: I just think whenever I'm at my best, it's so
Speaker 1: that third time I walked on stage, I was good
Speaker 1: because I said it doesn't matter. And I think I
Speaker 1: think getting beyond your ego is where the real work is.
Speaker 1: And I think that's my opinion. So I could be wrong, obviously,
Speaker 1: but yeah, so I try, And you know, I've been
Speaker 1: talking about it a lot lately, but it really has
Speaker 1: helped my life to not to stop the comparison meditating well,
Speaker 1: it's just an attitude. Stop the comparison, stop the stop
Speaker 1: thinking about yourself. Stop wanting like wanting to have a
Speaker 1: legacy or wanting to have people think about your certain
Speaker 1: way or you know, all that. It's just absolute noise
Speaker 1: and that you don't have to you don't have to
Speaker 1: do that. But along the way, you've also met and
Speaker 1: fell in love with Holly. Yes, absolutely, that was early.
Speaker 1: We met just after our radio shows started, partly thanks
Speaker 1: to it, probably mainly thanks to our radio show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we spoke to her on air after the date
Speaker 2: where you thought she didn't like you.
Speaker 1: There wasn't a date because I met her at Cherry Bar,
Speaker 1: which you and your Yeah. So yeah, so not at
Speaker 1: the time, not at the time, but yeah, so I've
Speaker 1: seen her out on a night and I was I
Speaker 1: had a girlfriend. My only other real long term girlfriend
Speaker 1: apart from Holly, was a girl I had been with
Speaker 1: for five years in a very tumultuous relationship. So we
Speaker 1: broke up eventually. Back when you were while starting radio
Speaker 1: with you and I think you and her had a
Speaker 1: bit of a you know, she wasn't You were sus
Speaker 1: on her and she was sus on you. To be honest,
Speaker 1: So did you think I liked you? No, I don't
Speaker 1: think so. I just I don't. I don't know about that.
Speaker 1: I don't think so. But I think it was just like,
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, it was like you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: it was like, so I think I can say I
Speaker 1: didn't like the way she treated you. Yeah, there was
Speaker 1: a moment yeah, yes, yes, where I turned up to
Speaker 1: work one day not looking at my best. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was when we broke up. But it was one of
Speaker 1: the time we should have broke anyway, So we broke up.
Speaker 1: I remember once I got hanged up from one of
Speaker 1: that Today morning radio show, and because you would sort
Speaker 1: of slightly get me in trouble sometimes and you'd always
Speaker 1: have your co hosts. I had shoes on one day
Speaker 1: on a Saturday morning, and I might have set off
Speaker 1: air that the you know, the person who brought me
Speaker 1: that sold me the shoes was pretty or something, you know,
Speaker 1: and then it ended up on air on Saturday morning.
Speaker 1: So I remember walking getting home to my house, so
Speaker 1: I was living with my girlfriend, and she opened the door,
Speaker 1: looked down on my newshoes and just slammed the door
Speaker 1: in trouble. So that sort of thing that's a very
Speaker 1: standard sales device.
Speaker 2: I know that, but it was my husband was a
Speaker 2: sponsor of green Peace for many was a pretty girl
Speaker 2: bailed him up the shopping center.
Speaker 1: Two days ago. Wanted more money. Yeah, they're already giving
Speaker 1: him money, but I want more. And that was because
Speaker 1: of a pretty backpacker seven selling thirty years ago. That's
Speaker 1: a pretty standard. Yeah, I get it, believe me. But
Speaker 1: she was looking for and to get angry, and that
Speaker 1: was anyway. Holly is very temperamentally different to you, Yes,
Speaker 1: but she still has you know, you know, everyone, no
Speaker 1: one's perfect, but yeah, mate, compared to you, she's perfect. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't take that away from her. The woman is
Speaker 1: a saint. She loves issues. I mean, she loves you.
Speaker 2: I often say she's like Maria from the Sound of Music.
