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Tom sainsbury welcome thank you for having me I just noticed that we've got rhyming names Tom and Dom
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yeah we can hear you guys we should um later down in the chat when we're not so
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busy we should have a company called Tom and Dom yeah let's do it you've got um
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now I feel like you're just I've done so much research about you and I know that
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you're um a people pleaser and a yes man but so you suggest we have a company and
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I'll be messaging you hey you ready to start that company you're not going to
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be able to say no no I know it's happening are selling socks Tom and Dom socks sure sure you um
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you're you're amazing um Tom sandsbury the Snapchat dude TV work includes
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shortland Street Wellington paranormal my life is murder the breaker up has give us a clue 7 days snack Masters
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super City with um taer um so much and and so many plays and stuff as well and I I get the feeling um the plays for you
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are maybe uh like a creative outlet and it's things like snack Masters that keep
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the the lights on that's a really good way of putting out like I feel so comfortable on stage doing a theater
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show so I guess that's yeah yeah that's right it's more enjoyable I I quite like like tuming
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like snack Masters like that doesn't I love doing it cuz I love the CH I love
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the challenge of presenting something and all the things that kind of come with it so it's just another um it's
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just another aspect to what I do so I think I really love the variety yeah yeah so much and um you yesterday
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knowing that you were coming in today I was just scrolling through your Instagram going right back and um I
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suppose I studied it with a different lens to someone that just sees the clips every day and watches them and you are
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so good at what you do like um it's such a talent to be able to observe people
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then nail their their mannerisms um when did that start were you like an introverted little boy and yeah I think
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like the observation kind of thing I think uh came from my family like my family love kind of discussing people in
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the eccentricities and having a bit of a laugh about different types of characters stuff usually like um usually
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with a kind of a lot of love and like especially my dad he's got such a keen
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sense of observation with people so I think I kind of learned it through that but growing up yeah I was really shy and
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um introverted um but I I didn't really kind of delve into the mimicry of people
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or uh until I was well into my adulthood so I wasn't really copying the teachers or
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anything like that at school you know how some kids are so good at being the clown and kind of mimicking the teachers
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that wasn't me because some of the some of the stuff I I watched it was like um
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you doing like a mom from the 80s uh explaining her calary skills and it's just you sitting there like you haven't
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done your hair there's no filter you're just wearing like a black cap shirt or
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something but it's still convincing yeah I think uh uh yeah sometimes I just wake up in the morning
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I've got terrible kind of puffy pillow face and my hairs I've got terrible bead
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here and I'm just kind of pinking it which is like I should I should considered that a little bit more but I
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think the um uh you know keep it in its purest form so I don't want any of that
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extra stuff anymore I used to be big into that and getting the wigs and all that kind of the outfits and things but
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I'm just like no let's just PE peer it back it seems like it seems lazy in a
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way like you're putting less effort in but it's like the fact that that um you
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can still do these characters and they seem convincing and they're funny um it
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says a lot about your I you were skill first of all but also how comfortable you now are with your skill but I also
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love like you say lazy like it is like I I think with all these things if it if it took too much effort to do in energy
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I don't think I'd do it as much so I think like by making it as easy as possible helps me and has the the more
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well known you've become has it become harder for you to um like just be a guy
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that's sitting in the corner observing people you CU you're at a point now I
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suppose where a lot of rooms you go into people are observing you yeah that's a
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really good point um I think I yes you do there's like an extra self-consciousness cuz yes I used to
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just kind of go to the food court or whatever and just sit there and just kind of just watch everyone and kind of
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take it all in so I do have to be a bit more aware of that yeah definitely so you Sav your disguises there for the
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food C exactly but that kep on those glasses on and just just observe could could you do me how would you do me I
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would first of all I'd mention running a lot and then maybe py and what uh and that's all I'm going
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to say you've got a wonderful kind of uh what is it kind of not raspy but yeah I don't want to I don't want to
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why I'll do it later are you um yeah yeah maybe we can do it do you get people asking you all the time can you
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do me is that a thing you get asked a lot no not not too much but I do get people kind of asking me to be
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characters and things like that in front of them um my sister and Perth we because of the you know 5our time
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difference and also yeah we're just in different phases of our life like we don't see each other all that much um
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but she will message me like every I don't know two 3 four weeks um just sharing a copy of one of your Clips
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saying who does this remind you of and it's like I can usually nail the the person in the broader family right away
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you hear that a lot from people that sort of thing it's l hearing about it it's more the kind of comments under
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underneath my videos I have such I just really D out and I abolutely love I mean it's so wanky D but the kind
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of the community the the comments underneath from the people are brilliant and that also inspires you know probably
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a quarter of the comments Inspire the next video they're like this reminds me
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so much of that time uh you know I wrote a dinky diary and so now sing I'm like
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I'm obsessed with dinky Diaries and kind of I'm folding that into my 80s kind of
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sketches and things like that so I think it's more the commons yeah it was a
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dinky diary when I watched the other day and it was about um the girl the girl that had the dinky diary like she had
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like a little trap booby trap thing on which was like a hair and remember broke the hair cell and it was like it was
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phenomenal did your sister have a dinky diary where did like where does this come from the dinky diary I had a um I
