TrueLife - Stev Fioretti - The Trinity of Transformation; Theatre, Storytelling, & Clowning

Episode Date: August 11, 2023

One on One Video Call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_US🚨🚨Curious about the future of psychedelics? Imagine if Alan Watts started a secret society with Ram Dass and Hunter S. Thompson… now open the door. Use Promocode TRUELIFE for Get 25% off monthly or 30% off the annual plan For the first yearhttps://www.district216.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/stev-fioretti-91015b31In the luminal space where theater, storytelling, and clowning intersect, a metamorphosis of the mind unfolds—a dance of artistry and introspection that ignites the dormant sparks of growth within individuals. Theater’s stage becomes a portal, a canvas upon which the complexities of existence are painted. Through its immersive narratives, audiences traverse landscapes of emotion, glimpsing the world through myriad perspectives. In the alchemy of storytelling, ancient wisdom and contemporary dilemmas intertwine, bridging cultures and generations with the threads of universal truths. It is here that the power of empathy blooms, where individuals grow not just in understanding, but in the very essence of what it means to be human.Enter the realm of the clown, the enigmatic figure whose exaggerated antics and poignant vulnerability transcend mere laughter. Beneath layers of slapstick humor lies a profound commentary on the human condition—an invitation to shed inhibitions and embrace the liberating art of authenticity. Through clowning, barriers crumble, and hearts open to the unexpected. In the face of absurdity, the world gains a new luster, a fresh lens through which its quirks and complexities are transformed into a carnival of wonder. The clown, with his unadorned spirit, beckons us to see the world afresh, to find beauty in the unconventional, and to celebrate the tapestry of existence with childlike exuberance.United, theater, storytelling, and clowning form a trinity of transformation. They challenge us to confront our preconceptions, to journey beyond our comfort zones, and to emerge with a perspective as kaleidoscopic as the stories they tell. As the final act draws near, the audience, now both participant and observer, carries forward the gift of expanded consciousness—a testament to the potency of these mediums to cultivate growth, to unveil the extraordinary in the ordinary, and to kindle the eternal flames of curiosity and enlightenment. One on One Video call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_USCheck out our YouTube:https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPzfOaFtA1hF8UhnuvOQnTgKcIYPI9Ni9&si=Jgg9ATGwzhzdmjkg

Darkness struck, a gut-punched theft, Sun ripped away, her health bereft. I roar at the void. This ain't just fate, a cosmic scam I spit my hate. The games rigged tight, shadows deal, blood on their hands, I'll never kneel. Yet in the rage, a crack ignites, occulted sparks cut through the nights. The scars my key, hermetic and stark. To see, to rise, I hunt in the dark, fumbling, fear. Fearist through ruins maze, lights my war cry, born from the blaze.

The poem is Angels with Rifles. The track, I Am Sorrow, I Am Lust by Codex Serafini. Check out the entire song at the end of the cast. Ladies and gentlemen, well, welcome back to the True Life podcast. I hope everybody's having a beautiful day. It's been quite an incredible week here in the state of Hawaii with all these fires and this tragedy and the smoke going around. And I've got an incredible guest today with an incredible ability to tell stories to see the world that all the world is a stage. And we're going to

get into so much of what he does here and how much transformation he brings to people. I've labeled this the Trinity of Transformation. And I would love to introduce to everybody today. Steb Fiorari. He is the owner of comic characters. He's got a degree in theater arts. And he's been doing what he's loved for the last 26 years. I want to get into it all the day. Steph, how are you today, my friend? I am fantastic. Thank you very much.

I'm coming from Melbourne, Australia, where it's toward the end of winter and really, really grateful to be on the show and love your energy, George. I've been an entertainer for about 20, 28 years. Before that, I was a naturopath and a homeopath. And in some ways, my life has been kind of, do I be an entertainer, an actor, a performer, or do I be a healer? Do I be a transformation? Well, somehow, I seem to, what I feel is do both at the same time. And it's mainly

through entertainment and mainly through bringing, you know, being in a group of people, bringing people together and either breaking the ice, helping people to feel comfortable in each other's presence. And just the other night, I was Charlie Chaplin at Queen Victoria Markets down the road in the city of Melbourne. And I just love it. I just love engaging with audiences.

I love what I do. well, you know what, I think that's beautiful. And I wish more people had the courage to love what they do and stay doing what they do. I'm sure that that had to be something along the lines. Like you're going through your life. You find something you love to do. Were there challenges along the way? Were there things that pulled you away like a tractor beam?

