🎙️ Peter Helliar - Comedic Royalty 🤣

He's a guy that's all over the media. He's got some amazing, amazing stories that he's told with us here today, and I'm really excited for you all to get stuck into this and check it out. Suck listen in all right, everyone, welcome back to The Mason Cox Show. It is episode two. We've got an amazing guest on today, someone who I idolized and has been such a successful person in his career. He's a comedian, actor, TV star, radio presenter, writer, producer, director,

anything and everything he's done. He's been nominated for Gold Logie, the most Popular Personality on Television even and he's one of my favorite player, favorite people in the media. Right now, we've got the man, the myth, the legend, Peter Hellier.

first bit of this. You're wearing a Celtics hat and I have to go into this because I know you're mad, mad mad Celtics man. They're in the finals, your team in the finals, the NBA Finals, and the biggest things in the world.

is obviously calling goood West Coast grand fun. But I always look back at it and I remind myself that that week leading up to it and the game, which you played a massive party in the day before, was one of the greatest nights I've ever had at the football. So I think if you follow any team and the only and you commit to, the only joy you get out of it is if you win the whole thing, then you're not hiding to nothing. So I'm loving that we did get to the Eastern Sorry that the championship.

We won the Eastern Conference's We've had a couple of gos recently. I love this team, particularly the Boston Celtics. They are They've been drafted to Boston, you know, as have Golden State. But I love when Jannis went it last year he kind of said it takes more to build a team than actually you know, by one, and it's really true. So full credit to Yannis last year. But I'm glad Brooklyn didn't get done. I'm glad the Lakers didn't get it done. You know, I yeah, I love.

It's a rookie coach, you know, they they changed the way they played halfway through the year, or at least a message got through from the coach to the players, you know that it needs to be defense first. You know, there was Boston fans but like Collingwood fans in a way that can be pretty you know, full on. They're passionate. And some were saying they split up our two superstars the Jays, Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown, you know, should you trade Marcus Smart? And they just held their course.

They stayed patient, and we are, you know, one step away, one step away. We have a way. We haven't wonted niting yet besides Thesetern Conference, but Banneraden hopefully is getting closer.

Milwaukee and and Miami, the very physical games. This would be I think slightly less physical but more tactical.

old man versus a guy in a suit. That's a bit, you know, cumbersome. So it's and he said, well, we've come a long way since then, and you know, as we saw with Darth Maul and and Obi Wan and quie Gin or Quiegen I forget his name, lean listen, you know, like they were doing summersaults and all of a sudden, you know. So, But what I loved about it, and that's a quick spoiler. I mean this just just pressed thirty seconds a couple of times and yeah, yeah,

forward forward, yeah, forward forward. So Darth Vader's in it, and this is gonna happen, so it's not a big spoiler.

But what I loved about it was he And I've always wanted to see Darth Vader when he's at his absolute asshole bests, you know, like when he's absolutely evil like, and he's certainly evil and scary when we meet him in Star Wars, but I wanted to see when he's at his height and he's at his apex of his evil, and I feel like this is like he's just cracking next and he came to and he just felt you saw Obi Wan fear him, you know, And I love that.

And I just thought and that that when the fight started and he's almost crept up on him and it was starting, it was on and then the fire, it was just next love. It was incredible. It's the best episode. Three was the best episode of any of the standalone series Andalauri and everything else. Absolutely, Mandline final episode of

menaurin series two is in the conversation. But I thought last night was absolutely I think because this is more connected, even though obviously Luke and that was in Mandalorian and and and that, But this is more connected to the original trilogy, I think. And so it's got our our emotional investment pretty quickly.

that's that's that's on you. That's on you. Yeah, the minor gripes. So I think you should be able to get over because Star Wars isn't it has never been perfect.

an amazing Osha Ginsburg did Roman Holiday. Like it's been, it's quite a wide gamut of films that we've done. We've done Get Out, a more recent film with Matt Preston. You know, we've done The Terminator recently. So it's it's it's been. It's I love cinema and I always have people say, oh, you're such a film buff and you know, and I was like, yeah, but there's so many things

