Speaker 1: Today we have a very special bonus episode we have
Speaker 1: with us today, Anthony Field. Now know what you're thinking,
Speaker 1: who is Anthony?
Speaker 2: I'll tell you who he is.
Speaker 1: He is Anthony Wiggle, the Blue Wig Girl.
Speaker 2: I'm sure everyone out there knows the Wiggles, but for
Speaker 2: anyone who may be thinking, don't know who that is.
Speaker 2: Wiggles are founded in nineteen ninety one. They are globally
Speaker 2: one of the biggest children's acts ever ever. They have
Speaker 2: saved me countless how many times? But only do my
Speaker 2: kids like watching them? I absolutely love them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, They've been a part of my family and I'm
Speaker 1: guessing your family since the dawn of time.
Speaker 2: It was one of those ones where when I'm like,
Speaker 2: don't get nervous.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a bit like that.
Speaker 3: He's just a.
Speaker 2: Normal guy, but he is an absolute legend and we
Speaker 2: had a quick little chat. We had thirty minutes. He's
Speaker 2: a man who has wanted right now.
Speaker 1: Yes, and it was an absolute privilege to have Anthony
Speaker 1: Wiggle on the podcast.
Speaker 4: So enjoyed this episode.
Speaker 1: We're ready, wiggle, wiggle your.
Speaker 2: Fingers high in the sky. We're ready, wiggle wiggle. Welcome
Speaker 2: to three doting dads.
Speaker 3: I'm Maddie Jay, I'm Ash, I'm Anthony.
Speaker 2: This is a podcast all about parenting.
Speaker 1: It's the good, the bad, and relatable.
Speaker 2: And if you've come for any type of advice, clear
Speaker 2: although we when we have a guest, we might get
Speaker 2: some today. Actually, I feel like if ever there was
Speaker 2: going to be advice given today, it's going to be
Speaker 2: from our guest Anthony.
Speaker 3: For sure.
Speaker 2: But no pressure, no pressure at all.
Speaker 3: But I had a good role model with my dad.
Speaker 3: I think the best thing you ever said to me
Speaker 3: was I make mistakes.
Speaker 1: That's straight away. We just dished out to wisdom, which
Speaker 1: is amazing. So I'm looking forward to it. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for joining us.
Speaker 2: I said to myself as I was coming up the elevator,
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm not gonna You're not gonna pass you
Speaker 2: where you go too much. But I honestly mean this
Speaker 2: when it is an honor to be in your presence
Speaker 2: totally here.
Speaker 1: You've been a part of both of our families. For
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm a nineties baby, was born in nineteen ninety.
Speaker 1: Matt's a little bit older, nearly forty. I like to
Speaker 1: point that out a lot. But now we've both got
Speaker 1: kids in the era of Wiggles and we're just chatting
Speaker 1: on the way here about just jogged my memory when
Speaker 1: I had my first child, and I don't remember being
Speaker 1: a toddler and being entrapped by the Wiggles as these
Speaker 1: young kids do. But I remember when I first had
Speaker 1: Oscar and he was just going mental. I'll try this
Speaker 1: Wiggles thing and put the Wiggles on and he just
Speaker 1: shut up straight away. And he's loved it ever since.
Speaker 1: He's four now and he's just like got the pop
Speaker 1: out books and got everything. So it's amazing to have here.
Speaker 3: But the day will come when he goes Wiggles is
Speaker 3: for babies, that happens.
Speaker 2: I was like, no, it's not, keep watching it.
Speaker 3: You'll keep watching it whit kids. When my kids were
Speaker 3: young at play school as a preschool teacher, I loved
Speaker 3: play School. I still love it and I would put
Speaker 3: it on them and they came to a stage where
Speaker 3: it's for babies and were.
Speaker 1: You sure I know it does like that's been on
Speaker 1: place cool?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you have well done, mate.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I force my kids to watch it before we
Speaker 2: get into the Wiggles. You mentioned your dad, do you
Speaker 2: think looking back, were you drawn more towards your mum
Speaker 2: your dad, or did you have an equal relationship with
Speaker 2: both parents.
Speaker 3: I know I think my dad because I love my mom.
Speaker 3: But Dad was He was unbelievable. He did revolutionary things
Speaker 3: like this is how old I am? Right, I'm nineteen
Speaker 3: sixty three. I was born in nineteen seventy one or seventy.