Speaker 2: She's a very beautiful, humble Yeah that's fair loving. Yeah,
Speaker 2: also exquisite looking woman who seems to be totally without
Speaker 2: any of the ego that plagues you. Yeah, definitely, And
Speaker 2: that is definitely. That's a win.
Speaker 1: And I would say to my kids the main thing
Speaker 1: I say to my kids now is honestly my main advice,
Speaker 1: which I said to my son even last night, as
Speaker 1: I drove Mane from his shifted Woolies. I said, Raffi,
Speaker 1: who's now seventeen seventeen two. You be at Wullies right now.
Speaker 1: He does too. He's a permanent part time just Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 1: We don't need to know fivence Monday night. Put in
Speaker 1: ten hours and he's doing well. He's still for money
Speaker 1: and he's very all money every day. So as long
Speaker 1: as he's saving it anyway, and I want him to
Speaker 1: put it in. So what was I saying? I said,
Speaker 1: as I said last night several times, the biggest win
Speaker 1: is in life are the ones who realized being alive
Speaker 1: is the only thing, the only when you need. And
Speaker 1: the people who realize that life is a gift and
Speaker 1: it's a we don't know what we're doing here and
Speaker 1: just enjoy it. The biggest win is in life. The
Speaker 1: most relaxed people are the biggest win is in life.
Speaker 1: All Right. You say this to your kids all the time.
Speaker 1: Every day is motivational. Yeah, they tell me to shut up,
Speaker 1: But I hope it's getting through and I think it is.
Speaker 2: I think it is okay because in quite recently you've
Speaker 2: had what some.
Speaker 1: Would call a pivot with the political stuff with the politicals.
Speaker 1: Yeah that was. But how do you reconcile that we're
Speaker 1: happy to be alive? Yeah? I mean I do, because
Speaker 1: I think you can be happy to be alive and
Speaker 1: still call out and be angry and still call out bullshit. Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: So that's what I honestly think were the changes that
Speaker 1: were made after that budget. And a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't even really aren't aware of it. It's just that
Speaker 1: it takes away people's motivation to get ahead in life.
Speaker 1: And that's really makes me angry because you know what,
Speaker 1: I've used how it was to get ahead in life,
Speaker 1: and they've taken that away from people, and.
Speaker 2: So have the politicians. Yeah, and that's always been a
Speaker 2: pathway for Australians. So I understand, but.
Speaker 1: I didn't even ever do. I never, And I need
Speaker 1: people to know this because it annoys me. I never negative.
Speaker 1: I never negative gear of property. I hate that. I
Speaker 1: hate right, I haven't taken advantage of No, I haven't,
Speaker 1: So they've taken more advantage than I have. People are
Speaker 1: calling me a slum lord or whatever somebody years, you know,
Speaker 1: some of those slaps. I we're renting people who don't
Speaker 1: have much money. Correct. Anyway, So I know I know
Speaker 1: who those people are so and I know that there
Speaker 1: would literally be hardly anybody in Australia who would be
Speaker 1: renting out a two bedroom apartment to someone who they
Speaker 1: feel is in need for one hundred and twenty and
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty dollars a week. Yeah, so anyway,
Speaker 1: and you've always been a very generous person. I'm not,
Speaker 1: but I'm not like my president. My wife wants to
Speaker 1: be more jourinous. She wants to give us all our
Speaker 1: money away. I'm saying no, we're not getting it all.
Speaker 1: But anyway, so I yeah, I want people to have
Speaker 1: that right too, And it's mainly through that I want
Speaker 1: people to be able to go. As I say to
Speaker 1: my children, I say, guys, you work a shift at woolies,
Speaker 1: you make fifty bucks or one hundred bucks. You can
Speaker 1: buy some shoes which you'll throw away any six months.
