Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload the podcast last week.
Speaker 2: I'm right, how.
Speaker 3: Would I describe a television set, oh.
Speaker 2: Man from a headline grabbing point of view, the hack
Speaker 2: producer from me says one hundred percent put him in.
Speaker 1: Welcome back guys to TV Reload. My name's Benjamin Norris,
Speaker 1: and on this podcast I go behind the scenes with
Speaker 1: the biggest players in television.
Speaker 2: Yeah, great questions. The show's about the game.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of great television out there in Australia.
Speaker 1: But I've also got to go behind the scenes with writers.
Speaker 1: The truth is, when I started writing it, it wasn't
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with the news and casting agents.
Speaker 2: They know from a casting point of view what they need.
Speaker 1: And editors because that's what we do as editors where
Speaker 1: storytellers them. Not to forget some incredible executive producers who
Speaker 1: are making some of the best TV content in Australia.
Speaker 2: I have been on the program since the beginning and
Speaker 2: it's kind of in my DNA.
Speaker 1: So thanks for joining me each week and I hope
Speaker 1: the podcast continues to give you real insight into the
Speaker 1: magic of te Today on the podcast, I have Mitch
Speaker 1: and Mark from Channel Lines the Block fans versus favorites.
Speaker 1: Mitch and Mark make up a large percentage of the
Speaker 1: Block's favorites part of the twenty twenty one competition, and
Speaker 1: very quickly into the chat, I worked out why the
Speaker 1: boys are so much fun to work with. They are
Speaker 1: both generous, thoughtful and wickedly funny. Both can tell a
Speaker 1: story better than most and while we could get bogged
Speaker 1: down in the stereotypical parts of their same sex relationship,
Speaker 1: they are just normal, everyday Australians living their lives like
Speaker 1: anyone else, maybe with a better relationship manual than most people.
Speaker 1: The boys really do pop on the series this year.
Speaker 1: The fashion, the one liners, and the no bullshit mentality
Speaker 1: has really worked. We will unpack their return to the show,
Speaker 1: their current relationship with the other contestants, and stick around
Speaker 1: for a jaw dropping or should I say pants dropping
Speaker 1: story that will leave you speechless. The Block is dominating
Speaker 1: the ratings after seventeen seasons. It's a phenomenal show with
Speaker 1: a fan base and an audience as loyal as any
Speaker 1: other sporting team. Weekly we learn how to build houses,
Speaker 1: or at least get inspiration to do so. We laugh
Speaker 1: and we cry along with the contestants, and not to
Speaker 1: forget all the drama that has happened this year and
Speaker 1: made national headlines. However, let's get started with this week's
Speaker 1: midweek episode. I'd like to welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 4: It's Mitch and Mark. I think Australians have got a
Speaker 4: fascination for innovation. It's a coup of all stars, Mitch
Speaker 4: and Mark. Our true cells come through. We can't fake it.
Speaker 3: A few years ago on the Oslow, Mitch and Mark,
Speaker 3: We're Blindsided.
Speaker 4: It's a peak inside of people's life.
Speaker 1: You Mark, I'm.
Speaker 4: Really taken aback at how wrong this feels.
Speaker 2: Even watching it, I felt physically ill.
Speaker 3: Next up Mitch and Mark performing Wake Me Up Before
Speaker 3: You Go Go.
Speaker 4: But this time I did keep reminding Mark and the
Speaker 4: team we are going to have fun.
Speaker 1: Hey boys, how are you well?
Speaker 4: Thank you Ben, nice to be here.
Speaker 1: I have to start this podcast by saying that my
Speaker 1: partner and I fight over which one of you we.
Speaker 2: Are really which one do you want to be?
Speaker 1: I was just going to say I think that my
Speaker 1: partner is the best part of both of you, and
Speaker 1: I think I'm probably the worst part of both of you.
Speaker 1: So I'll leave, I'll leave that amount of information with you.
Speaker 2: Then then I want to you describe then your qualities.
Speaker 2: I want to hear one of the worst both of
Speaker 2: us together.
Speaker 4: Yeah, oh my god.
Speaker 1: No, It's kind of funny when you're watching the show,
Speaker 1: doesn't matter who you are. And I've been on reality television,
Speaker 1: so I know even when you're watching yourself, you kind
Speaker 1: of hit the television like why would I say that?
Speaker 1: And so I find the two of you the most
Speaker 1: relatable out of this season. I mean, you're both way
Speaker 1: more glamorous than my partner and I, so I'll just
Speaker 1: give you that much.
Speaker 4: Stop it, Okay, if you're talking through a young face,
Speaker 4: just stop it.
Speaker 1: Well, the one thing that is so obvious to me
Speaker 1: while the drama goes on throughout the show is the
Speaker 1: love and respect that you both have for each other,
Speaker 1: which I think is just so amazing to watch in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one to see same sex couple like this,
Speaker 1: you know, like the fur flies around with everybody else,
Speaker 1: but you guys, you know that love is still there.
Speaker 1: It's quite amazing to watch.
Speaker 4: Yeah, seventeen years in. But we've always had the philosophy
Speaker 4: of if it's not working, it should be. And I
Speaker 4: love when people can work things out and stay together,
Speaker 4: but I don't think people should be together if they
Speaker 4: are going to say nasty things to each other.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of people were maybe surprised to
Speaker 2: see that the first season when we did the OSLO
Speaker 2: because a few people said to us, but is that real?
Speaker 2: You really know? Didn't you really fight? And I think
Speaker 2: even we even had a few people suggest some of
Speaker 2: the people who might have been on the block before suggests, oh,
Speaker 2: well that's not real. If you're not fighting, that it's
Speaker 2: not real.
Speaker 4: So well, we don't know.
Speaker 2: We's agree about everything, but we've always said you have
Speaker 2: to respect each other and you can disagree and have
Speaker 2: some respect. And for us on the block, it was like,
Speaker 2: we choose to be with each other and we're not
Speaker 2: going to take offense. We care. So you meet, You
Speaker 2: would often say on the block, you have time where
Speaker 2: you don't know what to do next because it's so
Speaker 2: you're so tired and it's so overwhelming, and then things
Speaker 2: are coming at you. So when your partner says I
Speaker 2: just need you to move the tiles, you don't get
Speaker 2: offended and go, don't tell me what to do. You
Speaker 2: know some people get into that now you can't tell
Speaker 2: me it, say no, no, I need you to tell me
Speaker 2: that right now, because you can tell I'm feeling overwhelmed.
