It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the.
Podcast last week.
Welcome back to TV Reload. My name is Benjamin Norris and on this podcast I go behind the scenes with the biggest players in television. Each episode you will get a front row seat with content makers like executive producers, writers, editors and casting agents, plus the talent that we see on our screens. TV Reload reloads the shows that you are currently watching and gives you a better insight into our television industry and our streaming services.
Today.
On the podcast, I have one of this year's judges from AGT which starts this Sunday night at seven pm on Channel seven. It is the Delightful, the Charming, the quint Essential Ossie Shane Jacobson. Shane joins the podcast to discuss his role on the latest season and they have some mind blowing acts set to wow our Australian audiences. You will hear the excitement in his voice as he cannot wait for you all to watch this latest season.
Side note, Dane Jacobson is one of my favorite Australian actors. I've loved him on stage on screen on TV shows, but I've also always appreciated his love of the arts. If you think Shane is a novice to the world of entertainment, you might be surprised to hear just how
extensive his back catalog of work has been. As we unpack some of the different jobs he's had over the last four decades of continued work, I will ask Shane what makes a good agt judge, who makes him giggle between the auditions, which acts he looks forward to the most, and how they plan to keep the live audit in silent until the winner is revealed. However, let's get started with today's guest. I'd like to welcome Shane Jacobson to TV Reload.
So I've spent my life in the entertainment industry. Yeah, it's not limited to just people being from Australia.
As Australia's premier funny man an a five winning star.
Part of me that goes, oh, please be really good. I thought you were going to die and I don't think I'm ever going to recover. When an actor leaves the stage, you have to shake that off.
Hello, welcome to Australia's Got Talent.
It's not like we're saying get out of here and never come back here. We don't say that.
Hi, Shane, thanks for being here on the podcast.
My absolute pleasure. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
I am a huge fan and I've been in your audience for many years. This is probably going to say a lot about how old I am, but I remember the early groundswell of Kenny, you know, which now feels like a lifetime ago.
Well for anyone sixteen years of age, it was a lifetime ago because it was well it was it's been fifteen sixteen. Well when we started filming, it was probably seventeen years ago, eight years ago, so yeah, and it probably came out I think it was two thousand and six. So yeah, a lot of water under the bridge since then.
But I also really appreciate you know, your passion for entertainment, comedy and storytelling. I'm from Melbourne, so I've been going to the sin Kilda Film Festival for decades and I've always really appreciated your contribution to that festival over the years.
Oh thank you. Yeah, Look, my brother. Truth is that the passion for the sin Kilda Film Festival came from my brother who used to put I mean god, you put so many short films in and you would probably remember that Kenny started off as a short film at the sin Kilda Film Festival.
I know.
It was actually a reaction to Paul who runs the sink Kilda Film Festival, who was involved in it for so long, actually said to my brother years ago, you know, what are you putting in this year? Because Clayton always put something in and was always a bit of a crowd favorite, to be honest, and he said, oh, look,
I'm thinking about this thing with my brother. So we did the short film that got carried away, the short film that we did for sin Kilda Film Festivals, forty seven minutes from Memory forty six or forty seven minutes. That was a long short and that one people's choice and then Best Comedy. But that was the impetus to
then have it. You know, people keep saying you've got to make that a feature, we want to see more, And that was it was sin Kilda Film Festival that really was kind of the colonel that ended up making it turn into a feature.
Well, I always would somehow be sitting next to you. I'm going to bring this up again later as well, but I would somehow be sitting next to you and Clayton and your family. But I always just for years somehow we'd be sitting right next to you, all behind you or in front of you, so it was it was surreal. And this is all before Kenny. You know, this is a very long, a long relationship that you have a sinkild festival. But I bring this up because I really think, you know, this is the reason for
you being so perfect for the role on AGT. You know you've been in the position. You know, you've worked hard crafting stories and have been judged, and I think that makes you someone who gets it.
