Our general rule and general approach is like to assume the best of each other all the time, and I think that's a great way to move through the world. It's never why the fuck did you do this? Or I can't believe you've done this. It's always like, hey, are you okay? Because it is out of character for you to have done this? Or I'm feeling like this. Am I overreacting? Am I taking this the wrong way?
Hello?
And welcome to separate bathrooms.
We would like to acknowledge the Gadigel people of the Urination, the traditional custodians of this land, and pay our respects to the elders, both past and present.
My name's Cam Daddo, Amili Daddo.
Hey, el, Yes, what happens when you blend music and comedy?
Mommedy?
Okay?
Now wait, wait, what happens when you blend a person who does music and.
Comedy musical comedy?
Uh?
A musical comedian musical or a comical musician musician?
Yeah?
Right, either way you find your way to this person.
I see, Hey, there's a good segon Hey.
Musical comedian Michelle Brazier is known for her work with Auntie Donner, Sean mcalyp's Mad as Hell, Thank God You're Here, and her One Woman Comedy as Philosophy Live shows. I love that comedy is philosophy.
A lot of philosophy is pretty funny.
Yeah, yes, especially you can blend it well with.
Comedy, philosophizing, contifgating.
That's right in between standing ovations off Broadway, writing a memoir and her upcoming UK tour, Michelle has slotted in recording her eagerly awaited debut album, Trilogy Mix Tape. The album is the soundtrack to Michelle's last three award winning solo shows, Average Bear, Legacy and Reform.
Tim Lancaster is Michelle's partner. He's outside with Michelle right now. Not to be confused with the British Airways pilot Tim Lancaster, who survived being sucked out of the broken windshield at seventeen thousand feet in nineteen ninety Thank you, doctor Google, and in case you're wondering, he survived because a crew member literally grabbed a hold of his feet while another crew member hung on to the foot grabber's belt amid one hundred mile per hour winds blasting through the cockpit.
They hung on until the landing a couple of fractures of bloody nose and several pairs of soiled und I am sure it's not that Tim Langcaster.
Because that's a story.
It is a story.
We're not going to ask him about that, visc aren't we. No, I don't think he's going to know anything about it.
I beg to differ. I'm curious about that. I reckon there'll be people that ask him.
I'm going to ask Sorry. Yeah, all right, So this Tim Lancaster, the man who is side the bathroom with Michelle, is way more grounded. He's younger and musical. Let's welcome Michelle and Tim to the bathroom. All right, look, guys, welcome. Firstly, Tim, I have to ask you this question. Do you ever get asked about being sucked off? I mean out of an aeroplane window?
I want to go back to when you said sucked off?
Do you?
Tim?
No? I don't.
Are you aware?
Are you aware of Tim Lancaster thet I knew it would be aware?
Of course, I've googled myself. I'm not a course of course. No. I am aware of alternate Tim Lancaster's story, but unfortunately not that many people google me. So nobody really comes to ask me.
Well, they know about it now because in the intro, I because I went to doctor Google, of course, and that's what I discussed.
You've got an incredible story, Tim, I'm glad you survived that.
That's sucking out points me too.
And here we are.
It's all worked out really well.
For where did you go?
Well, we are a relationship podcast, you guys, so tell us your love story.
How did you meet?
We met? And this sounds fake but is real. We met doing Legally Blonde the musical. Nice, isn't that? So? So that I was playing l Words and Tim was playing Warner Huntington the third And.
What production of Legally Blonde was this?
This was not a professional production. This was in my hometown. So of Woggle Wogger Yeah, I'm a Wogger girl. Yeah. I'd gone back there because I knew that my brother was very sadly passing away and he sort of had you know how they give you sort of an expiration date ish, and it was like, Okay, I'm going to be with my family around that time, just so we're all together. And I was already going to be there, and then the person who had played Emmett in Legally Blonde.
This is some music theater trivia. The person who played Emmet is Brent. He's from Wagga but he had done the actual Australian tour and he I think maybe he was a swing or a cover of it, and he wanted to do it. So he called them and said, I'm going to come home and do it, and they went that's great, but if you're going to do Emmett, then we're going to need to find an l who was also a professional music theater performer and called me and said how much for you to come home and
play L? And I was like, baby girl, I'm going to be there anyway. You just pay for my hair to get done and weekly minimum and I'm all yours because I love the show. And then Tim had been at UNI there.
Yes, I studied at study at auger. I studied teaching, but then decided to teaching wasn't for me, and they had a wonderful acting course at the time, so I studying acting instead wanted to really love the production as well, and that's that's just how we met met Michelle there.
And so so I did the I was Callahan in the Australian production of Legally Blonde, and it was with Lucy and so Milsey was playing your role.
My beautiful meals.
Yes, at what point? I don't remember El and Warner right Warner?
