Hi Josh, From Pastor To Viral Comedian

Hi: The Daily Talk Show.

Josh: It's a Daily Talk Show episode 465.

Tommy: We're in our makeshift studio at the Overlow in Woolloomooloo, and we've got Hi Josh on the show.

Hi: Do you have sound effects or anything?

Josh: Well, um, I was really hoping you'd do some.

Hi: Can you do one more?

Tommy: That was good.

Hi: Hang on, let me get one of those. I was trying so hard. It's raining here in Sydney, as you can hear by the drip.

Tommy: It's actually a lovely day.

Hi: It's been freezing back in Melbourne. It's like 26 degrees. I think I got burnt a little bit. Did you? Yeah.

Tommy: Um, thanks for coming on the show, mate. It's, uh, it's— I mean, I saw you online a long time ago, and then you married my, uh, wife's best friend.

Hi: Yeah.

Tommy: And, and now we're in the hotel room.

Hi: The first time I met you was at the wedding, and we like didn't really even meet you because that's what's— wedding— weddings are like.

Tommy: That's your wedding.

Hi: My wedding.

Tommy: Not my wedding, just because Josh didn't get it. I wasn't invited to my wedding, so I didn't want to invite you.

Josh: No, that's okay. No, I don't mind.

Tommy: It was a great wedding. Um, how have you been, mate? I know you're having a baby. Uh, well, you're not personally.

Hi: No, Cat is. Yes. Yeah. Do you think that's a bit unfair that, you know, we just sit back and the women just endure 9 months plus, you know, when you have a kid, like breastfeeding and like—

Tommy: there can be no complaining from a man.

Hi: That's the problem, actually.

Tommy: No complaining.

Hi: Like, I'm sometimes a bit tired if, you know I only get 9 hours of sleep, but like, you can't say anything.

Tommy: Oh mate, it's gonna get a lot worse for you, let me tell you that.

Hi: Yeah, so I've heard.

Tommy: But I think you'll go through this cloud and come out the other side, maybe 6 months, I think that's what a lot of people say, where you start getting some sleep back, hopefully, and you'll feel like a new man. Sounds good. You've brought some gifts today, I really appreciate that. You didn't do the cheese board.

Hi: No.

Tommy: But you brought the chocolate.

Hi: I brought the sweet.

Josh: So do people just send you stuff? Is that what happens or what?

Hi: No, the choccy, I like, part of my brand is I, yeah, like do branded content and like one of them happens to be Dara Lee. Shoutouts Dara Lee! And they, the first thing they did was they came to my house and filled my fridge with Dara Lee for this like 10-second video. I was like, yeah, sure, whatever. And then at the end of it, they're like, oh, by the way, we're leaving all this chocolate here. And I was like, oh my gosh, really? So we have been giving it to everyone to try and get it out of the house. Like even Gumtree people, you know, like take the couch and here's some chocolate.

Josh: Is it just in your cupboard or is it in a fridge?

Hi: It's just in the hallway.

Josh: Because we had Andy Lee on the other day and he was talking about the fact that he got sent a Snickers ice cream freezer and he got one for his house and one for the office, but he was eating so many of them that he had to return it because they just kept filling it up.

Hi: Oh, they just kept filling it up. Yeah, well, that's the problem. Like, at what point do you say I can't anymore?

Tommy: Well, when the money stops coming or you are so obese that you just have to. The doctor said fucking you gotta stop this. I know you got the deal with Daryl Lee, but fucking pull the pin.

Josh: Do you say one block a day? Like, what's your limits?

Hi: I don't have a limit. But I give away more than I eat at this stage. And I'm close, I brought— I think you've eaten like 6 blocks, so you're having less than 6. Yeah, it's hard not to, man. So delicious, shoutouts Daryl Lee.

Tommy: If someone looks at your Instagram account, Hi Joshie Facebook page, and they think, what do you do for a living? How do you explain that?

Hi: It depends who's asking.

Tommy: Taxman, 'cause he's saying you're making some money, but—

Josh: Is the ATO or his accountant?

Tommy: The taxman is usually referred to as the ATO.

