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Matt Watson welcome to my podcast thank you very much mate mate it's great to
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have you here I've got um I got some questions and some notes here but chatting with you for the last 20 or 30
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minutes just outside I I don't know if I'm going to need them you're an easy
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conversationalist and it's a hell of a story first of all I think it's worth
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mentioning you turned up um five minutes before you turned up you called me asking me if I wanted a coffee uh which
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I think SE speaks a lot about you oh thanks yeah I think it's just uh Menace
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I think maybe yeah um I'm honestly grateful um that you know you got you reached out and got in touch with me and
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um wanted to get me on and I guess I've I still still feel like that um every
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year like you're like you're a reluctant celebrity oh see even that word we um
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I'm conscious that um people know who I am these days but every year honestly uh
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when it comes down to a start of a new series I've think look this is the year
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everyone's going to be sick of me you know and and I'm GNA have have to disappear so that's why after 20 years I
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just feel so uh grateful that I've chosen to to end the the TV side of it at least anyway and um yeah people have
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been saying the nicest things so anyway there was a long wind away of saying thanks for having me on yeah oh no no no
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yeah in a way um so we're recording this just as the um the first episode of the
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20th season is about to start um it must feel like a bit of like an obituary or something um no it doesn't no but you
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get you're getting all these flowers and all these accolades and it's like oh
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[ __ ] like as part of you thinking oh people actually really do love this and uh am I doing the wrong thing yeah no um
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well so there's two parts to that um no I'm I'm not doing the wrong thing like I
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just feel like so sure more sure than just about anything that I've ever done
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that um it's the right time to wrap up the TV side of it for a number of reasons but um yes people do and I was I
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was not going to do this last series like um we did a TV series um building a house which was um in the B of islands
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did really well on tally it took us three and a half years to build it and I I felt like once that house was done I
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put so much energy into it I was just going to hang out there perfect my home brew and um decide you know decide on my
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next move from there but it was then I sort of looked at you know and and social media is is
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one of the good things about it is is it's an opportunity for me to see what
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people think of the shows and stuff and people can't wait for the next series
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when's your next stuff coming out and I realized how much people you after 20
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years people have grown up watching the show and I'm like it's not right for me
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to just go okay well that was great and let it kind of fade away you feel like you owe it to the fans I do and I I it
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um and I wanted to do a season where um I wasn't going into into the season going man I have to make this work to
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make it rate so I can keep my sponsors so the TV network stays interested I've
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come into this filming this season with going I don't I nothing left to prove
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I'm just going to have a real good time shooting this last season so I did it
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for myself as well um and then last week just putting a post on social media saying well look hey we're we're repping
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up the TV show number of people say I'm crying I don't know how to break it to
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my kids it's like hang on I've not died you know I'm still be releasing content
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it's just not going to be on it's not going to be on T so yeah it is a um a
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surreal thing on that but I I certainly don't see the um AIT so or or the it
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doesn't feel like an ending okay well no end of an error in a way but um but I I
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feel like you're you're probably getting out and CH pivoting at a good time
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because um I think that the medium of TV free to Air TV especially as dying and now there's a way you can do the content
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release it on your own sort of um digital platform and uh it can still reach the people even a greater audience
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yeah so I um we started a um television production company me and my mate Kiza 22 years ago and we um I I liked madfish
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TV and Karen liked tight lines television and we so so to sort it out we wrote the names on a Bits of Paper
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and we pulled it out and our company became tit lines television um which I ended up kieren uh after a few years
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with find another career path and I stuck with tit lines television eight years ago I looked at that name and had
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the word television in it and I went to the company's office and I changed it to
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tit lines media because I could see eight years ago the writing was on the wall for for TV and that's when we
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started ultimate fishing TV which is our own platform where we could post our content straight to the audience but
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when you've got TV contracts they get writes to everything first and we couldn't release any of that content so
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TV was still getting our all of our energy and all of our our best content but that platform was slowly chipping
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away in the background and then if I got time I'd go and I'd shoot something
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specifically for our online for our social media and um it just grew and grew and it's still growing by 4,000
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followers or subscribers a week wow what's your what's your YouTube numbers
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um YouTube is not great about 200,000 I think okay well I'm sitting here with I
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just clicked over 3,000 this week so to me that sounds great yeah yeah um we are like I mean I I still like we're mid
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production on this last TV series and honestly all my energy is going into that to try and make it the best TV
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series I've ever made and after two decades of doing this you deserve this um freedom and flexibility to do things
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on your own terms but let's go all the way back because it's such a fascinating
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story The Matt Watson Story So you you're sort of raised in like a fishing environment family of commercial fishes
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so that's what you always s of wanted to do yeah and then you have like a fist
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fight at a Christmas Day cricket match yeah um well my fist didn't really get
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used cuz I got knocked out pretty quick so so how old are you at the time I was 17 17 and and so your uncle gave you a
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hiding or something oh help me with a cricket bat CRI like like accidentally or or strike you with a so yeah let me
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establish let me establish this a littleit we're painting a very interesting picture of the Watson family
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as a broader group yeah so we're a very competitive family big family God and
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we've got this uncanny thing where we've got an even split of left and right
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handers amongst the BLS so on Christmas day that's how the teams would be divided lefties versus righties and uh
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we'd do volleyball um touch rugby and backyard cricket and um we the righties
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we'd done pretty well in the touch rugby which ended up being more like a game of
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League by the end of it um we lost the volleyball and it came down to the backyard cricket and it came down to the
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last ball and like you know you imagine hot summers's day everyone's had a few
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tins on Christmas day and it was me bowling to my uncle in and he owns the you know he owned the commercial fishing
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boats I'd been I'd worked all my school holidays and and weekends for him since
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I was 14 and I built up enough SE hours to get my Skippers ticket so my plan was
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you know basically come straight out of school and go and work fulltime for my uncle you know running one of his boats
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um I had told Mom I was going to go to she wanted me to be the only male in my family not to be a commercial fisherman
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um I think she I think she wanted me to be a lawyer or a doctor or something and
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pinned all their hopes on me because my brother was a dropkick so sorry Benny was a joke um and um so yeah so I
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I remember feeling so happy that running into That Christmas Feeling my last exam
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is behind me I'm never going to open another book in my life I'm just you
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know my life's going to be out in the ocean catching fish and um so but it all
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come undone with one bowl of a cricket ball so I knew my uncle in couldn't play
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a fast straight Yorker um for those that don't know the Yorkers a high speeed
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delivery aimed at the toes and he was hopeless if you pitched it up fast so I come in all the way back to the closes
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line and comeing off the long run up and I ripped it in as hard as I could maybe
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because I had a few beers that came out the hand wrong and it was a beamer a full toss that just got them B right in
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the middle of the head like sced them and cuz it was the last ball and we'd already had a big argument about no
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balls in backyard cricket and the Bloody lefties had said no there's no no balls
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in backyard Cricket so we win right and so I'm high-fiving my cousins and everything I see can see my uncle
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running at me with the bat like holding it up like he was going to hit me and I thought n he won't hit me but he did he
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did SC me with a cricket B um that's like over the arm over the body well I got my arm up and it kind of glanced off
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my shoulder which was a good thing and it got me on the jaw and of course anyone that's being whacked good in the
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jaw knows and I thought [ __ ] I can feel my legs going here like and then next thing I'm like Oh hell I've falling over
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my legs are gone and then next thing I I noticed is my dad um who is also a lefty
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um but you see at the moment my uncle hit me with a cricket bat the team's kind of split we went back to tribal
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family routs left and right's out left and right's out now it was it's War yeah so
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the old man come and punch uncle on the face I was just like oh my God it's an
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all and brawl it was yeah yeah yeah Auntie Glenn has had the hose out hose trying to
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hose yeah it was a horrendous scene for a Christmas day you know family gatherings you know and um yeah I saw my
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commercial fishing career disappear as my uncle did a burnout off up the road in his Ute he last parting shot he threw
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a coffee cup at my Ute on the way past and I thought oh man guess I'm not going to be a fisherman
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but um I had another Uncle um or my auntie Glenn's boyfriend at the time was
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uh a roofer and he said oh you want to come work for me and I said yes sweet I didn't even know what he did was the
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same day the same day one door closes another door open and that's how I became a roofer I so I CU I've heard
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this story before the Uncle Ian one how does he how's the relationship now how
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does he feel about you telling the a does he love it or embarrassed yeah I'm
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I don't know we've never really spoken about it um I in a lot of ways I've I
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mean because it's such a good story right in a lot of way and a lot of ways I feel bad about it because he's a good
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guy right he's great guy and like he was my hero growing up you know he was the
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greatest mullet fisherman and way mouth he's done incredibly well for himself
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but I don't know what it was it was a if you get hit with a ball like you're
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you're in a rage and he probably immediately regretted it oh yeah oh absolutely absolutely but you know we're
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from that area you guys don't talk about that sort of [ __ ] we just um you know
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see each other next Christmas the very the very next time I saw him was the very next Christmas Day we downgraded to
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a tennis ball for sa no no we see my mom banned banned all sports all sports were banned for about
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four years and then when it finally came back and it was actually um back at um uncle Steve ay glennon's place again um
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we we said come on let look we're not going to get into a punch up again let
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us play backyard cricket and we'd been going about five minutes and I jokingly
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just gestured to throw the ball at my Uncle Ann and my mom pulled the stumps out of the ground we got another two we
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got we got another band so yeah I mean yeah I mean it wasn't on but you know I I do a lot of
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always feel bad because he's not a a a violent man or or anything like that it
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was um you know it was a and and I don't bear any any ill will you know like at
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all that's a great story but you're painting a picture of your family is is
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it a Bogan family um no South I don't know I mean because it's my family
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you're you're in it you're just they're your family right yeah um um I mean we we're from all of us
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from South Oakland so Way by way I don't mean ban as a derogatory term I I would just um say
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kiwi working class hardworking um family like and everyone in my family's done
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done really well through hard work um you know so I I always had that as not just with my mom and dad but you know
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aunties and uncles I I just great role models for people that just got up every day and worked hard you had a party hard
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yeah work hard play hard yeah and and it was the it was the mentor then like literally I think it was my generation
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that started saying that but it was our parents that we saw doing that you know they just going to work and working hard
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never complaining about it um and then and maybe maybe to be fair probably playing you know in in the light of 2023
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probably playing a bit too hard that was like the the the peak of kiwi binge drinking culture ER I feel anyway yeah
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you and I are about the same age and it was definitely that generation where you
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know eating is cheating and no someone's in the Hydraulics man all of that yeah yeah yeah um yeah
