A listener production.
I thought they were going to be the most comfortable things ever. I wore these things one day. No good. I was upset the whole day.
Were they tight or loose?
Just tight on the nuts a bit. Just to. You're just a little bit. And I was picking, like constantly picking. And it's just it's the ride that rise up is just terrible.
That's the worst I.
Think, man. It's just it's just really it's it's not good.
Picking your ass all day, I imagine.
I don't want to sound graphic, but the G string going all the way up, wouldn't that be uncomfortable? I never understood that.
Have you ever worn one?
No. Never.
I've never tried. Have you tried one? Well. Why would. Sorry. Men sometimes wear g strings, apparently. That's not why.
You're in the wrong show, mate. So? So you've worn a G string?
No, I've never had. I'm asking you if you've thought.
About wearing a G.
String. You just thought about wearing a G string yourself? No, I didn't ask the.
Question of how uncomfortable. Well, you said you have to think about it. You actually just said I wear a G string. He said it, didn't he? Yeah, you said it.
You guys are crazy.
Roll it. Hello.
Hello. Hello. Testing. One, two. Put on a jacket. When I was your age, I was my age. The sushi mango.
Podcast. We're like one big family.
That's why we say join the Familia.
The most ethnic podcast going around. Well, aren't that bad. What are you talking about? You still take your washing to mum's. Oh, don't. Don't say that.
About the cast.
And just to be clear, it's not famiglia.
It's familia.
The G is silent. We're Italian. A little bit of lemon on top.
Fake laugh to your past.
But guys do wear g strings to. To have no lines. Now, now that they made the boxer. I think that's what's wrong with the world. They're the guys wear g strings. Have no lines in their pants. Well, actually aren't jockstraps. What do you mean? You know, jockstrap when someone plays gridiron. Isn't that where your ass cheeks are hanging out? Cute. Actually, before we. Before we.
Ask someone who knows a bit more about.
This, we ask the man, the man, the power, the king. Our very good friend. Our very special special guest. An AFL legend and all around great guy. Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for Anthony Koutoufides. Yay! All right, boys. Not only you're an AFL legend, you're going to be our next mayor. Future Lord. Lord. The Lord mayor. Still a bit of work to do there, boys. Still everyone. Before we start, get your voting pads out and start
voting now. Mike. Cuda. Welcome, mate. Welcome. Thanks, boys. This is the second time you've been to. Yeah, correct. The first time you were with, uh, Crystal and, uh, you guys are like, uh, yin and yang. You guys, you guys. I had to kick him under the table a few times. I think he was about to say, I'm like, shut up, Ange. We're on a podcast. We're not on the footy, you know, like out there in the burbs. Yeah, at a footy club. Yes. Great to be on here, boys. Thank you so much.
I love you guys. As you know, we love you too mate. Just watched you expand and grow and what you do for the community is wonderful and having the same sort of background as yourself ethnics growing up. It's wonderful to continue the tradition from the days of Acropolis Now to where it is now. Where we used to find a very funny as young kids watching that. So we appreciate you very, very much.
Thank you mate. First of all, the jockstraps.
Where are we going? What do you know? Tell us.
Tell us what you know about him.
I don't know, I've never worn G-string. I don't know, but I know Carlo mentioned the uncomfortable being, you know, the underwear. And it starts today. Imagine how tight shorts back in the day. Oh, yeah, I remember that. And I used to pick my butt so often, too, because they were so tight. So they were uncomfortable tight back in the day. The old footy shorts. Yeah, yeah. They were so.
Short in the.
Day. Not as short as Kapa. No, they were short. Kapa had them right. They were almost the start of the G string really, when you think about it, they were so tight. I reckon Kapa rocked the g string in his time. Don't worry about that. You were. You had the whole top. Tight shorts. Tight? The physique en physique had to show the physique the wall and jump. The hair slicked, the gel in the hair? Yeah. The gel.
I remember watching Cuda going, this guy's a stud on the field before we get into the AFL and that. So you are running for Lord mayor. Real quickly. How's that going?
I don't can I ask you what inspired this, this move from you? He wants to be a lord.
Yeah.
Yeah. I just want to know. I want to know where.
Where it came from. Did you say a lord? A lord? Yeah. So if you were to just. Just go back. Just if you are to become Lord, which I believe you will be. What do they do? They do. They, like, get a sword and tap. Tap you on both shoulders. Almost. They got the big gown. Yeah. The mayoral gown? Yes. That I'm going to put number 43 on there. And as the front bar said they're going to cut off the sleeve so they'll be sleeveless as well. I'm just going to create the new modern one. And that's funny.
