00:00:06
Carl Bernett, welcome to my podcast. Thank you very much. About time. We've been we were talking
00:00:12
about this years ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think when you left um when you left radio, I remember saying to you, "Oh, we
00:00:19
should do a podcast." And I remember you your reply was something like, "Oh, uh
00:00:23
yeah, yeah, yeah. I was been thinking about something like that." And turns
00:00:26
out that you'd planned it all along and without me. You you were already going
00:00:31
to do it. Oh. Oh. Oh. Or you were thinking you and I should think. Yeah. Now that you're free, why don't we do
00:00:36
something? But yeah, you you'd already planned to do this, I think. Oh. Oh, we
00:00:40
should do that. We should look at doing that. Do a podcast. 100%. Yeah. Didn't say no. Um, how are you
00:00:47
today? No, I'm good. Uh, these days. Yeah. Um, I got to say though, you're
00:00:51
there's something wrong with your camera. It's really unflattering. It's not me.
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Um, so knowing you No. How are you really today? Yeah. Good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If If it was on a scale of 1 to
00:01:05
10, um, oh, probably seven or eight. Yeah, probably. M mentally. Seven or eight. Physically three.
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Oh, this is gonna be a fun chat. You have more good days than bad days. Yeah, I don't really um these days have too
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many bad days. Um, no. been yeah been been pretty steady. Um I did have a bit of a meltdown recently um to do with
00:01:29
work. Um uh basically I was working on the phones and um um it was yeah such an awesome company to work with and stuff
00:01:38
but that just talking to the strangers was really triggering my anxiety. So I had to um end up end up quitting that
00:01:45
job twice. They actually took me back because they liked me. Um but then they've given me another role so I'm
00:01:50
still working there. So that's awesome. So now I'm actually a creative and
00:01:53
making the ads for them. So that is much more suitable for me. So um but that but
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apart from that I've been really good. Yeah. That's that seems like severe
00:02:00
anxiety. So So what does that look like? You just can't bring yourself to make a
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phone call or Yeah. Um yeah, it was weird. Like you um you'd sit there. It's
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just not that sort of job isn't is just not made for everyone. Like um actually
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um one of the bosses, Luke, his his wife Crystal said she had similar thing like
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you you'd be on the phone and and it's ringing and you're going don't pick up,
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don't pick up, don't pick up. It's just silly cuz if they pick up and and you
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book the appointment, you get paid, you know. But um yeah, it's just Yeah, it's
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just Yeah, it's it's hard to explain cuz there was nothing else in my life that I
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was anxious about or anything like that. It was just um certain things just yeah,
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just just really really triggering. I guess it comes down to the whole ADHD side of things.
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Yeah, you've been um um yeah, very open and very public about your um mental
00:02:46
health battles over the years, which is it's really it's really cool. Which for
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so long I thought was um just anxiety and depression. Turns out it's not. Um
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and that I have um actually Zach Guilford to thank for that cuz he was diagnosed with ADHD. And he said, "Man,
00:03:01
I think you've got it. You should um you've got a lot of the symptoms. You
00:03:04
should go and get checked." So, after scrging the $700 or whatever it was together to get diagnosed, turns out I
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do have it quite majorly. Um, and that diagnosis was like without the drugs alone, it was just life-changing cuz now
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I actually understand what was wrong, why I couldn't keep jobs. Um, I always
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thought, you know, why have I got this awesome job? I had several jobs working as an automotive journalist. Um, you
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know, testing new cars and stuff like that, but something would go wrong. And you know, each each time I did a job
00:03:33
like that, I lasted like 3 months and something would happen, something tiny, and I'd just quit. Um, same thing with
00:03:39
Celebrity Treasure Island, you know. Um, you get things going around your head and and you just talk yourself out of
00:03:45
stuff and and I I had in my head that everyone was against me and all this and it was just horrible place and I had to
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get out of there because I was it was just a real dark place to be. And yeah, now that I understand um what goes on
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and because of the ADHD, it's much less it affects my life much more. Don't
00:04:05
apply for jobs. We're going to be doing 9 to5 for for a start, you know. Yeah. Well, speaking of Zach, um I
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flipped him a message. Um he's been on the podcast twice and he's become I I
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hadn't met him in in person until we Oh. Oh, Karen. Oh, what are you doing here?
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This is Karen from um Oh, that gave me a hell of a fight. Oh, she got me. Look, I
00:04:30
got goose. Um Oh, Karen, come in. Come in. So, you're on camera. Come in. So,
00:04:36
this is Karen. She's the um barista at New World. Come in. Get on the mic. Get
00:04:41
on the mic. Otherwise, people can't hear you. Come on. Then come to do this. You
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want to grab a seat? I have to give you a fright. Take a seat. Take a seat. Okay. So, that was a very small scrape.
00:04:55
Oh, no. No. It got me. Did it get you or did you No, I knew it was going to happen. Oh, did you?
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How did you know it was going to happen? Oh, okay. So, um, backstory. Um, Karen is the barista at New World. I go and
00:05:08
see her most days and if she's got her back turned, I'll give her a fright.
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It's become It's become our thing. I didn't recognize you without the hair
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on. I took it off here. Tom, did you get a little fry? I got No, I got a big fry. I got um Yeah, you
00:05:25
might be able to see on the on the HD cameras. I got goosebumps. All right. I've been trying to get Karen
00:05:31
to come in for a podcast. Well, now's not really the time. I can leave your one. No, no, no, no. I don't
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want I don't want Carol to leave. It's We've been going back and forth for
00:05:43
three years setting this up. So, um Oh, good to see you, Karen. Get out of here.
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Karen made you coffee by the way. See everyone, I got him back. Good coffee, actually. Really, really good coffee,
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man. It's warm in here. You guys want me to put on the Okay, thank you. See you.
00:05:59
See you, Karen. Oh, yeah. Yeah, Zach Gilford. I I messaged him um just saying, "Yeah, what can you tell me
00:06:06
about Carl?" Yeah, thank you. Um it was a long a long reply he came back with. Um but you weren't together
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very long, no way on Treasure Island, like a few few days. Yeah, cuz I I Well, we were there. Yeah, cuz um we were
00:06:19
there longer than what we saw on the TV cuz I think we got there on the Friday and I left on the Monday. Oh yeah. So um
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it wasn't like I just took off on the first day. We had a whole weekend um of
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preparation stuff like that. Then we had the first day. No, I must have left on the Tuesday maybe cuz it was the first
00:06:33
second day of shooting. But um yeah, but then he was I was back in the hotel room
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and then I get a text from him um and it says I'm out. So he was the first to
00:06:44
leave and he was quite gutted by that. Well, uh, this was his this was his message when I asked him, "What can you
00:06:49
tell me about Calabernet?" He's a good rooster. Uh, that's going to be an interesting yarn.
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We keep in regular contact, but he's struggled since his shorty street days.
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I've got a lot of time for him. We became besties on Celebrity Treasure Island. I could really relate to him as
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we both struggled from mental health. After the first night on the island, I was sleeping on the stretcher next to
00:07:08
him. I said, "How did you sleep, bro?" And his reply, "I couldn't sleep and I
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felt like walking out in the ocean and never coming back." pretty much uh that
00:07:17
day he left due to mental health. I also left the island that day because I'm
00:07:20
uncoordinated and lost in a challenge to Matty McClean. Carl has a real nice family. Beex, his wife, and Charlie, his
00:07:27
son. Well, we're not married, but yeah, close enough. Might as well be. Apart
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from that, we got wasted a few times after the show, but all wholesome yarns these days. Yeah. Yeah, pretty much.
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Yeah. No, he's a good dude. It was funny cuz um yeah, they said on um on Celebrity Treasure, it was just after
00:07:43
I'd left. They said, "Oh, and now Zach's um taken Carl under his wing and and and
00:07:48
they're training right now cuz Carl wants to lose weight." We did one training session to German. That was
00:07:55
it. But that's um that uh that line there that he wrote um you know when he said, "How how did you sleep?" And you
00:08:02
said, "I couldn't sleep and I felt like walking out to the ocean and never
00:08:04
coming back." Yeah, it was pretty it was pretty bad. That's heartbreaking, mate. It was it
00:08:10
was so many things cuz I wasn't actually in a bad state when I went there and
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when I came back I was all right. Um it was more um I I stupidly thought, you know, you
00:08:20
watch these shows like Survivor and Treasure Island and especi well especially Survivor and you see people
00:08:24
lose weight and I'd been I'd been doing a lot of looking into fasting. Um, so I
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hadn't eaten. I wasn't eating anything and I wasn't um wasn't uh drinking
00:08:35
anything apart from water cuz they did actually give us alcohol um um during shooting. I had plenty of alcohol um
00:08:44
before we started shooting. But yeah, I hadn't I hadn't eaten anything. So cuz I
00:08:47
thought while I'm here, I'm just going to sort of um um just yeah, just just
00:08:52
fast. What I didn't know is um for the first few days that could be really quite horrific. Um because once you get
00:08:59
over that you actually feel feel quite good because I have done done it in the past. Um so that there was that there
00:09:06
was the fact that um what we were sleeping on were basically these potato sack things that were um incredibly
00:09:11
hard. Um and I was a lot bigger than everyone else. So I felt that a lot more like um so it was really painful. I got
00:09:19
literally no sleep at all. Um, and the ADHD, like I I was surrounded by all these people that, you know, like gold
00:09:26
medal winners and sports people and stuff like that. I was just completely out of my zone. I felt like no one was
00:09:31
listening to me. Um, and they just didn't care about my opinions and stuff like that, which to a point I think was
00:09:37
probably true cuz I did find it hard for them to get get me to get them to listen
00:09:40
to me. Um, but I my mind made that worse than it was. So yeah, it all just sort of snowballed into this man, I've got to
00:09:47
get out of here. M um and I really regret it because I actually said to them, I pretty much regretted it as soon
00:09:53
as I'd made the decision cuz I said, "Look, I'd like to come back and give it
00:09:56
another go once I've sorted myself out." And they were like, "Yeah, cool. We'd
00:09:58
like that, too." But it never happened. But um I yeah, I I I reckon if I had
00:10:03
stayed, I would have had a bloody good shot of winning it, to be honest. I would have struggled with some of the
00:10:08
the um physical things. Um but I I certainly um had the brain to to I was I was sitting I watched every episode
00:10:17
sitting going why are you doing that you know yeah well we get back to um yeah Celebrity Treasure Island and
00:10:25
that experience in a bit more depth later on. But um first of all let's go way back. So Cal Bernett at um you you
00:10:32
became super famous like really really young like so you were 15. I was 15 when I got the job. Um 16 I think. Yeah, I
00:10:40
was 16 when when on the first shooting day. I just turned 16. Um so yeah, when did it come out? May 92, I think. Yeah.
00:10:47
So So you're in I guess what was then the fifth form? Uh yeah, I secondary school. I just finished fifth form. Um
00:10:54
cuz I was Yeah. I was like the young kid in class. So I was 15. Um yeah, 16. Yeah, I would have been doing six form.
00:11:02
And And had you done were you a theatrical guy at school? I did. Yeah, I did drama. I believe I failed. So, so,
00:11:09
so this that you it gets announced that this showland streets coming to New Zealand. How did how like were did you
00:11:15
have an agent or something? How did you Yeah, I had an agent cuz I'd always been
00:11:18
interested in acting like when I was a little kid. Used to put on silly um plays and stuff like that, puppet shows
00:11:22
or whatever. Um then one day I was talking to my mom about it and said, "I just I want to I want to be an actor."
00:11:29
And I was 13 or 14. Um and she said, "I've got this number for an agent." And
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I was like, "Oh, I didn't even never asked her where she got it." Um, but um
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I guess you know you know um she she was in the industry as well, TV industry and
00:11:44
um so was my dad. So she gave me this number and I called up and it was uh Graeme Dunster who back then answered
00:11:50
his own phones. All these agencies are much bigger now. Um and he said, "Have
00:11:54
you had any experience?" No. But he he took a chance cuz I was only only a kid.
00:11:58
And like if a lot of people ask me how do you get into acting and I'm like I
00:12:03
don't know these days. Like the only way you could really do it is do what I did.