Speaker 1: Or you can buy some shares in a company, often
Speaker 1: an Australian company, because they have good dividends and go
Speaker 1: and that you can sit that there and you can
Speaker 1: the dividends that that company pays you get, but the
Speaker 1: share stays there and over time you accumulate more shares,
Speaker 1: and you still get the income from those shares, but
Speaker 1: you can stop being a wage slave, so you can
Speaker 1: use the money that you make now in small increments
Speaker 1: to eventually give you yourself financial freedom. Okay, how's your
Speaker 1: twelve year old daughter when you're saying this to her? Well,
Speaker 1: she needs to know, and she needs to know, so
Speaker 1: I honestly, that is a way for anyone to make
Speaker 1: their way in this world financially. This government lied before
Speaker 1: the election. When they asked one hundred times were they
Speaker 1: going to change these rules? They said no because they
Speaker 1: knew it could risk their re election. So they've lied
Speaker 1: deliberately to get reelected. Okay, that angers me. So you
Speaker 1: have lived through a lot of governments lying yeah, this
Speaker 1: is the worst ever, right, that's why this Yes, no
Speaker 1: other government, and that's what people say. I was on
Speaker 1: the phone today Dave Thornton, who's a friend of mine.
Speaker 1: He does an impersonation of me. Good luck to me.
Speaker 1: He's done it for you twenty five years. He dropped
Speaker 1: off for a bit and now you've recognized Yeah, so
Speaker 1: he rang me. I'm not complained about this latest thing
Speaker 1: he's doing at all. He can do whatever he likes.
Speaker 1: He goes, I just want to talk to you about it,
Speaker 1: and I said, your mate, look, you can do what
Speaker 1: you like. I think you're writing needs to improve because
Speaker 1: it's not there's no there's no, there's not much to it.
Speaker 2: And also so he's basically for people who haven't seen it,
Speaker 2: he's impersonating you, so pretending he's you. He gets in
Speaker 2: the shower. I'm not going to chain this red knob.
Speaker 2: This is labor blood. And I just don't want to
Speaker 2: pay tax. I hate negative gear. I want a negative gear.
Speaker 2: I've never negative to get it probably might and that's all.
Speaker 2: And there's a lot of people taking the piece out
Speaker 2: of me and I'm happy to provide laughter. You know
Speaker 2: you've been taking the piece out of me for thirty yes,
Speaker 2: so and I'm happy for a laugh to laugh, and
Speaker 2: I don't care how it happens. Yes, But and I
Speaker 2: just want to people to know that what I'm trying
Speaker 2: to do here is not about me, because I honestly,
Speaker 2: as you know, money's not an issue. I all my
Speaker 2: most of my wealth now is in the share market
Speaker 2: and none that's getting changed.
Speaker 1: Whatever it's like, it's not. It's not in housing. Melbourne
Speaker 1: Housing has gone backwards in last year. Okay, ye, So,
Speaker 1: but I want people to have the opportunity that I had,
Speaker 1: which is to acquire financial freedom through hard work, and
Speaker 1: that hard work turning into buying assets.
Speaker 2: You know what's interesting your conversation that you're having with
Speaker 2: Raffi about the fifty dollars that you've visited Will Works.
Speaker 2: You've already paid tax on that. Yes, so you're not
Speaker 2: talking about not No, you've already paid tax.
Speaker 1: And any of those and you pay tax on any
Speaker 1: dividends you get from those companies.
Speaker 2: And anything you buy and any service that you absolute in,
Speaker 2: any car you drive, and any house you buy.
Speaker 1: And but what what people? Why don't people have realized
Speaker 1: that the ridiculousness of what they've done, and again, none
Speaker 1: of it is legitimate because they hit it from the
Speaker 1: electorate because they knew they wouldn't get re elected, And
Speaker 1: it's already playing out in the economy like it is
Speaker 1: an absolute nightmare, these idiot politicians. I say it because
Speaker 1: I fly, you know, I fly economy all the time
Speaker 1: because I don't want to waste money. I walk past
Speaker 1: these idiots in business class who have put the country
Speaker 1: in a trillion dollars debt, still sitting in business class
Speaker 1: between Melbourne and Sydney, which is an hour, which is ridiculous,
Speaker 1: But they don't understand. They're prepared to waste hard working
Speaker 1: people's money and do decisions which put the country further
Speaker 1: in debt. Australians now our standard living living is lower.