Like, hey, don't do this thing you love. Go do this thing for money or do this thing. Like so many people, myself included, I found, you know what I mean? Like you get pulled away from these things that you love. part of you dies when that happens, right? Oh my God. I became a real estate agent for four months. It was so not me. My boss, he was, he was, he was like an evil tyrant monster. And each day when he came into work, I didn't know whether he, we were getting the nice guy or the evil tyrant. So you just never knew. But funnily, early in my career,

about 28 years ago, 26 years ago, somewhere around there. Basically, I'd been entertaining for a few years. It was really early days. And I was, I just felt like I was a clown being, my hair, my wig was being pulled off, my clothes were being stretched one way. People were whacking me on the head, slapping me on the ass, you know, and I just, it was kids.

and I and I just I just said I hate these kids I'm never going to work with kids again but I had a realization that I had something had to shift and what it was was that I didn't have any boundaries as a child growing up I was with a dysfunctional mum and I it wasn't always pleasant in the house. So I didn't know how to set boundaries. So I started doing this in performance, particularly around the kids when I went back to it, when I went back to kids.

And I discovered my ability to be like a teacher to say, okay, this is what we're going to do. Here's the boundaries. Let's get into it. Let's have fun. And here I am, you know, know, many years later, loving children, loving their, all their quirky idiosyncrasities, all their naughtiness.

Because it's all, the attention that they seek, whether they, whether it's good or healthy or not good or, you know, mischievous, it's all the same thing. They want love. They can see this guy who's, you know, living his life, who's having a good time. and sometimes they want to somehow, you know, they want to engage. They want to engage. And I love to do that with kids in particular. But my favorite audiences are families because I love the adults that accompany the children

because they mutually want the best for each other. Yeah. That's an important part, I think. You know, first off, when kids see somebody that is an actor, be it in theater, storytelling or clowning, like, they see someone larger than life, and they see inspiration, and they see what is possible. And far too many of the places today, they strip that imagine away from them. Like, when we put them in a chair, there's a time and a place for everything.

But when a child goes to see a show, it's not like an adult that goes to a theater. A child is transported to a magical land where they see magical people, and they believe it, and they can still be it, and they still have this wonderful world of imagination. So I'm thankful to hear the way in which you can cope with that. Setting boundaries is clearly something that I wouldn't think about, but you would have to have them in there in order to be successful at it. Look, I do a lot of different types of shows. And in particular, when I do these fun science shows,

basically sometimes if I can tell if they're a rowdy group, I'll say, look, there are going to be times when you can go nuts and go crazy and talk to your friends and make noise and do whatever you like so long as you're not hurting anyone. But there's other times when I'm going to need you to listen. So I'm going to put my hand up or I'm going to clap and I want you to copy me. You know, just find ways of being able to get their attention for a brief period, just a brief window and then they apply.

They get to do, you know, what we're doing. and it's a great example of setting boundaries so that, because structure is sexy. This body is structure. It's a structure. And then here's where I end or where I think I end, although I know people much more sensitive than me will tell me I end like further away from where my body actually,

where my skin actually ends. But, yeah, structures really been a great tool that I've learned over the years. It's interesting you say that because it seems to me that someone who interacts with people sometimes really begins to understand the space around them. Like if you're in the bit, if you're doing something or you have to, a trick you're going to do or you're in the midst of a character, you need that space around you. So you're aware about six feet around you like that. That must be an interesting idea to try to explain to people or get people to understand about themselves when you're teaching them those things.

For instance, when, like if I want to pick a volunteer from an audience, say I'm being elf, my character, Elf Sneaky Bottom or Spaghetti the Clown or, you know, Captain Underpants or whatever I am, if I'm looking in the audience, for a volunteer, I don't really think about, like I don't use my ego or my, like, who looks prettiest or who, who, you know, it's always like a feeling. It's just, you know, scanning the room. It's like, that's where I have to go. That's the person. And I don't know why. And often, times they're rarely duds. And because you want someone, I want to pick someone who's lively, but not too lively that sort of tries to take over, but not wouldn't either, not somebody who's just going to stand there

and say, yes, sir, no, sir, three bags, full sir. And so, you know, my, for me, being quite sensitive and being able to determine so many, you know, make so many choices when I arrive at a venue to make it, to make this event the best it possibly can be. So I'm never thinking of myself, only myself. I'm never thinking of, say, the birthday child, if it's the birthday party. I'm thinking of all of us. It's like we're all on this ship and we're setting sail for fun, for, you know, wonderful experiences.

You know, it seems to me that there's a lot of vulnerability that takes place in the situation. For you, like you have to be vulnerable. You have to be willing to open yourself up to all different types of positions and judgments and stuff like that. And you need the crowd to be vulnerable, too, because you want them to be affected by the things that you're doing. And I was wondering if you could speak to this idea of vulnerability. Like, what does it mean in what you do? Yeah, I suppose there's a lot of vulnerability.

There's, you know, your exact, you're spot on. Vulnerability can really be, as far as I'm concerned, very quickly accessed by laughter. because as soon as we're laughing, we're not in our head judging or we're not thinking of how anything should be, we're just in the moment, and because that's what vulnerability is and any of these beautiful qualities, you know,

like empathy and care and all those sort of qualities that I love to impart to audiences and receive as well. Sure. Because I'm just like, I'm not really, I don't feel of myself always the performance, I feel like I'm the conductor. Like I'm just helping to guide, because I have the experience of being able to help things go a certain beautiful way.

