The Laughter Clinic
The Laughter Clinic Podcast brings a refreshingly different approach to mental health education. Your host Mark McConville, is an Australian professional Comedian of 25+ years who also has a Masters Degree In Suicidology from Griffith University. Mark delivers you evidence-based self-care strategies, curated research insights, and meaningful conversations that inspire, educate and entertain.
The Laughter Clinic
Chatting with comedian and radio personality Stav Davidson. Celebrating 20yrs on air and the Importance of Authenticity and Mindfulness.
This week I catch up with B105 breakfast radio host Stav Davidson. We chat about how he has built a 20‑year career on honesty, quick wit, and mindfulness, and why laughter still works as medicine when the world feels heavy. Stav provides a masterclass in being yourself on air and how that has contributed to his longevity. Stories range from an honorary Knighthood, skydiving cash storms to interviews gone sideways and the quiet wins that have meant the most.
• positive mindset as a resilience tool
• why authenticity matters
• spontaneous radio vs rigid scripting
• boundaries, innuendo, and self‑editing
• stunts, ethics, and the shift from shock to service
• celebrity access then vs now and why it has changed
• routines, and sustainable creativity
• ratings pressure, mindfulness, and staying present
• gratitude, and the joy of jokes
To follow Stav head to his Instgram: @stavb105
If you enjoyed the episode, please share and subscribe
Website: www.thelaughterclinic.com.au
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thelaughterclinicAus
"If you or someone you know needs support, please contact one of these Australian mental health services. In an emergency, always call 000."
Lifeline Australia
Phone: 13 11 14 (24/7)
Web: lifeline.org.au
Suicide Call Back Service
Phone: 1300 659 467 (24/7)
Web: suicidecallbackservice.org.au
Beyond Blue
Phone: 1300 22 4636 (24/7)
Web: beyondblue.org.au
Kids Helpline (for people aged 5-25)
Phone: 1800 55 1800 (24/7)
Web: kidshelpline.com.au
MensLine Australia
Phone: 1300 78 99 78 (24/7)
Web: mensline.org.au
SANE Australia (complex mental health issues)
Phone: 1800 18 7263
Web: sane.org
QLife (LGBTIQ+ support)
Phone: 1800 184 527
Web: qlife.org.au
Open Arms (Veterans & Families Counselling)
Phone: 1800 011 046 (24/7)
Web: openarms.gov.au
1800RESPECT (sexual assault, domestic violence)
Phone: 1800 737 732 (24/7)
Web: 1800respect.org.au
Headspace (youth mental health, ages 12-25)
Phone: 1800 650 890
Web: headspace.org.au
13YARN (Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander crisis support)
Phone: 13 92 76 (13YARN) (24/7)
Web: 13yarn.org.au
Music by Hayden Smith
https://www.haydensmith.com
Welcome to the Laughter Clinic Podcast with comedian and suicideologist Mark McConville. Bringing you practical, evidence-based self-care strategies, the latest research in mental health, along with conversations that inspire, educate, and entertain. This is the Laughter Clinic Podcast with your host, Mark McConville.
SPEAKER_02:Staff Davidson, welcome to the Laughter Clinic Podcast. I'm so excited to have you on here, Mike. Thank you so much for being here.
SPEAKER_05:Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_02:Now we've been friends for a long time. A long time, and so we've got a lot I want to chat about today. But first things first, with all of our guests, we uh dive into the saying laughter is the best medicine. Yes. Now, this is a saying that's been around for over 3,000 years, and now we have modern day research supporting the health, the physical benefits of laughing and the psychological benefits of using your sense of humor as a coping mechanism to help build resilience. So when you hear the term laughter is the best medicine, what does that conjure up for you?
SPEAKER_05:I think it goes uh deeper than than laughter. I think what it does say is a positive mindset is better than any medicine. Like if you get told you're gonna have cancer, you've got two ways to go. You can go, I'm gonna beat it, or or I've got cancer and I'm gonna die.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:There is a middle ground, but I think each one of those is a pathway. You might still die if you say that I'm gonna I'm gonna fight it, but I think if you go in negatively, you'll get a negative outcome. If you go in positively, more likely you'll get a positive outcome, but you might not necessarily, if that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well, the the example of that is the first ever guest I had on here. I'm not too sure if you know of the guy Craig Kurb. Oh, you'd know Craig Coombs your cat, right?
SPEAKER_05:He's got uh my name tattooed on his shoulder.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, of course, right? What a thing that I've got to tell you that spun me out when he said, Can you send me your signature? Yeah. And so here's a guy that got the diagnosis of terminal cancer, 18 months to live back in 2012. And he will not die. No. And on that very day, he's he's said, I'm gonna make the rest of my life the best of my life. You know, which is exactly what you're talking about, that positive m mindset.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And and here he is 25th, 2025. Yep.
SPEAKER_05:Still kicking on. People are starting to ask questions.
SPEAKER_02:I want to have a chat to your doctor. Do we have a Roxy Jasenko situation going on here? I want a second opinion. I want a second opinion. I'm gonna be in Melbourne next week, I'll go to his birthday. It's gonna be so cool. You mean like surprised?
SPEAKER_05:No, who's more surprised? Because when I let him tattoo my name on his shoulder, I didn't know it was gonna be this permanent. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It's very weird when someone sends you a an email and says, Do you can you send me your signature? Yeah, yeah. Because I want to tattoo it on the room.
SPEAKER_05:Well, I I I went to because Kat was more friends with him than I was, I'll be honest. He knew me through couch time. Right. He said that show used to get him through his um treatments. So I signed it in the flesh on him, and then he went over my actual signature in the on the on the tattoo. Yeah. Yeah, well. Yeah. It's a weird thing that. Yeah, it is a weird thing.
SPEAKER_02:It's very cool though. Like of all the things that we get to do, that is that is a pretty cool thing. Yeah. You know, to know that you've had that much of an impact on someone that they want to do that. And and m mate, what a career that you've had. Congratulations on just recently ticking over 20 years of Breakfast Radio.
SPEAKER_05:What an incredible achievement. Thank you very much. It's been yes, yeah. I wouldn't have believed you if you told me when I started that I'd be here in 20 years' time. And it's one of the very few that have stayed at the like that's 20 years, a lot of people spent 20 years in radio, not a lot of people spend 20 years at the same station. I'm a one station guy.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. It's amazing. And ironically, we're taping this on the day that uh someone else who had celebrated 20 years in the industry is left today. At your station? No, not at mine. Ash Bradnam wrapped up. He started the same year as I did.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, really? Yeah. Okay. And so how where do you sit in the long-term radio host in Australia?
SPEAKER_05:Few people have got me. I don't look at Australia. I want to beat Mardo on Triple M. Okay, yeah. And he's at about 24 and uh he will not die. And yeah, Ash, Kip and Lutze, we all started the same year.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:But they had a year and a half or so break where they uh got ousted and they went to Michelle Laurie. So I'm up there. Laurel Edwards is probably the most. She was at the same network for I think 25 years, maybe even 30. Laurel Edwards. Laurel Edwards, lovely lady.
SPEAKER_02:I remember listening to Laurel when I was an apprentice back in the late 80s on what was it, 4K Q or something?
SPEAKER_05:That's where she always was, yeah. Yeah, and I have people come up to me going, uh, I've listened to you since I was in high school or since I was in primary school, and they're doctors. Wow. It's crazy. That is nuts. It's it's insane.
SPEAKER_02:And so has there been uh obviously you've grown an incredible lot over the last 20 years. Is there something that you've learnt about yourself over that 20 years?
SPEAKER_05:I mean, it's hard. Thinking about obviously I have been doing a little bit more reflection than I would have because we did choose to celebrate my 20th work. I probably would have let it go without saying anything, but we threw a party. And so much, that it's almost too much. If I met the person who walked in that door 20 years ago, that's a completely different kid, you know. So I mean, I've had a baby, I've been well, I just recently got married, so I've never been married for 20 years. I'm a completely different person, and a lot of that is due to the job.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So why is it that you th you thought you would just let it sli slip through to the keeper that you you're not a celebration, you wouldn't celebrate that milestone?
SPEAKER_05:No, I don't like celebrating. I don't do birthdays, I don't do any of that sort of thing. It's partially it's sound, I mean it felt jinxy. Really? Not gonna lie. And even the way they were doing it, because it was a celebration of the 20 years, you kept they kept on stopping themselves going, oh you're not leaving, we're just celebrating that you're still here. But it does sound like you're wrapping up. And I think also if you point it out to people, I don't know, does that give them pause to go, he's been doing it for 20 years, should probably get someone new, you know? I don't know. But I and I'm more like, uh, yep, fine, thank you, move on. Like, I don't the hardest thing in this world is to not celebrate your birthday because everybody wants to celebrate your birthday and and thinks that you should. Yeah. And I just my my best birthday would be no one even mentioning that it was. Really? Wow. You haven't done anything.
SPEAKER_02:Well, yeah, no, I've never done it. Survived another 12 months, you know. I know one of my brothers recently turned 50 and he didn't want to celebrate it at all. And that's a tough one to get away with. It is, right? And the family was there was no way we were not celebrating it. And I've C D C C though. No, no, yeah, I know exactly. You see, here's the thing is when my when my mum was sick before, you know, dying before in the 12 months or probably two couple of years before she passed away, she would constantly say, Don't get old, it sucks. It sucks getting old, right? And and I'd I remember seeing this written somewhere at the time, and I thought, how poignant. And it's like, never complain about getting old because it's not a luxury afforded to everybody.
SPEAKER_05:That's true.
SPEAKER_02:No, get getting old is a gift, you know, it is a gift, and you know, for someone like I'm 55, I've been to way too many funerals for a guy my age, you know, and so celebrated it, embraced her to go getting old, my friend, is where I'm going with that.
