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Speaker 1: This is gem Nation with Jonesyda.

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Speaker 2: Long before the game shows a morning TV. Larry Emenda

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Speaker 2: was just Larry, a cheeky kid from Sydney's Bondi Beach.

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Speaker 2: Fast forward, he is now one of Australia's most loved personalities.

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Speaker 2: He's got a new book out called Happy As He's

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Speaker 2: a great made of ours. Here he is in the

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Speaker 2: almost flesh Larry Emda.

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Speaker 3: Hello, hello, great mate, Hello, good things.

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Speaker 2: Well enjoyed your booker. Just looking through the photos, there's

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Speaker 2: a great photo. You're about thirteen. You're in a Safari suit.

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Speaker 2: Your dad's I think, in a Safari suit completely unbuttoned

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Speaker 2: to the waist.

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Speaker 3: Yes, my dad. I believe my dad was Austin Powers

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Speaker 3: before Austin Powers.

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Speaker 2: As you say, you don't know why, you don't know

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Speaker 2: why he bothered having shirts with buttons at all.

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Speaker 3: Apparently that was the look and I'm dead teen to

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Speaker 3: bring that back on TV.

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Speaker 4: Sure, I think this could be a thing. And that's

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Speaker 4: with your dad. Your dad passed away and my dad

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Speaker 4: died at about that same age. And it's such a

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Speaker 4: hard thing when they're gone from your life for so

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Speaker 4: long because you miss them.

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Speaker 3: Don't you? One hundred percent and still today and especially

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Speaker 3: now with the book, you know, coming background, I had

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Speaker 3: to write some some pretty tough There were some pretty

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Speaker 3: tough chapters there to write. There's lots of fun stuff,

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Speaker 3: there's lots of prices, rite, bloopers and blunders, and lots

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Speaker 3: of TV backstories. But I wanted to I wanted to

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Speaker 3: talk about Dad and Mum, of course, and writing the

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Speaker 3: stuff about Dad was particularly challenging. It took me a while.

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Speaker 3: I wanted to get it right. I wanted to get

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Speaker 3: it exactly right for his memory and our stories together.

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Speaker 3: And he was my best mate and my mentor and

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Speaker 3: all those great things. So yeah, I miss him all

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Speaker 3: the time. And I think the book has brought back

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Speaker 3: a lot of, you know, tough memories for me, great memories,

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Speaker 3: but some tough ones as well.

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Speaker 4: I love that story of him taking you and your

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Speaker 4: sisters on mini bikes down to the sand hills and

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Speaker 4: filling up the mini bikes with petrol and a cigarette

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Speaker 4: dangling out of his mouth saying, now you've got to

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Speaker 4: be careful around Patricks.

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Speaker 3: Uh, that's right. It was a funny thing. And thinking back,

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Speaker 3: you know, like I was looking.

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Speaker 1: Through all all these boxes of old fodder.

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Speaker 3: And going there's Dad pouring petrol out of a jerry

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Speaker 3: can with a cigarette in the other hand, at the

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Speaker 3: same time telling my sister Nikki to pull a socks

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Speaker 3: up in case she falls over. Ok okay, thank you,

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Speaker 3: Safety Officer one.

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Speaker 2: You've interviewed so many people over the years, and you

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Speaker 2: tell a lot of stories in the book which I love.

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Speaker 2: Tell us about your Yoko owner Yoko Ono experience.

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Speaker 1: Well, I was gosh.

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Speaker 3: It was nineteen eighty eight. I was working on Channel

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Speaker 3: ten on Good Morning Australia as a reporter and last

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Speaker 3: minute the entertainment reporter Barsha fell sick and they sent

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Speaker 3: me to New York to interview yok on. No problem

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Speaker 3: was I wasn't a fan of the Beatles. This may

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Speaker 3: upset a lot of your listeners, but I just wasn't.

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Speaker 3: I was.

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Speaker 1: I grew up at the beach. It was beach boys

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Speaker 1: and eagles and you.

