Auditions, Pitching & The Loop With Scott Tweedie

Scott: The Daily Talk Show.

Josh: It's The Daily Talk Show, episode 460.

Tommy: And we're in the depths of Channel 10 in Sydney.

Scott: The dungeon?

Tommy: Scott Tweedy, welcome to the show.

Scott: Great to be on the show, boys. I love keeping up to date. To be honest, I don't listen to your full podcast. I do the snippets on Instagram.

Tommy: Oh, great.

Scott: 'Cause I'm part of that generation where you're running around always on the fly, but talk about commitment and you guys killing it. And I love the stats as well, 'cause the last month You've honestly been on fire. And it's all that hard work where you've just been grinding away is now coming to life.

Tommy: A couple of narcissists that realise when you're posting your stats of success and people respond, it's, um, it's a great strategy.

Scott: Welcome to Instagram. I'm awesome, look at me.

Tommy: But tell us, where, where are we right now? What is this room?

Scott: Okay, so I've actually— the boys came to reception at Channel 10, and our Channel 10 building is kind of like your local shopping mall where right in the middle is our news desk. Um, that's where they film Studio 10, the news.

Josh: They also do The Loop, which is a huge Everyone loves that show.

Tommy: And the show on 10.

Scott: But around that is like a big hollow open space and all the offices around there for like levels 3, 4, 5, and 6. But we've gone down to level 2 and we've gone about 100 metres west to where all the green rooms are. And there's about a block of 9 green rooms and this is the biggest one. This is where all like the punters come for shows like Celebrity Name Game, Family Feud.

Josh: We fit. We are 100% ready.

Scott: Steady Cook and a couple of Gronkh punters here. Welcome boys, welcome home.

Tommy: There's a makeup mirror, which Mr. 97's currently sitting in. He's not, he's just had his hair done.

Scott: I love Justin Timberlake.

Josh: Yeah, he's rocking it. I mean, congratulations, 400 episodes. Yeah, you're about to hit.

Scott: That's this Saturday, which is when we made it to episode 20, we were like, oh yeah, because in TV it's, it's a bit of a milestone to make it past 100, then 200. I've been doing it for 8 years.

Tommy: Is that because the show could get canned or you just need to still have your job or what is it?

Scott: All of the above.

Tommy: Okay, basically stars have to align for it to get to 400.

Scott: It really does. And it's like, we've built an audience now, and it's not a huge audience, but for a Saturday morning slot, we are consistently like number 1 or 2. And that's taking on like 7 and 9 and 10, the mothership channels. So we are like stoked with our little audience that we've found. And it took us quite a long time to figure out what was the right sort of formula for that.

Tommy: And how are you getting—

Scott: we're a lean show. Like, we are— there's 5 of us that make the whole show.

Tommy: How are you getting the feedback to work it out? I mean, are people—

Scott: numbers, numbers, ratings. So that's what brings revenue. So we just have to— although feedback could be different on Facebook or Twitter, we have to listen to the revenue driver, which is ratings.

Tommy: What is something that's actually— you've realised that you needed to change?

Scott: Older the better, the more retro it is. People, I think, because our average audience is a 44-year-old female.

Tommy: Yeah.

Scott: So they just love like a blast from the past when there's a Saturday morning cleaning the house, or they've just taken their kids to sport, or doesn't matter what what they're doing, flick on the telly, and if they hear a song that reminds them of 20 years ago, like their 18th party, they're like, I love nostalgia.

Tommy: Yeah, that's why every day's R&B Friday. It worked for Southern Cross Hysteria doing Fridays. Yeah, but we love flashbacks, that's the thing.

Josh: I mean, that old music, more than actual like present day, like it's gonna be more exciting us looking back and saying how good was it doing the podcast than it is right now.

Tommy: Yeah, you're probably— it probably helps because you connect to that 'Cause I mean, it's like the shit you were listening to when you were younger.

Scott: Totally, it works perfectly for us 'cause we're like, but then we become very biassed as well with like what we do play. So we have to listen to the audience on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, like their requests. But at the same time, the style, we just know, you know, metal too niche, which is unfortunate. So we go main, main, mainstream rock and pop. And then also we play the new stuff in like the last hour of the show.

Tommy: Yeah, well, I followed your journey for quite some time. I remember looking at your showreels when I was trying to, you know, have my crack at being a presenter. And now I'm here, guys, I'm in the green room.

Scott: And I'm out. So this is where we do the transition.

Tommy: But what I've loved about your journey is you actually create as well. You know, there's a bunch of TV personalities from years ago that just present, but there's so much more to it. And there's that creation element. Jules Lund kicked me up the ass and said, you need to start creating. What was it for you to actually start being a creator as well as a presenter?