So I look forward to it. But Andrew, you asked a great question. And in terms of why, you know, when I, when I think I had migrant parents here in and I was born here in Melbourne, and I love this city, and I was very proud of it. And we didn't realise how incredible this entire country was. Relatives would come over from overseas and we showcased our city and it was beautiful and I was proud. It was almost like a hidden gem that I wanted to hide from the rest of the world, to keep it
to us how privileged we were. And so growing up in this city, I got to live my dream playing AFL footy. It was something that I look back now and go, wow, you know, it was incredible to be able to do that. But when I look at the city of Melbourne and the state that it's in now and there needs to be a lot done that, I think if I can have some sort of impact on the city of Melbourne, that's far beyond any dream or
imagination of what I've had in the past. So I love the city and hopefully if I get that opportunity, it is really a privilege. It's not something you take for granted that I'll be able to change the things in Melbourne and start to make it more vibrant again, and make Melbourne the most liveable city in the world. The underlying base of it, it is the most liveable
city in the world, but right now it's not. And it's really falling and deteriorating very quickly in my eyes, in my opinion, and a lot of other people out there.
Yeah, yeah.
And I'm sure there'll be some that will disagree, like there always is. But majority of people will tell you it's not the city that we once knew. And it should be a showcase for our for our state here in Victoria. It is the most liveable city, but it's not right now. Yeah, it has that potential and it seems to slip. I agree with you completely. Thank you. Um,
and it slipped off. Uh, I don't know what's going on, but like, you used to go go out in the city back in the day, and, you know, you used to feel fairly safe and, you know, and and the environment was different. Now it's a little bit tense ish. You know, when you go out and there's all these bike lanes everywhere and there's things happening. I don't, you know, I don't know what Joe goes through. You can't get
through the city. It's very congested. It's congested. Congested. Now the bike lanes because, you know, I don't know about you, but do you have a bike, Carl? No. No. Do you have a bike?
Inge is in a in a cycle. Is it a is it a bicycle or is it a motorbike?
He doesn't have a bike. He doesn't have a bike. I don't have a bike. I guess people out there don't have a bike. So six people in this room, they have a bike.
I have a bike. I don't ride it, but I have a bike.
He doesn't ride a bike. But he's got a bike. Yeah. And why are people.
Looking at me like that for man?
My point is, is that there's a there's all these bike lanes and no one has a bike, so why the fuck is there bike lanes? I don't know. We know we have to keep it down with it. That's not that's not the political way to go about things. Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean that. No, no. That's fine. Sorry. Please calm down. Please. Vote vote vote. But please. I didn't mean that's true. I mean, I mean, look, no disrespect to to people who ride bikes because they're important, but
I don't think there needs to be as wide. Yeah. Lanes and maybe as many. I mean, back in the day, we were. There was enough. I even spoken to a lot of cyclists who say the bike lanes are just just overdone in the city. And so we've reviewed the bike lanes and we look at Exhibition Street. Exhibition basically goes from Rathdowne Street through Exhibition Street out to the south eastern suburbs. It's one lane now. It has a really big wide bike lane there, so it's affecting a
lot there. And so we've basically said it's one of our policies that we're going to open up Exhibition Street to two lanes again. We're going to have car parking. There'll be a smaller bike lane, which will be enough for the cyclists to be able to get through, because when you look at Bourke Street, Bourke Street works with a bike lane that's very narrow and it still works, so it can do it. You don't need them overly wide. And so we've got to look at other areas in
the city too, because it's all about congestion. We don't want it to be congested and there's still room there for every part of transport. But you know, we see I think the cars, we like our cars in Melbourne and we want to go through the city. So the retail stores, cafes, restaurants, if you want to stop on Exhibition Street right now, to quickly run in there to get something, you can't because there's no car parks. But I want to bring back the car parks there. It's
going to help everyone in the city. There's a lot of cafes struggling down in Southbank. I go and I speak to a guy there. There were 16 cafes previously. There's five left now and the one doing the best could be closed in the next 6 to 9 months. Like, where are we heading with this? We need to bring the vibrancy back into this. That's the thing, right? Exactly
what you just said. If you want to duck in somewhere and get something, you got to go into a car park, which cost you $9,000 to get a coffee because you've parked the car there? Because I parked my fucking car. We need my fucking car back again. That's not the political way to go. I'm sorry.
That should be on your poster, man.
I know, but it's, uh, I don't you speak common sense.
It doesn't make any sense that there's that much room dedicated to bike lanes when the majority of the vehicles in the area are cars and buses and trucks. So we've got. We're with you on that one. That's, that's that needs to be that needs to change.
