S1: From Vision Australia. This is talking vision. And now here's
S1: your host Sam Colley.
S2: Hello, everyone. It's great to be here with you. And
S2: for the next half hour we talk matters of blindness
S2: and low vision.
S3: Disability is a good topic of conversation because like it
S3: helps people relate to your material. It helps people get
S3: comfortable and understand about disability, which is great. And I
S3: really enjoy talking about the awkward stuff that happens to
S3: me because a lot of awkward stuff does happen, you know,
S3: and it's interesting to talk about it and break down
S3: those barriers. But yeah, I'm really enjoying shining a light
S3: on disability.
S2: Welcome to the program. It's Melbourne International Comedy Festival time,
S2: which means for the second year running I'm chatting with
S2: Jeremy Moses, legally blind slam poet and comedian who's back
S2: in 2025 with his show 157 Years of Bad Slam Poetry.
S2: I'm catching up with Jeremy for a majority of the
S2: program this week, but you'll also hear a sneak peek
S2: of an upcoming podcast. The Career Path, which will be
S2: launching in May. This week, we're featuring professor Nick Titov
S2: from Mindspot having a chat about self-care and mindfulness for
S2: job seekers and employees who are blind or have low vision.
S2: I hope you'll enjoy this week's episode of Talking Vision.
S2: Last year, we caught up with legally blind comedian and
S2: slam poet Jeremy Moses, who brought his talents to the
S2: Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2024. Well, he's back again
S2: in 2025, bringing 157 years of bad slam poetry. His
S2: successful show from last year back to the comedy festival
S2: with a bunch of new improvements. And it's my great
S2: pleasure to welcome Jeremy back 12 months later to see
S2: what he's been up to, and find out what's in
S2: store for audience members in 2025. Jeremy, welcome back to
S2: Talking Vision. Great to have you.
S3: Hello, Sam. Thank you so much for having me back.
S2: Now, Jeremy, it's a very exciting time of year. You've
S2: brought a solo show to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival
S2: last year, and it's making a return this year. So
S2: tell us a little bit about the show and what's
S2: in store for people if they head along.
S3: Yeah, well, last year it was called 157 hours of
S3: bad slam poetry. The year before, it was called 157
S3: minutes of bad slam poetry. And that was my first
S3: show at the fringe Melbourne Fringe. But yeah, this year
S3: it's called 157 years of Bad Slam Poetry. So adding
S3: to the confusion of how long the show will be,
S3: but I promise you it'll only be 50 minutes. Yeah,
S3: it's good fun. It's an improvement on the previous shows
S3: where I talk about my disability. I'm legally blind, visually impaired,
S3: and I've got like mobility issues as well. And I
S3: talk about my family, my big weird family and the
S3: poetry that I wrote in lockdown. But I promise you,
S3: there won't be many poems and it'll only be a handful.
S3: It's just a jumping off point to talk about bigger issues.
S2: But it's a lot of fun, you know, seeing the
S2: funny side of things that are sometimes a bit awkward,
S2: a bit stressful, but you can look back on it
S2: and laugh a bit. And that does help a lot,
S2: doesn't it?
S3: It does. Yeah, it's quite therapeutic actually. And not a
S3: lot of comedians are able to talk about visual impairment.
S3: We're a minority, which is good for me for material.
S3: But disability is a good topic of conversation because like,
S3: it helps people relate to your material. It helps people
S3: get comfortable and understand about disability, which is great. And
S3: I really enjoy talking about the awkward stuff that happens
S3: to me because a lot of awkward stuff does happen,
S3: like in public. Like, I'll get into the wrong car
S3: by accident or I'll like, be mistaken for drunk on
S3: the train, you know, and it's it's interesting to talk
S3: about it and break down those barriers. Um, but yeah,
S3: I'm really enjoying shining a light on disability.
