Stephen Curry - Blow Up - TV Host

It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload.

The podcast past deep theline.

Welcome back, guys to TV Reload. As you may know, my name is Benjamin Norris and this is your podcast to get all the inside goss on the popular TV shows you may be watching from around the world. Undeniably, our TV sets are a major part of our home entertainment, and yet very little is known actually about how our

Oh my god.

He was like, oh.

Podcasting, you know, are you interviewing Steven? And I just looked at this person. I was like, what, how, Like he's obviously some kind of bizarre bomb checking psychic. Anyway, He's like, no, this guy Stephen from Jackass has just gone through check in and I thought you must have been here in Tasmania to interview Stephen.

I was like, that is the weirdest connection.

Oh my god, that's all here Stephen, Oh Steve.

I don't know his name. I mean, I'm not a Jackass fan. He sat on the plane right behind me, and he stupidly, you know, caught a jet stup plane with all the fans that had come to Tazzy to see him. So I could work out who he was based on all the sicker fans just staring at him the whole flight.

Right, people trying to people trying to shave his head from behind. And he's the dude who likes to basically it's atch electrical things to his nut.

Well that's what I was.

Probably not for me. I mean, I like to do nicer things to that part of the anatomy. But I just you know, it seems strange to me that this man would even go to Tasmania and do a live show Like what I didn't ask, but what would he be doing in front of an audience.

Ah, it's pretty ranked stuff, some really ranked stuff.

He basically yeah, his nipples, his nipples and his scrotum.

It's a wonder they even still exist. That's all I know about.

Well, anyway, we're here to talk about blow Up, which I think is actually a really great name for a show that you're hosting as your career.

You know, really had to blow up when you were just a kid?

Nice eguae, I like that.

Three days to work it out?

Yeah, yeah, No, everything interesting. Well, I was twenty years old when the car all came about, and I've been sort of yeah, kind of knocking around a bit since I was about third and just kind of I started outing extra work actually and did about a year or so of that and hated it, absolutely hated it and felt like I was just what we were doing and you've kind of getting elbowed out of the way in group scenes in commercials and stuff from thinking is this

Kind of didn't go anywhere.

But then, yeah, The Castle come about when I was about twenty. I was playing a fourteen year old, but I was twenty. It's one of the joys of being a late developer.

I can't believe that that's the age difference of you in real life to that character. I think of that character being the same age I think I was when that film came out.

I'm forty seven, but now I look likely apparently I.

Look like I'm in my fifty I'm the youngest.

Of five, and I'm constantly being mistaken to the oldest. It's stuck.

Well, you know what's.

Really funny about talking about The Castle is I actually think in another show that you've got launching this week, which is Ten Pound Poms, you kind of are a bit like your dad from the Castle in some ways in the way that your accent is. And I'm like, this, this has gone full circle. I mean, is this a coincidence that you're doing this?

I mean, you don't say that too loud because Caiton will want to cut.

I don't want Michael.

Caton thinking that I'm ripping off his gear. No interestingly enough, but that's that's a good indication of how long it's beens has been made. The Castle Cayton was only two years older than I am now will be made built.

There's some similarity. I mean, I just watched four episodes in a row last night of Ten Pound Poms, and I just I kept looking at my partner and I'm like, did you can you see the can you see the connection? He's like, I can, I can? I can really see this.

Not the least of which is The Dirty Mustad as well.

Well.

Anyway, when I digress, because you know, we're not really talking about that show right now, but I have to ask you about growing up in front of Australia. Was it hard to be somebody who people sort of had some ownership over it, because the Castle is loved by Australian audiences.

Yeah it is.

I mean, look kind of one of those things. I think.

You don't bite the handed ford, You've got to be very I've just kind of always been extremely thankful for the kind of the good fortune.

That I have received in my life.

And you know, you work hard at your job and all that sort of stuff, but you do need in my industry, you need, you need a help. You goes to luck be able to have something like the Castle, you know, come up pretty you know, very early in my career. It's it's I'm so fortunate, I think. To complain about people being so having such ownership and having such a love for that film, I think would be pretty shortsighted, you know. You know, I probably realistically can attribute a lot of.

My subsequent career to the success of that film.

I speak to people all the time and they will be like, this moment in their career that really started it, and it's what they're known for, and they won't talk about it.

Yeah, that's it.

I think there's a certain pride that comes along with it that I maybe I don't have it, but it's not and I don't mean that, but I don't mean that in terms of like I take pride in my work.

But I think that kind of idea is, you know, the pride that comes before or fall kind of pride. You know, the sort of the needed connotation to pride. I think, you know, I've never wanted to do anything else in my life.

And I'm quite frankly and this is not this is not being self deprecating. I have no other skills. I think that's part of my thankfulness for it. And that's why for the last twenty seven years, when people come past it in buses and yat or.

Whatever, how's they.

How's the serenity? Or when they get the line wrong and.

They say, how's the serendipity or something like that, I actually, every time I do appreciate it because it's kind of like cool man, It's okay, because very.

Rarely have people come out to me they hated it.

Almost invariably you have people coming up saying, you know, how much it means to them or to their family or to you know, how reminiscent Darryl Kerrigan is of their dad or Dale is it their brother.

Or traity is of their sister or whatever.

And it's such a testament to working dog that they're basically created this film and you won't find these very often, right, A successful comedy, successful family comedy which gets almost all of.

Us comedy out of how much a family loves each other.

It's amazing.

If you say that you don't like the film, you're immediately deported from the country.

So that's probably why that's right there.

There are a lot of people who have told.

Me that they instantly when when someone comes from overseas before they mentioned drop bears, they make them watch the cartrow and if they don't laugh at the castle, then they mention the drop bears and they kick them out of the house. And I think it's a bit harsh.

