The Chaser Report - ARVO: Tom Cashman Demands a Landlord Reference

Episode Date: February 8, 2022

Comedian and renter Tom Cashman joins The Chaser Report for an Arvo Chat with Gabbi and Lachlan! Tom talks all about how he made headlines around the country by asking a potential landlord for a reference from previous tenants, and how it's affected his living situations. Tom also talks Melbourne Comedy Festival and his new show 'Graphs' and gives an insight into why he loves visualising his comedy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report for Tuesday, the 8th of Feb. It is the Arvo edition. And I'm Gabby Bolt and I'm here with Lachlan Hudson. Hey, Lockie. Hello, Gabby Bolt. How are you doing today? I'm good. I'm particularly excited because the guest we have on today is very exciting. Ooh, you've got my attention. Who are we talking to? We have comedian, statistician, and filthy renter, Tom Cashman, coming on the show today. I love Tom, although you lost me at Filthy Renter.

Well, the reason I say that is because recently he found some news headlines around the place because he asked for a landlord reference. He did what? Yeah, I know. Is that legal? He stood where none of us have ever stood for a brief moment. And so I'll let him tell you what happened. It's a pretty interesting story you might want to stick around for.

I can't wait to hear it. And Tom is a regular on the project. He's also been on Question Everything, Letters and Numbers, even Planet America with Chaz and win the week with Craig. He's a very, very funny man, and his show Graf's is touring the Melbourne Comedy Festival, and we're going to hear all about that from him right after this. Thank you for your patience.

Your call is important. Can't take being on hold anymore? Fizz is 100% online, so you can make the switch in minutes. about plans throughout at $15 a month. Certain conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca. The Chaser Report, news a few days after it happens. Hello, Tom, thanks for joining the Chaser report.

What's Cracken? Thank you for having me. So, what's happened? Why are you in the limelight for being a filthy, filthy renter? Oh, not much, you know. It's not like it's been one of the busiest weeks of my life or anything. Pretty quiet, actually. Yeah.

Well, what happened? I suppose if you want me to kind of recap the whole saga. Absolutely. I am in the process of looking for an apartment. My sister's moving overseas. My deepest condolences. I know. But it's, you know, it's probably good for her life and career.

It's annoying for me. But I've been, yeah, in the process of looking for somewhere to rent for the last few months, going to inspections, sending off applications. I got approved for one. congratulations thank you very much you haven't been to this specific place I'd imagine but you know in a more general sense I'm sure you have but the place that I got approved for was quite small and so maybe not ideal so I kept looking and I let the real estate agent know that I was going to continue to look but kind of wanted to have them as a backup but then I suppose

I found myself in a bit of a unique situation in terms of the power dynamic I didn't need them so much as they needed me I got the sense that I was the only person who had a and I'd be approved. So I thought this is an opportunity to be a bit cheeky and perhaps ask the landlord for one of the many annoying things that I had to provide in order to get approved. So what did you ask them for, Tom?

I asked, would the landlord provide, this is to the real estate agent, a landlord reference. Perfect. Being a reference from a previous tenant that you've treated them well and that you're going to be a good landlord. Because I mean, you know,

I've had mixed experiences with landlords in the past. I feel like landlords have a lot of power. over the um over the you know what your experience absolutely living in a place I'll tell you this story this is maybe the worst experience with a landlord I've had or the most ridiculous one probably actually not the worst one but just just ridiculous because I feel like the biggest issue for me is often the money

they want out of the bond these landlords and I think it's it's partly the real estate agent's fault as well they they see the bond as just like their money yeah when really it's your money only well yeah it's literally my it's your money they're trying to say that but it's your money yeah sorry are they paying for it tom is there something that i don't know about it well they've just had it for a while so it starts to seem like their money but it's like yeah you forget that you actually paid it originally yeah um and yeah when i lived in lycart i moved out of um a place and yeah they wanted all sorts of stuff out of the bottom the most ridiculous one they wanted

$100 for basically a pest person to come in, a pest exterminator, because they said there was an ant infestation. And we'd never noticed any ants. So I emailed back to saying, could you send through some evidence of this ant infestation? Because we hadn't had ant issues when we were there. We'd moved out by the stage. And the real estate sent back a photo of the kitchen counter of the place. And there were four ants in the photo. And then I I had to get into an argument about, like, how many ants constitute an infestation? I think it's more than four. I agree.

