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Ric Salizzo Reflects on SportsCafe & Marc Ellis, Friendships with Jonah Lomu, John Kirwan and more!

March 31, 202401:35:34
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[Music]
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Rick elito welcome to my podcast welcome
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to your spare room yeah well it's a very
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small room as well I had um Rie over
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here uh before I had the camera set up
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and I said welcome to my studio and he
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goes wow it's a very small Studio isn't
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it there you go these not real bricks no
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that's well I ruin the illusion oh [ __ ]
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you know it's wallpaper no it's it's
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coming along good hey thanks so much
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mate you're um you're like a dream
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guest that's that's seeing your name and
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lights isn't it that's good I like that
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yeah well I mean um yeah there's no TV
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person that's ever offered me of work
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so buy a couple of cameras now get your
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own neon sign boom you're in business um
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so how are you how are you today um I'm
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good I um I got back um so I've been
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away
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overseas for about four years three and
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a half four years and then um did the
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World Cup and then came back first of
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November I think so so yeah it's been
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it's been nice being back in New Zealand
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actually I've really enjoyed it yeah we
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we'll get to the um the World Cup uh
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later on and you're involved in that but
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um yeah while I was doing my notes
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yesterday I like oh you you've been um
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at two World Cup
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finals well yeah maybe you're a bad L
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yeah no I've been to the only World Cup
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I haven't been to was the Japanese one
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right um no but I mean in terms of
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official involvement you were 95 95 yeah
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that was my fault and uh must yeah yeah
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it must have been my fault this last one
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as well oh you're 95 that was the food
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poisoning one yeah yeah yeah yeah with
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Susie the waitress okay so um yeah so
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you've been in New York the last four
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years um working with um rugby over
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there um and you moved from New York to
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Tyro and Tyro like the the land mass of
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that place is probably like half of
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Central Park so there is um less people
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live in Tyro than live in my apartment
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Block in New
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York so um yeah it was quite a shock but
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um but I loved it I love being in Tor
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and uh people are amazing and um you
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know if you told an America if you if
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you if you took tyur and designed it and
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said to an American this is where you
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could live they'd think it was Paradise
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so we take that stuff for granted a bit
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and um I mean it is it's like paradise
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it's just it's just an incredible place
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I I went all the way back through your
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Instagram page and you do share a lot
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which is really cool um back to as far
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as it goes back why and it seems like
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Ty's a special place for you always has
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been why is that um oh when my son was
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young um we take him to Tyro and then uh
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you know we we bought a place down there
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and it's just um yeah it is it's it's
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and I I realized a few years ago that
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you know I got a lovely place down there
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and I needed to spend more time down
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there um uh you know what's what what's
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the use of building something beautiful
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and and not and not using it so um yeah
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I love it down there and I um just so
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much it's just the simp of it is what I
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like and um and and the space m um and
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the Sea you know one of the things that
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I struggled with a bit being in New York
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for so long was um you just don't see
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the ocean I mean we could see the the
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the Hudson River but not the same bodies
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floating past and stuff like that but
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it's yeah it's a little bit different
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yeah so you're um we we're recording
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this uh two days before you're going in
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for a knee replacement operation
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so how old are you 61 uh 28 yeah 28 yeah
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yeah um Shez aging it's a barrel of
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laughs isn't it we were cheing about
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this just before like I'm I'm a I'm a
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runner I've got knee issues I have a big
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run and then I'm [ __ ] for a couple of
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days afterwards yeah well i' I've done
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pretty well CU I don't do anything so um
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you know uh I manag to sort of I mean
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considering I injured the knee and what
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was it
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1982 or something and now I'm finally
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getting operated on now so it's
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[Music]
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words in the English language especially
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when you are completely open to where
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you might end up yeah what is next I
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mean you're 61 but um I yeah I feel like
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you've still got I don't I saw a thing
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online yesterday it said at the age of
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60 you've got like um probably at least
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a thousand good weeks
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left I don't know if it's a grim way of
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looking at it or a positive way looking
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at it um I think
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um I just decided to not push it and um
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just chill and see what comes my way you
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know and and um had some really
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interesting conversations so I've been
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back with all sorts of projects and um
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you know some people just want some help
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and uh which is great I love doing that
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and I think
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um I I I I don't know what next um but
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I'm not worried by that I I I know there
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will be in what next um but it's quite
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it's quite nice to just take a bit of
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time and and just work on yourself a bit
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you know and working for someone else so
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I've been enjoying that um I've been
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enjoying uh looking at my laptop and
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finding some of the things that I wrote
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that I never
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finished um whether they're program
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proposals or scripts or whatever um it's
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been really cool to sort of just have
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time to finish them um because you know
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when you're looking at your your
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documents folder or whatever and you see
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all these things and you're like I never
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should have I should have done that I
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didn't finish that you know it's nice to
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just get them sorted you know so I've
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been enjoying that and I've been
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enjoying
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Pizza is there a good pizza place in a
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pizza track in D is awesome yeah oh God
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hey um what it's been it's been um such
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a vast um varied and and successful
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career we we we'll go through all that
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it's like a greatest St but let's go the
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way back so um yeah memories from
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growing up where did you grow up where
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did the sense of humor come from so I
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grew up um in South
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um well ear early days in Green Lane but
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then I um my college was at deel College
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in in M or mangry when I grew up but
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it's obviously different there um oh
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that's with with JK you you guys were
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schoolmates John Kuan I was there first
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and he followed um and yeah and so went
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to DL College which um uh I think my
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time there best described as high
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spirited um but I got through it and uh
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yeah I met JK um
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uh in the first of team we're in the
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first of team together uh I was the
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number eight and he was the halfback and
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he just got bigger and bigger as the
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season got on um and then uh and then
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yeah and I love I love my time I love I
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love South Oakland it's so vibrant and
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what I really like about it now is um
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you know obviously it was always so when
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I moved there it's a big freezing worker
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sort of population and lots of people
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work the freezing Works Taho freezing
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Works um you know South down and stuff
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like like that and then um and then the
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Polynesian population really sort of um
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um really took off and what I like now