Speaker 3: He sat us all down. Now I was only six
Speaker 3: or seven, but I still remember it, and he said,
Speaker 3: I'm wrong about the Vietnam War. I just want to
Speaker 3: say that I'm wrong about it because Dad was all
Speaker 3: gung ho and even then as a kid on it. Wow,
Speaker 3: he's set down to tell us he's wrong about something.
Speaker 2: How old were you at this point?
Speaker 3: I was six or seven? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Straightaway He's like, listen, son, I've got the hard truth
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah. One time I came to you know, I'd done
Speaker 3: something crazy, and he said, Anthony, don't be hard on yourself.
Speaker 3: It's and don't tell your mum. He was good man.
Speaker 2: So then it was your mom, though, who introduced you
Speaker 2: to music?
Speaker 4: Is that right?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Mom went through all the grades for the piano,
Speaker 3: and she loved music so much and she just wanted
Speaker 3: us to learn music. Have music as part of our lives,
Speaker 3: and she did it.
Speaker 2: We'd love music and so of all you want to seven.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're the youngest of seven seven yeah.
Speaker 2: Musically talented wise, who was the best?
Speaker 1: Where do you rain?
Speaker 3: I think Johnny my brother. He's like an incredible songwriter,
Speaker 3: just an amazing guitar player. He was also I don't
Speaker 3: know if you guys are into the sport, he was
Speaker 3: a cricketer and he played for New South Wales under nineties.
Speaker 2: Annoying, isn't it Those people who were good and he
Speaker 2: says that come on, but aimed.
Speaker 3: Some of it for us. Tortured me as a kid
Speaker 3: like I was batting. It was just.
Speaker 1: Down the driveway.
Speaker 2: I imagine there was seven kids growing up like that
Speaker 2: must have been absolute chaos.
Speaker 3: The boys were four boys, three girls, and the boys
Speaker 3: just stuck to each other and the girls just stuck
Speaker 3: to each other. It was really And by the way,
Speaker 3: we had four guys in the one room, three girls
Speaker 3: in another. Oh my goodn't mother and dad and the other.
Speaker 3: So we had three bedroom house in Laylall Park, which is.
Speaker 1: I can imagine that. I can imagine the fights.
Speaker 3: And you know, it was funny. There was no preschools.
Speaker 3: In those days, Mom had seven under six ods, seven
Speaker 3: kids under six, and she said, you didn't need a
Speaker 3: preschool because.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you got your own in house preschool.
Speaker 3: And now what else? Talking about the old days, Mum
Speaker 3: would always say, I look at you guys with those
Speaker 3: disposable nappies, and I'd say, why weren't they around?
Speaker 1: You don't have to wash all of them, all the wash.
Speaker 3: But I'm sure you guys went go through it and
Speaker 3: you go, oh, the environment, I'd rather, yeah, do disposable, but.
Speaker 1: I'll let him, I'll let him poop in the lawn.
Speaker 1: I'll just get out there.
Speaker 3: Do you do the disposable.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, it's a path of least resistance. We have
Speaker 2: occasionally said like, oh the environment, absolutely, it is important.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, when we're working, we're so
Speaker 2: time poor. It's just like, whatever is they don't have
Speaker 2: to easiest route to go down.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was always disposable, so I'm not I'm not.
Speaker 3: I don't judge. But also apparently it costs so much
Speaker 3: to the environment washing, Yeah, the emissions from the washing machine.
Speaker 3: What about dummies?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well he's a dummy guy. Mine grow out
Speaker 1: really really early. So I like, sorry, Matt.
Speaker 3: But it's not a guilt. My kids were dummies. Dummies
Speaker 3: they love the ummy.
Speaker 1: Matt still has his dummy.
Speaker 2: But do you think growing up, I think my first
Speaker 2: dream was to be a cricketer, Like I remember vividly
Speaker 2: watching it and seeing it and playing it and going,
Speaker 2: that's what I want to do. So when your mom
Speaker 2: introduced to music in your head where you're like, this
Speaker 2: is it. This is for me as a kid, this
Speaker 2: is what I want to do when I grow up.
Speaker 3: Well it actually wasn't because when I was seven. You
Speaker 3: know when they when you're seven, you're at primary school
Speaker 3: and if they still do it, but just to write
Speaker 3: down what you want to be when you grow what
Speaker 3: did you say? Write? I still got a teacher, a soldier,
Speaker 3: or a policeman, and I to two of them because
Speaker 3: I was a teacher and I.
