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Speaker 1: The Pirates of Penzance is hon at His Majesty's Theater

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Speaker 1: from this Friday until April five, just the one week basically.

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Speaker 1: Tickets are available through Waopera dot asn dot au and

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Speaker 1: the star of the show, Ben Mingey is joining us.

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Speaker 2: Hello Ben, Ben, Hello, Les very close? Are you good?

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Speaker 1: Ben? I love Gilbert and Sullivan. They are the masters

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Speaker 1: of the uproariously silly, and you play the pirate king

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Speaker 1: in this indeed, So is it the most fun you

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Speaker 1: can have playing a pirate on stage?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd say it is. It's definitely a lot of fun.

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Speaker 2: I think, you know, Gilbert and Sullivan is one of

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Speaker 2: those ye know, it's one of those situations where you

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Speaker 2: can't not have fun, just very intelligent music. So I think,

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Speaker 2: you know, it's one of those ones that everybody enjoys.

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Speaker 3: Seeing so many actors run around in this role that

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Speaker 3: John English and the like. It's a very physical role too,

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Speaker 3: is and you have to be in shape.

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Speaker 2: Yeah it is. Actually there's a lot of sword play

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Speaker 2: and a lot of leaping over barrels and climbing ships

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Speaker 2: and fiddling about, so yeah, it is. And the costumes

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Speaker 2: are quite elaborate. They're very impressive. So they're also quite heavy.

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Speaker 1: I guess any man who could say to his nine

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Speaker 1: year old self, one day you will be leaping over

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Speaker 1: barrels and playing with swords on stuff that's you would think,

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Speaker 1: Oh you dream had come true.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely kicked them off living the dream. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Now is it true, Ben that you basically got into

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Speaker 1: this biers on a dare?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that is true. Actually I grew up grew up

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Speaker 2: in Newcastle, and when I left school, I worked on

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Speaker 2: the F three bypassed, which is the bypass that basically

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Speaker 2: bypasses Newcastle. And we were sitting around at Smoker having

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Speaker 2: a couple of scallops and a coke, and and one

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Speaker 2: of the guys pulled out this clipping from the newspaper

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Speaker 2: for auditions for the Conservatorium for Opera Voice. And because

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Speaker 2: I sang in a rock band, they all sort of

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Speaker 2: issue or auditioned for this. And you know you're a singer.

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Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, but I'm not that sort of singer. Yeah. Anyway,

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Speaker 2: they all threw in fifty bucks each and a couple

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Speaker 2: of cartains of beer and dead me to audition. So

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Speaker 2: oh yeah, yeah, loaded up on my best King J's

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Speaker 2: and went in and sang songs and got the groops.

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Speaker 3: That's one of the great stories of showbiz.

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Speaker 1: I guess they were potato scullops. Now it's all scullops.

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Speaker 3: And did those books want their money back? Are they

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Speaker 3: have they invested?

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Speaker 2: I'll tell you what if it was If it was

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Speaker 2: the other type of scallops, I wouldn't have been sitting

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Speaker 2: around on a construction So.

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Speaker 3: I think probably not. You know, having gigs like you

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Speaker 3: did back in the day, it's probably helped you with

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Speaker 3: a few roles, has it over the years?

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Speaker 2: Oh, you mean the old rock gigs.

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Speaker 3: Rock gigs or even just some of some of the

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Speaker 3: jobs you did, you know, working in construction.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, I think, you know, there's there's definitely a

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Speaker 2: lot of bonuses, a lot of pros for me having

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Speaker 2: gone through that that sort of route. You know, it's

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Speaker 2: I think there's nothing more valuable than to sort of

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Speaker 2: get on the on the ground on tools and really

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Speaker 2: do some hard yak to realize what what's what. And

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Speaker 2: you know, just the people I met doing all that

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Speaker 2: sort of stuff, you know, working in the construction game,

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Speaker 2: it's such such grounded, down to earth people and I

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Speaker 2: feel like, you know, you could always bring a lot

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Speaker 2: of that into your acting, because acting is all the

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Speaker 2: wayut truth. So it's it's all very very much a

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Speaker 2: learning experience, I think good experience.

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Speaker 1: So, Ben, you were absolutely marvelous as Alan Bond in

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Speaker 1: the House of Bond obviously a very big story here

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Speaker 1: in Perth. Did you Did you know much about BONDI

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Speaker 1: and the story before you wet the role?

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Speaker 2: Really? I never I never would have thought in a

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Speaker 2: million years that I'd play Alan Bond. Maybe I fired

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Speaker 2: as a nine year old Andy double definitely not am

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Speaker 2: But but you know what was really interesting is is

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Speaker 2: I do have some very good friends here in pers

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Speaker 2: Colin Judy, and they they sort of, you know, filled

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Speaker 2: me in on a bit of bit of Bondie sort

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Speaker 2: of antiques when they found out I got the role.