S2: And speaking of breaking down those barriers and making things accessible,
S2: it's very exciting to note that your show will be
S2: in an accessible venue again. This time it's DoubleTree by
S2: Hilton on Flinders Street, so that's fantastic to hear that
S2: you're in an accessible venue. So that's fantastic for you
S2: to cater for your low vision and your mobility. So
S2: that's fantastic that they've taken that on board, but also
S2: for the audience to get around and be able to
S2: see your show accessibly. That's a huge win.
S3: Yeah, a big part of it is having as many
S3: people involved as possible to be inclusive and accessible, and
S3: our venue has a lift, which is great. And yeah,
S3: anyone's welcome. It's fully accessible and it's a great little venue. Actually,
S3: it's 120 seats per session, which is a lot, but
S3: to get an accessible venue, you kind of do need
S3: to get a bigger space. Otherwise, the festival snaps up
S3: those venues that are accessible and independent. Comedians often get
S3: gigs with stairs, and it's kind of difficult, but I'm
S3: glad that we're in an accessible venue.
S2: Yeah, certainly. And we'll get back into further details about
S2: the show later on. But in the meantime, I'm keen
S2: to pick your brain about a few other things, like
S2: you've recently been at the Sydney Fringe and had some
S2: experiences there. Tell us a bit about that.
S3: Yeah, the last time we spoke, actually, we left the
S3: audience on a bit of a cliffhanger because I was
S3: going to the airport to get a flight to Sydney
S3: on my own for the first time, and I remember
S3: talking to you and we were discussing how hard it
S3: is as someone with a visual impairment to get around
S3: an airport and how difficult it was to try and
S3: book someone to meet me at the airport to help me,
S3: because the box that I ticked on the website didn't
S3: translate to someone. Yeah. To help.
S2: I remember that.
S3: Yeah, I did make it, actually.
S2: Oh that's fantastic.
S3: Yeah, but I did.
S2: Have excellent news.
S3: I did have to ask someone. Yes. When I was
S3: running through the terminal, like, is it that way or
S3: that way? And a lot of people had noise cancelling
S3: headphones and or pretended not to hear me, and I
S3: finally figured it out. Like, someone was nice enough to
S3: stop and and say, hey, it's that way. And then
S3: I made it with like five minutes to spare or something.
S2: Oh my.
S3: God. But it was it was harrowing. Yeah. And I
S3: made it to Sydney, and I got to spend some
S3: time with my family because I grew up there, and
S3: it was a really good experience, like my family I
S3: hadn't seen in a long time. And that's not just
S3: because of the eyesight. But yeah, I hadn't I hadn't
S3: seen them in a while and and they all came
S3: and filled up the room and, you know, they laughed
S3: and they cried and it was, it was really lovely.
S3: It was, it was great to see them and, and
S3: and I flew back in one piece, no issues there
S3: and then jumped back into the Fringe Festival in Melbourne and. Yeah.
S3: And now I'm here doing the show that I did
S3: in Sydney only, like more like, um, improved and updated.
S2: That's great to hear. It went well. I know there
S2: was a lot of trepidation. It is quite difficult for
S2: quite a few of us with, um, blindness or low vision.
S2: I know I've spoken to, um, a friend of mine
S2: who's an influencer on, um, Instagram in the blindness and
S2: low vision space. He was up and hosting the Blind
S2: Australian of the year awards in Brisbane late last year
S2: and on my birthday in fact. So it was great
S2: to celebrate my birthday by, um, carrying a live stream
S2: of that. But yeah, he's an experienced traveler and he
S2: still finds it quite difficult. So yeah, no, I totally
S2: get where you're coming from there.
S3: How do how do I get nominated for the Blind
S3: Australian of the year award?
