Speaker 1: Welcome back to The Mason Cox Show, ladies and gentle man.
Speaker 1: First of all, amazing, thank you for everyone for jumping
Speaker 1: on the first few episodes we've had and all the
Speaker 1: people that have shared and liked in comment and everything.
Speaker 1: We've really loved your support and we're really looking forward
Speaker 1: to the future. And today we've got an amazing person
Speaker 1: on and Peter Helliard. Now he's done everything from TV radio, news, project, movies.
Speaker 1: He's a guy that's all over the media. He's got
Speaker 1: some amazing, amazing stories that he's told with us here today,
Speaker 1: and I'm really excited for you all to get stuck
Speaker 1: into this and check it out. Suck listen in all right, everyone,
Speaker 1: welcome back to The Mason Cox Show. It is episode two.
Speaker 1: We've got an amazing guest on today, someone who I
Speaker 1: idolized and has been such a successful person in his career.
Speaker 1: He's a comedian, actor, TV star, radio presenter, writer, producer, director,
Speaker 1: anything and everything he's done. He's been nominated for Gold Logie,
Speaker 1: the most Popular Personality on Television even and he's one
Speaker 1: of my favorite player, favorite people in the media. Right now,
Speaker 1: we've got the man, the myth, the legend, Peter Hellier.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the podcast, Mason Cox. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: Usually I wouldn't get in the strangers van, but it
Speaker 2: was yeah, you're not a stranger, your friend and yeah,
Speaker 2: here we are. What a setup.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's amazing, man, it's so good to have you on.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people probably recognize you from
Speaker 1: the project. Is I guess the biggesting you're probably doing
Speaker 1: right now. It's on television on a weekly basis with
Speaker 1: people like Carrie Bigmore, Willyaly and Lisa Wilkinson. Carrie Bigmore,
Speaker 1: you've worked with quite a bit. I've done a bit
Speaker 1: of research. You've worked quite a bit with Carry Bigmore
Speaker 1: and I have a lot of different things and we'll
Speaker 1: jump into it, but we're gonna stay topical for the
Speaker 1: first bit of this. You're wearing a Celtics hat and
Speaker 1: I have to go into this because I know you're mad,
Speaker 1: mad mad Celtics man. They're in the finals, your team
Speaker 1: in the finals, the NBA Finals, and the biggest things
Speaker 1: in the world.
Speaker 2: How are you feeling? Like?
Speaker 1: We're about a week because this is being recorded a
Speaker 1: bit earlier, but how are you feeling about.
Speaker 2: This when this goes out? I don't know what has happened.
Speaker 2: We had a day out from game one, and I'm
Speaker 2: feeling excited. I always think, you know, to go back
Speaker 2: to twenty eighteen. You know, it was obviously a tough day.
Speaker 2: Two minutes I say, key, I'm saying the two minutes
Speaker 2: away from being the greatest day of my life. This
Speaker 2: is obviously calling goood West Coast grand fun. But I
Speaker 2: always look back at it and I remind myself that
Speaker 2: that week leading up to it and the game, which
Speaker 2: you played a massive party in the day before, was
Speaker 2: one of the greatest nights I've ever had at the football.
Speaker 2: So I think if you follow any team and the
Speaker 2: only and you commit to, the only joy you get
Speaker 2: out of it is if you win the whole thing,
Speaker 2: then you're not hiding to nothing. So I'm loving that
Speaker 2: we did get to the Eastern Sorry that the championship.
Speaker 2: We won the Eastern Conference's We've had a couple of
Speaker 2: gos recently. I love this team, particularly the Boston Celtics.
Speaker 2: They are They've been drafted to Boston, you know, as
Speaker 2: have Golden State. But I love when Jannis went it
Speaker 2: last year he kind of said it takes more to
Speaker 2: build a team than actually you know, by one, and
Speaker 2: it's really true. So full credit to Yannis last year.
Speaker 2: But I'm glad Brooklyn didn't get done. I'm glad the
Speaker 2: Lakers didn't get it done. You know, I yeah, I love.
Speaker 2: It's a rookie coach, you know, they they changed the
Speaker 2: way they played halfway through the year, or at least
Speaker 2: a message got through from the coach to the players,
Speaker 2: you know that it needs to be defense first. You know,
Speaker 2: there was Boston fans but like Collingwood fans in a
Speaker 2: way that can be pretty you know, full on. They're passionate.
Speaker 2: And some were saying they split up our two superstars
Speaker 2: the Jays, Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown, you know, should
Speaker 2: you trade Marcus Smart? And they just held their course.
Speaker 2: They stayed patient, and we are, you know, one step away,
Speaker 2: one step away. We have a way. We haven't wonted
Speaker 2: niting yet besides Thesetern Conference, but Banneraden hopefully is getting closer.
Speaker 1: I'm a massive fan of the Celtics myself, MICUs Smart
Speaker 1: actually at my high school and I also played college
Speaker 1: ball with them, so massive, massive Celtics.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: I hate to break it to you, but I actually
Speaker 1: don't think they're going to want to, but we'll find
Speaker 1: out a week's time. We'll find out a week's time.
Speaker 1: We weren't all cut that out of the podcast.
Speaker 2: You but everyone, everyone, it's easy to jump on Golden State.
Speaker 2: They've been there before, they want it, They've got step Curry,
Speaker 2: absolutely I get, and they've got home court advantage. Game
Speaker 2: seven we've played in Golden State. If we get there,
Speaker 2: But I don't know. I feel like we met We
Speaker 2: man up well against them. We smashed them in San
Speaker 2: Francisco during the season. They got over the line against
Speaker 2: us in a close game in Boston. So I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be different than the games we've played against
Speaker 2: Milwaukee and and Miami, the very physical games. This would
Speaker 2: be I think slightly less physical but more tactical.
Speaker 1: Perhaps I love this because you actually know a lot
Speaker 1: about the team. Now Here in Australia, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of people. I don't know if you know this, but
Speaker 1: a lot of people just wear hats with symbols and
Speaker 1: logos of a team.
Speaker 2: Never know. You never know.
Speaker 1: As the to go, oh, yeah, you're a Celtics fan.
Speaker 1: Who the Celtics. Yeah, the blank look comes on their face.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, okay, your uncle brought that back from America.
Speaker 1: Fair enough, there's no no worse. Feeling a bigger fan
Speaker 1: seeing that and going okay, maybe night.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Also you're massive fan Star Wars. Yes, there is o
Speaker 1: we Wan kenobia right now.
Speaker 2: Oh so I just on it. I watched episode three
Speaker 2: last night. Oh my god, have you an episode three?
Speaker 2: So I watched the last night, absolutely happy it was.
Speaker 1: I mean, I want to give away too much because
Speaker 1: there's only some people listening that haven't seen it, but
Speaker 1: there was something that happened in that episode that we've
Speaker 1: all been waiting for for a very long time, and
Speaker 1: it's the biggest question might probably go on into this
Speaker 1: thing if this was going to happen, And it did.
Speaker 2: And it was so well done, and hopefully that's not
Speaker 2: the end of it. Won't be the end of it.
Speaker 2: And I feel like three more episodes is not enough. Yes,
Speaker 2: So if they're not starting to work on series two,
Speaker 2: shame on you. I interviewed you and McGregor a couple
Speaker 2: of weeks ago, and I said, are we going to
Speaker 2: see you know, the duel? Because you know Obi Wan
Speaker 2: versus Dart in the original nineteen seventy seven. That was
Speaker 2: a new hope. You know, it's emotional and it means
Speaker 2: a lart, but it's not. It's a sixty eight year
Speaker 2: old man versus a guy in a suit. That's a bit,
Speaker 2: you know, cumbersome. So it's and he said, well, we've
Speaker 2: come a long way since then, and you know, as
Speaker 2: we saw with Darth Maul and and Obi Wan and
Speaker 2: quie Gin or Quiegen I forget his name, lean listen,
Speaker 2: you know, like they were doing summersaults and all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, you know. So, But what I loved about it,
Speaker 2: and that's a quick spoiler. I mean this just just
Speaker 2: pressed thirty seconds a couple of times and yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: forward forward, yeah, forward forward. So Darth Vader's in it,
Speaker 2: and this is gonna happen, so it's not a big spoiler.
Speaker 2: But what I loved about it was he And I've
Speaker 2: always wanted to see Darth Vader when he's at his
Speaker 2: absolute asshole bests, you know, like when he's absolutely evil like,
Speaker 2: and he's certainly evil and scary when we meet him
Speaker 2: in Star Wars, but I wanted to see when he's
Speaker 2: at his height and he's at his apex of his evil,
Speaker 2: and I feel like this is like he's just cracking
Speaker 2: next and he came to and he just felt you
Speaker 2: saw Obi Wan fear him, you know, And I love that.
Speaker 2: And I just thought and that that when the fight
Speaker 2: started and he's almost crept up on him and it
Speaker 2: was starting, it was on and then the fire, it
Speaker 2: was just next love. It was incredible. It's the best episode.