Speaker 4: But we would look for signs in each other. You
Speaker 4: can generally tell when when you're working such long hours
Speaker 4: the block hours, probably regularly this season it would have
Speaker 4: been eight an hour days and little sleep and physically
Speaker 4: worn out as well. There will always be time when
Speaker 4: one of you is just not coping as well, and
Speaker 4: we would recognize that in each other, and the one
Speaker 4: who was recognizing it in the other would take over
Speaker 4: and say, Okay, Mark, I want you today, I want
Speaker 4: you to move ten time of rubble from that point
Speaker 4: to the skippin, because if you're not coping, you just
Speaker 4: do a job. And we would see each other telling
Speaker 4: is that we think, okay, you're recognizing that I'm actually
Speaker 4: not coping right now.
Speaker 1: I think some of the other couples on the block
Speaker 1: could deal with learning some of these life lessons from
Speaker 1: the two of you.
Speaker 4: Well. I think it was actually nice to be to
Speaker 4: portrayed this time. More so, I thought we were portrayed
Speaker 4: as a couple, whereas the first time we were always
Speaker 4: described as the gay granddads. And I do remember saying
Speaker 4: to one of the producers early in the piece, I'm
Speaker 4: cool with been called the gay granddads, but if you're
Speaker 4: going to do that, I'd like you to call the
Speaker 4: other couples the heterosexual couple with no children or the
Speaker 4: heterosexual couple married with two children. But they probably weren't
Speaker 4: going to do that. So I think that if you
Speaker 4: can describe someone's sexuality, it's going to be across the board.
Speaker 2: Well, what's nice, I guess for us has been we're
Speaker 2: just being ourselves. Yeah, and what you see on the
Speaker 2: block a lot of people you've had it with reality
Speaker 2: TV is can you pretend to be something you're not
Speaker 2: and then when the cameras aren't around, drop that facade.
Speaker 2: That's too well for us, it's too hard. We're too
Speaker 2: old to do that anyway. So oh, for God's say,
Speaker 2: we're just us, you know, And I guess in our
Speaker 2: own journeys, you know, we worked hard to be who
Speaker 2: we are. So we're really happy to be where a
Speaker 2: couple people that care about each other. We have a family,
Speaker 2: we have children, we have grandchildren, and Australia seems too
Speaker 2: largely for us embraced that. We have amazing people who
Speaker 2: talk to us and kids who come up and talk
Speaker 2: to us. So I think there's no other way. We
Speaker 2: just have That's just who we are.
Speaker 4: Look, that's one of the advantages being older. And it's
Speaker 4: only to talk about being the oldest on the Big
Speaker 4: Brother Mark and I two years ago with the oldest
Speaker 4: couple ever on the block, and then two years later
Speaker 4: we're older than that couple. So we're older, oldest couple
Speaker 4: ever on the block. Even more so, the block's been
Speaker 4: running forward.
Speaker 2: We can't win a challenge you, but we've got that.
Speaker 4: But the block's been running for seventeen years. We are
Speaker 4: older than any couple today. We're older than any couple
Speaker 4: that have ever appeared on the block, So couples that
Speaker 4: appeared seventeen years ago, it's still still way younger than us.
Speaker 4: And apart from a gay couple can work. It was
Speaker 4: also nice to show that a couple that's older can
Speaker 4: still have the youth to work alongside the other guys
Speaker 4: and not be disadvantaged. You don't have to be like
Speaker 4: the twins are twenty seven and everyone else. Everyone's all
Speaker 4: the way through. We all carried the same energy throughout
Speaker 4: the show. So I think it's nice to see that
Speaker 4: the young guys like Josh and Luke, who were out
Speaker 4: of the depths at times, they can work their butts
Speaker 4: off and make it happen. And so a couple of
Speaker 4: older guys who people generally expect that you disadvantaged because
Speaker 4: because age and fitness and strength, but you actually can
Speaker 4: we can all make it work.
Speaker 1: You know, we're well and truly into the series of
Speaker 1: the Block, and I just wanted to ask, you know,
Speaker 1: this is probably something people asked you at the start,
Speaker 1: but I wanted to know, how did the block come
Speaker 1: up again? Did you guys have an inkling that they'd
Speaker 1: ask you back and you would do it all over again.
Speaker 4: I knew that was coming up. I knew I knew
Speaker 4: that back.
Speaker 2: No, No, not at all. You know, we felt very
Speaker 2: lucky first off to be on the Block the first
Speaker 2: time around, and that's probably that was never expected. That's
Speaker 2: another story. And then when we were asked to come
Speaker 2: back for the All Stars thing for the few days
Speaker 2: last year, like, we've felt really privileged that when this
Speaker 2: came up, we were sitting basically at this desk talking
Speaker 2: and doing some other work that we've got planned and
Speaker 2: planning our own renovation in our home. And the phone
Speaker 2: went and was Jillian Cress and which is great, but
Speaker 2: we hadn't spoken to Jillian for a while, not for
Speaker 2: any other reason than it's just you're busy in episodes,
Speaker 2: because like, hey, Jeels, and he just said to us,
Speaker 2: you know, I want to talk to you guys about
Speaker 2: would you come back And we thought, oh, all stars,
Speaker 2: a couple of days again help people out. Of course
Speaker 2: we would do that. And he said no, to do
Speaker 2: the whole thing again.
Speaker 4: And we were like, and he did ask, you know, look,
Speaker 4: you want a few days to think about it, and
Speaker 4: I said no, because I have a few days. I
Speaker 4: don't know what I'll say, but right now it's hell yes.
Speaker 2: And he was really respectful, like he said to us,
Speaker 2: before I go and talk to the network about this,
Speaker 2: I need to know whether or not, like I don't
Speaker 2: want to pitch you doing it if it's not what
Speaker 2: you want to do. So and the bizarre thing, too
Speaker 2: much is our builder Jason that everyone got to know
Speaker 2: because we've a tag team and he and his wife
Speaker 2: and Steven, he's like for best mates.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 2: We talked almost every day. We've been speaking to Jason saying, oh,
Speaker 2: somebody is going to approach you to do the block
Speaker 2: this year. You know, what do you think about it?