I haven't seen. So part of it was for me that during Lockdown I started that was just to celebrate the joy of cinema and and but also to catch up on films that I actually hadn't seen. And it's when you were watching a film knowing you're going to have to talk about it, that you watch it a little bit differently, and you take and you do a bit more research about you know, the history of the film and and you know the character, yeah, and some

of the trivia behind it. And it's and it's great because we I think we have this romantic idea that we go to movies and then we'll go to a cafe with our friends, we'll talk about the movie. We'll go to a wine bar and talk about that. It

never happens. I'm a comedian. I usually can see a movie by myself at ten thirty or eleven o'clock in the morning, you know, with six other people in the cinema, and then I you know, I may occasionally walk by somebody in the corridor for three minutes and say I've be seen, you know, everything everywhere all at once, and I like, yeah, how good was that. It's like, okay,

we'll go get back to work, you know. So it's kind of it was about having a conversation, you know, with somebody I admire and like and who love movies. And it's been the reaction has been beautiful. We've had

this gorgeous reaction. We did a live show that Judiful Lucy at the Melbourne Comedy festival and just walking on stage, the cheer and the warmth that were coming from those who had been obviously been following the podcast and we're now seeing it live was just it was one of the nicest feelings I've had for a long time.

really important. It really was just the being around comedians again doing what we do, you know, being on stage, being at festivals, and because I was in Adelaide when everything kind of got shut down at the Fringe Festival Adelaide Fringe in twenty twenty, was fortunate enough to get through their entire run, which is about five weeks, and I was there with other comedians who, you know, people like Tom Ballard, Nathan Valvo and Edmunds and these were

largely people who really Sam Thornton, who really were relying on touring, you know, you know, to make their make their living. I was, you know, I don't necessarily rely on my touring to make my living. I'm fortunate enough to have the project and some other projects that that that you know, that pay my way in a way. So that was kind of pretty gut wrenching knowing that there were friends who what does this mean for them?

So everyone pivoted, everyone diversified everyone. There were Zoom gigs that we all pretended we were awesome, but we're kind of, you know, pretty hard. I think, you know, when you take that audience away and it's not the same. I couldn't some committees really, you know, Kersey Webeck did really great these really great comedy gigs on Zoom that people loved, and that was really important. And Kursey was amazing during

the pandemic. But I I just couldn't convince myself that it was good for me to be doing those things, just just because we all had to look at what is good for me. I wanted to spread content, so I did. I started doing Strongy videos again. I started doing little pictures of pub crawls around the house with my wife. You know. I started the podcast. You know, we did a segment on the project called Life in Lockdown, which is viral Wednesday continue. Yeah, it runs you Wednesday

maysoys it's such an obvious set. I can't believe people haven't done that before. So it was important for me to put content out in the world. But I just decided that zoom gigs weren't for me. So so to answer your question, to be back on stage, and I've been like the Queensland now about six or seven times

this year. I've been the Adelaide Fringe, I've been over to Perth, I've been in all the States, been then the Tazzi and in Sydney, and I've done it all and it's it's been awesome to be back on stage. It is a great feeling in the order adience that they love being back and and you know, comedians were talking throughout the pandemic and it was like, people are going to want to hear about the pandemic when we come out of it, and the same rules exist as before.

If it's funny, they're happy to hear about it. Yeah. Yeah, So I've been doing quite a lot about the pandemic, more so about my own COVID experience and a little bit of anti VAXXS stuff, and it still it rings true. Yeah.

important as the punchline. Yeah, so you may have a punchline it's not working. You can't think it's a good punchline. Why isn't it working. It's probably because outside of maybe the idea isn't funny that you know. But sometimes yeah, yeah, pretty good in these things over the years ago, and

this should be working. Wise in this working, and often it is something wrong with the way you are setting it up, and it could be like it could just been a bit of information that the audience needs to, you know, hang on to, or you should make it more personal. There as sometimes reasons why comedians say something funny happened to me on the way to the gig, because because it makes it feel like it's more immediate

and it just happened. Or a comedian might here, you know, know that this happened to a friend of his, So they're going to make it seem like it happened to them, And it's just that is just a way of kind of going, I'm just going to cut through and not distract you with the idea that you are imagining as somebody else. You know, it's going to be more personal to me. So there are things that you know, you know that you can look at when you put the hood up on a joke and see what's wrong with

it to work out? You know, why isn't why it isn't working.

and you know, and that is of that time. And and then you know, even if you go about not that many years ago, I was doing a show called One Hot Mess, and that was you know, and I did the show called One Hot Mess and the two years, like I usually, it was show for two years because I allow me to evolve, and I allow the world to evolve and change, and then I can kind of

have enough distance to kind of comment on it. And from between One hot Mess and Big Boy Pants, I think like it went from like Donald Trump wasn't in my in my thoughts or considerations at all. In One hot Mess and Big Boy Pants, it's like Donald Trump's president and same sex marriage is legal. You know, it's great. So so you know, the world changes so quickly, so I think it's good to see them through the prism.