SPEAKER_05:Okay. I know they found out it was my 40th, and they found out at work. Kat was my wife, she does a lot of cruises, as you know, and she was gonna be away on a cruise for my 40th birthday, and I was fine with that. And they found out at work, I think they just asked me, and I said in passing, what are you doing on your 40th? I said, Oh, nothing, cat's away, I'm just gonna spend the night at home. I believe she fed Rory off to the grandparents who's gonna be by myself. And they just could not wrap their head around that. They wouldn't, they were like, You can't be alone on your birthday. Found out they were organizing a surprise party for me, and I found out and uh didn't go and spent spent my 40. You didn't go. No, they said, What do you I said what do you want to do for your birthday? I said, I want to sit on my back deck and get take some drugs and listen to Radiohead. And they had a party for me, and I stood on my back deck and listened to Radiohead and took drugs, and it was a bit great, greatly great. Well, that's it, because it is all about you and what you want to do, right? Yes, people flew in. I didn't see them. People flew in.
SPEAKER_02:Where the hell is he? Did you at least FaceTime them or something? I didn't want the party in the first place. No.
SPEAKER_05:I didn't FaceTime them. No. I'm still in trouble for that.
SPEAKER_02:Really? Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:So my 50th is coming up, and I don't know how I'm gonna get it. I might have to fake my own death. You're just gonna leave the country. Yeah, I might have to. Tell everybody I'm gonna be in Guam.
SPEAKER_02:They'd find me.
SPEAKER_03:Jesus. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Now, talking about celebrations and milestones, on the actual day of your 20-year anniversary, the Lord Mayor of Brisbane shows up. Now, to my knowledge, you had no idea this was gonna happen. No, I did not. No.
SPEAKER_05:And he what does he do? What does he give you? He united me the night of the inaugural reserve, which is a swimming hole about two minutes away from my house. Which that was pretty cool. I was pretty chuffed. He gave me a little plaque and everything, and yeah, that was that was pretty that was pretty special. Yeah. Honorary.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, of course, right? And so has that made you quite painful around the house and around the workplace?
SPEAKER_05:No, no more than usual. No, I mean I and again, that sort of thing. I think that that chuffed me more than I probably even let on it at the time. But no, that's that's just something for me to have uh after all this wraps up. You know, there's a few little trinkets I've got at home where I can look at and go, that happened. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um because after you forget too, and it all merges into well, 20 years is a long time doing like you know, we talk about so much in workplace, you know, I do a lot of employee wellness stuff, and the thought the modern day thought of having a career for life is really good. It's gonna die out the window, you know, like people who have so many different jobs and all this sort of stuff. So to be doing anything for 20 years now is is an achievement, yeah. And you especially doing your gig, you know what I mean? And I love the fact that on the because I did zoom in on the plaque that he gave you, right? Because I'm like, what does it actually say there? For 20 years of service to the city of Brisbane. Hey? Yeah. And I looked at that and I went it made me kind of do a bit of a reflection on the stuff that you've done over the last 20 years. Obviously, I didn't cover all of it because it's so much. Not all of it could, you know. But you've been such an open book with the with the Brisbane public over this last 20 years. Was that something that kind of developed over the years, or like did you go into that gig right at the start and go, I'm just gonna be myself and I'm just gonna let everybody you know, let everybody in.
SPEAKER_05:I think yes, i short. The other thing is eventually if you've got the right team, and I do now and I have had in various incarnations, you you kind of you forget that everyone's listening. So you're only talking to those two people who you've who who you've you know and love, you know, so you become more honest with that. I'm constantly uh surprised. People come up to me and they start saying stuff that's very personal stuff about my my daughter and and and things just from listening. And you you drop these things casually without realizing that it is that that doorway in into into your actual personal life. But I think that very early on, I re I I was very lucky in that I I did say I'm just gonna be me. I've seen so many people go, they hire people because of who they are, and then they try to change them to who they need them to be for the radio. The producers like Camilla was very much a a a a tragedy of that where they were like, Oh, she's this hot young girl off Big Brother, we're gonna make her the socialite of Brisbane. She goes out every night, she, you know, she's the carrie from Sex in the City, and it just wasn't her. And then what it is is that then when you're out and about, not at work, just doing the shopping, you have to be that person when people come up to you. Yeah. You know, you can't be yourself. Whereas I've always just been the geeky guy who likes Star Wars and superheroes and stuff, so when they meet me, I don't have to put anything, anything on, you know. But I've seen so many people, and it doesn't even have to be that much of a twist of a personality, but twist their personalities to what the radio station says that they need to be into. Yeah. And then that's what you have to you actually you become that person in real life because everyone thinks that's what you're like. You know, it's that's a tricky one.
SPEAKER_02:And is that something that the producer like when like say uh well when you first started, I'm assuming you're on like a probationary period, Breakfast Radio, like did they say we'll give you twelve months and see how it all flies?
SPEAKER_05:Is that kind of how it works? Yeah, that we uh well I can only tell you what I signed for. I signed for twelve months. Yeah. And I'm assuming everyone else did because they let them go at the end of that twelve months.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Right, okay.
SPEAKER_05:So I assume. And then sometimes it can be two years, sometimes it can be three, sometimes it can be one. But uh yeah, it it generally generally it's no less that it's never any less than a year contract.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. And so at the end of that initial twelve months, they would obviously like, whatever you're doing, keep doing it.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. Yeah. Well, general rule of thumb is if they haven't started talking to you by September, pack your bags.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:So but they'll they'll just start noodling around. Oh, we're having to think about next year, so you might want to think about what you what what you want. And if they haven't started that, then you're probably not coming back.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_05:Wow. Sounds ruthless. Uh look, I mean, I I held it I held it too tight for a long time. How do you mean of my oh I I could lose this job, like this is ruthless and and I need to do whatever they tell me to do in order to keep this job.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:And then one morning, it's probably about four, maybe four years in, it suddenly dawned on me that before I did this, I ran a coffee shop. And when I realized that I could have been fired from that coffee shop job at any day. Yeah. Anyone can be fired from any job at any given time.
SPEAKER_02:Pretty much, yeah.
SPEAKER_05:So I'm no different to anybody else. And then I went, well then fuck it. You know, yeah. It it's it's there's no point just trying to keep it for the sake of it. You may as well enjoy it as well. Yeah. And then when once the pressure was off, it was just like, fine. Yeah, I don't know what I'd do if I lost this job, but you know.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. It's interesting what you're saying about the uh sometimes you lose track of the fact that people so many people are listening, you know. And for me, like I I you know, I'm a stage comedian and yet you're still a comedian because on a daily basis you're uh bringing the joy and making people laugh and all this sort of stuff. And do you sometimes feel like you've and I'm sorry if this feels seems like an ignorant question because I know nothing about doing breakfast radio. Does it feel like sometimes you've got two separate audiences, one immediately in the studio, and then one that you're conscious of, someone sitting in their car at work, not really getting the kids ready.
SPEAKER_05:I'm actually never conscious of that audience. Really? No. Okay. More so maybe because I did stand up and if there's not an audience there right in front of you, then there isn't an audience. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah. Uh so I've never I never walk in going, oh, we've got 400,000 people. Listen, better not stuff up. I think of the three people there, sometimes the people in the phone room, because I can see them, and I do generally have like for lack of a better term, the two I work with are let's say I'll wean it down to a uh a subject. They're they're pop culture morons.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_05:Right. So I will say something quite off the cuff, a little sly Simpsons reference, for an example. Yeah. For a little long for a few years there, I I worked a Simpsons reference into every show that I did.
SPEAKER_02:And then yeah, and I'd have like screen. You could get away with trying to work in a family guy reference. Would that be pushing the envelope eventually? You have to pick the references. Yeah. Definitely be picking the episodes. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. And and I would slyly just look over at my the one person I know outside of the studio who knows what I'm doing. Most of my sound guys have come up to me going, I know what you're doing. And I appreciate it. And I'm like, Thank you. And I'm not doing it for those two. I'm doing it for the broader public of people that, and one time so much so one of my PDs, uh who's like your boss, yeah. He comes over and goes, Stab, love all the sly little references you're doing there. But you might want to just, you know, when you drop a reference, just like say where it's from. And I'm like, no, so you'd go like uh stay classy San San Francisco, and you go, that's from Anchorman. I'm not I'm not doing that. The point of the reference is you either get the reference or it's not for you. Yeah, so no, I didn't do that. But I I do I do the show for me, I drop in little things that I find amusing, and then other people who know what I'm talking about also love that sort of stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And it and it s seems so off the cuff, right? And I know that you know, when you're doing stand-up, it's we're saying something that we may have said a thousand times before, but we're making it seem like we've just come up with it on the spot. How much do you keep in reserve to yourself so as that way the people in the room are hearing it for the first time?
SPEAKER_05:The people in the room are 100% always hearing it for the first time.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Because you want that that reaction.
SPEAKER_05:Well, I don't I don't write anything. We don't write anything. Oh, really? Okay. Apart from your sketches or your parody songs or or whatnot. Everything else is at the moment. Yeah. Which is what probably why I like it so much. We were talking I was doing a rave about um there's a a fashion label that's only using the wool from gay sheep. From what? The gay the rul the wool from gay sheep. You said gay sheep. How are they gay sheep? Uh they put rams in a a pen with rams and girl rams sheep. And the ones that only fraternize with the uh ma male rams, the rams, considered homosexual. And normally they would get slaughtered because they hinder the breeding process, but this company takes them and uses their wool to make things. And I said, and and during the conversation, weird world do we live in, I'm gonna tell you that. Apparently they use uh they use the merinos. And then this came to be at the top, and it's funny, I love this joke so much, and it just happened at the time where I said um they make tops and bottoms, but mainly tops. The other two didn't even respond, but I know someone in their car is doing that, you know. Unfortunately, mainly tops. Really annoys the bottoms.