Ever? Kissing was that early on?
Was it very early on?
Almost?
I think the second scene of the show it almost immediately before Warner breaks up with L. Yeah. We shared a smooch on stage and then had a dinner scene where Warner has his has his one song singing about how he wants to be a little bit more serious and needs a more serious partner, breaks up with L and that sort of sets the whole story in motion. So every night we shared a little smooch and every night we broke up.
Well practice, Michelle, how was that for you though? I mean that must have been incredibly difficult in two separate worlds that you were living. But you mentioned that your brother was incredibly ill. Yeah, and then you had to go on stage and be like and L is one of the happiest characters that you can play on stage.
How did you pull that off?
I think she helped me through it to be like my brother actually ended up passing away. I'd been doing the Edinburgh Fringe the month before, and he actually ended up passing away that month while I was in Edinburgh. Sorry, that's okay, you know, it's all right. We sort of knew that he was going to go, and I was very lucky that I was surrounded by all these beautiful performers in Edinburgh and I did the show that night.
I just did my show, and I felt like, this is obviously like everyone talks about this and it's very wanky, but like the power of theater and that the power of that community is so beautiful, and so I think it was actually perfect for me. The night that my brother died, I had this bit in my one woman show where I would ask the audience if they had snow globes. It was just a quick throwaway line so that I could get out of snow globe. It was
just a funny little joke. And the venue the day my brother died raised all this money and bought enough snow globes for every single audience member, so that when they got to the point where I said, who's got your snow globes, every single person had held a snow
globe in the air. Yeah, it's so, so beautiful. And I just think like there's some real I don't know, there's some real healing that can be done as long as you're not relying on the audience, because you know, you don't want to get up there and use themostherapy. But I think you use your castmates in the community. It's it's one of the best places to heal from something like that.
Yeah, well, that's that's amazing that they did that for you.
How did you how did you keep it together? Yeah, when they all held up the snow clothes.
I cry thinking about it now, But at the time, I think, you know, you get into that mode where you just you're doing the show, and I sort of stopped and I was like, okay, for anyone here who's like general public who doesn't know why they were handed just a random snow globe, because it was mostly you know, lots of Ozzie and UK comedians who had really rallied to be there, but there were also ticket buying public.
They were like, okay, what's this pot? So I just was like, just so you know, my brother's dead, it's okay, We're gonna keep doing the show. This will be a memory for me and you will think this was a weird thing that happened one time, and that that's fine. But yeah, it was very it was very beautiful. It was really nice.
Yeah, I just think those moments in theater when you're actually in a theater and sharing that experience, because no two shows are the same, and as you know, no two audiences are the same. So yeah, that's the beauty of one night in theater and you go, cheapest man, this is quite so great.
Yeah doing it?
And Tim are you still are you still chasing that dream of theater and acting?
Are you still in it?
Yeah?
Well, I mean mostly thanks to Michelle for the last few years, we've been doing shows together now for three years, comedy shows. Each each of those shows I've gotten, I've become more and more involved in, and like the first one that we did Average Bear in twenty twenty one was just the two of us and I just sort of sat in the back and was playing the music for the show and a couple of little characters here
and there. And the second one was about Michelle being scammed during lockdown, and I played the scammer and again music as well, but bit more of an involved role. And then the third one is us again Legacy where I play I think twelve or thirteen different characters throughout. So the shows that we do together at the moment are my creative outlet as well. Yeah, so it's definitely still something that is incredibly I'm incredibly passionate about.
Yeah, how does that work for the two of you? Is it all collaborative or how does it?
How do you work together?
It's Michelle, It's definitely Michelle. Okay, Michelle.
Yeah.
I write the shows and I give him his lines and I, you know, a week before show. Yeah, more the first trial show, I'll say, oh, by the way, here's these songs I wrote and learn them and make them sound nice on the guitar, because I he's a much better musician than I am, so he really punches up the song.
Quite often. I will read through the script and notice a line that I've said to Michelle months in advanced.
Which is, yeah, I take his taken and put.
Into the show somewhere for me.
So that's the question I was going to ask you.
Do you guys walk around with a notebook or voice notes in your pocket?
And is it like a hard to switch off?
It is hard to I mean the amount of times I've been like, Tim, can you text me sexyish fish flappy arms? Like he just like I just have had an idea that I'm like, this will get me back to that idea. I think he's my walking notebook to Yeah.
It's always a text It's never can you just write this down? It's always text me this, text me this random line out of context that will make no sense to anybody, but I'll be able to turn it into something.
I need a notification. I'm not good at checking my phone, so I need something that's like needs my attention.
Were you funny as a kid or were both of you funny as a kid? I mean, how did comedy? You know you don't hear of too many female comedians. I know there's a lot more now, But like, is that something you wanted as a young girl.