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is the
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pride in the Polynesian Heritage and
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culture that I see out there which
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probably wasn't there when I grew up so
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much um I love that I think it's awesome
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and um you know even my school you know
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as I got through the later years was
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getting stronger and stronger Polynesia
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now it's probably 99% poan and it's just
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such a vibrant uh amazing Community it's
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brilliant and you went to I read this I
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don't know if it's true or not you went
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to primary school with JK John Key oh
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well I'm not sure we we had a chat about
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it so he I went to Cornell park primary
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and apparently so did he and we worked
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out that we're about the same age and he
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but he I think we crossed over like six
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months and when you're five you don't
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tend to remember people but um yeah
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unless it's like your best friend that
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you sort of grew up with yeah yeah so um
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I don't remember him having a big impact
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at the time yeah and what about um yeah
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what about your sense of humor because
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you've got this sort of um Relentless
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self-deprecation does that does that
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come from your mom your dad grandparents
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what that dad's Italian so Chef right
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Chef yeah um so uh his his his he was a
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very funny man but his sense of humor
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was um uh different and um and Mom
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yeah good kiwi and uh you know again
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just a normal family just fantastic
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family but I think
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um I was just lucky I think growing up
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you know I mean probably the biggest
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influence for me was watching John Clark
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Fred deck I just used to love him
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watching him and listening to him on the
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radio and buying his records and stuff
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like that um what I loved about it
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was uh you know incredibly talented but
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but never the self-deprecating thing I
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liked because it was he never made out
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that he was the smartest guy in the room
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um but he was but he didn't need to tell
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everyone and um yeah he was he was a
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massive influence on me I everyone of my
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generation you know he was he was it
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though we had one comedian and it was
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him and he was everywhere yeah must been
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nice for you um going full circle when
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you were in Sports Cafe and you got to
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do a version of um we don't know how
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lucky we are what a I think um that was
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probably the of all the things I've done
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that's probably one of the things I'm
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most proud of is that uh I one day I I
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must be watching the Olympics or
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something something was annoying me
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about the um national anthem was just a
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bit boring you know and I was like we
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need a new national anthem it should be
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you know we don't know how lucky you are
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we are and I listened to the record and
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it wasn't quite right wasn't as I
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imagined it it was
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a like a p over a castrum and so so I
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rang John Clark I'd never met him before
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in my life I had you know he had no idea
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who it was and Ice see look mate on um
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RL so I do a TV show in New Zealand
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you've never heard of it um but I'd love
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to bring we don't know how lucky we are
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to Life as a national anthem and he's
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like I like the idea I don't know who
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you are send me a copy of your show and
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if I like it I'll ring you back so what
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episode do you see Jes lot of f goes
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into that one all right I think I just
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seen the one from the previous week and
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um and he rang me back which was cool
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and
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so um we'd asked Neil fin if he'd help
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and Edie Rea if they'd work with graham
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Hill on the music which they did and
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then I sort of said to John I said mate
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I need you to write a new verse at the
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beginning and at the end to make it a
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bit more of an Anthem and he's like cool
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I'll give you a call so he gave me a
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call about a week later here they are
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and I was like they're not quite right
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and I remember thinking to myself how am
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I going to tell John Clark that it's not
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quite what I'm looking for cuz and and
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he was so me I said look mate we just
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need to tweak this cuz we're trying to
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do an Anthem and anthems are more like
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this and and he's like get it straight
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away you're right
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bang next day you know came back and
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gave us the finished version and
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um and then and then I just sat back and
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let them go you know and uh I mean yeah
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he is was one of the things I was doing
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over this over the Christmas break as I
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was watching John Clark stuff on um on
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YouTube watching the old uh
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documentaries on him when he passed away
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um it just a absolute
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genius like like clever you know um and
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I remember he saying to
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me you do know the song's
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ironic I know I know that's what makes
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it funny but it's great it is great
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though makes you I don't know it gives
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me goosebumps hearing that song it's
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bloody great makes you makes you be a
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kiwi so um yes so why journalism so when
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you left school you became like a like a
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journalist yeah how did I applied for
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everything you're obviously quite a good
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40 player right like you're in the no I
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was good enough but I um I what I did
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was I applied for everything applied
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Teachers College
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um uh I I I hadn't spend a lot of time
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at school in my last year um so um
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I and I played for journalism
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school not really knowing what it was
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and I got in and I was like sweet I'll
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go to that then because I knew it was
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really hard to get into but in those
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days it was a six-month course and um
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you had
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um I think 400 applicant for 30 places
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something like that and I knew it was
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hard to get in so I thought if I got in
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then I need to go and um and I'll work
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out what journalism is when I get
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there so um yeah and and that's why I
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showed up um and I got in trouble my
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first week I um trying to remember what
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I did I got um I I threw something at a
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cricket game and then up being locked up
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and um locked up locked up locked up
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yeah yeah yeah oh like a like a central
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districts game or something you threw
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was it was New Zealand India test match
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and um [ __ ] I knocked the hat off the
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policemen they used to have those
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the big pointy on and um I uh yeah kids
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do not do that at home that's terrible
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behavior and I um so the next week I had
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to go to court and and I decided I was
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going to defend myself and I stood up in
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the dock and locked into the gallery and
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there's my um class doing court
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reporting that day and I'd called him
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sick so it wasn't a great start um and
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then I did my I did my um remember the
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asked the play and I went not guilty and
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the police prosecutor laughed it's like
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you're on a Dem have we take him out the
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back and show them the summary of facts
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and I went oh that's not good is it that
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doesn't look
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good I get the electric chair on these
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summary of facts so um so the the
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detective inspector who caught me said
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look we I said I can't I can't have a
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conviction I need to I'm going to be a
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journalist I'm going to be a sports
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journalist and I'm like okay well let's
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let's write a spe speech you know and
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let's apply for um discharge without uh
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conviction under section 42 of the
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Justice Criminal Justice act so he wrote
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this beautiful speech and so I went back
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in the dock and I just gave this