Thanks for saying that it's funny. I've had a few. I've heard reports and heard people say there was even Spider every strame under the buses. You will Spider Everett's footballer a radio host. I heard that he said on a radio show up in Queensland or something. I have no idea what we'd be watching that Kenny guy. You know, what would he know about entertainment?
And I don't.
It's not people's job to know what you've done in your life. But it's interesting I have even now that I'm doing here Spray the musical as well, people have said, you know, what do you do to what have you done to prepare for having a go at doing music theater. I'm like, well, I haven't had to have a go at it, you know. I started. I did at thirteen years of amateur theater. I tap dance for two years. I had a band for two years. I've sung on albums. I've sung at Carol's. I've done now I think six
or seven professional music theater performances and professional plays. I don't know what of these now twenty movies. You know. I've done a stand up comedy. I've been a corporate MC. I used to do audience warm up, so you know a version of stand up comedy where I had a fresh audience every night for about seven years. And so yeah, I've spent my whole life, you know. And and other people's bands have performed, you know, both sung and m
seeded events. So I've spent my life in the entertainment industry, and like it is all of my life, you know, I start my first you know, I've always joked that my first performance was at eight, and then I used to say it was actually about quarter past eight, but who's county. But I've been on stage and my brother being a director, you know, I used to appear in his film projects, in short films when I was a kid, you know. So yeah, and there's not there's not a
corner of it that I haven't played in. Also, I used to do event management and did fireworks and I was a lighting designer. So and I've worked. But you know, I've been a house ticket theater venues and produced documentaries and been a part of producing movies and now I do theater production produce. I'm going into producing in theaters as well. So there's not there's not a kind of a corner of entertainment that I haven't played in, only
because I love it like it's it's my playground. And if someone says, so, do you only play on the swings, No, I play on the slide, playing on the hoops, you know what I mean. So yeah, there's not a corner
of entertainment that I haven't tried to spend time in. So, you know, I do think I know it well because my mum had a dance school, my sisters were dancers, my brother's a director, and my dad did stand up comedy, you know, so it is our world and we come from Carnival's so it's in our blood as well.
I mean it is, that's the best way to describe it. It's in your blood. I even remember I worked at the radio station I think it was Gold I was working a Golden mix selling advertising in early two thousand and I remember didn't you come in and voice a character for a while?
I mean, yeah, she got a good memory. Yeah, So I was on Gold FM for about a year, I think a year. So I had a segment called the sixty Minute Challenge, which was on Friday mornings with Sean crossgrows and Jane Holmes. People who don't know who Jane Holmes is, many people, many people would. She's a delightful woman. She's actually there. She was the voice of Telstra when you were on. That was Jane and the wonderful Sean Cross,
apart from being having an incredible career in radio. People was of course and come on down on the prices, right, That was Sean. So yeah, I had a segment on that. But I also had a character called Sergio, who was a beautician, wasn't It wasn't the sharpest till in the shed. Dear old Sergio so yeah, I had a character that is to ring him quite often for comments and he'd
usually get stuff wrong. So yeah, I did character stuff and you're right, that would have been it would have to have been twenty years ago sposed.
Yeah, that's a long time ago. That's saying how old we are? So great we're deleted from the podcast.
Yeah, like we shouldn't look at it. We shouldn't look in the revision mirror because you realize how distant those kind of sounds where that we drove through it. I'm doing hairspray at the moment, and I had to say to one of the cast members, Karmel, who plays my daughter Tracy in the stage show. She said, a lady brought some biscuits. She'd baked some biscuits which got sent backstage. And she's actually does the audio describing for people who
are vision impaired that come and see the shots. It's wonderful service where they can sit in the theater and be immersed in the sound and the auspit. This wonderful, sayssy Hill. Does the audio described so they can hear what's happening on stage and have the sets described to them. Anyway, she knows I'm doing the show and send some biscuits to me and Todd McKenny. And someone said, oh, I got some biscuits from a friend. I said yeah, and they said, you know, what does she doing? I said,
she's here to the audio described. I said, but that's actually not where I know her from. All I said, is that how you met her? And I said no, I used to do shows with her on stage forty two years ago. And I had to say I had to say that outlaud that I was performing with this woman forty two years ago, which makes me a bit older than forty two. I'm fifty two. You know.
