Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload the.
Speaker 2: Podcast last week.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to TV Reload. My name is Benjamin Norris
Speaker 1: and on this podcast I go behind the scenes with
Speaker 1: the biggest players in television. Each episode you will get
Speaker 1: a front row seat with content makers like executive producers, writers,
Speaker 1: editors and casting agents, plus the talent that we see
Speaker 1: on our screens. TV Reload reloads the shows that you
Speaker 1: are currently watching and gives you a better insight into
Speaker 1: our television industry and our streaming services.
Speaker 2: Today.
Speaker 1: On the podcast, I have one of this year's judges
Speaker 1: from AGT which starts this Sunday night at seven pm
Speaker 1: on Channel seven. It is the Delightful, the Charming, the
Speaker 1: quint Essential Ossie Shane Jacobson. Shane joins the podcast to
Speaker 1: discuss his role on the latest season and they have
Speaker 1: some mind blowing acts set to wow our Australian audiences.
Speaker 1: You will hear the excitement in his voice as he
Speaker 1: cannot wait for you all to watch this latest season.
Speaker 1: Side note, Dane Jacobson is one of my favorite Australian actors.
Speaker 1: I've loved him on stage on screen on TV shows,
Speaker 1: but I've also always appreciated his love of the arts.
Speaker 1: If you think Shane is a novice to the world
Speaker 1: of entertainment, you might be surprised to hear just how
Speaker 1: extensive his back catalog of work has been. As we
Speaker 1: unpack some of the different jobs he's had over the
Speaker 1: last four decades of continued work, I will ask Shane
Speaker 1: what makes a good agt judge, who makes him giggle
Speaker 1: between the auditions, which acts he looks forward to the most,
Speaker 1: and how they plan to keep the live audit in
Speaker 1: silent until the winner is revealed. However, let's get started
Speaker 1: with today's guest. I'd like to welcome Shane Jacobson to
Speaker 1: TV Reload.
Speaker 2: So I've spent my life in the entertainment industry. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's not limited to just people being from Australia.
Speaker 1: As Australia's premier funny man an a five winning star.
Speaker 2: Part of me that goes, oh, please be really good.
Speaker 2: I thought you were going to die and I don't
Speaker 2: think I'm ever going to recover. When an actor leaves
Speaker 2: the stage, you have to shake that off.
Speaker 1: Hello, welcome to Australia's Got Talent.
Speaker 2: It's not like we're saying get out of here and
Speaker 2: never come back here. We don't say that.
Speaker 1: Hi, Shane, thanks for being here on the podcast.
Speaker 2: My absolute pleasure. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
Speaker 1: I am a huge fan and I've been in your
Speaker 1: audience for many years. This is probably going to say
Speaker 1: a lot about how old I am, but I remember
Speaker 1: the early groundswell of Kenny, you know, which now feels
Speaker 1: like a lifetime ago.
Speaker 2: Well for anyone sixteen years of age, it was a
Speaker 2: lifetime ago because it was well it was it's been
Speaker 2: fifteen sixteen. Well when we started filming, it was probably
Speaker 2: seventeen years ago, eight years ago, so yeah, and it
Speaker 2: probably came out I think it was two thousand and six.
Speaker 2: So yeah, a lot of water under the bridge since then.
Speaker 1: But I also really appreciate you know, your passion for entertainment,
Speaker 1: comedy and storytelling. I'm from Melbourne, so I've been going
Speaker 1: to the sin Kilda Film Festival for decades and I've
Speaker 1: always really appreciated your contribution to that festival over the years.
Speaker 2: Oh thank you. Yeah, Look, my brother. Truth is that
Speaker 2: the passion for the sin Kilda Film Festival came from
Speaker 2: my brother who used to put I mean god, you
Speaker 2: put so many short films in and you would probably
Speaker 2: remember that Kenny started off as a short film at
Speaker 2: the sin Kilda Film Festival.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 2: It was actually a reaction to Paul who runs the
Speaker 2: sink Kilda Film Festival, who was involved in it for
Speaker 2: so long, actually said to my brother years ago, you know,
Speaker 2: what are you putting in this year? Because Clayton always
Speaker 2: put something in and was always a bit of a
Speaker 2: crowd favorite, to be honest, and he said, oh, look,
Speaker 2: I'm thinking about this thing with my brother. So we
Speaker 2: did the short film that got carried away, the short
Speaker 2: film that we did for sin Kilda Film Festivals, forty
Speaker 2: seven minutes from Memory forty six or forty seven minutes.
Speaker 2: That was a long short and that one people's choice
Speaker 2: and then Best Comedy. But that was the impetus to
Speaker 2: then have it. You know, people keep saying you've got
Speaker 2: to make that a feature, we want to see more,
Speaker 2: And that was it was sin Kilda Film Festival that
Speaker 2: really was kind of the colonel that ended up making
Speaker 2: it turn into a feature.
Speaker 1: Well, I always would somehow be sitting next to you.
Speaker 1: I'm going to bring this up again later as well,
Speaker 1: but I would somehow be sitting next to you and
Speaker 1: Clayton and your family. But I always just for years
Speaker 1: somehow we'd be sitting right next to you, all behind
Speaker 1: you or in front of you, so it was it
Speaker 1: was surreal. And this is all before Kenny. You know,
Speaker 1: this is a very long, a long relationship that you
Speaker 1: have a sinkild festival. But I bring this up because
Speaker 1: I really think, you know, this is the reason for
Speaker 1: you being so perfect for the role on AGT. You
Speaker 1: know you've been in the position. You know, you've worked
Speaker 1: hard crafting stories and have been judged, and I think
Speaker 1: that makes you someone who gets it.
Speaker 2: Thanks for saying that it's funny. I've had a few.
