Do Go On - 56 - Van Gogh's Ear

Episode Date: November 16, 2016

Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh lived a fascinating and tragic life. This is the story of that life leading up to and following the time he cut off his own ear. Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] the show and get rewards like bonus episodes:www.patreon.com/DoGoOnPod  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serengy Amarna 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there.

Canada, we are visiting you in September this year. If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. Hello and welcome to DoGo On. My name is Dave Warnocky and I'm here with, as always, Matt Stewart and Jess Perkins.

Hello, guys. Hello, Dave. What did you say? What did Matt even say then? I said, I'm Jeff. See, normally you and I are actually pretty good at saying the same thing at the same time. Oh, we fucked. We fucked it there.

Did you say I'm Matt? No, you didn't say it. Hi, Dave. Fuck. But I am Matt. So you start again? Yes, please. I'm here with Matt Stewart and Jess Perkins.

I'm Matt. Oh, I love it. So good. What a good gag. And sync. And scene. And sync. I imagine somebody's like really crap at acting.

And sync. That would be so. Like, he just thinks that's what it is. If you just absolutely nailed an audition and they were like, definitely going with you until you said, and sink. I think that's just what a really dramatic plumber would say. Anything else I can help you with? And sink.

Oh, sure, no worries. I'll get straight on that. Not a problem. Well, it seems to be the issue with the sink. Spoons in it, gotcha. Stop putting spoons down the sink. I dropped a pair of very small tweezers down my kitchen sink. No.

I mean, not kitchen sink. Is this still the act out? In real life. This is an insight into one-key. This is non-fiction storytelling, and it's the finest. I was talking the time I dropped a pair of tweezers down the bathroom sink, they're going to be there forever. What were you tweezen?

What was I tweezen? Possibly in between the old brown. Sure. Maybe, I'm not a very hairy man, but maybe once a year I'll go for a in between. Go for a tweez. And that one time,

that one time I dropped it down the fucking tube. That'd be hard to do. Drop it down the sink is it? It's very old. It's like in 19, you know, 1950s. It's just, it's a living a hole. It's a well. talking about a well.

I was tweezering over my kitchen well. And well. Guys, we're doing well though. We're all here. We are doing well. Matt has, you just come back from New Zealand, not that the listeners would know because we banked a few webs, but how was it? In real life, because we've been in a bit of a rush, I haven't asked you.

So I'd like to know, how was your trip? It was really great. I went around the South Island a little bit, and it was super fun. What a pretty place. Beautiful, isn't it? Oh, some great Instagrams on Matt's account. Yeah, I really enjoyed some Instagrams you had going there. Yeah, okay.

You got good face. Very photogenic. I'm very photogenic. But I'd say one thing about me to be yes, highly photogenic. Oh, absolutely. When people say... Describe yourself in two words. Do you know Matt Stewart?

Are you friends of Matt Chiske? Yes, absolutely. I have known him for a while now. I said, oh, what's he like? I said, very photogenic. And then I go into you many other features, but I always start with photogenic. It's number one. I think most people would say that.

It's a big one. What's our first first, for Warnockie. Warnockie? Tiny butt. Tiny tush. He's got a tiny tush, but a heart of gold.

Two words to describe Warnikie? Nazi sympathising. Oh, fuck off. As if you didn't think he was going to go there. As if. I'd blissfully forgotten that I was associated with such a thing. Silly boy.

Silly boy. So that'd be the top two, two word descriptions. Third would probably be nicely dressed. Yeah. Golden tonsils. Sorry, of course. Yeah, golden tonsils.

I thought we were talking about serious. Yeah. I was just trying to get a compliment ongoing joke. That's the one that you started for yourself. It just doesn't work like that, does it? No. That's okay. And two words to describe, Jess?

A bop-bop. A bo-bop. A bo-bop. A bo-bop. Oh, French. Yeah, I'm French. Oh, I would have said Nappy Sand, Mum. Oh yeah, Nappy Sam's one word, I guess.

Nappy Sam. What a weird name for a product. It is a weird name for sanitise. Maybe. Nappy sanits. What about hyena laugh? There it is. Good, thank you.

Proved my point there. All right, guys, we're going to jump into the report this week. Let's do it. Which is me reporting. Which is our favourite. Yes. You always talk about that. It's not just us, though.

Like, listeners have tweeted to us and said they love Warnikis as well. And Matt and I aren't even insulted by that. No, not at all. We like it to. Yeah, 100%. 100%. I hate doing it. No, I don't hate it.

I'm wondering, because we're about a month out from Christmas. I'm wondering if there's going to be a Christmas topic based on Dave's very Christmasy sweater. Is that what you'd call? Is that a sweater? It's a jumper. Yeah. Some sort of a jumper. It's a knit.

A knit. Christmas knit. Christmas knit. Yes. But I would wear this, happily wear this in April, this outfit. Sure. Always festive. You are always festive.

Festive boy, two more words. He's our little festive boy. I've got a topic from the hat. But we'll start with a question and then credit our author of the topic. My question to get on to my report is, who is the poster boy of tortured artists? Oh my God. The poster boy of tortured artists.

If I get this one, then we'll have a follow-up question. Sure. Poster boy of tortured artists. If it's a painter. Wachene Phoenix. Okay, Joaquin. He was briefly... He's briefly tortured, wasn't he?

He played that role. It's a strange sentence. Not River Phoenix, the one that did die. No. Because he was very tortured. Joaquin. Remember that time Waukeen was on Lederman? Yeah, and you became a rapper.

Yeah. But then it was just a joke. It was a movie. They're kind of related to Wachian Phoenix. Johnny Cash. Are we talking painter artist? I mean, Johnny Cash was somewhat tortured. He had some problems with the drugs.

Exactly. The drugs and the booze. The first person that came to my mind was Vincent Van Gogh. Oh, he's nailed it. Oh, right. That's who it is. He's the poster boy of tortured artists. And sorry, Jess was probably trying to make a bit of fun with that,

but I just assumed I was wrong. Oh, no, I thought Van Gogh as well. And then I thought, I'm going to have a couple of fun answers, and then I'll jump in. So you just went straight in there. Rule of three. Matt what? I went for Joaquin Phoenix and Johnny Cash.

And boom, we hit him with the real one. I would have probably, I could have said someone like, you know, Brendan Favola. Sure. But artist. And in terms of, tortured artists, you know. Well, he had some, at some point he had some gambling issues.

Sure. Artists, though? Oh, he, on the football field, it was definitely an artist. Oh, okay. Well. The way he could make a ball talk. Mm-hmm. It was just, like, seeing was believing.

I mean, Warnocky's laughing, but... He doesn't get it. He doesn't get it. I'm not a football. He's not a sports man. This guy doesn't get it. He's our festive boy. My festive boy.

Not a sports man. Yes. That's a difference. We cross live now to our festive boy. You're just they're dressed as a cross- Christmas tree. Hello, Chris. I'm here on Christmas Day, and it's been a fun one.

See you next year. Boom, and I'm going. And I'm gone. Thank you, festive boy. And they pay you enough to last you the rest of the year. He's your one. He works one day. That'll be a dream.

You'd be a great festive boy. Thank you. Thank you so much. Well, if anyone's listening, I could sponsor a festive boy, get in touch. This, a suggestion is actually from Twitter, from P. Baster. P. Baster. It's at P.J. Baster.

B-A-S-T-A So thanks P-J Or in our hat Their name is just listed As P-Baster P-Baster That tickled you somewhat there Can you elaborate on why that would be

PJ Baster? Yeah Because P-Baster It's a good name You bloody P-Baster Yeah Okay I mean I don't know if that

Sheds any more light On it by just saying it again With Bloody at the start I just find the On this show We are, I was going to say famous, we are well known to each other for reporting on people with funnies or satisfying sounding names to say. And I think P. Baster is a satisfying name. That's a good name.

I'm pretty satisfied by that. Yeah, me too. P. Baster is texting in the, he said, Vincent Van Gogh's ear. Oh, what are you? I thought we'd get into a. Very specific. With our three most famous ear-related incidents. I've written down my top three ear-related incidents.

