Hot Potato, Hot potato.
Hut potato, hot potato, Hut potato, hot potato, potato, potato, potato potato.
Everyone under six and their parents knows that song. And of course, former Yellow Wiggle Greg Page, who was the original lead singer and a founding member of the children's band Wiggles from nineteen ninety one to two thousand and six and again in twenty twelve, and he's currently playing FDR in the Australian production of the legendary musical Annie and I got Greg on the line. Hello Greg, Oh, Reverend Bill, how are you good? Mate? Thanks? Now you've
just come off stage after two shows today. It must be pretty grueling.
Oh look, it's not too bad compared to I mean, we do eight performances a week with Annie. Sometimes with the Wiggles we used to do up to twenty one performances a week, So like comparison, this is a breeze. Now.
Did you ever guess back in ninety ninety one that the Wiggles would morph into a worldwide phenomenon.
No, we had no idea, And I guess that's the beauty of life. You never know what's around the corner waiting for you. And if you take opportunities, and I guess the opportunity that we saw was just the opportunity to create good quality children's entertainment. And it was really Anthony Field. The Blue Wiggle was his dream to do this, and you know we we just did it because we had a passion for it. It wasn't about global domination
or becoming big or successful. I think the greatest success you can have in life is if you go to work every day and do something you'd love. That's success. Everything else's cream on top.
Because a lot of us remember the Australian band The Cockroaches that served us the foundation for the Wiggles, didn't.
The Yeah, I kind of did it. So Anthony and Jeffrey in the Wiggles, sorry in the Cockroaches. And I was a fan of the Cockroaches growing up listening to their music and I had to do work experience in year ten at school, I said I wanted to do work experience with the Cockroaches as a roadie as a sound engineer, and that's when I really first met Anthony
and jeff and I stayed in touch with them. I ended up doing early childhood teaching at university with Anthony, and that's where the genesis of the Wiggles came from, that connection to early childhood education and of course music.
So you must have been difficult for you to pass the Alabatton in twenty twelve.
Yeah, Look, I've done it before in two thousand and six when I was unwell and I had to leave the group back in two thousand and six, and the guys asked me back in twenty twelve because the current Yellow Wiggle at that time, Sam was leaving the group and they needed somebody to fill in for that year.
And as it turned out, not that I knew it at the time, because I was only back for a few months, but Murray and Jeff decided to make twenty twelve their final year with the Wiggles as well, So it ended up working out well, and I was back that year because then could actually have a whole year of shows as the the original group of Wiggles saying farewell for three of us at the same time.
Now I didn't know this, but you amassed the fourth largest collection of Elvis Presley memorabilia in the world. What's satinal about?
Well, Look, I visited Graceland back in nineteen ninety nine when the Wiggles were on tour in the US, and I felt just a strong connection to Elvis's story. I mean, he was a very spiritual person and he questioned life, and he questioned why he was chosen to be the superstar that he was, but he had a lot of personal struggles as well, and I thought, you know, there's
a lot more to this legend than people realized. And I found it very deep, and I started collecting things that he had owned, so shirts, books, documents, cars, his marriage certificate, furniture from his homes and I set up a museum in Parks where they have the annual Elvis Festival every year. So museum has been there, it's called the King's Castle. It's been there since two thousand and age. I think it was the first set it up there. So the collection a loan to the council out there.
So if people are ever passing through the central West of New South Wales, if they're going through Parks, calling to the King's Castle, it's at the information center there and see if you feel a connection to the story of the king as well, and you're an im yeah, yeah, So I got an order of Australia back in twenty ten. Actually it was, and I mean that's one of the biggest honors I think I've received. You know, we've received a whole lot of ARIA awards, a whole lot of
other accolades. But for me, that am says a lot because it's not just awarded by peers. Whereas you know, music awards are generally awarded by peers, this is awarded by people in the community who recognize your service to the country in various ways. So to have that award and order bestowed upon me and the other members of the Wiggles was a huge honor indeed, and a big thrill.
And you were really lucky, won't you because you had a heart attack in January twenty twenty and you're only one in twenty survive.
Yeah, that's right. Look, it's a terrible statistic that there's more than thirty two thousand cardiac arrests every year in Australia and only one in twenty survived. Five percent survived to go home to their family. So I do count my blessing.
What's the lesson from that.
Well, look, the lesson is that bystanders really need to understand that when somebody is not responding, they need to call triple zero straight away, and if they're not breathing normally or at all, you start CPR and you use an AED as soon as possible, because you know, we can look after our hearts as much as we can, but sometimes you just don't know what's going onside it. And you know, for me, yes, I had heart disease,
but I didn't know that. So you know, you can think you're healthy, you can get all the tests done and not be aware that there's actually something inside that could kill you instantly. But for the grace of God, there were people around me who knew how to do CPR. I knew how to access an AED and deliver that shock to save my life.