I think I just I wanted to be in musicals. That was my main thing that I wanted because I sing and I love singing, and I wanted to be an actor, and I saw a path. I think I just sort of saw you can have a bit of a head start if you make your own stuff, and I think that's what happened. But I always loved comedy. I never set out to be a stand up comedian, and I do describe myself as an actor rather than a stand up really because that's I think that's really
what I am. But I yeah, I think I was always funny, and I think I always loved comedy, Like I've got all these VHS tapes of the Gala and my fav I was twelve years old and I made my friend sit down and watch Good News Week like I was a real comedy nerd. But I didn't think it was for me because, as you say, there weren't that many women. There were a few, but there weren't that many. And so now I think it's a really different landscape and I think it's very much less a
boy's club. But yeah, I just sort of fell into it because I was like, well, I'm going to write my own shows so that I get to be the person who gets offered things rather than always having to audition for things. Like I did that very deliberately, and I've been very lucky. But I think that I didn't know what I was going to make, and I just I set out to make something and I liked making
people laugh, and it turned out I was. I was alright at it, I suppose because I'd exposed myself to so much of it.
Well, you were one of those kids that we see on Instagram just singing songs and making stuff up.
Would that have been you if you're a little kid today.
Yeah, yeah, I was a nightmare. And I if given access to like cameras. I had a video camera that my parents gave me and I used to make movies and all the time I'd interrupt my parents dinner parties and be like, guys, I've written a song, listen. I was so annoying. I was exhausted, and I don't know if I've gotten any better. I've just monetized it.
Well done, Well done.
That's a true gift.
It is giving gifts right there.
And Tim, were you always playing guitar or music? Always? It is guitar your instruments?
Yeah, I Guitar's my main instrument. I play a little bit of others, like a little bit of piano, a little bit of banjo.
Everything. He's that kind of just picks it up.
Yeah, I'm quite lucky. I've got quite a good ear that I can, but guitar is my main one. And my dad was is a guitarist, hobby guitarist. I would always pick up his guitar and I got lessons would be, you know, just strumming incredibly annoying noises that they would have absolutely hated around the house. Yeah. So I describe myself probably as as a musician first, then actor and comedian is like right down the bottom for me.
So when you were at UNI, so let's just go back to that. You're at UNI at Woga and what you're studying. When you realize that, do you think a lot of teachers end up as performers?
I think so.
Yeah. Lawyers.
Lawyers love it. Yeah, lawyers absolutely love it. Even in my cohort at UNI, of the teachers, there was quite a number that transferred over into into acting as well. And we're like, this teaching is not for me. I was going to be an English and drama teacher. They were my two passionate subjects at school and things that I loved. So I was doing acting at UNI as like an elective for the drama teaching, and I had just found myself drawn more to that than to the teaching.
And I distinctly remember like calling my mum when I'd made the decision to swap over, expecting her to have a bit more push back because in her mind, you know, teaching is a much more solid career than acting. But I told her, and she took a pause that, I mean, it could have been two seconds, it could have been two hours. I'm not really sure how long the pause was.
But immediately she was like, great, all right, if that's what you want to do, if that's what you're passionate about, that's what we're going to support you on your mind. We're going to do it.
So nice.
It was great.
Yeah, I'm going to just take the stance just for two seconds. As I was a full time teacher and I still actually work at a school part time, and man, the teaching profession would have loved to have had you as a teacher. To be musical, to be funny, and to be a good guy.
We need more male teachers. So I'm like, oh, I feel by, I feel sad for the.
My lecturer has kind of felt a little bit the same at the.
Time as well's.
I mean, a lot of actors, because you know, acting is a bit like surfing. You kind of paddle out and paddling out through them and you've got to sit out the back and wait for the job, you know. And I love what you're talking about, Michelle saying, well, while I'm sitting out waiting for the job, I'm going to make up my own stuff and monetize that, you know. And then the wave comes through and you surf that all the way into the beach.
And now you've got to paddle all the way back out. You can always go back to teaching. That's it. It's nice, always nice to have there, and it's always there.
I do like I like to teach music to people, and I like to like all that sort of stuff is really fun and enjoyable for me. So I think there's a world where where one day I will do something like that.
And that's great news for us, super anua, fantastic news.
That's right.
We just need to pay teachers. That's that's why a lot of people go.
And it's not for me because you get the pay and you go, crap, Yeah, okay, that's not good for the amount of hours.
So much, so much.
My sister's a teacher, and yeah it just looks it looks exhausting, but both my parents were teachers. Actually, yeah, big teacher family, so I didn't really know because I grew up and more guys, I was like, I guess you grew up and you become a teacher, and then that's kind of it. Like all the adults I know were teachers, So that's the job.