Carlo said the right word to me. It's common sense stuff, isn't it? Like, really, I mean, you know, where are we heading? And so, you know, I want to obviously bring back a little bit of common sense to the city because the city needs help and we need to reinvest into the city to get it going again. Because right now, in terms of retail vacancies like offices vacancies, it's almost 20% highest around all of Australia is the
city of Melbourne. And so you can imagine that the people that own the buildings there, what the value of the buildings would have decreased dramatically because they're not rented out. And so we need to bring businesses back. We've offered a $5,000 incentive for any new business that starts within the CBD. And then that way it just helps them, you know, the electricity costs and all that nowadays is expensive. I mentioned there was a cakes cafe on Lonsdale Street.
What's the name of the cafe? It's oh, was there 55 years? Greek cafe, Greek coffee. Uh, cake shop? Correct. Um, famous on the street after 55 years has closed its doors. And it's telling you something. It's saying that, you know, okay, whatever. Maybe it's rents as well, but there's something. There's an issue in the city, you know, there's other places too, like, you know, restaurants, 30 years, you know, being open for closing down heralds the most. It's a boutique fashion store
that should be iconic to Melbourne. That closing? That's closing? No, closed. I think it's closed or closed. No, no. Like to me. I'll be trying to hold on to that. I mean, Costco's leaving Docklands. Docklands is a ghost town as well. I mean, there's so much work to do. There were so far leaving Docklands. Yes. Shit, I didn't know that either. So in Sydney, like, you know, obviously the state government and public servants, it's not like we can force them back.
We'd like to see people back into the city like it was pre-COVID. And I understand circumstances as single parents out there, and it's a difficult time. So there's probably got to work their way around. As Sydney brought their public servants back, their city's thriving Queensland have $0.50 transport. I was in Queensland two weeks ago from the Gold Coast to Brisbane. I could get there for $0.50 on
the transport, right? Wow. So for sure, like why? Why are we looking at every other city of what they're doing and why are we so behind everyone? We should be in the forefront of everywhere. We've got to look to Queensland and Sydney. What are they doing that's thriving and then try to bring them here. And so we've identified Monday and Friday being very quiet in the city. Monday we're saying free coffee trial for a month and see how we go there. It's going to it's going
to be a free cafe. Who's giving the free coffee by the way, mate? Because we owner Johnny Vincent, we're not getting. No, no, we subsidize it. So you guys doesn't it. Oh, we'll take that. We'll take that first. It invests back into the cafes and restaurants and fantastic during these tough economic times. Imagine you said your friends, there's people struggling out there can't afford a coffee. But what can a coffee do in terms of putting a smile on people's faces? And you go there and connect
with your friends mentally. It's a good thing too. So there's a lot of benefits, not just to free coffee. There's a lot of benefits to it, and it might be an enticement for people to go, yes, friends, let's just go into the city today and let's go. You know what that does Cuda as well, man, if someone hasn't been to that cafe or whatever, they give them a free coffee. You compensate the people, they get a free coffee and they go, oh, I like this place.
I'll come back. Correct. Spot on man. And that's exactly right. There's a lot more benefits than just that on a Friday. We're trying to get concession rates now Vic Big government again private transport owners as well to get cheaper, you know, concession rates into the city as well to make it easier for people. Also, that's just a Friday night free tequila shots. Yeah, 100% I'm sure. I'm sure I can invest some of the money that, uh. Yeah.
What about Saturday night.
Free hair gel for people going out? You know, I was just. That was my next thing about the policy. Hair product. Yeah, yeah. Well, you want to hear our policies? Yeah, yeah. Get get get them down. Yeah. Free hair gel. Coffee's good. Coffee would have been one of them. Andrew wants a free bench press in every dumbbells.
In every corner in the city, every.
Corner. Just a.
Couple dumbbells. Just leave him there while you're waiting at the lights.
Yeah. I wish I could live like you, mate. And a free Rocky. A Rocky box set for everyone in the. In the town. In the town.
Who's policing the coffee thing, by the way? Because I was thinking that might work out well for us if no one's policing it. We can. We can sell one of coffees and tell them we one that we sold 500 coffees a day. Fantastic for us.
But we said before we wouldn't reward the system.
No, absolutely we wouldn't. But you said before. You said before that Melbourne is running behind all the other states. Why? Is there a reason for that?
No, this is the policy.
So slower in this state or is it?