Speaker 2: Three was the best episode of any of the standalone
Speaker 2: series Andalauri and everything else. Absolutely, Mandline final episode of
Speaker 2: menaurin series two is in the conversation. But I thought
Speaker 2: last night was absolutely I think because this is more connected,
Speaker 2: even though obviously Luke and that was in Mandalorian and
Speaker 2: and and that, But this is more connected to the
Speaker 2: original trilogy, I think. And so it's got our our
Speaker 2: emotional investment pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: And all the big names are in there, Layer, Luke,
Speaker 1: everything else, everything goes in the play and it all
Speaker 1: kind of ties it up really well.
Speaker 2: I think, Yeah, it's really good. There's three episodes.
Speaker 1: Laugh, we're in the We're ignorant still the second half
Speaker 1: of this whole thing.
Speaker 2: You be listening to this going, oh, you guys don't
Speaker 2: even know what's ahead of you. I mean, layer is
Speaker 2: La was a lovely touch, and I, you know, I
Speaker 2: saw something on Twitter kind of said me today, I
Speaker 2: wasn't into It's Disney with a cute kid, and it's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: but and they made the point she does run away
Speaker 2: from maybe one a little bit too easily, and I
Speaker 2: get that, but it's like, if that's going to ruin
Speaker 2: your like love of this franchise, and even you know
Speaker 2: you have episode three to come, then you know that's
Speaker 2: that's that's that's on you. That's on you. Yeah, the
Speaker 2: minor gripes. So I think you should be able to
Speaker 2: get over because Star Wars isn't it has never been perfect.
Speaker 1: I agree, it's never been perfect, but it is one
Speaker 1: of the most iconic things that's ever been built, and
Speaker 1: it's it's an amazing thing to see Disney kind of
Speaker 1: go back and start kind of really telling these stories
Speaker 1: and everything else. But we'll move on because people will
Speaker 1: probably hit forward a few more times. But you're also
Speaker 1: doing a podcast. I want to shout this out because
Speaker 1: I want to support other people that are doing amazing things.
Speaker 2: You're doing podcasts, shouted out, what is it called? You
Speaker 2: ain't seen nothing yet? And give us a bit of
Speaker 2: a background on it. It's a podcast. Were atchat to
Speaker 2: a movie lover about a classic movie they haven't seen
Speaker 2: and basically until now, so they watch it either the
Speaker 2: morning of the night before, we chat and we talk
Speaker 2: about it. So we've had people like Judith Lucy had
Speaker 2: never seen the Sound of Music, Tony Martin had never
Speaker 2: seen Top Gun, Cilly Picole hadn't seen Jaws. We've had
Speaker 2: an amazing Osha Ginsburg did Roman Holiday. Like it's been,
Speaker 2: it's quite a wide gamut of films that we've done.
Speaker 2: We've done Get Out, a more recent film with Matt Preston.
Speaker 2: You know, we've done The Terminator recently. So it's it's
Speaker 2: it's been. It's I love cinema and I always have
Speaker 2: people say, oh, you're such a film buff and you know,
Speaker 2: and I was like, yeah, but there's so many things
Speaker 2: I haven't seen. So part of it was for me
Speaker 2: that during Lockdown I started that was just to celebrate
Speaker 2: the joy of cinema and and but also to catch
Speaker 2: up on films that I actually hadn't seen. And it's
Speaker 2: when you were watching a film knowing you're going to
Speaker 2: have to talk about it, that you watch it a
Speaker 2: little bit differently, and you take and you do a
Speaker 2: bit more research about you know, the history of the
Speaker 2: film and and you know the character, yeah, and some
Speaker 2: of the trivia behind it. And it's and it's great
Speaker 2: because we I think we have this romantic idea that
Speaker 2: we go to movies and then we'll go to a
Speaker 2: cafe with our friends, we'll talk about the movie. We'll
Speaker 2: go to a wine bar and talk about that. It
Speaker 2: never happens. I'm a comedian. I usually can see a
Speaker 2: movie by myself at ten thirty or eleven o'clock in
Speaker 2: the morning, you know, with six other people in the cinema,
Speaker 2: and then I you know, I may occasionally walk by
Speaker 2: somebody in the corridor for three minutes and say I've
Speaker 2: be seen, you know, everything everywhere all at once, and
Speaker 2: I like, yeah, how good was that. It's like, okay,
Speaker 2: we'll go get back to work, you know. So it's
Speaker 2: kind of it was about having a conversation, you know,
Speaker 2: with somebody I admire and like and who love movies.
Speaker 2: And it's been the reaction has been beautiful. We've had
Speaker 2: this gorgeous reaction. We did a live show that Judiful
Speaker 2: Lucy at the Melbourne Comedy festival and just walking on stage,
Speaker 2: the cheer and the warmth that were coming from those
Speaker 2: who had been obviously been following the podcast and we're
Speaker 2: now seeing it live was just it was one of
Speaker 2: the nicest feelings I've had for a long time.
Speaker 1: That's beautiful, man, you toasted on it. Melbourne Comedy Festival.
Speaker 1: We'll get straight out to this because this is something
Speaker 1: very well known for. You have an amazing you know,
Speaker 1: skid out right now called Loopy. It's on Paramount Plus. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a bit of a little shout out also, thank
Speaker 1: you check it out. But you've been doing comedy for
Speaker 1: a long time and that was see the last two
Speaker 1: years taken away a bit.
Speaker 2: I want to go back.
Speaker 1: How was the feeling going back to the Melbourne and
Speaker 1: Arsenal Comedy Festival and being able to see all that
Speaker 1: and have all your friends doing their skits and everything else,
Speaker 1: and having everyone be able to go back and do
Speaker 1: that again after being off for two year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you hit on something. I think that's
Speaker 2: really important. It really was just the being around comedians
Speaker 2: again doing what we do, you know, being on stage,
Speaker 2: being at festivals, and because I was in Adelaide when
Speaker 2: everything kind of got shut down at the Fringe Festival
Speaker 2: Adelaide Fringe in twenty twenty, was fortunate enough to get
Speaker 2: through their entire run, which is about five weeks, and
Speaker 2: I was there with other comedians who, you know, people
Speaker 2: like Tom Ballard, Nathan Valvo and Edmunds and these were
Speaker 2: largely people who really Sam Thornton, who really were relying
Speaker 2: on touring, you know, you know, to make their make
Speaker 2: their living. I was, you know, I don't necessarily rely
Speaker 2: on my touring to make my living. I'm fortunate enough
Speaker 2: to have the project and some other projects that that
Speaker 2: that you know, that pay my way in a way.
Speaker 2: So that was kind of pretty gut wrenching knowing that
Speaker 2: there were friends who what does this mean for them?
Speaker 2: So everyone pivoted, everyone diversified everyone. There were Zoom gigs
Speaker 2: that we all pretended we were awesome, but we're kind of,
Speaker 2: you know, pretty hard. I think, you know, when you
Speaker 2: take that audience away and it's not the same. I
Speaker 2: couldn't some committees really, you know, Kersey Webeck did really
Speaker 2: great these really great comedy gigs on Zoom that people loved,
Speaker 2: and that was really important. And Kursey was amazing during
Speaker 2: the pandemic. But I I just couldn't convince myself that
Speaker 2: it was good for me to be doing those things,
Speaker 2: just just because we all had to look at what
Speaker 2: is good for me. I wanted to spread content, so
Speaker 2: I did. I started doing Strongy videos again. I started
Speaker 2: doing little pictures of pub crawls around the house with
Speaker 2: my wife. You know. I started the podcast. You know,
Speaker 2: we did a segment on the project called Life in Lockdown,
Speaker 2: which is viral Wednesday continue. Yeah, it runs you Wednesday
Speaker 2: maysoys it's such an obvious set. I can't believe people
Speaker 2: haven't done that before. So it was important for me
Speaker 2: to put content out in the world. But I just
Speaker 2: decided that zoom gigs weren't for me. So so to
Speaker 2: answer your question, to be back on stage, and I've
Speaker 2: been like the Queensland now about six or seven times
Speaker 2: this year. I've been the Adelaide Fringe, I've been over
Speaker 2: to Perth, I've been in all the States, been then
Speaker 2: the Tazzi and in Sydney, and I've done it all
Speaker 2: and it's it's been awesome to be back on stage.
Speaker 2: It is a great feeling in the order adience that
Speaker 2: they love being back and and you know, comedians were
Speaker 2: talking throughout the pandemic and it was like, people are
Speaker 2: going to want to hear about the pandemic when we
Speaker 2: come out of it, and the same rules exist as before.
Speaker 2: If it's funny, they're happy to hear about it. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So I've been doing quite a lot about the pandemic,
Speaker 2: more so about my own COVID experience and a little
Speaker 2: bit of anti VAXXS stuff, and it still it rings true. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, I kind of ask you a bit of a
Speaker 1: question because I'm terrible telling jokes, Like I'm absolutely dreadful,
Speaker 1: and as a comedian, obviously it's storytelling one on one,
Speaker 1: and I want to know, is there a secret kind
Speaker 1: of not probably secret, but is there a formula to
Speaker 1: setting up a joke, getting the punchline, and like going
Speaker 1: through that process to really get a crowd to get
Speaker 1: a laugh out of them?