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it's great there's another another term which um sounds derogatory almost like
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the word Bogen kiwi batler I feel like you like a kiwi kiwi betler sounds like someone that's um has nothing but bad
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luck after bad luck but I I sort of frame it as differently someone that's just grinds and works [ __ ] hard and
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get what they're after I that's a wonderful compliment I don't I don't see
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that derogatory at all I um I um see someone that works hard um whatever their circumstance um with whether they
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manag to get ahead or not hopefully they do um kiwi B I just see that was a really kind thing to say about somebody
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oh well that's cool you're you're like you're a guy and we'll get into the
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whole M Watson story but you've um like in spite of every obstacle that's that's
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coming your way like you you know you've defied the odds and you've made your own
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luck yeah like in a big way yeah yeah I mean I I get told I'm lucky all the time
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and it used to really annoy my wife would' go out somewhere and people would
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come up for a for a photo or to say get or whatever and they'd say oh man you're
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so lucky you got the best job in the world you're so lucky and would be like
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why don't you tell them about you know how much bloody stress you're under and
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all that like no that's that's if if they think that I'm out fishing every
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day and I've got the best life in and I do have good life like I'm not complaining about at all um that means
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that I'm I'm portraying that dream you know and and of there watching that man
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that guy's got it easy or got it good well I'm doing a good job so I I would
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you know I wouldn't want to break anyone's illusion and if I turn around
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and said them actually mate I'm just about going broke I don't know where I'm
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going to find the money for the next series you know all of this sort of stuff um you know that would kind of
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ruin that yeah you're sort of like an unlikely TV star in that TV's always
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been one of these um Industries where there's there's someone sitting at the
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top that either gives you a tech or a cross and decides if you're going to be
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on the TV or not going to be on the TV and you've just sort of like penetrated
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your way through in spite of that gatekeeper and it's remarkable mate yeah and buted heads with a few Gatekeepers
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and and there is no way around them like if they decide that and that's why I've
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had to switch networks like what and sometimes it felt like the higher the show rated when when we were just
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winning like all genres like head to-head with everyone we were just rating the pants off of things a lot of
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the people that were working at the TV networks were people that had their own ideas and dreams about TV shows that
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failed and I only found out this in sort of retrospect um and I don't know whether it was professional jealousy
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they're like who's this guy that was a roofer who's never been to Media School
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never done anything who does he think he is coming in here and getting ratings like that um and the you know I had the
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words quoted to me from a TV exec which I thought was absolutely ridiculous you know ratings aren't everything Matt I'm
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kind of like well if we're not rating ratings are everything and you're gone
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yeah they live and die by the way they get every [ __ ] day so we had to bounce around networks and I was
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constantly trying to convince people that it's worthwhile but the main thing
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that allowed us to keep going was that they weren't paying us it was no cost so
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it was no cost no risk and our sponsors bore that risk we're going to fund the
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series and um I know people think they're sponsors but for me like honestly itm fishing show it's got the
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name itm in it and it would be just the nothing if it wasn't wasn't for them and
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um you know I'm just I'm I'm not here on your show to try and plug itm but as an
00:17:03
independent Creator you can plug them all the [ __ ] you want really absolutely and and I'm I'm well aware of the
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situation you get like they come on in the early days when when you've got nothing they come on with good faith and
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maybe because they like you as a person and then 5 years 10 years 15 years down the track it's easy for one of their
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competitors to come on and try and counter offer yeah um when you've already established but they your day
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ones yeah exactly and so um not just a lot of the sponsors that we had at day one um I get H up particularly like you
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know fishermen like um fishermen are passionate about their gear and everything they use and a lot of them
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will look to me and they'll like um and I'll get hit up at a boat show or even
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at a a pub or something okay Matt like if you weren't um sponsored by stab craft What boat would you actually have
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and you know and what what wagon would you be toying it with what what tackle would you use and I say to them you know
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what before IID even thought of the idea of a TV show I had a staby craft boat I
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had a Toyota I had Shimano tackle I had Fern I had all of those Brands and I paid full retail for them and I've still
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got them to this day and yes all their competitors have come along some have offered me some crazy money um but um I
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I'm a loyal person and um um don't get me wrong if the gear was rubbish it
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would be a different story but you know I was I was that um Enthusiast wanting to do my research and buy the best gear
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and I felt I did and I've stuck with them and they've stuck with me minutes
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and that has been a massive part of the success of the show um and um loyalty um
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can be hard for some people I think in terms of commercial terms when you're
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being offered a lot of money in the long term it pays off um because it's not
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only I mean let's say um opposition to staby craft comes along and they offer
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me um a bunch of money and I go yeah I'll take it that's a good bunch of
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money and one day I'm saying I love these staby Craft boats next day I'm
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saying hun yeah exactly I'm saying that that doesn't just affect um staby craft
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that affects all of my sponsors because they rely on um the end user getting my honest opinion and all of a sudden
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they're like hang on Matt weren't you saying this maybe you're just saying
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what you're being paid to say and I've always prided myself on if if one of our
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sponsors bring out a product that I don't think's that good I'll try it I'll
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just say look you're best not for me to use this on the show because I I won't
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plug it yeah if I don't think it's good sometimes I'll even go back and and
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tweak it with my recommendations which is incredibly um flattering yeah so yeah so um to anyone that's doing anything um
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in any kind of business I would say if you're in it really in it for the long
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haul um be loyal um you know you might think in the short term that Jesus isn't
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going to pay off but but it will okay so let's go back so there's um the punch up with Uncle Ian and then
00:19:54
another Uncle offers you a job as a roofer yeah so you become a roofer this is is where where you have the um the
00:20:00
testicle injury yeah yeah the Epiphany as I call so how long had you been Roofing at this point um I've been
00:20:05
Roofing at that point so this would have been I would have been roofing for almost six years five or six years and
00:20:12
so this is your lot in life you think this is well um or did you did you still like have um were you missing the ocean
00:20:19
thean so I I'd become um more of a recre recreation I mean I always recreationally fish when I even when I
00:20:27
was doing my commercial fishing with with the family but once the commercial fishing door closed um it open up this
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you know this thing called weekends um whereas you know I could work all week as a roofer and then on the weekend I'd
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hook my boat on um and I would tow it and I could go up to H um up north one weekend to chase Maron I'd be down fakat
00:20:48
the next weekend chasing tuna be great I just going on these weekend adventures with my mates and I was just like man
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this is awesome um but I and I knew was going to get back to fishing I had to it
00:20:59
was in it was in me it was in my blood I wanted to be a fisherman and my way of being a fisherman again was I was going
00:21:05
to be the hardest roof TI Tyler ever I was going to squirrel all my money away and one day I was going to buy a big
00:21:11
game fishing boat I was going to move to the Bay of islands I was going to take people out on fishing charters and that
00:21:16
was my way of getting back to this full-time dream of of being on the ocean every day um and that was exactly what I
00:21:23
was doing and then the more successful the roofing business got the less fishing I was doing cuz I found myself
00:21:30
you know I got up to 11 staff at one stage and I was working weekends and I'd worked I know must have
00:21:38
been close to three months straight it was in March anyway and it was a most awesome day perfect it was a Sunday
00:21:45
perfect day for fishing and of course I wanted to be out fishing but you know fle flexure construction needed me to
00:21:51
put more roofs on so and I had the contract so I was doing that and I was just I was on the roof um only one of my
00:21:59
workers had turned up because it was a Sunday young guys you know and um I was thinking about what it would be like to
00:22:05
be out on the ocean and that's cuz my mat had rang me just as a just before I
00:22:09
went up the ladder and said mate it is the calest day we've ever seen across
00:22:12
the Monaco bar you could water skare across here and there saying there's guys on the radio hooking up on Marlon
00:22:18
and I was like man I wish I was out there I was just looking around there was not a breath of wind and I was
00:22:23
sitting the roof out and I was walking backwards and I was thinking thinking about being on the ocean and I should
00:22:28
have been thinking about where I was stepping cuz stepped over the gutter one leg either side of the gutter and it was
00:22:35
a um a sharp midle edge on the inside and wearing the old rugby short shorts don't afford much protection so my my
00:22:44
first thought actually when I hit was [ __ ] I've just entered the gutter and
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it's going to cost about 400 bucks to replace it so I'm working today for free
00:22:51
so I was pissed off that I just damaged the roof um and then my next thought was
00:22:56
oh [ __ ] where's all that blood coming from I could see like blood trickling
00:23:00
down your leg oh no it was actually at that stage it was dripping down onto the roof trusses below me I thought [ __ ]
00:23:06
there's quite a lot of blood I'm like where am I bleeding from so I stood you
00:23:08
weren't you weren't in pain or anything you just a bewi no it was the old first
00:23:13
it was no it was the took the wind out of me it was the old kicking the nuts feeling so bit bit doubled over um and
00:23:19
then of course you get a bit of adrenaline when you see some blood so I thought [ __ ] that's not very good and I
00:23:24
just sort of no one wants to see blood from that part of the body I know so I slipped my hand on the side of my shorts
00:23:29
and I just came out covered in blood oh and so so and on under the shorts though
00:23:33
yeah yeah yeah know you got a I'm I'm from Rea but I got a C manager car okay ouch what next okay so first
00:23:43
aid time um go to the Ute um put my feet on the dash adjust the rearview mirror to assess and so but of course before I
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do this I've got to take my my shorts right off and I it felt really weird like being on a building site taking my
00:23:57
bloody my shorts mind's off but I I had to to see what the damage was and all I
00:24:02
could think at the time was cuz I'm not I'm I'm not that great with blood well
00:24:07
not that great with my own like anyone else I I'm I'm good but I I think many
00:24:12
people many people are it's quite alarming yeah and I didn't my actual thought was is [ __ ] if I pass out here
00:24:20
the plumbers do on site in about half an hour he's going to find me with no pantsil [ __ ] pass out you he's going
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to wonder what the [ __ ] going on um so um so anyway i' like right man up Matt you got to do this so I put my
00:24:32
feet on the dash adjust the rearview mirror and then I saw what the wound looked like and I was like oh [ __ ] it's
00:24:38
bad what was it was it on on the penis or just the no no no no that between between the ass and there's a name for
00:24:44
it oh the GU yeah the GU perum perenium yeah I knew it was it I'd probably call
00:24:49
it a perennial or something but anyway um yeah so so so the G was was was like an x- wound right so um
00:24:58
I grab I grabbed my my my first aid kit out and the first thing I saw was a roll
00:25:03
a rolled up bandage and it was just the right size to jam in the hole so I jammed that in the
00:25:08
hole medical ter yeah yeah jam it in the hole to stop the blood coming out yeah and um and then I was like I've got to
00:25:15
kind of keep it in there so I was um and the bandage wouldn't stick in there
00:25:20
because of all the blood so I got a roll of insulation tape and um I'm literally
00:25:25
in my you with insulation tape taping my cumas back together and uh my the phone
00:25:32
rings and it's my mates again and I could hear them just shouting like just absolute ecstasy they were so excited
00:25:39
they're like we got a triple hook up of tuner and I could hear one of them thumping on the deck I could hear beer
00:25:44
bottles clinging together these guys were beside they were so excited they wanted to ring and tell me they've got
00:25:49
this massive Tuna on the boat and I'm sitting there and I thought holy [ __ ]
00:25:54
you know like I would love to be out there having a bear with these guys at 8:30 in the morning on a Sunday just
00:26:00
absolutely you know and but here I am taping my balls back together at work and I haven't had a day off for months
00:26:07
I'm like what the hell are you doing Matt um you know yes you know I'm working hard's good and I'll get there
00:26:14
one day but why don't I do it now so like I literally drove to the medical center got myself stitched up um and I
00:26:22
you know went back picked up Clint my work gear dropped him off and all this time driving I'm thinking about how I'm
00:26:28
going to change the course of my life I'm not going to be the hardest working
00:26:31
roof toer anymore I'm going to get fishing I'm going to get back on the ocean as soon as I can and so I I walked
00:26:36
into um the place where I was living and my girlfriend comes out she's like holy
00:26:41
[ __ ] look at that blood all over you what happened I said don't worry about
00:26:43
that here's what's going to happen I'm going to get my brother to run the
00:26:47
business while um I go and set my Skippers exams and get my Skippers ticket once I got my Skippers ticket
00:26:53
I'll be a to get a job working on a game fishing boat so I won't have to buy one
00:26:56
you know it's not 10 years away and I can work on someone else's boat we can
00:27:00
move to the Bay of islands but before I move up there I about want to get my OE out of my system so once I got my
00:27:06
Skippers ticket and a job I'm going to take off overseas play rugby over there
00:27:10
for a bit travel around see Europe go to the Beerfest get back for the next game
00:27:14
fishing season spend the rest of my life in the Bay of Island she was like who [ __ ] slow down she was like I don't even
00:27:19
know if I can get time off to go to Europe I'm like it's all right you're
00:27:22
not coming yeah I know so was that was that Ken that's Ken who now your wife wife
00:27:29
wife of 21 GE I should know this all the time I head 21 years so was that would you
00:27:34
describe that the like the roof thing and is it like an epony yeah it was it shocked me into it like I always knew I
00:27:42
was going to get there and be a fisherman I always knew I was going to um live in the Bay of islands after um I
00:27:47
went up there with my mates when I was 16 and we got there in the dark and I I woke up and and the old lady back of the
00:27:54
van open the opened the door and it was Daylight and we're just stopped next to
00:27:58
this beautiful Bay and I said to my mates I'm gonna live here one day like it was just and so I always knew I was