Scott: I think it was from day one. It was to get my first gig was being a creator. 'Cause I'd made a few lies up when I was working at uni and I was on the street team for Nova Radio to give me out the cans of Coke. And it was that whole, I realised I could get more hours at a casual rate filming the radio guys and going also more access to like famous people by filming them as well. So you go to a festival and you're like, yeah, cool. We'll interview Fatboy Slim and then that's it. And I'm like, well, what about all the rest of the artists? And they're like, nah. Well, can I do it? And they're like, yeah. And I'm like, sweet. So I'm like, ho ka kopi, how are you? Just had the worst microphone technique ever and like making mistakes. So I had all these like years of experience doing rookie stuff. And then I was like, to a guy at Nova, I was like, he was on TV. I was like, how can I get on TV? And he goes, mate, if you're good enough, you'll get on TV. He's like, make a showreel. And I'm like, but how do you make a showreel without being on a show? And he goes, fake it. Go out there with a camera. And just film and film and film. And so I had my ex-girlfriend at the time, bless her, she was my camerawoman. And we just do take after take. And then you go to more and more public spaces where you get more and more nervous, make all these mistakes, but make a slick showreel. And then it was like, bang. So from the word go, I was creating, had this dream run at ABC where it was like life was on a platter with these great programming and shows. And then I came to 10 and you just realise you've gotta put, if you wanna do what you wanna do, no one's gonna do it for you. So I'm lucky that like I can pay the bills with what I do on TV, but I'm still right now like aggressively behind the scenes creating formats, shows, working with production companies to sell to Channel 10 or whoever will buy it nowadays. And so I think I've spent 10 years on camera building up credibility, but at the same time you just need to like, if I wanna do like right now, if I sat in an office with an exec and they're like, what show at Channel 10 do you wanna host? And I'm probably like, like of course any of them, but I'm like really deep down, none of them. And it's like a show that I want to do with a team I want to do it with. So yeah, it's so important nowadays.

Josh: Yeah.

Scott: Which is bloody hard. It's just like, I probably spent, if you consolidated the hours, like 5 to 10,000 hours just writing pitches, like pitch decks and like delivering to people and they're like, yeah, cool. That's great. I'll talk to you in a month. Never hear from them again. So you just got like rejection, rejection, rejection, rejection. And I still haven't struck gold yet, but getting closer.

Tommy: But we're in the grey room.

Josh: The 5 people on the team, you talk about that being lean. Within radio, that's a decent-sized team. The contrast between producing radio content versus TV content, what do you see as the main differences?

Scott: I feel like we are very much like a radio show in that Liv and myself write and we come up with ideas for segments. Then we have one more producer to work with, to sort of bounce with. Then we have that same producer is an editor, and then we have another editor as well that has input. So that's where you get 4 of us, and then we have our executive producer that goes, you can't have money for this, you can have money for this. And when I say that, we can never have money. So it's like, we are as lean as it gets. We use the news crew from Studio 10 that flip around the cameras and replace the set to say the loop. And they all work another 2 hours overtime to get the loop in the can. Um, so yeah, we are similar to a radio show in that all the ideas come from us. Um, and yeah, basically we have to keep watching other sources of content to go, that's funny, let's do something similar, or why aren't we doing this, can we do this? And 9 times out of 10 it's a no because we don't have money to do that. So you've got to find out a cheap way to do it.

Josh: I heard you mention that with Prank Patrol it was $80 grand per episode. Yeah, it's a lot of money.

Scott: It's a lot of money for a kid's show.

Josh: Yeah.

Scott: So that's like, that includes 3 days of production. Um, on the 3rd day, the prank day, we probably had like 20 to 30 people on set. Yeah, which is huge. It had like an OB truck. Um, it was incredible. So that, that was for me, was coming from money.

Josh: Yeah. Did that spoil you a little bit? Or like, I guess that's like not big money, like in the grand scheme of what's happening.

Scott: So normal TV shows are about like about $200,000 to $300,000 an episode. Prime time, you get to the mil, $2 mil an episode.

Tommy: What's a show that's $200,000 to $300,000 an episode?

Scott: A medium-sized show. So like any of those ones from pilot week on Channel 10, like, uh, Have You Been Paying Attention, all those sorts of shows where it's either filmed in one studio where they can bash it out, or it's like a, it's, you know, Bondi Rescue, that'll be like $200,000 to $300,000. Um, then you get the I'm a Celebrity, all the big shiny floors, Dancing with the Stars, where you get into the multiple millions of dollars. Um, so yeah, it's— I've come from what I thought was at the time for Prank Patrol, I was working with freelancers that worked on those bigger shows, and they're like, oh, this sucks, we don't even get catering, you know, they're whinging about how bad that was.

Josh: Isn't it crazy, like, when we work with soundos, we're always blown away by when they've come from TV, the expectations of Everything from parking to food to like, we've had to really up our game when we bring in multiple people.

Scott: Yeah, yeah, it's like that. And so, well, having a sounder is a luxury.

Josh: Yeah, yeah.

Scott: Even when I do live crosses for Studio 10, it's just me and a camera guy.

Josh: Yeah.

Scott: And he's doing everything. So, you know, and once again, the pressure on them as well, their job's doubled. So they're like, listen, make sure it's not peaking out, and then also make sure their pictures are great, it's a nice white balance. Meanwhile, you've got a lunatic in front of the camera who's being unpredictable. Hitting a chimpanzee in the head with like a something. I gotta get that shot. And then so yeah, like the pressure's gone up, but then I also think the looseness is also nice. I think people like it when it's not as polished.

Josh: Yeah.

Scott: Um, and then another half of my world is, is trying to make cool content just for Instagram to like stay relevant and just have fun with people.