00:12:07
Start when you're young or you've got to have experience. Um so yeah. So he took
00:12:12
he took a risk on me. I did a few auditions. I ended up with a in a movie. Um my first role was a movie called um
00:12:21
oh gosh what was it called? Why have I blanking? Um but it had Al not El Monster. Um El Lewis from the monsters.
00:12:29
Grandpa Monster. Um you don't remember the monsters? Yeah. Oh yeah. Grandpa.
00:12:33
Yeah. So he was he was the main it was oh my grandpa my grandpa is a vampire and um that was what it was called I
00:12:40
think in the states or moonrise. Moonrise it was called in the states. So I got a small part in that. And then
00:12:45
after that um yeah Al Lewis said to me within a year's time you're going to be
00:12:49
famous. And I was like whatever. And um I thought that was pretty cool. Here I am talking to Grandpa Monster and um He
00:12:57
just thought you had something like Yeah. I don't know what it was, but um cuz I only had a really small part in
00:13:00
the film, but I was I was talking to him for a bit and he offered me some chewing
00:13:04
tobacco. Like 14y old kid, 15y old kid. Yeah. No thanks. Um and he said, "Yeah,
00:13:10
give give him a year and you'll be famous." And yeah, it was about a year
00:13:13
later that I ended up on Sh Street. So it was it was really really kind of funny. Yeah. Um like it's [ __ ] You've
00:13:19
been through the ring already. Like it's hard hard to imagine um you someone
00:13:22
that's got the confidence at 15 to go to this audition and evidently nail it um
00:13:27
to the guy that's nervous to make a like a cold call in a call center. Yeah. Well, it um where the the worst
00:13:33
thing is they weren't even cold calls. But um yeah, I never I I had to I was always
00:13:39
pretty shy. Um but for some reason with auditions now that like if you put me out of my comfort zone, like even when
00:13:45
when I started Shortton Street, um there were a lot of scenes I didn't want to
00:13:48
do. Um, I really freaked out when I was um when I when Nick had his first girlfriend and I was trying to get out
00:13:55
of all the kissing scenes and stuff. Um, had you was that your first like I'd
00:13:59
never kissed anyone and I didn't tell anyone that cuz I was embarrassed about
00:14:03
that. Um, so they all thought it was, you know, the producer thought that I didn't like her for some reason. It
00:14:08
wasn't it at all. Like like it was um Willow O'Neal played um the the character of um what was her name? Um,
00:14:16
Serena, I think something like that. Was that the characters? No, I can't I can't
00:14:20
remember. I don't know. I can't remember stuff in there. But anyway, she was
00:14:24
awesome. Um, but I just Yeah, and she didn't she had no idea either. But yeah,
00:14:29
so cuz I was just so worried that I wouldn't know how to what the hell to do, stuff like that. So, um, and just
00:14:35
other stuff like, um, there was a scene where I had to run around and yell party
00:14:39
and and I felt self-conscious about doing that. It's like why, you know? So,
00:14:42
I was quite shy in a lot of ways and it took me a while to come out of my shell and I think that showed in my acting cuz
00:14:48
I was bloody terrible at the start. Well, I don't know like um I had your your good friend Michael Galvin who
00:14:54
plays um Dr. Chris Warner in Oh, does he? Yeah. Just for not for you, for the listeners. Um I had him in the podcast
00:15:01
last week. So, before he came in, I watched um season 1, episode one of Shortland Street. Oh, cuz I remember it
00:15:06
being um like [ __ ] at the time or or panned like critically panned like slaughtered. It was actually pretty
00:15:14
good. You you look back and it was um it was a it was a decent show and I I think
00:15:17
it was um you know unfairly criticized. Yeah. Very very early '9s looking when
00:15:21
you watch it now. It's kind of funny. Um but yeah, it's um yeah, I reckon it's
00:15:26
I'm not in the first episode which sucks. That was episode two. Yeah. So so so you nail the audition for um for Nick
00:15:32
Harrison and you get you get the job. Do are your parents um you mentioned they're on TV as well, but were they
00:15:37
nervous about you leaving school or did did you know did you have the full support? Not really. Um they they didn't
00:15:43
mind like basically what was going to happen originally was I was supposed to have a tutor. Um then the producers
00:15:48
said, "Oh, look, you're going to be working full-time. We think it'll be too
00:15:51
much for you to do school work at the same time." And my parents were like,
00:15:54
"Oh, you want to have a think about that?" And I'm like, "Nope, that's
00:15:57
sweet. I don't I don't want to do school anymore." So I was I was quite happy.
00:16:02
Now, in hindsight, um I finished Shorton Street with absolutely no qualifications, but um I've I've
00:16:08
actually done all right. I've had some some good jobs and um my mum's a bit of
00:16:12
a grammar Nazi, so I um I learned how to write and stuff like that. I was always
00:16:16
pretty good at that, so I've had a lot of lot of work doing that. Um yeah, where was I going? ADHD. Sorry. Um Oh,
00:16:22
you know, we're just talking about the early days of Shortland Street. What was
00:16:25
your starting wage? So, you're straight out of school. You're a teenage boy. I
00:16:28
started on 40. Was it 41,600 or 44,600? It was it was 800 bucks a week, whatever
00:16:34
that works out to. Yeah. And this was 1992, so that was that was a that was a high income. Yeah. Yeah. For for a kid.
00:16:40
Yeah. I was I think I was on more than my dad was on. And he'd been at TVNZ as
00:16:44
a promo director for years. So what was your mom's job? She was a soundy. Yeah. Right. So she um worked I
00:16:52
think she was either at TVZ or TV3 at that stage. I think TV3 at that stage but she that's where um she met my dad
00:16:58
was at TVZ and that um negative publicity early on how how did that look this is pre- internet so there were no
00:17:06
there there was no social media or anything like that no no so the negative publicity was it just um like reviews or
00:17:12
I I to be honest I don't really remember it um I just remember thinking oh well
00:17:16
as as long as the show keeps going because we all thought that it wasn't going to last very long remember we we
00:17:21
were all in a van going out to um have voice training lessons And Martin Henderson said um um he said,
00:17:29
"Oh, look at the logo." He said, "It's a bit of an omen because it had the S and
00:17:32
it had the cross, but in that cross was an arrow and it's pointing down." He
00:17:36
said, "Oh, that's a bad sign. The show's not going to last. Shows what he knows." Well, yeah.
00:17:42
Michael Galvin said the the same thing like he he said, "I give it a year max
00:17:46
or something like that." Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's a it's a success story. And
00:17:49
what about the o overnight fame? So you you you go from being like um you know a
00:17:53
school kid in the fifth form to like being like recognized nationwide and like a lot of people younger people like
00:18:00
listening to this or watching this will be it'll be hard for them to get their
00:18:02
head around it but if if like if you're on Shortland Street you're one of the
00:18:05
most recognizable people in New Zealand at the time definitely back then um I think it's probably different now
00:18:11
because um people are watching all sorts of different stuff um but yeah it was I
00:18:17
remember we went to we went down we were shooting Um, and it was the day after the show had come out and we went down
00:18:23
Bay. Um, and we were just sitting in a cafe eating. I think it was myself. For some reason, I thought
00:18:29
Angela Bloomfield was there, but she can't have been cuz she didn't start
00:18:31
till later. So, maybe it was Angel Do. But anyway, a couple of other actors and the person working there recognizes. Oh,
00:18:36
I saw you on the telly last night. And she kind of recognized me cuz I wasn't
00:18:40
in it. Wasn't in the first episode, but it was it was kind of neat, you know. I
00:18:44
thought, oh, this is this is cool. But then of course um um it gets it gets pretty grating when you get recognized
00:18:49
everywhere you go and um I I just ended up not going anywhere pretty much for that reason. um being if if you're older
00:18:56
it wouldn't be too bad like Paul Gittens and people like that um you know they
00:19:00
don't get abused but when you're a kid um every second shorten street sucks
00:19:05
Nick loser you know stuff I just my really oh I got it all the time um and I just used to turn around cuz that was
00:19:12
the most common thing people said was short and street sucks they just yell it at me as they walking away or or driving
00:19:17
away cuz it never you know so I just turn around and say well don't watch it you
00:19:24
That's so petty. I suppose that's um yeah, that's like being a keyboard
00:19:28
warrior in the '90s, yelling [ __ ] out from the safety of your car as they're
00:19:32
driving off. I had one guy and and um this didn't happen very often, but one
00:19:35
guy said something mumbled to his mate. Um it was in Browns Bay and said something, but I heard him and I and I
00:19:43
turned around and walked up to him and said, "What was that?" And I was like I
00:19:46
weighed nothing. You know, back then I was a tiny little scrawny little guy. But just the fact that I stood up to him
00:19:51
and goes, "Oh, nothing." you know, and just it's it's so pathetic. E, it is.
00:19:56
Was it was there anything good about um the fame or the level of recognition? Um I never really liked that side of it.
00:20:04
I mean, it wasn't it's not like it ruined my life or anything. Um Well, but
00:20:08
no, but to a degree, like if it gets to the point where the fame is making you reclusive, then it is having a negative
00:20:13
impact. Yeah, but I was always kind of like that anyway, I think. And my my dad um he was always like that too. Didn't
00:20:18
like big crowds and didn't like going out a lot. I'm just um I've always been
00:20:22
someone who's quite comfortable in my own skin, like just hanging out and playing video games on my own or
00:20:26
whatever. I don't necessarily need lots of people around. So, I I I tended to
00:20:30
get uncomfortable in situations like that anyway. Um but yeah, no, it wasn't
00:20:36
it got better as I got older as well. Like um you you get fewer people yelling insults when you're in your 30s, you
00:20:42
know, like Yeah, cuz you're on the show for a real long time. Um actually, no,
00:20:47
it would have been in my 20s. It would have been late 20s. Yeah. Yeah. Did you What about groupies?
00:20:51
Like how I mean now nowadays you if if you're on on a show like that you have
00:20:55
people sliding into your DMs. Was it like fan leaders sent to South Pacific? I was I was always a bit awkward. Um but
00:21:01
I mean I guess I guess it worked as a um an icebreaker in a way. Um but people used to say, "Oh, how do you know if
00:21:08
girls like you for for being you and don't just like you cuz you're on Shorton Street?" And I'm and I'm like,
00:21:12
well, that's the same reason that people are, you know, attracted to people because they're good-looking at first,
00:21:18
you know, or or because they've got money, you know, like there's all these
00:21:21
different reasons to to at first talk to someone and then you find out you like them or not. They're not going to stick
00:21:25
around if I'm if I'm an [ __ ] So, yeah. Um, yeah, I think it probably definitely helped in in in that way. And
00:21:30
few one night stands when I was younger that I made regret. But Oh my god. Did anyone ever call you Nick? No. No,
00:21:38
luckily. Well, yeah. No, but I I can't remember to be honest with you. Yeah.
00:21:42
What about um are you still self-conscious in public now or? Uh mainly because of my weight. Um like not
00:21:49
because I hear about people, you know, fat people worrying about going in into in public cuz they're getting judged and
00:21:55
all that. I've never experienced that. Um I don't care about that. Like I'll go
00:21:59
through the mall, don't have a problem. But what I worry about is people recognizing me and going, "Oh geez,
00:22:04
you've got massive like um which you know I have. Um so yeah, I do." And also
00:22:11
catching up with people that that are old mates and stuff like that and um just just worried in reality no one
00:22:17
judges you. They don't care. Um if anything, they care about your health. Um but that's just a just a
00:22:23
psychological thing. So do that's the only literally the only thing wrong with
00:22:26
my life right now is the fact that I'm massively overweight. M you you've
00:22:30
you've always you've always battled with that, eh? Yeah. Yeah. On and off. So, I
00:22:35
think a big part of it is anti-depressants that have been on since forever, which I'm slightly um taking
00:22:40
myself off now cuz cuz I feel really good and I'm doing it properly cuz I've
00:22:44
taken myself off them in the past and just stopped. Bad idea. Um so, they one of the side effects they have is they
00:22:50
make you hungry quite a lot. Um so, I just tend to eat for no reason kind of thing. Uh, and I've noticed before when
00:22:57
I've been off them, I haven't haven't eaten anywhere near as much. Um, so I'm
00:23:02
hoping that'll help. But also, um, just getting back into the training. I started, um, started kettle bell
00:23:08
training. There have been three times over the last couple of years where I've
00:23:12
started training and really got into it. Um, the first time was um, weight training and I had had like a um, a rack
00:23:18
under the house and stuff and some weights and I was really getting into it. broke a rib. Um, and that put me off
00:23:24
training because I just couldn't train for so long and it never got back into
00:23:26
it. The next time I started training again, same thing happened. Broke a rib again and I didn't break both times.
