It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload, the podcast last deep Thereby. Hey guys, welcome back to TV Reload. I want to thank you for clicking and downloading. On today's episode with three of the hardest working TV presenters in Australia, which includes Jonathan Mpalia, Bo Ryan and Blair Jocelyn and we will be unpacking the brand new series of Top Tier Australia, which has
already dropped on Paramount Plus. I have to say I don't normally have three people on the pod at once, and these guys were pretty rowdy, but I do my best to make sure that you can still hear them as clear as I possibly could. The eight part series c's Blair, Bo and JLP hitting the road in Australia and also in places that are Australia from all around
the world. The highlights include the Trio testing out some very expensive various cars on an Italian road trip, tackling a coffee run across the Colombian Jungle, racing the new LOADUS from Monaco to CenTra Pe against a very expensive boat, and they also tackle the wintery Alps. The show is not just about cars. I have to say, and this is a very fresh take on the popular series that's
been made countless times around the world. I will talk about the first two Top Gear Australian seasons and find out if the boys watched them to get some tips. We will unpack the danger of driving some of these cars, why they mostly dress themselves, and if they all had to actually audition for these roles. Bo and JLP will talk about their other massive shows, Astray and Survivor and the Amazing Race. We'll find out when they're going into production and what we know has been planned so far.
You will find out what they really think of each other, and you'll hear that in the podcast. I was curious to know if they ever met before, and whether or not the first time they were together was actually in front of the cameras. There is actually so much to one pack with the boys today, So sit back and relax as we talk about the wonderful world of top Gear Australia.
Ah hi oo hey, oh is that a real fire or is that a flight? Backgrounds.
I'm actually in Warburton, Victoria and if you look at the bricks, though, it looks like I've set fire out of the house.
How are you lighting yourself?
You've got very even lighting there and you've got like a yeah, turn around, so we got to see it all light.
I probably will all over if I try and do that, but I can tell you there's a skylight that's up there which is making me look like quite good.
I said to my ring white man, which you have a ring?
Can we be sitting this?
I can get the get into this.
Guys.
Great to see you boys, and great to see you guys all on top Gear Australia.
This is very exciting, great to see.
Thank you very much having us on the podcast.
Thank you.
You are existing in the future.
I am in episode two, you all three of you get your rigs out. I don't know how many episodes you've all seen.
But he doesn't. He doesn't, he doesn't, he refuses to.
I keep my rig for podcasts.
Actually, you know, while I was watching a YouTube of you doing some chin ups on a tree earlier, so I understand the rigs good behind the clothes.
Thank you. What kind of podcast is this?
I think next series you're going to take your shirt off a series three three D.
Yeah, anyway, but these boys are for anybody of interest in one of the episodes that drops on May the seventeenth, The boys do take One of the boys removes everything, and one of them is just in other pants.
And if that's the kind of thing you'd like to see, then check it out.
I've seen it. I watched it before.
How did you see it? You got a little pre preview?
He did?
I did. I got to watch. I haven't seen episode one, but I watched episode two and man alive this show. Like, I'm not into cars, but there's something in this show for everybody. I was thoroughly entertained.
Did you see any cars catch on fire? I did. Yeah, we don't speak about that. A lot of cars were destroyed.
But one thing I just like to clear up who was driving the car that hit the car that caused one of them to catch on fire.
Okay, so the yellow car was the one that had the petrol coming out of it, and that was not BeO because Bo was in the jeep. So the mister bean yellow car, I think, as you black.
Yeah, yes, and who crashed into it?
JLP crashed He was trying to help you out. He was helping to try.
What we discovered today was that he had his foot on the brake the entire time, which is why I couldn't push him up the hill, which is why we had to hit him a little bit harder each time. So they the way they edit it, they edited out the four hits before that.
And we've just learned today that he had his foot on the brake. So he was an idiot. He calls he caused the fire four months.
Waiting for the explosion though, like I thought, maybe there wasn't enough money in the paramount budget for a huge car explosion at that point.
Yeah, there's money in the budget. We just we just got the fight to the fire before the fire got too de fuel.
I tried to remove the boys from the fire because I care about them.
I tried to say their lives, and they didn't listen. They didn't listen at all.
He ran, I mean, I ran all my life and I called from a distance, get away from the car, mom.