Speaker 2: We were talking with him and he was like, oh,
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if I'll do it again. You know,
Speaker 2: their business has done very well.
Speaker 4: I think ten in a Vide did approach it.
Speaker 2: Tan you well, we found out later Tanya Video did,
Speaker 2: but at the time he was like, I don't know.
Speaker 2: And we were really saying, you know what, Jason, You're
Speaker 2: going to have so many people want you. And I'd
Speaker 2: even joked with him and said, well, why don't you
Speaker 2: let me interview them, because I don't want you to
Speaker 2: like them better than us, you know, so you can't
Speaker 2: have someone that you like better than us. So I
Speaker 2: joked with him and said, well, why don't you get
Speaker 2: me to interview the contestants for you? And so then
Speaker 2: we said to Julian Cres when we said yes, we said,
Speaker 2: well can we use Jason again? And he went, you
Speaker 2: know the Builders can only do it every two years,
Speaker 2: so I.
Speaker 4: Think Jason might have been approached to do the High
Speaker 4: Pages Angel thing. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So we then rang Jason's wife and said, guess what
Speaker 2: heads up? We're back, but don't tell Jason. And she
Speaker 2: rang Jason and said, you need to come home. The
Speaker 2: boys need to talk to you. And apparently he thought
Speaker 2: something was wrong. He was really worried at our age.
Speaker 2: You thought it was some we're going to say we
Speaker 2: were sick. And we zoomed him and just said, guess what, Jason,
Speaker 2: you're back on the block. And he was. And his
Speaker 2: first response was, I could not watch you build with
Speaker 2: anyone else. I couldn't watch it if I wasn't with you.
Speaker 2: So we have Jason Steed.
Speaker 1: The show still resonates all these years later, probably the
Speaker 1: longest running reality TV show probably in the world. I
Speaker 1: like it at this stage. Why do you think the
Speaker 1: show resonates so much with Australian audiences.
Speaker 4: I think Australians have got a fascination for renovation. I
Speaker 4: think we're probably the one nation where owning a home
Speaker 4: is such a big thing, and although it's getting tougher
Speaker 4: for young people in the big cities, it still is
Speaker 4: the thing we all aspire to and most people at
Speaker 4: some stage do end up owning a home. They might
Speaker 4: have to move out out of town or whatever they
Speaker 4: get there and then making our homes better, making our
Speaker 4: nest special. And when we talk about renovation, renovation can
Speaker 4: be you move into a home, even if you're renting,
Speaker 4: you still want to make it your own. You still
Speaker 4: want to style in a way that it makes your claim.
Speaker 4: So I think we've got a fascination with that. But
Speaker 4: we're also curious animals and we like to see people
Speaker 4: interact and the block.
Speaker 2: And it's aspiration too. I think people look for the
Speaker 2: aspiration of taking something and changing it and making it
Speaker 2: into something beautiful. I think people like that almost Cinderella story.
Speaker 2: Each week of the dirt floor and Sunday night, people go,
Speaker 2: oh my god, look at that amazing room. I think
Speaker 2: that's also a bit of fantasy.
Speaker 4: And it's raw. People are doing amazing work and they're
Speaker 4: out of their comfort zone, and we're working seven days
Speaker 4: a week and we're exhausted, and we become real. Even
Speaker 4: if people do go on thinking they want to betray
Speaker 4: themselves as something something, but not necessarily, our true cells
Speaker 4: come through. We can't fake it. So people get to
Speaker 4: know us, whether they like us, lovers like or hate us,
Speaker 4: they get to know us, and we're putting ourselves out there.
Speaker 4: So it's a peak inside people's lives.
Speaker 1: But you know, with the block, I think also it's
Speaker 1: something that is kind of hard as well. It's not
Speaker 1: something that everyone can do, and I think that's probably
Speaker 1: where the longevity is as well. I think if everyone
Speaker 1: was sitting at home thinking like big brother, oh, I
Speaker 1: could just be in house, more people would do it
Speaker 1: and it probably would die off where it is a
Speaker 1: real competition that seems to me to be almost impossible
Speaker 1: at times.
Speaker 4: But I do think they've been that if any of
Speaker 4: us are told you're going to work seven days a week,
Speaker 4: you'll be You'll be getting You'll be working physical labor
Speaker 4: for eighteen hours, sometimes twenty four hours right through. I
Speaker 4: don't think it for seven days for twelve weeks. I
Speaker 4: don't think any of us would think we can do it.
Speaker 4: But to me, the block taught us the first time
Speaker 4: that there's something in everybody. We're not special, and none
Speaker 4: of the contestants are special human powers. We're just people
Speaker 4: put into a situation and you survive. You actually we've
Speaker 4: all got something in us, and you.
Speaker 2: Can blossom in some of those like we survived, but
Speaker 2: also blossom. You see what in the OSLO that first
Speaker 2: one like I'll never forget walking into the Oslo for
Speaker 2: the first time, and when we watched it back, I
Speaker 2: remember that and even now I feel like it it's
Speaker 2: like the overwhelm of the size.
Speaker 4: It just was overwhelmed and the mess and the mess
Speaker 4: and having seen other couples go into those broken places
Speaker 4: and then when you walk in yourself, you think, oh shit,
Speaker 4: this is real.
Speaker 2: But I think, Mitch, you know, under that pressure the
Speaker 2: other thing that hit me and the Oslo, It's happened again.
Speaker 2: I guess this time with the Oslo because it was
Speaker 2: so big. When we watched the formal living room being delivered,
Speaker 2: and that was like week two. I think we did
Speaker 2: the bedroom bathroom, first time we ever did a bedroom
Speaker 2: bathroom in the same week, and I think it was
Speaker 2: the next week we went down did the formal and
Speaker 2: I remember watching reveal night. We watched every night that
Speaker 2: the season, and I said to Mitch and Jason Rain
Speaker 2: and I said to Jason, I know that we did
Speaker 2: because I'm watching it and I know, but I don't
Speaker 2: know how we did it. And I'm like, even watching it,
Speaker 2: I was like I felt physically ill because it felt
Speaker 2: like you couldn't do it. So what Mitch is saying
Speaker 2: is right. I think we're just normal people and you
Speaker 2: go into a situation. You don't realize what capacity you've
Speaker 2: got until you do it, and sometimes you realize you
Speaker 2: can blossom under that. He blossomed with that whole mid
Speaker 2: century modern look that hadn't been seen before. He'd never
Speaker 2: done that before, and it just something happened. I was
Speaker 2: obsessed with mid century modern.