00:23:32
Well, actually, the first time I broke it training, I was on, you know, those um, Total Gyms. Yes. I was lying on the
00:23:38
front of it and the edge must have just gone across the rib in a certain way. And because I was heavy, it it just I
00:23:43
felt it go pop and um, not technically a broken bone, but it pops off the cartilage and it moves around inside.
00:23:51
Um, so that that put me off. Then it happened again. The next time I started getting into
00:23:55
training of all things, I was on the toilet and I went to pick up like a magazine or something like that and it
00:24:02
was on the ground and because I'm fat and my belly gets in the way. I was going trying rather than standing up to
00:24:06
get it. I was like and and this one popped. So that put me off that training um for I just didn't get back into it.
00:24:14
And most recently I started getting into kettle bell training. Um, good friend of
00:24:19
mine, uh, Craig. Um, you know, Craig Hall. Have you met meet Craig, actor? Yeah. No, I haven't met him. I know who
00:24:26
you're talking about. But he looks like Superman. Like, he he sent me, um, sent
00:24:30
me a picture of himself with his top off to show me how his training is going and
00:24:33
I sent one back of me. But, but he's really into the kettle bells and he's
00:24:36
been helping me with my regime and stuff. So, um, couple of weeks ago, I was trying to reach under my bed to get
00:24:43
something and, um, the bed's quite low to the ground and I was reaching under
00:24:48
and I was sort of stuck and I thought, I'll just push under even even harder
00:24:52
and I'll be able to reach and grab it and just lift the bed up with my back.
00:24:55
Pop. Broke a rib. So, that's the third time that it's happened when I've
00:25:00
started training. So, I think exercise is bad. So, I'm trying to get back into
00:25:03
it today when I get home. It's still a bit if I lie on it, it's a bit sore. Um
00:25:08
but um I reckon I'm probably good enough to start training again now, which is
00:25:12
which is good. Yeah. Well, you're um you are so um self-deprecating e and and
00:25:17
honest about everything, which is which is Yeah. Which is it's admirable. I don't mind fat jokes. Um as long as they
00:25:23
come from a a good place. Like if you're just being nasty. No. Yeah. Um, but
00:25:27
yeah, I honestly don't like I've I've had people give me fat jokes when I've
00:25:31
just first met them and it's been hilarious if they're clever and and they're just, you know, just being funny
00:25:37
and not coming from a nasty place. Um, I find it funny. Or I I was driving down to Wellington, um, walked into a gas
00:25:44
station and the guy who worked there goes, "Oh, aren't you from you were from
00:25:47
Shorton Street, weren't you?" A long time ago. And I said, "Yeah." He goes,
00:25:50
"Wow, you've he didn't even he didn't even think before he said it." And I
00:25:54
just cracked up. Yeah. Yeah. That's um that's that's really impolite. Yeah. Michael Michael
00:26:01
Gelvin said the same sort of thing like people commenting on his um oh they feel
00:26:04
like they can comment on your weight and stuff. I used to get my height a lot. I
00:26:07
used to oh you're much taller than you are on TV and I'd be like well TVs
00:26:10
aren't very tall are they? So if looking back um how old are you now? What are you now? 49. 49. if you
00:26:18
could go back and and tell that 15 year old boy um you know some important lessons about
00:26:25
what he was about to get into. Save your money. Um by the time I left in 2004, end of 2004, I was on 220 grand a year
00:26:35
in 2004. Um and all that money was going every week um on car payments. I had a I
00:26:41
had a Yamaha R1 bike. I had a um HSV Club Sport. I had a a dirt bike. I had um a car that my dad was driving. I had
00:26:50
the FTO an FTO car as well that my girlfriend at the time was driving. All of them were on tick. So So I had like
00:26:57
yeah well over 100 grand worth of vehicles that I was paying off over like a three-year time. So all my money was
00:27:03
just going out and then rent and um so it was yeah it was I was just so shocking with money. That's a big ADHD
00:27:10
trait as well. M um so yeah that would be the biggest thing also also to you know to be fair to get give you a free
00:27:18
pass on this one like um financial there's there's so much financial literacy information out there now like
00:27:23
yeah if you you can watch stuff on Tik Tok or Instagram and get all the information you need but you know there
00:27:30
wasn't a lot of information out there back then and you left school at 15 so
00:27:33
you didn't have the like the necessary tools or resources and you couldn't
00:27:36
really invest yourself properly back then you had to go through um stock brokers and all that and like I had one
00:27:40
for a while. Um cuz I cuz you you with ADHD you tend to sort of um get really interested in things a bit like autism
00:27:48
in a way. Um um and so I really like the idea of investing so I'd buy all these
00:27:53
shares but they were all ones that um were suggested to me and um just they all disappeared and one and one
00:28:03
particular time in New Zealand went down to like 15 cents and I jumped on the phone to them and I said I want to put
00:28:09
everything I've got. I had $10,000 in the bank at the time. I said, "I want to
00:28:12
put everything I've got into New Zealand because it's going to go up tomorrow."
00:28:16
Um, he said, "No, we're not letting our clients do that. We think it's too
00:28:19
risky." Next day it went up to 45 cents. I would have tripled my money. And at
00:28:23
that point, I went, "No, what's the point? I'm not even going to try
00:28:26
investing my money anymore." Cuz I didn't have any help or anything. These
00:28:29
days, you can do it all yourself. Um, plenty of help around like you say. Yeah. Yeah. my my cousin Sonia, she set
00:28:34
up the um the Sherzies company which is which has just removed all those barriers. I love Sherzies. I've got
00:28:41
money in there for my son. Um so he's and yeah, I I like using ETFs because they're they're safe, you know. So um
00:28:48
and I put in I've only put in like 300 bucks for him cuz I just put a bit in
00:28:51
every now and then cuz he's only five and he'll get it when he's 18. What's
00:28:54
ETFs? Um exchange I think it's exchange traded funds. So basically like the you
00:28:58
got the US 500, the top 500 companies. investing in all of them instead of just one. So, it's a lot less risky. Um, but
00:29:04
you get really good returns. But yeah, you typically like if you look at look at the um the US 500 over the last like
00:29:10
100 years or whatever, the average rate of return is like 10% a year. And anyone
00:29:14
that's um like risk adverse, they're like, "Oh, what if you lose your money?"
00:29:16
It's like for you to lose your money, you need the top 500 companies in the USA to shut down at the same time. Can
00:29:23
you imagine a world with like no Coca-Cola and no McDonald's? No Starbucks. Even when the whole um you
00:29:28
know exchange craps itself like and and it goes right down. You just don't take
00:29:31
your money out. You just just ride the wave. It's like like property. I've got
00:29:34
mates who are um really into property development. Um and I said what happens, you know, when it's cuz it's the market
00:29:42
tanks itself. You just never sell. Just stay in there, you know. Awesome. Hey, we'll get back to the
00:29:48
money stuff, but um just a couple more Shortland Street based questions. What like um best and worst story lines you
00:29:54
were involved with? Oh god, I can't even remember any. Um how many weddings did
00:29:59
you have? You had one wedding. I had there was the wedding to um Waverly. Yeah. Played by Cla Chitham.
00:30:08
That was um that was massive. You guys were like the Kylie Manogan Jason Donovan of New Zealand. There was that.
00:30:13
There was also the the wedding Nick and Rachel um which was like the the marriage of convenience thing. Um, and
00:30:20
then there was the the marriage to um Nick's girlfriend, Angela, but I don't
00:30:25
from memory, I don't think that was a real wedding. I think we jumped jumped
00:30:28
in in the story line and pretended to get married or something. I can't remember. Um, so yeah, three. Wow. Half
00:30:36
as many as Galvin. Yeah. Yeah. I think at one point we were joking about it cuz um Nick had had more girlfriends than
00:30:45
Chris Warner. Yeah. What what else what else did you want to do? Like when you when you're at school,
00:30:49
like if Shortland Street hadn't come along, what would you potentially be doing? Game developer 100%. I um when I
00:30:55
was at school, I was um I I was in the computer class, which I would have been studying computer programming on these
00:31:00
old Mac things. Um but yeah, got pulled out of school to to go and do Short and Street. So that's what that's what I
00:31:07
think I probably would have would have ended up doing. Yeah. Yeah. So you're on
00:31:10
the show for 14 years. um 3,100 episodes and then you you get axed by producers or you leave on your own? No, no, no, I
00:31:20
didn't leave. No. How how does how does what? Yeah. Was there any reason? Um
00:31:24
they just said that they they'd run out of ideas, run out of story ideas. So
00:31:27
that's really a them problem if they can't if they can't write stories. That
00:31:31
that's generally what they tell the actors. Um nine times out of 10 when an actor does a magazine story and says,
00:31:36
"Oh, I decided to leave Short and Street for this," they've been axed. They're
00:31:40
really ruthless there. Um, and I just thought there's no point lying about it.
00:31:43
They got rid of me. I don't care. Um, so yeah. Uh, but I it was probably to do
00:31:49
with the fact that, uh, between Claire and I, we I was, I believe, the highest paid actor on the show at the time cuz
00:31:56
I'd been there for so long and she wouldn't have been far behind me. So they would have probably been paying
00:32:01
out, you know, 8 n grand um, a week and they could they could hire cuz the the newbie actors were getting $1,000 a week
00:32:09
sort of thing. M. So they could have hired a bunch more actors or put money into other stuff. So I think it was
00:32:14
probably something like that. Like a cost cutting measure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How much how much warning do you get
00:32:19
that you're going to be? They were really good. They gave me six months. Okay. Yeah. Or gave us gave us six
00:32:23
months. Yeah. [ __ ] How was that though? It must have been devastating. So you you No, but so you're in your late 20s
00:32:28
at this point. It's like all you've known through your 20s. Yeah. But I I'd
00:32:31
already left once um cuz I was sick of it and then I came back nine months later cuz I thought I could do with some
00:32:36
money, but I never really I was never really that much into it again. I was just doing it for a paycheck. Um, so it
00:32:41
was probably the best thing they could have done really cuz um and the character was it was no fun anymore. It
00:32:46
was the the character was so boring. And I actually said to them when I was doing
00:32:49
my contract negotiations for the last couple of years, I said, "I'm not coming
00:32:54
back unless you make the character funny again." Um cuz that's what Nick was. And
00:32:57
they're like, "Oh yeah, yeah, we'll do that." Never happened. Made him more
00:33:00
boring, more boring. And it just ended up being there. So maybe that had part part to do with it. They just found the
00:33:05
character boring and and got rid of him. But that wasn't my fault cuz I wasn't
00:33:09
writing the the parts. The writers didn't know how to write for that character anymore. Um, which is why I
00:33:14
was really stoked when I went back for the 25th anniversary because they wrote Nick, how Nick should have been written
00:33:19
all that time and it was funny. I got to be funny again and it was it was that was awesome. Yeah. And then um so so you
00:33:26
finished on the show um you talked before about just you know the absurd amount of money you were earning. Then
00:33:31
um there was a bankruptcy in 2006 which was kind of kind of public. Like I I Googled you yesterday and by the time
00:33:37
you get to like page three on Google, it's like it's still there. I actually
00:33:42
emailed the the the Herald and said, "Look, this is affecting my ability to
00:33:46
get jobs. Can you take it down?" Cuz once you're bankrupt and it's um after
00:33:49
seven years, it's meant to be wiped, but it's still there at public record for
00:33:52
people to see, which is kind of unfair, but yeah. You What does bankruptcy mean exactly in real terms? I'm bankrupt
00:33:58
again now, believe it or not. Um so I went bankrupt. CO hit me pretty hard. There was no work. Um uh and I, you
00:34:05
know, did did the whole I was self-employed, did the whole co loan thing to help me help me out. Um managed
00:34:12
to pay pay that back. Um but then yeah what what happened I I I was trying to make work for myself and I invested a
00:34:20
lot of money into that and that sort of fell over and I ended up um s clearing all that getting myself out of that but
00:34:27
then I got this got this job on the phones um and I got really really sick. the anxiety and stuff like that did did end
00:34:38
up um sort of playing into it, but I got really sick with CO. Um spent four or five days in bed. It was it was really
00:34:45
weird. The first time I had CO, I spent four or five days in bed, but it wasn't
00:34:48
because I was sick. I was the most insane depression I've ever had in my life. I only had um I had a temperature
00:34:54
for about a night. Um that was it. That was the only sickness I had. But then I could not get over this this depression.