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beautiful piece of arry and the judge
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said I'm a big Cricket fan and that's
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because of people like you you spoil the
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game for people like me bang gave me the
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the maximum fine gave me everything and
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I looked at the I looked at the
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policeman I was like he's like oh [ __ ]
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we tried you know so so wasn't a great
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start to my journalism career um it
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didn't hold you back though ultimately
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no but I
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um I didn't um I didn't get a
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certificate I got a blank piece of
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cardboard and um just to make me feel
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better and yeah and then I got in the
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radio and and I
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think and I think a lot of kids probably
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go through this I think I'd just been at
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school too long and um I
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knew I mean thank God I didn't go to
00:16:55
university um I knew that um that once I
00:16:59
go the workforce you know that' be sweet
00:17:02
and so I I end up at Radio Pacific which
00:17:05
back then was out in Monaco and um oh
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yeah with Derek L yeah Derek L Gordon
00:17:12
dren um and uh Bren impy funnily enough
00:17:17
was the sports announcer um so yeah
00:17:21
that's where I started was he was he was
00:17:22
a lawyer when I first got into radio he
00:17:24
in 199 he was before that he was a
00:17:26
lawyer but he used to do the Saturday
00:17:28
Sports um show on radio Pacific so
00:17:32
that's when I met them yeah well and
00:17:34
then you ended up in um toong at one
00:17:37
yeah was that was that a was that a priv
00:17:39
back then it was like either government
00:17:40
owned like the rnz stations or privately
00:17:42
owned was that a privately owned one
00:17:44
yeah so so I always worked for the
00:17:45
private stations so there was a real
00:17:46
rivalry between Radio New Zealand and
00:17:48
the private stations and so I you know
00:17:51
you you'd move around because that was
00:17:52
how you got up the journalism letter you
00:17:54
know cuz we used to have grades you know
00:17:56
so J1 J2 j3 every time you moved you got
00:17:59
up a grade so I went Pacific fakat aan
00:18:04
on Christ Church Wendy and Wellington
00:18:07
and I was at haki and ockland with um
00:18:10
Kevin black and John HBY and Phil giord
00:18:13
and all those guys so oh my God yeah it
00:18:14
was great times that was an incredible
00:18:16
station incredible show too yeah yeah so
00:18:19
it was um and I loved I loved radio I
00:18:22
love I love working on private radio
00:18:24
every every radio station had its own
00:18:25
news team about six seven people and and
00:18:29
it was just just a golden age was
00:18:31
brilliant and some incredible
00:18:33
broadcasters amazing and some some
00:18:35
incredible characters too like when I
00:18:37
started in 1990 like the um the guy that
00:18:39
was my program director vaugh like I
00:18:41
remember McDonald's had a like a sale
00:18:43
and it was like 99 cent hamburgers so he
00:18:45
went down there with like a Food Town
00:18:47
bag bought 50 of them and put them in
00:18:48
his freezer just characters like that
00:18:51
yeah yeah no no rules and then and then
00:18:54
so then you end up on on uh on TV right
00:18:56
as so I went to London I went to um um I
00:18:59
went to because I I couldn't afford to
00:19:02
go to Europe so um I rang up Andy hayen
00:19:07
and said can you get me a contract um
00:19:09
and he's like who's this and um I said
00:19:12
I'm I'm I'm reck and so he said look I I
00:19:16
I'll I'll Jack you up a club in Italy
00:19:19
but you'll have to be on trial go over
00:19:20
there and and and if if they like you
00:19:22
they'll sign you you know and they'll
00:19:23
sort you out so cuz rby was an amate
00:19:26
game back then and um so went over
00:19:29
um played the game they saw me and then
00:19:32
they got me a house in the car you know
00:19:34
and and so I was there for a little
00:19:36
while and then at the end of that I went
00:19:38
over to London and did a couple of years
00:19:40
working in radio there and I remember
00:19:43
when I
00:19:44
was the the Aussie stations that we were
00:19:47
I was a foreign correspondent for rang
00:19:49
rang my boss and they said mate we can't
00:19:52
have that um kind have that WG name uh
00:19:55
from
00:19:56
London so he's going to have to change
00:19:58
his bloody
00:19:59
name like so the boss came in he said
00:20:01
sorry you can't be Rick Cito anymore so
00:20:04
I was Richard Holmes Richard Holmes
00:20:06
London and um and I was on the radio
00:20:10
stations here as Richard Holmes London
00:20:12
my mom rang the radio stations going
00:20:13
that's not Richard holes that's my son I
00:20:15
know I know that voice anyway but yeah
00:20:17
so I was Richard Holmes and so how did
00:20:19
you end up on TV because when you were
00:20:20
on TV news here was was there only TV
00:20:23
One news or was there TV3 or was this
00:20:25
pre TV pre TV3 so I came back from
00:20:28
London
00:20:29
with Kathy we both came back and back
00:20:32
then if you worked in London everyone
00:20:34
thought that was incredible so so I went
00:20:36
went away there's a pain in the ass no
00:20:39
one wanted and came back from London and
00:20:40
everyone was like oh do you want a job
00:20:42
and um so I was hired to fill in for
00:20:46
Jane Dent uh and the sports team and and
00:20:49
Kathy came and she worked in The
00:20:51
Newsroom as a health reporter so we both
00:20:53
hired um because we came back from
00:20:55
London oh so yes so Kathy Campbell um
00:20:58
your your wife we can talk about her
00:20:59
later on if you want but um yes so you
00:21:01
met in journalism school and you were
00:21:03
you were met radio we met at Radio I we
00:21:06
we in radio together and then you
00:21:08
partnered up straight away yeah and she
00:21:09
wanted to go she was going to Europe and
00:21:11
I wanted to follow her and I couldn't
00:21:12
afford it so that's why we played rugby
00:21:14
right but the um like the when you were
00:21:17
on like TV sports news it was like a
00:21:19
golden age for for news I mean you look
00:21:21
at some of the names like hawksby long
00:21:23
Sherry Bradley Bailey Dey like um did
00:21:28
you
00:21:29
like I mean how so I had to read the um
00:21:31
I started as a reporter and um I was the
00:21:36
first first time the news um team had
00:21:40
assigned a reporter to the or blacks
00:21:42
because before that before I came along
00:21:44
they were was always like gram Thorn or
00:21:46
whatever they'd be away on tour and
00:21:48
they'd like Tru a microphone but the 87
00:21:51
World Cup was coming and they were like
00:21:52
you know we need someone to travel with
00:21:54
the All Blacks and so that was me which
00:21:55
was pretty cool you know and um and then
00:21:59
one day I'd been doing some practice
00:22:01
news reading with Richard Long and he
00:22:03
just and this would never happen now
00:22:05
he's like rang me up and he said what
00:22:07
are you doing it was a Sunday afternoon
00:22:09
I said nothing he said come on you're
00:22:10
going to read the news tonight didn't
00:22:12
didn't tell anyone you know so so I ran
00:22:16
I think I was with Tom Bradley my first
00:22:17
night and um so I read the news the
00:22:21
sports news and then I did it again the
00:22:24
week after with Angela Dey and I got
00:22:28
this review so I got a call on like must
00:22:31
been the Monday Tuesday Morning from
00:22:32
Richard Long going don't read The Herald
00:22:35
so what do you mean don't read it come
00:22:38
to work I'll talk to you so first thing
00:22:40
I did was go to the gates of course
00:22:42
steal someone else's heral take it back
00:22:44
and my review was um and I remember it's
00:22:47
burned in my memory it was like who is
00:22:50
this guy R Rick Salito has a face like a
00:22:53
read rubber tire um it's not so much
00:22:58
when he should get off screen it's how
00:23:00
we ever got there in the first place is
00:23:01
the question I was like that's Savage
00:23:03
that's harsh
00:23:05
hey and I I was angry for about I know
00:23:09
30 seconds and then I got the giggles I
00:23:11
thought like that like that is really
00:23:14
funny the way that he's really attacked
00:23:16
me and um but I carried on I didn't get
00:23:19
any better my my problem as a news
00:23:21
reader is I got easily distracted cuz
00:23:23
you know you're reading audio q and um
00:23:26
so all the work's been done and and it I
00:23:29
don't know it's 5 minutes work 7 Minutes
00:23:31
work and I'd be halfway through the AUD
00:23:33
cure and my mind would start going and I
00:23:35
was like oh yeah and I remember one time
00:23:39
cuz I would on the weekends I would be
00:23:41
the sports sub so I'd decide what went
00:23:43
in the news and read it and and put it
00:23:47
together and there was a story there was
00:23:50
a brief period where the I think it was
00:23:52
the Sunday news turned into this really
00:23:54
weird table newspaper and they did a
00:23:56
story about um someone had spotted
00:24:00
aliens on the r golf
00:24:03
course so I had a um Godzilla on my desk
00:24:08
so I got sent someone down a cameraman
00:24:10
and I said just go and put this Godzilla
00:24:12
in various parts around the golf course
00:24:13
and just film it and then you know talk
00:24:16
to the people about um about the aliens
00:24:19
what sort of size are we talking I don't
00:24:20
know it would be yeah I know 40 cm like
00:24:23
a like a plash toy yeah yeah yeah yeah
00:24:25
yeah and they put in the tree and stuff
00:24:27
so they interiew someone and they'd put
00:24:29
in the tree behind them like no I've
00:24:31
never seen any aliens down here it was
00:24:32
sort of like a running gag um which you
00:24:36
didn't do in the news back then it's
00:24:39
very what you're explaining is very
00:24:40
Crowd Goes Wild I know but I I um so
00:24:43
when it came back we paid the item and
00:24:46
when it came back to Tom Bradley and I
00:24:49
I'd put this Godzilla thing between us
00:24:51
on on the desk and said to him something
00:24:55
like something like you know imagine
00:24:57
people thinking they seeing aliens they
00:24:59
must be going nuts and then you know now
00:25:01
let's have a look at the weather and I
00:25:03
got called into the boss's office oh my
00:25:06
god did I get like who do you think you
00:25:08
are this is not a comedy show you know
00:25:10
blah blah blah I was like oh man I just
00:25:13
got ripped apart so um at the end of
00:25:17
that year must been ' 89 I was away on
00:25:20
tour um um covering the All Blacks and
00:25:24
there was a story in the paper that I'd
00:25:26
been dumped and replaced by they they
00:25:29
they got rid of me and Richard Beck
00:25:31
actually and replaced us with um with
00:25:34
Jeremy Cony and uh Phil G so um oh and
00:25:38
it was it was true you had been yeah you
00:25:40
found out you were dumped by reading it
00:25:41
in the paper yeah that's outrageous that
00:25:43
was pretty bad actually there's a lot of
00:25:45
out there's a lot of outrageous stuff in
00:25:46
that story like that review as well like
00:25:49
I was pretty bad though to be fair I
00:25:51
know I found a clip on YouTube of you
00:25:53
and your early days it was fine wasn't
00:25:55
it no it was I yeah I would just go off
00:26:00
on tangents and um like it was sort of
00:26:03
almost like the prototype for Sports
00:26:04
Cafe but you know that's not the six o00
00:26:07
news I I got into trouble a lot for um
00:26:10
for not taking it seriously do do you
00:26:12
think you might have ADHD and it was
00:26:14
just never diagnosed when or never even
00:26:16
a thing when you were Aid no I don't I
00:26:17
don't have it's adht it's not so much
00:26:19
it's more that
00:26:21
um some strange stuff going on in this
00:26:24
head and um once I start oh that's
00:26:27
really interesting I want like oh my God
00:26:29
that's when when trouble sounds like
00:26:30
ADHD yeah um that that's a great story
00:26:34
about the Godzilla on the disc like
00:26:36
that's um there's a lot of people that
00:26:37
would will be listening to this or
00:26:38
watching I need to get that I need to um
00:26:40
would it be would it be an existence
00:26:42
must do they must have kept um the
00:26:44
bulletins um it's it's [ __ ]
00:26:46
groundbreaking because you're back then
00:26:47
as as you said like people you didn't
00:26:49
[ __ ] with the news half an hour night
00:26:51
and it was very serious like there was
00:26:52
no internet then so this was that and
00:26:54
the next morning's newspaper was the
00:26:56
ear just before TV3 came on so I think
00:27:00
TV3 came on in the end of '89 from
00:27:02
memory something like that um and I got
00:27:06
into trouble then too cuz I um um I'm
00:27:09
seeing a pattern the um Matthew
00:27:13
Ridge 990 so Matthew Ridge changed codes
00:27:16
went to rugby lead and he I knew he was
00:27:18
doing it because I was going to do a
00:27:19
doco on him and
00:27:22
um and at that stage TV3 didn't have any
00:27:25
rugby rights and they weren't actually
00:27:26
allowed into Eden Park
00:27:28
so um you know no one quite knew how the
00:27:31
rights thing worked back then and
00:27:34
so they came in to do the press
00:27:38
conference that Matthew was holding and
00:27:40
um I remember saying remember saying
00:27:43
that Matthew don't say anything to them
00:27:44
you know as they as you go past because
00:27:46
I knew they weren't going to be allowed
00:27:47
in and um they couldn't get into the
00:27:50
press conference someone from Oakland
00:27:51
rugby shut the door on them and so they
00:27:54
the cameraman kicked the door and that
00:27:56
was front page of the herald you you
00:27:58
know um Network battle you know like so
00:28:02
um I was in trouble again and then you
00:28:04
ended up being um the All Black's first
00:28:07
ever Medias officer um this seems like
00:28:11
quite a common thing now I'm not sure
00:28:12
who's doing it now but it was Joe lock
00:28:13
for like 15 years or something so
00:28:15
there's very few people that have that
00:28:16
have had it so what was your so this was
00:28:19
1992 by the way how did you get the job
00:28:21
because Lori Ms was the coach he hated
00:28:22
your guts he didn't like me um yeah why
00:28:24
what' you do to him uh I was from
00:28:27
Oakland that didn't help but um I uh I
00:28:30
did a
00:28:31
story where I took an old grab of his
00:28:35
and used it out of context and I
00:28:37
shouldn't have done it and and he was
00:28:39
right to be angry with me um like if you
00:28:42
did that now the All Blacks would
00:28:43
Blacklist you wouldn't oh yeah he just
00:28:45
didn't talk to me for about 5 years and
00:28:47
then at the end of so the 91 World Cup
00:28:51
um the Aussies had a journo with them a
00:28:54
GU called Greg Campbell and I thought sh
00:28:56
that's a great idea so I to New Zealand
00:28:58
rby I wrote them a couple of pages on it
00:29:01
and I said you should get it immediately
00:29:02
as an officer you know and um because
00:29:06
you know to deal with the media and
00:29:07
stuff and they were like n no we're
00:29:09
sweet and then halfway through that tour
00:29:11
of ' 92 um uh they were getting into a
00:29:15
bit of media strife and I get a call on
00:29:18