Speaker 1: Was a soldier, so all attainable toys. I want to
Speaker 1: be an astronaut.
Speaker 2: That it's not too late. Were still we could make
Speaker 2: the policeman, have made the police.
Speaker 3: Force, almost joined the police force after the army.
Speaker 2: I think that's the biggest surprise, is you know, for
Speaker 2: anyone who doesn't know you had three years in the army,
Speaker 2: and I can't imagine there's many people out there who
Speaker 2: have made the transition for being in the army to
Speaker 2: then working their way into early education. How did that
Speaker 2: transition come about?
Speaker 3: It was just an accident. My sister was in the
Speaker 3: early days of the early nineties and late eighties because
Speaker 3: I didn't graduate from high school. But you could do
Speaker 3: a mature age test to get into university. And so
Speaker 3: I was twenty three. I just come out of the
Speaker 3: army and my sister said, oh, look, I'm doing this
Speaker 3: mature age test to get into become a preschool teacher.
Speaker 3: Would you like to drive me? And I said yeah.
Speaker 3: Then I went, you know what, I'll do the test
Speaker 3: too if I can. I signed up. So it was
Speaker 3: all an accident and I passed. She did too, but
Speaker 3: she didn't want to do it. But I stayed there
Speaker 3: and it was just an accent. But as the course
Speaker 3: went on, I realized it was all about empowering children.
Speaker 3: Preschool education is about. It was like Bill Gates came
Speaker 3: up with where do you want to go today? That
Speaker 3: was what was great about preschool education. It wasn't set
Speaker 3: curriculum like primary school, get sweat to.
Speaker 1: Be a bit more creative, much more creative.
Speaker 3: And really you'd set up little areas of learning for
Speaker 3: the children and could pick out what they wanted to do.
Speaker 3: But when you get to primary school, it's more like
Speaker 3: nine o'clock to nine thirty. That's math, you know, so
Speaker 3: very routine. That's it. Yeah, So I loved preschool.
Speaker 1: And before you took a test to go, did you
Speaker 1: have a list of things that you wanted to study
Speaker 1: or did you just go? I want to teach the
Speaker 1: young minds that no.
Speaker 3: No, I had no idea. I didn't even want to study.
Speaker 3: I just left the army. I was trying to get
Speaker 3: into the police force, which I would have done, and
Speaker 3: my sister just went, come and do this, and okay,
Speaker 3: he's the male testosterone thing. I had three years in
Speaker 3: the infantry and I was surrounded by men, learning about
Speaker 3: you know, weapons and more. Driving out of my personal carrier,
Speaker 3: just go on to the campus and I look around.
Speaker 3: There's there's women everywhere, and it was so great. So
Speaker 3: I just felt peaceful and like this is the play.
Speaker 3: It really was. I thought, that's sober. I said Colleen,
Speaker 3: I'll do the test too, and I did. That's how
Speaker 3: I've become a pre school teacher, but it was never
Speaker 3: in my ambition. But honestly, as it went on, I
Speaker 3: was sort of going wow, this world and putting into perspective.
Speaker 3: There was only three men in the one hundred and
Speaker 3: two years at the Institute of Early Joldo that had
Speaker 3: graduated before us, so it was really strange that a
Speaker 3: man was doing at that time.
Speaker 2: Well, even now, you know, Ash and I were pretty
Speaker 2: hands on parents, and sometimes, you know, if I go
Speaker 2: to the pub and I'm talking to mates who work
Speaker 2: full time and they have a more traditional setup, I
Speaker 2: sometimes feel, I know self, I guess like insecure about
Speaker 2: my role as a parent, because you know, sometimes I
Speaker 2: feel like I should be the man who goes and
Speaker 2: works and brings home the money. When you're talking to
Speaker 2: your mates, did you ever feel insecure about saying, oh,
Speaker 2: I'm going to be a preschool teacher.
Speaker 3: Not really, because my mate so I was always a
Speaker 3: bit musical and always really was the matcho man at
Speaker 3: the time. But it was really different on that especially
Speaker 3: in ninety nine ninety eighty nine when I went through
Speaker 3: U we had a part of our course that we
Speaker 3: had to do as males called there's a man in
Speaker 3: our preschool. Wow, what it was was it was to
Speaker 3: protect yourself and to be above suspicion because it was
Speaker 3: so strange even though men are parents and we should
Speaker 3: be part of children's Yeah, totally, but.
Speaker 1: You know, there would have been some stigma, of course,
Speaker 1: like as there is with a lot of things.
