Sam Mac, this is your life

Josh: Wait a minute!

Sam: Crossface!

Tommy: The Daily Talk Show, a conversation sometimes worth recording with Josh Janson and Tommy Jackett.

Josh: It's The Daily Talk Show. We're in a soft— in Sofitel. It's the Sofitel.

Tommy: It's very fancy.

Sam: We've got the Sofitel Hotel.

Josh: We've got Sam Mack.

Sam: Hello guys, thank you very much for having me on. Um, want to point out it's not a regular thing that I tell them that I just bring two dudes into my hotel room like to do a podcast. This is, this is, um, unusual for me.

Tommy: But, um, it'd be happening more than you think around the world now, just dudes in a room, in a hotel room.

Josh: Yeah, doing the podcast. Well, we were literally—

Sam: I think they happen more in cafes because they can't afford to be in a hotel room. A lot of people who like dedicate themselves to podcasts, I mean You guys are the exception. Congratulations.

Tommy: So, you live in Sydney?

Sam: Yeah.

Tommy: And so, are you down for work? What's going on?

Sam: Yeah, so, in Melbourne for a couple of days for work. So, a big part of my job with Channel 7, with Sunrise, is travel. So, for example, last year I did about 180 flights, work-related flights.

Tommy: Geez. I mean, to some airline?

Sam: Mainly Qantas, but occasionally if we need to go to specific destinations or certain times, Jetstar or Virgin. I never used to think I was an airline snob until I started this job.

Josh: What is it? What's your take on it? What do you like?

Sam: Um, my take on it, and the nicest way to put it, is you get what you pay for. Um, so if you want to save $70 but potentially not make it to your destination, sure, go with that certain airline that everyone knows, the one I'm referring to.

Josh: Yes, yes.

Sam: Um, if you want to be treated and like a human being and with good service and empathy, then choose the one that Carrie once mispronounced on The Project.

Tommy: I mean, what Josh is ticking over in his head is the— how many points have you racked up? Yeah, I can tell that's what— how many flies?

Josh: Yeah, like, what, what do you, uh, what do you use your points for?

Sam: Well, that's the thing, I've got so many points, but when you get holidays in my role, I don't want to fly anywhere. I actually don't want to be at an airport, and I don't want to go on a long drive, and you You know, my friends are like, let's do a 3-day getaway. I'm like, I do them all the time for work. You know, so I actually just want to sit at home, watch Netflix a lot of the time or play guitar.

Josh: You're the guy who uses his points to get Woolworths vouchers. Yeah, so infuriating. Doing shopping.

Tommy: And so, you know, to me it's like, oh, I'd love to be doing 130 flights a year. It sounds glamorous, but what are you doing half the time that you're away?

Sam: Um, travel takes so much longer than people think it does. Like, travel, you know, you might say, uh, all right, Sydney to Melbourne, great, it's, it's a 1-hour flight. It is a 1-hour flight, but you're going to look at, say, 45 minutes to an hour to get to the airport. You've got to be there obviously time before your flight, so there's another hour. Then say the flight's delayed half an hour, it happens a lot, then chuck that in the other hour for the flight. Then you've got to get to the cab at Melbourne Airport. Then you're looking at 6 hours. Honestly, 5 or 6 hours for a 1-hour flight. So that time adds up and that's a big part of the job is just keeping yourself occupied, reading, writing, listening to podcasts, and then bringing dudes back to your hotel room, whatever it takes.

Tommy: You are getting up very early. I mean, for people that don't know what your job is, what's your job?

Sam: TV weatherman slash freestyle rapper.

Tommy: Yeah, the rapping's taking off more than the TV presenting.

Josh: The funny thing is like it's the The amount of weather versus other content is pretty interesting, right? Like, it's like, I think you're a great example of the fact that it is like, it's so much more than weather. You do it like it's—

Tommy: It's rap, he said.

Josh: It's the lyrics.

Sam: Well, just to give that context, last year I released, re-released the song Strawberry Kisses by Nikki Webster as Strawberry Kisses 2017. Basically involved us putting a bit more of a beat into the song and me doing a 12-second rap sequence in the middle of it. And it made it to number 8 on the iTunes charts. That's probably one of my greatest accomplishments.

Tommy: And Nikki Webster.

Josh: And so what are the constraints? What are you working with in regards to, like, what are you told by producers in regards to what you can do?

Sam: So you're right, it is weather, and obviously there's content around that. If it was just them throwing to me every half an hour to read the weather, that would serve a purpose, but it would be pretty boring. So a big part of my role and what I like about my role is, well, obviously we're traveling, but so much of it is studio-based, and a lot of studio-based content is pretty serious. You know, it might be a big news story, there could be, you know, terror attacks these days, there's a lot of that kind of stuff. So that's going to take up a big chunk of the show. But then when they cross to us, we're out and about, you know. And one of the things I love about our role is it's, it's quite raw. Like, we are actually in someone's house, in their backyard. We are actually at their local sporting club, we're at their schools. I like that because it's not— that's— that those places aren't built for TV, they're not sets. So that's where you find real people and real storeys and real characters and, and the fun. And, and I'm a big fan of, um, giving people an opportunity. A lot of TV, I think too much TV these days, is so, um, pre planned and down to the nth degree. And yeah, and it's like, you say this, I'll say that. Whereas a big part of what I love to do is literally just put a microphone next to that little kid's mouth and see what happens. And if he freezes or if he says something wrong, you just add to it, you run with it, and you kind of tidy it up.

Josh: Or if he falls off a hoverboard like Charlie.

Sam: Or he falls off a hoverboard, allegedly.

Tommy: Josh showed me that, um, video. Yeah, explain what happened there.

Sam: I love the idea of people like who don't know who I am listening to this and just thinking that I'm a rapper who pushes people off hoverboards.

Josh: It's actually not far off.

Sam: It's pretty, um, so what happened with that one was we were in Adelaide. I didn't have the job at this point, I was just filling in. We were in Adelaide for a Boxing Day show and it was the year, so it was 2 or 3 years ago, you know, when hoverboards were massive. Yeah, sort of 6 months. And this kid got a hoverboard for Christmas, so he got it on Christmas Day and then we was still learning to use it the next day. And then we were in the Rundle Mall in Adelaide, and I said to him before the cross, and his dad, I said, hey, could we do a thing where we interview you guys about Christmas, and then maybe at the end of the cross, if it's okay, I get the hoverboard and I ride off, you know, on the hoverboard? I mean, that's weatherman 101. Yeah, that's perfect. So they were like, absolutely, sounds great. So then we do the chat.

Josh: I like the anxious breath between them.

Sam: It's all coming back to me, and I'm thinking this actually could be replayed in a court of law, so I'm also choosing my words very I'm a great guy. Um, so we do the chat on the air, we chat about Christmas Day. Um, Charlie shows us a little bit of a ride of his hoverboard, and then, you know, as, as we sort of pre-planned, I go, okay, well, let me go. I've never really had a shot on one of these, can I have a go? Now the thing about hoverboards, they're hard to get off.

Tommy: Yeah.

Sam: And that's one thing a lot of people don't realize, because if you take one leg up, the weight is transferred, and then the motor sort of pushes it almost in a circular motion towards you. So That— so, but the problem was, as I put my hand on his back and said, "All right, mate, I'll have a go now," the split second I make contact with his back, he lifts his leg up. So it just looks like I've pushed a kid off a longboard in the Round 'em All.

Tommy: And even I look back at it and I know that I didn't, but I'm like, "Oh, maybe I did." But I watched it and Josh said, "Ah, it looks like he's pushing it off." The kid is thinking he's ittin' a bit. He's confident as all hell on this thing until He did the amateur move of lifting one leg. I've done that.

Josh: But how do you get off then?

Sam: I think you're supposed to have a balance, like you're supposed to be like up against the wall. Okay.

Tommy: You can jump off or you can do it. It just depends if you're leaning weight into it because it works by leaning forward makes it go forward. So you've got one foot that's leaning forward.

Josh: I'd break my neck on one of those. You would have, like he said, like, because I guess I was mortified.

Tommy: Like, you shat yourself.

Sam: I honestly thought that I'd badly injured a child. But not only that, I'd done it on live TV and clearly I was responsible for it. So if you watch the clip back, I ask him about 4 or 5 times, are you okay? Hey mate, you okay? In my mind, please don't sue us. Like, you're okay, you're okay. Thankfully he was okay and his dad thought it was the funniest thing ever.

Josh: Well, I mean, the type of dad to buy that sort of gift, you've got to be willing to— for your kid to have a cracked skull.

Sam: Absolutely.

Josh: What was the internal discussions after? Was there any conversation like with the producers or anything?

Sam: Never heard a word from anyone. And I always presume that's a good thing.

Tommy: And I know you're savvy with social media. Did you at least go, mate, can you send us the clip? Yeah, please.

Sam: I didn't need to because my friends had that up. I'm pretty sure before the segment had finished, they already had it online. My favourite was one of my mates actually put the clip up, uh, but then the moment that I make contact with Charlie, the Curb Your Enthusiasm music comes on. And I'm like, I'm really sorry, you okay?

