Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - December 17 - Keith Urban, Ben's Tooth Dilemma, Is It Rude To Say 'You Look Tired'?

Episode Date: December 16, 2020

Hello! Today we had a couple of special guests on the show. First up was Keith Urban - country singer who is married to Nicole Kidman, and he's got a big hit with P!NK at the moment called One Too Many. We got him to call up ZM and try request his own song, without disclosing who he was. A claaaasic radio play. Our other guest was Sir Richard Taylor, founder and head of Weta Workshop. He's worked on King Kong, Lord of the Rings, Avatar and many more. Ben also had something very awkward happen to him when he was in a rush Christmas shopping with his daughter. Finally, Jono shared what happened when he went to the dentist yesterday, it was NAAHHHHT good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jono and Ben, new to your mornings. Friends of Skinny, New Zealand's most recommended telco. Happy, happy, happy, oh, oh. Just when you thought you couldn't get enough of Jono and Ben, you can have them anywhere, anytime. Welcome to the Jono and Ben podcast. Welcome to the podcast. I just had a little bit of a drama in the studio.

Now, I don't even know what this little technical bit of equipment is. I don't know what it is. It's small, it's got a lot of plugs in it, it's is. I don't know what it is. It's small. It's got a lot of plugs in it. It's got a lot of knobs on it. And it looks very expensive. It's sitting next to me. And the cords with that plug in, the electrical cords,

are sort of looped in under my chair. And as I went to move, I must have got my foot caught on one of the cords. And I could see this expensive bit of equipment sort of quickly move towards the floor. Yeah. And in that moment, I was like, uh-oh, uh-oh. So I put my hand out to try and stop the fall, smashed down onto my hand and still hit the ground anyway. And now I've got a sore hand and also I feel really bad because this expensive equipment sort of hit the floor. What hurts more, your hand or your feelings? Probably the feelings towards hopefully that this equipment's alright

well apparently Millennial Max just said their equipment's there so that when bands or musicians come in they can plug in and perform so it looks like

we're going to have no more musical performances features on the hits sorry about that accident it's here one time at the Rock radio station when we were working there

I spilt it was like a strawberry tea I was drinking at the Rock too of all places it should have been a hard whiskey it should have been a bourbon and goggles I'll just have my strawberry tea I was drinking. At the Rocks too, of all places. It should have been a hard whiskey. It should have been a bourbon and coke. I'll just have my strawberry tea thingy.

And I spilled it all over into the technical equipment and oh, that wasn't a good day. And that was ironically on our second to last day there when we had announced we were leaving. They were like, hey, as a parting gift, I'm going to pour this sugary drink through all of your electrical equipment. And I keep going, okay, I'm sorry.

And one of the technical people was like, it's fine, it's fine. But you could tell it wasn't fine, you know, when you feel just terrible in those situations. Right. A lot can go wrong in a radio studio, can't it? In terms of, there's a lot of expensive gear and a lot of idiots like myself standing behind it. Yeah. Like, we shouldn't be trusted in front of all this equipment here.

No, I know. Why am I? I should not. I don't trust myself. You get to take down the whole radio station. But today on the podcast, we've got Keith Urban, which is pretty exciting. Country music singer. Born in New Zealand.

Grew up in Australia. Married to Nicole Kidman. He joins us and he tries to make a, we make him make a call to another radio station to request his own song. Yeah, and it gets decidedly awkward. Well, he played it beautifully, Keith, because I said, oh, do you want to do this thing? He's like, why would I do that?

I was like, do you want to phone a radio station to request his song? He's like, why would I do that? Which is a great point. Yeah, I mean, he's Keith Urban. He's got people organising for his songs to be on radio stations. But he did that, and we really enjoyed it,

so that's on the podcast, as well as that Sir Richard Taylor from Where to Work shop. We've never had a Sir on this show. I know. It's not a show a Sir should come on. No. Or a Dame.

We've had some Dames. We're the top twins. Yeah, and Dame Valerie Adams as well. We should come with Dames. No Sirs. Have we not? Never had a Sir? Maybe.

No. Anyway, well, yeah, it was great to have. Oh, no, Sir Graham Henry. We've had Sir Graham Henry. Oh, we've had Sir Graham. Oh, two Sirs, two Dames. We need to get our Sirs and dames count up. We'll start up a spreadsheet.

All right. So it was great chatting to him. Very interesting about what goes on when they're making movies, when they're working on movies. And they have worked on the world's biggest films. You name a movie. Lord of the Rings. Well done.

Name another movie. King Kong. Well done. Keep naming movies they've worked on. Don't name Grease or Top Gun or anything. Another movie. Spider-Man, the second one.

Thor. Yeah. Okay, yeah. What else? I had a list before. The Avengers? Avatar as well. They've worked on so many movies

and even some that Sir Richard Taylor's like, oh, I didn't know we were working on that one because it's happening all at the same time all over the world. So that's on the podcast.

Enjoy that and we'll catch you tomorrow for our final one of the year. Jono and Ben or as they're known in the office those two. Jono and Ben

New Zealand's breakfast on the hits. Now Keith Urban he's Kiwi born he's Australian raised he's a country music superstar he's married to Nicole Kidman as well.

He's got a smash hit out now you would have heard many times on the hits it's called One Too Many With Pink it's a great song and he joins us on Zoom. We're very excited about this. Keith Urban, how are you? I'm good. I'm good. You're in Australia right now, right?

At the house, yep. Where are you guys at? Yeah, back in the studio, Auckland. Auckland, yeah. Well, in New Zealand, we always talk to you. Every interview that I've watched with you and read with you in the New Zealand media, everyone talks about you being born in New Zealand. Can we claim you? Are you getting sick of answering that question? Oh, you can claim me because it's a fact. I'm as curious as a pavlova.

Which is also claimed by Australia. So I see what you did there, Evan. I know, you know, Whangarei born and still got a lot of relatives all through the North Island, some down the South Island as well. And you once went to Ekata Huna at age 17 to meet a mate on a sheep farm. Yes. So I'm from the Wadarapa where Ekata Huna is from. Why did you go there?

And I'm sorry about it on behalf of New Zealand. The person I was with at the time, their sister was shearing sheep in Akahuna. So we thought we'll do a road trip from Whangarei down all the way down there. And we just bought this 1969 little Fiat Bambina. And that thing must have broken down 20 times on the trip down there. But nonetheless, it was a fun trip. And we do have some beautiful sheep here in New Zealand as well.

I'll vouch for that. Yeah, we can all agree. We can all agree. I'm sure you've dealt with your fair share of sheep slander over in Australia, Keith. Not until right now that we're off on a run. Oh, sorry. Yeah, sorry to bring it up.

Sorry to bring it up. Hey, I was listening to your podcast with Conan O'Brien last week, and you were talking about your extensive guitar collection. How many are you running there? And is Nicole on board with it, or she's like, get these things out of the house? She's on board with it. You know, luckily that's my work tools, you know.

I've got a good collection, but it's crazy because I'm not a collector, you know. I just reach for certain guitars when I'm making records. And before you know it, there's a whole bunch of different kind of guitars and they accumulate. Although, I lost a bunch of them in a flood in Nashville in 2010. Had to start all over again.

I was reading 50 to 60 guitars you lost in the flood. Yeah, and the weird thing is a lot of the electric ones survived, which is crazy. They sat in the water for like five, six days or so because what happened was after the waters had crested or whatever, they were in this big warehouse, and the police wouldn't let anybody near this, in this part of town because all the waters had to subside

before they'd let people in. It was heartbreaking to know all my guitars are floating in this warehouse and I can't get in. I was making a record on the weekend it happened and I went to the studio with one guitar I had at my house and started making a record and jumped on eBay and started finding some other guitars. Oh, buy more.

Wow. To the studio because I had none, you know. So when Keith Urban's on eBay, is he bidding or is he doing a buy now? How does that work for you? Well, it depends what I need and how quickly I need it. I'll do the bidding. I'll even get in there and start sniping if need be.

Now, we are loving One Too Many. We're playing there pretty much every day on our show on the hits. A great duet with you and Pink and I realise I was reading you wrote it with Pink in mind and you reached out and you're quite nervous to sort of get in touch with her to see if she wanted to sing on the song. Yeah, I'm

a producer on the song. I didn't write it but the writers sent it to me and it was written as a duet. And so, you know, for me, I was just like, this is perfect for Pink. I hope she likes it. And yeah, I didn't know her. I met her once at an award show really briefly.

But through a friend of a friend, I was able to get the song to her. And it was a really good, it was a good, a great email to get saying how much she loved the song and was going to dive in and do it. It was very cool. So you said it was like buying clothes for someone else. When you're nervous, you're like, oh, are they going to like this? Oh, it's very nervous because it's so subjective, right?