Okay. I know, I reckon I know one of it, but it's on the same. sporting field in the boxing ring. Are they all Van Gogh related? Number three, we've are June 28, 1997, Mike Tyson v. Evander Hollifield 2, the boxing title fight, built as the Sound and the Fury. Do you know much about this, Matt? Not really. I know that he bit his ear off. Yeah, right. And then spat it on the, on the boxing floor. The boxing floor? The mat. The mat. Boxing mat. That's your name. You should know.

that one. Spat it on the boxing mat. I never knew much about it, so I looked into it a little bit. So I thought of it, but Holyfield won the first three rounds. Well, the first couple of rounds. Then Tyson began the third round with a bit of a furious attack. And then with 40 seconds to go, they got into a clinch where they lock into each other. And Mike Tyson just decided to bite Holyfield on his right ear.

And a one inch piece of cartilage from the top of his ear was actually bitten off and he spat it out. And then Hollyfield shrieked around in pain and runs around Coving in blood and they call off the fight, right? And then they decide the doctor says No, he's okay and they keep going. They didn't know this. They kept going.

Next round, lock again. Mike Tyson bites him on the left ear. Oh, for fuck sake. This time only scratches him. Doesn't take a bit off. And then they called the fight off. And then Mike Tyson's like, can't understand why they've called it off.

And he goes for Holyfield who is surrounded by security and Mike Tyson starts trying to punch the security gun. Oh my God. This is crazy. I thought it was like, bite the ear and everyone's like, well, not cool, but they kept going.

BART me on the ear once. Shame on me. Tyson was banned from the sport for one year and fined $3 million, which was not much money for him other times. And then he was back. Yeah. And he's still like, he's a movie star now.

That's crazy. Yeah, that's true. Of sorts. incident number two a man that we mentioned a few weeks ago Mark Chopper Reed Oh of course, yes And I decided to look more into it

Because we alluded to it If you've ever seen the film Chopper Which, it's an Aussie movie But it did well overseas So our overseas list is may know about it Eric Banner's sort of break-through Role He was playing Mark

Chopper Reid Everyone called him Chopper He had a fellow inmate Cut Off both of his ears In order to be able to leave each division of Petridge Prison, we're talking about, temporarily. In his early biographies,

he claimed he did it to get away from people that were trying to ambush him and kill him because he pissed off the wrong people. But then later on, he said that he did it to win a bet. There's only one winner of the bet, and that is not chopper. No, 100% that is not... That's a shocker.

That is not a good idea. But the number one, ear-related incident of all whole time must be credited to the artist Vincent Van Gogh who we're going to talk about here today. And it's Van Gogh, isn't it? Well, I'm going to

say this at the start of the episode. He was Dutch, right? So his real name is Vincent Van Gogh. Like a sound at the end. But then no one says that in English. So more people say goth than go. So I think

gof is more correct. Right. I reckon I grew up thinking it was go. Yeah, I think so too. I reckon in primary school when we studied his work, we would have said Vincent Van Gogh. Vincent Van Gogh. I reckon too. But Goff is good. Let's stick with Goff. I just think as long as we...

I reckon you should do the real pronunciation, Dave. It's Van Gogh. That lit up Matt's little face. Vincent Van Gogh. He looks... Because he's going to have to say it 100 times. Seriously, there's so many times in this report. He looks so happy when you say it.

All right. try it. And then we'll have our Dutch listeners go. Actually, that was terribly incorrect. Yeah. Probably worse than saying Goff. Sorry Dutchlessness. Yeah, sorry about that.

Our former Prime Minister Goch Whitlam. Vincent Van Gogh. Goch was born on 30th of March 1853 in Zundurt in the southern Netherlands. He was the son of Pastor Theodorus Van Gogh. Theodorus. Theo. I told you about great names. And his wife, Anna Cornelia Carbentis.

Van Gogh. I like the Anna Cornelia part, especially. These are great names. Vincent was a common name in the Van Gogh family. His grandfather was Vincent, named after his own uncle, also Vincent. And Van Gogh, the artist, was not even the first Vincent from his parents. He had an older brother also called Vincent. Great.

He died very early on. They decided to recycle. the name. That's Vincent. I mean, the other guy wasn't using it. I don't know, but imagine if you hadn't seen a family friend for like 10 years and somebody's like, how's Vincent? And you're like, oh, he passed away.

Oh, I'm two of your sons. Oh, no, sorry, you meant the second one. No, he's fine. The second. He's, he's, yeah, he's dead as well, actually. But the third one. Sometimes I forget. Sometimes I do forget.

Someone happened with his ears as well. Yeah, I don't know. We haven't found out what yet. Yeah. David's told us, but... Do you guys have any names in your family that... Like, are passed down? No.

Any recurring names? Got like no... My mum's middle name is Jane, which is my sister's name. Oh, yeah. About it? There's a lot of Michael's in my family. My grandfather's Michael, he had a son, Michael, and then... Do they call him junior?

Look, I wasn't around when he was a junior. Sure. But not in my family. time. Do you call him senior now? No. But he didn't have a kid. He only had two daughters, but one of his, his older sister had a son called Michael as well.

So there's a Michael on each generation. I don't know if that's on purpose or what. No, that can just not happen. I think it probably was for your grandfather to name his son. Yeah, but he did have a lot of kids. He had 14 kids. Yeah. He was just running, probably running well on names.

Yeah. I mean, at the time, there was famously only 13 names. Yeah. So it's like, well, we just got a, I don't know, give him mine then. One of them was called goch. And that was just like he sneezed when the nurse had asked him. Where would you like to call it? Oh, hang on.

The nurse is like, sorry, I've written it down. It's in pen. We haven't invented white out yet. These forms are very expensive. Sorry. I'm sorry. We've got lots of Phillips. Philip Perkins.

So that was my grandpa. Double P. Philip Perkins. Yeah, but it's like a fip. You know? Anyway. So people call him Fippa. Fippa.

My grandpa and then he had one of his sons and then he had one of his sons and there's lots of Phillips. Lots of Johns too. Phillips is a great name. My dad's John and then we got our parents' names as our middle names. So that's handy. It was only two of us. Imagine if there was a third and they got some weird made-up middle name. No significance.

Combos the two names together. Jan. Jan. John and Ann. Jan. Or. That is a name. I will say that Jan, you laughed a bit, but Jan is definitely. No, because what if I have, what if I have.

had a little brother. When he's been a name had to be Jan. Jan. Or Aeon. It's no good, is it? That's also a name, I'll have you know. Aon. Aon.

Aon. Your dad's 12th brother, I believe, was Aon. It was Aon. And then the 13th was, and Sink. And sing. Anyway. Van Gogh had a brother, Theo, named after the dant. He was very, very close to throughout his whole life.

Then there was another brother, core, and then three sisters. Cor. I'll skip over core. Cor. His hands like, yeah, I don't really feel like going out tonight. CORE! Core! Check out her tits, core!

Core! Yeah, check out of his. I'd like to call. I hang on. Oh, no, no. Yeah, okay, great. Three sisters, Elizabeth, with an S. Elizabeth.

Elizabeth. So you've got to pronounce it differently. Anna and Willamina. Willamina. She got the short straw. They called her Will. They did. No.

Willamina. Will so like, no. Anna, Elizabeth, perfectly great names. Willamina. Caw. Caw. What's your sister's name? Willamina.

Caw. Really? Co. She got the short straw. And then Caw's like, yes. Oh, fuck. Happens every time. Back then, Elizabeth was the weird name.

Willamina. There was a willamina on every corner. Oh, yeah. Everybody knew. For some reason, standing out in the corners. This is my corner, Willamina.

Even in the rooms, just every room, every street, there was a Willamina. They're just, there were that many. Against their own will? Yeah.

Against their own willemina. Yes. Word play. We did it, you guys. Should we just stop it there? Yeah, we're done. Yeah, I feel like we peaked. Thanks everyone.

Patreon. Thanks so much, Brian. Van Gogh's mother was a rigid and religious woman who emphasized the importance of family to the point of claustrophobia to those around her. Oh wow, she was very intense. It had no personal space. So it's up in your grill. She wanted Willamina in more than just the corners.

Theodorus's salary was modest, but the church supplied the family with a house, I made two cooks, a gardener, a carriage and a horse. I think they're okay. I mean, they were tough times. I mean, they had a house. Two cooks. Yeah. I feel like two cooks, but one maid.

I feel like P. Diddy doesn't even have two cooks. And that's fucking P.DiDi. Am I right? Or some other contemporary reference. Did you say one maid? One maid. You'd go two maids and one cook. Surely.

I think that's what P. Diddy did. Or like a maid and a nanny. There's so many children. Yeah. Two cooks. But maybe the cooks are, you know, all rounders too. It sounds like too many cooks. Van Gogh was sent to a boarding school and hated it.