Josh: So the ATO is directly contacting you?

Hi: No, no, I'm not. I've just been checking out your Instagram. Um, what do you do?

Josh: Because that's alarming if the ATO calls you going, hey mate, what do you do?

Tommy: I love your content, but I'm not sure what you do because you have had a career change, quite a drastic one.

Hi: Yes.

Tommy: What was it? What were you doing before?

Hi: I was a church pastor, well, pretty much this time last year.

Tommy: So you've been out on your own.

Hi: I mean, that's without the Lord.

Josh: Without the Lord, you're just completely like, fuck you to your boss, you leave.

Tommy: You just create. I mean, it's a— you've gone out on this creative endeavor, um, which is kind of daunting.

Hi: Yes.

Tommy: Has it been?

Hi: Yeah, absolutely. And because like everything changed in the last 2 years, um, after I met my beautiful wife.

Tommy: Yeah.

Hi: Um, who I met 2 years ago. And then I think I proposed first, proposed, quit my job, got married, got pregnant, and then here we are.

Tommy: Yeah. So I'm glad we made it into that order.

Hi: Oh yeah, sorry, daily podcast talk show is the peak.

Tommy: Two Joshes.

Hi: So yeah, like part, yeah, part of it was just like, uh, let's just, let's just make all the changes at once and see how it goes. Um, so yeah, daunting a little bit, but yeah, it was definitely the right time. Like, I've been doing Hi Josh for like 12 years, was my first YouTube video.

Josh: Wow.

Hi: Under the brand Hi Josh. Um, and it's just been a hobby until, yeah, this time last year, decided to go full-time.

Josh: What's the day-to-day of a pastor?

Hi: Oh, that's a good question. It's probably the same as a comedian. You're not really quite sure what the answer is.

Josh: Yeah.

Hi: Uh, It's actually like, it's a lot of like boring admin stuff, like emails and meetings with like other people on the staff team. But then like Sundays, like game day. And then we had like quite a large church, so like lots of big events during the week and that kind of stuff. So, and then like every now and then for me, I would like meet with someone one-on-one and like have some deep chats. And yeah, I don't know if that—

Josh: Do you have KPIs? Like are there key performance indicators of a pastor? What's the ROI?

Hi: Yeah, one convert. Um, well, we kind of did because, like, our church was quite big, which is kind of rare. Because it was so big and there's lots of moving parts, we decided to kind of have those things. But it was more like, oh, it was more like, you know, um, if I have a team of like 10 people and I want to make it 20 because we need to make it bigger, then maybe that's one of the KPIs. So it's like, what am I going to do to get there? Yeah, have a have a chat with someone, and then, you know, do some leadership seminars or something like that. That's, that's the kind of KPIs that was in there.

Tommy: So you, you— I mean, to get into— so you're doing the YouTube channel 12 years ago.

Hi: Yeah.

Tommy: And obviously you started training. Is it training to become a pastor?

Hi: Is that what you call it?

Tommy: College? My wife went to Bible college.

Hi: Did she?

Josh: Tommy loves bragging about it too.

Tommy: Well, to be honest, uh, I mean, I grew up, uh, Catholic you know, went to a Catholic school, Catholic-ish, Catholic-ish, and meeting someone like my wife and hearing this sort of different world. We're all in sort of little bubbles, and I know it is a bubble because, you know, I'm over here in another one, and I'm fascinated by it. So I think, yeah, I think for the, the three of us in the room, Mr. 97, Josh, and myself, and then I'm— you're the other person. I'm just clarifying how many people are in the room.

Hi: And then I think it is two in the corner.

Tommy: And there is an interesting, you know, sort of cultural something that you're involved in that we're not. And so I think it can be fascinating.

Hi: Yeah, it is fascinating.

Tommy: And so what was—

Hi: full stop.

Tommy: Well, moving out of it, what was that?

Josh: Was moving out of it— so to clarify, is that actually— is that you making a decision? Is that like a faith decision or is that a job? Like, do you not become a pastor anymore and still retain your faith?