And, I mean, you hope the person's not insulted. You think I would sing this piece of shit. Luckily she opted. Did you have backup people in mind? And can we name them who missed out on the smash hit? I had no plan B, so thank God she said yes. It was just going to be you putting on a female voice and singing with yourself.

I'm playing with myself. Yeah, thank you. You can join us. We've got Keith Urban with us. I wanted to run through a couple of quick Keith Urban myths because there's a lot of stuff written on the internet. You just tell us if it's true or false. You wanted to work in radio as an announcer and you got fired.

Yes, yes. They're both true. This is true. Okay. Where were you working? I was 15 and doing, at the time they called it work experience. I don't know what they call it now, interning or whatever the heck. It was something, but you get two weeks off school to go and work

at some place that you're really interested in. If you can get a job there just for a couple of weeks, you don't get paid, of course. It's just for experience. And I got a job at a place called 4KQ in Brisbane. I'd only been there about a week and I got fired. For doing what? You ended up playing music over something you shouldn't?

Is that right? Yeah. You know, because you're like, you guys know. It's like, well, I want to be on the air, do my own show. I don't just want to be doing stuff behind the scenes, you know. And so there was two studios side by side. And I said, hey, that studio that's not getting used right now, can I just go in there and like whip up a bit of a show, you know.

And they were like, yeah, sure. So it was back when they still had a bunch of vinyl and stuff. So I got all these vinyl records, got a bunch of news reports out of the rubbish bin. And I went in there and I'm like, this could be great. And I'm like reading out stuff and I'm on the mic and I hit this song. And next minute I look through the glass and I see these people sprinting towards me. And I'm like, what?

Apparently, next door was a very serious news report happening. In the middle of this really heavy story, while Alan Jennings cuts in and goes, just a good old boy, never in the arm. Ten people perished in the fire today. Oh, jeez. Well, listen, I think we can all safely agree

it has worked out for us sitting here in this bleak studio and you, Keith Urban, well, you got the rough end of the deal, my friend. You could have that radio career. Another Keith Urban myth, you carried Nicole Kidman's number around for four months before calling her. Is that true or not?

I don't know if it was that long. Okay. It was a while. I was pretty nervous. You wanted to ask if she would duet with you and waiting for the email back. And one last one, I'll go with you now.

Growing up, your nickname was Suburban. Well, only one person down the street from us called me that because I had an older brother. So I was below, you know, younger. So I was Suburban. Oh, that's quite cool. I like Suburban.

That's a great pun. We're a lover of a pun over here. We really are. We've got Keith Urban with us. Now, my dear friend, my dear friend my dear friend my dear dear friend Keith we have an affiliate

station that works here and the night host is on air at the moment because it's 20 to 9 over here at night and we thought could Keith Urban

request Keith Urban on the radio but why? just to get your ampere spins up mate get you some get you some plays on the old wireless yeah why? Just to get your emperor spins up, mate. Get you some plays on the old wireless. Yeah, okay,

so what do we do? How do we do it? So we'll dial through. What, are they going to know it's Keith Urban calling up? No, they won't know. You can just stay incognito. Okay.

All right, here we go. We're going through. This will be Cam. Is it Cam on here? Cam Mansell. This is their hotline, so I'll see the answers. Got a request, one too many, I imagine.

ZM, hello? Hey, Cam? Hey. Hey, matey, I'm just wondering, do you guys have requests? Yeah, I can definitely do a request. There's a song by, what's his name? I don't know, Pink sings it with him. One Too Many, I think it's called.

Oh, with Keith Urban. Yeah, that guy. Can you play that one? I don't know if it's in the system, but I can do my best for you. How come it's not in the system, Cam? We can make it work somehow, I'm sure. You're a champion, Cam.

Hang up on him. It's Shoto and Ben from Nextdoor here. We've got actual Keith Urban requesting his song with you right now. Such a stitch-up. Sorry, mate, we don't have it in the system. It's Keith Urban. We play it every morning. It's in the system. Get it out of the system. Put it on the radio. It's the same system. Chuck it on, McKee. It's Keith Urban. We play it every morning. It's in the system. Get it out of the system. Put it on the radio. It's the same system.

Check it on for Keith. It's so busted. You guys, it's so busted. He knows about radio. He got fired from a radio gig. He knows about radio. Mine will be the last one. Good on you, Kimmy.

Sorry, I've had one too many tonight. He's had one too many. He works in the song title. Keith Urban, it's so nice to talk to you. We are huge fans here in New Zealand. We love claiming you. You're awesome at what you do and keep on making New Zealand and Australia proud.

Awesome. It's so nice to talk to you guys. How about we do it in the studio next time? Let's definitely do that. You'll regret saying that, but we will lock it in. Love your work, mate. Morning. This show contains traces of Jono and Ben.

The Hits with Jono and Ben for breakfast. Now, it's almost Christmas, mate. Morning, this show contains traces of Jono and Ben. The Hits with Jono and Ben for breakfast. Now, it's almost Christmas, eight days away, and a lot of shelves in New Zealand are struggling to restock some of it, because a lot of stock isn't coming into the country. It's a lot harder at the moment. Yeah, I imagine due to a slowing down of COVID, I know there's ships out the back of Rangitoto, and a lot of

ships are being sent to other ports, Tauranga, up north as well, and then transported via truck, all those goods. But I was reading what happens, because we were like, what happens if you're a crew member on an international ship? Do you have to quarantine in a hotel for two weeks? And it looks like that you stay on the ship. So I'm assuming that ships that come into New Zealand waters

have to stay out there for 14 days before they can come into port because they have to be tested as well, their crew. Oh, rather than getting the stock off the ship. Maybe that's the delay. Okay. I don't know. I'm just making stuff up.

That's always a great way to broadcast. Just make up information. Now, yesterday afternoon, I was trying to frantically running around trying to do a little bit of Christmas shopping. It's always frantic, though, isn't it? It's always got to be frantic. It does. No other way to do Christmas. Every year I'm like no let's not do it like that but you get to it you're like I need to do this I need to send stuff

I need to do this so I was like. It's kind of like whoever invented Christmas has made this imaginary finish line that we're all like rushing and panicking towards for no reason. It's unnecessary panic. So I was yesterday I So yesterday I went to the mall and it was busy, you know, and lots of people out Christmas shopping, which is great for the economy. But I was out there

and I had my daughter Indy who was like, come on, come on, you know. And kids, you're blessed. They're in their own world a lot of the time. You know, they see stuff that's distracting. They see things they want. And they don't sense stress.

They're not like, this is a stressful event. Come on, we need to get in, get out and go. You should be like, Indy, this is survival of the fittest out here. Dad had to choke out an elderly lady on an escalator one year. So you stick with me and we'll get this done.

But I had a moment where I was in the store and I was like, come on, Indy, we need to go. And she was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then she wasn't going quite as fast as I was hoping she would do. So I put my sort of hand back towards her. I'm like, come on, Indy, let's go. Let's go, mate, come on. I put my hand back for her to hold my hand

so we could walk a bit faster. And then suddenly this hand gripped back on my hand. I was like, oh, hello, this is not a hand of an eight-year-old girl. Looked back and it was this lovely elderly gentleman, probably about 70, 80 years old. And he's like, all right, mate, where are we going? He's like, I haven't felt the touch of another human for 55 years. I was like, oh, okay, well, actually, we're in a bit of a rush.

I was still holding his hand. I was like, we're out of a bit of a rush. Oh, yeah. Where do you want to go, mate? Are we going to your farmer's? So we walked for a little bit, a little bit of a chat. But I was like, good on him. He just saw a hand come back and he was like, yeah, I'll grab onto that.

Because I'm like, come on, mate, let's go. He's like, all right, where are we going? Oh, he's just given up, isn't he? See where the day takes me? So we had a lovely chat with him. I was like, it kind of was a good reminder to kind of slow down and kind of appreciate those things. Now Ben's adopted an old man who's living in his house.

He's a sweet little old man. Sweet little old man. You know, it is stressful out there at the malls, and I'm always just like, hold your breath. Don't look anyone in the eye. Keep your hands to yourself. It's like the public toilet. We apologise in advance.

Sorry about that. Sorry about that. Sorry to rope you into this. Sorry you've been dragged into this. Jono and Ben. Breakfast on the heads. The heads. Yesterday I said at the end of the show I needed to go and get,

I had a cavity in the back of my tooth. Yeah. I needed to go get that filled in. This has been an ongoing drama on the show for weeks. Oh, man. We've been like, he's got a sensor dying, a tooth brace that didn't settle the problem. Still had the cold.