00:28:04
going to go there like I was going to live in the Bay of islands but like I said I just thought I'd have to work a
00:28:08
lot harder and a lot longer and then it and then that that changed like just honestly the thinking of my mates out
00:28:15
there having such a good time and what I was missing out on I'm like why wait
00:28:19
till I'm you know my body's broken from roofing for another 10 years and by that
00:28:24
stage I'll be mid to late 30s probably you know I'm in my my mid 20s now like
00:28:30
I'm on the prime of my life let's get up to the B of islands and yeah I I did
00:28:35
exactly that so did you do the OE yep I did with Ken without Ken without Ken yeah I know because that was well
00:28:43
because it was like that sounds terrible in the light of the all it does you know
00:28:48
so um we were I think we were engaged I'm not sure actually then we we're
00:28:54
engaged or at least we were we were well and truly shacked up you know so um and
00:28:59
I'm I'm really grateful to Ken that she was like okay well something you got to
00:29:03
do um a lot of my mates were over there so I I went and did the OE and geez if you don't mind another digression I I
00:29:11
actually um I did my ACL coming off of a table at the bearfest um that year the so it was 2000 and I think it was the
00:29:20
end in the Eagles had won the AFL the Aussie rules thing and I didn't don't
00:29:24
follow Aussie rules so I don't know who these guys are well they turned up at
00:29:28
hofra house at the befest all these big strapping Aussie Lads just on the Lash they were on a bender after they'd won
00:29:34
the won the AFL or a bunch of them were and I ended up just sort of drinking with them and then I somehow ended up in
00:29:41
a wrestling match on top of a table and I I came off second best and kind of came off the table and I knew I'd done
00:29:47
my knee when when I came off so um had to go to um Hospital in Germany and I had medical insurance so the the German
00:29:55
doctors wanted to do surgery because they could just rack it up on insurance the insurance company in New Zealand
00:30:00
wanted to fly me home for the surgery so I said to the the doctor on the phone back in New Zealand I like well how much
00:30:06
longer can I do on this trip before I come home for surgery and he's like oh
00:30:10
look you want to be back within the next three or four weeks so I literally did a
00:30:13
runner from the hospital on crutches uh and the efficiency of the Germans as recently as two years ago they've
00:30:20
tracked me down in Northland and they've got the invoice for the crutches like
00:30:24
amazing get over it yeah so but anyway ended up um backpacking around Europe on crutches which led me to we ended up in
00:30:33
um the Vatican um you know it was something and and I befriended this Aussie um guy on a bus and we went to
00:30:40
see what this whole thing was about because the pope was in town to do a special service for his Jubilee year um
00:30:46
and we um there's all of these and it was mostly priest and it turns out it was invited you couldn't get into the
00:30:52
Vatican on this day because all the best parishioners have been invited to this service for this Jubilee year and they
00:30:58
had like that was like charie and the Chocolate Factory the golden ticket to get in through the gates of course we
00:31:04
didn't have one we had just couple of you know kiwi and Aussie boat um and we're like oh well we found out we
00:31:09
couldn't get in uh that day but it was pretty cool to see all these excited um
00:31:13
Catholics I guess um and we were just wondering wandering off and a priest came and put his hand on my shoulder and
00:31:18
he said I you know bless you my son you know you've come on a long pilgrimage
00:31:22
and I was like H yeah did you give the crutches yeah so he thought was a [ __ ] and
00:31:29
so so I was like here's an opportunity right I can work this and I've got to be
00:31:33
it's a fine line you don't go lying to a priest right he was an American um
00:31:37
priest and he was on his his full priest gears so I said oh yes Father you know I've come on a long pilgrimage and he
00:31:44
goes oh you here to see the father had a name for the Pope the the something Grand Puba whatever the name is they
00:31:52
call the pope and I'm like yeah I am but unless um I don't he goes oh have you
00:31:56
got your pass and I said no noas I I don't have one and he said oh look brother so and so from Texas couldn't
00:32:03
make it um so I'll go and speak with you know my and he'd gone to this little
00:32:07
huddle with his other priest and he came out and he had a he had a pass for me he
00:32:10
says you know the Lord's blessed you today and and you can come in um you know to see to see the pope and I was
00:32:17
like oh thank you so much father um what about my caregiver which my Aussie mate and they got it
00:32:26
they got him in as well and so um yeah all cuz I got boo SC yeah so I got I got boozed and got wrestled an AFL guy blew
00:32:35
out my ACL and um yeah got to see the pope because of it um but yeah I came back to New Zealand um had the surgery
00:32:42
and um yeah moved to the Bay of islands and started working on what I thought was going to be my forever job I was
00:32:47
going to work on game fishing boats for the rest of my life I loved it yeah that
00:32:51
was a hell I thought that was going to take a different tangent where like the pope like fixes your knee or something
00:32:57
oh yeah no no should no we were um so okay so you came back in you're fishing yeah um oh first of all so so
00:33:07
yourself and Ken what's the story there how how did you guys meet how did you
00:33:10
guys get together so we both went to J High School um we didn't really know each other that well at school kind of
00:33:17
knew of each other we were um we were a different year I was a year ahead of Kalen um and then so when I moved out of
00:33:25
home SL kicked out of home um or was there a story there oh just no just I was an egg 18y old and
00:33:35
coming home at 3:00 in the morning feeling like I could make all the noise I wanted and my dad I just young and
00:33:40
selfish yeah you're just stupid just you know and um and took exception to my dad
00:33:46
um calling me all their names under the sun and right I'm I'm off then you know you
00:33:52
know I had a I had a V8 Brock replica you know cuz I couldn't afford the real
00:33:57
one you know um so I threw all the gear in the back of my V8 and burned all out off the driveway and went crashed on the
00:34:03
mat's place for a couple of weeks until I found a flat and I landed on my feet
00:34:07
because I I got a flat in um in Monaco which was Flash compared to Rea and and I was flatting with four girls um which
00:34:15
was great you know like most guys go flatting and it's pretty feral this place was tidy yeah always tidy people
00:34:21
cleaning up after you yeah yeah exactly and um and it was only two minutes Drive
00:34:26
um to the the the popular nightclub in um manal which was uh Broncos at the time was it was the wild west back in
00:34:34
those days um and one of um one of my flat mates was good friends with Ken and of course you know friends come over to
00:34:42
the flat and one thing happens you know one thing leads to another and uh yeah so that was when I was I think we got
00:34:50
together when uh I was 19 so that is almost 30 yeah almost 30 years ago incred it's incredibly but I think like
00:35:00
you were talking about before about the um the Partnerships that you've had with
00:35:03
businesses it's like um just that sense of loyalty that you have as a person
00:35:07
yeah oh Ken's incredibly incredibly loyal too and obviously um you know when
00:35:12
I'm taking off to Europe and being a a selfish young guy you know um I'm I'm
00:35:17
grateful for that as well you know and I and I just think we make a really good good team you know like um you know
00:35:23
we're we're really good mates as well and um don't get me wrong it's like any
00:35:27
relationship there's there's tough there's been tough bits you know there's
00:35:31
for sure yeah yeah there's been really tough bits but that's a massive part of
00:35:35
you know of any sort of success is stability you know like it's you hear about it in a lot of cliche terms like
00:35:41
if you've got a really strong Foundation you can do outrageous things and you can
00:35:45
try things because you know you can always fall back and there's going to be
00:35:48
someone there so yeah yeah I love that yeah are you it looks like your eyes are watering up it's dust mate D you got got
00:35:56
to vacuum this room a bit better mate are you yeah are you do you find you're
00:36:01
getting quite emotional as you get older yeah yeah I'm exactly the same kids make
00:36:05
you like that and like um I find it um you know I I can talk about you know things I've done in Korea things as soon
00:36:13
as I start talking about people I care about well you feel it yeah yeah I don't
00:36:17
know what it is a i and for me it was probably mid- 40s when it when it started and it's um oh I'm an easy cry
00:36:23
now but it's always tears of gratitude like you know too that I'm happy something that someone's done for me oh
00:36:31
it's bloody cool mate it's good to see tears in your eyes yeah yeah thanks
00:36:34
remember it was a dust no shame in there okay so we go back again so you come back from Yi
00:36:41
you're doing some fishing and then the the biggest TV show at the time is um
00:36:46
like the Sports Cafe oh yeah with so Mark Alice um that guy leard Rex So Co epic you never get away with it now it's
00:36:56
a moment in time that'll never be repeated yeah so you you you're not as I
00:36:59
said you and I are about the same age me and everyone in my friends group would all sort of start to talk like Mark
00:37:05
Ellis and you did exactly the same I was the same it was because he was he was what you wanted to be he was you know he
00:37:11
was a lad icon um he was well he was an all black you Warrior oh yeah and the the woman loved him right obviously a
00:37:19
good-looking guy um so like just charismatic charismatic funny razor sharp what still is to this day
00:37:27
um so you know when I you know and and when I first made the fishing video entry for Sports Cafe when they
00:37:37
announced it was actually Mark that announced that they were going to do a a a fishing video competition and um as an
00:37:43
aside to that because I um I know Mark quite well now with us both being ambassadors for Toyota so um you know
00:37:50
I'm luy to spend a lot of time with my you know Boyhood hero I guess um he said
00:37:56
that um um that was not a Sports Cafe promotion he bumped into guys from staby Craft and they said hey look um if we
00:38:04
can if we give you a boat we about to get us some promotion so live on here out of the blue he announces that
00:38:10
they're they're doing a fishing video competition and the winners get to go to
00:38:14
the stabby crow fishing tournament and Rick has since told me he was sitting there going what the hell this isn't so
00:38:20
he's done his own side hustle to get himself a free bat to run a fishing video comp once he said it live on here
00:38:26
they can't dial it back and of course I was in from SE and it just so happened
00:38:30
to be that I was home on a Wednesday night when it was on I'm like I'm going
00:38:35
to enter this fishing video competition and I'd never used a camera or or done
00:38:39
anything like that so I got some mates up and and we made that video and but as soon as the camera was turned on I found
00:38:47
myself not talking like me but trying to talk like Mar Kellis because it's like
00:38:52
well I'm on I'm on TV now I guess even though it was only a handicam I've got
00:38:56
to have a a larger than life personality and that was who was the the role model
00:39:02
yeah cuz I've seen um some footage of you when you were like 16 17 catching big fish and um you were you're like and
00:39:09
I don't know maybe it's an age or a stage that you're going through like the
00:39:11
later stages of puberty whatever but you seem shy and awkward and there's not a
00:39:15
lot of um like camera Charisma going on no so as um with that Sports Cafe competition did that sort of like plant
00:39:23
sort of I don't know set the tone of who you are today and who we see on TV yes
00:39:27
yeah it did I mean so when um I mean when you see me today on TV and I get excited I am excited okay some people
00:39:34
are even my mates have accused me of Hamming it up um but I do and and the way and if I could sort of wind that
00:39:41
back when my mates say to me oh look you um you're Hamming it up there mate like
00:39:46
um you we were out in the boat with you last week you called a 30 kilo Kingfish and you said how about that one boys and
00:39:51
that was about it and let it go whereas I saw you catch a 20 kilo one last week on the the show and you just about did a
00:39:57
back flip you you know and I said well the difference is and we were watching an all black Scotland test at the time I
00:40:02
said if the All Blacks win it's good right and they're like yep I'm like if
00:40:06
you had bet $20,000 on the old blacks to win you'd be a whole lot happier and
00:40:10
they're like hell yes I'm like that's why that Kingfish I was so excited I had
00:40:14
to fly our guests across from Aussie we'd had bad weather we had one day to catch a big Kingfish and we caught it so
00:40:21
that's the that's part of the excitement as well people you know as it's not just
00:40:27
the actual catching of the fish it's like yes I've made another episode you
00:40:31
know like what G and I gambled on myself so yeah so um it it's it didn't so much set a
00:40:41
persona but it gave me like a um a a cloak I could put on I wasn't I wasn't
00:40:47
Matt the shy guy that just loved fishing I was pretending to be someone on TV and
00:40:53
it was that same um pretending or or cloak that allowed me to do stunt fishing you know like allowed me to I
00:41:01
never once felt that I could get hurt if I was leaping out of a helicopter or jumping in with a shark because it was
00:41:08
all pretend like it felt like it wasn't real um it was and dangerous I suppose
00:41:14
you get swept up in the moment of just getting this content it's got to be now
00:41:17
and ever and you're so in the zone I call it codc Carriage like I'd do I'd do
00:41:22
things in in front of a camera you know with a camera on that I would you know I wouldn't be out fishing with my mates
00:41:28
and so oh I'm just going to LEAP overboard and grab that shark now Point yeah exactly but but in that
00:41:35
particular era that was what was working for getting us eyeballs and I was in the
00:41:39
business of getting people to watch yeah so so you win the the Sky Sports CA the
00:41:43
Sports Cafe competition the fishing video and then what that's not like a big break did that just sort of plant
00:41:49
the seed that I could do this as a TV show yeah so people um I just got feedback from people oh that was really
00:41:55
cool that was really funny and all that sort of thing and but it didn't lead to
00:41:58
anything no no it didn't no no no I mean it's a popular folklore that um that was
00:42:03
my big break and you know TV network started ringing me offering a whole lot of money I mean that that didn't happen
00:42:09
that was just like a flash in the pan it was great the best thing about it was I
00:42:13
got to meet Mark Alis and go and have a a weekend in inago with Mark and Bluff which was yeah we won't talk about that
00:42:20
um but um it it planted the seed as that's a good way to tell a story you know like we I had an idea and I said to
00:42:28
my mates well film this this and this and we piece it together like that and we edited it with two VHS players
00:42:33
literally we recorded onto one we' push play and then we'd record on the other
00:42:37
one like literally the same way that you would pirate uh you know because it was
00:42:41
only editing yeah old school ding yeah well just you know ripping off Terminator 2 from video easy basically
00:42:48
was was my editing skills um so um I i' started um around that time writing a
00:42:56
couple of articles for New Zealand fishing news and I had M to a fisherman like man that was such a great read I
00:43:02
love that ra so I would um bring the when the fishing news would come out like yes I've got the cover story and so
00:43:09
you know I'd take the kids off and I'd make my wife Ken a cup of tea and like
00:43:14
sit down look at you want to read this article you know and I it's like this is
00:43:17
going to be allow her to read something that I've produced and she'll go it'll
00:43:22
open her eyes to this incredible life that I'm leaving when I'm when I'm not
00:43:25
home I would poke around the corner and she's already shoved it to the side she's got
00:43:29
new idea or she's she's she's reading about what bloody Kate and bloody
00:43:35
William are up I don't know but no zero [ __ ] given about zero [ __ ] like um and I was like and so the the
00:43:45
actual moment when I thought hey maybe TV could be something I could do was I was shooting handic cam footage out on
00:43:52
the boats that I was working on and I was literally playing back some for my my own viewing pleasure I had the kids
00:43:57
with me that were little in the living room and Ken walked into the living room and she thought it was just me watching
00:44:03
TV and I didn't know she was standing behind me and I just heard her say holy
00:44:08
[ __ ] look at that she's like look at that guy grab a hold of that huge fish
00:44:12
like is that dangerous I'm like that's me like she's like what do you mean you
00:44:17
had like a mask and a wet no no well yeah that oh there was the particular bet was like from the back you know and
00:44:24
um there was I was leader in what lering a out and pulling it up alongside a boat
00:44:28
and then they can get quite wild so you got to grab them by the bill and let let
00:44:31
the hook out and take the hook out and all that sort of stuff and she was watching that but and then because of
00:44:36
course she doesn't expect to see me on on television well I wasn't I was was a
00:44:40
home home video playing playing through the TV and when I said that's me she was
00:44:45
like that's incred and then she started asking questions and that was the when I
00:44:49
realized it was the first time and she we'd been together at that stage 15 years um um married for quite a few and
00:44:58
it was the first time she'd ever asked me about the ocean like I could go fishing and this is true like I've I
00:45:05
could go to Canada to catch giant blue funa and I can be away for two weeks I get back she doesn't ask me how the
00:45:11
fishing is she's like uh what movies did you watch on the flight uh did you get
00:45:16
an upgrade what did you get me like zero [ __ ] about fishing like like none whatsoever and so for me this is like
00:45:22
wow this is the way I can talk to more than just fishing Enthusiast you cut through to a broader audience and I
00:45:28
thought you know and and I didn't rush out and and make a a a TV show that next
00:45:33
day it wasn't like the big um Epiphany moment like the ball gash um it was but
00:45:39
it made me think about it and it was just when I was sitting on on deck on a boat and I love working on those boats
00:45:45
don't give me a wrong I I loved it but it took me away I I was missing 21st you
00:45:50
know my my sister only sister 21st I was missing kids first steps birthdays wedding anniversary all these sorts of
00:45:57
things that you know I wanted to be around with my family for so I was sitting on Deck it was just a rough day
00:46:03
it was a bit miserable and we had a big tangle in the Ls I'm untangling this I'm
00:46:07
like man I need to get back I need a bit of control over my life and have my own
00:46:11
business again like I did when I was Roofing and but it has to be in fishing I'm like can't go back to commercial
00:46:16
fishing because I'd kind of learned that a lot of the practices even that I was
00:46:20
involved in um was not right you know we were we were doing too much harm to the
