Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - Show Highlights: 10 Nice Things About Ben Boyce!

Episode Date: June 26, 2023

We ask for your compliments about Ben! Jono had another horrifically awkward run in at the supermarket The lady who sung in front of Michael Buble and he invited her to his concert! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Hits, with the Jono and Ben podcast. Thanks to Challenge, putting the service back into service stations. Some people in your life, they just don't forget things. I ran into one of my old radio bosses down about yesterday, and he said to me something that was like 15, 20 years ago. He was like, have you been on any expensive meals lately? Give me grief. I was like, mate, this is such a long reference.

So you knew what he was referencing? I knew exactly what he referenced. What was he referencing? So when I first got into radio, it reminded me, when I first got into radio, I was writing ads, you know, not earning a lot of money, but I met my partner, Amanda, who's now my wife, and she was working in radio as well.

And we'd written ads, I'd written some ads for this restaurant, and they'd like you to go along. There's some contra, this magical word of contra in the radio industry. Contra, that was, you know, that was what the radio industry was fueled on for hundreds of years. Radio didn't make a dollar profit.

All they were doing was offering, you do, you give us free lunch, we'll give you one free ad. Free ads. And so it was the whole thing was contra. The tax department was none the wiser. Yeah, so back in the day, it was like contra you because your ads are good. They love your ads. You go. And so the whole thing was Contra. The tax department was none the wiser. Yeah. So back in the day, it was like, Contra, you, because your ads are good. They love their ads.

You go along. You enjoy. Take your partner out. You have a wonderful night. And this is what my boss was like. He's like, no, look. I said, see, what's the limit? He said, oh, no, look.

Go nuts. Contra. Go nuts. It's Contra. Just say Contra and everything will be sorted. And, you know, as a kid, I'd just come from Masterton, you know, like not earning a lot of money, going to a fancy restaurant. I was like, oh, well, you said go nuts. So I was like, oysters. Didn't you know, as a kid, I'd just come from Masterton, you know, like not earning a lot of money, going to a fancy restaurant. I was like, oh, well, you said go nuts.

So I was like, oysters? Didn't even know if I liked oysters. Let's order some oysters. Did you have some nuts when you said go nuts? We probably did. We ordered pretty much whatever it was. There were some friends we saw there. We're like, you want some cocktails?

Put it on the contra. At the end of the meal, I remember the guy coming over and goes, would you like a cigar? I don't smoke. I was like, well, yeah, I'll have a cigar. Take a scotcha, mate. Take a scotcha. Don't even smoke a cigar.

I was like, well, I'll take the cigar with me. Why not? Scrooge McDuck. The boss had said, go nuts. And then Monday morning, getting to work, the boss was like, can I have a word? He was like, did you go nuts? Yeah, well, he was like, I've got this bill through from the restaurant. I was like, well, you said go nuts. He's like, well, nuts he's all we have you clearly have you've gone really yeah he wasn't

happy about it there's cigars on here yeah that's the thing i'll put cigars on there oh my god so i got a bit of trouble for that i was like well mate you said go nuts you should give me a lift 15 years later we're still playing free ads for that restaurant. Still got those cigars, though. That's for sure. So, yeah, he hasn't forgotten it. That's for sure. Dr. Libby, I feel healthier just for even talking to you. Good morning, you boys. How are you?

We're doing really well, mate. It's lovely to have you on again. You been well? Yeah, really well. Thank you so much. Happy as a duck. Now, you're encouraging everyone, you're launching your One Teaspoon Challenge to help with our New Zealanders,

and I imagine maybe around the world is the case as well. Not that great when it comes to fruit and veggies. Yes, so the stats are dreadful, actually. So less than one in 10 adults in New Zealand gets the five-plus serves of veggies they need each day. And vegetables give us all sorts of vitamins and minerals, and they also give us a lot of protective substances. And I know it's a really boring message to bring to life,