S2: I don't know, actually. You just somebody out there is like, wow,
S2: this is really funny. This is amazing. This is the
S2: best show ever. I'm nominating you for that, and I'm
S2: sure that'll happen one day, so fingers crossed. Yeah, fingers
S2: crossed for sure. Now let's get back to your growing
S2: comfort discussing your disability on stage. I know it's not
S2: always been a super easy topic for you to talk about,
S2: and you know there's a lot to work through. I
S2: know myself I didn't really consider myself disabled fully in
S2: the sort of advocacy and thing like that until I
S2: was in my mid 20s. And, you know, it does
S2: take a while to sort of say, you know what?
S2: This is part of me. This is who I am.
S2: I've got a little bit of a responsibility to embrace
S2: that and help others in my situation who can benefit
S2: from advocacy or benefit from hearing somebody on stage saying, hey,
S2: this is me, and you have that representation that hasn't
S2: always been there.
S3: Yeah, for me, I actually came to it a bit later,
S3: even like in my in my mid 30s was when
S3: I got comfortable talking about it. And yeah, I used
S3: to make short films and and music videos and things. Um,
S3: corporate videos. And I used to kind of dislike it
S3: when people would go, oh, you're blind. And you edit videos, like,
S3: how does that work? But, um, as I got like
S3: a bit older and a bit more comfortable in my
S3: own skin, it's definitely a good thing to talk about.
S3: And it makes people understand more about disability. And the
S3: guy who stopped me at the train station and asked
S3: me if I was drunk or if I was disabled.
S3: Like the fact that I can invite him to my
S3: show and he can understand what the story is, is great.
S3: Like you can say a lot more on stage than
S3: you can just in person. It's very hard to explain
S3: to people, and nor should you have to really like.
S2: Exactly.
S3: But the stage is great. And other comedians talk about
S3: disability these days, like it's becoming more common that a
S3: comedian will talk about autism or being hearing impaired or
S3: visually impaired. And it's great. We're breaking down barriers gradually.
S3: And I think it's it's changing for the better. Yeah.
S2: This is also a really apt time for the resumption
S2: of bad slam poetry as we're heading into an election year.
S2: And there's a lot of spicy topics to cover and
S2: a lot of different bits and pieces that are going on,
S2: like touching back on that advocacy topic where we can
S2: go to governments and say, hey, this, this and this.
S2: We need these to improve. This is what we want
S2: to see from like an incoming government. Things like that.
S2: And I guess that's where this all ties in and
S2: is really sort of super relevant in 2025.
S3: Yeah, the arts are important in times of political change,
S3: and the poetry I do is quite political and quite snarky.
S3: The politicians of the day. and it's exciting coming into
S3: the election. I've got two alter egos. One of them,
S3: I wear a pink beret and stripy pants and a
S3: knit jumper and I blow. A harmonica and I tell
S3: silly poems like word slams. And the other alter ego
S3: is framed. On. Do you remember Linda Hurley? She was
S3: like the governor general of Australia. She used to do
S3: these songs at like different events where she'd play the piano,
S3: and I used. Way too many words in a certain phrase,
S3: and it was fun. So I kind of modelled it
S3: on that. Where, like, I wear like a, um, like
S3: a hat for, like, the racing carnival days.
S2: Yeah. The fascinator.
S3: Pink hat. Yeah. Fascinator. And and I play a little
S3: pink piano.
S2: Oh, my God.
S3: That's.
S2: Amazing. I love that.
S3: Sing a little song. And I actually I used I.
S3: To get the song. Like I found a recording of
S3: her playing the song, and I used the software that
S3: Peter Jackson used to separate.
S2: Oh, okay.
S3: To separate the Beatles like voice from the background noise.
S3: And I used that to separate her piano from her vocal,
S3: and then I. So now when I sing, I sing
S3: over her piano playing, which is kind of fun.
S2: That's fantastic.
S3: Yeah.
S2: So that's great, I think.
S3: So I put them up online like one minute poems
S3: and it seems to be doing well, like they're really fun.