I only bring all of this up because of that fact. You know, I had seen things in the media. I had seen the comments. And for me, you are the most capable person, because I always think when I think of these judging shows, I'm like, who are these people their natural instinct? Who are these people? Why are they fit to judge others? But for you, you know, you really do have the back catalog of work and you
have a rightful place to be there. But also I think you as a person, you have a humility in the way in which you can relate to those people.
Yeah, it is because inherently the truth is I think good on them. Inherently for anyone that gets up there and has a go. If they don't have talent, you know, they're obviously not going to go further. But there was no experience like experience. And the thing I love about AGT is it's a huge format. It can launch a career without doubt. I mean, it's a trampoline that can literally springboard them along way into the future, straight to success. If they don't have the skills, it'll let them know
in a hurry as well. But even if they're not quite up to scratch skill wise, it is such a big format that they get to walk out on a stage. The sound crew are incredible, the lighting is next level. They get hand delivered an enormous audience who are keen to be entertained where they didn't have to advertise to try and fill every seat. And I come from a world where getting bums on seats is a big part of that's what we do press and you know, trying to get people in so that the producers get their
money back and we get paid. You know where the expression chuckers comes from. You know when the actors looked out through the curtain. If there was enough people there to make enough money for them to actually get paid that night, they would say chokers, meaning tonight we get to eat chicken, not rice. You know, so getting people in an auditorium is a very old part of of entertainment.
And so they have an audience, seats filled, amazing lighting, amazing stage management, they get to walk out and all of that is, you know, is out there becking call for about three or so minutes and they get their chance. So, you know, I love that part of it, but I do inherently think good on them for having a go. And then from there, if they're good enough, they'll go for it, and if they're not, the answer will be no,
it's a no, it's a no for now. You know, if they've got a bit of a bit, you know, a little bit of ability, go away and hone it. And that's what all of us have to do, none of us, you know, not many people get to walk out on stage the first time and wow an audience unless you have been home really honing your craft in whatever it is. So if you go out there and you get a mild response, that's Okay, that's that's experience, and that is you know, so many people burn their
first batch of goms. You know, that's that's all part of it. So you know, they should never be heartbroken, and we're never angry or annoyed that they've come out and had to go. Good on them, but they can always come back and a lot of them do come back. People should know a lot of them do come back and do better. Well.
I think that that's some of these talent shows. You know, people too of the world, you know, entering themselves into these and we see some of that. How many seasons?
Is this?
This is your second season? Is that right?
It's that funny thing which you would know is it's my second show, but it's my fourth season. And what I mean by that is we had so many false starts, I know, you know, we had so Neil Patrick Harris and Alicia Dixon were here in Australia ready to go, and then of course COVID happened and they got put back on planes and we had a couple of false starts. So it's the fourth time I've been supposed to do it. It's the second time I've done.
It, hopefully to get paid for all of them.
I've got to do the show to get paid.
On the catch twenty two. You know Neil Patrick Harris, you know that was a really good get for this show and you obviously didn't get that chance. But he was here in Australia. Did you. Did you get a chance to meet him and have a chance.
No, No, it's the one that got away. I mean, I'm I could not be more of a fan of that man. I mean he he did the best opening of a Tony Awards ever, ever, ever, anyone can how many times have you watched it?
I'm a gay man, so I have to watch it like church, every Sunday.
Every summer year. I might have you beat. I might have watched it two days a week. I do it on weekends day.
You know, so good though, and yeah, he gets here, I mean I am.
