Walking The Dog with Emily Dean - Adam Hills

Episode Date: July 26, 2018

Emily and her dog Raymond went for a summer walk in Regents Park with comic and Last Leg host Adam Hills. They talked about his childhood in Australia, writing wedding speeches with Ross Noble and his ‘hairy godfather’ figure Billy Connolly. Adam also told Emily all about his brand new book Best Foot Forward.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

He seems interested in your leg, Adam. Ross Noble's dog, when I used to live with them, he used to love chewing it. And Ross was eventually had to say, God, I hope he doesn't do that, the people with two legs. This week on Walking the Dog, I went out with comic Adam Hills and my dog Raymond for a stroll in London's Regents Park. You probably know Adam Best from his incredibly popular Channel 4 show, The Last Leg, and he's also a brilliant comic. But that's not all. He even used to be a tennis coach. The man's basically a rom-com hero.

So we chatted about his childhood in Australia and how he got started in comedy and also the way Billy Connolly kept cropping up in his life as a sort of comedy fairy godfather. I felt like I'd got to know Adam quite well even before our walk because I just read his book which is called Best Foot Forward and it's a brilliant account of his life. There are some great anecdotes involving Whoopi Goldberg and the Royal Family and he also talks about how being born without a foot was something he felt made him different but in a good way

and something he came to see as kind of special and extraordinary which I found really interesting Adam is basically one of life's nice guys he's so funny and full of good energy but he's not afraid of being real

and he's sort of passionate about things he cares about which is something I really admire I'm going to let him speak for himself though Best Foot Forward is available now at all the usual places so I hope you like it and I hope you enjoy our dog walk and talk

here's Adam oh sorry Adam Ray's doing a wee oh of course I'll give him some space. I'm going to introduce the podcast now, Adam. Okay. So this is Walking the Dog, and I'm Emily Dean,

and I'm really thrilled, because I'm here with the very lovely Adam Hills, and we're in Regents Park. Oh, sorry. There's a lady with a suitcase, and my dog Raymond has already gotten her way. And this is my dog, Raymond, who's a Shih Tzu. What do you make of him so far?

Well, what do I make of him? I feel like we're best mate. I want to know where the name Raymond came from. Okay. Is there any backstory to it? There is. His name is Raymond. And it's interesting you should ask us,

because I feel I can share this with you. Okay. Because you're a comic who I think you're not frightened of dealing with emotion, which some comics are. Is that fair? On stage and off, I think some comics. Like I think you're open and you're like,

okay, I'm going to talk about something sad or serious as well. Yeah. My sister died. And when I got, and her name was Rachel and her nickname was Ray. Because you grew up in Australia and everyone went, oh, right? Right.

So I decided to call my dog Ray after her. Great. Yeah, do you like it? That is such a lovely, yeah, that's such a lovely trivia. And you couldn't, if it was a female dog, you couldn't call her Rachel. No, that would be too weird.

Yeah. So Raymond is just one step removed enough. Yeah. that it's not too confronting, but also something that only someone really close to her would know. Yeah, that's a great, okay, cool. So, are you a dog owner? Do you want to explain what's happened? Raymond has basically said we are going no further in a way that only a dog or a four-year-old toddler could.

He's too hot, oh, his tongue sticking out. I mean, we... We can find a shady spot for you, Ray. Can it be... I know the podcast is called... It's Walking the Dog, right? Yeah. For today, can it be renamed,

hydrating the dog? I think so. I think... Sitting down and drinking water with dog. Which I'm doing now. I'm giving him water. You know, Jerry Seinfeld has comedians in cars getting coffee.

Ours can be comedians with dogs drinking water. So do you... Have you ever had dogs? You don't... Yes. Do you have any pets at the moment? No, not at the moment,

but I grew up with dogs. So I think before... I came on the scene as a baby. We had a... I think he was kind of a cross between a Labrador and a poodle, but not a Labradoodle. Right. So it wasn't technically a Labradoodle.

It was just a thing. And we called him Souti. And in the lovely Australian way, Souti would occasionally... He's not drinking that, Adam, sorry. I'll just move on. Yeah. Soutty would find a blue-tong lizard in the back garden

and kind of tear into it. Yeah. But then we had to make sure that there weren't snakes around that got into the yard because a snake can take out a dog. So we had Souti for a long time And then we had A Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, I think

Because after Souti died we came over here to the UK And for some reason I just fell in love with Cavalier King Charles Spaniels I don't know where we saw one But I just went oh I love that dog And so that was our next dog But of course they're pure breeds And with pure breeds

And with pure breeds come like genetic problems as well Yeah, yeah So we had I think we called him Bryn And so Brin was called Bryn because we worked out of Brinau was the Welsh word for hills. Oh, I like that. He was a little hill, so he was Brin. Yeah.

Oh, sir, how are you? I'm fine, how are you? Lovely to see you. Nice to see you too. I've just came back from Japan, just to see you from Australia in London. You've come back. Say that again. From Japan.

Yes. 17 days of Japan. Yeah. I love your show. Thank you very much. Very good. Thank you for coming back from Japan. All right, thank you.

Wow, that's nice. I'm not entirely sure what he meant by that, but that's lovely. There's something like Japan. I think what he meant was he's had 17 Jays in Japan. He's just come back to London, and now he's seen me. Maybe it's that weird thing of when you've been away for a while, and then you come back and then you see someone that you kind of know. Do you get a nice response generally, wandering around from people?

Yeah, most of the time. I think, in fact, all of the time. The last leg is generally a positive show, especially when we were talking about disabilities and the Paralympics. So I think it, you know, I think if you're positive, on air, then people are kind of positive to you. Yeah. Generally.

Yeah, I don't get... I don't get too much negative attention. I think the problem is, especially in summer, I wear shorts. And when I'm wearing shorts, the prosthetic leg sticks out. Yeah. And people see that first. Right. So they'll be walking along the street.

And you can see them walking towards you and looking at this thing because it catches their attention. They're like, what is that under that guy's knee? And then gradually they'll start to look up. And they'll go, I know that face and I know that leg and then I'll put the face in the leg together and go oh that's that guy!

So it's hard to be innocuous when you've... Yeah. But I like that they recognise you via that. It's like when... Can we get in this way now? Shall we? By the way. Come on, Rie.

Already I'd bloody love this podcast. Oh, do you? What a great. Just wandering, chatting. So yeah, so to go back to Australia... Yes. Another thing I noticed... And I just read your book, I should say.

Oh, yes. Which is called Best... best foot forward. And I really loved it. Oh, thank you. And, yeah, it just gave me a real picture of you and your life and everything about you, really, as a person, you know. And it sounded like you.

I was saying to you earlier, it sounded like your voice, which is important, I think. And so having just read this book, I feel like a stalker, because I know everything about you and you know nothing about me. But I'm conscious that with comics sometimes, I think. I think they either, they tend to have extreme childhoods. They either had a difficult childhood and I think going on stage as an attempt to create that camaraderie and happiness and joy perhaps they didn't have.