Speaker 2: Well, is storytelling? That's it's good that you mentioned that,
Speaker 2: like that's one of these but I a would I'm
Speaker 2: not sure there's a formula. So, I mean, there's certainly
Speaker 2: kind of you know, some rules you're going to learn,
Speaker 2: all tricks that you learn along the way, But I
Speaker 2: would say the best thing of advice I can give
Speaker 2: somebody starting out, and I have to remind myself of
Speaker 2: this is the way you get into a joke is
Speaker 2: as important as the way you come out of it,
Speaker 2: for example, or easier. You know, the setup is as
Speaker 2: important as the punchline. Yeah, so you may have a
Speaker 2: punchline it's not working. You can't think it's a good punchline.
Speaker 2: Why isn't it working. It's probably because outside of maybe
Speaker 2: the idea isn't funny that you know. But sometimes yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: pretty good in these things over the years ago, and
Speaker 2: this should be working. Wise in this working, and often
Speaker 2: it is something wrong with the way you are setting
Speaker 2: it up, and it could be like it could just
Speaker 2: been a bit of information that the audience needs to,
Speaker 2: you know, hang on to, or you should make it
Speaker 2: more personal. There as sometimes reasons why comedians say something
Speaker 2: funny happened to me on the way to the gig,
Speaker 2: because because it makes it feel like it's more immediate
Speaker 2: and it just happened. Or a comedian might here, you know,
Speaker 2: know that this happened to a friend of his, So
Speaker 2: they're going to make it seem like it happened to them,
Speaker 2: And it's just that is just a way of kind
Speaker 2: of going, I'm just going to cut through and not
Speaker 2: distract you with the idea that you are imagining as
Speaker 2: somebody else. You know, it's going to be more personal
Speaker 2: to me. So there are things that you know, you
Speaker 2: know that you can look at when you put the
Speaker 2: hood up on a joke and see what's wrong with
Speaker 2: it to work out? You know, why isn't why it
Speaker 2: isn't working.
Speaker 1: Obviously, today things get taken very seriously. There's this cancel culture,
Speaker 1: all this kind of stuff. How hard is it to
Speaker 1: be able to be a comedian in today's world where
Speaker 1: you're probably afraid that everything that comes out in your
Speaker 1: mouth is going to be dissected to the nth degree
Speaker 1: and you might offend whoever it is out there. Like,
Speaker 1: it's going to be a tough thing to be able
Speaker 1: to navigate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I personally, I love the challenge of it.
Speaker 2: I don't I like I like that when I do
Speaker 2: a stand up show, it is a time capsule of
Speaker 2: that time. And I remember doing your early stand up
Speaker 2: shows when I was talking about text messaging and it
Speaker 2: was material. I was like, this is cool, this is
Speaker 2: like not everyone's even got the phones yet you know,
Speaker 2: and and I was doing stuff about you know how
Speaker 2: walking while sex messaging slows you down because you know,
Speaker 2: you know, you know, and that kind of stuff, and
Speaker 2: and you know, and that is of that time. And
Speaker 2: and then you know, even if you go about not
Speaker 2: that many years ago, I was doing a show called
Speaker 2: One Hot Mess, and that was you know, and I
Speaker 2: did the show called One Hot Mess and the two years,
Speaker 2: like I usually, it was show for two years because
Speaker 2: I allow me to evolve, and I allow the world
Speaker 2: to evolve and change, and then I can kind of
Speaker 2: have enough distance to kind of comment on it. And
Speaker 2: from between One hot Mess and Big Boy Pants, I
Speaker 2: think like it went from like Donald Trump wasn't in
Speaker 2: my in my thoughts or considerations at all. In One
Speaker 2: hot Mess and Big Boy Pants, it's like Donald Trump's
Speaker 2: president and same sex marriage is legal. You know, it's great.
Speaker 2: So so you know, the world changes so quickly, so
Speaker 2: I think it's good to see them through the prism.
Speaker 2: I've stand up comedy. That's where I think sometimes when
Speaker 2: you go back and find a show and kind of
Speaker 2: go look at or a tweeting, you kind of go
Speaker 2: look at that person said in two thousand and five.
Speaker 2: So yeah, the person's a different person seventeen years ago.
Speaker 2: So we need to let people evolve and people I
Speaker 2: teach my kids you goin to make a mistake as
Speaker 2: long as you acknowledge it and move on. I think
Speaker 2: another word for political correctness is decency. And I think
Speaker 2: it's just about being decent with each other. And I
Speaker 2: think I do this in loopy. I say, you know
Speaker 2: that maybe we stop using terms like politically correct or
Speaker 2: work or cancel culture and it's court decency or inclusion
Speaker 2: or kindness. It's it's hard to weaponize those words. You
Speaker 2: can weaponize, you know, the word woke, but you can't
Speaker 2: weaponize the word decency. You can't say you can even
Speaker 2: try it. You can go gets stuff. Yeah your kind
Speaker 2: prick and it's like that doesn't work. You know, that
Speaker 2: doesn't work at all. So so yeah, it's listen, comedy
Speaker 2: is changing, but I love that it's changing. If we
Speaker 2: were still doing mother in law gags and and the
Speaker 2: fat people gags and you know, comedy would be poor
Speaker 2: for it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I hate to go on this, but like obviously people
Speaker 1: probably ask you if you like one, have you ever
Speaker 1: been heckled too? Have you ever had a joke that
Speaker 1: just didn't land, and maybe it was too intelligent or
Speaker 1: something that always the audience just goes ahea, like five
Speaker 1: seconds later it kind of clicks.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean sometimes that happens. Sometimes, Yeah, you hear
Speaker 2: different parts of the audience kind of get jokes at
Speaker 2: different times. And but I mean, I've had funnily enough
Speaker 2: to go back to that famous night at the MCG
Speaker 2: the prelimity Grand Final. I did a gig the night before.
Speaker 2: Rene Kink, famous Collingwood cult hero, Incredible Hulk. He he
Speaker 2: rang me and asked me to do a gig the
Speaker 2: night before that prelim final for the past players, and
Speaker 2: it was the quickest yes I've ever given. I was like, yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 2: I'm doing the project and I can, I can, I
Speaker 2: can be here by by h and yeah, yeah, absolutely
Speaker 2: love to do it. Everyone's pumped up. We're in a
Speaker 2: prelim and I got there and admittedly I got on
Speaker 2: stage and there's a warm welcome. Brian Taylor introduced me,
Speaker 2: so warm welcome. I was on a table with Swannee
Speaker 2: and Benny Johnson, Ellen Danak, and I did notice that
Speaker 2: they were like the youngest in the room and everyone
Speaker 2: else was probably ten fifteen years older than they were.
Speaker 2: And I didn't even think much of it. I was
Speaker 2: just like, oh, there's legends over there over there, and
Speaker 2: be T introduced me nice around of applause most of them. No,
Speaker 2: I'm calling the tragic. And I get up there and
Speaker 2: and Renekin had said to me earlier, Yeah, he goes,
Speaker 2: do you want to do you or do you want
Speaker 2: to do straw? And I said, I do me because
Speaker 2: I'm coming from the project and this is easy, and
Speaker 2: I've been doing a lot of gigs recently, so I'm
Speaker 2: pretty much fit with material that I'll do. And so
Speaker 2: I got up there and start, and pretty quickly I
Speaker 2: know that this isn't going well. And I look out
Speaker 2: and there's this a sea of gray headed man and
Speaker 2: like no women, like basically like it was all the
Speaker 2: guys come the wives had stayed at home, and it
Speaker 2: was all men, and they just were not getting my
Speaker 2: hot takes on, you know. And And admittedly, in hindsight,
Speaker 2: I didn't probably tailor the gig. And if I had
Speaker 2: to tail the gig up, maybe I would have said no.
Speaker 2: But maybe I could have done some broader stuff. Mate.
Speaker 2: I was talking about like fomo, like a twist on
Speaker 2: fomo I do. I used to do a joke that
Speaker 2: I don't have phomo, I have I have phobe, which
Speaker 2: is the fear of being invited, and always went really well,
Speaker 2: you know, And but I don't think they knew what
Speaker 2: FOMO was. So they're talking about set up at the touchline.
Speaker 2: They didn't quite understand what fomo was. And then I
Speaker 2: was talking about doing runners. I said, I just I
Speaker 2: did my first runner, you know, when you run away
Speaker 2: from paying for something, and and I said, yeah, baby steps.
Speaker 2: I did it from an uber, which always gets in
Speaker 2: good luck because the audio on his nose. They know.
Speaker 2: But but this is you know, this is like when was
Speaker 2: this two thousand and eighteen, so you know, Uber was
Speaker 2: still for you know, any guy in who's seventy five.
Speaker 2: Probably I'm not catching a lot of ubers by by stage,
Speaker 2: I didn't quite understand. They didn't click. So what I
Speaker 2: should have maybe aged the you know, the material up.
