ACA's Oscar Gordon

Josh: It's The Daily Talk Show, episode 320— what did we do?

Tommy: 328. And we've got our mate Oscar Gordon in the house.

Oscar: Lovely to be here.

Tommy: What's happening?

Josh: I say Oscar's my mate, but I didn't even know that he actually lived in Melbourne.

Oscar: Not a lot of people do.

Tommy: Yeah, well, Josh is just panicked with the, uh, your mic technique.

Oscar: I'm sorry, I'm not normally on the microphone.

Tommy: How's that?

Oscar: Is that really good? I'm so impressed by your graphics at the start of the podcast, by the way.

Tommy: Oh yeah, well, we can thank, uh, Marty Sharp, Marty Sharp, for putting that together.

Josh: He's a motion graphics guy who moved to LA. He does like Ellen DeGeneres's—

Tommy: but for all we know, he may be back living in Melbourne. Yeah, if it goes by Josh's knowledge of where people are living.

Josh: Well, because you spend how much of the time in Canada a year?

Oscar: So I work, uh, for a ski resort called Silver Star in Canada, and so their winter starts, uh, you know, middle of November and goes till about April.

Tommy: Yeah.

Oscar: And I was there in December, and then I went back recently for 3 weeks. So when it's winter, I'll head back over there, and I'm lucky to sort of do both. And they're based in Melbourne because I haven't lived here for a long time, but I'm from here originally.

Tommy: Yeah, so, um, our connection, uh, you know, our mums lived in London together.

Oscar: I didn't know that.

Tommy: Didn't you know that?

Oscar: No.

Tommy: And, um, your mum and my mum went to Austria, and my mum came home with a broken leg. Oh really? I think she broke her ankle, but Joan was there. And Oscar's mum also married Amy and I.

Oscar: There you go.

Josh: So is she a full-time wedding celebrant or is that just a side hustle?

Oscar: She is now, yeah. But for many years she was doing it as a side hustle while she was working as a teacher.

Josh: Yeah.

Oscar: And I thought, it's so weird, my mum, she's got all these sort of weird things that she does on the side. One time she actually came over and visited me in Canada and it was summer there and I was looking at my phone, like through my phone, and I saw a screenshot of her in the Millionaire Hot Seat. And I said, what are you doing? And she goes, oh yeah, forgot to tell you I was on Millionaire. I'm like, what do you mean you forgot to tell me? Did you forget to say that you were on with Eddie? And so she went, I can tell, I'll tell you why, because you only won $1,000, which, hey, it's not too bad.

Josh: I wonder how that— do you know how the money actually gets to her? Does it— do they write out checks?

Oscar: No, no. Does anyone do that anymore?

Josh: I don't know, I just remember, do you remember like Eddie, like when it would get to the— like when it was the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Tommy: Oh yeah, yeah, I think that was all just part of the—

Josh: who are—

Tommy: you know, just like write the check, slide it across the table, your answer. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember. Yeah, it's theatrics. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Josh: So it's all PayPass now, just a square type of thing. Interesting. Well, I did— I— the reason that I did know that you spent some time in Melbourne was because I was living at my parents' place for a while, and they're big viewers of A Current Affair.

Oscar: Yeah.

Josh: And so, uh, I was very chuffed when I saw you not only on A Current Affair, but, uh, there was reenactments involved. There was a point where you were even, uh, using some form of foil as a, uh, as what's that called when you do that?

Tommy: Reflective. I think we need to preface it, it was the best possible appearance on that show. Yeah, because you, you weren't the aggressor, or you weren't—

Oscar: Yeah, I wasn't being tracked down in the middle of the street. No, not yet. Um, but yeah, so what happened was I was walking home, I got home and I'm walking past my bedroom window, my bedroom, look out and I see the window has got a brick fence like right, like being built over it. So next door, when we moved in, they were building a house completely fine. And then it got to the stage where they're building against my brick wall. And I'm talking like, there's like, you know, like 1 millimetre difference between the brick wall and my bedroom window, which is the only source of light. So they had built it, completely covered it because they were building next door. They had planned permits, all fine. But I was trying to get in touch with my real estate agent and get them to try and put together some sort of a skylight. They didn't, it took forever. It was like a week. It ended up being, 2 months with no light at all in my room, which is a weird thing after a while.

Tommy: I mean, if you're doing night shift, it's okay, but you weren't.

Oscar: If you're eternally hungover, it's fine. But yeah, so I just, I thought, stuff it, I'm just gonna put it up on social. And it just like, everyone was like, what the hell are you doing living in a room with no window? So, and then next minute, A Current Affair, and I thought, stuff it, I will do it because nothing had happened. I had nowhere, one to turn to except for Tracy.

Tommy: I mean, there's only 2 people, I mean, I've just never done a reenactment. Josh has done reenactments on the news before.

Josh: Channel 9.

Tommy: What I've always wondered is seeing that, like, and I know you and I know you kind of— what I could see is you've taken a bit of the piss.

Oscar: Well, do you know what? Because I just thought when they said— because they come over, it was first thing in the morning and they wouldn't want to do the interview straight away because, you know, we sort of understand what they're after.

Josh: Yeah.

Oscar: I just said to them, oh, you know, can we just— with this, I just don't want to make it like poor me, poor me, because, you know, privileged white male, you know, complaining about not getting any light when people are dying out there. And so, you know, people they can't afford their bills and stuff. On the grand scheme of things, it's not that full-on. So I said, it should be a bit light. But having said that, I was like, what do you want me to sort of talk about? Anyway, so we did the pieces to camera and then they said, oh, can we do some cutaways? And I said, yeah, no, that's fine. They said, can we do a bit of an interview with you in your bed? And so there's me propped up in the bed with the A Current Affair lady. And then they said, oh, come outside. So I went outside and I was just sitting down and one of the producers just passed me a tray with alfoil on it. And they said, and they literally just started, I didn't even have time to realise what, what the whole purpose was. And they said, so Oscar, what have you got here? And I just went, I'd do anything just to get a little bit of light. And it was just so embarrassing. But it was, I think it was the first time the current affair almost did a parody on themselves.

Tommy: I know, fuck, I gave you too much credit. I said Oscar, content mind, content mind, one of the best content minds in Australia, done viral videos. He knows what to do to get those views.

Josh: What did your property manager, cause The issue that I'd have is not being on A Current Affair, it's then having to interact with the property manager being like, yeah, that was me.

Tommy: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oscar: Well, no, I told them, I said, hey, this is gonna happen. Can we get some sort of a fix on it? 'Cause I didn't want to do it. I mean, it's kind of embarrassing to have to do that. But in the end it was all sort of, you know, funny and yeah, anyway, let's just say since it's been aired, I've got a big skylight in my room, which I can open up. Although it's kind of annoying 'cause you've got the stick there. So it's like, oh, the rain's coming in. So I'm not opening it up. But yes, it's very, it's automated. It's got a little shutter that comes down and up. So depending on how I feel, feel, I can change the light, so I'm very privileged now.

Tommy: Yeah, I will say that you, what my favourite part of the video was the expert that came in.

Oscar: Well, the wellness expert I think it was.

Tommy: Pacing around like they couldn't even get a sleep expert, couldn't get a scientist, they had a wellness expert or something. I was like, come on.

Oscar: Yeah, it's, I've now like, you know when you type your name in and it sort of predict on Google and it predicts what it is.

Tommy: What is it? What do you type in?

Oscar: Oscar Gordon. Yeah, Oscar Gordon. It used to be Oscar Gordon Sophie Munks, friends with her. And then, but now it's like Oscar Gordon Brick Wall. And I was like, oh, that's my claim to fame. That's so embarrassing.

Josh: And I'm not on social media anymore, but Tommy keeps me up to date on Instagram. I retired from my personal social media.

Tommy: Personal social media, why?

Josh: It was getting too much.

Oscar: Just don't do anything.

Josh: Yeah, well, that's why I did. I retired. I'm just relaxing.

Oscar: But do you look through still?