S3: And now like, yeah, doing it on stage. But I
S3: don't do the, the little piano one on stage. And
S3: for the harmonica ones I only do a few of
S3: them on stage, but it's a fun way to kind
S3: of talk about the issues of the day. I haven't
S3: actually done one about disability, but maybe that's the next
S3: stage of it.
S2: Yeah, well, certainly. Yeah, we'll keep our eye on that
S2: and see what happens in that space would be very interesting.
S3: I find there's like a conflict between comedians and poets. Yeah.
S3: Like I went to, like, a poetry recital last night
S3: and everyone is kind of uptight. Like, you take it
S3: very seriously. And then I get up and I blow
S3: a harmonica and they're like, who's this joker? What's he doing?
S3: But actually, people are starting to warm to it. In
S3: the poetry circles, which is nice.
S2: Oh that's fantastic.
S3: It's good fun.
S2: Yeah, it is good fun. I'm Sam Coley and you're
S2: listening to Talking Vision on Vision Australia Radio. Associated stations
S2: of Reading Radio and the Community Radio Network. I hope
S2: you enjoyed part one of my conversation this week with
S2: Jeremy Moses, host of his one man comedy show. 157
S2: Years of Bad Slam Poetry. If you missed any part
S2: of this conversation today with Jeremy, or you'd love to
S2: hear it again. Talking vision is available on the Vision
S2: Australia Radio website. Simply head to VA radio.org that's VA
S2: radio all one word.org or you can find the program
S2: on the podcast app of your choice or through the
S2: Vision Australia library. And now please enjoy part two of
S2: my conversation with Jeremy. That's great that you're sort of
S2: getting up and breaking the ice a little bit and
S2: getting people to take themselves a little bit less seriously,
S2: and I think that's great for everyone. When people can
S2: sort of let their hair down a bit, have a
S2: bit of a laugh, but it's still like, obviously there's
S2: super like there's a lot of substance to it. And
S2: I think that's what is really important about this sort
S2: of thing. People might think, oh, comedy, poetry, that's, oh,
S2: that's not as serious. It's not as substantial. And obviously
S2: as you know, nothing can be further from the truth.
S2: There's a lot to be said while you know you're
S2: still having a laugh and letting people have a fun time.
S2: So I think that's a fantastic thing you're doing there.
S3: And also there's power in comedy as well, like stand
S3: up comedy. I do a lot of jokes about my
S3: disability and the different ways that things get awkward in public,
S3: and getting on and off the stage is often difficult. Um, like,
S3: the emcee has to shake my hand a little bit
S3: to help me up onto the stage, and I have
S3: fallen off a stage once in a while, but it's fine. Like,
S3: it's great to be able to get up on stage,
S3: and the more I do it, the more people seem
S3: to gravitate towards it and be nice about it. And
S3: also like because I've been doing gigs like every day,
S3: I was in the city in Flinders Street station like
S3: two nights ago and there was trackwork, but I didn't
S3: realise there was trackwork and I had to go down
S3: to the platform and take a photo of the screen
S3: to see what time my train came and it turns
S3: out it was done for the night. So I had
S3: two options. Like I could either run around the taxi
S3: rank at Flinders Street station to have a lot of
S3: cab drivers turn me down, like saying they won't take
S3: my cab, charge or get a tram and try and
S3: get the right one. Ask someone what number the tram is,
S3: or press the little button and have it read back
S3: to me in sequential order when the next tram is,
S3: in which case I miss the one that is actually
S3: at the station because I'm waiting to tell me which one. Yeah,
S3: it happens a lot like it does. Yeah, I'm learning
S3: how difficult it is to navigate with a disability when
S3: you're on your own. And also like here, like out
S3: the front, like there's no low floor trams at Vision Australia,
S3: which I think is like surprising.
S2: It is.
S3: But the train station's here and that's convenient.
S2: Yeah.
S3: Um, yeah, I'm noticing a lot more limits to accessibility
S3: in the world, and hopefully by talking about it, people
S3: will change and the government will look at it and go, hey,
S3: we should put a low floor tram. We should put
S3: more signage to tell people not to go down that
S3: escalator for no reason in the middle of the night. Like.