Tommy: Well, it is branding for you, you know, your shows, uh, for the network. Can you— are you actually allowed to rip the content somehow if you ask for it.

Scott: Who's asking? I mean, I went to ask.

Tommy: I was on the project and I asked, um, can I have it? And they said no.

Scott: Well, that's the first rule, you never ask.

Tommy: Yeah, I stopped right after that. I mean, I was just— I thought I was being nice.

Scott: No, I, I do the whole, you just do things and then, you know, wait for the slap on the wrist.

Tommy: Yeah, yeah, I'm so sorry about that. Ask for forgiveness. Yeah, beg for forgiveness.

Josh: Oh, there's heaps of people who have syphoned audiences from like that was big popular in the radio, like early days of social media with radio was radio announcers would just sign off their personal account on the stations and we just like end up building huge audiences. Yeah. The Pilot Week, I'm curious about that. The vibe around the studio when Pilot Week's on, what is it like?

Tommy: So Pilot Week, just firstly in America is this crazy month.

Scott: It's a big deal, yeah.

Tommy: Where people are bringing their shows and what is it? They're shown or they're just actually shared?

Scott: So actually they film the first episode, so the pilot episode, and then they air it and they actually listen to the audience. And they have like, in some instances they have like, they'll do a viewing at Vegas and they have like 1,000 people there and they literally all have these little buttons. And when they like things, they press it like, yes, we like that. When they don't like it, we don't like it. So that's how also actors get cast as well. So like every time you come on, I feel like dislike, dislike, you're not gonna make it in the main series.

Tommy: Jeez.

Scott: So that's one sort of style of the metric system of how they measure if it's gonna be a success or not. Then there's the whole other side with the executives and then like, you know, how marketable people are. And there's so much to it. And there's a lot of politics to it as well. 'Cause it's like, if a production company is likable, you've got pull, you know, you've got power there as well. So here at Ten, it's really exciting because they are giving, you know, a lot of new shows a go. They're still coming from those medium-sized production companies though. Like if you boys put in a cracking idea, I still say the chances are pretty low.

Josh: Yeah.

Scott: And myself as well. Like anyone, if you're not aligned with one of those medium-sized production companies to large ones where they know with a lot of money you can execute a show and make it good, they're not gonna risk that.

Tommy: Well, it's, yeah, who you know, a foot in the door. Did you have any of that or you came with zero contacts?

Scott: And when I started in Planetroll, yeah, it was cold call. That was like, they were advertising on Triple J. They're like, all right, ABC3 is launching, we need heaps of hosts for heaps of shows.

Tommy: I remember this. I, I, I don't know if I actually went for it, but I knew Kane Tramille too.

Scott: Yeah, who's now a good friend of mine.

Tommy: So that was a competition, and was it— it was like everyone entered.

Scott: It was like, it was, it was like national casting call across all ABC's channels, and but YouTube wasn't even around then. And Triple J. And they're like, yeah, casting call, we're looking for all these presenters. And at the time I was at Nova, quite deep into my music interviews, and I was loving it. And I was like, Channel V, MTV, they're, they're where I want to be, they are sick. And I was like, kids TV? I was like, that's not cool. I was like, playschool? I was like, today's colour is fucking red. I probably can't swear on this, sorry. Oh, sweet. So yeah, I was kind of really hesitant, but then I had all this footage in the in the bank and then I can edit as well. And I knew all the other guys from the street team were putting in applications and I was watching their videos and I was like, I think I can do a better one.

Tommy: Yeah.

Scott: So like within 24 hours I quickly filmed just a few more pieces to tie it all together, chopped it up. It had to be 2 minutes or less and mine was 1:59, threw it in and it's pretty action-packed, the showreel. I put a lot in there and then yeah, it was like a week went by and it was like a call-up quick audition at Cutting Edge in Brisbane. I don't know if you're from Brisbane, but it's like a post-production house. Shitting myself when I went in there, like sweating, because I was like, what does this mean? What am I gonna do? And so I just sort of like blanked out everything. It was like, go in there, be yourself, be the guy that you are at Nova, and if you get a gig from it, great. If you don't, whatever. I'm not gonna like make myself more kids TV, like, hey guys, how are you? But I kind of naturally was like that, so it worked. I had like stupid long hair. I used to chemically straighten my hair. Like that emo, you know, it was like a hair helmet.

Tommy: That could be Mr. 97's next one, chemically straighten it.

Scott: You should do it. You'll regret it though. I'm already grey at like 31, I guess, from that. Mate, you'll be bald soon with that peroxide.

Tommy: Josh and I, I think, and I hear you about the audition stuff and it gives me chills because it's so much out of your control. You know, to some degree.

Scott: But it's kind of nice because it's like, here's— I'm gonna rock up as myself, I'm going to be myself, and if you don't like that, there's nothing you can do. They just don't like you, which is really— you just gotta nail the content that you're going in there to entertain them with. And then that's why we had to like prepare for the audition. We had to learn a 2-page script, and then you had to go in there to make up a segment.

Tommy: Yeah.

Scott: And then they're like, all right, do that for us.

Josh: Do you audition well?