Josh: Well, no, I stopped doing that because I realised I started hating all of of my friends. Like, do you have moments where you're like, I actually like these people, but I think they're fuckwits online? And so I realise I'm like, you know, this is me, I need to take a break.

Oscar: I think if you're a fuckwit online, then you're a fuckwit in general.

Josh: I've got a lot of fuckwit friends.

Oscar: Yeah, I think you need to unfollow a lot of your friends. Um, it does get annoying after a while when you start seeing stuff, but I just unfollow.

Josh: Yeah, so I feel uncomfortable with the— I'll do like the hide before the unfollow. Because I just can't deal with the drama.

Oscar: Yeah, it depends who it is, to be honest. If you know you don't have to ever see them again, then I'll definitely unfollow.

Josh: Well, I've actually, uh, in 2011, someone unfriended me on Facebook. It was a cinematographer that I met once on a shoot, and he unfriended me. And so I've actually got an email that I sent him being like, hey mate, just wanted to know if you're okay. It was quite full-on. So I've got sort of a bit of a dark past when it comes to unfriending and unfollowing.

Oscar: So, well, do you know what, there was this lady that I used to work with in radio, she was one of the receptionists. And every time I'd go past, I'd be like, oh, we'd had a great banter, little office jokes here and there and all that sort of stuff. And I stupidly downloaded that app where you can see who's unfollowed you. Yeah. She fucking unfollowed me. And I was like, what was it? Is there anything that I said when I walked past you at the reception? Did I do anything? Like, why can't you have this open and up honest conversation with me? And I decided, fine, I'll just unfollow you. And I never gave her as much love.

Tommy: There's two types of people, the people that actually say something to their face And the ones that just a bit of passiveness behind their back, unfollow.

Josh: Yeah, was it Julie at Fox? With Jules?

Oscar: No, it wasn't.

Tommy: She's lovely. Yeah, she is. We don't follow each other. So Oscar used to work on the Kyle and Jackie O Show in Sydney. And you actually, Josh took over from you.

Josh: No, no, he replaced me.

Tommy: Oscar replaced Josh.

Josh: I actually got a goodbye card when I was leaving and Sam Cav had written, welcome to the team, Oscar! exclamation mark in my card. Card and then had scribbled it out.

Tommy: That's actually—

Josh: which is a good bit of gear.

Tommy: Yeah, there's definitely a bit of gear from Sammy.

Josh: But, um, yeah, no, so you were doing Fifi and Jules.

Oscar: Yeah.

Josh: Was that when— was Sophie Monk, uh, looking after that spot, or was it—

Oscar: yeah, so I was working before that. I worked in comedy for a comedy company.

Josh: That's right.

Oscar: And then Token or something.

Josh: Token. Yeah.

Tommy: What did you do there?

Oscar: Online coordinator.

Josh: Okay. Token is like next door. Is that Token?

Oscar: Yeah, yeah, I think— yeah, they've moved. So we Yeah, then Jules was doing— oh yeah, that's right. So Fifi was having her first child, Sophie Monk replaced, and then Jules calls me up and says, hey, can you do— you know, this big song's about to drop, it's Robin Thicke, Blurred Lines. Remember that song?

Josh: Yeah, yeah.

Oscar: Where you see that— you remember the music video and in the background they've got Emma Ratatowski, or— and she's—

Tommy: I'm sure Mr. 97 could pronounce her name. No chance.

Oscar: You shorten it to Rata.

Tommy: Is that what you do with your mates? Is that what you send each other? Have you seen Rata?

Oscar: I'm pretty sure that's her name on Instagram.

Tommy: Okay, man.

Josh: Well, she was famous for having sort of— she was naked, basically.

Oscar: Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. And so you had Robin Thicke there and like weird animal goats and stuff like that all against the wall. Anyway, so Jules wanted to do a parody of this song which just dropped and it was just about to get serviced. So they all knew it was going to be a big hit. He wanted to be, you know, there first. And so he said, oh mate, can I get you to help me out? And I was like, yeah, sure, I'll do it, thinking that I was going to help produce it or direct it or something like that. I rock up to the soundstage and there's a billion people everywhere and he's like, all right mate, and he hands me a G-string and expects me to wear just a G-string, a skin-colored G-string, and prance around and then wear a mullet on the back of it. And so I'm actually in this, this Blue Lagoon already.

Josh: You did it? You actually?

Oscar: I did it. I thought, oh, I've got, you know, you've got to lose. Yeah, I've got nothing.

Tommy: Is that, is that not the the first time Jules Lund's punked you like that, I'm sure.

Oscar: No, yeah, well, so I think it was just a bit of a communication breakdown, but anyway, so I'm there.

Josh: It wasn't? It definitely wasn't. No, he was very strategic.

Tommy: Yeah, left out the banana hammock.

Oscar: So I'm there on stage holding a goat like that they've just given me and they're, you know, performing to the song or whatever, and then I look out the corner and there's Sophie Monk like enters and she's off stage and she's got a dart in her mouth and she's, uh, you know, got her makeup artist, her whole team around her. And I just thought, oh my God, what an LA sense, like entitled woman. I thought, oh God, Sophie Monk, whatever. And then apparently the flip side to that is, so since then we've become best friends and we do a lot of stuff together. She, her first impression of me was, oh my God, what is this tryhard guy doing in a like a G-string holding a goat? Like how much of an exhibitionist does this guy wanna be? So it was funny. We sort of both went into that way anyway. And then a couple of weeks later, yeah. With Fifi and Jules for 6 months and then moved to Sydney.

Tommy: Yeah, so you were in charge of all the content. I feel like there's probably only 1 or 2 radio shows in Australia that have put a real emphasis on video, even when radio stations are like, no, we need to focus on audio, which is silly. They should be focusing on an element of video. And Kyle and Jackie O was one of them. So you came on as the, what was it, the video producer?

Oscar: Executive digital producer was my title. Oh good, yeah. Because they asked me what title did I want and I just went with that because it sounded really good.

Josh: You can get more cash that way too, I believe.

Oscar: Executive title?

Josh: Yeah, executive. It's like, they start, yeah, it's good. Yeah, it's true though, right? Like they always say, oh, it's got, don't worry about the title, it doesn't, doesn't matter. Fucking title, when they're looking at how much they pay you and they're looking at the scales and all that sort of shit, it matters.

Oscar: Yeah, totally. So I worked with them for 2 years in total and then worked with you a bit. And yeah, so we were working out of Sydney and then I did a bit of stuff in Melbourne as well.

Tommy: And then you went over to Canada. So there's a guy in a podcast at the moment called Hamish McLaren and he is the asshole of the podcast. He's the guy that was ripping everyone off. It's called Who the Hell is Hamish? It's a true crime. It's like, you know, fits fits into that genre of a guy who's ripping off all these people. But he actually had— I heard this, he had a, um, he had a house in Silver Lake. Silver Star. Yeah, he had a house over at the ski resort. Did you hear about him at all?

Oscar: Uh, this was a while ago, I think it was in the '90s. But yes, apparently he scammed a lot of people around the area with a lot of money pretending like he owned all these properties and boats and cars and whatever. And then I don't— yeah, I can't remember that. And then it turned into a podcast. And yeah, it started from this guy having, proclaiming to have all this money and wealth in at Silver Star.

Tommy: Yeah, it's a good plug for the podcast actually, even though he hasn't seen it. But I just wanted to see if you'd seen, if you'd heard it.

Oscar: Yes, when you were leaving across and yeah.

Tommy: But so, so what you were doing over there, um, how did that job come about going over to Canada?