I'm an insane fan of his. Like I was actually worried about how I make come across when I meet him, because you know, there's one. You know, it's hard when you're a falling sick a fan to not just go oh gods now, Patrigaris. So you know I had to. I was I was practicing some cool faces which I can't actually do, so I just I just looked a little bit constipated. Yeah, but look, you know, I would have given anything to meet him, but I was I
was inherently aware. I was just going to spend the first twenty minutes telling him how amazing he was and the Tony Awards. But he's acting everything. I just don't think the guy can do any wrong. In fact, he can't do anything wrong because I've seen him do everything right. So that's it. I've done my research. He's the perfect human.
Well, I think there was, you know, obviously more time because of what had happened to find some amazing acts. Because I've actually watched the first four episodes of this season, and the show is actually quite amazing to watch. I think we all because we're so familiar with the format, we're like, oh, yeah, that show is coming back. But it is a spectacle. It is something really engaging, and you are watching these amazing, genuine moments that are mind
blowing and quite exhilarating. Can you tell me, like, what was the most what was something that blew your expectations? What's something that we're going to see that really blew your expectations?
Yeah, there's a few. It's hard to pick one, and especially in agt where as you know, anything can come out on that stage. You know. You know there's a guy that did motorbike stunts and everyone might say they've seen it before, not as close as I got to watch it. I've got to stand one underneath it. I'm like mine. It was out in the dark at night
in the car park and I just went. I mean, honestly, the stunts were incredible, and every time he landed I kind of felt like someone just cheated death for the same cold ender damon. You know, there's a dance group. There's these girls that practice in like a cowshd like like the shed wasn't tall enough for them to practice their aerobic like when they're throat. They're the kind of those kind of aerobic acts where they actually throw girls
in the air. The shed isn't that they rehearse in like on some farm, isn't big enough for them to be able to throw the kids as high as they do, So they had to go out and do it in a paddock. And then you know, you hear that and then but we didn't know that backstory. Really. They kind of said something. They said something to us just before they came out. I think we actually practiced in a shed,
actually they did. They did tell us this before that, and we're like, okay, well now we shouldn't expect too much. So there's some kids that have been run around in the shed and they were you know, they were incredible. There's also there's an act out of Tanzania. These they're brothers, but I don't think they're actual brothers, but they call themselves brothers and they do this balancing act and you
know they come from Tanzania. This was, as is, the first time they've ever appeared on a show of this caliber I think, at all, on any major stage, and I couldn't quite get. I couldn't understand how they was so polished. Like you know, I'd have said before, many people don't get a chance to come out on a stage and wow on their first attempt. They proved. They proved us wrong. They proved otherwise. They're incredible, acro amazing with the girls I was talking about. But there's also
some singers. But there's some magicians that magic. You know, Magic's one of those things I think everyone feels the same if someone comes to you with a deck of cards at a party and says I've got a card trick. I think we, for the most part, and most of us inherently go, oh god, please don't it.
It's like true, like.
We see someone walk into a room with a piano according, you go, oh, don't tell me they're going to play it. But when someone can do it well, you know what I mean, piano according becomes something. You know. It's like that joke, what's the difference between an onion and a piano accordion? No one fries when you cut a piano accordion enough, but when it's played incredibly well. The same as bagpipes, you know what I mean. Like, when bag
pipes have played well, they become amazing. That's the reason they exist. And then same with piano accordion, even the recorder for that matter. You know what I mean, when you hear someone play it properly, guys, that what it's
supposed to sound like. And we had some moments like that again this year with Magic, where some people came out and said, you know, and they walked out with cards and yeah, there's this part of me that dies and goes, oh, please, please be really good, because if it's not really good, it tends to be really bad. And so that it sounds terrible because it means I've got a preconceived idea before they start. But it's not that I think they're going to be bad. It's actually
me it's going please be good. And we've got them. We've got some people who've had time during COVID to hone their skills and they've spent more time in front of the mirror getting it right, and it paid off. There's a few brother acts this year actually, and like I said, the Tans and Enboys, I don't think you're actual brothers. But there's the Messudi brothers's. They were, I mean visually they were Adonis's and they came out on
stage and I just went, look. I think for most of this audience, if they just stood there for ten minutes, they probably still get through because it's just amazing looking men that is look like. And when you find out their brothers, you just go who who built these things? And then their mother and father were in the audience and we got to see them, and you go, right, okay, so they were they weren't born of an another planet. They're incredible. So you look a lot of the dance
as too. I get very excited when I see a group dance as because I love you know, I was brought up my mum had a dancing school and they formed friendships those. My sister last night came to see Hairspray again. She's seen me in Hairspray before. And she brought two friends that she used to dance with when she was like ten. And you know, she's in the mid thirties now, so she's in the mid forties. What am I saying?