Josh: Oh, wow. Yeah, the context for people, and it's even context, this is the first time we're meeting in person. It's crazy, isn't it? But our connection goes back as far as like 2004 or 2005. What do you, like I did an Instagram post a while ago about some emails that we had. I would have been like 15, like 14, 15.

Tommy: When did you post this up?

Josh: Posted, what would it have been? Maybe like a year ago or something. I just, I love getting nostalgic.

Tommy: I love that you asked Sam like he's right across it. Are you across it?

Josh: I do remember it. You remember it?

Sam: And it scares me, like the archiving system you must have. Like just—

Josh: You know what? So you'll love this then if you like the archiving system. I went back to my email and found an email that you sent in 2005 to, you called the cadets, which were single bed cadets viewers of our show. And the thing was that you were, it was so old school that you didn't even bother like hiding everyone's email addresses. You had just written to 50 people and you just like include their email. So I decided this morning I like replied old and 'cause you wouldn't have got a message.

Sam: This is incredible.

Josh: 'Cause it was Sam.

Sam: Can I explain the background just before we get into that? So I hosted and produced, I guess, my own community TV show while I was in Adelaide with a group of friends. Now, some of the friends were friends at uni, others were kind of people in radio. It was basically whoever I could get a favour off to pull this community TV show together. It was called Sam Mack's Single Bed, and it was hosted from my actual single bed and my own apartment. And we'd go around Adelaide.

Tommy: Not much has changed, mate.

Josh: It's just now from day to day.

Sam: Yeah, exactly. And we did 2 seasons of it, and it was one of the best things I've ever done. Like, we made so many mistakes, but taught me a lot, and I guess I got comfortable in being on camera. And yeah, so that's how I kind of started the TV thing. And that was, like you say, 2003 or 2004.

Tommy: How old were you?

Sam: I would have been 20-ish.

Josh: Yeah, I just—

Tommy: I had a single bed.

Sam: Yeah, I know, it's alarming, isn't it? I lived in the tiniest apartment in Adelaide.

Josh: And that was the whole shtick.

Sam: That was the whole shtick. But if by the whole shtick you mean my actual life, that shtick is really convincing.

Josh: You've got a great shtick.

Tommy: Well, Jules Lund had a waterbed until he was about 24. And waterbeds are great, aren't they? Or no?

Josh: Creepy.

Sam: No, people that have waterbeds probably also have like a mirror on the ceiling. Generally those two, it's a combo deal. And red velvet sheets.

Josh: Sounds about right. But yeah, so you were on Channel 31, which for our international listeners is Community TV. You're not getting paid anything for that. You're getting the show up, but it was syndicated across to Aurora on Foxtel.

Sam: Yeah, we hit the big time, which is the national community channel on Foxtel.

Josh: Which was like, it's funny when you see people's résumés when they say, you know, they had a show on Foxtel, and the next thing to do was to read where it was done. And 9 times out of 10, if they've just said Foxtel, it's probably an Aurora show.

Tommy: At least you can say I was on TV.

Josh: Yeah, well, no, that's all you're looking for, right, at that time?

Sam: Yeah, but people shopping at Woolworths have been on TV. CCTV.

Josh: It's very true. But the, um, so I was, you know, uh, you know, 14-year-old or whatever, watching, uh, the show And I was just, I would get obsessed with it. I was showing Tommy before a YouTube video that I posted in 2005, which was a film clip that I made, which was inspired by, what was that song? The fuck you.

Sam: Fuck you, amen.

Josh: Yeah.

Sam: Fuck you, and then there was Fuck You Right Back by Frankie.

Josh: Yeah, so you did a music video on like for the show with that. And I did, like, I then did my own parody, all that sort of thing.

Sam: Oh, that's really cool. And I knew that you were kind of into it because I remember you writing to me a few times. And believe it or not, we weren't getting flooded with fan mail back then. Still not.

Josh: But this is, here's the storey that I don't think I've shared with you before. So, you were doing Hot 30 countdown. And so, I remember, like, I've got old emails where I was emailing asking, hey, what are you up to, Sam? And I think at the time, did you have a, stint just being a music jock as well.

Sam: Yeah, absolutely.

Josh: And so I, uh, did you have a cat by the night?

Tommy: We're just—

Sam: you shower between the hours.

Josh: This is literally just a profile now, just to, just to close the loop quickly from the—

Sam: what I was saying. I'm so glad you're here, Tommy, because I don't know where this is going.

Tommy: Imagine if it was you two just alone.

Sam: Oh God, I've invited him up into the room.

Josh: This is the only reason I've done the podcast. It's for 100-odd episodes. All led to this moment.

Sam: And you know what, I'm one step ahead of you. This isn't actually my room. This is a recreation of what my room You'd look like that. That's not my bag over there.

Josh: But it's, uh, so I, uh, I thought it'd be fun to, um, uh, this morning I got this, the email that you sent back, uh, in October 2005, which was saying, hey cadets, Australia's, uh, lowest budget TV show Sam Mack Single Bed is back with a brand new, uh, 6-part series and all that sort of thing.

Sam: So this is pre-promo for the second series?

Josh: Yes, exactly. And so what I thought is, I thought I might, uh, reply all this morning and just say, hey guys, I've got Sam. I know it's been 13 years. Are you serious? I've got Sam Mack on my podcast.

Sam: Did you say that? I know it's been 13 years.

Josh: Yeah, and the thing, I got flooded with emails and they all say address not found. They're so old. They're so old. I was like, man, Tommy, I've got 20 emails and they were all mail delivery subsystem error saying that it couldn't, couldn't be sent.

Tommy: Did any come back? Anyone write back?

Josh: I'm just trying— I don't think— not yet, but by the end of the show, there was so many funny Hotmail. Like, I can read out all these emails because they don't exist anymore. I don't know if you know smallraindrop@bigpond.com.au. Who doesn't? Uh, joemark@ihug.com.au. Mate, there's, there's a lot. Oldschoolbabe2000@yahoo.com.au.

Tommy: Oldschool babe. I used to have hiphop_123@hotmail.com.

Sam: Were you a hip-hop enthusiast?

Tommy: Yeah, I was into it. Whacka.

Sam: So probably one of your rap dreams coming true today interviewing—

Josh: Actually, this is probably my favourite one. Killah, spelled K-I-L-L-A-H_wog_bella@hotmail.com. Killah Wog Bella.

Sam: Yeah, that's a—

Tommy: What was your old school email?

Sam: Well, that's the thing. I sent mine— I'm pretty sure this would have been sent from mrsammcmillan@hotmail.com.

Josh: You had the single bed one.

Sam: All right, well, that was short-lived, but, um, yes, so You know, I, when I was about 12 or 13, I set up an email and I thought, oh, it'd be really funny if I make my email really formal, like I'm a businessman. I made it mrsammcmillan@hotmail.com and I still have it to this day. So I still use Hotmail. I'm not even on Channel 7 email.

Tommy: They won't let you?

Sam: Well, the thing is, well, we know what the business is like.

Josh: You're going to be out of that in a few weeks anyway, right?

Sam: I need something with longevity. Hotmail. So yeah, I'm mrsammcmillan@hotmail.com. I'm gonna get so many emails now as a result of mentioning that a number of times. But that is crazy. So what were you expecting? What did you think people were actually gonna say?

Josh: Yeah, I didn't know what was gonna happen. I literally only did it an hour and a half ago, so.

Tommy: The day is still—

Josh: Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what comes out of it.

Sam: This is gonna get some real buzz for season 3 of Single Beds.

Josh: Temptation_is_yours120 at Hotmail. There's a lot.

Tommy: Very sexual and a bit racial.

Josh: Yeah, there's different.

Sam: That was the time.

Tommy: People love the number 69, I don't know why.

Josh: This is a great one. This is someone who was starting sort of fresh with a new email account. It was newyearzboy@hotmail.com.

Sam: Well, that works any year, so that's got longevity.

Josh: January 1 comes out and, uh, yeah, with it, with a new one. But no, so I, um, we have a history. And so, but then we have a history.

Tommy: Yeah, on Twitter you sent me a message. It was nice. You said, I love your videos, dude, keep it up.

Sam: No, they're You've done some really good stuff that I think was quite unique. Like it was kind of warm, if that makes sense. Like a lot of videos, certainly a lot of the videos that I see on Instagram or Twitter, YouTube, whatever you wanna talk about, it's kinda like funny, like the comedy and yours had funny in it, but also had heart. And that's a big thing we try to do with our sort of Sunrise Weather segments when we can is to shine a light on someone in the community who's doing something nice or share a nice storey because there's so much just nasty negativity, like both in the news and on social media, that if you can play a small part in celebrating someone or making someone feel good, then why would you not do that? So yeah, that's one of the things that struck me about your videos. A couple that I watched was like, oh, that's a really nice warm feeling about that.

Tommy: Thanks, Dad. He's like, last one he watched in 2015, stop watching.

Josh: He actually got super critical after that. He sort of— the algorithm changed and now he does prank videos.

Tommy: But you know, like I Even at that time, I remember I was like kind of just starting out doing all my video stuff and it's just a game of chipping away. And it's almost like what you've been doing.

Josh: Look at you.

Tommy: That's like 14, 13 years ago.