So you're an advocate for all that stuff.
Now, absolutely. Yeah. Look, I started a charity called Heart of the Nation back in twenty twenty, just a few months after I had the cardiac arrest. So for the past five years I've been out there advocating for people to learn how to do CPR, but also to know that if you have to do it, you don't need to be qualified or certified to have a go to try and save somebody's life because any attempt at resuscitation has been no attempt. And now we're actually merging with
the Heart Foundation. My little charity Heart of the Nation is becoming a part of the National Heart Foundation, which is a huge honor.
Now, come on, we get onto Andy, how'd you get involved in that?
Well, look, it really came about another blessing, Riven Bill. I had wanted to do musicals for some time, and I never knew how to get into them. And late last year I received the call from the producers of Annie asking me if I'd like to be in a musical. And at that point I didn't know what the musical was. But when they told me what it was, and when they told me who else was in it, I thought it's an opportunity too good to turn down. I just had to say yes and give it a go and
see if I'm any good at it. And hopefully the people that have been along so far think that I'm okay and I do a good job. But there is a lot of competition on stage for great voices, in great talent.
I got to say, you've got an all star cast. Tell us who some of them?
Yeah, look, certainly do The biggest star on stage is Anthony Warlow. I mean, this guy is a legend of musical theater, not only here in Australia, but he's performed on Broadway. He actually did Annie on Broadway back in twenty twelve, so I'm enjoying learning a lot from him. But we also had a Kris act playing Miss Hannigan. Anthony's wife, Amanda Lee la Verne, is playing Grace Farrell,
and she's a Broadway performer. She spent twenty years in New York performing on Broadway, and so she's bringing what she knows about Broadway to Australia, which is really fascinating. It really is a great musical. There's so much to love about it.
Are you having much fun playing Fdr?
Yes? I am. And I got to tell you one reason why I took the job was because FDR was in a wheelchair. He had polio, and so I get to get pushed around on stage in a wheelchair all night while everybody else is dancing and singing and cavorting around. I just get pushed around and I don't have to worry about where I've got to be because somebody's pushing the wheelchair For me.
So what do you put down to Annie's enduring success over all these years.
Look, I think that really is the story of optimism and hope. Everybody knows that song The sun will come out tomorrow, so you got to hang on till tomorrow. It's a beautiful song. But message is that tomorrow, nobody knows what's going to happen. Tomorrow. It might be raining and cloudy today, but tomorrow the sun will come out and everything looks different. And I think that's such a great message for anybody in life. I mean, we all get dealt bad cards from time to time in life,
and it's how we play those cards. And you know whether the sun is shining on us as we play those cards in life as to how things might turn out. And I think if we allys approach life with optimism, then you're always looking at a glass that's half full and not half empty.
Because you guys have got big shoes to fill, haven't you got Jill Perriman, Hayes, Gordon Kevin Johnston, Nancy Hayes.
Yeah, Look, it did. The show started here in Australia back and I think it was nineteen seventy nine or something like that. With those stars playing those characters, those much beloved characters. So yeah, we do have big shoes to fill. It's a show that a lot of people know, either through the movie Annie that came out in the eighties or through seeing it on stage over the many years here in Australia. So it's well known and there
is a lot of pressure to deliver the goods. So you have to make sure that I have to make sure that you're on the money every night.
So it's an updated production, isn't it.
It is, yes, so people might have seen it before, but it is updated and and hopefully people come along and think that the guy that's playing the president doesn't look too old, not outdated.
Now Annie's coming to Sydney's Capital Theater for a few more weeks and where to next?
Yeah, So we've been here in Sydney for a couple of months now, We've got three weeks left so if you still want to come along and see this in Sydney, will be here until the twenty first of June. Then we go to Melbourne. I'm excited about that. So we're open in Melbourne at the Princess Theater on the tenth of July. And then after that we go to Brisbane
at the end of the year. So look out for Annie at those places, Melbourne and Brisbane because we really look forward to coming to these towns bringing this spectacular production to everybody there.
Greg Page is so great to talk to you tonight. Continued success, mate, continued success.
And you two, Reverend Bill, thank you.
Yes, sun come out tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar that sorrow there'll be sun. Just thinking about tomorrow clears away the cobwebs and the sorrow till there's none.
When I'm stuck with the day, the scrap, the lorne, I just think up my chick and and see.
The sun come out tomorrow. So you gotta hang on till tomorrow.
Come on.
Tomorrow. I love Tomorrow. Be always a day way.
And I'm stuck with that day that's gray, and Lord, I just pick up.
My cheese and green and set the supermark tomorrow.
So you've gotta hang on till.
Come on.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow. I love God, Tomorrow You're always is a day. Tomorrow. I love Tomorrow.
You're always a day.
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