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Speaker 3: Know that sort of stuff, So it wasn't. I wasn't

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Speaker 3: a fan of the Beatles. I didn't know much about them.

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Speaker 3: I didn't know much about Yoko. I knew the songs,

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Speaker 3: of course, but on the way to New York, at

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Speaker 3: the airport in Sydney, there was a book, I think

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Speaker 3: it was called The Lives of John Lennon, and it

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Speaker 3: was pretty damning about John Lennon.

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Speaker 1: It was bad stuff. It was all the bad stuff

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Speaker 1: that HIP been up to.

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Speaker 3: And so I thought, oh, this is good. I've got

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Speaker 3: a book about the beetles. All the way on the

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Speaker 3: flight and like trying to get through this book and

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Speaker 3: curling down the pages with the good stuff and highlighting

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Speaker 3: the you know things that I'm going to ask you oka,

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Speaker 3: and I actually felt quite prepared by the time I

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Speaker 3: got to New York and the interview starts. I've got

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Speaker 3: ten minutes, right, she was already I was a kid,

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Speaker 3: I was young, and she'd already said, they sent you

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Speaker 3: from Australia to interview me because she was used to

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Speaker 3: she was used to the sixty minutes reporters and everything.

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Speaker 3: So anyway, so I've got ten minutes, and the producer said, okay,

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Speaker 3: I'll wind you up at nine minutes, and I went okay.

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Speaker 3: So I started, I said, good morning, Yeah, okay, thanks

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Speaker 3: for joining us. Now I just want to get your

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Speaker 3: thoughts on this book, and guys, keep in mind that's all.

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Speaker 3: I had nothing else, right, and she went, I don't

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Speaker 3: talk about that book is rubbish? I oh, well, I

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Speaker 3: start thumming through the pages, going oh is there is there?

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Speaker 3: Is there? Nothing?

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Speaker 1: Is this book you want to talk about?

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Speaker 3: She goes, no, no, that book doesn't exist as rubbish

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Speaker 3: and I went what what? What? Well?

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Speaker 4: I I oh, you could have got to just sing

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Speaker 4: Larry you just said what do you sing as? What

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Speaker 4: are your songs?

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Speaker 3: But here's what happened. And this was the interesting thing

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Speaker 3: and I loved writing this in the book that she

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Speaker 3: just softened.

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Speaker 1: She just saw that I was a kid in.

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Speaker 3: A hole and we just started talking and we were

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Speaker 3: talking rubbish.

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Speaker 1: You know, what's your favorite restaurant?

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Speaker 3: Have you ever been to Australia? Where should I? Where

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Speaker 3: should I eat out in New York? Can you lend

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Speaker 3: me a thousand dollars so I could go to that restaurant?

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Speaker 3: And we just had some and and it was a

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Speaker 3: side that people hadn't seen to you, okay before, because

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Speaker 3: she can be very prickly you So what happened? Then

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Speaker 3: the producers stepped in at nine minutes to wind us up,

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Speaker 3: and Yoko looked around and went, no, no, leave us alone.

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Speaker 3: So we just kept going and it ended up being

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Speaker 3: not only a one off interview, but we ran it

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Speaker 3: across the whole week of Good Morning Australia because it

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Speaker 3: was just this long, flowing sort of chewing the fat

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Speaker 3: talking about rubbish with Yoko Onna, which was quite rare

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Speaker 3: in the day because she hadn't presented that side before.

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Speaker 3: She felt sorry for me.

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Speaker 4: You could have had a lost weekend with Yoko. It

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Speaker 4: could have been a loss.

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Speaker 2: I love a good interview technique that we should use, jameson.

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Speaker 4: A lost week I love how you talk about TV,

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Speaker 4: how it's impossible to make a living out of TV,

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Speaker 4: but you've been in TV for so long now. But

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Speaker 4: I particularly like this quite from David Lecky in your book.

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Speaker 4: I'll just beep out the rude boards. I'm going to

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Speaker 4: beat out the rud words. Now listen, this is David

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Speaker 4: Lecky saying to you. And I'm presuming David Leckey was

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Speaker 4: the boss of Channel nine and Channel seven. He says

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Speaker 4: to you, I'm presuming this is in some sort of negotiation.