I've stand up comedy. That's where I think sometimes when you go back and find a show and kind of go look at or a tweeting, you kind of go look at that person said in two thousand and five. So yeah, the person's a different person seventeen years ago. So we need to let people evolve and people I teach my kids you goin to make a mistake as long as you acknowledge it and move on. I think another word for political correctness is decency. And I think

it's just about being decent with each other. And I think I do this in loopy. I say, you know that maybe we stop using terms like politically correct or work or cancel culture and it's court decency or inclusion or kindness. It's it's hard to weaponize those words. You can weaponize, you know, the word woke, but you can't weaponize the word decency. You can't say you can even try it. You can go gets stuff. Yeah your kind prick and it's like that doesn't work. You know, that

doesn't work at all. So so yeah, it's listen, comedy is changing, but I love that it's changing. If we were still doing mother in law gags and and the fat people gags and you know, comedy would be poor for it. Yeah.

it was the quickest yes I've ever given. I was like, yeah, absolutely, I'm doing the project and I can, I can, I can be here by by h and yeah, yeah, absolutely love to do it. Everyone's pumped up. We're in a prelim and I got there and admittedly I got on stage and there's a warm welcome. Brian Taylor introduced me,

so warm welcome. I was on a table with Swannee and Benny Johnson, Ellen Danak, and I did notice that they were like the youngest in the room and everyone else was probably ten fifteen years older than they were. And I didn't even think much of it. I was just like, oh, there's legends over there over there, and be T introduced me nice around of applause most of them. No,

I'm calling the tragic. And I get up there and and Renekin had said to me earlier, Yeah, he goes, do you want to do you or do you want to do straw? And I said, I do me because I'm coming from the project and this is easy, and I've been doing a lot of gigs recently, so I'm pretty much fit with material that I'll do. And so I got up there and start, and pretty quickly I

know that this isn't going well. And I look out and there's this a sea of gray headed man and like no women, like basically like it was all the guys come the wives had stayed at home, and it was all men, and they just were not getting my hot takes on, you know. And And admittedly, in hindsight, I didn't probably tailor the gig. And if I had to tail the gig up, maybe I would have said no. But maybe I could have done some broader stuff. Mate. I was talking about like fomo, like a twist on

fomo I do. I used to do a joke that I don't have phomo, I have I have phobe, which is the fear of being invited, and always went really well, you know, And but I don't think they knew what FOMO was. So they're talking about set up at the touchline. They didn't quite understand what fomo was. And then I was talking about doing runners. I said, I just I did my first runner, you know, when you run away from paying for something, and and I said, yeah, baby steps.

I did it from an uber, which always gets in good luck because the audio on his nose. They know. But but this is you know, this is like when was this two thousand and eighteen, so you know, Uber was still for you know, any guy in who's seventy five. Probably I'm not catching a lot of ubers by by stage, I didn't quite understand. They didn't click. So what I should have maybe aged the you know, the material up. But it was it was truly awful because I was like,

I'm dying. I'm dying in front of my here like your hearts. Just like there was a drink that I put on like a leg turn and it fell off at one and and I just left it there. I thought I looked at it, I had accepted. I was like, I was like, if Craig McCrae or Nathan Buckley were coaching at the time, they would have pulled me aside and said, make it your head back in the game. You can still you know, it may not be your night,

but it could be your moment. And then it was Tony Shaw or Peter Dakers came up and like they've got the beer in this book and put it up. Who doesn't need to be you need a hard bear? And I left the stage. I did like I was supposally maybe fifteen. I did like maybe eight. I cut it in half and I just went eight. And I was like, you start getting angry because you're kind of so used to gigs going well yeah, And I was like, I'm doing this.