Oh, why? Will he, won't he? What will happen to the dentist? Had this booked in the calendar. We've all known about it. 12 o'clock, won't he? What will happen to the dentist? He had this booked in the calendar. We've all known about it. 12 o'clock, can't move it. I know the nation was waiting with bated breath

to see how the operation went. But went in there and Marina, lovely dentist, she listens to the show. She says, I heard you talking about me the other time

so she's probably hearing this now. And she's like, well, this will give you something to talk about tomorrow. So went in there and you know how all those medical professionals

they do an x-ray and then they show you the x-ray and they're like have a look you can see the other problem and I always just go

oh yeah you can definitely but I never know what the problem I can't see it same with my dentist as well you're like I can't see this

but you pretend you do because you don't want to be like no I don't understand what you're talking about but you play the game and so she's like okay so I'll start drilling and they sort of drill inside the tooth but you pretend you do because you don't want to be like, no, I don't understand what you're talking about but you play the game. And so she's like, okay, so I'll start drilling and they sort of drill inside the tooth

to empty out the cavity and then put the filling in. And I thought, you know, this is just going to be a small little, you know, cavity filling. Actually for a while there because they put over a, almost like a latex blanket over your mouth. Have you had that?

Maybe she was trying to suffocate. Maybe she's like, this guy is an idiot. I've been listening to the show, and oh, Jesus, there's only one way to stop it. Shut his mouth off. I put a blanket over it. I sort of felt like a deceased, like a coroner would place a blanket over a dead body.

Oh, I haven't seen that. Yeah, I guess it's just so bits of tooth and stuff don't go down your throat. Anyway, so it starts drilling and I'm thinking to myself sort of 20 minutes into the procedure, there's a lot of drilling going on.

It's almost, let's get the Green Party involved here. See if we can stop this drilling. We're looking for oil. What's going on? And it just kept going and going.

And Marina, she pulls away. She's like, this is deep. This is going really deep. And I'm like, how deep? And she's like, I'll show you. And Marina, she pulls away. She's like, this is deep. This is going really deep. And I'm like, how deep? And she's like, I'll show you. And I'm like, oh, don't show me again.

Because in my head, I'm going to pretend I know what I'm looking at. But she got the mirror, two-way mirror system going. I could see. And she's like, see that? That's your nerve there. So she's like, I'm going to have to do a root canal. And I'm like, I'm no dental expert, but that sounds fun. A root canal sounds enjoyable

let's come back on christmas day because that's where i want to do this so yeah i was thinking because we had to be somewhere and i was texting you i'm now i'm having this root canal now oh good so at the moment i've just got because the root canal is a it's a trilogy so i've gone for the first part i've got just like temporary filler in kind of like a sir peter jackson uh richard tyler lord of the rings we just Richard in. He would appreciate this. That's the trilogy. That's part one. That's the first one.

He can make some special effects for the trilogy and then go back on Christmas Eve for another thing and then in the new year you have to go back for a cap as well on top. So gee whiz.

Gee whiz. The old dentist. So there you go. But you get used, I suppose with any injury, you just get used to dealing with it and just have a drink

of water yesterday and not have to go ahhh really hell of a difference yeah was it that sore yeah

oh wow I don't like to make a fuss I don't like to talk about it I've been talking about it for months oh sense of diet oh my teeth oh I'm going

I don't want to make a fuss I'm not one to go on the radio and talk about it I want to talk more about their dental problems than you to everyone pulling a sickie today you're not fooling anyone Jono and to go on the radio and talk about it. I'm not one to talk more about their dental problems than you. Turner alert. To everyone pulling a sickie today, you're not fooling anyone. Jono and Ben, breakfast on the hits.

Sir Richard Taylor, he's the founder of New Zealand special effects company, Weta Workshop. They've done amazing special effects and props for films like Lord of the Rings, King Kong, The Meg, Thor, BFG, Avatar, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and many more. He's won five Academy Awards and it's an honour to have him in the studio to talk about this amazing experience for Kiwi's families. It's called Weta Workshop Unleashed.

It's at Sky City in Auckland right now. So Richard Taylor, such a privilege to be talking to you today. It kind of seems like a mistake. Do you know what show you're on? No, it's a pleasure. We love listening to your show, so it's a joy to be here. Oh, so good to have you here. And thanks, of course, for your interest in what we're doing up here in Auckland.

Now, you are the founder, creative director of Weta Workshops, and you put together this amazing new exhibit here at Sky City in Auckland. That's correct. It's called Weta Workshop Unleashed, and it is a creative exploration through a fantastical film effects workshop. Because you get a lot of requests, I understand, for punters to come through your actual workshop, but, you know, health and safety.

You can't just let members of the public wander through. So you've kind of created this for there's demand out there to see what you guys do behind the scenes. That's right. We did open about 12 years ago a exhibition in Wellington that people can come along to, but we have always wanted to do something more elaborate and more creative

and that's what brought us up to Auckland, to Federal Street, to the entertainment precinct here. Well, it sounds like an amazing thing for New Zealand families to check out over the holidays and it sounds huge. It takes up an entire floor, I understand. It does.

We are one floor up from the All Blacks, so we take up the same space they do. We feel very privileged to be neighbours to the All Blacks. Well, you're actually, you're above. You're a level above. You're looking down on the All Blacks. The All Blacks experience is amazing. I went through it on the opening night,

and it could not be more different to our experience because it's beautiful and clean and slick and sophisticated and ours is a bit on the crazy creative side so lots of colour and lots of unique things. So Richard what's the longest time you've spent working on one particular movie? Oh seven and a half years is the longest we worked on Lord of the Rings. Because there's obviously that association with Lord of the Rings, and I don't know what the history was of your company pre-Lord of the Rings. Did you kind of start at the same time specifically for that project,

or were you doing stuff previously? No, not at all. We started 33 years ago in the back room of our flat. In fact, our first workshop table was the double bed that we used to put a board on top of. Pretty shonky, but... We still use that double bed. No health and safety concerns back then.

So we were very fortunate to do Public Eye, the satirical puppet show that used to be on TV, probably before you guys were born. I do know of it, though, yeah. Yeah, it was a spitting image-like show. And then Meet the Feebles and Brain Dead. Yeah, because you met Sir Peter, when he was 17 years old, I think he was still living at home, I was reading.

Well, no, we met him when he was in his early 20s. He just was finishing Bad Taste when we met him. Oh, right, okay. And he invited us to work on Meet the Feebles with him and then Brain Dead and Heavily Created. We did Hercules and Xena for seven years. Lots of stuff. Lord of the Rings, King Kong, The Meg, Thor, Ragnarok, BFG,

Furious 7, Avatars, Amazing Spider-Man. I mean, do you ever get to the end of a movie and go, oh, we worked on that? I didn't know we worked on that. To some degree. You start to, you don't think in years, you don't think in Christmases, you tend to think in movies. They are definitely road markers that mark your journey through life.

We may be working on four, five, six projects at once. It's incredible. For example, if there's a Thor being filmed, obviously not in New Zealand, do you make everything for the movie here and ship it over or you actually relocate for that project? No, we make everything in the workshop

and then we have crews out and about around the world. We did pre-COVID. We do have a crew that has just finished up in Dubai and we've got a crew up in China at the moment. But normally we have crews that are on set looking after our stuff for the producer and director. It's incredible that you can run all of that out of Wellington. When you started that in your bedroom 33 years ago,

you must have been like, I'm not going to win an Oscar. And I suppose it's a gradual climb for someone like yourself, but isn't it amazing to think how far it's come? We can't wrap our heads around it because we still think of ourselves as blue-collar Wellington technicians, and we love the fact that it drives so much employment. The thing I love to make today is other makers. It's nice that the workshop gives so many people

the opportunity to do this sort of craft for a living. Sir Richard Taylor with us. Weta Workshop Unleashed is unleashed at the moment at Sky City, the entertainment precinct. Very special. Go and take the family along. Go and take friends along. Grandmothers, aunties,inct. Very special. Go and take the family along. Go and take friends along.

Grandmothers, aunties, uncles. It's something for the whole family. Now, Sir Richard, you've won Oscars. You've got Academy Awards. Where do you keep them? Oh, we keep them at work. We keep them for the enjoyment of everyone that's in the workshop. We have carried them around to different parts of the world.

We took them to China. If you remember when the Sichuan earthquake happened, I asked the Academy if I could get permission to take them to raise money for that tragic event. Oh, you're not meant to take them anywhere, are you? No, no. We took them there. They were used to raise money, went around the orphanages,

which was really lovely. And then we took them back again about three or four years ago to raise money for another charity. So they're well worked. They're very damaged now. Oh, really? Yeah. They earn their keep.

So it's nice. And it's a lovely exclamation mark to the efforts given by so many people. It's amazing. No, it's well deserved. Even at home, you've also got creative stuff in your backyard. Is that the same house that I was looking into? Wow, gosh. He's gone deep.