my phone at must been like 1:00 in the
00:29:20
morning I was in a bar and they like can
00:29:23
you come to the manager's
00:29:25
room what have I done like I the night's
00:29:28
not over yet and um so I went into the
00:29:31
room and Neil gry was the manager and
00:29:33
and and George B was the um CEO and
00:29:36
they're like we've decided that we need
00:29:38
to take you up on that offer immediately
00:29:40
as an officer you start
00:29:42
tomorrow um wow and I said so what do I
00:29:45
do and I said well you've got to work
00:29:46
that out cuz we've never had one didn't
00:29:49
exist and so the next morning I remember
00:29:52
I got on the I said to fitsy was the
00:29:54
captain I said what do I do like they're
00:29:57
off practice do I just meet you at
00:29:59
practice or what do I do he said on the
00:30:00
bus and I said I can't go on the bus you
00:30:02
know and he's like I'm the captain get
00:30:04
on the bus sit next to me so I got on
00:30:07
the bus sat next to him and as I walk
00:30:09
past Lori Lori said what's that prick
00:30:10
doing on the bus no one had told
00:30:13
Lori oh he had no involvement in at all
00:30:17
oh my God no so so he wasn't happy um
00:30:21
but yeah I mean we had some Laura and I
00:30:23
had some interesting conversations for a
00:30:25
while but uh you know eventually I got
00:30:27
some really good advice from JK and
00:30:29
Fitzy they said you know in the old
00:30:31
black environment you're going to get
00:30:32
challenged all the time and and Lor's
00:30:34
going to challenge you you know uh cuz
00:30:36
if what you've got to do is just keep
00:30:38
doing a great job day after day and
00:30:39
he'll learn to respect you he doesn't
00:30:40
have to like you but he'll learn to
00:30:41
respect you and then accept you and that
00:30:44
was that was sort of my mentor is just
00:30:46
keep have a thick skin and uh and just
00:30:49
keep um turning up each each day and you
00:30:52
know it was amazing time um you know I
00:30:54
did it from 92 to the end of the 95
00:30:57
World Cup
00:30:58
um which we lost um and you know got to
00:31:02
see some amazing stuff I was a real
00:31:06
privilege and an honor to do that job
00:31:07
and you did some um yeah we'll talk
00:31:10
about the Jonah stuff in a second CU you
00:31:11
were you were mediately as and when um
00:31:14
Jonah the Jonah fever sort of hit
00:31:16
there's actually a great great old photo
00:31:17
on your Instagram page of um him like
00:31:19
walking off the field and you just sort
00:31:20
of over his shoulder and he's swarm by
00:31:22
people um but yeah when uh when you said
00:31:26
you you when we locked on this podcast I
00:31:28
bumped into Dame Julie Christy and I
00:31:29
said re coming over you know anything I
00:31:32
should say and she said she said I I
00:31:33
can't really offer you anything to say
00:31:35
but um the stuff that he did with like
00:31:37
The Good The Bad and The rugby was just
00:31:39
groundbreaking and it sort of even
00:31:41
though it doesn't have a direct link it
00:31:43
sort of set the way for what we see now
00:31:44
with like drive to survive and other
00:31:46
Sport and she she was saying that the um
00:31:48
she the All Blacks have gone back like
00:31:50
receded a long way in terms of openness
00:31:52
and stuff but that was um yeah that was
00:31:54
incredible you look back now you must be
00:31:55
immensely proud of that first of all
00:31:57
that's really nice I mean we both sort
00:31:58
of started out at the same time and um
00:32:01
you know I mean the amount of times we
00:32:03
cross paths was incredible um and uh
00:32:07
yeah I really appreciate that Jolie so
00:32:09
um yeah I mean it was sort of most of
00:32:12
the things that I've done come from JK
00:32:15
telling me that you know there's a
00:32:16
problem we need to fix it and um I'd
00:32:20
given him some offcuts of the 88 toour
00:32:22
it for his own private stuff and um he's
00:32:25
like oh we should do a a video you know
00:32:28
and at that stage there wasn't a a VHS
00:32:32
market like there was there was Allison
00:32:35
house cooking show and Jeff Thomas'
00:32:39
Snapper secrets were the only two that
00:32:40
were for sale and um so yeah so we I
00:32:45
didn't really know what I was doing I
00:32:47
just thought I was I was there as a news
00:32:49
reporter and I was just like well if I
00:32:51
just film a bit
00:32:52
extra and then when I come back I'll cut
00:32:55
it together into a into a documentary
00:32:57
and put it on the VHS um the players
00:33:00
were amazing they just really embraced
00:33:02
it and I'd come down in the morning and
00:33:06
I'd go where's the crew and I say oh the
00:33:07
boys have gone out to play golf taking
00:33:08
the crew with them or you know the boys
00:33:10
have gone here they're taking the crew
00:33:11
so so they really bought into it and
00:33:14
it's it's very unpretentious say the
00:33:15
footage yeah and I think a lot of the um
00:33:19
motivation was you know for someone that
00:33:22
had come into the environment from the
00:33:24
outside like
00:33:25
myself to realize that they were just
00:33:28
normal people it's like a club team you
00:33:30
know just the same personalities and
00:33:31
stuff like that they're just really good
00:33:33
at
00:33:34
rugby and uh and yeah it was uh I came
00:33:39
back at the end of the tour and I just
00:33:41
cut it in my spare time uh with an nitor
00:33:44
over the Christmas break and then we put
00:33:46
it out and I remember at that stage the
00:33:49
biggest selling book was um colum's um
00:33:53
biography which had done 55,000 copies
00:33:56
and we were well over 100,000 you know
00:33:57
you know so um for the video yeah the
00:33:59
video went nuts and and people had to
00:34:02
buy it out of garages and ws and all
00:34:04
that sort of stuff cuz there were no
00:34:06
there was no shop selling videos you
00:34:08
know um but now you know Actually I
00:34:13
don't even have a coffee of the good the
00:34:14
B the rugby on VHS it's it's on YouTube
00:34:16
now I watched some footage the other day
00:34:18
it's it's great it's really really um
00:34:20
yeah it sort of breaks down that wall
00:34:22
between the All Blacks and the fans I
00:34:24
feel like that Wall's back up now they
00:34:25
were great people like I was really
00:34:27
lucky
00:34:28
I spent a lot of time you know guys like
00:34:30
Fitzy and um you know back and frano and
00:34:34
Foxy and those sort of guys you know
00:34:35
just just really good people really had
00:34:38
a good balance cuz you know they're
00:34:39
working at the same time and then they
00:34:42
you know I mean back then they train
00:34:44
Tuesday Thursday you know only allowed
00:34:47
like three days I think before a test
00:34:49
match to assemble and stuff like that so
00:34:51
yeah they were just good people and I I
00:34:54
really enjoyed my time yeah it's crazy
00:34:55
to think cuz it's um I've had JK the
00:34:58
podcast and we talked about how during
00:34:59
the 87 World Cup he was like bulleted
00:35:01
out at people's houses and stuff so yeah
00:35:04
I mean obviously ' 87 to 9 quite quite a
00:35:06
big difference but it was still very
00:35:08
just talk about JK we had so he got
00:35:11
injured early in that tour in ' 89 and
00:35:15
um he's he's got such a great brain as
00:35:18
he's getting carried off he blew as
00:35:19
Archilles as he's getting carried off
00:35:22
he's yelling at the
00:35:23
crew follow the
00:35:26
ambulance get some shots me going into
00:35:28
the
00:35:29
surgery so the crew took off jumped in
00:35:32
the car drove behind the ambulance and
00:35:34
they get these shots of JK getting
00:35:36
wheeled into surgery and stuff like that
00:35:38
you know um so yeah I mean that was a
00:35:40
real team effort that was me and him all
00:35:42
those all those videos you know um and
00:35:46
uh I had no idea what I was doing so I
00:35:48
cut it it was like two hours long or
00:35:50
something two and a half hours long um
00:35:52
because I just wanted to put everything
00:35:54
in I had no idea about structure and
00:35:55
pace and all those sort of TV terms I
00:35:58
just chucked everything in it was like a
00:36:00
giant home movie i' I've heard you say
00:36:02
that a lot about about almost every
00:36:04
Venture you've done like you know Sports
00:36:06
C I had no idea what I was doing but
00:36:08
it's true must just be like um like an
00:36:10
instinct you have though no it's true I
00:36:13
I think I
00:36:15
like I like putting stuff in order like
00:36:19
in in an order and that's essentially
00:36:20
what you do on television is you get a
00:36:21
whole lot of stuff and you put it in the
00:36:24
right order and the right pace pace and
00:36:28
structure for me is everything and I
00:36:30
worked out pretty soon that I was you
00:36:32
know quite good at that and um and so
00:36:36
you know I that's what I really enjoy
00:36:38
but but yeah that's not a
00:36:41
self-deprecating sort of comment I
00:36:44
literally knew nothing about making
00:36:45
documentaries when I made the good and
00:36:46
bad rugby I worked it hours I went along
00:36:48
I literally knew nothing about doing
00:36:51
chat shows and live shows when I did
00:36:53
Sports CA until I started doing it and I
00:36:56
think that's that New Zealand and you
00:36:58
you we're so naive sometimes we don't
00:37:00
understand the challenge oh yeah I'll
00:37:02
get there to go I'll be able to do
00:37:03
that sweet you know how hard can it be
00:37:07
I've just come back from running a rugby
00:37:08
club in New York I've never done that
00:37:10
before you know so um but it's important
00:37:14
I reckon to not be like have a little
00:37:18
bit of fear because that that get the
00:37:20
adrenaline flowing but not let that um
00:37:24
that fear stop you trying um I say the
00:37:27
people you know like the first episode
00:37:29
of Sports Cafe it was so bad and I
00:37:33
walked off the set and the crew wouldn't
00:37:36
look at me like so I'd look at the
00:37:38
camera when they
00:37:39
go no one would look at me except we had
00:37:42
this one producer working with us alen
00:37:43
thirst who was a genius thirsty and as
00:37:46
crazy as I was and he looked at me and
00:37:49
he gave me the thumbs up and he said it
00:37:50
was [ __ ] but there's something there and
00:37:52
I was like yeah you're right there's
00:37:53
something there you know let's let's
00:37:55
let's build on that um so so you've got
00:37:58
to start I mean that's the the easiest
00:38:01
piece of advice you just got to start it
00:38:03
is and fail and learn from your fail
00:38:05
failures is is where the growth happens
00:38:07
right yeah or just you know just I
00:38:09
always think that when you make a TV
00:38:11
series um that you know that the first
00:38:13
episode's going to be a bit crap um
00:38:16
because you put all this thought into it
00:38:19
and then you put it out there and you
00:38:21
overthink it and then you it's not till
00:38:23
you see the first one you go ah I just
00:38:25
change that and change that and change
00:38:27
that and then the second one's better
00:38:29
and then the third one's normally
00:38:30
humming that's that's what I found yeah
00:38:33
well dig deep on that soon the TV stuff
00:38:35
because um yeah [ __ ] you've had two TV
00:38:38
shows that lasted for a decade or more
00:38:40
which um is incredible by New Zealand
00:38:42
standards right that's remarkable but um
00:38:45
yeah just back to the Jonah stuff so so
00:38:47
Jonah comes on the team he's how old
00:38:49
like 18 19 yeah so he's a k really young
00:38:52
and he played two tests against France
00:38:54
and um and then they decided to drop him
00:38:59
was not really the right word they they
00:39:00
sort of said look I think you need a bit
00:39:02
more time so um um they replaced them uh
00:39:08
whatever the next test were I think we
00:39:09
played South Africa and then um the 95
00:39:13
World Cup he was close to the squad but
00:39:16
didn't make the initial Squad um and I
00:39:20
remember Eric Rush the team was due to
00:39:23
play a warm-up game in Hamilton Eric
00:39:25
Rush got injured and so they called
00:39:26
joner up from the
00:39:28
I know water the training group or the
00:39:29
New Zealand 15 and he came up and he
00:39:31
just destroyed everyone at training I
00:39:33
remember he hit the bag and Richard low
00:39:36
went back 20 M back and then he hit the
00:39:39
next bed and Jamie Joseph went another
00:39:40
20 M back I was like oh man I think we
00:39:42
need to pick him and um but like when we
00:39:46
got to the World Cup because hadn't set
00:39:49
the world on fire in
00:39:50
94 I went down the night before the
00:39:53
first game with him to do talk to media
00:39:55
and no one showed up like not a single
00:39:58
person and him and I were just standing
00:39:59
in the floor of the hotel really
00:40:01
awkwardly going I don't think anyone
00:40:03
want to talk to you Jonah go back to
00:40:04
your room was there no sort of heat
00:40:05
around him at that time no because he
00:40:08
wasn't a star at that stage you know he
00:40:10
was a guy who' played two tests um and
00:40:13
then missed the the the test against
00:40:15
South Africa and you know um even the
00:40:19
game before the World Cup warm up test
00:40:21
was against Canada and he came off the
00:40:22
bench
00:40:24
so the next night the guy has opened the
00:40:28
World Cup against iseland and he just
00:40:30
destroyed isand like I unbelievable and
00:40:34
from then on it was like um on know
00:40:38
rugby version of Taylor Swift it was
00:40:39
just incredible far out everywhere we
00:40:42
went he was just getting mobbed and um
00:40:46
so my job after a test match was to run
00:40:49
on the field and protect them um and
00:40:52
help him get off the
00:40:53
field um see you you must have been in a
00:40:56
good spot cuz you've been media a for 3
00:40:58
years at that point so you you sort of
00:41:00
created this job and job description for
00:41:02
yourself but 3 years and you got a few
00:41:04
idea what you're doing but you sto to a
00:41:06
degree must have felt like a deer on the
00:41:08
headlights cuz i' never de anything like
00:41:10
that before um you know must have been
00:41:13
insane and um there we we did a
00:41:16
supermarket visit and before we went and
00:41:19
and mixed with the with the fans went up
00:41:22
and did some signing for the um for the
00:41:24
managers and stuff and then outside
00:41:26
there was about 300 people waiting for
00:41:28
the All Blacks and so I said oh Sean if
00:41:31
you can lead them out and so sea LED
00:41:32
them out and this lady came up to sha
00:41:34
and she said I've been waiting for you
00:41:35
for so long um for 3 hours I've been
00:41:38
waiting here for you you know please
00:41:40
you're my favorite player can you sign
00:41:41
this rugby ball and he wrote sea and
00:41:44
Jonah walked past and she ripped the
00:41:45
ball off
00:41:47
him and Jonah started running and and
00:41:51
everyone ran with Jonah I remember
00:41:53
standing next to Sea there was no one
00:41:54
left like like the rest of us were just
00:41:56
standing there go oh well I was going to
00:41:59
have a coffee then
00:42:00
boys wow what a crazy time to be part of
00:42:03
that yeah crazy thing to experience he
00:42:05
was what was he like was he quite quite
00:42:07
shy the was quite there was a real sort
00:42:09
of hierarchy thing at that point who did
00:42:10
he hang out with was Russ and Frank and
00:42:13
Eric and and those guys but um he's a
00:42:16
good guy had a good sense of humor the
00:42:18
only thing like for some reason he
00:42:21
decided he wanted to play fight me all
00:42:22
the time so I'd be walking down a
00:42:24
corridor and he'd jump out and just give
00:42:26
me a hook into the guts or something
00:42:28
like that and then he disappear and I'd
00:42:30
be doubled over oh good one Jonah oh God
00:42:33
you so yeah I I I really enjoyed uh
00:42:37
Jonah's company he was um one day he um
00:42:41
he ate a bowl of boiled eggs and he must
00:42:43
have been 20 of them in there and so and
00:42:46
then Lori decided he didn't play that
00:42:47