they're just soul pricks. You just want to catch up with each other and talk about the old days. And so I get that. And sometimes you do. You do a corporate and you just have to accept that they're not necessarily there to see you. Most propers, I must say, I've had really pleasant experiences. Comedians were often kind of you grudge kind of corporates a bit. Yes, they pay well, but sometimes they can be tough. I always just find

that there's people in their work environment. They're just wearing suits tonight. You know, they're usually they're usually pretty good, but yeah, there there there are times when you just have to accept that. I did a gig for Coca

Cola at the Opera House. The Opera House restaurant has been alone in front of it, and they put me in this weird place where it's kind of like on the on the mezzanine of a stair stairway like that goes up to the restaurant and someone looking up and there's people up there and the people a little bit below there's people are walking in, like walking past me, and I'm doing like a you know, minutes whole area. Yeah, I would have been better if I was up near

the bar where everyone can kind of see me. There's people then look over the edge and look down on me to see me do a spot. And it went okay, I think as well as I could have gone. And then I was chatting to the Sea of Coca Cola in Australia at the bar afterwards and he said, I said, oh, just he that was great. I said, yeah, I said, I reckon. Maybe next time, just as a bit of feedback, have the comedian where everyone more people can see them.

He has got to be absolutely honest. I just wanted the people to walk in and go, oh they got the guy from the TV. Yeah, yeah, viral guy. So and that kind of taught me a little bit. Sometimes it's not about you as much as you want to have the best gig. You want to have the best gig for yourself, but you and you want to have the best gig for them. They will create the conditions. You can suggest stuff, but ultimately they may have their own reasons for having you on. And sometimes it's about

the audience. They want to catch up. It's not actually about the entertainment. They just want to catch up. So all you can do is go and do a gig and see how it goes.

beer they were drinking and the mates around them. It was up on stage.

the show, just it's like nothing they've ever seen. I think in Australia we can kind of realize there are some really we bat really high for our weight division. I think, you know, as far as I'm mixing sporting metaphors, there betting high in their weight division. Bradwill, Jeff Fanick. But yeah, it's a really unique show and they really recognized. They're like, you know, Sarah Jessica Parker, I remember it

was one of the first who came on. I said, I've never seen anything like this, you know, And that happens a lot with the show, and I think it becomes wallpaper to a degree in Australia because it's like we're were used to it. But it's a really unique show. With Craig Campbell, our former EP came up with a great you know, slugline which is basically a motto or

mantra which is used to deliver differently. We we remind ourselves of that constantly and when people sometimes people get critical of the show will say, oh, oh yeah, what's the approach? Is supposed to be a new show, And then you got you know, Pete Hellier showing people getting kicked in the nuts, you know, which is exactly but it's a very important scene when I do called oh nuts, you know, and people need to see people getting kicked in the nuts. But it's like we could not put

our mantra out any more than any other show. It is news delivered differently, which gives us permission really to do anything we like, whether you know we do yes delivered news. You know, it's not satires, it's not the Daily Show. I think a lot of people thought initially it was going to be like the Daily Show. It's not that it's not that we love the Daily Show,

but that's not what we do. We tackle news pretty you know, straight, with some twists and in it, but the information that goes out is you know, is you know, the information is presented and and then we just find ways to have from My job in the show is to make news palatable for you know, families to watch. Really it's and the biggest, one of the biggest comments I get is that you know, families watch it together and it opens conversations. And that's that's I think the

role of the show. It's one of the strongest things about the show is that it just opens up conversations. We're not telling you what to think. If if there are a lot of defensive people in the world and they you know, they're just all opinions, you know, and whether it's myself or Walid or Carrie or Lisa, they're just opinions, and you know, and that can be a portal to open up a wider conversation with you, your own family, your own kids, your own friends. Yeah, exactly, And I.