I've seen Bugs life. There's like, there's a fair, you don't have a whole colony to warrant an infestation. That's an ant visit. Exactly. You don't know what they're doing. They can be passing through. They're checking it out the place. They might be applying.

They could have been the next tenants. They could have been on an inspection themselves for all we know. Yeah. And also, that's $95 per ant. That is so ridiculous. I'll flick an ant for two bucks. Like, what are you talking about? One more thing the real estate said about the ant thing.

They said, there are never just four ants. That was their stance. There could be five. But the existence of four ants implied other unseen ants. Like, come on. We don't know what they're up to. I remember I had a friend who left a rental and on the exit, the landlord had to change the, like, after they had lived there,

The landlord had to change the locks because I think something like the landlord themselves had lost the original keys. Like they'd return their keys, but then somehow those keys got lost, right? Nothing to do with them. And then they were wanting to be charged $250 out of the bond. God. The locks being changed. And they were like, huh?

We gave you every key back. Like there were four keys and we gave you all four keys back. The hell's that about? And they were like, oh, well, the keys don't work. And they were like, we didn't change the locks. So yeah, so they had to fight for that one too and they had to ask for photo reference, all that. It's a nightmare, absolute nightmare.

So like what, after all of this experience with renting, what did the real estate say to you after you asked for a landlord reference for this house? I got no response at first. I followed up about a week later. And then the real estate said, basically, I don't understand the question. I don't recall.

Proof, this is not something that's happened before. And then I kind of explained what I meant. I'm like, yeah, it would be a good way to get a sense of, you know, what the landlord's like, as I'm considering, you know, different properties. And they said then that the landlord isn't in touch with previous tenants. Well, yeah, and also just not true. You've got their email. Come on. Yeah, you've got so much.

You've got $2,500 of their bond that you're holding on to. Probably. And that's when I got a bit more cheeky because I could have just left it there. That was basically a no. But I was like, I kind of, I suppose, questioned whether they would have the. their email addresses or something. And I said something like, so just to confirm, the landlord doesn't have any previous tenants they could get in touch with

to say that they're a good landlord. And then at that point, the real estate respondent saying, look, they don't want to get in touch with previous tenants, and it's not a requirement. And then withdrew my application. Whoa. So it's been canceled, my application, which had already been approved, kind of through the software they use on their end, just like press cancel, I suppose.

That is shoddy. And I was done. which, you know, ultimately, surprising, no, but I think very telling about the power dynamic between landlords and terms. Because the thing I've always thought, like I've rented a fair bit now, and every single time I have to provide personal references,

I've always thought that was such a bullshit thing to have to provide. Like, I understand providing, like, work references and maybe past roommate references. But, like, I use my mum's friend, Leonie, who has not seen me in, like, four years. And I just tell her every time I apply if they call you, they never do.

Just tell them I'm a great, you know, whatever, I've housed that for you, like, it's such a, it's always a complete requirement for the tenant. It's so funny that when you flip it back on the landlord, all of a sudden it's this massive issue. Yeah, it is a weird thing. It's basically like, do you have a mate? That's the question. Do you have one friend who's willing to go on record? Like, if you really wanted someone to fill your house to, how hard would it be to lie? Do what we all do.

Oh yeah, let me get you my previous tenants And it's just you made no Being like, yeah, he's a great landlord That's what I was saying to people who When I posted this, people said that exact thing They're like, oh, you know, what use would that be? The landlord could just lie And I'm like, well, just have the decency to lie

Just go to the trouble like we do. Exactly. Give a little, get a little. You've just perfectly sort of encapsulated the power dynamic here And that they have all of the power, but you held on to it for a second. You held on to what everyone who has been in this situation dreams of, which is being able to hold something over them.