Speaker 2: But it was it was truly awful because I was like,
Speaker 2: I'm dying. I'm dying in front of my here like
Speaker 2: your hearts. Just like there was a drink that I
Speaker 2: put on like a leg turn and it fell off
Speaker 2: at one and and I just left it there. I
Speaker 2: thought I looked at it, I had accepted. I was like,
Speaker 2: I was like, if Craig McCrae or Nathan Buckley were
Speaker 2: coaching at the time, they would have pulled me aside
Speaker 2: and said, make it your head back in the game.
Speaker 2: You can still you know, it may not be your night,
Speaker 2: but it could be your moment. And then it was
Speaker 2: Tony Shaw or Peter Dakers came up and like they've
Speaker 2: got the beer in this book and put it up.
Speaker 2: Who doesn't need to be you need a hard bear?
Speaker 2: And I left the stage. I did like I was
Speaker 2: supposally maybe fifteen. I did like maybe eight. I cut
Speaker 2: it in half and I just went eight. And I
Speaker 2: was like, you start getting angry because you're kind of
Speaker 2: so used to gigs going well yeah, And I was like,
Speaker 2: I'm doing this.
Speaker 1: But this three gigs you have people come to your
Speaker 1: show because exactly well, this was more of exactly yeah,
Speaker 1: and this is just in the moment, like I can't
Speaker 1: find it funny now.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be telling the story if I didn't. And
Speaker 2: and I remember seeing Rund kink as I walked back
Speaker 2: and he said, hey, you probably should have done Strawny
Speaker 2: and then and then I go to the table with
Speaker 2: the DIDs and Swanny and I said to him. I
Speaker 2: said to him, I hope you buddy lose tomorrow night.
Speaker 2: And I just walk out. I walk out, and I
Speaker 2: go to the game the next day. Funny enough, I'm
Speaker 2: doing a gig for the AFL function before the big game,
Speaker 2: and I see Brian Taylor there and BT says, mate,
Speaker 2: they're just soul pricks. You just want to catch up
Speaker 2: with each other and talk about the old days. And
Speaker 2: so I get that. And sometimes you do. You do
Speaker 2: a corporate and you just have to accept that they're
Speaker 2: not necessarily there to see you. Most propers, I must say,
Speaker 2: I've had really pleasant experiences. Comedians were often kind of
Speaker 2: you grudge kind of corporates a bit. Yes, they pay well,
Speaker 2: but sometimes they can be tough. I always just find
Speaker 2: that there's people in their work environment. They're just wearing
Speaker 2: suits tonight. You know, they're usually they're usually pretty good,
Speaker 2: but yeah, there there there are times when you just
Speaker 2: have to accept that. I did a gig for Coca
Speaker 2: Cola at the Opera House. The Opera House restaurant has
Speaker 2: been alone in front of it, and they put me
Speaker 2: in this weird place where it's kind of like on
Speaker 2: the on the mezzanine of a stair stairway like that
Speaker 2: goes up to the restaurant and someone looking up and
Speaker 2: there's people up there and the people a little bit
Speaker 2: below there's people are walking in, like walking past me,
Speaker 2: and I'm doing like a you know, minutes whole area. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I would have been better if I was up near
Speaker 2: the bar where everyone can kind of see me. There's
Speaker 2: people then look over the edge and look down on
Speaker 2: me to see me do a spot. And it went okay,
Speaker 2: I think as well as I could have gone. And
Speaker 2: then I was chatting to the Sea of Coca Cola
Speaker 2: in Australia at the bar afterwards and he said, I said, oh,
Speaker 2: just he that was great. I said, yeah, I said,
Speaker 2: I reckon. Maybe next time, just as a bit of feedback,
Speaker 2: have the comedian where everyone more people can see them.
Speaker 2: He has got to be absolutely honest. I just wanted
Speaker 2: the people to walk in and go, oh they got
Speaker 2: the guy from the TV. Yeah, yeah, viral guy. So
Speaker 2: and that kind of taught me a little bit. Sometimes
Speaker 2: it's not about you as much as you want to
Speaker 2: have the best gig. You want to have the best
Speaker 2: gig for yourself, but you and you want to have
Speaker 2: the best gig for them. They will create the conditions.
Speaker 2: You can suggest stuff, but ultimately they may have their
Speaker 2: own reasons for having you on. And sometimes it's about
Speaker 2: the audience. They want to catch up. It's not actually
Speaker 2: about the entertainment. They just want to catch up. So
Speaker 2: all you can do is go and do a gig
Speaker 2: and see how it goes.
Speaker 1: I've had a few, I've gone, I've gone to I
Speaker 1: think it was when they did the fundros of game
Speaker 1: was like fl Vic versus the rest of the country
Speaker 1: wherever it is, you know. And I did an appearance
Speaker 1: there and there was no Callingwood fans really in the crowd,
Speaker 1: and the god just asked me Collingwood fans the whole
Speaker 1: like calling Wood questions the whole time.
Speaker 2: And I just sat there and no one was paying attention.
Speaker 1: No one's even facing me on stage, and I was
Speaker 1: just thinking, they're awkwardly answer these questions, going I just
Speaker 1: don't think this is my crowd. But I don't think
Speaker 1: we're really nailing it, buddy, I don't, I really don't.
Speaker 1: Just everyone else is just talking just totally ignoring you,
Speaker 1: and then everyone just wants to say high off and
Speaker 1: take your photout. But it's like at that time they
Speaker 1: just could not care less. They're more interested in the
Speaker 1: beer they were drinking and the mates around them. It
Speaker 1: was up on stage.
Speaker 2: And what you mentioned is sometimes I find that it's
Speaker 2: as important that the hanging around to get it for yourself.
Speaker 2: He's afterwards, he's as important as whatever you do on stage.
Speaker 2: But yeah, yes, yeah, that's a good example of sometimes
Speaker 2: they just want to do their own thing.
Speaker 1: We'll go back to the project knowing. I guess, as
Speaker 1: you said earlier, the project, Man, how cool is it
Speaker 1: working on there? Because I find the project as one
Speaker 1: of the most unique I think news shows in the world.
Speaker 1: Like it's a very different take on news. It's got
Speaker 1: comedy in it, you know, it's got serious stuff, has
Speaker 1: got very important things along the way, and they somehow
Speaker 1: kind of maneuver in the right direction without really kind
Speaker 1: of going off track.
Speaker 2: And it's a pretty amazing.
Speaker 1: I think that the producers and everyone credit to them
Speaker 1: the way they'll be able to put it all together.
Speaker 1: How is it actually working on the set with everyone else,
Speaker 1: and what's your experience been like, it's been amazing. I
Speaker 1: mean it's a beast of a show to get to
Speaker 1: wear every night. We do six nights a week.
Speaker 2: I do four in one of the Thursdays, and it's
Speaker 2: it's an incredible team, the everything from the field producers
Speaker 2: to the daily producers to the graphics team, which are
Speaker 2: just the best, absolutely the best, and the is And
Speaker 2: it's funny you being an American, you know, having your
Speaker 2: your view on it, because a lot of Americans and
Speaker 2: Brits as well who come on the show, whether they
Speaker 2: be celebrities or you know, just people we have on
Speaker 2: the show, just it's like nothing they've ever seen. I
Speaker 2: think in Australia we can kind of realize there are
Speaker 2: some really we bat really high for our weight division.
Speaker 2: I think, you know, as far as I'm mixing sporting metaphors,
Speaker 2: there betting high in their weight division. Bradwill, Jeff Fanick.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's a really unique show and they really recognized.
Speaker 2: They're like, you know, Sarah Jessica Parker, I remember it
Speaker 2: was one of the first who came on. I said,
Speaker 2: I've never seen anything like this, you know, And that
Speaker 2: happens a lot with the show, and I think it
Speaker 2: becomes wallpaper to a degree in Australia because it's like
Speaker 2: we're were used to it. But it's a really unique show.
Speaker 2: With Craig Campbell, our former EP came up with a
Speaker 2: great you know, slugline which is basically a motto or
Speaker 2: mantra which is used to deliver differently. We we remind
Speaker 2: ourselves of that constantly and when people sometimes people get
Speaker 2: critical of the show will say, oh, oh yeah, what's
Speaker 2: the approach? Is supposed to be a new show, And
Speaker 2: then you got you know, Pete Hellier showing people getting
Speaker 2: kicked in the nuts, you know, which is exactly but
Speaker 2: it's a very important scene when I do called oh nuts,
Speaker 2: you know, and people need to see people getting kicked
Speaker 2: in the nuts. But it's like we could not put
Speaker 2: our mantra out any more than any other show. It
Speaker 2: is news delivered differently, which gives us permission really to
Speaker 2: do anything we like, whether you know we do yes
Speaker 2: delivered news. You know, it's not satires, it's not the
Speaker 2: Daily Show. I think a lot of people thought initially
Speaker 2: it was going to be like the Daily Show. It's
Speaker 2: not that it's not that we love the Daily Show,
Speaker 2: but that's not what we do. We tackle news pretty
Speaker 2: you know, straight, with some twists and in it, but
Speaker 2: the information that goes out is you know, is you know,
Speaker 2: the information is presented and and then we just find
Speaker 2: ways to have from My job in the show is
Speaker 2: to make news palatable for you know, families to watch.