I always think of appreciating that she's appreciated age changed. Don'try about it.
She don't requalify that. But you know, I love those friendships, and so I love seeing and I was in the game show as a kid, So I love seeing group backs where they come out and nail it together because I know the camaraderie and the friendships to get formed. But not only that, they if they do it well, it becomes a spectacle really quick. You know. It's like
watching the school Spectacular, which I work on. You get you get a whole lot of kids moving with passion and with that fir in their belly, and they come out and they want to really almost like it's a dance fight, you know what I mean, They're.
Like, yeah, it becomes a is what I call it? I'm like it it.
Is, but isn't it? It becomes But it becomes a spectacle really fast if they can really, if they've put in the time to move it as one and really come out ready to fight for that win, and they've got that youthful energy that that's impossible to replicate, that becomes a spectacle very quick. So there's a lot of those look out for. But honestly, I'm not just saying this for the sake of trying to make the interview sound good and do my job to excite people to
tune in. There's a bunch of stuff to look at. There's a bunch of it.
There's also a lot of international voices. I mean, there's a lot of international acts which that you see people flying from around the world to compete on our version. Is that the reason why we're seeing and we're hearing a lot of accents.
One hundred percent? You know, it's not limited to just people being from Australia. And quite often some people actually say, you know, why is it just people from Australia. But if you watch, I would hate to think if Australia's Got Talent all of a sudden stopped for some reason, that our people here couldn't fly to England or America or any of the other Got Talent stages and perform.
Australians perform. One of our winners from a few years ago, he's over in America now, like so if so, they actually, you know, they tour with it. But that's entertainment. If a band gets good, it doesn't stay home, you know, to take it on tour. You know, you know, we're very much open to anyone coming and performing. It's it's a talent show and we're not going no you can't come because you're from abroad. I mean, we're a multi
cultural country, you know. To be honest, we've got some acts from Ukraine and I could not be more delighted. I mean that alone through the point that we should keep our our doors open for the Got Talent stage. And we had two acts from Ukraine and you know, it goes without saying for them to have an opportunity to continue to do the thing they love their passion, which is the arts and that we give them a safe platform to do it where I would embrace them.
And the Australian audiences were ever so kind as they should have been, and we were. They felt supported, they felt loved and it meant the world to them. So you know that, you know, I get emotional talking about it. That thrilled me, and you know that's why the doors should stay open for that.
But it also feels like a global show. I mean, you've got Alisha and David there and they've got so much experience with this brand. You know, it was that interesting to sort of saddle up against them and what did you learn from them?
Yeah, they've been doing it for more than ten years, so it's crazy at that point you've got some experience. As you've said, they've clocked up the miles the TV emails. The truth is that what they taught me was because I did grill them a bit, you know, for the very reason that you were asking, you know what I learned from them? I had the same feeling like, gosh, you've been doing it so long, what is there to know?