Oscar: So I was working with Kyle and Jack at the time, and then I went on a holiday to Silver Star with Sophie. And while I was there, I was getting her to take video of, well, you know, get trying to get some great social media and we wanted to do that thing where you dive into the snow. And so she said, no, what, you know, the snow's like that big. And she's like, no, if I jump in, I'm just gonna go straight and fall straight, you know, through onto the ground. I said, no way, you know, I'm 6 foot 6 and a half, I'll start it. I said, you go over there, you got the camera. I'm like, put the camera lower, I want to make it look really good. I put it on slow-mo so we can slow it down anyway. So I do a big jump into the snow and then I can't get out. Like, my leg is, my knee's really hurting and I was almost suffocating, to be honest. Sophie is pissing herself laughing thinking I'm just playing up for the camera, it's a bit of a joke, and I can't even get myself out of there. Anyway, long storey short, I did my knee and I couldn't move and I couldn't do anything. I had to stay there longer to let it heal a little bit to then go and fly back to Australia and get it fixed. But while I was there, they offered me a job and I was like, you know what, I probably don't want to leave.

Josh: Did you have travel insurance?

Oscar: Yeah, um, no, I probably didn't. No, I did. I definitely didn't.

Tommy: You did?

Oscar: No, I didn't. So it was like $1,000 to see a doctor.

Josh: $1,000 doesn't seem too bad.

Tommy: I got a job out at the end.

Oscar: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tommy: And so you got full-time employment from doing your knee?

Josh: Were you, were you actually on annual leave when you were there? Like, did you have to make any calls to bosses and be like, hey guys, I fucked my knee, I'm going to be an extra few weeks?

Oscar: Um, yeah, well, we were sort of negotiating what we're going to do anyway, so it's sort of, I think that's right.

Tommy: I bumped into you in Sydney, um, and it was just at that time where you working out whether you get out of the radio.

Oscar: Yeah, because you sort of get to— because you both left radio, you both know it's like— I've all, you know, I started doing community radio when I was really young, loved it, still love it. And you, you go in there and it's— you can't even describe the sort of environment that it is, but it's very full-on and you're constantly, you know, tasked with creating as many ideas as possible. And I was really driven to do the best that I possibly can. I think you just get to the stage where you naturally burn out, and for me Yeah, and that coupled with the hours and an opportunity to, you know, I felt like I'd done that and it was good to sort of go into a different area and look at budgets and, you know, different sales and money and business and all that sort of stuff.

Josh: I feel like you're an example of someone who has things happen to them, or it's like people on social media, there's certain friends that they have, they just have things that are content worthy. And straight after the Current Affair thing your car stolen.

Oscar: Oh my gosh, yeah.

Josh: And so how—

Tommy: which is gold.

Josh: Like, I've had a few things. I've had a fire at my apartment. I've had like some ram raid across the road. So good things happen to me as well.

Tommy: Yeah, but not to the other people around him.

Josh: Yeah, so what, uh, how the fuck did someone steal your car?

Oscar: So I know this thing happened on— like, my work recognised I'm a liability, but they're okay with that.

Josh: Yeah.

Oscar: So I walk out and I'm like, oh, where's my car? And I thought, what did I do last night? Who did I give it to?

Josh: This is in Melbourne?

Oscar: This is in Melbourne and Richmond.

Tommy: How much did I drink?

Oscar: Yeah, but I didn't that night, and I was so proud of myself for that. And then I was proud because I was like, no, I left it here, and I'm trying to like— I thought I was losing my mind. Anyway, it got stolen, and I had to make the call to my work to say, hey guys, um, the car's been stolen. And they were like, oh, they thought it was funny. Yeah, oh, typical Oscar.

Josh: And this is in— is this your bosses in Canada?

Oscar: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the time difference meant that they thought that it was just after New Year's, but it was actually— because of the time difference, it's actually 2 days after. So they thought I had a massive New Year's, I've lost the car. And but the fact that they were okay with it shows how cool they are.

Tommy: Is that the first call you make to the boss? I'd probably— would you call it— you—

Oscar: I called the police.

Tommy: Yeah, you thought about calling the police first, or—

Josh: no, well, you did. You called the police first, did you, or no?

Tommy: Uh, called his boss.

Oscar: I can't remember. I, I was like, the police, what are they— it's not like a murder.

Josh: Yeah, you definitely didn't have insurance. Oh yes, I had insurance.

Tommy: On the side of the car is a big decal of the business.

Oscar: Yeah, which says like in big branding Silver Star Ski R. Like it's a big part of the bit, you know, it's not— it's, it's a very loud looking car. Like when you drive around it, you get a lot of looks while you're driving.

Tommy: I've spotted it a couple of times. So that's how much a decal actually has impact.

Josh: It's like stealing a Domino's car or something, you know, like a delivery scooter.

Tommy: Well, there's more of them, you blend in. So this is pretty unique. A a ski resort in Canada, a car in Australia, in Melbourne.

Oscar: That's a good—

Josh: that's a— you've done pretty well there managing.

Oscar: Very lucky.

Josh: But anyway, you're fucking lucky.

Oscar: Very lucky, but I lost it. Like, you know, ridiculous. So I knew I couldn't call on A Current Affair yet because I've done that.

Tommy: And then—

Josh: so have you got Tracey's number?

Oscar: I have a Tracey. Um, so I was— that, that wasn't a possibility. And then I just— it'd been a couple of days. The place, to be honest, they're all obviously awesome But with, I think cars, particularly in that area, things get stolen all the time. They just don't have the resource to be able to churn through it.

Tommy: I tell you what, it also is bad, fraud cases, if you have to report one of those.

Oscar: Yeah.

Tommy: Like you've got to fill out this lengthy paperwork and you get a—

Josh: What sort of fraud? What do you mean?

Tommy: Oh, even—

Oscar: Suggesting I might have—

Tommy: No, no, the guys next door, they had someone try and buy a product through them that was like, you know, $10,000. They'd already paid for the order, but it was a false order. And so they went in to report this.

Oscar: I was like, look—

Josh: Especially, yeah, like digital sort of crime and stuff. An identity theft. It's fucking hard. That's why it's always good using your credit card rather than using, uh, like an EFTPOS card. Like, if you, you know how EFTPOS cards has like the Visa option or something? So much harder to get your, your money back than it is the credit card.

Tommy: Yeah.

Oscar: But anyway, so the, the car, the car's there stolen, and police, a little bit of, not much is happening. Where insurance is happening at this stage. A couple of days pass. I've actually gone off on holiday. On the Yarra— where is it? The Murray River, that's right. I was in Echuca and for a couple days—

Josh: Yarra River would be a bit sad.

Oscar: Depends where you're from. Anyway, so I thought, oh, do I post it on social media? I thought, I just look like I can't get my shit together.

Josh: Yeah.

Oscar: And I thought, well, I've got nothing else to lose. I might as well do it for a little bit of promotion if anything, and hopefully maybe it kind of comes up. So take a photo. I'm like 'Car stolen, blah blah blah blah blah, these are the details.' My cousin, younger cousin Louis, calls me a couple of days later and he goes, 'Hey mate, did you find your car?' And I said no. And he goes, 'Oh, because I think I know where it is.' It's that he was walking along somewhere in South Melbourne on his way to work, and so he's— because I've moved around a lot, he doesn't have my mobile number, we're talking through Facebook chat Messenger or whatever. Yeah, he's been questioned by the police at this stage because he called the police to say, 'Hey, I found it, if you just want to collect it or whatever.' Yeah. And then suddenly they said, 'Well, how did you find it? How do you know Oscar?' And he's like, 'Oh, I'm cousin cousins with Oscar. Oh, okay, where does he live? He couldn't like— oh no, the answer. And they said, okay, do you have his mobile number? And he didn't have that. So suddenly it turned on— poor thing, he's found my car and they think that he's stolen it.

Tommy: But anyway, suspect number one got the car back.

Oscar: Uh, so weird, there was a bike tyre that was in the back of it. So weird. And lots of dusting from the police.

Tommy: That is one thing the police should do, the wipe down. I, I've had my car fingerprinted. Someone jumped on my front window and I came out and all I see is dust everywhere. It's like chalk or whatever it is to find the fingerprints, to lift the—

Oscar: like you've seen the film, movies.

Tommy: Yeah, but it's— the car was just filthy. So I had this smashed windscreen, I need to go to the servo, but I need to have the window changed before I did that. Yeah, shit was everywhere.