That's weird. But he was encouraged to draw by his mother. His art teacher at the boarding school's philosophy was to reject technique in the favor of capturing the impression of things, particularly nature or common objects, but are still life. That's what that got him going. Yeah, he got him going. Later Van Gogh wrote that his youth was austere, cold and sterile.

Oh. Which is... Osteer. He often... I would say that he would describe most of his life like that. It's a... This is why it's the poster boy of tortured artists. Yeah.

It will say that this episode is, it's a tragic life. He didn't seem like a happy chappy, you know? No way. There's no festive boy. I mean, he may have, you know, painted the sunflowers, but he was not a human sunflower. Oh, no. He painted things that he was not.

Starry night. He's not one of those. God, no. Bowl of fruit. He's not a bowl fruit. He'll eat one. Sure. Grudgingly.

Yeah, but he ain't one. No. Et cetera. Proof, prove her wrong. We know so much about Van Gogh. He did do self-portraits as well. Ah. Which he was not.

Very good. Oh, hang on. Oh, no. But they were all mirror images because he looked at himself in the mirror. So, the opposite of him. What a hack. Which he was not. Which he was not.

The opposite of him. Yes. We know so much about the man who was not well known during his lifetime because of his extremely close-knit relationship with his younger brother, Theo, I talked about before. Their lifelong friendship and most of what is known of Vincent's thoughts about the world and art are recorded in hundreds of letters that they exchanged each other over 18 years. Oh, that's nice. The letters have been described as having a diary-like intimacy and in parts read like an autobiography. So he wrote down nearly everything you thought.

Wow. Nearly. The only real gap was when they lived together in Paris and they had no need to write letters. other? I don't know. I still text my housemate. Well, other than letters like, we need milk and take out the trash, you lazy prick, which has survived the generations. Wow. That's beautiful. It's now in a museum. My housemate was messaging me the other day because she didn't realize I was home. Were you in your room? I was in her room. Yeah. What was she saying? Are you in your room?

And you wrote, yep. That was it. End of conversation. Deb has seen this message. And sync. You should write that to her And sync Van Gogh's uncle Uncle Sent Which I love because I feel like that's what 50 cents Nises and nephews would call him

That's why I mentioned him Uncle Sent got him a job At a respectable and quite famous art dealership Gruppel and Sai I'm definitely saying that wrong to our Dutch friends Art dealership But are you imagining it like a car dealership Where they're all a bit dodgy

Do you want to take it for a bit of a test drive And they're all kind of like sleazy, oily, men. Yeah, you see the hole in the middle of the canvas? Yeah, that makes it go faster. You want that. It's pretty good. You're going to say something wild and inappropriate all you could do with a hole in a canvas,

but I will ask you and Sir David to please do go on. Fuck it? Yep. Good. Glory holds that situation now. I just could not die not knowing. Could not die not knowing. That's confusing.

I wish I was dead now. He trained up in the art dealership. He put on the sleazy suit and started selling. He moved to London to work and this was a happy time for Van Gogh. He was successful at his work and at 20 was earning more money than his father. Wow. But how many chefs did he have? Yeah, that's the question, isn't it?

Doesn't mention too many. Probably had to cook for himself like some sort of idiot. But he had several maids. Yeah, yeah, there you go. Didn't have to clean up, but had to make his own cup of soup. What about if you could pick one, one maid or one chef? Made. Made for you?

I like cooking more than I like cleaning. Is a maid a cleaner? Yeah. Yeah. A bit of an all-rounder. Yeah. Yeah, I'm going to made because I'm never home. I very really cook because I'm very really home to cook a meal.

So it'd be kind of pointless having a chef there to cook for me and then I'm not there to eat it. I'd definitely pick a cook because I cannot. Yeah. We know, buddy. You can't do a toasting sandwich. Would it be okay for me to just get a toasting sandwich? Would it be okay for me to just get a chef? get specifically Niles from the nanny because he cooks and cleans or.

Nile, he wasn't all around and makes little snide comments about people. Which is fun. Which is fun. Yeah, okay, good call. Maybe Daphne from Frasier. Yeah. Because I think she is, I think she, isn't she like the physio, but she seems to do everything. Yeah, yeah.

So that's even better because I get massages as well. All right. Cook, cleaner, slash maid, or physio. Oh, okay. No, I'd take physia. Again, I'd just take Daphne. I thought, oh, yeah. Daphne wins.

She always wins. Nice, fresh references for Nanny and Frazier. How many modern? Lurch from the Adam's family? That you're going further back. It's further back. Yeah, I don't know if it is a, it's not a real modern TV trope to have a help, is it?

Yeah. I probably don't watch enough of it. It's probably like an outdated idea. They might have a personal assistant, but they're not going to cook and clean for them. They just organise their business lives. What about on Meet the Kardashians or the show that they're? Meet the Kardashians.

Yeah, they'd have a helper. I don't see them. They don't like to show them. Right. You don't see them. No, you don't. I heard that one of their security guys got fired for talking to Kim. He probably said,

hello, where are we going tonight? Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Well, I think, yeah, you definitely need more information because if, like, talking to Kim was him saying, I'm going to fucking kill you in your sleep. Then, yeah, fair enough. You stupid bitch.

But if he said, um, sorry, thanks to having me, I'll, my shift is over. I'll catch you tomorrow. And that feels like an over. She probably said, I'm going to kill you in your fucking sleep. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And then... That's good, good American accent.

Yeah, it's pretty good. Is it? Thank you. Is it? Jess, you've been to America. I have. I have that's actually a pretty good Kim, I thought. Oh my God.

Is that what she said? I didn't know. She sounds like the Valley Girl stereotype sort of. Yeah, kind of, yeah. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. It's like a combination of that and eh.

That's all you hear. I got no issues with her. She seems to be a bit of an easy target. Oh, absolutely. But what has she done wrong? I don't know. Don't look at me. I don't care.

What's she done? I know. Jess, you're the one who brought her up so you could bring her down. Oh, my favourite show, meat to the Kardashians. Isn't that about the secret lives of their butlers and things like that? That's what Matt would have us believe. It's about a butcher called Kardashian. What is the show called?

Keeping up with the Kardashians. That's pretty close. You got to keep the Kay sound. They love Kay. Keeping up with the Kardashians. Anyway, we'll spend maybe a little too much time. Too long talking about the Kardash. Bangoch.

Van Gogh, the man of the hour, he's living in London as an art dealer now, infatuated with his landlady's daughter. Ooh, uh-ul-la-la. Eugenie lawyer. Ugh, not good. But was rejected after confessing his feelings, and she was secretly engaged to another former lodger.

Oh, Eugenie. He grew more isolated. This really upset him. And remember, this is a happy time. His life was on the way out now. He became very religious, turned to religion. He transferred to Paris but got fired when he grew critical of how the art dealership was commoditizing art, which is exactly what an art dealership does.

They deal in art and that was his issue with them. Too much dealing for money. Too much money is being asked for these pieces. Like, don't you understand what art is? Which I find very... It's not about money. To quote Jesse J. It's not about the money.

What a... Jasmine were up in the northern territory of that rock shop. Do you remember that? And I went to buy, I went to buy, he sort of took a disliking to us. He hated all of us. Because we're from Melbourne or some of us. Oh, fucking Melbourne. No, that was pretty much his time.

And he, but he goes, then I went, I, everyone was being very nice to him. He was like, he was just an old, old, funny, funny type of year. In the middle of nowhere. Just with a little rock shop. Like, just, just, just define a rock shop. What's that mean? Just bits of rock. selling bits of rock.

So I went up and that was... He's another one. And it's like, it's not even a proper shop, but it was like a shed and it just had like honk your horn so that he knew to come out to the shed. So you could have a look around his shop. Honk you want a rock.

Beep, beep. And every... It's a rock alarm. We drove up in two cars and the front car sort of went, oh, this isn't what we thought it was going to be. And we're going to head back. And I'm in the, I'm driving the car behind.

I'm like, oh, they mustn't have seen the sign saying the beep. No, no, man. No, man. No, no. That's exactly what we were doing. Rock guy starts running out. Hey guys. Shit, we're stuck in a ditch.

Yeah, well, that's the thing. And then he was like, you can come into the shop, but you can't go out the back. Can't go out of the back. Can't go out the back. I'm busy. And we're like, he's got bodies out there. He's got cameras out there. We don't know.