Josh: I was telling Tommy in the car, I was like, you have been such a big influence in this because you're someone who has been constantly doing. And it's been so fun seeing because the path to the world that you're in is just, there is no set path.

Tommy: Is this Foxtel?

Josh: Yeah, exactly.

Sam: It's Aurora. Aurora.

Josh: This is a big plug for Aurora, our first sponsor. No, but it is, it's that thing of just like, I'm gonna try this door, I'm gonna try that door. But I just really wanna quickly tell the Hot 30 story, which was I was listening to you when you got the Hot 30 gig.

Sam: Yeah, so the Hot 30 for people, sorry, I'm a bit of a resetter.

Josh: No, this is good. I love a good reset.

Tommy: It makes sense because Josh assumes everyone knows what he's talking about.

Sam: What, you haven't heard of Sam Mack's single bed?

Tommy: Loser.

Sam: Hot 30 is a national radio show, the Austereo network. Basically, it's all in the title. They do the hottest 30 songs. It's a countdown, but it's also an interview show, and you have a lot of callers from around the country calling through to vote. And, you know, people like Kyle— Kyle Sanderlands used to do it. Um, yeah, it's, it's a very popular thing that was around for a number of years. Now they don't do quite the Hot 30, but they do a version of—

Josh: it was a big deal, I'm guessing, for you at the time. You went to Sydney to do it, did you? Or—

Tommy: yeah, well, you were on a time that radio was really, really popular. I remember with young kids, like, just sitting in their room doing homework, listening to radio.

Sam: It was a big deal, particularly for me from Adelaide, because you kind of— I don't want to call it an inferiority thing, but— sorry, we've just got someone coming in the door.

Tommy: They brought water.

Sam: We could have had an exclusive chat, someone more interesting than me. No, that was a safety check. There'll be one of those guys coming to bring water every 20 minutes.

Josh: They said, uh, Mr. Josh is fine.

Sam: Um, yes, so the, the But to get an opportunity to host the Hot 30, I think initially it was just fill-in, like for a month or something like that over Christmas, was a big deal for me because in Adelaide you never really know if you're going to get those types of opportunities. Often they do go to people in Melbourne, Sydney, just because they're front of mind. So that was pretty cool. Craig Bruce was the content director, and it helped that he was based in Adelaide but was the boss of the whole network, and he gave me the opportunity.

Tommy: How'd you land it? Before we get back to Josh's— story.

Sam: How did I land? I guess from doing what I was doing at SAFM, so in Adelaide, just doing a lot of hosting, a lot of fill-in for things. Yeah, fill-in. I'd kind of write things for the station. I'd host a lot of events out and about. I was doing community TV shows. I guess if there's one thing that I've always done is have a go, you know, like really put yourself out there and, and have a crack and just accept that not everything you do is going to be perfect or is going to be the winner, but it might lead to something and it might lead to an opportunity or it might lead to just meeting someone. So, you might go, "I'm gonna try this interview thing down at, you know, 2 hours out of the city. Let's see where it goes." And you meet someone then who you work with on something else. So, yeah, that's something that I've always found beneficial across whatever form of work I've been doing is have a go or take the meeting or spend half an hour with someone. Look at today, do the podcast, you know, like I'm— I'm into that because I know that when I was starting out, if people, you know, like Josh would write to me, that I would always take time to write back.

Tommy: Well, he's been on your tail and we've got you.

Josh: Exactly.

Sam: It's been years. 13 years.

Josh: And so the Hot 30, like I remember when you were doing the music stuff at Adelaide, I was in 2005, I was asking you, hey Sam, have you got, oh, 2006, I said, have you got a podcast of your, I just wanted to hit your breaks. Like basically like the little bits between the songs. Probably didn't justify a podcast, but I was asking for it. But anyway, you were on Hot 30 and I was listening all the time. To paint the picture, it would have been a summer of '06. I was in year 10.

Tommy: Offspring poster on the wall.

Josh: No, it was sort of— no, this— the song at the time was Beyoncé's Irreplaceable.

Sam: To the left, to the left. Oh, that was the song. Yeah, everything you own in a box to the left.

Josh: Exactly. And I just bought new speakers at the time, so I was blasting that song. And I would even practise like talking to the po— I've got videos of me Talking to the Post, Josh and the Hot 30 Countdown, a bit of that vibe. Anyway, so, so Sam, like I would listen online through like, you could even listen FM, like it was a national show, but I was streaming it and I heard there was a competition that was on and I think it was around, it was a Jesse McCartney competition and it was around.

Sam: I feel like he might need a reset as well.

Tommy: He was just the hot blonde guy.

Sam: The pop star. 3 months. And the thing was, we're gonna get a lot of hate from Jesse McCartney fans.

Josh: And feel free to send us an email, hi@thedailytalkshow.com, if you do have any Jesse McCartney stories. But, uh, yeah, you— there was a form on the website and it said, um, you're running a competition to win a phone chat with Jesse McCartney, and all you had to do was in, uh, 25 words or less say like what, what you would say if you were to break up uh, with your partner.

Sam: And oh God, what an awful idea.

Tommy: Sorry, it was in window now.

Josh: Yeah, so anyway, so you had to like— what would you say? So I wrote it, but what I didn't realise was what that was fielding—

Sam: I'm just imagining someone being broken up with and somehow Jesse McCartney is implicated. He's on the phone for it.

Josh: Well, that's exactly what he did. So no, but what happened was I filled out—

Tommy: they finished with a lifeline number just to make sure Sure, cover all bases.

Sam: He sings the jingle. 13.

Josh: So he, so I put the details, my details in.

Sam: Did you have someone to break up with at that point?

Josh: No, so this was the thing. So I get a call from the producer and it's really exciting when you get a call from the producer. It's so exciting because they have this certain, I've worked on, you know, drive shows with Fifi and Jules and stuff like that. But there's a real sort of like, hey, it's Shane from Hot 30 Countdown. How you going, mate? Now look, we'd love to get you on. 'You're the only guy that put their name down for this competition, so would love to get your girlfriend's number and we'll just patch her through and then we'll just get you to break up with her on air.' Brutal.

Tommy: Whose idea was it? Was it your idea?

Sam: I honestly don't think that was my idea, but look, at that point you're just going with it.

Josh: Take credit. Yeah, we've learned since. Things have happened since and people are less likely to do that sort of shit. Produce the shtick. Uh, so anyway, they, uh, I didn't have a girlfriend, and so at the moment I was— it was this really weird thing of like, okay, do I tell them? What do I do? So I just gave them my friend's number.

Sam: Female friend.

Josh: Female friend.

Sam: Did you word her up?

Josh: Larissa. And then so they said, okay, we're just gonna give Larissa a call, uh, now. So just— and so as soon as I hung up, I dialled Larissa's number. I said, hey Larissa, I'm about to call you, I'm going to break up with you, it's for a phone competition, and we win a chat with Jesse McCartney, right? And I didn't even— the thing is, I didn't even give a fuck about Jesse McCartney. It was just because I loved, I loved everything about this. I just— yeah, it was getting me excited.

Tommy: It was a big troll.

Sam: Yeah, so Larissa, like, what a cool— what the pressure that she would have felt.

Josh: And then so I, I remember doing a whole bit, a bit on, uh, like, I've noticed that 'You took me out of your top friends on MySpace.' Oh yeah.

Tommy: You guys would have been frothing.

Sam: Yeah, right in the demo.

Josh: And so anyway, I won. And so I gave, I was just packing up my apartment 'cause I'm about to travel. And I found all the old CDs, Jesse McCartney signed CDs. Josh won the CDs. I got the CDs 'cause I thought, man, this is gonna be worth something. Larissa can have the phone chat. So I said, hey Larissa, like here, you can have the phone chat with Jesse McCartney. Kourtney and I got all these DVDs to see that.

Tommy: How's poor Jesse having to talk to these people? There's just one.

Josh: I know.

Sam: It's not good for his brand, is it? Being an instrumental part of a breakup. Him and Larissa are now married, which is a beautiful end to the story.

Tommy: Have you still got contact with Larissa?

Josh: Yeah, I should. I'll reach out to Larissa. We should at least find out. We should close the loop there.

Tommy: Close the loop. See if she ever spoke to Jesse.

Josh: I know that she definitely spoke to him, but what was discussed, I have no idea. Like, what do you say to a 16-year-old?

Sam: It would be so awkward.

Josh: It'd be pretty weird, wouldn't it?

Sam: Be kind of glorious.

Tommy: You know, I used to be a stripper, Sam.

Sam: I didn't know that.

Tommy: No, really? When I was 19, I toured, um, New Zealand.

Sam: Oh wow.

Tommy: And with like, it was like Manpower, like full stage show.

Josh: Some shows, man power.

Tommy: It was Povoman Power.

Sam: So hang on, this gets better.

Josh: So now I've invited a male stripper to my hotel room, and we've actually got Jesse singing live. Pretty Face. Was that his?

Sam: All right.

Tommy: My point of mentioning it though was that we did meet and greets and we once did in this little town called Whanganui or Whanganui, however you want to say it.

Josh: Well, I'm sure there is a right way to say it.

Sam: They say—

Tommy: I think they say Whanganui. Whanganui.

Josh: Okay.