Oh, yeah, I've gone deep. I really got quite fascinated by it. Well, we still live in the same house that we bought on Meet the Feebles. You've got a miniature village and cliffside railway at the back of your house. Yes, yes, yes, because we've got a postage-stamped garden that's windblown. My enthusiasm for miniature railway and model making, I had to build into a grey wacky cliff

directly out the back of the house. Is your house like a film set? No, not at all. You wouldn't know anything of what we do if you were to come into our home. Because life at the workshop can be somewhat pretty wacky and we've chosen to keep our family life very simple.

We need some stability. Raising two children as well, you want them to not be living in a surreal environment too much, so they've grown up in a fairly ordinary house. As a parent, too, when you reach a level of international success as you have, you'd have to be mindful of the way you're raising children raising children right you don't want them to sort of expect everything and have everything handed to them I imagine well our two are very grounded both of them have to work for the money that they earn our daughter worked for three and a half years to save the money for the

cake mixer that she wanted to buy and now she's paid most of it off making cakes on the cake mixer which she sells to the people that work for us. So, yeah, it's that. We're very thoughtful and conscious of that. Yeah, you would be. She'd be like, Dad, you own Weta Workshop. Buy me a cake mixer.

No, far from it. But she does say, Dad, you own Weta Workshop. Can I please have the coolest Halloween costume? Oh, yeah. So, of course, we love making things like Halloween costumes together. Oh, and science projects. I mean, you must be great winning those for your kids. Well, good at giving her the materials to let her win them.

And do you ever say yes to something not knowing if you can do it or not, like as far as that, you know, and then go, we'll work out how to make this actually happen? That's common, of course, because no one wants to watch tomorrow what they watched yesterday. So you're constantly trying to come up with something new for the audience. So you accept projects that you have

some rudimentary thought on how to do it, but you've got to get everyone together, have a brainstorm on it, innovate new methodologies. We actually build equipment to build jobs. That's incredible. So you say you've got a good poker face yes we can do that job and then you panic yeah yeah you run around like a headless

chalk okay guys i've signed us up to this it's a big movie what a shark that walks oh listen sir richard taylor one of the great new zealanders remarkable the stuff that you've managed to achieve it's an honor to meet you and congratulations really is. And congratulations on all the success. So do mean that. Thank you very much. And thank you for inviting me on. And please, everyone, come to Where to Workshop Unleashed. Yeah, go see it. I think you'll enjoy it over the Christmas holidays. A perfect time to be here in New Zealand.

So it's great. Where to Workshop Unleashed at Sky City on now. So Richard Taylor, thank you for your time. Want more Jono and Ben? You can catch up with the boys anytime. Just search Jono and Ben on Facebook. It's the time of year really where a lot of people are tired, aren't they? Getting to the end of the year.

It's been a big year, and that's to say the least for many people. A lot of stresses on people as well, and there are people out there looking a little tired. And I came in the other morning and I said, Juliet, you look tired. I probably very much was. And I was sort of meaning it from a caring... I'm just sounding rude, though.

But then I hear this conversation erupts that calling someone or saying someone looks tired is offensive. Well, it can be. I guess it can. Yeah, I can see how you'd... Do you ever want to go, hey, mate, you look tired? You're like, oh, thanks. You know, it doesn't sound like a compliment, does it? I see it as a comment of concern.

You look tired. Are you all right, mate? I guess it's all in the inflection. Yeah, are you all right? Are you all right today? I would be fine, but you look tired. You look a bag of... That's pretty much in my head what someone's saying,

if they say it to me. Is it offensive to say someone looks tired? We want to throw this out, 0800, the the hits 4487 on the text. Do you get it if someone goes, are you looking a bit tired? Are you like, oh. I get a little bit missed by that. Would you say anything or would you just hurt inside? I'd probably go, oh, thanks for that.

Not so bad yourself. You know, I'd probably say something like that back to you, you know. Like have a snipe back. Like my mum would say. The best sort of thing I'd probably like, I'd tolerate from my mum because mum's always like, oh, you're wasting while you're doing this. So you're just saying it's a polite way of saying you look like a steaming pile of kumara. Yeah, yeah. You look

terrible. Did you get offended when I said it the other day, Ju? No, because one, I feel like we're all in the same boat. We're all tired together when we do this sort of job. But also, yeah, you did say it in a caring way. But if someone comes and you go, oh, you look tired today, oh, cheers, mate.

Yeah, yeah. So you feel they could be passively bullying your shabby face. Yeah. Okay, so 800 hits. The lines are blowing up. It's something that everyone's had to deal with over the years, so we'll get to this next. Are you tired?

You look tired. What was I saying? Maybe I'm too tired. You look tired. We'll go to the phones. Ohope, Lucy, welcome. How are you? What was I saying? Maybe I'm too tired. You look tired. We'll go to the phones. Ohope, Lucy, welcome. How are you? Hi, I'm good, thanks.

How are you? Oh, we're doing well. It's lovely to have you on New Zealand's Breakfast. Is it offensive to say someone looks tired? Yep, my mum does it all the time. You don't like it when your mum does it. Ben says that his mum's the only person who he can accept it from. Yeah, but even then, you're like,

we could have picked something else to say, like a nice T-shirt or something, you know, rather than... Exactly, yeah. And even talking on the phone, she'd be like, oh, you sound tired, Lou, are you okay? She's doubling down on you sound tired as well. She's even picking up on your tired old voice. Are you going to have a great Christmas, Luce? Get some sleep, right, Luce?

Okay. All right, Dylan's in Taupo. Welcome, Dylan Morena. Is it offensive to say someone looks tired? Oh, well, you know, say if I come into work and someone says I'm tired, I'm just like, oh, go look at the moon. Maybe I do feel like a tired old man.

I'll just look at it and be like, oh, maybe I look tired today. Yeah, right. I just feel tired, yeah. You're like, I don't look tired. And then you look at yourself and you're like, who's that tired?

Oh, yeah, okay. Fair enough. Nothing worse as a kid. Someone saying, oh, you're just tired. As a kid, you're like, oh, that would wind me up too. Or hungry.

Yeah. And you usually were. That's why you react. I'm not tired. You don't want to hear that. It's like an adult when you're in a conversation and someone goes,

calm down. That's the adult equivalent. Sir, calm down. You's the adult equivalent. Sir, calm down. And you're tired. You look tired as well. Sarah, you're on the air from Wellington. Good to have you on from the capital. Are you tired? Is it offensive? Totally offensive.

My mother-in-law used to say, oh, you look tired. And I bloody had to bite my tongue until I exploded one day. No way. Really offensive. Did you blow up on her? You must have been tired. I certainly did. It took me a long time, but the boy was like, I'm over it. And then it was like, it got to the point where she was going,

are you sick? Are you looking, you're not looking very peachy today. I was like, really? I've made a big mistake here. No, bugger it. I've got to tell today. It's like, really? I've made a big mistake here. No, bugger it. I've got to tell her. It's a landline. It's a landslide.

Apparently it's offensive to say someone looks tired. All those people. Text 4487 here from Katrina who says, oh, we live in a fragile society now, don't we? Ben Humphrey, producer Humphrey, we're having this conversation after the show. Yesterday she said it's offensive now to say someone, oh, you've lost weight.

You can't say you've lost weight now because it then refers to them, oh, obviously at a previous point they were overweight. Yeah, no, I can... So I don't know how you tackle that one. Well, maybe don't, just don't.

You don't need to, I guess just don't comment. Just don't say anything. It's a study way to get through 2020. Just don't say anything. Okay, that's a New Year's resolution, 2021. Everyone sit in silence and don't comment. Just don't say anything. It's the only way to get through 2020. Just don't say anything. Okay, that's the New Year's resolution, 2021. Everyone sit in silence and don't offend anyone. Yeah, that'd be great.

You even offend people now trying to give them a compliment. Yeah, I know. There's ways you can, yeah. Could you say, you're looking good? Would that be all right? Well, it depends on what. Like, if you're my boss and you're like, you're looking good, I'd be like, oh, mate, HR, let's go.

You filthy pervert you pest how dare you say I look good yeah yeah nah yeah nah yeah nah the whole movie yeah nah

she'll be right and at the end of the day Jono and Ben breakfast on the hits Jono and Ben married to Miss oh it's not we're giving back

to a community that has given us nothing over the years I don't know what that means but it has been a tough year for lots of people all over the world, and particularly in New Zealand. So this week, thanks to themarket.com, we'll be doing something that's been really special for us, to go give some deserving kids a bit of a treat, a Christmas treat. They not only get a one-on-one Zoom call with Santa from the North Pole,

but we have arranged with Santa to get some elf outfits, and we knock on the door just as the Zoom call's going on, and we've got some presents that Santa's given us to give to them. He's made us bespoke elf costumes too, because obviously elves traditionally, they're sitting around two or three feet. Yeah. So Santa made us specially designed elf costumes that could fit us.