But, oh, now I've lost the question. We were just talking about the way in which vulnerability is something that, that, but I like the way in which you bring it around to the idea of laughter. Because I think that there's a lot of courage in laughter. Sometimes people don't want to laugh. because they're afraid of what people will think. Do you ever run into that problem? Oh, my God. Oh, you know, one of the worst venues I ever went to.

I think it was someone's birthday party. And they were older kids, like they were 12 and above. And they were like, make me laugh. Come on. Do your job. Make me laugh. But he didn't understand that it's not where I, force or I manipulate everybody with my amazing skills, it's, it's a, it's, it's, it's, it's all part of,

you know, it's co-created. Right. Um, and so that I, you know, make me laugh. That was a tough audience. It was really tough because it was like they, they had a certain mindset, whether they had maybe going through some sort of issues or who knows what. But that's not a great audience, not an audience that I want to walk into. Whereas often one of the first things I'll do, especially at a kid's birthday party, is say it's Roger's birthday party. So I'll go up to, and they're usually anywhere between four, and 12.

And so I'll go up to all the girls and say, Hi, Roger, happy. What? It's not you? You're not Roger. And of course, they know what I'm doing. They know I'm just being completely silly. But it just completely, if there's any coldness,

is there any ice in the room? It melts. And we're all on the same page. We're all ready to have fun. with this silly guy. It's amazing to me. I think it speaks volumes of the way in which humans have this need for relationship to. And I love the way you explain this idea of co-creation because that's what a relationship

is, right? It's you and I participating in this beautiful movie together. And if we choose to act with one another, if we choose to walk arm and arm, we could put on a beautiful show. And what are some other techniques that you use in order to walk hand in hand with the audience? what do I do gosh because because I improvise right I don't ever really it's like when I'm as a character I don't really think about what to do if I come to a situation it's like I become empty like a Zen master

just become empty and just say to myself what's next? Because the thing that's next is the only thing that's important because it will lead me to the next thing and the next thing after that. So in terms of techniques

of what, you know, how to really, you know, celebrate with people. I like that. I suppose it's really just making offers. You know, I never tell anyone what to do. It's like, making an offer, hey, Samantha, would you like or, hey, do you think it's a good idea if,

you know, and because I suppose my energies is warm, high, you know, inviting, it's easy for them to want to do something that I request, something that I'm offering. Which, I suppose, conversely, you know, if I was an evil person doing all this, then it could be equally as harmful. But my intention is always the group, how, you know, let's have a great time here. And I love that I, you know, go, I pretty much never go to an audience a second time. So it's just, I'm meeting these strangers who immediately, they're not strangers anymore, they're my best friends, you know, because that's my, that's my attitude. I love it.

It seems to me that we can be, and especially doing what you do in the way you're explaining it, it almost feels like a warm wind of inspiration, you know, because you're going into these crowds for the first time and you're inspiring them and you're talking to them. We've talked about relationships. As you were speaking about it, there's other question popped into my head, and you do play a lot of characters, whether it's Chaplin,

and you can go into some other ones, but I'm, and feel free to address this how you'd like. I'm curious, when you move into the world of a character that you're playing, at that point in time, do you begin thinking as the character, or is it something that's premeditated?

Certainly with Charlie Chaplin, because I did so much research on him. Right. you know, there are some premeditated things, some things that I've kind of got up my sleeve, ready. You know, if I'm walking up steps, for instance, I'll grab the back of my pants and pull myself up, as if somebody else is doing to me. Right. That's an example.

But I suppose in terms of my characters, I... I'm pretty much always some kind of a clown. Like if you think of Abbott and Costello, for instance. Hey, Abbott! So Costello was the august clown. He was the dumb, dumb, the buffoon. Whereas Costello was the white face, the straight man. And if you think of Laurel and Hardy,

and you think of a lot of the characters like Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, same thing Lewis is the crazy wacky and Dean Martin's kind of holding the structure

kind of thing whereas Lewis can kind of go nuts and you know be released from the chain and do his

wacky wild stuff so I really do improvise you know there's a lot and one of the things one of the things that I've been forced to do

so once I didn't take my props to a show. And it's like, oh my God. You know, and I was far away from home, so I couldn't come home and grab more stuff. So I just went in and improvised. You know, I grabbed a piece of paper and did a magic trick with that

and asked to borrow some fruit to do some juggling. And, you know, like, so in a lot of ways, Some of the most difficult situations I've been put, I put myself in, I learned a lot because I discovered that I don't actually have to have anything. I can just make it up. I can just improvise and play games with people. You know, I don't need anything for that pretty much. So I kind of feel like I'm a bit of a bit of a.

master at improvising. So that requires that I don't need anything. That's such great advice for life. You know what I mean? Like it goes far beyond any sort of performance or maybe maybe all life is a performance. And when you learn how to be comfortable with your authentic self and your ability to improvise in life, people will respect it and they'll be thankful for it. Is that something that that you're able to show the families that come in or show the kids that come in, like this level of being able to improvise. I think it would allow people a lot of self-awareness, you know, and a lot of self-love if they can learn some of the lessons you're talking about right now.