Speaker 2: Really it's and the biggest, one of the biggest comments
Speaker 2: I get is that you know, families watch it together
Speaker 2: and it opens conversations. And that's that's I think the
Speaker 2: role of the show. It's one of the strongest things
Speaker 2: about the show is that it just opens up conversations.
Speaker 2: We're not telling you what to think. If if there
Speaker 2: are a lot of defensive people in the world and
Speaker 2: they you know, they're just all opinions, you know, and
Speaker 2: whether it's myself or Walid or Carrie or Lisa, they're
Speaker 2: just opinions, and you know, and that can be a
Speaker 2: portal to open up a wider conversation with you, your
Speaker 2: own family, your own kids, your own friends. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 2: And I.
Speaker 1: Think that's that's what's so good about it is it
Speaker 1: is a family show. You can look at it and
Speaker 1: you come away with a laugh, something serious, you know,
Speaker 1: understanding of what's going on in the world, and you
Speaker 1: get so much information put to you in a correct
Speaker 1: way that's entertaining for not only yourself but everyone else involved.
Speaker 1: And that's the credit to him. But I want to
Speaker 1: ask another question about the project. You've obviously interviewed people
Speaker 1: on there. Who's your favorite?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I've had a stunning run recently. I
Speaker 2: recently has been Tom Cruise, Jim Carrey, you know, County Reeves,
Speaker 2: and Sandra Bullock and Maggie Johnson. You know. The one
Speaker 2: that is the one that I'm like, I can't believe
Speaker 2: I've got to interview him was Francis Ford Coppola, the
Speaker 2: godfather of my favorite films and my only I mean,
Speaker 2: it's it's such a catch twenty two because it's it's
Speaker 2: great that you get to spend, you know, ten minutes
Speaker 2: with them, but it's not enough. After I've bactually got
Speaker 2: three questions into into Frances for a complain and he
Speaker 2: gave us a little bit of extra time because he
Speaker 2: knew he'd like, really taken one answer and just gone
Speaker 2: for like six minutes. And you're doing you're doing it.
Speaker 2: You can't and you know you've only got ten minutes,
Speaker 2: but you know, that there's only one story. We can't
Speaker 2: just do an interview that's one story, and he kind of,
Speaker 2: I think realized that and he kind of say, gave
Speaker 2: me a little bit extra time. But he was one,
Speaker 2: you know, Lebron and Magic Johnson right up there as well.
Speaker 2: It's really fascinating because I even talking about the ones
Speaker 2: I've done recently, I'm sure there's even a few that
Speaker 2: I've I've missed. You get used to interviewing these people
Speaker 2: and you kind of forget. My dad gave me one
Speaker 2: of the sweetest things anyone's ever done for me. My
Speaker 2: dad gave me like a photo book that he'd made
Speaker 2: of people I had interviewed over one year, interviewed on
Speaker 2: the on the project and he'd taken literal photos off
Speaker 2: the TV and then like Brittain, and it was genuinely
Speaker 2: so sweet. I mean, he did have like the names
Speaker 2: of people that I had interviewed underneath. So there was
Speaker 2: one where it was Daniel Ricardo and Coli, Me and
Speaker 2: I got on the same desk and they were sitting
Speaker 2: both next to me. That's the three of us sitting
Speaker 2: all altogether, and had Daniel Ricardo on coling minogue. But
Speaker 2: then there were times when he maybe got the names wrong,
Speaker 2: Like we interviewed and out and he had Sampang written
Speaker 2: underneath Dawn French was Robin Butler. So you've got to
Speaker 2: be embarrassed that he made a few mistakes, particularly the
Speaker 2: Sampang one but done. But it was genuinely so sweet.
Speaker 2: But it really taught me. I was like, wow, this
Speaker 2: is only one year. I I I do. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: would like to catalog at more the people I've I've
Speaker 2: gotten to speak to, and you know, you know I've
Speaker 2: had done Sasha Baron Carwen and we he did one
Speaker 2: on one with Justin Bieber Britney Spears, you know, and
Speaker 2: then there's ones you do. This is what weird ones.
Speaker 2: You know, I've interviewed now a few weeks, you know
Speaker 2: ex prime ministers and prime minister is when they're beat
Speaker 2: in office and we need a couple of times recently
Speaker 2: a next Finnish Prime minister and you kind of like
Speaker 2: you're doing that, but that going to go one of
Speaker 2: my what am I doing? This is kind of nuts?
Speaker 2: You know, it makes more sense with me interviewing you know,
Speaker 2: Jake Jillenholl or someone, but the next Finnish Prime minister
Speaker 2: is a bit weird.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but now you've you interviewed someone. I want to
Speaker 1: go into this because you created a movie actually with
Speaker 1: this person. Peter did English The Think and Theydink. Obviously
Speaker 1: he's known for Game of Thrones, hugely successful with that.
Speaker 1: How was creating the movie I Love You Too with him? Like,
Speaker 1: how is he as a person? As an actor? Like,
Speaker 1: give us a bit of an idea of kind of
Speaker 1: the day to day of creating a television show or
Speaker 1: a movie and how you go about with the different
Speaker 1: actors and the producers and the chaos of everything, and
Speaker 1: then also writing one of these things.
Speaker 2: There's so much to it.
Speaker 1: I feel like you've experienced in your life in these
Speaker 1: kind of media opportunities. I'd just love to get an
Speaker 1: idea of kind of a day on set. What does
Speaker 1: it look like?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean on set. I always feel like film,
Speaker 2: if you make a film, a film set or a
Speaker 2: TV set is a nice It feels like a hybrid
Speaker 2: of a construction set and school camp. Yeah, because you
Speaker 2: have like, yeah, you see what we see on camera,
Speaker 2: and that's usually looks like whatever they wanted to look like,
Speaker 2: whether it's a you know, a nice family home or
Speaker 2: a garbage tip or a you know. But then behind that,
Speaker 2: obviously behind the cameras, you have these extraordinarily talented you know,
Speaker 2: men and women who are going about their job and
Speaker 2: when something needs to be fixed, there's somebody a gaffer
Speaker 2: or getting there and and fix something so quickly. And
Speaker 2: other side of sometimes standing back and looking at cruise work,
Speaker 2: you know. So that's almost the construction side of it,
Speaker 2: and the other side feels like it was a school camp,
Speaker 2: but also just we all et lunch together, you know,
Speaker 2: and you get really close for that period of time
Speaker 2: because it's usually if you're you know, if you're heavily involved,
Speaker 2: as opposed to just maybe a day player who you
Speaker 2: come to for a day to do a role, you know,
Speaker 2: and that's that's a skill in itself to come in
Speaker 2: and do that. But if it's if you're there every day,
Speaker 2: you know, it's really the only thing you're doing like
Speaker 2: you you are, you know, completely focused. When I did
Speaker 2: How to Stay Married, I took time off the project
Speaker 2: to do that, and I took like six or six
Speaker 2: seven eight weeks to go and do that, and that
Speaker 2: was my life for eight weeks. And so it takes
Speaker 2: about seven years, you know, on average to write a
Speaker 2: script and get it up and get it made. And
Speaker 2: that's you know, I congratuate anyone who's even finished the script.
Speaker 2: You know, it's it's it's But yeah, being and hanging
Speaker 2: with like Peter Thinklage is another offense. But he's the
Speaker 2: coolest man I've ever made. He's super cool. He's so funny,
Speaker 2: like he has the I kept on saying that. I said,
Speaker 2: I interviewed him funny enough. He did a movie Serrho,
Speaker 2: and I got an interview him on the project, which
Speaker 2: I've had done a couple of times, and it was
Speaker 2: just hilarious because you just wanted to talk and catch
Speaker 2: up and I'm trying to talk about this movie to
Speaker 2: an extent, and and he is just lovely, you know,
Speaker 2: and he's just super funny. I keep saying to him,
Speaker 2: you should. Why haven't you done stand up? You know,
Speaker 2: and you know, and he just, you know, acting has
Speaker 2: been been this thing and that was such a special experience.
Speaker 2: And I remember him telling me, like, you you just
Speaker 2: got to enjoy being on set and being you know,
Speaker 2: this part of it, because if you're a bit like
Speaker 2: what I was saying about football before, maybe I've taken
Speaker 2: what I learned from Peter Dinklish to my sporting you
Speaker 2: know passion. Yeah, surely we'll get to that too. But yeah,
Speaker 2: like if you're just invested in and tied up in
Speaker 2: what the box office result will be or what the
Speaker 2: critical reaction will be, then then you'll drive yourself mad.