Speaker 1: How do you compare these two experiences though, because I mean,
Speaker 1: there are different themes to both of these, but there's
Speaker 1: also different people, so the experience must be somewhat different.
Speaker 1: Can you even say without knowing the end result at
Speaker 1: this point, but how did the two experiences compare to
Speaker 1: one another?
Speaker 4: This was better. I think we got a chance for
Speaker 4: a rerun and having a chance for rerun, and I'm
Speaker 4: seeing it in It's now where we're up to in
Speaker 4: the show. Now, I'm seeing that we're getting caught up again.
Speaker 4: We're so we were so folks on doing the best
Speaker 4: job we could that we didn't stop and spend any
Speaker 4: time to enjoy the first time enough, there were of
Speaker 4: course members of joy, but this time I did keep
Speaker 4: reminding Mark and the team we are going to have fun.
Speaker 1: How long did it take to work out all the fashion?
Speaker 1: Because the fashion is phenomenal and I'm just like, if
Speaker 1: you've been on the show before, you kind of know
Speaker 1: what angles work. You know, how long did it take
Speaker 1: for you to put this fashion together?
Speaker 4: Well? I worked out there there were going to be
Speaker 4: twelve reveals and reveal nights.
Speaker 2: There are a lot more reveals that you didn't see
Speaker 2: that were tough, right, I did do it.
Speaker 4: I did a full naked scene that was that was
Speaker 4: quite quite knowing needs quite power. But so I put
Speaker 4: together twelve outfits for for both of us, for that shoes, belts,
Speaker 4: everything connected, and I timed them to be for each week.
Speaker 4: And there's there's a stylist, Emma's an amazing style who
Speaker 4: styles people. And I presented our looks and she said, look,
Speaker 4: I just want it all and I told her which
Speaker 4: week they had to be come out. And I also
Speaker 4: put in other outfits because I knew there'd be other
Speaker 4: events happening, So I put in other outfits because I
Speaker 4: love fashion. I'm a bit obsessed with it, so and
Speaker 4: I just want to play hard. And I suppose also
Speaker 4: being at a stage in life where confident enough that
Speaker 4: dressing to please us. I know what pleases Mark in
Speaker 4: his look, and I know what pleases me in my
Speaker 4: look and not really, and it's not going to appeal
Speaker 4: to everyone. So it's nice to be at the stage
Speaker 4: in life where you're doing it for yourself. And if
Speaker 4: people happen to like it, that's that's fantastic, And if
Speaker 4: they don't like it, that's okay too. I'm sort of
Speaker 4: happy for people to have an opinion on us one
Speaker 4: way or the other, because you're putting ourselves out there.
Speaker 4: But I have fun. I love fashion.
Speaker 1: See.
Speaker 4: I've actually been designing clothes for the past few weeks
Speaker 4: because I just decided I've worn all those new ones.
Speaker 4: It needs something good for most of those clothes I
Speaker 4: designed and have made.
Speaker 1: Will send me photos of all of it because, let
Speaker 1: me tell you, my partner and I, after watching the
Speaker 1: season the Block, we want to chuck out all of
Speaker 1: our stuff because it's all it's all bloody rubbish. Let
Speaker 1: me tell you what's the strangest story that you guys
Speaker 1: have read being on this season of The Block?
Speaker 4: Last time we were seeking treatment for oh yeah, we
Speaker 4: were seeking treatment for a botox addiction, and the photograph
Speaker 4: they had of us seeking treatment for a botox addiction.
Speaker 4: We both looked so haggard. I thought, seriously, find an
Speaker 4: image where we look stunned.
Speaker 2: If we were that addicted, we wouldn't look like this, right,
Speaker 2: we would.
Speaker 4: And then there was another occasion where where I was
Speaker 4: walking out on mark, but it was actually the photograph
Speaker 4: was of us arriving arriving at the block together. I
Speaker 4: just love this then, and I had a wasting disease.
Speaker 2: The only thing I have seen was an insiders said
Speaker 2: that maybe auction day won't go ahead because none of
Speaker 2: us can stand to be in the same room with
Speaker 2: each other. And that's not true. That's absolutely not true.
Speaker 2: Mitch talks to Georgia every couple of days. You're here
Speaker 2: at the phone, is that you Georgian? Miki? You talk
Speaker 2: to the boys probably every at least once a week,
Speaker 2: Furst in Jesse, probably every couple of days. It's fair
Speaker 2: to say, you know Tanya and Vito. You've reached out
Speaker 2: to them because we know things can be tough. Things
Speaker 2: on TVR are tough, and we've kind of you reached out,
Speaker 2: just sent the message saying look we're here.
Speaker 4: It's happened, And there was crap went down, but that's
Speaker 4: behind us, like having been through the block before, it
Speaker 4: is behind us, and we know how tough it can be.
Speaker 4: So I did sort of say, look, if you want,
Speaker 4: he's my number. Everything's water on the bridge, happy to
Speaker 4: help you through. But you know, and they're working out,
Speaker 4: and I suppose they're working.
Speaker 2: So that's the weirdest story, the story. No one can
Speaker 2: stand each other and they won't be a sitting.
Speaker 1: I did read yesterday though, somewhere it was like Tanya
Speaker 1: and Vito I have been ranked the most annoying or
Speaker 1: something on the block history. But is that fair? Is
Speaker 1: that a fair assumption?
Speaker 4: I don't know. Is there a ranking I didn't know
Speaker 4: there was a ranking system. I'm sure we'd be on
Speaker 4: there somewhere too.
Speaker 2: And it depends. You know, you're annoying everyone, and one
Speaker 2: of us is annoying to somebody and to some part
Speaker 2: of the audience. I always get a bit cautious when
Speaker 2: you read something from a source.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but the most, the most. I'm sure we're all
Speaker 4: up there. I think my good friend George will be
Speaker 4: there too, because she's well, Ronnie's annoying, not Georgia. Ronnie's annoying.