Yeah, a little bit of that going on as well.
He thought he was on fire for two and a half weeks.
He's running around in underwear. He's like, is that the fire? Is that break the star?
I'm on fire, Jonathan. I was going to ask you, what was your relationship with top Gia. Before signing onto this, had you been watching any of the incarnations of this series that had happened around the world.
Yeah. Absolutely.
I was a huge fan of the show from its inception in the early two thousands and.
Watched all of it.
I watched the current the current guys, I've watched the US version as well. And I've said this before, but I was I had this fantasy of being invited onto the show as a star and a reasonably priced card, but I wasn't. He wasn't famous, and I wasn't famous enough to be invited. But I always had this fantasy who being, you know, being invited on.
So when I finally got the show was dream come true.
And both this is the third time Australia has seen or taken a swim at top Gear franchise. What makes this series different to what we've seen because it was on SPS and I was on Channel nine and then now Paramount has it. Do you know what the take is and how it's different this time around.
Well, I can't really speak on the first two to be honest with you, because I haven't seen much of them at all. It's just got an appetite this country for it. People love top kre you can talk. It's a household name and you can talk to anyone from really any error and there is a huge appetite in this country. Now, we do some serious traveling in this show, and I work on a travel show and we do
just as much, if not more, traveling this series. So we showcase parts of parts of the world that I hadn't even been to, some places I hadn't even heard of, and we drive cars that represent that country. So we sort of on the traditional top ki, but we also put our own spin on it. We're three completely different individuals from different backgrounds, but we remain true to ourselves. We have our own personalities and we don't waiver. We just stick to what we know and that comes through
from right at the beginning. We all like different cars, which you'll see very early on for different reasons, and that'll appeal to all different markets. I mean, we are honest with ourselves and honest with each other the entire series, and I think that's what you want the audience want. The audience can see through they smell a rat if you go out there trying to be someone else, and if we try and be Clarkson in the MG guys
we aren't then we never will be. Those guys are another level, but that's not who we're trying to be. We're trying to represent ourselves to the fullest. We travel round Australia. We represent Australia beautifully. We go to some red dirt places, we.
Go farming, we go caravanning, Albion Park, we.
Go to ave A in Park's Country. Yes, sir, I couldn't be happy with the series. I mean, I've worked in a lot of different TV shows, but this was this was long, it was ruling, was tough, and we left We left it all out there every day.
What I'd say, also just to support that is what was a real like hon it for me. And one of my favorite parts is that we had some Australian crew, but we were also working with the key like BBC crew that have been making the show for the last
twenty years wow. And so from the sound guys, camera guys, writers, director, executive producers, these are people that have been making the show for decades and so it was a real honor to have a chat with these guys and kind of work with them because they intrinsically know the show and I felt like they're the real stars of the show actually, because it looks beautiful. The cinematography is incredible to me, Like I'm a big production guy, that's what I love.
And certainly making YouTube videos, I've had to have my hand in lots of pots of shooting and then doing drone and doing music and doing editing. And what was amazing about the crew is that each person really was the best at what they may do and seeing them operate, No one's just sitting on their phones on TikTok or wasting their time on YouTube. They're all out there trying to make the best videos they can and that was supported with some incredible Australian and crew as well.
But it's a big, complicated show, so having that kind of level of expertise on board really was It was huge for.
Us Blair with the success of Mighty Car Mods, which by the way, I've just been watching a whole lot of not my demo. As you could probably see, I couldn't get past how good your skin was, and then I had to go on Wikipedia to realize that you drank once when you were young, and then you never drank again and you live a very healthy life, and I was.
Drinking every day.
You know what one of the producers said to us. I don't know we did. We had a drink, maybe in Columbia or something. But one of the executive producers who'd been working on.
Top give Ages was quite shocked that us as three hosts were kind of the healthiest, non drinking, most boring people he'd ever met in his lives.
I didn't talk about us. We didn't see that.
Well, maybe not the boring partner, But I.
Just wanted to ask you because you'd kind of been making a lot of car content for so many years so successfully. Was this kind of a dream come true? Because it was almost like you were making your own Top give for many years, and now here you are in the driver's seat. I can imagine you'd have been pretty amazing to have on set because you'd be able to give them a bit of advice on how to make good content.