Oscar: That's so annoying.

Josh: Are you okay?

Tommy: I'm okay, I'm okay. Yeah, so do you just take it?

Josh: Do you just like take the car back and start using it, or does the— what, what happens?

Oscar: Happens at that point.

Tommy: Really?

Josh: Did you sniff the seats or something?

Oscar: Like, make sure? Not a big seat sniffer.

Josh: There's the headline of today's show.

Tommy: But yeah, so there was a tyre in there and you're like, there's a tyre and a bandana and that's all we had.

Oscar: Oh, and a bandana and another set of keys which actually had an address on it for someplace in South Yarra.

Tommy: So you stole their car?

Oscar: So I thought, fuck this. No, and karma. So I told the police anyway, they were unable to follow up because, hey, it could have been a lead for something else. But I think they've probably got a bit on at the moment.

Tommy: So what'd you do with the keys?

Oscar: Actually, there's still my house. Anyone in, anyone in Marne Street in South Yarra, I've got your keys.

Josh: It's crazy, isn't it? Like, even when I filmed the ram raid on Smith Street, I said to the cops, I'm like, hey guys, do you want the footage? They're like, it's like they don't have any computers with USBs. They don't know how to fucking take it. They're like, you don't know how to accept the footage.

Oscar: Not quite like you'd think. Yeah, yeah.

Tommy: Not to mention the NBN again, but they've spent a fuckload on that.

Josh: I mean, that's not the police's fault, but I understand why.

Tommy: No, but the money, resources from the government. Yeah, the, you know, public servants, that's how they're being funded.

Josh: It's, it's—

Tommy: so there could be a bit of money taken from that fucking stupid NBN.

Josh: Anyway, I think Tommy's just upset at the NBN.

Oscar: Yeah, wow, this is a little— shit's getting real over here.

Josh: Well, the reason he brings it up is because we actually just, uh, got installed at our new office because we can't get the NBN. But there's services, there's internet service providers now that will spit like high-speed internet, like 100 megabits through the air, like point to point.

Oscar: It's like, yeah, well, it's just— I, I'm gonna say I don't really know a lot about that side of things, but I want fast internet for some fucking reason in my house. I cannot get it.

Tommy: Yeah, no, it's because the NBN is shit.

Oscar: Yeah, but you know what, like, even like when it happened, when they announced this big NBN rollout, I thought to myself, I reckon if we wait a couple of years, the wireless thing is going to be okay. We're going to be able to do it without having anything. Anyway, no expert.

Tommy: I mean, you've, you've definitely felt the pain of working at these big radio stations where the internet was subpar.

Oscar: Oh, uploading large video files.

Tommy: But that is, that is what that your job entailed.

Josh: Yeah, yeah, yeah, just that, just uploading.

Tommy: Senior executive uploader. Yeah, dude, I paid a lot though.

Josh: What is the, uh, being in Canada? Yeah, uh, what are some of the things that the Canadians have right that Australia needs to adopt in regards to life?

Oscar: Um, They are really just chilled out people. They're really friendly. They are also, marijuana's legal there.

Josh: Really?

Oscar: It's really weird because it's so legal there. It's just not an issue. And here you look at it like in the news and stuff or politicians answering questions about whether or not we'd even potentially go down that path. And they're like, oh no, no, no, no. But the world hasn't stopped in Canada or wherever else it's legal. So it's interesting that I think.

Tommy: And what are you seeing happen? Do you notice it when you go over there?

Oscar: No, not at all.

Tommy: Plume of smoke?

Oscar: You don't just see people, yeah, just with burgers or whatever.

Josh: I do wonder, like marijuana, like if it was legal, I wonder if I would still be like, whether I would be someone who would do it. Do you find that like I could be maybe like a, you know, the oil that everyone's talking about that's meant to calm you down?

Tommy: Yeah, so it doesn't have the psychoactive elements of marijuana, I think it is.

Josh: So it's like that stuff would be good, but I get asthma, so I don't know about the whole like— It's not going to give you asthma. But the cookie, like what's What's the, like, is it very common to like, is that edibles? Is that what that is? Or is that edibles different to cookies?

Tommy: Edibles are edible. Yeah.

Josh: And so was that a common thing? Like if you go to a—

Oscar: I think they had specialised places that you just don't see or hear. It's not like you walk into a Woolworths and you've got your edible section over there and you've got pure marijuana strands over there, whatever it is.

Tommy: But you go to like Coles or Woolworths in New Zealand, and there's just in the main supermarket an aisle with beer and alcohol, hard liquor. So it's like integrated into the actual—

Oscar: That's like Aldi though, isn't it?

Tommy: Oh, I guess that they're doing some wine now.

Josh: Mr. No7, do they have—

Tommy: He's the only man in cheque out.

Josh: Yeah, yeah.

Tommy: You get a little bottle?

Oscar: Uh, mum does.

Tommy: Mum does. A little cheap number. You gotta— got a suggestion of what, what brand?

Oscar: Well, I think that's Savignon Blanc.

Josh: Savignon Blanc, that is good.

Oscar: I feel like that's coming back. I don't know, I just feel like if I just say something like that, people might think, oh yeah, he knows his wines.

Josh: And so what do you actually do day to day when you're in Canada in sort of—

Tommy: and not doing ACA storeys or finding a car that was stolen?

Oscar: Yeah, getting my shit together. So I spend the whole year trying to get my shit together, then I go over to Canada. No, so in Canada, it depends. Every day is different. That's what they used to always say in radio. Every day is different.

Josh: That's a way of saying I don't I can do anything as well. Like freelancers, oh, every day's different.

Tommy: Every day's a new adventure. Every day's a new adventure.

Josh: You don't have any clients, do you?

Oscar: So there it'll depend on, 'cause I love doing content every now and again. And so my role is to get as many Australians and New Zealanders over to Silver Star. The problem with Silver Star is we actually book out at the peak periods when we want to go away on holidays. So it's about, you know, showing reasons why you should go through the other times. And to be honest with you, it's the weather's better the later you go. So anyway, that's just side note. So when I'm over there, I might do like, we did this thing where we wanted to raise two things. We wanted to talk about Silver Star, the fact that it's open, it's, we've got a lot of snow, but we also wanted to talk about the ski school that we've got there and the, in the Rippers program. So young kids go there to learn how to ski, they have a good time. It leaves mom and dad the ability to be able to go off and do whatever they wanna do. And so what I'm obsessed with is puppies and dogs and particularly these particular dogs over there called Bernese Mountain Dogs. They look like the Beethoven ones, but they're almost cuter.

Tommy: My mate had two in Australia.

Oscar: They're big, big, big things.

Josh: Enormous studio apartment.

Tommy: No, it was a mansion in Brighton.

Josh: Okay, great.

Tommy: But it was, it was enough. But they're huge and furry. Yeah.

Oscar: And I managed— I kept in touch with this one lady who is a breeder over in Canada for a year, and the dates just so happened that she had about 6 or 8 little puppies that had never been on snow before, and she was about to give them away in 2 days' time. And the Rippers were the first time they were about to go on snow as well. So it was these puppies and these little kids' first time that went on snow, and I was like, puppies, snow, I think we've got something here. And, uh, we— it was the cutest thing to film, and we put it up and it went viral, about 1 million plus, and then went all, uh, the national news in Canada, which is always good.

Tommy: Which is for us— it's for a snow resort, like, that's I think there's the radio websites that are sort of primed to go viral. Not taking away from you making viral videos at the radio station, because you made shitloads of them, but you were also working with amazing talent. Like, that's amazing having a video for a page that's— who's going to that? Like, a few.

Oscar: Yes, exactly right. It managed to get the people that love snow, people who've got kids, but it also worked with dog lovers, you know, it just sort of ticked. And that's the the greatest feeling is when you're able to do that.

Tommy: Yeah.