well the next game so eggs were off we
00:42:49
went no one else was allowed to eat the
00:42:51
eggs so um yeah it was just I mean he
00:42:54
was really young um
00:42:57
I think he was calm though I I always
00:43:00
felt him really calm you know all this
00:43:02
crazy was going on he had Phil Kingsley
00:43:04
Jones who was managing it all so he
00:43:06
could just let Phil do that anything in
00:43:08
the team he could let me do this and one
00:43:11
of the things I always felt with Jonah
00:43:12
is um he loved being part of the family
00:43:15
you know he loved being an all black and
00:43:18
he loved you know his friendship with
00:43:20
Russia and and and Frank and those boys
00:43:22
and in the team and he he really
00:43:26
blossomed
00:43:27
as the stronger a sense of belonging to
00:43:29
the team the better he played and um you
00:43:32
know no more so than when he destroyed
00:43:34
England um and I think that was really
00:43:37
important to him I think to to to feel
00:43:39
part of that all black family was a big
00:43:40
part of it for him yeah I mean yeah a
00:43:43
tragic end um to to his to his life and
00:43:46
uh you you look back at some of the
00:43:47
stuff he went through like having to go
00:43:48
on the home show to apologize when he
00:43:51
got married and didn't tell his family
00:43:53
you look back now it's like personal
00:43:54
personal [ __ ] it shouldn't have been uh
00:43:56
it's aling you look you look back in um
00:43:59
but thanks for sharing those stories I
00:44:00
love nothing more than a Jonah story
00:44:02
yeah he's a good man I think at the end
00:44:04
of the day you know when you what was
00:44:06
Jonah like Jonah was a good man that's
00:44:09
cool um so then the TV stuff so Sports
00:44:12
Cafe how did they there'll be a lot of
00:44:13
people listening to this that are like
00:44:15
me massive massive fans of it and have
00:44:17
nothing but fond memories of it there be
00:44:18
a lot of people that won't even remember
00:44:20
but this this was groundbreaking stuff
00:44:22
and you say you don't know what you were
00:44:23
doing but I was in um commercial radio
00:44:25
at the time and we had Consultants all
00:44:26
the time so what you were essentially
00:44:29
doing was like um whether you knew it or
00:44:31
not was like a breakfast radio show on
00:44:33
TV you like the the goofball yeah you
00:44:36
had the the straight man you had the so
00:44:38
that was my background you know so
00:44:40
breakfast radio and um so that very much
00:44:43
um was on my
00:44:45
mind we created it cuz um again you know
00:44:49
Jak and I having a couple of beers and
00:44:50
we're talking about how um we never
00:44:54
really got to see the
00:44:55
players Express themselves on TV shows
00:44:59
you know cuz um and we wanted to create
00:45:02
that sort of touring sort of type
00:45:04
environment you know was really loose
00:45:06
and stuff like that and initially it was
00:45:08
going to be JK me and and
00:45:11
ziny um and then JK couldn't make the
00:45:16
pilot show I brought in a um Tanya from
00:45:19
Radio b and the only person on you in
00:45:23
the Warriors cuz I got JK cuz he was a
00:45:24
warrior at that stage the only person on
00:45:26
you in the Warriors other than JK that
00:45:28
was available was meca so I rang Maca up
00:45:31
and I said do you mind um filling in for
00:45:33
the pilot and I remember he walked into
00:45:35
the makeup room wearing normal clothes
00:45:38
and came out with a suit from the
00:45:40
1970s don't know where he found it and
00:45:43
he changed at that moment he changed
00:45:46
what was going to be a serious relax
00:45:47
show into what it turned into be and um
00:45:52
and then JK rang me up he said man I'm
00:45:53
really busy I don't think I do the first
00:45:54
few shows I said don't worry about it we
00:45:57
we'll use Mecca and um he was a
00:46:00
phenomenal Talent wasn't he just
00:46:02
incredible I I I was at that age I
00:46:04
suppose in my early early 20s my 20s at
00:46:06
the time me and all my mate started sort
00:46:07
of talking like him I still see it today
00:46:10
I still see people a lot of people um um
00:46:15
you know even sometimes when I listen to
00:46:16
some of the ACC guys I think they sound
00:46:18
like meca you know um yeah massively
00:46:21
influential and um you know like a just
00:46:25
a genius around timing and all that sort
00:46:27
of stuff he he he sometimes he put zero
00:46:30
thought into it sometimes he put you
00:46:32
know 3% thought into it but um he just
00:46:35
he used to sit behind me on the old
00:46:37
black bus and um he used to just crack
00:46:40
me up all the time just you know just
00:46:42
abusing everyone and taking the piss out
00:46:44
of everyone so I knew he was funny
00:46:46
didn't realize it was that funny and
00:46:48
then he just became really annoying yes
00:46:50
so your your role on Sports Cafe was
00:46:52
like the anchor or straight man whatever
00:46:53
you the links man whatever you want to
00:46:55
call it um and you looked [ __ ] off
00:46:57
with them were you or was that oh there
00:46:59
was sometimes I was yeah I mean he he
00:47:02
thought that the show was funny because
00:47:06
I put so much effort into it and he
00:47:08
ruined it he thought that was the
00:47:10
concept of the show like like oh yeah
00:47:12
you're going to make a show and I'm
00:47:13
going to ruin it that's a brilliant
00:47:14
concept I was like no that's not what
00:47:16
I'm looking for but um the the one time
00:47:20
I got really angry was when he was drunk
00:47:23
and I'd put a lot of work into the show
00:47:25
and you know had some good guests and
00:47:27
stuff like that and I rang him at 1:00 I
00:47:30
knew it was at lunch and I was like mate
00:47:32
you sound like you've had a few are you
00:47:33
going to get home soon yeah yeah I'm my
00:47:34
way home they keept ringing him kept
00:47:36
ringing him he was still there 6:00
00:47:38
still at lunch you know and we used to
00:47:40
start let's say
00:47:42
8:30
00:47:44
um 7:30 still at lunch I said mate I
00:47:46
need you to come I need you to leave now
00:47:49
so we started the show pretty sure we
00:47:51
started he wasn't even there but we
00:47:53
might have he might have been there 2
00:47:55
minutes before we went live on air he
00:47:57
walked in and he was so
00:47:58
drunk and uh I'm like what what are we
00:48:02
going to do here and he had this because
00:48:05
he was always trying to sell his new Day
00:48:06
t-shirt so he grabbed a New Day t-shirt
00:48:09
put it over his big jacket he was looked
00:48:11
like the Michelin Man and um and then I
00:48:15
the way my brain works it was like he's
00:48:17
really drunk I'm just going to keep
00:48:19
throwing questions at him I'm just going
00:48:21
to catch him out I'm just going to make
00:48:22
his life a nightmare and then at the
00:48:24
commercial break I said get him out of
00:48:26
here I'm going to kill him get him out
00:48:27
of here he'd kicked the ball into
00:48:29
someone's face in the audience he just
00:48:31
had so they took him over to get some
00:48:34
coffee into him and we put a um we had a
00:48:37
fiberglass cow in the set and we put it
00:48:41
in mark spot and just as we came back
00:48:45
from commercial break I looked over and
00:48:46
there's Maca arguing with the cow I was
00:48:48
like what are you doing in my spot mate
00:48:51
like so after the show everyone knew to
00:48:55
get out of my way so I I'm like upstairs
00:48:58
mate so mea went upstairs ripped into
00:49:01
him I was like that is so unprofessional
00:49:03
you've made me look like an idiot you
00:49:05
know who do you think you are blah
00:49:06
ripped
00:49:07
him the reality is is that now that
00:49:10
show's gone down in history is for many
00:49:12
people it's the funniest show we did so
00:49:14
you know once again he wins you know but
00:49:19
on on reflection um yeah what makes you
00:49:22
wi I I had Lee Hart sitting in that
00:49:24
chair he he he's talks years on about
00:49:27
regretting about you killing a snail
00:49:29
live on TV which seems like a small
00:49:30
thing but he just thinks it's pointless
00:49:32
and it's something he wouldn't do now
00:49:33
what about you is there anything that
00:49:34
you look back on and
00:49:36
go
00:49:37
um oh yeah posing for photos for new day
00:49:40
was probably not my finest um no new was
00:49:43
like a a cultural phenomenon though
00:49:45
wasn't it what I loved about you know
00:49:46
these these influences nowadays I I I
00:49:49
think back then we could get most of New
00:49:51
Zealand to go naked for a day MAA would
00:49:54
say you know you have permission from
00:49:56
the police which they didn't and um and
00:49:59
people would send us in videos of
00:50:00
themselves nude doing stupid stuff like
00:50:03
that's influence yeah well there were
00:50:06
even cops involved weren't there like
00:50:09
cops posing nude on the cop car and no
00:50:10
the gor policeman um did a whole thing
00:50:14
um and he got the sack wow and it was
00:50:18
front page of news and then um about
00:50:21
couple of weeks later the local fire
00:50:23
brigade also did the New Day stuff so
00:50:25
yeah people really got into it was funny
00:50:27
it was so funny oh it was just an
00:50:29
incredibly well done show now we get all
00:50:31
these lawyers and doctors coming up to
00:50:33
me at functions going you know in uh
00:50:37
what in 1998 the new day tapes do you
00:50:40
still have those cuz um I seen an entry
00:50:42
and I'd prefer if no one ever saw it you
00:50:44
know well the hard thing that is to be
00:50:46
finding like a a player to play the
00:50:49
tapes on even if they were still in
00:50:50
existence and um yeah it was amazing and
00:50:53
then your final show you even had like a
00:50:55
a video message from Helen Clark who was
00:50:57
the Prime Minister at the time you think
00:50:59
now um whoever the prime minister is
00:51:01
even if it's a fun prime minister like a
00:51:02
John ke or a Chris Lux that' have people
00:51:04
saying no think of the Optics yeah she
00:51:06
was she was I mean she had a good sense
00:51:07
of humor I mean the thing is the reason
00:51:09
I think Sports care worked because um
00:51:12
and you know you got to take the guys
00:51:14
that um John fet and um Nate Smith who
00:51:18
were the sort of people that run sky
00:51:20
that they said so they didn't give us
00:51:22
any money they just said here's an hour
00:51:24
of TV um you've got a
00:51:27
raise the money through sponsorship and
00:51:29
advertising um but we're going to let
00:51:32
you go just just don't get their license
00:51:34
taken off you know and um and they were
00:51:38
really supportive um even in the early
00:51:40
early days um so they gave me the
00:51:44
confidence to try things because I knew
00:51:47
I wasn't going to get taken off air I
00:51:48
mean the first year we did 40 shows the
00:51:50
first year and the reason we did 40 is I
00:51:52
worked out that if I got paid x amount
00:51:54
of dollar per show I'd have to do 40
00:51:56
shows to get
00:51:57
enough um um so but we yeah and and and
00:52:03
and like that's not always the case in
00:52:06
television you know you don't normally
00:52:07
get that freedom and um and so yeah
00:52:10
really thankful for those guys and was
00:52:12
it live live yeah was live for probably
00:52:15
90% of the time we we did
00:52:18
this our 10th year anniversary by that
00:52:22
stage we were on tvnz and um cuz our
00:52:25
sponsor one of the big audience and we
00:52:28
did our 10- year anniversary show and
00:52:30
for some reason there was a problem with
00:52:32
the link and I I said welcome to the
00:52:36
show and then it cut out and no one saw
00:52:38
the rest of the show we didn't realize
00:52:39
we did the show and no one saw it they
00:52:41
had to run a stand by show so then TV
00:52:44
and Z rip ripped me apart and they're
00:52:46
like this is disgraceful you need to you
00:52:49
can't do that again you need to record
00:52:51
it an hour early um so we can make sure
00:52:54
it's in house before we play it and and
00:52:56
so that was what we did the last year
00:52:58
but um the irony of that is we so our
00:53:02
show was I think 46 minutes and then the
00:53:06
the rest of the hour was made up
00:53:07
commercial breaks but we had this new
00:53:09
person working for us and she timed it
00:53:14
at 46 minutes then took commercial
00:53:16
breaks off so we did this recorded show
00:53:18
which they wanted us to do and I was
00:53:20
like [ __ ] that was over quick and um
00:53:23
then we're inside having a beer and then
00:53:25
um I get this call from TB andz going
00:53:28
hey guys you like I know 30 minutes
00:53:32
short I'm like well we can't there's
00:53:34
nothing we can do about it like like I
00:53:36
don't know I'm on the floor I don't know
00:53:38
how long I'm just waiting for the
00:53:39
director and the director assistant to
00:53:42
give me cues so yeah so that didn't work
00:53:44
that well oh my God but um like I'm
00:53:46
thinking uh there was another sort of
00:53:48
Master of New Zealand TV at the time in
00:53:50
my opinion Mikey havoc and he did he did
00:53:52
a live show Once which was just
00:53:53
diabolical and disastrous so there's um
00:53:56
came yeah him and news boy started I
00:53:58
think this the year after us and it was
00:54:00
a good time we'd watched their stuff and
00:54:03
um you know Graham Hill had come from
00:54:05
bfm so he knew them pretty well and um
00:54:07
there was a bit of crossover and then
00:54:09
Graham went and worked on um uh Jeremy's
00:54:12
um I can't remember eating media lunch
00:54:15
or something eating media lunch yeah gr
00:54:16
was one of the guys on that one of the
00:54:17
Geniuses behind that so it was it was
00:54:20
nice it was a nice little crew of people
00:54:22
lot you know poor castle and stuff they
00:54:24
were really smart guys you know so
00:54:25
there's a lot sort of um uh you're
00:54:28
sharing each other's success yeah yeah I
00:54:31
mean yeah I'm just thinking as you're
00:54:33
you're speaking so there was the core
00:54:34
cast of um Sports Cafe but then this
00:54:37
just that peripheral cast which was
00:54:38
phenomenal you know the human cannibal
00:54:40
Eva from Bulgaria um yeah that guy who
00:54:43
we met before Lee it's incred you're um
00:54:46
yeah you're quite the talent spot right
00:54:47
I'm interested to see how you deflect
00:54:48
this one because you've made so many
00:54:50
careers yeah I think um I think it's
00:54:54
sort of giving people a chance like and
00:54:56
being given them time to find their
00:54:57
voice I think that's been the key um you
00:55:01
know I love watching the news at night
00:55:03
and saying Haley h on the news you know
00:55:06
um you know those sorts of things um I
00:55:09
really enjoy that's probably what gives
00:55:11
me the greatest PA is seeing people um
00:55:14
that come through you know the M
00:55:16
richardon sort of stuff um Lee Hart you
00:55:19
know I mean Lee's I still I'm biased but
00:55:22
I's the funniest guy in New Zealand and
00:55:24
um you know we just in an outlet and
00:55:27
then he just took off and you know the
00:55:29
rest is on him and um we got him in we
00:55:33
got him in because Ma and I were talking
00:55:35
about this character and we want to do
00:55:38
something funny and he he knew Lee you
00:55:40
know he said I've been talking to Lee
00:55:42
about it and Lee's got a whole bio about
00:55:45
this guy you know he's he's he's really
00:55:46
prepared and it's very funny so um so he
00:55:50
came in and Lee had done a brilliant job
00:55:53
in in in really putting a backstory
00:55:55
behind the character which is not
00:55:56
something we ever did before and then
00:55:59
about um a week later two weeks later um
00:56:05
Norm hu had had done had to do a very
00:56:07
tearful apology on TV that's right he
00:56:09
got drunk and ended up um smashing a r
00:56:11
slider to the wrong hotel room or
00:56:13
something yeah I can't remember yeah it
00:56:14
was awful but then we then Lee Hart did
00:56:17
a parody of it and he did an apology cuz
00:56:19
he said look you know I'm not really a
00:56:21
snail racer I don't really know how fast