Or, and I think this is true of you, they had a great childhood and they're like, oh yeah, I want more of that. Yeah, that's pretty much what happened with me. I think there is a thing with comedians. There's something wrong with all of us. Do you know what I mean? There's something, why would you get up on stage in front of a room

of people and try and prove yourself. There's something wrong with you. But luckily, the thing that's wrong with me is physical. And I've talked to, I was talking to a comedy writer in Montreal who also has a disability. And I was talking to her and I said, we're lucky you and I. Because every comedian's got something wrong with us. The thing you and I've got wrong with us is physical. So emotionally, we're fine.

We've got the upper hand over all the other comedians. She was going, I know, don't tell anybody. Yeah, I think, we're going, I think, Weirdly, my little one foot has made me slightly better adjusted in a weird way. There's a thing in a Tom Robbins book where he said, and I've never known whether this is true, he said I think the ancient Greeks used to revere disabled people and ask them for their opinions on important subjects because they thought if you have a disability, then you have a different way of looking at the world and possibly a better adjusted way of looking at the world.

I don't know about that, but you definitely have a different way of looking at the world. I think everyone with a disability and I don't know what it is. I'd almost say weirdly, ironically, more grounded for someone who's only got one foot on the ground. I'll talk for days about how great I think the Paralympics is, or the Paralympics are. But one of the things that, and I know Alex Brooker from the last leg got this from the Paralympics as well,

it's just a kind of acceptance of it's okay to have something different like a prosthetic leg. And basically, I mean, in real terms, after watching London 2012, after watching the Paralympians come into the, you know, the Olympic Stadium while David Bowies We Can Be Heroes played and fireworks went off around them. Yeah. I just think prosthetics are cool. And now I look at my own and go, oh, hang on, I'm one of the cool kids. Yeah, yeah.

I always thought I was one of the different weird kids, but actually it's kind of cool to have this thing. And then Oscar Pistorius helped that and then he ruined. Absolutely. So he's, do you know what I mean? He, you know, He made it great and then... You're right. I mean, he kind of ruined it. Yeah.

And I say kinder because what he did didn't reflect on all people with disabilities or prosthetics. Yeah. Kind of, I mean, now if I'm wearing, because I've got a blade now, and if I've got my blade on and people are, I tell people I've got a blade, they'll make an Oscar Pistorius joke. Do they? And it's what, you know, five, six years ago would have been cool. Oh, awesome, you've got a blade.

Yeah. Now it's like, oh, Jimmy Carr said to me, oh, South African eBay, was it? You'd have told me that comment and said, who do you think you said that? I think I would have guessed Jimmy Carl, to be honest. Hi, did you mind to forget a phone? Of course, yes. I'm a friend of yours.

I find you so funny. No worries. Thank you. No worries. Oh, nice to meet you. What's your name? Mohit. Mohit, lovely to meet you.

Have a good day. Cheers. I want to know more about the Aussie childhood because I love the Aussie childhood. So your dad worked for Quontas. Yes. Didn't he? And was he cabin crew?

He was cabin crew. So as far as he traveled around the world, making sure people were happy. Yeah. We travelled around the world making sure people were happy. Yeah. Which is pretty much what I wanted to do. But, so occasionally he would take my brother and I on trips, and maybe it would be Melbourne for the day if we were on school holidays.

Yeah. And he was going to Melbourne, so he'd take us. Yeah. For my birthday, he took me to Tokyo for four days. Wow. Just because he was flying to Tokyo anyway and he got me on staff ticket. And this is in the 70s, isn't it? Oh, that would have...

We would have started doing those trips in the 70s and then the 80s. And in the days, you know, the pre-9-11 days where then the captain would take you up to the cockpit for a little bit and all of that kind of stuff. But the biggest thrill was hearing my dad talk on the microphone. Ladies and gentlemen, this is your flight service director, Bob Hill speaking. And we'd be going, there's dad, that's dad talking on the microphone. Oh, this is awesome.

So really, you know, it's probably not surprising now that my ideal audience number is about 400, because that's how many people were on a Qantas seven-47. So that's what my dad did. As far as I'm concerned, he flew around the world, made people happy and talked on a microphone. Usually to about 400 people at a time. And did you have that sense of, my dad's like in charge it? My dad's cool because he's making the announcement and, you know.

Do you know what the best thing I think, well, two of the best things I saw my dad do. One was, I remember on a family holiday bumping into another Qantas cabin crew. It's a long story. It's funny. It's not in the book. But this guy had had, it's just been diagnosed with, it was something like glandular fever, I think. Yeah. And so Dad said, why aren't you on the flight tonight? And the guy went, I've got glandular fever. And Dad went, and then went, sorry, what did you just say? He said, I got glandular fever. And Dad went, oh, my God, I'm so sorry. And the guy went, I remember him specifically going, I wondered why you laughed. He said, I was thinking,

surely Bob Hill's the nicest man in Qantas. He isn't laughing at a disease. And there was a first time I'd heard my dad been referred to as the nicest man in Qantas. And when he passed away, all the, you know, his obituary went in the paper and I got a collection of all the responses from people, all the well-wishes. So many of them referred to him as the nicest man in Qantas and a true gentleman to work with. So that... He must have felt really proud. I was so proud. And so I think, you know, more than talking on a microphone and travelling around the world, I think I looked up to him, I just saw him as the nicest man in Qantas. But I remember, but I remember, you know, more than talking on a microphone and nicest man in Qantas. But I remember being on one family holiday. Because we were always on,

we always flew staff travel. And we were on one family holiday. And it was a really full flight. And the cabin crew were working their behinds off to try and serve everyone. And my dad just got up and started helping them. He was on a family holiday. But he just, he looked at one of them, went, do you need a hand? And they went, oh, actually? And he went, yeah, go on. So he got up and just helped out. The cabin service for like two hours. He didn't have to. It was. He didn't have to. was on holidays. An hilarious bit was, other passengers didn't realize that he was cabin crew.

They just thought a passenger had got up and started helping out. So then they started helping out. So it was my dad in about four other people had gone, oh yeah, they must really need a hand. We'll get up and help out as well. They're desperate. I mean, they're just getting random men off, abandoning their families to help out.

So it was real. That for me kind of sums up my dad. The nicest man in Qantas who would, you know, do something like that, he'd help out. But he also had a love of comedy. Yeah. He had an absolute love of comedy and he would come home with comedy albums of Peter Sellers, Bill Cosby, Alan Sherman. Alan Sherman, I specifically remember, had a lot of song parodies. And because when Dad was home from work, he was home for like two weeks at a time or maybe a week at a time.