Yeah, because it certainly cuts the habit. You know, like because we have so many habits, so many patterns that both serve. us and don't serve us. Right. And, you know, to be able to improvise is such a powerful skill. I think that my feeling is that most people just assume that I'm just doing my show. Like, they don't know that I'm improvising.

They don't know. Because even when I'm out watching a performer and I might talk to that performer after and they oh you know I had this problem and I you know I improvised and it and it worked out yeah um so but but I suppose as you're saying you know like the value of improvising and the value that it can teach people but and it in particular involves vulnerability yes because it's like oh I don't have my my usual props I don't have my pump and my balloons, I don't have my juggling balls, oh, what am I going to do? Oh, well, just, uh, just, you know, it's like, okay, you've had your little brain fade.

You've had your little tizzy. Just come back to center. Right. How can, how can I make the best of this situation? Yeah, it's, it's beautiful advice and it, it's something to be said about walking through life and having the courage to, to be authentic. It seems that when I start thinking about playing roles or characters, you know, I think we do it all the time. There was a great book written by, I think it was,

I think it was Dale Carnegie and it was called Games People Play. And in that book, he spoke about the ways, the characters that we become. Some people get up and they go to work and they pretend they're an employee and that they pretend that they have a boss. Some people pretend they're the boss and they have employees. But it's really a big game. And the way you can really figure it out. For anybody who's listening, here's a cool experiment you can do. Go through your normal day. And if you find yourself in a conversation where your one role for this case, we'll say you're the employee and your boss is talking to, you just stop in that conversation and you start asking the questions. You say something like, wait a minute. You know what? I think

you're doing it's wrong. And you can see that other person flip into the employee. And so it really, when you begin talking about improvising and characters, it's a beautiful way to see the world. Like, we're all playing characters. And the beauty of it is that at any point in time, we can choose to play a different character. We can choose to play a bigger role. We can choose to play a smaller role. Is that too far out there?

What do you think? Oh, no. No, that's wonderful. Not easy for a lot of people. Right. Because they're so unused to not being themselves. But this thing that's called self is, just made up. We just made it up.

So, for instance, one of my favorite techniques, if I'm having a problem and I need to talk to somebody, I need to, you know, speak in whatever way that could be confrontational, I'll put myself in a chair, there'll be a chair across from me, just directly across from me. and I'll imagine that person and I'll talk to them and I'll and it's like a theatre game but it could be fun or it could be very quite serious you know it could be I feel hurt or I feel abused or whatever and when I finished when I've said everything that I need to say I then walk over, sit in their chair and then talk to me. And mamma mia, the things that I've learnt about the other perspective that I didn't know

when I then became them and then spoke to me. It was like, wow, I could never have known. Even imagined what you're going through or what challenges your experience. experiencing or how you feel until I became you, shake it off, getting back into my chair, speak to the person. You know, it really takes away all the sort of the mental clutter and really brings me right down into my heart. And it's, yeah, it's fun being different characters. and I'm about to start doing some acting, more acting training. And I actually think that playing evil characters is more fun than playing good characters

because I kind of feel like a lot of my life I've been a good character. So I get to play with someone who's going against the sun. say for instance, you know, going against what is the benefit for everybody and experience it. It's just, it's just a, and like you say, it's a game. Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's really, first off, that's a beautiful exercise. I'm going to use that in my own life. What a great way to understand the form of empathy,

to not only see yourself as you the person, but sitting in the person's chair and listen to the word you. Like, that's really a beautiful technique. Thanks for sharing that. It's very powerful to me. Yeah, you're welcome. Yeah. Because, you know, somebody who, I mean, I was trained to do it. I was shown you to do it.

But you don't necessarily, you could just trust yourself and say, well, everybody has intuition. Everybody can make something up. Everybody, you know, anybody can just play a game. And in a way, it's a game. but it may be a serious game that, you know, requires focus and, you know, heart. Yeah. But anyone can do it. And it's just mind-boggling how it just moves any weight, any knots in the heart in the moment

when, you know, I need to relate. I need to communicate something to somebody else, but they don't have to be in the room. They could be in another state. They could be in another country. They could be crossed over. It doesn't matter. Yeah.

It's powerful to think about. And in some ways, sometimes all we need is just to say it out loud. Sometimes just the act of saying it out loud kind of gets it out of the body, right? or it allows you to transform a little. That's what I found anyway. Absolutely. Absolutely. Our voice, our breath are so much more powerful than we realize.