But what I learned was the thing I guess I knew I inherently knew, but it was nice to have them tell me no, No, that's right is you don't know what's coming out on that stage. You literally have to you got to stay. You've got to stay an empty sponge, you know. Once the act leaves, it was
just done. You've got to squeeze the sponge, your mental sponge, and let all that all that you know, flu it out and stay an empty sponge again, ready to absorb whatever happens, whatever spills across the foots of that stage. And you know, I've said a few times now people say, you know, had he be fair to judge all of them? Entertainment is about giving an audience a feeling, so and they can all be different. If someone can sing, someone can keep completely still and sing a song amazing like
and like you know, like Adele does. People like that that, you know, like Whitney Houston could do. She could stand still on stage and make you cry like literally with her voice. The voice gets to your ears and then sings a song that has an effect on you and then you go, that's so beautiful, I'm moved to tears.
It's the Susan Boyle moment. She didn't dance on stage, and then not only that when you realize that it's the start of some especially when it's someone who the world has probably looked at and thought not much of. And then they come out and bang, that voice comes out. They can stand still and movie to tears. But then a comedian can come out and stand still and they're not going to make you cry. They're gonna make you
cry laughing, and it's a very different thing. And then a group of kids could come out and actually you might go oh, and then they dance one and you go, oh, that's adorable. And then a dog act might come out and you go oh, but you're laughing because they're jumping through hoops and you know what I mean. And then you've got an act that comes out that does some death defying act. And we've got a few of those, man,
we've got a few actions you Burke Burke. Also, I think I don't know if I'm saying the name right, but they're an Indian act. They were terrifying. I mean, I honestly thought I was going to see someone get really badly hurt or worse. Right now, now that I've just been through that line of emotions, they're very very different, very different.
Yeah, That's the thing is like you kind of have to reset yourself every single time to be able to absorb things and see things differently.
I guess to come full circle from you know, one more thing to add to it. When you watch someone jug chainsaws, it's not to make you feel good, it's to really put you off. But when they don't hurt themselves and they catch that last chainsaw, you go ah. So you know, there is different ways that you can get an audience to give you a response. So this is by way of answering your question. What I found out is the thing that I kind of inherently n you having done it for one year, and they just
reminded me or assured me. No, no, it's just the same. It's rinse, repeat, because you do have to when an act leaves the stage, you have to shake that off, whatever that was, if it was bad, if it was great, you've got to shake that off. Empty a sponge, you know what I mean, or empty bucket. You put it back down and then the next act walks out and you start again from neutral from neutral, from empty from thoughtless.
It doesn't And the other thing is whatever you see when they walk out, you can you cannot form an opinion from what you see. You cannot. We do as humans, we do, but you learn to shake that loose in a hurry. So it doesn't matter what they come dressed as, or what they look like, or if they look timid or over confident. Over confident doesn't make him great tim
and doesn't make him bad. So so it's interesting. You then have to like, again, I'm going to go back to it empty sponge, and then sit there and let that. And then you go, well, we find out who they are, where they're from, maybe how old they are, a couple of things, and after that, well, none of that matters, really, does it, you know what I mean? The way you go the stage is yours, good luck, And then we
get to have them do it all over again. So the very first thing you judge, and if you did it for one hundred years, the very last person you judge as a judge, the process should be identical. You shouldn't have learned anything from another act that changes the way you judge the next act. It's just it's the act in front of his job to make you feel.
And that's the magic of agtch, you know, it's the reason why it is a global franchise. I was going to say, David really sounds like Simon cow these days. Do you think that they have maybe spent too much time together?
He So, David tried to tell us it was his. It was his idea, which we kind of joked about, like I think it'll end up in the show a fair a bit. When he'll be going what's going on, he keeps saying, well, I'm in Simon's chair, you know, he's in the chair far left from me. Or when they when they cut to a shot of a reverse shot of us sitting there, he's on the far right as you look at it on TV. And he said that makes him the head judge. Now there is no
head judge. Each each judge has equal power. There's a golden buzzer that we can all press once. No one else gets depressed at twice and I don't get to there's a red buzzer that I can go, and there's four crosses. Then the you know, if you get four four exes and you're going no further, and then after that you just got to get some you know, you got to get some yeses and a way he goes.