Speaker 3: And I mean.
Speaker 1: That's good that they've have that module where it's like
Speaker 1: covers you and puts a lot of parents at ease.
Speaker 3: That's right, so total hands off. Little children come, they
Speaker 3: fall over and hurt themselves, they come over, well, I
Speaker 3: would always direct them to teacher's assistance. Yea, no nap
Speaker 3: be changing, which was the greatest thing. I was going
Speaker 3: to argue that, you know, so can I get home?
Speaker 3: But I had this really great friend of mine. I
Speaker 3: went through this studio child with Andrew, and he went
Speaker 3: on a pract teaching at a primary school and he
Speaker 3: was waiting outside like the toilet time, and he would
Speaker 3: you directed the kids in there. He was waiting outside
Speaker 3: the toilets and a passing mum call the police. Oh
Speaker 3: my goodness, so poor Andrew. I mean that was the
Speaker 3: sort of it.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't traumatize you a little bit too, Like just the
Speaker 1: I know, it's like the mum's probably just been extra cord.
Speaker 3: That's right, that's for him. He would have been like, yeah,
Speaker 3: this guy suffered from anxiety anyway. But I'll tell you
Speaker 3: another funny learning thing. What I was teaching. Now. You know,
Speaker 3: children are very very concrete thinkers, and when you give
Speaker 3: an instruction, it usually should go one instruction only, like overload.
Speaker 3: It was probably my first week of teaching, and the
Speaker 3: kids came into the classroom with the three year olds
Speaker 3: and I mean, okay, if you five over there, go
Speaker 3: to the toilet, wash your hands out to be fantastic.
Speaker 3: So they went to the toilet and wash their hands
Speaker 3: in the toilet, and I walked it.
Speaker 1: Yeah that was there, because you know, it wasn't the
Speaker 1: same toilet.
Speaker 3: But the teaching help up said that what stands in
Speaker 3: the toilet? They still call the bathroom the toilet, and
Speaker 3: you go wash your hands in the toilet.
Speaker 2: I think, so, yeah, that's the terminal.
Speaker 1: Adults we know, okay, you don't mean washing, You've got
Speaker 1: to be more specific in the bathroom the toilet.
Speaker 2: While she was studying, that's when the original cast members
Speaker 2: of the Wiggles came together. Do you remember what it
Speaker 2: was like that very first time that you guys, I'm
Speaker 2: not musically inclined myself, but had a jam and played together.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well the jam sesh was playing nursery rhymes. It
Speaker 3: wasn't playing rock and roll. We had a music in
Speaker 3: theater education component of the course, and I had this
Speaker 3: idea because I was listening to ABC and the artists
Speaker 3: that were out at the same time, and they were
Speaker 3: doing some good stuff. Don Spencer, Peter Coob lifting to
Speaker 3: the Canadian guy called RAFFI was fantastic, and I thought, well,
Speaker 3: we've got the early childhood of education. Why don't we Well,
Speaker 3: I don't make some music and I can't sing, so
Speaker 3: we came in and I said, guys, let's have a
Speaker 3: bit of a jam. And came from that.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: So the first gig that you played at this point
Speaker 2: where you're thinking, oh my gosh, we could be we
Speaker 2: could be something really big here.
Speaker 3: Never thought that. No, it was we were real education heads.
Speaker 3: So let's put what we know from child development and
Speaker 3: see if we do a little show for children that
Speaker 3: they respond. And that's all it was. You know, the
Speaker 3: guys you see street performers and all, that's something we
Speaker 3: was busking. We just liked we.
Speaker 1: Sort of you're just doing it for the love of it.
Speaker 3: That's all it was, and it still is really, but
Speaker 3: that's all it was.
Speaker 2: Have you ever had a song that you've written in
Speaker 2: the studio and thought we're onto something here, played it
Speaker 2: to an audience of kids and it's just not hit
Speaker 2: the mark.
Speaker 3: Well not really because you don't see that. But what
Speaker 3: we did once it was my idea, and it was
Speaker 3: it was bad, It wasn't great. It was called Dorothy's
Speaker 3: question Time. Okay, so we would stop the concert, I'd
Speaker 3: say it's Dorothy's question time, and we had Dorothy day.
Speaker 3: I got a question for Dorothy. Now I point to
Speaker 3: you know, look put their hands up and say, I'm four.
Speaker 3: It's not quite a question to someone else. I've got
Speaker 3: a dog.