Speaker 2: I've heard reports and heard people say there was even
Speaker 2: Spider every strame under the buses. You will Spider Everett's
Speaker 2: footballer a radio host. I heard that he said on
Speaker 2: a radio show up in Queensland or something. I have
Speaker 2: no idea what we'd be watching that Kenny guy. You know,
Speaker 2: what would he know about entertainment?
Speaker 1: And I don't.
Speaker 2: It's not people's job to know what you've done in
Speaker 2: your life. But it's interesting I have even now that
Speaker 2: I'm doing here Spray the musical as well, people have said,
Speaker 2: you know, what do you do to what have you
Speaker 2: done to prepare for having a go at doing music theater.
Speaker 2: I'm like, well, I haven't had to have a go
Speaker 2: at it, you know. I started. I did at thirteen
Speaker 2: years of amateur theater. I tap dance for two years.
Speaker 2: I had a band for two years. I've sung on albums.
Speaker 2: I've sung at Carol's. I've done now I think six
Speaker 2: or seven professional music theater performances and professional plays. I
Speaker 2: don't know what of these now twenty movies. You know.
Speaker 2: I've done a stand up comedy. I've been a corporate MC.
Speaker 2: I used to do audience warm up, so you know
Speaker 2: a version of stand up comedy where I had a
Speaker 2: fresh audience every night for about seven years. And so yeah,
Speaker 2: I've spent my whole life, you know. And and other
Speaker 2: people's bands have performed, you know, both sung and m
Speaker 2: seeded events. So I've spent my life in the entertainment industry,
Speaker 2: and like it is all of my life, you know,
Speaker 2: I start my first you know, I've always joked that
Speaker 2: my first performance was at eight, and then I used
Speaker 2: to say it was actually about quarter past eight, but
Speaker 2: who's county. But I've been on stage and my brother
Speaker 2: being a director, you know, I used to appear in
Speaker 2: his film projects, in short films when I was a kid,
Speaker 2: you know. So yeah, and there's not there's not a
Speaker 2: corner of it that I haven't played in. Also, I
Speaker 2: used to do event management and did fireworks and I
Speaker 2: was a lighting designer. So and I've worked. But you know,
Speaker 2: I've been a house ticket theater venues and produced documentaries
Speaker 2: and been a part of producing movies and now I
Speaker 2: do theater production produce. I'm going into producing in theaters
Speaker 2: as well. So there's not there's not a kind of
Speaker 2: a corner of entertainment that I haven't played in, only
Speaker 2: because I love it like it's it's my playground. And
Speaker 2: if someone says, so, do you only play on the swings, No,
Speaker 2: I play on the slide, playing on the hoops, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean. So yeah, there's not a corner
Speaker 2: of entertainment that I haven't tried to spend time in. So,
Speaker 2: you know, I do think I know it well because
Speaker 2: my mum had a dance school, my sisters were dancers,
Speaker 2: my brother's a director, and my dad did stand up comedy,
Speaker 2: you know, so it is our world and we come
Speaker 2: from Carnival's so it's in our blood as well.
Speaker 1: I mean it is, that's the best way to describe it.
Speaker 1: It's in your blood. I even remember I worked at
Speaker 1: the radio station I think it was Gold I was
Speaker 1: working a Golden mix selling advertising in early two thousand
Speaker 1: and I remember didn't you come in and voice a
Speaker 1: character for a while?
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, she got a good memory. Yeah, So
Speaker 2: I was on Gold FM for about a year, I
Speaker 2: think a year. So I had a segment called the
Speaker 2: sixty Minute Challenge, which was on Friday mornings with Sean
Speaker 2: crossgrows and Jane Holmes. People who don't know who Jane
Speaker 2: Holmes is, many people, many people would. She's a delightful woman.
Speaker 2: She's actually there. She was the voice of Telstra when
Speaker 2: you were on. That was Jane and the wonderful Sean Cross,
Speaker 2: apart from being having an incredible career in radio. People
Speaker 2: was of course and come on down on the prices, right,
Speaker 2: That was Sean. So yeah, I had a segment on that.
Speaker 2: But I also had a character called Sergio, who was
Speaker 2: a beautician, wasn't It wasn't the sharpest till in the shed.
Speaker 2: Dear old Sergio so yeah, I had a character that
Speaker 2: is to ring him quite often for comments and he'd
Speaker 2: usually get stuff wrong. So yeah, I did character stuff
Speaker 2: and you're right, that would have been it would have
Speaker 2: to have been twenty years ago sposed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a long time ago. That's saying how old
Speaker 1: we are? So great we're deleted from the podcast.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like we shouldn't look at it. We shouldn't look
Speaker 2: in the revision mirror because you realize how distant those
Speaker 2: kind of sounds where that we drove through it. I'm
Speaker 2: doing hairspray at the moment, and I had to say
Speaker 2: to one of the cast members, Karmel, who plays my
Speaker 2: daughter Tracy in the stage show. She said, a lady
Speaker 2: brought some biscuits. She'd baked some biscuits which got sent backstage.
Speaker 2: And she's actually does the audio describing for people who
Speaker 2: are vision impaired that come and see the shots. It's
Speaker 2: wonderful service where they can sit in the theater and
Speaker 2: be immersed in the sound and the auspit. This wonderful,
Speaker 2: sayssy Hill. Does the audio described so they can hear
Speaker 2: what's happening on stage and have the sets described to them. Anyway,
Speaker 2: she knows I'm doing the show and send some biscuits
Speaker 2: to me and Todd McKenny. And someone said, oh, I
Speaker 2: got some biscuits from a friend. I said yeah, and
Speaker 2: they said, you know, what does she doing? I said,
Speaker 2: she's here to the audio described. I said, but that's
Speaker 2: actually not where I know her from. All I said,
Speaker 2: is that how you met her? And I said no,
Speaker 2: I used to do shows with her on stage forty
Speaker 2: two years ago. And I had to say I had
Speaker 2: to say that outlaud that I was performing with this
Speaker 2: woman forty two years ago, which makes me a bit
Speaker 2: older than forty two. I'm fifty two. You know.