So everyone holds equal power. But he the whole time he was here, which was literally a joke, he keeps saying, well, as head.
Judge, that's which is.
So it's pretty funny. Alisha wasn't having any of it. But I look, he's he's great fun. He might have been do and then sound like he's doing a little in person, and he does that. The truth is he hasn't changed at all. He's what I love about him is he is some that can really really give an act that warms his heart. He will propel them forward, he will stay you know what they gave it there all, you know. And he does have a soft heart. So if someone's genuinely having a go, he does he gives them,
He gives them a little hand forward. So he's a good he's a very very good man at heart.
And I feel like you all play a role at times, you know, and I guess you're sort of had that way. But do you ever feel like you yourself want to be the nasty judge? Do we ever get to see the nasty side of you? Or or does that not?
It does exist if someone was to if someone was to misuse the situation or you know, you're truly angry that you know that we vote in such a way.
You know, I would be the one to point them out not to do that, because that's that's what life is like on stage, your audience. We can never guarantee the audience are going to love us. And I've done stuff on stage. We tell jokes to you to think you're going to nail it and you get nothing. And it's a pretty hollow feeling when the room goes quiet and you're expecting laughter. So that's your job to go, well, that didn't work and move on. I mean, I've been
heckled on stage. You know you can have you have those experiences because the audience isn't always going to love it, and and they better get And that's the other thing is man with social media. Let me tell you. You know, I don't know what experience you've had, but I've been cyberabley. You know, I did the campaign and had you know, had inconceivable stuff said at me, to me and about me. You know, I've had people say very unsavy things, and
so that's that's unfortunately. Well I was going to say it's part of it. Entertainment's part of the world now because anyone that's on social media, you know, has a platform to yell from. And also if you're an individual, you have the opportunity to be kind of spat upon, you know, in a social media sense, and it's a hard thing to navigate. It's hard not to take some of the personal. So so to your point, you know, if someone was to come out and go, well, how
do you not love me? I would say, well, how do you not understand the rules of entertainment? There's no no one guarante had anyone an audience that would do what they do. You know, it's a safe place for us. You know, we're going to say to them, look good like it wasn't it's not for me today. Like it's not like we're saying get out of here and never
come back here. We don't say that. So look, if someone was to do that, you know I would I have you know, I would be wanting to play the strict uncle and go and now hang on a moment, don't that won't work If.
That doesn't refect with me, Yeah, doesn't wrong.
With me, because it won't work for you moving forward, Like I'm going to give you the warning if I watch someone drive along the road with their wheel in the gutter. I'd say, if you keep doing that, you're going to get a flat tire. In fact, if you drive too close to the gutter, you're going to get a flat tire in both the front and rear left and you only have one spare. It will ruin your journey. So I'm going to give you a warning. Get out of the gutter, stay in the center of the road.
Don't you know what I mean? So I'd want to give advice, you know.
Do you know if we get to have or you'll know this because you were there. Do we have a Karen moment in the season. I feel like after COVID we all now deserve a good tantrum or we all get used to seeing good tantrum? Is there a can I speak to the manager moment where someone doesn't like what's being said to them.
Oh, look, I don't think anything too bad. I mean there's there's there's some people. You can see some people I mean heartbroken and that's terrible, you know what I mean. We try and try and do what we can to support them in that. When there's moments where you can see that, people expect it more. But the truth is people. Yeah, I think for the most part, people were fairly good. But don't get me wrong, there's there's people knows hard to hear. Sometimes it is I mean, that is that
is true. The other thing that I wanted to ask you was how do you keep this show a secret? Because you know, these days we're pre recording a lot of reality shows and you've already got this in the can you know? I wondered whether or not there's a secret to be able to tell that audience not to.
Give it away. I mean, I don't know if you're giving out Kenny DVDs or an odd ball Blu Ray. You know, how are you?