00:56:23
these things can go you know and so
00:56:27
um I knew so the next year I was like
00:56:31
cuz Lee was working for a greenstone at
00:56:33
that Stage production company as a
00:56:35
researcher and I was like mate you need
00:56:37
to come full-time and be with us so um
00:56:42
the first three or four weeks he made a
00:56:45
different name every time I remember he
00:56:49
was doing a a um piece of camera the
00:56:53
vict and he goes and he's signed off
00:56:56
Rick and he turned around the boat was
00:56:57
called Crescendo Rick Rick Crescendo you
00:57:00
know so then I said M we just need a
00:57:02
generic name let's call you that guy and
00:57:04
let's just let's just go from there and
00:57:06
um yeah I mean he is so clever you know
00:57:10
but so is you know the Cannonball and
00:57:12
either the Bulgarian I mean they were
00:57:13
really smart people they knew their
00:57:15
characters and um they knew um you know
00:57:20
it's really
00:57:21
playing you you take some of your own
00:57:24
qualities and you you exaggerate them
00:57:26
into a character and that's why it's
00:57:28
always funny for me whenever I go into
00:57:30
meetings you know serious business
00:57:32
meetings people see me as the guy that
00:57:34
presented Sports Cafe not the guy that
00:57:35
made it so they think I'm an idiot you
00:57:38
know so I'm trying to get something
00:57:40
really important across and they go yeah
00:57:43
where's Eva the Bulgarian you know so um
00:57:45
you know and we haven't talked about
00:57:46
Lana I mean without Lana yeah yeah
00:57:49
Lana's um dry humor um I heard her at a
00:57:54
function before she worked for us and I
00:57:56
was like oh man
00:57:58
she everyone thinks that she's like this
00:58:00
and she's like that and that's funny and
00:58:03
so when we had the opportunity to put
00:58:05
her in there um she was only supposed to
00:58:06
do a couple of weeks and she did like
00:58:08
you know 12 years um yeah she was sort
00:58:12
of the glue that kept us together oh she
00:58:14
played that role particularly well too
00:58:15
like sometimes she' side with you
00:58:17
sometimes she'd side with Mark cuz I
00:58:19
think what would happen with me is I'd
00:58:20
get angry with Mark and then he'd suck
00:58:23
me in and I'd get caught up in his
00:58:25
stupid ideas M you know no we're not
00:58:27
going to do that no no no well actually
00:58:29
if we do you know then and then Lana
00:58:31
would slap me across the face no R don't
00:58:33
don't be fooled by them you know so yeah
00:58:36
and none of that was um like contrived
00:58:39
not not in the early days and as we got
00:58:43
through sort of started to understand
00:58:45
the Dynamics and and and work out how to
00:58:47
play with them very much like breakfast
00:58:49
radio you know it's like well I know my
00:58:51
character you know your character so
00:58:53
let's let's do stand your lane yeah yeah
00:58:55
so it was
00:58:56
it was very much like a breakfast radio
00:58:59
and then and then Crowd Goes Wild after
00:59:00
that well I'm I'm brushing over Sugar
00:59:02
Shack you don't want to Sugar shet was
00:59:05
cool because um cuz I got it wrong right
00:59:08
you know what I've got a really good
00:59:09
memory about um like pop culture on TV I
00:59:11
don't remember this at all no Sugar
00:59:13
Shack at all but is this the only fail
00:59:15
you've had oh know there's a few there's
00:59:18
Sugar Shack which um had a great group
00:59:20
of people I don't know why I couldn't
00:59:22
make it work um but I was St
00:59:26
starting Crow go wild at the same time
00:59:28
and I was spreading myself a bit thin um
00:59:31
and uh I also did a show I did a show
00:59:34
called The Bradley Bunch which which we
00:59:37
did one episode of and um the the idea
00:59:41
was that newses changed so we brought
00:59:45
Tom Bradley back um which was actually
00:59:48
Jeremy wells's idea and and then we put
00:59:51
everything around them so we had Paul
00:59:52
ego as a cons he was a consultant and we
00:59:55
had kyli B who was his female presenter
00:59:57
cuz you couldn't do the news without a
00:59:59
female and we had a
01:00:02
band and I'd been at the comedy club
01:00:06
like classic like 5 days before we were
01:00:09
do to film this pilot and I was watching
01:00:12
this act and never heard of them before
01:00:14
and um afterwards they're in the foyer
01:00:16
selling CDs and stuff and I went up to
01:00:18
them I said do you want to be in my TV
01:00:20
show and they're like what do you mean I
01:00:22
said I'm doing a TV show on Thursday um
01:00:24
and you guys are really funny so you
01:00:26
should be in it and so they were in it
01:00:28
and they fly the Concords and um and so
01:00:33
they were hilarious I'd never seen them
01:00:35
before they were just starting out and
01:00:37
um I remember when tvnz after the show
01:00:41
um and it wasn't my greatest work but um
01:00:44
it was just you know we're just trying
01:00:45
some stuff and they were like nah don't
01:00:48
ever talk about that show don't even try
01:00:50
and resurrect it don't even don't even
01:00:52
mention it in the hallway I was like
01:00:54
yeah I know I know I get it but but the
01:00:57
band were quite funny and they're like
01:00:58
oh were they iuck I think so um I love a
01:01:03
story like that you they they had um
01:01:04
they were really sort of um uh bruised
01:01:07
by their experience at TV when they they
01:01:10
they wanted to change the entire sort of
01:01:12
concept of the show and make it I I
01:01:14
don't know what they wanted to make it
01:01:15
but then um the BBC saw something in
01:01:17
them I love I love their success I I
01:01:19
just yeah it's phenomenal he there two
01:01:22
really good people you know I and Reese
01:01:24
you know they're all really really good
01:01:25
people
01:01:27
and so you know sometimes in New Zealand
01:01:29
you know people sort of go if they see
01:01:31
someone else's success they get a bit
01:01:33
shitty because it's like oh you're
01:01:34
leaving me behind I want to pull you
01:01:36
down etc etc but the Concords are just a
01:01:41
incredibly talented you can see from
01:01:43
that first first time we saw them um and
01:01:47
and you know so I mean I love their
01:01:49
success because it's true Talent finding
01:01:51
its true true place and um yeah that
01:01:56
yeah but but they didn't find it in the
01:01:57
Bradley
01:01:59
Bunch that's is it on YouTube or
01:02:02
anything I don't know I've got a copy
01:02:04
it's it's a long sugar shck and um so
01:02:06
Crowd Goes Wild I remember seeing um uh
01:02:09
Ms Andrew Mulligan at a mate's party one
01:02:11
Christmas and I think it was at the end
01:02:13
of year one of cred go wild and I was
01:02:14
saying how much I love the show and he
01:02:16
was saying it was about to about to end
01:02:18
or it wasn't looking likely that it was
01:02:20
going to so they so Sky used to have a
01:02:21
show called sport 365 which was their
01:02:23
first sort of attempt at the new show
01:02:26
and um and it was it was fine it was
01:02:28
going okay and and Andrew Mulligan was
01:02:30
working as a producer on that show and
01:02:32
then um I got a call one day out
01:02:35
completely out of the blue John fet who
01:02:37
was running Sky rang me and he said look
01:02:39
I I need to change 365 it's not working
01:02:41
for
01:02:42
me can I give you the resource of 365
01:02:46
and can you turn it into something I'm
01:02:49
like yeah I can but um I'm a little bit
01:02:52
busy at the moment because I'm with Mark
01:02:54
Ellis
01:02:56
and two policemen they just let them
01:02:58
come home to put a suit on because we're
01:02:59
going to court so he was going to court
01:03:02
oh it was just for the selling some ex
01:03:05
yeah um so um so so that I remember it
01:03:10
vividly you know um so we we got through
01:03:13
that and then um and I came into Sky and
01:03:16
I was like I got a whole lot of people
01:03:19
for auditions and because mes was
01:03:22
working for Sky I asked him to sit in on
01:03:24
the auditions
01:03:26
and we went through I know 10 people I'd
01:03:28
already knew I knew that I wanted to use
01:03:30
mark because I'd actually used mark on
01:03:31
an episode of Sports Cafe M Richardson
01:03:34
but um I wasn't planning on using Andrew
01:03:37
and then uh I looked through all the
01:03:39
additions and I was like man Andrew is
01:03:42
better than nor he's the best he's so
01:03:44
good and the chemistry between him and
01:03:46
Mark will work really well so so we put
01:03:48
them together and um and then what was
01:03:51
that
01:03:53
2006 um and it's still going today I'm
01:03:56
not involved with it anymore are you are
01:03:57
you still executive producer no no no no
01:03:59
so when I went to the US I I sort of
01:04:01
moved away but um yeah I mean I all
01:04:06
right Andrew's done a phenomenal job and
01:04:08
um yeah I I think I mean I really in
01:04:11
those early years it was so much fun CU
01:04:14
again you're just finding your voice and
01:04:16
um some you know some brilliant people
01:04:19
gone through I mean we started Glenn
01:04:21
Osborne was the original reporter for
01:04:23
Kos World um and um and you know and
01:04:27
Mark you know Mark's very good just so
01:04:30
clever knows his character really well
01:04:33
bounced off Andrew really well you know
01:04:34
then we during that first year we
01:04:36
brought McCone in you know um which is a
01:04:39
master stroke yeah and it was so i' saw
01:04:42
McCone at a um at a rugby function a
01:04:45
blues function and he was just leaving
01:04:48
the herald you know and I said what are
01:04:50
you going to do he said I don't have
01:04:51
anything on I said well come and help us
01:04:52
out give you a couple of shifts you know
01:04:55
and um and then he just got you know
01:04:57
just realized just how talented he was
01:05:00
but you you've sort of given um like
01:05:02
opportunities or TV jobs to people that
01:05:04
would never have got it from like one or
01:05:05
three for whatever reason and it's
01:05:07
proved to be like a master strike
01:05:09
there's been um some just as You'
01:05:11
mentioned Haley hul before some
01:05:13
remarkable careers like yeah it's cool
01:05:15
as I say I mean it's just giving the
01:05:18
people the opportunity and and then I
01:05:20
think sometimes in our industry um you
01:05:23
know a producer or someone will will
01:05:25
hire someone because they see something
01:05:27
in them and then they'll try and turn
01:05:29
them into what they think they should be
01:05:33
whereas it's actually easier just to let
01:05:35
them be themselves yeah I think what
01:05:37
you're describing is what happened with
01:05:38
Flight of the Concords right try to mold
01:05:40
them into what they thought I think it
01:05:42
happens with lots of people you go and
01:05:44
someone sees you've got some Talent um
01:05:47
and this I'm talking Global they see
01:05:49
you've got some Talent they go right
01:05:51
we're going to give you this show here's
01:05:52
your script this is what I want you to
01:05:54
say this is how I want you to this is
01:05:56
what I want you to be whereas my
01:05:59
strategy is a lot easier it's like okay
01:06:01
can you come in and just be yourself and
01:06:03
I'll just sit back and watch yeah I've
01:06:05
had marike Richardson on the podcast and
01:06:07
he he talked about um we talked about
01:06:09
the sketch that he did with Steven
01:06:10
Fleming oh yeah and he his recollection
01:06:12
is that that's when he came onto your
01:06:15
radar yeah cuz you thought that sketch
01:06:17
with Steven Fleming was funny yeah
01:06:19
hilarious yeah so awkward to watch yeah
01:06:22
yeah brilliantly awkward but that's the
01:06:23
thing about Mark is he understands his
01:06:25
character really well so he knows he
01:06:28
knows why it's funny so he can replicate
01:06:31
it you know cuz he's like well this is
01:06:33
what I do really well I can play that
01:06:34
role so every time he gets that
01:06:36
opportunity he comes in with a one liner
01:06:38
um he knows his character and that's I
01:06:40
think that's what he does well yeah [ __ ]
01:06:42
we've talked about a lot of high-profile
01:06:44
stuff there's there's something um that
01:06:46
I want to talk about it's a book that
01:06:47
you've done which is probably not very
01:06:49
high profile I've got the book right
01:06:51
here it's called I know this to be true
01:06:53
uh which is amazing it's basically um
01:06:55
it's a beautiful coffee table book came
01:06:56
out
01:06:57
2016 I don't know something like that
01:07:00
yeah and it's um it's just beautiful
01:07:02
photos and yeah glossy photos and uh
01:07:04
sort of interviews with like 60
01:07:06
well-known new zealanders and not so
01:07:08
well-known new zealanders um it's kind
01:07:10
of like a a podcast yeah long form
01:07:13
podcast pre podcasting I so I worked on
01:07:16
that with um a m of Mine Jeff Blackwell
01:07:18
who's a incredible book publisher and
01:07:21
he's just he's just really good at that
01:07:23
stuff and um
01:07:26
there you go deflecting again yeah and I
01:07:27
did the I did the interviews and stuff
01:07:29
and sort of created the format as we
01:07:32
went which was we had the piece of art
01:07:35
um that I know this to be true and we
01:07:37
had the Trap set around everywhere yeah
01:07:39
like a mess of canvas spec drop it's
01:07:41
ridiculous they just got so sick of
01:07:43
carrying that thing it's such a great
01:07:45
idea and then everyone I I do this
01:07:47
interview with them about their values
01:07:48
and about what they knew to be true in
01:07:50
their lives and stuff and then I'd get
01:07:51
them to come up with a word that summed
01:07:53
up who you know their values and what
01:07:55
they thought
01:07:56
um and we' take a photo of that word on
01:07:57
their body and then we'd get them to
01:07:59
sign the canvas at the back put the word
01:08:02
up and they auctioned it for PL strange
01:08:03
you know because a lot of it was for
01:08:04
Mike chun's PL strange but for me um
01:08:09
like it was a gift because I got to
01:08:10
speak to 60 incredible people and have a
01:08:15
really sort of private intimate
01:08:16
conversation with them about the about
01:08:18
what was important in their lives how
01:08:19
long was each chat um
01:08:22
probably 40 minutes to an hour each one
01:08:25
um you know I was lucky to grab um colum
01:08:30
mes just just before he passed away
01:08:31
actually and he was a very good friend
01:08:33
of mine and it was a really special time
01:08:36
and um yeah I mean they all you know all
01:08:39
of the everyone left a mark on me and I
01:08:43
learned a lot from doing them I did JK
01:08:47
and maca
01:08:49
um uh I think they both made me cry
01:08:51
actually I know meca did and then um did
01:08:54
they you can't remember what
01:08:56
um I think meca we're just talking about
01:08:59
love and um yeah I mean it was such such
01:09:04
great gift and then one of the people I
01:09:07
spoke to was a Lady Elizabeth Ransom who
01:09:10
had sold her business to Google for I
01:09:12
think $250 million you know wow she done
01:09:15
incredibly well and she was an amazing
01:09:17
amazing story of go I just really love
01:09:19
talking to her and I interviewed her
01:09:21
over in poo Alto and in California and
01:09:25
at the end of it she sort of challenged
01:09:27
me a little bit she what are you going
01:09:28
to do next you know are you doing this
01:09:29
book when this is finished what are you
01:09:30
going to do next I'm like ah she's like
01:09:33
because the media world's changing you
01:09:34
know television's changing um so you
01:09:37
can't just try out Sports C again I oh
01:09:40
buger um and so I came back from when
01:09:43
that book got published and I started to
01:09:45
really think about what next and um as a
01:09:50
result of that I started
01:09:53
building I built an app a platform
01:09:56
really around Fan engagement around how
01:09:59
to because again JK and I talked about
01:10:01
there was a real problem getting um you
01:10:05
know 20 year olds to watch live Sport
01:10:08