Scott: Um, yeah, in those circumstances, yes. I've done a few here at 10 where it's just like, it's just the wrong show. So there've been a few game shows and I'm like, there's no way I want to host this.

Josh: How do they audition for that? Are you like holding cards and sort of running out and going, hey everyone?

Scott: Yeah, you kind of start where it's like in a room like this, but usually at a hotel.

Josh: And what's the vibe? Are there other people there? Are you eyeing each other off?

Scott: No, no, no. But you'll see passing who's going for it sometimes.

Tommy: I did an audition for Couch Time up in Brisbane at Channel 10 there, and I flew up there and I was so pumped. I got through, you know, the first stage, and then there was like 20 people there. You met them all, and they did like some, you know, pairing people together to do some chats on camera, and then they fucking cut half of the people, told them to go home.

Josh: Really?

Tommy: That's brutal.

Josh: It was brutal. Did they do it in front of everyone, or?

Tommy: People just started leaving. Oh, really? I was like, what's going on? And I got through to the second, and then I didn't get it, but I was like Imagine getting cut that first bit.

Scott: They did that for, so for our, for the Prank Patrol one, the ABC3 one, they had in the Brisbane one, 10 of us in a room. So you all do it together, like audition in front of each other, interact with each other, do mock interviews with each other. Then the second stage was down in Sydney. They flew, I think like 20 of us in. And then at lunchtime they told 10 to go home. And it wasn't that whole, you haven't got, okay, we've seen enough of you guys. We're gonna do more with you guys. And we're all like, You guys just got cut. It was pretty obvious and it was brutal for them. And then I was in that last 10 and then they actually told myself and a few others, okay, we've seen enough of you and left Kane and Ambly and then another guy and a girl. And I was like, oh, I didn't get the gig. I was like, but I'm in Sydney for the day.

Tommy: That's fun.

Scott: So yeah, and then from that I actually did get offered Prank Patrol within a week. They're like, can you fly literally by next Friday down to Melbourne? And we're gonna start production on the Monday.

Tommy: How much are you thinking serendipitously, like, you know, this has happened because of this, you know, like everything happens for a reason. Everything happens for a reason because that could be the approach, right?

Josh: I'm not meant for this show, so I actually don't want the show, you know, because you're as much in the audition process, I guess you're also sizing up whether you want the thing or not.

Scott: Nearly no TV, you just want to give and you take, you can't be fussy. But you know, like, this is now only the last 2 years for Channel 10 I've done some auditions where it's just like I think everyone knows it's probably not right, but they're like, we'll put you in there just to see how you go.

Josh: So do you, if you aren't right, are you going to shine though in those auditions? Like, do you find that the stuff you like is the stuff that you're good at?

Scott: You really need to turn your brain on to go like, I'm loving this and I'm killing it at this. But it was tricky. One of the audition ones, I nailed it for the hotel room one. And then in the studio with all the crew that I know from 10, they had like the set built. And I was just like, oh, this is just not— this is cringe.

Josh: So what do you do?

Scott: Do you just smile? Yeah, the show's got to go on. Yeah, you've got to just keep powering.

Tommy: But true TV guy saying, yeah, the show's gonna go on.

Scott: The show must go on, guys. It will be all right.

Tommy: What about the— I mean, we were talking recently about just feeling a bit tired before you go into the show and working with a co-host. You work with Liv, and do you tell her if you're not feeling amazing, or do you just front of the show must go on.

Scott: I like to keep it— say if I'm— I'm very professional, guys, but if I was hungover, right, I keep that to myself. Yeah.

Josh: Do you overcompensate potentially?

Scott: No, I don't think so. I think I'm sometimes better hungover.

Tommy: Because you don't give a shit or you're just like, whatever.

Scott: You get more relaxed. But then sometimes I will let Liv know, but then I won't let any of the other crew know because I think it's just, you know, you're there for a reason. They're all working their butts off and you don't want to let the team down. So yeah, I prefer to keep it to myself and just go, "Nah, just do it, get it done." And we've all been at that point where you're absolutely stinging. I'm not talking about just being hungover, just even if you've got a vomiting bug, just get it done. And then as soon as you get back to your dressing room or into your car, or if you guys have a day and you get back to your apartments, you just go, "Oh my God, kill me now." Yeah, so like, I think there's a, In our bodies, we have like a percentage there where you can take it to the limits. And I think there's beyond that if you literally are passing out on set.

Josh: Have you done it? Have you burnt out?

Scott: Um, I reckon the closest I came to burning out was for the ARIA Awards 3 years ago because I just had so many things to do within like 24 hours. And so we were pre-shooting the day before, then had like a 6 AM call time, then had like a big shoot because it was brand funded for like a car. In the morning for like 4 hours, then straight to like the red carpet. And you've got to remember information for like, I think it was like 65 to 100 artists walking the carpet. And because we're part of the live broadcast, you don't know who's going to be thrown at you. You've got to kind of know what they're there for, what they're nominated for, what they're doing. And then of course, musicians in Australia, they're like, they're great people, but if you stuff something up, they're just going to take it out and you're like, stupid presenter guy, you know. So The pressure of that, and then we finished the carpet. I was also filming whilst, as soon as we finished the carpet, an episode for The Loop. And then I had to go behind the scenes to do a livestream for Telstra, which is part of the broadcast as well, for all the winners when they came off stage to interview them as well, and the presenters too. So you had like the guys from In Excess and you had like Tina Arena and these guys, and you're just like, my brain. So that went from like 6 AM till I don't think I ate any food as well. You know when you get that busy, you just forget to eat. It's like your last priority is food. You're like, we're on the go, get the job done. You guys do the same, set up your cameras, film it, get to Dickie's house, go somewhere else, wherever you're going to go. And it's like you just forget to eat.