with them, but it's not enough. After I've bactually got three questions into into Frances for a complain and he gave us a little bit of extra time because he knew he'd like, really taken one answer and just gone for like six minutes. And you're doing you're doing it. You can't and you know you've only got ten minutes, but you know, that there's only one story. We can't just do an interview that's one story, and he kind of, I think realized that and he kind of say, gave

me a little bit extra time. But he was one, you know, Lebron and Magic Johnson right up there as well. It's really fascinating because I even talking about the ones I've done recently, I'm sure there's even a few that I've I've missed. You get used to interviewing these people and you kind of forget. My dad gave me one

of the sweetest things anyone's ever done for me. My dad gave me like a photo book that he'd made of people I had interviewed over one year, interviewed on the on the project and he'd taken literal photos off the TV and then like Brittain, and it was genuinely so sweet. I mean, he did have like the names of people that I had interviewed underneath. So there was one where it was Daniel Ricardo and Coli, Me and I got on the same desk and they were sitting

both next to me. That's the three of us sitting all altogether, and had Daniel Ricardo on coling minogue. But then there were times when he maybe got the names wrong, Like we interviewed and out and he had Sampang written underneath Dawn French was Robin Butler. So you've got to be embarrassed that he made a few mistakes, particularly the Sampang one but done. But it was genuinely so sweet. But it really taught me. I was like, wow, this

is only one year. I I I do. Yeah, I would like to catalog at more the people I've I've gotten to speak to, and you know, you know I've had done Sasha Baron Carwen and we he did one on one with Justin Bieber Britney Spears, you know, and then there's ones you do. This is what weird ones.

You know, I've interviewed now a few weeks, you know ex prime ministers and prime minister is when they're beat in office and we need a couple of times recently a next Finnish Prime minister and you kind of like you're doing that, but that going to go one of my what am I doing? This is kind of nuts? You know, it makes more sense with me interviewing you know, Jake Jillenholl or someone, but the next Finnish Prime minister is a bit weird.

how is he as a person? As an actor? Like, give us a bit of an idea of kind of the day to day of creating a television show or a movie and how you go about with the different actors and the producers and the chaos of everything, and then also writing one of these things.

a garbage tip or a you know. But then behind that, obviously behind the cameras, you have these extraordinarily talented you know, men and women who are going about their job and when something needs to be fixed, there's somebody a gaffer or getting there and and fix something so quickly. And other side of sometimes standing back and looking at cruise work,

you know. So that's almost the construction side of it, and the other side feels like it was a school camp, but also just we all et lunch together, you know, and you get really close for that period of time because it's usually if you're you know, if you're heavily involved, as opposed to just maybe a day player who you come to for a day to do a role, you know, and that's that's a skill in itself to come in

and do that. But if it's if you're there every day, you know, it's really the only thing you're doing like you you are, you know, completely focused. When I did How to Stay Married, I took time off the project to do that, and I took like six or six seven eight weeks to go and do that, and that was my life for eight weeks. And so it takes about seven years, you know, on average to write a

script and get it up and get it made. And that's you know, I congratuate anyone who's even finished the script. You know, it's it's it's But yeah, being and hanging with like Peter Thinklage is another offense. But he's the coolest man I've ever made. He's super cool. He's so funny, like he has the I kept on saying that. I said,

I interviewed him funny enough. He did a movie Serrho, and I got an interview him on the project, which I've had done a couple of times, and it was just hilarious because you just wanted to talk and catch up and I'm trying to talk about this movie to an extent, and and he is just lovely, you know, and he's just super funny. I keep saying to him,

you should. Why haven't you done stand up? You know, and you know, and he just, you know, acting has been been this thing and that was such a special experience. And I remember him telling me, like, you you just got to enjoy being on set and being you know, this part of it, because if you're a bit like what I was saying about football before, maybe I've taken what I learned from Peter Dinklish to my sporting you

know passion. Yeah, surely we'll get to that too. But yeah, like if you're just invested in and tied up in what the box office result will be or what the critical reaction will be, then then you'll drive yourself mad. You have to enjoy the experience of making it, and it is. It is really joyful. And then yeah, I love you. You did really well, you know, like comparatively to a lot. You know, it didn't. It wasn't. It wasn't as bust out, you know, a successful as you would

hope for and love. It wasn't. It didn't become full weddings and the funeral. But you know it made you know, he made you know, some money in Australia. It had this weird life where it could be quite well in Russia, and which was cool anymore. I get it. And you played the Jerusalem Film Festival and so it's just this weird kind of thing. And then you get letters from people and emails from people around the world. And I remember Queensland farmer, you know, writing me an email. He