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had we all had Diaries me and my brother and sister we all had Diaries um but the
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dinky thing kind of came out in my adulthood that that even existed as a concept but the the yeah it's
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interesting it's also when you kind of tap into these things like you never think about Dinky Diaries and then
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you're suddenly in the zone of the 80s and you're thinking about eating the
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salads and you're thinking about you know um getting stationary at the beginning of the year and then your mind
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starts remembering other things and then you can all feed it in it's all kind of
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there buried yeah it's is so is the is the demograph of people that watch your
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Clips sort of people the same age or the same yeah so you can break it down you can put push a button and you can find
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out who's watching your stuff so mostly it's women age 35 to 45 is my kind of
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Dem Target demographic is what they say and it used to be mostly um kiwis well people in New Zealand but now it's
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actually more Australians but you know that would be I'm sure 50% new zealanders who now live there yeah so
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anyone of that age or anyone that's um had a dinky diary or had a sister with a
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dinky diary or had a salad with like grated carrot and half eggs and you got him um and how many how many different
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characters do you done like 100 200 yeah probably 200 over there's kind of stock
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St you know there's the the you know you can break it down to kind of stock standard characters you know Posh people
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or the dead or a younger like a guy like this kind of thing and so varying so I'd
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say there' probably be 15 types of person and then all the characters just going of fit into that
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are you on um like Cameo or swiss you know those sites where people mainly do like video messages for fancy are you on
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any of those or no I'm not on any of those I kind of like I like it and sometimes people have seen me messages
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um saying hey can you do something for my mom and I'm more than happy to kind
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of do that I think that kind of the Cameo and making uh it's I think suddenly the pressure is there a part of
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me Dom just wants to be able to walk away at any moment even though I've been
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doing this for what seven years seven eight years a part of me still likes the concept of just being a like to step
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away at any time and having any of that pressure of having to do a cameo just doesn't sue me you if you're charging
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someone like 50 bucks I suppose they can be like well it's not as good as what I
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hoped you 100% 100% right yeah um what's your um I don't know if you know the
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answer to this but what's your longest streak your longest continuous daily streak oh that's a really good
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question uh I I wouldn't know but it's it's probably 3 weeks every day is
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probably pretty standard and then I'd have a day off to kind of gather myself
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for it's quite hard when you're working kind of fulltime um or doing a shoot or
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something like that it's always hard to kind of fit in the videos but yeah 3
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weeks I'd say it must feel like a lot of pressure from your community that people
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like where's where's I haven't seen one for two days what's going on this is a
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really good question I think I think there's multiple things kind of going on with it like I do get
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such a I love doing it I love kind of putting it out there and I love the kind of reaction I get from it and maybe I'm
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a little bit addicted to that like I'm sure there's some kind of dopamine hurt
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when video goes really well cuz definitely it's on the flip side when a video doesn't go well or people just
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don't kind of connect with it you're like oh but I know bummed out I know
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exactly I spent a good seven minutes working on that why have you ruined my day um but as appre
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uh uh yes but it's also really interesting with an online community because they are I feel like I kind of
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know these people but it's also like it's just comments on a video like it's
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so it's not you're not letting someone down to their face yeah yeah and you
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don't even know the people it's like but it is it's a dop thing M what's the um
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what's the planning process so you have an idea and you write in the notes section of your phone got it yeah yeah
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and but sometimes it's just like what am I going to do today and one of my most
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um uh like I really wanted to do a video but I had no idea for it and I was just
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kind of going through snapchat looking at different filters and there was one of this guy with really swollen face and
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the whole story kind of came out about it like he was dog sitting a dog that was meant to be hyperallergenic but he's
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kind of having a reaction to it and that video did so well and there was no that
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just came from looking at my face with this strange filter on so that was no prep at all so there's generally no
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scripting no never any scripting but I watched one the other day it was you I think you being a
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journalist talking to a politician about the housing crisis or something yes um that must have been scripted that was
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amazing that oh yes no that one so the the scripting bit is not actually for the listeners
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it's it's not the scripting wasn't on screen so I'm a journalist who doesn't
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get a word in eway with a politician but I wrote something out and I was reading
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it and I just H as a recording yes that was that was written yeah it was remarkable was it was really really good
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what about one take wonders many or like what's the Aver am of good question probably one and 10
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would be a one take Wonder most of them most of them would be probably three Tes
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you just kind of find out what it is when you're doing it but there is no it's you're just kind of vibing it out
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yeah there's not much prep even that's amazing cuz I I'll pull my phone out and
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do like a a running selfie like hey it's raining it's my favorite and it's just
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me being me but sometimes that'll take me like half a dozen to be me course yeah 100% it's it's
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because you might as well do it all you might as well do it satisfactory do you know what I mean if you've kind of
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screwed it up but also um I get tongue tired you know I um most of my characters as are big talkers
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and sometimes you just can't get all the woods out properly it's real refreshing to hear
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this like I I don't yeah I don't know what I was expecting part of me I suppose kind of hoped you had like a mle
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skin notebook and it was like well thought out and you had like a maybe if you're going on holiday you do 10 in
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advance and you schedule them and stuff but there's nothing like n n just wake