S2: Yeah, exactly.
S3: Hopefully it's getting better.
S2: Hopefully. And yeah, it is quite inconsistent with regards to
S2: the trams on the line that goes down Glenferrie Road.
S2: Sometimes you do get the low floor trams and then
S2: all of a sudden it's um, an old 80s tram. Yeah,
S2: that is really difficult for people.
S3: I was like on Glenferrie Road, I was on one
S3: low floor tram that said, from now on there'll be
S3: no more accessible stops. And like I was like, what
S3: do I do now then? Like I'm fine. But for
S3: people who are, you know, more disabled than I like,
S3: it must.
S2: Be.
S3: Challenging. And the other tram that I got on Glenferrie Road, yeah.
S3: Didn't have any announcements whatsoever. And so I had to
S3: kind of use my phone app to tell me where
S3: to get off. It's very inconsistent. And the tram stops
S3: aren't built the way they should be, and the trams
S3: themselves aren't upgraded to help people. Yeah, it's a little
S3: bit ridiculous and hopefully they fix it.
S2: Yeah, cos I know there's a few tram lines where,
S2: you know, they're all like, oh, we're making this really accessible.
S2: Every stop you can have a audio described layout of
S2: where your stop is and what time and blah blah blah.
S2: But that's only one line. And they haven't at this
S2: point haven't extended that out to other lines. But we'll
S2: see what happens in the future. Yeah.
S3: That's you have to get off one bus to get
S3: one tram and you have to cross a road.
S2: And yeah.
S3: The lines don't intersect with each other. Yeah, it's very complicated.
S2: It is very complicated. But what's not complicated are the
S2: details around your show. 157 years of bad slam poetry.
S2: Let's get the details for people out there. If they'd
S2: love to head along.
S3: Yeah. March 26th to March 30th at the DoubleTree by Hilton.
S3: It's opposite Flinders Street station. So that's an accessible venue
S3: and it's near public transport, which is great. Yeah. 26th
S3: to the 30th of March. DoubleTree by Hilton. You're all
S3: more than welcome to come. It starts at 7:40 p.m..
S3: My name is Jeremy Moses, and if you want to
S3: come along, go to comedy festival. Com.au and type in
S3: Jeremy Moses and it'll come up. Or you could call 92453788.
S3: And that's the phone box office. And you can get
S3: tickets through that.
S2: Perfect. Well, I've been speaking today with Jeremy Moses, host
S2: of the comedy poetry slam extravaganza 157 Years of Bad
S2: Slam Poetry, playing at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival this
S2: year from March 26th to March 30th, in Melbourne. Jeremy,
S2: thank you so much for your time today. Great to
S2: catch up with you again and hear about what you've
S2: been up to.
S3: Oh thank you Sam. Thank you so much. And before
S3: I go, do you want to hear a poem? Do
S3: you want me to do a poem for you?
S2: Please do.
S3: I can.
S2: Yes.
S3: I brought my harmonica. Ah, so this is the first
S3: poem I ever did in lockdown. And feel free to
S3: cut this if it's no good.
S2: No, we'll love it. It'll be great.
S3: Locked down, locked out. My city is bare. Blocked. Frowning. Stuck.
S3: SAT on my chair while Gladys aims a Glock at
S3: my fat derriere. Drowning in doubt, gasping for air. Stay strong,
S3: stay safe, stay home. Take care. Take stock when we
S3: are free. There will be nothing there but shock. Huh?
S2: We're keeping that.
S3: Thank you so much.
S2: Today I'm excited to bring you a small clip of
S2: my interview with professor Nick Titov, Executive Director at Mindspot.
S2: As part of an upcoming podcast series, The Career Path,
S2: kicking off in May, this will be the second season
S2: of the Career Path podcast, enabling people who are blind
S2: or have low vision to feel confident, capable and ready
S2: to tackle anything that comes at them in their careers.