00:46:25
environment um there are some still don't I'm not anti all commercial fishing there's
00:46:30
still some really good decent people out there doing the right thing but a lot of
00:46:34
it was no good and it was too expensive to get into the industry you know to buy
00:46:38
the quota even if you didn't want to fish the right way so I can't do that um
00:46:43
I don't the the charter industry was was a massive money loss like I watched my
00:46:50
boss had built this amazing boat he was an EXC commmercial fisherman incredible fisherman great great mentor I'd watched
00:46:56
them go gray with with wor losing that much money owning a charter boat because of all the compliance cost and so I
00:47:03
can't go into chter fishing I was like and that's when I just thought oh I
00:47:07
could make a fishing show and it just popped into my head and so I just came back and quietly went about researching
00:47:14
and like this was my level of thinking what do you need to make a fishing show you need a camera so I looked up the
00:47:20
camera oh geez they're quite expensive so I'm going to need some money go to
00:47:23
the banks see if I'm going to borrow some money Bank says no we're not giving
00:47:27
you a business loan cuz that's a very rightfully so yeah that's a very [ __ ]
00:47:30
business plan like you're a fisherman roofer we we'll loan you money if that's
00:47:34
the business you want to do but not for television and um but I had enough equity in my house and I just went great
00:47:40
I'm going to borrow this money um yeah 80 80 grand he 80 grand yeah 80 grand so
00:47:46
okay so um so so Ken you she's your wife at that stage yep okay so you're you're
00:47:51
a young married couple um one kid two kids at that point we had one kid at that point okay so you got a little bit
00:47:58
of equity in your house you're borrowing you want to borrow money on the mortgage
00:48:01
for something that she doesn't give a [ __ ] about yeah how do how do you get
00:48:05
that over the line how does she have the faith or belief in you that this is the
00:48:07
right thing to do it was the old um do it and ask for forgiveness um I had did you not need Jewel signatures no no I
00:48:16
didn't I think you were having this you you you talked about it no this is the no I
00:48:22
didn't oh I mean um I did tell her I was going to the bank to get a business loan
00:48:27
right um I I didn't mention that it was going to end up going on the house cuz
00:48:31
the bank had no no faith in me um um but kayen and she says it much more eloquently than me when I've you know
00:48:40
know I've heard her telling other people she just said I I knew I knew that he
00:48:45
was going to do it and she said you know and I knew it seemed like an outrageous
00:48:49
idea but she just said I Met's always done the things he says he's going to do
00:48:54
and um [ __ ] that having someone believe in you that much and just just know even if you um don't
00:49:00
have belief in yourself at certain points of the way knowing that someone else who knows you as well if not better
00:49:06
than what you do yourself knows that you're going to make this decision then
00:49:09
figure out how to make it work that is so cool and we did a lot of figuring out man like a lot of figuring out like I am
00:49:16
so grateful for my naivity like if I had any clue of like if I was able to jump forward two years and see um how um many
00:49:27
roadblocks would be put in my way by um advertising agencies because I wasn't
00:49:32
going through them to get sponsors how many roadblocks would be put in the way by the TV Executives and all that sort
00:49:36
of stuff I would have gone SH now maybe this is not such a good idea maybe maybe
00:49:41
I'll just you know borrow the money and buy some quter and go back to commercial
00:49:43
fishing it's probably what I would have done but um thank goodness to my naivity
00:49:49
I just thought I'm going to be able to do it I'm going to do it different than
00:49:52
everyone else I'm going to make it better than everyone else and that will somehow and I don't quite know how and
00:49:58
and I kind of thought it would be a sponsorship model um it will result in getting money because I mean look at it
00:50:04
was TV right back 20 years ago if you're on TV you're cracking it you're cracking
00:50:09
it yeah that's amazing and you so you so you make the TV series yep or you make
00:50:14
the pilot episode first yeah yeah we made the pilot episode and that took like 80 grand doesn't go very far right
00:50:21
um particularly like we employed a little bit of help me and my mate Kiza which I of course I need need to mention
00:50:26
he was kizel was involved largely because he loved fishing as much as me and he was the most te heavy guy that I
00:50:33
knew I Kieran set up my first email account for me like I didn't have an email account you know I'd never been to
00:50:40
a job interview in my life I just got jobs through people I knew and or starting my own business you know in the
00:50:47
case of my roofing business so this guy knew had a computer and he knew had an email so he'd be a great guider and he
00:50:53
loved fishing so he'd be a great guy to you know come on this Venture with me so
00:50:59
we got into that but of course Karen was a graphic designer by trade and he was working at a full-time job at Yellow
00:51:05
Pages so he could help me out when he wasn't in his full-time job of course and um and we got in some other help the
00:51:12
guy that had worked in television and all that sort of stuff but he was expensive to get him to come and help us
00:51:18
and everything I did that's not how you present that's a bad idea you don't get
00:51:22
shots like that that won't work this is and he just rubbished everything we did
00:51:27
um and I was like we're paying you a whole lot of money for you to tell us that we're doing a [ __ ] job and we
00:51:32
haven't got that much more so you can [ __ ] off um and and so I got that's when
00:51:37
I got the manual and I I read the manual and learned how to use the camera myself
00:51:40
and I was like oh if we try this and you know I the old handic cam the same one we used on for Sports Cafe I got a bit
00:51:46
of drain pipe and I made an underwater housing out of it and then I got a torch and make and found a pencil camera a
00:51:53
security camera I could fit inside it and I made that swim behind the boat so I started coming up with these
00:51:58
innovative ways that literally cost nothing um to get footage and we got all this amazing footage like we filmed some
00:52:05
incredible stuff but then we got to put it together um and that takes um skills and money we didn't have the editing
00:52:13
skills we have done it yeah it's worth it's worth pointing out at this point so
00:52:16
this is 20 something years ago so it's not not like there's an app for everything you can do what you were
00:52:20
doing then you can do anyone can do on their phone you could go like you can't just jump on Google how
00:52:27
do you edit a TV show or anything like that it was um well especially me I mean I didn't ever i' only just got an email
00:52:34
account you know so like you know you go down to the library and like get a book
00:52:38
out it was I didn't do that because I don't read either but um so it was just
00:52:44
about like I'm I'm gonna learn how to how to do this so um and one of the the
00:52:50
first things we did and and because we had a lot of this really good footage is we put together a DVD but that wasn't
00:52:56
like a TV audience thing that was just the cool fishing stuff that I was doing mostly on the boats that I was working
00:53:02
on and we released it and fishermen loved it like DVDs were big at the time you know and that gave us a little bit
00:53:08
of income to to make this TV pilot and one of those DVDs got in they went around the world got into the hands of a
00:53:16
producer at the BBC and somehow he tracked me down and I got a phone call at home um in the far north and was a
00:53:26
guy and I remember his name was Rod Stewart which I thought was and he was Scottish as well um wasn't the Rod
00:53:32
Stewart he was a producer he introduced himself as a producer for the BBC and he
00:53:36
wanted to know how we got this incredible M footage he said we've spent over half a million pounds trying to
00:53:42
film Maron up close he said we've got some distant shots um he said look if you could please tell me what camera you
00:53:49
were using what underwater housing what lenses and what propulsion unit you were
00:53:53
using to get right up close close to this mland CU we were really struggling and I said oh mate um the camera is a
00:54:00
Panasonic handicam I got for a wedding present the housing is a bit of drain pipe from under my house that um and I I
00:54:07
siliconed a bit of ppix on the front of it I drilled a hole and got an eye dropper and made that waterproof so I
00:54:13
could hit the on off button I had no way of seeing what I'm filming um I got a
00:54:19
surfboard tie down and strapped a couple of handle handles to it and and I didn't
00:54:24
need a prop unit to get close to the Maron I just make the Maron come close to me and I do that by toing lures
00:54:30
behind the boat when they come up I jump into the water with live baits tied to my arms and then the Marin are trying to
00:54:36
eat off of my arms and I've just got to hold my [ __ ] together enough and not
00:54:40
drop my nuts with these Mar racing around and he said mate if if you don't want to tell me that's
00:54:47
fine and he honestly thought I was taking the piss but that was the level we were at it was like have an idea
00:54:53
figure out the way to do it and we figured out a way oh it's it's the epitome of that old um saying you
00:54:59
number eight wire mentality which is not something you hear all that often these
00:55:02
days but it is just you figure out how to make it work whatever it takes you know um I think Google maybe and YouTube
00:55:09
instructional videos is maybe killed a little bit of uh Ingenuity because probably you can find an answer for
00:55:15
anything you want to do yeah you can and sometimes in finding the answer you can
00:55:18
actually find a better answer than what's conventional and you know and and in the benefit of H that was a massive
00:55:26
asset for us because here was this thing that made it to TV and it didn't look
00:55:31
like any other TV show cuz it was made by guys that didn't know how to make a
00:55:35
TV show they were passionate about fishing yeah so you had no preconceived idea that's right so we could like you
00:55:42
know and people would always say to me oh man it doesn't feel like I'm I'm
00:55:46
watching a TV presenter it feels like you're talking to me and I was like well
00:55:50
I'm not a TV presenter I'm a fisherman and I'm speaking how I would speak to my
00:55:55
mates um when I'm not pretending to be Maris you know so um and it gave it a
00:56:03
new look and it wasn't intentional from the time that we realized it was intentional uh that it was popular we're
00:56:11
like yeah let's just stick with this let's um you know I I did get better
00:56:15
just through doing it about how to do a pie of camera or something like that um but I found the most popular bits was
00:56:21
when I would just get caught up in the moment and like holy [ __ ] we got to get
00:56:25
this fish and I didn't give a rat's ass whether it got filmed or not I was just
00:56:29
so immersed and wanted you know to catch the fish and they were the bits that people people loved well passion is
00:56:35
really really infectious isn't it like I've got I'm I'm like your wife i' I
00:56:39
give zero facts about fishing but you watch someone that is just into it and enthused and in the zone and you can't
00:56:44
help but be sweeped up yeah same as um I suppose a parallel it's like Steve inen
00:56:49
just seeing his enthusiasm and excitement about your know crocodiles or snakes or stingrays or whatever you get
00:56:54
caught up yeah so so so how do you get it on TV like you ship off VHS tapes to TV and Z TV3 Sky SK TV the only options
00:57:03
yep they they were our only options so we literally went and brought a three pack of um video cassettes from Kmart we
00:57:10
were going to go to the warehouse but we wanted to look professional and get the
00:57:12
expensive brand you know seriously that was a business decision we like yeah okay should we get the like the $18.99
00:57:20
ones instead of the 12.99 ones definitely if we want to look professional and we did have a cool logo
00:57:25
because Karen was a a talented graphic designer um and we sent it off and I put the proposal together saying we'll be to
00:57:33
fund this because fishing's this really popular thing in New Zealand it's
00:57:37
underrepresented on television we'll be to bring in sponsorship M and I honestly
00:57:41
thought like I thought our pilot show was so good you know I really did but all my feedback had come from other
00:57:47
mates that love fishing as well um and that was um and I should say in doing that like I'd show people the video but
00:57:55
I wouldn't tell them it was a pilot TV show I told no one so when I was trying
00:58:00
to put the TV show together cany knew about it Karen knew about it I knew about it Karen's partner knew about it
00:58:07
um I didn't tell my mom my dad brothers sisters none of my best mates I didn't
00:58:11
why not to Poppy like I didn't want I didn't want to be that guy who said I'm
00:58:15
going to be on TV yeah like I mean that's the that was the opposite of what you know at that time you wanted to be
00:58:21
as a kiwi bloke someone who's going to step their head up and go and I'd heard
00:58:24
it so much and to be honest like I guys I'm gonna do I'm going to make a TV show
00:58:29
about this and i' I'd literally look at those guys wanker and I just didn't want to be
00:58:35
that wanker like um because there is I mean there is a there's a certain amount
00:58:41
of um ego I guess you need to have to be able to put yourself out there and you know that was at the time that you know
00:58:48
the All Blacks would get criticized if they celebrated too much that's right
00:58:51
that's probably about the time where Jeff Jeff Wilson came along and had scored fist pump and every a little bit
00:58:56
bit show boy I reckon mate it was it's not like he was doing some assaults he
00:59:02
was like a fist pump exactly now these guys do full theater performances you know they get they get
00:59:08
choreographed all these choreograph sequence yeah it's it's an interesting
00:59:11
time out yeah because you you you know you and I were raised about the same time and it's um like vulnerability is a
00:59:16
very big word now and it's like that just wasn't the uh environment we were
00:59:20
raised in yeah Y and so part of um like so when we actually you know did I'm
00:59:27
jumping forward of it managed to get it on TV I didn't even tell my mates I just
00:59:30
invited them around for a barbecue and flick the tally on and um t comes on they're like oh are you on gone fishing
00:59:38
which is one of the shows like no no no this is my show and they're like what do
00:59:41
you mean your show oh it's a show that me and Kiza made and we put on telly and
00:59:45
um one of them first thing one of the boys Tas said oh you think you're [ __ ] Tom Cruz
00:59:51
now and I'm like that's why I didn't hell yeah just making sure you don't get too
00:59:58
H yourself exactly yeah that was 5 minutes into episode one series one you know yeah so that was on so that was on
01:00:04
Sky how how come there was no money exchanged like they they they I mean they're they're thirsty for Content I
01:00:10
guess cuz they got so many channels they'll play just about anything but why
01:00:14
why did they never offer you any money um because it was kind of seen that like you are lucky to be have this
01:00:20
opportunity to be on be on TV now you need to go out because we've given you
01:00:25
this amazing opportunity to put your show on you're now got a platform to go
01:00:30
and raise some some sponsorship so of course you can't it's a tough ask when
01:00:35
you're a um you know a roof fisherman you know sitting up a meeting and I managed to get a few face to faces most
01:00:43
of them was email rejections and or over the phone rejections but I I got to the
01:00:47
stage of getting a few face to faces and I had some encouraging meetings for the
01:00:51
first series But ultimately um you know we would show if we found a marketing manager that had an
01:00:57
interest in fishing he could see the potential of how good it was going to be but it would usually get killed when it
01:01:02
got set off to their advertising agency to be assessed they'd come back and go
01:01:06
no no one's interested in this it's not going to work it's going to fail keep
01:01:09
keep your money and that's largely because of how advertising agencies work like they get a they clip the ticket on
01:01:16
what the company spends and if it was a direct spin they're not making any money
01:01:20
so they're not going to want you know a sponsorship unless it goes through them
01:01:24
um and I wasn't having any advertising agencies ringing me up saying hey we want to pitch you to you know a few
01:01:29
companies so I got nose knows from everybody you know um so um I thought well if we can get it on tally you know
01:01:40
yes it's going to be a cost and it's going to be a stretch for us to be able
01:01:43
to do this um but once it gets recognized I should be able to get sponsorship a lot easier um it did help
01:01:50
obviously having something that would on TV that had done well um but the TV um networks and then when we next went to
01:01:57
TV and Zed they were the same they they like hey we want this show um because we
01:02:02
want to compete with TV 3's fishing shows um but we're not going to pay you
01:02:06
for it and so how how do they expect you to get by um just they raising R they don't they don't care they've given you
01:02:13
this I me you're you've you've really got to go cap in hand because it's not
01:02:18
like I can go oh screw you guys I'm throwing it on YouTube Back Then YouTube
01:02:23
was and its infancy and it was like I think two minute videos long Max um didn't really have the audience like if
01:02:30
you wanted to get something out uh in in front of the eyeballs you needed them so
01:02:35
they dictated everything you know they were like this is the time stop you're
01:02:39
going on and and we're not going to pay you like unless you were like literally
01:02:44
in the click and to be in the click you needed to be here here in Oakland I was in a [ __ ] in in the far north I wasn't
01:02:50
having Budd um coffees um you know down there with these guys is just shooting around some cool ideas you know and
01:02:57
letting them come up with the concept um that I could go and with a fist full of
01:03:01
money go away and do no so we were we were self-funded so um we needed a sponsor to be able to pay us to keep
01:03:11
going um and I always felt like we were going to get there but it just came it came really real close like so
01:03:19
were you were you grinding hard like sending off like proposals all over the place over like
01:03:24
and everyone had said no and and my I I'd already had a rejection from itm um
01:03:29
but of course it never made it it got only got to my proposal only got to like a junior marketing person um um a guy
01:03:37
called Barnaby funnny enough I just remember the name because only usual if you're out there Barnaby hey shame on
01:03:42
you that was no I shouldn't say that but pride in the story I gu I turned him
01:03:49
down the worst decision I ever made yeah yeah I rejected that show yeah and um know a similar one too when when going
01:03:57
back a little bit before that when we sent off our pilot show the first bit of feedback that I got was I mean our pilot
01:04:05
had been sent off like 12 weeks earlier and we hadn't heard back boo and I was
01:04:09
sending emails I was ringing like literally reception oh can you book me through to someone at oh so who are you
01:04:15
I'm Matt um I sent in a VHS tape um three months ago here's the TR you know
01:04:21