Speaker 1: I only bring all of this up because of that fact.
Speaker 1: You know, I had seen things in the media. I
Speaker 1: had seen the comments. And for me, you are the
Speaker 1: most capable person, because I always think when I think
Speaker 1: of these judging shows, I'm like, who are these people
Speaker 1: their natural instinct? Who are these people? Why are they
Speaker 1: fit to judge others? But for you, you know, you
Speaker 1: really do have the back catalog of work and you
Speaker 1: have a rightful place to be there. But also I
Speaker 1: think you as a person, you have a humility in
Speaker 1: the way in which you can relate to those people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is because inherently the truth is I think
Speaker 2: good on them. Inherently for anyone that gets up there
Speaker 2: and has a go. If they don't have talent, you know,
Speaker 2: they're obviously not going to go further. But there was
Speaker 2: no experience like experience. And the thing I love about
Speaker 2: AGT is it's a huge format. It can launch a
Speaker 2: career without doubt. I mean, it's a trampoline that can
Speaker 2: literally springboard them along way into the future, straight to success.
Speaker 2: If they don't have the skills, it'll let them know
Speaker 2: in a hurry as well. But even if they're not
Speaker 2: quite up to scratch skill wise, it is such a
Speaker 2: big format that they get to walk out on a stage.
Speaker 2: The sound crew are incredible, the lighting is next level.
Speaker 2: They get hand delivered an enormous audience who are keen
Speaker 2: to be entertained where they didn't have to advertise to
Speaker 2: try and fill every seat. And I come from a
Speaker 2: world where getting bums on seats is a big part
Speaker 2: of that's what we do press and you know, trying
Speaker 2: to get people in so that the producers get their
Speaker 2: money back and we get paid. You know where the
Speaker 2: expression chuckers comes from. You know when the actors looked
Speaker 2: out through the curtain. If there was enough people there
Speaker 2: to make enough money for them to actually get paid
Speaker 2: that night, they would say chokers, meaning tonight we get
Speaker 2: to eat chicken, not rice. You know, so getting people
Speaker 2: in an auditorium is a very old part of of entertainment.
Speaker 2: And so they have an audience, seats filled, amazing lighting,
Speaker 2: amazing stage management, they get to walk out and all
Speaker 2: of that is, you know, is out there becking call
Speaker 2: for about three or so minutes and they get their chance. So,
Speaker 2: you know, I love that part of it, but I
Speaker 2: do inherently think good on them for having a go.
Speaker 2: And then from there, if they're good enough, they'll go
Speaker 2: for it, and if they're not, the answer will be no,
Speaker 2: it's a no, it's a no for now. You know,
Speaker 2: if they've got a bit of a bit, you know,
Speaker 2: a little bit of ability, go away and hone it.
Speaker 2: And that's what all of us have to do, none
Speaker 2: of us, you know, not many people get to walk
Speaker 2: out on stage the first time and wow an audience
Speaker 2: unless you have been home really honing your craft in
Speaker 2: whatever it is. So if you go out there and
Speaker 2: you get a mild response, that's Okay, that's that's experience,
Speaker 2: and that is you know, so many people burn their
Speaker 2: first batch of goms. You know, that's that's all part
Speaker 2: of it. So you know, they should never be heartbroken,
Speaker 2: and we're never angry or annoyed that they've come out
Speaker 2: and had to go. Good on them, but they can
Speaker 2: always come back and a lot of them do come back.
Speaker 2: People should know a lot of them do come back
Speaker 2: and do better. Well.
Speaker 1: I think that that's some of these talent shows. You know,
Speaker 1: people too of the world, you know, entering themselves into
Speaker 1: these and we see some of that. How many seasons?
Speaker 2: Is this?
Speaker 1: This is your second season? Is that right?
Speaker 2: It's that funny thing which you would know is it's
Speaker 2: my second show, but it's my fourth season. And what
Speaker 2: I mean by that is we had so many false starts,
Speaker 2: I know, you know, we had so Neil Patrick Harris
Speaker 2: and Alicia Dixon were here in Australia ready to go,
Speaker 2: and then of course COVID happened and they got put
Speaker 2: back on planes and we had a couple of false starts.
Speaker 2: So it's the fourth time I've been supposed to do it.
Speaker 2: It's the second time I've done.
Speaker 1: It, hopefully to get paid for all of them.
Speaker 2: I've got to do the show to get paid.
Speaker 1: On the catch twenty two. You know Neil Patrick Harris,
Speaker 1: you know that was a really good get for this
Speaker 1: show and you obviously didn't get that chance. But he
Speaker 1: was here in Australia. Did you. Did you get a
Speaker 1: chance to meet him and have a chance.
Speaker 2: No, No, it's the one that got away. I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm I could not be more of a fan of
Speaker 2: that man. I mean he he did the best opening
Speaker 2: of a Tony Awards ever, ever, ever, anyone can how
Speaker 2: many times have you watched it?
Speaker 1: I'm a gay man, so I have to watch it
Speaker 1: like church, every Sunday.
Speaker 2: Every summer year. I might have you beat. I might
Speaker 2: have watched it two days a week. I do it
Speaker 2: on weekends day.
Speaker 1: You know, so good though, and yeah, he gets here,
Speaker 1: I mean I am.
Speaker 2: I'm an insane fan of his. Like I was actually
Speaker 2: worried about how I make come across when I meet him,
Speaker 2: because you know, there's one. You know, it's hard when
Speaker 2: you're a falling sick a fan to not just go
Speaker 2: oh gods now, Patrigaris. So you know I had to.