00:35:01
And then I ended up um yeah, a few days later I was fine, back to normal. I was like, "What the hell happened there?"
00:35:06
The doctor told me it's actually quite normal with people that have underlying
00:35:10
mental health issues when they get co. Um anyway, I got long co ended up having to leave my job, I'd saved a lot of
00:35:18
money um for tax cuz I was self-employed. Um but because I didn't have any way to pay for anything, I had
00:35:26
to sort of eat into that and that I was living off that basically. Um so I ended
00:35:30
up with a massive tax bill and I thought, what am I going to do? Um I don't I wasn't employed at the time. I
00:35:35
had no way of sort of getting out of it. Um and I just Yeah, I just had to go bankrupt again, unfortunately. Um but
00:35:41
and now I've got a job. It wasn't long after that that I sorted myself out
00:35:45
financially again. If I hadn't gone bankrupt, it would have been fine because it wasn't as wasn't as um bigger
00:35:50
amount as last time. And it was just tax. I didn't owe anyone else any money.
00:35:53
It was just just just the tax, man. So So when you declared bankruptcy, it basically means all your debts get
00:35:59
winded. Yeah. Okay. And then and then for 2 years you can't uh three three years you can't go overseas unless uh
00:36:07
without permission. Um you can't be um you can't run a company without permission. You can't be self-employed
00:36:13
without permission. So I've had to um had to go through that. That was a bit
00:36:16
of a rig roll to get get permission to be self-employed again. So basically now I have to have an accountant um look
00:36:21
after all my funds and everything like that which is really good because that's
00:36:24
what I should have had in the first place when I was at Shorton Street. Um, so yeah, I've got more in my tax account
00:36:30
now than I do in my normal bank account. But but feels like you've had a lot of bad
00:36:37
luck. Would you are you a lucky guy or an unlucky guy? Would you say? Um, I don't think I'm unlucky. I think I'm
00:36:42
pretty lucky considering um Well, I mean, everything's all my own doing any anything bad that's happened. But no,
00:36:48
I'm pretty lucky. I'm I'm happy at the moment. I've got I'm earning money doing
00:36:51
a job that I really love. Got a 5-year-old boy who's awesome. Um and yeah, like um I think I often think if I
00:36:59
could go back and redo it all and the one thing for me that I punish myself about is the not saving money. Mhm. But
00:37:06
then I think if I had um you know, how do I know what situations would have changed and where I'd be and you know I
00:37:13
I probably wouldn't um have my son now. I wouldn't have, you know, met my
00:37:17
partner and um then I wouldn't there's no way I'd go back and change that cuz
00:37:21
yeah, he's just, you know, when you have a kid, they become your life kind of
00:37:27
thing. So So no, I think I'm I'm super lucky in that way. Um yeah, no, I don't
00:37:32
don't think I'm unlucky. And also a lot of kids, a friend of mine um as a
00:37:37
producer, TV producer, something like 90% of child stars end up um a bankrupt like I did, but they end up with drug
00:37:43
addictions and all sorts of stuff like that. I've never had any problems like
00:37:46
that. So, I'm I'm thankful and I do know people that have. So, yeah. But do you
00:37:52
think your um your poor mental health was you bought on by the like the stresses or pressures of you know being
00:38:00
so famous so so young or No, I don't think so. Like triggering sort of event
00:38:05
or not? No, I don't think so. I think I was pretty um I handled the the fame
00:38:10
pretty well. I think I just didn't I'm sure at some point it probably got to my
00:38:13
head, but um but yeah, I didn't really um No, I don't think so. Uh it wasn't
00:38:19
too bad. And like you say, it was before social media. I'm just so glad that that
00:38:23
that it happened then cuz um I it's not really a funny story but I I was in Ponson and um I was driving I had
00:38:33
an MR2 um so really low car and I was driving out um sort of rush hour traffic and the the traffic was lined up on both
00:38:42
sides and I was looking for a way to get through and there's a medium barrier.
00:38:45
You know how you you pull out into the medium barrier and then you merge into the other lane, which I don't know if
00:38:49
you're technically supposed to do that, but as I did that, someone ran in front
00:38:53
of the car and I collected him. He rolled up, hit the windscreen, rolled back down onto the road, whacked his
00:38:58
head. Um, and I was, "Holy crap." Turned out he he was okay. He had a bit of a
00:39:02
concussion. I went to the hospital. Um, visited him. He was he was really cool, really nice guy, interesting guy. Um, he
00:39:08
was fine. Um, but I just remember thinking um, like years later, well, I was surprised that it didn't end up in
00:39:15
the newspapers or anything because there were a lot of people around, but if that
00:39:18
had been social media times, it would have been all over the news, you know. You'd be Yeah, you'd be a Tik Tok star
00:39:23
for not a good reason. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Far out. I was so lucky he didn't
00:39:28
um he didn't get majorly hurt. And the police charged both of us. He got done
00:39:32
for um, you know, you know, minor like a $50 fine sort of thing or whatever it was, but they they gave them to both of
00:39:38
us. He got done for for crossing the road where he shouldn't have been and I
00:39:41
got done for driving on the median barrier. So that was You think they give give him a free pass? I reckon the poor
00:39:47
guy. You suffered it up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So um Yes. So you're on Shortland
00:39:51
Street as this iconic character for like 13 years. Then then you you get written
00:39:55
off. Um then you return as a like a sound guy. Yeah. Yeah. How long after a break? Um I left in at the end of
00:40:05
2004. I went to I went to was it yeah beginning in 2005 I think I went to live in Aussie. I must have been must have
00:40:13
been 2006 I think. Yeah. Did you move to Aussie to try your hand over there like
00:40:18
try and get to Summer Bay or something? Oh yeah. I did get an agent over there. Um but I I I made a I made a fatal
00:40:27
mistake. I looked around all the different agencies and um I ended up deciding between um I only heard back
00:40:33
from two. One was a really big comedy agency. They look after um Eric Banner um and um Jim Owen. Well, is that how
00:40:42
you say his name? Jim. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um they they had a bunch of people but they only had a few
00:40:48
people on their on their books. Um and they said, "Look, we haven't we haven't
00:40:52
taken anyone on for years and they sent me along to do a comedy gig." Um and
00:40:57
they they asked if I would like to join them. They said, "We haven't taken you
00:41:00
on for a while. Um but we'd be interested in you." And I thought, "They've got Eric Banner on their books.
00:41:04
there's no way they're going to look after me. So, I went with this other
00:41:07
agency which was basically just an extras agency. And he had promised that he would um sort of put me at the top of
00:41:13
the books and and get me all these auditions. Ended up going to auditions. We stand here, pretend you're licking an
00:41:18
ice block. Okay, you can go home now. And I was like, come on, man. I did get to meet the casting director of
00:41:24
Neighbors, which was pretty cool. And I did actually get a bit part in um uh City Homicide, but it wasn't Yeah, I
00:41:31
made the the wrong decision here. But yeah, but how was that experience returning to Shortland Street on the
00:41:38
other side of the on the other side of the camera? Like was it a like was it a humbling experience? It it kind of was.
00:41:44
I knew that um a lot of people would probably look at me like um I mean actors can be pretty, you know, fickle,
00:41:51
I guess, but it Well, they just Yeah. um you're going from this highpaying job
00:41:57
where you get treated like a king kind of thing to and the the crew don't necessarily get treated that well and
00:42:02
they work really really really long and really hard hard hours. Um so that was I
00:42:07
I kind of knew what to expect cuz I'd always hung out in the in the sound booth and stuff and I was always
00:42:11
interested in the in the technical side. Um I'd always ask the camera operators
00:42:16
different things and I was more interested in sound. I used to jump up on the boom and sort of play with it and
00:42:20
stuff. Um, probably because my mom was a soundy. Um, but the the the biggest thing was uh the definitely the hours.
00:42:27
The pay wasn't bad. Like it was nowhere near what I was what I was on. I went,
00:42:31
you know, I was on 50 grand or something back in 2006. It wasn't wasn't bad. Um,
00:42:36
but you've got to get there before everyone else to set up. And then you've
00:42:39
got to um yeah, basically stay after everyone else. And if there's overtime,
00:42:43
you had to do overtime. Um, I got myself into trouble a couple of times because um, I knew all the the um, the assistant
00:42:52
directors and stuff like that personally because I'd worked there as an actor.
00:42:55
So, I didn't tend to like being talked to like I was, you know, just an animal
00:43:01
or something. Um, and there were a couple of times I sort of said, "Don't
00:43:05
talk to me like that. I'm leaving the studio." And um, cuz the for some reason
00:43:10
sound guys always cop it. And we had directors go boom and shot. There was no boom and shot when it was
00:43:15
the camera had made a mistake. So they pointed the camera up to the sky. That's
00:43:19
what they'd often do to just just to go, "Look, no, sorry, we got to go again."
00:43:22
And we'd always get blamed. Used to drive me nuts. But yeah, I got myself in
00:43:26
in trouble um a couple of times and down to the producers's office for misbehaving, but it was that that and
00:43:33
you didn't get that as an actor, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Treat Yeah. treated differently. Yeah, definitely.
00:43:39
Yeah. Um, you'd like to think it's better than now. Um, yeah. I don't I
00:43:44
don't know to be honest. Um, but it's I mean it's not like we we were treated
00:43:48
poorly or anything. It was just average film crew. It's more more that the actors are treated better than than you
00:43:54
know cuz the crew sort of pampered and stuff and Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah. You'd like to think everyone's
00:43:59
treated with, you know, equality though, especially now. Um, say say when did you
00:44:05
last leave the leave the show? Like as as you came back for the 25th anniversary. Yeah, I went back. It was
00:44:10
god that would have been 20 2017. Um so I went back for the for the whole volcano thing, Mount Ferndale, which I'd
00:44:17
never heard of the whole time I was on the show. And all of a sudden there's a
00:44:21
mountain that's exploding. Um, and yeah, that was it was interesting because it
00:44:26
was like I said to um my mate um I think it was Grant I was telling the other day
00:44:30
that um it was like going back to the place that you used to be the CEO at and you're working as a janitor like cuz you
00:44:37
just don't didn't you don't feel like you fit in. Everyone all the other
00:44:40
actors are talking amongst themselves and there were a couple there that sort of um um sort of made me feel at home
00:44:46
again. Um but but most of them is that God I can't remember their names. Michael, you're still in touch with
00:44:52
Michael Galvin. The guys who played um his kids actually. I can't remember their names. They were they were really
00:44:58
funny. They kept calling me Uncle Nick. Both Aussie dudes. Um that's cool. Yeah.