Sam: Yeah.

Tommy: Sometimes they drop that around New Zealand people and then they're like, oh, you know it.

Josh: Okay, great.

Tommy: Anyway, we did this meet and greet and this woman had a broken leg and she was with her mum and they were lovely, sweet, very timid. And we were there before the show having dinner with them and some drinks By the end of the night, they were so comfortable with us, they were having drinks after, and the girl with the broken leg got so pissed she punched out the woman behind the bar. But my point is, it's just so awkward, those meet and greets. You've got nothing to talk about.

Sam: Oh, you're saying you've got more shame for being a part of that?

Josh: It's the shame game. We're playing this. It's our first segment, the shame game, guys.

Sam: What's something shameful about the stripping thing. So did you know about the stripping career? Yes, I have. Broached many times on the show.

Josh: We haven't spoken about it on the show.

Tommy: You sent me a lot of emails at the time that I was—

Sam: no, you know, the, the reason I have particular interest in this is I've just finished shooting a show where I strip.

Tommy: Interesting.

Sam: Yeah, and it's called The Real Full Monty, and it's going to be on Channel 7 soon.

Tommy: Is it, um, reality, or is it, um—

Sam: it's a documentary, and it's actually, um, so it's a men's health focus, and the kind of— so it's me and 7 7 other prominent Aussies. And, um, the, the sort of point to it is basically men still are apprehensive about going to the doctor. So this is supposed to encourage men to feel more comfortable going to the doctor. So, and they're doing it in a fun way, obviously, otherwise it'd just be boring, men sitting around.

Josh: Literally, the thing I hate going to, like, not even just like if it was a prostate thing, I literally like pulled my own like ingrown toenail watching a YouTube video. Yeah, yeah. And the thing is, it's so— there's something so depressing watching YouTube video of this dude being like, oh yeah, I got this like from the hardware store, you're gonna need this. And you're sort of like, oh no, half judging them, but as you also got your like pliers out trying to pull.

Sam: But at least they've done something with it, they've turned it into a tutorial and monetized it.

Josh: At least they've got content, right? I'm just—

Tommy: that sounds interesting.

Sam: The point behind it is if we can get our gear off in front of Australia slash 1,000 people at the Enmore Theatre, old mate watching this can get his gear off behind closed doors in front of a doctor because it could save his life. And obviously they're expecting a lot of females to watch it. Don't worry, I'm not the only one stripping. Chris Smith is also involved, model/former partner of Danny Minogue. Um, resetting.

Josh: It was a reset, but it was also a bit of a like, yeah, that's his shtick.

Sam: He's done a lot of other things, but the 5-second version because we've got a lot to get through, guys. I've had a look at the run sheet. Um, now it's, it's basically if we can do it, and it's also a lot of women watching for those guys, and it's like they can encourage their husband, their boyfriend, their son to go and get their health checks. 'Cause a lot of guys will literally go 5 years without going to a doctor.

Josh: I hope there's a lot of like overweight people in that 7. 'Cause the other thing too is there's something a bit, if it was like, we've got Chris Smith and Dr. Brandt, like what's the vet's name? Chris Brandt.

Sam: Chris Brandt.

Josh: Like just all the—

Tommy: 22 abs between them.

Josh: And oh, Todd Sampson's agreed to take his shirt off again.

Sam: Oh, what a fucking— No. There's, I won't name them, but there's guys that, you know, have your more traditional body shapes, you know, people like myself, for example.

Josh: Did Adam Richard go? I remember he was doing, what was the water bomb show? Do you remember that?

Sam: It was the Celebrity Splash.

Josh: Celebrity Splash.

Sam: Adam Richard, no, he's not in this. He's not in this, okay.

Tommy: He went down with that show.

Sam: Todd McKenny does the choreography. Oh yeah. So yeah, so we actually went to watch a male strip show. Of course you did. Yeah, as part of our planning. Who'd you see? It was a pun based on pecs, I think. I can't remember the exact name of it, but Pecs Appeal or something like that in Sydney. And we interviewed them after. It was fascinating to hear. I guess you have a perception of what a male stripper is and what they would be like, but then you meet them and it's like, why did I think you were just this one dimension? Because these guys were really interesting.

Josh: And had a lot of cash.

Tommy: Talking about puns, well, just quickly, it sounds like you've stripped for a cause and I was a dirty asshole stripping for money.

Josh: Yeah, how much money did you make? Um, not enough, and I didn't get TV because it was like you were with a group. So if you do—

Sam: what was your group called?

Tommy: Uh, it was called the Sydney Hotshots. Yeah, it was the guys who I toured with around New Zealand.

Sam: And what was your— well, I've got a lot of questions, but what was your trademark move? What was your go-to song? And what was the most objectified you ever felt?

Tommy: Um, I'll answer them in order. My move was like a— almost like a breakdancing move where you do it's almost a backflip. Oh wow. So on one hand you'd sort of like flip your legs back over your head.

Josh: Almost a backflip.

Tommy: Yeah, but you use the hand on the ground. So rather than doing a backflip, you just like hold— have one hand on the ground and then flip your legs back over your head.

Sam: That's incredible.

Tommy: Um, the song, uh, Genuine Pony, of course.

Sam: Yeah.

Tommy: And, um, the most objectified was when, like, we never got— we never got full nude and showed everything, right?

Sam: Yeah.

Tommy: But there was one point where you're in a towel and you drop the towel and your bum's facing the stage, but you know, behind you everyone's seeing your bum.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: I dropped the towel, I looked to my right, a couple of sneaky girls had snuck up and were waiting for the towel drop moment.

Sam: They knew the Corrie. They were all over it.

Tommy: Two nights in a row they'd been. But yeah, it was, uh, yeah, it was—

Sam: Would you ever do it again?

Tommy: No way.

Josh: I like—

Tommy: I'm— it's so funny because I actually feel more uncomfortable about taking my clothes off in settings now that are, you know, having people around, and it's weird.

Josh: Did you feel sexy doing it?

Tommy: Oh yeah, I think there's definitely an energy.

Sam: It's like, totally, there's an adrenaline that comes with it.

Tommy: And girls who are just like screaming it, like, I think it adds— it is a sexual energy that it's creating. It's, it's not good. It's not good for you.

Sam: I think you're right, because guys don't generally get to feel that that feeling of being so desired.

Josh: Yeah.

Sam: So yeah, and I experienced on this night, sure, I was standing next to Chris Smith.

Josh: Maybe you're gonna ride the wave, right?

Tommy: Ride the wave. But I could see, and I'm not saying that the other guys weren't, you know, emotionally intelligent, but they were caught up in, you know, oh yeah, yeah, fucking, you're mowing my lawn, you know, you're stealing my girl.

Josh: Oh really?

Tommy: And I was just like, you guys, there's hundreds of girls here, you idiot.

Josh: I literally took that, like I took that literally there. I'm like, you're mowing my lawn. I'm like, what's wrong with that?

Sam: Put some clothes on if you're gonna mow my lawn.

Josh: Yeah, I don't get that. That's the biggest compliment someone, a neighbour could do is mow their lawn, isn't it? Anyway, you were talking about puns and the show, the way that you, you know, if you're talking about the discovery stories, how you were discovered, you were part of a segment on SAFM, which was Who Wants to Be a Co-host on Air? Is that what it was called?

Sam: Yeah, so it was a pun on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and the prize was to go to Edinburgh in Scotland and review acts in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. So I went, got to take my girlfriend at the time, and then when I came back they offered me a job. So that was— I was very lucky. A lot of people who get into radio, TV, kind of go and do rural, you know, do the country thing, go to a small market and earn their stripes kind of thing for a few years.

Josh: But Tommy did that in Shepparton for 2 years, and we actually— our episode 50 of the Daily Talk Show We did it live at the Deck, which is one of the biggest venues in Shepparton.

Sam: And the crowds flooding in.

Tommy: Yeah, what I realised was I peaked when I was a stripper.

Josh: It was good vibe. We got— they gave us free burgers and stuff.

Tommy: But yeah, definitely the path that most people take is that radio.

Sam: So I knew, I was aware that I was lucky to have that opportunity. At the same time, I was also working and doing my own thing. So I was kind of working towards that. But yeah, that's how I started. So, and I went from that to driving Black Thunders for a little while, doing the street team, doing the icy cold cans of Coke.

Tommy: Yeah.

Sam: Copies of New Weekly.

Tommy: But as we said before, it's like you've been a doer for years. Does it feel for you like, what's this gig? What's the, you know, the weatherman on Seven? What does this feel like?

Josh: Like, what is the narrative? Like, how do you, how do you tell that story? What's the future look like?

Sam: I don't, I don't really. Look too far ahead, to be honest, because I also think that that's maybe something I've learned a bit over the years, because you don't know, particularly in 2018 with the way things are changing with how people consume their media and things like that, to be aware of, you know, what will commercial TV look like in 5 years? It's hard to forecast that, you know, you can obviously have guesses, but so I don't look at it like that. I look at it like what's right in front of me, what can I do right now and then what are some little side projects that I can keep ticking along? And that's kind of what I've been doing for the last, I guess, almost 10 years now. And it seems to be working to a point that I'm happy, happy with it.