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up and just wake up often wake up and go what should I do this morning um but in
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saying that sometimes I've had um you know I've had five good ideas they've
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just come to me in a day and I've just kind of scribbled them on my notes and
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so sometimes there is a bit of prep and also with these things you don't know
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how much is prep like I might think of like the politician one I actually thought about that a couple of weeks ago
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and then I was like I should do something about that planted in my head but you don't your brain kind of
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processes it without you having to do much work if that makes sense and you've
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never um as far as I'm aware like you've never done any sort of like brand deals
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with them so it's it's always been like free free content always free content well no I've done
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probably over the seven years I've probably done about 12 brand content kind of stuff some of them were um
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fantastic like I did a Pizza Hut one where um I they got me to design my own pizza and then that became a whole thing
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for three weeks which was heaps of fun so things like that well I'm pleased about that yeah I'm pleased about that
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because yeah I mean it's the work the works so good and you've built up this
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amazing following if you can't sort of monetize it somehow well what I always
00:14:00
say is that because you've got this falling like I just did a tour of Southland and people only came to the
00:14:06
show because they knew my videos and that's how you kind of make it on box office and tickets house okay and other
00:14:12
opportunities that come your way as a result of it 100% was was there like a like a Tipping Point sort of moment or a
00:14:18
breakthrough Moment Like a moment where you think where you can actually sort of
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like pinpoint if you look back over the Tom S career not like it's all been so gradual like there been no kind of
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jump in my career it's all been like just the next slow progression sadly no I think that's kind of good in
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a way because if you have exponential growth then it's likely to be I think it
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increases the chances of being a One Clip Wonder or an exponential fall as well I think um slow and steady growth
00:14:47
is the way to go yeah what about um the clips that you've like posted and then like delete it like an hour or two
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hours later like yes and there's two like there's uh yes there's ones that
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you're like this isn't as good as it can be or like I haven't nailed the joke
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usually I just kind of leave it up but sometimes I'm like this could be done
00:15:06
better quickly take it down and you can do it better another time but there's
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also been ones where it's just kind of uh it's missed the Mark or it's a little
00:15:13
bit kind of too mean or that kind of or it's going to be too contentious and do
00:15:20
you have the energy to kind of boldly stand behind your kind of contentious kind of opinion which you taken those
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down like what is there anything that you can think cuz you're you're one of
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the least mean people I think I've met yeah I think it's when like you're you
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just have a lone mean threshold I've heard you say like you like um you like
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some provocative comedians like rookie ja um but you like to watch him being provocative rather
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than 100% you're watch it going God I wish I had that kind of boldness but no
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I'm I know go rcky and entertain me 100% I can't think of any off the top of my
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head but it would be it it would be more kind of um when you're kind of uh uh
00:16:02
nastier to the characters it's like cuz my all the characters I do are so silly
00:16:07
pompous full of themselves and stuff like that but when you're kind of kind of being mean about them in their
00:16:13
situation or something that they can't kind of help or um yeah that's that's
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the that's the hard ones what was the story with um just Cinder and Clark's
00:16:23
cat pedals yeah so pedals the cat that got run over I think it was on Meola Road and point sh yeah did you you did
00:16:30
you did a character you got some backlash no what was the I did a video as Paula been like there was a the the
00:16:36
timing I just had to commit to it the timing was great so pedals got run over and then Paula Bennett Nikki K Maggie
00:16:44
Barry were all in a car doing a video at the same time and so I just kind of did
00:16:49
a video that connected it that it was that car that ran over paddles I think most of people most people saw it and
00:16:56
most people had a good laugh about it know the back story I just a split that's hilarious yeah like I have to do
00:17:04
this yeah is there um is there any sort of fear of um like cancellation is that something that plays on the back of your
00:17:09
mind uh um yes of course of course cancellation is always a thing to worry about
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especially sometimes when you're in the kind of the throw of kind of creativity
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you don't even realize what you're kind of creating so cancellation is something
00:17:24
to consider but also there's a bit of if you've got a contentious video the next
00:17:28
day everyone's kind of forgotten about it I find yeah this is so interesting I promise
00:17:34
only another couple more about the no of course are these the questions you get asked all the time no not at all yeah um
00:17:42
yes so politicians you've done oh by the way when you when you start typing your
00:17:45
name into Google like Tom sainsbury the the you know how does the Google complete thing it comes up with Tom
00:17:51
sainsbury just under wedding was that a clip you did or were you a guest at the wedding no I did a video of it that went
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hu I actually did take that video down it just was so cont I did a video of her talking about her wedding which was
00:18:05
earlier this year or end of last year and I um it became very contentious yeah why I think it was because she
00:18:14
unfortunately she's such a polarizing kind of character people kind of people
00:18:18
kind of used it as an opportunity to hate on her but then also to fend her and just became this big F wasn't so
00:18:24
much on me it was more about the language that people were saying to each other and the commentary was just like
00:18:30
getting really toxic so I was like let's just take this down or hide it yeah soz
00:18:35
is she is she a friend do you know who um I no she's not a friend but I've
00:18:39
metet her a few times yeah yeah what and You' you've been on um yeah knowing you
00:18:44
were coming here I've listened to the podcast you've been on you've been on
00:18:46
Simon Bridges that's right um and you've been on Paula Bennett That's right yes
00:18:51
um you seem to have a good relationship with those guys even though you mercilessly took the puss out of them
00:18:57
yeah I think it's it's an interesting one with them because when I kind of
00:19:00
first started doing it um uh I didn't really think of them as people but then
00:19:04
when you kind of it's an interesting thing when you mimic someone and you watch so many videos of them I just
00:19:10
connected with the humanity and then of course I did the show called have you been paying I um give us a clue which is
00:19:16
a shres thing with Paula with me Paula and Hillary Barry and then Simon came on and did a few things and so you just
00:19:22
kind of T to these people and and with all the politicians even though I take the piss out of them and I might not
00:19:27
agree with them I kind of enjoy them as characters and quite enjoy them as people yeah as people yeah Michelle
00:19:34
Obama's got this quote that I really like it she she see something it's I'm
00:19:38
I'll probably botch it up but it's something like um most people are hard
00:19:40
to dislike up close that's that's such a that's I've never heard that that's
00:19:44
that's it it's really true yes I've had someon bridges on the podcast and he he
00:19:48
was Bloody great I know bloody great and also got such a good sense of uh humor about himself what about Trump did have
00:19:55
you do you done much with American politics it'd be very easy to do he is easy to I've actually just done Mike
00:20:01
Pence his VP back in the day but it just didn't kind of connect with my or like
00:20:06
the audience just weren't interested in anything American it's interesting you know I should just make
00:20:12
videos that kind of inspire me and stuff but it has been quite interesting doing