And how do they feel about you now with the career that you've leapt into.
And do it well in I think now they feel good. I think for a long time they were like, oh god. I think the first time my mum saw me get recognized in the wild, something changed for her and she was like, oh okay, because even now every like what I was doing. I first got the role on Sean mccayleff's Matters Hell, which was my first like proper TV gig. That was like not just one or two episodes, you know, it was my first like I'm joining the cast of
this show and this is my proper job. I remember asking me and will they will they pay you for that?
Or no?
Like she doesn't she doesn't understand like the world, and yeah, it's actually it's a real shame that my brother's not around because he's the only one who would really properly understand all the things that I've done and be able to really acknowledge those achievements. But it's okay. I make Tim give me compliments.
And yeah, how do you guys maintain the work life balance in your relationship.
I think one thing that has really helped us be able to successfully work together, and I mean we tour of the world together and do shows together. Now, I think one thing that really helped is that we met at work, like we met doing a show, so we immediately how we were at work and then learned how we were outside of that afterwards. Working together first has really sort of laid the foundation for being able to continue to work together, and we sort of found our life outside of that afterwards.
Yeah, I mean it's difficult, but we just sort of log into like a different mode. Like if we're on the road and we need to do something, we'll kind of just like switch into like tool manager mode almost if we don't have one there or if my management's not there, he will just sort of whatever gap. He just sort of patches up things around me as I leak different things because that's just my role, not physically
really women leaky. It's a great question because we do struggle I think to not always be talking about work and always be thinking about I found during COVID I really had a hard time because my self worth was very tied to my work and I hadn't realized that until I got to COVID, and I was like, oh, God,
like what what am I if not this? And so I think that was a real eye opener for me to be like, oh, sometimes you just need to like walk the dog and go for a picnic and not not take any notes and not like, you know, notice how someone's walking and see if you can try on their walk or their whatever, you know, just chill out. So I'm still working on that. Really, I think you're better at that, Timm. You're better at winding down.
Yeah, I think think so. But I also think that the job that we do, we are incredibly lucky because we just have these incredible working holidays all around the world, like we just have to, Like we spend a month every year in Edinburgh at the Fringe and we work for an hour a day really there. I mean, of course there's much more involved than just doing the one hour.
Show, but we've got such a great team around us now that we don't have to, you know, we're not out flying in the streets anymore, and.
We get to enjoy the places that we are. And I think we are quite good at making the most of enjoying the place that we are, yeah physically at, and getting the most out of the holiday around the work.
Yeah, we just did off Broadway and we went to see a bunch of other off Broadway shows, and you know that was so lovely, and yeah, we do try to make the most of it.
I love that.
I just want to take you back in time a little bit more to that of the music. Did you do this back to legally Blonde? You guys had not known each other until you were in production with each other.
No, yeah, we didn't know each other. I sort of knew of him because he had just dated my friend who was the stage manager, and they'd broken up. So I came in actually with a bit of a chip on my shoulder.
Against I think we had met.
We'd actually met in and he sings a song on that.
That's the other guy sings a song about a chip on a shoulder.
We had met in passing when I was still dating that our mutual friend.
Now we're great, I was great friends we go, but.
Michelle was doing a different production in Wager at the time, maybe six months beforehand, and I was thinking about doing the local musical of Mary Poppins at the start of the year, and I was a bit nervous as I haven't really done a musical before. I don't think i'd be very good at it. And Michelle was actually the one who convinced me in a conversation to audition for it, and I ended up getting the lead role, the role
of Bert Well, thank you. It was very fun. And then that then led me into doing Legally Blonde as well, so she she was the one who started the whole thing. Really, now, I'm a puppa master, truly, truly.
And at what point did you recognize the attraction with each other? Like was it on stage that final you know, two weeks in or what made it click for the both of you.
I think it must have been on stage, because I wasn't really conscious of it until the final night. There's a bit where Elle kisses Warner and I kissed him and I didn't quite get the kiss right and I went in for another one, so I think at some
point there. I remember there was a time where I was doing sound checking because Ellwood's wear so many different and there's so many quick changes, and so there's some layering, and you know, there's the bunny corset, and I would start the show in the corset and then put other things on top. And so I was just out in
this courset. I had just gotten ready and I was doing my sound check out out on the stage and Tim had seen me on one of the backstage screens and came out and gave me his jacket, and I remember being like, oh, because we both had partners at the time.
Yeah.
I think that throughout the whole period of the show, the rehearsals and the show itself, because it was quite a limited run really, it was only a couple of weeks, I felt this attraction to Michelle and her like I knew the grief that she was going through with losing her brother overseas and just you know, being in a tough spot. The way that she held herself through that and the kindness and empathy that she had for everybody else in the show kind of pushing her own stuff aside,
was really intriguing to me. But I think at the time at least just felt like felt like that classic sort of showmance thing that is never going to go anywhere.