Tommy: I think people look in from the outside and think, oh, you've landed the weather role, and it's like this, the big thing. But it's like what we heard when that viral video of you pushing the kid off. I'm loosely describing what happened. Yeah, but it's like you were filling in and then it slowly— so it didn't feel as impactful as a—

Josh: I got it.

Sam: To be honest, I probably underestimated how big this role is when I took it. So I initially filled in for a few weeks and didn't know this, but I was on-air auditioning. So they, they already knew that Edwina Bartholomew, who did the role before me, was moving on, and they were looking at a few people to kind of, you know, who would be good for that slot. So I was working with The Project on 10 at the time. Them in a sort of casual role, and they were amazing. I loved working with them. I worked with them for quite a few years, uh, so they were kind enough to let me do a few little spots here and there, thinking it was just, you know, a couple of spots. And, and I didn't— I honestly didn't think further than that. And I did it my style. I almost did it like the Metro whip around, which I used to do on The Project. I kind of treated every cross like that. So I would just try to come up with an angle, try to do something maybe a little bit different. And one of the ways that I try to approach TV is and particularly with breakfast TV, is imagine that people are half watching, because most of them are. And by that I mean most people in the morning, uh, having a cereal, getting their kids ready, doing their ironing, so they're half watching. So if I can do something that visually looks a bit unique or captures someone's interest, that's half the battle.

Tommy: It's now sounding like you really push this kid off the thing.

Sam: Yeah, so every day I push at least one child off something.

Josh: They said to make noise, and it can be Charlie screaming as he hits the ground.

Tommy: Josh and I talk a lot about, you know, this new empowerment thinking of rather than waiting to be picked, you pick yourself.

Sam: 100%.

Tommy: And I think, you know, me trying to navigate my way into getting TV shows and, you know, my career being in the hands of these other people that could pick me, which is why auditions feel so horrible and can give you so much—

Sam: Yeah, because often in an audition situation, it might just be that that you're too tall next to the person they've already locked in. Like, you can't— and people take it so personally. I understand why people take it personally because you put so much of yourself into it. But yeah, I agree with that. You've got to, got to sort of do your own thing and forge your own way as much as you can. Um, and you know, you said before, does this feel like the big, the big role, the big thing? I underestimated Sunrise in terms of like how many people watch it and how much a part of people's routine it is. It's like breakfast radio. Like, people have a real connection to those voices because it's the first voice they hear in the morning often. And with TV, it's the first face they see in the morning. That's why they don't like, uh, myself and the other host to be too many of us away at the one time, you know. They like to— okay, if Kochie's away, make sure that Sam and Nat are on. Like, they like to keep those familiar faces because the familiarity and an intimacy that comes with first thing in the morning. So, uh, I underestimated it that, you know, within a couple of months of starting the job, I just realised that out and about, I realised that waiting at the airports, people coming over and wanting to say, hey, I love the show, or hey, I remember when you did this, or— and it was really nice. I just, I guess I didn't have as much of that with the project, you know, because I wasn't on every time with the project. Whereas with this show, with Sunrise, I'm on 7 times a morning every day of the week. So it's a lot. You're doing a lot of TV. It's high turnover. Um, but is it the big thing? It feels big to me. But then I have some people who will talk to me about a thing I did called the B-League, which was like a comedy soccer 5-minute segment that I did on Fox Sports, which I loved and I was really passionate about because that's combining two of my loves, comedy and soccer. And Foxtel. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This wasn't on Aurora, it was on Fox Sports 1, thank you very much. But, and to football fans, like, and I see them at games, whatever, they'll come up and they'll go, oh man, like, what happened to the B-League? Oh, I love it, I've got all the episodes, da da da. They'll quote lines from sketches and so to them, that's the big thing. Whereas, you know, to a mum in the suburbs of Sydney, sunrise is the big thing. So I don't really think about it as in what's the big thing. I just kind of go, this is what's in front of me right now. Let's make it as fun and do as good a representation of myself as I can and then see where we can go next.

Tommy: It's like, I guess it's why you've kind of got to where you have, 'cause it seems like maybe not looking at it as the big thing, maybe people are, viewing things wrong in that respect of going, I'm waiting for the big thing to happen, versus just, this is the thing and then there will be another thing, and then just enjoying the process.

Sam: And I think most, most successful people I've met, um, they've had a number of big things and they may have achieved something. Like, it might have been, I want to, you know, record— my dream is to record an album and release it and do well. And then they do that and then they're like, I can do better, I can do a better album than this, or, ah, my— the highest my single got was number 46, I want to get top 20. You know, people, successful people, keep, um, you know, reassessing their, their goals and what they want to achieve.

Tommy: And I was just thinking about it, I was just thinking about a photo you posted with Julia Gillard. I mean, she got the big thing, running the country. What do you, what do you set for yourself after that?

Sam: Yeah, exactly. And, and I think you've got to be open to the fact that that yes, that might be the big thing at the time, but there's lots of big things. You know, there's so many things you can do in your career.

Josh: How different is Sam Mack within the context of a weatherman versus real life, you know, the person you actually are?

Sam: I think it's like a lot of media, like whether it's radio or TV, I think it's an amplification. So I don't think I'm as high energy or as annoying in real life.

Josh: I like to think that I'm not.

Sam: I understand that I have short opportunities with my crosses. They're pretty short, they're a couple of minutes. So I want to cram a lot into that. I want there to be energy and I want there to be fun because I know that it's often in the midst of bad news, sad news stories. So I want it to be smiling and fun and happy. So yeah, it's a version of me. It's just an amplification. It's just, I guess, a larger version of what I would naturally be like.

Josh: Do you walk away from segments that you do and ever feel disappointed and how long— what does that sound like in your head and how long does it last?

Sam: That happens a lot. Yeah, I'm pretty hard on myself and my team. You know, I've got a great producer and, you know, I— and often it's something that's out of your control. So that's— I think that's a little bit easier to move on from. But when you screw something up, like, I find that harder to move on from. That was something that I really struggled with when I got my first breakfast radio show in Perth. Perth. So I was working over there doing the, the Brekkie Show, and I was working with Basil Zemplos, who's, you know, a friend of mine and a really good mentor. And, um, he, he sort of taught me pretty early on, because he's a bit older and he's kind of been there, done that in, in many respects, that something would go wrong at, say, the 6 o'clock break or 10 past 6, and it would really annoy me. And it would sort of stew on it, and it'd be there for the end, to the end of the show. Yeah, it just, it would be there, it'd be lingering. So he he noticed that and he kind of really early on off the air just said, hey, I want to talk to you about something. He's like, hey, you know when that happened at 6:10 today? Because I really felt and I could tell that it affected you for the rest of the show, like you weren't yourself, you were still thinking about it. And he's like, were you thinking about it? I'm like, yeah, I was. He's like, here's one thing that I could pass on to you: that stuff will always happen no matter what level you're at, no matter what show you're doing. You will have things that don't go perfectly, that don't go according to plan, or don't get executed as best as you want. Want, but that's 6:10. Majority of people aren't gonna hear that, who's, you know, the prime time is 7:30. You've got 6:45, you've got 8 o'clock, you've got all this stuff ahead of you. So you need to accept that things will happen like that and just go, you know what? And he says this great quote, he says, "That's showbiz." He's like, "Just remember that." And I had those two words and it really helps because when something goes wrong, that's showbiz, I don't want that to affect the next 5 things I'm doing.

Josh: Yeah, I feel like that's easy when it happens at 6:10, but probably an extra level of consciousness when it happens at 7:30, right?

Sam: Yeah, it does, it does. But the same principle applies. You still have more of the show to do. And if it's something that you need to discuss with your team to ensure it doesn't happen again, you do it after the show. I'm always a fan of after the show. Sometimes the emotion gets the better of you and you're like, why did that happen? Or where was— we were supposed to go to this, but it wasn't there.

Tommy: Where's my bag?

Sam: Yeah, yeah, where's the kid? Who am I going to push?

Josh: You know, like, what if it doesn't align? Like, I've had moments, uh, on the Daily Talk Show where I've said something and then afterwards I've thought about it, I'm like, I actually don't believe that, or I don't think about it enough to have put it out there in the world.

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: How do you reconcile those feelings?

Sam: That's part of it. Um, Andrew Denton famously talked about, you know, how he got so many great revelations out of his guests on Enough Rope was because he was comfortable sitting in the silence. So a 45-minute interview that you see on Enough Rope, they would have shot sometimes over 4 or 5 hours. That's— and that's a long time, and, and A lot of that is Denton, and this is my understanding of it after reading a bit about it, is he would just leave gaps and people naturally instinctively want to fill silence. And that's when they'll often say something that maybe they haven't really thought through or don't 100% believe. It's just like something they feel, I've got to say something. And that's also when people reveal things that maybe they weren't otherwise going to reveal. So that's a really great interview technique for Denton, but this isn't edited, so a terrible technique in this podcast.

Tommy: Yeah, that's a lot of, let's have a minute silence please, guys. Well, we actually spoke about this. You said it yesterday with the amount that we're doing, and even the radio show, it's a breakfast radio show, you get to come back tomorrow. But if you didn't get to come back for a week or two weeks, you'd be stewing on that show. Yeah, that didn't go right. And I even feel a bit about yesterday's show when we're recording this. Yeah, which was— yeah, one of the episodes we're doing so many pre-records, a real mind fuck. Yeah, this pre-record. But I even felt that with yesterday, but then you you get back in the saddle and you get to give it another crack.