Speaker 2: You have to enjoy the experience of making it, and
Speaker 2: it is. It is really joyful. And then yeah, I
Speaker 2: love you. You did really well, you know, like comparatively to
Speaker 2: a lot. You know, it didn't. It wasn't. It wasn't
Speaker 2: as bust out, you know, a successful as you would
Speaker 2: hope for and love. It wasn't. It didn't become full
Speaker 2: weddings and the funeral. But you know it made you know,
Speaker 2: he made you know, some money in Australia. It had
Speaker 2: this weird life where it could be quite well in Russia,
Speaker 2: and which was cool anymore. I get it. And you
Speaker 2: played the Jerusalem Film Festival and so it's just this
Speaker 2: weird kind of thing. And then you get letters from
Speaker 2: people and emails from people around the world. And I
Speaker 2: remember Queensland farmer, you know, writing me an email. He
Speaker 2: lovely letters saying yeah he cried. It really touched him,
Speaker 2: you know, and that was what I loved. It made
Speaker 2: people cry as much as it did laugh. That was
Speaker 2: always the intent. But we had you know, Evon stra Hosky,
Speaker 2: who's you know, gone on to do Handmaid's Tail, and
Speaker 2: Brendan cow who's just a great mate and the greatest
Speaker 2: Traine actor, and you know meet and Gail and Rose
Speaker 2: Byrne came and did a role at literally for a day,
Speaker 2: and you know Ron Jacobs and you know Shane Shane
Speaker 2: and Clay's dad. Yeah, we just had such a great
Speaker 2: bunch of people. Katrina Melazovich from Wentworth, It's just you know, Chad,
Speaker 2: Mick Mahon, Brady Card. It was just for me. It
Speaker 2: was like a masterclass for me to be I didn't
Speaker 2: have a lot of acting experience. I've done more sketches
Speaker 2: and so yeah, yeah, absolutely and strong. You know, I've
Speaker 2: done that. So it was kind of for me to
Speaker 2: be in scenes all of a sudden with Peter dinkleyge
Speaker 2: and this is the next thing he done with Game
Speaker 2: of Thrones. So we spoke a bit of Game of Thrones,
Speaker 2: got on set, was just and Brendan and Yvonne and variety,
Speaker 2: and you know, and then more recently to work with
Speaker 2: Lisa mckewn is just like you're just better the actors.
Speaker 2: Because when we castle some mchun, I was almost like, oh,
Speaker 2: should we get somebody who's like, you know, not as
Speaker 2: good an actor so I don't get shown up completely
Speaker 2: and to make yourself look good. Yeah, maybe we get
Speaker 2: a crappy actor you know the show. But what you
Speaker 2: learn is that the better the actor you're working with,
Speaker 2: you become better. You know, I'm not at their level,
Speaker 2: but you do. You do feel yourself becoming better and
Speaker 2: you know, yeah, it somehow works. Do you want to
Speaker 2: do more movies and TV? I mean I would love
Speaker 2: to be my oni, my schedule with the project, like scheduling,
Speaker 2: because I've produced as well. I know the things you
Speaker 2: need to look for when you're casting actors. And if
Speaker 2: they've got you know, you know, things they can't do,
Speaker 2: like they can't do Mondays Tuesdays, they have to be
Speaker 2: gone by two. Like if I looked at my schedule,
Speaker 2: I can't do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Or if I
Speaker 2: if I am, I've got to be clear by one o'clock.
Speaker 2: It's like no, no, that's just one headache unless they
Speaker 2: absolutely needed exactly if I offer them something that they
Speaker 2: couldn't get anywhere else, which I don't. Yeah, if it
Speaker 2: was strongy, yeah, okay, they might make it work. But
Speaker 2: if it's if it's if they can get it somewhere else,
Speaker 2: you know, get us somewhere else. And I I would
Speaker 2: love to do more of it, but I think it'll
Speaker 2: be more as a real serious thing, maybe a post
Speaker 2: project whenever that may happen. And I'll even to direct more.
Speaker 2: And the directings are saying I'd love to direct another project,
Speaker 2: becasually being asked to direct on other projects. But again
Speaker 2: it's just it's just like, you know, I can't do
Speaker 2: it till one o'clock. Yeah, it's a.
Speaker 1: Bit of a time crunch. It's going so well with
Speaker 1: the project, you would you'd be silly, I think to
Speaker 1: so I'm not going to do that. I'm like, I
Speaker 1: don't know. Sometimes though you want to interest shot, the
Speaker 1: time will come out of the channel.
Speaker 2: Team will tap me on the shoulder, or I'll say,
Speaker 2: you know it's time to pass the torch. That the
Speaker 2: Tommy or you know somebody and and and but it's
Speaker 2: not going to be It's not going to be anytime soon.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well we'll go back. Let's go back a few years,
Speaker 1: go back to start with us. We're doing this bit
Speaker 1: tuarantine now star if you started on Rove, yeah, bro,
Speaker 1: which I'm American, I don't I don't have to do
Speaker 1: a bit of research and look up what the heck
Speaker 1: Grove was because idea.
Speaker 2: OK.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you did some some pretty cool stuff. I've
Speaker 1: seen some videos on there, and it's how was it
Speaker 1: in the early days of getting into the industry. Was
Speaker 1: it a struggle, was it a grind? Or was it
Speaker 1: just be yourself and hopefully things stick.
Speaker 2: I mean, I've I've always been very clear on this.
Speaker 2: I was extraordinarily lucky. You know. I met you know,
Speaker 2: but the two people who I met and this had
Speaker 2: chemistry with early on. We're American russo who were on
Speaker 2: Triple J and doing these amazing live shows, and they
Speaker 2: got me to support them. Americ I met first, and
Speaker 2: he just became I actually interviewed him when I was
Speaker 2: in community radio through a friend, a mutual friend, and
Speaker 2: you know, he's a man calling a sporter and it's
Speaker 2: from the same neckat Woods as I was. So we
Speaker 2: just got along, you know, and then in Russo got
Speaker 2: along and they were having me do these challenges on
Speaker 2: Triple J where I tracked down you know bill Ottie
Speaker 2: from the Goodies and you know Bevan from Young Talent
Speaker 2: Time and then do a song about Bevan, which became
Speaker 2: It's Got Bevin the Musical and that became spot hit.
Speaker 2: It may be a Spotify, but thirty number thirty five
Speaker 2: on Triple J's Hottest one hundred huge, Yeah, thank you,
Speaker 2: thank you, it's still so did I feel pretty cool
Speaker 2: about you know, and I a friends, but musician also
Speaker 2: redid the intro, and then I and then I and
Speaker 2: then and Rove. I met Rove and we just became
Speaker 2: became became really fast friends as well. I think I
Speaker 2: think fast friends just means he became quickly friends, I
Speaker 2: must if it means anything else. But what I mean
Speaker 2: is became quickly became friends. And and and then Rover
Speaker 2: was doing a Channel thirty one show, which is really
Speaker 2: local community TV, and he invited me on and we
Speaker 2: started doing what we ended up doing for about ten years,
Speaker 2: which was just me at the desk and showing sketches
Speaker 2: and talking shit, and it was it was kind of beautiful.
Speaker 2: And when he got off of the go to Channel nine.
Speaker 2: He asked me along. And it was an incredible year,
Speaker 2: you know, maybe even six months where we just you know,
Speaker 2: Channel nine back then was set up in Richmond, in
Speaker 2: Melbourne and and it was just like the old Hollywood
Speaker 2: system where they had like bungalows of you know.
Speaker 1: The top of the street. I used to live in.
Speaker 1: Channel Isine Studio renovated the whole thing. Yeah, there's great cafe.
Speaker 2: There too, now three cafe up yeah, yeah, yeah, Maria,
Speaker 2: that's a free coffee next time. So and it was
Speaker 2: safe for us to go from you know, stand up
Speaker 2: and doing your little sketched on Channel thirty one to
Speaker 2: have a I remember writing a sketch that involved us
Speaker 2: talking in German, so we had to learn German, which
Speaker 2: Kaering Grant, who was on, did it very well and
Speaker 2: I did it really badly. But this is back in
Speaker 2: the time when you could, you know, you could butcher
Speaker 2: accents without being canceled, yeah, or inappropriate. So and then
Speaker 2: and it was us in a field and it was
Speaker 2: like this game show where I was dressed up in
Speaker 2: you know, it's called what I Lied to You, nobod,
Speaker 2: I Lie to you something like that, and it was
Speaker 2: a guy, Dave Callen, who's this big hairy irishman, was
Speaker 2: strapped into a chair, strapped to a bomb, and Karin
Speaker 2: and I were to a megaphone and she would yell
Speaker 2: at have you been have you been cheating on me?
Speaker 2: In German? And they would respond and he lied and
Speaker 2: then we blew him up, you know, and you know,
Speaker 2: so it was silly, It was nonsense. It was a
Speaker 2: very silly show, but really funny. And I I just
Speaker 2: remember writing it and then all of a sudden production
Speaker 2: stuff would go to work, find the location. We had
Speaker 2: to drive out the point cook and film it, and
Speaker 2: you know, because we were exploding, you know, Dave, and
Speaker 2: it was just like, oh my god, fall in love.