SPEAKER_02:But it must be, you know, you must have when people coming up to you, like you said, you know, you're at the shops or whatever, you know. It must be pretty rewarding when someone references something that you you said off the car for, you know, like you know, in three weeks' time you're at a Sunday morning market somewhere, and someone comes up to you and goes, What you said the other day about the rebs and the sheet was pretty funny, mate.
SPEAKER_05:And these days, more so too, you'll you'll get instantly on Instagram messages or Facebook going, Saw what you did there, champ. Okay, thanks, thanks, Rob from Logan. Yeah, but it is, it's the fun of it. And then there is that thing of what you I do write though, I do write like sketches and and and and things, and that for me, like I don't think breakfast radio it's it's seen as a subpar career for for most people in the entertainment industry. You know, if you're a oh, you're a breakfast radio host. Really? Yes, I've had multiple comedians tell me that I'm not a comedian anymore because I don't do stand-up.
SPEAKER_02:But you're still being paid to make people laugh.
SPEAKER_05:I'm still I I write more material than the people that have said that to me do in a in a year. The the amount of material that I would put together would be the equivalent of two stand-up shows. Easy. And but it but it's gone. As soon as you say it's gone, you never get it back. You know, but you are just material, material, material. Yeah, so it's interesting.
SPEAKER_02:On a daily basis.
SPEAKER_05:On a daily basis, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It's incredible. Like the workload to me just seems inconceivable in in relation to that. And so you're saying 400,000 on average, people listening in the morning?
SPEAKER_05:It's a stab in the duck, but yeah, it'd be around that, yeah. Wow. At any given time.
SPEAKER_02:And it's very much a two-way meeting, you know, you've got people calling in and all this sort of stuff. And you know, it always amazes me how cool it must be to be in a position to give away other people's money.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, that's fantastic.
SPEAKER_02:That's gotta be the best. Yeah, it's gotta be one of the perks of the job, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_05:Aside from the fact of you're not allowed to enter into these competitions because you, you know, that would be obviously a bit dodgy. Yeah. But yeah, no, and it we we've we've changed multiple people's lives over the course of my career. We've given away houses, given away. Really? Yeah, paid your bills for a year, all that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my god.
SPEAKER_05:Even like these days, especially, they if five hundred bucks is a much bigger prize than it used to be. Yeah. If it like people will break down crime because we give them five because they were we weren't gonna be able to pay the rent this week, you know. So That's incredible. Yeah, it's good.
SPEAKER_02:So that kind of leads me into this whole idea of you know, when we're doing stand-up shows live, you know, someone might come up to you after a gig and go, you know, I really had a shit day and I really needed that tonight and all that sort of stuff. Having people calling up, aside from the ones that win prizes and all that sort of stuff, there's still much it what comes to mind to me is COVID. Right. Right, okay, because here we are day after day the news is shit, right? Which it is a lot of the time now, anyway, right? And yet here you guys are, you and your team showing up every morning, you know, being entertaining, being jovial, making, you know, people's lives a little bit more joyful at the start of their day. Two aspects of this. One is people calling in saying, you must have had people calling in going, You've got no idea how much I really enjoy this over the years and what it's meant to them and what they've been going through. And and it must be quite rewarding personally for you to know that you've had this impact on people's lives.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, I'm I've had at least twice in my career I've had people say that they I've stopped them from killing themselves.
SPEAKER_02:Really?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. That day.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my god, Steve.
SPEAKER_05:Which is lovely. Obviously, I don't hear from the ones where I didn't stop them. But uh just and it's it's just that one thing that you say that you don't even think about. You know, it's a because you are you're you're you're spewing so much verbal stuff that it's not like you're there going, I've got something really profound that's gonna help someone out today, but you'll just say something to that to you is nothing, but it catches onto them and they go, He knows what I'm going through, he knows what's happening to me. If he can go through that and be where he is, then I don't need to do this right now. And that's happened, yeah, a few times I've had the people either their their parents or them have called year later saying I was at this dark place, I heard you on the radio, and I decided to not do it, which is fantastic.
SPEAKER_02:Well probably comes back to the fact that you're such an open book, you know, and that's what people are relating to, that realness, you know. Yeah, and it's one of those things that I'm constantly saying to comedians, you never know who's in your audience and what they're going through. You know? Like people just rock up to a comedy show or they turn on the radio that morning and you know, they know that their life's gonna change for the worse in some way today. They're in the middle of a divorce or they've just lost their job or they're having to get kicked out of their house and bang, there you are. Yeah, you know, bringing them joy.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. Yeah, I actually uh I had twice once once once it was pointed out to me, and it was by my mother actually, because Greg Sullivan, who we know is stand-up comedian, great stand-up comedian, Sully. He was on the breakfast show on Triple M for many, many years. Yeah. And my my mum started listening when I was on, and she would flick between the two, and she was like, she couldn't listen to Greg because on Monday morning they would get in and be like, uh, it's Monday, and she'd be like, Shut the fuck up, you people. I'm driving to a work, a job I don't want to go to. You're doing a job that I would love to do, and you're complaining about it. Yeah. And I I just got in trouble with my my team. We were out, we went down to Sydney for a photo shoot, and they were out and we were all having a few drinks afterwards, and everyone was like, Oh, it's bedtime, oh, we have to get set our alarm and stuff. And I was like, Yeah, yeah, we have to set our alarms. Don't you wake up like going, yeah, we get to go to work. And they were both like, no, we wake up and we have to go again. I was like, Well, then don't. Don't don't do that then. Don't, don't. It is a privilege. Oh, absolutely. I mean, it's a privilege I get paid very much to do, but it's still a privilege to do it. And I I would never I would never complain about being at work. Yeah, you know, when when the next thing, maybe I'm talking about the Kardashians, but the next thing I'm doing the next day is meeting Matt Damon, you know, shut the hell up.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, I've actually done, you know, the other I've had a few comedians on so far, as you know, the podcast is only new, and everyone says the same thing. It is a privilege. Yeah. It is a privilege to get to do what we do. And and the interesting thing is that a lot of us, you know, I say to people I've said, I've had real jobs and fuck at this eight, why do we have to do it? No, no. You know, yeah. Like you stand in a factory welding in 35 degree heat wear and overalls in summer in Queensland.
SPEAKER_05:Yep. And the stuff that they are worried about is just not stuff to be worried about at all. Uh and you're right, yes. And and I think a lot of there's a there's a there's a small group of of radio people that have only ever done radio.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_05:And they're weird.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_05:But people that have had real jobs and then come into it, like the people that are all radio people, I've seen I've seen people leave and go, oh, that was why did I think like that? They think that they think of radio in a completely different way. Like for we we'd get in trouble if we aired a an interview and then went to a song and came back and went to another interview. Our boss would come and go, You play two interviews back to back. You can't do that. And like, yeah, I have so many times been listening to a radio show and gone, they just talked to Jerry Seinfeld, now they're talking to Meryl Streep, that's ridiculous, I'm changing the channel. But they do think that we can't have an interview, an interview has to be an interview. Used to be worse. It would be like have to be an interview, then we have to have Abby talking about something relatable, then we have something about what's happening on the weekend. Then it's Stav's turn, he talks about something in his wheelhouse, so it's about superheroes and stuff, then we come back, can't have too many superheroes, so then we'll come back with an Abbey rave that's a bit more about kids and the family and stuff. And they would go through So structured. So structured. Yeah. And then at the end of that, when they we'd structured it, they go, now it make it sound like you're just on the back deck having a dinner party.
SPEAKER_01:Right. The illusion. Yeah, exactly. The illusion.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. But but and uh we do get a lot of people saying, How long does it take you to write the show? And you're like, we don't, we just get up and we just talk. Uh and we do with some radio stations, I know for a fact Nova get in at six o'clock. Like their breakfast show gets in and walks straight into the studio and turns the mics on.
SPEAKER_02:There's no no uh no planning or how l well how how long are you in there before before you actually get on air?
SPEAKER_05:I get in at I get in earlier than everybody else. I get in at four.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:And my producers are normally in there, and then the others will sort of straggle in, and then we have a meeting at five. Yeah. Quarter past five until six. So with the where we go through the news and what's happened during the course of the evening and and stuff and what we want to talk about. And we put in so I'll get in every day and go, I've got a rave if you need one. And they'll put that in at like seven twenty. I don't tell them what it's about.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Abby will go, I've got a rave. Maybe I went to a sports thing yesterday. But we don't go, this is what happened, this is what happened, this is what happened. We just go, I've got a rave, I can talk about something that happened, and we'll put it in.
SPEAKER_02:So in that meeting where you're being made aware of, you know, whatever the news or the you know that is happening on the day or internationally, locally, that sort of stuff. Is there a balancing act between this is something that I've always been curious about? The worst the news is that they're going to be talking about on the hour, does that kind of put more pressure on you to be lighthearted either side of it to try and yes, to a point.
SPEAKER_05:I mean, that like yes, we don't do we uh we don't do sad things on Friday.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_05:We we'd say, like, oh, that's a great story, but doesn't have a Friday feel.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_05:And we are that's not why people come to us either. So we will we we will let our news do a lot of the heavy lifting on that sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Because you're not coming to us to hear our views on the Chinese department fire and how many people have just died. Yeah. Sometimes they are big enough that you do have to cover it. Yeah. But generally they want an escape from all that from us. So yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And so coming out of the meeting first thing in the morning, is there something that you, you know, have you got little stab rituals either before you leave home or before you just go on air to kind of help you get in the zone, you know? I've got to have my third cup of coffee before I start, or I've got to, you know. Yeah. Are you like a side fill where you've got a little superbed sitting on your desk?
SPEAKER_05:You know, like yes, I am. I I think uh if you looked at my morning, it is very groundhog day. And I don't know if that's what I need, but yes, it's it's very I wake up at quarter to four. I've already packed all my stuff, and I'm in the car at five to four.