And, you know, right now is one of the most amazing times to be alive, to be embodied on the earth. Because we're going through such a transformation. You know, like we've just sort of spoken a little bit about transformation and characters and things like that. But the earth, it's like the earth is truly our mother. I love the earth. I love nature. And she wants to change.

And there are more and more people on this planet that are saying, enough's enough. Let's have love. Let love rule. and I mean that's my message whenever I that's my unspoken message whenever I go to work yeah I agree I see it everywhere and the people I talk to and you know I I feel it too I feel the same change that's happening and it's almost like seasons right like you had spoken before when we first got on the podcast you know winter's almost over and I think that's kind of a metaphor

for the world we've been living in. Like, maybe winter is almost over. Absolutely. Absolutely. I do. I think a lot of people are really beginning to see that maybe the life they've been living hasn't been their best life. Maybe they can be better.

Maybe people are finding the courage to go out and explore their authentic self. And that's one of the reasons why I wanted to talk to you today is, you know, you do have this like this shining authenticity and when I start to hear about these different exercises that you do and the different characters that you play, I wanted to highlight that because I think it's such an important

gift to show people and it's special to me and I what maybe we can we can rewind a little bit like is it you had said it's something that you've always loved doing like at what point in time did you realize like this is what you wanted to do like you wanted to inspire people

Oh my God. When I was, I must have been like eight in primary school. We call it primary school over here at that age. And my teacher forced me to be on stage doing like a little, I was the hero. There was the heroine who was tied up on the railway tracks and there was the villain. And all I had to do was come in with some money or pretend money and say, I'll pay the rent so that the heroin was saved. Now, I didn't want to go up on stage.

I was so reluctant to do it. But as soon as I got up, I just felt exhilarated. I just felt like, this is the place for me to be. This is, now, I did have a troubled childhood. kind of fell asleep until about 28 when I did my first theatre course. And it was amazing because I had just become a naturopath, a qualified naturopath and homeopath. And now I was learning to be an actor, learning to be a performer,

and I was, I had just come from the naturopathic training, learning more about myself and ways of being able to help people's health. Now I was learning acting techniques that were deepening my relationship to myself. Because the more I can know myself, the more I can access the different characters that might be required for a particular scene or a, a performance or whatever. So it was, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it's, it was about performance. It was about self, knowing the self.

And, um, I've been listening to some channelers recently. They've been talking, they've been saying one of the most important things we can do is know who, know what we are and what we are, us humans. is incredible. Incredible. Sorry if I keep answering the performance and then bring it back to transformation because they are so interlinked in my life. Yeah, I wouldn't have it any other way. I think it's, I'm on the same page and I, you know,

it's the Trinity of Transformation like the title says. And I, those things are so connected. Like as you were speaking about the home, homeopathy and understanding how to help people what a you know what a powerful medicine laughter is right absolutely because it's it's instantaneous where in the moment so everything else disappears except this moment and but one of the things that i kind of discovered about naturopathy and homeopathy yeah why did i do it why did i get into it. Well, I had a troubled childhood and I know that my yearning to help others,

I was unconsciously wanting to help myself. And I could only help myself first if I'm going to be able to support others so that by the time I did start performing the, you know, the natural healing training had been a wonderful, I'm just realizing this now, had been such a wonderful training for me to become the performer. Because I had left my job at an health food shop and as a naturopath. I went to Thailand. I saw performers on the street in Kausan Road in Thailand, Bangkok.

and I just said to myself, I want to do that. That's what I want to do. So when I got back to Australia, that's what I started to pursue. And in terms of vulnerability and risk, I really risked at all because I had no idea that it was going to work. But I just had a passion that I couldn't deny, that had to be lived out. And I'm so glad that I took that risk because here I am. am many years later happy. Yeah, I'm glad you took the risk too.

I think it's something that is contagious. I'm hopeful that it's really contagious. And yeah, I got to talk to right now. Sorry. Yeah, so I guess another question that comes to my mind is that the idea of growing up in a way where you live your life begin healing yourself

and the thing you end up doing heals younger versions of you. I don't know if I said it the right way, but I see it that way. It's almost like a life cycle. Like so many of us grow up, right? We grow up trying to heal ourselves and we do.

And the fruit of that labor becomes the fruit that helps the younger version of us get through it faster. You think that's accurate? Oh, I love what you're saying. Because, you know, we live in space and time, but we also don't live in space and time. So the paradox is true.

Can I prove it? No, I can't prove it. Because we're living in this third dimension where, you know, this appears as real. Right. But I, oh, I've just had a little blank. actually is it possible we could pause the recording just so I can go of of course of course fantastic okay I'm gonna I will do this right oh okay okay you're good to go so it's a it's a fantastic time to think about the way in which we all live our lives

I think that we do I think so many of us grow up finding our own way and these tips, these tricks, these schools, these things we do in our life to make ourselves better, end up being something that we perform in life. And that performance in life helps others who are like us to become the best versions of themselves earlier. Because that kind of makes sense. So I think Stev is talking about this way in which we live in this world. Like we're only able to see a few dimensions. But the truth is we're playing on a higher level.