um it was on NZ cers you know like that's I didn't get the tracking number yeah
01:04:27
can you can you get someone to call me back no one called back eventually I got in touch with a programmer at tvnz and I
01:04:33
said look she goes oh yeah it's it's here it's sitting on someone's Des I
01:04:36
said can look can you please watch it um you know and just I I think you really like it and then I can come and and we
01:04:44
can meet and we can take it from there and L and behold she Rings Rings back the next day and um she said look we've
01:04:51
watched the we've watched the first half of it um um and we've all had a good
01:04:56
laugh and I was like oh awesome because like we did try and mix it up and that had a bit of humor and that she goes no
01:05:00
no we were laughing at it she said we weren't she said this is so ridiculous
01:05:04
to think she said fishing doesn't belong on television and if it did it wouldn't
01:05:08
be this rubbish and that's what she there were who are you now you're adding
01:05:12
GC to the story I'm not she said it was just it was a [ __ ] mean thing to say
01:05:18
it was and she said look she goes um and she did say herself look it might sound
01:05:23
mean but I don't want to I don't want to give you any false hope if you've got
01:05:27
another career option you should take it because this isn't going to go this
01:05:31
isn't going to watching on television um I remember her name and she's still
01:05:36
floating I would love to bump into her because she was just [ __ ] rude like I mean that's no no no that's that is
01:05:42
unnecessary that is so un I've only watched half of it and we're all having
01:05:45
a good laugh at you um but so I was like oh that's one down it wasn't the end of
01:05:49
the road never ever heard back from TV3 at all couldn't and um oh man that's
01:05:54
heart that's heartbreaking like how many people you're you're as we' said you're
01:05:58
a you're a you're a [ __ ] batler but how many how many people would have that
01:06:02
sort of um that sort of brutalness of that rejection and then just go okay well I got to stop now I got I got to go
01:06:09
back home to my wife with my tail between my legs and get back on the roof yeah but the fact that you kept going I
01:06:14
mean it's inspirational bro oh thanks but um yeah than it's a it's a it's a
01:06:19
kind um no I think again never been on a boat in my life I'm the same as your
01:06:24
wife but I think there's lessons in your story that a lot of us can take about
01:06:27
like perseverance and keep pushing and keep grinding lots of great kiwis out there that are that battle and whether
01:06:34
they're setting up a plumbing business or doing whatever they do that get knocked back and they they keep keep
01:06:39
getting up and going and um I what I had in my favor is I always felt that it was
01:06:45
going to be a success like I I could see it like I was like this is It's the rest
01:06:51
of the world that wrong or it's the rest of of the media world that are wrong I'm
01:06:55
right fishing is the most awesome incredible thing in the world like I mean it's the most real reality TV um
01:07:02
you know reality TV is probably one of the most scripted things ever when I go out on the water I go out with a plan
01:07:07
and we write out a shot list this is what we want to film we no one on that boat including me knows what's going to
01:07:13
happen that day and just the most crazy things can happen and you get real drama
01:07:18
you get real danger and I was like can't people see this it's made for television
01:07:22
it's so interesting and there's a whole um ecological Dynamic with all of these
01:07:27
incredible creatures and all of this stuff going on and I just wanted to tell every and and you know for a TV ex to
01:07:33
turn around and say this doesn't belong on television and it's rubbish I'm like
01:07:36
I just thought she was wrong you know I mean I knew it was going to be harder if
01:07:41
that's the perception and and that was a barrier I was going to have to break
01:07:44
down but I was like I've got to get better at finding a way to convince these people that it is good and that
01:07:50
people will watch it just give me the chance oh man [ __ ] you I mean your kids are very lucky you're a good role model
01:07:58
there's I mean there's a lot in this and a lot of it might be stupidity like yeah
01:08:04
it just just blind dumbness yeah that is another that is naivity I I was I'm so grateful for my naivity
01:08:15
and just my blind faith that if I do something good I'll be rewarded and I was it just took a bit longer than I
01:08:21
thought so so the itm deal when did that happen season Season Two Season Two so you got them on
01:08:26
board so they they they had like they got to see season one to see what it was all about so season one well they hadn't
01:08:31
actually seen it so like because it was on Sky it wasn't and they didn't put it
01:08:35
on a great slot it was literally I was um at the boat show with ker and we were in the run up to our second season it
01:08:43
was going on tvnz I was funding it again because we picked up a couple of fishing industry
01:08:49
sponsors so Shimano and hunting and fishing had come on um and which was good so we had some income and well it
01:08:56
was mostly gear you know so I was like yeah I don't have to pay for my H yeah I
01:08:59
was like yeah I got a couple of free fishing rods and I got myself a you know hunting and fishing fleece pack and I
01:09:05
hadn't had to pay for it so I thought that was great but we needed that like a
01:09:09
naming right sponsor to fund it it was just not a sustainable model to keep going back to the bank um and we were at
01:09:16
the Boer we didn't have enough money for a stand at the boat show but we had um
01:09:20
New Zealand fishing news who I was writing for they had a stand and I said can we put a TV screen on the end of
01:09:24
your stand and play some of our footage just to kind of promote the fact that we're making another TV series because
01:09:30
remember TV and yet aren't promoting us they're not um giving cutting promos
01:09:35
they're not giving us a they're just like we're going to put you on be
01:09:39
grateful now go out and make sure people watch it because if it doesn't rate
01:09:41
we're going to kick you off um so we're in the runup to our first season on on
01:09:47
tvnz and we're just trying to hustle interest and and stuff in the show and a
01:09:51
guy just kept coming back I watched them walked past a few times and I was busy talking to other people and he said that
01:09:57
footage of you guys got up there is incredible I've never seen anything like
01:10:00
it he said you have a sponsor I said no we don't mate and he said have you spoken to itm I said yeah and he said um
01:10:07
and what did they say I said no they said no thanks and he goes well you spoken to the wrong [ __ ] person and
01:10:12
he yeah so he gets on the phone and um he said he said look can you get over to itm head office tomorrow for a meeting
01:10:21
I'm like yeah I can and yeah um who was he was he the CEO no he owned three stores so so the itmo co Cooperative so
01:10:30
the all the stores are individually owned by you know kiwi local people in in the community It's actually an
01:10:36
incredible um business model because it's people at Grassroots you know um and he obviously knew that the executive
01:10:44
that run the head office and he just said look you need to talk to this guy and and he sent them a um a link to the
01:10:52
footage and they watched it so I W walked in there and they'd seen it and they just said we've actually just done
01:10:56
a survey and um fishing is the number one interest thing above rugby above anything for Tradesmen and I was like
01:11:05
I'd just done that same research I paid out of my own pocket for This aclon research which I sent to your guy
01:11:10
Barnaby and he told me that Builders weren't interested barab under the bus yeah I know [ __ ] barnab you know you got
01:11:18
him like a mar um well so how much was the I don't know if you wanted about commercial
01:11:24
stuff but since it's 20 years old how much was the the first fee was under 100K I think it was like 90k so um to
01:11:32
give you an idea like some funded shows at the time we're getting 100K an epis
01:11:37
yeah yeah um so we had it's such a wasteful industry I know TV is an expensive Beast to make but it's so
01:11:43
wasteful some of to this guy like like to I when I watch the credit roles of shows and and I've been in 20 years and
01:11:51
I wouldn't call myself a television expert bu I mean and I'll see like a
01:11:56
local production or an international production and there's 50 people in the
01:11:59
credit role I'm like what the [ __ ] were those people all doing other than getting paid you know every one of those
01:12:05
names in there's getting paid and I mean that's a lot of money to put that put
01:12:09
that um show together so yeah yes there is a lot of ways and I'm not um and television industry is facing a lot of
01:12:18
um challenges at the moment with viewership going going to digital um and for the people that work in the industry
01:12:25
like the camer Ops and don't the individuals that I've met along the way
01:12:28
have all been incredibly professional you know whether they're the person if
01:12:32
I've been in an ed shoot and they're the person that they was calling up the C
01:12:36
everyone's awesome right but the industry as a whole I I don't feel bad for them because it's been too blo for
01:12:43
too long too bloated yeah too much fat and you know I found that you know whenever I went into the tvnz building
01:12:50
you know after the show had been on for a few years guys would be like hey M love the show bro love the show um
01:12:57
here's my card you if you want to go take if you need a guest to come on the
01:13:00
show and I was getting dished out all these business cards and then one day when I was actually throwing all the
01:13:05
business cards out I I looked through all these everyone was a manager yeah everyone was a manager manager of
01:13:11
community consultation processes manager of this manager of that and the only person I ever saw busy in that building
01:13:17
was the Barista like they were they were [ __ ] flat out you know they're all down on the four just like
01:13:24
you know in the skinny jeans and chck Taylor you know and here I am like up north grafting away thinking [ __ ] where
01:13:30
am I going to scrape up the money to make another series an knowing that there's so much money in the business
01:13:35
yeah yeah it was yeah it must have been frustrating because the the must have felt like for you that money that is in
01:13:40
that was in the business is tantalizingly close except you can't get anywhere [ __ ] near it exactly you're
01:13:45
you're working your ass off and but um so R team came on board yeah 80 80k or
01:13:50
whatever and I'm guessing that progressively got better and B it did yeah it did yep it did and just again
01:13:57
you I talk about having a strong Foundation when they for the first couple of years understand contracts
01:14:04
were year on year like we'll give you one year and we'll see how it goes and
01:14:07
then after one year it was successful and lots of Builders watched it and there was their name and blazing you
01:14:12
know in our logo um yeah this is good we'll give you one more year that was another big thing like and that must
01:14:17
have been a huge call on your part like to call it the itm fishing show not the fishing show you know powered by itm
01:14:25
what exactly and that's been that's been a a real uh big thing for them at the
01:14:30
time they they didn't have full brand awareness like a lot of people didn't
01:14:35
know what itm was 20 years ago um so um a part of their thing was like let's get
01:14:41
everyone to know know what we are and I said well I'll I'll put you in the logo
01:14:44
and part of that was because I knew that I could give excellent value to Shimano
01:14:49
because I'm going to be using the rods and reels I knew fish whatever I was going to do if I did it and well they're
01:14:54
going to go and buy their gear same with the boats and all that sort of stuff like I'm not going to be cutting around
01:14:59
4B twos on the boat talking about you know um how good the itms um nail and Trust plant is and you know how they
01:15:07
always deliver on I'm not going to do that in a fishing show it's all about
01:15:10
representing their brand in a in a positive light so I I put it in the name and it worked and then fast forward
01:15:17
quite a few years and you'll notice that there's a a subtle difference um it was
01:15:22
the itm fishing show to start it's for the last few years it's been itm fishing
01:15:26
and that's when the TV networks started making noises like oh now itm going have
01:15:30
to pay us if they weren't naming rights I'm like what do you mean you guys
01:15:33
haven't paid for the show you're getting it for free they said oh we've just got
01:15:37
this blanket rule no no sponsors names they can be a broadcast sponsor and it'll be the fishing show brought to you
01:15:44
by so I changed the name across our social to itm fishing I'm like take the itm out of it now are you going to call
01:15:49
a show fishing and and there was so much you're of the ass yeah are you going to go
01:15:56
fishing bought to you by and and so I changed all of our branding and then I actually we did our own research and I
01:16:04
found out that when the people weren't calling the it and fishing show the IT
01:16:08
and fishing show they'd call it itm fishing or they'd call it the itm show
01:16:13
and that's when I real realized how powerful that was and I how the association people see me to this day
01:16:19
and if they can't think of my name they'll go oh itm guy you're the itm guy
01:16:23
so it had kind of worked and I wasn't going to let the the TV network take that away through a rule change um
01:16:30
because you know I I needed to look after it because they looked after me I respect that were they were they GED
01:16:36
when you told them you were pulling the pen um well we're going through that
01:16:40
process at the moment so I look I going through the stages of grief no it's not
01:16:45
it's not grief it really isn't cuz it cuz so um itm were one of the sponsors a
01:16:51
few years back that were like look you got to hang in there in TV that's where
01:16:55
we and because it had been successful for them and it had worked for them um they've got a really new um Forward
01:17:01
Thinking Dynamic executive now and they've seen what our digital audience is and they know that Builders are on
01:17:08
their phones they're online they're on YouTube that's where they're going to
01:17:11
get the content so you know you might not um you know the after the series you're not going to be tuning in on a
01:17:18
Saturday or a Sunday to watch the itm um fishing show on TV but you're going to
01:17:22
be getting it um on our ultimate fishing platform you're going to be getting it
01:17:26
direct to social media and it could be something that's 12 minutes long it could be 50 minutes long it's whatever I
01:17:32
think is excellent and so long as itm want to stay Associated um and I honestly hope they do um their name's
01:17:39
going to be their name's going to be over it and they'll be they'll be
01:17:42
getting the credit for it because how could I not you know like the actual truth is the show wouldn't exist without
01:17:50
them yeah that's true and and that is dead right I I think I read somewhere like some sort of survey that uh
01:17:55
YouTube's the fastest growing like digital platform or TV platform whatever you want to call it in the world like
01:18:00
it's just it's the biggest in New Zealand so so it gets more eyes it gets
01:18:04
more eyes in New Zealand than than any of the terrestrial or um streaming platforms yeah gez we we've been going
01:18:11
for an hour 20 we haven't even got onto the L and stuff yet far out yeah sorry
01:18:15
no no no no it's great mate it's um yeah yeah [ __ ] you you've been through a lot
01:18:21
like just the the dog in determin it's next level it's bloody inspirational so
01:18:25
the L thing how does that happen so this is in the early days of YouTube I guess
01:18:29
yeah so by the way that clip the clip that caught liman's attention that's you
01:18:34
jumping out of a helicopter yeah well that was the that was like the straw that broke the Cam's back it I'd already
01:18:40
caught the attention like so I'd hand lined a great white shark um for a shark
01:18:45
tagging Pro and and that was out of necessity too because we didn't have any
01:18:49
tackle big enough we figured out to pull these great white shacks and to get a DNA sample so we were fishing from a
01:18:55
cray booat and I I tied together some cray poot lines and made a handline and pulled on this great white shark and and
01:19:02
U you know that would the bit of that went online and then I did a um I caught a mar on an electric fence reel you know
01:19:08
bit of gain bit of literally straight off the farm Ingenuity and so they were the first few clips that went online and
01:19:15
and got some veril and but it was like after the um ganet man stunt jumping out of the helicopter just went B crazy
01:19:25
viral like literally the biggest video in the world all the news agencies all around the world had taking it um yeah I
01:19:32
just got a phone call again in my in my shed we had um one employee at that stage Kate and we had the old school you
01:19:40
know voice recorder you know if you got a call overnight leave a voicemail so she she checked the voicemail and she
01:19:47
came in and I walked over you know I I had some pig dogs I'd go piging straight
01:19:52
off the back of where our office was and I remember I fed the dogs that morning and walked in the office and Kate says
01:19:59
oh there's a voicemail here from the booking agent at David lman and he wants
01:20:03
to get you over to New York as soon as possible and I'm like [ __ ] off and I had
01:20:08
some mates that were I had some mates that were Roofing in in the states yeah and I'd hardly If Ever I heard from them
01:20:14
they'd call at like 4 in the morning or something and they'd be boozed or
01:20:17
something and they'd be like how are you Tom Cruz you know like giving me [ __ ] yeah so what
01:20:24
what I and and because I was getting I was started getting some press you know over and people were seeing this some of
01:20:29
my fishing stunts like on news outlets and that I'd figured that they'd seen it and
01:20:35
they were ringing or they'd put someone with American accent up to make this
01:20:38
call and pretend and there was a number left to said could you call back and I didn't want to call the number back
01:20:43
because my I was expecting one of my mates to be on the other end going hey you [ __ ] you're not going on let him
01:20:48
in um but Kate rang back and she's nodding to me like this this is legit and um one of the things she said was
01:20:56
she put her hand over the phone she said they want to know what your fee is and so this is 2009 show started in 2006 I
01:21:03
haven't been paid to be on TV yet I haven't been paid by a TV network so
01:21:06
you're just barely scraping by making the TV show with the itm cash yeah yeah
01:21:10
itm cash some of our other sponsors cash and I've got a I've got a production
01:21:15
company in New York wanting to know what my fee is well I don't know what what
01:21:19
fee you charge but I didn't want to go on too high because I don't want them to
01:21:22
say oh [ __ ] n sorry n that's too much we we can't have you on cuz I'm like I'm
01:21:26
being invited um to go and then Kate wrote on the pad in front of about business class tickets and she
01:21:33
underlined it I'm like holy [ __ ] they offering me business class tickets I've
01:21:36
never set up in front of the plane before so I definitely would didn't want to go on ti so I said tell them five Hy
01:21:43
five oh my god seriously I like tell them five Hy so she said um and I'm standing right next to her
01:21:53
and she goes uh she goes oh you have 500 and then she puts her hand over the py she goes they