Speaker 1: It's gone down for the first time in ever, basically
Speaker 1: because the decisions they made. And they're still in first
Speaker 1: business class talking about fairness and it just it drives
Speaker 1: me insane. Okay, so how do you how do you
Speaker 1: control this awareness? People aren't aware of it? No? No,
Speaker 1: how do you control your anger? Yes? And like how
Speaker 1: do you channel it? And what is the endgame for you? Not?
Speaker 1: I don't want. My ego is completely satisfied with whatever
Speaker 1: has happened in life. I honestly could not care. It's
Speaker 1: not about me. I honestly, I know people won't believe me,
Speaker 1: but I if they would just come to their senses
Speaker 1: and stop wasting people's money, because okay, and I would
Speaker 1: just want a government who go, all right, it's your money,
Speaker 1: We're going to keep it in your hands because you
Speaker 1: know what to do with it. Because we're just going
Speaker 1: to waste it. And we're going to make the country poorer.
Speaker 1: The more we take off you, the poorer the country
Speaker 1: comes becomes. Because we don't care about the money. We
Speaker 1: didn't earn it, we're not smart enough to use it properly,
Speaker 1: and the country is going to get poorer. So leave
Speaker 1: as much money as you can in the hands of
Speaker 1: the people who made it. All right, I'm less concerned
Speaker 1: about the government. I am. I'm concerned about our future.
Speaker 2: I'm more interested in what this does for you. Well,
Speaker 2: do you know what I mean? So you've spent all
Speaker 2: this time, you said your ego. That's been the greatest
Speaker 2: battle of your life to keep your ego and keep whatever.
Speaker 2: But you cannot tell me, Hugh, And I know you
Speaker 2: so well that you're when you're walking down the street
Speaker 2: and people coming out of small businesses to give you
Speaker 2: a hug, shake your hand, keep going, mate, that you
Speaker 2: are not getting that Pavlovian response that dopamine ding ding.
Speaker 1: Well, of course, I am, so how do you? I
Speaker 1: could you not if if there was a government who
Speaker 1: would respect people's money and lower the government in Australia's
Speaker 1: got so big. We've got the biggest public service in
Speaker 1: the world, and they make so much money. But also
Speaker 1: you know why we've got the biggest public service in
Speaker 1: the world. Why, Well, because they vote for the government.
Speaker 1: I know that's what happened. I understand that, and I
Speaker 1: get it. Self interest is self interest is the greatest motivator.
Speaker 2: But what's happened to you now is you are now
Speaker 2: seen as once where you were once one of the brethren.
Speaker 1: Because it's a great for everyone listening that Kate was
Speaker 1: under this way before I was. Kate had Kate's no
Speaker 1: bullshit meet up was way ahead of mine, and she
Speaker 1: was more into this way of thinking, into realizing we're
Speaker 1: being lied to way before I was.
Speaker 2: And I actually believe that there's no This is my
Speaker 2: personal belief that people have replaced in their life where
Speaker 2: once there was church or whatever. As people have moved
Speaker 2: away from that, they have moved towards other things to
Speaker 2: fill the spiritual void. So they've got their sport clubs,
Speaker 2: they've got politics, and so they believe they are so
Speaker 2: religious in the zealoutry about whatever their political beliefs are.
Speaker 1: And people need to know I voted for Elbow if
Speaker 1: they don't know I voted for this guy, correct, So
Speaker 1: I'm not like this is.
Speaker 2: But my point is that because people are feeling a
Speaker 2: spiritual void with this belief or you saw during COVID
Speaker 2: where how people were about science during COVID.
Speaker 1: Him filling the void. COVID freaked me out, you know that.