If we are playing on a level that we barely even understand. And at that point in time, it takes a lot of imagination. It takes a lot of imagination in order to see the game play out. I think the people that have the imagination, people that have the inspiration, the people that are willing to step back and see themselves in their situation and a third person point of view are the people that really begin to make a difference not only in their life, but in other. other people's lives. I think that the idea of seeing the other as a reflection of yourself is a great way for you to move through your life. I was talking with my daughter a little bit earlier today and I was telling her that everybody you see is a reflection of you. So when you find yourself in situations that are difficult, it's good to look at it like that and see yourself as that

reflection because you can learn a lot from people from that particular area there. I was just filling the people in, Stavv on this idea that there are other dimensions, you know, and if we just see this one dimensional

view of ourselves, it's really easy to get tunnel vision. But yeah, why not? Why can't we go? I do think that we're going back in time a little bit.

Like, so when you solve these problems in your life, you're actually going through these tragedies so that you can help other people go through them faster. And maybe that's a way to rid the world of it in some way.

It seems as if the only way that I know for sure to overcome something consciously is to is to re-address it. You know, I don't have to have the person in front of me, but I do have to bring up the feelings. not necessarily the pictures and everything, but the feelings so that I can then understand, I suppose I need to be in a safe place, but to be able to let it go. And, you know, Monty, just there's a tiny little side. I just walked past my partner, and she said,

oh, he's asking you really interesting questions. Nice. And I just had this beautiful realization that I'm enjoying this. I'm loving this. I'm loving that you're interested in me. I wish this for everybody. I wish that everybody, somebody would take an interest in somebody. Maybe not the mum.

Maybe not the dad necessarily. Because I find this is, you know, I find this is so valuable. for me and I suppose it might look good on the camera because I'm quite expressive and I love to you know express it's just what I love to do not everybody loves to do it but you don't have to necessarily have an interesting life to have someone curious about you you know and I and I just felt I wish that for everyone I wish I I hope that everybody gets an opportunity to really feel seen and heard and engaged with because I just know that there are times when I go to places or I see brothers and sisters, older brothers

and sisters or family members and their energy is not happy. Yeah, I think it's one of the saddest things that some people think they don't have an interesting life. Everybody is an interesting person. Everybody has something unique about them that they need to share with the world that will make the world better. And that's one of the things that I want, like, I see it in people. I know you do too, Steph, but you wouldn't be doing what you're doing unless you saw the spark and the divine beauty in people. Like, we connect on so many levels and I get goosebumps thinking about it. But that's what we're here to do. Like some of us can see it in other people. And that's our job to blow on that ember and grow that spark inside them so that they,

can go and do it for somebody else. Thank you for saying all that. I want people to feel this way. I want everybody listening to this to see our relationship and take away some of these stories. Like, I've never heard about some of these techniques before. And I think that the gifts we're giving to people are something that they can use in their life to make their life better.

What's better than a conversation where two people genuinely care about making the other person see things differently and getting to really talk to someone in a deep conversation that's not, how's the weather? Hey, are you okay? Like, let's figure out what's going on in here and make the one a little better. So thanks for noticing that because I try hard. I want people to do that. Yeah, look, curiosity is such a valuable tool to employ on a regular basis. If I'm curious about you, I'm not judging you. I'm not pre-planning what fixed ideas I have of how you should be or how anything should be, I'm very likely to have some questions

that helps to kind of open up things and we get to explore and go on little journeys together. And it's such a, you know, like I wasn't born like this. I wasn't born with these, I've had to develop a lot of these, quite you know these things that I'm now sprouting but um but I'm I'm so grateful that I've I've kept going and uh because there's been hard times sure of course yeah and they're the biggest they're the biggest growth curves the hard times and um I I feel so fortunate that I'm in a deeply loving relationship with my

whether she's my soulmate or my twin flame it doesn't really matter we absolutely adore each other and we've been together for seven years and um you know i feel so grateful that i have such a deep bond with another human and it's almost like you know together we kind of we we hone the love the the sharing, the communicating, the living together, so that I can then take it out into the world. So, you know, I feel really grateful and really in a wonderful space. There's something to be said about magnifying the human experience.

And when we find ourselves in relationships, like that's what we do. We magnify the human experience. It's a beautiful thing and it can be powerful in a good way. It can be powerful in a negative way, you know, sometimes. But that's, it's our decision to go down that road. And I love what you said about there being tough times. And I think that there are, there are probably a lot of people right now going through some tough times. Would you mind maybe sharing some, like what are the rocks that you grab on to when you go through those tough times?