Speaker 2: I was I was practicing some cool faces which I
Speaker 2: can't actually do, so I just I just looked a
Speaker 2: little bit constipated. Yeah, but look, you know, I would
Speaker 2: have given anything to meet him, but I was I
Speaker 2: was inherently aware. I was just going to spend the
Speaker 2: first twenty minutes telling him how amazing he was and
Speaker 2: the Tony Awards. But he's acting everything. I just don't
Speaker 2: think the guy can do any wrong. In fact, he
Speaker 2: can't do anything wrong because I've seen him do everything right.
Speaker 2: So that's it. I've done my research. He's the perfect human.
Speaker 1: Well, I think there was, you know, obviously more time
Speaker 1: because of what had happened to find some amazing acts.
Speaker 1: Because I've actually watched the first four episodes of this season,
Speaker 1: and the show is actually quite amazing to watch. I
Speaker 1: think we all because we're so familiar with the format,
Speaker 1: we're like, oh, yeah, that show is coming back. But
Speaker 1: it is a spectacle. It is something really engaging, and
Speaker 1: you are watching these amazing, genuine moments that are mind
Speaker 1: blowing and quite exhilarating. Can you tell me, like, what
Speaker 1: was the most what was something that blew your expectations?
Speaker 1: What's something that we're going to see that really blew
Speaker 1: your expectations?
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a few. It's hard to pick one, and
Speaker 2: especially in agt where as you know, anything can come
Speaker 2: out on that stage. You know. You know there's a
Speaker 2: guy that did motorbike stunts and everyone might say they've
Speaker 2: seen it before, not as close as I got to
Speaker 2: watch it. I've got to stand one underneath it. I'm
Speaker 2: like mine. It was out in the dark at night
Speaker 2: in the car park and I just went. I mean, honestly,
Speaker 2: the stunts were incredible, and every time he landed I
Speaker 2: kind of felt like someone just cheated death for the
Speaker 2: same cold ender damon. You know, there's a dance group.
Speaker 2: There's these girls that practice in like a cowshd like
Speaker 2: like the shed wasn't tall enough for them to practice
Speaker 2: their aerobic like when they're throat. They're the kind of
Speaker 2: those kind of aerobic acts where they actually throw girls
Speaker 2: in the air. The shed isn't that they rehearse in
Speaker 2: like on some farm, isn't big enough for them to
Speaker 2: be able to throw the kids as high as they do,
Speaker 2: So they had to go out and do it in
Speaker 2: a paddock. And then you know, you hear that and
Speaker 2: then but we didn't know that backstory. Really. They kind
Speaker 2: of said something. They said something to us just before
Speaker 2: they came out. I think we actually practiced in a shed,
Speaker 2: actually they did. They did tell us this before that,
Speaker 2: and we're like, okay, well now we shouldn't expect too much.
Speaker 2: So there's some kids that have been run around in
Speaker 2: the shed and they were you know, they were incredible.
Speaker 2: There's also there's an act out of Tanzania. These they're brothers,
Speaker 2: but I don't think they're actual brothers, but they call
Speaker 2: themselves brothers and they do this balancing act and you
Speaker 2: know they come from Tanzania. This was, as is, the
Speaker 2: first time they've ever appeared on a show of this
Speaker 2: caliber I think, at all, on any major stage, and
Speaker 2: I couldn't quite get. I couldn't understand how they was
Speaker 2: so polished. Like you know, I'd have said before, many
Speaker 2: people don't get a chance to come out on a
Speaker 2: stage and wow on their first attempt. They proved. They
Speaker 2: proved us wrong. They proved otherwise. They're incredible, acro amazing
Speaker 2: with the girls I was talking about. But there's also
Speaker 2: some singers. But there's some magicians that magic. You know,
Speaker 2: Magic's one of those things I think everyone feels the
Speaker 2: same if someone comes to you with a deck of
Speaker 2: cards at a party and says I've got a card trick.
Speaker 2: I think we, for the most part, and most of
Speaker 2: us inherently go, oh god, please don't it.
Speaker 1: It's like true, like.
Speaker 2: We see someone walk into a room with a piano according,
Speaker 2: you go, oh, don't tell me they're going to play it.
Speaker 2: But when someone can do it well, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean, piano according becomes something. You know. It's like
Speaker 2: that joke, what's the difference between an onion and a
Speaker 2: piano accordion? No one fries when you cut a piano
Speaker 2: accordion enough, but when it's played incredibly well. The same
Speaker 2: as bagpipes, you know what I mean. Like, when bag
Speaker 2: pipes have played well, they become amazing. That's the reason
Speaker 2: they exist. And then same with piano accordion, even the
Speaker 2: recorder for that matter. You know what I mean, when
Speaker 2: you hear someone play it properly, guys, that what it's
Speaker 2: supposed to sound like. And we had some moments like
Speaker 2: that again this year with Magic, where some people came
Speaker 2: out and said, you know, and they walked out with
Speaker 2: cards and yeah, there's this part of me that dies
Speaker 2: and goes, oh, please, please be really good, because if
Speaker 2: it's not really good, it tends to be really bad.
Speaker 2: And so that it sounds terrible because it means I've
Speaker 2: got a preconceived idea before they start. But it's not
Speaker 2: that I think they're going to be bad. It's actually
Speaker 2: me it's going please be good. And we've got them.
Speaker 2: We've got some people who've had time during COVID to
Speaker 2: hone their skills and they've spent more time in front
Speaker 2: of the mirror getting it right, and it paid off.