00:20:16
I've been doing lot less politics now because I've got so many Australians
00:20:19
people from the UK and so many Americans kind of watching my stuff that the more
00:20:23
localized stuff just doesn't connect with people that's so fascinating hey thanks
00:20:29
for sharing all that St pleasure can we um talk about young Tom now yeah of course okay so um yeah the year year so
00:20:36
you're from Dey farm and M meta you got it um what best and worst things about
00:20:40
being a farm cut did you enjoy it I used to I used to get sent in the school holidays to my uncle and Auntie's Farm
00:20:46
in Lana I [ __ ] hated it did you couldn't stand it it was awful it's always last to get up in the morning
00:20:51
last to put on my overalls and I'd get the the the [ __ ] spot on the back of the
00:20:54
tractor where the mud gets flung up yes this I'm this is all speaking to me what
00:21:01
would I say would be the worst the best thing about it would be uh okay the worst would might
00:21:09
be there was never on a farm you never relax cuz anything can happen at any time and so sometimes you'd be going and
00:21:17
helping dad with a cow that's having trouble sorry You' be helping dad with a
00:21:22
cow that's having trouble in the middle of the night do you know what I mean so
00:21:25
it's just a sense of uh you can't fully relax I think that would be the and I
00:21:30
think I think Farmers across the world would appreciate that Vibe the the best thing about it would probably be I just
00:21:37
loved having so much kind of empty space to kind of just kind of go and wander and kind of be myself and uh what else
00:21:45
would I like about it also I I love animals and even though I've got this kind of uh complicated relationship with
00:21:52
farming them I did get to spend a lot of time with animals yeah yeah yeah so let's say the
00:21:59
bo thing actually is the The Killing and the death like forget about the not being able to relax yeah but there is
00:22:05
there's always jobs to be done it's like I'd get up and have a nice relaxing
00:22:08
breakfast and my Auntie Robin I'd be like oh can you take this Billy to the vet and fill it up with milk and it was
00:22:13
like a couple hundred meters walk and I'd have to Dom you are speaking my you
00:22:17
are we've had a Shar experience that's exactly what it's like yeah they they
00:22:21
they called me a city slicker and I was I was from Farmers from the ' 80s I was
00:22:24
hardly a city slicker but I just didn't want to be on the farm and the smell of
00:22:27
silage you got it it's awful um is that why you're a vegan now I think it is
00:22:33
yeah when I think kind of back up well it is I think um yeah like I'm I'm
00:22:39
terrible with my eating and stuff like you know I'm not doing it for kind of
00:22:42
health reasons but it was definitely uh having this this experience of seeing animals that you kind of really
00:22:49
appreciate and enjoy and like and they're your friends and then you can see them killed it's it's
00:22:54
hard yeah yeah I'm um I'm I'm the worst s of Meer like I uh yeah I'll gladly
00:23:01
pick it up from new world but I I don't want to know the back story yeah but I I
00:23:05
mean there is that thing about not wanting to know the backstory but I and but someone said said to me uh if you
00:23:11
don't kill your own animal but you know even in tribal times Dom not everyone
00:23:14
did the killing people did the butchering some people did the Gathering and then they ate the fruits of the the
00:23:19
meat so that's fine where you CU you were always a creative CAD like you started writing plays when you were like
00:23:25
nine yeah um where did that come from as you know your dad creative is your mom creative my mom is an English teacher
00:23:32
and both my both my parents were really good big readers they would read to me and they were also really uh they went
00:23:42
to all the movies especially led by my mom and then my dad would be dagged along and enjoy it but they took me to
00:23:47
some pretty amazing like I remember watching Heavenly Creatures um uh shist like when I was
00:23:55
like tinaa and just kind of being taken to these amazing films and just kind of enjoying them so I think the culture was
00:24:00
there but in terms of painter paper I don't know where they came from shind list doesn't seem like an appropriate
00:24:06
movie I think it was I think it was 11 and I remember going to it and kind of been blowing away by it and you're um
00:24:15
you're you're you're a gay you're a gay M well 75% gay of who of who you say
00:24:20
what what is yeah that was on another podcast I think what what does what does that mean what does 75% gay mean I think
00:24:26
I would describe well I think it's not uh so binary for me of like I'm only
00:24:31
attracted to men I think wow let's just say if we worked if I lived in a time um
00:24:40
I lived in a time where it was forbidden I could have managed a relationship with
00:24:44
a woman and it would have been fine it wouldn't been it wouldn't have been
00:24:46
completely against what I like white knuckled it I could have white knuckled it and been fine probably had probably
00:24:52
had kids but been very kind of Yearning and unhappy but I would have been I would have managed it when did you when
00:24:58
did you realize you were more into into into guys than girls do you think well I
00:25:03
think a lot of kind of game men have this experience of like you don't really
00:25:06
kind of uh you don't really address it or kind of like I guess from when I was
00:25:10
like 11 or 12 I probably would have known if I was honest with myself but you just kind of
00:25:16
don't process those feelings you just kind of kind of just keep soldiering on
00:25:21
and not kind of address it and then whenever someone would kind of bring it up or someone one of your friends with
00:25:25
have a girlfriend or something like that or there was talk about girls to just kind of like be a master of of
00:25:31
deflection deflection yeah right yeah so you're growing up in like a place like
00:25:38
matam matter in the 80s or 90s whatever it was yeah I can't imagine it was like
00:25:42
a hot bed of you no day activity you got to like it was the uh like I've there's
00:25:50
no I've got no trauma about it but it was definitely the worst the worst thing
00:25:54
you could be would be like societally or in class it would be the worst thing you
00:25:59
could possibly be like there was most aversion to gainers like you could be the worst behaved boy but if you were
00:26:06
gay that was worse than that yeah but also in saying that like I like there was still so many avenues like there was
00:26:13
so much theater like theater was so kind of um encouraged and encouraged for me and all that kind and art and all that
00:26:20
kind of stuff still existed then you see you you um came out I think to your parents at like 28 yeah that's quite it
00:26:28
is I know did they know like you know when you came out was it like okay Tom yeah exactly T we know we haven't really
00:26:38
talked about we haven't really talked about it but yeah they they must have known was um yeah was that something
00:26:45
that you built up to be a big thing and yeah of course but you know you know I was like this is the weekend they're
00:26:51
coming up you have to tell them and then you don't tell them and then another
00:26:54
year passes that's the vibe of it I know I'm like just ripped it should have
00:26:59
ripped their Band-Aid off yeah yeah I'm I'm intrigued by this stuff because as
00:27:03
um you know as like a heterosexual male it's not a just something you don't even
00:27:07
have to think about it's not a conversation you have to have and it just feels like a extra level of
00:27:12
complexness and an already complicated time of your life um yeah I definitely I would yeah also like maybe
00:27:23
I haven't kind of processed any of those feelings or anything like that or you
00:27:28
shut yourself down so much to any of that kind of feeling that you don't really uh experience anything truthfully
00:27:36
but you also have kind of put this armor up so nothing's really penetrated you
00:27:39
yeah excuse the pun pun excused um did you want to talk about the spoon Don stuff I about that yeah so you're um
00:27:50
I'm like um I suppose I've I've got um a level of curiosity about this cuz um joj
00:27:56
and I when we were married we had years and years of um IVF and fertility treatment yes um in the end that was
00:28:01
unsuccessful after something like six rounds of IVF so then we went into the donor spoon donor SPO um route and
00:28:07
ultimately we gave up and that wasn't successful but um um first of all yeah
00:28:12
good on you for doing it it's really cool so um so you've got two biological
00:28:17
children that's right running around and love them like it's just it just keeps
00:28:22
getting better and better and I'm so lucky uh from the get-go the mother so um I donated to lesbian couple so each
00:28:30
of them had a child age so the children are technically biologically half siblings and um just by I think it's
00:28:38
just like like I really love the parents I love the family and it's just I think
00:28:42
by luck we just took a chance and it kind of paid off and we get on really well I'm I'm sure there are that and I
00:28:48
recommend people do it and I really encourage people do um guys to do it but I might have locked out so I I
00:28:55
think I I think with other people maybe I don't know it it may go peer shaped
00:29:01
but thankfully for me it hasn't so you so they they approach you they approach
00:29:06
me they had a kind of a we had a mutual friend and then the friend kind of rang me up said do you want to meet these two
00:29:10
and I kind of did and then we just kind of everything the ball started rolling before I really thought about it and now
00:29:15
there were two beautiful children running around yeah you you make it sound real easy but having um been in