It happens on some shows, or that had happened in the past on some shows where you know, you do a show, you work so closely with someone that you feel this attraction, but you know that there's no substance to it potentially, And that's kind of just what I thought that it would be, because, like she says, we both had partners at the time as well, in relationships that looking back, we weren't particularly happy, and and then we just sort of kept getting to know each other
afterwards and started to realize it, Oh, I know, there is actually something here, something that is very intriguing about this person that I really want to keep getting to know and still want to keep getting to know.
And that would have been a bit of a tell tale given that the show was over, because often what happens and shows, that's what you're that's what you're talking about every night after the show, you're having a beer and doing a post mortem of what happened on stage. And then suddenly when the show's over, that part of it's gone. You don't you're not connecting on that level, and you're back to life, and like I said, you go back to that metaphor of surfing. You're back paddling
out looking for you next gig again. Hey, Michelle, you just mentioned before that that intrigued me. This will let our listener know a bit more about what happens. You said when you're in Glasgow and you're doing your show and it's one hour now, you've got a team behind you working. You said something about we don't have to do something something out on the street anymore.
Is that spooking? What did you say?
Yeah?
Flying, yeah, flying?
So can you take us into that world a bit because often we think, oh, these guys are just turn up, they do the show, they bag her off, heading off to the next city or whatever. So but this is really grassroots, down in the dirt, promoting your own shows correctly.
Yeah, this is the way sometimes because sometimes you know, fellow actors will be like, oh my god, you've made it, You've done it, You're so good. Oh you oh you just got off of that, or you didn't have to audition for it, and I'm like, I didn't have to audition for it, but what I did have to do was stand on the streets of rainy Edinburgh year after year after year, handing out flyers to strangers saying please come and take a chance on me. I'm from Australia,
I'm at three pm. I've got one hundred and fifty tickets to sell, like, please come along. I promise it'll be good, and like learning to sell myself and just going through the trenches of that and then and that's the nature of Edinburgh Fringe. It still is like that. We don't do that here at Melbourne Comedy Festival really. I mean you sometimes see people at the front of town Hall flying a little bit and I'll always take a flyer and I always try and see their shows,
especially when they're flying for themselves. But yeah, it took me, I think like ten years of doing edinm Refringe to get to the point where I am now, which is like I'll sell out and it'll be fine, but like to actually make money. Because you do it as an
investment in yourself, you get so much better. You're also running around to do gigs because you need to a make money and you need to get in front of as many audience members as you can because it's a great way to sell tickets to your show is being on a lineup and do your ten minutes getch or
your five minutes song or your whatever. So you're running around town like the entire city shuts down if you haven't been dead and refringe, like you have to go beautiful, beautiful city, but there's no real roads that are open, Like you're sort of running everywhere from old town to newtown and it's really beautiful and romantic. It's always raining,
and you really make friends in the trenches. It's such a beautiful place and you become so good because you have to adjust to six different audiences in a night. And I'm still someone who like I don't need to go to edinburgfringe. I've done. We've done it season at Soho Theater. We're about to go and do our tour of the UK, like we don't need to break the UK necessarily. But I want to keep getting better. I want to keep going back to Edinburgh and seeing those
people who are out on the street. I want to see their shows and I want to I just want to be there. I just find it so intoxicating. But the flying is so hard and so exhausted.
It's such a such a vulnerable thing to stand there with pictures of your own face on a small piece of paper and kind of just like open yourself up to everybody walking past, and because there are in somewhere. I think the last Fringe there was something like thirty five hundred different shows. There was a massive, massive the
spigger starts, that's all the while. So to be standing there and say to sort of have to prove to someone or tell someone that they should take a chance on you when there's three thy four hundred and ninety nine other shows that they could go to. There's so many more no's than there are yes is, which is I mean, just how it is in the industry. But you're just doing that after hour over there?
Do they ever say, tell me a joke and I'll come, yeah.
I can imagine that.
Fe like some smart ass going all right, tell me a job.
Come yeah, it's so funny.
Tell me shait, okay, your fish.
How do you deal with hecklers?
I don't often get hecklers, but I usually it's people just chatting who just want to be a part of it. They just want so I never get any real rude hecklers. So people chat, and when they chat, I flirt with them like I just will say I'll be like, oh my god, dad, and I'll go and sit on their knee.
I will.