Like you both, in the last place I applied for, had to provide a photo of my birth certificate. Whoa. And I'm just wondering, like, maybe... Do I need to prove that I was born? My mere emails do you prove that I was born? And the fact that you were handed on a silver platter an opportunity to ask your landlord,

can you prove that you were born? I think you, you, one of the luckiest people alive. For a fleeting moment before you no longer had a place to live. But, yeah, I'm sure it felt good. But actually, do you have a place to live now? Are you homeless? Not yet.

Oh, shit. I'm still in my old place, but yeah, the time at which I have to move out is creeping up. Oh, my God. And yeah, it did feel good during that, because I've been posting about this to social media, obviously, and did it at a few different points. One, when I asked the question and then when I got the subsequent responses from the real estate agent.

And yet, when I was asking, like, there was a week there where, like, people are like, oh, my God, go time for asking. Oh, yeah. But there are a lot of people going, I think I know how this is going to end. Yeah. And they were correct. Well, you took the, I mean, you had the power and absolutely power corrupts absolutely. Yeah.

It's such a huge risk, and now you don't have any way. to live. Well, you can live in our offices if it really gets dire. We could honestly use the rent and if you ask us for a reference we'll make one up for you. It's fine.

See, this is our insidious the landlord attitude is you're already trying to do a money grab. I'm looking in there and it's tiny. In your mind, I'm still paying rent if I'm crashing in like a tiny little recording studio.

Act like the job you want to get one day. That's what I'm practising for. But, yeah, well, I mean, hopefully you find a place to live. That's, I think, the thing we know. I've applied for a few places. Imagine if they were like, oh, my God, it's that guy. Well, this is my concern going to inspections this just past weekend because it has been in the news and stuff.

I don't understand how it's news as well. I do think it, I obviously see why it resonates with people because I think it is indicative of this power dynamic that a lot of people who have rented have experienced. And it's fun to see someone stand up to real estate agency even a little bit, and I think it's fun to see how just even with such a little bit of pushback, they had a bit of a hisy fit. But still, it doesn't, I don't know why it's...

Not fun when you have to live it, yeah. But then I suppose, yeah, I went to these inspections and, yeah, was kind of looking at the real estate agents. Masks really help, helped the fact that, like, I could be a bit anonymous by wearing the masks, which you have to do during the inspections. But I'm a bit concerned that I'm, like, blacklisted, because I've gotten a few negative comments which seem kind of coordinated, they'll come in often at the same time,

which makes me feel like people are fitching about me in some, you know, a chat or something, and then they all come and leave negative comments at once. And I do feel like they're affiliated with real estate agents because a lot of what they say is like, feel for the real estate, you know? Oh, my God. What you've done to the woman who emailed you?

Like, I kept her anonymous. I feel like that's enough. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, you could tell us what the real estate company was. Exactly. A lot of people calling for that. You chose not to. A lot of people calling for it, and I chose not to. Yeah, you were.

The bigger landlord. Absolute hero. I will say with all of the media attention, I mean, I know you probably think it's a bit ridiculous that it was all news. But, like, what have you found, in general, the media attention to be like? Have you found that, like, the articles are in your favor? Or have you found there are articles calling you, like, oh, this vigilante of rental society? Like, have you been sort of ousted in any of the domain articles? Entitled millennial expects decent human treatment from a landlord.

Yeah. Not too many of the articles have been like negative. I feel like, yeah, the domain article chose some very interesting photographs of me. I suppose each journalist, you know, to get the photos, they just go to your Instagram or your website or whatever. I don't have a website actually, so I think it's mainly social media that they're getting the photos from. The photo they chose of me is me at a comedy club, like doing a performance in the middle of a set where it looks like I'm screaming. Like I look absolutely psycho. And I posted that kind of because it's a bit funny.

There's a few other photos where, like I've posted it because there's one where I've got like made my hair like a really kind of like a formal part and I've done up my top button and I've got this kind of creepy little grin. Oh no. And they use that with like a caption about how I was being cheeky with Stephanie, the real estate agent. And it's like, oh, it makes it seem like cheeky and some of the meeting. It sounds like you're this close to being turned into the villain on a current affair episode. Exactly. Dodgy renter.