but I'm very hoping people will embrace adding a ground-up green veggie powder to each day. So it's called the One Teaspoon Challenge, and you have one teaspoon of the ground-up veggie powder once a day, every day for 28 days, and then feel the difference. So hold it. So it's the ground-up veggie powder, just have one teaspoon of the ground up veggie powder once a day every day for 28 days and then feel the difference so hold it so it's the ground up veggie powder they're just the one teaspoon that's giving me my five plus a day i can knock it off with one mouthful it's not going to give you the five plus a day what do i do yes there's always a catch isn't there so i still have to eat other vegetables yes you do so the idea is to get people to focus on eating those veggies

and then boost that intake with the ground-up veggie powder added into their water or into a smoothie just once a day. Now, I know you don't want to throw shade at other people out there doing good work, but Mary Poppins, she had a one-teaspoon challenge as well too, right? It was quite sugary, but hey. So how does her teaspoon of sugar with some medicine, compare to your one teaspoon challenge?

Well, mine tastes much better, let me assure you. Right, okay. Three grapes, two raisins, five plus a day. What do you reckon? It's half a cup of cooked veggies, so we can't just have one grape. Half a cup of cooked veggies is one serve. So two and a half cups. Yeah, now we're getting down to the nitty gritty, aren't we?

So an apple, a banana, things like that. How do they compare to your servings, the five plus? So five is vegetables and then two fruit on top of that. Oh, Jesus. Seven. I thought it was all included. The T's and C's. I love my fruit and veggies. I do. But that's seven. I didn't thought it was all included. The T's and C's. I love my fruit and veggies.

I do. But that's seven. I didn't realize it was seven. Yes. We don't want people to become fruit bats. You don't want to get your seven served all from fruit. The idea is that five of them are veggies and two fruit to hit the day to live life well. Jesus, you're going to be disappointed in my numbers, Libby.

I won't even tell you. How much? I mentioned the other day on the show, the size of your average drink bottle is getting to the point where people are lugging around basically gallon drums of water. Have you noticed that drink bottles are getting larger and larger and larger to the point where you probably need a wheelbarrow to take your drink bottle to work? How much water do we actually need? The science is about 33 mils per kilogram of body weight. So if you weigh about 70 kilos, it's about 2.1, 2.3 litres per day. But you don't necessarily have to get all of that from water. So rounding back to the vegetables again, veggies actually have a really high water content. So when we eat plenty of vegetables, they too can contribute to our fluid intake, as can soups our fluid intake,

as can soups, stews, casseroles, herbal teas. Unfortunately, things like alcohol and caffeinated drinks actually pull water out of us. So that makes our water requirements a little bit higher. And so like beer, because it's made up of a large part of water. It's doing nothing for my hydration. Barleys and all sorts of stuff and malts and stuff. There's so much goodness in it, isn't there? There's so much. Do you think a large part of it is, and you're coming on here educating, which is marvellous,

people just not having an understanding of what it all means, particularly when you look on the back of a packet at that grid. I don't know. I don't have any idea what it means. I just kind of loosely go off the star rating system we have here in New Zealand. Is that a good thing to be doing or not? it means. I just kind of loosely go off the star rating system we have here in New Zealand. Is that a good thing to be doing or not? I'm a big fan of helping people to understand how to read those panels. When you look at that nutrition information panel, it depends really what you're focusing on, but you especially want your sugars to be less than five grams per hundred grams. Then you also want to look at the ingredient panel. And ideally that ingredient list list is as short as possible, because when there's 50 ingredients and half the words you don't

recognize as even being food, that probably really doesn't belong in your earth suit. How good is our star system here in New Zealand? We've got the five star system. Some of them I'm like, oh, you poor bastards will be made to slap a 1.5 on here. Like, is that reflective of the food you're eating? Do you think it's a good gauge for people? Not always, unfortunately. Really? No, it also doesn't take into people's personal needs. I do feel sorry for the companies, as you say,

that have got to slap on a one-star rating. Don't quite know why you'd do that, actually. But there's some good aspects to it and some aspects I'm a little challenged by, which is probably a conversation for another day. So you're saying let's stop having this conversation now. We've had enough good conversation.

