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