00:29:20
the same position as this this um lesbian couple and having to ask a friend of mine to do it there's quite a
00:29:26
few hops to go through like he had to go through some counseling and then there's
00:29:30
the specimen room specimen room the the wank room the wank room okay the wank room so this is my realization because I
00:29:37
used to laugh about it because it was all carpeted like it's floor ceiling walls the carpet and the whole time I
00:29:43
was like this is feels not right because surely You' need surfaces that you could
00:29:48
easily wipe down but someone explained to me it's for sound it's like it's
00:29:52
insulation so all the carpets in the room so that people can't hear you m and I didn't even think about that I'm
00:30:00
like that makes so much sense yeah but most it's guys that are providing the
00:30:04
specimen in this room it most guys start I think um discovering themselves and discovering masturbation in the teenag
00:30:10
years when you're living at home we know how to do it silently I know I know I
00:30:14
know so um whereabouts was it was it fertility Associates the one in um Ally or the one in green L Green Lane yeah
00:30:22
you know what's that one called I don't know I can't I can't remember what that
00:30:24
one's called that's the L bougie one but the um yeah I've been in that specimen
00:30:29
room as well and so there was a lazy boy chair with like a shet over oh my God yes and there was no one else has been I
00:30:35
don't know I've been anyone to went to this room you're talking about and
00:30:39
there's like a there's like a um uh uh a filing cabinet in the corner when I was
00:30:44
there and you kind oh kind of you open it and there's one well thumbed to Penthouse and then
00:30:48
that's that's the extent of it yeah yeah there was there was a penthouse I'm
00:30:52
thinking I've got I've got D my phone I'm good I'm good and then um
00:30:58
yeah it's so I remember like they they they give you the little ptle yes so you
00:31:04
you're going into the room I'm so glad I'm talking to someone who's had this
00:31:07
experience so you know what you're doing in the room they know what you're doing
00:31:11
in the room this so I um I got it done as quickly as what I could and then I left the room then I did like a fake
00:31:18
Sprint up to the reception cter and I was like stop the clock stop the clock no laughter or anything he it's not a no
00:31:24
it's all very very very serious and then you kind of walk down with the Walk of
00:31:28
and you hand over cuz you've got to put it in a bottle and then into a plastic
00:31:30
bag and hand that one over only one time so I uh I went in seven times cuz there
00:31:36
was going to be two children I had to do seven deposits and only one time I had to wait
00:31:42
and I had to wait and I had to wait so this poor guy was in there just unable to kind of tip over but eventually he
00:31:49
emerged with a sweaty brow Tom I can't believe I've met someone else who's had the success
00:31:59
it's a it's a random thing and that's why um um this is when I was still
00:32:03
trying um to have have a child with my own sp and then um so I I asked a friend to do it and there was um there was like
00:32:10
a checklist and a bunch of reasons why I SED this particular friend part of it because he had his own family and he
00:32:15
lived in a different part of the country and we're not friends that see each
00:32:17
other that often so he wasn't going to be around every weekend like saying oh
00:32:21
look at their eyes or yeah you know it's kind of a weird I don't know from my
00:32:26
part it's probably an ego thing it's like a weird sort of ownership thing you
00:32:29
don't want but um I think there's I I think there's so much emot there's so
00:32:33
much involved in it there's so much um uh emotion and there is that kind of biological connection with whether you
00:32:40
have it or not like when when I first met the children I didn't feel a huge kind of biological urge with them but as
00:32:46
the kind of years have gone on like I'm so kind of fond of them now and spend
00:32:50
more and more time with them so there is you do kind of uh yeah it's it's
00:32:55
complicated and can be messy yeah but it's um it's a big thing for you to go
00:33:01
through for someone else so yeah I know you're good on you for doing that well
00:33:05
it isn't as isn't like you only have to go seven wow well I'll tell you what the
00:33:09
hard thing was for me like actually I had to do none of the other I didn't have to carry a child for 9 months but
00:33:15
the um I think cuz I'm the most D I'm the most screamish person I know and of
00:33:20
course you have to take these well I had to take all these blood tests so you take a blood test before you start um
00:33:25
depositing and then afterwards you have to give one just so that you're clear of
00:33:28
any diseases that you might kind of give to the mother and I just passed so every
00:33:34
time I did it I would I passed out well the first time I did it I passed out fell onto the ground this tiny Filipino
00:33:39
net to kind of carry me to the ground and then I was like kind of sat in the car kind of gathering myself for half an
00:33:45
hour and then I left and I got a phone call going so sorry we didn't take syphilis you have to go back and test
00:33:50
for syphilis I had to go to it again syphilis yeah syphilis wow what is this the 1800s syphilis who has syphilis
00:33:59
I know I reckon it would have been safe um yeah and does this is probably not something that you think about but I
00:34:07
suppose I'm thinking about on behalf of you like you're you're quite you're
00:34:09
you're very well known like people know the name or they know the face does that
00:34:14
add an extra level of embarrassment or is it not something you think about like when you're handing in when you're going
00:34:18
in there or you yeah I think uh back then so this was 10 years ago when I did the deposits and so I was just kind of
00:34:25
starting out on the scene my videos were just kind of going out there so there was none of that then I don't think and
00:34:30
it was also like cuz I was just getting into standup I was like there's so much
00:34:33
about this that I can put into my standup and and I have yeah yeah yeah I suppose you can also go up to the
00:34:39
counter and be a character right Bo my dad here exactly not actually Tom well as you said with the kind of this
00:34:46
hitting the clock going finished stop the they're not they're all very professional and very clinical yeah so
00:34:52
so the AL so the kids are quite old now yeah so eight and six have they got your mannerisms or is
00:34:59
there anything that you can sort of see yourself in them I can't but when I show
00:35:03
people pictures they're like I can see you in it but I can't really see it so
00:35:06
much I think the I think um so the 8-year-old is a little girl and then this sixy is a boy and the the the girl
00:35:17
has more than typical more than usual child flear for theatrics in writing so I'm like okay okay honey good luck to
00:35:27
you yeah well that's cool and what do they what do they call you is it just like
00:35:32
Tom or they call me Tom yeah yeah and then um Tom but very very uh aware like I and they've been explained to about
00:35:42
donation and all that kind of stuff so they're very aware of it I think that's
00:35:46
healthy but yeah again from a parenting perspective it's another layer of you
00:35:50
know explanation yeah I guess with um you figure it out though you could explain it to kids in a way that they
00:35:56
can handle it what whatever age they're at I suppose yeah and there's also like
00:36:00
a commun like a rainbow community of like parents in a similar situation so like um that they're not the only ones
00:36:07
in the situation as far as I'm aware and you and your partner Josh jacob jacob
00:36:12
Jacob you've been together a long time now right you got a house we have we do
00:36:16
have a house yeah I think we've been together for six seven years yeah right
00:36:20
right do you you guys want kids at no no we've got a cash and that's enough for
00:36:24
us it's like we love having the kids over and also nieces and nephews but you know
00:36:29
when they go at the end of the day like oh thank goodness I can rolls yeah but we yeah we um we like to
00:36:40
chill are you guys married no you want to get married no no yeah uh why we fought for your rights I know I
00:36:50
know uh it's an interesting one and we often kind of ask this question I think
00:36:55
neither of us want the kind of you know the ceremony of the wedding like I don't need that I just get you
00:37:01
know I'm I'm the center of attention on stage doing standup and stuff like that
00:37:04
so I don't kind of need that and we're also a little bit uh embarrassed about
00:37:11
public dispay of affection and for us weddings is the most uh most public display of a fiction that you can
00:37:17
possibly have but every wedding I go to I love and I do love when people get married but it's just not for us you
00:37:24
what does what does he do what does Jacob do he works for the council so he a he's a urban planner so he thinks he
00:37:31
thinks about things about the city and how it's running so he's kind of talking
00:37:35
about aqueducts from Rome and he's talking about how the city kind of runs and the better way to do it and and
00:37:41
strip malls and and how to get flow of people in so he kind of thinks about Society what does he make of what you do
00:37:49
he is uh he's fully invested he's he's what's really good about Jacob is he's
00:37:57
not not a f like he really appreciates what I do but it would be bad if he was a fan he's very
00:38:04
um he's very what's the word truthful if if if he thinks something's good he lets me know and if
00:38:12
it's not so good he's willing there to talk about it which I think is healthy
00:38:15