I'm not sure, Andrew. That's why. I mean, why do we look at Sydney? You know what they've done to get their people back into the city? Why do we look at Queensland for their cheaper transport? And it's going that well in Queensland, Andrew, to be honest, they've extended the period now because everyone's enjoying it. Then you don't have maybe as many cars around and things like that. I mean the issues of car parking and we're saying free car parks after 6:30 p.m. right now it's up
until 11 p.m.. I'm not sure when that changed. It used to be like 6:00 or 630, and it's free and you're free. Yeah. And bring your family and go and watch a movie. But right now you can't, because you've got to go into the car parks and it costs them $60 or whatever it costs. Like let's bring. You know what I mean? Let's help people. Let's get people happy again. Bring them back in. It's not just all about cost, cost, cost. Another thing that I'm impressed
with is that you are committed to the Greek Antipodes Festival. Yeah. Of course. Why are you laughing? No. But not. No. Listen, why are we laughing? I said because of the way he said Antipodes and the Chinese New Year and all ethnic festivals. And wants more music, art, fashion and sport in the city. Every every culture has a room here in this city. And we're so multicultural here. And there's there's a position for everyone. So every event we want,
we want more events. Economically, the events brought in 94 million roughly around for the city of Melbourne. Why can't we boost that to 150 to 200 million? There's no reason why we need more events. We need more family friendly things, activities into the city as well. So what's the enticement of bringing families in? You know, so we've got to think of little areas that we might need to build or do something to entice families. Kids now are our priority. You know, it's like, what are the
what do you want to do? Kids, if they don't want to go in the city, you don't go ask. As young kids, we couldn't wait to go into the city was unbelievable. Yeah. Yeah. So there's a lot of things like that too. And safety. You know, people feel uneasy in the city. Well that's true. Like, if you go in the city and it doesn't, it feels a little bit tense. Yeah. And, yeah, we've just come out with our safety policy. And so we're going to have refuge areas. So we'll have booths of policemen there. So
all the hotspots around Melbourne. So if you feel a little bit uneasy someone you can just go straight to them. You'll know there'll be police officers there. And the other one, you know what deters police coming into the city to work the car parking issue. Really? So we're either subsidise or find areas where police can park. And you know what? All of a sudden we get increase of numbers of police into the city to make you feel a little bit. Yeah.
Like absolutely. It's not parking so that the police.
Don't even the police don't even the police can't go there. I'm reading here cos of it. Yeah. You're going back to your AFL roots and you want to bring back the grand final parade to the Swanston Street.
Bring it back. Yeah. You know.
I think I think it's a great.
Seriously, I don't I don't get that. We're like, are we the sporting capital almost of the world. Right. Do you remember we had Petrarca Soccer we went to a while back and we were looking at per capita. We are. Yeah. Number literally number one. So. So how did they not put it down Swanston Street anymore? Man. When I look back in the 90s, I had the honor of playing in two grand finals. 95. I was 22 years of
age and then 99. You're one of the highlights of the week was, of course, going to training, seeing thousands of people when you run out the race and everyone's chanting like Cuda and whoever was running it was crazy. I was 22 years of age in 95, no idea what was going on, but the car parade was a highlight of my life as well. You can imagine Swanston Street and you see thousands of people lining up. Yeah,
just to see you and the whole way. And then you get to the to the Treasury Building, you know, in the city, whatever it is. And we sat there and we just looked at thousands of people that just sat out there. It was unbelievable. Now all of a sudden, there's no atmosphere anymore. Like, I didn't even really watch it, to be honest, because I seen the one along the Yarra River. It's like they're so far away, the players and they would be just looking, going, oh yeah, whatever.
But we got the experience of people you felt like they were right next to you. Yeah, yeah. Right on you. Well, that's what parade is supposed to be. Everyone else does it except for us now. I didn't see any. I actually in the city of Melbourne. I didn't even know that. The grand final. I knew the grand final was on. But you couldn't. Like, if you didn't know about AFL, you actually didn't even know it was on. No, everything's
at the MCG, which is fine. I mean, the people, the residents don't like the fact that, you know, the parklands, they're getting used and the car parking issues. But but they've got all the festivities or events going on there. Let's bring all the events back into the city, Fed square or even Docklands to bring a bit of vibrancy back. Like, why leave it just at the MCG with all that? You know what? There's a lot of work you've got
to celebrate the number one game. It's an Australian game and this is the town of the city that love it the most. It's a religion here. We've got to celebrate the fact that it was grand final week. If I didn't know the grand final was on because I'm an AFL lover and I walked through the city I actually didn't even know.
Hey, listen, I'm reading this and it says something about garbage collection and increasing the the bins. He's got a deal with Tony Soprano. Now, that's a great idea.
Because.
I can't tell you how small the bins are getting now.
Oh, yeah.
The garbage bins. Yeah, the bins are that small.
They're like one of those ones you put underneath the sink.
The German mini bins, wheels.
On it with.
The little.
Wheelie bins, the little small bins. It's become like that. Those bins are more kids used to put your pens in there. Yeah, that's what it is. You're right. The city is a lot dirtier than what we would like also. And so we want to clean it up and clean it up. Remember the ethnic ladies back? I grew up in Lola, Thomastown, and every every weekend they were out there hosing the driveway down when they need a good clean, get a couple Nanas in their yards with hoses on
the street. Could you imagine subsidise the northerners? Yeah, I mean the city would be immaculate Because I would hate to say it the way it is right now. I would have no water, but it'd be immaculate. I'm sure we could serve.