Well, I mean they kept losing me because I wear black jeans and a black T shirt.
I just looked like a sound guy.
And as JLP was saying it was a big production, I think I think there's maybe fifty five people traveling around, so there was a lot and they were always going and I'm right here, I'm right next to you because I'm just kind of fitting in. I was a sound guy for a while and worked in audio posts for a while. But I think that the thing with the top gear is that you can't you can't buy your way in there. It's a really really unique set of
skills to actually get there. We each audition for it, and the audition, you know, process requires a bunch of different skills, and I think the three of us brought that in different ways, and certainly that kind of way of making car content on a budget. I've done my time doing that, and I really appreciated being able to go on set and when a car would break and all things would have to change. It wasn't me having to do shooting and doing editing with a tiny crew.
There was people that could do that. And so we did actually shoot some stuff in a YouTube style. For one of the episodes, other boys came over to Supergars, which is a workshop that I owned with my friend Marty, and they came over and we did a YouTube style episode which which was really cool.
So you'll get to see that as part of the series.
He was saying earlier before he got on he's over YouTube, he's raced race I think there and a body Carmel, and he's going to focus on TV.
Now. I'm waiting to see himself on a billboard. That's good. That's the billiere. That's the big that's when you made it. That's when your kids, right, kids, you know you're on the billboard.
You've made it.
We've been doing this for a very long time.
And he wants to step up, as he calls it, into first grade, come off the bench, come of that instead and step up into the big league instead of like a football team, instead of Fantasy Land.
I mean, you know, it's so funny. You kind of stay in your lanes because you know, if you leave the room while the audio or hopefully the viewers don't do this, but if you leave the room and you hear you guys doing you're presenting JLP, you do sound, you know, just like yourself as you do on Survivor and BO. You do have your presenting style that we've seen on television for years, Blaire, were you? Is it hard not to mimic their style of presenting?
Or I don't want to have anything to do with that style shit.
He wants to be exactly like, Yeah, I'd love to be on the vibe. Say that's a ship I'd like to sail. To help him out, to help me about here. We are all so different, right, and you are right, Benny, we do. When you go into cars, we can't hear each other. I mean when we talk on the two Ways and we're traveling, we're in convoy and we're working together to get to a journey or the nation.
We work together. But when we're doing our.
Pieces and we're testing the cars or we're pushing them to the limits, we really have no idea what's happening in the other car, So he wouldn't. We can't really influence them whatsoever. But Blair's been doing what he's been doing for a very long time. And when we met the first time, he was very interested in how TV works and how the system works and what's going to happen and how does the show work? And what do I do if I come to the table? Do I
need an agent? And I reminded him early that, you know, he might not have done any presenting in terms of TV style, and he's done some ads when he was younger, but he has the most hours experienced by a mile in front of camera. So when he did step in front of the camera and we were doing introductions together and he do his little bits in the cars, he did remain true to himself, which was very important to him and important to his audience, and I think he
handled it very well. Then we went to the studio, which is a whole different ballgame, whole different skill set, which he wouldn't have done much like anything like that.
Really. He does public speaking, he does. I think he's done.
He's been an auctioneer, he's done a few hyper your moment situation where he' jumped up in front of the crowd, but to do it to a camera webster brief, to do it in front of a camera, live audience for the first time literally within half an hour, look like a natural.
So that's very good, bo. Thank you.
That's all that's true. And it's also true that secretly he wants to be just like us. Yeah, so I don't want to be jail p.
Yeah, thank you very much, thank you.
I will what I will say, honestly, because I know these guys all kind of try and bunt down anything too.
Since here.
When I first found out that these guys were the hosts, I was nervous because both of them they are considered it like they are what I consider the TV host because what I've learned in my small time in TV, it's a very hard business and they are long hours and there is a lot expected for me and as a host, like you've got to be on there's no one a bit tired today because there's a massive crew of fifty five people waiting for you.
These guys have been doing it for years and so all jokes aside.
I have been looking up to them, and I've been looking up to them, how they how they kind of do their job. And in fact, I got there's a book that I was reading when we're in Columbia. I gave a copy of it to Jonathan today and inside if he reads inside the cover, I left him a very sincere message which basically said, thank you very much for showing me how how it works on TV.
Should I decide the kill? There was nothing there?