S2: This week we're talking about mindfulness and self-care with Nick.
S2: So with all of that in mind, let's chat with
S2: Nick right now. Emotional intelligence plays a vital role in
S2: navigating the job search process, and self-care is key to
S2: nurturing it. So how can understanding the Big Five behavior model,
S2: combined with self-care strategies, help people with vision loss to
S2: improve their emotional well-being and workplace relationships? But just before
S2: we do that, I also might get you to quickly
S2: give a bit of an overview of the Big Five
S2: model and what that entails.
S4: Okay. Thank you. So, so just very briefly, we have
S4: been for quite a number of years looking at trying
S4: to identify out of all the things people can do,
S4: what are the most important things for their mental health.
S4: And what we've done is run quite a number of
S4: trials in recent years. Clinical trials and projects with a
S4: total of about 26,000 Australians so far. And that number
S4: is increasing pretty much every day. But what we found
S4: is that there are five key groups of activities which
S4: are really strongly linked to mental health. And basically the
S4: more people do these activities, the more likely they are
S4: to have good mental health. Now, they're not a panacea.
S4: They won't cure all mental health ills. But what we
S4: do know is that if people do them regularly, they're
S4: really likely to be able to stay grounded. And they're
S4: quite simple. They're a nice way. If you like to
S4: practice self-care. The big five include doing meaningful activities, things
S4: we love and enjoy, regularly practicing healthy thinking, which is
S4: about staying grounded and calm and keeping perspective even in
S4: challenging situations. Having goals and plans. That is things to
S4: look forward to. Having healthy routines such as getting regular exercise,
S4: making sure you go to bed and get up at
S4: a reasonable time every day, and having social connections that
S4: is staying connected with people you love. Now you can see, Sam,
S4: that these five groups of actions, meaningful activities, healthy thinking,
S4: goals and plans, healthy routines and social connections are really
S4: a really simple self-care model. And we know that when
S4: people are going through difficult times, these are the kinds
S4: of actions which people do less of. When people are
S4: unwell or when they're under pressure, they often stop doing
S4: things such as the things they love to do, the
S4: meaningful activities, their healthy routines may fall over. They may
S4: not connect with others. So in the context of of
S4: searching for jobs or while you're in employment, the big five,
S4: we've found, is a really simple framework for people to
S4: just check in with themselves. Are they doing enough of
S4: these things every week to keep themselves going? You don't
S4: have to do these things every day, but if you
S4: can do them at least half the days of the week,
S4: then our data from a very large number of people
S4: shows that these are the things which can help you
S4: stay resilient, which has enormous implications for our ability to
S4: function at work, including our workplace relationships.
S2: And a lot of it does sound very sensible, very actionable.
S2: A lot of those things people no doubt nodding their heads,
S2: listening along, thinking, hey, I could do that. That sounds
S2: really fantastic, really easy. And, you know, there's so many
S2: great little things, little simple things every day that, you know,
S2: people can get involved with and, you know, improve their
S2: health and wellbeing. So it's a fantastic thing to jump
S2: into and have a go. Nick, thank you again for
S2: your time today. It's been an absolute pleasure to catch
S2: up with you and chat all about self-care on this
S2: episode of The Career path.
S4: Sam, thank you very much.
S2: And that's all the time we have for today. You've
S2: been listening to Talking Vision. Talking vision is a Vision
S2: Australia radio production. Thanks to all involved with putting the
S2: show together every week. And remember, we love hearing from you.
S2: So please get in touch any time on our email
S2: at Talking Vision. At Vision australia.org. That's talking vision all
S2: one word at Vision australia.org. But until next week it's
S2: Sam Coley saying bye for now.
S1: You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us anytime during
S1: business hours on 1300 847 406. That's 1300 847 406 or by visiting Vision australia.org.
S1: That's Vision australia.org.