Tommy: Yeah.

Scott: So the end of that day, I was just— I don't know, I went into like this vortex of like, I'm about to die.

Tommy: So do you— are you a thriver of pressure?

Scott: I do like it.

Tommy: Yeah, well, that's TV, right?

Scott: But I do like being prepared for pressure. So that day I made one of the smartest calls. I actually had an intern with me. He was just a young kid from Melbourne that flew himself up and he just wanted to be a part of the day. And I was like, brilliant. Well, can you hold my cue cards? And whenever I'm about to get an artist, flick me who the artist is and I'll quickly read it. And so he was like my right-hand man the whole day. And I reckon without him, I'd be screwed.

Tommy: What happened to him?

Scott: I think he's doing like finance or something now.

Tommy: Mate, you scared him? Fuck that entertainment shit.

Scott: Not for me.

Josh: The guest thing, how do you How do you do a great guest interview? What do you think are the things that you need to tick?

Scott: Connect with them as humans as fast as you can. You know, like take them off. If they've been put on a pedestal, the hardest is like the big American artists when they come here and they've got that team of 12 people and they're like, you know, it's like you gotta bring them back down to the ground where we're all as one as humans. I reckon that's—

Josh: Did you have a shit this morning?

Scott: Like, that's really like— What was the last time you— Smell this. I don't know, just each one's different. I don't have a formula for how we do interviews. And I love to research and just watch their past month of media, what they've done. So you don't wanna do the same thing over and over again, but you also wanna talk about something if it's a big deal.

Josh: But then plugging their shit, because I think one of the things that Tommy and I have always, like I'm terrible at retaining like anything, like details. So what you were doing at the ARIAs, I would hate. Are you good at saying, okay, I get the plug out straight away of their new album or whatever so they relax? Or do you feel those types of pressures?

Scott: No, not really. But that's the other thing, you don't— in this day and age, you don't get much guidance as well on what's right and wrong. So I'll try and do air cheques with our editors just to go, did that suck? Or like, what do you think? How can I be better? For me, it's about being a bit more concise with just questions, just going banter, banter, banter, bang, question. Or else you beat around the bush too long. So yeah, it's like, it's just learning different techniques, but there's no formula. I don't find like, I don't find if you plug them earlier, they're gonna be like, oh, I like this guy.

Tommy: Well, you've got such a short time with most of these people. I remember doing some red carpet stuff and I—

Scott: Well, they're the pits, aren't they, red carpets?

Tommy: Just trying to come up with some little zinger or some kind of little fun game. I gave Kelly Slater a Cadbury Creme Egg once and he loved it. I played a bunch of different games. You say this when I say this, shit like that. Is there anything that went pear-shaped for you?

Scott: Um, we— Ash London and I, when she was on The Loop, um, we interviewed Jeremy Renner with his director as well. He was doing the Jason Bourne film when Matt Damon didn't do it. I think it was The Ultimatum. I can't remember which one it was. Anyways, he'd obviously had a bad day with media, so we were rocking there, we're all happy, and they filmed half the film in Milan. Oh no, Manila in the Philippines. And Ash used to live there, so she's like, she's like, I'll connect with him on this. I was like, brilliant. Anyways, he gave us nothing. Like, no matter what we were saying, he— it was literally like he wanted to just make this interview a failure for us. And he'd be like, yes, no, and like just shut everything down. And we're like, look, we got to the point where the director— we're all connecting eyes with the director going, is he for real?

Josh: Like, we're like What is he doing to us right now?

Scott: And then the director couldn't even help us, so we kept doing more. And Ash was like, "Oh, so, you know, I grew up in Manila. How's the humidity there?" I mean, because she's got a big afro. She goes, "I used to have straight hair until I lived there." We all laugh, and he goes, "Didn't bother me." And we're like, "Oh my God." So it got to the point where then her and I were like, we're just laughing with each other.

Tommy: We're like, "Stuff this guy." And did you salvage anything from it, or?

Scott: No, we went to air, but it was just crap. We were just like, "What a loser. You're here." getting paid millions of dollars to plug your film, and we're there to help you plug your film.

Tommy: Yeah, it's bizarre how people do this.

Scott: It's a tricky one, but you know what? 99% of celebrities are epic.

Tommy: Who's blown your mind?

Scott: The bigger, the better. Like, even Tom Cruise on a red carpet where you only get like, you know, you get 30 seconds with someone on a red carpet. He just connected eyes and just didn't stop like talking.

Tommy: He was actually doing mind control at that point.

Scott: Yeah, obviously I told you now.