Dr Libby, it's always been a pleasure and it always will be a pleasure to keep talking to you. We'll go and have our five plus two fruits a day and if people want to learn more about how they can join this challenge. So the One Teaspoon Challenge starts the 3rd of July and go to bioglen.com and all the info will be there.

The hits, the Jono and Ben podcast. After the show yesterday, we came up with a new fun thing that we want to do on social media. We're talking about it on the radio actually last week, you know, nostalgic foods. Yeah. And so we're going to do a thing on social media each week called Snack to the Future, where each week one of us brings along

a nostalgic food. The other one is blindfolded, and we just place that food in the mouth and you're transported back in time. Trying to remember a food, an iconic food from your childhood. Yeah, it should be fun. So these are, you know, things like. Also a lot of trust. I've got some.

Yeah, anyway. Do you trust me? No, no, not really. I mean, I feel like there. It should be fun. So these are, you know, things like. Also a lot of trust. I've got some. Yeah, anyway. Do you trust me? No, no, not really. I mean, I feel like there's going to be a. A stapler or something in his mouth. But, you know, so after the show yesterday, I was like, oh, listen, I've got to go to the pack and save anyway. So I'll pick up the nostalgic foods that we needed. So like Cheerios.

Well, don't tell me. Oh, yeah, sorry. I've got some good ones today, actually, don't tell me. Oh, yeah, sorry. I've got some good ones today, actually. Don't tell me. Can I tell you one? But it's amongst others that it might not come up today. Okay. Nerds.

Oh, nerds, yeah. Remember nerds, the little sugar granules? Yeah, the kids still try and get those from time to time. They come in the little box, right? Yeah. And you used to just like pour them into your mouth. So at the checkout, and it was just your textbook checkout conversation. We covered off the weather, how it was going to get cold.

Yeah, it's getting cold. I was like, what are the peak busy times at the supermarket? That sort of thing. And then she said, oh, and I started work at 8. And I was like, what time do you knock off? She's like, 5. I'm like, that's a long day. Do you get a lunch break? She's like, yeah, I get like, that's a long day. Do you get a lunch break?

She's like, yeah, I get a lunch break. Jeez, you're really covering some ground, aren't you? I am. You know me. Can't have awkward silence. And this is the point, because the supermarket's attached to a suburban mall, and there's a food court there as well. And I said, where do you like to go for lunch now the checkout operator replies with

oh no thanks i'm married now i'm thinking well that's an unusual response to a question of where do you like to go for lunch and so i'm processing this in my brain and she's like awkwardly silent now head down just checking out the items and i thought oh dear god she's thought i've said would you like to go to lunch you're really zeroing in on where do you like to go what times you like to go yeah i see exactly why she's cut yeah and so now it's deathly silence and i'm like oh now i need to enter overcompensation mode. So then I go, oh, I'm married too. And I held up my ring finger. To which point, I don't know if she took that as, hey, they don't need to find out.

They don't need to find out. Probably, yeah. Or what I was meaning it to be was, oh, no, that's not what I was asking. I was just asking, where do you like to go? And you kind of try and over explain the situation to the point where it was just the remainder of the transaction was deathly silence should have just looked at your phone like everyone else

mate just gone hi how's your day good and then you know help pack some bags yeah there was a clean up and check out six it was a messy social situation so yeah I don't know if I'm going to be going back there but I got the products for snack to the future and that's the good part. Well, yeah, well, that is the good part of that story. It's the Jono and Ben podcast. Michael Bublé was in the country on Sunday and

performing with him were two Kiwi singers he found in the fish market that afternoon. It was an amazing story how he got Vanessa and Jono from the fish market to perform with him in front of 12,000 people. Pretty incredible. Yeah, Vanessa joins us now. Good morning. How's your week been? I mean, a pretty surreal week, I imagine. Well, I'm literally driving to TDNZ.