Hi: Yeah, yeah, it was, it was a job decision. Yeah, or like career decision. Yeah, um, yeah, basically. So, um, I'd been doing like YouTube on the side, but like 12 years ago, so way before like I studied at Bible College and that kind of thing. Um, so I never really stopped doing that because it's, yeah, like the side hustle, like just like a hobby of like making videos. Uh, and then And then like 4 or 5 years ago, I made some videos that went viral, which was kind of unexpected.

Tommy: And then— This was the toaster and the CD player.

Hi: The throwing video was the number one.

Josh: Yeah, because I saw— the funny thing is I saw that and then I saw your— the licence that you did.

Hi: Oh, the licence video, yeah.

Josh: And I didn't attach them as the same person. Is that a common thing where people will watch different ones of your videos and not actually realise that it's you? Absolutely.

Hi: Yeah, because I don't really have a consistent theme. Well, certainly 4 or 5 years ago, every video was completely random. So I made that video and then 2 months later made a How to Speak Australian video, which also like went really big, but like completely different. So then I got like a little bit of a following on Facebook and I was like, oh, I should probably take this a bit more seriously. Like, you know, when things go well, you're like, You know, you don't stop doing them or do them less. You're like, maybe I should invest in this a little bit. So then I started to try to make regular videos, regular-ish. And then people offered me money to make branded videos and—

Josh: What was the first brand?

Hi: I think it was Gelatissimo. Yeah. After the throwing video.

Josh: Is that ice cream? Yeah. I think I saw where you were throwing ice cream.

Hi: So they were like, come into the store and just do the throwing thing. And then I'm like, do you realise how long like it actually takes?

Tommy: So if someone hasn't seen the video, yeah, there was moments where you would throw a CD behind you and you'd get it into the DVD player and like milk into the fridge, a knife into the knife block.

Josh: The knife into the knife block, oh my gosh, that's the one that I was like, oh, all of them potentially believable, like a believable— this one, this is I'm like, how? Like, everyone thinks they're really smart, so I was like, oh, he's reversed it, but that doesn't make any sense. Yeah, there's a string.

Hi: I know.

Josh: So how'd you do the knife one?

Hi: Uh, patience. I was very single, had a lot of time on my hands, and any damage? Lots. But it was, um, it was, it's at the church kitchen.

Josh: Yeah.

Hi: Um, but like, there's this old building that we kind of used to party in, and so like it was already pretty run down. It's like, oh, what's a few like stab, uh, stab holes in the, in the kitchen? That's fine. So that took me like weeks, obviously not non-stop, but like maybe 9 hours of throwing just for that one, not including the other 10.

Josh: Do you get any RSI or anything like that?

Hi: Um, I didn't. Sometimes the, the knife would like ricochet and come come my way, but I was safe.

Tommy: Did anyone walk in and just, what is, Josh has lost it. What is happening, mate? You're throwing a knife behind you.

Hi: No, I don't think anyone walked in.

Tommy: 'Cause you did it in secret.

Hi: Yeah, exactly.

Josh: I remember growing up in high school, would have the local church would come and there was some pastors and would play heaps of improv. Like there was like the one chubby bubby, two chubby, you know, like the marshmallow thing.

Hi: I think like apparently you're not allowed to do that anymore 'cause some kid choked and like that kind of thing. That's what happens with like youth group. You do, you like, you play this game, everyone plays it and then someone dies and then you can't play it anymore.

Josh: So what is it down to now? Just sitting around? Yeah, one person dies.

Hi: One chubby bunny, come on.

Josh: Too many. So did you do that? Did you go to schools and stuff?

Hi: A little bit. It actually, I went a lot more when um, some of those videos went viral and they were like, oh, cool dude, cool dude pastor.

Josh: Yeah.

Hi: Um, so I just, I'd kind of combine the both, kind of combine both, um, of like, yeah, viral videos because like, you know, kids love that stuff. Um, and then talk about Jesus.

Josh: Because we have a bunch of international listeners, how would you describe— when you say a bunch, yeah, well, we've got like 20, 20, 20% of our listenership aren't in Australia.