01:21:59
want to know if that's per hour and if you when do you start charging is it from when you leave and and I was just
01:22:06
like holy [ __ ] they've got they actually want to pay me some decent money and get
01:22:09
me to New York and so um we we settled on a fee I got my paid for the first time um what was awesome it was the
01:22:18
first ever trip Ken and I had done away cuz she doesn't want to come on any of
01:22:22
these fishing business class flights for two for two yeah wow yeah so holy hi that's amazing
01:22:28
yeah and that was because I gave them an exclusive because this by the end of that day the Jay Leno show Jimmy Kimmel
01:22:36
show they'd all been and they just said look they said look all the other shows
01:22:40
are going to be in touch with you but if you can give us like a one month where you don't go on I no it wasn't even that
01:22:46
two weeks I think um because I ended up doing the today I I did some other CBS shows and then I did like Today Show and
01:22:53
a few others shortly after so I literally went from being making a show in a shed that I built myself like as
01:23:00
and dug the footings by hand mixed the concrete and a cete mixer built the little shed put a computer in it and
01:23:06
caught it and uh tight lines media tight L television at the time went from there
01:23:11
to um sitting at the front of a plane with Ken flying to New York on Broadway in New York and if anyone seen the
01:23:19
pictures of like yeah the S theater it's iconic it is so they put us up in a
01:23:23
suite straight across the road from the Ed celan theater beautiful um suite and every time I looked out the window I
01:23:30
could see the Salan that I'm like f tomorrow I'm on there you know and it
01:23:33
made me so nervous Goosebumps and I'm like and and I guess it was a mistake um
01:23:40
but I watched the an episode of the late shows I I've got a you know I'd not done
01:23:45
a TV interview on my life I'd not I'd not done TalkBack radio I'd not done any
01:23:51
media I'd just be been out with my mates doing this outrageous stuff and always
01:23:55
was always about scrambling to do stuff but it was with guys that I knew I'd
01:23:59
done nothing live so um I get over there I'm like any mistake I made there's no
01:24:06
there's no stepping it back or anything so I was incredibly nervous about that I
01:24:09
watched the show and the guests were Robert dairo and alpacino who were in a movie together they did the top 10 and
01:24:17
um Will Smith and I'm watching these guys going back and forth with David and
01:24:22
like like guys at the top of theame like massive celebrities but just how sharp their wits were cracking jokes back and
01:24:29
forth back and and I'm just like but I can't do that I'm going to walk out on
01:24:32
that stage and I'm just going to clam up and I just like it it made me so nervous
01:24:37
and Ken did an amazing job of boosting up my confidence she was like you know what
01:24:46
um [ __ ] she said you know what um being yourself got you here Fu she's a good one H yeah I got
01:25:01
some T Tes under here if you I told you I can't talk about people yeah I two on it's um um mate it's it's
01:25:09
a it's a wonderful relationship you guys have got and it's good that you um yeah
01:25:13
you can appreciate everything she does like oh thanks for the tissues mate does someone tip you off I usually
01:25:20
have them up here it can get quite emot but I was I had them under the table CU I thought we won need boy you be all
01:25:28
right no that's cool but I mean it's it's obvious the fact that she let you
01:25:32
get a mortgage out on the house for this for this wild dream and that's where and
01:25:37
that's where it literally landed both of us we were in on Broadway New in New
01:25:41
York like at the the epicenter of media around the world you know and um and she
01:25:48
said look um I know what will make you feel more confident let's she goes it
01:25:53
always works let's go shopping and buy you some new clothes and I was like [ __ ]
01:25:57
all nice try see I'm I give about as much care about shopping as what Canon gives about fishing and I and I that was
01:26:05
the last thing I was going to do I was like no no I said thanks for the advice it's great I am going to be myself
01:26:10
someone just going to wear shorts and you we yeah like a half a t-shirt and like three4 34 caros or because they
01:26:16
were my best pants but I think that's that's that suited that suited you
01:26:20
you're you know you you can't something you're not that's right it would it
01:26:24
wouldn't have looked right if you if you went out there in a black suit dressed
01:26:26
like [ __ ] Will Smith yeah yeah exactly so I we went across there and it was it was white Tangy day which was my
01:26:32
son's um fourth birthday so four years to the day earlier I delivered my son on
01:26:37
the front seat of a truck and I that's another story I won't go down that it
01:26:42
was ruthless um but um walked across the road it was minus 6 degrees it was snow
01:26:48
everywhere and all the New York locals were all rugged up going about their daily business and looking at me like
01:26:53
who the [ __ ] this guy skting I was skting on the black I and my jandal and the jandal yeah yeah um toes are
01:27:00
freezing we walked through the backstage door just like we were told to right on
01:27:03
time and um a young woman by the name of Anita said look I'm your assistant while
01:27:08
you're here I'll get you anything you need and you know welcome to the show
01:27:11
and she said David's really looking forward to meeting you and the booking people Everyone I'd spoken to had said
01:27:17
the same thing and I'm like that's so kind they know I'm a rookie they
01:27:22
boosting my ego by by saying that and I was like cool so do I get to go see him now and we'll talk about what what we're
01:27:27
going to talk about for the interview oh no no no you'll see David when you go
01:27:31
out on stage you'll be fine I'm thinking [ __ ] they they've got no idea that I've
01:27:34
not done anything like this before but anyway ky's still done a really good job
01:27:39
of building my confidence so we jump in the lift go up the lift door is open and
01:27:43
I see my name written on the door with a star above it and my vision honestly went blurry I thought [ __ ] I'm going to
01:27:49
P like they think I'm a celebrity like Will Smith or like and I've just been
01:27:55
you know I still felt I was bluffing my way onto t i was a I was an imposter on TV in New Zealand and here I was at the
01:28:02
lman show and I'm going to get found out like big time when I walk out on that
01:28:06
stage it's like they're saying a fish out of water now you know what it's like
01:28:09
for a m on the Dick of your boat yeah not many of them end up on the deck of the boat but um yeah but yeah so
01:28:16
like I did um I just felt incredibly nervous and and not too much I'm I'm
01:28:21
pretty unflappable you know um with the exception of talking about people I care
01:28:24
about um um so I opened the door to the changing room and the first thing I noticed was the mirror with all the
01:28:31
lights around it and I said to Ken [ __ ] it's just like the Muppets cuz I know a lot of people won't
01:28:39
understand that but from our vintage you watch The Muppet Show Miss Piggy used to
01:28:42
sit in front of the mirror with all the lights around it and it was exactly the same I was like holy [ __ ] and then Anita
01:28:47
started cracking up I had a laugh and that lightened things and then the next thing I see was all the food that they
01:28:52
had in the in the dressing room and they had like um they had some champagne on ice and they had all these amazing
01:28:58
canopies and I thought oh sweet so this must be where the feed happens like because the other guests were little
01:29:05
Wayne the rapper and um Isa Fisher the actress oh yeah yeah yeah it was going to be Scarlet Johansson which I was
01:29:11
excited about but they switched out late in the piece but fish is amazing married
01:29:16
to S yeah exactly so but anyway so all like a bilig legs B than wherever I was or ever have been so I'm just kind of
01:29:25
like holy [ __ ] I'm going to get to meet these guys this where the feed happens
01:29:28
and I said oh so when do we have the feed like afterwards you know I'm kind of expecting it's like after a rugby
01:29:34
game someone's going to come in and do a big big spread of the table and do a
01:29:37
catak here and and then you you know the visiting side goes first you have a feed
01:29:41
and have a catch up and then everyone goes home she goes oh no no they've all
01:29:44
got this in their dressing rooms too and I'm like there's a lot of food and she
01:29:49
said oh it's I said who's it all for then and she said oh it's for you and
01:29:52
your entourage I SW it's just me and the misses and so anyway I was way too nervous to eat I hadn't eaten on the
01:30:02
plane on the way over I'd had half a slice of pizza and I felt like being sick that day cuz I was so nervous about
01:30:08
what I was about to do so any I go downstairs go into the green room and they then they walk me to the wings of
01:30:14
the stage and they said when you hear your name being said by David walk out there shake hands with them and get into
01:30:19
it and that's what I did and went like a blur it felt good he was he I think he
01:30:25
made things very easy for me um I cracked a bit of a joke or and I thought it would fall flat it didn't and what
01:30:32
was it what was the joke remember well he was I I told him about getting my ball slashed open and um and I'm like
01:30:39
that's pretty out there for us TV very conservative it was they are very conservative TV so they actually beeped
01:30:45
like the the bit where I said you know it's important um to have balls doing
01:30:50
with the [ __ ] that I do uh so they beat that but the the crowd laughed and that
01:30:56
was a bit offputting too because I'd never been on any sort of stage before you know I think School production maybe
01:31:02
um but the lights are so bright you can't see the crowd and it was very cold
01:31:06
it was something struck me it was cold inside the theater the lights were really bright and it was just like black
01:31:11
and then as soon as people laughed I realized how many people were there and that they were close but I couldn't see
01:31:15
them and it was a bit off offputting um but David just he was really good we had
01:31:21
a good chat and quite a way into it probably a little bit like this I'm yarning away
01:31:25
and there's guys you know off stage out of shot giving it this one R it up cut
01:31:30
it cut it and but David kept asking questions and it ended up going well over like two and a half minutes over
01:31:36
the which for us like for the ratings they get that's costing them a lot of money because it's eating into the
01:31:41
commercial time and um as soon as they cut for commercial break the first thing he said to me is I've really been
01:31:47
looking forward to meeting you like like everyone had said I said Honestly though
01:31:51
and he's like I said I saw you on here with alcino I know don't they were all
01:31:55
really good guys but he said they're doing that they're on here to do their
01:31:59
jobs and promote their movies he said it's just neat talking to someone that's
01:32:02
passionate about something I was like well you know you can just be yourself and you can get this far by not not
01:32:09
pretending to be anything other than than yourself and it it sort of and up to that point I had had no time to
01:32:17
reflect about where I was going or or the enormity of of what was happening and I remember going back to the um
01:32:24
dressing room Ken was crying trembling was she just with pride or yeah yeah [ __ ] fu yeah mate that's awesome man
01:32:34
I've got goosebumps hearing this because I I suppose for I mean you seem like a
01:32:37
guy that's always just got your got your head down grinding forward and I suppose
01:32:41
this is like a like a tangible moment where you can you know rather than keep reaching for the next branch on the tree
01:32:46
you can pause and look at the view that you've created yeah yeah and i' I've not
01:32:50
done it cuz partly because it's been so busy you know it's always been the next
01:32:53
thing got to do the next thing um you make commitments to people to sponsor so you're always busy trying not to let
01:32:59
people down so you don't you don't have time to look back and say geez I did
01:33:03
good you know but um yeah yeah you did do good yeah it was great and then and then and then you did
01:33:09
lines of coke with little Wayne yeah no no I I didn't I didn't did you meet little way
01:33:16
oh yeah he was waiting for me um when when we got up the list at least I mean I'd heard his music and I'd seen rap
01:33:22
videos and you don't start being a little Wayne guy no no no but I mean um but I came out the list and there's all
01:33:29
of these black guys and one was particularly little and must he was and I think my ears were still ringing from
01:33:37
the nerves and the adrenaline of being on stage and he dapped me up sort of broch shake me gave me a hug and I think
01:33:43
he said that was cool man like that was cool man I think that's what he said but
01:33:47
it was my ears were ringing and then he jumped in the lift and went down as I came out and then that's when I went
01:33:52
into the dressing room Ken was trembling and oh it was just like this this moment
01:33:57
and then the very next moment I'm like [ __ ] I'm hungry I haven't eaten anything
01:34:02
other than half a slice of pizza for the last 40 hours and I saw all this food trouble was I had to go on a meeting
01:34:09
with the big boss at Discovery Channel like they were wanting to get my signature to do a deal you know
01:34:15
International broadcast deal and um so I couldn't stay and eat the food and and
01:34:21
hang out to meet the other guests even though um little way and Isa had already actually
01:34:27
gone you know there was no after party you know wasn't like the postmatch of
01:34:31
the rugby game um so I just said to Anita look oh you guys have the food and she said no we're not allowed it like
01:34:39
what do you mean it's like and there was there was Salon salmon canop these amazing pastries it was just all this
01:34:46
beautiful food you know fresh fruit and I said well what happens to it because it all gets thrown out cuz when we not
01:34:51
allowed it um because we had a diva she didn't name names she said we had a diva
01:34:55
guest on a while back and she accused the staff of stealing the strawberries U well she was on stage so we've got this
01:35:01
policy no one's allowed to touch the food um because it caused a thing that's
01:35:05
weird so I said oh um can I have a doggy bag oh God you didn't oh my God you I
01:35:11
well me it's a waste you know you know like it wouldn't have been good it would
01:35:14
have been the that gray Atlantic salmon wouldn't been the good I don't know I
01:35:18
mean I'm actually I did so she went around she got the catering containers that was all brought in and she said no
01:35:24
one's actually ever asked before but yeah sure so I loaded them up I loaded them up and I I got heaps of the
01:35:31
chocolate pastries because I thought I was going to go out and teer new after this meeting Kenny and I were going to
01:35:36
go and teer New York a new one I had this weight of my shoulders and I thought when I get back booze these
01:35:40
chocolate canipes are going to Chocolate pastries are going to going to go down and treat especially and then she saw me
01:35:46
looking at the champagne and she goes do you want that as well I'm like and I was like and she goes yeah
01:35:53
grab it you know she was like grab it so I tucked that under the wing cuz KY and
01:35:57
I had never had I think we'd had on a on a one special occasion we had had a
01:36:01
glass of Moet um once and it was about like so I'm just like yeah this is ball
01:36:07
I've got champagne got all this amazing like wedding food wedding food it was you know you
01:36:14
get the lot of the fancy little nibbles at weddings you know like this is well you know the we wedding reception at the
01:36:19
Waymouth KY Club um El was more s RS but um so we um we go down on the leftt and I'm just like
01:36:27
feeling so happy that I didn't not that I'd smash this interview or anything you
01:36:33
didn't look like a dick I didn't look like a dick and I was honestly worried
01:36:36
about letting New Zealand down that was my thing I was like not many kiwis have ever been on the show um let alone being
01:36:42
like a main guest and um I wanted people to go away going oh kiwis are lot cool people um that's what I wanted so and
01:36:51
you know I've always been real real Proud kiwi so like that was like a real big thing for me I was like I felt like
01:36:56
I went away I said really good things about New Zealand I made sure I got there and and said it's such a great
01:37:00
place and I'm like yes I didn't screw it up and my mates aren't going to be able
01:37:05
to give me [ __ ] about it like um so I was just feeling really good we get down
01:37:10
to the bottom and we're about to go out the doors I'm like we just going to dump
01:37:14
all this food um over at our suite and then we've got to get to this meeting
01:37:18
and Anita said oh you're going to need these guys to help you get across the
01:37:21
road got two big security guys I'm like no we're sweet boys we know where we're
01:37:25
going we're straight across the road she said no you're going to need them
01:37:29
there's people waiting for you out there like so I immediately thought oh the
01:37:32
guys that I'm going with meeting with they're waiting for me we'll go straight
01:37:35
to the meeting she because I know the paperazzi here I said oh who is it a guy called Michael she said no no who's
01:37:41
Michael yeah oh Michael was the guy from Discovery all right I said and I said I
01:37:45
she goes no no no she said she looked at me like I was an idiot she was like she
01:37:48
looked at me like gave me that look she was like who's Michael she was like no
01:37:51
the paparazzi and and fans are out there and I opened the door and they had like
01:37:56
some autograph HS and they kind of had them in a pen like pinned up and then the guys with the cameras yeah Paparazzi
01:38:03
I guess all shouting out my name and getting me to look their way and flashes were going off and I so I went outside
01:38:09
and I hit the cold and I almost scattered over when I hit the ice um because you know I didn't have
01:38:15
appropriate foot wear on and I just cuz I slipped I sort of sucked in this big breath of a and it was freezing cold and
01:38:22
my ears were ringing and the flashes were going off and it was incredibly disorientating and that's when I thought
01:38:28
holy [ __ ] like it was a surreal outof Body Experience I'm in the middle of New
01:38:33
York you know three days ago I was in Taco Bay cobbling together a TV show and a shed and people are shouting my name
01:38:40
and and then the next thing you know Ken freaked out and ran and I'd given her
01:38:45
the pastries um cuz I I didn't want to be photographed stealing David litman's
01:38:49
piss and his food you know like so like when I knew there was Pepsi I gave it all to K I'm like [ __ ] like these guys
01:38:54
want take my photo I can't be like seen stealing puss so Ken started running and
01:39:00
I would say two-thirds of the the photographers and this autograph Hunters just chased Ken out of instinct because
01:39:05
she was running I guess what that's what they used to they weren't used to me
01:39:09
going oh this is cool yeah yeah which is my good side you know like you guys want
01:39:14
to have my photo this is cool and um so there's just this crazy moment and I'm
01:39:18
out there and the flashes are going off and I'm watching two Security Guys shielding my wife as she's running
01:39:24
through the snow with people with cameras taking photos of her and then the next my next thought was [ __ ] she's
01:39:30
dropping the pastries and she was there was a trail of chocolate pastries and so