00:45:03
So, it's cool. Speaks volumes about uh one of them. Was that an Aussie or both
00:45:07
an Aussie? I can't I can't remember the name. But if say Nick returned to
00:45:10
Ferndale today, uh where do you think he'd be in life? Probably running the clinic because um that's what Nick used
00:45:17
to do uh for a while. Um, I was actually asked to go back for Christmas. Must have been Yeah, it must have been
00:45:25
December 2022. Um, Cla ended up going back um and playing Waverly, but I pulled out
00:45:32
like it was only a few weeks before before shooting, I think, which um it was a bummer. I just couldn't bring
00:45:39
myself to do it. I went in and did the the makeup and the wardrobe fittings and stuff, but at that time I was just the
00:45:43
whole anxiety thing and all that and I just couldn't do it, which is like I was
00:45:47
saying to you before, that's why I pulled out of acting. Um I just can't
00:45:52
Well, I couldn't do auditions anymore cuz I'd freak out and then I'd pull out
00:45:55
and then that looks bad on the agent cuz they've, you know, booked this audition
00:45:57
and stuff and I haven't shown up. But I just don't get that anymore. Like um
00:46:01
like on the way here I was fine. There's no no nerves or anything. So I've gotten
00:46:05
over my um fear of going to new places which is good. Yeah. Your anxiety it must have cost you
00:46:14
so many opportunities. Eh. Yeah. Yeah. I think so. Um definitely like when I was
00:46:18
in Aussie there was a real shortage of boom operators. Um cuz I I went back again in Aussie later on uh 2009 2010 I
00:46:26
guess. And I was just getting sent requests from all over. Will you do this? Will you do this? Will you do
00:46:32
this? And they pay good money and really good jobs. And I, you know, I could have
00:46:35
become one of the top boom ops if I if I'd stuck over there cuz I had so many
00:46:38
job offers and I just turned them all down cuz and I I ended up taking one and freaking out and leaving on the, you
00:46:43
know, just not showing up and letting them know that day and having to say that, oh, I'm sick, you know, like um
00:46:50
yeah, it was it was pretty bad. It was Yeah. I don't know what caused it really. Um possibly the ADHD and not
00:46:57
understanding it. Um cuz I just don't really get it now. I I I guess. But I I
00:47:03
keep myself out of situations where it's going to cause it, you know. So, yeah,
00:47:08
it seems like um you you've referenced it a few times. It seems like um the ADHD diagnosis has been like
00:47:14
life-changing for a good way. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what Zach said as well.
00:47:17
He said um you know, that's just huge. So, go and get checked. Um Yeah. And yeah, they gave me um I I was I was
00:47:25
working on a um video game magazine because I I released it at the wrong time and it only lasted um three issues
00:47:32
because of my brain. But the the last issue I had just been diagnosed and was getting my my drugs ready and you sort
00:47:39
of getting getting used to the um dose and stuff and because with ADHD often procrastinating and getting stuff done,
00:47:46
you know, and um I hadn't done any work on this magazine for like 3 weeks and it
00:47:52
was due to be released in about a week. Um and I was doing the whole thing, the writing, the design. I' I'd done the I'd
00:47:57
done most of the writing and had other writers do um the articles and stuff like that, but I hadn't done any of the
00:48:02
design. I I took my concert pill. I sat down and in a week um without I didn't
00:48:08
even stop for lunch or anything. The concentration was that insane. I just cranked out and designed this entire
00:48:13
magazine. Um and it looked awesome and I was like, "Wow, this stuff's because of
00:48:18
the medication." The medication. Yeah. Um I I have found I don't particularly
00:48:22
like it. Um I can't have caffeine. Oh Jesus, I'm having caffeine in it. No,
00:48:27
but I can't really have caffeine with it because it can make you a little bit
00:48:30
anxious. Um, and yeah, but I don't really take it anymore. I did take one today, which is probably why I'm a bit
00:48:37
too chatty. Um, just so mainly so I could concentrate and listen to you and not have my mind sort of wandering off,
00:48:43
but yeah, I only take it when I need to. Yeah. Um, yeah, thanks for sharing all this stuff. All good. I'm going to
00:48:50
probably watch this and go, "What the hell?" No, no, it's good. And and and
00:48:54
chatting is good for a podcast. Far better than the opposite. um single word answers. Okay, so we touched upon
00:49:02
the celebrity treasure earlier. Let's talk about some of the some of the real
00:49:05
reality shows that you've been involved with. So, I don't know if this is trolling or this
00:49:10
is real, but did you apply for like a a Dutch reality TV show where you were going to be sent to Mars? Oh, yeah. Is
00:49:16
this an actual thing? Yeah. Yeah, some some billionaire reckoned he was going to um make a spaceship and go to Mars
00:49:22
and they and they would um film the whole thing and it would be a reality TV show um streamed back and I knew it was
00:49:29
never going to happen. There's no way that that was going to happen. But I I
00:49:31
applied anyway cuz I thought it would be funny um just to see see where it went.
00:49:36
And I think in in my video um my application I said I want to be the first person to take a dump on another
00:49:42
planet. I wonder why I didn't get it. Well, I don't think the show ever like
00:49:47
got off the ground literally. Um, and there was another real TV show called um, Downsized Me, which was um, like a
00:49:54
weight loss show where they had a dietitian and a personal trainer. So, so you went on that and you you were still
00:50:00
um, quite real famous at the time recognized as Nick Harrison. Yeah. Um, what was that like? That's an incredible
00:50:05
amount of vulnerability. Was working as a boom op at the time. Yeah. Yeah. Um, see I was 122 kilos when I went there
00:50:12
and I came out at just under 100. Um, it was good but it didn't really I mean I
00:50:20
knew this doing the whole thing it wasn't really maintainable. Um, and you know they give you a goal and I think it
00:50:27
was ended up being 12 weeks and lost all that weight. Went back to my old ways and just sort of gained the weight back
00:50:32
again. I mean, it was it Yeah. I I don't know if if I would do it again. Um cuz
00:50:41
losing weight that fast, it's it's not the way to go as I've as I've worked
00:50:46
out. Um but yeah, that that was all right. But they what what really annoyed me about that show um is when when I got
00:50:55
to the end, I weighed myself that morning, so I knew I was under 100 kilos. Um, and I'd said to them, if I um
00:51:02
if I don't weigh in at under 100 kilos, I will um do a training session on the beach in my undies for the show,
00:51:11
right? Um so when they weighed me, it was later in the day and it was over 100 kilos and I was like, "Oh." Um and then
00:51:17
and I thought, "All right, well, I'm going to have to do it." And I got on
00:51:20
the um phone to um your old Mike, your old mate, Mike Puru, and um cuz you you guys were on the edge at the time. And I
00:51:27
said, "Oh, look, this is what's happening with this show, and I'm going
00:51:29
to have to do a um training session in my undies on the beach." Never got anywhere, but I was I was suggested to
00:51:35
him that maybe we could do some sort of fundraiser thing with the Edge, whatever. We never got any further than
00:51:40
that, but um I was wanting to sort of, you know, use it, make some money for someone, um something like that. didn't
00:51:48
get that far because they went and shot the end of the show without me with um basically with them just standing there
00:51:55
going, "Oh, look, he hasn't shown up. He's Welch on the bet." And and that's
00:51:58
not not what happened at all. And I got a lot of grief for that. And that really
00:52:01
pissed me off cuz that's not not who I was. Um but apart from that, um it was
00:52:06
it was fun experience, I guess. And and then um yeah, speaking of Mike Padu, uh you did this um no one will remember
00:52:13
this show, but I vaguely remember it like a like an X Factor American Idol sort of show. Yeah. Sing like a
00:52:20
superstar with um like New Zealand celebrities singing on stage. Who? Yes. So Mike was in it. Who else was in that
00:52:26
show? Um Oh jeez. Eveie Ashton. Um um Siobhan. Um Marshall. Um Oh god. Oh. From Outrageous Fortune. Yeah. Um
00:52:38
Carolyn, oh god, Carol Taylor. Yeah. Um and yeah, there was there was a few people um uh Nick Oll who um yeah, he's
00:52:48
he's a really good dude. Um who ended up working in uh one of my feature films.
00:52:54
Awesome. Awesome actor. Um but yeah, it was I I ended up because I was the least
00:52:58
talented one there by far. I could not dance. I could not sing or anything. And that I just basically got kept around
00:53:04
because I was just being silly. Entertaining. I am I got told off by the producer a couple of times for not
00:53:09
taking it seriously and I was like, "Dude, you want me to take this seriously? I'm I'm not a singer and I'm
00:53:14
not a dancer. I'm just going to be me." And and I got through to the I ended up
00:53:18
um getting all the way through to the end. No, I wasn't in the final episode
00:53:21
as um a contestant. I was in the one before that, but they brought us all back, so I got paid for every episode.
00:53:28
So, it was awesome. How good. They only did the one season of that. Who were the
00:53:32
judy from ZDM was one of the judges. Who Who else was there? um Gandalf Archer. Oh, the um dance guy. Yeah. And um and
00:53:42
and Jenny, they were they were together at the time. But yeah, so that Yeah, that that that was just um it was
00:53:47
strange. It actually got shortened because um Julie Christie started another show that was very similar and
00:53:54
she was going to be running that at the same time. So I think they were a bit freaked out um about the sort of
00:54:00
competing with it. So they they they cut it short. So we ended up losing about three apps or something. Yeah. And then
00:54:06
um yeah, Celebrity Treasure Island, which we touched touched upon before. Is that all the reality TV shows or have I
00:54:11
missed anything out? I never wanted to do reality television, but um I did it for the money. Like I mean, let's be
00:54:16
honest, who who does reality television for anything else but the money, you know? Yeah. I And it was good money. I
00:54:22
don't know. I I had Sus Suzanne Paul on the the podcast last year, and she she
00:54:26
was on the last season of Celebrity Treasure Island, and she she did it like hoping to reignite her sort of profile.
00:54:32
Right. Right. Um obviously the money as well. you know, but yeah, I think there's a lot of people that definitely
00:54:37
do it for hoping to get like some sort of profile boost. Yeah. Yeah. I I did want to do um I got asked to do it
00:54:43
initially and I said no. Um cuz I did have a higher profile at the time and I was I think I was I just I may have
00:54:50
Would I have been on Short Street? No, maybe not. Um Dancing with the Stars. Um but then I saw all these um people going
00:54:56
on it that were losing weight and I thought that could be a fun way to lose weight. dance around with a hot chick
00:55:02
and that could be awesome. Um and I asked if I could do it and um and they were like, "Oh, we'll get back to you."
00:55:08
And I and um yeah, I it didn't happen. I did actually get um the first time I was
00:55:14
asked to do it and I said, "No." And then I got back to them saying, "Oh,
00:55:16
yeah, all right. I'll do it." And then um they said, "Yeah, cool." And it never
00:55:20
went ahead. Um well, it went a bit but without me. And then the next time, yeah. Yeah. I wonder if if if part of
00:55:26
that is um like because of your anxiety, you know. So, so it gets into the gets into the high level meeting and
00:55:31
someone's like, "No, Cal's under No, it wasn't affecting me at that time." No,
00:55:34
it was that was well before that. Um, so I, yeah, I hadn't had any issues with it
00:55:39
um at that stage. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I don't know what I don't know really what
00:55:42
caused it. Um, definitely not in those sort of roles. Anything um I'm fine generally with anything that's different
00:55:51
um every like so short and straight was good cuz you got a different start time every day. you're doing different
00:55:56
scenes, you know, it's not there's no day that's the same. But if you put me
00:56:01
in a role where I've got to show up at 9:00 in the morning and leave at 5:00 at
00:56:06
night, I'm just going to be sitting there, you know, doing the when can I go
00:56:09
home the whole time and um cuz I'll I'll probably certain jobs I've had, I'll get
00:56:14
all my work done um and and then there's nothing else to do and it's like what's
00:56:19
the point? Yeah. So I've just found now not to go for jobs that um yeah put me
00:56:25
in that situation. So it's just what it's perfect the job I got now. Yeah. So
00:56:29
um Celebrity Treasure Island there was this I I remember this this particularly sort of heartbreaking scene really where
00:56:37
you're tied up in some challenge and then your your team sort of forgets you.