Coffee at Nonna's serving coffee whilst they're hosing down the city. That's absolutely killing.
Two birds with one stone.
Pivot for one second Grand final week. How is that for a player?
I played the best football club back then, Carlton Football Club. You know, I walked in with decades of success, the envy of the competition. So I walked into the car in the most perfect time. And my first 12 out of the 17 seasons I was there was unbelievable. And I seen the good and the bad of Carlton. But the preparation of the Carlton Football Club during that week, like it took Ange and I, we haven't mentioned Ange, which has been good actually, because he's been away for
five weeks. I sent him away to Greece because I didn't want him to be a pain in the butt, but it would take us literally an hour to get into the club because all the supporters will be lining up there. Then we had to train. Then after train, another hour or an hour and a half of signing autographs for supporters, it was mayhem and I don't think there was any bigger club. And you know, in 1995 we won the premiership. We won by we were up
by 80 odd points halfway through the last quarter. The game was over, you know, at half time or whatever it was. But the celebrations afterwards, but it was our 16th premiership and we only lost two games for the entire year. Now who would have thought we'd be waiting 29 years and still not another premiership? Carlton Football Club now we got there in 99. We didn't. We weren't quite good enough. We beat Essendon, the Unbeatables, in the prelim final by a point. It was one of the
days that the supporters will never forget. And then year 2000, we won 13 in a row. You guys and Melbourne got into the grand final. We beat you by 99 points. So yeah, I got injured, Brad got injured 99. We just had injuries galore. 2001 we got injured like and that was it now. And so that's that's the you know what's happened to the Carlton Football Club which has been started the year off well. I just fell off a cliff. Yeah. They did. They made 2 or 3
months ago. I'm thinking premierships here. I was, I was that convinced that we were going to win. It was like, you can't tell me we're not going to. It was on and it just fell to pieces. But there's still the windows open. I'm not saying. And for a player like for.
You, what are you like? Is it butterflies? You're nervous or is it like a normal game?
Oh, the grand final. Yeah. I'm nervous as mate. Oh my God, the night before. You can imagine the week build up. Everyone's ringing tickets, mate. Khuda. Good luck. And everyone's coming over our house. We lived on the main road, mate in Thomastown. Everyone knew where I lived and people would stop the car, yell out. We had to build a big gate. I used to get roses left on my car windscreen roses and it was crazy man. It was unbelievable times but it was friendly times. No one
really caused trouble. There might be some drunks out, you know, 3 a.m. but we knew as a family, so we just expected it. But it was just incredible time to grow up in that area. To Layla Thompson. Everyone knew where you can imagine having. Cuda feeds the name in the white pages. You actually had my home phone number, so that grand final week we couldn't put the phone back on. We had to take it off the hook. Yeah, and leave as soon as we put on ring ring
straight away it would ring. I'd get your number. Yeah. Everyone had the white pages cuda. The only one in Australia. So if you want to find my number and you can imagine mum and Dad answering the phone. What? Those sort of things. That was a lot, a lot, a lot. It was like that Anthony. Anthony. And I'm like, I don't know who it is. You know, come and talk. Come and talk to them.
Did your mum and dad come to every game?
Yeah. Every game. Every game. So when I first started they didn't want to want me to play my brother Paul. And then halfway through the first year, I was eight years of age when I started. Then the Australian family that stopped. They my parents were out the front, you know, doing the gardening as they did. They said, oh great, your parents out, they can come and speak to them. I'm thinking, good luck because I don't really speak English,
but you can try. And they said your kids got a little bit of talent and my mum being stubborn Italian lady said, no, no no no kami no kami. And my dad goes, I'll start tagging him. And the grounds were literally maybe 15 or 20 minutes away. We had to lay off for an hour because my father couldn't read the map. He's back in the day. Yeah, always. Every Greek swearing word he taught me. Then he got frustrated. Then mum came along. Second year onwards and my parents
didn't miss. Not one single game I played after that. That's nice. And I always say I never would have made AFL footy if it wasn't for their support. They were just unbelievable. My dad, Lalor Football Club have played Lalor. Lalor. They allowed parents sometimes to do votes and so they gave my dad an opportunity to vote. Well guess what, he gave me three votes before the game started and he gave my brother two votes. My brother was playing the next game, so they never allowed my dad to
do the votes again. He wasn't playing the game. They're biased to the ethnic parents, aren't they? So that's what it was like, man. My parents and I drove my parents to every single game that I played a footy, even when I was playing senior footy. And it was embarrassing, right? Because you can imagine, I mean, every, every game until I lost my father in 98, which was is the most difficult time. But I drove him to every game and mum to the last, and I think she wasn't
quite ready for me to retire. I'd be like, mum, I've got to retire this year. But she was devastated because they looked forward to the footy season every year. That's what they looked forward to. You can imagine ethnic parents and after we won the grand final and we all jumped into a bus. There were two people that stood outside the bus. It was my mum and dad, the two proudest ethnics. Can you imagine? And I was just like, to the boys. Yeah. Bravo, bravo, bravo, bravo.