for a relationship and he's uh and it also means that when is when something
00:38:20
is good and he tells me it's good I know it's true if that all makes sense um are you
00:38:26
are you good at communicating and relationships um really good question I think uh I think uh previous
00:38:35
relationships not so much but for some reason yeah quite badly in some previous relationships but there's just I do
00:38:41
think there's something about finding the right person for you and he and I have no trouble with
00:38:47
it yeah that's good I think um everyone needs those bad experiences because they
00:38:52
it's like the evolution process it leads you to the that you are there's
00:38:56
something about like I don't I've want to do my research but like three main
00:38:59
relationships in your life like this the first one's just like the the throws of
00:39:04
the passion and stuff and the second one you work out the relationship you work out who you are in a relationship and
00:39:09
the third one's the one that kind of works I think that might be true um I've
00:39:13
got a card here called miscellaneous with some just bits and pieces of the Tom Saints story on was your first job
00:39:18
on a um a commercial for a Canadian beer yes it yes it was yes how the [ __ ] did
00:39:25
that happen um so they were filming okay I don't know if I've talked about the
00:39:30
story they mol and dry came over and like some kind of deal with New Zealand they came over and they did eight ads
00:39:37
here um and I auditioned and they cuz when you when you're an actor you I was
00:39:43
just taught they ask for your skills and you just go I'm going to stick horse
00:39:48
riding and then if I get the job of horse riding then you do it and so one of the things I ticked was pyramid water
00:39:56
skiing so I I did the audition and then they called me back they're like let's
00:40:00
come in and meet the producers I met all the American Producers and stuff or Canadian producers and they're like so
00:40:05
is it true that you can ski in a pyramid like so like one the bottom on the shoulders one person on the top they
00:40:13
asked me and I was like yep so I said yes I could I'd never like I can barely
00:40:19
stand up on water skis it takes me so long I was like in a pyramid are you serious and so I it's very N I know so n
00:40:27
and I was like um yeah I can do that and then I went and I just stressed about it
00:40:31
for days and then I rang up my agent and said listen I don't she made it really
00:40:36
good she rang up and said he doesn't feel comfortable doing a pyramid and they're like that's fine we like him
00:40:40
come in and do this other AD so I did this other AD of a Peeping Tom looking through a hole in a toilet in a bathroom
00:40:46
at a house party and spying on a girl they think but I'm actually staring at
00:40:51
the beer I'm like I can't wait to get hold of that beer is that that on YouTube or anywhere I haven't been able
00:40:57
to find it it would be crazy to find what year was that it doesn't sound like
00:41:00
aged very well no not at all absolutely not maybe 2002 or three right that was age so how old were you then like in
00:41:09
your early 20s or whatever yeah would have been 20 21 so you you left school and you you you were drop out you were
00:41:16
doing like theater school and you dropped out or something uh I auditioned for theater school and didn't get in
00:41:20
okay so I didn't do a good enough job so um in my audition and so then I just
00:41:24
went and did English Lit at Oakland uni m yeah what was the plan what was the plan
00:41:29
B Plan B was uh I think the writing like I audition for drama school and didn't
00:41:35
do it and then I was like you know what I'm going to be a playright so actually
00:41:38
focused on writing plays for years and years and years yeah um you met Katie Perry in Vegas I did what's the how like
00:41:47
randomly or is it like a like a one of those VIP meeting greets where got it you pay a couple hundred bucks or
00:41:53
something for that you got it um so we were over menum kiwi friends but I didn't actually have to pay for the meet
00:41:59
and greed so even though I told everyone that I actually have a connection to someone a kiwi that works in her company
00:42:05
so he managed to kind of get me into the VIP experience and I love Katy Perry so
00:42:10
I got to meet her before her concert of um where you talk to her for 2 minutes and then have a photo and stuff like
00:42:15
that but I was so badly sunburned and I was so hot and I was so sweaty that when
00:42:20
I had a photo I put my face on who like I didn't want to put my armor under cuz
00:42:23
I had you know those big sweat things under my arm so I was like C on my arm around cuz my pit Will sweat all over it
00:42:29
so I just went face to face with my hands stiffly bym as side and when our faces touched when we pulled apart there
00:42:35
was like a so and you can see this if you scroll back far enough on Instagram oh my God that's amazing you
00:42:43
is she your like favorite artist one of your favorites uh no my favorite artist across the board any discipline
00:42:51
of art I would say Stephen King is my favorite artist the writer of horror h oh I heard on another podcast you were
00:42:59
doing that you're whenever this podcast was recorded you were in the process of
00:43:03
reading all 60 of his books yeah so did you do that no I'll be up to 30 now so
00:43:09
I'm reading Kujo which I'm sure everyone the dog yeah um you've been um a
00:43:15
practicing Buddhist for 16 years good on you do yeah um yeah why What attracted you to Buddhism I was uh dating a
00:43:24
Buddhist and I was working with a Buddhist randomly and they kind of uh they kind of just kind of I kind of
00:43:30
exposed to it gently and then every time I heard more about it I was like this just really fits in with what I think
00:43:35
about life and all that kind of stuff and then I it took me two years to kind of make any commitment and I'm so glad I
00:43:41
did um and it's a practice I mean it does require a little bit of discipline
00:43:45
and when you are disciplined you reap the rewards but otherwise yeah it's wonderful what you yeah what are the
00:43:50
what are the main sort of like foundations of it what's the I think it's like it well a big thing is like
00:43:57
kind of taking any kind of uh what you might perceive as like negative emotions or anything like that and just going
00:44:01
okay what is the what is the worth and what is the good out of this that I can kind of take from it or grow from it and
00:44:07
also not putting Judgment of like evil and bad and all those kind of things going okay what is the good in here the
00:44:12
main um tenant is for me so you chant num and one of the translations of that is um to grow loest flowers out of mud
00:44:22
so it's like basically taking any bad situation and finding the good and what
00:44:26
about the reincarnation aspect of it yeah that's the one thing I strugg I struggle with that concept that's the
00:44:33
one thing I struggle with but it must make you feel feel good about all the animals that you and your family killed
00:44:39
yeah exactly that's still that come back come back I know um small town Scandal this
00:44:47
was a podcast you did last year yes um so how did how did that come about was that someone was it Sam Collins from got
00:44:55
us yes yeah yeah yeah he's a great guy yeah he's um so wonderful I love him he
00:44:59
just I did a uh cooking I did a food podcast for them and he's like if you've
00:45:04
got any ideas please come and reach out to me and and we the idea was doing something like this like having a kind
00:45:11
of a conversational kind of one but I was like what am I what what am I into and I've been listening to so many I
00:45:19
think podcasts are my favorite are my favorite and I was listening to so many of the True Crime ones or the famous
00:45:25
ones making my way through S and teachers pit and things like that in [ __ ] town and uh just going I'm also my
00:45:33
comedy is taking the piss a bit so I'm like let's do taking a p out of a small
00:45:37
town Scandal True Crime documentary and so that's how it kind of happened yeah it's it's it's amazing I I
00:45:44
only started listening to it the other day knowing that you were coming in here so it's basically an extension of what
00:45:49
you do on social media so it's you doing a it's only you but it's you doing like
00:45:54
a total of I think 50 characters all up and the course of the series but you don't have the with social media you
00:46:01
have your face and your hand mannerisms and you know face filters or whatever but this is just voice only which is
00:46:08
makes it extra difficult what was the process with that the so yeah they were 40 I think they're 46 cars in total um
00:46:16
but how we would do my brain would turn into absolute mush and I could only manage doing three so we wouldn't record
00:46:22
it like I wouldn't if there was a conversation I wouldn't do one character
00:46:25
then the other back and forth I just record all of one character and I could only do three at a time because if I did
00:46:32
anymore I like I don't know who I am anymore so thanks to them thanks to Sam
00:46:37
and Adam who did the recording it was very kind of it was very um uh short bursts and is there talk
00:46:45
about that being made into a TV show now that's right yeah so we're developing it
00:46:49
um a TV producer uh listened to us and she's like this would be great for a television show so we kind of put on an
00:46:54
application I had very low hopes for it and then they let's do it so it's all
00:46:57
kind of happening at the moment so it's it's only very uh it's only in the right
00:47:02
scripting stage at the moment so how's that going to work in terms of actors
00:47:05
and stuff is it just you um it's not so we're going to get all the other I'm
00:47:10
just going to play the lead and everyone else is going to play we're going to