Get on right, you get a hug?
Why didn't you get a book?
They've been doing it for a long time, and I very much look up to that, and and I him not me, like I look up to him a little bit more than you, but it's I don't know better. I'm not learning from the master, I'm learning from the mediocre.
But that's the best I've got. No, but he's the best in the room.
He is the best in the room.
Three of you, though, have any kind of relationship before, you know, taking some time to shoot this because the bend the three of you is very authentic. Did you spend some time together before stepping in front of the cameras?
Like?
What did you try and do? To try?
And we went out for lunch once ago.
I tried to revite him over for dinner, but he keeps like he doesn't just doesn't turn up.
It's too.
Up.
Yeah, I invited him over I don't know how many times and he never accepts.
That comes up with true bo.
Yeah, we keep trying, We keep trying.
I don't know.
Have you invited him over? Yeah?
Bought to la. Is that where you invited me?
Yeah?
I'll call see you and see you in twenty hours.
That waits for you to go overseas with your family and goes. Hey, mate, if you're around the Inner West night, would you like to come over for a barbecue peanut head.
I just landed him player till coming? How am I? And you know that I landed there? You saw my Instagram store. I keep inviting you want to invite me over?
I keep inviting them over.
Anyway, I'm going to make them the best bolon as they've ever had, that because I'm happy their wives making better bolinas.
Of course, our wives made better what they do.
It doesn't matter, of course.
They make that.
We do what you have this man, Yeah, okay, anyway, come over tonight. I'll show you some meat sometimes.
Sim There is a hilarious gag in episode two as well about Granted the fact that you know, Grant d you would have loved to have done this show and didn't get to do it.
Was that justa was rifted?
Or was that? It's true? Good?
Great?
None, None of this stuff is scripted.
But Grand Daniel is a fast, superior driver to all of us in here. I have been alongside him in a lotus down the straight of Bathist. He breaks even later than jail p does. Incredible driver, lovely bloke. Actually the other week family, I think this is the part where these guys wanted me to check their genitals for fish.
Is that correct?
Yeah, yeah, Grant Daniel would have one hundred percent swam. Yeah he went. At that moment we knew we should have had Grant Daniel. He made a mistake. We made a mistake, but we're going to do you know what. I got to keep going what you asked.
And Grant would have wanted too much money to start. Maybe it would come right down, but at the start he would have been one.
Of Well, Jonathan and Bow, you know you both have your super sized own reality TV franchises that everyone in Australia loves. Had you both been watching either of your shows? I mean they're very iconic. Austrain and Survivor is massive and so is Amazing Race. Did you have you both been watching each other's shows for years or have you never watched them at all?
Yeah? Yeah, we haven't seen Blair's YouTube channel yet.
I have.
No get all seriousness.
I am a fan of Jail Pet you know, I know we joke about it, but the bloke is is you know, we work with a lot, you know, Bennie, the cruise are so the world is so small, This industry is so small. You'll bumpy to people that work on surviving a bumpy of people who work on the race or batch. Everyone moves around, so you hear stories, and I'm always inquisitive about other hosts, what they're how
they prepare, what their techniques are with their diets. Like I'm very inquisitive to see what other people like, whether you pick up a tip from them, or whether you try and even get a competitive edge, because you know, obviously everyone's in the same game. But I'd always been very inquisitive about him because the show is very silly. As you're away for a long time, you're away from
your friends and family. Conditions are hard, conditions are hard, conditions are humid, and you get tested on so many levels. And he stood the test of time absolutely And you could watch an episode, whether it's one or twenty four, Jail penill still give you the same the exact same team boring shit say, performance Jari is so high. So I was always very inquisitive. But I didn't really have much to do with him. I didn't I never really
seen him. I bumped into him once when I just finished the Australian series of Amazing Race about three or four years ago, and he just finished the Australian Survivor, which in my opinion, the Aussie one was probably the physically, but I think I spoke to you just after it was the physically, physically and mentally, probably the hardest thing
I've ever filmed, and he said the same thing. So outside of that, until we saw each other on the first day, we didn't really have much to do with each other, but we knew that when we stepped in front of camera we both respected each other and our preparation and techniques, and I feel like we learned a little bit from each other as well.
Would you ever do Australian Survivor?