Speaker 2: But what happens now is that you are taking on
Speaker 2: people's religious zealotry. Yeah, well, look, and their religious zealotry
Speaker 2: is about their political affiliations and in showbies. And this
Speaker 2: is why I think a lot of people have lost
Speaker 2: faith with showbies. They tend to be left leaning. Well,
Speaker 2: you know, that's interesting, and of course they do. And
Speaker 2: you see that with basically no one supporting a Republican
Speaker 2: party in America, no any showbies but Hardy. So yeah,
Speaker 2: that's what's really shocked me is I had no idea, honestly,
Speaker 2: no idea how many people who aren't in showbies or
Speaker 2: don't have a profile, how many people were waiting for
Speaker 2: someone in showbiz or someone with a profile to say
Speaker 2: what I've been saying. So I had no idea, no
Speaker 2: idea what people were thinking out there. But yet now
Speaker 2: you who has always been left leaning from the background
Speaker 2: that we've discussed, now you discussed you're just dismissed as
Speaker 2: a right wing nut job by people who don't want
Speaker 2: to discuss what you're saying. Yeah, absolutely, and how does
Speaker 2: that feel? And how does it feel within the fraternity
Speaker 2: of say comedians, Yeah that you are like yeah a karah.
Speaker 1: Look to be honest, I don't care honestly, and I
Speaker 1: what if someone is like that towards me? I think, good,
Speaker 1: I now I know who you are, Jane, So I
Speaker 1: now I actually I am happy for people to express
Speaker 1: that opinion towards me, because then I realize who they
Speaker 1: are and I know who is the one who has
Speaker 1: the closed mind, and it's not me. So that's my
Speaker 1: opinion at least. So I've got no I've got no issues.
Speaker 1: I will be kind to people as I always have been,
Speaker 1: and people can lie about me if they want to.
Speaker 1: You know what. I recently a quote from Kippling actually
Speaker 1: came to me. I thought, yeah, now I really get that,
Speaker 1: and it's that's the poem if if I can keep
Speaker 1: your head when if you can, if you can you
Speaker 1: know how I learned that on the back of people's
Speaker 1: toilet do I think if you can gather up all
Speaker 1: your winnings in one turn of pitch and toss and
Speaker 1: lose and keep going and don't never breathe a word
Speaker 1: of your loss. Yeah, I love that poem. But as
Speaker 1: there's a line and if, if, if you can stand
Speaker 1: your words being twisted by knaves to set a trap
Speaker 1: for fools, And that's I feel, really feel that that line.
Speaker 1: If you can stand for your words to be twisted
Speaker 1: by knaves, and you know what knaves is, look that
Speaker 1: up K and a V. I imagine arseholes, but whatever
Speaker 1: to be to be a trap for fools, And that's
Speaker 1: happened to me recently actually, So in this way, the
Speaker 1: people want to turn what I'm saying into a trap,
Speaker 1: and they have and other people have believed them, and
Speaker 1: those fools have believed them, and that's and that's it's interesting.
Speaker 1: But there's a there is an agenda by and I
Speaker 1: get it by people who some what I put this
Speaker 1: out the other day, I said, this is what I wrote.
Speaker 1: This is what I did as a reel, which is,
Speaker 1: you know, it's heading towards a million views, so it's done. Well,
Speaker 1: yeah I know that, but at least I'm getting but
Speaker 1: I'm getting but the work, but that's getting out there,
Speaker 1: and I want these probably I said to That's what
Speaker 1: I wrote. I said. I said, I want to speak
Speaker 1: to all my all the people who have criticized or
Speaker 1: ridiculed me recently, and I want to I just want
Speaker 1: to say to you guys, if you're just doing it
Speaker 1: for if you're if you've criticized, ridiculed me for trying
Speaker 1: to keep the government to account, and you're just doing
Speaker 1: it for likes or views, you're selfless because there is
Speaker 1: tax payer money to be had. You deserve it. The
Speaker 1: government is willing to pay you to diminish its critics.
Speaker 1: Take that money. So that's the thing, and I know
Speaker 1: they are. What have you been offered? I've been offered
Speaker 1: money by business people to continue my crusade. Honestly, I
Speaker 1: have by very wealthy people. And for you to say no,
Speaker 1: I've said no. I know that must have heard. I
Speaker 1: don't need the money, right, I'm not doing it for money,
Speaker 1: so it's not I honestly don't need any money to
Speaker 1: continue what I'm doing. I've got enough money. And that's
Speaker 1: why when people say you're only doing it because you
Speaker 1: want to protect your money, my money's fine. It's Look.