lovely letters saying yeah he cried. It really touched him, you know, and that was what I loved. It made people cry as much as it did laugh. That was always the intent. But we had you know, Evon stra Hosky, who's you know, gone on to do Handmaid's Tail, and Brendan cow who's just a great mate and the greatest Traine actor, and you know meet and Gail and Rose Byrne came and did a role at literally for a day, and you know Ron Jacobs and you know Shane Shane

and Clay's dad. Yeah, we just had such a great bunch of people. Katrina Melazovich from Wentworth, It's just you know, Chad, Mick Mahon, Brady Card. It was just for me. It was like a masterclass for me to be I didn't have a lot of acting experience. I've done more sketches and so yeah, yeah, absolutely and strong. You know, I've done that. So it was kind of for me to be in scenes all of a sudden with Peter dinkleyge and this is the next thing he done with Game

of Thrones. So we spoke a bit of Game of Thrones, got on set, was just and Brendan and Yvonne and variety, and you know, and then more recently to work with Lisa mckewn is just like you're just better the actors. Because when we castle some mchun, I was almost like, oh, should we get somebody who's like, you know, not as good an actor so I don't get shown up completely and to make yourself look good. Yeah, maybe we get

a crappy actor you know the show. But what you learn is that the better the actor you're working with, you become better. You know, I'm not at their level, but you do. You do feel yourself becoming better and you know, yeah, it somehow works. Do you want to do more movies and TV? I mean I would love to be my oni, my schedule with the project, like scheduling, because I've produced as well. I know the things you

need to look for when you're casting actors. And if they've got you know, you know, things they can't do, like they can't do Mondays Tuesdays, they have to be gone by two. Like if I looked at my schedule, I can't do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Or if I if I am, I've got to be clear by one o'clock. It's like no, no, that's just one headache unless they absolutely needed exactly if I offer them something that they couldn't get anywhere else, which I don't. Yeah, if it

was strongy, yeah, okay, they might make it work. But if it's if it's if they can get it somewhere else, you know, get us somewhere else. And I I would love to do more of it, but I think it'll be more as a real serious thing, maybe a post project whenever that may happen. And I'll even to direct more. And the directings are saying I'd love to direct another project, becasually being asked to direct on other projects. But again it's just it's just like, you know, I can't do

it till one o'clock. Yeah, it's a.

from the same neckat Woods as I was. So we just got along, you know, and then in Russo got along and they were having me do these challenges on Triple J where I tracked down you know bill Ottie from the Goodies and you know Bevan from Young Talent Time and then do a song about Bevan, which became It's Got Bevin the Musical and that became spot hit.

It may be a Spotify, but thirty number thirty five on Triple J's Hottest one hundred huge, Yeah, thank you, thank you, it's still so did I feel pretty cool about you know, and I a friends, but musician also redid the intro, and then I and then I and then and Rove. I met Rove and we just became became became really fast friends as well. I think I think fast friends just means he became quickly friends, I must if it means anything else. But what I mean

is became quickly became friends. And and and then Rover was doing a Channel thirty one show, which is really local community TV, and he invited me on and we started doing what we ended up doing for about ten years, which was just me at the desk and showing sketches and talking shit, and it was it was kind of beautiful. And when he got off of the go to Channel nine.

He asked me along. And it was an incredible year, you know, maybe even six months where we just you know, Channel nine back then was set up in Richmond, in Melbourne and and it was just like the old Hollywood system where they had like bungalows of you know.

accents without being canceled, yeah, or inappropriate. So and then and it was us in a field and it was like this game show where I was dressed up in you know, it's called what I Lied to You, nobod, I Lie to you something like that, and it was a guy, Dave Callen, who's this big hairy irishman, was strapped into a chair, strapped to a bomb, and Karin and I were to a megaphone and she would yell at have you been have you been cheating on me?