Speaker 2: There's a few brother acts this year actually, and like
Speaker 2: I said, the Tans and Enboys, I don't think you're
Speaker 2: actual brothers. But there's the Messudi brothers's. They were, I
Speaker 2: mean visually they were Adonis's and they came out on
Speaker 2: stage and I just went, look. I think for most
Speaker 2: of this audience, if they just stood there for ten minutes,
Speaker 2: they probably still get through because it's just amazing looking
Speaker 2: men that is look like. And when you find out
Speaker 2: their brothers, you just go who who built these things?
Speaker 2: And then their mother and father were in the audience
Speaker 2: and we got to see them, and you go, right, okay,
Speaker 2: so they were they weren't born of an another planet.
Speaker 2: They're incredible. So you look a lot of the dance
Speaker 2: as too. I get very excited when I see a
Speaker 2: group dance as because I love you know, I was
Speaker 2: brought up my mum had a dancing school and they
Speaker 2: formed friendships those. My sister last night came to see
Speaker 2: Hairspray again. She's seen me in Hairspray before. And she
Speaker 2: brought two friends that she used to dance with when
Speaker 2: she was like ten. And you know, she's in the
Speaker 2: mid thirties now, so she's in the mid forties. What
Speaker 2: am I saying?
Speaker 1: I always think of appreciating that she's appreciated age changed.
Speaker 1: Don'try about it.
Speaker 2: She don't requalify that. But you know, I love those friendships,
Speaker 2: and so I love seeing and I was in the
Speaker 2: game show as a kid, So I love seeing group
Speaker 2: backs where they come out and nail it together because
Speaker 2: I know the camaraderie and the friendships to get formed.
Speaker 2: But not only that, they if they do it well,
Speaker 2: it becomes a spectacle really quick. You know. It's like
Speaker 2: watching the school Spectacular, which I work on. You get
Speaker 2: you get a whole lot of kids moving with passion
Speaker 2: and with that fir in their belly, and they come
Speaker 2: out and they want to really almost like it's a
Speaker 2: dance fight, you know what I mean, They're.
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, it becomes a is what I call it?
Speaker 1: I'm like it it.
Speaker 2: Is, but isn't it? It becomes But it becomes a
Speaker 2: spectacle really fast if they can really, if they've put
Speaker 2: in the time to move it as one and really
Speaker 2: come out ready to fight for that win, and they've
Speaker 2: got that youthful energy that that's impossible to replicate, that
Speaker 2: becomes a spectacle very quick. So there's a lot of
Speaker 2: those look out for. But honestly, I'm not just saying
Speaker 2: this for the sake of trying to make the interview
Speaker 2: sound good and do my job to excite people to
Speaker 2: tune in. There's a bunch of stuff to look at.
Speaker 2: There's a bunch of it.
Speaker 1: There's also a lot of international voices. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of international acts which that you see people
Speaker 1: flying from around the world to compete on our version.
Speaker 1: Is that the reason why we're seeing and we're hearing
Speaker 1: a lot of accents.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent? You know, it's not limited to just
Speaker 2: people being from Australia. And quite often some people actually say,
Speaker 2: you know, why is it just people from Australia. But
Speaker 2: if you watch, I would hate to think if Australia's
Speaker 2: Got Talent all of a sudden stopped for some reason,
Speaker 2: that our people here couldn't fly to England or America
Speaker 2: or any of the other Got Talent stages and perform.
Speaker 2: Australians perform. One of our winners from a few years ago,
Speaker 2: he's over in America now, like so if so, they actually,
Speaker 2: you know, they tour with it. But that's entertainment. If
Speaker 2: a band gets good, it doesn't stay home, you know,
Speaker 2: to take it on tour. You know, you know, we're
Speaker 2: very much open to anyone coming and performing. It's it's
Speaker 2: a talent show and we're not going no you can't
Speaker 2: come because you're from abroad. I mean, we're a multi
Speaker 2: cultural country, you know. To be honest, we've got some
Speaker 2: acts from Ukraine and I could not be more delighted.
Speaker 2: I mean that alone through the point that we should
Speaker 2: keep our our doors open for the Got Talent stage.
Speaker 2: And we had two acts from Ukraine and you know,
Speaker 2: it goes without saying for them to have an opportunity
Speaker 2: to continue to do the thing they love their passion,
Speaker 2: which is the arts and that we give them a
Speaker 2: safe platform to do it where I would embrace them.
Speaker 2: And the Australian audiences were ever so kind as they
Speaker 2: should have been, and we were. They felt supported, they
Speaker 2: felt loved and it meant the world to them. So
Speaker 2: you know that, you know, I get emotional talking about it.
Speaker 2: That thrilled me, and you know that's why the doors
Speaker 2: should stay open for that.
Speaker 1: But it also feels like a global show. I mean,
Speaker 1: you've got Alisha and David there and they've got so
Speaker 1: much experience with this brand. You know, it was that
Speaker 1: interesting to sort of saddle up against them and what
Speaker 1: did you learn from them?
Speaker 2: Yeah, they've been doing it for more than ten years,
Speaker 2: so it's crazy at that point you've got some experience.
Speaker 2: As you've said, they've clocked up the miles the TV emails.
Speaker 2: The truth is that what they taught me was because
Speaker 2: I did grill them a bit, you know, for the
Speaker 2: very reason that you were asking, you know what I
Speaker 2: learned from them? I had the same feeling like, gosh,
Speaker 2: you've been doing it so long, what is there to know?
Speaker 2: But what I learned was the thing I guess I
Speaker 2: knew I inherently knew, but it was nice to have
Speaker 2: them tell me no, No, that's right is you don't
Speaker 2: know what's coming out on that stage. You literally have
Speaker 2: to you got to stay. You've got to stay an
Speaker 2: empty sponge, you know. Once the act leaves, it was
Speaker 2: just done. You've got to squeeze the sponge, your mental sponge,
Speaker 2: and let all that all that you know, flu it
Speaker 2: out and stay an empty sponge again, ready to absorb
Speaker 2: whatever happens, whatever spills across the foots of that stage.