He was a very creepy, strange man. Anyway. But then he, so I try to buy one of these rocks. It was in a thing marked $2 and he said, I'm not, you said, I'm not taking your money. I'm like, oh, but it says $2. He says, no, it's. that's what you'd think like in Melbourne. We're not like that up here.

Yeah, we're not like that up here. What does that mean? I don't know. It's like he doesn't want to make any money from his business, basically. In Melbourne, selling things from money is very Melbourne. So you could take it for free? Yeah, he took it. It was like a weird way of doing something nice.

Do you think that the rock thing was... A front? No, I think that maybe the $2 one is a test. And if you patronise him by buying obviously a shit rock, he's like, oh, they just think they have to buy something. $2, all right I don't know He was such a strange human

Fucking Melbourne He was awful And then we asked him If he'd been to Melbourne Before or yeah And he just sort of started naming places in Melbourne He's like

Flinders Street Station And we're like Okay so that's yes You have been to Melbourne And he goes Melbourne airport He goes once is enough Okay champ

It was probably 50 years ago But yeah cool Thank you Have a lovely day Bye And where's that rock now Bet it's taking pride of place Did you give it to somebody

We'll go over to our friend David. David, yeah. David. Which is very nice. What? What were we talking about? Van Gogh. I was talking about how...

So was it similar? Yeah. My good example of the rock... It was similar to the rock. It was similar to the rock thing. Someone said to him, I'd like to buy that painting and he said, that's not how we do it in Paris, mate.

I don't know about you in fucking Melbourne. That's what I... I do enjoy that he doesn't like the idea of commoditizing art. Even though that... Now his paintings are. some of the most expensive paintings in the whole world, which we'll talk about. Ooh, sizzle.

Do you think, if he was listening to this podcast, which I think of as being art, do you think he'd be pretty anti, the whole Patreon thing would be. We are commoditizing our art, aren't we? Commodicizing is such a, I've never heard it said before. I like it.

And now I've heard it said too many, enough time, a good amount of times. Commodicizing. Commodicizing. Yeah, I reckon he's said. He'd be like, you guys are selling out. You used to just pod for the love of pod. Now you're all about the money grubbing.

It's not about that. Money, money, money. It's not about that. And we're like, we just want to eat. Please. We just want to eat. Please. It's a good song.

A little song I just... That's cute. Just came up with. What do you think of his song, Dave? So great. Ja-jang, ja-jang. Ba-bang, ba-bang. Do-do-do.

Now it sounds like you're saying Zombie Zombie Yeah Which is, yeah It's a very similar metaphor for The commodifying of art

Or the commoditization Commodicization Commodication I feel like it's probably not a word Who cares April 1876 Van Gogh Returned to England Taking unpaid work

As a supply teacher What? I'm not taking no money They offered him thousands You said no. A supply teacher. Commodify. Commodicise.

Commodicise. So a supply teacher, that's like an emergency teacher. Ah, yes. But if anyone, one, has no training, two, he's doing it for free. If you walked into the school and said, any teacher's way, I'll do it for nothing, you'd be like, that's fucking weird. That's creepy. You can't be alone with the kids.

You know, you can't touch them. Oh, never mind. Bye-bye. See you later. Then you see him in a panic. Anybody watching these cows? I'll do it. I'll do it.

You know you can't touch him. Oh. See ya. See ya. How about these rocks? Two bucks a piece. No one's watching these rocks. I've got to stop saying watch.

Hey, anyone, anyone, anyone touching these cows? All right. Yeah, now that you've been clear, yes. Please do. No one is. Position is vacant. And so is there. Thank you.

That's enough. He then did many... Stare. So is their stay. Yes. He then did many jobs over a short period of time. Ministers' assistant? He worked in a bookshop. Ministers' assistant?

Yeah, he said it really quick. Ministers' assistant? He worked in a bookshop. And as a minister's assistant. Uh-huh. And then moved back to Amsterdam and attempted the university's theology entrance exam. He failed that. He undertook, but also failed a three-month course at a Protestant missionary school

near Brussels. He failed that. He did not mind having a crack, though. No, he had a crack. He then, so he didn't pass the test, but he took up a post as a missionary in Belgium. To show support for his impoverished congregation, he gave up his comfortable lodgings at a bakery to a homeless person

and moved to a small hut where he slept on straw. Wow. So it was quite a giving... Well, you'd think so. You think that the church had looked kindly upon that. No, but his squalid living conditions did not endear him to church authorities who dismissed him for, quote,

undermining the dignity of the priesthood. Well, it feels like they've got that upside down. Yeah. Well, you just helped people. That's not what we're about. That's not very Christian. What would Jesus do? What would Jesus do?

Take the five-star hotel. That's right. Did Jesus ever sleep in some sort of barn? I don't think so. I do not think so. You never saw hay in his fucking life. So, but Van Gogh did not take kindly this. He cracked it and walked 75 kids.

kilometers or 47 miles to Brussels. He walked home. He walked to... Wow. ...the Brussels, 75K. That's a decent walk, I reckon. That's not a bad walk. Not a bad walk?

You're really clear your head on a 75K. That's a lot. Halfway through, you're like, oh, this is longer than I thought. Yeah. Halfway. Halfway. Yeah. He's just doubled a marathon.

Two Ks in. I'm like, this was a mistake. Yeah. I should have got an Uber. What am I doing? Is there a tram nearby? I imagine the roads were all beautifully paved back then. And he would have been wearing very comfortable Nike sneakers.

Yeah, you're right. I think he would have been fine. It would have been like a nice day too, like sunny, but a cool breeze, so it's not hot. And he would have had like a Tour de France style support crew. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Like building tents and things around at night. Would have had one of those hats with a couple of drink bottles on the sides.

A foam dome. Foam dome. Fadone. Got a couple of coldies in there. Yeah. Yeah, he had a great time. You had an Apple watch. Check the weather.

Oh, it's beautiful. One of those nacho hats. One of those favorite podcasts and hot tracks. Podcasts do help a walk. I do. A 75-5-kilometer. I walked home from a studio yesterday. It flew by. What did you bloody listen to?

I was listening to Nick Kappa's podcast. Highway to nothing. A fellow, so we're hosted by the SoPod, stupid old podcasting. It's kind of a podcasting network, you'd say. Yeah. Fellow, which is a good podcast. Really do enjoy that. Nick Kappa Highway to Nothing.

I've recorded one. It'll come out someday. Me too. Well, we will be plugging the shit out of that then, guys. Don't listen to him yet. Wait for Manchester. Yeah, fuck that. He returned to his parents back in Netherlands,

and he fought with his father who already wanted to commit the young man to an asylum. Oh, what? Yeah, so he was already showing signs of mental fatigue, let's say. He then returned back to Belgium and became interested in the people and scenes around him and recorded them in drawings after his brother Theo suggested it would be a good thing to do. He went to Brussels, studied under a renowned artist, who encouraged Van Gogh, so the guy's called Willem Roll-Off,

if anyone's really into art, he encouraged Van Gogh to study drawing properly at an art school, which is, he always thought that real artists shouldn't study, but he got told otherwise, so he went to a university where he studied anatomy in the standard rules of modelling and perspective. It's kind of like people who are like, I'm going to go to a workshop and learn comedy.

You're like, really? You know, you're going to learn that. Art, I think, is a little bit different. Sorry, I thought you about to say that you can't. I was going to say, you can definitely learn perspective. It's like, when doctors, you're like, oh, you're going to go to doctor school, are you? Well, that's bullshit. I'm operating now and I'm self-taught.

Yeah. Pass me the scalples. School of fucking life. Yeah. And fucking up this person who just died. Sorry about that. And by the way, sir, yes, your wife will not make it. I've killed dozens of people and I haven't learned a thing.

So how about that? I was here for a haircut. Oh shit. Not a face cut? Oh, my mistake. Oh, that's going to take a while to heal. In the summer of 1881, continuing. A good year.

Thank you. I'm so glad he said it. Continuing to draw Van Gogh. Moved back home and fell in love with his recently widowed cousin. Okay. Key Vos Stricker was her name. Key Voss. Kee, middle name Voss.

Stricker. A beautiful name. Key Voss Stricker. Key Voss. Very pretty. He proposed marriage to Key Vos Stryker, but was rebuffed with an adamant... You're my cousin. New it, Nimmer, which means no, nay, never.

Ouch. Which is a bit of a... You know, a horrible thing to hear, but undeterred, he nevertheless continued to press his attention. Have you guys got any hot cousins? No. None that I would... I'd propose to him more than once. Sure.