SPEAKER_02:So you're going to bed at what time?
SPEAKER_05:8 30. Right.
SPEAKER_02:Did that take a bit of getting used to?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, that's that's the hard part. Okay, you you don't that's the sacrifice that you make. I don't go out during the week, yeah, don't have dinner parties, don't you know, go see a movie at night. That's that's what you really have to give up. And I've seen people not, and you just you you wouldn't have lasted twelve uh twenty years. You'd you'd you burn out. Yeah, right. Um I tried to still do stand-up, but and was doing that until we had our daughter, but that was tough. But then it would be me and Kat being out Thursday, Friday, Saturday night, needing a babysitter all those times. So I was like, I'll stop doing it, I'll do the mornings, you do the nights, and that sort of works out. But you need you need to, yeah, that's that's a hard part. And now that I've got a teenage daughter and I go to bed before her, that hurts too. Um But things things that have helped with that is like it used to be like Game of Thrones was on at 9 30 on a Wednesday, right? Yeah. And I would have to watch, I'd have to record it, watch it the next day.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:And now there is no structure to television. I can watch Breaking Bad at midday on a Thursday if I want. I can, you know, so there isn't that sort of time set, but you used to miss out on a whole lot of stuff.
SPEAKER_02:Well, yeah, and that would have made it pretty difficult if you've, you know, you've recorded the episode, you want to watch it when you get over, but you get in the work at the morning, and that's all they want to talk about, is what happens.
SPEAKER_05:We we and specifically we used to get uh DVDs, we used to get previews.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_05:Preview DVDs so we could talk about it. Yeah. But we don't do that anymore. Even to the point where my my boss would be would say something like not just uh recently, he'd be like, Oh, you've got to do A Ted Lasso sketch, and I'm like, I'd love to do a Ted Lasso sketch, boss, but I don't know what episode you're up to. I don't know where what episode she's. I don't want to do any spoilers. Plus, I don't know how many people are actually watching it because they don't have Disney. Whereas with gamers, you back in the day you knew that everyone would at least get what you were talking about, even if they didn't watch the show because everyone was watching it. But now everyone's so segmented in what they're watching, you can't do that sort of parody stuff anymore.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. So the groundhog day in the morning.
SPEAKER_05:Yes. Yes. Wake up, get dressed, go to work. First thing I do would go to work, make a coffee, go out to we've got a beautiful deck at work, overlook Suncorp Stadium. I go out there, look through, I have sort of certain websites that I know are good for the sort of news stories I want to bring to the table, which are kind of offbeat, you know. We renovated our home, and you won't believe what we found in our walls and that kind of that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05:I'll go through that, send anything that I like through for anyone else as well. Like I can I can see, I'll go like, oh, maybe Abby would be interested in that, so to send it to my producer to bring to Abby's attention. Then I do a movie trivia quiz. Um I have a shower. At work. At work. Okay. We have a great setup. I've always showered at work.
SPEAKER_02:Um then that's a nice way to freshen up before get like you know, feeling like I'm about to start.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. And also because if you're doing it at home, you're sneaking, you're ninja, you've got to be quiet, everyone else is in the house, all the lights are still off, you're like, you know. So I do it at work where I can be as loud as I want. Have another What are you doing in the shower that's so loud, by the way? It's great, because at work, someone else can walk in. I'm just like, keep talking.
SPEAKER_02:Do they uh because anytime that I've been in a radio studio, you know, on the ABC, you know, they've always got it piping through. Yes, you know, is it is it in the shower?
SPEAKER_05:Are you listening to it? Yes, it's in the shower. Bane of my existence, the fact that you can't get away from it anywhere. Because I like certain songs. I like certain songs, and it it's even worse if we if there's a song I like on our station, because you will hear it eight times before you leave. Right. And it ruins every single song that you you may like. But yeah, then back out, and then I have my creatine and protein shake and start chatting to people, or go and say hello to Maddie, who'll be in editing something, and and then and then our meeting starts. Our meeting starts at 5.15. And for the past four and a half years I've sat down at that meeting at 5.15. And then I wait. And then I wait.
SPEAKER_02:Is that are you waiting because there's no one else in the room?
SPEAKER_05:Yes, there is no one else in the room. Then my producer will come in and she'll apologize, and then we will wait. Right. And then the other two will come in with coffees in hand, right? Sit down, proceed to chat about nothing to do with the show. Then in the last five minutes of the meeting, they will plan the show, and then they will complain about how we don't plan enough while I slowly plot how to kill them both. Uh but that's just my routine. Uh for me, I'm always of that mindset that that I've been told the meeting starts at 5 15. That's when I will be in that meeting room.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I'm I'm curious as to you know, knowing you personally, knowing the stab that I get personally when we're at a gig or hanging out, and then hearing you on the radio or watching you on couch time, it always fascinates me when I can tell that you are self-editing, right? Because they're and to me that's that's an incredible skill to have when you're conscious of the fact that you know, I'm on the radio, I'm speaking, I'm public speaking to hundreds of thousands of people on television, there's very specific things that you can and can't talk about and all that sort of stuff. And there must just be times where you just want to let rip on something, you know. And I sometimes I sometimes I can hear it in your voice where you I'm I feel like he's holding back here. You know, is that a thing that you're conscious? Oh, it's just it's a muscle that's been trained over the years.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, I think it's a it is a muscle. It's also a lot of that time, if you were to do it, you would be cutting off your nose to spite your face. You know, it wouldn't it wouldn't do you any good.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_05:So there is there is a bit of that. But uh my my joy is is being as filthy as I possibly can be while still being extremely PG and finding ways around that sort of those sort of barriers.
SPEAKER_02:The art of innuendo in my what?
SPEAKER_05:The art of innuendo Yeah, and and because I I have had co-hosts who you will do that and you'll do it subtly, and they will draw attention to it, and you're like, no, no, no, no, no. Like they'll be like, oh, you can't say that. And you're like, well, I didn't actually say what you heard, and you you're saying it has now brought attention to it, and it now is dirty, but it wasn't until you flagged it, you know. There is an art to just letting a lot of things slip by. And you know, I've had guests on that I I I don't agree with, and you can you can push that as far as as you can, but the bottom line is you've invited them on your show. So if you invite someone on your show and then you just addict to them, then you end up looking like a big addict anyway.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, right, of course, yeah.
SPEAKER_05:I sat out of my Kim Kardashian interview. Really? Yeah, we got Kim Kardashian and I s and they I said to my producer, Well, I've been hanging shit on this woman for the last five years. I'm not gonna sit in a room and be nice to her. And they said, You have to be. And I because you know the clients got her at the interview, she's there to promote something. And I was like, Well, I can't be. I that would be extremely two-faced of a comedian, especially, to the jokes I used to say about her. And so I said, Well, I can't be in the interview. Yeah, and I sat in the airlock while the other two did the did the chat. So yeah, because I'm not I'm not doing that. Oh, you I love what you do on your show. Yeah, yeah. You know, you're so talented. I don't know what at. Um apparently you're talented. I don't know how you do it.
SPEAKER_02:Self-editing, you do that like that's well, you've exercised that muscle quite well.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, and there is I mean, it's that thing of like when you talk to your grand, you don't drop the F's and the C's. Yeah, it's that kind of thing. Yeah. If you see the behind, and you've been in radio stations, so yeah, we can be there, me and Maddie will be there and we go, and then this fucking asshole just by oh hang on, it's uh B105, you know. And we're back. We're back in the room.
SPEAKER_02:So over 20 years you have done some and crazy shit in the course of your job. Yes, you know. And I'm curious as to how much of these crazy ideas well, actually, first of all, let's talk about some of the crazy shit that you've done. Okay. What do you reckon is would be your top three craziest things you've done in the last 20 years?
SPEAKER_05:Jumped out of a plane with 10 grand stratomy and let it go in the air. When did you do that one? That was about four years ago. That was the cash tornado.
SPEAKER_02:And where did that where did that 10 grand? Had to be in Oh my god, who thinks who thought of that?
SPEAKER_05:I know, I know. It's hard to it's always hard to pin down because you go into a room to brainstorm these things. So eventually you get to the idea, but really 20 people have come up with that idea, if that makes sense, because you go, we could do this, and someone goes, We should do it like that. We should do it, and it just builds on itself. So we all did, really, in a nutshell. But we were gonna drop it somewhere close in town. They said you can't do that because it's littering, technically. Uh we got around that for some reason, but then they said it has to be can't be in an air, a air path, air zone of other planes. Yeah. So we went out to Ipswich and we did it on the outskirts of Ipswich. And I still remember as I was parachuting, had those stripper gun that shoot the notes, had them duct taped to my hands and just press boom and the money went everywhere. And I still remember flying down going, that is an awful lot of bushland. And when we landed, the half of the side was it was an army reserve gun. Train training training, yeah, out there. So no one can get on it, and there's probably still five grand out there with our faces on it. With your faces on it. We put stickers on every one and it had a number. So when you found the five dollars, it was all five dollar notes, you were supposed to call the station and go, and we had like I found it on my roof, I found it when I was like on my lawn, but there's still a lot still unclaimed out there. Really? So did that.
SPEAKER_02:Hey, so just quickly on that. Was that the first time you'd ever jumped out of a plane?
SPEAKER_05:No, but the first time I'd ever jumped out of a plane was for the show. It was to promote the new Superman movie. Uh, so I jumped out in a Superman outfit. Yeah, and that was the Kevin Spacey Superman movie I'm talking about. Um lots of firsts for me were through the show. And again, that's something I'd never complain about because I'm doing something that people normally pay for and I'm getting to do it for free. Yeah. So shut the hell up. Yeah, yeah. We broadcast the show underwater. I've been attacked by police dogs. Wearing all of the all the gear. Yeah. Yeah. I've been in goals uh facing Olympic ice hockey players. That was pretty full on. Yeah. Pucking me. Pucking me.