01:39:34
the photo that that was taken of me that went in the paper I'm kind of like oh no
01:39:39
like cuz the F because of the pastry it was just it was this it was like an out of body experience it wasn't and to this
01:39:46
day it it doesn't feel like it happened it's so far removed from what I do now and and going out fishing
01:39:56
on a boat and getting some footage what a cool experience it was ex lman um lman
01:40:02
was a massive deal at the time and I was a big fan of him but [ __ ] he he could be
01:40:06
an absolute [ __ ] if he had a celebrity on like a like a Paris Hilton or Lindsay La that he wasn't into he
01:40:12
would just he could be ruthless he could be ruthless and that's what I and that
01:40:16
was was what I was um nervous about but he was you know shortly after um you know I I questioned him about saying no
01:40:23
seriously you and he goes yeah man I've been he said I was the one that wanted
01:40:27
to get you on First and he goes obviously have other producers and and I I believe he owns the company worldwide
01:40:33
pants the production company but there's obviously other writers that have a
01:40:37
saying he goes I wanted to get you on ages ago when you caught that I think he said it was the big shark or something
01:40:41
he said but once you did this helicopter thing he said we needed to get you because we knew everyone else was going
01:40:46
to be after you I was like Wow and he said you know I'd like to come to New Zealand at some stage he said I don't do
01:40:51
a lot of fishing but I like fly fishing and I hear it's good there I was like oh
01:40:55
mate if you come down you can crash on my couch and um but he and he said to me I might take you up on that tongue and
01:41:00
cheek of course he he he hasn't found I haven't heard from him I I don't think
01:41:05
he likes traveling very much no no I don't know but I don't know I mean it
01:41:09
was it was 10 and a 10 and a half minutes of my life it wasn't like we've
01:41:13
got a bond yeah no no but did you notice um like from your career perspective and
01:41:18
what you do there was like um like exponential grow after that yeah well overseas yeah um I got back to like so
01:41:25
um I had a lot of attention while I was in New York and I mean we the network were um you know they were driving K and
01:41:33
around in a limo and when I was going to meet the you know meeting meetings and stuff they would have like a personal
01:41:41
shopper organized for Ken to show around like it was like holy [ __ ] this is like
01:41:46
the other side of TV you know like um so and and you couldn't help I mean I definitely wasn't rolling around like
01:41:55
check me out like I'm I'm a I'm a big deal but people were recognizing me
01:42:00
media were interested and there was like um the the people at Discovery were saying oh look you know so and so wants
01:42:07
to speak to you we don't want to let you go on that show because of this reason
01:42:10
and all that sort of stuff and um but I got back to New Zealand there's it was
01:42:14
just the people saying oh hey mdy how's the fishing most like it didn't make the
01:42:19
news here that um it was until sometime later um I um that um that I'd even been
01:42:26
on the show and um I was I can't I I felt a bit oh man like I feel like I've done a good job for the
01:42:35
country and I felt like um like the the media in New Zealand should have gone hey mate that's one of our own and he
01:42:43
he's done a good job but that that didn't really happen um didn't it why a
01:42:48
later it was it was sometime later later it was when um the after I done the discovery deal and they made it one of
01:42:58
um we did a show called Man versus fish with Matt Watson for Discovery Channel um and it was basically all born out of
01:43:05
the attention I was getting for doing dangerous things and for how passionate I was about the creatures in there and
01:43:11
about about the ocean as a whole um but in in true American fashion they wanted to change it and make it more dramatic
01:43:18
than it was and they had and again all of the people you know so I went from me Kate and kza I and Dav started with us
01:43:27
by that stage um you know thinking it'll be cool to go and catch this fish in
01:43:32
this place and show people how cool it is to like a massive production team like hundreds of people um you know
01:43:41
being assigned a talent Le aison person and all of this sort of stuff um so you know that was a big change but I didn't
01:43:49
want the way that we went out and got stuff to change cuz I knew that that's
01:43:53
what had got me got me the success The Producers thought different they're like
01:43:58
we've got to bring in these other stories and it needs to involve Americans and we need to talk about
01:44:03
things in American terms and all that sort of stuff um and when I and and we don't get me wrong we I worked so
01:44:10
incredibly hard on that show I kept itam fishing going during the same time so here I was I was the the first person
01:44:18
the discovery International to sign sign a contract with have concurrent shows on
01:44:23
Animal Planet which was where Steve was and on Discovery Channel which was where
01:44:29
bear girls was so so and um Steve had you know sadly come AC passed away and and you know in in that terrible
01:44:38
accident um so they were kind of looking for hey this Larger than Life character
01:44:45
um that was seemingly Fearless but passionate and knew a lot about his his subject and and so they kind of pinned
01:44:53
it pinned that on me which was great um I was paid extremely well like um compared to like what I was cobbling
01:45:00
together in New Zealand and and they made it Discovery got to got to dictate to all the other sub Discovery
01:45:07
Affiliates certain shows that they have to take and man versus fish was one of them it's what they call like the
01:45:12
headline shows like man versus world and all that sort of stuff and Discovery do
01:45:15
this big promo every year where they get their talent together and you got to sing along of it line of a song boom de
01:45:22
The Whole World's wonderful or something and you know and like there just like
01:45:26
totally out of like foreign to me myth guys were there but anyway they cut be grills out of it to put me in it like
01:45:32
they'd already done it but after they signed me and that and some someone in
01:45:37
the media over there picked up on it and we were actually filming in the states we're filming in Oklahoma and that was
01:45:43
wild like man those redneck boys are just there you know you I thought there's some hard boys out north man
01:45:49
some of those redneck boys was level they were Next Level so anyway we're filming there and there's these um like
01:45:56
the the um affiliate CBS and I think the Today Show like broadcast fans follow at
01:46:02
the boat ramp wanting to interview me and the questions were like who would win on a fight out of you and beer GRS
01:46:07
and I'm like I don't know and I and I think I said me you know you got to back
01:46:12
yourself you me I what a stupid question but what had happened is there had been
01:46:16
some sort of a thing come out that um be's agent was pissed off that was um you know they were in negotiations with
01:46:24
Discovery and he would I think they were both playing hard ball and I think it was maybe a move by Discovery to cut him
01:46:29
out of the promo and put me in it and say if you don't tow the line we've got
01:46:33
this new guy this kiwi guy that's gonna and and we're going to elevate him and I
01:46:37
think because the show was called Man versus fish has was Man versus wild there was some sort of discrepancy about
01:46:42
the ownership of the name and nothing to do with me right yeah and so Med you're
01:46:46
asking me questions like who would wi and I've not met this guy I don't know I
01:46:49
me and just in my typical dry sense of humor where said oh you know I'd win you
01:46:54
know like just whatever you know next question it's a hypothetical yeah and and that became a bit of a thing and
01:47:01
yeah and so everywhere we went there was media in the states when I was there um
01:47:05
asking me about this this um you know rivalry beef with big grills and it didn't exist like it didn't exist I
01:47:12
don't know the guy um and so but yeah then I'd get back to New Zealand and
01:47:17
there was really kind of nothing and it wasn't until it it was released internationally and
01:47:23
then it was released in Discovery Asia Pacific so it was going to be on TV and New Zealand and I wasn't proud of the
01:47:29
show like I mean it was the to me it was the the opposite of itm fishing show every single episode of the itm fishing
01:47:36
show we ever made over 400 now it was the best we could do with the resources we had and I felt we were telling new
01:47:42
zealanders something about largely about New Zealand but at least something about
01:47:47
the ocean even if we were overseas it's amazing like all the setbacks you've had
01:47:51
and we've talked about some of them and all the rejections and everything else
01:47:54
and things like this it's amazing you don't have you're not you're not more
01:47:57
bitter or have more of a chip on your shoulder do you know what I mean like you're such a happy positive guy I I am
01:48:03
I mean don't get me wrong I have I I've had this thing in my life where I would
01:48:07
stew on things and that was one of them yeah that that stewed on me you know like um um and and how I've um allowed
01:48:15
myself to let go of that sort of stuff when I felt like I've been wrong ripped
01:48:20
off or something I'll um I'll have the emails that that prove it or the some or
01:48:27
I'll even write on a bit of paper and I've got a box and I put it in that box
01:48:31
and I'll go one day I'll write a book about it and and and and I I can maybe
01:48:36
vent then I probably won't mention a lot of the the wrongs I I feel like when
01:48:40
when that time comes to open up the bitterness box it's just not in your nature I don't no it's not it's not but
01:48:47
it allows me to let it go and the moment I close that that and I put it in the back of the Wardrobe and go well one day
01:48:52
I can I can vent and tell everyone what really happened um that allows me to and
01:48:57
it's almost instant it's like that's behind me I'll deal with that another
01:49:01
day and um yeah and it's like the literal physical putting something into a box putting the lid on it and pushing
01:49:07
it to the back of the Wardrobe um allows me to move on and then I'm like right
01:49:11
there's some big fish out there to catch let's go go and I've got this idea of how I'm
01:49:16
going to film it better than ever before and just get on with it you know yeah it's an incredible Drive okay so
01:49:22
something that you mentioned um maybe about 10 or 15 minutes ago that I want to go back to I don't know if you want
01:49:26
to go back to it um but the delivery of your son Shaw oh yeah so you so you were
01:49:31
on the way to hospital and so the waters broke yeah yeah so um so yeah terrifying yeah so I I was I was i'
01:49:40
started the show um but it wasn't pay it was in the period where it wasn't really
01:49:44
paying so I was still doing crewing work working on a boat boat called the ultimate lady because we you know
01:49:50
we had an even bigger mortgage to pay for now and another kid on the way so I was doing fencing work Farm fencing work
01:49:56
and I was doing crewing work when I wasn't um you know put trying to put together a TV show and um we'd already
01:50:04
had Hannah and it was I'd got him from sea I think that day and I was exhausted
01:50:10
because we do big hours out on the boats and Kanan jumps out of bed about midnight and starts pacing and I said
01:50:16
are we on you know you want me to start the track up and she said no no no no it's not it's not labor she said it just
01:50:22
feels like bad period pain and I said get in the truck because that's the exact words she said 45 minutes before K
01:50:29
before Hannah was born 45 minutes before Hannah was born she was walking around the room saying it's not labor it's just
01:50:35
bad period man and I just remember those words I like get in the truck she goes no like stupid it's bloody 1:30 in the
01:50:42
morning and it was a storm like a proper thunder lightning pissing with rain wild
01:50:47
Northland storm and I said I don't care getting in the truck and she said don't
01:50:52
ring the bed wife don't waake Karen up in the middle of the night for nothing
01:50:56
because we're just going to go to the hospital we'll sit there and we'll
01:50:58
probably be we'll be back by so anyway I said I don't care jump in the truck we
01:51:03
just about get out of the drive we don't even get out of the driveway Ken says
01:51:06
[ __ ] drive faster this baby's coming and I went to give her the told you so
01:51:11
and I went I I made IE contact and it was not the time to say I was right um and like we live down like a real long
01:51:20
gravel road so it's not not safe to drive fast D and I was driving as fast as I was comfortable driving and Kelly's
01:51:26
going can you drive faster and like I thought to ease the tension I'll Chuck
01:51:31
some music on so um I flicked the flick the radio on it was probably you were probably DJing then might been not at
01:51:37
that hour in the morning but it was probably the edge because um the song was salt and pepper push it and this is
01:51:44
true this is the true story so and so I crack up laughing I look at Ken she's
01:51:49
not laughing right so she goes change that [ __ ] song so I you know it was still the old cassette pushing the
01:51:56
cassette and Unown to me where's your head at and I was like get honestly honest to God they were the two songs
01:52:04
and then I and then still did KY still didn't think it was funny so I was like
01:52:08
okay no music just drive as fast as you can and we're about uh you know um or in
01:52:14
good driving conditions probably 30 minute drive um to the nearest hospital at cow car and and um we get about
01:52:21
halfway there we get to pakaka at the intersection and Kan says I think we're
01:52:24
going to make it I'm like thank goodness um and um bear in mind so I've not even been to
01:52:31
an anti natal class because I've been away at se um and you know not for our
01:52:35
first not for our second so I don't know anything about you know the pushing and
01:52:39
the contractions and all that sort of stuff and um I don't know if that could
01:52:42
prepare you to n no no and and I was kind of one of those guys like geez woman used to have babies in caves what
01:52:48
do you need to go to a class to learn Le how to have a baby for you know like I was that guy so we're we're going down
01:52:54
the road and she said like literally 10 seconds after she said I think we got to
01:52:59
make she go not pullover it's coming right now and um I said hold on a sec because I could see there there's
01:53:06
literally one street light or two street lights together at the pakaka way Bridge
01:53:11
which is the only bit of light between us and the hospital in the far north and so I thought if I pull up under the ey
01:53:18
least I better to get some light to see how to to do this baby thing so when she
01:53:21
said it's coming I rang the Midwife and she was like oh you know how are things
01:53:24
going I'm like we having the [ __ ] baby at the pakaka waybridge can you get
01:53:29
here as quick as you can she said yeah I'm on my way so um I pull over there
01:53:34
and then I think oh geez I'm in luck there was a guy already pulled over that
01:53:38
was he was wearing his yellow rain coat he had he was in a white Hond the Bonnet
01:53:42
was up he' broken down and he thought I'd pulling over to help him and so he
01:53:47
um we pull over and I'm still on the phone to the the Midwife and I said look
01:53:51
started run and said look you might have to talk me through what I got to do here
01:53:55
and I said hang on look there's a guy here I'll pass the phone over so this
01:53:58
guy's walking up to my window thinking I'm I've come to help him and I open the
01:54:03
door to give him the phone and he turns around and just runs like Sprints back to his car Dives in the passenger side
01:54:11
and I watched him going around locking all his doors and he laid on the floor of his car and I was thinking to myself
01:54:16
and I said to the Midwife sorry that guy's gone because there was obviously a
01:54:20
lot of Ken's in labor so there's a lot of noise and stuff I think he thought I
01:54:25
was giving Ken a hiding oh right and he freaked out he oh there's this big violent situation going on he ran and
01:54:31
hid in his car so I said to the Midwife look I I can't do this and talk to you
01:54:36
just get her as quick as you can and I I hung up knowing that she was on her way
01:54:41
and went around to the passenger side of the car I I'm soaked by the stages pissing with rain opened the door and I
01:54:48
said to Ken I think you g take your pants off to which she said yeah no [ __ ] okay yeah yeah so yeah yeah yeah um
01:55:01
so um and and and um so so so passeng to say reclin back as far as go just say recl back as far as I can go so are you
01:55:11
sort of standing on the roadside or you managed to sort of squat on the I always
01:55:14
had one knee in the well one leg outside the door because I was sort of there and
01:55:19
um I had a headlamp in the um that's lucky yeah yeah yeah I'm a you know
01:55:24
always prepared guy I actually had half a dozen towels in the back seat for this
01:55:27
very eventuality knowing that that Hannah came quickly I actually had some towels really oh actually I actually no
01:55:32
I I had six towels folded up in the back um behind the seats ready in case so I'm
01:55:38
organizing the tows and you know protect the upholstery you got to think about the
01:55:44
resale I know yeah exactly man um and you know it was hard to see what was going on there that was a pretty tense
01:55:50
situation not ideal um you know she's she's pretty garly down there at the
01:55:54
best of times but there's a lot going on you know um a lot of fluid and stuff um
01:56:00
and but what I could see was and we didn't know whether having a boy or girl
01:56:03
we didn't find out for either and was just very very purple like a lot more Bluey purple than what Hannah was and I
01:56:11
thought this doesn't look right and um the cord was around his neck and it was
01:56:16
kind of like um so I ring the Midwife and said she's driving I could hear her
01:56:22
driving I said look the cords around his neck um I I I should cut it I've got a I've
01:56:29
got some scissors here I'll cut it and she said do not cut anything don't cut
01:56:33
anything just wait for me and because she's thinking here's some guy freaking
01:56:38
out and you know he's grabbing out some bloody you know some fishing pliers or
01:56:43
something and he's going to cut an arm off you know and so she said don't cut
01:56:47
anything so I all I was trying to do was get get my fingers in between the neck and the you know and it's all mid
01:56:54
happening and thinking [ __ ] this is not good and so she pulls up in a screaming
01:56:58
hul right right next to us and her little bloody hatchback how much time had passed what do you reckon oh not
01:57:04
long minute minute minute two minutes um and she did her parting shots were advice was don't cut anything and tell
01:57:12
can to stop pushing and I'm saying K don't push she goes no things half out
01:57:17
right so um and my instinct was I still felt like I wanted to cut it like it was it was so
01:57:26
like really tight and um Karen come the Midwife comes running over and she said the cords are around his neck we need to
01:57:33
cut it and I wanted to give her the [ __ ] told you so as well I could have done this I could have done this two
01:57:37
minutes ago you told me not to yeah and so she said go to the back of my hatchback um there's a medical a green
01:57:43
bag and there's a medical kit in there so I go to the back of a catch bag that's the day I found out not only is
01:57:48
she a midwife she was also the manager for Kiri Kiri Under 11's rugby team and