My son Anthony, my son. He's a good boy. My son. Yeah, that's a good boy. Yeah, yeah, that's the best. So I said to all the players, just please wave to them, you know, and they. They were just over the moon.
Oh, man.
You can imagine what it was. Yeah, it was good, man. I was a very lucky. Yeah.
Well, when I look at you, I sense I sense old school values, you know, just that old school wholesome that that era, that time, you know, you played in that era. I think that's what you're trying to sort of bring back a little bit in a, in a way. I mean, we want to move to the future. I'm not saying we want to be dinosaurs, but there's some really good parts about how we grew up and, you know, and that era that we want to bring back.
Yeah.
To, to, to today. And I think, I think that's, that's what I can the.
Respect of the elders, you know what I mean. Like just the, the courtesy to everyone else as well. I mean, that's how we grew up. And, you know, it's different now. But you're right. The old school values to me are still important, and they still hold a position somewhere in our world right now as well. As I understand, we have to progress forward. Like we looked at our parents go, oh, they don't know what's going on. But the old school values of respect and things, I don't think that should
ever leave us, you know. No.
They're always. They always remain relevant. And what about bringing back the gladiator, mate? Let's talk about something.
Mate. Clothing. Listen, he wants to. You should. They should get you. You should try. He should, he should.
You should bring it.
Back in my opportunity to wear a G-string. Yes. Right there. Yes. Come on, let's go.
I might always call Cuda the Greek god. What would they call you? Andrew? I don't.
Know.
That's the Italian stallion.
Hey, idiot. Salami or something?
The Italian stallion. Well, listen.
If you ask people that say, you know, if everyone votes for Cuda, he'll. He'll put the gladiator outfit back on.
I've got it somewhere at home, boys. I'll put it on in case I don't I don't. You don't have it. Oh, no. You should make your gladiator do. I think I.
Do. You should make the new mayor outfit the old gladiator. Yeah, that's not a bad idea. Yeah, that's what you should.
Come out like that. Hey, if I get in. That's right. But, yeah, you're.
Dancing with the stars run as well.
Yeah, I did, I did actually won it in 2006. Can you believe that? Huh? You know, the morning of the show, when I woke up, I was the least favorite to win. The odds were on sunrise, and they've gone. We've got the odds for dance with the stars. So I'm thinking I'll be somewhere at the top, mate. I was right there. The least favorite to win. So I'm thinking I'll be the first one out. No one gets eliminated week one, but by week five, I was in the bottom two. I got through week six. Bottom two.
Everyone thought I'd get eliminated. Week seven Chris Hemsworth got eliminated. Now we know he's a megastar, right? Chris Hemsworth, movie star. He's made it. Week eight. Bottom two. Week nine. Bottom two. And then I end up in the grand final against Arianne, a world female chess champion who could really dance. I danced. Okay, we had three dances. I'd dance. Okay. First one. Okay. Second one. I'm just ahead of Arianne. I get to the last dance. Got the perfect score from all the
four judges. So I'm sitting in the room going, this is unbelievable. Thinking whether I win or lose doesn't matter. I've ended in the grand final. Dance with the stars with the highest score. Anyway. Get outside. They've gone. The winner is Kouda. I couldn't believe it. Yeah. So the power.
The powers of John Travolta entered your.
Body? Yes, exactly. He did.
You watched it on the night before.
It's funny, because I did the, uh, dancing with the stars all stars only 2 or 3 years ago. And John Travolta. I'd be watching Patrick Swayze every day to see if I could move like them, but I looked to their moves to see if I could just try to imitate them. So they were the two that I always loved to watch while I was doing dance.
The night before. Would you have the same nerves as the grand final? The footy grand final?
No no, no, the footy grand final. I had more nerves on the first show of dancing with the stars. That first dance on this small dance floor with. With the judges that you felt like they were in your face. And then the audience. It was. It was so scary.
I reckon that I reckon that would be terrifying TV. It's not your it's not your forte as well. And you've got to you've got to jump in and.
Out of your comfort zone. Yeah.
And how many hours did you get to practise the actual dance itself?
Many hours. So I was the first series that I did. The preparation was late because my dance partner, Natalie was on Burn the Floor show, so we had maybe two weeks to prepare. She got food poisoning. We didn't have much to prepare. Others were learning, had learned 2 or 3 dances. I only learnt one and every week it was sort of catch up. But because of the, I don't know, my work ethic, maybe the footy background, the discipline.