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Speaker 2: And I had a friend of ours and Robbie who

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Speaker 2: lived back in Newcastle. They were sailors and they used

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Speaker 2: to make sailors and rob actually sailed with Bondie. So

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Speaker 2: I got all these amazing stories about the America's Cup

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Speaker 2: sort of and it was great. And to do all

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Speaker 2: the research and you know, go down that rabbit hole

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Speaker 2: of researching BONDI was fascinating. I mean, what a what

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Speaker 2: a bloke just didn't didn't hold I didn't hold back

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Speaker 2: at all. And and to sort of revisit all those

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Speaker 2: like I've Got to Sail, you know, the actual Australia

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Speaker 2: American's Cup, which was which was pretty cool. And you know,

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Speaker 2: I think, I think to play such an icon was

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Speaker 2: was a real treat and a real honor and a

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Speaker 2: lot of hard work. But I think it was definitely

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Speaker 2: one of the one of the more proud sort of projects.

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Speaker 3: That I have and BONDI like Bondie like a scollop

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Speaker 3: or two or that of someone else paid for it.

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Speaker 1: A long lunch on a Friday.

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Speaker 2: That's funny. Actually, I went for a drive yesterday just

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Speaker 2: around just to have a look at a few things

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Speaker 2: and yeah, going to like les Nerdy and all these

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Speaker 2: places which I referred to in the in the bond

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Speaker 2: and you know, looking at the map at where I

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Speaker 2: was going to go for a drive up Yea and

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Speaker 2: ship to see what that was really like. It's great,

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Speaker 2: I mean, you know, such a great place. I really

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Speaker 2: really enjoy coming here.

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Speaker 3: Sun City was Bondie's dream, isn't it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, A lot of fun facts about you, Ben

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Speaker 1: you're a stunt driver and.

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Speaker 3: A fire breath that far anything you don't.

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Speaker 1: Well, you sail, you drive, you're seeing you dance, your

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Speaker 1: sword play.

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Speaker 2: There's there's a lot of strings to my bow. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I mean, look the fire breathing was that That was

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Speaker 2: not something which I trained at a young age. I

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Speaker 2: want to be a fire I actually hear from the

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Speaker 2: first gig I ever did and the director. It was Hair,

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Speaker 2: the musical and the director. But does anybody got the

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Speaker 2: special talent you know, love loving if someone could firebreathe

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Speaker 2: and I just put my hand up, being young and green,

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Speaker 2: I'll give it a go. But okay, we just needed

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Speaker 2: to see your certification to whip down the circular key

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Speaker 2: on the weekend and get certified by a street performer

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Speaker 2: that I could fire breath. Yea.

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Speaker 1: It harks back to that f one in Newcastle.

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Speaker 3: Sets you up for anything. You're talking about. Young Ben's

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Speaker 3: thinking you might be bond one day. But woul young

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Speaker 3: nine year old Ben have thought you'd work with me.

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Speaker 3: That's pretty cool.

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Speaker 2: I'll tell you what that was. That was definitely a

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Speaker 2: unicorn moment. There's definitely nothing nothing like walking into the

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Speaker 2: final callback and seeing a whole panel of the biggest

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Speaker 2: producers in the world and casting directors, and then Mel

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Speaker 2: Gibson standing up and coming over and giving you a target.

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Speaker 2: It's like, oh Jesus, Yeah, it was a very surreal experience.

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Speaker 2: And you know, here's a bit of Pirates trivia for you.

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Speaker 2: When you were filming one of the one of the

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Speaker 2: big battle scenes out it's out of the back of

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Speaker 2: Campbelltown on hacks or Ridge. We had to get everyone

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Speaker 2: to march in time. So Mel Gibson comes back to me, go,

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Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, you're you're a you're an offer and

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Speaker 2: you're a singer, you know, singing something. So I sang

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Speaker 2: the Pirate King song as we all marched along for it.

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Speaker 2: I don't movie, but that's happened.

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Speaker 3: And that's great.

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Speaker 1: Didn't they say if you were marched in time across

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Speaker 1: the bridge, you could make the bridge come down. And anyway,

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Speaker 1: that's the circle moment. I love that The Pirate Depends

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Speaker 1: answers on His Majesty's Theater from Friday until next Saturday.

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Speaker 1: Tickets are available through w A Opera dot A s

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Speaker 1: N dot au Ben lovely to catch up with you

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Speaker 1: this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for having me, guys, a real pleasure and I

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Speaker 2: hope everyone enjoys the show. This is going to be

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Speaker 2: probably one of the best you can.

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Speaker 3: You cannot know when you're here. We'll go to Les

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Speaker 3: Murder and have scullopts together the WHI.

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Speaker 2: I'll bring you six hundred a coke.

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Speaker 3: Yes, thanks, thanks, bye, Thanks