Sam: Yeah, and I think that in a way, even though it's not a fun feeling, I think it's healthy because it means you care and it means that you want to rectify or ensure that thing doesn't happen again if you can avoid it, do the steps in process to make sure that you can avoid that if you can. But if you were that blasé about it where you're just like everything is whatever and you never really even thought about it, I think maybe you're losing a bit of the care and the passion for really wanting to deliver something awesome. But the other thing is, I think the greatest in the world would have those moments, you know, whether you're, you know, David Bowie when he was recording. I bet he listens back and he's like, ah, I'm not happy with how that chord structure works, or something like that. I think it's a natural performer or a creative feeling is that it's part of— you're always striving for this perfection that doesn't exist.

Tommy: Everyone's got self-talk.

Josh: Yeah. What is your self-talk?

Tommy: Um, Foxtel.

Josh: What is my self-talk?

Sam: Give me an example. So what are you guys—

Tommy: give I, uh, around being— I was experiencing frustration and a feeling of frustration over years because I think I was thinking about, oh, I need to be further than I am. And so it was a storey going on in my head of this feeling, um, restless, yeah, real sense of— and I, and I met my wife and I, I got a bit of perspective on things and I— things started happening for me, but I have lost that and I know that that was just this thing going on in my head that was— I was impatient. And so for me, it was all around, yeah, the fear, my internal feeling of not having got far enough yet.

Sam: Yeah.

Tommy: And it's not happening now.

Sam: What about you, Josh?

Josh: I think it's been around.

Tommy: How good is this TV guy interviewing us?

Josh: He's fucking Denton'd us.

Tommy: I just want to say, you seen his mic technique?

Josh: It's amazing. It's really solid.

Tommy: Josh, everyone's going to talk about my fucking mic technique.

Josh: It's outrageous. Vox Poppy type of— I bet you if someone was there talking, he'd fucking have it whip it over there like you wouldn't believe, back and forth. You wouldn't be missing a beat.

Sam: All right, next time the guy cheques for water, yeah, we'll get him on. My challenge is for the audience to hear some of his voice.

Josh: I think my self-talk has been around— like, I've been in the service industry in regards like doing video production since I was 14 years old. And so I think the is that I have taken a lot of the stuff in regards to how I communicate with people, and I think about, oh, that person's waiting for this thing. And so for me, I need to be very wary that I have systems, otherwise it's like having 20 different bosses and I feel like I'm disappointing every single one of them.

Sam: Yeah.

Josh: So I think that that is for me, which is like trying to give myself a break but it's also realising that it's not giving myself a break, which is the, is the drive. Yeah. So if I give myself a break, I won't fucking do— meet that client deadline. So I need some of that internal voice.

Sam: Yeah, yeah, cool. Um, all right, well, mine I guess then would be things like, um, backing yourself in, you know. And it's, it's a simple one, but in the sort of work that I do you need to remind yourself that, yeah, you can do something here. And, and I, I'm always a fan of, as a very basic filter, you know, how can I do something slightly different? Or, you know, um, I often think if it's an interview situation, okay, this person has been interviewed 25 times about this subject, what am I going to touch on them that they haven't touched on already? And sometimes that can be something totally left field, sometimes it can be be a minute detail of something they've already spoken about, but honing in on that minute detail. Roy and HG have a great kind of philosophy, which is they take something minuscule and make it enormous, or they take something enormous and make it minuscule. And if you, if you think about the funny Roy and HG moments, you're kind of like, ah, yeah, yeah, you don't remember that, that swimmer who like, it took him like 15 minutes to finish after everyone else? Like they made that— like, he— they made him a hero. Yeah. Like, any other commentators or, you know, a lot of performers would have just said, I mention it, but they took that and they ran with it. So I like that as a philosophy. Um, yeah, finding angles, backing yourself in, and, and being okay with celebrating a win. So if you, you know, you— because we just spoke about those moments where it doesn't go well, you're going to have those moments. But when you get something right, or when you have a great moment, or a really fun interaction, or you, you make someone look great, and, you know, celebrate that, because that's why we do it. You know, I, I don't do it because I want to make crazy amounts of money or anything like that. It's just not going to happen. You've got to do it because you get a buzz out of it and because you like collaborating and working with other creative people. And you get that— that's the payment. Don't tell them that when they're negotiating my contract. But that's where I get excited, when I'm having like a great moment with someone else who's got a similar mindset and having creative moments.

Tommy: It's amazing how easily you can forget the wins and forget the feeling, even though it is amazing.

Josh: What's that whole thing of like you have a, and you've mentioned it on another podcast, which is like you can have 100 people say something nice to you, but that's that one thing.

Sam: You remember word for word the nasty comment. It's true.

Josh: Yeah, exactly. I thought you were gonna say you remember word for word what I said on another podcast. Which is—

Tommy: What is the nasty, and we don't wanna dwell on it, on it.

Josh: Yeah, I mean, we can go through a fucking line.

Tommy: What is something nasty that's been said to you?

Sam: Like, there's some pretty hurt— once someone said you're not a real meteorologist, which is true.

Josh: That's why it stings. It always stings when they're right, man.

Sam: Yeah. Um, oh look, I've— I, I'm getting better, I think, as the years go on at blocking them out. I'm pretty lucky I don't get that many. And this is awful, but I think women still get much more of that than men. It's still badly skewed that way. It's unfair. But—

Tommy: Edwina did, the woman before you.

Sam: Ah, just women in media, in TV and radio, in my experience over the years, I think they're just targeted more and by other women a lot as well, which is horrible. But I look, I just get things like, ah, you know, why are you on TV? And that's from my family. Yeah.

Tommy: Mum, fuck off.

Josh: But the interesting thing is that— yeah, great, stop trolling, stop trolling, Mum. The, the great thing about even what you do is the, uh, I actually consume the bits that you do on air on your Instagram feed. Like, I think what you've done really well is, is taken what could, you know, previously have been this mainstream thing and then repackaged it So like I don't watch morning TV. I'm just not at a TV. But I feel like I'm able to consume the best bits. Is that been an even—

Sam: Thank you. No, that's a nice compliment. Yeah, it's definitely something I'm aware of.

Tommy: He always gets his dress attire wrong because you've said it's 18 when it's 43 because it's an old grab.

Sam: Yeah, he's not even a meteorologist. It's again, it's like I was just talking about. It's celebrating the wins. And there's definitely days where we don't have that, like we deliver and it kind of can be that mainstream, you know, basic sort of TV weatherman role. There's definitely days like that because it's unrealistic for me to think that every day we're gonna have those big moments and those memorable things. It's kind of like I'm a soccer fan, you know, I use the metaphor of in my first couple of months of the job, I was a guy who every time he got the ball was having a shot at goal. Right? And that's so frustrating to all your other teammates. It's frustrating to the fans because you're not going to score every time. So as those months went on, as time went on, and I wasn't doing that for the wrong reasons. I was doing that because I came from a background of, you know, the Project where I might only be on once or twice a week, where I really wanted to make an impact and make my moment count. So, but I didn't need to do that when I was on 7 times a day.

Josh: Well, so how did— how do you actually translate that into a strategy?

Sam: So you just you translate into a strategy by saying, I don't need to go for goal every single time. Sometimes I can let someone else have— be the star, which I like to do anyway.

Josh: Goal anyway, right?

Sam: Like, and often it is. Yeah, that's a big part of what I like to do. And setting them up so that they get the goal, because you get the goal when they get the goal.

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: You know, I don't know soccer, but I sort of get it.

Sam: I think I get it.

Tommy: Yeah, there's a bunch of guys on a field, there's a ball, all around, people are annoyed about some streaming thing that should be—

Sam: yeah, that's a video replay play system, but probably not the place to discuss that. But yeah, so I guess it's identifying— and I'm thankfully, I did— that it's okay to just play a straight bat sometimes or keep it really simple. But then when you have the idea or the, the tools in place, really go for it, really go for goal, 110%, back yourself in, because then your goal will have more impact than those, because you've been sort of safe around it, choose your moments. It's really, it's choosing your moments. So, but I wasn't very good at that in my first few months. And then I sort of started to just by pure numbers. Like that's the thing that, you know, some, when people do write something negative about me or criticize, they're like, oh, well that was lame, that was shit. Okay, yeah, maybe it was, but, and I'd never write this back to them, but we're doing 7 of these a day. I'm at some archery school out in Toowoomba. Like you come out here and do 7 interesting crosses. You know what I mean? No offence to all the archery people in Toowoomba.

Josh: We could get Charlie on his hoverboard, in front of a target and you have to hit an apple off and you would inevitably miss.

Sam: And then you just push him off anyway. It's always the same outcome.

Tommy: And so did you consciously become aware of this or did other people around you start going—

Sam: A little bit of both, but I like to think that I've got a pretty good sense. Like, I know when it's been a great cross and it's gone really well, and I know when it's been a bit lackluster. And I think you just have to kind of choose your moments. And that's, that's one thing that I'm glad I've realized. And you still get it wrong occasionally. But that's— you've got to take risks as well. You can't just be too safe, otherwise you're going to be beige and boring and no one's going to remember anything you do.