But we'd come home from school and he'd already be there. Not like every other dad who would come home from work. we'd get home and dad would be there watching TV so we'd sit and watch TV with him and we'd listen to comedy and we'd watch mash or we'd watch the Bugs Bunny show or the Benny Hill show so our family really came together over comedy

and I think that's why you know I had an absolute love of it and was your mum a homemaker or did she she was and everyone loves my mum as well she's not a mean or cynical bone in her body and she was a homemaker and she really very protective of us and she also has

in the best possible way she doesn't really care what people think of her in that she'll she'll do something i don't even know how to describe it but she'll like like my dad getting up and helping out basically my mom will do whatever it takes to make people happy and so i think all of those combinations of my dad's work ethic, the fact that he was known as the nicest man in Qantas, the fact that he flew around the world constantly. So for me, flying back to Australia for three days to do a gig isn't a big deal, because that's what my dad did all the time. Combine that with my mum's ability to make sure everyone was looked after. And that kind of, I think from her, I got that, I don't think from my dad's side, I got that ability to get up on

stage, probably more from my mum's, that side of... The extrovert side? Yeah, well, I didn't even say she's an extrovert. It's more just a, oh, just do it. Don't worry about it. Just get up and do your thing. There's an Aussie expression, because I grew up in Australia, because my dad's a Kiwi, so we lived in Sydney for a bit when I was growing up,

and they used to say, oh, should we right? Yeah. Which really sums up the... I mean, I know it's wrong to make cultural generalisations, but I did notice the difference when I came back here. Just that... Just that sense of, I don't know, everyone was more laid back over there, I felt. And a lack of obsession over what seemed to be done and how you're perceived, really.

Yes, yeah. And that's interesting that you say about your mum, because that feels very Aussie to me, which I like. Well, and also, now that I also learnt when I did, Who Do You Think You Are, that her family go back to Malta. And everyone I met in Malta was bonkers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the kind of, not entirely extrovert, but there's almost that Italian side of being very effusive and loud and talkative and just friendly. And I think that's that Maltese side that comes through. So, yeah, probably that's, now that I've said it to you, that makes perfect sense.

That's where that came from, that kind of hard work ethic from my dad and his love of making people happy. And then that Maltese kind of, yay, let's just be friends with everyone. I'm a little bit crazy. So I guess all of that led to, yeah, led to me at 19 going, yeah, I'm going to get up on stage. I got the sense from your book that there was a slight, I mean, it wasn't resistance from your parents, but there was a slight, because you went to university, didn't you?

Yes, yeah. There was a slight sense of, were you sure this is the right thing to do? And in the way that any parents would. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, growing up in the southern suburbs of Sydney, which was a pretty sheltered place anyway, at the age of when I was 18, I had just started university,

I was studying to be a journalist. The idea of being a stand-up comic or a comedian from that part of Sydney was ridiculous. No one from Sydney had ever... From that part of Sydney in particular, I should say, had ever become famous, or certainly not for comedy. So, yeah, it just seemed like a completely different world, I think, for my parents.

And I think my mum was just worried that at 18, I was going to throw away my uni degree and just only do comedy, not thinking that I would probably approach comedy the way I approach school and I approached everything else, which is with a very nerdy diligence. Yeah, were you quite nerdy?

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was really good at maths. That was my best subject. But then I kind of discovered public speaking as well, which made me want to be a journalist. So that led me to study English rather than pursue maths to the highest level.

Do you want to find a tree? Yeah, shall we? Well, that would be fun. I like that. Yeah, just sit at the bottom of a tree. I'm a big old hippie. Lean up against the tree so that you get the kind of trees energy. And then Ray, you can sit there with your wall.

and then we're happy. Oh, this is nice, Adam. So this is sitting under the tree with the dog, which I like. There is a thing. So a friend of mine is a, actually one of the writers on the last leg, he's also a nurse. And he said there's a thing called grounding. Yeah. Where they'll often, like if they're going to infuse someone with blood,

sometimes it's good to just put it on the ground, especially on grass. Oh, right. And it just centres it a little bit and centers the energy. Oh, I like that? Sitting on the grass is. Like, giving him a bone now he's. Happy. So,

Yes. Oh, look, Ray's really gravitating towards because of his positive energy. Well, do you know what?

Before journalism, the thing that I wanted to do at school was be a vet. And so I actually did work experience at a vet surgery for a couple of weeks

and that was going to be my thing. And then I did some public speaking. I had to stand up in class and give a speech about something. I can't remember

what it was. It was a social issue. And I remember after that going, oh, I want to be a journalist now I want to change the world. I want to get angry about social issues,

which I still do on the last leg, but I just don't have to research them quite as diligently. So that's when it went from veterinarian to journalist. Yeah. And then, yes, when I got up at the end of year 12 leaving, and there was a tradition in our school that the vice captain would make a speech about the teachers, like a comedy roast of the teachers.

And our vice captain, thankfully, didn't want to do it. and asked me if I wanted to do it. So I did. And I would say that's my first ever comedy routine. And then it's actually, it's in the book that that's, at the end of it, my auntie was sitting there next to my mum and turned to her and went, oh, he should be a comedian.

I think my mum was horrified. Really? That would be my career path. But I didn't get into it thinking, oh, I want to be one of the 10% that make, make this work. I just got into it to do it. And then anything else was a bit of a bonus.

I don't even think I think I think, thought that much about it. I don't think I thought that far ahead thinking, oh, I could travel the world or anything like that. I just went, I just love it, I just want to do it. And then it started getting better and better, but it was like an addiction more than anything else. It's just something I was fascinated by and just wanted to do,

regardless of where it would take me or what it would mean for the rest of my life. The most formative thing for me at school was realizing that, so I used to pull my socks up to cover up the prosthetic on a hot day. So if I was wearing shorts, I'd pull the socks up. because I didn't want people seeing the prosthetics standing out. And then I realized I looked like an idiot because I was the only kid at school with his socks pulled up to his knees. And so the real turning point was the day that I decided to roll my socks down and just go, do you know what, I don't care anymore.

It's here. I'd rather look like an idiot because of my prosthetic than because I've pulled my socks up. And no one really gave me any grief about it. And to be honest, all the way through school, I was definitely bullied at high school, but not because of the leg. I was bullied for being smart or for, you know, for, you know, for, for, you know, for, you know, for, you know, for, I was bullied for, you know, I'm not. you know, for, well, probably just for being smart. That was the kind of school I went to. If you were smart, then you were bullied.