They say no, I'm moving on. You wouldn't press your... What did he press? Press his attention. His attention. That's not a euphemism, is it? No, it was just... Like for pressing his balls against the window or something?

And she's like, no, never! I am pressing my attentions on your bedroom window. She's just like, get out of it! Get out of it! Undeterred, despite the increasing dismay and disapproval of his family, which eventually led to his leaving the family, home again for a while, he decided to continue to express his feelings.

Until in 1881, it led to Theo, he wrote, quote, To express my feelings for key, I said, resolutely, she and no other. And her no, nay, never was not strong enough to make me give her up. I still had hope and my love remained, notwithstanding this refusal, which I thought was like a piece of ice that would melt. He thought he could win her over. No means no gock. But then he went to Amsterdam to visit her, and, uh,

Her family told her, quote told him, When you were in the house, Key leaves it. She answers, certainly not him. To your, she and no other, your persistence is disgusting. This is Vincent writes this. I put my hand in the flame of a lamp and said,

let me see her as long as I can keep my hand in the flame. But they blew out the lamp. I love that's such a pal. He's like, I can suffer forever. Oh, fuck. I can suffer no more. Good day. That's very clever.

And I said, You shall not see her. And this incident reportedly made Van Gogh stop believing in God. And he never took up faith again. Okay. So how easy God comes to him and leaves again. On Christmas Day, that year he refused to,

which is only a few days later, he refused to attend church, provoking a violent quarrel with his father, who's the pastor, which resulted in him leaving home the very same day. So he's left home about 700 times. He's one of those kids. Those guys.

No, no, never No, no, never. It's different this time, Mum. It's a startup business. We're going to be fine. It's a startup. You know, like Facebook. I'm going to be rich one day, Mum.

You just got to give me time. Now I'm not going to pay any rent. Fuck off, Mum. Can we have spaghetti for dinner, please? Thank you. My favourite. And it's cheap. Jess just moved out of home for the first time.

It was a 26-year-old. woman. Okay, all right. And is demanding spaghetti from her houseman every night? Every night. She's never home at night. She works nights. But I'm still, I message her.

I'm like, Spaghetti for breakfast? Where my spaghetti at, bitch? Where mosquito at? Where mosquito at? Bally south? Mum. And that's how I'm going to ask you.

Yeah. She gets it. Put in the bowl, bitch. Are you saying, is it, is it quite sad to move out for the first day at 26? I really, I don't, that's probably, that's probably, it's probably. I don't leave. I was like, I was like, I was like, I was. I was pretty much 25.

I was pretty much 25. It was like four days after I turned 26. What are we talking about? How old were you when you first moved out? I was also pretty late. 24? About this time two years ago, yeah. Yeah.

I think I was 23. But didn't your parents have the rule of 23? They did have that rule. Is that a rule? So did it get to your 23rd birthday? Happy birthday, Matt. Your bags are packed. Out you go.

Stop putting your balls on the window. I don't. I turned 23 overseas, though. So I came back and... And you just weren't... Have you not been allowed back in the family home since? Yeah. Even for Christmas.

They'd packed up his stuff. It was out on the curb. I think I sort of took that in arrears, sort of. Is that the right? In your rear? Oh, no, hang on. Oh, what a mess we've got ourselves into it. I took the time that I had from when I was overseas and I tacked that on.

Oh, sure. So I stayed a bit longer. Were you on sick leave? Yeah, sick leave. from your family home. A cashier mistake. Yeah, well, I was away for six weeks, so I know. I've got an extra.

I got that at half time. I did, really, that's 12 weeks. Yeah. Just remember, I did move back once as well. Oh, nice. I had a breakup. I was living with a lady and we broke up and I was like, oh, fuck, we were. Yep.

That's made a bit of a mess of the plans. So I moved back into my old room, which was a storage then, and didn't change anything. So I did, to get into my bed, I had to climb over boxes. No, really? Yeah. You could have moved them But you're like, no, no Well, it was temporary

It was temporary And how long was temporary? It was a few months Yeah Of climbing over boxes But too proud to move them Yeah Yeah

And I Yeah I know it's hard to keep track But Van Gogh is still in the Netherlands Sure He started to focus on painting and drawing And in August 1884 Margot Begerman

A neighbour's daughter And 10 years in senior Began joining him on his painting forays When you go out and find stuff to paint she fell in love and he reciprocated I love this although less enthusiastically

Yeah She was more into him They decided to marry But the idea was opposed by both families Following which Margot took an overdose of strychnine What the fuck? She was saved when Van Gogh rushed her to a nearby hospital But they didn't end up ever getting married

Why did the families Is it because she's older Older? I think he wasn't wealthy So that's probably what their family would have wanted I know but she's over there hill. Like, if anybody's going to marry, they should be grateful.

You know what I mean? She's old. And he's... She's practically dead. She's gross. She's so yuck. He's about 30 as well. They're both...

Neither of them are young in the olden days. And he's like a sad loser. Like, I mean, both of them should be just... Just let him be happy, sad losers. Yeah. Well, maybe the parents are like, oh, he clearly doesn't love him as much as he love him. This is fucking sad.

Don't do it. Don't do it. That's sad. The next year his father died of a heart attack, so tragedy, tragedy. Great. During his two years stay in the town of Nuenen, he completed numerous drawings and watercolors and nearly 200 oil paintings. He was starting to really paint every day. His palette at the time, though, consisted mainly of somber earth tones, particularly dark browns, and showed no vivid colors. So anything that you imagine, Van Gogh, now, it wasn't doing that yet.

His brother, who was actually quite a successful art dealer, he got into that business but stayed in and did well. Theo. Theo tried to sell some of his paintings but had no luck. His record of Van Gogh saying to Theo that he wasn't trying hard enough to sell them, but he contended that his paintings were too dark and not like the impressionist paintings that were taking off at the time. Okay.

Which is funny because Van Gogh is known to history as one of the most important post-impressionists. Help to kill Impressionism. There you go. He moved to Antwerp in 1885 where he rented a small room above a paint dealer's shop. He lived in poverty and ate poorly, preferring to spend money on painting materials and models. People who get hired to paint. Bread, coffee and tobacco where he's staple diet.

Coffee and toast. I'm happy with that. Yeah, that's not bad. Bloody great. Oh, do you know what? You wouldn't even have toast? No toast. Because in February 1886. he wrote to Theo, he could only remember eating six hot meals

in the past eight months. Okay, because I was going to say, toast, you get a bit of Avvo, you pop a pot a tomato in the oven, a bit of roast tomato, balsamic glaze. Oh, can we just pause for half an hour or so? We just get our two chefs in here? Yeah, smash dabby.

Daphne. Daphne. Daphne and Niles. Delicious. Oh, match made in heaven. because of his bad diet and not looking after himself, his tooth became loose and painful. He also began to drink heavily,

especially absinth, that was his drink. Sure. Which, absinth at the time is much stronger than it is now. So it could affect your mind, so I speak. It was a hallucinogenic. Yeah, so if you were prone to mental illness, probably not a good thing. Hallucinogen.

Commodicization. He moved to Paris in 1886 where he shared the apartment with his brother Theo, where they wrote the passive-aggressive notes to each other. Theo, stop drinking the last beer, you dumb shit. Vinno began to experiment with colour and made friends with a lot of other artists. Surely it would be Vinny, but yeah, okay, can you go. Vinno had a bit of conflict with his brother, Theo. Oh, no.

And at the end of 1886, Theo found living with Vincent, he wrote in another letter to be almost unbearable. I don't think I could live with my brother. Do you think so? Did you do that for a few years, I imagine? Yeah, about 18. And? He moved out and it was much better. Really?

Yes. But then you get on better with him after, right? Yeah. That's what happened with me and my siblings. Yeah. It was, you know, it's always tense living in close quarters. Especially because you're, well, it's generally while your teenagers are in your early 20s. Yeah.

So you don't, you don't. You need your bloody space. You need your space. And you don't particularly like each other and you haven't figured out who you are. And now we get along. I've always known how I am. Yeah, I bet you have. What are my?

Festive boy. I mean, festive boy since I was five years old. Festive boy since 95. Rocking on. But Fianard, unlike Jess and her brother, the brothers patched it up. They learned to keep living together. And they also made friends with the French artist Paul Gogan. You've heard of Gogam?