Speaker 1: What we realized just Dorothy's statement times.
Speaker 3: We realized that children that age don't understand what a
Speaker 3: question is. I have to learn that. So the next
Speaker 3: week we change it to Dorothy's news time. If you
Speaker 3: got news to Dorothy, I'm four, that's clear, and it became.
Speaker 3: But what Murray labeled it, in his very humorous way,
Speaker 3: was the Dorothy question Time. He said, you should call
Speaker 3: that Dorothy's Crash and burnt.
Speaker 1: Tiement was it adapted to the audience, which is great.
Speaker 1: During the time when Early Days started to play shows,
Speaker 1: you were doing like city hall, town halls and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. And then it just exploded. Do you remember
Speaker 1: what that was like as a group, You're like, oh
Speaker 1: my goodness, Like, how do you wrap your head around
Speaker 1: how big?
Speaker 3: It just went well in Australia. It was really just
Speaker 3: a word of mouth because you don't get played on
Speaker 3: the radio with Dorothy the Dinosaur or Rockway Beer, and
Speaker 3: it just we called it the Bush Telegraph and we
Speaker 3: were the only group doing like a male group doing
Speaker 3: children's shows, and it just the words spread and then
Speaker 3: we did twenty one Days in a Row of urselves
Speaker 3: raising money for the Nursing Mother's Association, and it just
Speaker 3: grew and grew, and we got on television. Then we
Speaker 3: went on The Ray Martin Show, which is a big show.
Speaker 3: Yeah day it just ABC signed us, but America was
Speaker 3: a different batter. We I don't even know how we
Speaker 3: did that. It's unclear to me how we got over
Speaker 3: there the first time, I don't remember, but it just exploded.
Speaker 1: It really, Yeah, like that time like there was no
Speaker 1: social media, so it was just like, yeah, have you
Speaker 1: heard of these guys? You heard of that? Eventually it's
Speaker 1: going to cross over the ocean to someone that they
Speaker 1: over there.
Speaker 3: They put our TV show on Disney Channel. Oh wow,
Speaker 3: And the Disney Channel was four times a day. And
Speaker 3: I remember when the American fella from the Disney Channel
Speaker 3: came and saw us and said, you know, we've got
Speaker 3: eighty four million subscribers, you know, and we went, my goodness.
Speaker 1: Really wow.
Speaker 2: Just like Australia. When you look back at the history
Speaker 2: of the Wiggles, this may be a tough question to answer,
Speaker 2: but is there one particular memory or achievement that stands
Speaker 2: out as being one of your favorites.
Speaker 3: I really look, all the og stuff was so much
Speaker 3: fun and ridiculously accidental success. And you know, doing the
Speaker 3: Macy's Day Parade, we did three of those with a
Speaker 3: young fellow, you know, Steve Irwin. We were in the
Speaker 3: same bus as Steve. Are just laughing about it, you know,
Speaker 3: had a lot of great moments with Steve. I think
Speaker 3: the Macy's Parade we played straight after nine to eleven
Speaker 3: and it was very emotional, and I think that was
Speaker 3: one of the great great moments. Playing Madison Square Garden
Speaker 3: in America again was a brilliant Australia just been able
Speaker 3: to tour and keep touring. But I really love how
Speaker 3: the Wheels have expanded now and we're more representative of
Speaker 3: the cultures in Australia and the gender we're gender balanced,
Speaker 3: and I love that too.
Speaker 2: I thought you were going to say doing this podcast
Speaker 2: and doing the.
Speaker 1: Podcast, it's one of the best playing to adults and
Speaker 1: then playing to kids the crowd, what are the differences
Speaker 1: you see in the crowd?
Speaker 3: Will we do the original Wheels reunion tour and over
Speaker 3: eighteen's come to that and during one of the first
Speaker 3: time we did the crowd we're going crazy and quick
Speaker 3: whispered into my year. They've spiked the right Benus. That
Speaker 3: is fun and the other ones are fun. But the
Speaker 3: children's performances there's much more of a responsibility.
Speaker 1: Of course that you can be a bit loose with
Speaker 1: the adults.
Speaker 3: Well, well we keep it the same though. We keep
Speaker 3: the show the same because people don't You don't want
Speaker 3: to ruin someone's memory.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I swear and all that stuff, so you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't know AGREE had such a mouth on it.
Speaker 3: That's true.