SPEAKER_02:Um that was they come pretty fast too, those drugs.
SPEAKER_05:They do. All sorts of stuff. Yes. And that's why that you know, I that's one of the reasons I love the job. It's you never the boxing one. The boxing.
SPEAKER_02:The boxing one.
SPEAKER_05:The boxing had nothing to do with the that had nothing to do with the radio. Oh, wasn't it? That was a thing I did.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, okay. Right.
SPEAKER_05:I thought that was that we that we then talked about on radio.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:But no, that was something I I chose to do. Well, Abby is a ambassador for the Small Steps for Hannah charity that it was raising money for.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, right.
SPEAKER_05:See she she said you should do this. I was like, yeah. So ten weeks of uh of training and then eventually you're in a ring with some other dude, and yeah. It was one of the best things I've ever done.
SPEAKER_04:Wow.
SPEAKER_05:The other one, the the still the the rugby league game, the rugby league match, did a charity rugby league match where I was the only person who wasn't an ex-Rugby League player. I was playing like Greg Inglis and Sam Thyday and all these boys that I'd grown up watching. Inglis um picked me up and dragged me for 20 minutes. One of the best things I've happened in my life. And I was worried about that because it's always. And he's probably there going, What is what what is why is he here? Where's this twig man in here? But it there's always for me, it's always mitigating risks. There's a couple of things that I wouldn't do. I that have I've come close. I would never ride a bull because it just if you fall wrong, you're in a wheelchair. Yeah, yeah. You know, uh but that's probably actually the only other one. I I wanted I wanted very much to be shot, but they nixed that right at the last minute. Um shot. Yeah, like wearing a bulletproof vest. Bulletproof vest. Yeah, yeah, came close. Really? Yeah. What drew you to that idea? If you get who gets the opportunity to get that done every now and then, then you go to parties, you go, I've been shot. Major. Fantastic. You know, that reminds me.
SPEAKER_02:When I I did Laughter Clinic mental health thing for the Queensland Police, yeah, for the Crime and Intelligence Command. I don't know if I can I'm gonna tell the story. I'll be here anyway. I've started now, so it's happening. And uh and so after I did the presentation, you know, I'm I'm sitting there with like, you know, half a dozen senior police that have been in the service for like 30 odd years, and you know, we're just chatting about about stuff, and and one of them said to me, Have you ever been tasered? Right?
SPEAKER_03:And I'm like, No, I've never been.
SPEAKER_02:Would you like to be? Exactly. Yeah, but they didn't say that. They said, Would you like to get lit up? Ah, nice.
SPEAKER_05:And did you? You didn't, do you?
SPEAKER_02:No.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, see, I would have done that. Really? They nixed that one too. I was about to get tasered, so much so I drank like five litres of water because I really would have liked to piss myself as well. And right right at the last minute, they said, No, you can't do it. And my boss, I still remember this clearly. I said to my boss, I've signed a waiver. And he goes, Yeah, but that really doesn't mean anything legally. I said, Well, why did I sign the waiver in the first place? He goes, You can you can just argue that we made you sign the waiver. I'm like, so waivers are essentially useless. He's like, Yes, waivers are essentially useless.
SPEAKER_02:But they they went down the whole ta they were showing me videos, training videos of people being tasered. And and the fascinating thing was is this the second that the current stops, the person being tasered is back to normal. Back to normal. They can grab a knife or they can do something, you know, and so that's what they they they say they train you in understanding that the second you stop that current, boom, it's on, you know.
SPEAKER_05:It's a requirement, and they got in trouble for this, but it's a requirement of the the biggest manufacturer of tasers. It's a requirement of that company that when you start you get tasered. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Fuck working for them. That that's why they got in trouble. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So what's something else that you wouldn't do?
SPEAKER_05:Uh something that I wouldn't do.
SPEAKER_02:You oh you got the you got the pinpooled on the tasering and the and the and being shot.
SPEAKER_05:Labby got shot, one of my ex-co-hosts, he got shot. He did it before uh it got a bit more clampy on it. Okay. Yeah, no, there's not much else. Uh it's on a case-by-case basis, I guess. Like they'll come to you. You never just do it like you you always have a choice.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:So yeah, and there's definitely things I I would say no to now. Anything involving I'm claustrophobic, and I have been they put me in a coffin and nail gunned it shut, and that was not a fun time. Um so I would not do any of that kind of thing. Beyond that. It was I was put in the coffin, and every time they asked me a set of questions, and then they got Kat in, and every time she got a question wrong about me, they uh added like so if she gets one wrong, the lid gets shut.
SPEAKER_02:She gets another one wrong, cat being your wife, Kat Davidson, yeah.
SPEAKER_05:And she got them wrong, and then it was a bit of radio play where Blabby just nail gunned the lid shut anyway. So yeah, but that was a that was a living nightmare. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So is there is there something that you've done that on the radio where after after the show you've looked back and gone, well, I'm surprised we got away with that?
SPEAKER_05:Tow tells m multiple. A lot of them we didn't get away with. We were of the What does not getting away with it look like getting in a lot of trouble.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. Why you said getting in a lot of trouble. Well, we you gotta say we Labby, who I worked with for five, six years, he he was his mentor was Kyle.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_05:And it was of that time. The radio landscape. Kyle is in Cosandal Lynch, yeah. And the radio uh landscape has changed dramatically over the 20 years I've I've been in there where it used to be a lot of shock stuff and and some of the things we've done. And and we for a while there we had every room was was bugged. We recorded everything. Okay. And then it was at our discretion what we played back. And to the point where our general manager pulled us into a meeting and sat us down and said, You cannot record people anymore without their permission and play it back without their permission. And we had a microphone in the fruit bowl of that meeting. And we played it back on air the next. It was a re it was a real Wild West.
SPEAKER_02:Wouldn't you love to have seen the look on his face when he was when he was listening to that?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:That's my voice I can hear.
SPEAKER_05:I was saying because it was the 20th, I've been sort of they asked me what some of the worst things we've done. There was a there was the deal he deported, where we found a man who hadn't seen his family in 15, 20 years. He lived in Europe, and um we flew him over. And we had him in a studio and we had his um daughter in another studio with the screen up, still couldn't see each other. If uh same s situation as the coffin, we asked him three questions about himself. If she got the first one right, they got an hour. If she got the second one right, they got to have lunch. If they got the third one right, he could stay for a week. He didn't get any right, we sent him back on a plane, she never saw him.
SPEAKER_02:What?
SPEAKER_05:Oh my god. You no seriously. Yeah, and everyone's like, surely you could let him have lunch, and we were like, if we let him have lunch, there's no point doing the whole competition. Then it's just meet your family member. No, it's gotta be the rules. We were awful. Oh my god. Yeah, yeah. It was but that was the style of the of radio, yeah, you know, it really was.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so you've got away with some crazy shit over the years.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Is that the coolest part of it? Coolest part of your job is seeing how far you can like after 20 years you go, what is there left to do?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, no, I think I didn't I didn't technically enjoy that. That wasn't really my jam as much as it was other people's. I I did feel morally compromised in a lot of those situations, but then it would be payday. Uh and yeah, but but yeah, it's sometimes it was it was a bit iffy. But you know, that was that was the time. And now it's a lot more probably paying for those those sins because it is a lot more give back, it's a lot more heartfelt, it's a lot more, you know, generous and and that. So yeah, yeah. So people won't put up with it.
SPEAKER_02:So has the over the last 20 years you've you know interviewed some massive names, you know, like people coming in promoting their films and latest albums and tours and all that sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:There must have been times where you've just been legitimately starstruck, surely.
SPEAKER_05:Back in the day, it doesn't really happen much anymore. And that it is a damn shame of the thing. Back in the day, you would come into work and and I'm not this is not exaggerating, Matt Damon would be in the kitchen and he'd be like, You want a cup of coffee? And you'd be like, No, thank you, Matt Damon, I'm okay. And then the next day it would be like Will Farrell. And at least, maybe not every day, but at least every fortnight you would meet a bona fide A-grade celebrity. And now they can do it from their Instagram and reach 40 million people. We're lucky if we get, no offense, we're lucky if we get Jessica Malboy. Really? Yeah, they just don't need to, they don't need to do this stuff. You'd remember that you'd watch them on junkets, you get a little bit now. Uh, you know, Cameron Diaz for Charlie's Angel, she'd go to Japan. She'd she she famously said, I don't get paid five million dollars to make a movie, I get paid five million dollars to promote a movie because they used to make a movie, then they would do all these press tours where they'd sit in a room. I felt sorry for most of them, they'd sit in a room for six hours and it'd like a room like that. And it would just be me and then some other fuckhead and then some other guy, all asking the same shit, you know, as well. And that and that and that we all were we we got in trouble as well, but we'd also we were very popular because we didn't ask that we would try to do different stuff, and they would like I got shot in the dick by William Defoe because we did he was doing a movie called The Marksman or The Shooter, and so I had yes on my forehead and no on my dick, and he would answer the question by shooting a nerf gun at me. And afterwards he's like, This is great, because now I've got to go you know uh Yeah, what that's that's exactly and so yeah, but every every day and and Star Strike all the time. But I mean, I was in a I was in a hotel Jerry Seinfeld was as far away from me as you are now. Oh my god, see that's royalty for me. 100%, me too. William Shatner.
SPEAKER_02:When you go into okay, when you're going into an interview like Jerry, my God, you know, the night before you you'd be thinking about it from the moment that you know that that's gonna happen. Like two weeks, how much preparation time do you get? Yeah, probably about two weeks. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And do you get to run that interview and get to ask the quest? Or does is that do they say this is what we want you to think about?