Speaker 4: I had to take what I had to take Ronnie
Speaker 4: on an anti annoying training program whilst we're on the block,
Speaker 4: and I was doing well, But now that we're not
Speaker 4: together every day, I'm worriedy slipping back.
Speaker 1: I'm sure she would have told you by now. To
Speaker 1: be fair, do you think that it might have been
Speaker 1: better to have everyone as an All Star or do
Speaker 1: you think that the mix this series has is a
Speaker 1: good contrast.
Speaker 4: Very good question. I think it was interesting. It was
Speaker 4: really interesting not being all All Stars, and it would
Speaker 4: have been a very different show with total All Stars.
Speaker 4: The viewers are tuning in, so it must be working,
Speaker 4: and what's really interesting all Stars. I felt like like
Speaker 4: once we got in a few weeks, like I don't
Speaker 4: know what point it was, whether it was three weeks
Speaker 4: or four or two, but we're all block contestants. Yes,
Speaker 4: we're all there fighting to do the best we can.
Speaker 4: And I felt that that that I didn't see couples
Speaker 4: as different. I just saw it. I saw us all
Speaker 4: those block contestants, and we got over the fact that
Speaker 4: we were all starts pretty quickly.
Speaker 2: Well, I think that I think the twist of this
Speaker 2: season and it's kind of in a way, I kind
Speaker 2: of feel well night. In a way, I do feel
Speaker 2: proud of the fact that, you know, Mitch and I
Speaker 2: by chance got the biggest block that they've ever done,
Speaker 2: and they will never do anything as big, and now
Speaker 2: we've got to do the block that has been one
Speaker 2: of the most challenging because you had no floor plan
Speaker 2: at all. So whilst we hit come in and there
Speaker 2: is an advantage, and you know what a week looks
Speaker 2: like when you're all trying to work a floor plan.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't know how much advantage there is.
Speaker 2: Everyone had the same challenge of where do you fit
Speaker 2: rooms and is it going to work? And what if
Speaker 2: you do a room that in five weeks time stuff
Speaker 2: something up that you didn't think about. So I don't know,
Speaker 2: it's an amazing season, amazing But.
Speaker 4: Also we all finished our first week room. So on
Speaker 4: our first year, one couple properly finished their first week
Speaker 4: room and ours wasn't painted right. I think Jesse and
Speaker 4: Jesse in mel their room was finished, completed and really
Speaker 4: beautifully finished. Ours was completed, but the painting will take wrap.
Speaker 4: I think that was the advantage. Week one was an
Speaker 4: advantage because we knew to bite off what we could
Speaker 4: chew and what we could finish, but it isn't finish.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you need to have a level head? I mean,
Speaker 1: this is something I keep thinking about. And do you
Speaker 1: worry too much about upsetting the producers or presenters? I
Speaker 1: mean I can see a frustration at times, and I
Speaker 1: would worry that they would panalize you. You know, do
Speaker 1: you just have to be like, this is authentically myself
Speaker 1: and this is how I would react to any given situation.
Speaker 1: Or do you try and factor in the fact that
Speaker 1: you don't want to upset anyone.
Speaker 2: Iried up?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 2: In our experience on this season this time around, it's
Speaker 2: fair to say that we'd worked with the camera crew
Speaker 2: and the sound guys before. Some of the producers were new,
Speaker 2: but we were really excited to go back and work
Speaker 2: with them because they're amazing people, and you know, they
Speaker 2: create this show. They're carrying heavy cameras through work sides,
Speaker 2: with boots and with stuff everywhere, and the sound guys
Speaker 2: and the sound guys are amazing. So they're friends to us.
Speaker 2: But you're raw, You're just who you are, and they
Speaker 2: manage it. And I have to say, you know, there
Speaker 2: were times that I was frustrated and angry about things,
Speaker 2: and then would go afterwards to that person several times,
Speaker 2: so sorry, and they said, no, we get it. You know,
Speaker 2: we would never do what you're doing. I don't think
Speaker 2: which we ever thought, let's not do that because somebody
Speaker 2: may not like it, or they might edit us in
Speaker 2: a certain way.
Speaker 1: You just have to be yourself. I remember where you
Speaker 1: were accused of painting, and you just were like, there's
Speaker 1: no way that that happened, and then you held your ground.
Speaker 2: So you seriously think having done this in two seasons
Speaker 2: one we would let him painting.
Speaker 4: I'm going to tell you what I saw.
Speaker 2: No, I'm asking a different question, Keith, I'm asking you
Speaker 2: a different question after after two. No, well it does,
Speaker 2: I'm entited to ask a question or lax mine.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you need to be a little bit level headed
Speaker 1: and just you know, you've got to respect other people,
Speaker 1: but you've also got to be true to yourself.
Speaker 2: You know, you've got to be I think sometimes and
Speaker 2: it's probably been from my perspective the work that I
Speaker 2: have done, because my career was in a very different
Speaker 2: area than on the block, so I had dealt with
Speaker 2: people a lot and conflict a lot in my career,
Speaker 2: and in that situation, you know, to me, it's like,
Speaker 2: it's okay to be angry and frustrated. I need to
Speaker 2: have some rational kind of thought here. And sometimes it's
Speaker 2: okay to stand up for something. And somebody years ago
Speaker 2: taught me, and I can't rememberho it was, but it
Speaker 2: was the best bit of advice. They said, anger has
Speaker 2: changed the world. It's okay to actually assert yourself. It's
Speaker 2: what you do and how you deal with it. Anger
Speaker 2: lashing out to hurt somebody is not okay, But being
Speaker 2: angry about something that's an injustice, well, you know that
Speaker 2: drove for us as like Stoneball, it drove the gay
Speaker 2: rights movement. People said, no, enough is enough. We're not
Speaker 2: doing that. You know, we have to actually assert ourselves
Speaker 2: about what we think is right and deal with an injustice.
Speaker 2: So in a small way, when I hear people sometimes
Speaker 2: I go, that's bs, you know it. I know it,
Speaker 2: and I can back down now because it will be
Speaker 2: the best for maybe the vision, because I'm you know,
Speaker 2: you might edit me to make me look a certain way,
Speaker 2: or I can be true to myself and say, you
Speaker 2: know that that's not right. And in the situation you
Speaker 2: were talking about. I remember, I think I said, we've
Speaker 2: done this twice now. I would be completely crazy to
Speaker 2: let anyone else pick up a paintbrush. It is not logical,
Speaker 2: It does not make sense. I do have the same
Speaker 2: interaction with Dan Riley about someone who tried to suggest that.