No way, There's no food. Yeah, food, men, you know what I'm like with no food, no food.
I think you walked out. I think Alex Medvodikas once told me you left I'm a celebrity, get me out of here because there was no food.
No food. Yeah, I mean look a few weeks in for me. I spoke to you after that as well.
Food look like it's a torture technique.
And I thought got in the jungle that they look ast me. You know, he's a cupcake, He's a couple of bit of chicken. I s little cake zero he you want a little bit of banana? No, no, no, there was none of that. I was tread like everyone else.
But Jonathan, would you ever do the Amazing Race? Because I mean there guess there's going to be another celebrity version this year. Is it too late for you to go on Bow's show as a contestant.
That's a good idea.
Yeah, we're doing another stuby one.
You didn't tell me that.
I don't see it. I would have played a partner. You and I do it together. Yeah, and that's good. I like that.
It's a good Actually think can you do that?
That's a good angle you want to see If you'd be too expensive, No, I'll do it for cheap. I'll do it really how much? It's too expen way too much. See we bleue. We only get grant grant it. He did it last year. He did want Yeah, well that's shot.
You travel around the world and I got sick.
But if he, if he had another opportunity, he would go great at it. Him and his watch.
I love to see.
This is the problem with grand You could do your show better than you, my show better than the top.
I'll be a better than all of us. How would he go on Survivor?
He pressed himself down to market book. Yeah, Survivor. Yeah. Good.
Well though, if you had to choose between their shows though, you know, if a push came to shove, would you pick Survivor or Amazing Race? Like? Which one is your cup of teams?
I have to watch one of them Survivors everybody.
I've seen the promos of Survivor and it looks like everybody has no food and is running around on the beach. And so because of that, I think I do the Amazing Race because they get food, right, yeah, food, Amazing Race.
You get more money on the thing, and you know we don't need that, we don't.
He doesn't he No, no, no, it's not about that about how we like you.
We like your We watch mighty camos, right, we leave comments like when you.
Tell us subscribe, which he does, does he?
I just you don't even have a YouTube because I.
Get I've got my daughter like subscribe subscribe, which is at home right now for three different friends over every They've got to like subscribe your channel.
And then we just many of them. Afternoon tea I.
Started, I said to j LP, I said, I need to break into the survivor mindset, and he recommended one to start watching and I started.
Watching it, and this is cute.
Bo and I have been watching it synchronized at home, and then we send each other messages because we have a special WhatsApp.
Group just the three of us, none of the producers. And and then yeah.
Well, well, well you know what that the LP is quite an attractive fellow.
I know what exactly did she say. I can't remember the words. She said. He was hot mom.
That was my mom that said that.
Give me fifteen?
That was that was you getting two stories confused?
Give me twenty.
My mom and a lot of other more mature women are big Survivor fans.
I raally do a podcast with three people, so I have no idea.
Isn't it to come up?
And you'll never get twenty minutes of your life is gone.
I actually was quite distracted by the way by all of the clothing. Did they kick you out on all of that or is some of that your clothing? Because jailp the amount of commentary that's there for Australian survivor about whether or not your clothes for that show or they're your own clothes is quite interesting.
I didn't know.
I did not know that that was an online discussion. That's an online discussion that people's wondering about.
I read this today on one of those one of those websites which is like a fan site for Astra, and someone was claiming that you bring your own clothes to host that show that they don't actually address you for it.
Is that true?
We actually met her, one of the great duo of the Survivor thing, and there's an amazing race but the surviv one's massive come to watch some of the studio. We had a studio, a large studio audience, and she actually got to meet obviously brothers, but jailp and top at top Gear. Oh yeah yeah in the flesh Okay, in the flesh she was fantastic.
Security Facebook Facebook.
Yeah.
But yeah, that's the supposal thing. It's what're you gonna wear? Is he gonna be? Is he going to be clipped?
Which glasses and you've got on? You got the h I set bigger?
Which two pains?
You gonna wear? Excess? Yea?
Where the black way? Yeah?
You know he's still three percent body or is he gonna does he still have a pierce Perennium.
Yeah, I don't think.
We got to the end of that one.
Did.
Do we work out whether or not you're styling yourself or you know, whether Channel ten's doing that for you?
I actually, well, because I live in the US, I actually do buy a whole bunch of my own.