Speaker 2: You know why that?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's crazy because I can imagine, like you see,
Speaker 1: like you know, rock bands all sort of stuff playing
Speaker 1: to adults and they've got a mosh pit, and then
Speaker 1: you guys are playing to kids and they've got their
Speaker 1: own little you know, a bit of call and response
Speaker 1: wash pit. Really, so it's interesting, different dynamic, you know,
Speaker 1: the kids in the wash.
Speaker 3: Pit because a lot of the shows we have not
Speaker 3: seated and children and parents can sit down with their children,
Speaker 3: which is great. But if they ever come up to
Speaker 3: the stage, they never push. Children just stand there and
Speaker 3: they know about it. It's just adults later become pushes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like, okay, just respect the distance because I
Speaker 1: can imagine those young ones, like you know, when they
Speaker 1: store Dorothy from a distance, for example, they'd be like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, Dorothy. But then when they got right
Speaker 1: up and close of it, oh my god, that's right.
Speaker 1: So they get too close to you, they.
Speaker 3: Might be like, that's it, that's true.
Speaker 2: Did you always want to be your dad?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 3: I didn't. I never had. No.
Speaker 2: I thought someone who worked in early education, it would
Speaker 2: have been something that you would have always wanted to become.
Speaker 3: No, look again, I suffer from depression and never thought
Speaker 3: I was good enough, and I just I thought, nah,
Speaker 3: it's not for me. Family is not for me. I'm
Speaker 3: not good enough. I don't want to be able to do.
Speaker 3: You know what sort of world am I bringing the
Speaker 3: kids into? You know, all that sort of stuff. So
Speaker 3: I really didn't. And Mickey, my wife, she got told
Speaker 3: by a doctor because she had bad in demetriosis, that
Speaker 3: you never have children. So we got married and went, Okay,
Speaker 3: we're gonna have party on dude, we're going to go.
Speaker 3: I was forty forty one or forty two. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: we're just gonna have fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then nine months later we had a child. Nicky
Speaker 3: was the same. Would we change it? Of course? Not.
Speaker 3: Most beautiful, beautiful thing I happened to us.
Speaker 1: Being a dad and a wiggle. I mean, when your
Speaker 1: kids are at the age where it was like really
Speaker 1: influential to the Wiggles, we're doing daycare drop well from
Speaker 1: kids would be like in.
Speaker 3: Awe or look, you know, we've got the documentary out
Speaker 3: at the moment and my kids went So I went
Speaker 3: watched them with my kids and after it they said,
Speaker 3: we three of them, we didn't realize until we've seen
Speaker 3: this how close friends you were with Murray, Jeff and
Speaker 3: Greg because we were on the road nine months, ten
Speaker 3: months a year. That's the truth. I was away so much.
Speaker 3: They never saw Murray, gregor Jeff because the last thing
Speaker 3: you're going to do when you get back to australiaut
Speaker 3: the guy. So that was you know, my boy has
Speaker 3: a little bit of anxiety. He's sixteen years old now,
Speaker 3: six foot three, big boy, but he has anxiety which
Speaker 3: comes from when he was a kid because I was
Speaker 3: away so much. So there's looked the good side. We
Speaker 3: provided great education and lovely home and all that sort
Speaker 3: of stuff. The other side they had to put up
Speaker 3: with me been gone so much, you know, So it's
Speaker 3: you know the way it is.
Speaker 1: I guess did you ever have to perform at one
Speaker 1: of their parties like a kid's party?
Speaker 3: Oh? I know. We provided Dorothy all that for the
Speaker 3: local schools and stuff. But when they got to about
Speaker 3: six seven eight, the wheels were no longer cool. I
Speaker 3: used to threaten that I'll drop my feat or I
Speaker 3: go into the classroom seeve potato. Would you like that
Speaker 3: a joke? Dad? Stop stop now, now it's cool again.
Speaker 3: But at the time from about eight, dull about you know, fifteen, It's.
Speaker 2: Like, I bet, I bet we're at a stage now.
Speaker 2: Our kids are four and two and already now I'm
Speaker 2: starting to think about the stages of parenting like a
Speaker 2: newborn phase. And I'm wondering, like, I wonder if I'm
Speaker 2: going to miss that the most when I'm old, or
Speaker 2: maybe it'll be when they're teenagers, you know, when they're adults,
Speaker 2: that's what I'll miss. Is there a phase of parenting
Speaker 2: that you look back on and you miss the most?
Speaker 3: You know, when young toddlers mispronounced words, that's the best.