I feel like killing with kindness is the easiest way to go because they want to be a part of it. And if you let them be a part of it and then set up a boundary and go, here's what your job is. I'll come and see you when I want to talk to you, and I will not throw to you when it's not your line. That I think they're a bit easier to deal with because you can really unsettle the room. But I once hosting this show called Late in Live, which is an Edinburgh fringe show
and it is notorious. But I think it was Russell Brand or maybe Dylan Moren, I can't remember. There's a famous comedian who is famous for like smashing a bottle over his head and being like, is this what you want? Like people go to heckl It has a traditional like people it's really late. It goes to three am and people will come and they will heckle, and it's kind
of you're just being thrown to the lion's den. But it pays well and it's really you know, forged in fire kind of thing and it's changed over the last few years and that now they all have all female hosts and they're trying to have more queer people in the lineup and a more gentle audience. But when I first did it, it was very much still in that in that space, and I was hosting and this guy, this guy yelled out, I'm like, everyone say this, Everyone say this, everyone say pretty and funny.
What a catch.
And then this guy yells out, my daughter is fitter than you. And I was like, random, I know, I know, and everyone booed him, and I was like, no, no, no, it's late in life, guys. We're very open here. If this guy wants to fuck his daughter, you know, as long as he doesn't act on, we're not gonna do it. He's gonna go to the doctor. We're gonna all call
the police. It's gonna be fine. And that's the only time I've ever had to throw someone under the bus to you really just be like okay, mate, Like I'm gonna make everyone hate you.
Yeah, you can't. You really can't invite them and have a conversation with them, because that's what they want to be a part of it.
That always it's like an online troll, isn't it engage don't engage?
Yeah, but they have lots of really good bounces at that show as well that will just come in and eject.
You just diract people out.
Yeah, yeah, no one can be bounced from listening to your new album.
Yes you can home all you like exactly.
Trilogy mixtape. Tell us a bit about this album.
It was so much fun to put together. It's literally the timeline was was crazy. The album itself is the songs of the three shows that we have done together, the three comedy shows, plus a couple of pop songs that Michelle has written as well, and one from her double danim Day's, which is a sketch duo that she did before the pandemic.
Was My Edinburgh Flying Day, I'm Begging on the streets day.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, But we've always been asked by people after shows, where can I listen to these songs? When can we do this? And there's always been I mean, I guess I want for both of us to put together.
And yeah, we wanted to, and I always lied to people and said we're doing it, we're recording it right now. I always lied, but then we finally did it.
We finally did it, but we truly the timeline for it was this year is an incredibly busy year, which is a wonderful, wonderful thing to say. It's it's really nice to be busy. But we had I think a week to get in the studio. Michelle had three days recording vocals. I had maybe four days doing some of the guitar and vocals as well. That was between a festival and then heading over to the US to do some shows in the US. And then our producer, Tom.
Tom Zahara amazing does all the music for Auntie Donna.
Yeah, he did just these incredible work to put it all together and get it out in time for the comedy festival when we got back to then do a launch concert of the show.
How many songs on the album?
Just like twenty.
You've Gone, Taylor Swift, You've Gone? The double album I really have.
I'm actually going to open it. How many tracks are there?
I think it's it's twenty two to twenty four. I think somewhere around there.
It's prolific all How Michelle, how would you describe it?
I would describe it. Yeah, it's a little musical comedy journey through my last free shows, the trilogy, which I call them, I feel like I've done a lot of wrapping up, like I mean, doing this recording the album with like my favorite songs from each show, and I've just written a book as well, which is like I take a lot of my favorite stories from that and also a lot of other stuff, and just like, oh god,
all my material feels like it's out now. Like as soon as the book comes out, everything will just be like here's every thought I've ever had in every song I've ever written, and then I just have to sort of start again, which actually very very exciting.
It's also really nice for us to have as well, because we we I mean, obviously we can sit at home and play the songs on the guitar and do that sort of stuff as well, but there are there's there's songs in there that kind of evoke memories and moments from shows or from places or tours that we don't even really think about until we hear it. And to sort of just have that professionally produced and able to listen to at home, it's really cool.
Yeah, I just wanted to give the audience something that they've been asking for because they're so nice to me, and they give me their money and their time and their attention, and those are the three things that I need to survive. Those are my Maslow's hierarchy. So I just, yeah, I wanted I want them to be able to listen to them and for free. You know, I don't want to charge people for it.
But if they want to buy it on iTunes, they can do that too.
Oh yeah, they probably are.
I don't know how it's going to be a link.
How do you to work through challenges in their relationship? Are you both good communicators or.
I think so.
I think I'm a very good communicator, to the point where i'm I communicate too much or maybe that's not necessarily true, but I always want to talk about how I'm feeling and how you're feeling and what's going on for both of us, and I think we have a pretty good system.
I think we do. I think we've learned to both be better at communicating over the years because we've been together now for eight years. I think this is our ninth year together. Long time, long time. And I know myself personally, I was not a great communicator at the start of the relationship, but I think that we have gotten really really good at working through, Like we know
each other's strengths and weaknesses so well. After that that amount of time, it doesn't take much for one and one of us to see the other one struggling in a way that even they might not necessarily know.