Oscar: You know, and a lot of the times I've been fortunate to work with lots of celebrities in Australia, overseas, put together video content, and you go, oh yeah, the video with Selena Gomez is gonna do well because she's got the most amount of followers on Instagram, so you're going to be okay there. Or so sometimes the idea might be undershadowed by, you know, those sorts of numbers. But then there are other examples where, you know, you can see that it might be just a combining factor, but One of the proudest videos I did was actually with Sophie. She was over at Silver Star with her ex-partner. This is The Bachelorette, the one?

Josh: Yeah, yep.

Tommy: So Sophie Monk was, for our international viewers, she was on The Bachelorette. She was the Bachelorette.

Oscar: Yeah, yeah, first celebrity Bachelorette, I suppose.

Tommy: And then she fell in love with Stu.

Josh: I forgot that it's not all celebrity. Do they just do celebrities now, or is it on and off celebrity?

Oscar: No, they did Sophie, then I think they saw that it worked and they got Honey Badger Is that a celebrity?

Tommy: Like, famous rugby player. So they, they went with Soph, sure bet, to find some entertainment, and she found Stu. And so she was over in—

Oscar: yeah, they were over there, they just finished filming, they came over, which worked well for me as well because I was going over, I had to spend the winter there. So I had a really good time there, but then, you know, um, they went separate ways. And so a lot of the time was spent with me.

Tommy: You mean being on reality show, that wasn't real life?

Josh: The best dating—

Tommy: they're not together forever.

Oscar: Yeah, but you know, it's so funny.

Josh: Did it feel real? Do you think like, as it— like, in that perspective, it's like— it's—

Oscar: it was the weirdest thing because you've got— I was in Canada at the time. Soph's gone on this show, it's gone mental. At the time it was just everywhere. I think at one stage on every single front cover is her face.

Josh: Yeah.

Oscar: And the ratings were there, and it— but it was really nice being away from it all because it meant that, you know, I could just sort of see it from afar. I checked in with her every now and again. And then I found it bizarre when I came back to Australia, everyone was talking about, oh yeah, what's in the contract that you have to be with this person and all this sort of stuff that was not true. But I can understand having been in a situation where you're a watcher of these shows, you know, and you're naturally going, oh, is it really legit what's happening there? But yeah, it was all legit. And yeah, so they broke up. And one of the ways that Soph, I suppose, spent her time focusing on, you know, not the breakup, was in creating this idea that we had to put together a recruitment video for the staff at Silver Star. So it was, that was as plain as it became, and it was, how do you make that interesting? So we spent about 3 days writing, and most of it, to be honest with you, majority was Sophie's ideas, and she's so creative, and just thinking of different scenes to interject. And anyway, we put the video together, it was a big thing. We put it online, it had, you know, million plus, and again went viral on all the news channels and stuff.

Tommy: It was amazing. It was like that one-shot idea of like, you know, all these different things happening.

Oscar: And feel free to put it on the overlay if you want to.

Josh: Oh, we don't do overlay yet. That's in the new studio.

Tommy: We will link to it in the show notes. We'll link to the video in the show notes. It was so impressive. And I remember seeing it on news websites and crazy.

Oscar: That was cool because it was— Sophie wasn't in it.

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: Oh really?

Oscar: There was no—

Tommy: Yeah, yeah.

Oscar: That was the nice thing. It was Sophie's not in it. We've got the people who are actually genuine workers there.

Tommy: Yeah.

Oscar: And it was really nice because it showed how much the Silver Star staff would care for their guests and do anything. And to be honest with you, most of them are Aussies, so it's a really nice, you know, family fun sort of place to go to. And then on top of that, yeah, it was just— they had a lot of fun. We actually— it was very organic sometimes. Like someone said, oh, you know, we've got these stunt people who have been working on this new film, blah blah blah, they're along here and they're here and they're happy to do some work. And so we were like, this is brilliant. We got them on a scooter snowmobile and got them to do jumps and flips and all that sort of stuff.

Tommy: So cool.

Oscar: It's pretty cool.

Tommy: What do you—

Josh: with the, um, you're on both sides in some ways where it's like you are working for a brand, but you've also seen Sophie with the influence— influencer side of things. How do you see it from a brand perspective of having people stay at resorts and things like that? What's the, what's the metrics that you're looking at in that regard?

Oscar: It depends on who they are.

Tommy: And can we get free pass?

Josh: Yeah, the daily talk show OB, we'll do an OB live 5 days a week.

Oscar: You can skate free. Oh great, I'll give you a skate free pass.

Josh: Oh perfect, can we have a 97 skate free as well?

Oscar: You can as well.

Tommy: His bosses are watching right now going, Oscar's a loose cannon.

Oscar: He's just offering Dish Nation Australia liability.

Tommy: Lost our car.

Josh: Give you a free car. Uh, yeah, so yeah, what do What's your perspective on the whole thing?

Oscar: I am all for it if it works out. I've done some partnerships with even bigger brands and everything's great on paper. Everyone gets really excited beforehand and then it doesn't fucking happen. And it's so frustrating, it's, you know, because you can see it's not going to work, it's not going to work, it's not going to work, and you're doing everything to try and prop it up. And if there's just no partner, if there's no one on the other side, then it just falls flat.

Josh: What doesn't work about it, do you think? Is it like the— so you're basically, you're asking people how you need to post, there's commitments around posting, they just don't meet that?

Oscar: Oh no, That was, sorry, I was giving more of an, uh, to do with a partnership. Yeah. Uh, corporate thing. Sorry. With brands, like with influencers and stuff like that. Um, I think it just depends on who they are, how many numbers they have, how valuable they might be. And also one thing I always wanna know is like, what do you wanna do?

Josh: Yeah.

Oscar: Like the last thing you wanna hear from as a creative is, oh, this is what you have to do.

Josh: Yeah.

Oscar: It's just, you know, oh yeah, you wanna come to Silver Star? Why? You know, what do you wanna do with it? What are your thoughts? Because imagine if they came along and they said, look, actually, I'm really having this idea, I really want to do this idea for a 3-part web series and whatever, and this is the concept, and I've got this person, this person, this person, and we can make it this big. So it actually might work out well. Some people might just come for a day and do a post and that sort of thing, and that might be okay as well. But yeah, so it just depends.

Tommy: I mean, you gave Sophie Monk the credit for the idea behind the recruitment video, but I think definitely the— you should give yourself more credit. You've had some amazing ideas come to life. Do you think that radio was where you learned those idea sensibilities?

Oscar: I think that radio helped me believe— I like to think of an idea and to execute it. That's, that's the only thing that's stopping people from not doing what they're doing is the execution part. And you're in such a— you know what it's like, there's a billion things happening and you've got to, yeah, you've got to just constantly sort of go with it. So you're forced to think of an idea. And, and to be honest, it's also about good teams, you know. I think I think we were quite fortunate in the teams that we had to work with in being able to do things. And then, you know, then later I was working with Kyle and Jack and I'd go, hey, I've got this idea. And it wasn't met with, oh, you know, you shouldn't do that, or you can't do that. It was, yeah, no worries, just go do it. You know, just, it wasn't an issue. How much money do you need for it? Oh, I think, you know, one time we gave away $10,000. Yep, no worries, well, let's do it, you know, if it's going to help out and whatever it might be. So that creative that environment allows you to go, okay, let's think of anything possible. What would be really good and why would it be good and who are the people we're trying to target? And then, yeah, and you have some, you know, little wins and there's a couple of clangers in there as well. I remember once we decided to do a— I don't know whose idea it was, but we— it certainly wasn't the best idea— was we had a guy propose to his girlfriend in a portaloo.

Josh: Oh great.

Oscar: Not great.

Josh: Was it integration with Kenny?

Tommy: Ken Ardsheid? Kenny, your mate?

Josh: Oh yeah.

Oscar: Um, no, it's just a shit idea.

Josh: Yeah. Um, the, the radio stuff, the, the content, the, the content part of it, where do you— like, being zoomed out a bit, where do you think that radio could potentially go with the shows on air? Yeah, like the future of stuff in, you know, 5 years, 10 years' time. Do you have an insight being out of radio now of where you think it will go?