Speaker 2: And you know, I've said a few times now people say,
Speaker 2: you know, had he be fair to judge all of them?
Speaker 2: Entertainment is about giving an audience a feeling, so and
Speaker 2: they can all be different. If someone can sing, someone
Speaker 2: can keep completely still and sing a song amazing like
Speaker 2: and like you know, like Adele does. People like that that,
Speaker 2: you know, like Whitney Houston could do. She could stand
Speaker 2: still on stage and make you cry like literally with
Speaker 2: her voice. The voice gets to your ears and then
Speaker 2: sings a song that has an effect on you and
Speaker 2: then you go, that's so beautiful, I'm moved to tears.
Speaker 2: It's the Susan Boyle moment. She didn't dance on stage,
Speaker 2: and then not only that when you realize that it's
Speaker 2: the start of some especially when it's someone who the
Speaker 2: world has probably looked at and thought not much of.
Speaker 2: And then they come out and bang, that voice comes out.
Speaker 2: They can stand still and movie to tears. But then
Speaker 2: a comedian can come out and stand still and they're
Speaker 2: not going to make you cry. They're gonna make you
Speaker 2: cry laughing, and it's a very different thing. And then
Speaker 2: a group of kids could come out and actually you
Speaker 2: might go oh, and then they dance one and you go, oh,
Speaker 2: that's adorable. And then a dog act might come out
Speaker 2: and you go oh, but you're laughing because they're jumping
Speaker 2: through hoops and you know what I mean. And then
Speaker 2: you've got an act that comes out that does some
Speaker 2: death defying act. And we've got a few of those, man,
Speaker 2: we've got a few actions you Burke Burke. Also, I
Speaker 2: think I don't know if I'm saying the name right,
Speaker 2: but they're an Indian act. They were terrifying. I mean,
Speaker 2: I honestly thought I was going to see someone get
Speaker 2: really badly hurt or worse. Right now, now that I've
Speaker 2: just been through that line of emotions, they're very very different,
Speaker 2: very different.
Speaker 1: Yeah, That's the thing is like you kind of have
Speaker 1: to reset yourself every single time to be able to
Speaker 1: absorb things and see things differently.
Speaker 2: I guess to come full circle from you know, one
Speaker 2: more thing to add to it. When you watch someone
Speaker 2: jug chainsaws, it's not to make you feel good, it's
Speaker 2: to really put you off. But when they don't hurt
Speaker 2: themselves and they catch that last chainsaw, you go ah.
Speaker 2: So you know, there is different ways that you can
Speaker 2: get an audience to give you a response. So this
Speaker 2: is by way of answering your question. What I found
Speaker 2: out is the thing that I kind of inherently n
Speaker 2: you having done it for one year, and they just
Speaker 2: reminded me or assured me. No, no, it's just the same.
Speaker 2: It's rinse, repeat, because you do have to when an
Speaker 2: act leaves the stage, you have to shake that off,
Speaker 2: whatever that was, if it was bad, if it was great,
Speaker 2: you've got to shake that off. Empty a sponge, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean, or empty bucket. You put it
Speaker 2: back down and then the next act walks out and
Speaker 2: you start again from neutral from neutral, from empty from thoughtless.
Speaker 2: It doesn't And the other thing is whatever you see
Speaker 2: when they walk out, you can you cannot form an
Speaker 2: opinion from what you see. You cannot. We do as humans,
Speaker 2: we do, but you learn to shake that loose in
Speaker 2: a hurry. So it doesn't matter what they come dressed as,
Speaker 2: or what they look like, or if they look timid
Speaker 2: or over confident. Over confident doesn't make him great tim
Speaker 2: and doesn't make him bad. So so it's interesting. You
Speaker 2: then have to like, again, I'm going to go back
Speaker 2: to it empty sponge, and then sit there and let that.
Speaker 2: And then you go, well, we find out who they are,
Speaker 2: where they're from, maybe how old they are, a couple
Speaker 2: of things, and after that, well, none of that matters, really,
Speaker 2: does it, you know what I mean? The way you
Speaker 2: go the stage is yours, good luck, And then we
Speaker 2: get to have them do it all over again. So
Speaker 2: the very first thing you judge, and if you did
Speaker 2: it for one hundred years, the very last person you
Speaker 2: judge as a judge, the process should be identical. You
Speaker 2: shouldn't have learned anything from another act that changes the
Speaker 2: way you judge the next act. It's just it's the
Speaker 2: act in front of his job to make you feel.
Speaker 1: And that's the magic of agtch, you know, it's the
Speaker 1: reason why it is a global franchise. I was going
Speaker 1: to say, David really sounds like Simon cow these days.
Speaker 1: Do you think that they have maybe spent too much
Speaker 1: time together?
Speaker 2: He So, David tried to tell us it was his.
Speaker 2: It was his idea, which we kind of joked about,
Speaker 2: like I think it'll end up in the show a
Speaker 2: fair a bit. When he'll be going what's going on,
Speaker 2: he keeps saying, well, I'm in Simon's chair, you know,
Speaker 2: he's in the chair far left from me. Or when
Speaker 2: they when they cut to a shot of a reverse
Speaker 2: shot of us sitting there, he's on the far right
Speaker 2: as you look at it on TV. And he said
Speaker 2: that makes him the head judge. Now there is no
Speaker 2: head judge. Each each judge has equal power. There's a
Speaker 2: golden buzzer that we can all press once. No one
Speaker 2: else gets depressed at twice and I don't get to
Speaker 2: there's a red buzzer that I can go, and there's
Speaker 2: four crosses. Then the you know, if you get four
Speaker 2: four exes and you're going no further, and then after
Speaker 2: that you just got to get some you know, you
Speaker 2: got to get some yeses and a way he goes.
