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Speaker 1: And Amanda jam Nation. The next guest is Well.

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Speaker 2: He's a comic genius, a TV regular behind some of

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Speaker 2: our favorite shows. He's also the host of Have Been

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Speaker 2: Paying Attention But the Cheap Seats. He's part of Working

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Speaker 2: Dog bringing some of Australia's favorite films and productions. We're

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Speaker 2: talking about Tom Gleisner and he never likes to sit still.

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Speaker 2: He's written a new musical called Bloom that had an

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Speaker 2: incredible run in Melbourne and now it's coming to Sydney.

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Speaker 1: Tom High, lovely to see you. It's great to see you,

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Speaker 1: got to have you in the studio. It's a big deal.

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Speaker 3: And on a birthday date.

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Speaker 1: While it is indeed, I haven't got a gift.

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Speaker 3: I've got a gift boucher have you? Does that count?

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Speaker 1: It's certainly if it's a b WS. Isn't a handwritten

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Speaker 1: gift to Tom.

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Speaker 3: It's yet to be purchased, but it's an aspirational thing.

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Speaker 3: Come on your way.

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Speaker 1: Well, thank you. I appreciate it. Talking about getting older.

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Speaker 2: Tell us about Bloom because I know that there's an

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Speaker 2: age element in this.

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Speaker 3: Yes it is. In fact, it's a musical set almost

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Speaker 3: entirely in an aged care home. And that will come

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Speaker 3: as a little surprise to you that I've spent a

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Speaker 3: few bit of time in that world over recent years,

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Speaker 3: not quite as a resident yet, but parents, parents and

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Speaker 3: parents in law, so a lot of visits, and over

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Speaker 3: a lot of time, I've sort of come to get

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Speaker 3: to know that world and meet the fascinating people that inhabited,

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Speaker 3: both both residents and the cares. And residents we tend

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Speaker 3: to sort of walk past them and we're guilty of

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Speaker 3: looking at people who maybe don't have that much to say,

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Speaker 3: and they're parked in front of an Andre Reu DVD

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Speaker 3: playing on loop and you go, that's that's just not right.

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Speaker 3: And yeah, it was as so as I say, it's

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Speaker 3: a world that I've been familiar with that I read

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Speaker 3: this story about a nursing home in the Netherlands that

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Speaker 3: were offering free accommodation to students if they were willing

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Speaker 3: to come in and work as cares, and I thought,

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Speaker 3: that's the idea for something, And as it turned out,

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Speaker 3: it's a musical called Bloom.

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Speaker 2: I really was taken by this sentence one of the

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Speaker 2: media press release for Bloom. Too often, when older characters

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Speaker 2: appear in the script, they're trivialized or worse, treated as

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Speaker 2: punchlines to someone else's joke. This was something else determined

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Speaker 2: to avoid in writing Bloom. Our residents are very every

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Speaker 2: bit as real, funny and floored as a younger staff.

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Speaker 2: You take care of them, and I think this is

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Speaker 2: the last ageism. We no longer tolerate sexism, racism, but agism.

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Speaker 2: People just feel they can go for it.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, it is exactly, it's it's the last pastion. So

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Speaker 3: the actors that play the residents in Bloom are very

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Speaker 3: much as much part of the story as the younger performers,

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Speaker 3: and it's fantastic having genuinely older people. I was determined

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Speaker 3: that I didn't want someone who's fifty putting on a

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Speaker 3: gray wig and pretending to be ancient. So we've got

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Speaker 3: We've got beforeman saying John Waters.

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Speaker 1: For brilliant love him.

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Speaker 3: I think he's definitely north of seventy. And so they're

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Speaker 3: actually maybe not quite in they're in that band where

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Speaker 3: you could theoretically be going into care. So yeah, it's

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Speaker 3: been really really exciting to see to bring younger performers

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Speaker 3: and older on stage. It look, it's a it's a

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Speaker 3: it's a funny show beautiful music Lane is with ramps.

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Speaker 4: But it's a great idea that that could work in

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Speaker 4: the like in real life everyone's talking about the high

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Speaker 4: housing affordability. You get young people to move into an

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Speaker 4: old folks home and like, you know, just keep them company.

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Speaker 1: And you know, you don't have to wash bums or anything.

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Speaker 3: You just like, you know, unless you choice of your own.

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Speaker 4: And that's if you're there for the bum washing, but

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Speaker 4: just to get the company, because I find I spent

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Speaker 4: a lot of time. I took up sailing with these

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Speaker 4: old blokes and the only thing older than the boat

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Speaker 4: is the guys on the butt, And you'd be you

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Speaker 4: spent a lot of time when there was one guy, George,

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Speaker 4: and he one day we're just talking to us, and

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Speaker 4: it's that like that time I rode from Perth to

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Speaker 4: Sydney and on a motor bike goes no want to

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Speaker 4: push by? And did you have a backup crew? Did

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Speaker 4: you No? I just went with my mate. We rode

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Speaker 4: from Perth to Sydney. I went what you had no

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Speaker 4: backup crew? You went across a nuther board plane? Did

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Speaker 4: you tell anyone not?

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Speaker 3: Nah? That's that age group. They're not boasters. We are

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Speaker 3: if we do it, even the mildest of the chief

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Speaker 3: about I'll get a t shirt.

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Speaker 4: Mate, there's a tattoo.

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Speaker 1: And first, we.

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Speaker 2: Have cares in our house now with Harley's health and

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Speaker 2: they're not there all the time. But I've got a

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Speaker 2: photo of both of us when we were younger, particularly Harley,

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Speaker 2: so that you think he is who he is. Don't

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Speaker 2: judge the person you see.

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Speaker 3: That just because they maybe don't say much doesn't mean that.

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Speaker 1: They're not ticking over and have under the contribute.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, that's that's exactly what we wanted to capture

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Speaker 3: with zoom.

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Speaker 4: And will you be saying this to Sam Pang? When

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Speaker 4: have you been paying attention?

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Speaker 3: He hasn't you?

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Speaker 1: About your your age ages? And Sam ages in Sam?

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Speaker 3: I think Sam was the very first person I told

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Speaker 3: that I was writing a musical is probably you know,

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Speaker 3: a decade ago. And then of course the follow up

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Speaker 3: was out and it's set in an age home. Of

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Speaker 3: course I opened my ritually.

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Speaker 4: I'm sure, Well, Tom, it's great.

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Speaker 1: I can't wait to see coming into the studio.

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Speaker 4: You can check this out at the Sydney The Sydney

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Speaker 4: Premier of stc Rosalind's packet theater check out Bloom Tommy. Guys,

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Speaker 4: you know it's always great to catch up with you.

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Speaker 3: Lovely to see you, Nice to see you.