Oscar: I think it, well, it's just wherever the money is.

Josh: Yeah.

Oscar: So I think if they're able to still create these great shows and have really talented people, you know, and they have the sales team behind it and they've got the ability to market, then I think it'll be around for a while. It just will change naturally, you know, you start to, and their deals will start to change. So say for instance, you know, back in the day, client comes in, you've got to think of these ideas. I think a lot will be tied, a lot of the digital will be tied to a lot of the talent. I think from now on in.

Tommy: Well, the scale of their business is their asset or liability. Like them not being able to, I mean, we felt it in some times where there was no support and you're in a big business. I always felt like when I got to those major markets, I was like, fuck, I thought this would be different.

Josh: I think prioritisation as well, right? So they're prioritizing, you've got like the on-air talent and all that sort of thing. And you've got that sort of idea all that matters is what's through the speakers and coming from that sort of school of thought.

Tommy: I will, I will say I think there has to be some shift. And I know there's, there's only a handful of talent that are still at the top, but they have to be willing to play ball with—

Josh: you have to be digitally friendly, you have to be on social media.

Oscar: But you know what, anyone that's right at the top of the talent field, they know that, and they're really smart, and they, they get their value and what their value is to big business and you know, they can understand how to connect the two probably better than anyone else. I'm talking even, you know, EPs and, you know, other management and stuff like that. So I think they're across that part of it.

Tommy: Have you seen yourself as a— I guess talent's not the right word for any of us, it's like a creator. I know that you're a content creator, but in terms of like your rise of your social, personal brand, your personal brand, like being associated with Sophie and doing the great work have you ever, like, do you see that as a thing, or is it like current affair gear?

Oscar: Well, I've actually got another one in my back pocket with Trace. Hey Trace! Um, no, you know what, I just, it's so funny because I look at a lot of my, some of my friends who are influencers on a different level, just, you know, so, you know, media personality, and she's obviously aligned with Nine and all that sort of stuff. So it's sort of different that versus the influencer side. But you see all these influencers and they, they create content and they go to these things, and I can't be fucked doing all that stuff. Like, I— my fear is to have to go into a room and have to talk to a lot of people that I don't know, I don't care about, and I— and then I'm trying to take a photo to show people that I'm there. It doesn't do it for me. I would rather like take a photo of my car which just got stolen and try and hunt it down that way, you know what I mean? Like, I don't think I've got the energy. I'd rather focus my energy on doing something for another brand, or yeah, or if it's a good idea, if it's a fun idea.

Tommy: Yeah, I think it actually ends up happening that you become the influencer that way. Like, I think it does, where the focus isn't on, I want to be, you know, front and centre at the parties.

Oscar: Yeah, I think that you just— I don't know, I just can't be bothered. I think it's— and I want to be as authentic as possible. Yeah, yeah. On your social, and like, sometimes I'll do stuff for work because it's what I'm working on, but but yeah, then I'm like, oh, maybe I should post because people don't know where I live, you know. It's just even those sorts of things. So I don't know, I just sort of go, oh, do I like it? Yeah.

Josh: What's your relationship with pitching ideas? So for instance, like I saw you in— were you in Italy with Soph doing a TV thing? How does, how does that happen?

Tommy: What was that? Just quickly, because I don't have a TV.

Oscar: So we filmed a special. So Sophie and I have a production company which we started about a year or so ago called Lazy Susan, which she thought of the idea, that was one of hers. And so we— which is funny because our production company is Lazy Susan, and then you think about it, one of the biggest or best, you know, production companies, Working Dog. So you've got Working Dog, you know, their philosophies, and they've got Lazy Susan over there. It's like, did you get around to anything, guys? Oh no, no, we're working on stuff.

Josh: That's so funny.

Oscar: Um, so we did a special for Nine, Sophie and I, in it and produced it, and we're just looking at recutting a few bits and pieces.

Tommy: But has it come out yet?

Oscar: No.

Josh: Okay, and so what is— what was the actual process? Oh no, the process of like, how do you fucking like— how do you pitch for things? How do you communicate? How do you— it sounds like with re-editing and stuff, there's sort of like stakeholder management and all that.

Oscar: So there's just no set way at all, and I can tell you the way that it happened for us is not the way that that it would happen for many other people. It just depends on the situation and your value and their priorities and understanding their priorities. And yeah, so I don't, the process, it was very much centred around Sophie obviously because she just got off the Bachelorette. And so yeah, that was just something, a passion project that we'd wanna work on for a while.

Tommy: And you got to go to Europe.

Oscar: Free holiday to Italy was so good.

Tommy: That's amazing. And so have you got, ideas in the pipeline for Lazy Susan?

Oscar: Yeah, yeah, but I think it's like, it's the same thing, like we want it to work for the both of us. We're both very fortunate and we've got separate things, so it's more of a passion, you know, it's always centred around passion. So even if like, because you know, naturally I'm talking to different brands all the time, you know, there might not be something that we can work with there, but oh, I've got an idea, I've got this idea that I wanted to work on, I'd love to pitch to you to see if you think it might work, and then that might work in that space.

Tommy: And how do you put together, like, are you fully writing out the idea, how the video looks?

Oscar: Depends on who they are and what materials I've got and what the idea is, but sometimes I'll go in, how I used to do it in radio is I just used to think visually about, very, you know, visual, I'd think about how the idea might play out, I'd write a little one-pager or whatever and I'd send it through, and then it just got to a stage where I went, oh hey, I've got this idea, I've got this idea, and then you just sort of, you go away with it. With businesses, it just depends on the type of people they are, if they're quite risk-averse they might want that time time. They want to see all the dots, and it's frustrating for me because I'm just like, oh, yes or no, it's fine if it's not going to happen, you just let me know. Um, but you know, I've just got to be respectful. I think that's part of the process when you're working with someone, is to work out how it is that they want to work. And because you want it to be valuable, you know, the last thing you want to do is for it to not succeed.

Josh: Yeah. What's your relationship with social media?

Oscar: Um, it's very strong. It's the only relationship I've got in my life.

Josh: So yeah, Do you think that the— it's— do you think it's overstated at the moment, the sort of the mental health stuff and the negativity of social media? Do you think it's understated or overstated?

Oscar: I think that— I don't know, I just think it is what it is. Like, I see people that promote mental health with it, and I get it. Like, imagine when you're growing up having to— because, you know, obviously Facetune and, you know, people are half nude all the time and And I suppose it was like that for us in a different form with magazines or whatever, whatever generation it was. So it's always there. The generation above is always coming through the ranks and they're always, you know, there's always an issue with the younger generation coming through and worrying about them. And you know what, I think that it's like bullying happens regardless. It's just what medium that it comes to you at. And I don't know, I'm not—

Josh: So you're not a screen time guy? You're not like managing how much time you're spending anything on your phone or anything?

Oscar: No, nah, nah, no, we should just have a quick check. Yeah, well, do you know what, this is a brand new phone, so it'll be interesting to see what happened to your last one.

Tommy: Oh well, that's the ACA story.

Josh: That's— it was in the car, it was in the car.

Oscar: Do you know what, this is my second replacement.

Josh: Is it an iPhone 7 Plus?

Tommy: Why is it a replacement?

Josh: They did that, they replaced mine last week too. My, uh, speakers went.

Oscar: Yeah, mine, I couldn't call and I was like, that's the only thing you need to do.

Tommy: Yeah, I feel like there's people who just put up with this stuff And then there's people like us that are always looking. I'm looking for a replacement. I've gone in twice.

Josh: How good is it though, because you've got a new— so you've got, what's that?

Oscar: Oh, this is so good because I've only literally just got it as of yesterday. So my screen time, just so you know everyone, I only like to do an hour and 50 minutes a day.

Josh: Okay, what's the breakdown on that?

Oscar: Is that actually an hour and 55 minutes is social networking?

Josh: Are you gonna get in trouble from the boss?

Tommy: Your boss watching thinking Skype, you love Skype.

Oscar: Oh, I'm so glad this is not what it was normally.