I'm going to do there we go. But for top here, guys, are you all being kitted out for this show? You're wearing your clothes.
We're got a great I've got a great department. I wear the matching you know the ones.
He's the double.
I wear my own stuff for this. Yeah, same thing.
I am so worried about the insurance on this show. With the three of you being together filming this thing. It must be extremely expensive to have you guys all together. And also are you in any real danger? Like how close to death do you get while doing some of this?
The death thought are like injured bad just injured badly?
Yeah?
A couple of times an episode I reckon the all dogs aside. Safety crew did an amazing job making sure that everything like roads are closed. We did lots of training, did lots of safety, lots of performance driving. But still you're in fast cars in foreign environments, places you've never
been before, on the wrong side of the road. Just having here's the thing that's tricky, presenting the camera and going like, you know, tell us what you see and you're trying to drive fast, but then also do that is quite a specific skill, and I think a lot of people are like, how do I get into TV?
What do I do?
Well?
First of all, you've got to be able to talk a lot of shit. I guess that's how I got here.
To prepare and then and then some people prepare and some people are professional.
Some people can follow a script, yes, yeah.
Some people don't have one and.
Set goals, research, manifest and then have a plan in progress of how you want to get there.
I like together and sometimes it's dangerous the other.
See, we're gonna have a massive audience and just getting Friend of the Keys.
Yeah, do we know there's going to be another series at this point if they to see how this goes, or they're already signed you.
A bit more of another series. I've got to go and talk to the bosses of Paramount. Now they're yelling out to me. Can't here I'm doing a podcast.
I mean, your pieces are like that, tell them to shut up telling.
Every time you every time you start, especially a franchise on these I remember the first day when I started, amazing much. You don't step in probably like Survivor, you don't step in someone. I'm going to do one one episode of one series. It's there's a long term goal there obviously, but we left everything out there every day. But the plan is obviously to go again. We had
so much fun. But even watching back now, there's parts in voiceoverall when we're watching even some of the studio stuff come together where we can improve more So, even though this series has been incredible, we're still looking at ways we can improve for next season. Different places to go, different cast to drive, and the show is only going to get better and better and better.
How far away actually are you both, Jonathan? How far away you do doing another Australian Survivor? Are you only a few away from doing doing another Survivor? Like do we know? We all like to talk about that.
It's it's not official yet, but we typically start if we do shoot, we typically start like August, like end of July August.
Okay, so we've got a bit of time that one okay to do amazing race with bo because he's about to start shooting that soon on you.
That's that's true. Already got your back. What didn't even unpacked from you? Should a lot of your stuff. I want you and he likes I want.
Here with you the whole time that show we got six years?
What he ring? Six years?
I don't know the TV.
He doesn't drink coffee, he doesn't swim, can't swim, he doesn't have a TV.
Never played cricket, never played cricket. I mean, he's not an It.
Takes up a lot of time to make digital content though, you know, so he's busy man. He doesn't have time to TV.
But I'm about to have time because I'm going to be checking out Top Year on Paramount past on later to seventeen where.
You gang Boom? Okay, guys, before you go, the same question I ask everybody and if you could be, if you could do me a favor, because everyone wants to know about the Stig what's to do with him? So I'll ask you a question. Anything about that is good? What is it? What is something from behind the scenes, something of a behind the scenes secret of what it was like to make top top Gear Australia.
Yeah, so the first question, can I take the first one? Please take it?
Okay, the Stig for the first time in the franchise, I believe is female.
Is that yeah?
Oh wow? Yeah, because it was like a rumor that went around for years that the Stig was someone very famous. Did they ever reveal who that famous driver was?
It's been It's been a number of people. Ben Collins who have been who came out now as that he perceived me most of the time and has a YouTube channel now, so we went from TV to YouTube.
So no, no, it's cool.
But yeah, and I believed for the first time seeing his female. Yes, and fast, very fine fast.
That's an exclusingly fast guys. I've run out of time, but can I just say I'm such a fan of all of yours, you know, Blair, I've just so much of your content over the last couple of days, knowing I was talking to you today. So it's well to talk to you and all three of you are. Wish you the best of luck with it. I hope we're watching Top Gear Australia for many years to come.
Thanks, thank you very much for having us on the show. Thank you all right,