Tommy: Have you connected with anyone cool over the shows? We talk about this a lot. Like, I think what, what we're doing, podcasting videos, it's like you messaging me and then, you know, you're saying you're cool, Tommy. We're not cool, it's cool.

Josh: The jacket's pretty cool. He's got—

Sam: thank you.

Josh: He's got a denim— is it denim? I like it.

Sam: Yeah, it's like a stonewash sort of vibe.

Josh: It's pretty cool. If someone— if you were to cast a cool character, I'll rephrase that. Interesting people, quirky.

Sam: No, it looks like something an ex-stripper would wear.

Josh: Definitely, he's wearing the part.

Tommy: It's actually got my G-string on.

Josh: Exactly, ready to go.

Sam: Uh, yeah, I have, uh, so many. Um, I'm, you know, discussing working on something with Chris Brown, TV's Bondi Vet, not the rapper.

Tommy: Yeah, could have been either.

Sam: Yeah. Um, yeah. Yes, so like Bob Saget, weirdly, like, how did that come about? Um, I interviewed him. I did an interview with Bob Saget, and, um, as part of us getting the interview, the PR people, um, had a look at some of my previous interviews. And I think I did a thing with Will Ferrell and Steve Carell and a few other guys where I literally was allocated 5 minutes with them, and you did the whole time. Yeah, so I gave them 1 minute each in the interview, and it meant that like Steve Carell's telling an anecdote about seeing the yacht prowls and he gets cut off mid-sentence. It's a great— we had this little timer from the chef's room, um, otherwise known as a kitchen. But, but Bob Saget, so he watched a few of those videos. So then when I met him and did the interview beforehand, he came over to me and he's like, love the interviews. I'm like, huh? He's like, oh, I've watched this, this, this. I think it's really great what you're doing. He goes, let's do something. I'm like, oh yeah, cool. He's like, let's do something different. Different. So we, we mucked around where I, I did the first interview with him as Bob Saget but also as Danny Tanner. So he was both people and he had to like keep swapping chairs. So I go, now question for you, Danny, and he'd quickly move over there. And then question for you, Bob. And it was so different, but I could tell that he enjoyed it. And that's come back to what we're saying before, like if, if you're getting a buzz out of it and if they're getting a buzz out of it, it doesn't really matter if people hate it. And more often than not, they won't because there's an energy that comes with that. So yeah, and then And he's kind of kept in contact with me, like will write to me occasionally, like, "How's it going?" He's like, he used to be a weatherman. David Letterman used to be a weatherman. Like there's a lot of people, Brad Pitt is currently a weatherman on a comedy show, but still. You know, I actually embrace and enjoy the absurdity of what this job is. It's really funny. Like it actually taps in, like there's so many days where I cannot believe that it's my job. Like I find it so amusing. The scenarios that I find myself in.

Josh: Just regional, I think it's awesome, and Tommy and I always joke about this, but there's a seriousness to it too, which is like, man, it would be great to do like just regional multimedia, regional productions and just go Australia and just do all the lovely things.

Sam: And I get to do a bit of that. That's awesome. Yeah, and that's one of the great things about it, like, 'cause I'm not really much of a travel person, but this job is, you know, I am by default, but I'm having these amazing travel experiences in places I'd love to go back or meeting people that I never in a million years biz would have met. And, um, actually, Hughesy made a really good point when we, we were talking about like this role and, and how it's all going. He's always been really good and really great with his time. Hughesy has a great reputation, really supportive of other people in the biz. He, um, kind of said to me— I never really looked at it like this— but he said, the role that you have as the TV weatherman is a perfect vehicle because ultimately you can just do a weather report. You can just be, hey, here's your weather update. But if you've got something, you can do something really out there, really funny, and people like, they're not expecting you every time because it's like when they throw to me, let's cross to Sam now for your weather. And yeah, the weather's going to be in there, but it's this amazing kind of under-the-radar thing. Whereas a stand-up comedian, or, you know, if you're doing a comedy show, it's like, be funny right now. Whereas a weatherman's like, hey, I'm just here to do the weather, but have a look at this, you know. So it's a really nice kind of under-the-radar way to get in and sell creative things.

Josh: Yeah, overdeliver. It's like in startup Lean Startup Plan, they talk about minimum viable product. And in some regards, that's like minimum viable product is about, you know, getting something quick to market, but it's also like not getting in the way. And so that's like your minimum viable product is the weather. And then you can quick, and that's your in, and then you can go and flick it off.

Sam: Minimum viable product is the weather. Yeah, push a kid, be in a strawberry suit rapping with Nikki Webster, bungee jump, like it could be anything. And the absurdity of it really amuses me. And I do a thing every day. I send myself an email to the aforementioned email address, and it's called Humorous Happenings. So I jot down a couple of things that happened on air and a couple of things that have happened off air that eventually will become something. It'll probably be when I'm finishing the role in however many years, I don't know. But it could be a stage live show.

Josh: It could be a book.

Sam: It could be a podcast. Could be, I don't know. I don't know, but I'm making a point of doing that because there's so many funny things that happen with this job. It is a silly job. It really is a silly job, but I love it. It kind of suits my attention span and my creative streak.

Josh: Is it lonely?

Sam: Not really.

Tommy: Like when we're here.

Sam: Yeah, it's not really, no. I've got a great producer who's also a friend of mine, Sean Flynn. Aka the human emoji. He looks like an emoji.

Tommy: What one?

Sam: Um, the smiley face with the glasses. No, yeah, it can be that one.

Josh: Good troll.

Sam: Thank you. Yeah, uh, he's very good. So, um, that makes a difference. And generally we have good— because you're a little team, you know, you've got a cameraman, you've got a link operator, sometimes a sound guy, and they're often the same sorts of, you know, guys will do a couple of months on, couple months off, whereas Sean and I are on all the time. So you do have like a little, you know, sort of team there there. Plus, the other great thing about it is we're in Adelaide quite often. That's where my family is, all my friends are, I can catch up with them. We're in Melbourne quite often. I've got a lot of good friends in Melbourne. In most places, when we go back to Perth, I lived in Perth for a few years, so I've got friends there. So, in a sense, it's actually really good that you've always got the option to catch up with someone if you want. But due to the hours, you're often like, get in, get your room service, get to bed.

Tommy: What's at this point of your career the kind of process you go through when when you find out that there's an opportunity. You know, for me, when I was going to Shepparton, it's like, oh, I've got no girlfriend, uh, I want to get into this industry, I'll move wherever. And so for this, it's like, you're 130 flights a year. Do you ever miss it?

Sam: No, no, I don't. And it would be— I think that would put a bit of extra pressure on it. It does make it hard in terms of like the dating life and things like that, because often I won't know when I'll have a free night in Sydney. And generally during the week, I don't you don't do much because you're up at 4 AM. So you're not going to meet for dinner at 7:30, 8 o'clock and get home at 10 PM. You'll be too exhausted. I mean, you can do that occasionally, but very rarely. So yeah, I think it affects that side of your personal life. But you know, there's also the fun side to that, which is you can kind of do whatever you want. You know, there's no rules and you're sort of running your own race.

Tommy: What's your shelf life in a job like this, do you think? What was Grant Denyer's and then what was Edwina's?

Sam: Well, Grant Denyer—

Josh: Fifi Box did it too, yeah. Yeah, Fifi, I think Fifi only did a year.

Sam: Year. Um, Grant Denyer did two stints. I think he did 4 years and then a couple of years doing other things and then went back for another couple of years. So I think he did 7 all up over the course of maybe 10 years. So a long time. Uh, Edwina did 3, uh, and then she— I went to her wedding recently actually. She was, you know, I guess the distancing was becoming a bit of an issue there. Not an issue, but you know, they obviously— she did her time time and she wanted to do other things within the show. So, uh, I signed on originally for 2 years. I've just signed on again for 3. So if I finish that stint, it'll be 5 years, which would be—

Tommy: so that'd be 20. I'm coming for you.

Josh: Yeah. So, so 2020, you'll still be doing it?

Sam: Yeah, I haven't thought of it like that.

Josh: That's great, because I'm just thinking, I've— I did an Instagram storey the other day. I want us to go to the World Expo 2020 in Dubai.

Sam: Oh wow.

Josh: So I don't know if you're planning on being there. We did Dubai.

Tommy: We're asking if you want to come. Last year, yeah.

Sam: We did Dubai actually, so it's not out of the realms of possibility. Yeah.

Josh: Well, we'll be doing episode, I can't remember, it was like 900 or something.

Sam: Yeah. I mean, I haven't even booked what I'm having for dinner tonight, but— 2020, sure.

Josh: Talk show type stuff, the single bed type of thing. It all has this, for me, an opportunity. Like there's this sort of clear direction that you could go in. Are you looking at those directions much?