Speaker 2: I was like, this is amazing. And another sketch I wrote,
Speaker 2: this is a very simple game show. And they they
Speaker 2: had these great studios at Channel nine, and I remember
Speaker 2: walking to the studio and they built this set and
Speaker 2: I was like, oh my god, these built this separid idea.
Speaker 2: I wrote three pages. You know, this is amazing. So
Speaker 2: that was really special because when we went to Channel ten,
Speaker 2: we had nothing quite like that. We were a bit
Speaker 2: kind of more on location all the time, like we
Speaker 2: didn't have access a lot to studios, but we said
Speaker 2: that we you know, because we had that year of
Speaker 2: challenge about ten episodes of Channel nine, and they he
Speaker 2: wanted to move on. They wanted to keep Rove and
Speaker 2: kind of let the referess go and Rove to his
Speaker 2: endless credit and you know, to be twenty two twenty
Speaker 2: three years old at the time and to basically walk
Speaker 2: away from I think the offer was around about a
Speaker 2: million bucks because he wanted these mates to kind of
Speaker 2: still be part of it is incredible and he deserves
Speaker 2: He's got my endless gratitude for that. And so we
Speaker 2: went to Channel ten and then we had ten years
Speaker 2: of Channel ten and it was it was great. It
Speaker 2: show changed a little bit. I mean, I do wish
Speaker 2: the Channel nine version of the Channel nine show had
Speaker 2: of continued because we're doing these weird kind of eight
Speaker 2: minute sketches, you know, and at the end of the series,
Speaker 2: we all got killed off, you know, one by one
Speaker 2: by Tanya Toddman, who was this kind of Martha Stewart
Speaker 2: type of the day. And yeah, she was great fun.
Speaker 2: And the idea was that the end of each series,
Speaker 2: we'll get killed off, and I mean we're going to
Speaker 2: Channel ten, and the show had changed a bit. It
Speaker 2: shifted a little bit, and it's still lots of fun
Speaker 2: and I loved it, you know, but I remember again
Speaker 2: at one point, okay, how are we going to kill
Speaker 2: ourselves at the end of the episode, was like, we're
Speaker 2: kind of moving on from that idea. Yeah, but it was.
Speaker 2: It was great times and you had to be And
Speaker 2: we did a radio version of the show for a while,
Speaker 2: rove greening myself and yeah, really good memories.
Speaker 1: It would be beautiful just to see something that's an idea
Speaker 1: and see it blossom into an actual physical thing. Oh
Speaker 1: and that's I think to be as a creator, to
Speaker 1: see that and to be able to have that, there'd
Speaker 1: be one I think your confidence would go through the
Speaker 1: roof and you go, oh my gosh, the sky's the limit, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just had this idea at home, and now all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, like there's a whole set and there's people,
Speaker 1: and there's actors and everything else is all coming together,
Speaker 1: like it's almost like a dream come true.
Speaker 2: At some point, I remind myself, this is exactly what
Speaker 2: I wanted to be doing, you know. I've got to
Speaker 2: work on the tonight show, a sketch show, an AFL show,
Speaker 2: you know, you know, a new show. Now, I've done
Speaker 2: a sitcom, you know, a movie like I Am. You know,
Speaker 2: nothing more could happen ever, and I'll be you know,
Speaker 2: I won't tell'll be happy because actually, to me, I'm
Speaker 2: more ambitious to do other things, and I've got a
Speaker 2: hunger to do other things. But I want to go
Speaker 2: into different areas now, and you know, whether it be
Speaker 2: animation or you know, darker material as opposed to some
Speaker 2: of the domestic stuff that I've been doing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you mentioned it, you did Skihouse. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: want to ask this questions. I looked this up online.
Speaker 1: Was it be called shithouse?
Speaker 2: Well? It was funny because Stephen Gates from Tripod were
Speaker 2: coming out trying to come up with names and he
Speaker 2: said as a joke, what about the house, and everyone
Speaker 2: going OK, and our EP at the time or you know,
Speaker 2: Craig Campbell just loved it, and he just thought, let's
Speaker 2: do it. And we're like, you realize we're setting ourselves
Speaker 2: up for people to make shithouse jokes, you know, And
Speaker 2: and here we are years later, I mean a van
Speaker 2: with Mason Cox. Yeah, so no, it's that was a
Speaker 2: really fun experience as well. I mean that, you know,
Speaker 2: we had Tom Gleeson, you know, a tripod, Damien Callen
Speaker 2: and Cal Wilson. You know, it was a really fun
Speaker 2: bunch of people and and yeah it was really you know,
Speaker 2: I still have people come up to me and there
Speaker 2: are a couple of sketches they kind of I did
Speaker 2: that they really liked, which was there's a guy who
Speaker 2: just spoke about how much he'd love to be but
Speaker 2: he could never actually drink it, like he was actually
Speaker 2: kind of almost dry reach with every kind of it's
Speaker 2: gagging on be like sculling beer. But it'd be going
Speaker 2: down the store and he'd be like he love the
Speaker 2: commercials now have essentially alcohol. Yeah exactly, Yeah, yeah, but
Speaker 2: yeah that's probably what I was drinking, to be honest,
Speaker 2: because said they had to make a little like beers.
Speaker 2: He probably was one of the first zero alcohol beers.
Speaker 2: And then so I get a lot of people occasionally
Speaker 2: asked about that. And then another one was about this
Speaker 2: guy who this strange lit come in and say his
Speaker 2: boss in an office, uh you know the figures. I
Speaker 2: haven't been able to do him yet, but can I
Speaker 2: get him to you, you know, tomorrow, and the bus
Speaker 2: will say, oh no, it's too late, it's too late anywhere. Okay,
Speaker 2: But what if I dance for you? But what if
Speaker 2: if I just dance for you? And that doesn't make
Speaker 2: any sense, Just let me dance and he just like
Speaker 2: press play on a little geto blast and you just
Speaker 2: like bad dance and that's all. That's all it was.
Speaker 2: So somebody will say to me, you know, what if
Speaker 2: I dance.
Speaker 1: For it was just coming up to you the mill
Speaker 1: of grocery stores here. Yeah, dance for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah. It might take a little while of tweet that
Speaker 2: it's yeah.
Speaker 1: But occasionally another thing he did before the game, and
Speaker 1: that is where the personality of Austrony came from. Amazing
Speaker 1: kind of I guess, like side gig of yours and
Speaker 1: a side personality that you've really enjoyed. I think being
Speaker 1: a Cain good fan I work goggles and games now
Speaker 1: is what they call it.
Speaker 2: But I think you're the original one where Sonny is.
Speaker 1: And be honest with you, I want to say I
Speaker 1: got the idea from you. I might have to die
Speaker 1: my hair blond. I think little Jack in Evan's already
Speaker 1: done that. But the sun is blonde hair. You call
Speaker 1: it good run out and just give a little tribute
Speaker 1: to Strini one.
Speaker 2: Day, put a fifty nine on your back. You could
Speaker 2: change you number if you're pretty close. You're pretty close.
Speaker 2: Forty six is pretty close. But yeah, I mean Strawny.
Speaker 2: It was just and it's I've often said to people,
Speaker 2: it may be it may be the funniest creation I
Speaker 2: ever made, because it just it just. People just were
Speaker 2: amazed at how quickly people loved him, and the breadth
Speaker 2: of the demographic that loved him. I would have kids
Speaker 2: coming up and saying it they love Strawny, but also
Speaker 2: signing the cards that they made, the actual footy cards
Speaker 2: they made. You know, can you sign this for my
Speaker 2: eighty nine year old grandmother? You know she loves strawngag.
Speaker 2: Can you do a video message for my ninety eight
Speaker 2: year old grandmother? It was just And then when we
Speaker 2: did the Legends game, I kind of went to a
Speaker 2: new level because you could actually go and see him play.
Speaker 2: You know, I remember, I remember, do you have to
Speaker 2: kind of practice a bit? Well? Growing up? No, I
Speaker 2: didn't really practice at all. In fact, one of the
Speaker 2: early days we were shooting straw because it happened so quickly,
Speaker 2: like we had a meeting it before the game about
Speaker 2: what ideas might we have And and Paul Colligiah, he's
Speaker 2: a great writer and sound up comedian, said he knew
Speaker 2: that I love doing these kind of mockumentary kind of
Speaker 2: you know, kind of characters I've done on Rove and
Speaker 2: and and characters with big ego but with the talent
Speaker 2: a bit you know, missing lacking. Just yeah, yeah, and
Speaker 2: I just always like there's something you know, Yeah, we
Speaker 2: did these characters on you know, I did these characters
Speaker 2: on Rove the first season where I was like chasing
Speaker 2: black thunders, you know, around through wing radio contests and
Speaker 2: and you know, and a guy who like would would
Speaker 2: you know, shoot his own funnyes home video movies, but
Speaker 2: they're all kind of staged and and and and all that.
Speaker 2: So he said, what doesn't play like a guy gets
Speaker 2: strapped like he's last in the draft and his name
Speaker 2: is up Brian Strawn and he plays for you know, Collingwood.