Yeah. I love that sock metaphor in a way for life. Because if you see comedy is true, they say, don't they? So that's what you do, really. You go around, that's what comedians do, is they go around pulling the sock down on everything, don't they really? If there's something that they think people will notice about them, they refer to it first.

pulling that's a really great metaphor you're right for comedy is pulling the socks down it's just revealing the truth and then owning it I mean you know I guess part of me figured well if I'm going to get beaten up I want to get beaten up for the leg not for the fact that I pulled my socks up yeah trying to cover up in the leg so and I guess a similar thing happened with the Paralympics I never had my prosthetic painted I always had it skin coloured because I didn't want it to stand out and on a day like today I'm wearing shorts from a distance, you wouldn't really notice the prosthetic. And then I kind of, I had a bet with Alex Brooker

during the Paralympics that I would get it painted with the Union flag if Great Britain beat Australia in the medal table and they did. Yeah. But then I started looking at some of the Paralympians who did have really cool designs on their legs. In particular Jodie Kundi, who had the Union flag. And then I just started to embrace it. And I haven't had a normal coloured, no, my blade now is black. and I'm still faffing around of what colour to get that painted.

But yeah, that was a big step for me to suddenly decide, right. And the one I'm wearing right now is got, it's gold and it's got the name of every every gold medal winner at the 2016 Paralympics from Great Britain. You know, again, now I wore it out in public and I just don't care. I just don't care anymore. I think you get to a point where you just go, oh, if you're going to look at it, just look at it. Who cares? So many more things in life worth worrying about than whether or not you're looking at my leg

that I can't do anything about. And did you... So the comedy thing started for you, you kind of eventually realized, didn't you? You did a gig, or you did a few gigs, and you suddenly realized, oh, I like this. You know, you got through the pain barrier, which I think is the difference

between someone who becomes a professional comedian and someone who thinks, I'm just going to be funny in the pub because I can't handle that. Yeah. For me it was... So the first gig I did, very briefly, the first gig was okay.

but there were a lot of jokes about sex because that's what I thought comedians did and at that point I was still a virgin so the idea of me doing jokes about sex the MC even said as I left the stage isn't it funny that the guys that talk about it the most do it the least and he got a bigger laugh than I got for my entire set

so that was a wake-up call and then as I left the venue I heard him say to someone else yeah he was all right but I'd like to see him do it without his mates in the audience so the next time I went back without my mates in the audience and got heckled off stage and it was brutal

and it was I'd made a joke that I thought was an original joke and then the guy in the crowd shouted out or one guy in the crowd shouted out mate that joke's 14 years old

and I thought I was really clever when I said oh what a coincidence it says your girlfriend and it got a round of applause and then he just turned on me and I completely folded so at that point I'd had two gigs

one was okay the second one I died and but there was something in me that went I know I can do this I'm sure I can't can do this. And I kept at it and at it and it got a little bit better and then I did one gig where

I turned up to watch a mate and the headline act hadn't turned up and they said do you want to do five minutes and it worked for some reason it worked. I don't know what it was but it fell into place and it was like it was like getting a payoff. The best way to describe it's like getting a payoff on a like a gambling machine you get such a hit from it that you go oh I want that feeling again and then you might have another four or five bad gigs, but you know what that one feeling is like. And then the rest of your, virtually the rest of your career, you're just trying to recreate that really lovely moment that you get your first big laugh. Because it's, it's really intoxicating when it works. It's really like a moment of Zen. You're completely in the moment. Nothing else

matters. It's just you in an audience and you've all bonded over something and they're laughing. And, you know, Brian Wilson, when he wrote smile, the reason he wrote smile, the reason he wrote smile, was because he felt that when you laugh, it's like, again, it's like a moment of zen. It's like you leave your own body for an, it's like a moment of enlightenment. Because a laugh is a purely reflex thing. You can't do anything about it. It just happens. And a smile is like that.

And I think on those moments on stage, or in those moments on stage when it works, it can be really, I don't know, transcendental. It's amazing. You're probably quite a resilient person, aren't you? I think so. And I think probably the foot might. be part of that. But, you know, I guess I was brought up as far as the prosthetic goes being told you can do anything you want to. Don't let it stop you doing anything. So, you know, the irony is

when I wanted to do comedy, my mum said, but you're not funny. Like, that was the one thing I don't think she wanted me to do. Did you? Yeah, that was exactly her words. You did some interesting stuff after that, didn't you? Because you kind of did that gig and you thought, I like this. And then you got, I mean, I know there was stuff in between, including a tennis coach, which I love. I'm obsessed by the fact that you're also a tennis coach. Really? It's hilarious. You've got that tennis player vibe about you. I have, do you know what?

I've recently started playing disability rugby league because I played rugby league for a little while when I was a kid. But I've got a tennis player's body. I've got the, I don't have biceps. No tennis players have biceps because you don't need them. My forearm, my right forearm is relatively good. I've got good shoulders. Yeah. But I don't have rugby league players' body.

I look like a tennis player. trying to play. Yes, you've got a tennis player. Yeah, I can see that. But, you know, I loved... I've got an Argentinian footballer's body. Maradonna. Hang on.

I have to pull you up on that. Are you talking back in the day, or are you talking him now? Oh, yeah. Well, I hope I don't... I hope I age better than him. You definitely don't... What I'm saying is he's a bit older than me, so that's my Christmas future. But you...

So you also, then you got this job, and we're skipping a board of it, but you got a job as a... breakfast radio host in Australia, didn't you? Yeah, so again, I think that kind of, that she'll be right attitude of give everything a crack. So that's what led me to start doing stand-up comedy, and then it started going well, and then I started MCing,

and I'm trying to work out all of the order in which things happened. Yeah, so I'm supporting a hypnotist called Peter Powers. I hope that was a stage name, or was that? That's normative determinism like I've never seen. Oh, my goodness. Until now, I had never considered that that might have, have been a stage name. I just assumed his real name was Peter Powers. Of course. That had never struck me. Of course his name's not Peter Powers, Adam. Really? Really? Do you think he just,

he thought, my name is Powers. I should become a hypnotist. No, Adam, there's no way. Oh my God, this is embarrassing. And even the double peas. It's too, it's too perfect to have been his real name. Mom, dad, I want to be a hitter. So you don't have any choice, son. Your name's Peter Powers. Your name's Powers. It's hilarious. Oh my God. Do you know what's also hilarious is the first person I coached for? It was called Champions Tennis School and his name was Don Champion.

That probably wasn't his real name either. Oh, my whole life has been a lie. I'm only just finding it out now. Do you know, Frank Skinner, who I'll do a radio show with, he calls those things, IEMs, which are idiotic eureka moments. And you realize something like 20 years later. Why did that not? That Peter Powers probably wasn't his real name.