Yes. I think some of his... stuff was just in Melbourne, wasn't it? Wasn't there a little? I don't know what I'm talking about. Oh, I believe I saw Gogh, in 1975. Also underappreciated in his lifetime,

Goghans' painting called When Will You Marry was sold for a record price of $300 million US dollars in 2015. That's the most expensive painting. So that's the most expensive painting sold at auction so far. That's quite amazing.

That's incredible. Go Gagan. I know. Not like one that you, probably not the, a very famous artist, I will say, but maybe probably not the top five most famous artists. And what's it called? When will you marry? Not a Ninja Turtle. I want to look it up. Yeah, you can look it up. You'll tell me that it's not worth $300 million because, but then I would, I would argue that nothing is. Yeah, I can't think of, I mean, I am an art enthusiast. I wouldn't say enthusiast, but appreciator. But I can't, I would not be able to justify spending that much money. on art.

I don't know a lot about art. I don't know a lot about art. But you know what you like. 300 million US dollars? I have no idea. Dave, 300 million? 300 million. Show it to me.

Matt, you're going to pay 300 mill for that? Yeah, I mean... That's it. I mean, it's quite nice. I do you enjoy it. I mean, it just depends. It depends.

Is that, is it printed on a, like, a duna? Is it? Oh, okay. Or a beach towel or a Ferrari. Or 300 Ferraris. Yeah. That's actually 300 Ferraris driven very closely together. Yeah.

Because then we're starting to get close to it, I think. Yeah. Okay. No, fair enough. The thing is if you look behind the painting, there's enough food for the bottom half of Africa. Just the bottom half? Yeah.

Interesting. 300 million. That's pretty good. Yeah, okay. Okay. Okay. So it's more like a sheet. It's a big sheet.

It's hiding. It's a wrapping paper. No, it's more of a... It's a wrapping paper from the festive boy. It's got a... It's a secret vault. How do you know so much about it? He loves art.

Oh, I get it. I love wrapping paper. because you're festive boy Festive boy Towards the end of the year Vincent arranged an exhibition alongside some of his contemporaries

but did not sell any of his paintings Oh dear Ill from drink and suffering from Smokerskopf in February 1888 Van Gogh sought refuge in Alis in the south of France This time in Arles became one of Van Gogh's more prolific periods

He completed 200 paintings and 100 drawings and watercolors. He was enchanted by the local landscape and light. His paintings included harvest, wheat fields and general rural landmarks from the area. So there's some real famous ones from this time. He moved into the Yellow House. A famous Yellow House in which he lived and formed a studio where he painted some of his most well-known paintings,

including a painting of the house itself. The Yellow House. What did he call that one? What was that called? The Yellow House. Ah. Oh. He was pretty literal.

The paintings that he did inside the yellow house were all to decorate the yellow house itself. Oh. Including the painting of the yellow house. Wow. There's a lot of yellow house here. This is the yellow house section of the podcast. I think I'm going to go home and take a photo of my building. Is it yellow?

No. Oh. But I'm going to then like print that, frame it and then put that inside the apartment. That's cool. Yeah. It's like inside. It's artception. Houseception.

What's your building like? Pretty average looking. Right. It's quite nice on the inside. Are you high up? I'm the top floor, baby, but of two floors. Oh, top of two. Top of two.

One is better than two. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Your office is yellow here. You've got a yellow office here. Oh, I'm going to, we'll get you a print of the yellow house to hang in the yellow office. Oh. That's good.

That's very good. It's good. We'll do that. Do you have a smear of 330 mill? I don't. Don't. Do you? Yes. I was hoping you would though, because I was going to use mine for something else. What are you going to use yours for?

Freeding the northern half of Africa. Oh, that seems more noble than a painting for my office. Well, you know, it's not a competition, Jess, but there you go. You lost. Got that. Van Gogh was desperate to set up an artist colony and collective. So when Gogh agreed to visit the Yellow House in 1888, Vincent was stoked. He hadn't been playing it. cool and had been begging Gogan to come for months.

Please come to the Yellow House. Please. And after much pleading from Van Gogh, Gagin arrived in Arles on the 23rd of October, and in November the two started to paint together. Oh, so they had like a week off, like a week of just bonding and like wine and cheese. They're painting like arms like around like clay style and ghost movie.

Yeah. And they're just like skipping through field. On the roof of an open double-decker bus. Yeah. Looking at things. Pointing. Pointing. Laughing.

Oh my God, they're laughing so much. Tom Jones is singing to them. Yeah. It's not a new. They're having, like, lattes and then, but then one of them says something funny, and the other, like, spits out some of their coffee. Like, oh, no. And then they have spaghetti, skeddy.

Sketti. Oh. Oh, dear. Lady in the Tramp. Oh, here we go. Here we go. Oh, they've kissed. Oh.

That's nice. At first things were great. Wait, as you can tell from our montage. Great montage. But then their relationship began to deteriorate. Somebody wasn't making enough skinny. So now there's a bit of a montage of like, you know, like getting angry, throwing clothes on the floor. One person walking into the bathroom and there's towels all over the bathroom, they're like,

bleh-bl ugh. Again. That's awful. Or like there's just, like, there's all this rubbish as the bins weren't taken out. It's like, ugh. That were the original odd couple. Yeah. Van Gogh admired Gogan and wanted to be treated.

as he's equal, but Gogh was arrogant and domineering, which frustrated Van Gogh. Not surprising. They often quarreled. Van Gogh increasingly feared that Gogh was going to desert him, and the situation which Van Gogh described as one of excessive tension rapidly headed towards crisis point. It was during the upcoming crisis that one of the most famous incidents in the history of art would occur. That's all we have time for this week?

No, we will continue. Gugan claimed 15 years later that the knights followed several instances of physically threatening behaviour. The behaviour was quite complex and Theo, the brother, may have owed money to Gaghan who was suspicious that the brothers were exploiting him financially because, you know, Gagin's selling... He's not a successful artist, but he's selling more than Van Gogh is in his lifetime.

So they were using him to help pay for the house a bit too much. It seems likely that Van Gogh had realised that Gugan was planning to leave. Paranoia creeping in. On the 23rd of December after days of rain with the two men shut in the yellow house together, which is not good if you're having a big fight and then you can't go outside and get away

from you're stuck in a small studio. Yeah. Like us, if we get locked in this studio, I think we'd survive about five minutes. Before we have a fight. God, he's lucky. You're being very generous for five minutes, so champ, I'd rip your face off. I'd just set my dominance straight away.

It's like, I'm imagining Matt try to leave first and the door's a bit jammed. So I'd just immediately rip Dave's face off. And then Matt's like, oh no, here we go. And you're like, sorry about your face, Dave. There was just a chair on the other side. There we go. Whoops, the Daisy.

Oh, no, but I already ripped Dave's face off. Catch you guys next week. Matt, tell him it was much longer than two minutes. Please. Hey, I don't know. I think it looks good. It really brings out your pompadour. What a faceless pompadour.

Yeah. It really brings all the attention to your pompadour. Yeah, because that's all that's left to look at. Oh, no. I would never. So after the two days of being stuck inside with the rain, Gogan later reported that Van Gogh followed when Gogan left the house for a walk and rushed towards him with an open razor in his hand.

What? So they had a bit of a fight and after an altercation... Altitation. Alcitation. After an heart alteration. After the altercation with Gogan. Van Gogh returned to his room where he was assaulted. by voices,

so inside his own head, and he severed his left ear with a razor, and accounts differ how much he cut off, either the bottom half, or some people say cut off the whole ear. Yuck. This caused severe bleeding. Oh, did it now?

Yes. Cutting off part of your head. That is unlucky. He must have hit some sort of a blood tube. A blood tube. It's unlucky. That is unlucky, because there only threads only three major blood tubes in the ear.

Is that the technical term for them, too? A blood tube? I reckon probably seven out of ten times you could cut an ear off without hitting a... Without any blood at all? Yeah, yeah. Clean cut. How unlucky. Dry cut? Yeah, it's, you know, I mean, still 30% of times.

Sure, absolutely. I mean, that's not a small... He was actually... He was actually so unlucky that he accidentally... It is unheard of because I can't bloody hear it because they cut their ear off. He's earless. I'll be at the Comedy Festival 2017. He did accidentally nip his heart.

What? Nip his heart. Through the ear. Did he now? That is not true. That is. I'm so sorry. I did not believe it.