Speaker 1: If I had spoken everyone twenty years ago, I would
Speaker 1: have told them I should have said, which I did.
Speaker 1: I invested in American tech stocks twenty years ago because
Speaker 1: I could see the future. I couldn't see it nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty nine, but I could say it twenty years ago.
Speaker 1: So money is not an issue for me, all right,
Speaker 1: But you know what is an issue? But I don't
Speaker 1: want to I'm not getting paid for anything I've done.
Speaker 1: You're not going to politics, No, I don't know. But no,
Speaker 1: I'm not. Well, you're in politics. I know. I don't
Speaker 1: want to be in posts. I don't. I just be
Speaker 1: aligned with a party. I'm not aligned to a party.
Speaker 1: Look in Victoria, I'm going to put it out there.
Speaker 1: I'll put it out there right now. I am. I'm
Speaker 1: in the corner of Jess Wilson, who's a liberal leader. No,
Speaker 1: I want them. I want Victorian Labor has to go.
Speaker 1: They have to go. And Elbow is too connected to
Speaker 1: Victorian Labor, they are he has to go as well.
Speaker 1: There's too much criminality going on and it has to stop.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: So when you say things like that, yeah, how is
Speaker 2: it for your wife, who's a state school teacher?
Speaker 1: No, she's so anyone in Victoria.
Speaker 2: Everyone in Victoria no, No, I just mean it wholly
Speaker 2: in relation to being married to you.
Speaker 1: Look, she's had a lot of people at school going,
Speaker 1: I like what your husband's doing, people other teachers. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: definitely she had any blowback, No, not really. I mean
Speaker 1: I'm not saying she likes she doesn't like any she
Speaker 1: doesn't like it, she doesn't like No, she doesn't like
Speaker 1: I've said to her, Honey, this is I'm sorry, but
Speaker 1: I'm really well, I'm talking out for the future of
Speaker 1: the country. I know it sounds dramatic, but I really,
Speaker 1: I really believe that we've got to change what we're doing.
Speaker 1: Otherwise we're going to really go down a plate to
Speaker 1: a path that is really going to be It's gonna
Speaker 1: be dark for our kids.
Speaker 2: So I really believe in this, I really do. She
Speaker 2: could have had such an easy life, Holly. She's OK,
Speaker 2: and she can divorce me to any moment. She can
Speaker 2: take a lot of money, and I do.
Speaker 1: You want to know? Do you want to know what
Speaker 1: she loves about you? Absolutely if you had texted her
Speaker 1: of him, well recently we were in contract, right, we
Speaker 1: have robust conversations about Yeah, yeah, have robust conversations sometimes
Speaker 1: I think I'm talking to my detractors, I'm living with
Speaker 1: my detractors. I'm paying they can take half my money.
Speaker 1: What are the kids?
Speaker 2: What do the kids make of it? I'm are they
Speaker 2: like old man yells at clouds.
Speaker 1: Well, the other day one of my daughters said, and
Speaker 1: I pulled up, and she said, who cares? She said, like,
Speaker 1: who cares what an old white man things? And I said, no,
Speaker 1: that's funny, But let's have a look at a lot
Speaker 1: of old white men have sacrificed a lot so that
Speaker 1: you can have the life you've got. So just just
Speaker 1: just pump the brakes on this stuff, you know, right, seriously,
Speaker 1: just pump the brakes on who actually has given you
Speaker 1: the life you've got, And that's it. I'm a bit
Speaker 1: sort of yeah, I am like this stuff. And the schools,
Speaker 1: the indoctrination in schools has gone too far into this bullshit.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think we need to just realize and
Speaker 1: go back and realize, you know, a lot of old
Speaker 1: white men have done actually really good things. I think
Speaker 1: that's reasonable to say.
