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Speaker 1: Now we know that excitement is indeed building, with the

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Speaker 1: Darwin Festival set to get underway in less than two

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Speaker 1: weeks now. The festival kicks off on August eight. It's

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Speaker 1: running until the twenty fifth. It is absolutely jam packed,

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Speaker 1: offering something for all ages including cabaret, theater, comedy.

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Speaker 2: Dance, you name it.

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Speaker 1: And our next guest, well, he is a comedy legend,

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Speaker 1: Merrek Watts. He's going to be emceeing a comedy gala

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Speaker 1: in Palmerston and also hosting another show, Merek, Welcome back

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Speaker 1: to Darwin.

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Speaker 2: How are you.

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Speaker 3: Very good? Thank you very much for having me on

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Speaker 3: the show and welcoming me back to Darwin. I was

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Speaker 3: pretty sure that I'm my cop a life band, But it's.

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Speaker 2: What did you do last time? The Copper Life Banks.

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Speaker 3: It's talking about it still in front of the court.

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Speaker 3: But I had a great time last year. I'm super

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Speaker 3: excited about coming back this year, so it's going to

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Speaker 3: be great.

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Speaker 1: Fun Mate, I've got to tell you, it's got to

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Speaker 1: be pretty wild to get yourself a ban from Darwin.

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Speaker 2: We are fairly loose here, yeah.

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Speaker 3: But I do like to set pretty high standards for

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Speaker 3: myself and one of them has been banned from places

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Speaker 3: where nobody's banned from. I was normally so said as

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Speaker 3: a place that you go to if you've been banned

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Speaker 3: from other places. Exactly to have the honor of being

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Speaker 3: banned from Darwin. I think that's something special.

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Speaker 1: It is, it would be it truly would be special. Now, well,

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Speaker 1: you're actually part of a couple of things this year,

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Speaker 1: aren't you.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I'm hosting a gala on Saturday night, and

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Speaker 3: I'm also doing the return season of well sorry return.

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Speaker 3: This is a brand new show of an Idiots God

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Speaker 3: to Wine Volume two. So last year I did performed

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Speaker 3: sold out shows. All the shows were sold out and

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Speaker 3: we couldn't put on anymore. So it was great, but

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Speaker 3: that was for idiots God to Wine, and this is

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Speaker 3: it is God to Wine volume two. Six new wines,

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Speaker 3: all new jokes, same idiots. So looking forward to returning.

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Speaker 2: I love it because.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of us that maybe feel like we are,

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Speaker 1: you know, not as polished I guess might be the

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Speaker 1: right word when it comes to wine. And then you

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Speaker 1: might have friends that they think they're they're proper wineo's

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Speaker 1: and they know what to what to look for.

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Speaker 2: So is this really something for the common.

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Speaker 3: Person one hundred percent and this is a great thing. Look,

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Speaker 3: I think it's really surprised some people, and if I'm truthful,

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Speaker 3: probably mean as well, like the appreciation and the uptake

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Speaker 3: for tickets in Darwin is amongst the highest in the country,

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Speaker 3: because I think it's because people make an assumption about

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Speaker 3: Territorians that they're not sothisticated, they're not interested or not

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Speaker 3: keen to learn about arts or culture, and we know

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Speaker 3: that's garbage. So what's happened is it a completely opposite response,

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Speaker 3: and in the past all that shows sold that. I

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Speaker 3: think it's because it's an opportunity for people who live

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Speaker 3: in the end to who particularly live in Darwin, to

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Speaker 3: come and see a show that wouldn't normally travel there,

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Speaker 3: that wouldn't normally be there to taste six wines. I'm

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Speaker 3: a qualified wine expert and a comedian and I just

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Speaker 3: basically I'm not gonna lie. It's all. It's all very

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Speaker 3: very pure, old childish joke wrapped up in a little

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Speaker 3: bit of wine. But people have responded to to responded

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Speaker 3: to it really really well, and I'm truly be come back.

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Speaker 3: My wife's coming though.

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Speaker 1: Awesome.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, sorry for any cougars who might have been coming

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Speaker 3: to see the show to attack me. My wife is

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Speaker 3: after last year, seriously sitting in Yes, if you go

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Speaker 3: back next year, I'm coming. And I said, oh, because

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Speaker 3: my wife doesn't know. She doesn't normally join me on

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Speaker 3: tour ever, is right anywhere? No, never never comes to me.