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Speaker 4: Now you listen to me, Larry, you little beep. I

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Speaker 4: have one hundred people in this network who would crawl

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Speaker 4: over broken glass and eat their own beep to do

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Speaker 4: your job for free? Was that a negotiation that went well?

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Speaker 3: That was negotiation and that was one of the better ones.

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Speaker 3: And David Lecky was a legendary for that sort of stuff,

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Speaker 3: Absolutely legendary. So yes, that's how that's how, you know,

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Speaker 3: that's what a TV negotiation looked like back in the day.

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Speaker 3: It's it's better now.

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Speaker 1: It's more PC now.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, that was. And there's some great stories like

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Speaker 3: that in the book too, about you know, surviving TV

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Speaker 3: and I have been around for a long time.

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Speaker 1: It's a good point.

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Speaker 3: But at the same time, I'm the most axed man

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Speaker 3: in television. I've been sacked more than anyone. So but

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Speaker 3: it all equals this, I mean it all equals me

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Speaker 3: still sitting here somehow forty years later.

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Speaker 1: What was it?

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Speaker 4: What was the one show that you got acts from

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Speaker 4: and you and it was your worst show?

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Speaker 3: Do you think I've got quite a few worse shows?

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Speaker 3: I think Family doubled there that was axed after the

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Speaker 3: very first episode. That's a funny story. Get you get

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Speaker 3: the whole that was that was the classic? Was the

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Speaker 3: first question on the first night, or one of the

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Speaker 3: first questions.

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Speaker 1: How many f's appear.

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Speaker 3: In the word dolphin given, and the mom buzzed in

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Speaker 3: and I said, yes, how many e'sents you went? Larry?

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Speaker 3: There are two?

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Speaker 1: Okay, see I got kicked.

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Speaker 3: Out of school when I was sixteen, and even I

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Speaker 3: know there's only one.

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Speaker 4: End doll when I says, yeah, okay, oh so good,

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Speaker 4: and you won't be coming back with the cash and price.

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Speaker 2: But I do think the reason you've succeeded is your

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Speaker 2: wonderful nature. And I know that you talk a lot

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Speaker 2: about your upbringing that gave you that grounding and your

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Speaker 2: ability to just.

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Speaker 4: You know, and your dad just should just be nice.

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Speaker 4: Just be nice, to be nice.

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Speaker 2: And look where it's got you.

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Speaker 3: Larry, Yeah, well, thank you guys.

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Speaker 1: And it's like you guys, like there are reasonable There are.

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Speaker 3: Good human beings in this business. There are a lot

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Speaker 3: of a lot of people who aren't, but there are,

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Speaker 3: and you two have fine examples of that as well.

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Speaker 1: We've known each other for.

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Speaker 3: A long time, and I think you know, Dad's lesson

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Speaker 3: was be nice. He was a salesman, and there's not

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Speaker 3: much in a sales process that happens if you're not nice,

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Speaker 3: you know, So that was a simple thing. He wasn't

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Speaker 3: an executive wasn't you know, a business leader, He's just

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Speaker 3: very simple. Advice from his simple upbringing in his relatively

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Speaker 3: simple career was you just could be nice to people,

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Speaker 3: and that stuck with me at forever.

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Speaker 4: I would like to see you blow someone off in

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Speaker 4: the traffic though, you know, I would like you. I'd

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Speaker 4: love to see that.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure that happens.

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Speaker 4: I would love to see that.

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Speaker 3: That's why I have a Karl Stefanovic mask in the car.

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Speaker 1: Get into.

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Speaker 4: Larry, It's great to talk to you. Happy As is

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Speaker 4: a memoir of Becoming Larry, available in all Good bookstores. Now, Larry,

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Speaker 4: I'm to thank you.

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Speaker 3: Love you guys, thank you so much.

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Speaker 2: Nice to talk to you.

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Speaker 4: To Kylie for us