We worked hours every day and every week. My dancing just got a little bit better and so I had Natalie on the first series and then I had Jess, who's still a good friend. Yeah, she was wonderful to to dance with as well. So two great dance partners who taught me a lot. But the hours of training hours is brutal, man. Brutal. Yeah.
We know, uh, Nikki Osborne.
Osborne.
She just went on it, man. She was black and blue. Yes, she she stacked, didn't she? She stacked. But then just the running around and flick on your feet on your. It's not easy to do that shit.
Admiration for dancers. Do you think? Just dancing. But their bodies go through a lot. When I first did the first series because of football, I got through it with a breeze. But it was difficult. Hours of training. But it was okay. This last one, mate. My hip, my knees were like, swollen. My. I couldn't because I had a shoulder replacement in December. I couldn't lift my arm over my shoulder. So poor Jess, we we couldn't do a lot of moves. Like in my first series, I
could lift up Natalie. The last one I only had here. I couldn't even lift her over my shoulder or anything. So we were limited with what we could do.
So if I was doing it, I'm so small they'd be lifting me.
Up you around, they'd be dancing around you.
They'd be leading me on leading.
That's it.
I come out as Carmella, you know. It's gotta be spinning you around. Yeah, yeah. Hey, you know, one thing I wanted to ask you? You know, at school for lunch, we always had the mortadella egg sandwiches. Did you have any ever, ever have any stories of when you went to a footy club and you, you brought out some stinky, stinky food or.
Anything like that? Not so much the footy club, but I know my parents brought the mortadella and salami sandwiches to every single game and every game.
Did they?
When I did athletics mate, we had the esky there. It was always the mortadella, ham, salami. It was always that I remember at school where you had the cheese and the tomato in there. And by lunchtime it had melted and it was like. It was like flat. And then every day it'd be like, oh, here we go again. But then the Australians had the I don't know, they had the margarine, the hundreds and thousands. Oh I couldn't. Oh,
what are you. What are you eating? You know, the first time I went to Sydney, I did athletics in grade five. I was the Victorian champion high jumper. And so I had to compete in Sydney. We got bullied out to an Australian family by three in the afternoon. By the time we got home from school, mum always had food on the table for us, you know, and there's 330 there. The Australian family, I'm like, when is the food like we'll be hungry by 4:00. We knew
our mums would be in the kitchen starting to prepare food. Right. 4:00 I'm thinking when's this lady start? No. 5:00 still nothing. And I'm like, God. Then the father went in the kitchen and I'm like, my dad never walked in the kitchen. What? Dad didn't know where the kitchen was? Yeah. It was all, like, new to me. I'm like, this is a bizarre family. This one here. And then when the dinner was ready, it went into this oven. It was like a new age oven. I'm like, what is this place, you know?
And then three minutes later here. Ding! Microwave. I'd never seen it before. Oh, right. Yes. They had one plate of food. I'm like, is this it? Like, is this entree? I didn't.
Understand.
I didn't understand. And the steamed peas and steamed carrots. Usually mum would put oil in, you know, make it taste good. This was bland, man. I didn't know what to do, so I was, like, in shock. I had to learn. I didn't understand the Australian culture compared to us as Europeans. It was my first awakening to it, you know? Yeah, and it's funny how footy brought my family out to the Australian way of living. The Australians used to come and bring their own beer and stuff.
My old man used to get offended. Oh, what do you think? I have no money. Well, what did you bring? You know, they used to bring their own. Their own drinks or food thinking. But us, as Europeans, we provided everything. I do.
That still. Now. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay, mate, you come to my house. Yeah, I got the beer. Yeah. Don't bring the fucking beer to my house. That's clearly in the European culture. It's an offence. It's like. It's like saying you don't have any money, but it's not. They're just being polite and saying polite. Brought some beers for you.
To start to understand.
Yeah, someone said as they brought beer. You brought beer? I leave it in the in the cupboard. I got beer. Yeah.
They've surely learnt now, though. Joe. This guy must be behind. They learned. They learned. What do you think? The Aussie mates used to come over for dinner all the time. And I know why you'd go to their house. Didn't get much.
But it was a beautiful match. The Aussie culture and the European culture blending somehow. It was like a like a romance, isn't it? Like that's why. That's why when our ancestors came here or they came to the country, they assimilated so well, it was like, you know, the Aussies would come over and get fed and and then the Europeans would feed them. Well, that's exactly what they wanted, right? Exactly.
But it's funny because when I played Ludlow Football Club, there was a strange and ethnics. But mate, we all got along so well. Man, it was such a it was it was a great time and I know there was some bit of racing. I understand all that stuff, but. Oh well, it was a wonderful time man. It was just a wonderful time. And I thank the footy club too, because they embraced my mum and dad and all the. It was just fantastic.