Hi: When you say 20%, 4 million, because I never put a number on it. Yeah, percentages, that's the best thing about— I was thinking about podcasts because like for me, people can see my success or not success. Um, but for podcasters, you can like, you can completely pretend that you're way bigger than you are.

Josh: We've got a hotel room.

Tommy: Well, the average podcast has 100, uh, 124 downloads per episode.

Hi: Really?

Josh: So it's pretty low.

Tommy: We're beyond that.

Hi: 125.

Josh: Um, how would you describe Australia's relationship with faith and religion as a culture, as a whole?

Hi: Oh, like slowly turning away from it, I guess, is the broad kind of thing. Um, I don't know, it's a weird one because I think media media is pretty, pretty against it, or sometimes against it, but at least not for it. Um, but I don't like— but that's like, the media is always like a microcosm of— it's not necessarily like the average Australian, um, thoughts or beliefs. But I mean, certainly, you know, in church, like, as I said, you know, our church is quite big and there's always been a constant flow of people. But like, you know, 30 years ago everyone kind of went to church, or you'd at least try and go a couple of times a year with your family because you thought it was a good thing. But I think more, more and more now, like our generation, where we're like, why would you do that?

Josh: Yeah.

Hi: And I'm not against that decision at all because I think it's like, it might as well be authentic. Like, there's no point in having an inauthentic faith. Mm-hmm. Um, there's no point just rocking up to church because you think it's the right thing to do. Like, and I think more people are making that decision where it's like, well, why is it the right thing to do? Um, and if it's not for me, then I'm not going to go, which I'm like, cool. Like, at least she made the decision rather than just like, yeah, everyone just go, or like that kind of thing.

Tommy: So when it comes to job progression in something like that, yeah, what's the top? Yeah, I mean, I think you can go, I become the CEO of a company. What is the the job progression that is available.

Josh: What's the hierarchy?

Hi: Again, it depends like, like what you want.

Josh: Um, it's always a church called— so like, I don't know, and I'm pretty useless when it comes to religions. Sorry, is it a sect of Christianity or like, how do you explain what your specific church—

Hi: yeah, yeah, the easiest way is like it's Christian. Um, but then in that you just kind of have different flavors. Yeah, it's like fast food. It's like, it's like the McDonald's branch. Um, But yeah, so my church was Anglican, and I now go to a different Anglican church. Um, I mean, technically it's, um, it's, uh, what do you call it? What do we do to you Catholic guys?

Tommy: We baptize.

Hi: We, um, we protested you, which means we're, uh, Protestants.

Tommy: Okay.

Josh: Yeah, yeah. So is that different? So there's, there's Pentecostal, and what is it?

Hi: Yeah, that's one of them.

Josh: So they sing a lot and stuff, don't they?

Hi: Yeah, Pentecostal, that's kind of their flavour is like, yeah, singing and like very public.

Josh: Like concerts and shit. I've always said to Tommy, like, if we needed a production person, getting someone who's been in a church. From a church. Yeah.

Hi: Absolutely. And that's the funny thing about church. I mean, it's tight. Regardless. Seriously, like regardless of the faith section of it, I mean, the community is amazing and it's hard to replicate that, but um, like the volunteer side of it is just like, it's so cool to, to be able to like grow up in that. And that's where my like interest in video and skills came from. Like I made videos for youth group and then started making them for myself, and now I do that as a job. So it's, yeah, it's kind of an interesting— like you're talking about the bubble, it's an interesting world and culture of like, um, aside from the faith side of it You've got this community thing, you got this volunteer thing, you've got learning skills like for free, doing skills for free, that kind of thing.

Tommy: When, as far as the business side of things goes, it's a job and you're, I think about us and where we want to take this and what it could become. And are you thinking that when you're in the position of like, where is, where am I taking this job?

Hi: Yeah.

Tommy: For your job.