Still a bit tight around the waist region for me. Right. But that's fine. That's fine. I persist. But we've met some really special children and families during the week. Some people have just had their lives turned upside down.

Yeah. And children, they're resilient and they just take each day as it comes and we could learn a lot from kids, the way they approach life. There's stuff that we shouldn't do as kids, you know, if we're adults. Oh, yes. Don't put Play-Doh up your nose as an adult. It's a bad look.

Yeah, or crayons or something like that. But, you know, the way that they approach each day and each moment and be in the moment, that's something we can take away from it. Right, that's awesome. We'd like to welcome Michelle to New Zealand's Breakfast. How are you? Hi, good thanks. How are you? Good to see you. You are Kira and Kaylee's mother. Yes.

And if you didn't know that, well, that's big news. No, I think you knew that, right, Michelle? Oh, yeah. Now, we got to surprise them the other day with a couple of special treats from Santa. Oh, yes. And we have not stopped playing with them. Oh my goodness. And they remember

and they're not going to forget ever. Oh, that's good. That's good. Until Christmas Day rolls around then... There's new presents to come along. Oh no, I don't think so. I think everything's coming with us. We can't wait on holiday. Now Michelle, we had them both on Zoom with the big man himself, Santa Claus.

As in like his position in the company. Statue, yeah. You're not shaming him in that way. No, no. On Zoom, and he sort of talks to them about their year and why they've been so good and what exactly they want for Christmas. Have a listen. Here's some audio I think we've got from the day.

Hi, Kiera. Happy Christmas. Christmas. How are you, Mummy? Good. Kiera, what do you want for Christmas? Toy. What about roller skates?

What do you want? Guess. Something. The door. There's a knock at the door. So it's at that moment Ben and I are knocking at the door. Kiera's going, what WTF? What is going on?

I don't know if she uses that language at age three or four, but who knows. And then you come to the door and we're there with the presents. Hi. Hello. Hello. How are you? Hey, guys. Are you Kira and Kaylee?

Yes. Nice to meet you guys. Did you guys just talk to Santa? Yes. Yeah, well, he sent us over here and said, why don't you drop Kira and Kaylee these presents? And we said, why don't you do it, you lazy... Anyway, we ended up doing it.

We had a conversation and in the end we decided to bring some presents over to you guys early because you've been so good this year. Did you want the roller skates? Yes. And did you want the pets alive? Thank you. Oh, no, thank you. This is a lot to take in.

I know. Who are these two strange men dressed in crushed velvet outside my house? Oh, it was lovely to meet you and your adorable kids. You must be very proud of them. Who are these two strange men dressed in crushed velvet outside my house? Oh, it was lovely to meet you and your adorable kids. You must be very proud of them. Oh, so proud. They just, yeah, they try every day. And same with Mummy.

Oh, good on you. Good on you. I'll tell you what, roller skates. She's an interesting presence. How are the roller skates going? Good luck with that one. They're not bad. We had to buy pads for her because she was like,

no, Mommy, I have to have the whole outfit. Like, okay, so we went and got them. And she just, inside, she will put them on literally in the morning, go on the liner, come back on the carpet. And then when Dad comes home, she goes, come on, Dad, just sit outside for a little bit. And I'm video recording, trying to, you know, watch them and do this. And she's like, yep, puts all the outfit on and goes outside and she's just like, wow.

Oh, that's awesome. It's so nice to meet you and you guys have a wonderful Christmas, all right? Oh, no, thank you so much. Merry, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. See you, Michelle. Thanks, of course, to themarket.com for making it all happen.

Over 2 million products at themarket.com. You can get all you want for Christmas. A giftmas, they're calling it at themarket.com. Free shipping, free returns. It's an amazing website. And we have one more tomorrow, our last one, to give away a deserving kid thanks to themarket.com. Add these two men together

and somehow you get three quarters worth of a normal dad. The Hits with Jono and Ben for breakfast. Bye. Thanks to Sharesies, New Zealand's fastest growing share platform. Shares made easy. All right, here she is ready to pump out more nonsense about people you may or may not care about.

Juliet with Spy. So Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's latest project is a new podcast on Spotify, and they released a little trailer. And I'll play the trailer, but the reaction from a celebrity overseas has just made it entirely better. Should we start?

No? Ladies first? No, say it because I think it sounds really nice with your accent. Well, I'll try audio. I'll try audio. I mean. Really? Shall we? Yeah, let's do it. That's a fumbly start to a podcast. I mean, that's worse than the start to our podcast. They're bad. So it's basically a podcast about start to a podcast. I mean, that's worse than the start to our podcast. Yeah, they're bad.

Yeah, so it's basically a podcast about they have conversations with all different people to share different perspectives and life stories and all of that. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, so just so people can connect more, I guess. But Piers Morgan, who's a television host over in the UK, he's kind of equivalent to our Mike Hosking. He's quite controversial.

He hates Meghan and Harry. He goes in on them every opportunity he gets. I think he liked Harry but he didn't like Megan. Yes, yes. He met Megan and he was like

the whole time I was talking to her I felt like she was looking around the room wanting to talk to someone better. Yes. And there might have been better people in the room. Yeah, well, yeah.

I'm sure if they had a party and Megan and Harry are there and Piers Morgan, there's probably a whole lot of great people there. Yeah, but Piers Morgan's reaction on air was him vomiting into a bucket. Oh, people there. Yeah, but Piers Morgan's reaction on air was him vomiting into a bucket.

I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. We're still on air. I'm so sorry. How awkward. Just to absolutely take the mickey out of there, Sounded authentic. It sounded like there was actually liquid being expelled there.

Are you going to listen to the Megan and Harry podcast, Ben? Oh, maybe I will check it out. I will. Yeah, you love them. I do, I do. I will listen to it because I just want to hear what they're up to.

It seems like they're trying to do nice things, but everyone just loves chopping everyone down. I know, I know. Just got to give them a bit of a break, I think, sometimes.

So I guess this is what makes the rest of us feel better about our miserable lives, is cutting down those more successful. The tall poppy chopping that New Zealand builds on. And the highest paid celebrities of 2020 have been revealed.

Can you guess who the top one might be? Highest paid celebrities? Yes, of 2020. I'm going to go Dwayne The Rock Johnson. Oh, jeez. Taylor Swift, she had a couple albums. I didn't tour, but I'm locking in now. Okay, so the highest paid celebrity was Kylie Jenner.

Oh, of course. So she earned about 800 million New Zealand dollars in 2020. Bit down, bit down from last year. She had a bill last year, so bit down, bit down on the profits. But Dwayne The Rock Johnson, he came in at 10th, earning $120 million in 2020. Who's second? Second, I think, was Kanye West,

and then there was Roger Federer, and then a few other sports stars. And then eventually Dwayne The Rock Johnson. I imagine Kanye probably makes a lot from his fashion line. Yeah. Sales a lot of clothing. He didn't do any new music this year, did he? Like an album.

He did a couple of singles, I think. No, obviously they're not touring or anything like that. And that's where they make some money. And I think the reason Kylie made so much is, one, because she sold her cosmetics company. And then, two, the Kardashians signed a deal with Hulu. So it's like combined she's just earned a ton in 2020.

So she's my age. Wow. I know. Should I leave? It's nice to know how much more money they have. I know. So you see, this is why we chop those people down, Ben. Make ourselves feel enriched in our souls. Even when we're not rich, we can feel enriched.

And that's five more. You can head to the hitstock.nz. Broadcasting live and mostly awake. Jono and Ben, New Zealand's breakfast on the hits. It is almost Christmas, eight days away, and we've got a pretty awesome prize up for grabs every day this week. It's the GHD Wish Upon a Star Limited Edition Gold Gift Set. Over $300 this is worth.

If you want to head to ghdhere.com slash NZ, you can view the full collection, luxury Christmas collection available online or in salon right now. These are the world's, hands down, the world's easiest Christmas questions. If you find easier Christmas questions, we'll beat them by nothing because we can't. Because they're so easy. Let's welcome from Wellington, Leanne.

Morena, Leanne. Hi, how are you? Oh, we're doing well. How's your hair today? Yeah, a bit crinkly. A bit crinkly? Oh, well, you could want a GHD hair straightener. You'd be having a good hair day today, right?

Yeah. I don't have any hair on my head, but I used these on my armpit hairs last night, and they have never been straighter. They're hanging down by my waist. They're so straight. They're coming out the side of your T-shirt, which is a bit weird. You can swing on them.

I could plait them. And that's just the joy of being able to do something with hair on my body. I won't tell you where else I use them, but let's move on. You've got to get three out of five Christmas questions correct, all right? Now, Merry Quizmas. Are you ready for your first question?

