Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - Show Highlights: Our New Producer Didn't Know Who Dan Carter Was....

Episode Date: June 5, 2023

When have you sat next to a famous person! The Kings honours list.. All of the latest from our epic mascot race 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. Now, Taylor, who's going to start with the show this week. Producer Bee Humps is going on to Greener Pastures, so we now have a new producer. Taylor Montoya, welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having me. It's great to have you here. Yeah. Now, you're from Australia originally. So how long have you been in New Zealand now? Since last August, so coming up like 10 months, I think.

People will know you from Brad and Laura, the drive show. I've been producing them since you've been here as well. But you're sort of getting used to New Zealand once you've been here, right? I'm a slow learner, so it's still taking me a while to kind of learn my surroundings and all the figures and stuff. So you mentioned something on Friday that you sat next to a New Zealander at dinner. Yes. Okay, for an entire meal.

Yeah. Probably one of the most famous New Zealanders. Yeah, up there. And you had no idea who they were. No. So Laura from The Hintz invited me to an after work event and she said we'd be sitting right up the front of the table, quite a good table. I was like, awesome I went into the table got seated next to this um guy who introduced himself as Dan so

me and Dan were talking for 20 to 30 minutes and um Laura like gives me a nudge and she goes do you know who you're sitting next to I was like oh yeah he said his name was Dan she said yeah it's Dan Carter I said oh yeah what's he doing he's at home and then she said text your husband and see what he says so I texted my husband Marcelo and I just got

who plays for the Warriors yeah and I just got paragraph after paragraph in capital letters like abusive abusive messages so now I know

who he is yeah so you got his whole Wikipedia bio you know even you could have gone it's the bloody guy from the chemist warehouses true true I know you oh yeah yeah You've got his whole Wikipedia bio. You know, even you could have gone, it's the bloody guy from the chemist's warehouses.

True, true. You said that. Oh, I know you. He's like, oh, yeah, yeah. Like, to put an Australian spin on this, Dan Carter is to rugby what Chappelle Corby is to amateur boogie boarding. Right. Like, he's a hero. He's very famous.

He's an awesome dude, Dan Carter. He's a lovely guy. And it pretty shows how humble he is as well, probably not dropping in what he actually does. He's an all-black legend and just a really lovely guy And it pretty shows How humble he is as well Probably not Dropping in What he actually does He's an all black legend And just a really Lovely guy Literally

Because then I stalked him On Instagram I was like okay Who is this guy And like a million followers I was like I've just pretty much Met like the male Kardashian

Of New Zealand And so what were you Talking about for 30 minutes That's a good question He had like a farm Growing up Where his dad Used to grow gherkins

I think because there was Gherkins on the table Mind you I was like three wines deep As well You spent 30 minutes Talking about gherkins The day he got it

He probably appreciated it You weren't punishing him On rugby things And stuff He's like I haven't spoken about gherkins For years The most rich conversation

I've had So did you do the What do you do Sort of thing No You didn't even go there No because the bread rolls were already out too

so I was getting hammered into those. Well, this is what we want to chuck open this morning on New Zealand's Breakfast. 0800 the hits, 4487. Who have you sat next to?

You might have known who they were, you might not have known who they were. How I got confused for a famous person's son. You did? Next, yes.

Is it someone I'm going to enjoy? Yes, it is. You will love it. Okay, can't wait to hear that. Who did you sit beside after producer Taylor, who's new to the show here, and new to New Zealand, sat next to Dan Carter, all black legend, for an entire

lunch and didn't realise who she was sitting next to. Wouldn't be many people in this country who wouldn't recognise Dan Carter. I can't imagine probably there's been a day he can remember where he hasn't gone out and people haven't recognised him. Dan Carter. So yeah, who have you sat next to? This is what we'll chat. Mind you, if we went to Australia

because Taylor's from Australia, you're at a luncheon sitting next to Chris Hemsworth or something, you'd be like, who's this bloody Bogan scaffolder from the Gold Coast? Would I say that? So I have no concept of who Chris Hemsworth is for some reason. Sorry, shocking example. So 0800 The Hits, who have you sat next to,

whether you recognised them or not? We had Piers Brosnan come down and sit next to us. Remember that? We were at a movie interview. Remember that time he walked into the room that he wasn't meant to be in and he sat next to us, the charming British actor. Oh, I tell you what, he kicked me out of my fanny and uh that was from the nanny wasn't it yeah i don't think he was on the nanny though oh was he not the nanny no no no no at least they're both

white so yeah you know there's not an extra scandal going on it's okay when you're doing white guys middle-aged white guys yeah yeah well was the name? He does look, yeah, I'll give you that one, but not give you that one. So, Nadine, welcome to the show. Who have you sat next to, mate? I sat next to Billy Connolly's sister and her daughter. Jeez, you went deep with them. How did you figure this out?