Speaker 2: I was like, it was like, damn, please do not manipulate.
Speaker 2: I kind of wanted to say to him because Dan's
Speaker 2: trading and he's all right, but he's you know, he's
Speaker 2: not necessarily he hasn't dealt with situations that I dealt with,
Speaker 2: And I was like, Dan, let's just use a bit
Speaker 2: of logic here, but do you really want to have
Speaker 2: this debate.
Speaker 1: One hundred percent? And how much of the show do
Speaker 1: you actually watch back? So I heard before you said
Speaker 1: that you watched every episode of the first time you're
Speaker 1: on the show. You're watching every episode that's on this time.
Speaker 1: And how much do you need to drink to calm
Speaker 1: your anxiety.
Speaker 4: I don't have any problem drinking. I don't think we've
Speaker 4: missed an episode this season. I think I think it's
Speaker 4: I think you've got a responsibility to be on top
Speaker 4: of what's happening on the show. Part of agreeing to
Speaker 4: do the show. You agreed to do the show, and
Speaker 4: if you if you're not paying the respect by watching it,
Speaker 4: you can't then engage with media or with whether whether
Speaker 4: radio interview properly or with the or social media discussions,
Speaker 4: because just because you lived it, you know it doesn't
Speaker 4: mean it's going to be aired. Some of the things
Speaker 4: that happened, and we're watching because it's fascinating because we're
Speaker 4: seeing it with the audience, we don't know what happened
Speaker 4: in other houses. And Mark and I we felt as
Speaker 4: though we weren't going to do well. We thought the
Speaker 4: judges weren't on board with us. So we made a
Speaker 4: decision probably from week one, week too after we had
Speaker 4: a win, and week to we made a decision we
Speaker 4: have to work out butts off because that's our opportunity
Speaker 4: to save enough money to get through. And we thought
Speaker 4: if we if when we win, if we win, that
Speaker 4: has to be a bonus. It can't be what gets
Speaker 4: us through. So we chose to work to make up
Speaker 4: for winnings that may not happen. So it meant that
Speaker 4: we weren't having it took out some of the like
Speaker 4: we see Ronny and Georgia clowning around a lot. But
Speaker 4: they won more, and when you win more, you can
Speaker 4: afford more labor, so you actually can have more time
Speaker 4: to have a chat with the camera crew and money
Speaker 4: with his bike, ride the bike around and whatever. So
Speaker 4: we didn't we didn't have that luxury because we were working.
Speaker 4: We've heard others, we've.
Speaker 2: Heard criticism of it's the reality of how you get
Speaker 2: through your journey.
Speaker 4: They won more so they could afford more labor. We
Speaker 4: won less, and luckily for us, we saw that coming,
Speaker 4: so we were able to make up for the lack
Speaker 4: of winnings with labor. So basically we painted all night
Speaker 4: and I labored as well as doing the styling thing.
Speaker 2: I think it's interesting. Then you know a couple same
Speaker 2: sex couple on reality TV. One question raised with us
Speaker 2: now and then these people said, but they never took
Speaker 2: vision of you in bed. You know, you would see
Speaker 2: that people walking in the mornings, and you see contestants
Speaker 2: in bed and they're working up and we've had I
Speaker 2: know the last season two. A couple of people said, oh,
Speaker 2: was that because it was the same sex relationship. I said, no,
Speaker 2: it's because they never caught us in bed. Because we
Speaker 2: were up early. So we are always on in real
Speaker 2: life too, but on the block, we always were up
Speaker 2: at five o'clock. The producers and the soundies who were
Speaker 2: going really well with the girls who did who hooked
Speaker 2: up audio. We would sometimes have a bit of a
Speaker 2: game with them to see if we could sneak out
Speaker 2: because we were always up early.
Speaker 4: And then I think by kitchen or little living room.
Speaker 4: Week we then moved out. We had our alarm set
Speaker 4: for five fifteen, and I generally wake up just for
Speaker 4: an eln I don't know. It's a weird thing though,
Speaker 4: I do. But then we moved it for we thought
Speaker 4: we need another forty five minutes. For the last five weeks,
Speaker 4: we've got at a four thirty every morning to paint,
Speaker 4: to paint and do stuff.
Speaker 1: Well, I don't know where you guys get the energy from.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it's madness. It's just mad I
Speaker 1: do if you could change one thing, I mean, you
Speaker 1: guys are officionados on this now, so you've done it twice.
Speaker 1: But is there a rule that you guys would like
Speaker 1: to change on the block, like maybe painting.
Speaker 2: Oh you know, in some ways I understand it because
Speaker 2: it's a level of all contestants. We don't have a trade,
Speaker 2: and in our first season a number of the couples
Speaker 2: did have a trade. It was interesting the promos there were,
Speaker 2: you know, we were so experienced its yeah, but we're
Speaker 2: not builders, like Matt's a builder, Luke was a builder,
Speaker 2: Jesse was a tyler and this season this season, yeah,
Speaker 2: so painting levels everything, So I don't have an issue
Speaker 2: with that. And Vedos had a trade background Bricky bricky,
Speaker 2: and Jesse was Jesse was Jesse was a builder in
Speaker 2: something in Rose Builder. So I think, no, I probably wouldn't.
Speaker 2: I think the painting means everyone has to get in
Speaker 2: and do something, because otherwise contestants could come on your builders,
Speaker 2: are you backbone? Otherwise you would just be there pointing
Speaker 2: and say do this, do that.
Speaker 4: Sometimes I thought for the builders it's a disadvantage because
Speaker 4: they get they become part of the building team, they
Speaker 4: lose control of coordinating the project.
Speaker 2: It's tougher for them sometimes if you've got a trader's
Speaker 2: to get called into stuff. I think the one thing
Speaker 2: I have not been we have not been shining saying this,
Speaker 2: I think, and particularly given this season with the architecture
Speaker 2: and changing rooms and design. I think judging should include
Speaker 2: maybe an architect and a real estate person. The block
Speaker 2: is a real estate competition. It's not just about the
Speaker 2: design and the color, and that's important when you're selling
Speaker 2: a property, but properties are also about how they're designed
Speaker 2: in terms of the space and the light, the airflow,
Speaker 2: the function for a family, and the real estate market.