In German? And they would respond and he lied and then we blew him up, you know, and you know, so it was silly, It was nonsense. It was a very silly show, but really funny. And I I just remember writing it and then all of a sudden production stuff would go to work, find the location. We had to drive out the point cook and film it, and you know, because we were exploding, you know, Dave, and it was just like, oh my god, fall in love. I was like, this is amazing. And another sketch I wrote,

this is a very simple game show. And they they had these great studios at Channel nine, and I remember walking to the studio and they built this set and I was like, oh my god, these built this separid idea. I wrote three pages. You know, this is amazing. So that was really special because when we went to Channel ten,

we had nothing quite like that. We were a bit kind of more on location all the time, like we didn't have access a lot to studios, but we said that we you know, because we had that year of challenge about ten episodes of Channel nine, and they he

wanted to move on. They wanted to keep Rove and kind of let the referess go and Rove to his endless credit and you know, to be twenty two twenty three years old at the time and to basically walk away from I think the offer was around about a million bucks because he wanted these mates to kind of still be part of it is incredible and he deserves He's got my endless gratitude for that. And so we went to Channel ten and then we had ten years of Channel ten and it was it was great. It

show changed a little bit. I mean, I do wish the Channel nine version of the Channel nine show had of continued because we're doing these weird kind of eight minute sketches, you know, and at the end of the series, we all got killed off, you know, one by one by Tanya Toddman, who was this kind of Martha Stewart type of the day. And yeah, she was great fun. And the idea was that the end of each series, we'll get killed off, and I mean we're going to

Channel ten, and the show had changed a bit. It shifted a little bit, and it's still lots of fun and I loved it, you know, but I remember again at one point, okay, how are we going to kill ourselves at the end of the episode, was like, we're kind of moving on from that idea. Yeah, but it was. It was great times and you had to be And we did a radio version of the show for a while, rove greening myself and yeah, really good memories.

and see it blossom into an actual physical thing. Oh and that's I think to be as a creator, to see that and to be able to have that, there'd be one I think your confidence would go through the roof and you go, oh my gosh, the sky's the limit, Like, yeah, I just had this idea at home, and now all of a sudden, like there's a whole set and there's people, and there's actors and everything else is all coming together, like it's almost like a dream come true.

hunger to do other things. But I want to go into different areas now, and you know, whether it be animation or you know, darker material as opposed to some of the domestic stuff that I've been doing.

really fun experience as well. I mean that, you know, we had Tom Gleeson, you know, a tripod, Damien Callen and Cal Wilson. You know, it was a really fun bunch of people and and yeah it was really you know, I still have people come up to me and there are a couple of sketches they kind of I did that they really liked, which was there's a guy who just spoke about how much he'd love to be but he could never actually drink it, like he was actually kind of almost dry reach with every kind of it's

gagging on be like sculling beer. But it'd be going down the store and he'd be like he love the commercials now have essentially alcohol. Yeah exactly, Yeah, yeah, but yeah that's probably what I was drinking, to be honest, because said they had to make a little like beers. He probably was one of the first zero alcohol beers. And then so I get a lot of people occasionally asked about that. And then another one was about this guy who this strange lit come in and say his

boss in an office, uh you know the figures. I haven't been able to do him yet, but can I get him to you, you know, tomorrow, and the bus will say, oh no, it's too late, it's too late anywhere. Okay, But what if I dance for you? But what if if I just dance for you? And that doesn't make any sense, Just let me dance and he just like press play on a little geto blast and you just like bad dance and that's all. That's all it was. So somebody will say to me, you know, what if I dance.

of the demographic that loved him. I would have kids coming up and saying it they love Strawny, but also signing the cards that they made, the actual footy cards they made. You know, can you sign this for my eighty nine year old grandmother? You know she loves strawngag. Can you do a video message for my ninety eight year old grandmother? It was just And then when we did the Legends game, I kind of went to a new level because you could actually go and see him play.

You know, I remember, I remember, do you have to kind of practice a bit? Well? Growing up? No, I

didn't really practice at all. In fact, one of the early days we were shooting straw because it happened so quickly, like we had a meeting it before the game about what ideas might we have And and Paul Colligiah, he's a great writer and sound up comedian, said he knew that I love doing these kind of mockumentary kind of you know, kind of characters I've done on Rove and and and characters with big ego but with the talent

a bit you know, missing lacking. Just yeah, yeah, and I just always like there's something you know, Yeah, we did these characters on you know, I did these characters on Rove the first season where I was like chasing black thunders, you know, around through wing radio contests and and you know, and a guy who like would would you know, shoot his own funnyes home video movies, but they're all kind of staged and and and and all that.