Speaker 3: I love it. My little boy Antonio used to do
Speaker 3: the wi feil so lollies were yog yes, And I
Speaker 3: had a great moment with him one time because Mickey,
Speaker 3: when I came back, she go like, hey, you looking
Speaker 3: after him? Getting some time? And one time I was
Speaker 3: taking him into the town and he started going bucked beans.
Speaker 3: I like bucked beans, buck beans. He started having a
Speaker 3: freak out, So pulled over and went into was seven eleven.
Speaker 3: Took him in and I found bucked beans and I
Speaker 3: said buck beans and he goes, oh, bucked beans beans.
Speaker 3: He went crazy. Anyway, he's crying, he's on the ground.
Speaker 3: Buck beans, he's a buck beans and turned out they
Speaker 3: were jelly beans.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. I love her when they mispronouncing him for sure.
Speaker 2: Do you think it was ever something that you tried
Speaker 2: to instill into your kids that the wiggles are something
Speaker 2: that you could you guys could do as a career.
Speaker 3: Never never, never never, really a long way from being
Speaker 3: a stage dad. And Mickey has been brilliant as again
Speaker 3: that philosophy go where you want to go, saying that
Speaker 3: there was a little bit of an influence because outlaunge
Speaker 3: room there's a full drum kid, a guitar, like you know,
Speaker 3: there's everything there for them. So if they became a
Speaker 3: doctor or a lawyer, I would have been disappointment.
Speaker 1: But being a doctor and a lawyer that could also
Speaker 1: play guitar, that's the way to look at totally.
Speaker 2: What was it like then sharing the stage with your
Speaker 2: daughter for the first time.
Speaker 3: Again, it was because you know, Lucia went to the
Speaker 3: Australian Ballet School for three years where she boarded and
Speaker 3: I was on to it, so I didn't really see
Speaker 3: her as much as I would have liked to but Maria,
Speaker 3: my other daughter. She's an actor. And I hate to say,
Speaker 3: but sometimes you pigeonhole your children. Maria was the singer.
Speaker 3: We called it like she's a singer. She's the dancer.
Speaker 3: Antonio is the drama guitar players. Pretty amazing, but it happened.
Speaker 3: We did the reweigled album. We did all these covers
Speaker 3: of Australian songs were lime cordial. Because she suggested we
Speaker 3: did Apple Crumble and we came to the studio she
Speaker 3: said to be there and I said, okay, we needed
Speaker 3: someone do the harmony. I never knew she song. She
Speaker 3: said I could jump in and do it. She did
Speaker 3: this harmony and our our soundman when we were looking
Speaker 3: for a blue wiggle, said why don't you sings? And
Speaker 3: she sings okay, And I asked her, and you well, okay.
Speaker 3: Never ever pushed her, never was. So it's been great.
Speaker 3: She's been amazing on the road. And you guys will
Speaker 3: know as your kids get older and older, yeah, they
Speaker 3: start giving you, you know, you start being the guy's
Speaker 3: giving them advice. She's like dad, you know, we've got
Speaker 3: to meet and greet in twenty minutes, or she knocks
Speaker 3: so much, or are you ready yet?
Speaker 1: Just keeping you as a dad, what do you think
Speaker 1: your most proudest moment is with your kid?
Speaker 3: You know, each kid, each child makes you proud, you know.
Speaker 3: Like Antonio, he suffers from an aphlaxus, so he's in
Speaker 3: a phylactic and I'm so proud of him the way
Speaker 3: that he just accepts it and goes okay, and he
Speaker 3: kind of very sensible about it. When you're a parent,
Speaker 3: when they're four and too, that's one of the most
Speaker 3: frightening things that someone could give you a child a nut. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and you know, but I've been so proud of the
Speaker 3: way that he's taken on that challenge, you know, and
Speaker 3: that's been great. Maria's works and works and works at
Speaker 3: his studies and stuff like that. She wants me to
Speaker 3: acting and she's brilliant, and the same thing. I'm just
Speaker 3: proud of them, how they've just got their own destiny.
Speaker 3: Marie is the one because she was the singer. I said,
Speaker 3: would you ever like to be wiggled? She said no, no, no,
Speaker 3: And I'm really happy with that, you know.
Speaker 2: So Yeah, time is running out. I'm going to ask
Speaker 2: one last question. Can you confirm the official term for
Speaker 2: a young wiggle a toddler wiggle? Is it a wiglet?
Speaker 3: Oh? I know, because that'd be a female usually.