Yep. That wasn't the first question. Yes, one from one. On to the next one. One from one. Okay. Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, all names of what? Are they male dancers from the Aussie Thunder Down Under crew,

Santa's reindeer or Santa's underpaid overworked elves? I'll have to go with the reindeer. You are correct. Although I would go and see an Aussie stripping troupe named Vixen Comet Cupid Donna and Blitzen. Yeah, it probably would work actually. Yeah, Santa themed Aussie Thunder Down Under. Well done. One from one.

On to the next one. In Brazil, Santa Claus is known as Gary, Mike, or Papa Noel. Papa Noel? Yes, you're right. Well done. Can't wait till Gary turns up, comes down the chimney. Come on, Gary. Okay, you've got one more question to get correct.

The traditional bird that is eaten on Christmas Day is what? Is it a turkey? Is it a kakapo? Or is it a KFC family feast? Oh, is Kentucky open on Christmas Day? Well, that's true. It probably would have been in terms of... I would definitely get Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Oh, that's the sabre turkey. Yeah, and you're all right. And you've got three, the first three questions correct. So you've got yourself that great new GHD. Awesome. Thanks, thanks guys. As you said, every time you look at your hair in the mirror, you think of us, okay? Oh, I will.

Real Kiwi blokes with soy lattes. Shona and Ben, breakfast on the hits. The A to Z of New Zealand. A little something we do every day on the show. We call a different town or city in New Zealand. We call one a day and we're slowly making our way around New Zealand.

Heading just north of Auckland today to Kokopokopa on the internet. Doesn't have much about Kokopokopa and it doesn't look like there's much there. But when we have phoned places previously and there's not much there, they make up for it with their vibrant personalities, don't they Ben? And today we're calling the butchers. It's everybody's favourite shop, unless you're an animal or a vegetarian. Yeah. Those two.

They're not big fans of butchers. But we're going through now to find out more about Co-Copper Copper. Good morning, Country Meets. Nadia speaking. Nadia, it's Jono and Ben from The Hits. How are you? I'm good, thank you. We are phoning every town and city in New Zealand. Copper Copper is next on the list.

Come on down, Nadia. Are you in the middle of processing meats at the moment? Yes, we are. Sheep. Lots and lots of sheep. I can imagine very busy, heading up until Christmas. Yep, it's like our Christmas Eve every day this week. Oh, really? So now's a great time to have an inane conversation with two low-level radio hosts? That's okay.

Oh, good. You'll fit it in. Whereabouts in the country are you? About 15 k's from Silverdale, between Silverdale and Hallersville. Oh, love it. Love it. And would you go there for a holiday if you didn't live there? Probably not. No, okay there for a holiday if you didn't live there? Probably not.

No, okay. Not a holiday destination. Would you go there to have a coffee at a cafe? No, you'd come here for good fish and chips. Okay, you'd go there for a fish and chips. And to maybe get some meat from the butcher. Yeah, that wouldn't go amiss either. Okay.

Would you go there to visit an auntie who lived in Kokopikova? Yes, yeah. So the population is definitely growing out here. So it's that sort of location. Would you be excited about going to see the auntie or would you be like, oh, I've got to go visit the auntie in Kokopokova? If you're a young kid and you wanted to go visit some farm animals, you might be excited.

But if you're a fully grown adult, fully developed adult, you'd be like, oh. Yeah, pretty much. This is a great sale. I just remembered we did a TV segment, Cow Copper Copper Cops. It was about the fictitious cops

that were in Cow Copper Copper. We wrote a whole thing, that's right. Yeah, I don't know if we ever made it to television, but it made us laugh that it would be cops in Cow Copper Copper.

I was like, have a cup of coffee in the Cow Copper Copper Cop station. Yeah. There isn't one, but yes. There isn't one, is there? It's a blink and you miss it kind of town. All right.

Listen, you almost have a disdain for Kaokopa Cop. No, it's a great place. It's a growing family community. There's just not a lot here. Now, let's talk meat. Let's talk meat. Your favourite meats? Oh, probably scotch fillet.

Oh, yeah. Not an eye fillet. No. Why would you go scotch over eye fillet? Just more fat and more flavour. Right. And a bigger portion. Yeah, the marble in the steak.

Isn't marble a fancy word of fat? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, right. How long are you cooking a steak? What's your sort of standard? What would you go for? On a barbie? Yeah, so on a barbie. Probably about three minutes on each side.

Three minutes? Do you know my friend has meat blue? Yeah, no, I can't do that. He made me do it and it was the most traumatic experience of my life. I don't mind as rare as long as it's warm. All right. Now, before we go, because we've taken up enough of your time,

you're very busy, we want to put you in a bit of an ad for your town. We just basically, we've written it. You just got to fill in the blanks, okay? Okay. This is the town you love so much. Kaupapa. Welcome to the beautiful, tranquil...

Kaupapa. When you come to visit, you simply must check out the... Local dairy. And as the locals always say... Be sure to stop for some fish and chips. If you haven't visited this beautiful location, it will have you saying... Gee, I missed it.

And once you've said that, this special place of paradise will have you uttering more words like... What was that town? But be sure to pop in so the locals can tell you the town slogan. I don't think we have one. Don't think we have one, and that's a great slogan. Kaupapa, I don't think we have one. I don't think we have one. Lovely to talk we have one, and that's a great slogan. Kaupapa, I don't think we have one. I don't think we have one.

Lovely to talk to you, Nadia. Merry Christmas. Thank you so much, guys. Look forward to meeting you one day. Okay, bye. Want more Jono and Ben? You can catch up with the boys anytime. Just search Jono and Ben on Instagram.

Scrolling through your feed. I proudly present Simon Dello's protege, Simon Shallow. Hasn't quite got the news depth of Dello, but he's getting there. Ben Boyce is scrolling.

I like that. I'll take that. Now, Christopher Walken, famous Hollywood actor, been in many movies over the years. Pulp Fiction, he's on the one

that's on with Adam Sandler called Click on Netflix. It's just popped up there at the moment. I saw it last night. But he's revealed that he's never owned a mobile phone or computer in his entire life. Surely not. He's like technology's just passed him by.

He doesn't want to have anything that a 10-year-old is better than him. You know, he's like, oh, a 10-year-old's better than me, so I don't want to even get involved. He's not even going to engage in it. That's incredible. But to even avoid technology in this current day and age. How does he contact people? Every now and again he gets a cell phone apparently given to him on a movie set and that's basically just to get hold of him

but he doesn't know how to use it. This is him talking about it on Stephen Colbert's chat show. Yeah, somebody had to come and set this up because I don't have a cell phone or a computer. And why don't you have one? I just got to it too late. It just passed me by. You know, cell phones and that sort of thing, it's a little bit like a watch.

If you need one, somebody else has got it. So you've never emailed, you've never texted? No. So does he get other people to text for him? So if he's like, hey, can you text? Juliet, can you text Ben and tell him that I'm happy? It's like having a PA, but just people that are not fans. Mate, just get a phone. Christopher Walken, I'm not texting for you.

That's incredible. Unbelievable. I mean, even like, yeah, our parents are using it, you know? I can see where he's coming from, though. Like, I've let a lot of social media pass me by. And you do, like it gets away on you. You know,

it gets to a point where you're like, well I can't catch up to that. It's like Lord of the Rings. I've never watched it. I should have got involved as it was rolling out in real time. Got swept up in the madness.

I didn't. Now it's passed me by and it's too late to catch up to it. Didn't I remember we were chatting to, who's the Kiwi, Zoe,

Zoe Bell. She said that Quentin Tarantino, the director, doesn't have, I director, doesn't have email or mobile. Oh, yeah. And you guys were like, oh, how do people contact him? And she goes, that's the point. He doesn't want to be contacted. I suppose those really famous people, if those that need to get in touch with them want to get in touch with them,

they can probably find them somehow. Like if someone wants to get a movie script to Christopher Walken, they'll get in. Exactly. We have an agent, and his agent will probably know how to get in touch with them. Just text his cousin, she'll text his sister,

and she'll go over to his house and tell him. And day two of fruit chat. Yesterday we were talking about strawberries, today we're talking about watermelon. He might have been onto it with the song because watermelons, I reckon, this summer in New Zealand could be as high as $20 a watermelon.

There's a shortage of them. Yeah, so yesterday we were talking about strawberries being there's too many strawberries in New Zealand. So they're as cheap as chips. Which is a punnet of strawberries. Apparently. Someone made that joke to me this week. I didn't get it. But I've since discovered that, yeah.

How can there be abundance of strawberries and a shortage of watermelons? Surely they're all growing in the same climate under the same conditions. Well, I reckon there's not too many places in New Zealand that do grow watermelons. One farm in the far north has got too many for demand. We get a lot of it from overseas, and I think just getting stuff into the country has been hard, obviously with COVID, and also some of the overseas growers are dealing with diseases that attack the plants as well. So Tonga and Australia is normally where we get our watermelons from.