00:47:13
cast all the other roles um people are like why isn't it all you and I'm like
00:47:19
with PR like it would just take it would just be a nightmare it would be a logistical nightmare for me to do
00:47:25
everything and to slow it like it would be so slow of like me having to go and get my wig fitted and my big hook nose
00:47:31
put on to do all the other side of the scene it would just be too much of a nightmare yeah and you've um you've had
00:47:36
some meetings in the states say about doing some work over there yeah yeah how how'd you get on with him um it's all uh
00:47:44
it's a kind of a lukewarm I've got a kind of manager over there that I'm just
00:47:48
kind of keeping in touch with it's in ever since the writer strike last year
00:47:54
and actually I was over there when it was kind of happening it's it's Hollywood is kind of a bit dead now and
00:47:59
my manager's advice was just like just focus on your TV show and get it kind of
00:48:04
done and then we'll see what happens yeah cuz the um yeah how do you like how do you find the Americans
00:48:11
they're relentlessly positive a and they're so enthusiastic yeah but um do
00:48:16
you leave the those meetings like how many people are in those meetings let's
00:48:19
set the scene for us usually actually usually it's like one on one or one on two like me and I
00:48:25
go and meet with two people or I just go and meet one person quite casually in a
00:48:30
cafe somewhere and just kind of chat with them and stuff they are there is the cliche of them been
00:48:36
relentlessly positive but you can also tell pretty early on you can tell pretty early on that they're not vibing with
00:48:42
you um or that or that if they're not vibing with you or it's mostly the idea
00:48:47
they're like I'm not really you can tell when someone's not into your idea
00:48:50
because you can of go in there and you just try and Pitch your uh story ideas um but occasionally
00:48:57
occasionally you win them over so you kind of just sit down with them you're
00:49:00
like hi you shed a bit have a bit of small talk and then they're like what do
00:49:03
you want to talk about because time is money you've got 20 minutes with these
00:49:06
people or 40 minutes and then you just kind of pretel off your your TV ideas and see
00:49:13
how what if if anything kind of hits with them yeah from the um the thousands of hours of stuff you've done on stage
00:49:21
like are you are you good at winning people over if you can tell they're not
00:49:24
initially no I'm terrible I'm I'm I'm not so yeah I'm not very good at
00:49:31
it what I love about Americans is that they what I love and I and it kind of goes against my whole sensibility is how
00:49:40
relaxed they are and their successes like they're like yep I've done the show
00:49:45
yep it was awarded I'm a great person I'm a wonderful person and you're like
00:49:49
what no I kind of go on going here's my script don't bother reading it it sucks
00:49:53
and I suck please don't call me again and then running off going hope they call me and you're just like I've just
00:49:59
don't and people are like what is wrong with you and I'm yeah it's yeah it's the
00:50:05
Kiwi way though like the um yeah I don't know what I don't know why we're why
00:50:09
we're like that I think um yeah like other kiwis have had on the the podcast
00:50:13
like M like Martin Henderson for example I think after a while they learned that
00:50:17
this is this is how you have this is what you have to do to survive over there you do it's it's so unnatural it
00:50:22
goes against everything we taught you got it it's interesting but it's it's
00:50:26
like the British people I've met have kind of got the same Vibe as us like I
00:50:30
get it Australians I feel are more the American thing like when I've had meetings and I'm like the Australians
00:50:34
are much more American and much more kind of confident and and owning their successes and how great they are I feel
00:50:40
like um new zealanders are getting getting better at that if if my friends on LinkedIn are anything to go by yes
00:50:45
the LinkedIn posts are very American I think LinkedIn has just created environment where it's okay for new
00:50:51
zealanders to do that yeah cuz in all the comments immediately afterwards no one's saying take your hand off it it's
00:50:56
always y I know I know so good on Linton um oh I wanted to ask you about this I heard this on um another podcast um so
00:51:07
your parents were in the audience once when you did some rude jokes you didn't
00:51:11
in this podcast you didn't elaborate on what it was oh like there's multiple
00:51:15
things there was one there's this one image boomed into my head so in one play
00:51:20
I did I uh there's ejaculate so I am seduced by this dance and then I um ejaculate and I had this whole rig of
00:51:29
shampoo in my hand and then as a fun gag we learned that I could spray it into the audience and this the audience would
00:51:36
scream at it like getting hit with shampoo and I just remember flinging one time and it's only then that I realized
00:51:40
that my mother was in the audience and it sprayed all over her face but did you like did you know that she was in
00:51:49
the crowd or she surprise I thought she was it was like um she I didn't realize
00:51:55
she was coming there and I I hadn't really thought about you coming that night exactly you got it Tom um yeah no
00:52:01
so and it wasn't at all it just kind of the spray went across her glasses I was
00:52:05
like I this is the worst and another time was just yeah when I was first starting out on Comedy and stuff like I
00:52:11
was much more kind of Frank about my sexual escapades I like oh my poor parents but we don't even like it's a
00:52:18
wonderful way they don't even kind of address it but that makes it even worse
00:52:23
does it make it worse in a way it's like the elephant in the room like say so you
00:52:27
you know you sprayed it with your fake J she knows she got sprayed with your fake
00:52:30
J um I actually am really comfortable not kind of I think we're both kind of
00:52:35
happy going let's not even address this and just keep going um so I think this
00:52:42
was in two separate podcasts um you talked about you were asked the same question but by two different hosts at
00:52:47
two different times your favorite karaoke song and in one of them you said um uh Ace of Bas the sign yes which is a
00:52:55
fabulous song yes um and the other one you said House of the Rising Sun by The Animals and I thought I could see I
00:53:02
could see both of them like um the sign's just it's it's a great it's a
00:53:05
great [ __ ] pop song gay anthem perhaps um House of the Rising Sun I could imagine you doing that and doing
00:53:11
the almost like the character voice you got it um it's really good and I'd also
00:53:15
probably probably throw in chandelier in there as well C chandelier um no see see
00:53:21
chier it is yeah but I think with the ace the thing I chose Ace of B because um I'm not a very good singer but one
00:53:29
time I had to sing that song randomly and it came to me I was like okay so this is I've got reasonable B of skill
00:53:35
to do Ace of Bas um how of the rising sign there's a whole journey about it and you can you know you can pretend to
00:53:41
be in a western and there's a whole kind of beautiful theatrics associated with
00:53:46
it and then same with chandelier you can just kind of really let it rip do you how often does this happen
00:53:52
how are you no once a year yeah once a year so oh here's sainsbury but once you
00:53:59
know usually around usually around December actually you know here Sainsbury's doing The House of the
00:54:03
Rising Sun yeah um I ran Pastor billboard yesterday for a play that you're doing with um Chris Parker and
00:54:10
could have forest and brle St for us camping that's right yeah what is camping camping is a play that we're
00:54:16
doing with Silo theater and it is a we're calling it a I'm well I'm calling
00:54:22
it like a sex comedy so it's like an adult um adult based comedy where um cter and I play husband and wife Chris
00:54:30
and Brinley play newlyweds and we've both booked the same Booker badge or Airbnb and something like that and
00:54:36
suddenly like we're all kind of stuck together and it's all kind of like
00:54:39
mounting tensions and all that kind of carry on and you you guys did like a a camp out at the theater like a right
00:54:46
like a week ago or a couple of weeks prior to this what for just like PR it was for PR um and uh it was for yeah for
00:54:54
PR but people could also kind it was live stream so people could check in and give us questions and stuff like that
00:54:59
but mostly just to um to get awareness about doing the play and it was a dream come true loved it you in Chris Parker
00:55:07
you're really tight yeah we're we we're dear old well yeah we're dear old
00:55:11
friends it's been 10 years here that's that's an old friend I'd say what you
00:55:15
guys do is it quite similar or no um like in terms of like multiple multiple characters no yeah no it's like a how's
00:55:22
it different it's like a standard it's like a it's like like a amram British F
00:55:30
so what you would go to at your Small Town Theater but we kind of putting the sheen of a bit more kind of money and
00:55:36
stuff behind it and and we're knowingly in it but we're just playing the one
00:55:40
character right on no I mean like what what you both do respectively on social media sorry it's like in terms of like
00:55:48
playing a whole lot of different um what we what Chris and I do yes no we're
00:55:52
definitely um we are definitely uh got slightly different um takes on characters and things but there's
00:56:00
definitely lots of crossover and there's also like um we flick each other messages going hey have you done
00:56:07
something about you know wasting Q for something and we're like no I haven't
00:56:10