Tommy: I've heard Tom Cruise. I've heard that people sitting around, this one guy was talking about doing a read with him, and he he's just the most engaging man. And he was.

Scott: Yeah, no, he was. Him and like Matt Damon as well. Like what? Same sort of thing. It's like all these people were screaming on a red carpet and he just wouldn't stop chatting to me. And I was like, this is incredible. Whereas you get like a, I don't wanna slag her enough, but we will, Megan Fox, right? Beautiful lady.

Josh: She's your, um, she's got toe thumbs like me. Yeah, it's called a toe thumb. It's got to be Instagrammable.

Scott: I thought that was Peter Sterling from the NRL Footy Show. I can imagine the bald guy. That's incredible. What have you done to have— no, it's like squashed genetics.

Tommy: No, it's actually— Dad's got it, right?

Scott: So Megan Fox has that as well.

Josh: So they're also known as clubbed thumb.

Scott: So does she walk— does she do her interviews like this?

Josh: Nah, but like there's a bit of a community if you go on to Instagram. A lot of people with toe thumbs have Instagram accounts, and if you look at the hashtag, Megan Fox comes up.

Scott: I love it.

Tommy: Do you have— I mean, so do Do you think Tom Cruise has consciously thought, I'm gonna lock eyes, I'm gonna just be the most engaging person, or you think it's natural to him?

Scott: I think the film he was promoting that he was a producer on was so shit that he goes, I'm gonna smash this red carpet and make every person here love me to at least give the movie a little bit more love. Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, that's smart.

Tommy: Is there anything you do that you consciously do. It may have become a habit now.

Scott: Is this like an NLP?

Josh: Or how do we remember names? How do we remember influence people?

Tommy: I think Jules Lund remembers names.

Scott: Jules is, he's the king of that.

Tommy: Remembers names.

Scott: But Jules, I feel like he's doing that hypnosis like throughout his, I'm like, Jules, you're too smooth.

Josh: Yeah, yeah.

Tommy: But I know it's probably been conscious decision at some point now.

Josh: It's natural. Andy Lee's another great one. He's always remembers everyone's names and stuff.

Scott: So I do a trick for names. I'm a visual learner, so I have to write down on my phone iPhone, uh, just in the notes section. So as soon as I meet someone, if I don't write it down, so I visually remember your text and you say it's myself, Josh, and Mason in that order, and like how it was written. So that's how I remember scripts as well. So I'm like, things on a piece of paper, hierarchy, that's the hierarchy. I think it was Mason.

Josh: I still end up near the bottom. Anyone else notice that at home?

Tommy: And I said don't mention the thumb, but he did.

Scott: What was this, Megan?

Josh: Fox.

Scott: But so she was a lemon on the red carpet. Yeah, yeah.

Josh: And lemons aren't necessarily good, they're a bit sour.

Scott: Very sour, very sad. And Noah looking over me, I was like, come on. Like, I think I go into every red carpet.

Josh: What do you mean looking out? What was she like?

Scott: So we're doing the chat here and she's like, I asked her, she's like, yeah, so, um, like, it was a great film and, you know, we had a good time, like, doing it.

Tommy: Looking for a mate.

Scott: Who are you looking for? I'm just here. But I also go into like every red carpet with a female star going, this could be the moment that we start dating. That's what she was saying. Literally like, if I interview Taylor Swift, I could be the guy.

Tommy: Yeah.

Scott: You never know.

Josh: The pitching thing, Tommy and I are terrible at doing pitches. Anytime anyone says, oh yeah, just pitch us and we can see what happens. We tell, the storey we tell is we don't do pitches, which is just a way of saying we can't do pitches or we're shit at doing pictures. What are the tips, or what have you worked out that is required for a good pitch?

Scott: Uh, less is more. Always less is more.

Josh: That's convenient. That's good.

Scott: So like one page. If you, if you send any executive here more than one page for a show idea, they're not even gonna read it. They literally are not gonna read it. Um, and then fake it till you make it. Make it look with graphics. Yeah, like you guys done a great job with your branding and you really realize, I suppose people take you more professionally when you have that, like, everything lined up, which is annoying because it takes a long time.

Josh: So are there certain headline headings where you'll say purpose, outline? Like, do you have, if you're creating a pitch, a document that you just go to?

Scott: Yeah, yeah, I've got like a template now, and I've got that through contacts at the bigger production companies.

Josh: What are some of those key areas? What are the top headlines?

Scott: It's literally just like, it's got to be one sentence. Sentence that sums up the show to begin with. Like one sentence is like, this is what it is.

Josh: Like a logline.

Scott: And then have like almost giving them ideas on like, 'cause they also wanna know creating a show, how's this gonna end up in the paper every day? How's it gonna end up radio shows talking about it? So then you almost want to, the next line is like giving them almost like a hint of what headlines could be for the show. So it's like backing up your one line statement as if why this has never been done before, why it's going to change the game, why people are loving it. And you just want a few more sentences like that, and then you can actually break it down into, all right, this is how it's going to work, 8 episodes, and it's going to cost this much. They also want to know how much.

Josh: How do you work out what you think it's worth?

Scott: You've got to like literally do a full budget. So unless you— if you go to them and go, oh yeah, it's gonna cost $300,000, they're gonna be like, how'd you get that number? And you're like, so you need to—

Tommy: my fee.