00:56:41
Yeah. So you sort of you sort of left there. Was that was that smoke and mirrors or No, that was more um it was
00:56:47
it was more heartbreaking on TV at the time. It was funny. Um, but the the way they they cut it together and there I I
00:56:53
thought it was funny. I I played it up cuz I was left there and they all ran off and I thought, hang on, without me
00:56:59
then they're not going to get it cuz they need they never need every single person. What actually happened is they
00:57:04
didn't realize I don't think that that they needed everyone. Um, they just
00:57:08
needed the final clue. So rather than untie me and waste time doing that, they all took off to to get the thing, which
00:57:14
is fair enough. But I knew that they needed everyone. Obviously people weren't listening or something. I knew
00:57:19
that they needed everyone to go go to the end. Um, and by the time they realized that, it was too late. And
00:57:24
that's what I was trying to say to them. I said, "You going to type me? I'll just
00:57:27
stay here then." Um, and I sort of played it up later on when they asked about it and I said, "Oh, I'm used to
00:57:33
it." And just just being silly. But but it was no, it was actually really funny
00:57:37
that um I didn't have any issues um until later on. It was after we' done
00:57:42
everything. And what actually the the what triggered me the worst um is after we'd done the
00:57:50
challenge, we we did this raid on the other camp um and Julie Christie came over and I didn't know this about about
00:57:57
um reality television. I'm going to give away all the secrets, but they have
00:58:00
writers and story liners. So they so everything is organized. And she said, "Now we what we want you to do is get
00:58:05
get into everyone's heads. We want you to you got to be as mean and nasty as
00:58:08
you can and do all this. if I was you, I'd be stealing their blah blah blah doing all this. So, I thought, "Oh,
00:58:14
yeah, that that's the aim of the show. It's just a TV show. Obviously, everyone's in the same boat. They know
00:58:18
that we're going to be doing this stuff." So, I went into the other camp
00:58:22
and um oh god, I can't remember his name. Um one of the one of the contestants, my memory is so shocking.
00:58:29
Um but he he'd thatched together this um traditional sort of um basket, weaved
00:58:35
this basket that they were going to use to carry stuff and all that. We couldn't
00:58:39
find any of their cool stuff. So I went and grabbed that and started pulling it apart just cuz I knew that it would cuz
00:58:44
I knew that it would um sort of, you know, cause some some some drama, but I didn't realize how much drama it would
00:58:50
cause. And um Matty Mlan, oh, he went off, man. And he he lost it at me. And I was like, well, this is, you know, I've
00:58:57
been told to to go on and cause trouble. And I didn't expect that people would
00:59:00
have this real real like a lot of them acted like they really hated me. And that was a lot of the the reason that I
00:59:05
sort of lost it that that night cuz I was just playing a part and being silly. Um, well, it would feel very isolating
00:59:11
in that sort of environment. Yeah. And I went and apologized. We had this dinner
00:59:14
thing and I apologized over and over, but I could tell Mattie just never forgave me for that. And um, they were
00:59:20
all saying, "Oh, yeah, it's all right." But they just thought, "What an [ __ ]
00:59:22
you know, coming in and and doing that." Um but it was all just to me it was just
00:59:27
part of the the game of the show. But then I realized oh people are going to take this stuff seriously and um they
00:59:32
all hate me now and yeah so that sort of played into everything and the fact I hadn't eaten hadn't no sleep all that
00:59:38
sort of stuff. So it just yeah triggered. Yeah. And it's um yeah it's a very uh
00:59:44
competitive sort of environment. There's lots of like a type alpha males. Yeah.
00:59:48
Lots of lots of lots of alpha males there. And are you are you a competitive guy or not? Yeah, I am actually. I I do
00:59:55
get pretty pretty competitive, but yeah, I just knew those guys um in a different
00:59:59
way. Like I'm never going to be um competitive sports-wise, but I Yeah. Um yeah, I guess so.
01:00:08
Yeah, cuz like what you said to um Zach after that bad night's sleep where you
01:00:12
said you feel like just walking out into the ocean and um just walking as far as
01:00:16
you can and never coming back. It's sort of like um Yeah. suicide ideiation in a
01:00:20
way. Pretty much. Yeah. Isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. which is it's that's it's quite
01:00:24
troubling. Yeah, I was I was definitely considering it. That's for sure. It was
01:00:27
a pretty tough but again it was just um overreacting and and it comes all all comes back to the ADHD like it was all
01:00:34
in my head. It's your brain. It's your brain playing tricks on you. Just just
01:00:39
telling myself things that weren't true. Um and that sort of became apparent the
01:00:45
next day when I said that I was leaving and they were all sort of shocked and no
01:00:48
one like wanted me to leave. Like people were crying about me leaving. I was like
01:00:51
what? I don't even know these people. So I was like, what? Should have said,
01:00:54
okay, I'll stay. Maybe they do actually like me. Yeah. Yeah. So it was Yeah. And
01:00:58
um Yeah. And al say you had your son Charlie who was like a baby at the time, right? So it was all all just um
01:01:04
cumulative effect. Yeah. Yeah. He was 3 months old I think. So you're still with
01:01:07
your Yeah. your partner Beex. Yeah. Yeah. Have you been married in real life? No. No. Had enough screen on
01:01:13
screen marriages to last a lifetime. Yeah. So how did you guys meet? How did you meet Beex? Oh, it was at um uh it
01:01:20
was just through a friend. It was a Super Bowl party. Um so yeah, basically just watching the Super Bowl with my
01:01:26
mate and you swap numbers. Rest is history. Yeah. How long you been together? 13 years this year, I think. Wow. She's
01:01:35
she's hasn't applied any pressure about getting married. No. No. She's not not
01:01:39
interested at all. Neither of us are we're we're both atheists so we don't
01:01:44
really care about the whole like it's to to us it would just be a bit of paper. So, um yeah, but
01:01:51
we're kind of um Yeah. No, no, we're good, but it's um it's I'd say it's had
01:01:57
its ups and downs, but not really. Like, I've been in I've been in relationships
01:02:02
in the past where, you know, volatile ones and stuff like that, but it's been
01:02:05
quite what I've worried about is she's had to support me a lot and um and
01:02:11
financially or emotionally. Yeah. No, no. Well, both really, but um it wouldn't wouldn't want to be with me,
01:02:16
but so um that's good. That's love. Yeah. Well, it's good that I'm that I'm
01:02:21
able to um um actually give back now. And I mean, obviously um obviously looking after Charlie and stuff while
01:02:27
she's working and and doing all that sort of stuff, but Yeah. And how's how's
01:02:31
um Yeah. How's how's her mental health? It's it's it's tough being in a
01:02:35
relationship with someone that's depressed. E I say that from someone that's um been been being the happy
01:02:40
person in a relationship and also the person. She No, she's fine, but um yeah,
01:02:44
she doesn't like being talked about, so I won't Okay. So she doesn't really want
01:02:48
to want she say that to me. Um so so I won't talk about her too much but yeah.
01:02:53
No she's she's um yeah better than me that's cool. Well 13 13 years is no
01:02:57
joke. Yeah. No good. It takes a lot of work you know. Yeah. It takes a lot of work to keep a relationship thriving.
01:03:02
Yeah. It's actually um for us it seems we think we're just sort of best mates
01:03:07
first and foremost sort of thing. Yeah. Yeah. Oh that's lovely. And how old is
01:03:10
Charlie now? He's five almost six. So weird story. He um um my dad died on February the 25th,
01:03:20
2009. Actually, that's where everything started going downhill. I can I can put
01:03:25
a finger on it. All this time I'm just thinking what what caused it. Yeah. No,
01:03:30
that that that's um that that was definitely a big part of it. But he was Yeah. He died on February 25th, 2009.
01:03:36
And Charlie was born on February 25th, 2009. 10 years later, and pretty much the same time at night. How freaky is
01:03:43
that? Wow. Yeah. Yeah. What how old was your dad? Uh he was Oh, what was he 81 when he died, I think? Okay. Um was it
01:03:51
Yeah. What was the cause of death? Was it just like cancer? Cancer. Lung cancer. Yeah. Yeah. And he didn't even
01:03:56
smoke. But yeah. Yeah. I think he was 81. He was born in 1927, I think. So he Yeah. He was he had me when he was 48
01:04:03
49. So he started late like I did. Why do why do you think like 81's um it's it's a fairly decent decent life.
01:04:14
Why do you think that had such an impact on you? Oh, we were really close. Um so
01:04:19
and I was living there at the time when he died. Um so that you just threw my whole life into disarray pretty much. It
01:04:25
took me a long time to get over that. Um, it's interesting though like once you go through that you like you can
01:04:31
tell other people that eventually the memories stop being sad and they you know and you start they start being
01:04:38
happy again. Like every time I think about my dad it's always something happy
01:04:41
like um Yeah. But for a long time I was just super super super depressed. Yeah. Like how long? Oh years probably. Um
01:04:49
that that year was the worst year of my life. Um, yeah, it was awful for my my girlfriend at the time because she
01:04:55
hadn't ever had anything to do with someone who had had mental issues, let alone with her father who just died. So,
01:05:01
yeah, I've um I've had to apologize to her a few times. She's like, "Oh, don't
01:05:04
be stupid." But Yeah. Yeah. Well, that that grief that's the that's the price
01:05:09
you pay for great love, isn't it? Yeah. They say. Yeah. Oh, but that's why um I I need to do
01:05:15
something about my weight cuz I want to be around for my son um first and foremost cuz he's only six. He's turning
01:05:21
six next month. Um and I can't keep up with him, you know, like honestly when I
01:05:27
say that the only thing bad in my life at the moment is my weight. That that's
01:05:29
a it's sucks, man. Sucks being fat. It's funny at times, but but it's h it's it's
01:05:36
just awful. Everything's just a challenge. and I want to um get I want to my goal is I want to get in the best
01:05:41
shape of my life for my 50th birthday, which um is uh just over a year away. So, what I wanted to say to you, this is
01:05:48
what I was um sort of getting to before we started rolling the cameras. I want to repeat what I did on um downsized me.
01:05:57
if I don't um do it or at least, you know, um yeah, if I don't get myself in
01:06:02
the best shape of my life by my birthday, my 50th birthday in February of next year, um would you have me back
01:06:12
on the podcast? Um if I do, and if I don't, um I will do a training session in my undies.
01:06:19
Oh, you won't turn up just like last. No, I will. I will turn up because I'm
01:06:23
really I'm really good at um when I've got something um like like a goal set
01:06:27
out for me and you've got to do this. That's why with downsiz me I I um applied myself to that and I lost I did
01:06:33
really well. Um I find I can't motivate motivate myself properly unless I've got
01:06:39
something like that as a goal to work towards. Um so yeah, if you'd be willing
01:06:44
to do that 100% 100%. Cool. I will absolutely I will do the podcast in my I'll do the podcast in my undies. Please
01:06:52
don't we don't want that. or ideally. Yeah. Um you you could even do um like a
01:06:58
weekly podcast on your own like um yeah just like like your fitness diary just charting your progress and I was doing
01:07:05
that but I just I'm just too lazy just to get the stuff like um just between
01:07:10
work and um looking after Charlie and like I did start a podcast with my mate um Grant and and another mate Roy, the
01:07:16
Fat Actors podcast um where Grant and I are both bigger guys and and Roy is is not. So, we called him the fat one. Um,
01:07:25
and we did a few episodes, but we just sort of, you know, tailed off. But, yeah, I just I don't want to commit to
01:07:30
doing anything else at the moment, unless Yeah. So, um, your your mental health, how do how do you know when it's
01:07:36
um how can you tell when it's slipping and and do you know how to like course
01:07:41
correct if it is? Yeah. The these days I'm just sort of better at sort of Yeah.
01:07:46
telling myself, "Oh, it's just a I to be honest, I don't really um I'm not really
01:07:52
struggling with it because I'm just not I just don't I I know when to to um stay
01:07:57
away from a certain situation that's going to trigger me." Like, I'm even
01:08:00
going to get back into acting now cuz um cuz I'm just not not getting anxious
01:08:04
about the auditions and stuff like that anymore. Um yeah, just I just Yeah, I don't know. It's just
01:08:13
it's just not happening anymore. Yeah. Yeah. You seem very Yeah, you you seem
01:08:17
you seem at peace. Oh, that's probably the drugs. So, what concertera? So, you're on concertera for the ADHD? Um
01:08:24
yeah, I don't meds for the for the depression and anxiety. Yeah. Um escatalopram, which I've been on for 20
01:08:30
years, but I'm I'm only on a really low dose at the moment, 5 milligrams at the
01:08:33
moment. So, that's um I've been on that for like five weeks cuz I was on 10 or
01:08:38
four weeks. Um so, I'll probably do that for another another four weeks. Um just
01:08:43
because I want to do it really slowly. Mhm. Uh get off it really slowly. Um and then just stay off the stuff. I don't I
01:08:49
don't want all that crap passing through my liver basically. Um been doing it for
01:08:53
20 years. Yeah. Although I mean if if um Yeah. It's not if there's a chemical
01:08:59
imbalance in your brain and it can be corrected with with drugs then, you know, it might just be something that
01:09:03
you have to potentially have. I if I have to if like if I notice um that I'm
01:09:09
getting worse or anything, I'll just go back on it. Um cuz I have been off it.