Yeah, we get ahead of each other's often crash.
Often ahead of it before we're ahead of our own stuff, which I find really interesting.
Yeah, we sort of have our general rule and general approach is like to assume the best of each other all the time. And I think that's a great way to move through the world in any way. But for a relationship, it's really nice because it means that like the first question isn't like it's never why the fuck did you do this? Or I can't believe you've done this. It's always like, hey, are you okay? Because it is
out of character for you to have done this? Or I'm feeling like this, do you think that I'm over Like? Am I overreacting? Am I taking this the wrong way? And my first rule as well for tim is if I'm crying because I'm taking something too seriously or if I'm just clearly overloaded. Is for him to tell me to shut the fuck up and have fun, or like to laugh at me and joke about it, like I really, I don't want my feelings to be taken seriously unless
they need to be, and so we don't. We try not to validate each other's bullshit, and we trust each other when the other one says that's not real. Come on, let's go get a cake.
Yeah, it's often, it's often, let's yeah, it certainly does. The other thing is, it's so much of the issues that we have as people ourselves can just be solved by getting outside and going for like a walk as well. That's one of Michelle's big things is that she needs to have a big walk.
So often sometimes Tim takes me for a walk, like I'm I think she needs a walk.
It's just a yeah, just knowing, knowing how the other person's brain works. Is it's been nice, it's nice to it's beautiful.
We want to support each other.
We do a bit of that.
Get out there, go for a walk, come on, it's nice, get some get some air and air through the gills. I do want to just remind you of is the is the pillow fort still a technique that you use. There was a great early story with you guys getting together around a pillow fort, and I just love that.
Yeah, yeah, this was beautiful. So yeah, we'd been talking for ages after Legally Blonde, and we were discussing I was just starting to feel quite overwhelmed by things, and I had a lot of auditions coming up, and I think I just started working in TV a fair bit and I started being recognized and I wanted to hide, and I was I just want to get into like
a fort. And we talked about what our perfect foot would be and I told him all the things that the perfect foot would be and he I went over to his house and he had turned his bedroom into that fort. And that is genuinely what sealed the deal.
Like I was like, okay, which is good because I put some holes in the wall with some girls. I don't think I got my bund back, but it was.
So worth it. Yeah, Oh that's a really beautiful story. Thank you for sharing that.
Yeah, it was very, very thoughtful.
There's a bit of that.
Yeah, we still do that. You still do things like that, which is really nice. I'm a bit more romantic.
Yeah, it's more a metaphorical pillow for it than a real one.
Now it's more like a bar, a cup of tea and some snacks.
I think I think a pillow fort is in your future again. I think that's a great iyea a random pillow.
For block out the world if you got the kid's on your mind. Guys, No, we have a dog and we really like her.
I have endmitriosis, so it would be very hard for me to have kids. But I also just I really have this feeling of like I am so I'm just so happy for my little version of me, like that she gets to do this job that was her dream job, and she gets to live her dream life, and I just don't want to like interrupt her enjoyment of it. I don't know what it is. It's this weird thing, but yeah, I did my third show, Legacy that we
did together. I say that like I'm always collecting things for a little girl, and like my life is a collection of stories written for a girl that doesn't exist because she would ruin it, and that's not necessarily fair, but like it's like it's actually maybe that little girl is the little girl that I was, and so I feel kind of that way about it, or maybe I just commenced myself that because of the end though, it's
just easier to But we're very much dog people. I never see a baby in sort of coup, Like I like my friend's babies, but I never see a baby and go, oh my god, the baby. But every dog I say, I'm like, give them that dog.
Yeah, Like, we both have always been that way that I felt a little bit of guilt for thinking that, for not wanting to give my parents grandkids. But my sister has always wanted kids and has just had her first baby about a month ago, So yeah, that has sort of ticked the checklist for me. There the guilt has gone there. Yeah, but then that's not a thing that that either of us want. But it also feels like a bit of a shame because I feel like we would have maybe a deluded thing to say, but
quite talented kids. I think I think they would be.
I think we'd be good parents.
I think we would be good parents. But I also think foster parents or just cool. Aren't an uncle is a good yer?
Yeah? We like, yeah, wool aren't an uncle?
Like that's nice? Yeah, I have two nephews.
My brother had two kids and they're really really great kids, and I love them very much and I'm excited to see what Erin's baby turns out to be. But yeah, it's very like I also have that, you know, genetic stuff. My father passed away from cancer, my brother passed away from a similar cancer, and it looks like we might have like a genetic disposition to maybe not live that long.