Tommy: Wow.

Josh: No, it doesn't show you website. It won't show you.

Oscar: That's not meta, that's good. Okay, so yeah, Skype a lot because I'm, you know, Canada.

Josh: Get a bit nervous, you know, people get real funny with their phone. Well, but also you're like, oh no, yeah, there is.

Oscar: I just say be careful, it's use at your own risk. You know when you have to give your phone back after you've used it at work? Oh no, you're going through the photos and I'm like, what screenshots do I have?

Tommy: Dude, I was on a plane the other day looking and I could see a guy sitting in the aisle seat, but he was kind of a couple in, it was vacant, so I had line of sight to his laptop and he's just going through his photos on his computer. He just got to dick shots and it was him.

Oscar: Oh, and you saw it?

Tommy: Oh, it was him. Yeah, yeah, it was.

Josh: Yeah, filled the whole screen. Like, there was that many that he took that it was—

Tommy: I actually want—

Oscar: Is this you? Is this one of these stories? Oh, I was— I saw someone once.

Tommy: I opened up my phone phone in front of a girl and I had her Instagram open. As I've opened it up, I was like next to her. She was like— I knew her, we weren't dating.

Oscar: But did you call it out?

Tommy: No, I fucking got out of it and she ignored it. It's one of those awkward ones where you know they're ignoring it.

Oscar: But stalking happens, you know, it just does. So I just got— yeah, stalking. Yeah, you're shit, by the way. You need to really ramp it up. Yeah, no, um, yeah, I mean, I love social media. I think it's really good. And but you do get tired of it. Like sometimes you go through Instagram and I've got friends who have to get rid of the app for a little bit because it actually affects them.

Josh: Yeah, I'm on— that's you, that's me. But at the moment with the Daily Talk Show, I've been managing that, and so my use time— like, I could spend 5 hours on it.

Tommy: Do you think it's maybe because it feels like it's a bit inconspicuous, like who's on there?

Josh: There's a progress— I feel like there's progress when you're doing stuff, especially with the Daily Talk Show. I feel like when I like something, it's like— it's, it's, it's also visibility. Like, I've told this storey to myself around like, oh, I'm me interacting and consuming content. Yeah, is also—

Tommy: there is a different feeling for your own personal branded Instagram versus a page. Like, how many, how many Instagram accounts do you have for myself?

Josh: Like, with all your business stuff, do you look—

Oscar: well, like, I've got— yeah, this Silver Star, I've got that, and I've got, um, like, I remember when you were looking after a bunch of the radio stations, like, so many. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Josh: And Instagram used to be—

Oscar: oh, I've actually got that, and I've also got my my dog Humphrey.

Tommy: Okay, how many, how many followers is Humphrey?

Oscar: Well, I stopped posting on Humphrey's because he started beating me and I thought, fuck you, you don't do anything and I'm doing all your content and you're getting a bit of me. So he's 1,241. What happens with Humphrey the lab?

Josh: What happens with Humphrey when you go away?

Oscar: Uh, so a friend, a really good friend of mine, Connor, who runs Dogs of Melbourne, she looks after him.

Josh: Is that an Instagram account?

Oscar: And that's an Instagram— yeah, it's an Instagram account and it's also dog walking, dog minding all around Melbourne. So I've got the best person to possibly look after my dog. She, you know, he goes on adventures every day and all, and I get all these photos come through for me when I was in Canada. It's awesome.

Tommy: Did Humphrey get a bit annoyed at you?

Oscar: Nah, doesn't care. Oh, you're back.

Josh: Yeah, you know, it doesn't, doesn't care.

Tommy: If it was a Staffy, you'd be anxious. And oh yeah, they're very anxious.

Josh: What if you, um, That's it.

Oscar: We're just now looking at, um, that looks so incriminating, I've got to say, because this just popped up on my phone.

Josh: I know you can't see it, but, uh, it's a friend, a mutual friend. Yeah, Tommy D, and he's topless doing some modelling stuff, and it just looks like I'm just staring at it. It has that vibe. What have you learned from— don't go to the—

Oscar: you know when you go to the explore feed and it's all obviously all the content that you resonate with?

Josh: It's your brain.

Oscar: Oh yeah, so like going into mine now, oh, there's a load lot of male fitness, uh, yeah, because I'm very fit. Tattoos, lots of dogs, lots of dogs, puppies, and snow. And, um, oh yeah, it's weird, there's a few, um, it is funny, it's like, um, your YouTube search.

Tommy: I reckon YouTube search probably says a bit more about everybody. Yeah, in terms of like, you know, your discover page, your home page.

Josh: Yeah, I spend so— do you spend much time on YouTube?

Oscar: I just— yeah, yeah.

Josh: Do you have it on it? Because I have it on my TV, like it's my number one app on my TV and stuff. You don't into that?

Oscar: Yeah, occasionally my housemate will do it.

Josh: Yeah, yeah.

Oscar: Um, yeah, I don't set like a timer going, I've got— I can't wait to go home.

Josh: Okay, well, I'm doing it. What have you learned from hanging out with and working with Sophie?

Oscar: What have I learned?

Josh: Yeah.

Oscar: Oh, good question. Um, she's got a great ability to be fearless, and it's a really good, uh, and just to be nice and have fun.

Tommy: Where does it come from for her? Yeah, where do you think the fearlessness comes from?

Oscar: I think it comes from that when she's been fearless in the past, it's paid off. And also when you feel, you know, that sense of vulnerability as well. Like everyone wants to try and be this certain image, and that's when I sort of thought about it. Like when the car got stolen, I thought, fuck it, I'm just going to put it up on social media. Because do I look like I'm— does it look reckless? Yes. Does it look like I can't get my shit together? Yes. Does it look like another, you know— but I thought it's true. And just be, and you know, you've got to be, and she's very that as well, you know, she's very, that's one thing I probably learned a lot from her. So she, um, I think she learned a lot from LA because she spent 10 years there and you can imagine, you know, being blonde and walking into casting agents who say no, no, no, no, no, and it's because of this look, this look, this look, like it can obviously affect you. So I think her motto, yeah, is just very much to, to be happy and, and, you know, she's got a mum and a dad that she looks after on her property, you know, on the Gold Coast. Like, she's got a house for them that she's set up with. So yeah, she's done really well.

Tommy: What about, um, Jules Lund, your cousin? Yes, he's, he's taught me a lot.

Josh: What?

Tommy: Yeah, I mean, he's a great person to have in your life if you're wanting to get into— I guess he's, you know, mindset, self-development, but also career is very career-driven.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: What I know, he used to make you film him. Yeah, in the early days before he was a B-list So what we would do—

Oscar: such an asshole. No, so what we would do—

Tommy: now he's a dick.

Josh: He said it on the show himself.

Oscar: Hey, yeah, did he mention this?

Josh: No, no, no, he mentioned his status.

Oscar: Yeah, so he used to pay me, and he actually paid me quite well.

Tommy: This is—

Oscar: I was still in school— to write 30-second, 60-second scripts. Yeah, like he was doing pieces to camera. And so it started off with him in his bedroom where I wasn't even allowed to go into his bedroom. I'd set the camera up on the tripod and and close the door, and I was out talking to his mum, my auntie, my auntie, while he did his thing. And then he's like, okay, yep, I'm ready. And then so it started from there and he just grew his confidence to being able to talk on. And so we'd have him down on Chapel Street and I'd get him to jump up on a garbage bin and have to do a piece to camera to my, you know, those big cameras back then. Yeah. With people walking by and keeping focus. And I'd only just, you know, show him the script a little bit so he's forced to just do it off the top of his head. But that actually prepared him to go and do an audition at Channel 9. And, you know, next minute he's doing Getaway.

Josh: What were you like in school?

Oscar: Me?