01:09:12
Um I was off it for a period of time. Um uh and um I got a job and that just triggered anxiety and and and the
01:09:20
depression again. And I was lucky because those guys actually kept me on um and they just sort of said come in
01:09:24
when you can and over 3 weeks and and I built my way up to working full-time. Um
01:09:29
as I went back on the stuff, so I can always just do that, but at this stage I I honestly don't feel like I need it
01:09:35
anymore. Um cuz even when like in the past like it it doesn't just it's not a
01:09:41
wonder drug in that it just takes away your depression. I'd still be depressed
01:09:44
and stuff like that, but I just don't get that anymore. So, um yeah, I don't I
01:09:48
I don't feel the need to um to to stay on it really. What's your relationship
01:09:54
with therapy like? Have you had therapy? Uh well, you tried to Yeah, I have. Um and my friend Charmaine actually paid
01:10:01
for me years ago to go and um see someone cuz I was really really bad. It wasn't too long after dad had died and
01:10:07
stuff and I split up with a girlfriend and um I was pretty much suicidal and she got me in to someone and that
01:10:14
helped. Um definitely I think I don't know if it saved my life but it made me
01:10:19
you know a lot a lot better but how I think how I think about therapy is I've
01:10:25
seen so many therapists on and off um and not one of them picked up on the ADHD. If one of them had picked up on
01:10:32
their ADHD a long time ago, my life would have been, you know, completely different because that that was the that
01:10:38
was the big thing. It's funny you should say that because yeah, I've had the similar conversation
01:10:42
with Zach. Um, and he says the same sort of thing. Makes me think maybe I should
01:10:46
test because I I feel like I've probably probably got it, but I I I don't know.
01:10:51
Well, if you're functioning, you know, I don't know. But it's like you hear
01:10:55
about people that, you know, sort of muddled their way through life and they sort of functioning with it, I guess, to
01:11:00
a degree. They reckon that most CEOs and stuff have probably got it. Um it's it
01:11:04
it can be sort of like a superpower when it's you know cuz you can you can be
01:11:09
really good at concentrating on certain things and getting things done. So So in
01:11:12
terms of um adversity that you've been through, [ __ ] you've been through a lot,
01:11:16
eh? You've been through a lot of like the bankruptcies and the weight fluctuations, everything
01:11:22
else. The biggest adversity would that be the death of your father? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. losing losing my
01:11:28
job um wasn't like it it was probably the best thing that could have happened
01:11:33
really. Um what way? Well, I just I just wasn't into it anymore. Like like I
01:11:39
said, I was just um yeah, I was just going there collecting the paycheck. But when when I'd been there since I was,
01:11:45
you know, 16 to my late 20s, I didn't know how to do anything else. So adjusting to to normal life um was yeah,
01:11:53
that was an absolute nightmare. I can imagine like you're in this massive massive bubble. Um you're
01:12:00
being paid absurd amounts of money and then it's like a [ __ ] it's terrifying. I
01:12:05
the first job I got after that um I was there for a couple of months before my brain imploded was was at Auto Car New
01:12:12
Zealand Auto Car magazine. Um and I was getting paid $25,000 a year for that job. I was happy to be there because you
01:12:21
went from 200 20 I was 215 I think I was not 220 but yeah. Yeah. Like it's 190k a
01:12:27
year pay cut. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it was I was I was lucky to get that job and I'm glad
01:12:33
that they they gave me a start even though um it didn't last long because after that I ended up freelancing. So I
01:12:40
ended up writing for magazines like um Top Gear New Zealand um um NZV8 um New Zealand Performance Car. I ended up
01:12:48
working for Driver. I was senior journalist for a while there. Um, until my brain again did the same thing cuz
01:12:54
the full-time thing was where was where it becomes an issue. Um, and then yeah, just just freelance after that. Then I
01:13:00
ended up working at Petrol Head um and and Roto. I was full-time there for about 3 years. So I managed to to last
01:13:06
her right there. Well done. Yeah. Um yeah, you're you're really good at um
01:13:11
talking about this stuff and I I love it cuz that's sort of the theme of the the
01:13:14
podcast cuz it's like imperfections is um as part of life, you know, but you're a real Watson and all
01:13:20
sort of guy cuz I think everyone has like an image or a mask, you know, like a a person that everyone's sort of
01:13:26
acting in a degree, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. And they've got like an
01:13:29
image that they want to portray to the world. But you're very um Yeah, you're
01:13:33
very good at talking about like the [ __ ] that's gone wrong. Yeah. Yeah. Whether
01:13:36
it's your own making or or not your fault at all. Have you always been that way? I think so. Yeah. Yeah. I don't I
01:13:42
just don't think you're just not embarrassed about it. No. No. Not really. No. Never really um Yeah. felt
01:13:48
felt um any reason to hide anything or Yeah. That says to me you're someone that's really comfortable in your own
01:13:54
skin. Yeah. Yeah. Or all of it. Now, that's one thing I'm worried about is the loose skin. if when I lose
01:14:02
weight. Do you do you feel like you have to you have to make those jokes because
01:14:07
people watching it will be thinking it or um so you're trying to get in before
01:14:10
someone else gets it? No, not maybe subconsciously subconsciously. I don't know. I've just always been like I did
01:14:16
comedy for a while as well. Stand up again. The ADHD I didn't I didn't keep
01:14:20
going because I just sort of um yeah just ended up losing track and just not doing it. But my most of my comedy was
01:14:26
um you know self-deprecative sort of thing. Yeah. What's your what's your
01:14:29
inner voice like? Are you are you mostly sort of positive to yourself and kind to
01:14:33
yourself? Um I think so. Yeah. I don't I don't really Yeah. I don't talk to
01:14:38
myself much to be honest. Even inside my head. No, I mean your thoughts. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much.
01:14:45
Yeah. Um and what about um you like uh vulnerability? Like it's sort of like a
01:14:50
buzz word at the moment and everyone you know knows it's not a it's not a
01:14:54
weakness. It's actually like a a superpower in a way. Yeah. Do you do you have like good friends that you can you
01:14:58
can talk to and be completely open and honest to and Yeah. Yeah. A few. Zach's
01:15:02
one of them. Um Yeah. No, he's mate, he's great for this stuff. Yeah. Yeah.
01:15:07
There's there's a there's a guy that's been through it. Actually, most of my
01:15:10
mates pretty much. Yeah. My mate mate Craig as well. Um there just certain dudes that Yeah. just feel you can tell
01:15:16
tell anything. Um like my my mate Simon who I've known since we were three years
01:15:20
old, you know, he's we're quite different people, but but we've always
01:15:24
been good mates. um since yeah since then yeah we can just sort of tell each other anything as well. So I've always
01:15:30
I've always had that network. Yeah. And I've never had like massive massive
01:15:34
amounts of mates. I've always just had a few sort of close mates. So yeah, definitely. That's cool. I'm probably
01:15:40
much the same. Like my my inner circle is Yeah. very very tight. Yeah. I' I've
01:15:45
probably got massive massive walls up like but um yeah, the friends I've got
01:15:48
the friendships that I cherish and yeah protect fiercely. Are you what um are you quite an emotional guy? Like do do
01:15:55
you cry much or No. Um is that the medication that I do wonder if it's that but I haven't felt the need to for a
01:16:01
long long time but um I yeah probably did when I was younger. What about your best and worst habits if
01:16:07
if Beck was here? What would she say? Eating. Um pro probably just overeating. Um I'm pretty crap around the house to
01:16:16
be honest. Crap around the house on what way? Oh just house worker hater. Um that's
01:16:22
probably the worst. Um, yeah. I don't know if I've got any particularly bad
01:16:26
habits. Um, farting. I think they're funny. Do you um do you do you sometimes fart and and it's even
01:16:35
surprised yourself? No. No. No. I always know. Well, you're doing better than me.
01:16:39
I don't know if it's through years of running or whatever, but it's like
01:16:41
sometimes sometimes they just escape. Nothing. It's really embarrassing. What
01:16:46
have you been sticking up there? That's No, nothing. It's strictly a oneway
01:16:51
street. Yeah. No. Is is there is there any whatifs that keep you up at night? Um my rib at the
01:16:58
moment. Oh jeez. No. Um what ifs? No. Um recently I have been worried about my health. Um just just cuz again comes
01:17:09
back to my weight. Um like I had a um I've had checks at the doctor and stuff
01:17:14
and everything's fine. Like I'm not not well according to um blood pressure,
01:17:17
blood sugar, all that sort of stuff. I'm not just going to drop dead of a heart
01:17:20
attack anytime soon. But, you know, I'm I'm 40. What am I? 48. Did I say I was
01:17:25
49? I think you may have. I think I did. I'm 40. I'm turning 49 um next month.
01:17:30
So, yeah. Yeah, I think I said I was 49, but well, close enough. But yeah, honestly, it gets to that age where I
01:17:37
was born in 73. Yeah, I was 76. So, yeah, I'm 48 and turning 49 next month. So, so I'm worried about that. And I do
01:17:45
really That's why I really want this year to be the year um that I shed the weight. Um and and I I just want to be
01:17:53
in really good shape when I'm 50 years old. Um even if I've got saggy skin, I
01:17:58
get it cut off. What is Yeah. What's your What's your weakness when it comes
01:18:01
to food? Um just is it boredom eating? You just eat too much or you eat the wrong things or sitting down watching um
01:18:08
not enough movement as well? So sitting down watching TV and eating. Um lately I've started this thing um that actually
01:18:16
Mike Galvin put me onto this book. Um and it's um by what's his name? Paul
01:18:22
McKenna. Um and it's the hypnotist. Yeah. Yeah. So it's basically all it
01:18:27
called Think Yourself Thin or something. No, I can make you thin. I can make you.
01:18:31
Yeah. So it's all about um there are four rules. So basically you only eat when you're hungry. Easier said than
01:18:36
done. Um um what's the next one? um you you you have to enjoy all your food. Um so you
01:18:45
eat it really slowly and enjoy every mouthful. Um and you um stop when you're
01:18:51
getting full. There's there are four though. I can't remember the fourth one.
01:18:54
So but um so I'm trying to do that more. I'm eating eating slowly and just not
01:18:58
eating so much Uber Eats. Oh, is that your Uber Eats? Yeah, because it's easier, you know, like so
01:19:05
easy. Um, is it legal? Is there a mistake that you wish you could go back and correct? Um, h
01:19:13
not really. No, other than just it's not really one mistake. It's it's just my
01:19:19
spending um when I was younger. Um but yeah, like I said, if I did correct that, I may not have my son now because
01:19:25
it might have led me to a different path. So So not really. No. Yeah. Well, that's the thing like you change you
01:19:30
change one thing and it changes the whole course, doesn't it? Yeah. Um what are you most afraid of? Um,
01:19:36
oh, what am I most afraid of? Bears. I don't like beers and I don't like crocodiles. Those things freak me
01:19:44
out. Yeah, crocodiles give them they they could be extinct and I wouldn't care. Yeah, same. And beers, get rid of
01:19:51
them. Yeah, I think sharks get a bad rap. Yeah, I don't mind sharks, but they
01:19:55
can't walk around. So So yeah, it's like if you get attacked by a shark, it's cuz
01:20:01
you're in their house. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But I believe it's mistaken identity when a shark bites a human.
01:20:07
They don't mean to do it. But yeah, alligators and crocodiles just seem Yeah. And tigers too, apparently. Um
01:20:12
they they eat people, which I didn't know. That's why they they um somewhere
01:20:17
overseas where where they've got them. Anyway, they wear masks on the back of
01:20:20
their head cuz tigers don't attack from the front, right? I mean, they're
01:20:23
wussies, but but they they've now worked out that they're just masks and they
01:20:28
don't work anymore. But that's good for a while. Um what about future goals?