I was just travelling between Denver and Chicago and they happened to be on the same flight. Oh wow. That's impressive. And were they lovely people? They were really nice, you know, like I was on my own and they just started chatting and they'd been in Europe buying statues or something.

That's an odd European trip. Yeah. Statue shopping. Did no one tell them about online shopping? No, no. This was 30 years ago. So, yeah, quite a while ago now. That's impressive.

Many tests rolling through. You're probably thinking Mrs. Doubtfire. I was just thinking he was on Mrs. Doubtfire. Nanny, can I give you that one? Is that what you're thinking? He was in Mrs. Doubtfire. Pierce Brosnan was in Mrs. Doubtfire. And it was, yeah.

And she was in Nanny. Yeah, there's it was, yeah. And she was in that. Yeah, there's a bit of a blurring there, Nadine. Nadine knows what I was talking about, don't you, Nadine? Yeah, I'm old enough to know. I'm trying to help you out. All those privileged old white guys look the same to me. Good on you, mate. Thank you for your call.

I was my wife, Jennifer, for a few years. She worked in the magazine industry. And so she had a work function and i was like sit down dinner sort of thing so i was invited along as her plus one and uh former sports broadcasting legend murray deka oh yeah so his wife also worked in the in the magazine industry so he was i was sitting next to murray deacon and at the dinner table and now the two oh you're right legend but geez i would hate to be a bright light in that room so we were shining off your heads i mean there was a lot of people people wondering how sunglasses on

uh and a lady came up to Murray, who worked for the magazine. They were taking some photos of everyone who was at the function. Oh, Murray, can we get a photo with you and your son? You and your son. You would be good. I would make a good Murray Deacon son. You would. Yeah.

Debra, you're on. Who did you sit next to, mate? Oh, good morning. I was sitting next to Tony Hawk, and I didn't even know it was him. Skateboarder Tony Hawk. Tony Hawk. Skateboarder Tony Hawk, yeah. It was at the Novotel in Hamilton,

and I went there to actually ironically pick up a signed poster from him for a friend. And then I was sitting next to him and chatting away, and then my friend came out with the poster, and he's like, oh, you've already met him. And I was like, I didn't even know it was him. Oh, my God. Because he's a legend, but he's quite unassuming looking, isn't he?

He just looks like an average, like us. Yeah, I wouldn't have even thought he was Tony Hawk. And I think he actually quite liked that, because then I was like, oh, that's fantastic. You know, I met him. Mind you, you didn't know what Tony Hall looked like, so no one you would have thought was Tony Hall. That's impressive, Debra.

Thank you very much for your call. No worries. Thank you. The Hits, the Jono and Ben podcast. A bit unusual to head around a King's birthday weekend all of a sudden, but it wasn't too hard for me. I enjoyed all three of those days. Oh, no, just to say King's birthday as opposed to Queen's.

But it was lovely, wasn't it? A bit colder weather around the country as we head into winter. Bit of snow in the South Island I saw over the weekend. So it's good for the scares. Do I sound sick? I think I might have COVID. Oh, don't start. Don't come to...

Two lines means you're all good to go, right? Means you're all ready to go. Four day week, mate. It's been so long since... I can't remember what the results mean. But anyway, double lines, I thought. Double great news. You're all good to go.

King's birthday honours over the weekend. 182 Kiwis are honoured for the first time in the King's birthday honours as well. And I guess a lot of people talking about Dame Jacinda Ardern. Jacinda Ardern, former Prime Minister, taking that honour. That would have bloody wound up Newstalk ZB. That would have been on fire yesterday. What are your thoughts and feelings about Dame

Jacinda Ardern? That's a great honour. She did a lot of great stuff for the country as well. Obviously feels like things, you know, what happened towards the end of the run with everything with COVID and stuff, maybe makes people feel a bit indifferent towards it. But you look at the world stage and what she's, you know, she's done on the world stage is pretty incredible. Oh, phenomenal.