Speaker 2: And that was and that was kind of and then
Speaker 2: we just kind of trying to work out, okay, well
Speaker 2: what you know, where's he from? And you know, maybe
Speaker 2: he's from Horsham, you know, got down and then and
Speaker 2: then like we shot him getting drafted. And the reason
Speaker 2: there's a storyline extrawny that his mum's Asian, but he
Speaker 2: hasn't quite worked out these somehow, you know, like he
Speaker 2: adopted or because he's not he's not Asian, so there's
Speaker 2: no there's no part of it. But he takes a
Speaker 2: lot of pride in it. And the only reason that
Speaker 2: storyline came about because the only woman in our office
Speaker 2: who was of that age that he could actually be
Speaker 2: extra on his mum was she worked in at the
Speaker 2: finance department, Margaret Chong, and she she was was she was,
Speaker 2: she was, so she's like, you're gonna play my mum.
Speaker 2: So then we got was like he really was, he
Speaker 2: really was, and she she didn't have to do much.
Speaker 2: And then his dad was Michelle White's dad, Frankie, who ladies,
Speaker 2: they didn't appear that much, but he was, you know,
Speaker 2: he was much older as well. So we had this
Speaker 2: you know kind of thing that his dad was constantly
Speaker 2: having like a ridiculous amount of strokes, and it just
Speaker 2: was only because it was there was never never a script.
Speaker 2: I don't think it was ever a script. Ever written
Speaker 2: for Straw and which made it kind of good. You know,
Speaker 2: we had Jeff Rolsh and Neil Bam who were Collingwood
Speaker 2: at the time. He said, yeah, come down, and they
Speaker 2: trusted me, knowing I was a calling and supporter to
Speaker 2: get in there and then and and not not take
Speaker 2: the piss too much and to respect the club, Like
Speaker 2: we saw anything down there that we went so I
Speaker 2: to see, we wouldn't, you know, use it as news
Speaker 2: or anything. And Mick Moldhouse slowly started to get involved,
Speaker 2: and I reckon he'd be a tough one to turn
Speaker 2: for a while, he didn't know what was going on.
Speaker 2: And then we started using his daughter Christie in sketches
Speaker 2: because she was a Channel ten at the time. And
Speaker 2: then something clicked and He's like, okay, I mean I
Speaker 2: mean I I mean so yeah, and then you know,
Speaker 2: we had this weird thing. He won AFL Personality of
Speaker 2: the Year, he won, which is the first non real
Speaker 2: person to win it. He won an award at the
Speaker 2: can Advertising Awards because there was a campaign we did
Speaker 2: with Mars Bar and won an Integration Award. Calm like
Speaker 2: it's it's it's a surreal so it's funny and I
Speaker 2: still get people saying when when Strahnie coming back, you know,
Speaker 2: people yelling it out at me. I'm actually considering bringing
Speaker 2: him back, maybe some kind of podcast form.
Speaker 1: You should because I know his career kind of ended
Speaker 1: e Jo Whitten's game. He broke his ankle and there
Speaker 1: was a statement that he said at the end of
Speaker 1: his career that he might coach.
Speaker 2: I know, did Stroanie put an.
Speaker 1: Application in last year at all or was that just
Speaker 1: there's rumor There is rumor he was maybe going to
Speaker 1: be the next coach.
Speaker 2: We love Craig mcraig absolutely, but Stroanie. I think what
Speaker 2: I reckon? He was high up there? Yeah, I reckon
Speaker 2: what what what made it fall over? In the end,
Speaker 2: he wanted the captain coach. Mmm, so Pendles actually wasn't
Speaker 2: cool with it. Yeah, that's that actually makes total sense, makeense.
Speaker 2: But Pedal was knocking to retire as captain. He'll be
Speaker 2: in the stands and he's still be captaining. No, so yeah,
Speaker 2: it was I mean, he was a lot of It's
Speaker 2: a lot of fun to play and there's something about
Speaker 2: putting putting that that wig on that mullet that that
Speaker 2: kind of put it straight straight in the zone. And
Speaker 2: it's like, you know, and yeah, he's fun. So I yeah,
Speaker 2: I I it's more of the time. I would still
Speaker 2: love to be doing him, but it's time that I
Speaker 2: need to find, really and I do like to move forward.
Speaker 2: And if if you keep looking back, but if I
Speaker 2: was ever going to go back and do something, I
Speaker 2: think Stronie would be the thing that I kind of
Speaker 2: love doing.
Speaker 1: We would love to have Stronie back at the Collinwood
Speaker 1: Football Club.
Speaker 2: Companies for the club. Yes, well I did go down
Speaker 2: a couple of years ago actually, and we shot some
Speaker 2: stuff that finals time. Actually, they've got they got some
Speaker 2: stuff in that. So yeah, he's never gone forever. Well
Speaker 2: not this stage. Yeah, yeah, I love it man. So Stronie.
Speaker 1: You've also written books, correct, Yeah, and you've also traveled.
Speaker 1: I read this you willed Europe, Eastern Europe with your family,
Speaker 1: you d your wife and you three boys. Any great stories.
Speaker 1: Obviously backpacking with three kids and a wife.
Speaker 2: I could not. I cannot fathom. No, I just don't
Speaker 2: know how in the world you got that over the line. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so we wrote, Yeah, we write a book based on
Speaker 2: this called Tripping with Kids, which we released during a
Speaker 2: pandemic A global pandemic. I suggest if you're gonna write
Speaker 2: a travel book, don't release it during a global pandemic
Speaker 2: when borders are closed. So it was that was unfortunate.
Speaker 2: But if you, if you, if you, if you're looking
Speaker 2: at traveling with kids, you've got small kids. Me and
Speaker 2: my wife wrote a book case Tripping with Kids, and
Speaker 2: it's it's about it's just tips on things to consider.
Speaker 2: People who have reached out saying they really love that
Speaker 2: it helped their preparing and also just anecdotes and when
Speaker 2: we were away, actual destination tips and and all that.
Speaker 2: So check it out if you can be much appreciated,
Speaker 2: because yeah, we release that in a global pandemic. So
Speaker 2: but yeah, I mean, we went to France for six
Speaker 2: weeks when O school was two. He's the youngest. He's
Speaker 2: now thirteen. So we had a two year old, of
Speaker 2: five year old and a seven year old, and two
Speaker 2: years after that we did Eastern Europe with you know,
Speaker 2: they were two years older than they were then. But
Speaker 2: I got to say it is it was in a way,
Speaker 2: it was tough, but not as tough as you might think,
Speaker 2: and it was those memories are the best memories of
Speaker 2: my lifetime. Like just being away from everything in a
Speaker 2: different time zone where things that you think matter here
Speaker 2: don't matter anymore, and you're just you're not getting phone
Speaker 2: calls at weird times, you know, or during the day.
Speaker 2: You're in the moment and you know, it's my kids
Speaker 2: are now, you know, nineteen seventeen and thirteen and you
Speaker 2: know we're going to Port Douglas soon and we had
Speaker 2: to beg them to come, you know. So it's kind
Speaker 2: of this negotiation you do now and back then it
Speaker 2: was like this is where we go and everyone's happy,
Speaker 2: and so a little bit of a melancholy over lockdown
Speaker 2: is thinking are those times are you know, kind of
Speaker 2: over now in a way. So we went to a
Speaker 2: crack out and in Poland and you bought a pest
Speaker 2: and yeah, Berlin and it was just it's incredible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, some beautiful memories, I think when you talk about that,
Speaker 1: just being able to pull yourself out of the situation
Speaker 1: that you're at in Australia wherever you're living and just
Speaker 1: kind of realize how big the world is. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: just makes such amazing memories and it's amazing and awesome
Speaker 1: that you got to be able to share that with
Speaker 1: your family, because, like you say, you probably stressed out
Speaker 1: and it's all happening, but once it all kind of
Speaker 1: goes through and you realize how many amazing memories you
Speaker 1: get out of it, and you really start to get
Speaker 1: how special I really was and being able to do
Speaker 1: that so great to you. Man, that's awesome. He's got
Speaker 1: his own podcast. You ain't seen nothing yet. He's also
Speaker 1: on the project every single night, and it's so good
Speaker 1: to have.
Speaker 2: You on, mate.
Speaker 1: It's an absolutely pleasure. It's absolute honored to have you
Speaker 1: on Amazing can Show. And thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 1: You gotta get a flag, maam, I will do. Thanks
Speaker 1: everyone for listening in. What a great chat with Peter
Speaker 1: Hell here. And he's got so many different stories and
Speaker 1: so many things he's done in life, and I'm really
Speaker 1: excited for what he's going to do in the future.
Speaker 1: One of those people you're always going to have an
Speaker 1: eye out for, whether it be on the Project or
Speaker 1: everything else. He's just been so successful in his career
Speaker 1: and he's told some amazing stories here today. But like
Speaker 1: share comment all the good stuff, keep giving us feedback.
Speaker 1: We really appreciate it, and we're really excited to grow
Speaker 1: this community, so check it out and really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: You all listening in