SPEAKER_05:They will generally ask, they will generally say, Here's a list of things you can't say.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_05:Or can't ask about. And we have over the time the best way to go about that is, and we did it with the most the best one it worked with was Robbie Williams.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_05:Where we said, We've been given a list of things we're not allowed to ask you. And he said, I don't know who gave you that list, you can ask me anything you want. I might not answer it, but you can ask me anything you want. And generally they don't even know about the list that's been given to you. They don't know that people are telling them not to ask them about that stuff.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_05:So if you go, this is a list we've been told not to ask, they'll probably say, But you can ask me whatever you want.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:And so Abby went, Okay, you've recently married. What's it like only being allowed to have one sex with one woman for the rest of your life? And he went, uh, duh uh uh but deck's questions. But yeah. And then some are some are legitimately precious. And if you ask the wrong question, they will hang up or they will yeah, look frosty at you.
SPEAKER_02:Have you had to go pear-shaped on here? Yeah, heaps of times, yeah. Or you've been like embarrassed yourself in front of you know, yeah. Oh, really?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, Katie Holmes pretended she was going through a tunnel when we asked about Tom Cruise. She was like, Oh, I'm sorry you're breaking up. We're like, We're not breaking up.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_05:Kelly Rowlands just yeah, she was she we asked about Destiny's Child. She was down the line in a studio in Sydney. We couldn't see her, but we could hear her, and it sounded like she was in the same room. We asked a question about um Destiny's child, and she we thought we'd lost her, but she just wasn't she didn't leave, she just refused to say anything. Right. Until we asked the next question, and she went, Yes, my new album's called Blah. But yeah. Right. Ghosting. Yeah. But I understand that too. I mean, there are aspects of i i you're only there to promote the film. That you we don't need to know about your second child to a prostitute in you know, like I feel sorry for Will Smith. There's never you can never do an interview with Will Smith without at least mentioning it. Yeah, you know, the slap. It's gotta be said somewhere.
SPEAKER_00:Or Chris Rock. Or Chris Rock.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. So to me, I and I can see some of my co-hosts, because you do get a headline out of it, and you can see them like actively trying to push those buttons. Yeah. And it's like, yeah, yeah, and I'm just putting a normally this won't come back on the show.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:When I got I got Gillian Anderson, I got Gillian Anderson from the X-Faz.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Now I'm a massive X-Faster. Yeah, that's cool. Xbox man. That was one-on-one in an interview in a hotel room. And we came up with the idea. We came up with the idea. We said, we said, she's on your list, right? I said, yeah, she is on my my list. Um, if I get the celebrities that you get on that list.
SPEAKER_02:Right, Jillian, okay, cool.
SPEAKER_05:And so we go, so so then this is the only chance, so this is a date. It has to be a date, right? So I get in.
SPEAKER_02:Oh no.
SPEAKER_05:I sit down, I ask her, what was it like working with Rowan Atkinson on Johnny English too? And she starts answering the question. And I pull out a speaker and I press play, and it's Barry White starts playing. Don't be a leader, baby. Just be a baby leader. And she's she looks over it, but she continues to answer the question. Yeah. And then I took her, that's interesting. And I ask another question and she starts answering it, and I pull out a bottle of red wine and uh two glasses, and I proceed to pour me a glass into a glass, and I hand her the glass, and she's like, What the fuck is going on? And it continues on until she eventually can't handle anymore. She goes, What are you doing? And I said, Oh, they didn't you know this is a date. Like, you're on my list. So I thought I thought I've got to shoot my shot. This is a date. And she's like, This is nowhere near a date at all. I wrote down my phone number, gave it to her, she took it off me, she took it and she dropped it in the red wine and put it down. And then I left and I was told by the studios that I was never allowed to interview her again.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my god.
SPEAKER_05:It was to stay at least 300 feet away from her old house. And then I get out, obviously, call my my team, and I'm like, that went really bad. It was so awkward. We get it back, we play the interview. And my team who we were all sitting in the room and we came up with the idea, the interview ends, and they all go, Why did you do that, Stab? That was so awkward. And I'm like, guys, and they just let me hanging out to drive. But you know, it's a better story than I just asked the three questions about what it's like to work with Mr. Bean and left. Yeah. You know?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, and like, and they all talk to each other. Yeah. They've got to, you know, and like Willem Defoe, yeah, telling someone else about it. Go to Brisbane. I got to shoot this guy in the dick. It was great.
SPEAKER_05:I got Will Arnett, and it was the day after a big race day, and Abby was too hungover to go. So I got him to call her and wake her up and explain to him why he wasn't a big enough starter to come even though she was hungover. Oh, brutal. Yeah, it's good. But we don't get to do that anymore. And they they always the the the the Paramount and Universe, all the and I understand they've got their job too. They're like, you can't do any of this stuff. It's got to be just ask about the film, ask about the locations, or all right. I could do that, but I'm not gonna air that interview because 50 other people have done that exact same interview as well. So no. Yeah, it's got to be a two-way, you know. Comedic heroes? Uh yeah, that I've met or just in general?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that you've that you've had a you've had a chance to meet.
SPEAKER_05:Well, Seinfeld, obviously. Obviously, yeah. Yeah. I met Arj Barker, who was a comedic hero until I met him. What about have is it have you met the Muppets? I've met Grover. You've met Grover? Yes.
SPEAKER_04:Right, okay.
SPEAKER_05:I say to every new producer that I get, if you can get me Kermit the Frog or Jim Carey in person, I will love you forever. No one has been able to do that so far. Yeah. But I met Grover, I've met Elmo, I don't count him. But I um Grover was I I came in, came in on my holidays to interview Grover, and they're very protective of the whole thing. Like um, they were setting up and you weren't allowed to go in there to see the people. There's there's no people. Okay. It's only Grover.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:And I walked in and there was Grover. Yeah, I was like, oh my god, and uh had a great time, and I walked out and I'm tears, I'm crying. And I walked over to the Sesame Street people, and I was like, that was amazing, you must get this all the time, right? And they're like, No, not really, no, no. No, yeah, but yeah, okay, if I get Kermit, yeah, yeah, just magical.
SPEAKER_02:It's amazing how the tables can be turned on. You're do you know Dean Atkinson? Yes, yes, yeah. So Dean's a friend of ours, he's a ventriloquist, he's got the uh the dog Fetch, you know. And I remember doing an interview with Dean on the cruise ship once, and I'm talking to Fetch, you know, and I'm like, you know, what's it like? He keeps you in the box and all this sort of stuff. And and uh Dean has Fetch turned to him, and he's Fetch says to Dean, this idiot thinks I'm real.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. But if they're very good, and it is with the Muppets, I suppose you can a lot of people have said this, you do talk to them like they are a person. Yeah, and that's the magic of it, I guess. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, comedic heroes, we don't really get we trying to think of any big ones that we get. Because a lot of the big stand-ups aren't household names, if that you know, like they're only the big heroes are only heroic in comedic circles. Uh so they're not big enough for us to get.
SPEAKER_02:See, like to me now it would be like if you were able to get say Bill Burr.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Jimmy Carr. Jimmy Carr, we've had. Have you had a few times?
SPEAKER_05:He's very good. Yeah. If for us, though, it'd be more like Matt Friend.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. Yeah, right. Um, but yeah, had Jimmy Carr, had um the the Scottish bloke, Ken. Ken, you know the one I mean. Very funny, Scottish bloke. Michael McIntyre.
SPEAKER_02:Michael McIntyre Michael McIntyre would be good already. He's good. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:It's always just the ones that aren't funny when they're not funny. You know, there's a few of those, so they're just not funny when they're not being comedians. Yeah. But movie, especially because I'm such a movie buff, the I've met the amount of movie star celebrities that I hold close. Yeah. Uh James L. Jones. Yeah, right. Um, and yeah, that's that's been amazing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Have any of them you said, you know, we should hang out?
SPEAKER_05:Yep. Luke Perry. Yeah. Luke Luke Perry was like, we're at a hotel, uh, he saw us across the lobby. He's like, Let me stab. And the downside is uh you generally can't because you've got to get up at four o'clock the next day. I've I've learned you should say yes because the amount of times they've said come back stage and my show, and you go, No, I can't, because that'd be late, that'd be too long. And there was a time where I had Couch Time, which was a television show, and so I would interview people for the radio show, then I would interview them for couch time, and then maybe for something else. So by the end of it, they did you were on a one-on-one name basis with them. The horrible bosses guys, Charlie Day and Jason Bateman. I uh interviewed them for by the end of that. I I then I introduced them on the bread carpet, and we were just chatting like we'd known each other for that. It was great. And I sat down at a meeting and I was like, um, I'm so glad I'm talking to you guys because I had to do an interview with someone earlier today and I saw that movie and I hated it. It was awful. I loved your movie, so this is much easier. And they looked at me and went, Can we guess? And I said, Yes. And they said, Was it the zookeeper with uh Kevin James? Yes, it was. We watched that too. Yeah, oh God. I don't know what I found more unbelievable, the fact that he could talk to animals or he hooked up with Rosario Dawson. Yeah, but that yeah, as I said, that that that aspect of the job has changed, and we don't get the the celebrities that we're used to anymore, which is a which is a shame. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:For someone wanting to, you know, thinking to themselves, you know, being a having a career in radio sounds like a cool gig. You know, you got any advice for someone that might be listening, you know, that thinks, oh yeah, how do I how do I get into that?
SPEAKER_05:That's a tricky one. Because I don't want to sound awful, but I don't know if the captain of the Titanic would recommend anyone getting a job on a cruise liner. Right. And there is a bit of a vibe of free-to-air TV radio is is slowly easing out of existence. And so I don't I yeah, I don't know if I would recommend anyone.
SPEAKER_02:I think that's the case. Do you like do you having done it for so long, do you actually think that's the case?