What's the opposite of straight to the pullroom.

It's telling his dream and if he thinks he's sticking around whatever, But yeah, but it is. It's good. It's such a part of an acula and Australians have such subtensive ownership over it. But are you know, I'm just super proud of that. And you know, again, as I say, it's such a testament to working dogs who created who created this thinguish which it feels like in fifty years time it's going to be as loved as it is there.

Absolutely, you know, I always like your comedy. I always like your ability to make us laugh and your earnestness. This series, I think you do a great job of not taking the whole ballooning too seriously. You kind of sit between these balloon nuts and us as an audience thinking they're balloon nuts, and so you're kind of in the middle of that.

Thank you.

That's a good way I'm looking at it. I mean, Becky Lucas and myself, who you know, my proos that is absolutely sensational and hilarious and a brilliant human being. Where our job is to kind of do that. I guess we're the conduit between the audience and the and the expert artist, and they are they are absolutely incredibly talented artist. There are subcultures, there are subculture, and the balloon subculture is you know, it's kind of been in

We know about as much about ballooning balloon artistry as any of the audience.

Members, you know, So that is for us that was important to be able to kind of learn as we go to present these guys, you know, as respectfully as possible, but also have a.

Bit of fun with them and just try not to slow them down.

To him, I mean, what.

Sort of conversation do you have with producers when you come to a project like this.

They basically, they said, we got car, we had carte blanche to basically, you know, to have a bit of fun. It's about showing respect but also providing entertainment. We don't want to you know, these artists are they're in a competition and there's one hundred grand on the line, and so it's not about us getting in their way and affecting their chances of winning.

It's basically about us.

And this is the start.

From the start, they said, your job is basically keep the show moving, keep us laughing, but don't blow anyone down. And again, whether we achieve that or not might be up to a viewer to decide.

Were you worried at all that you would be too similar to Hamish Blake on Lego Masters, and I know that's not a different network, and maybe Hamish Blake's Lego Masters was just a long audition to be on blow Up. But I was wondering about your consciousness of a show like that being quite similar.

Well, I don't know who this Hamish Blake person is or what this show Lego Masters as you speak of.

Look, of course, the of course, the comparisons are inevitable, and I guess we've tried to make it as original as possible, and all of these shows, they're kind of reinventing the wheels.

There's no kind of you know, there's no new idea and reality.

But I think in terms of what this art form is and what the materials they're using here is the artful is something that so few people have been outside of, you know, balloon dogs, pirates, swords and stuff. It's such and it's such an original material to be working with that I guess you'd say that it's the same as Master Chef. You know, you could say that it's the same as any kind of these these studio game shows, but the big difference for us is that these are professional.

Amated lego technicians.

These guys in our competition are all industry professionals battling it out to be the best industry professional.

So it's kind of we have to keep that in mind that they're you know that they are. This is their livelihood.

And it's and you know, the work they're put in over the years is so indelible and is so clear when you see the results on the screen.

It's really something phenomenal.

It's a great cast. They're a lot of fun and I wanted to know from you, were you surprised that there was so many balloon artists in Australia.

You know that we're able to be talented all together.

Yeah, look, I was surprised at that, and then having met them, there.

Are more, you know, there are more lurking way to go.

And we've got a lot of the balloon technicians that we had behind the scenes on our show were people who auditioned for the show too, and they're all incredibly talented artists, you know, in their own right, but there was only room for ten, so, you know, the exciting thing is that once the show he gets on board with.

This and sees the possibilities of balloon art.

I think you know, subsequent theories are going to have not only you know, established industry professionals, but hopefully people who've been inspired by the show and get on board and have a go themselves.

Did you try and make anything yourself? Like?

Can you walk away? Have you away from this experience now? Being like I can build?

Honestly, here's the thing.

Before I went in there, I had no I could make nothing. I couldn't even make.

A balloon dog.

Now that I've hosted this show, I can not even make a balloon dog. It's incredible simple how little I have learnt. In fact, I probably know less about twisting now. And Chris odamo our balloon expert, try to teach me how to make a monkey and fail. Zacky Lucas to make a balloon dog. She tried to teach me that and fails. I'm pretty sure I'm Australia's worst BALLOONA.

That was on the audition for this show, wasn't it. You just were like, I think I'd be great because I am the worst ballooning person.

The worst in the country.

There's a subsequent series. We're on the search for Australia's worst balloona so I don't know. I might be in with a chat.

People watching this show can walk away with the best and the worst of what the country can do with ballooning.

Great, agree, that's right? What is something?

This is something I ask everyone, by the way, who joins the podcast. This is episode two hundred and fifty six, so I think it's good time to reask the same question. What is something from behind the scenes of blow up? Something that we won't see, kind of like a behind the scenes secrets.

M Becky Lucas understood very early on that I am scared of clown Oh and this show revealed that I made the mistake of revealing it. So God lover, and she's a good friend of mine, but she spent a long time, you might say, too much time trying to freak me out by hiding clowns in my dressing room and at one point, and at one point somebody even dressed up as a clown and surprised me in my dressing room, which you know, I love you, Becky, but you freaked me out. And I'm now sitting in.

A dark room, rocking back and talk slowly recovery.

She's been fined for season two. Anyone that they bring back to replace her will definitely not bring any clowns, not one.

Yeah, that would be great.

Thank you mate for chatting to me. Thank you for generosity with your time.

I hope the show is a success for you and for seven and maybe we'll be back here next year, this time talking about season two.

Oh beautiful, it's so mate, Thanks a lot, Ben, look after yourself, Addie,