Speaker 2: So everyone holds equal power. But he the whole time
Speaker 2: he was here, which was literally a joke, he keeps saying, well,
Speaker 2: as head.
Speaker 1: Judge, that's which is.
Speaker 2: So it's pretty funny. Alisha wasn't having any of it.
Speaker 2: But I look, he's he's great fun. He might have
Speaker 2: been do and then sound like he's doing a little
Speaker 2: in person, and he does that. The truth is he
Speaker 2: hasn't changed at all. He's what I love about him
Speaker 2: is he is some that can really really give an
Speaker 2: act that warms his heart. He will propel them forward,
Speaker 2: he will stay you know what they gave it there all,
Speaker 2: you know. And he does have a soft heart. So
Speaker 2: if someone's genuinely having a go, he does he gives them,
Speaker 2: He gives them a little hand forward. So he's a
Speaker 2: good he's a very very good man at heart.
Speaker 1: And I feel like you all play a role at times,
Speaker 1: you know, and I guess you're sort of had that way.
Speaker 1: But do you ever feel like you yourself want to
Speaker 1: be the nasty judge? Do we ever get to see
Speaker 1: the nasty side of you? Or or does that not?
Speaker 3: It does exist if someone was to if someone was
Speaker 3: to misuse the situation or you know, you're truly angry
Speaker 3: that you know that we vote in such a way.
Speaker 2: You know, I would be the one to point them
Speaker 2: out not to do that, because that's that's what life
Speaker 2: is like on stage, your audience. We can never guarantee
Speaker 2: the audience are going to love us. And I've done
Speaker 2: stuff on stage. We tell jokes to you to think
Speaker 2: you're going to nail it and you get nothing. And
Speaker 2: it's a pretty hollow feeling when the room goes quiet
Speaker 2: and you're expecting laughter. So that's your job to go, well,
Speaker 2: that didn't work and move on. I mean, I've been
Speaker 2: heckled on stage. You know you can have you have
Speaker 2: those experiences because the audience isn't always going to love it,
Speaker 2: and and they better get And that's the other thing
Speaker 2: is man with social media. Let me tell you. You know,
Speaker 2: I don't know what experience you've had, but I've been cyberabley.
Speaker 2: You know, I did the campaign and had you know,
Speaker 2: had inconceivable stuff said at me, to me and about me.
Speaker 2: You know, I've had people say very unsavy things, and
Speaker 2: so that's that's unfortunately. Well I was going to say
Speaker 2: it's part of it. Entertainment's part of the world now
Speaker 2: because anyone that's on social media, you know, has a
Speaker 2: platform to yell from. And also if you're an individual,
Speaker 2: you have the opportunity to be kind of spat upon,
Speaker 2: you know, in a social media sense, and it's a
Speaker 2: hard thing to navigate. It's hard not to take some
Speaker 2: of the personal. So so to your point, you know,
Speaker 2: if someone was to come out and go, well, how
Speaker 2: do you not love me? I would say, well, how
Speaker 2: do you not understand the rules of entertainment? There's no
Speaker 2: no one guarante had anyone an audience that would do
Speaker 2: what they do. You know, it's a safe place for us.
Speaker 2: You know, we're going to say to them, look good
Speaker 2: like it wasn't it's not for me today. Like it's
Speaker 2: not like we're saying get out of here and never
Speaker 2: come back here. We don't say that. So look, if
Speaker 2: someone was to do that, you know I would I
Speaker 2: have you know, I would be wanting to play the
Speaker 2: strict uncle and go and now hang on a moment,
Speaker 2: don't that won't work If.
Speaker 1: That doesn't refect with me, Yeah, doesn't wrong.
Speaker 2: With me, because it won't work for you moving forward,
Speaker 2: Like I'm going to give you the warning if I
Speaker 2: watch someone drive along the road with their wheel in
Speaker 2: the gutter. I'd say, if you keep doing that, you're
Speaker 2: going to get a flat tire. In fact, if you
Speaker 2: drive too close to the gutter, you're going to get
Speaker 2: a flat tire in both the front and rear left
Speaker 2: and you only have one spare. It will ruin your journey.
Speaker 2: So I'm going to give you a warning. Get out
Speaker 2: of the gutter, stay in the center of the road.
Speaker 2: Don't you know what I mean? So I'd want to
Speaker 2: give advice, you know.
Speaker 1: Do you know if we get to have or you'll
Speaker 1: know this because you were there. Do we have a
Speaker 1: Karen moment in the season. I feel like after COVID
Speaker 1: we all now deserve a good tantrum or we all
Speaker 1: get used to seeing good tantrum? Is there a can
Speaker 1: I speak to the manager moment where someone doesn't like
Speaker 1: what's being said to them.
Speaker 2: Oh, look, I don't think anything too bad. I mean
Speaker 2: there's there's there's some people. You can see some people
Speaker 2: I mean heartbroken and that's terrible, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: We try and try and do what we can to
Speaker 2: support them in that. When there's moments where you can
Speaker 2: see that, people expect it more. But the truth is people. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think for the most part, people were fairly good.
Speaker 2: But don't get me wrong, there's there's people knows hard
Speaker 2: to hear. Sometimes it is I mean, that is that
Speaker 2: is true. The other thing that I wanted to ask
Speaker 2: you was how do you keep this show a secret?
Speaker 2: Because you know, these days we're pre recording a lot
Speaker 2: of reality shows and you've already got this in the
Speaker 2: can you know? I wondered whether or not there's a
Speaker 2: secret to be able to tell that audience not to.
Speaker 1: Give it away. I mean, I don't know if you're
Speaker 1: giving out Kenny DVDs or an odd ball Blu Ray.