and you know that was so important to us
01:10:09
live Sport and so we sort of built this
01:10:12
thing and it was was testing really well
01:10:16
and so I thought well let's just go to
01:10:18
America I'll just move to America so um
01:10:21
and it was all because of that
01:10:23
conversation I had doing the book and I
01:10:25
ended up in Austin
01:10:27
Texas and um been a year sort of trying
01:10:30
to get things off the ground and then Co
01:10:32
hit so um that sort of put an end to
01:10:35
that oh well still on the still on the
01:10:37
Scrapbook of ideas yeah yeah know man
01:10:39
it's very much so yeah now you mentioned
01:10:40
Colin Colin Ms in in that book this I
01:10:42
know to be true I've actually got that
01:10:44
highlighted here this is one of my
01:10:45
favorite Parts in the book and I think
01:10:46
when I when I read the book when it
01:10:48
first came out I thought it was kind of
01:10:49
Savage and badass and in the time that's
01:10:51
passed I've gone through my own mental
01:10:53
health stuff and I actually find this
01:10:55
paragraph kind of sad now and way so he
01:10:57
was um I think 80 at I know there about
01:11:00
crying yeah yeah yeah yeah he was 80 at
01:11:02
the time it was like a year or two
01:11:03
before he died I can't remember it was
01:11:05
like months before he died oh was it
01:11:07
yeah yeah he still talked in the the
01:11:09
article about enjoying going out for a
01:11:10
few beers yeah yeah um but yeah the
01:11:13
paragraph is um I can't remember when I
01:11:14
last cried probably when I got a hiding
01:11:16
at home as a kid or when I was seven and
01:11:18
had romatic fever and got tght I had to
01:11:20
stand bed for 8 weeks I might have cried
01:11:22
then yeah um at the time I thought [ __ ]
01:11:25
this is cool this is so colon Mees pine
01:11:27
tree Mees and then I look back now and
01:11:29
it's like um like vulnerability and
01:11:31
being able to cry and stuff is like a
01:11:32
really you know it was probably
01:11:35
perceived as a weakness then it
01:11:36
definitely was when I was growing up but
01:11:37
you look back now it's like a a key part
01:11:39
of living a full human existence yeah
01:11:41
that's kind of sad yeah he was I love
01:11:44
Colin he was such an amazing man so when
01:11:47
I Whi the O he was the
01:11:49
manager um so we a pretty close Bond and
01:11:52
um I me I I think I I couldn't believe
01:11:57
it when he told me that [ __ ] three
01:12:00
qus of a century without crying it's
01:12:02
insane like no and it wasn't it wasn't a
01:12:05
um when he said it it wasn't
01:12:07
a contrived comment for effect he
01:12:12
genuinely thought because I I asked that
01:12:14
question of a few people and he
01:12:17
genuinely thought about it oh Jesus i f
01:12:20
[ __ ] I don't know um or probably when I
01:12:22
was you know five or six [ __ ]
01:12:27
col crazy but it just we don't know it
01:12:30
was different time you know and you know
01:12:33
he he had it he had it tough man he
01:12:35
worked hard you know he he he would tell
01:12:38
me about um you know his his father
01:12:41
bought some land up the road and he had
01:12:44
him and Stan had to cut cut all the
01:12:45
shrub you know do after school and he
01:12:48
said to me that um he loved going to
01:12:51
rugby because it gave him a break from
01:12:53
cutting shrub in the farm you know give
01:12:55
him a
01:13:00
[Music]
01:13:56
just sitting back and going oh my God
01:13:58
that person has just got something
01:13:59
special I'm not and I'm not not not
01:14:00
talking about rugby players and stuff
01:14:03
like that I'm talking about just you
01:14:04
know seeing
01:14:06
someone do a song or or or put a show
01:14:10
there like I love The West Wing and
01:14:13
Aaron sain and quite often at the end of
01:14:16
that I'll be in tears and I'll I'll be
01:14:18
in tears not because the
01:14:22
show was was something that that got to
01:14:24
me it's just because i' been to go that
01:14:26
was just an incredible piece of work I
01:14:29
can't
01:14:30
believe someone managed to make that
01:14:32
piece of art for me you know and um and
01:14:37
those are the times where I just yeah I
01:14:39
just a tear come to the eye and arms
01:14:41
just ging and that's just incredible you
01:14:43
know wow yeah it's funny yeah when I had
01:14:46
Matthew Ridge on the podcast he he said
01:14:48
a similar sort of thing actually he said
01:14:49
he loves a good cry now he said he can
01:14:50
be just driving along this car thinking
01:14:52
about you know people or things that
01:14:54
he's grateful for and just to have tears
01:14:56
great great human being Rie yeah he's
01:14:58
wonderful wonderful chat I think it feel
01:15:00
like he's got better with age you
01:15:01
knowed so JK and I did a documentary
01:15:04
with him when he changed codes so we
01:15:06
followed him from the moment he landed
01:15:08
in Australia to um to his career at
01:15:13
Manley that's on YouTube as well by the
01:15:15
way want to look I think actually it's
01:15:18
still the highest rating Sports stock
01:15:20
over all time because there was only
01:15:21
like one channel when we did it but um
01:15:25
and I got to know him really well then
01:15:27
and um such a yeah such a really smart
01:15:31
um really good
01:15:33
man how's um how's your mental health
01:15:35
been over the years yeah I I think I'm
01:15:38
pretty good I think
01:15:40
um I got a shock obviously being really
01:15:44
close to JK watching him go through his
01:15:47
um through his issues and I didn't
01:15:50
understand it I didn't know couldn't
01:15:53
help I just didn't know you know when he
01:15:55
when he tried to talk to me about it I
01:15:56
just didn't understand what he was
01:15:58
talking about CU back then it was just
01:16:00
not spoken about um so I think um I
01:16:05
think because of our friendship I've
01:16:07
always been really conscious of it um
01:16:11
you know I probably don't want to talk
01:16:12
too much about you know um losing Kathy
01:16:15
but that was pretty tough time for me
01:16:17
and you know I was really thankful to
01:16:19
have JK in my corner you know to sort of
01:16:22
help me get through some of that stuff
01:16:24
but um
01:16:26
you know I mean we all go through tough
01:16:28
times I think what you learn is you
01:16:31
can't judge people because you just
01:16:33
don't know what's going on and the what
01:16:35
what their story is you know you know um
01:16:39
and uh so yeah I'm I'm conscious of it
01:16:42
but it's it's always a work on you know
01:16:44
like anyone like you know
01:16:46
particularly when you're when you're a
01:16:49
creative person you make something and
01:16:51
you put it out there you know and you
01:16:53
get called a read ritar whatever you
01:16:55
know it's it's you know it's funny to
01:16:57
laugh at it
01:16:59
but but it can be hard I remember yeah
01:17:02
it stings I used to um I think it so
01:17:06
Sports Cafe was always on a Wednesday
01:17:07
night and I became really conditioned on
01:17:11
a Thursday to
01:17:14
be like it was almost physically I would
01:17:16
sort of curl into a ball even when I'm
01:17:18
walking out I'd be really tight because
01:17:21
I was just waiting for people to um you
01:17:24
know we'd got something wrong or we'd
01:17:26
done something naughty or something like
01:17:28
I you know in a supermarket or something
01:17:30
I'd be waiting for someone to attack me
01:17:32
and um so even after the show finished
01:17:37
like for couple of years afterwards I
01:17:39
would always be really really tired on a
01:17:41
Thursday and really
01:17:44
quiet because I would just want to hide
01:17:47
from the world on that day and then once
01:17:50
we got through Thursday I was okay you
01:17:52
know but um I remember one day I was
01:17:55
driving down the wah Beach and I stopped
01:17:58
to get some petrol and I um I was
01:18:02
filling the car up and you you can sense
01:18:04
when someone's behind you you know and I
01:18:06
could these people behind me I turn
01:18:08
around they looking at me
01:18:10
laughing and I said um what's what's the
01:18:13
problem and they said ah we're just
01:18:16
seeing if you had a hairy ass like meca
01:18:18
said on the show last
01:18:23
night cuz mea decided because I'm half
01:18:26
Italian I must be here so you know that
01:18:29
was my life for like for a long time
01:18:32
that's great yeah um I I don't think
01:18:34
like the fact that we can sit down and
01:18:35
have a conversation like this now um we
01:18:38
can't underestimate the the cultural
01:18:40
impact that John kin's head on this
01:18:41
country you know it's like remarkable
01:18:44
it's easy to talk about mental health
01:18:45
and resilience and um vulnerability now
01:18:48
but he was doing it when no one was
01:18:50
doing it I can't imagine how terrifying
01:18:52
that was to come out I remember when he
01:18:54
he rang me
01:18:55
cuz he he would send me the chapters of
01:18:57
his book to read and give him some
01:18:59
feedback and he sent me the one on his
01:19:01
depression called Black Dog and um he's
01:19:05
like I don't know if I'm going to put
01:19:06
this
01:19:06
in and I read it and I was like oh my
01:19:09
God why didn't you tell me that this was
01:19:11
happening I didn't understand cuz we
01:19:12
were working together we had a company
01:19:15
together past the Productions and
01:19:18
um and he's
01:19:21
like I think I need to put it in I think
01:19:23
I need to but it was it was a lot of
01:19:26
thought about you know exposing that
01:19:28
side of his life because at that stage
01:19:31
no one had ever done that before and and
01:19:33
it was a rugby book you know it's like
01:19:34
you tell me how many Tri you scored and
01:19:36
what it was like the night after the
01:19:38
World Cup final and stuff like that's
01:19:39
what rugby books were and he had this
01:19:41
chapter about you know um dealing with
01:19:43
depression and and where where it got to
01:19:45
him and stuff but I know and I'm sure
01:19:49
he's told you this that you know when he
01:19:51
goes out I mean you know obviously we go
01:19:53
out of here but people will come up to
01:19:55
him constantly and go you've saved my
01:19:58
brother's life my my father my husband
01:20:00
you know particularly MC mes you know um
01:20:04
and you just wonder whether you know his
01:20:06
all black career was really designed to
01:20:09
give him the profile to really do as
01:20:11
good work yeah the platform yeah yeah I
01:20:14
mean yeah he's he's he's normalized it
01:20:16
um I do worry about like the likes of
01:20:17
Herman Mike King and uh my friend jez
01:20:20
thoron as well like they they take a lot
01:20:22
on and then you get people coming coming
01:20:24
to you not with just positive stories
01:20:25
like that but also wanting help or
01:20:27
advice um the good thing with JK is he's
01:20:29
written a beautiful book All Blacks
01:20:31
don't cry which is what I you know when
01:20:34
people because people a lot of people
01:20:36
still come to me and say well I'm
01:20:37
struggling you know and can you give me
01:20:39
JK's number and I go call you need to
01:20:41
read this book first you know um um yeah
01:20:44
it's I mean I I agree with you that that
01:20:47
if you're going to be that person you
01:20:49
know like JK is then then you take a lot
01:20:52
of stuff from other people you know you
01:20:54
carry a all the stuff from other people
01:20:56
but I I've seen him up and down the
01:20:58
country do his speeches and talk to
01:20:59
people and stuff like that oh God it's
01:21:02
it's it's lifechanging you know and um
01:21:05
yeah I mean I'm really proud of him you
01:21:07
know I'm really proud he's a good
01:21:10
friend and just really proud of the
01:21:13
impact he's had on New Zealand yeah it's
01:21:16
incredible um you you mentioned um Kathy
01:21:19
before and you said you don't want to
01:21:20
talk about that in too much detail is
01:21:22
I've noticed on your Instagram there's
01:21:23
not a lot there about about that as well
01:21:26
you just prefer to keep it private or is
01:21:28
it just too hard to talk about still I
01:21:30
just um always been a big believer in my
01:21:32
private life being private you know you
01:21:34
know you you give that character that
01:21:37
that people watch and and happy being
01:21:39
that character and stuff like that but
01:21:42
um you know so what when did I start in
01:21:44
TV ' 86 so it's a long time and and you
01:21:48
just can't give them everything you know
01:21:51
um you got to keep part of your life for
01:21:53
you um and and I've always felt that my
01:21:56
family life is is really mine for me and
01:21:59
um you know I was really you know when
01:22:02
it was tough I was you know loved all
01:22:04
the support we got from everyone and and
01:22:06
and people were amazing um but I've
01:22:09
always been quite private just
01:22:13
just as I say I play that role and do
01:22:15
that stuff but um that's s of stuff's
01:22:19
really for me yeah I I respect that
01:22:21
fully coming from like a breakfast radio
01:22:23
background it's the same sort of thing
01:22:25
like here you're looking for personal
01:22:26
content cuz the more of that you give
01:22:28
away the more of a bond you form with
01:22:29
the audience um but you know me and JJ
01:22:32
we talked a lot when we were married
01:22:34
about our fertility issues and stuff and
01:22:35
once you've once you've given something
01:22:37
away you can't take it back it's tough I
01:22:39
remember talking to you know advising
01:22:41
people when they're looking at doing You
01:22:43
magazine stories and stuff about their
01:22:44
relationships and stuff like that it's
01:22:46
like oh think twice about it you know
01:22:47
because as you said you know once you
01:22:49
give it to them it's gone yeah are you
01:22:52
have um have you been in and love since
01:22:55
then or have you seen anyone since then
01:22:57
or I've seen lots of people I just
01:22:58
walked down the road there's like 30
01:23:00
people walking past me yeah again
01:23:02
private life you know yeah so yeah so
01:23:05
sorry I'm just it's probably I'm I'm
01:23:08
lucky I guess I'm 51 now and I've never
01:23:10
lost anyone super I've lost friends to
01:23:12
cancer and suicide unfortunately but
01:23:13
I've never lost um both my parents are
01:23:15
still alive and I've never lost anyone
01:23:17
that's really close to me but I yeah I'm
01:23:19
probably projecting in that um yeah I
01:23:21
can't imagine like how difficult it is
01:23:22
to start start a new relationship and
01:23:24
the guilt you feel or even though it's
01:23:26
what your your former partner would want
01:23:29
it's a really good try but I'm not going
01:23:31
to answer the question no not not trying
01:23:34
it all a good point but yeah as I say I
01:23:36
mean yeah I just um I just like to keep
01:23:40
something for me yeah and and and and
01:23:43
and that's my private life you know like
01:23:45
you know all my
01:23:47
friendships uh with you know a lot of
01:23:50
them are with really high-profile people
01:23:51
and like you know I mean I don't think
01:23:54
ever done an interview without talking
01:23:56
about JK or MAA you know um you know um
01:24:01
or dropping fitsy in there or whatever
01:24:03
and these are my friends you know so
01:24:04
that part of my life is really public
01:24:06
you know um and um but um yeah and then
01:24:11
and there's part I just like to keep for
01:24:12
me what about a book one day a ret a
01:24:15
book like every every um question or
01:24:18
topic that anyone throws at you there's
01:24:19
a good yarn behind it yeah funny you
01:24:22
thought about that you've been offered I
01:24:23
um I uh when I was in New York I had
01:24:27
Andy Ellis with me he's a great BL and
01:24:31
he was getting so sick of my stories
01:24:33
it's like oh man don't give us another
01:24:35
the Yar of the All Blacks from the 89
01:24:38
tour or something like that and then I
01:24:41
had the um one of their players
01:24:44
Jory who's a New Zealand multiplayer
01:24:47
came to my
01:24:48
house and then Andy popped in and by the
01:24:50
time Andy popped in I had you know