SPEAKER_05:If it's not, I mean, t free to air TV will die before radio. I would say we're only two to three years off that happening. Really? I guess. Radio seems to be able to somehow reinvent, or it's still the same product, but it still manages to survive it somehow. So I think there'll still be some form of it. But much to the point of like the stars we used to get, that the the merchandise we used to get, that like you'd rock up to work and PlayStation had sent everyone a new PS5 because they're new. Like, no word of a lie. It was like that was what it was like.
SPEAKER_02:It's gotta be cool. Part of your job is getting all the f free stuff, but that's not as much as what it used to be.
SPEAKER_05:None anymore. And and to be fair, to those pre and it didn't do anything. It didn't help their sales. Yeah. You know, but yeah, it's really sort of like uh here's the example of how we all know. I did for for a long time I thought I was going to my I was never gonna last 20 years because I was I would be too old for the station. At some point, you can't have a 50-year-old throw into Britney Spears. Doesn't make any sense. But no new no one knew is getting in, like even listeners are getting into radio. Teenagers aren't listening to radio, and so all our ads used to be for like you know, flashy stuff, alcohol brands, perfumes, now no word of a lie, it's Vag Cleanse, P less, and funeral homes. Because it is slowly just really, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Even though with the modern technology, you know, like people can be anywhere in the world and tune in and listen to you on the you know, the apps and you know, so in that way the reaches increase.
SPEAKER_05:The reach has increased, but then then you're talking more is it live radio or is it a podcast? And that's that's two separate things. Of course, yeah. And so I think as soon as I mean I I I never wanted to get into radio. I was of the opinion that television had been invented. Um and and also and then when the iPod came in, I was like, Well, that's gotta be the end of it. I don't want to be I I hate being force fed music. And so if I can choose to listen to whatever I want to listen to, uh and so we might see, I know there is, and this is fast fascinating technology. There are there is technology, and I think they use it in Europe where I can listen to the same show that you're listening to, right? But when it cuts to a song, it plays something from my own library and it plays something from your own library. And it times it enough that it picks a song that it knows will stop when we start talking again. So you're actually only listening to the show, not the actual everything around the show. So that would give us another breath of life.
SPEAKER_02:But um Well, I know that I know that technology my experience of that technology has been on when I've been like listening to big international podcasts like Joe Rogan, for example.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Right. And when his ads come on, it's an ad for something in Australia.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, same, same. Yeah you know, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Isn't that interesting? Well, mate, look, I know uh very grateful for your time and I really appreciate you coming in. So personally, how have you coped before we wind it up? How have you coped personally with the the stress of you know ratings periods and all you know, the has has it taken its toll on you at times over the years, you know?
SPEAKER_05:Not so much. The only thing that takes its toll is everyone else's reactions to them. Because I don't put any stock in them whatsoever. Ratings. Ratings.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_05:Not that I they they help the sales teams if we're number one. We can sell more product. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But if you product is in advertising.
SPEAKER_05:Yes. Yeah. But if you lived and died by the ratings, uh you would I would have been miserable most of my career. Yeah. And I've seen that happen to other people. And I am of the opinion of it's that you I are you aware of the book, The Power of Now? Yeah, I love the Eckhart Tolling. Eckhart Tolling. New Earth. I haven't read that one yet. The second one of his brilliant. But that's kind of my mindset. I read that book and went kind of like, yep. So I don't think that far ahead and I don't look that far back. So but it does have a role on effect. If we do badly in the ratings, it affects the mood of the show. Right. And people will be grumpy or sad or try to change stuff, and I'm just like, it's everything's everything's chill. That was yesterday. Let's just keep on going. Unless, I mean, if it came down to and there are some stations that are doing this, if you were rating a two and everyone else is rating a twelve, then obviously you're doing something wrong. Yeah. But generally we're only that far off the next person, so there's no point really eating yourself up about it.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. Lot to be said for mindfulness. I think so. Yeah. You know? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Control what you can control, don't sweat the small stuff and all of that jazz.
SPEAKER_05:Too many people sweat the small stuff. You know. In fact, it becomes big stuff because they sweat it so much. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well, mate, okay, so we're gonna wind up with the feel good five. Okay. Right, okay. Answers can be assured or as long as you like. Totally up to you, my friend. Number one on the feel good five is Staff Davidson. What makes you happy? What makes me happy?
SPEAKER_05:My daughters laugh. Beautiful. Thank you. But in general, what makes me happy? A good a a good movie that surprises you with where it takes you.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. One that comes to mind that you've seen recently?
SPEAKER_05:Yes, I do. I got a couple, but one that really did Sasquatch Sunset. Sasquatch Sunset? Sasquatch Sunset. Okay. It follows a family of sasquashes. Right. No dialogue.
SPEAKER_02:Is it is it sasquashes or sasquash?
SPEAKER_05:It might be Sasquash Eye.
SPEAKER_02:Sasquash eye.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. They're all played by fairly recognizable stars, but you can't tell because they're so heavily made up as Sasquashes. Yeah. And it starts off and you think, what the hell is this? And by the end of it, it's quite a good treatment on the human condition and what what humans have done to themselves chasing after technology and whatnot. Yeah, it's very that's more sunset. Yeah. Playing guitar makes me happy. Um how's that going? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That being said, uh what makes you happy, not the rest of your family.
SPEAKER_05:Well, no, no, that's why that's why saying golf makes me happy, but it doesn't really but occasionally you'll hit that chip and get it in on one, and same with guitar. Because I realize at the that stage where I realize that I'm never going to get to the end of this, you know? Where uh well that's like golf. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It's a game that's always going to be better than you. Yes.
SPEAKER_05:And the guitar, you go, I th I've got it now. And someone goes, now try this with your right hand. You go, fuck me. And you're on a whole new journey.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:But those moments where you look up and you go, Did that just happen? Did anyone else I was somewhere else for a minute there and it all just clicked and you just what was that m mind mindless mastering or whatever it is, where you've got it all going and you're unaware of it. Um that I like that feeling. Yeah, that's cool.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, because you've lost yourself in that moment.
SPEAKER_05:Which is so which which is the irony of it, isn't it though? Because you're not actually there at the time. You only recognise that when you come out of it. Yeah. You know, so it's always so uh intangible.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Like standard, you do it with standard. You know, you walk up off a set and you're like, what the fuck just happened there? Like everything was on point. I wasn't working. I I was just there doing it. I think that I felt that the first time I did it and went, yes, that's that's yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I had one of those nights last night, funnily enough, at the Ballinaro Cell.
SPEAKER_05:And you haven't done anything different, you couldn't explain it, because otherwise you get up and do it every time. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You know, yeah.
SPEAKER_05:It was just one of those, you know, there was the set, but then there was a lot of riffing going on, and and it was sometimes you catch yourself halfway through done. This is one of those times, you know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well, either that or you catch yourself. There was a moment in last night's show where I've gone, I better get to some jokes because you know good times.
SPEAKER_05:What are you grateful for, mate? Grateful for I'm grateful for most things. There's not a lot you you shouldn't be ungrateful for. I'm grateful for what I do for a living. I'm grateful for what it's allowed me to do, what it's allowed me to purchase. Uh yeah, I'm grateful every day. I didn't have the best childhood, so every day is cake.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:You know, yeah. I and I I find ungratefulness really unattractive. Even little little things. How someone can let a b a bad Uber driver affect the whole day, that's that's actually something that's going on with you rather than that person's, you know? And it's that's that sort of thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, there's a lot to be said for focusing on I I think gratitude is an incredible gift, you know. Like when I do my mental health presentations, I talk about keeping a journal and you know, starting your morning pages of, you know, today I'm gonna have a great day for the following three reasons, or today I'm grateful for the following three things because focusing on what you've got and not what you don't have, you know, like because we live in a pretty there's a lot to be grateful for for where we live. You know, like we live in a beautiful part of the world.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. As as standard of lifestyle goes, it's still pretty high. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_03:You know, we're very lucky. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:You go to bed every here's a trick for you, go to bed every night, and but before you fall asleep, you say, Tomorrow was a great day.
SPEAKER_02:Tomorrow was a great day. That's interesting.
SPEAKER_03:Look at how philosophical you are.
SPEAKER_05:So it always surprises people.
SPEAKER_02:Doesn't surprise me at all.
SPEAKER_05:I'm not surprised by this. Well, because this is that this this is all we have, isn't it? This I know people that didn't knowing that they would have to do this today, we'd be like, I've got to go do my mate's podcast. I said yes like three weeks ago, and I find I didn't really, and now it's today. And you know, well, yeah, go and do it then. Or don't, or don't. But but people just seem to rather they'd rather complain about it and then still have fun while they do it, yeah, but they like to complain and lead up to it. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting that you know they say that one of the easiest ways out of a depression is to do something good for someone else. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, for that self-esteem and makes you feel good, you know. I think that's why making people laugh is such a gift. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You know, because like there's actually research to show that when you make someone laugh, as much as they're getting a kick out of it, you're actually getting a bigger hit out of it. Yeah. Initiating that.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. There's nothing I like more. Yeah. I used to judge how well how good my day at school was was by how many laughs I had. Yeah, right. You know.
SPEAKER_02:So when you say you didn't have the most ideal childhood, was along those lines, you know, for me is a lot of bullying going on. This was the 70s and 80s. It was, you know, you never talked to anybody about it back then. You know, this crazy it's just what I find incredible is when I was growing up and all this bullying that went on, I never talked to my teachers, I never talked to my parents, I never talked to anybody about it.
SPEAKER_03:No.
SPEAKER_02:And yet now I find myself in a job where I'm talking about mental health and suicide prevention, and I'm saying to everybody, fucking talk to people. Right, okay. Because I understand. So was when you say about getting laughs at school, was that where that came from?
SPEAKER_05:Was it a survival thing for you? It was a survival thing for me. The other thing that I I had going for me that I didn't realise at the time, but I used to watch a lot of television. Like the cable guy. I was pretty much plonked in front of the TV. And but but through no fault of my own or me doing it on purpose, I watched the classics and I was learning. Like I'm talking like the Bob Newhart show, the Golden Girls, Bill Cosby, God rest his soul.