Speaker 2: Real estate agents know that better. So I shy away
Speaker 2: from saying I think that probably having three different skill
Speaker 2: sets New Zealand, I think does it. I think it's
Speaker 2: a good idea.
Speaker 1: I've never seen the New Zealand version of the Block.
Speaker 1: I want to check it out.
Speaker 4: Now watch it. You've gone and watched, We've had all
Speaker 4: we've had New Zealander friends tell us that the New
Speaker 4: Zealanders prefer the Australian bloc.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, I think we should go be judges on
Speaker 2: the New Zealand.
Speaker 1: You really should. Well, we should pitch that. You know.
Speaker 1: A few comments, yes, a few comments around this season
Speaker 1: is that this is the Maths version of the Block,
Speaker 1: especially with the biggest cheating scandal. What did you think
Speaker 1: of that? I mean, I wanted to ask you boys
Speaker 1: if you'd ever seen Maths. But then also ask you
Speaker 1: whether or not you felt like the drama was escalated
Speaker 1: more this time around.
Speaker 4: Well, Juells and Camp from Maths live not far from us,
Speaker 4: and they're very good friend mates. So if we're kind
Speaker 4: of and they got married, they're still married and they
Speaker 4: have a beautiful baby, so.
Speaker 2: They bring us after watching the block most nights, what happened?
Speaker 4: Yeah, what the fuck Michie? You said that?
Speaker 2: You know this season, Let's say a lot of people
Speaker 2: and there's a lot of conversation around the block every
Speaker 2: year about I'm got the drama? Can't that just show
Speaker 2: more building? And at some level I would like to
Speaker 2: see a little more of building. You know, there are
Speaker 2: things that every couple transforms. So our living area was
Speaker 2: dirt and we had to dig the stumps and put
Speaker 2: like the building work to do. That was amazing. But
Speaker 2: most people watching it, it's entertainment, and most of the
Speaker 2: buildings watching it do Actually they may deny they want
Speaker 2: the drama, but they do.
Speaker 4: Like a bit of.
Speaker 1: People like to say whatever they you know, like if
Speaker 1: you don't do one small thing, they'll pick at it,
Speaker 1: do you know what I mean? Like, there's never I
Speaker 1: worked out. There was never a correct answer because like
Speaker 1: I remember, after doing Big Brother, I was like, maybe
Speaker 1: if I explained to people online what happened, because it
Speaker 1: obviously was different in real time, And then I just
Speaker 1: realized there's no right answer. So there's no point.
Speaker 2: We've had people write us long emails telling us about
Speaker 2: how we should have designed a room, or I really
Speaker 2: like that that you could have done this and done
Speaker 2: this and stuff.
Speaker 4: I'd really get alive.
Speaker 1: Anyways, we need to talk about who do you think
Speaker 1: is going to win? Like, can we talk about how
Speaker 1: you think this is going to play out?
Speaker 4: I think it's highly likely that Jesse in Cursey's house
Speaker 4: will win. It's a much bigger block of land. They
Speaker 4: keep talking about it being a much bigger house. It
Speaker 4: is such a not much bigger. It's bigger. I don't
Speaker 4: think it's hugely bigger.
Speaker 2: It was interesting because when you look at all the houses,
Speaker 2: I think most of them are four bedroom houses. So
Speaker 2: in terms of facilities that they offer, far from Tanya
Speaker 2: and Vito. They've got three bedrooms, but you know most
Speaker 2: houses are four bedrooms. Have got three Cursing just have
Speaker 2: four bathrooms, but the function and the facility is the same,
Speaker 2: but the property is bigger. And I think the land value,
Speaker 2: somebody will be really interested in that. So I think
Speaker 2: they've got a really good chance of winning. But we've
Speaker 2: seen over the seasons weird things happen. And I've said
Speaker 2: this season and I've said it a couple of times before.
Speaker 2: When you look at the evidence, the people who come
Speaker 2: out judged best by the judges haven't won the block.
Speaker 2: So the people who have the highest score or the
Speaker 2: highest average score, the most room wins in the last
Speaker 2: few seasons haven't won the block.
Speaker 4: Last season, they did, but they did it and it
Speaker 4: south all through, which.
Speaker 2: Was sad for Jimmy and Town because we know them,
Speaker 2: and that was horrible. And then it took maybe nine
Speaker 2: months to sell that property. So in terms of the
Speaker 2: real estate market, if the block's a real estate competition,
Speaker 2: the people the judges choose through their assessment haven't won
Speaker 2: the block in the last three or four years. Who knows.
Speaker 1: I just loved it. You're like when they were talking
Speaker 1: about those pantries in the kitchen, and you guys were like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: this is where we put the dry food, and I
Speaker 1: was loving it.
Speaker 3: There's simply not enough space to store food. This is
Speaker 3: a major issue Jana thinks you have to add some somewhere.
Speaker 1: No, No, it is something that you kind of have
Speaker 1: to factor in, especially if you do know the show
Speaker 1: as well as you guys do, and that is pleasing
Speaker 1: the judges and getting the scores isn't the big picture
Speaker 1: at the end of the day.
Speaker 4: So well, we want the judges vote the first time
Speaker 4: round and came last, and look when we did believe
Speaker 4: we presented a house worthy of a win, and probably,
Speaker 4: in our opinions, whether we're right or wrong, the house
Speaker 4: that was potentially least appealing one. So it's really hard
Speaker 4: to predict. I think Kirsty and Jesse they have a
Speaker 4: point of difference. That's why I picked their house out.
Speaker 2: It's a different market to the rest of us. But Mitchell,
Speaker 2: on that basis, who knows the judges loved our house
Speaker 2: so much, maybe we'll win.
Speaker 1: Well, I just ask this, wasn't going to plan on
Speaker 1: asking this question. But is Jesse as cute in real
Speaker 1: life as how he is on television.
Speaker 4: He's a beautiful angel.
Speaker 1: Someone put on Twitter or photo without his top on
Speaker 1: last night and I may have retweeted it.
Speaker 4: Jesse is, but he's such a beautiful soul. It's just
Speaker 4: so beautiful.