So he said, what doesn't play like a guy gets strapped like he's last in the draft and his name is up Brian Strawn and he plays for you know, Collingwood. And that was and that was kind of and then we just kind of trying to work out, okay, well what you know, where's he from? And you know, maybe he's from Horsham, you know, got down and then and

then like we shot him getting drafted. And the reason there's a storyline extrawny that his mum's Asian, but he hasn't quite worked out these somehow, you know, like he adopted or because he's not he's not Asian, so there's no there's no part of it. But he takes a

lot of pride in it. And the only reason that storyline came about because the only woman in our office who was of that age that he could actually be extra on his mum was she worked in at the finance department, Margaret Chong, and she she was was she was, she was, so she's like, you're gonna play my mum. So then we got was like he really was, he really was, and she she didn't have to do much.

And then his dad was Michelle White's dad, Frankie, who ladies, they didn't appear that much, but he was, you know, he was much older as well. So we had this you know kind of thing that his dad was constantly having like a ridiculous amount of strokes, and it just was only because it was there was never never a script. I don't think it was ever a script. Ever written for Straw and which made it kind of good. You know, we had Jeff Rolsh and Neil Bam who were Collingwood

at the time. He said, yeah, come down, and they trusted me, knowing I was a calling and supporter to get in there and then and and not not take the piss too much and to respect the club, Like we saw anything down there that we went so I to see, we wouldn't, you know, use it as news or anything. And Mick Moldhouse slowly started to get involved, and I reckon he'd be a tough one to turn for a while, he didn't know what was going on. And then we started using his daughter Christie in sketches

because she was a Channel ten at the time. And then something clicked and He's like, okay, I mean I mean I I mean so yeah, and then you know, we had this weird thing. He won AFL Personality of the Year, he won, which is the first non real person to win it. He won an award at the can Advertising Awards because there was a campaign we did

with Mars Bar and won an Integration Award. Calm like it's it's it's a surreal so it's funny and I still get people saying when when Strahnie coming back, you know, people yelling it out at me. I'm actually considering bringing him back, maybe some kind of podcast form.

in the stands and he's still be captaining. No, so yeah, it was I mean, he was a lot of It's a lot of fun to play and there's something about putting putting that that wig on that mullet that that kind of put it straight straight in the zone. And it's like, you know, and yeah, he's fun. So I yeah, I I it's more of the time. I would still love to be doing him, but it's time that I need to find, really and I do like to move forward.

And if if you keep looking back, but if I was ever going to go back and do something, I think Stronie would be the thing that I kind of love doing.

at traveling with kids, you've got small kids. Me and my wife wrote a book case Tripping with Kids, and it's it's about it's just tips on things to consider. People who have reached out saying they really love that it helped their preparing and also just anecdotes and when we were away, actual destination tips and and all that. So check it out if you can be much appreciated, because yeah, we release that in a global pandemic. So but yeah, I mean, we went to France for six

weeks when O school was two. He's the youngest. He's now thirteen. So we had a two year old, of five year old and a seven year old, and two years after that we did Eastern Europe with you know, they were two years older than they were then. But I got to say it is it was in a way, it was tough, but not as tough as you might think, and it was those memories are the best memories of

my lifetime. Like just being away from everything in a different time zone where things that you think matter here don't matter anymore, and you're just you're not getting phone calls at weird times, you know, or during the day. You're in the moment and you know, it's my kids are now, you know, nineteen seventeen and thirteen and you know we're going to Port Douglas soon and we had

to beg them to come, you know. So it's kind of this negotiation you do now and back then it was like this is where we go and everyone's happy, and so a little bit of a melancholy over lockdown is thinking are those times are you know, kind of over now in a way. So we went to a crack out and in Poland and you bought a pest and yeah, Berlin and it was just it's incredible.

kind of realize how big the world is. Yeah, it just makes such amazing memories and it's amazing and awesome that you got to be able to share that with your family, because, like you say, you probably stressed out and it's all happening, but once it all kind of goes through and you realize how many amazing memories you get out of it, and you really start to get how special I really was and being able to do that so great to you. Man, that's awesome. He's got

his own podcast. You ain't seen nothing yet. He's also on the project every single night, and it's so good to have.

everything else. He's just been so successful in his career and he's told some amazing stories here today. But like share comment all the good stuff, keep giving us feedback. We really appreciate it, and we're really excited to grow this community, so check it out and really appreciate it.