Josh: Well, TJ, remember we were doing the thing for the surfy leagues? Oh yeah. We're so out of our depth.

Tommy: But yeah, it's starting somewhere. I kind of did that pitching thing with a— what was it?

Josh: Well, ABC said, we'll give you a quarter of a million, but you need another backer to do the same thing, like Screen Australia or whatever.

Tommy: Just seemed a bit too much politics with me. But what—

Scott: Screen Australia grants are epic, but it takes about a year from applying to then getting it. It's a lot of hard work.

Tommy: Yeah, that's too long. What's the dream for you, Scott? What are you looking? Further to?

Scott: I think it's still continuing. Like, I want to sort of be involved with one of the bigger networks here, but helping them create, like, and helping them move to where everyone's enjoying content at the moment, which is online. And making still— I love that the networks here can put still big budgets into programming and into content, which is great because you guys know when you have a small budget, you can only go so far. And then you're like, well, we wanna go and do something, you know, down here and take a crew with us, but it costs so much to do that. And there's only so long you can pull favours as well. And then you're like, all right, we've gotta take this seriously. So working within a network here, but doing it with my ideas and doing it with a team that I wanna work with. And so I don't mind if it's really low budget, if we're making cool stuff that people are watching and people are connecting with, I think that's great. And also for me, it's more at the moment, which I'm working hard is in the content we're making having a purpose while you're doing it. Like not just, you know, some of it's just to make people laugh and make people feel good after a hard day at work. But other stuff as well as like, what's the reason? Where are we at? We all know that in this day and age there's a lot of problems in the world.

Josh: Yeah.

Scott: So many. So it's like, how do we find solutions through content?

Tommy: Well, you've got two things there. You've got to do a good job at what you're doing now. And there's also thinking about and planning. And so there's two lots of work that you actually are simultaneously doing.

Scott: There's not enough hours in the day for me.

Josh: Yeah. And then also I value, relationships with people.

Scott: So having good friends, having friends in the industry, and then also I've just started dating a new girl. Like, I'm investing.

Tommy: What's that? Did you meet her on the— is it Taylor?

Scott: Ladies and gentlemen, Katy Perry. I'm not dating. No, she's actually an architect, so not in our industry at all.

Tommy: It's good outside the bubble.

Josh: But I think I've attracted Katy Perry was an architect, you know, funny fact, architect. Um, Uh, on the, the whole network thing with digital, is it siloed within, in Ten, or does it— is it all sort of connected?

Scott: Um, it is, it is. That's— they're trying to now make it all gel because it's been like this department, this department, this department, and there was a big disconnect there. But now they're realising the value of, you know, especially with formats like The Bachelor, how important online all the, like, the engagement actually does result in viewers. So, and they're also starting to go, well, also for that show, is there merit for people that are paying for spots and advertising? There's value in those views. If we get 1.2 million people watching 3 minutes of the show on Facebook, what does that mean when we're selling it in? You know, because they usually just charge for TV time.

Josh: And what does it mean at the moment, do you think?

Scott: At the moment, they're packaging it into the deal, but I think soon enough it will be standalone like other deals there. Because, you know, look at influencers, how much money they're earning just off their influencer content. Well, why is a Bachelor showing extra clips not the same if they're putting that out on Instagram and getting, you know, 100,000 views on it? It's the same sort of thing.

Tommy: I think the change is healthy in some ways. There's few jobs that like what you have, and then there's more jobs being created where people have to get off their ass and start creating themselves. Totally.

Scott: And yeah, once again, I'm in that world where I get paid through a network to do my job, but I'm working equally as hard behind the scenes because I'm like, my job might not be here forever. That's always with any network show, but I just love doing it as well. I don't mind staying up till 2 AM editing up a clip and trying to find something funny in it, or coming up with an idea and pitching it in. So yeah, I did, I did a show with Kane Tramills called the Crack of Dawn Show when Periscope just just launched.

Josh: That's right, I do remember that.

Scott: And we gave it a good crack for probably like 6 weeks, and it was every morning, Monday to Friday, we'd go Sydney, Melbourne, Sydney, Melbourne, Sydney, Melbourne.

Josh: Did you have Ryan Shelton on? Yeah, yeah, that was great. I remember that was at the roofs. I remember the folks at the roofs.

Scott: We pride ourselves on it being like a 5 to 10 minute live show on Periscope, hoping that Periscope would take off. But then we were like, no one's on Twitter. Yeah, I think we chose the wrong format, but it was just to be disciplined that every morning we needed a guest. We were trying to go for guests that had 20,000+ followers.

Josh: Um, what would have happened if you kept— if you were still doing that today, do you think? Do you really— do you think that you would have a few hundred? But like, it seems like if you were to show up doing that thing— because I remember enjoying that.

Tommy: You were on a scooter driving through Bronte one time.

Scott: Yeah, we're trying to mix it up. We're like, what can we do live? Like, we kept mixing it up.

Tommy: Up.