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Speaker 3: She's coming to Darwin. How come?

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Speaker 2: How comes she's keen to come to Darwin.

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Speaker 3: Oh, she loves Darling. She's glad for it. Seriously. I

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Speaker 3: think it's because it's warm, the food. She wants to

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Speaker 3: go to the markets, of course on Sunday. And I

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Speaker 3: think just like it's you know, for people who live

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Speaker 3: in other parts of the country right now, it's cold,

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Speaker 3: it's miserable, it's not fun. And for her, she's just like,

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Speaker 3: I'm coming to Darwen. I went, well, that's one of

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Speaker 3: my plans of starting a second family. Said sure, okay,

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Speaker 3: now you have to come.

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Speaker 2: Oh mate, like we love these plays.

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Speaker 1: I mean there is so much to love, like you said,

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Speaker 1: all the good food, it's beautiful and warm.

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Speaker 2: You guys love a fantastic time. While you're here, tell.

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Speaker 1: Me a little bit more about the event that you're

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Speaker 1: m seeing as well. The Comedy Gala.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I've got some of Australia's great comedians coming along

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Speaker 3: and we're going to be doing it's like a showcase gig,

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Speaker 3: so everybody brings their little bag of tricks and the

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Speaker 3: three Kniki Britain, great friends of mine. They're going to

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Speaker 3: be performing basically like a super set of comedy and

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Speaker 3: I'll be m seeing that as well on Saturday night

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Speaker 3: as part of the gala. So there's lots on if

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Speaker 3: you're available to come to both. If you come to

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Speaker 3: the Gale on a Saturday and then you come to

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Speaker 3: see my show, they're completely different shows, completely different jokes,

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Speaker 3: but the same great time. So it's it's awesome time

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Speaker 3: to go and see comedy in Darwin in the territory

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Speaker 3: at that time because there's so much on, there's so

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Speaker 3: much quality, So get out and get amongst the way

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Speaker 3: you can America.

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Speaker 1: Anything that you and your wife are keen to get

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Speaker 1: out and see, like you're going to go, you know,

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Speaker 1: assimming with the crocodiles in the Cage of Death or

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Speaker 1: anything crazy like that.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well missus is going to be asking maybe we

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Speaker 3: could just pop down a Literchool National Park and have

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Speaker 3: a swing during the day and I just went, yeah, okay,

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Speaker 3: because that's only thirty minutes out of town. That's really quick.

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Speaker 3: We could probably get a bus there, George. We could

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Speaker 3: probably just top on a tram. There's probably a tram

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Speaker 3: that goes to Litchfield. That was that was the plan.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, be honest, I think I think we just

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Speaker 3: want to kind of go to the markets and soak

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Speaker 3: it up and just I find the relaxing nature of

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Speaker 3: Darwin and people in Darwen very very comforting, particularly things

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Speaker 3: I live in Sydney, where everybody hates everybody.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, not here.

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Speaker 1: We're so relaxed, mate, Like it's it's fantastic.

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Speaker 2: It's such a good spot to live.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I look, I'm surprised that you're even awake during

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Speaker 3: your radio show. You can have.

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Speaker 1: They brought they would, they'd be very forgiving of me

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Speaker 1: on this show.

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Speaker 2: So yes, I probably would get along get away with it.

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Speaker 1: Well, Merrek, lovely to chat with you this morning. Hey,

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Speaker 1: before I let you go, do we know if there's

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Speaker 1: any tickets still available?

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Speaker 3: There are some tickets for need discud to Wine, but

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Speaker 3: looking at releasing more ticket site because last year it

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Speaker 3: sold out so quickly that we were we didn't have

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Speaker 3: the capacity to put on another event, but we're looking

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Speaker 3: at it now, so get on board. You can go

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Speaker 3: to the to the site, to the yeah you get

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Speaker 3: sorry in testl site, or we can go to Grapes

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Speaker 3: of the dot com for details as well dot com

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Speaker 3: dot you for details.

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Speaker 2: Wonderful stuff. Good on you're Mark. Lovely to speak to

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Speaker 2: you this morning.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely pleasure.

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Speaker 2: Have a great dye you too, mate. Thank you