Speaker 2: I remember saying to Kirsty in the early first few
Speaker 2: weeks or something, said are you prepared? So what I said,
Speaker 2: you do know he's going to be Australias sweetheart. You
Speaker 2: do understand that. And at one point, I think Ronnie
Speaker 2: at one point there was some issue going on and
Speaker 2: Runny was, oh, I need to go and have a chat,
Speaker 2: and it was like, running do you really want to
Speaker 2: be on camera having a go at Australia's three? I mean,
Speaker 2: do you want to be the do you want to
Speaker 2: be the one that's kill?
Speaker 4: But do you want to go back to that one thing?
Speaker 4: Mark said that the one who wins where the judges
Speaker 4: doesn't necessarily win. I think Ronnie and George have also
Speaker 4: presented a winning house so and I think their house
Speaker 4: is beautiful regardless of whether the judges thought it was beautiful.
Speaker 4: I think the home is beautiful. I guess they well, no,
Speaker 4: but but I think it's a beautiful. Think that George's
Speaker 4: styling is exquisite.
Speaker 2: But I guess the reason I say that feedback though,
Speaker 2: is in looking at who's going to who we think
Speaker 2: might win the block, I would disregard completely what the
Speaker 2: judges are saying, and look at it from a real
Speaker 2: estate perspective. Whatever they said, I just go, yeah, whatever,
Speaker 2: let's look at the properties in terms of what they offer,
Speaker 2: their position in the coulder, sat that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: It's it's not about whether or not Neil or Shane
Speaker 2: or Darren loved how cushion was fluffed. It's actually, you know,
Speaker 2: real estate is more than that.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 4: It's but dare I say it? Ben? I do? I believe,
Speaker 4: and of course I'm biased. I believe we have built
Speaker 4: and designed and planned and styled and landscaped the whole kitten,
Speaker 4: the boodle, the best house. Whether or not that wins,
Speaker 4: I don't. I don't have I don't hold, I don't
Speaker 4: hold hope to win. I'm not hanging out to win.
Speaker 4: I don't expect to. If we did, hallelujah, it would
Speaker 4: be nice not to come last. But by the same token,
Speaker 4: we went in last time with the attitude of whatever
Speaker 4: we're going with, and what have we come out with.
Speaker 4: If it's ten thousand dollars, that's ten thousand dollars we
Speaker 4: didn't have the day before. So if we win a
Speaker 4: bucket load, fantastic, But we have to also prepared to
Speaker 4: win nothing, because it's a game of chance, and I
Speaker 4: think for any block contestant, you have to be prepared
Speaker 4: to win nothing. And last time, people said, I, how
Speaker 4: did you feel coming last? And I said, we won
Speaker 4: three and eighty four thousand dollars. That was tax three.
Speaker 4: I felt pretty good about that. The fact that somebody
Speaker 4: else won more, It's like saying, you won a million
Speaker 4: dollars in the but the grand prize was twenty million?
Speaker 4: Are you unhappy about that? No?
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: The last question I do ask all of my guests
Speaker 1: before they go is what's an amazing story from behind
Speaker 1: the scenes that we as an audience may not have seen.
Speaker 4: This year on the block, we actually had Kinsman Kitchens
Speaker 4: offered to do all of our laundry, so they had
Speaker 4: someone come and collect the laundry for us every week,
Speaker 4: whereas previously on the block, your laundry was your problem,
Speaker 4: and until you had a laundry, you had to either
Speaker 4: go to a laundry mat or wear dirty clothes. And
Speaker 4: I remember sitting in a laundry mat. There was a
Speaker 4: one Insecurita that I sat in in the middle of
Speaker 4: the night getting some laundry done. When we needed to,
Speaker 4: but they sent around someone to collect our laundry. So
Speaker 4: I went and got our laundry and we had builders
Speaker 4: all over the site. There was camera crew and sound
Speaker 4: guys and bridges everywhere. So I sort of thought, oh,
Speaker 4: let's have some fun with this. So I said, look,
Speaker 4: you know what, take my shirt to I said, you
Speaker 4: know what, actually, these socks could do with a wash.
Speaker 4: Take my socks.
Speaker 2: I knew this was at that point.
Speaker 4: I knew with this, let's to take my trousers. And
Speaker 4: then I said, look, why don't I get clean under it?
Speaker 4: So I took off my underwear and I was staying
Speaker 4: there stark naked in front of forty fifty people, which
Speaker 4: was for me, it was amazing. It's like, oh my god,
Speaker 4: I'm naked, and it's sort of like that dream you
Speaker 4: wake up and you're naked in a crowded room.
Speaker 1: No, it's a nightmare. You've got it wrong. It's not
Speaker 1: a dream. It's a nightmare when I wake up, when
Speaker 1: I have that dream and I'm completely neuded in front
Speaker 1: of people. Oh my god.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well I well I was, and it was it
Speaker 4: was people were like for all the right runs, I hope,
Speaker 4: but I was. I found it very invigorating. I found
Speaker 4: it empowering, empowering.
Speaker 2: However, the poor guy who was taking the laundry. One
Speaker 2: of the interesting things is two of the guys working
Speaker 2: on a unit show, travel Guys, the Target Boys, Deng
Speaker 2: and Kevin and Dorian. Deng and Kevin were working as
Speaker 2: runners on the block that was pantestic? Were they yes,
Speaker 2: Evan who took kids laundry, who was in shock singing naked?
Speaker 1: That's the story.
Speaker 4: Then after I did that strip in front of him,
Speaker 4: I didn't think to myself, well, should I should have
Speaker 4: checked that it was actually like not affected by the
Speaker 4: people weather. I should I should have.
Speaker 1: Teased me no time for fluffing boys. Can I just
Speaker 1: say it has been so amazing to talk to the
Speaker 1: two of you. I have absolutely loved every single second.
Speaker 1: My partner is going to be devastated when the show's over,
Speaker 1: because you inspire me every day in very different ways
Speaker 1: of tiding things up around the house. I would want
Speaker 1: to present myself better. I want to have a better
Speaker 1: relationship with him, and I think it's just been amazing
Speaker 1: to watch. So I just want to thank you so
Speaker 1: much for your time and and thank you for being here.
Speaker 1: On TV Rilo.
Speaker 2: Thank you, it's a pleasure.
Speaker 4: Thanks for being that's that's too kind.