Scott: But it was awesome to— it was more the content wasn't that great, but it was the discipline of showing up and showing up for that amount of time. And then we're like, all right, let's put it on the rocks for a while just to see, you know, where the, where the platform's going to go. And then I— because at that point I was only 3 days a week Channel 10, then I became 5 days a week. But I definitely want to do something like that again soon, just for the fact that I think to build an audience takes forever. And it's not about building an audience, but it's just creatively making things every day. And you guys know that, coming up with a new idea every day. And then you find a little theme, a little, a little thing that resonates with that audience. Then you just keep playing with that and keep going with it and going with it.

Tommy: Well, mate, you've pumped out nearly 400 episodes on Saturday, your 400th of the loop. Yeah, that's a fair, fair whack.

Scott: Yeah, it is a lot. Yeah, 8 years. I've grown up, I'm telling you. I started— I wasn't shaving when I started on ABC.

Tommy: Just Google Scott Tweedy to see the straightened hair. Oh God. Or just look at the Instagram account because we'll get Mr. 97 done ASAP.

Josh: What style do you regret? So I made the decision of trying this mo on, which I've regretted.

Tommy: Why?

Josh: It just from all the shit.

Scott: But you still got it. So you're not regretting it.

Josh: I know. Well, I know. Has there been any certain looks over the years that you have regretted?

Scott: Yeah, every look. I think at the end of every year I reflect, I'm like, what were you doing, you idiot? No, for me, I don't know. It's the chemically straightened hair. I think it's hilarious. Like I don't regret it. I just go, what a loser. And the further you go back, it was like in high school, I was rocking like an Afro.

Tommy: Yeah. Undercuts.

Josh: And natural beard.

Scott: I did an undercut. I did a '97 for a while. I literally had for one summer holiday, I bleached my hair and I'm so pale that you couldn't even tell the difference. It's just, I look sick. Everyone's like, you right? Like, not really.

Tommy: Mate, thank you for having us in this green room. It's now dubbed the Daily Talk Show green room.

Scott: So whenever you want, you put a sign up.

Josh: Oh, great.

Tommy: I really appreciate that.

Scott: It's a handwritten sign. If you come in, you're going to destroy the podcast. But yeah, we'll name it the Daily Talk Show green room.

Tommy: Yeah.

Scott: I'm losing my voice. That's a good time to get out.

Josh: Thanks, mate. Well, when you're in Melbourne next, we'd love to have you in the studio as well.

Scott: Where is the studio?

Josh: At its foot.

Tommy: Yeah. I mean, I was going to mention—

Scott: Is it someone's garage?

Josh: No, it's our— like, we've got an office.

Scott: Yeah.

Tommy: We're making moves.

Josh: Yeah. We've got a SodaStream. Yeah, yeah.

Scott: So can I ask you a question? You've probably said this on your podcast. So like, so how many hours, how many hours a day do you do the podcasting and then pre-producing and all this stuff?

Tommy: Depends on, say, if it's a half-hour episode and then there's another hour and a half, 3 hours. Yeah, I reckon it's a good—

Scott: are you shooting in chunks or are you doing every day?

Josh: No, we do every day. So this Sydney trip is slightly different because we're batching, uh, but normally it is we rock up in the office and we're like, what time are we going to do it today? If there's not a guest, we might, if we're feeling shit, we'll be like, let's do a little bit later in the day or let's get it done early.

Tommy: But we got to get one done.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: So we haven't really taken a break.

Josh: Well, we haven't. We've never missed a day in 460 episodes.

Scott: We're talking about meeting 400. You guys are the same.

Josh: Well, I mean, I guess the thing is we have built a format that plays directly into what we love there's literally, we're not considering at all really the numbers and stuff. Like we don't, we speak with other podcasters and they talk about like, are you sending people stuff so they're doing swipe-ups and shit? Like we are the most underleveraged podcast, which is what we, because we're doing it for 10 years, we are okay with that. We'd much prefer to be shit and work at it and get better and then just naturally evolve.

Scott: Yep.

Tommy: But we will send you a few swipe-up links.

Josh: Can you do a swipe-up?

Scott: Yeah, I love swipe-ups. We can do multiple swipe-ups but have one Rick Astley in there where he's like, "Oh, ring roll!" Gotcha.

Josh: Actually, we could do that because we don't have the swipe-up function.

Tommy: Yeah, well, you gotta put the link in.

Scott: What do you mean you don't have the swipe-up function?

Tommy: Oh no, you need over the 10K followers.

Josh: Oh really?

Tommy: Mate, says the guy with 80.

Josh: That's privilege right there. I just thought everyone lived this way. Scott, mate.

Scott: Does everyone not have a swipe-up?

Tommy: No, no, no, no.

Josh: And not everyone drives a fucking Tesla or whatever you do.

Scott: I forgot what car I drive. Mitsubishi, man.

Tommy: I'm the pizza car.

Scott: Yeah, yeah, I'm out there waving everyone, "Oh yeah, Mitsubishi, good on you." So we've locked him in for a swipe up.

Josh: Yeah, great.

Tommy: Scott Tweedy, thank you for coming on the show, mate.

Scott: Thank you for coming to the Green Room.

Josh: It's a daily talk show. If you've enjoyed the show, you can leave us a podcast review. Otherwise, we'll see you tomorrow, guys.

Tommy: See you guys.