It makes me look back out. Sex pervert or something. But generally speaking, the articles have been kind of, yeah, just saying what happened, renter pushes back. Ozzy bloke. Ladd Bible was like, Ozzie bloke, you know. I feel like that's been a difference is how you're referred to. And pedestrian, who, you know, we're big fans of because they refer to us by exactly who we are.

It referred to you as TikToker, just TikTok. Yeah, I mean, that's all very confronting. It's a blow, isn't it? I mean, I do post videos on TikTok, I suppose, by definition, I'm a TikToker. Watch the cash flow in for the app that doesn't pay for content. But yeah, most of the positive landlord rhetoric has come from the comments. I do find that people have, in terms of like the comments under articles and then comments on my posts, obviously a lot of renting people going, yeah, sucked in landlords. There's a lot of people going, I'm a landlord and I would welcome the opportunity to give a reference from my last tenants because they love me.

A lot of people using it as an opportunity to show off about owning property. I feel like it was a very glib attitude. You've got all these pick me landlords now coming for you. Exactly. That'd be nice. But, yeah, also a lot being like, you little scumbag. It's a blind demand, you idiot. Good luck finding a home.

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Less often. So Tom, you have a show coming up during festival season I hear called Graffs. Very exciting. What is your show about? So yeah, this is the show at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, Sydney Comedy Festival. It will feature

humour relating to graph humour. And we're talking a PowerPoint presentation next to the stand-up comedian, up on stage. We're talking lion graphs. We're talking bar graphs pyographs

you betcha yeah do you have a favorite type of graph are the ones that get laughs you try them out

on crowds so yeah I think that will be a theme throughout the show I'm also you know probably inevitably

now have to talk about this old rental slug because I'm a fucking tenants advocate somehow

you have to blend the world exactly so yeah I think there'll be a few stories from the past

few years throughout as well Oh, and so we're just sort of wondering, why the fascination with grafts? Like, was your first career choice statistician and then you sort of had to settle for being a comedian? Or is there some first love that you had with lining numbers on a dot point? I don't, it's like, I'm not, like, obsessed with it. There's a wall in Tom's house with, like, a red thread. Exactly.

So, yeah, no, I don't have, like, a math background. I did maths at school and was all right at it but yeah I didn't do anything at uni or anything I think I'm kind of a visual thinker and when I'm explaining concepts

I think often concepts are on a spectrum and I mean you know this links into how polarised our society is these days you know it's this or that but really most things exist on a spectrum and I feel like often in conversation just throughout my life

I'll be kind of trying to express some thought through by I kind of making the person I'm talking to imagine a scale and then kind of pointing to the scale. And I think I found myself doing that a lot just naturally. And then I think, yeah, in a few jokes, like I basically mocked something up when I'm trying to get that point across

because, I mean, you just look a bit psycho in conversation if you've got your left hand here and your right hand here and you're like, because the line's going here and like this phenomenon is in the middle, maybe two thirds or the way to my right hand, everyone's going, what the fuck you're talking about? For the audience who can't see, Tom's doing a whole bunch of lewd hand gesture in us.

We've got no idea what he's doing. Most of them were racist. That's none of your business, listener. You make graphs for like absolutely everything from how likely it would be to see someone's nipples in the workplace to how your date was Sandra went. In the interest of statistical accuracy, are you constantly updating your data?

Like, are you actually like a stickler for making sure it is true? Or do you kind of just go, that's funny, I'll leave it like that. And you don't keep updating with the world around you? I think that, yeah, so I'm not recording data about my life consistently and there are actually a few rumours that have been spread about me doing this. A friend of mine, he would joke that I, when I was a single man and would go on dates that I would like rate the dates and like had an Excel spreadsheet about it. And like that's just not true but he now talks about it still as if that's just like a real thing.

So to that extent, comedy graphs are not based on my life. life. However, I feel like when you prepare them, I do make sure that the little details are correct because inevitably there will be some statistician stickler in the crowd who will love to come up to you afterwards and be like, oh, did you know that that thing should have been on the y-axis, not the x-axis. Shut up. It's a comedy show. You're off the clock. It's nice to know that we don't have to worry about you adding number of shit podcast interviews I did in 2022 to any sort of stat that you have there. Oh, that line graph would be plummeting right now, guys.