Yeah. And, you know, there's Sir John Key. There's Helen Clark's a dame, isn't she? Yes. Yeah. So, I mean, all Prime Ministers Get that honour I thought She probably would have Thought twice about it Particularly

Like some people Brought up the fact That she wasn't The hugest royalist You know Wanted New Zealand That's a tough word to say Royalist

Wanted New Zealand To be a republic At some stage So it's interesting To take it on That regard Yeah But congratulations

You've got to say congratulations Yeah congratulations And Sir Clark gave it For services to Conspiracy theories Sure congratulations. And Sir Clark gave it for services to conspiracy theories. Sure this is the fishing, I think it was. He needs a bloody honour. He didn't sign up for any of that nonsense. He got dragged into the mud.

Yeah, but you were half of it, too. You were half of it. I was leading the mainstream media mob, weren't we? Weren't you just? So congratulations to the Sunday and anyone else on it over the weekend and all those people have obviously done great things for the country you can't deny that i went through all 182 names and you're i went oh john is this the head john pro john pro no but but hey no it's because you don't nominate me and i plant the seed every year i'm like oh geez wouldn't mind

one of them 22 years of hard graft in this game. Nothing. Conspiracy theories talking about it all. Some shabby broadcasting over two decades. Not one acknowledgement. The hits. The Jono and Ben podcast. This one. Don't fact check if this made it into the top ten. Should have been.

It was a great segue. Let's just not think about it too much. And it's come back into the charts because we're using it as our theme tune for our mascot. We wanted the Hits radio station to have a mascot. It was a thing in radio many, many years ago. Every station had a mascot. And 11-year-old Izzy from Rotorua came up with the idea of the Hittopotamus, a hippo called the Hittopotamus.

And we thought, great pun. Great pun. And out of all the things that we could bring back that have gone on in the radio industry from years gone by, the mascot was the safest option. You're right. You're right. The most family friendly. So we got a costume and we organized a big mascot race at the One New Zealand

Warriors game. Sold out stadium on Saturday night. It was amazing. Amazing atmosphere. Warriors game, sold out stadium on Saturday night, it was amazing, amazing atmosphere, we had our mascot and 20 other mascots and even Izzy who came up with the idea of the Hittopotamus got to see her mascot for the first time. Izzy, now you came up with the idea for our Hitts mascot, the hippopotamus called the? Hittopotamus.

The Hittopotamus, we love it. Yeah. Would you like it to have some clothes on? Yeah. I just realised we've got a naked hippopotamus. The hippopotamus. We love it. Yeah. Would you like it to have some clothes on? Yeah. I just realised we've got a naked hippopotamus. Oh yeah, we didn't really think about that. Give it a hug. Here we go.

Don't think about who's in there. So there you go, the hippopotamus. We only realised at Mount Smart that it was naked. We haven't clothed, not one bit of clothing on the hippopotamus. Minimal airflow too, we figured, underneath the mask as well. So you really, you can't keep anyone in there for too long or else the hippo's going to pass out. Well, that's right.

And I had a lot of concerns because there was like 21 or 22 mascots about to take part at a sold-out stadium over the weekend. And I had a lot of worries as kick-off happened at the Warriors. It's kick-off. It's kick-off here at the Warriors. I'm kick-off. It's kick-off here at the Warriors. I'm nervous. I feel like a player before the game. I'm nervous about my mascot race.

Yeah, no, well, you shouldn't feel like a player before the game because I'm looking at the players on the field and you look nothing like them. No, they're quite big up close, aren't they? Huge. When you come down to ground level, yeah, you don't really appreciate how much protein is pumping through those muscles, Ben.

Okay, talk me through your worries. Well, it's a packed stadium, which is great for exposure, but then also bad for exposure if anything goes wrong. There's 20-something thousand people here. And 20-something mascots as well. I know. Injuries. But injuries are still a concern, and just getting it done in time before the players come charging out for the second half.

The other concern, too, is visibility. That's starting to be an issue for me is understanding how much or how little the mascots can see. Like they can't see, they can't see anything. They're basically running blind. And we're like run straight. They're like which way straight? So it's got to, I don't know.