It was a medical joke. Joke? Joke? Is that he said that? It was a yuck. He bandaged the wound and wrapped the ear in paper. So he's got the ear or the piece of ear. Yuck.

He delivered the package to a woman at a brothel. that both Van Gogh and Gogh both frequented. What? I was thinking like... Gave her the ear. Like if you accidentally cut off your finger or something, you'd pop it on ice and you take it with you to the hospital.

That's what I was thinking. He wrapped it up. No, he took it to a brothel. Yeah, he took it to a brothel and gave it to a... It's a very weird thing to do, I reckon. He's a very weird thing to do. He's not well at this point, I'll be honest. That's a very good point.

First sign of him not doing well. He was found unconscious the next morning by a policeman and taken to hospital where Felix Ray, a young doctor still in training, treated him. If I've cut off my ear, I want the top doctor. No, I want the doctor in training. They want it more.

Yeah. They've got someone to prove. Do you think they'll give you more attention? Yeah, I think so. They're going to be more thorough. They're going to be more thorough. I reckon they've seen it less, but they're impressed by it.

Yeah. Actually, I'm coming around. I'm coming around. In fact, I want someone who's never done, I want the doctor who is just doing it, like what I've been talking about before. That's what I want. Yeah, absolutely.

I'll figure it out. I don't want someone who's doing it for money. Ugh. Dirty. Dirty. Dirty. I want the guy who, he couldn't touch any kids or cows, but they would let him touch sick people.

Oh, Van Gogh. He's touched a couple of years in his time. Who hasn't? I've touched a couple of years. Touching one right now. Wait, what are you saying? Dave. That's an ear. Ear. I thought you were saying ewes.

Yeah, I've cutt a couple of years in time. Cuped a couple of ewes. Matt, what's weird about that sentence? I've cupped a couple of years A couple of years It's like a job interview All right What can you bring to this role

Cupped a couple of years in my time Life experience I have cupped a couple of years in my time I'm sorry Do you not speak English in this fucking job I really enjoyed that act out Thank you You're going to be a star

A star See I'm a festive boy The ear was also delivered to the hospital to Felix Ray But he did not attempt to reattach it There's too much time had passed Yeah You gotta chuck that shit on ice

Took it to the brothel first Or I don't know if this is true In milk Have you heard that Excuse me Cut off a finger Chuck in a minute Is honestly

If you are at home in a crisis And this has just happened Google it before you do that Because I don't know if it's true Yeah I'm picturing it like You know your fingers go all funny in a bar Imagine it's sitting in milk

It goes all Pruning It feels like it would just swallow. Oh, hang on. I've just confused medical advice with my fetish again. Yeah. Oh dear. Oh, dear.

Oh, no, no. Finger and milk. I don't fully get it. Hey, I don't have to explain myself to you. To use. I guess that's what I make the fetish. I'm going to cup you. Yeah. Milk from a you.

That's how you get the milk from you. You cup them. Got to cup them. Matt's miming, grabbing teats. Sheep teat. Sheep. Nothing weird about that, mate. Just a natural sheep tape.

I've come to a couple of used sheep teeth in my time. Oh, sorry, I didn't realize that was the context. You're hired. That was the second after the job interview. After he just said, don't you speak English with this fucking job? They're still hired him. Yeah, that's how qualified I am as a doctor. I'm podcasting.

When he awoke in hospital, Van Gogh himself had no recollection of the event. Gogan, who, you know, was sort of part of the incident, immediately notified Vincent's brother Theo, who arrived the next day on Christmas Day. During the first days of his treatment, Van Gogh repeatedly and unsuccessfully asked for Gogh. God, he's obsessed with him. Yes.

Who had left for Paris. Yes. He'd left for Paris, and he never saw Van Gogh again. Yeah, no, good call. Sad. He's a psycho. It did. Yeah, but it just seems like.

He gets pretty obsessed with people. Yeah. Yes, very obsessed. And the one time somebody got obsessed with him. Not into it. Yeah. Maybe that's it. He just, yeah, okay.

He loves to chase. Yeah, he loves to chase. Drill of the chase. Don't we all, though? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Big time.

He made it home. I can still picture Dave, chasing them muse around the paddock. He loves it. He loves it. Let me cup you. Let me cup your little ewes. Oh, no.

Let me cap you Oh no I've dropped my tweezers down the well Oh now the story Come down Yeah All right I wasn't tweezering In the brow at all

I don't have enough hair in my face for that Jesus I was tweezing some ewes Tweezing some youths That's highly illegal Highly illegal Bangkok made it home Early January

A couple of weeks later But he spent the following months Between Hospital and home Because he was having hallucinations Oh no In March, the police closed his house after a petition from 30 townspeople who described him as Leferru, the red-headed madman. Oh, boy. He went back to hospital and voluntarily entered an asylum.

He gifted Dr. Felix, a doctor that had been looking after him, a painting that he'd done called Portrait of Dr. Felix Ray. Oh. The physician was not fond of the painting and used it to repair a chicken coop. Oh, my God. And then later gave it away. In 2016, the portrait was housed at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and was estimated to be worth over $50 million. Holy shit.

It was once part of a chicken. Yeah, so they'd taken it off the chicken coop. Yeah, and then sold it to someone else who, down the line it sold, and now it's worth $50 million. I was enjoying, picturing it in the museum, still part of a chicken coop. Yeah, it'd be good. With really old chickens. That's art.

Yeah, the chickens are still wearing. 170. Just bones of chicken. What's that? Oh. Oh, that's a chicken. No, they're still more. I'm sorry, the world's oldest chickens.

World's oldest chickens. Well, that's worth $50 million. Yeah, those were more. They've got some stories, those chickens. Held chooks. At a chaplain suggestion, Van Gogh chose to be at an asylum in nearby St. Remi. His mental condition remains stable for a while,

and he was able to create some of his most famous work now, including Starry Night. beautiful the night sky. He had a few relapses, but eventually seemed to be coming good and was discharged and went to live in an artist commune in northern Paris.

Vincent's health was then up and down as documented in letters to his brother. Sometimes he would talk of being happy and then other times he'd just just the opposite. Sad. Thank you, man. Subtext, subtext.

Just for our American listeners. A bit of translation native. Opposite of happy? Sad. Is it? Americans are notoriously happy. be all the time. So they wouldn't know about sadness.

Eskimos have no word for sad. That is untrue. In Newitz, Dave. In Newitz and it's actually, it's fish? No, what, ice. No, it's... What, they've got a million words for... For snow.

Not a million. A million, Jess. You get out of here if you know. They spend all day. All day. Coming up with new words. Yeah. They've...

Part of the culture. They're very cold. After living in the commune, this is the artist commune for three months, his brother Theo started to suspect he was having problems again and suggested Vincent consoled a doctor, but he was too into his art, and I said he was devoting too much time to his canvases. Then on July 27, 1890,

Van Gogh left the inn where he was staying. He left after breakfast, but did not return as usual. Uh-oh. When he had not returned by dusk, the family he was staying with became worried. He finally arrived home after nightfall, somewhere around 9pm clutching his stomach clearly in pain. The mother of the family asked whether there was a problem.

Van Gog started to answer with difficulty. He said, no, but I have, and then just went up the stairs. Didn't finish his sentence. Oh, that's ominous. The father thought he could hear groans and found Van Gogh curled up in bed. When he asked whether he was ill, Van Gogh showed him a wound near his heart, explaining, I tried to kill myself. During the night, Van Gogh admitted he had set out for the wheat field where he had been painting,

as he did every day, but during the afternoon he'd shot himself with a revolver in the chest and passed out. The colony of the night had woken him up and then he decided to walk home.

What? So depressing. He shot himself in the chest. In the chest, I know. He got up and went to bed. Yeah, he went home to bed. Oh no. They called the doctor, Dr. Gache.

Oh, okay, great doctor name. There's a great, one of the most expensive paintings ever sold is called Porto of Dr. Gaseh. It's good because Van Gogh had a pretty bad gashay. He dressed the gashay, but left immediately because he considered it to be a hopeless case. Oh, what?

So the doctor doesn't stick around? No. The father of the inn of the artist Anton Hershing spent the night at Van Gogh's bedside. The artist sometimes smoked, sometimes groaned, but remained silent all night long, dozing off from time to time. As soon as the post office opened on Monday, they sent a telegram to his brother, Theo, who arrived by train during the afternoon. he watched over Van Gogh, who fell into a coma and died at one o'clock in the morning, 37 years old.