Well, I will say that as a boy, as a young man, I was very reactive. I was very impetuous, you know, not much earthiness about me, lots of fire and air. So not so much hard times, but in a difficult moment, for instance, what I definitely have learned to do is to shut up and just, Take a moment, you know, if I'm in talking to someone or there's something going on, just to come back. Just come back here. Just ground. So that my energy moves away from this crazy monkey jumping from one branch to another kind of mind and just relax.

just come back to my centre. Actually, the other day, I had somebody bipping at me. Now, I'm not quite sure why they bipped at me, but I was pretty sure they were bipping at me in the car. So I rolled the window down and I just did this. Now, my intention was to communicate. It was funny because I was going to be Charlie Chaplin later on. So it was perfect.

And, you know, I was just saying, car and then when the traffic moved that car moved very erratically so i didn't i don't think it worked but my intention was it's okay it's you know like just relax uh without telling them because a lot of people don't want to be told what to do so gesturing was my way of being able to uh I was attempting to diffuse the situation. Well, this brings up an interesting point because anybody who finds themselves as a public speaker or on stage or in groups of people understands that there are a lot of ways you can communicate and not with your words, with your eyes, with your facial expressions, and you can learn to pick up social cues on people.

When you are the center of attention, you really learn the way in which people are communicating. to you, whether they're like this or whether they're like this or whether they're, you know, you learn so much just by looking at people, right? If you're willing to put yourself out in front of everyone and have everyone put their eyes on you, you can learn a lot. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I remember many, many years ago when I first came to Melbourne, I had a show called Get Off the Bloody Road. And there was one night where there was, uh, a small audience and there was this lovely woman laughing at all, all the things that I was doing, she was having a great time.

And there was another guy, a few people away from her, sitting like this. Now, who do you think I focused on? It's a no-brainer. So, of course, I focused on her. and I was able to maintain that kind of relationship with myself, the hurt, the audience. So it's important. It's important not to focus on the negative or what I think is negative,

but to focus where I'm going to find benefit. It's so fascinating to me because I was just talking to my beautiful daughter about this whole situation where, and that is a manifestation of what you put out, you get back. Like, if you focus on someone who is feeding you this loving response, you're going to grow that together. But if you focus on the thing that's negative, all that good energy just hits that wall and dies right there.

It's amazing to think about and see it happen in real life like that. Because you could liver, I mean, figuratively speak, you can live or die on the show that way. Like you gain the crowd by focusing on that, when you lose it by focusing on that person. Both those energies are there at all times, right? Like, you can choose whatever one you want. Yeah, yeah.

Very early in my career, I was doing a street show. I used to get on, I put a child on my shoulders, then I'd get on a pogo stick. And I'd dive through a fire hoop, or I'd get up on stilts. and dive into a cup of water. But there was one time when there were these older teenagers and they were heckling me and giving me a hard time.

And I went up to them, kind of, I didn't yell or anything. I just walked up to them and I said, if you keep doing that i'm gonna dot dot dot dot dot dot um and then i went back to my spot and started performing again and they were just all claps and all so i i wasn't the nicest guy at that moment when i addressed them but uh it's like i made a really clear boundary coming back to boundaries again you know i just made it really clear that like i could explain to them in really nice words and that may not have worked probably not and i just trusted my intuition and my spontaneity in that moment and i wasn't thinking and i mean one that's one of

one of the things that i find a benefit at times and a curse at other times that I don't think I just intuit. I just act spontaneously, which also is where, I suppose, you know, not responding, not reacting, but responding by coming back to my centre, noticing my breath, noticing my body, and then respond to, you know, the world in whatever way.

Because then I'm much more grounded and I can act so much more lovingly and considered. So yeah, it's been an interesting, you know, if life is just an experience for us to share our gifts and it's a journey to just be lived, just to, you know, it's enough for me. I've, I've, I still got more years to go on this planet, but I have been having a good time and I, and I expect it to just continue, you know, because that's my intention. Yeah. And I think it's so well said and I think it's, it's timely because so many people are searching right now for this idea of authenticity or happiness or self-fulfillment or self-fulfillment or self-fulfilling. self-respect, you know, and in today's world, when you go and you do things that you don't want to do, you end up living a life that you don't want to live. And it's so much more rewarding to follow your heart.

It's so much more rewarding at a younger age to follow that thing you're passionate about, to listen to that voice in your heart and follow it, have the courage to follow it. You know, you'll end up in a spot that you're supposed to be at. And I just, I love that message and I hope more people resonate with it. It seems so true in life, right? Yeah. Yeah. You know, talking, asking for help. Hard one.

Talking with friends. Oh, don't have any friends. I actually have a friend in London, an ex-girlfriend who came and visited me and my partner recently. And she desperately wants to be in a relationship. And I said to her, just join groups. Just join a group. Just, just have fun.

Like, I know there are many people who are seeking a partner, you know, seeking someone to live their life with. as such a normal, beautiful human desire. And she has. She has been getting out and being in groups and she seems happier. And that idea of finding her man doesn't seem quite as pressing

because it's like she's being nourished by groups of people. She's getting engagement that she has been missing. So what we want isn't always the next step. I think there are steps we can't quite see in between that need to happen so that we can move toward what it is that we want. Yeah, that's really well said. I love language.