Yep, we'll see how it goes. I think slow and steady will literally win the race. There you go, two warriors at the Warriors on Saturday night. This was pre-race. So we had it all lined up. Producer B Humps was wrangling 21 mascots, losing bits and pieces, feet, seagull head. Do we ever find the seagull head? No, I don't think it will.

He just came up to me in a flap. He's like, seagulls out of the race. Seagulls out of the race. We're like, what's going on? He's like, the mask is gone. Seagulls out of the race. Scratched before it had even begun. I had a lot of money on that seagulls out of the race. Seagulls out of the race. We're like, what's going on? He's like, the mask is gone. Seagulls out of the race. Scratched. Before it had even begun.

I had a lot of money on that seagull too. Now, what we hadn't expected was for TV to cover this event. You know, TV coverage. We just thought it was filler, halftime content, but it made it to TV. Next, the race. How did the hippopotamus go? There are allegations of cheating. Oh, yeah.

Misconduct. Controversy. Harassment. Oh, yeah. that is nasty. Took it out. Looked very set up, didn't it? Match fixing. Yeah.

Both of us were like, this is not a good look. This is not a good look. Come along to a race that we will win. Yeah, the hippo just smoked. A little bit of controversy, though, that maybe our hippo went a little bit early. It won ahead of the Harcourt's cat, and the Perenna cat was third place.

In the changing rooms, the allegations, they were aired. The official protest. Anthony, you took it out. Mate, unbelievable. Can you believe that? I couldn't see what happened. I just crossed the line. I thought, I hope I've won here. I'm giving it the big ones to the

crowd. You were so quick. There is a few people saying you might have gone slightly early, but hey, let's not talk about that Yeah, there's always a bit of controversy when you're at Mount Smart, mate. You know, at Go Media Stadium, there's always a bit of controversy. We'll just talk to Bluebeard from the Auckland Blues. What are the allegations? Oh, three seconds too early, I'd say. Left three seconds too early.

It looked like we rigged the competition because our mascot won, but hey! He counts better than he runs. Now you said this was a you know the basement of your career before the race yeah where are we sitting now i don't know i think i think this has gone up a level i think we might be back to level one it's not top floor so you go uh talk it out and there's already talk of it becoming an annual extravaganza and that's not the end of the Hidipotamus. No. Hidipotamus will be available for all sorts of things.

School fairs. You can request the hippo to turn up to the birthing of a child. Be your labour partner. Maybe if you need to bring a support person to a work meeting, the Hidipotamus is there for you. Yeah, the Hidipotamus will have to get the hippo around the country at some stage over the next little while. It might even run in the election this year. The Hits, the Jono and Ben podcast.

Tell you what, nothing makes you feel like more of a legend around the household than when someone comes up to you and says, can you open this jar for me? And you just pop the lid off that sucker. Isn't that really good for your self-esteem? Isn't it? Well, yes. Yeah, if it happens. Doesn't it really happen too your self-esteem doesn't it well yes yeah well if it

happens doesn't it really happen too often with me to be honest but then a lot of the time now here's my bugbear when the jar openers their heroic efforts they've opened the jar and then you get directly like some sort of dance they're like i did all the heavy lifting i loosened it i loosened it yeah what have you loosened it so much do you understand that yeah it's uh yeah and then i always wander around with a little bit of arrogance about me after i've opened up opened up a jar and what i'd like to ban from the whole can you open this for me scenario is just say no you haven't loosened it because you haven't got it to a point where you can open the jar yeah True. We got given a little thing from the girl's grandma that sits in our drawer, and it's like a special thing you put on the jar,

and it actually really works. It's like a little square. A cloth sort of thing. A little cloth sort of thing. I don't know what the fiber it's made out of, but, jeez, it's actually really handy. You put that on with the jar, it just helps grip it, and it does that. You know sometimes when I can't open the jar,

I secretly stab a hole in the top of it which releases all the air is that what yeah but it also then if you've got like salsa or something problem is you've got an air vent and uh it ages it ages the product you probably couldn't put the lid back on the jar you have to be confident that you're going to be using all the product problem also too is when you can't open the jar you know there's no lower moment is there because then you hand it back to them you're going to be using all the product. Problem also too is when you can't open the jar. There's no lower moment, is there? Because then you hand it back to them, you're like, sorry, I've tried all of my muscle and might,

and then they go and open it, and then all of a sudden you're like, I loosened it. I did all the heavy lifting on that sucker.