The truth is, each audience will go away, and they will they will tell their friends what they saw, but there's no way they can know how everything happens in its entirety. So the good parties, everyone can walk away and go. I mean it's a bit like a party. You know, when you come back from a party and you tell your friends about the night you had of the party. The story you're telling about that party are about the conversations you had with the people you spoke
to and the experience you had. So it's not the whole party, so no one can see what happens backstage with Ricky Lee, you know what I mean. So when they watched the show, there's bits there they don't know the full backstory, which our producers are amazing at hiding from us to be honest, and then those stories come out. So the truth is, we know people are going to tell the stories of what they saw. You know, I'm
going to unveil a bit here. You know, we turned through two audiences a day, so when they go away, was there for that whole day's filming? I mean, I don't want to break the news to them, but they weren't. They were there for half the days for me, because you know, they're really long days for us. So we see a lot of acts. So even if they go out and tell the whole story of everything they saw when they were there, some of those acts didn't get through.
So they're telling a story about acts that people at home won't get to see, and they'll get to see some that did get through, but they and they, you know, there's nothing like seeing a proper television edit where it's you know, the cameras are inclosed scene, their faces even the audience think to get get to see some of that detail, you know what I mean. Even the magic tricks that are up close to us aren't close for the audience, you know. I mean, there's big strains that
they are the job of trying to help it. So even if they which they do, you know, the truth is, audiences do go out and tell people what they experienced and blah blah blah, but it's never anywhere near the full pitch of what you get to see when you watch the show.
Yeah, So those odd balld DVDs and the blue you know, they're safe. They're safe, you know, Shane now every for now, but they're there in case you need them. Everyone who joins the podcast, I get to ask them a question of what's something from behind the scenes, something that we didn't see that we won't see, kind of a maybe a behind the scenes secret from agt Is there anything that you can share with us?
So I'm just going to go with the first thing that popped into my head. It's the giggles. I have to be honest, it's the giggles we have with the judges backstage and sometimes not even backstage. Me and Alisha, I couldn't honestly, she because she's right beside me. There's no one to my right as I sit, and she's to my list, so she's immediately she's obviously it's like who are you sitting next to? In class? And I've got to sit next to her and she's sow up
for laugh and she is. She's just a beautiful soul. I'm not I'm not putting sugar on a piece of coal here, I'm putting sugar on a cake. She is just delightful, right and she oh no, she and she makes me giggle and she's up for a giggle. So the amount of times I'll be telling her jokes and talking about like she wanted to learn Australian isn't since she wanted to go. She like, the same as you've said,
tell me something we don't know. She's like, tell me, tell me something I don't know about Australia, tell me some lingo whatever. So I was teaching her stuff like chuck a yweie, and I said, She's like, what I'm like, chuck yeweie. I said, anywhere in Australia say just chuck a yewey up here. They know we're going to turn around.
I said, but in your country you probably have to say something really long and labored, like let's let's let's just go around the up here and when you see that signpost, I think what we should do is we're heading north now we need to get herself heading south in a hurry, said in Australia to say, chuck a yeweie. But yeah, so I love talking to her about I taught her yna. I taught her the beauty.
Of she's on the show right, you know she does that. Well.
I taught her that because she said she said what I said, well, yena is an Australian thing, which is the nicest know you can get. So when someone says, you know tonight, if I drop around tonight just for a couple of days, when you go in not tonight, I said, you're here here first, and then you get told the answer, which is no. And she said, so is it year or no? And I said, oh no, it's definitely no. Definitely.
Then there's that French act and she's like, we na wienaaena wiena. Thank you so much for your time. You gave me so much more than I expected. And as being such a big fan of yours. This was just quite surreal to.
Well, I'm a fan of yours. You do a fantastic job and I hope you keep doing it. I really do. You've got a very gentle voice for entertainment and we need more people like you, So thank yous,