Although he's still doing hypnotism, so there's every chance you'll get a complaint from him now. By the way, Peter Powers is my real name. I'll have you know. Yeah, so go on. So I was supporting him, and the season hadn't gone well by no fault of his. The promoter was terrible. The promoter was absolutely terrible. And so my friend and I, Belinda, who had started doing stand-up around the same time as I, as I did,

we were basically commiserating one night after a gig and went, do you know what, let's start writing for radio. And I can't remember, yeah. So we said, we were even going to record a comedy. album or we'd start writing for the radio show. And so we just sat up one night, went through the next day's papers, because the papers would be in the newsagents at about one in the morning. We picked them up, we looked through the news, we wrote about 20 jokes, and we faxed them off. Young children might want to look up what a fax is, faxed them off to the number two breakfast show in town, because we figured the number one breakfast show in town probably didn't

need jokes. They were doing fine. You like your style. Go for number two. They needed a bit of help. Purely by luck, and it's one of those things that if it was in a movie, you wouldn't believe that it had happened. Purely by luck, we got a call from the radio station the next day saying, we liked some of the jokes, we used them on air.

Did you see our ad in the newspaper? And it just so happened that the day before they had placed an ad in the newspaper saying comedy writers needed, you know, apply via this address. And whereas every other comedy writer probably sent in a resume that took two or three days to reach them, they thought we had been proactive enough to just send them a whole bunch of jokes. So when he said, did you read the ad in the newspaper? I went, oh yeah, the ad in the newspaper, which technically wasn't a lie.

So they then hired us as writers because they thought we were proactive and because we sent them some jokes that they used. So from that it became going in every morning and just writing jokes for a radio show. Which is great training, isn't it? Oh my God. I mean, it's the best training because you have to, I mean, you'd get to work at four in the morning, read the papers, and you'd have to, you would need jokes written by six o'clock.

And there was no, you know, the segment, you know, there might be a segment going to air at quarter past seven. You can't say, oh, I haven't got the jokes ready. You just turn up with jokes. And one of the, one of the comedians, a woman called Wendy Harmer. I remember one day, me submitting her a page of jokes, submitting to her a page of jokes. And she just went, these aren't good enough, Adam. You can do better than this.

Take them away and write better jokes. and I was so grumpy and I'll show you how to write I'll write some jokes and I wrote out like 20 more jokes and went yeah what do you think of that and I gave them to her and she went they're much better

and I went yeah they are damn yeah they are much better yeah you were right they weren't good enough jokes to start off with so yeah I learnt so much

and so much of what I learned in radio has carried over to the Last League now last league's almost a radio show when you consider that we're live we're reacting to news that's happened literally before we've just gone on air where taking audiences interactions, whether it's through Twitter

or through tweets that just come in during an ad break that I look at and that they can reflect on the show, the live audience there. A lot of the stuff I learned in radio ended up virtually becoming the last leg. You know, with the last leg, it's very much like, well, that just works. You three, there's some weird alchemy that just, whatever it is, it just happens. Absolutely, yeah. I've said in the book, and I've said it heaps of times, Josh and Alex and I are like a three-part harmony of comedy voices.

Yeah. Like, for a start, you've got Australian, and then you've got kind of South London, and then you've got West Country. Those three accents just perfectly blend together. But also our attitudes of, you know, I'm the older, more responsible, slightly blunt guy. And then you've got Alex. Yeah, and then the two kids, one of whom is kind of the naive, innocent puppy like Alex. And then you've got the world-weary kind of cynical Josh voice coming out as well.

Somehow the three of us, yeah, I guess we are like a radio, like a breakfast radio. Maybe radio, yeah. And you did radio for a while, but then you decided, okay, I'm going to, and you had this interesting, you know, really fascinating career. There are some great stories about all these people you met, which I won't spoil because I think you should read that in the book, but just weird encounters with people like the man who wrote the Macarena and then Barry Manilow. I mean, it's hilarious. But I suppose that's all really good training as well, isn't it? because you were also honing your skills as an interviewer and a host,

you know, as well as the comedy. Oh, yeah. I mean, I made so many mistakes. No, there's a dog on the run, Adam. That's okay. There's people, there's people coming. They're so cute. Chihuahuas?

No, I don't think chihuahua. You're the trainee vet. What are they? No, you're right. I mean, I wasn't looking at them front on. I'm now looking at their butts running away from us, but the one... Oh, no, I think you're right. They are chihuahuas.

Well done. I'm the trainee vet. You're the one that deals with dogs. I mean, it was, I mean, that's a chihuahua, was but if ever, I've seen one. Oh, God. I mean, of course. Yeah, so go on. Yeah, so radio was, you know, I made, I made so many mistakes.

I made distasteful jokes. Back in the day before Twitter, when you couldn't get sacked. You know, someone would complain, but it would take them four days for the complaint. I love the day, back in the days before, Twitter, when you couldn't get sacked. They couldn't get rid of you. It's true. Well, yeah, by the time they'd made a complaint, you know, unless someone rang the radio station straight away. If they sent a letter in, it was four days

until it got to the radio station. By then, you'd moved on. You know, it wasn't that? And why would you complain if it was going to take four days to do anything about it anyway? It's not like now where people can start a Twitter witch hunting. You're gone within an hour. So, yeah, I made mistakes. Yeah, trolls used to have to buy stamps. I don't know how luck it. They've got it so good

now, trolls. It's free. Free to be abusive. If I write another book purely about radio. It'll be called trolls used to have to buy stamps. That is a great name for something. Or maybe I'll just have t-shirts printed up. Trolls used to have to buy stamps. So yeah, it was great. Radio was great training. And I guess, I mean, I can't think of how many hours I was on air for. You know that book? The tipping point is the one about Malcolm Gladwell says you need to have 10,000 hours of doing something. I don't think I did 10,000 hours of radio, but I did a lot,

as you would imagine, five years of four hours a day, five days a week. And so, yeah, you learn, and you make your mistakes, and you learn how to talk to people, and you learn. There was one radio announcer called John Vincent, who was fascinating. He used to, whenever I would listen to him, he would always have this really soft voice. He didn't, like everyone else projected, it was, you know, you listen to SAFM, Good Times and Great Rock and Roll from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, all right, that's what everyone sounded like.

We're going out of the Black Thunder's. We've got icy cold cans of Coke, tickets to Mariah Carey next Tuesday. Everyone spoke like that. But Vinny didn't. John Vincent had a, he would say, well, good morning listener. It's John Vincent here. And what we're going to do today? He had this really soft voice.

I want to ask you about your friendship with Ross Noble, because you met him on the comedy scene, didn't you? And you were best man at his wedding? I was best man at Ross's wedding. He was a groomsman at my wedding because my brother was my best man. I couldn't not have him as my best man. And Ross didn't have a brother, so that all worked out. I mean, there's an amazing story in the book where he and I...

So I'd known him from the comedy circuit, and we'd cross paths a lot. And in fact, one of my first ever gigs in London in the UK was in Colchester, and he compared it. But we were in Adelaide, and he had come up to me and said, where are you going next? And I said, I'm driving to Sydney. And this little bit is not in the book. And he went, oh, because I need to get to Sydney for a TV shore. And I don't know how to get there. I've got a flight to Melbourne, but I don't know how to change it.