And it's interesting that you use the word engagement because that's the thing we do when we finally find someone we love. We get engaged to them. But if you want to begin to find people, you should get engaged with everybody, right? How are you going to find the people out there? How are your people going to find you unless you're engaging? Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, the irony.

is that I met my partner on Facebook. I got an injury with my leg doing yoga in a yoga class. I asked Facebook some questions like, oh, does anybody know of anyone who can, you know, help me what to do? This is what's going on. And she wasn't one of my Facebook friends. She was a friend of a friend because of all the algorithms have changed a lot. So in 2016, it was simpler, I think, the algorithms.

So she got my message and responded. And I saw her picture and I thought, wow, he's weird. And so, and one of my dreams was always to have a friendship with a woman before entering into a relationship. And we are best friends now, and we were best friends then. And our friendship is just such a valuable quality. You know, it's just wonderful having a friend and friends that you can trust. Yeah, it's especially in today's world where,

the things seem to be so superficial sometimes. Like, it seems that when you have good friends, you know, it's easy to talk online and connect that way, but it's different than sitting down with someone and going to grab in some coffee or grabbing a drink and beginning to thoroughly understand that that person is a person, they're not just a profile, that there are someone that has loves and desires and problems and heartaches and all these things that make us huge. human and it's those things we see in them that there are echoes of us in a weird sort of way it seems like and that's how you know you know i don't know how it's true but in my in my bones in my

heart i know that although we've individuated we we are having a separate experience at the same time, paradoxically, we're all connected. And it's not just some fuzzy, thin throwaway line. Like I feel it because I want everyone who's in my vicinity when I'm working, performing, teaching, whatever I'm doing to join. in if they want, because it's always their choice. I never force anyone to anything. And be part of this moment that's never going to be again.

Just like this interview, you know, like this sharing that we're doing. It's just a magical, it's a magical moment. moments. It's true. I think it's a beautiful spot right there, Stella. I love it. And I think that that's a great message for people to take with them today and to embrace and try to live out is that the life we live is a beautiful one.

If you're willing to embrace the tragedies and you're willing to take the hits and you're willing to understand that we're here for a reason. And the people you see and the people you see. life and the people that you see in your world are just their images of you going through similar things. And if you can see it that way, it'll really help you go through life. And I guess before I let you go, though, Steph, what are you got coming up? What are you excited about?

And what are you looking forward to? Tomorrow, I'm going to do a science party for a six-year-old. I spoke to his French. mom yesterday. Looking forward to that. It's a quiet weekend. But I've had a fair bit of work just recently and I'm doing a thing called Professor Maths

where I go to a school, a primary school on Monday and teach children maths through games, through board games, large board games. and they just play. They don't necessarily know that they're doing maths, but they're doing maths because they're playing. I love playing didgeridoo, which is these dudes. I saw them all back there.

I made some of them, the lighter coloured ones, they're the ones that I've made, and the darker ones I've got from up north, of Australia. So I love playing music, playing the Ditch. And it's such a great way to really centre myself and be in the moment and just play. You know, play in a sort of very reverent way. And I, you know, life is kind of quite simple for me.

I'm looking forward to each. moment. I love gardening. All the echinaceas are starting to come out. Winter's almost over here. And I really want to say a big thanks to you, George. The reason why I called you Monty earlier is because we've got a cat called Monty. Yeah. And he's a brother. And the other guy, he's a crazy cat. But I really appreciate having this time with you, sharing the way I see the world, this little snippet. And I wish you all the best with future talks and just lots and lots and lots of love, beautiful man. Well, it takes one to no one.

And I'll have you back. We'll do some panels where we talk to more people and we share more conversations. Because I think that the more people we can get together, the brighter, the light we can shine on beautiful ideas. And maybe next time I have you back, I'll have you play the didger redo. And I don't know. I love talking to you. It was really fun. And I thank you for your time.

I love what you're doing. And I love the inspiration. And thank you for the wisdom that we got to share. So hang on for one second. I'm going to talk to you afterwards. But I'm going to hang on with the people. And so, you know what? I think I forgot to ask you, where is it that people can find you?

Um, I have a website, stevefioretti.com.com.com. I'm pretty sure that's the address. You'll find me there. And, um, yeah, that's, that's the best place to find me. Stevfeoretti.com.com.com.com. I'll have it in the show notes, but I always like to have it said out loud on the show too. So people that are listening can also be like, let me go ahead and do that. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, Ken, everybody that was in the comments,

thank you so much for hanging out and spending time with us today. Check out Steph and see what he's doing. Check out his classes. He's a fascinating person who has got a lot of phenomenal ideas. He's a great teacher. And look him up, check him out. And that's what we got for today.

Ladies and gentlemen, Aloha. Aloha. Thank you.