01:20:32
Well, like what do you see see yourself doing in your 50s or I want to get back into acting so purely just as a hobby
01:20:37
just um just cuz it's kind of a fun thing to do and you can get you can get paid for it which is quite neat. I did
01:20:43
did a show um last show I did was uh 2017 was a comedy show that was fun. Um so yeah, get back into that. Um making
01:20:51
video games again. I've just started doing that cuz um yeah, I've got I've
01:20:55
done so many different things. Um so yeah, I want to want to release uh release a couple of games. um over the
01:21:02
next couple of years. Yeah, you I mean you're really good at the acting thing
01:21:06
and you you're really funny and you've got a really good stage presence. Um are
01:21:11
you calling me fat? Absolutely not. Um but yeah, I I feel like you should be you should be way more successful than
01:21:18
than than what you potentially are. I think it's just um limiting myself and
01:21:22
just not I haven't had that drive like um and you've also got to if you if you
01:21:26
want to make it as an actor in New Zealand, you've got to really network and you've got to hang out with all the
01:21:31
right people and I'm just not into that stuff. I just rather show up at auditions and hope I get the part. Um I
01:21:36
don't hang out with directors and writers and you know stuff like that and I'm just not Yeah, it's it's You're not
01:21:42
a self-promoter, are you? You don't really go hard on social media or anything. No, I don't have social media.
01:21:46
In fact, that was the probably the best thing I've ever done is taken myself off
01:21:51
Facebook. Um, that worked wonders for my mental health cuz um, it turns you into
01:21:56
a different person. Like I'd get into arguments online with people I don't
01:21:59
know and or people I do know and then end friendships like over it. like I um a friend of mine who's gone fully
01:22:06
rightwing and you know antivax and all that sort of stuff and fell out with him just because I told him I didn't believe
01:22:12
that the the vaccine gave him the issues he's got you know um and that sort of
01:22:17
wouldn't have happened um without social media. I just Yeah, I think it's evil.
01:22:21
Social media is horrible. Yeah. I um I used to be active on Twitter. This is before it became X. Um, but I stopped
01:22:29
out 5 years ago cuz it just wasn't adding any any value to my life. It's
01:22:33
like, you know, Yeah. I don't have any of them now. Just basically putting yourself out there for people to have a
01:22:36
free hit at you. Why would you do that? Yeah. Yeah. Um, what is is there three words that family or friends would use
01:22:43
to describe you or what would you like them to be? Um, nice, funny, um, uh, yeah, I don't know. Three words. I
01:22:56
think I'm nice. funny and friendly maybe. I don't know. Yeah. Charismatic. No.
01:23:05
Well, you are. You're very charming. Yeah. I don't know. It's um It's quite
01:23:09
hard to compliment yourself, eh? Yeah. Yeah, it is. I think as a new Good dad, hopefully. Um but Are you a good dad? I
01:23:16
Well, uh I don't know. You do. You You love your son, eh? Yeah. Yeah, I do. Yeah. And definitely. Um I I probably I
01:23:23
need to spend more time with him. I don't like um is yeah having to when I do anything physical with them like
01:23:30
running around I just can't do it for long. I hate that. Um and I want to be
01:23:34
able to not just um do stuff like run around with the Nerf guns or whatever but actually want to do that because
01:23:41
I'll enjoy it because I'll be fitter cuz when I what I found when I lost weight
01:23:44
in the past um like when I did Body for Life I went from you know was 100 kilos or whatever down to 76. And when I was
01:23:52
slim and and athletic, I actually got out and did stuff because I enjoyed it. Like I'd just go for runs. I'd ride
01:23:59
mountain bikes, whatever. Do exercise just because I enjoyed it. Yeah. Um so I want to get back to that that state cuz
01:24:05
it's it's really weird. I mean, you'd know you're a runner, you do it cuz you
01:24:08
enjoy it, I assume, not just because it's good exercise. Yeah. I mean like you get getting fit is really tough but
01:24:15
once once you get fit and you get into that routine um if I go a couple of days without it like I feel you know I feel
01:24:21
off. That's what I started getting like with the kettle bells and I I'm doing it
01:24:24
every day and until I bug my rib but I really want to get back into it cuz I've
01:24:28
actually um found something I really like. Yeah. Um but there's so much fun.
01:24:31
Have you had had a go with them? No. I'm so coordin I can cast myself. you're
01:24:38
doing it wrong if you do that. But your strength goes through the roof and um it's the best cardio and and um and and
01:24:45
weightlifting at the same time. It's just it's just awesome. And it's it
01:24:49
gives you flexibility and core strength and all that sort of stuff that I need. Um and it's just just been shown to be
01:24:54
insane for for burning fat. So, I just can't can't wait to be able to get back
01:24:58
into that. And hopefully this will hold out. I'm going to try and train tonight.
01:25:01
So, we'll we'll see what happens. Yeah. Um Oh, yeah. What about your mom?
01:25:07
Is Is she still around? Yeah, mom's still around. How old is she now? She's
01:25:11
um living and she is Oh, god. How old is she now? 75 this year, must be. Um yeah,
01:25:17
she's she's living in um um one of the Roman's places in Devport. She's
01:25:22
actually got Alzheimer's. So, but she's she's she's all right at the moment. Um
01:25:26
we're just um yeah, she's she's not, you know, um dual yet. She's living living
01:25:30
unassisted. Yeah. Um but um yeah, that there's obviously people there that can
01:25:34
look after her if she needs needs to. So yeah, I mean that gets her down a bit. Um the fact that she's got that and
01:25:40
unfortunately she lost her partner like god god it was um year and a half ago now it must be. Um so yeah that was that
01:25:46
was pretty bad. Yeah. H how um I mean yeah my mom's about the same age. Thank
01:25:51
thankfully mom's fit and healthy but um yeah losing parents is something I'm
01:25:55
going to have to face at some stage in the in in the in the not too distant future. Um how are you going to be? And
01:26:00
it's clear to see the impact the loss of your dad had on you. How are you going
01:26:03
to be about um this is it? Well, hopefully um this time I would be more prepared because I've been through it
01:26:10
already and I and and I know what what's going to happen eventually. Um and um
01:26:16
yeah, with that it was also more of a just a shock because he got basically um he was in bed and he just couldn't get
01:26:23
out of bed one day and um I was freaked out. I brought him his breakfast in bed and then I said, "Look, I'm going to
01:26:28
call the ambulance." He didn't want me to cuz I think he knew that if he went
01:26:32
to hospital, he wasn't coming out. So, I called the ambulance, but I didn't cuz I
01:26:35
didn't know he was that bad. Um, and um cuz he was the kind of person that wouldn't tell you anything. And it
01:26:41
turned out that he um had been living with a broken hip and um he just never told me that. And um it was kind of my
01:26:50
fault because well he the obviously the cancer got into the bones and stuff and he um I had my motorbike parked down the
01:26:56
bottom of the stairs and he didn't want to knock it over so and and he act he
01:27:02
fell um and rather than grab the bike to hold himself up. He sort of um fell awkwardly and ended up breaking his hip
01:27:08
which I didn't realize. So he's living all that time and it got to the point um
01:27:12
where he just couldn't get out of bed cuz the the cancer just spread everywhere and then you a few days later
01:27:17
he was um yeah he just he was dead. So it was yeah it was cuz to me I thought he was I knew he had lung cancer um but
01:27:25
I thought he was going to live a few years cuz um you know he wasn't the doctors told him that that he probably
01:27:30
could. Um but yeah it was yeah so it was that was more of a shock. Um, so, um, but and and I also know what to expect
01:27:39
now. Yeah. Were you starting to get emotional then, even reflecting on it now? Not really. I mean, it's it's Yeah,
01:27:47
it was it was a horrible time of my life, but um, yeah, it's Yeah, everyone dies. Yeah.
01:27:53
Well, certainty, isn't it? Certainty for all of us. Um, the last one, are you
01:27:59
proud of yourself? Um, certain things. Yeah, I think so. Um, I think I think so. Yeah, I think not a trick question.
01:28:06
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think so. You know, sort of. So, when when um your mate Michael Galvin was in here, I said,
01:28:12
"Are you proud of yourself?" And he goes, "Well, I'm not ashamed of myself."
01:28:16
Yeah. I was like, "Imagine asking a question to a guest." Are you ashamed of
01:28:20
yourself? When I think about the stuff I've done, like even though none of it
01:28:23
was massively successful, like I've I've um you know, I've made a feature film,
01:28:28
I've released a book, I've um which was just just a nolla. I've um I've made my
01:28:34
own magazine. I've um you know I've released, you know, a bunch of video
01:28:38
games. Um and it was all just a learning experience and me just bouncing around different things, trying different
01:28:43
things. But I've done all those things which are pretty cool. Like um when you
01:28:46
get a magazine in your hands that you've, you know, made yourself and stuff like that, it's a pretty cool
01:28:50
feeling. So yeah, I'm pr I'm proud of the fact that I've taught myself all
01:28:53
these different things um and manage to um you know, if I could stick to stick to one of them, I like with with the
01:29:02
game development, I think that will probably be eventually where the where the big money is one day. You just you
01:29:07
just got to keep going. The guys who made Angry Birds, apparently it was their 50th game or something. Um so
01:29:12
yeah, I'm I'm I'm proud of that. Um, and I know I've got, you know, even though
01:29:16
I'm getting old, I've got a fair bit of a um a decent future ahead of me, I
01:29:20
think. Um, yeah. Proud proud of what I did on Shorton Street. Like, it was, you know, I stayed there for I was there for
01:29:26
13 years. It was Oh, it was an iconic character. Yeah. Yeah. It was Yeah, it was it was And I had a lot of fun. So,
01:29:33
it wasn't I don't I don't know if I'd do it again. um taking my son out of the
01:29:38
equation, you know, pretending if I went back um and changed everything and I still got to have my son.
01:29:44
Um I'm not sure if I'd do it again. I think I' I'd probably like to see what
01:29:49
would happen if I if I went the other way and um became a um game developer, although I was at school I was kind of
01:29:58
bit of a you know, bit of a not a nerd, but I was not cool by any means. just sort of, you know, the opposite. Um, and
01:30:07
then then ending up on TV, all of a sudden you're one of the cool kids. So, it was it was it was kind of cool in
01:30:14
that way, you know. It's like all these kids at school that thought they were so
01:30:17
cool. I'm on TV. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Stick the first 15 up your ass. Exactly. Yeah.
01:30:24
How much are you earning school boy rugby? Oh, that's cool. Hey, um, mate, I'm so
01:30:30
pleased we finally connected. Yeah. Yeah. Last time I saw you was my 40th. So that was 9 years ago. Yeah. My memory
01:30:37
is shocking. I don't even You and JJ were both there. We was in Deport. I know. It was on It was Oh, what was the
01:30:43
place called in in Hernay there? That um that bar in Hern Bay. But yeah, I think
01:30:48
I was wearing this shirt and it fit me then. Yeah. You and I we like we're not
01:30:53
we're not um particularly close like we can go for years without me or whatever.
01:30:56
But um we always get back in touch though. Yeah. No, I I feel like I feel like you're always there and and I I
01:31:02
think about you often and I I you know I wonder how you're doing and I'm pleased
01:31:05
you're doing okay. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. Hey, thanks for coming on the podcast. This has been great. I'll
01:31:10
hold you up to that doing the podcast as well. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. We should look at honestly we maybe we just put my name
01:31:17
up there. That was the Carl and Dom podcast. Yeah. I reckon there's something in like
01:31:24
a you know following your your weight journey over the next year. Yeah. Yeah, I reckon there's that would definitely
01:31:29
there was a dude that what what inspired me to do it. There's a dude in Wellington um oh I can't remember his
01:31:34
name. I emailed him and he's um asked him if he wanted to collaborate and he's
01:31:38
terrible at replying. He's replied once but I haven't heard back from him since.
01:31:41
But he lost um oh god how much did he lose? I think it was 100 kilos in a year. Just just insane just from eating
01:31:48
properly and and and um and training. And I thought, man, if he can do that, I can lose what do I need to lose about 60
01:31:55
if I want to be ripped, you know? So, um, yeah. So, um, yeah. So, and if I had something like that, I guess it would it
01:32:03
would force me to to to actually do it, you know. Yeah. Well, let's make it happen. All right. But, um, Cal Bernett,
01:32:09
thank you so much for joining me on the podcast. It's been great. You're
01:32:12
welcome. Thank you.