And my agent's gone back to him. He was hopefully. He's had no clue. And I'm going, well, come with me to Sydney. And he went, how good's your car? I said, oh, it'll get us to Sydney, don't you worry? And he went, no, no. I mean, can we take a chan saw, cut the top off it, and drive across the cross country?

I was like, it's not a feminine hygiene advert, Ross. No, it's a 1993 Ford Laser. I've only had it for a few years. I'm not cutting the top of it. He went, well, can we then wear cowboy huts and listen to Chris Christopherson tips? Went, yes, we can definitely. Strangest broke back Mountain ever. So he turned up at the assignment.

And at this point, Ross had pink hair. So he had shoulder-length pink hair. And he was wearing a yellow shirt and I think red shorts. And he turned up with cowboy hats. And he couldn't find Chris Christopherson tapes, but he did have like the best of country and western part three. The thing is, I don't even think he realized how long a drive it is. We had to stop overnight.

It's like a 13-hour drive. So we set off driving across Australia, wearing cowboy hats, singing rhinestone cowboy in the top of our lungs. And there's a thing in Australia. Certain towns, for some reason, as tourist attractions, they'll have a big thing. So Kingston has the big prawn, I think it is. And Coffs Harbour has the big banana or the big pineapple.

I can't remember which. And so Ross and I were stopping at all the big things because he loves bonkers stuff like that. And Mildura in particular, which is in the book, he was vegetarian at the time, I think he still is. And we went to a McDonald's at Mildura. And just him walking in in red shorts, a yellow shirt and pink hair, he looked like Ronald on a day off. And he's walked straight up to the counter and went, it's all right, I'm not here for a spot check. And they just looked like him, what?

You talked about the wedding speech, and I'm fascinated by that. Oh, yeah. Because I think, you know, you talk about how you have to make the decision about whether to go for laughs or to go for, speak from the heart. Yeah. And that's really interesting to me because I have a lot of comic friends and most of them will say to me, you know, because I sometimes say, do you choose to be kind or funny? Yeah. And that is sort of that choice, isn't it? Because are you going to be kind to your partner and in a way to the people around you?

or are you going to be funny? But then other people listening to that speech, the comedians will think, why are you bothering me saying that? Why would you say anything if it's not funny? It doesn't end up the punchline. I think most of the time in everyday life, you go from the heart.

Because if you're dealing with people in the world, they don't know you're a comedian. And, you know, on a one-on-one basis, you've just got to be genuine to people and be kind to them, I think. And I get it out of my system on stage most of the time. My daughter said something funny the other day. she said, Daddy, when you haven't done shows for a while, you do lots of bad jokes at home. And it's true.

If I haven't done a gig for a while, it'll come out and I can't stop it. And I will go off on a riff and it will, I have to get out of my system. So I think in everyday life, I reckon, I kind of weigh up, okay, what's going to happen if I do something funny now as opposed to being genuine? And most of the time you go with genuine and sometimes you can get away with being funny. And that was the problem with Ross's wedding. We both had to give a speech. and it's the crossover

because it is everyday life because it's a wedding but it's also a speech with a microphone and he and I I mean we spent ages trying to work out

how to write our speeches I can't imagine Ross giving us a sort of oh darling I love her so much that was a problem and he said he said the problem is if I don't say something funny

every committee everyone in the room is going to go why didn't he say something funny and if I do then my wife's going to say why did you turn our wedding into a gig and we went back and forward and going

well how do we I don't know how to I remember him saying I think eventually I just went look okay every wedding speech you've ever been to people expect it to be heartfelt

but if it's funny then it's a surprise and they love it I said your speech is going to be the opposite they're going to expect it to be funny but if you say something from the heart that's what people will be most impressed by I said, so that's what you've got to aim at. Make sure you say something genuine.

So he went hot. And I remember him saying, I think he won't mind if I say this. And he went, or care. Can I still say, I'm like, oh God, can I still say, my wife is an angel. And by that, I don't mean she sits around the house nude playing a harp.

I love that in typical Ross Noble fashion, he managed to have some weird surreal aspect to it as well. I want to know, talking of wives, I want to know about your other half. Oh, yes. Ali, she's called. And I've only seen pictures of her. She's quite something, isn't she?

She's gorgeous. And how did you meet her? And was it when you were doing a show in, you were doing that panel show in Sydney? So I host, in Melbourne it was. Yeah, I hosted a music quiz show called Spicks and Specks, which was named after a BG's song. So it was a bit like buzzcocks.

Ray is, Ray seems interested in your leg, Adam. Scratching, but not in the way that you would think if you didn't know what was going on. He's scratching his head against my prosthetic. Yeah. Which in a weird way, the only other dog to have done that, Ross Noble's dog, when I used to live with them,

used to love chewing it. If I had my shoes off, he'd come and chew the rubber. Because I've got like a rubber foot on it, and he'd come and chew it. And Ross was eventually had to say, God, I hope he doesn't do that to people with two legs when you come out of the house. Yeah, so Ali was a guest on Spicks and Spex.

She, at that point was an opera singer. She was employed by Opera Australia as a soprano. We clicked. We really liked each other. So did you see her and think, oh, like her? Did you get that sort of vibe? Oh, I thought she is well out of my league. Did you?

Absolutely out of my league. And then it just so happened she was coming over to London later in the year when I was over here. So we swapped numbers. And then she came over to do the Edinburgh Festival. And then I was in Ireland performing at the Electric Picnic Festival. And then she came over and we hung out for three days in Ireland going to see bands. We saw Nick Cave and Dalai Sol. and I remember going back to the...

We went back to the hotel one night and who was it? It was, as we walked into the bar, this weird-looking guy opened the door for us and we went, oh my God, that guy looks like an orc. And then someone else went, well, looks like Shane McGowan. And then we all went,

oh my God, Shane McGowan now looks like an ork. And then that's it. We've been together ever since. She's so incredibly talented. And I've learnt the hard way not to talk about her in my act. And it's taken me ages to work out why that's uncomfortable for her.

And the thing is, I've realized, when you're a performer, you have a certain stage persona. You have a certain image that you like to get across. And it's one thing for a comedian to say, my wife said this the other day, if it's someone who's not in the spotlight. If someone comes and sees me

and then they see her and they're watching her in the image that she's created, but I've ruined it by talking about something that she said to me at home. Yeah. So when I came to the book, I definitely purposely didn't mention too much about her. Yeah, I can see that. Yeah. You know, she's, I've now, but it's taken me way too long to realize that.

A lot of arguments. Are you good at, you strike me as someone who's quite good at conflict resolution, though? No, I'm terrible. Why? Absolutely terrible. Because to use a Bono quote, the person I am on stage is closest to the person I'd like to be in a real life. Wow.

Okay, I really like that. Yeah, I'm happy to be heckled on stage. I've had people threaten to punch me. I've had people swear at me on stage and I can diffuse a situation and make sure everyone else in the room is absolutely fine with it and I can do that.