Speaker 1: You know, how are you?
Speaker 2: The truth is, each audience will go away, and they
Speaker 2: will they will tell their friends what they saw, but
Speaker 2: there's no way they can know how everything happens in
Speaker 2: its entirety. So the good parties, everyone can walk away
Speaker 2: and go. I mean it's a bit like a party.
Speaker 2: You know, when you come back from a party and
Speaker 2: you tell your friends about the night you had of
Speaker 2: the party. The story you're telling about that party are
Speaker 2: about the conversations you had with the people you spoke
Speaker 2: to and the experience you had. So it's not the
Speaker 2: whole party, so no one can see what happens backstage
Speaker 2: with Ricky Lee, you know what I mean. So when
Speaker 2: they watched the show, there's bits there they don't know
Speaker 2: the full backstory, which our producers are amazing at hiding
Speaker 2: from us to be honest, and then those stories come out.
Speaker 2: So the truth is, we know people are going to
Speaker 2: tell the stories of what they saw. You know, I'm
Speaker 2: going to unveil a bit here. You know, we turned
Speaker 2: through two audiences a day, so when they go away,
Speaker 2: was there for that whole day's filming? I mean, I
Speaker 2: don't want to break the news to them, but they weren't.
Speaker 2: They were there for half the days for me, because
Speaker 2: you know, they're really long days for us. So we
Speaker 2: see a lot of acts. So even if they go
Speaker 2: out and tell the whole story of everything they saw
Speaker 2: when they were there, some of those acts didn't get through.
Speaker 2: So they're telling a story about acts that people at
Speaker 2: home won't get to see, and they'll get to see
Speaker 2: some that did get through, but they and they, you know,
Speaker 2: there's nothing like seeing a proper television edit where it's
Speaker 2: you know, the cameras are inclosed scene, their faces even
Speaker 2: the audience think to get get to see some of
Speaker 2: that detail, you know what I mean. Even the magic
Speaker 2: tricks that are up close to us aren't close for
Speaker 2: the audience, you know. I mean, there's big strains that
Speaker 2: they are the job of trying to help it. So
Speaker 2: even if they which they do, you know, the truth is,
Speaker 2: audiences do go out and tell people what they experienced
Speaker 2: and blah blah blah, but it's never anywhere near the
Speaker 2: full pitch of what you get to see when you
Speaker 2: watch the show.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So those odd balld DVDs and the blue you know,
Speaker 1: they're safe. They're safe, you know, Shane now every for now,
Speaker 1: but they're there in case you need them. Everyone who
Speaker 1: joins the podcast, I get to ask them a question
Speaker 1: of what's something from behind the scenes, something that we
Speaker 1: didn't see that we won't see, kind of a maybe
Speaker 1: a behind the scenes secret from agt Is there anything
Speaker 1: that you can share with us?
Speaker 2: So I'm just going to go with the first thing
Speaker 2: that popped into my head. It's the giggles. I have
Speaker 2: to be honest, it's the giggles we have with the
Speaker 2: judges backstage and sometimes not even backstage. Me and Alisha,
Speaker 2: I couldn't honestly, she because she's right beside me. There's
Speaker 2: no one to my right as I sit, and she's
Speaker 2: to my list, so she's immediately she's obviously it's like
Speaker 2: who are you sitting next to? In class? And I've
Speaker 2: got to sit next to her and she's sow up
Speaker 2: for laugh and she is. She's just a beautiful soul.
Speaker 2: I'm not I'm not putting sugar on a piece of
Speaker 2: coal here, I'm putting sugar on a cake. She is
Speaker 2: just delightful, right and she oh no, she and she
Speaker 2: makes me giggle and she's up for a giggle. So
Speaker 2: the amount of times I'll be telling her jokes and
Speaker 2: talking about like she wanted to learn Australian isn't since
Speaker 2: she wanted to go. She like, the same as you've said,
Speaker 2: tell me something we don't know. She's like, tell me,
Speaker 2: tell me something I don't know about Australia, tell me
Speaker 2: some lingo whatever. So I was teaching her stuff like
Speaker 2: chuck a yweie, and I said, She's like, what I'm like,
Speaker 2: chuck yeweie. I said, anywhere in Australia say just chuck
Speaker 2: a yewey up here. They know we're going to turn around.
Speaker 2: I said, but in your country you probably have to
Speaker 2: say something really long and labored, like let's let's let's
Speaker 2: just go around the up here and when you see
Speaker 2: that signpost, I think what we should do is we're
Speaker 2: heading north now we need to get herself heading south
Speaker 2: in a hurry, said in Australia to say, chuck a yeweie.
Speaker 2: But yeah, so I love talking to her about I
Speaker 2: taught her yna. I taught her the beauty.
Speaker 1: Of she's on the show right, you know she does that. Well.
Speaker 2: I taught her that because she said she said what
Speaker 2: I said, well, yena is an Australian thing, which is
Speaker 2: the nicest know you can get. So when someone says,
Speaker 2: you know tonight, if I drop around tonight just for
Speaker 2: a couple of days, when you go in not tonight,
Speaker 2: I said, you're here here first, and then you get
Speaker 2: told the answer, which is no. And she said, so
Speaker 2: is it year or no? And I said, oh no,
Speaker 2: it's definitely no. Definitely.
Speaker 1: Then there's that French act and she's like, we na
Speaker 1: wienaaena wiena. Thank you so much for your time. You
Speaker 1: gave me so much more than I expected. And as
Speaker 1: being such a big fan of yours. This was just
Speaker 1: quite surreal to.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm a fan of yours. You do a fantastic
Speaker 2: job and I hope you keep doing it. I really do.
Speaker 2: You've got a very gentle voice for entertainment and we
Speaker 2: need more people like you, So thank yous,