Josh: Yeah. Um, like a media kid? If you—

Oscar: oh yeah, yeah, yeah, always. And I knew it wasn't the cool thing to do, but I did not care. Yeah, you know, we had, um, at— I went to school at Xavier, and they had it. I couldn't believe it because I went in there in Year 10, and one thing that I loved about it is I walked through and they had an actual there with cameras and no one's using them. And I was like, this is incredible. So I really want to do that. So in order to do that part of school sport, you basically got to choose if you wanted to do swimming or footy or basketball. Hey, basketball would be great for Oscar, wouldn't it? And I chose AV, audiovisual, which was going and getting a camera and going and filming the people who are playing sports. Well, let me tell you, that's a fucking boring job doing that, but it was good because it just gave me those basic skills. And we created a TV show that we did we made the school watch once a week or once every twice a week, but it was actually a really good experience and helped me with school skills to, you know, do what I'm doing now.

Tommy: Do you think it's cool now? Like, I know it is more cool to be a filmmaker.

Josh: Everyone wants to be a YouTuber. All the kids want to be YouTubers.

Tommy: Do you think these media rooms— I mean, your mum used to work at Xavier— do you think they're being utilised now by all these kids?

Oscar: Well, the funny thing is, is now you don't need a TV studio and you don't need to use that giant camera that they've got there in the studio and the mixing desk and all. I mean, that's all good experience to learn if you wanna get into actual TV TV. But you can see these stars, I mean, you've had them on your show that just use mobile phone and just, yeah, and they're able to do it.

Tommy: It's an interesting conversation, the type of camera that you should use. And I feel like I was very much in my early days, doesn't matter what you got, you just gotta use what you have. And then the later thought, like where we're at now is we offer a high production service it's expensive and high quality and needs to meet all these, you know, different factors.

Oscar: But are the factors what size and scale?

Tommy: Well, it's more what type of— what's the brand, what's their aesthetic, are they a premium product? They can't be seen to be using an iPhone for this kind of thing. So we, for what we do, we can offer a high-end production service, which doesn't mean that this isn't good to film on your phone, but it's just a different model. And so when I hear— I've had two people this week say, ah, look, look, you know, businesses don't care what, um, cameras you use, but that's actually just where they're at in their story.

Josh: Well, the storey at the beginning, it's, it's like, uh, content is king. And if you've got a shit— if you don't have— it's like with using the example with the Jules stuff, if he doesn't have the input, if he doesn't have that original bit of script or something to work off or something to talk about, it's really fucking hard. You can buy a podcast, you know, set up really inexpensively.

Tommy: Yeah, great talent will shine on shit quality production.

Oscar: Yeah.

Josh: And so that's the thing is it's like you want The barrier to entry shouldn't be the camera that you're using. Having an iPhone is perfectly fine to start making YouTube videos. It shouldn't be the excuse. But then there is a point where it's like, you've got this content thing sorted, let's match it up with like—

Tommy: Well, I feel like working closely with you, Oscar, I've seen that it wasn't really a thought. Like you've always been idea—

Oscar: Lead first, yeah.

Tommy: Idea first. Hey, what do you, are you still thinking like that? Yes, but—

Oscar: It depends on what, what it is that you're doing. So if you're doing a branding piece for a brand, that's going to be shiny, it's gonna— that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to engage people in the content that's there though. It all depends on the content. So you can have something that's really shiny, and I get there's a place for it. So say for instance a company comes along and says, hey, we want to show, um, 60 seconds of the best of a ski resort. I'm going to find the best content, but I'm going to make it look really high, you know, a certain level of quality to it. So certain cameras, certain photographers, whoever it is that we've worked with, because the point of that is they're gonna play it, they're gonna display it in a whole room full of people. But if you want content to do well on digital, then I'd rethink the whole, you know, I'd rethink the whole thing. Like, say for instance, it was the ski resort wants to, yeah, create brand awareness with their competitors, with whoever it is, then I would go out and think of what the idea might be and then what would complement that. And you know, you've got to remember a lot of people when they're going through their, uh, they're scrolling through their feeds is they're used to seeing, um, quality, you know, phone quality, and they're almost instinctively more engaged with that quality. Um, similarly, we did a video the other day where I used high-end quality video but I formatted it so that it was in that longer social media friendly format, which is is higher engaging. So it just depends on the idea.

Josh: Well, you don't, you don't want it to look like a TV commercial because then people know it's being sold to. I think that's where people end up parodying, um, these formats where it's like, oh, I need to make it look like a TV commercial so people will think it's more legitimate. But really, you can tell the difference between when you're flicking through, say, Instagram Stories, when it goes to an ad and it's produced and all that sort of thing, it straight away loses. I just flick straight through versus if it actually feels like it's in your feed and it's organic and it's part of the whole platform, it's different.

Oscar: And then it depends, like, are we doing an ad? Are we actually going, you know what, we're doing an ad? Or are we going to try and do some content and do organic native sort of— and, and I love that style. Yeah, um, that's, that's my favourite thing to do really. And then, but there are opportunities to do bigger things. And it's, yeah, it's good though, 'cause you've got constantly, and particularly with all this social media that changes, you know, you can now do certain length of storey on your Instagram, you can now do Instagram TV, but you can only do it if it's certain size and all this sort of shit. But you just, I think if you keep doing it and you keep involving yourself in it and you keep an eye on it, then yeah, you have a better understanding of what, yeah.

Josh: So when do you leave to go back to Canada? When does that happen?

Oscar: Probably won't be for until the end of the year. But I might, yeah.

Josh: Yeah. And the living arrangement, like, do you live at the resort?

Oscar: Yeah, I stay in a hotel.

Tommy: It's one of the ski-in ski-out, like, you can—

Josh: Yeah. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, I've never done the skiing thing before. I feel like I would fuck my back real bad. Definitely.

Tommy: Well, you heard, like, F1, not even skiing, he jumped into snow.

Josh: Is it like how many injuries? I know that's probably not great PR, but do a lot of people fuck themselves?

Oscar: Well, yeah, if they're silly, then absolutely. But, um, it's It's, it's a pretty incredible thing to do. And you know, it sometimes can be seen as like a very privileged sport because it costs a lot of money to do it, but there are ways that you can do it. And even Silver Star, it's actually— it turns out to be a lot more cheaper to go over to Silver Star, stay at the accommodation which is right next to the ski runs, have the skiing which is better quality, more snow, less people on the runs, less wait times, and have a cheaper holiday than going to a local Australian.

Tommy: Where do we Where do we book? Where do we book?

Oscar: skisilverstar.com. No, but you know, but that is the truth and that's with a lot of Canadians and particularly on the dollar. But yeah, so I stay, there's a hotel there, it's called Snowbird and I stay in one of the—

Tommy: Amazing.

Josh: So is it with like other people who—

Tommy: You've really worked out.

Josh: Is there anyone else that you're working with that's on like the same floor? Like do you have like an employee floor type of thing or you're just amongst?

Oscar: Oh no, I'm the exception to the rule.

Tommy: Always has been, always will.

Josh: I love that. I love that. Yeah, mate, thanks for being on the show. It'd be— we're eventually going to fucking do a bit of a world tour, maybe 2020.

Tommy: That'd be great.

Josh: We'll come and take you up on the freeskiing, and maybe I'll get a back brace or something in preparation.

Tommy: Is there any sort of desire to make the production company more of the full-time thing outside of—

Oscar: only if the opportunity allowed us to. I mean, I think we're both pretty Relaxed with it all. It's like, let's let a good idea happen. We've been lucky with the video stuff we've done in the past. Let's not just turn it into something where we have to employ, we have to do this, and it becomes a labor. Yeah, um, we just want to do it just the merit of the idea of the whatever it is that we're working on.

Josh: Yeah, I love it.

Tommy: It's probably— that's how it will happen for you.

Josh: Yeah, thanks for coming on, mate.

Oscar: It's a Daily Talk Show.

Josh: hi@thedailytalkshow.com is our email address. Address, and we, we answer emails and stuff when we don't have guests because otherwise it's just a bit admin heavy.

Tommy: It's boring for you.

Josh: Yeah. So Daily Talk Show, we'll see you tomorrow, guys.

Tommy: See you guys.