On a one-to-one basis, I'm getting better at it, but I have to, I mean, if I treated the world like the stage, I'd probably be much better at it. But I don't know, there's something about, yeah, and especially with kids, especially having kids.

I mean, I've been talking to someone about this this afternoon who's also got kids going, if you can be Zen when you're dealing with your own kids, that's the ultimate of enlightenment because that's the ultimate in frustration when you're about to run out the door and your four-year-old just suddenly looks at you and goes, I just weed through my pants because I forgot to go to the toilet.

But how could you ever get to go to the toilet? What? What is wrong with you? So no, I don't think I'm great at conflict resolution, to be honest. What happens as a comedian is you forget that a withering put down to an audience member is not the same as a withering put down to your partner. And, you know, what's funny on stage

is absolutely brutal in a one-on-one situation. And sometimes you forget that and you say something that you think is funny or you think as cutting and would put an audience member completely in their place. But in a personal situation, that's totally out of line. I think also it's probably a bit like a boxer throwing a punch outside of the ring in a way.

Yes. If you've honed it over years of being on stage in front of drunk audiences in front of people that are literally throwing things at you, then if you can put them in their place, then you can certainly put someone in their place who's not expecting it and it's just having a conversation with you. So yeah, it's almost like you've got a lethal weapon that you've got to be careful with. Here's a question for you, which you don't have to answer,

but I ask everyone this. Have you had therapy or would you have therapy? Yes, yeah, yeah, I've been having therapy in the moment, actually, yeah. How do you find it? Because I have it, and I'm obsessed by it. I love it. I'm not, yeah, I've really been fascinated by it, and some of the stuff that's come out of it has been amazing. And I'm not sure how much more there is to get out of it at the moment. I always feel that, and then every time I come out of a session and go, actually, no, that was really interesting. I did get something out of that.

I also do Reiki, and to be honest, the one thing that my therapist has said to me more over and over is just, do some more Reiki. You've learnt, I've learnt a couple of levels of Reiki and it's really like meditation, to be honest. It's not, a lot of people talk about it as if it's this new age, oh my goodness, you can heal everything with Reiki. It's meditation. It's meditation.

And the main thing that my therapist keeps saying is, every time I see her, have you been doing Reiki? Oh, yeah, I've been doing a little. You need to do more Reiki. Okay, right, fine. So I'm not sure why I'm paying. She's just going to do it. Just go do some Riki.

But I found that interesting thinking about that, looking at England in the World Cup recently and how they were talking about, I know he didn't win, but just the way they approached penalties differently. Oh, yeah. And to do with that, someone had said that Southgate would show them videos

of, you know, the last tournament when they had it done so well and say, right, the only way you can sort of control the past, you have to conquer it, you have to sort of face it and then move on. You don't want to dwell in it. Yeah. But I think that's, so I think it's positive, you know, in that way.

I think you're right. I think face it, conquer it and don't dwell in it. Yeah. And I think probably that comes out of therapy as well, is that, you know, this thing that happened to you when you were 13 or the voice that's been in your head since you were a little kid, yeah, deal with it, conquer it, and then move on from it. And I, yeah, I kind of feel like, I think if I went to therapy too much,

eventually I'd start dredging up. I'd probably start making stuff. I'd feel like, well, I'm wasting your time if we don't. So go on, I'll give you something else. work with. I want to ask you quickly, Adam, about Billy Connolly because I see him as a kind of, he pops up unexpectedly in the book. And I don't really want to give it away, because I think it's kind of quite special the way

the story sort of pans out. But I see him as a bit of a comedy fairy godfather for you. You know, he sort of pops up in your life in this weird way, doesn't he? I think I called him a hairy godmother. Oh, did you? Yeah, he's popped up four or five times throughout my career. always with lovely advice. And the second time was the most important advice,

which was, just do it. Just do it. You'll hate it, but you'll love it. It's the best job in the world. So basically, briefly, I met him at the Sydney Opera House about a year after I had started doing stand-up comedy out the front of one of his gigs.

And then I met him when I was in Adelaide doing radio. And when he found out as a stand-up, that's when he went, oh God, just never stop doing stand-up. You love it. And then I had to make a choice between radio and stand-up. And I chose stand-up because of his... advice. That's amazing, isn't it? Just from that, that really was powerful. It was the different way he reacted to me when he found out when he thought I was a radio

announcer when he thought I was a comedian. And by that, I don't mean one's better than the other. I think he recognised that I had a comedy head. And there are some radio people that I've met who absolutely have an amazing radio head. And I don't mean a good head for radio. It looks wise. I mean, they just... Thank you very much. I mean, you know, what the old saying that. understand the format of radio and the way radio works and think in a way that I don't think

because I'm a stand-up. So I think what Billy saw in me was, oh, you've got a stand-up comedy head. And then a few years later I was performing at the comedy store, the London Comedy Store, and he just happened to come down and watch the show. He'd never been to the show before.

He just dropped into watch the show. And I happened to be the last act gone. And so I told the story of him telling me to just do it. And then he came backstage and gave me a big hug and went, you did it. I'm so proud of you. And then I thought that was going to be the last encounter.

But last year I was asked to do an interview on an ITV show about Billy Connolly and the people he had influenced. And it turns out they had interviewed him the week before. And about the people he had influenced him. And apparently he said, oh, Adam Hill's. And told the story about me. So I was absolutely chuffed by that. And I found out I have a mutual friend, Kathy Lett, the author,

is friends with Billy. And I said, look, if I sent you an email, would you mind just passing it on to him just to say, thank you for popping up throughout my career at the right times? And she sent it on to him, and then I got an email back from him the next day saying, I love your Aussie optimism.

And something about how chafty was about my success in the UK. And so I saw Cathy yesterday, yesterday we had lunch at her place, and I took her a book and I signed a little copy for her. And I took one for Billy and said, could you send it to him, please? So she's going to send him a copy of the book,

and I wrote a little note in the front for him. Yeah, he really has been my hairy godmother. Yeah. Oh, I'm just going to put something in the bin up here. Okay. Oh, yeah, good. Let's go. Come on, Ray. This is a side of Raymond I've never seen, him actually trotting. Yeah, he's doing his sort of Easter parade trot.

So which way do you... Which way should we go, this way? I'm around. Okay, good call. I'm following Adam. Yeah, so I love that Billy Connolly's story. And I want to get onto the last leg because we should talk about that, obviously. Because a lot of people who listen to this podcast, I think that's the sort of word association with you.

say Adam Hill, do you think last leg? And that started, you were established as a comic, obviously, and people knew who you were. And you were a big star, probably a bigger star in Australia at that point, weren't you? Would you say? And then 2012 Paralympics, you did this show for Channel 4, and I presume the idea at the time was for it just to be a one-off, the last late? Oh, absolutely, yeah. The weird thing about 2012 was I'd been coming over here, I'd been doing Edinburgh, I'd come over for a few months at a time, usually four or five months. months. 2012, I was really in the UK for, there was like six weeks.