01:24:52
showing him zenam Brook videos and Good
01:24:54
The Bad and The rugby and stuff like
01:24:55
that poor old jaay was so um yeah I
01:24:59
don't know I think
01:25:02
um I mean the thing is I'm only halfway
01:25:05
through you know so um maybe maybe at
01:25:08
one stage but you wouldn't want to write
01:25:11
a book now and then do something great
01:25:12
next week
01:25:14
so I I think um someone asked me you
01:25:18
know you go back that question at the
01:25:20
top about what
01:25:22
next what I want to do next is I want to
01:25:24
do something that's really really great
01:25:27
you know I just really want to um I
01:25:29
don't know what it is but um I want to I
01:25:32
just want to keep getting better I just
01:25:35
want to so I I I don't want to try and
01:25:39
match what I've done before I just want
01:25:40
to do something better oh man I love
01:25:42
that attitude so much um yeah I feel
01:25:45
like a lot of people can can think
01:25:47
you're done think that you're over the
01:25:48
Apex and uh and that's it because you're
01:25:50
in your 60s but um only you can
01:25:52
determine that yeah could bring bring
01:25:55
Sugar Shack back in nice yeah learn
01:25:58
learn from the mistakes the first time
01:25:59
around oh one thing I forgot so yeah the
01:26:01
um the Rugby World Cup last year what
01:26:02
was your involvement you like a a
01:26:04
Content guy no so um yeah so I spent all
01:26:09
that time with rby New York which
01:26:12
greatest city in the world what a what a
01:26:14
um what an opportunity for me to live in
01:26:17
New York and and work and um and I
01:26:21
probably I probably learned more about
01:26:23
sports
01:26:25
marketing and fan engagement and how to
01:26:27
connect fans in in three or four years
01:26:30
there than I did in 30 years here I mean
01:26:32
they're just incredible yeah I was I was
01:26:34
like taking to school every day and the
01:26:36
thing about New York too is if you don't
01:26:39
bring your aame you just get crushed and
01:26:41
so you just got to have your aame all
01:26:43
the time even crossing the road um but
01:26:47
um yeah so I I made the decision so I
01:26:50
did four seasons one of whom got shut
01:26:53
short uh shut down because of Co and I I
01:26:56
made the decision at the beginning of
01:26:57
last year that that would be my last
01:26:58
season and then um uh they reached out
01:27:02
to me to see whether I'd um make some
01:27:05
content around the All Blacks for the
01:27:06
World Cup and initially I wasn't that
01:27:09
King cuz I was like I sort of been done
01:27:11
that but then I was like yeah I wouldn't
01:27:13
mind I hadn't made content for a long
01:27:14
time and so
01:27:17
um I said to them I said who am I
01:27:20
working with and they said well we'
01:27:21
we've only got one person so far and
01:27:23
it's Andy ell I was like oh my God I
01:27:25
just had him in living upstairs for 3
01:27:29
years or whatever two years in New York
01:27:30
you know it's like I've adopted him um
01:27:33
but he's brilliant so it was good to
01:27:35
work with him and then I brought in um
01:27:38
George B who was um injured prop you
01:27:42
know from the Crusaders new or blacks
01:27:43
and I didn't really know but i' I'd seen
01:27:47
something on social looked all right and
01:27:48
I thought I could work with him and then
01:27:50
and then Stacy Walker who I'd always
01:27:52
liked on on TV and um and a couple of
01:27:55
others um LJ from Wales and and Elma
01:28:00
from South Africa and we um we did this
01:28:04
thing called the front row show so we
01:28:06
had to make I think we made like 12
01:28:08
minutes a day for 50 five days in a row
01:28:11
or something wow that's a lot of content
01:28:13
yeah it was a real challenge but
01:28:15
um um once I got into it I really
01:28:18
enjoyed it it was just good to reconnect
01:28:20
good good way me reconnecting with New
01:28:22
Zealand again even though I was in
01:28:24
France
01:28:25
um so it was good fun and um and we did
01:28:28
some good stuff yeah God hell of a
01:28:30
tournament too you must have been
01:28:31
pleased when you were over there like
01:28:33
with that when was The Island Game was
01:28:34
that quarterfinal can you believe it I
01:28:37
went to every game by The Island Game I
01:28:39
had Co got up in the morning and I was
01:28:41
like of the Irish game and I'm like oh I
01:28:43
don't feel too well I do a covid test
01:28:45
and I like no wonder I can't so I was I
01:28:47
I spent that week in my room but um yeah
01:28:51
it was it was a good tournament it's
01:28:52
it's good my my favorite
01:28:55
World Cup I reckon would be the 95 World
01:28:57
Cup and so that was an incredible
01:28:59
tournament and I really like um not sure
01:29:02
why but I really like the 2015
01:29:04
tournament in in England in the UK that
01:29:06
we won I thought that was a fantastic
01:29:08
tournament oh Richie last game yeah just
01:29:10
it was a really really well-run good
01:29:13
crowds um had a really good Buzz about
01:29:15
it and and the 87 World Cup was just
01:29:18
brilliant I mean people forget that the
01:29:20
first game you know when JK scored that
01:29:22
TR against Italy um
01:29:24
I think there was like 170,000 people
01:29:26
there it was like a midweek game and it
01:29:28
was raining and it was shitty and they
01:29:30
they they did a little um opening
01:29:34
ceremony with Walker Nathan running out
01:29:36
and Chile just slipping over in the rain
01:29:38
and stuff like that but um um it was it
01:29:41
was it was really interesting to watch
01:29:42
it unfold because no the the Six Nations
01:29:46
didn't want a World Cup and they
01:29:48
eventually got talked into it so
01:29:50
starting that it was you know like
01:29:51
starting the Sports Cafe I mean they no
01:29:53
one had a clue what it was going to look
01:29:55
like M and uh and it really built
01:29:57
momentum during the World Cup um because
01:30:00
of the way the or blacks were playing
01:30:01
and there was some exciting games so I
01:30:03
enjoyed the 87 World Cup but um yeah and
01:30:07
and uh I was enjoying the last one until
01:30:10
the last 10 minutes oh it was good
01:30:12
though any any same as the um the uh the
01:30:15
other one we were talking about the 95
01:30:16
one any any any final where it's a close
01:30:19
game I think that's all you can ask for
01:30:20
right yeah yeah you can ask for the ones
01:30:23
that you win but that were good no I
01:30:25
mean I mean I've always enjoyed New
01:30:27
Zealand South Africa clashes so um you
01:30:29
know being old and being brought up on
01:30:31
that stuff um been amazing and and and
01:30:35
and it you know was it was an it was
01:30:37
funny cuz I'm sitting in the stands
01:30:39
watching the final and um there's these
01:30:43
Six South Africans and you know not
01:30:45
quiet people when they're at a rugby
01:30:47
game no very and and um and I can't help
01:30:51
myself so I just dropping a little smart
01:30:53
ass comment and I thought they were
01:30:54
going to kill me and then I you know I
01:30:58
got half them on side against the other
01:31:01
half and then so we're talking at half
01:31:03
time and they're like oh we're such and
01:31:05
such and we play cricket and blah blah
01:31:07
blah blah blah and they're like do you
01:31:09
know gr Elliott and I'm like yep
01:31:12
[ __ ] you don't know Grand Elliott I
01:31:14
I know Grand Elliot ring him so they
01:31:16
ring
01:31:17
him on a video check do you know this
01:31:19
guy hey it's
01:31:22
Rick that's New Zealand we all know it's
01:31:24
amazing it's amazing so talking to Grand
01:31:27
at half time um cuz they play cricket
01:31:29
with them in South Africa unreal yeah
01:31:31
hey that's been um 90 90 minutes of your
01:31:34
time do you enjoy doing things like this
01:31:35
you enjoy reflecting or you you're too
01:31:37
busy looking forward to what's next No I
01:31:39
um I enjoy it I I as I say I'm really
01:31:41
grateful I'm really grateful because for
01:31:44
everything I've done someone's given me
01:31:45
that opportunity you know whether it's
01:31:47
the guys at sky or you know Jeff with
01:31:49
the book or um you know someone said you
01:31:53
know you can do this
01:31:55
um sometimes I've had to bash the door
01:31:57
down a little bit but um and and just be
01:32:00
a bit pushy I mean when we did the
01:32:02
Matthew Ridge documentary
01:32:04
um uh the people at TZ didn't want it
01:32:08
and um so I went to John mccre who was
01:32:11
running TV2 and he said look just make
01:32:13
it on your credit card I'll get it
01:32:14
sorted while you're away and so I came
01:32:17
back and I had like 50 Grand on my
01:32:19
credit card and um my God they could
01:32:23
have easily gone no we don't want it um
01:32:26
but they said yeah yeah and they clean
01:32:28
my credit card I didn't get paid a cent
01:32:29
for it um but I got a clean credit card
01:32:33
and this was like late 80s so 50 Grand
01:32:35
is 50 Grand is a house um so um yeah I'm
01:32:39
just really grateful I'm just really
01:32:41
grateful that
01:32:43
um you know people just believed in me
01:32:46
enough to give me an opportunity to to
01:32:48
be creative and um you're the same
01:32:51
that's all you want you just when you're
01:32:54
creative you just want to be able to
01:32:55
create and someone's got to pay for it
01:32:58
and someone's got to put it on for an
01:33:00
audience you know so um you know my
01:33:04
job's to create but someone else got to
01:33:05
pay for it and someone else got to put
01:33:07
on an audience I mean it's a bit
01:33:08
different now like you're doing this
01:33:10
here so I think that's really exciting I
01:33:13
think it's a really exciting move for
01:33:15
people now is that they can create their
01:33:18
own shows they're not stuck by going to
01:33:20
have to pitch to a
01:33:21
broadcaster but but it's more
01:33:23
competitive than it's ever been like so
01:33:25
you're trying to get an audience on
01:33:27
YouTube where the greatest collection of
01:33:30
content of all time lives so um so it's
01:33:34
competitive but if you can find your
01:33:35
Niche it's just brilliant it's what a
01:33:37
what a great time to you know I
01:33:41
mean when we when we did Sports Capo I
01:33:44
had to buy a studio you know when we did
01:33:46
it at a bar and it cost
01:33:48
me 800 900 Grand to buy a studio you
01:33:51
know and I just backed myself that we
01:33:54
would stay on air long enough to pay it
01:33:56
off so it took about 5 years six years
01:33:59
to pay it off um oh my God but um but
01:34:04
now you know you know for a fraction of
01:34:06
that you know you're able to put a show
01:34:09
together you know and how exciting is
01:34:10
that yeah it's great I yeah I mean no
01:34:12
one knows where the where the future of
01:34:13
media is going to go but I just feel
01:34:15
like it's going to be in micro audiences
01:34:17
so instead of having like TV 1 TV 2 TV3
01:34:20
with big fat audiences it's just going
01:34:22
to be far more fragmented yeah yeah and
01:34:25
like having been there when it was easy
01:34:27
you know where if you put something on
01:34:28
TV one and everyone watched it um to to
01:34:32
you know making content for the All
01:34:33
Blacks where it's competitive um but you
01:34:37
just need enough I I always think that
01:34:40
um when you make something if three or
01:34:43
four people tell you they love it then
01:34:45
then you're on to something yeah you can
01:34:47
build from that yeah that's all you need
01:34:49
just that snuff of success just three or
01:34:51
four people and not your family all
01:34:53
right Rex so it's been um I I I feel
01:34:55
like I know you particularly well from
01:34:57
years and years of of um you know TV um
01:35:00
but I do think this is the first time
01:35:01
we've met but I've um thoroughly loved
01:35:03
sitting down and picking your brains
01:35:04
it's been a real honor and I I can't
01:35:06
thank you enough for the opportunity oh
01:35:07
it's been fun mate I already enjoyed it
01:35:09
nothing better than talking about myself
01:35:11
no I love your work love the modesty and
01:35:13
I genuinely can't wait to see what you
01:35:14
do next yeah me too yeah good luck with
01:35:16
the new replacement all right thanks
01:35:18
[Music]
01:35:22
mate
01:35:32
a

Podspun Insights

In this episode, the conversation unfolds in a cozy, makeshift studio where the host welcomes a guest who has just returned to New Zealand after years abroad. They dive into the guest's experiences, including his time in New York and his involvement in the rugby World Cup. The guest reflects on his life, sharing anecdotes about his career in journalism, the evolution of sports media, and the impact of iconic figures like Jonah Lomu. The dialogue is peppered with humor, self-deprecation, and heartfelt moments as they discuss the importance of creativity, the challenges of aging, and the significance of friendship. The guest's candidness about personal struggles and the changing landscape of media adds depth to the light-hearted banter, making this episode a delightful blend of nostalgia, inspiration, and genuine connection.

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 90
    Most heartwarming
  • 90
    Best overall
  • 88
    Funniest
  • 85
    Most inspiring

Episode Highlights

  • Life in Tyro
    Rick shares his experiences moving from New York to the small town of Tyro.
    “If you told an American this is where you could live, they'd think it was paradise.”
    @ 02m 38s
    March 31, 2024
  • Reflections on Aging
    Rick discusses the positive outlook on aging and the importance of self-reflection.
    “I think at the age of 60, you've got probably at least a thousand good weeks left.”
    @ 05m 44s
    March 31, 2024
  • The Golden Age of Radio
    Rick reminisces about his time in radio and the vibrant characters he worked with.
    “I love working on private radio; it was just a golden age.”
    @ 18m 31s
    March 31, 2024
  • Becoming Media Officer for All Blacks
    He was unexpectedly appointed as the All Blacks' first media officer during a tour.
    “They decided that we need to take you up on that offer immediately.”
    @ 29m 42s
    March 31, 2024
  • Jonah's Rise to Fame
    After a stunning performance against England, Jonah became a national sensation.
    “He just destroyed England like unbelievable!”
    @ 43m 34s
    March 31, 2024
  • The Impact of Sports Cafe
    A groundbreaking show that allowed players to express themselves on TV.
    “We wanted to create a loose environment for players.”
    @ 45m 04s
    March 31, 2024
  • Memorable Moments on Sports Cafe
    The show featured hilarious antics, including a drunk co-host causing chaos.
    “He walked in so drunk, it became one of our funniest shows!”
    @ 47m 58s
    March 31, 2024
  • Flight of the Conchords' Early Days
    A serendipitous encounter led to the Conchords being featured in a TV show.
    “I said, 'Do you want to be in my TV show?'”
    @ 01h 00m 20s
    March 31, 2024
  • A Gift of Conversations
    Creating a book that allowed intimate conversations with notable New Zealanders.
    “It was a gift because I got to speak to 60 incredible people.”
    @ 01h 08m 10s
    March 31, 2024
  • Mental Health Conversations
    Discussing the importance of vulnerability and mental health in the creative industry.
    “You can’t judge people because you just don’t know what’s going on.”
    @ 01h 16m 31s
    March 31, 2024
  • The Importance of Privacy
    Navigating the balance between public life and personal privacy.
    “I've always been quite private.”
    @ 01h 21m 56s
    March 31, 2024
  • A Journey of Growth
    A commitment to continuous improvement and embracing new challenges.
    “I just want to keep getting better.”
    @ 01h 25m 29s
    March 31, 2024

Episode Quotes

Key Moments

  • Golden Age of Radio18:31
  • Harsh Review22:50
  • Jonah's Popularity40:38
  • Crazy Experiences42:03
  • The Bradley Bunch59:34
  • Mental Health Reflection1:16:31
  • Impactful Stories1:19:55
  • Continuous Growth1:25:29

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

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