Speaker 2: I worked with an old white man and I found
Speaker 2: out after two years he was getting paid forty percent
Speaker 2: more than I was for doing the same radio shop.
Speaker 1: I did both names on it. That all man did
Speaker 1: not know at the time. Is that old white man
Speaker 1: going to pay reparation at all? Not know at the time,
Speaker 1: remember that, And then I went and dealt with it
Speaker 1: at the once I found out, even though he didn't ask.
Speaker 2: So this is your wife, Holly, who you've been married
Speaker 2: to for twenty five years.
Speaker 1: You know what I was in. I was in April
Speaker 1: hour hour of springs only on the weekend, and I'm
Speaker 1: flying up there thinking, I think we got bloody engaged
Speaker 1: in our springs, and we did. You did driving to
Speaker 1: the airport. So I was going to do it all
Speaker 1: the route, okay, that's in TheRoom. That was back when
Speaker 1: you were allowed to climate. So now she already knew
Speaker 1: not to climb all the route and you didn't. But
Speaker 1: I had spoken to a local, an indigenous local at
Speaker 1: the time, and said it okay to climate. He said, mate,
Speaker 1: go for it. Just don't have a heart attack. It's okay.
Speaker 1: So that was that was my okay back then. Anyway,
Speaker 1: twenty years later, I was in, I was springs on
Speaker 1: my own thinging, I think this might be to the
Speaker 1: day that we're going to engage.
Speaker 2: We're being together twenty four years. I love that Dave
Speaker 2: is curious about people. He is a kind and empathetic person,
Speaker 2: and he asks interesting questions and genuinely listens to people's answers.
Speaker 2: He's open to changing his mind, which is a rare trait,
Speaker 2: and he doesn't want to exist in an echo chamber,
Speaker 2: which is also rare. I love his commitment to self improvement.
Speaker 2: I love the way he finds joy and humor in
Speaker 2: silliness and has taught our teenagers to do the same.
Speaker 2: He's a great dad, very open and honest with the
Speaker 2: kids about his successes and failures. He wants our kids
Speaker 2: to be kind, respectful, hard working, and happy, and he
Speaker 2: models these traits to them every day. We argue about politics,
Speaker 2: but it's never personal, and he's interested in all of
Speaker 2: our opinions. And five minutes after a heated discussion, will
Speaker 2: all be laughing at something together. That's very special too.
Speaker 1: You're meta crime, that's lovely. Thank you. You're a very
Speaker 1: lucky man. I am, I am. We all are that
Speaker 1: we all are lucky. We just need to realize we're
Speaker 1: lucky and just enjoy each breath. Each breath is a gift.
Speaker 2: It is and you say that because I know after
Speaker 2: this you're going to see your mate in Warnable.
Speaker 1: Yes, and yeah, I mean I mean life can end
Speaker 1: at anytime, you know, and people get diagnoses, which means
Speaker 1: it's a lot short than they thought it was going
Speaker 1: to be. So yeah, I've still got many friends in
Speaker 1: Warnable who are I grew up with, and we're all
Speaker 1: kept close to you. Yeah, my mate who I worked
Speaker 1: at the advertise with back in eighty who's still working there,
Speaker 1: but he's recently meting knows with the cancer and it's yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not going to be long for him, So it's yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a great guy. Two beautiful daughter's still married to
Speaker 1: the same woman he was going out with at school.
Speaker 1: I still remember the day that when you lived in
Speaker 1: a house called the Madhouse, and she was the receptionist
Speaker 1: at the real estate agent that we rented the house
Speaker 1: off and on our where the motorbike was inside, there
Speaker 1: was a different one before that. This house was Uh anyway,
Speaker 1: the day we were leaving that house, we basically almost
Speaker 1: burn it down, And she's going to burning down My
Speaker 1: house wasn't her house. They're still together, Nurrel and Jack.