We're going to be on breakfast this morning. Oh, no, hold on. Oh, we don't want you now. You promised us an exclusive. I'm above you guys. No, you are above us because if people haven't heard it, it's a wonderful story. So Johnny and I have a little covers duo.

And so we have a sort of an acoustic set up and we play once a month down at the Auckland Fish Market. And a certain human being who was having a show that Sunday evening happened to wander in and have lunch with his family and comment on how brilliant we were and sort of snowballed from there. What song were you singing when the boob, you caught his attention? Yeah, Michael Bublé, yeah. The boobster.

Well, the thing is, when he arrived, I was just finishing a little bit of Adele. There was this massive applause. I mean, people clap and stuff stuff but you're there just creating an atmosphere and you don't expect any sort of real woo! He was just like yeah! And then as he wandered down he just says you're a great singer you're a better singer than I am and in a Canadian accent I was like that's that man and I leaned over from the mic and I went, are you Michael Bublé? And he went, shh. What? Are you Michael Bublé?

I reckon that definitely would have got caught on the mic. Careful to lean quite far away because, you know what, no one bugged him or interrupted him. He was there with his family and we let him be a normal person, you know, and have his lunch with his family. Yeah, eating fish fingers he was. He had a cap backwards and big sunglasses. So I guess he was probably not quite looking like the suit and tie Michael Bublé you see at shows.

And he came over and he said, you have an amazing voice. I mean, that would have been surreal at first. But then he invited you to come to the concert. Yeah, so after he sort of made that comment, we just were doing our next song, which was the Love Lift Us Up. And then he was recording himself and he was turning his phone towards us and he was just like woo

and then he sort of came up and started speaking to us and that's when Johnny said oh I'm coming to your show tonight and he goes

are you? and I said no working musician mate I can't afford tickets I'm playing in a bloody fish market mate

hello give us your fish sticks mate give us your fish sticks but yeah he just sort of said oh I think I can hook you up with some of those.

He was just so personable, and he said, literally, he says, if you guys can come tonight, you know, would you consider singing with me? And I was like, oh, yeah, nah. Sorry, mate. Just a duo, mate. We're not adding a third person. But the thing that was really amazing is he said to us, you know,

he said, you know, I started out my career for 12 years doing what you guys are doing. And he said, and I'd still be doing that, he said, just for the love of music. And I said, well, that's the same as us. I said, we're just nobodies who love singing and love performing. And I woke up at 3 a.m. this morning and that, you know, that saying, you know, sing like nobody's watching. And I thought, actually, it's more about sing and perform because you never know who's watching. Because it was really just right place, right time for Johnny and I.

It was just surreal. It's incredible. You performed with Michael Bublé for 12,000 people, Spark Arena. What was that like compared to the fish market? Yeah, a few more people. The odour of fish wasn't permeating through the building? Ah, no, no, no. But, no, it was just so amazing again.

They were just so, you know, gave us seats right near the front and they sort of said, well, Johnny is, you know, thinks he's the coolest because Michael actually phoned him. What? He's got Michael Herblay's number. Oh, wow. He's like, I've saved you to my contacts. I was like, you're not going to be able to ring him again.

He says, doesn't matter, he rang me. Take that home. And then he called us up. He basically, the security guy said, he'll address you directly. And then it went off. It went. He introduced us. And amazing.

And they were so lovely. So lovely. Just so much love and support. Like, my day yesterday was cray cray. Like, I was just messages and phone calls and I mean, my poor kids, I work with a company, Lunch With Crunch. Their lunches were

late yesterday. I apologise. I was just like, man, I just could not be a superstar. I can't handle this. Not if you're still working a bloody, you couldn't do that if you're still working a bloody Lunch With Crunch. Well, the thing is, I mean, I've been a full-time entertainer for over 20 years, but COVID, for many of us, you know, like I was a full-time vocal coach. That's actually my main sort of living, but I lost my full-time job there, all my work.