01:57:52
all of their jerseys are in there the cones are in there there's rugby balls
01:57:57
there's and I'm just ripping [ __ ] out of the way to try and find this green bag
01:58:02
and I find this green bag I come back and she said what took you so long I was like I could have cut this two minutes
01:58:07
Al ago and all she did was like literally slid the scissors right in where I kind of had already thought I
01:58:14
would and she'd cut it and then I said what now and she said just drive I said
01:58:18
your car's and it's raining she said I don't care just drive and she was
01:58:22
kneeling in the The Well of the car in front of Ken Ken was laid back shw was out this is where I realized um um we
01:58:30
had a boy but he wasn't moving he was purple like he was like breathing or crying no nothing no nothing so it was
01:58:37
in it was it was pretty full on I didn't feel like I was like she turned the
01:58:43
heater up she said turn the heater onto full and drive so I turned the heater on
01:58:46
to full I was driving and this driving having rain she said get to the hospital as fast as you can and she picked up the
01:58:53
phone and she rang her head to the hospital and I was watching her hand trembling and she was like we've got a
01:58:59
baby not breathing and I was like and I could see she was panicked like she was the and and this is a midwife you know
01:59:06
the most together awesome people that do this awesome job and I could see her panicking I was like [ __ ] he's dead no
01:59:14
he's dead then we get to the corner and I'm going way too fast to the corner cuz
01:59:18
I'm looking at him going [ __ ] dead baby car crosses up um and she kind of loses grip of him
01:59:25
she she was whacking him like she was slapping him on the back like hard to try and get him to breathe he kind of
01:59:31
squs out and H his head on the roof and starts crying he's alive yeah and every time I
01:59:36
drive that streets of road it's like a kilometer and for that whole kilometer
01:59:40
there was no noise no movement nothing not until we got to the corner and I ended up on the wrong side of the road
01:59:45
and the Midwife kind of lost grip while she was trying to whack him and he bounced his head off the RO roof and
01:59:50
started screaming and um yeah he carried on cry crying for the next four years oh
01:59:54
just like his dad yeah um [ __ ] that's terrifying yeah yeah yeah jeez yeah yeah my and again mostly
02:00:05
when I talk about these moments it's like in a comedic because it is crazy like and when everything works out good
02:00:11
you can joke about that sort of [ __ ] but I suppose it's the nature of a platform
02:00:15
like podcast where you get to go back and reflect and go back in a detail it's
02:00:19
a lot man it's a lot to do well it's it's not I mean I've told that story
02:00:22
that many times to a um you know whether it's a public speak speaking gig or um
02:00:28
in an interview but it's a sound bite you know it's a sound bite you're not
02:00:32
you're not actually taking yourself back there yeah or if it's on like if if
02:00:35
you're on say the rock or something or on um you're on the am show this morning
02:00:39
on TV they want a 20 second answer yeah yeah exactly I'm not very good at those
02:00:45
sorry so no no no I appreciate you appreciate it [ __ ] this is um officially the longest podcast we've ever done it's
02:00:51
207 there's still so much more to talk about we might have to do a part to another time but one thing IID like to
02:00:56
speak with all my guest is about like mental health how's your mental health
02:00:59
been over the years um been mostly good yeah mostly good yeah mostly up and down
02:01:03
I think being busy has helped yeah yeah so there there is that whole thing when you're when you're so busy and it's not
02:01:12
and don't get me wrong this is not necessarily a good thing because burnouts a real thing and I've had it
02:01:15
you know I've I've had it bad um you're you're too busy doing the next thing to
02:01:21
actually go hey hang on um is everything okay you know um but yes I so so some lows um but um what I figured out is it
02:01:34
doesn't take much to fillm my cup like taking half a day to go free diving just um being immersed in the
02:01:42
ocean I can't talk to anyone like there's no noise just me ocean um I don't have to get a fish um I usually I
02:01:49
you know I I like to make people happy so I'll usually um grab a couple of Cays
02:01:53
for some of the the local comato or some of the old people that I know um because
02:01:58
that gives me a kick and I I'll just go about that process I'm just swim in the
02:02:02
ocean and I can lose three or four hours I'm good for like literally having a
02:02:06
full schedule going hard out for weeks um but if I if I if I put that on the back burner and I I'm guilty of doing it
02:02:16
I'm probably guilty of doing it at the moment I get tired I get more emotional
02:02:19
when I'm tired good and bad emotions as well um when I'm tired um but if I make
02:02:25
that point um of going right today I'm not going to do something to make anyone
02:02:30
else happy I'm gonna go for a DI look after yourself yeah yeah boom Cup's
02:02:35
filled like um and and but that's just what works for me you know I know a lot
02:02:39
of um people find help talking to other people and all that sort of stuff it's
02:02:43
great I I don't really I not that I don't find um at useful talking to people it is it really is I just kind of
02:02:52
choose I don't and I I can't put a finger on why I don't do that um I think how we were how how we were
02:03:01
raised in that generation it is harder harder to talk you don't have you don't
02:03:05
have any real good mates that you can go out on the boat with and have some real
02:03:07
talk with I've got really good mates and and I know that um push gumer shove like
02:03:13
those those guys got got my back but I still you know and it sounds stupid and like they'll
02:03:22
kick my ass for saying this but you don't want to burden people or anything you know like um you want to be that guy
02:03:28
that uplifts everyone else not yeah yeah yeah CU I'm sort of I'm in two minds
02:03:32
about that cuz I know it's good to you talk to your friends about this sort of
02:03:35
stuff but then they're not [ __ ] trained like like if I was heavily pregnant you know would I go to you or
02:03:41
would I go exactly and and so like I have spoken to um professional people and not like psychiatrists but I've been
02:03:49
to the GP I'm like look I'm stressed out I've got all of this on you know I get I
02:03:55
when I when I get really tired like I kind of in at the moment like I get emotional I've got these mood swings and
02:04:01
then like oh you know I'm like what's wrong with me you just need to go and
02:04:04
talk to someone so they they just send me off to like literally like a local nurse that's been trained the basics in
02:04:10
it and having a stranger you know way easier you know like like way easier to talk to a stranger than than one of my
02:04:18
mates yeah also that they're trained so they can give you like a different angle
02:04:21
or a different perspective or different way of looking at it and yeah and you don't get like it's not like you I well
02:04:27
for me you come out with these like lifechanging this is going to reset my mind you've just let it go you've you've
02:04:34
spoken about it yeah that's cool thanks for sharing that because the the the mdy
02:04:39
Watson that everyone in New Zealand knows like he's a guy where it seems like everything's water off a duck's
02:04:43
back you know oh I hit my scotum and then I delivered my baby and and in and in retrospect those things
02:04:51
are all like I say cool comedic things that in a very kiwi way are uniquely kiwi and um and they're great to talk
02:05:00
about and and I feel proud that you know that adversity and the way that it's
02:05:05
kind of comes off as order off a duck's back has been the way it's been portrayed that's been that's been cool
02:05:11
um but you know if I allow myself to go back to those moments [ __ ] that would bad you know bad and stressful yeah
02:05:19
yeah you yeah you talked about the low patches before um are they mainly professionally like all the setbacks
02:05:25
that you had or um you know personal relationships well you see when things are going bad and you're in a bad frame
02:05:31
in mind everything goes you know professionally well um if your your your important relationships aren't good
02:05:39
everything else seems to be bad you know I was talking about that strong Foundation if that's not strong
02:05:45
everything else suffers so um you know it takes me to get to just what 48 now um to understand that or maybe I
02:05:54
probably probably about 45 I started really understanding the the full value of that because when you're when you're
02:06:01
in it and you're just being busy all the time it's getting that next thing done
02:06:05
becomes the most important thing in your life because I need to clear that off my
02:06:08
schedule I need to get that done I need to get get to that goal and what I think
02:06:14
um that I've lost sight of and I think a lot of people do that have got goals and
02:06:18
driven away do things is when you get there there's no band playing the the fireworks aren't going off saying you
02:06:23
made it and now everything's going to be easy and all of that hard work and sacrifice it's payback so I've learned
02:06:28
to to enjoy um things along the way and that was happening naturally in the early years of making IG fishing because
02:06:38
I was allowing myself just to be in the moment there was no expectation really other than look I wanted to make a good
02:06:45
TV show um and then as you you know as things got further on and funnily enough the more successful the show became and
02:06:54
the more people were interested in me the less I got to go fishing which was was that I I could be working and having
02:06:59
that outlet at the same time yeah so now I've kind of learned okay look you need
02:07:06
to make make that time I haven't been lately I I admit it I've I've been and
02:07:10
that's through we've got staff shortages at the moment and I've literally had to
02:07:15
be hands really really handson on my business to make sure that series goes out there because I want it to be the
02:07:21
best series I've ever made like every series I do um and being driven is is U
02:07:27
um is part of what my wife knows this better than I do as part of what's allowed me to do the things that I've
02:07:34
done but it's also a big burden you know like it's a I was going to say it's a
02:07:38
blessing and a curse it is a blessing and a cur exhausting because like you know I even told myself you know what
02:07:44
this is going to be the last series it doesn't matter if it doesn't great or
02:07:49
it's not that good you know I'm still going to get the the same amount of
02:07:52
money from my sponsors I'm still and I'm just I can just and but my I my DNA
02:07:59
won't allow me to do that it has to be the very best that I can do and the time
02:08:04
I've got and with the money that I've got it has to it has to be the best I
02:08:07
can do and then I can go to sleep at night yeah but it's um yeah I I can see
02:08:14
some parallels with you and me it's exhausting but I feel like it's going to
02:08:16
follow you around it's like yeah yeah you're not going to kick back and think
02:08:19
about that home bre thing next there's going to be there's going to be something else in the story no there's
02:08:24
going to be a few things I'm just going to learn how to do it more on on my terms and like I say just the not having
02:08:30
a television deadline will be one thing and I think um they'll allow me to be
02:08:35
more more creative but more real get back to the you know the you know through the process of of making this
02:08:42
this documentary which is like a real weird thing not many people have 20 of years of their life filmed let alone
02:08:50
some of the greatest things they've ever done or things they thought they could
02:08:53
never do actually be filmed and and so that's their kind of forever and I've
02:08:57
never been one to sort of look back and go but knowing this is my last series making the into deep documentary um you
02:09:04
start pulling out tapes stuff I'd never done and I found myself just rooting for
02:09:08
this young guy you know it was like another person like who was this kid that thinks he can and like um yeah so
02:09:15
that's that's been a real I and and learning stuff about your yourself it's
02:09:21
you know if if not for looking at footage I would have sat here and told you no I haven't changed you know I'm
02:09:27
still the same I'm still the same guy that um came up with an idea a 20-some
02:09:32
year old that had this outrageous idea and I'm still exactly the same when I
02:09:36
look at the footage and I you know no I've changed them changed hips well yeah
02:09:41
of course and when you've got a growth mindset like you do like you're you're
02:09:44
always changing and you always change um probably for the better more often than
02:09:48
not oh yeah yeah I think so I mean you get you get older and wiser you do like it's um Y what what would you what would
02:09:55
you say to that young fell like I mean it's a bit of an eerie FY question but
02:09:58
no I um I would um I'm proud of him yeah um keep going son you're on the right
02:10:04
track it's going to be fine um yeah actually change nothing because yeah it's it's giv me the life I've got right
02:10:10
now thanks mate yep by and buy the cheap VH tap yeah yeah yeah because because because some rud yeah cuz some rude
02:10:19
[ __ ] is going to tell you that it's F that it doesn't belong on television
02:10:22
yeah how old um how old are the kids now um daughter's 21 and son is 18 sh so the
02:10:27
next step for you is going to be Granddad yeah you're going to be an emotional Granddad aren't you you're
02:10:32
going to be good at that yeah yeah it's funny because you go you have these kids
02:10:37
and then like they grow up and you're like gez don't have kids you know like I
02:10:42
don't want to be a Granddad and I you know and now I mean yeah I mean I I still think both too young to have kids
02:10:49
just they are yeah they are but I'm thinking like the next decade I know I know KY and I have already had that chat
02:10:55
we like oh jeez gr would be pretty good yeah yeah so um no pressure H and Shaw but get breeding
02:11:02
at oh how good what a life it's been yeah yeah yeah so so you're ending the
02:11:07
TV side of thing you're putting a Line in the Sand there financially you've
02:11:10
done okay out of it yeah yep yeah I mean you got a beautiful house what was it building a k build a k dream yeah yeah
02:11:16
it's like a a grand design w the property it is yeah and it's got a lot of just special things that have that
02:11:23
have gone into it through both from can and myself but but the location is special the land like we like just it
02:11:30
does feel Cosmic that we've ended up um there you know K some convincing she's
02:11:36
not not an ocean person but but we both love it yeah yeah oh that's really cool
02:11:41
and moving forward how do you make money fishing Chatters public speaking um no um not not fishing Chatters I I still
02:11:47
take people fishing but I do it for charity so I I get auctioned off um and people pay crazy money and um I think
02:11:55
the part of that crazy money is because it's for a good cause um usually not not
02:11:59
just to come out and have a lion red and catch a fish with me um don't be uh yeah
02:12:04
too self deprecating on that one because um I mean yeah yeah you're you're the
02:12:08
like you're the name that everyone thinks of when it comes to like fishing in New Zealand yeah um yes so I'm I'm G
02:12:15
to be doing um making making media and you know when you've got when you're
02:12:22
getting 4 million video views a month you can make money from that and in the same so really it's no different than um
02:12:29
my sponsors um who um I'll start I'm G I'll St LA to them so long as you know
02:12:36
they'd have to split up with me put it that way you know and so hopefully they
02:12:39
don't want to break up with me and and so long as as as they there um in for
02:12:45
the um Long Haul I'm going to keep doing that sort of content a little bit more
02:12:51
Freer it'll be it'll be getting from the moment that we capture the footage to
02:12:56
being seen a lot quicker and we'll we'll basically just be cutting out the the TV
02:13:01
and and conforming to the TV side of it so I see that continuing um I'm gonna um
02:13:08
and and and these are decisions that are not fully made because like I'm I'm all
02:13:13
in on making the series current series that I'm cutting at the moment so and I
02:13:16
don't want to allow myself to think too much about beyond that I still want to
02:13:19
make this the best TV series and do my job but I I I might just um dial back on the volume and the number of things and
02:13:28
have more time to say yes to family yes to my mates um do some of the things that I've missed like I'm so opportunity
02:13:38
Rich from like not just cool things that my mates want to do oh let's go the rug
02:13:42
or C let's do this or that I mean the the people around the world offer want
02:13:48
to offer me free trips to come out on this super yach and we'll fly you here
02:13:51
and like because you know this because when people are into fishing they really love it and so it's not just um you know
02:13:59
people down the kid down the road that the likes catching fish which is amazing in itself but people overseas are
02:14:05
getting in touch with me and saying oh look we want to fly you to Panama to fish on this super yacht and we'll have
02:14:11
the jet pick you up from Florida and can you make it in a couple of weeks and I'm
02:14:16
like actually I've got to go and do a hunting fishing store opening in gban so why did I agree to that no but I mean
02:14:24
that's um yeah but soon I'm I'm just gonna try and open things up so I can
02:14:29
say Yes um to more of those things you know um I feel like I've done the work
02:14:34
and uh and I can get some some more of the treats yeah you've done all the all
02:14:38
the Mah and um hey thanks for coming on today and thanks for being so generous with your time longest longest podcast
02:14:44
I've ever done by a long way I'm bad for that no [ __ ] mate we I I could have kept
02:14:48
on going but I know you got a [ __ ] trailer to pack up yeah that's right new
02:14:51
boat coming um but thanks for thanks for sharing your stories you're a great
02:14:54
Storyteller thanks for um showing so much vulnerability as well yeah thanks to the tissues um no it's it's like it's
02:15:00
really special like the way you've um spoken about Ken um yeah by the way my
02:15:04
video guy for those bits who'll zoom in on your I know yeah I know but um I you
02:15:09
know maybe one day when you're a really old man like Hannah and Shaw or their
02:15:14
grand their kids your grandkids will will watch this and it's um I think uh like putting myself in the position of
02:15:21
your kids like to see your dad talk about you your mom that way I think it's
02:15:27
really [ __ ] special special and you're so lucky to have someone um like her in your corner and vice versa yep
02:15:33
absolutely and I'm not going to talk about it again CU cuz my tissue is done
02:15:39
mate all right mat Watson you're a great New Zealander thank you for everything
02:15:42
you've done over the last couple of decades and best of luck um can't wait
02:15:45
to follow you oh what's the digital platform ultimate fishing. TV and um yeah if you could um follow my socials
02:15:52
as well because that's all part of this being able to say to my sponsors look
02:15:56
there's this many people and they're actually watching my stuff and that
02:15:59
means I get to keep going so please do yeah ultimate fishing TV and uh we have a link to all all the socials and the
02:16:06
and the bio thing um but yeah hey good luck for whatever's next mate I'm sure
02:16:09
you're going to be brilliant at [Music] ITW [Music] he