Speaker 1: They're a beautiful couple. Yes, so they're going through a
Speaker 1: real tough time. But then it could happen. So it
Speaker 1: going happen all of a sudden any time. We're all
Speaker 1: got a terminal illness, if it's called life. So we
Speaker 1: should all just enjoy each day. But you can still
Speaker 1: yell and still truly right right wrong at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, I have a laugh. Oh you, and
Speaker 1: I've you know, our friendship spent a big part of
Speaker 1: my life, and I fail yours, And yeah, so I
Speaker 1: love you and I loved the white Knuckle ride. You
Speaker 1: take us all loong? May you live in interesting times?
Speaker 1: And I think we are well.
Speaker 2: You know when the Chinese said that it wasn't a blessing,
Speaker 2: Yeah right, apparently it was a curse.
Speaker 1: But but whatever we I think comfort turns into harshness.
Speaker 1: Yeah that yeah, good mate? Good mean what is it?
Speaker 1: Soft mean make hard time? Times?
Speaker 2: Hard mean, make good times good times? Make soft means
Speaker 2: soft mean make hard?
Speaker 1: Yes, so it's a cycle. Yeah, it's a cycle. There
Speaker 1: you go. What are you? You're a hard side? I
Speaker 1: remember I was walking down the street the other day and
Speaker 1: the scroop of bandidos were sitting at a sitting at
Speaker 1: a bike. Yeah, because bikes have been very connected to
Speaker 1: what's been going on in I've been very vocal about it.
Speaker 1: So and walk past. I hope they don't recognize me,
Speaker 1: and kept walking and then I heard us a ship
Speaker 1: and walk around the corner and he's kept yelling ship,
Speaker 1: I'm going to go back. So I went back to
Speaker 1: his bandido sitting there, I just wanted a photo set
Speaker 1: up a great guys. So yes, I could have walked
Speaker 1: away scared, but I walked back and faced it and
Speaker 1: then got an ego boosts. So you know when you
Speaker 1: were thirteen and dreaming of being a hero, Yes, every
Speaker 1: night in bed, kicking the winning go on a Grand Final,
Speaker 1: hitting the run that makes us win the ashes, or
Speaker 1: hitting a tennis shot that made me win when Wooden
Speaker 1: holding an Oscar as the best actor? Is what you're doing? Now?
Speaker 1: Does that make you feel like a bit of a hero?
Speaker 1: It probably does, but I don't, honestly, just think about
Speaker 1: it for a moment, does it? I think it does.
Speaker 1: I want to forget about myself, honestly want to forget
Speaker 1: it myself. But I don't think you do. I don't
Speaker 1: think you do. Oh you would be doing this, I know,
Speaker 1: but everything is temporary. So I know, I do this
Speaker 1: and everyone calls me, you know, not everyone obviously something
Speaker 1: like me, but a lot of people go, I love
Speaker 1: you or want hugg you, but in that way, and
Speaker 1: then I'll be where's everyone want to hug me? What
Speaker 1: were you doing next? Thanks hughsy goody, Katy. It's fun.
Speaker 2: One of the privileges of this job is getting to
Speaker 2: sit down with remarkable people and hear their stories. Every
Speaker 2: now and then, though, I get to interview someone I've
Speaker 2: shared a chapter of my own life with. I've known
Speaker 2: Huey for more than twenty years, nearly thirty.
Speaker 1: In fact.
Speaker 2: We've laughed together, we've worked together, We've watched each other
Speaker 2: grow up in many ways in public. He was there
Speaker 2: for me like a soldier when my eldest son, Lewis,
Speaker 2: was diagnosed with leukemia, when his own son was only
Speaker 2: a few months old. What I was reminded of today
Speaker 2: is that beneath all the comedy, all the opinions, and
Speaker 2: all the noise, Hughesy is still someone asking the same
Speaker 2: questions so many of us are asked, Who am I,
Speaker 2: What's enough? And what really matters? I'm your host, Kate
Speaker 2: line Brook. I thank you for listening to No Filter.
Speaker 2: If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the show, leave
Speaker 2: us a review, and tell someone you think would love
Speaker 2: it also, And I will see you next time.