Sam: Yeah, I'm aware of them, but that you can't completely control them. Like I could start doing my own thing on the side, but it's difficult at the moment with the time and the energy levels with this job, which is quite an all-consuming job. But I'm definitely looking at other opportunities. And Seven have been pretty good. They're sort of talking about possible bits and pieces, but it's, you know what it's like. Shows getting up and things like that. It's really hard to predict. I think you've just gotta be open to it And the good thing about this role is I can kind of do little versions of things that I would do if I had my own Tonight Show, for example. Like, I get to do little sketches, or I can literally see something online and go, all right, I want to interview that person, or I want to try this stunt. Or, you know, like, I've got— I've sent through pages of ideas to my producer for things that we want to do this year, and some of them we've already done, others are still on the list. So I think as long as I'm creatively satisfied, and, and that means is that, you know, in an average week I might do 2 or 3 things that I really wanna do and then 5 or 6 things that, you know, the network want me to do. And that's a fair compromise. I think that's totally fair. Like not many people in this day and age in media get to go, oh, I have this idea, now I have the resources and the platform to put it to hundreds of thousands of people. Like you've gotta be thankful for that.

Tommy: And sometimes satisfaction doesn't come in the way that you think it will. Sometimes it's, you know, like you're talking about the creative elements. It's like if they're all being fueled Like you're doing the dream now.

Josh: Like, and that's the weirdness. And that's probably where Tommy and I have a way to develop is the thing that like, it is that next thing. It's the looking forward. It's even when we talk about the daily talk show, it's like, man, imagine what this is gonna be like. You know, we try and, you know, 'cause you hear the storeys where people say, man, we don't, you don't expect it. You do, you know, we never expected it. So there's, you know, this narrative which we've gotta say, which is like, man, we're not expecting anything. We are not expecting anything.

Tommy: It's the tagline of our show.

Josh: Yeah, not expecting anything.

Sam: It's true.

Josh: But it's this weird fucking narrative where— and because, you know, it's easy to say, which is like, yeah man, we just did that for fucking shits and giggles. Like, we weren't expecting— like, you know, just having a laugh, having fun every day. But there is that deep— do you have that deep down bit?

Sam: Yeah, you always want it, but you never expect it. I think it's a good way to look at it.

Josh: So, so fucking annoying though.

Sam: Yeah, it is. I mean, I mean, I think that it's hard when, you know, like, I guess I have like a base sort of like I've got a great job, I get to do TV every day, I get to do creative things. So it's easy for me to say, oh yeah, like, don't worry, it works out. I don't know that, like, but I wouldn't have known that I would be a weatherman 3 months before I became a weatherman. It had never occurred to me. And I never would have thought that being a weatherman would be as as much fun as it can be, if that makes sense. Like I get, yeah, I hate to sound like I've just come on here to brag about, I've got the best job in the world, 'cause it's not that, but I like the variety of the job. So I like that, you know, on an average week with my producer Sean and I, we kind of look at, all right, we wanna do something fun, something funny and something with heart. So that might be a charity one day and then it could be a silly morning with, you know, the Girl Guides, which we did the other day. So that's roughly how we look at it. But I love that platform and I love that, you know, I get to tick a lot of those creative boxes. But we were talking about at the start of the podcast, you can kind of do a lot of it yourself. So, you know, if there's something you really, really want to do, you can start doing maybe not the big end product, but a small version of.

Josh: People could do a segment every single day if they wanted to on Instagram, being their own weather guy for their Instagram.

Sam: Absolutely.

Tommy: You know, the thought around if, you know, you create your own reality, right? And so if over the years Sam Mack has done all these little things, which is essentially leading to you being exactly where you are, right? And so if you were choosing to chip away and do the things that you like, and then you land this role, you could say it's luck about, oh, I get to have the best job in the world and I get to do everything I like, all the elements. It's like, yeah, but there's also been this journey. Yeah, you doing everything you wanted to do and making it happen.

Sam: Absolutely, yes. And a big part of that is trying to make sure that you're having satisfaction and getting enjoyment along the way. Because let's say it doesn't happen, and that big role or that final thing doesn't happen for everyone. But if it doesn't happen, then you at least want to go, well, I don't regret all of those years or that time that I spent because look at this great stuff I've got to show for it. This is an amazing thing. I made this friend. So there's other flow-ons to it, I think.

Josh: What are you going to do with your points, your frequent flyer points? What do you actually do with them?

Tommy: Can we make Josh a family member to get some?

Sam: Yeah, exactly. I haven't thought about that. About it, and I actually haven't even checked how many are there, but I know there's a lot.

Josh: Um, you know, maybe there's something really upsetting about it, like that they're going to waste. No, that you just like, you're so blasé about it because it like, I, I have obsessed over the years.

Tommy: Well, Josh has manipulated his point system to be able to fly first class in a cabin, like a bed.

Sam: Really?

Josh: First class next week to London.

Sam: Is that right?

Josh: So like with Singapore on their A380, It cost me $600 in points for Bree and I.

Sam: That's so good.

Josh: So it's amazing. But the thing is, but there is something in that game that the points type of game. Yeah.

Sam: This might surprise you, but I'm not in it for the points. Freaking fly points is not why I got into it. But it is great to have them. And when I do eventually decide that I'm going to take a big holiday, yeah, I'll 100% be doing it like business. I got to do something really cool last year, which was My parents are Irish and I got to take them back to Ireland for the first time since they basically left there when they were in their 20s and they met in Australia. And, um, I may have used points for a lot of that. So that was where a lot of, a lot of the points that I was kind of accumulating went. Um, but that was incredible. That was— someone recently asked me what's the best thing you've ever done? That was it. Yeah, surprising. So I surprised my parents on Christmas Day 2016 I gave them an Andre Rieu DVD just to see if they'd still be happy to receive an Andre Rieu DVD.

Tommy: Yeah, yeah.

Sam: And my dad's like, "You're not that idiot." And my mum's like, "Oh, great." That's still trying to be polite. And I said, "Open, just to cheque the DVD's still in there." And they open it up and it says, "Mum, Dad, you're going to Ireland in 2017." And they just could not believe it. And then the other part of the surprise was I sort of organized— I helped them organise it, organise the flights and accommodation, everything. Something. And the other part of the surprise was that I took my sister, who'd never been overseas, didn't tell mum and dad. We surprised them in London at a hotel. I came down, pretended to be concierge, and said, 'May I take your bag, sir, please?' Bad Irish accent. They turn around, it's me, and mum's like, 'What are you doing in London?' And then I've already organised my sister upstairs to pretend to be a waitress. So we sit—

Josh: you all had roles. You really enjoyed it.

Sam: Everything is a production in the Macmillan household. We sit them down, we order the drinks, and then I come back and sit down, and my sister knows to go and grab the tray because I've organised it with the staff there. She comes over with the drinks and like holds them, and my mum, like, she just could not believe it. She just absolutely couldn't believe it. And then we got to go and spend a few days with them in Ireland.

Tommy: So that's where it went pear-shaped.

Sam: Yeah, exactly.

Tommy: Family fights.

Josh: That was—

Sam: yeah, that was one of the coolest things I've done, and, um, points were a factor in that.

Josh: Well, Hamish Blake talks about, uh, creating experiences. Is that something something that's important to you?

Sam: Yeah, absolutely. I think the more the years go on, the more you realise that, because, you know, when you sit around with your mates and you haven't caught up for a few years, you talk about those crazy things that happen, or those things you did where you surprise someone. Like, that, that's what it's about. Like, not being beige and not being boring. Like, doing something silly. You know, I'm lucky with, with work that we get to do, you know, we have the resource to do crazy things. And I've done a lot of great things with my friends on the go, and it's really cool. So yeah, I agree, experiences.

Tommy: And, um, did you capture any of that stuff?

Sam: Yeah, yeah, yeah, just little videos for Instagram, just like short little snippet type stuff, which I'm glad, glad I did because Instagram I kind of see as part, you know, part of the job, as in like, you know, keeping yourself out there showing people what you're doing, but also a great record of what you've done. Or, you know, when say we're sitting around at a pub telling this I'd bring out the phone and show you guys, oh, look at this, is my mum's reaction when this happened, you know what I mean? It just takes that other level. Um, that's what I love about social media as well. And social media I love because people can kind of— like, a lot of the days that we do with work, people have written direct to me and said, hey, we've got this event coming up, or hey, you should go and meet this person who lives in blah because they've got this amazing thing going on. And I'm so open to that, and I mention it on the show all the time. I'm like, write direct to us, write to to us. You get a lot of freaks writing to you as well, but that's part of the fun. Josh, yeah, I had this one guy read out an actual transcript, something from 13 years ago.

Josh: No, well, I'm going— I think I'll email you when it's closer to World Expo 2020 because I think we should, we should do that from Dubai.

Sam: Yeah, let's go global, man.

Josh: Yeah. Sam Mack, thanks so much for allowing us into your, uh, into your hotel room. It's been a lot of fun. It's The Daily Talk Show, everyone. You can send us emails, hi@thedailytalkshow.com too. And I'll keep them forever as well.

Sam: Thank you guys, it's been a pleasure. Keep up the good work. I'm enjoying the work that both you guys are doing, so really a pleasure to be on today. And a big thank you to Big Media Corporation for having me.

Josh: Yes, big media company. Thank you, Sam. You fucked it.

Sam: You fucked the radio.