Oh, wow. One of the final things he said to his brother who told him, they'd try and make him better is one of the saddest things I've ever said. He said, this sadness will last forever. Oh, one of the last things he ever said. That's really sad. Extremely poetic. It's very poetic.

I had no idea he had such a life. Such a life. Yeah. Theo's health deteriorated in the months after the death of his brother. brother, he himself was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. A few months later, he died January 1891, just six months after his brother. In 1914, Theo's body was exhumed and reburied with his brother in the northwestern suburbs of Paris. In two very, you'd expect one of the most famous artists of all time to have a great grave.

It's just a very normal, very normal looking gravestone. Oh, wow. Vincent was known to sell only one painting in his lifetime. It was called the Red Vineyard. A Belgian artist, Anna Boch, an art collector. She bought the painting in early 1890. So the year he died is the only time you ever sold something. Wow.

For 400 francs, about $2,000 today. It's thought that maybe she liked the painting or maybe she just wanted to support Van Gogh, who was being criticised for his work at the time. He did, so that was the only one he ever definitely sold. He did, however, trade paintings for food and supplies. So in a way, he gave away lots of his work. In his lifetime, he's known to have created about a little over 2,000 artworks,

including nearly 900 oil paintings. So if he died with no one knowing who he was, when did respect for the artist take off? So I'm going to finish here. Theo wanted to make his brother famous after his death and tried to raise his profile before sadly dying himself, as I said. So Theo Van Gogh, Bonga. Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Because at first I was like, Joe. It's just Joe Van Gogh. Joe Van Gogh Boonga Bonga There we go She said about Completing the task

Of raising her brother-in-law's fame She sold some of Vincent's works Learned others out for exhibitions And also very importantly Published the letters Between Van Gog and Theo And people became fascinated With his tragic life

Oh wow And that sort of Built his profile Had to build his profile And then other people were like Hang on These are actually amazing Wow

But it sounds like So it was within her lifetime, so not too long after. No, well, the year after he died, there were retrospectives of his art in Brussels and in Paris. And during the 1890s, there were several stages across the Netherlands and Belgium where he'd done a lot of work. So his profiles raised within a couple of years of his death in that part.

And then Art Gallery started buying his work across the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Taint in London. Yeah, wow. Who owns the, who's got the big ones? Who's got starry art and the self-portrait? any gallery that something has a Van Gogh. Right. No, well, because there's so many.

Well, there's the Van Gogh Museum. Yeah, well, there's a Van Gogh Museum. Amsterdam? Yeah. Been there. Have you been there? Yeah. I walk past there.

One of... Very good. One of two million people that visit every year now. Two million. So two million. A guy that thought he died of failure. Yeah. Incredible.

Isn't that absolutely bizarre? So you didn't go to Alcatraz and you didn't go to the Van Gogh Museum. Someone's been giving me a bit of shit on Twitter about watching the gridiron game instead of going to see the prison. I still like, let's go see something that happened in the olden days or taking some culture right now. This is American culture happening before my eyes. Great, great day. Having a great time.

No regrets. No regrets. You can't have them. No regrets. I'm just going to finally finish with the value of Agos work. Wow. So he probably only sold one penny his lifetime for about $2,000. US dollars.

But on the all-time most expensive paintings ever sold list, Vincent has eight paintings. What? All sold for all up $723 million. Oh my God. Five of them, when they were sold to the most expensive paintings ever sold at the time. And the last one was in 1997.

So they're just gone up. Wow. Because they're so rare that people don't sell them. And that's just the ones that have been sold. Most of them across the world are the galleries that have them. There would be worth multi, multi-billions of dollars. That is crazy. He died.

He died thinking like he'd done nothing. Yeah, isn't that absolutely tragic? But there you go. Wow. The story of Van Gogh's ear. That is. And the tragic life around his ear. That is a great story.

That is a really great story. I didn't know a lot of that. At the museum, do they talk about that? Yeah, it was three years ago. I don't know. I've never been to the Netherlands, and I would love to go to see some of those. You should go. It's very beautiful and, yeah, the museum's very good.

And the artwork is quite good. Yeah, really. Yeah. I walk past it on my way to a brewery in a windmill, which is awesome. So good. That's culture. Culture. That's culture, guys.

With a capital C, capital K. Capital K for Kim Kardashian. Yeah, your favorite, Kim Kardashian culture. That was a great report, Dave. Well done. Thank you kindly. Yeah. Great story and I'm fascinated by his life,

but also a bit of a tragic one at the end. Sorry to bring the somberness noun. But I mean, maybe it just gives us all hope. You feel like you're not doing well. Just wait till you die. I'm just remembering. We did a sketch about Van Gogh. At Christmas, I'll have to post it.

Yeah, put that up. I remember that sketch. It links your jumper. And it links the festival. passive boy with the tragic man. Put that up. So thank you to

PJ Baster our main man or woman. PJ the Bester. Very good. Yeah, good suggestion. Thank you. Well, if you too would like to suggest a topic, please hit us up

at Do Go On Pot for Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. We're also listed at at Do Go On Pods. If you search that, you'll find us on all those things. We're posting a lot. lot of Instagram photos. You want to see what we really look like. Behind the scenes.

You want some behind the scenes exclusives. That has really picked my interest. Yeah, I want to see what they look like. You want to see my festive jumper. Yeah, we'll post a photo of that, I guess. A festive boy. We have to now. Yeah, I guess so.

Cool. Of course, you can also email us at do go on pod at gmail.com is the address. Yes. Sorry, I just, I need chess in the knee. We need each other. I'm feeling left out. Come here, come here. Oh, she's kneeing me right now.

Let's make a knee triangle. Don't make it weird. Yeah, they don't make a weird day. That's weirder, you made it weird, Dave. Let me cut up use knees. Okay, so it's a perfect time then to also mention that we have a Patreon. Oh, that's right, we have launched the Patreon. Oh, yeah, so you can put it into the normal hat.

Yes. The traditional hat in those other ways, but via the Patreon, you can now put it into the golden hat. The golden hat. Yeah. Which was dubbed by our own festive boy. Festive boy. I love the golden hat, along with my golden tonsils. I will swallow all of the ideas.

Can I be golden girl? Whichever, please, my golden right-hand girl. Yes! And Matt, the man with the golden gun. Oh. The golden guns. He's one to his muscles. Yeah, Patreon, if you have listened to it every week and you want to keep the show going,

that kind of thing, if you can contribute anything you can, that'd be great. There's also, there's rewards. We'll have our first ever bonus mini episode for the $10 or more. Per month's subscribers coming out very soon. So keep an eye out for that one. Exciting. You can also vote for Matt's topics, all that kind of stuff. Check it out.

We'll be linking that quite a lot so you can see what we're up to. Matt and Jess have been out on the road and they are still got one more date on their comedy tour of rural Victoria. So if you live in our home state here in Australia. We're hitting up Castle Main. It'll be tomorrow on the 17th. So if you heard this on the date came out tomorrow night, or the day after tonight. Or Friday, you fucked up.

It was last night. You idiot. That's okay. There'll be others. We'll be there. I mean, they'll be there. Castle Main. Castle Main.

If you follow us on the social media, we do keep you up to date with such things. We're always doing live shows of sorts. Yeah, we love them. Bloody love it. And hey, maybe one day we might even do a live podcast show. Ooh. Keen to.

Keen to, if anyone could be bothered coming. Yes, we are very keen. Maybe let us know. you would come to a show. Obviously, it's very difficult for us to get over to Ohio. Where there are a lot of you. But hey, dreams can come true. Or Monaco or Mexico City.

Yeah. All these places. We do appreciate you listening. But I don't know if you are in Australia and you would come to a show, let us know if we did a live pod. We'd love to. It'd be a lot of fun. Yeah, heaps of fun. Any excuse.

But it would be very sad if we just did this, but in a venue with no one there. Oh, that would be a bit sad. Well, I mean, that's kind of what we're doing right now. Yeah. But it's all right because we're in a very small room. Yeah, sure. You couldn't really fit. You could fit three more people in here.

Yeah, but if we booked out the MCG... Oh, that'd be embarrassing, wouldn't it? And nobody turned up. They all got the dates wrong, obviously. Or the MSG, Madison Square Garden. Whoopsy. Whoops. But thanks for listening, everyone.

Get in contact. We love to hear from you if you want to suggest a topic, or if you just want to say hey. But we'll be back next week with another brand new report. And until then, I will say goodbye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Later, then you can say other words too.

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