I'm having a ball. I'm going to add sucking up to the list that I've got this year. I reckon on TikTok to your audience would be, like it would seem like a lot of them were statisticians because I feel like when you upload content to TikTok, often in the comments, like I mean, I find this even just with like, I do musical comedy on TikTok, and people are sticklers for like accurate information.

Like in the comments, they'll be like, well, actually, your lyric blubber. blah, blah, blah, isn't accurate. And, like, I cannot even imagine putting myself into a box where it's even more inviting to be like, your graph is wrong. So I commend you on keeping it going. I think the other thing I would say is because I did just frame the accuracy stuff and those little details as being a way to avoid sticklers being annoying.

But I also think, without being too kind of positive, it's also an opportunity. Because if you do make those small things correct, it pleases people. So, you know, there's a carrot and a stick to this. But when people... It's almost like, that's a spectrum. When people heckle you, do you have a graph prepared? Like, do you...

Like, how... When people heckle you, what do you do? I don't at the moment, but I... That is an idea I've had. I feel like I need... That's just like a technical question, really, because you have like a PowerPoint, like a number of PowerPoint slides.

Yeah. So if someone heckled, like, you can't have that ready. Yeah, yeah. But I think you can have, like, a button you press which goes to like a default slide at any point and yeah if you could have like a line graph being like assholes and then the assholes in this crowd one exactly yeah so um no but I'm stealing that idea is the answer perfect so I can't wait to see it well what are the the tour dates for graphs and where are you performing it oh mate if I knew that well it's

lucky for you we've got it written down I'm doing the whole Melbourne comedy for which is most of April, right? Yes, 30th, March to the 19th of April, I believe. Okay, first three weeks of April, last day of March, but don't come on the first night. It'll be shit. I'm warming up. What are you doing?

All right, I'll make sure to come on the second last show. I reckon that'll be a good time. And you're doing Sydney as well? Yes, I'm doing two nights in Sydney. Again, couldn't tell you exactly when, but like, as if you're listening to this now being like, what am I doing in May? You know what I mean? Google it.

You're psycho. Unless your audience is like, and need statistical information. They're saying, you're going, what will I do? I need the information to make the graphs. Before you go, and before we let you off

to try and find a place to live, we're just wondering, could you provide maybe like a reference for white people come to your show, you know, or maybe some past audience reviews that mean that it's actually worth coming to see you?

Oh my God. I do not have access to that information and I am immediately canceling this interview. I guess we'll have to find. find someone else to interview. Thank you so much Tom Cashman for joining the Chaser report today. Best of luck to you. Thanks for having me. None of the medical advice contained in the Chaser report should legally be considered medical advice. The Chaser report. Thank you so much to Tom for joining that interview. That was absolutely phenomenal.

So much fun to talk to. To have that power, I'm still mind boggled by how he was able to pull that off. I feel like I'm seeing your villain arc in real time. I'm seeing you go, I can ask all the landlords. I can ask them whatever I want. You'd be like landlord Robin Hood. But no, Tom is an incredible comedian and a very, very funny man. And I think if you want to follow Tom's stuff, he posts a lot of contact to TikTok, Tom Cashman, also his Instagram, Twitter, everything else.

And if you want to catch his show, yes, it's touring the entire Melbourne Comedy Festival and the Sydney Comedy Festival after the Melbourne Comedy Festival. So definitely grab a ticket. I'm definitely going to grab a ticket and go see his show. I think I will too, absolutely. And if you want to offer Tom a place to live, his current address is... No, we can't docks Tom on the podcast. But if you are a landlord in need of a tenant and you're not an asshole,

definitely stick an email out to Chaser and we'll pass it on to it. Okay, sure, I guess I will. Yeah. Our Gears from Road Microphones and we're part of the Acast Creator Network. Best of luck to you all, filthy renters. Catch you tomorrow. Bye. Thank you for your patience.

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