Well, that's what Andrew says after every one of our shows now, like it's, it's you see so many different faces and different nationalities in the audience now and everyone can laugh at the same thing.
Correct. That's what you guys do. Yeah. You bring everyone together and that's important.
That's important. But you know, things are again, we've said it a hundred times on the podcast. I think things are sort of swinging back to where we can all just have a laugh and say things that and not feel uncomfortable about it, because it doesn't come from a bad place. It comes from just laughing at ourselves and together. And that's something that, you know, a few years ago had sort of gone missing a little bit. Yeah.
Stephen Kernahan still goes to McGregor. We're going there. We're buying the Greco. Greco.
Now, that's.
Maybe some people would take offence I love it. No I am you know what I mean. Yeah.
What are you going to do.
But now people can take offence. You're right. Yeah. Half half half half half. We can't forget the other half.
The Italian half.
We've got to.
Claim it's like some people. Some like with our show, right? In my opinion, the best show we've done. But some people are saying when we come off stage you're like, oh, you know, it's a fantastic show. Absolutely amazing. Like, I can't believe you get away with it. Some, some of the stuff you guys say and we're like, that's interesting. It's interesting you say that we.
Don't certainly don't feel like we're pushing. We're not really.
Yeah. Not really. It's like it's not really. It's like comedy is comedy. It's just it's just interesting that again, they're coming from a few years back where it's like, oh, you can't say anything. It's like, no, no, we're.
Starting to open up a little bit. Open up I hope so. You know, I think it would be better. Yeah.
It's interesting. Sometimes the people that that are in power influence what you can and can't say what is acceptable and what isn't acceptable. Sounds like to me that.
If you ever come in.
Power, well, come, Lord mayor, you might bring a bit of common sense back to common.
Sense, I hope so.
Yeah, yeah, progressive attitude with some old fashioned roots there. I think that's probably I think it can.
Blend really well. I think it can blend because you're right.
Because you're right. But what you said before is, you know, we've got to progress. We can't go back. Yeah, but you've got to try and progress that. It's just common sense for everyone in the state, not just a particular people that like to ride bikes. Yeah.
Well, that's. And you know what the main thing is?
I just want to put that out there. I do like bikes. It doesn't sound like you do. I like bike. I like I've got my.
Because I think at the end one. So so so.
Everyone vote one vote.
And get your bike. Please everyone. I think our main objective really is to make Melbourne the most liveable city in the world again and get people back there. Yes, whatever it takes, its common sense, I believe. Then we do that, you know. And so that's important to me and everyone.
You you have the European culture. And I can guarantee you won't take a cash bribe. No. If people would think he would. That's right. Because but he's not. We we will.
We would.
Okay, so let's just put that out there. Anyone wants to give us cash for anything, we'll take it. But Cuda wants.
Paint over the bike lines with a black paint if you want. By the way, enough money. By the way, could I just leave.
That envelope on the desk there.
For coming in trouble? You're going to get.
Me in trouble. Uh, mate? Mate, listen, we we we're back behind you.
We appreciate that so much. Um, we.
Hope it all goes well, mate. You've got our vote. Yes, you've got our vote. Not just because we're friends and we know each other. We've known you for a while, but honestly, because of the common sense that you bring. And if you didn't, we just wouldn't have you on. We'd be like, oh, cuda's running. But yeah, he's he's talking shit. You know it's true, man. It's actually it's actually true. Parting words. If you wanted to tell people listening, you know, about, what would you tell them?
But I think what I said before, I want to make Melbourne the most liveable city in the world again. We need the vibrancy back. There's a lot of work to do. Little by little, you know. Slowly, slowly. Let's build this together. It's not just me. It's about the city and what the city and the people need. And as you delve deep into it and start to understand the hurts of a lot of people who have invested
into the city, we love the city. It's our showcase to not only Australia, but to the entire world, to the world. And we've got to showcase it to everyone and be proud of what we have.
I'm pumped after that. Let's vote now. Let's vote now. Clap your hands. Let's go.
Come on. Damn hands! God damn it! Oh! Let's go. Kuda! Let's go! Vote one. Kuda. Mate, thank you very much for coming in. Thank you mate.
Love you boys. Thank you. Continue. Great work. We love it. And we're going to keep supporting you. And everyone will. Thank you.
Mate. Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you. And, um, on that note. Yep, that's another episode of the Sushi Mango podcast. So make sure you listen again next week. Next week. And while you're listening, don't forget to vote.
Vote, vote.
Vote Khuda vote. And also vote for me for the hair product. And also, um, have a nice day. We never tell people to have a nice day.
Have a nice day.
Have a nice wherever you are. Keep smiling.
Cha cha cha.