But at the moment, we'll be like, no, no, we don't want them until they've sorted all the problems out. And so now watermelons can be $20. Love a watermelon. Love a watermelon. But it's kind of like when you buy a whole watermelon, once you cut into it, that's it. There's no going back.

You need to finish the entire watermelon. It's very short. I mean, maybe the next day you can get, but it's a very short space time. And it's such an enormous fruit that, you know, like not one person can deal with one watermelon. I don't know. Have you ever eaten a whole watermelon, Jude? No, but we challenged my flatmate Ben to try eat a whole watermelon in 20 minutes and he

couldn't. He had to spew it up at the end. Oh, really? Yeah. We were like, oh, 20 minutes is heaps of time. And I was like, nah, give him 10 minutes. It does seem like a lot of time. But it's actually because it's so liquidy. You just get

so much liquidy stuff. It's an enormous mass. Yeah. He tried in 20 minutes. How much did he eat? He kind of cut it into quarters and tried to tackle five minutes at a time per quarter. Yeah. But he kind of got, yeah, as each quarter he got to each quarter, he kind of just didn't get through enough.

It's an inconvenient fruit to eat as well because you usually, if you're getting the big slice, it's all over the place, isn't it? Dribbling all over your cheeks and your eyeballs. Delicious. Really nice. And wasn't there a hack on how to cut a watermelon? Yes, with dental floss.

That's right. You just slice it with dental floss and then it cuts it up for you, kind of. Does that go through the shell of the watermelon? I think it's when you've got it and cut and then you want to get it away from the green part. Ah, then you use the floss. You use the gentle floss to get it away rather than a knife or just using your mouth, I guess. It's the other option.

You can hold the green bit in your hands. Eat it like a normal human being. There are options and that is scrolling through your feed this morning. Paid to talk words and stuff into a microphone. It's New Zealand's breakfast. Jono and Ben on the hits. Now, a couple of days ago, I spoke to you about how I looked like a great parent, and I took the credit in a situation that I probably shouldn't have taken the credit for.

It was for a swift exit with children, which never happens. I've read the playbook. That never happens. You never make a clean, swift exit with children, which never happens. I've read the playbook. That never happens. You never make a clean, swift exit from a party. I know, but what I had done that no one else had seen is I'd gone up to my daughter's, you know, about 15 minutes before we were going to leave, you know, the function we were at, the friend's house,

and I was like, hey, guys, we're going to need to go. That's where we had a sort of private debate, as you do as a parent. Oh, can we stay longer? What about the thing? Oh, no, sorry, guys. When I come back, it's going to be time to go. We had all that.

This wasn't public. So when I came back 15 minutes later in front of everyone, come on guys, we've got to go. The girls just, they just went and everyone was like, oh my God, these kids are amazing. And I took the credit. Well, no, I shouldn't have. The party was claiming it was a Christmas miracle. Yeah, someone said this was a Christmas miracle. Which I think probably

overstated really what happened. I was like, this was a Christmas miracle, which I think probably overstated really what happened. I was like, what? It's a Christmas miracle. I don't know if it was a Christmas miracle. Children leaving when they were asked to. Yeah, but then- Can you believe it? Last night, we were with some other friends,

and then I looked like a bad parent. And again, I didn't explain the situation. Your parenting is a rollercoaster. A rollercoaster, because friends of ours, they own a bar, a little bar. And so, you know, we're friends with the parents and also they've got a daughter who's friends with our daughters. And so I guess when we say to our girls,

hey, we're going to pop into the bar for them, that means they're going to catch up briefly with their friend the same age as them. So I said, oh, guys, we've got to go again situation. I was like, we've got to call in quickly to the bar to say hi. And the girls, my girls, you know, they're eight and ten, go like, yay, the bar. Is this in a public setting?

Yeah, without people looking around. And I didn't really think of it, you know, too much until we were leaving. And my wife was like, you probably should explain to everyone that the bar wasn't just the girls are going to go to a bar. They're going to actually briefly catch up with their friend. Yeah, well, we leave them in the car in the car park, obviously, while you go into the bar.

Well, that was the tradition back in the day, right? It was. You would just get, Juliet, did you ever get left in a car in a pub car park? No, I don't think I ever did. Yeah, I remember my dad and my uncle, when they were in the Air Force, would go to the pub and I'd just be sitting by myself in a car in the car park. I mean, that's, sips's... You would have a field day with that. You'd maybe get a bag of chips or something

brought back to you. Yeah, he'd pop out once an hour. I'm still here in the car, mate. No phones. No entertainment. Yeah, true. Just left alone with my thoughts. I remember once I got in trouble because I put peanuts in the cassette player.

What, when you were in the car park of a pub? I was in the car. I was in the car. I was like, oh, you shouldn't have put peanuts in there. Well, I was bored. You're right, I didn't have a phone or anything. There's limited entertainment in a car when there's no phones or anything. So I had peanuts.

Sure, I'm going to see if they fit into the cassette radio. Could you eject the peanuts out? It was like a little peanut dispenser. Didn't work. I mean, you got the peanuts in, you just couldn't get them out. It was like a little peanut dispenser. Didn't work. I mean, you got the peanuts in, you just couldn't get them out. Did you ever have, and this was a great joy, when I'd go to Rangiora in North Canterbury to see my cousins who lived

on a farm, and rural kids, they're a completely different, harder breed than your urban child, as I was. But we'd go down and they had a massive station wagon, and they just put a mattress in the back. We're going down the motorway just sitting on a mattress. That's not still happening either.

But jeez. It was fun. Don't get me wrong. Like if the car crashed, we're all gone. Oh, jeez. We're proud of New Zealand. Go New Zealand. If only New Zealand was proud of that.

Jono and Ben. New Zealand's breakfast. On the hits. Just eight days away from Christmas. Very exciting Christmas, isn't it? We're vomiting out a lot of Christmas songs on this show. I feel like we play a Christmas song every second song at the moment. It's great, it gets you in the vibe.

It does get you in the Christmas spirit, because there's only a short window that you can have these Christmas songs. I mean, coming 26, it's like, nah, I want to hear it. If you don't like Christmas songs, this is certainly not the show for you, because we've been thriving off it, haven't we? Cashing in on it over the last fortnight. And we were talking about the 12 Days of Christmas yesterday. We were like, oh, should we play the 12 Days of Christmas song?

I went to a performance of the 12 Days of Christmas the other day. You just got out. Just got out. It was 12 days ago. It was in real time. But it's a long song because they keep going over everything they've just mentioned. I know. They just recap.

And it's so slow. Have we got it? It's the seventh day of Christmas. My true love said to me. Seven swans, a swoon, six skis and a... But they've just named all this stuff. Yeah, I know. It's like I remember you told me the first time.

You're 12 times they tell you what they got on the first day, you know, like Christmas. I think we found a song more slow and painful than Happy Birthday. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Isn't it? The 14 days of quarantine, they should be making a song about that. Anyway, we've got an idea of the 12 days of Christmas. Ash Thomas, who reads news on the show, she wrote this really good 12 days of Christmas parody.

We're going to get hopefully Soleil Mayo to do it. They don't know anything about it, but we'll getio to do it. They don't know anything about it. But we'll get them to do it. They sing well. They sing well. And speaking of Christmas songs that have been sung, we've released this show's version

of a Christmas song and the good thing is it's all for charity. So if you'd like to just text through your credit card details to Ben's phone. We keep it off the grid

for the charity. So just text through the... We have made a Christmas song. That's the truth of the answer. For charity. Send through your pin as well. Vince Harder, who's a recording artist,

very, very talented, Vince Harder, and he's got a new single out with Abby Lee called Closer. Well, he kindly said he'd sing on the song with us. Yeah, and it's a Christmas song which kind of sums up

the year that was 2020. And we hope you enjoy it. 2020 can kiss my Christmas Locked down in our homes You gifted COVID-19 Now jab us with Pfizer's vaccine An elbow bump under the mistletoe 2020 can come and kiss my Christmas

Sanitizer galore The scariest sight to see Was a dude coughing next to me Panic buying l loot paper at the store the lockdown i drank all the wine i could take no matter the time of day i put on five kilograms meetings on zoom in my living room with no pants and mom and dad did a shoddy job of homeschooling the kids. 2020 can come and kiss my Christmas. Time for you to go. Not ideal if you want to marry.

Weddings move faster than Meghan and Harry. Stuck at home watching Tiger King. It's the Remus! Um, what are you doing? I was just going It's the Remix! Um, what are you doing? I was just going to do the Remix! No, no, Michael Buble doesn't do a rap, but I just thought we should get an onus. Oh no, please don't.