done that it's like I'm going to do a video I'm like perfect and uh Chris for
00:56:15
me is just the master of observation like I kind of um fency myself kind of enjoying that kind of stuff but the the
00:56:23
observations he makes I'm like God damn it you're so clever no it's incredible
00:56:29
though that we've got um both you guys like National prises and you both do like these things on social media where
00:56:34
you managed to tap into the Kiwi psyche or the Australian psyche and you both do
00:56:37
it so well yeah um yeah and and you're both doing it at the same time as well I
00:56:42
know so cool and that we're friends as well I think it's it's great and also
00:56:47
inspiring there is the thing of like damn it he's so you know like when he's
00:56:52
I'm like why didn't I think of that but I have that across the board whenever I
00:56:55
watched Tik Tok or anything I'm like oh that's such a good idea yeah yeah who um
00:57:03
yeah who sort of inspired you growing up how old are you what are you 40 I'm 42
00:57:07
so was it Chris Lily for you or is there someone before Chris Lily Chris Lily inspired me later but do you know who I
00:57:12
was actually thinking about this today Leslie Nelson from Naked Gun can you remember he I just remember being six
00:57:19
watching nak gun 33 in a thir or whatever it was called in the movie cinema scre like as a no I would have
00:57:26
been seven or eight I can't remember but just screaming with laughter the entire
00:57:30
time I just found him so funny so strangely llee neelson and then after that I started watching French and
00:57:36
Saunders so Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders and just all of their skits I was like this is this is
00:57:42
me I love those Naked Gun movies as well we had a little video store around the corner from our house in palis north and
00:57:47
we we'd hire those movies over and over again yeah so God jokes never got old
00:57:51
nice Beaver don't call me Shirley yes so good and then there was one called airplane do you remember that one from
00:58:00
yeah and I just remember watching that like on like it's just so stupid and but
00:58:05
it's still funny listening to your son is really good hey um yeah one thing I
00:58:10
like um talking about with my guest when they're open for it is about their their
00:58:14
mental health how's how's yours been my mental health I how I kind of explain it is whenever I'm um feeling
00:58:23
anxious or down or anything like that it's often I I don't really kind of
00:58:28
describe myself as a depressive or an anxious person because it's often if you
00:58:31
take take me out of this situation like if if I was having a stressful time and someone's like you don't need to worry
00:58:37
about anything more you're going to Bary for the week my mood would instantly
00:58:41
like instantly be fine and i' totally be so it's it's usually circumstantial um when I'm kind of
00:58:47
feeling down or anything like that and it's um but there are definitely kind
00:58:52
of patterns of kind of feeling overwhelmed or uh not not behaving in your best way or or being really
00:59:02
frightened about situations that can kind of compound and so it's but the older I get the more I'm aware of the
00:59:09
triggers and all that kind of stuff so i' would explain it I do get down I do
00:59:13
get really anxious yeah I think that's human though way um yeah you you you have a lot on your plate you always have
00:59:21
I'm so thankful that you're here today because I know how I know how busy you
00:59:24
are but um long time P I have you yeah I have likewise but I find if I get if I get more than a few things on my plate I
00:59:32
start to get like overwhelmed like I the the diary overwhelms me yeah 100% um yeah so how do you how do you manage
00:59:38
manage that like um the opportunity that you've got versus how much you can actually handle it's a it's still a work
00:59:44
in process uh work in progress progress work in progress Dom so um you know it's
00:59:49
still happening and I was really kind of overwhelmed earlier in the year um what
00:59:54
has really helped s sadly and I'm really privileged that I can afford it I've got
00:59:58
a someone helping me in EA like a personal assistant kind of thing and she's kind of helping me with the stuff
01:00:04
cuz contracts and business emails just really drag me down and I put them off and then they compound and they get
01:00:12
worse and it's like why haven't you signed this contract things to get need
01:00:15
to get moving and just by having her there to facilitate that has just alleviated so much but you shouldn't um
01:00:21
that seems common sense to me because you you've got this very particular set
01:00:24
of skills that um well no one else can do really like it's um it's very very
01:00:29
unique and it's a very special talent so it should not be expected that you're
01:00:32
going to be good at um you know crossing the tees and dotting the eyes well yes I
01:00:37
know but being okay with like I agree intellectually but to actually believe that as hard and and being um like a
01:00:45
self-described like people pleaser or or yes man or whatever you want to call it
01:00:50
um yeah do you do your own negotiations and things or you must get [ __ ] over a
01:00:55
lot the good thing is with the kind of acting kind of stuff is that I've got an
01:01:00
agent who looks after that kind of stuff and so I can kind of hide behind the screen of that that usually I'm like
01:01:06
what if you want I'll make you hippie yeah yeah are you um I think I'm sort of like that as well it's just like
01:01:13
a need to be liked or something like that are you are you as you get older are you like um getting more comfortable
01:01:20
in your own skin skin and more comfortable with um boundaries and things or I think I'm still as bad as I
01:01:26
always was but there was there's an I think the only Improvement is the self
01:01:30
awareness of it so like when I I I think back my behavior and the patterns have always been the same but it was more in
01:01:38
kind of denial and not really processing it the problem is is like um the stakes
01:01:45
are a bit more higher because you are kind of getting these bigger jobs and more people are kind of watching and all
01:01:49
that kind of stuff so it is a it is a struggle say you're you're out for
01:01:54
dinner with um with your and someone comes up and they want a photo or they want to chat for a couple of
01:01:59
minutes what happens yeah I'll be like uh I haven't really had any bad fan
01:02:06
experiences and when they come up they just want to have a photo just kind of chat to me for a minute and then go on
01:02:11
their way like I haven't had bad ones where they want to kind of monopolize my
01:02:15
time um so you just do it and get it over and done with I do it and engage and also but I'm also so thankful to
01:02:22
them like it's not it's not a struggle for me like I'm like thank you so much for dedicating
01:02:28
time to kind of exper you know um watching my stuff and having reaction to it and also coming up and talking to me
01:02:34
I actually get a it's it's a wholly positive experience yeah CU I saw an interview
01:02:40
that Israel Lis the UFC fighter did and and he said he's become more aware of
01:02:44
his personal boundaries but I I can understand from his perspective it's like you know he's a big star and it
01:02:49
must happen a lot yes but I'm I'm probably the same as same as you and I
01:02:53
think you know I'm humbled if someone someone comes up and it's not like it's
01:02:57
going to start like a line of a line of people outside prago no exactly no I'm
01:03:03
like thank you and it happens you know there's never a l yeah of course there's
01:03:06
never a l there's one person by themselves sometimes sometimes forcing their husband to stand on the side or
01:03:12
forcing their husband to take the photo of us and that's the extend of it yeah
01:03:17
what are your what are your goals for the future I feel like you're just sort
01:03:20
of um yeah you're just sort of coming into your own a yeah although although
01:03:25
that I probably would have said that to you when you came when we interviewed on
01:03:28
you on the edge like 10 years ago it feels like it's just been a constant sort of man maybe this is just an
01:03:33
outsider's perspective maybe from you it feels like there's been some Peaks and
01:03:36
troughs or whatever but it just feels like the trajectory just keeps on going yeah I think that I kind of agree with
01:03:44
that what would be it's just I love the world of make believe I love characters and all that
01:03:51
kind of stuff and I think the future is just kind of engineering that more I also love Strang well I really love
01:03:58
directing as well so if I can just engineer it so I can get a couple more directing jobs in there there would be
01:04:05
great too yeah what would you IDE yeah what would you ideally do like say say yeah Money Was No Object you had say
01:04:12
tiger cash yes what would you what would you what would you do would you drop the
01:04:16
Social Media stuff would you stop acting yeah it's an interesting like I wouldn't
01:04:23
desire that like I do like having multiple threads going on I do really like that but if I was like what's the
01:04:28
one thing I'd choose it would probably be long form stories and that would either be like writing a book or
01:04:34
directing a feature film that would be number one yeah oh that's brilliant hey
01:04:41
thanks for your time today hey thank you oh oh can you do me now how would you no no I'm not going to I'm too
01:04:48
embarrassed I'm too embarrassed okay thanks Tom hey Tom thank you so much I'm so pleased we made this happen
01:04:57
and I think we kept it at about an hour because that's what that's what um your
01:05:02
publer said yes bless bless I know I but I know how busy you are so I'm thankful
01:05:06
for um an hour of your time oh my God thank you so much