SPEAKER_02:Did a Saturday afternoon, black and white, you know, time Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Three Stooges, all the time.
SPEAKER_05:Three Stooges, love the three stooges, Marks Brothers. Yeah, great. Um, and was soaking it in, definitely. And it was that was sort of my apprenticeship, really. And now I've got it all, it's still in here somewhere, and it pops out randomly when whenever I need it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It was yeah. I always found it so amazing, like the quality of that comedy. One of my fondest memories as a kid was on a Saturday afternoon sitting in the lounge with my mother and my grandmother and three generations all laughing at the one thing. You look back and you go, it's pretty special.
SPEAKER_05:Get smart would fall into that category as well. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Cool, man.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so uh now, what are you looking forward to? What's coming up? Anything exciting you're looking forward to?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, yeah. In two weeks' time, we go to Norway. Oh, hello. Yeah, that's a good time. Yeah. We've got a six-day cruise through Norway, hopefully Northern Lights. Wow. Although you can't be guaranteed. Um, but you've got to be there, right? You've got to be there. We've done half the battle. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And what an incredible experience that's gonna be.
SPEAKER_05:That's gonna be great. And then taking Rory home to Scotland. Uh okay. So big time. To Glasgow? Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Yeah. And is this the f will this be the first time she'd been there?
SPEAKER_05:Yes, yes. We were gonna go in about 2020 and then the world blew up with COVID. Yeah. But I think this is perfect because she's 13 now, so she can really actually appreciate it and see like where I grew up and how old were you when you left?
SPEAKER_02:Eight. And where have have you been back since?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, I've been back numerous times. I took Kat back a couple of times, but um haven't taken Nori back yet. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Mate, I we went to Scotland in a couple of years ago now, as part of a trip over there, and I remember my brother saying, as you drive around Scotland, no matter because he knows I'm an ad avid photographer, he goes, mate, no matter how many times you try and take a photo, you're never gonna encapsulate it because you the whole time you're there, you feel like you're driving around in a postcard.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. Well, I mean, not so much Glasgow, but yes. You get out of there. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I was you know what amazed me about Scotland is I had the best seafood of my life. Yeah, right. In Oub on the on the what's I've been to Uban? Yeah, and it was just mate, I loved it. I love Scotland.
SPEAKER_05:The history is just Rory, one of the small villages they used to live in after school, we'd all go play in a castle. It's incredible. It's just a ruin of a castle, yeah. And we don't have that here.
SPEAKER_02:The thing what spun me out is if you get a chance to do this, or maybe you have done it, the St Andrews ruins, yeah, right? So there's a part of those ruins, because it's on like a cliff kind of thing, and there's a part of those ruins where there's a hole in the ground and a handrail that goes down, and you can actually crawl through about maybe 150 meters of this tunnel that brings you out onto a cliff face.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, where they used to get the deliveries and that's it, right?
SPEAKER_02:And so we did it, and and like there's a little sign at the start that says, you know, be worn, you know, confined spaces, this sort of stuff, right? And I was thinking there is no way in the world you would be able to do this in Australia, right? And if you did, you know, there'd be hard hats and waivers, you know, there'd be an induction video, right?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, yeah, but Scots, they'd be like, ah, fucking idiot. I love it. Oh man, I love Scotland so much. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So how long is the whole trip for that you're going?
SPEAKER_05:Like four weeks. So we do Norway, we're staying in the Ice Hotel. The Ice Hotel. So nice it's a hotel made entirely of ice. Really? Yeah, we're not staying in it because that looks like a fucking chore. Uh, but we've got a cabin outside the ice hotel. We're going dog sledding with um huskies. That'll be cool. Then we have a couple of nights in Paris, then London, then Wrexham, because my wife watched Welcome to Wrexham with Ryan Reynolds. So we're having one night in Wrexham. Right. Then Glasgow. One night in Wrexham, this. So that I'm looking forward to that. That'll be that'll be great. And I I I'll be looking forward to going back to work. I haven't I haven't like I ha honestly haven't worked a day in ten years. Everyone's like, oh, we're almost at holidays. I know. Yeah. I'll take them, but uh yeah. How long do you get off? No, I don't like to say people hate me. I get six weeks off. Okay. I get I get school holidays.
SPEAKER_02:Right, fair enough. Well, that's cool, man. I hope you guys have a wonderful holiday.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, we will have told everyone because it's so expensive. We will have fun.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Because I know that you both work very hard. I know your beautiful wife, Kat, and and how hard you guys work. So and uh what an experience to give to your daughter.
SPEAKER_05:Yes, it should be fun.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, very excited for you. Okay, what's your me time? You might have answered this before in relation to the guitar, but like if you want to switch off from the world, what are you doing? I meditate. Yeah, is that has that been a new practice or has that been something you've been doing for a while?
SPEAKER_05:No, while a few years. I did a course maybe five, six years ago, paid a thousand fifteen hundred dollars for my mantra. Yeah. Um so the Scotsman in me will not let me not meditate. Isn't it amazing?
SPEAKER_02:Because I the thing that I find the funniest thing about meditation, and I because I meditate also, is that that moment when you first start, right, where every single person has had this moment where you'll be sitting there and then you'll be going, I'm doing it. I'm doing it, I'm doing it. And the moment you go, I'm doing it, it's like, oh fuck, I'm not doing it.
SPEAKER_05:It's the same thing with the playing the guitar properly. We go, yeah, I'm doing it, I'm doing it. Ah, no, I'm not doing it. Yeah, yeah. And then so you gotta you've got to be unaware that you're doing it. That's right. Yes, yeah, which is so annoying. What do you get out of that personally? What does that give you? I think it it that and uh more and more so now I I've after I've finished reading The Power of Now, it just makes everything quiet. And that really my inner monologue really shut up after I read that book because he says in there that um that's your brain trying to stay relative, like relevant. Yeah, um, you don't need any of that. So and when he says like it can be happening, you just don't have to listen to it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_05:Uh so that I can just sort of sit there and pe people think you look like you're thinking about nothing. I'm going, I am.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:You know, a good recharge. And then you just um just making yeah, making people laugh. Finding a good joke I is is fun to me. And and and then telling people uh that joke.
SPEAKER_02:Well that that's my last question on the list is what is it that's made you laugh recently, mate? Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:I I've I've fallen back in love with a joke joke. Okay. And because I did this um festival called um That's not my dog festival, right? Where it was a bunch of comedians, great concept, didn't really work, but it was a bunch of comedians just telling joke jokes. And so I Google I scoured, scoured the internet, and I found like five or six, seven maybe solid gags, jokes. Yep, and old school jokes. Old school jokes, and I and I love dropping them on people. You know, my my dick might not be 12 inches, but it smells like a foot.
SPEAKER_02:A guy said to me yesterday, he goes, My ch my dick changed so much after I stood on it.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. So a good a good a good joke I really enjoy. And that that's something that Norm McDonald does very well in it's the enjoyment of the the telling of the the joke. Because you can have a great joke, and if it's told by the wrong person, it's not a funny joke.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:But taking people on that journey of the joke, I do find immense pleasure in that. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, it's it's so pleasurable, you know. One of the things I talk about in the laughter clinic is about the joy of bringing bring making someone else laugh, you know, as good as it is to laugh yourself, but knowing and have being mindful that not everybody shares your sense of humor. True, right? And so, you know, we all know in our tribe, right, who we can share a laugh with about certain things, people, you know. Like, and I think one of the one of the gifts that because I'm so grateful for our friendship and your wife your wonderful wife Kat and the fact that we've been friends for so long. Years and years. And and the joy that I get. You know what's coming. Oh yes, because there was no way in the world we were getting through of our podcast without giving it a da do with no explanation given.
SPEAKER_05:Right.
SPEAKER_02:Now I have I have decided recently that there is a jig that should actually accompany this, right? So da-da-da do, right? But uh mate, making people laugh is the best, didn't it? It is. What a gift we get.
SPEAKER_05:Can I leave you with one of my favourite jokes? Absolutely. Stop me if you've heard it. So there's this there's three daughters. There's Rose, there's Fern, and there's Cinderblock. And Rose says to her mum one day, just comes out of nowhere. She goes, Mum, I can't believe I've never asked you this, but but how did I get my name? Why did you call me Rose? And she goes, Oh, funny story, actually, Rose. As we we drove you home from the hospital, right? And I had you swaddled, and and I carried you from the car to the house. And as I did, we were walking through our garden and a rose petal brushed lightly across your cheek, and we thought we'd call you Rose. And she went, That's lovely. Fern heard that and went, It's funny, I've never asked how you what you you call me fern. She goes, Well, funny story, actually. Brought you home from the hospital, you were swaddled in your blankie, and we brought you into the lounge room, and we just bought some some new plants, and as I sat you down, a fern brushed up against your forehead, and we thought that that's a sign we'll call you fern.
SPEAKER_01:And Cinderblock hears this, and she turns to a mom and she goes, I love that joke so much. See?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, you know, that's one of those, you know, sometimes you're laughing at something. As you're laughing at it, you're going, I shouldn't be laughing at this. They're my favorite. Stab Davidson, mate. Thank you so much for hanging out today. It's been an absolute treat. And mate, I wish you safe travels on your holiday.
SPEAKER_05:Thank you.
SPEAKER_02:And and you and your wife and your beautiful daughter all the best, mate. Thanks, Jelegend. Thank you, sir. Good on you, mate.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for listening. The information contained in this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes. It is not intended, nor should it ever replace advice received from a physician or mental health professional. Want more info? Visit thelafterclinic.com.au. If you enjoyed the episode, please share and subscribe. Thanks again for listening to the Laughter Clinic Podcast with your host, Mark McConville.