Because we wanted Buble, but there's probably no way, because he doesn't sing for free. COVID app that tracks Ashley Redfax. We went to alert level three. TikTok's a lot. 15 second shots. Dancing along to Benny. Guys in tinfoil hats. Spotted off that. We work to trust 5G. Trump said go.

Inject some dead dough. Now he's refusing to leave. The referendum could end your grandmom. But you still can't smoke any weed. You can't leave your place without a mask on your face. 2020 could go and take a hike. So wash your hands, cancel your plans. We out, my David Clark on a bike.

2020's been full of drama. Now we politely hand you back to our friend and colleague, Vintana. 2020 can come and kiss my Christmas. This year you're now behind me. Now's time to go behind my hips. Pucker up your juicy lips and kiss me on my high knees. Ben and Jono call this show

Jono and Ben. Breakfast on the hits. The hits. Bye. Thanks to Sharesies, New Zealand's fastest growing share platform. Shares made easy. Here with another good old honest attempt to make you think less of your favourite celebrities.

Here's Juju with Spy Entertainment News. Now the celebrity that you'll think less of today is Mr Tom Cruise. So he is filming one of the Mission Impossible movies and he is very strict on the COVID-19 rules that are in place. Just to give him a backstory, he's kind of bankrolled a lot of this by the sound of it

to keep it going. So I was reading before he spent, I reckon about $700,000 of his own money to basically rent a ship for the cast and crew to live on,

to keep safe, to kind of have their own bubble. So I guess he's probably invested in this project. Yes, yes. He feels very passionate about it and doesn't want COVID to prevent them from making the movie. kind of have their own bubble. So I guess he's probably saying he's invested in this project. Yes, yes. He feels very passionate about it and doesn't want COVID to prevent them from making the movie.

Now, he went off at about a crowd of maybe 50 staff members after seeing two people standing within two metres of each other. And the audio was secretly recorded and leaked to the world. You're the gold standard. You're back here in Hollywood making movies right now because of us. We are creating thousands of jobs, you f***ing b***h. I don't ever want to see it again. And if you don't do it, you're fired.

And if I see you do it again, you're f***ing gone. So basically saying... Show me the money! That would have been good, just to round that out. It would be funny if it turns out that's just audio from a scene from Mission Impossible, taken out of context. Yeah, well, that's the thing. You don't know.

It's just audio that's been laid to write. He was obviously so personally and obviously financially invested in the project and so passionate about keeping jobs going for everyone. So he understands. He's like, why should two people ruin it for everyone else? So I understand the anger. Yeah. But then obviously I think these people were standing closer than they should have, you know.

When I first read the story, I was like, oh, I wonder what they were doing. Were they kissing? Were they doing something, you know, were they... Partying? Were they doing something? They were just standing a little bit closer to each other. Closer than they should have. Yeah, part of the rules.

But I guess... And you look at how COVID's gone crazy overseas and, you know, obviously it's scary. It's scary everywhere. And I understand that he wants to keep everything, everyone safe. But, yeah, I guess it's probably one of those things that... Just send an email, Tom.

Oh, no, don't even do that. Yeah. What would you do? Just send a text. Get someone else to do it. Get one of your minions to yell at them and call them mother effers. That's the thing.

I guess it was on a movie set. And unfortunately, they're probably... Someone's rolling or someone's recording something. So guess it was on a movie set, and unfortunately, they're probably, someone's rolling or someone's recording something, so you're like, oh. Yeah, exactly. Imagine how filthy he's going to be

at the person who licked the audio. Oh, wow. And I heard they were standing within two metres of each other as well. He was standing close to him just to record it, Tom Cruise.

True. And George Clooney, a little while ago, we found out that he, for the last 25 years, he's been cutting his hair with this machine called a Flowbee, which is like a vacuum cutting system.

So it sucks the hair out of your head, does it? Yeah, it sucks it out, but they've got little clippers inside so it cuts it for you. Everyone's like, wow, his hair looks so good. And he's now, they've all sold out pretty much and someone's asked him like, whoa, you've literally created this movement

for the Flowbee machines. And he now is like, oh, well, I should have gotten some stocks in the company before I endorsed it. Lesson learnt, before I endorse anything that I'm not getting paid for, I'm just going to buy heaps of shares in the company. Apparently he's just a big fan of those coffee machines. He doesn't even get paid by an espresso.

He just does it for the love. Yeah, yeah. The same situation. He's just like, yeah. But imagine having that power. You can be like, I'm going to buy shares in this company before I endorse it so that it just takes off

and I make heaps of money oh yeah I often wonder that with celebrities sometimes when they send a photo you put a photo out or you know

like Taika or Lord or whatever watch this this will be on the New Zealand Herald in an hour you know post it up

and suddenly Taika does it you know well it's like the Khloe Kardashian teamed up with that New Zealand company for collagen.

Yes. And I think she, instead of like paying her, I think they gave her a share inside the company. She's part of the company, yeah. Yeah. A guy I know who brings toys in, apparently one year there was like an inflatable donut that you'd sit in with a pool, and Taylor Swift took a photo of her sitting in an inflatable donut, sold out worldwide. Wow. She wasn't even endorsing, just sitting on a donut. And everyone's like, I want a photo of her sitting in an inflatable donut sold out worldwide. She wasn't even endorsing.

Just sitting on a donut. And everyone's like, I want a bit of that. That's the power, baby. That's why Ben Boyce endorses Fit Tea. If you would like tea that would make you crap your pants just to lose a bit of weight, then he's got the...

Never, never, never. That's fine. Or you can go to hits.co.nz or you can got the... Never, no, never, never. And that's fine. Or you can go to thehits.co.nz or you can go to Ben's Instagram for some Fit Tea posts. This is a spy update

brought to you by Ben's Fit Tea. If you want to shed 5kgs... From stealing Mike Hosking's car to stealing the hearts of New Zealand. Jono and Ben, New Zealand's breakfast

on the hits. Actual hearts be not bestowed. A filling... We found out the other day the average Christmas tree grows for 15 years. And then we just ruthlessly cut them down and use them for three weeks and chuck them out.

It's quite a long rotation, isn't it, if you're managing a Christmas tree farm? You're in for the long haul. Yeah, you're right. It must be like having to really get your years planned out. It's a 50-year plan. I mean, they're growing them now for 2035. Wow. Crazy to think of.

Anyway, this is the good day. We like to end the show on a positive note. You just phone us on 0800THEHITS and tell us why it's going to be a good day. And we've done the research with test audiences. This is 100% guaranteed to give you a good day. And if it doesn't, well, then we need to prescribe you some hard medication to pull you through the day. Let's go to Kate. How are you?

Good. How are you? Good. How are you? We're good. Why is it going to be a good one for you, Kate? Because I've got my Christmas party tonight. Oh, nice. Anything big planned? No, we're just some drinks in the office, but it'll be fun.

Yeah, I know a lot of businesses understandably are scaling down the Christmas parties this year for good reason, but it's still good that your work's putting one on. Yeah, very nice. Oh, awesome. And do you have to work tomorrow? Yes, I will but I'll hopefully come in late. Well, yeah, one day to get through is always the, you know, Fridays. Listen, if Juliet's anything to go by, working the day

after the Christmas party is the wrong decision. What do you mean? It's the absolute right decision. I guess from a company's point of view, if you're going to pay for drinks, you're probably like, oh, it's good they've got work the next day. Yeah put them midweek. Yeah.

Yeah very smart play from the exec team. We went to a Christmas party yesterday. Yeah it was awesome actually. At a factory, a huge

factory with hundreds of people and they put on Christmas lunch for all the staff and all of the exec team like the bosses, the general managers, sales

managers, marketing managers, they were all serving food to the factory workers. It was lovely. It was so lovely to see, eh? What a lovely touch. Yeah. I'm going to get Boxie to come down and feed you lunch.

I want him to hand feed me. Oh no, I want him to feed me like a seagull feeds its baby bird. Feed me like a bird. Listen, we've got another text in here, 4487Y, it's going to be a good day. Today's going to be a good day because Sam Neill is shouting us to the movies. Wow.

Sam Neill's shouting New Zealand to the movies. I don't know if Sam Neill's shouting New Zealand to the movies, but that's amazing. Also, this lovely text says, guys, I listen to your podcasts. I'm slowly catching up. I'm at the Hole-in-One Golf episode in Taupo. Oh, wow. So a couple of months back, binge listening to the podcast. I wouldn't wish that upon anyone.

No, thank you, but you don't have to listen to, anyway, you can, but yeah. Catch it on iHeartRadio if you want to punish yourself. We've got one more show to do of the year. That's tomorrow. We've got Jacinda Ardern,

the Prime Minister, joining us in the studio. We've got Solomio as well, and one more chance for you guys to win a GHD. It's all to come on the last show of the year. Have a great day New Zealand.