And so I had to get a little part-time job to you know pay a mortgage and see a family so you know you do what you've got to do but it's just been amazing that things are opening up again and you know and you get to sing for you know your mate Michael Bublé. Once in a lifetime experience it sounds amazing. Thank you for sharing that with us exclusively and to no one else that was so lovely of you. TVNZ, the bright lights of TVNZ. That'll be amazing. And thank you for chatting to us. We'll put their performance up on our story here

to the Hits Breakfast on Instagram if you want to see them with Michael Bublé. The Hits, the Jono and Ben podcast. Ben, we were just mentioning the referee, Ben O'Keefe, from the final, the Super Rugby final on Saturday night, receiving a torrent of online abuse. That's shocking, eh? It really is shocking.

It is shocking. And a text message here. Listen, guys, my son's 18 years old. He referees. And the abuse he receives at 18 is disgusting. As a dad, it's very hard to watch your son being abused from the sidelines. I think you said it the other day. We need to get more people, you know,

because you couldn't do sport without the refs and the officials and stuff like that. But people are going to be put off by this because, you know, why would you do it? Why would you volunteer in a lot of cases to put yourself through all that? To be abused. Yeah. It's like becoming a radio host. Now, this is where we're flipping it on its head. Okay, Ben.

You said since starting here, this might be the most positive audience in the New Zealand radio market. The hits audience. Yeah. Lovely, genuine, heartfelt. And I said, well, let's open up the text machine for the loveliest thing you can say about my friend Ben Boyce. Now, you're like, let's pick if these are laced with sarcasm or not. Yeah. Now, there's honestly 20 plus text messages come through.

This is first thing in the morning. Okay, now I'm going to read them out. You decide whether it's sarcastic or it's genuine. Well, I hope it's hard. I don't want to say sarcastic if it was intended as genuine, but I'll see if I take it as a compliment or not. I agree with that. Ben has a kind soul.

That's from Nate. Sarcasm or genuine? Oh, I would like to know what Nate, oh, Nate feels like maybe it's sarcasm. Maybe Nate, now Nate, you can text back in now and say whether it was sarcasm, sarcastic or...

I don't want to like go, oh, thank you, that's so lovely, and then they're like, oh, whatever, I wasn't meaning that, you know? Another one here. Fall into a're like, oh, whatever, I wasn't meaning that. Another one here. Fall into a trap. Another text here, 4487.

Ben has a good and caring heart. Okay, what do you reckon? Oh, look, it does sound like sarcasm. But again, I'll take it. Like, that's audience. You know, as I say, every time I get these texts, we get these nice texts. You're like, it's definitely sarcasm. But it often seems to be not.

This is a nice, this is a pretty clear one. Ben, you have a face for radio. Which is're like, it's definitely sarcasm. But it often seems to be not. This is a nice, this is a pretty clear one. Ben, you have a face for radio. Which is a nice, that's a lovely compliment. That's good, that's good. Yeah, it's true. I agree with that one.

That's lovely. Ben has lovely soft skin, like a kitten's tummy. That's nice. Yeah, well, that's lovely. Ben has a sexy voice and a sexier laugh. Well, that's definitely fake news,

that one. That's definitely fake news, that one. That's definitely fake. You don't really associate laughing with sexiness, do you? No, my laugh. You don't want to be laughing while you're getting all sexy. Terrible. My laugh's terrible. You're right.

You don't want laughing in the bedroom. Ben is a great hunk of spunk. 4487. Oh, jeez. He doesn't know how to take these. He's getting a bit saucy. Yeah, that's saucy. Oh, here we go.

Another text that came through from the first one. Not sarcasm, says Nate. Oh, Nate. He does have a kind soul. Oh, thank you. Thank you, Nate.