And it was, it was do some shows at Edinburgh, do the last leg during the Paralympics, then go back to Australia. Right here, Adam, yeah. I think so. Even the way the last league came about. Come on, Ray, Adam's got to go to the one show. And all the strange things you tell your dog. That's the name of your second book.

Well, I could all was that a chapter. Yeah, so go on. The Lost Leg. So, well, even the way it came about it, it was meant to be an hour-long show on Moor-Four at midnight, and it was just going to be me,

just saying, this happened today, this happened today, and making one or two jokes in amongst it all. And then, I mean, again, in the way that the universe happens in ways you don't expect, Channel 4 then asked me to host the press launch

of their Paralympic coverage. and at that point I had 15 minutes of stand-up material about the Paralympics because I'd been to the Beijing Paralympics in 2008. So I did my 15 minutes about the swimmer with no arms and how inspiring it all was. And then at the end of that I got a call from my manager saying, Channel 4 now want this to be a prime time show with an audience. And my first thought was, do I get paid anymore?

And he said, no, we've already signed the contract. It was the perfect storm. I've said it before, but it felt like we did all the right preparation for the Paralympics. It was almost like we knew there was a thunderstorm approaching, so we walked down into a field and held up a golf club, and thankfully the lightning hit us. We did all the right things,

but then that little bit of magic happened as well. And the combination of Josh and Alex and I together, the fact that the Olympics had been such a success that people were looking for the next big thing to get excited about off the back of it. The fact that Channel 4 had the Paralympics as opposed to BBC so it didn't feel like an afterthought. It felt like competition. All of that meant

and the fact that Paralympics G.B. did really well. It meant that people were watching our show and enjoying it and, you know, it was the perfect storm. And then since then... It's kind of unstoppable now. Yeah. And do you think also that... We knew from the Paralympics

we could be genuine about... things. And I know it's also mentioned in the book, but the Oscar Pistorius shooting Revestian camp was kind of a weird turning point for us because it was the first time that something we knew about,

something that was joyous turned. We couldn't not talk about it because we were so heavily connected to the Paralympics and to Oscar that it felt weird not to talk about it. But we also couldn't make, there was nothing funny to be said about it. So the only way to talk about

it was to be genuine. And so we did. But then the rest of the show that night had a real edge to it. And when we did get onto something funny, it was really kind of the room kind of caught fire in a way because there was that tension that was in the room.

So that made us realize, it forced us into talking about something genuine. When something huge would happen, like a Charlie Hebdo, or then when it came closer to home, it was this really weird, progression of things got a little bit closer to home, a little bit closer to home, and there'd be a terror attack somewhere or a gun death in America, and then Charlie Hebdo, I would go on little

rants about things that were in the news that were socially, well, I thought were socially important. Back to my journalism days at school, all of it came together. And then I think it, it kind of, I wouldn't say peaked, but it came together, thank you, sorry, with the Manchester bombing. and I really each time something horrible happened and I remember after the show where we had to cover the Manchester bombing saying to the audience

we are really getting sick of having to do shows like this and I got really teary and really choked up about it because I found the responsibility of doing that really overwhelming because we'd slowly become this show that people would turn to when stuff like this happened and the same when Joe Cox was murdered that was a huge,

thing that we had to discuss on air. And you want to do it the right way and you want to, you know, do it respectfully and kind of sum up how people are feeling. And I rang everyone I knew that lived in Manchester or had ever lived in Manchester after the Manchester bombings and went, just help me through this. How are people in Manchester? How will they react? What does this mean to Manchester? And so, like I said, I felt an enormous responsibility to say the right things on air that would help. I remember the, and the weird thing is since then, and then since Grenfell, I haven't really been on a rant because we haven't had one of those horrific attacks. And it feels like, if, it feels like for me, if I'm going to get

wound up about that, about the Manchester bombings, which is exactly what I should get wound up about and the, you know, terrorist taking me, oh, hey, you're right? Sorry about that. Little cough. Then if I now get wound up about, I don't know, something that's not as big as that. If you've gone from shouting at terrorists who've carried out a bombing at a concert and then a month later you're shouting with the same veracity at people who are banning grid girls, then that one of those things isn't genuine. And it's probably the grid girls one. to take it all back, the thing about the last leg, I kind of feel like, I approached the show, as imagine if Josh and Alex and I had just turned up on your couch on a Friday night.

Storm rain. Okay. So, and we were sitting and having a chat. The first thing we would do is say, how's your week been? We'd all have a bit of a laugh about that. And then eventually he'd go, just see that thing about Donald Trump this week. And that's the way I approached the show. And if something horrible like the Manchester attacks or Graham,

and fell happens, you would sit on the couch with your mates and you'd talk about it and you wouldn't make jokes. And eventually, when you finish talking about it, I think you've said, sorry to talk about, but I think you've said the key thing is you would talk about it. Yes. And I think that's what, we haven't really had anything like that, which is people, a bit like us, you know, maybe a bit funnier, but a bit like us, essentially, just occasionally, not cracking jokes and sensitively about it, but, you know, there are. is some lightness to be found in the darkness and also it's trying to process it isn't it rather than pretending it hasn't happened so which i think and i do think you being Aussie if

I'm honest helps with that a bit oh yeah because of your she'll be right mate my life yeah and that happened during the paralympics english people wouldn't talk about disability the way Australian would they go oh my goodness I don't know how to whereas on ozzie'd go yeah missing a bit what's going on there But also, I would tie all of that back to a story I... The story I started with you probably about half an hour ago. And then I sidetracked myself about John Vincent, the guy who said, good morning listener. And the reason he said good morning listener, I asked him.

And he said, well, because people are listening on their own. I'm only talking to one person at a time. I'm not talking to 30,000. So I say, good morning listener. Well, how that makes sense. So when Antenna passed away, who was the Formula One driver, people in Adelaide were really devastated. And we got to work that morning and went,

okay, what should we tell us your funny stories about Ant and Center? That doesn't sound right. Tell us your favorite memory. Oh, it just sounds like a radio phone in. And Vinnie just said, just ask people how they're feeling. Just tell them to call up and tell us how they feel. Anything they want to say, and they can tell us their funny story or their favorite memory.

but he said, people just want to tell you how they're feeling. And that was such a beautiful, you know, reminder that not everything has to be funny. Just be, as you say, just be genuine and talk about it. So how's it going then? How are you feeling? I'm feeling great. I've just walked through a park, holding a dog, having a chat. He had a nice time with you. I think he really bonded with you. Oh, can we do this again, Raymond?

Yay, would you like that? Did you like to do that? Maybe without Emily next time. I think she's kind of getting in the way. I really hope you enjoyed listening to that. And do remember to rate, review and subscribe on iTunes.