And so that's another question. Two questions, really, is one, if you're not going to live that long, do you want to have a child and have to sacrifice that so much of your limited time? And the other one is like do you want to pass that on to a child? And I mean I would want it to be pasted onto me. I suppose, because I'm happy I exist. But it's just another factor to consider. So there's a lot of stuff.
Yeah, it's fair enough.
Yeah, being the cool aunt and uncle taking a loop machine and a guitar over to create a couple of hours, A couple of hours, A couple of hours.
Yeah.
My nephew told me. He sent me a message the other day saying, Auntie Michelle, you are slaying on Instagram and.
I love it.
It's great.
We do something called the two minute shower to finish, and it's basically keep your answers super short, and we're going to ask you both the same questions.
Okay, great Number one? What's your best quality?
My kindness?
Oh?
I was gonna say kindness for me as well?
What would be the first song on a mix tape that you were making for each other?
Falling slowly from Once?
Oh? You know I was going to say the same one. Okay, maybe yeah, maybe I'm going to just kind of say falling slowly as well. I'm just going to say it's.
Such a great song. You guys would both be great in Once.
And we love to do it.
Yeah, what a show just because I'm thinking about it. Yeah, gosh, all right, what about this relationship? Are you grateful for friendship?
Everything? There's nothing that's that I'm not grateful for.
I also think everything.
What do you miss when you're not together?
Silliness, laughing?
You guys are good at this.
Yeah, we appreciate this.
This is the last question. Describe each other in one word. Oh that's stumped them. Honey, God, it's so hard because.
I've got just so many words that I would use to describe Michelle. I think can I hyphenate yes, no, because there would just be an on running sentence. I think wholesome.
That's nice. I was going to say, gentle love it.
Michelle and Tim, thanks so much for your time today. We will put your new album trilogy mixtape on our show notes so our listener can And what's the name of the book.
Oh, the books called My Brother's Ashes are in a sandwich bag and you can pre order that online at the moment. Comes out in September. Okay, it's my favorite thing I've ever done.
Oh, that's fantastic.
Is it a resealable Texas tough bag?
It's a Hercules bag, which and I always say, like it says Hercules on it, or perhaps they've given me somebody else's ambitiously named brother.
Your time, all the best things to you, your success, Thank you you too.
Thanks guys.
I really enjoyed that chat. That was so great.
What a lovely relationship.
Yeah, and they know their place and they know what they want, you know, and it's sort of like they support each other. I didn't realize that Tim was such a pivotal part in the act that Michelle has so that would you know, really give them a lot of fun and creativity.
I mean, it would be so nice to sort of, you know, there's your lover, partner, best friend, you know, right behind you on the keyboards or guitar on a big stage, like to have him there. I just think that would be that to me, would feel really good, Like talk about having your back.
He would have her back.
Absolutely.
But the word that came to mind as you were saying that was safety and feeling safe. And when you feel safe, you know, it gives you confidence. Yeah, that's right, And I'm really glad. I'm really glad that I asked the question about the flying right.
Yes, I didn't not know that.
I mean I just assumed that that's what that was. It's like your hand out fliers. But when she went into detail about how much you've got to do that, and that's a talent in itself, I don't think. I don't know if I could do that, stand out there with a picture of myself and promote like that.
Well, a lot of us, as theater goers and consumers of movies and things, you think, you look at these people who are performing and you go, you don't really think of the hard yards and the shoe leather that they have. They span that's right and done in order to get where they are. Remember Hugh Grant years ago would talk about, yeah, ten years to being a you know over an association. Yeah, and that is the case here.
But that's how they get so good, you know, you look at those ten thousand hour books or whatever.
That's how they get so good.
I mean, just quickly.
I watched that Steve Martin documentary and it's an incredible, incredible documentary, and he did like how many years he'd like twenty years of stand up, of people hating him, loving him, hating him again until before I even got in front of the TV camera, you know, so and you look at him and go, he's a superstar, which of course it is now. But again, when you hear the story from how early he wanted to be stand up and how hard that was and talking to no one.
In it at a pub, yeah, and get off something funny.
Yeah, that's it. That's not an easy job.
Yeah.
That to me was when I first started in showbiz and how it was gifted to me. Had my auditions and did things, but I did not do what Michelle's talking about, and I felt like I didn't deserve to be there, at some points because I hadn't put those hard yards in. I mean, forty years later, it's a bit of a different story, but at the beginning it's
it's a challenge. So they're fantastic and more power to them, and they're off to the States and as Michelle said, they'll go back to Edinburgh and do more.
And she's got a wonderful book coming out with that Killer Time.
Yeah, I know the book, the album, It's all happening.
Yes, and the album is Trilogy Mixtape and like she said, there's like twenty five.
Tracks on there and really funny.
Yeah.
And she's such a good singer. Team's clearly a great player as well. That's all we have time for. Thanks so much for listening.