Speaker 2: Is there an official term for a young wiggle fan?
Speaker 3: No, there should be. Yeah, have you guys got to know?
Speaker 2: No, back to the.
Speaker 1: Drawing board, so we didn't even think about that. We've
Speaker 1: got to keep a gender neutral Matthew.
Speaker 2: I do just want to before you go on, behalf
Speaker 2: of parents from not just Australia, but from all around
Speaker 2: the world. Thank you for everything you've done to make
Speaker 2: our lives just a little bit easier.
Speaker 3: From all the dads. Thank you guys for handing out
Speaker 3: the advice.
Speaker 2: An absolute pleasure. Anthony, thank you very much.
Speaker 3: That's the quickest half hour.
Speaker 1: Is that a good thing?
Speaker 2: I hope, I know it's we could do this all day.
Speaker 2: But thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Holy shit.
Speaker 1: And I felt a bit like that afterwards, because such
Speaker 1: a great guys. It just felt like a really good chat.
Speaker 2: I blinked my eyes. It was over, and thirty minutes
Speaker 2: was up. I was and I was like, don't go.
Speaker 2: I felt like you wanted to stay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure. If we had a couple of beers
Speaker 1: in the fridge crack them open.
Speaker 2: I say that fucking guy who came in and knocked
Speaker 2: on the door.
Speaker 3: It's like, don't have enjoyed this too much?
Speaker 1: It's like, does have any anything you're interrupting.
Speaker 2: One of the reasons why we had the opportunity to
Speaker 2: sit down with Anthony Wiggle Anthony Field is because there
Speaker 2: is a cracking new documentary that's just come out tells
Speaker 2: the story of the Wiggles.
Speaker 1: And no, the opening scene gave me goosebumps, just the
Speaker 1: VHS segments in that just nostalgia and I really really
Speaker 1: just brang back a whole lot for me early on,
Speaker 1: like straight away, oh shit, here we go.
Speaker 2: There was a really well done doctament. Like I'm not
Speaker 2: not just saying it because we spoke to Anthony, but
Speaker 2: it was really well done.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you grew up with the Wiggles and you're
Speaker 1: in your thirties, now watch it, because you just brang
Speaker 1: back so many memories for me, Like I brang back
Speaker 1: memories from you know, spending time with my grandmother. She
Speaker 1: used to VHS everything, and then all these little things
Speaker 1: about the nineties and that just I'm like, shit, I
Speaker 1: forgot about that.
Speaker 2: But also with some of their songs. There was because
Speaker 2: the guys met when they were in early childcare at
Speaker 2: UNI when you're studying. A lot of the songs were
Speaker 2: written with like what they were being taught at university
Speaker 2: at the forefront, so like, you know, kids like actions,
Speaker 2: they wanted action.
Speaker 1: A lot of child psychology in a lot of the songs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's amazing to get that background on those songs.
Speaker 2: And even like how they came up with Dorothy.
Speaker 1: Captain feather Sword. I was like, because Anthony in the
Speaker 1: doco actually says everyone was going to parties dressed as
Speaker 1: but it was a pirate and a dinosaur. But we
Speaker 1: want it, we want the guns, weapon or weapons, so
Speaker 1: feather genius.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so good. It is such an awesome docco
Speaker 2: And if you want to watch it, it's on Prime
Speaker 2: Video and it's called Hot Potato The Story of the Wiggles.
Speaker 2: It's out right now and we absolutely bloody loved it.
Speaker 2: And also if you haven't listened to The Wiggles, I
Speaker 2: don't need to say this, but hey, I recommend it.
Speaker 2: And also if you enjoyed this episode, as always, we
Speaker 2: would love it more than anything if you would just
Speaker 2: give us a little review subscribe five stars, send it
Speaker 2: to a mate and if there's any other parents out.
Speaker 4: There, could be guys, could be girls.
Speaker 2: Let us know who'd want us to speak to and
Speaker 2: we will try and get them on the podcast.
Speaker 1: We will stalk them, hunt them down, get them on.
Speaker 2: But we'll see you guys next Wednesday.
Speaker 4: Thanks guys.
Speaker 2: Two Doting Dads podcast acknowledges the traditional custodians of country
Speaker 2: throughout Australia and the connections to land, see and community.
Speaker 1: We pay our respects to their elders past and present
Speaker 1: and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torrestraight Islander
Speaker 1: peoples today. This episode was recorded on Gadagle Land