Hi: Uh, not for me. Um, because I, I mean, I was kind of happy with what I was doing. I was basically looking after like the young adult age group of the church, and there's probably 200 or 250 of those people, like in between 18 and 25 or something like that. Um, that's kind of how we ran our church, was like age-based. So there was a kids minister, there was a youth, there was me, then they kind of had like a women's, and then a kind of broadly men's minister, and then like an executive minister, and then the senior guy who kind of led us all. Um, so that, like, as you're talking about, like, uh, progression, like, some people want to be the, the senior guy, um, or the senior person. Um, but then people like me, like, my dad was also a pastor, and he was happy to be youth pastor for 40 years. He didn't want to, like, you know, he just had his thing and wanted to stay there. Even though maybe a normal person will be like, "Oh, don't you want to move on or move to your age group?" or something like that. So, yeah.

Tommy: I think it's instilled in us to look at whatever we're doing and go, "How can we—" "How can I do it better?" "How can I do it better? How can I climb up?" "How can I see improvement?" I guess, "How can I progress?" Yeah.

Hi: I think you can do that without it being like financial or even part of this like a structure of like, "Oh, now I'm—" now I'm, I don't know, the boss of this guy rather than being on that team. And some people's aspirations is that, and that's fine, but I think for me I was happy to just look after my own thing.

Josh: Yeah, I think it makes sense. Like they talk about in technology, it's okay for people just to be developers if they're a really good programmer. It doesn't mean that they would go on to be a great manager. Yes, but unfortunately the way that hierarchies and the systems have been created, it sort forces people to end up doing middle management that they don't actually even have interest in.

Hi: Yeah, and that's probably like a kind of a false, I don't know, dream or understanding for people is like, you don't necessarily have to be doing that to be like kind of fulfilling what your skills are and that kind of thing. Like, and I really appreciate people who kind of stay in their position that's maybe a bit smaller but absolutely nail it. Like, similar to my dad, who's like youth pastor. Normally youth pastors, they move on after 2 years or 3 years, or they get older and they're like, uh, kids, you know what I mean? But he was just like, I love it, I'm getting better at it, I'll stick with it for like 40 years. And like, that's cool.

Tommy: Yeah, that's so cool. I think— is that him defining what success is for him? Yeah, exactly.

Hi: I think that's it. Like, that's such an interesting question, like, what is success? Because I think for a lot of people, success would be actually working less to have more time with family, or to have more time to do their side hustle, or whatever it might be.

Tommy: Or getting Darryl Lee chocolate and, uh, podcasting at the Overlow Hotel. Name drop. I don't know, I'll just have a piece of chocolate.

Josh: Was it a big decision for you to move on? Like, I can imagine leaving a job is hard enough, let alone when it is connected to community and faith the way that it would Yeah, yes, certainly.

Hi: And like a little insight into that culture of church, what's celebrated, generally speaking, is people giving up their jobs to kind of serve the church, um, or like being missionaries overseas and that kind of thing. Don't you dare, Mason. Don't you dare leave and become a pastor.

Josh: Have you ever done the overseas thing?

Hi: Yeah, or like short-term stuff, like 2 weeks and that kind of thing, but not— certainly not like, you know, people stay there for their whole lives. My parents are in Africa at the moment doing that.

Josh: Wow. And so that's celebrated. And then so on the other end, there's the pastor who does the opposite. Yeah.

Hi: And again, like, it's not— it's just a culture that's kind of emerged with probably no, um, no one's dictated it of like, we're gonna celebrate these guys and not these guys. It's just a thing that we accidentally, um, similar— this is maybe a better example— is, um, in church we tend to celebrate when people get engaged, when they get married, and like we'll stand them up in the middle of church and like cheer for them and pray for them and that kind of thing. And that's great, and it's good to celebrate those momentous like, um, moments in life, but it's like, what message is that, um, giving to the single person? Um, because what we preach is that singleness is just as valuable— Jesus was single, etc. Um, but by the— by our little actions, like, what are we actually saying? And so it's a hard one because— and I don't know what the answer is like in that context. Um, but certainly there was— there was only one guy that had made a move from being a full-time minister to just going back to his profession in my church. Um, and he was the only one that I could kind of, you know, ask questions of like, was it okay? Like, should I do this?

Josh: He's like, man, I've got 10 boxes of chocolate at home.

Hi: These are good. And I'm right here. I'm being paid in chocolate right now. Uh, what is—

Josh: do you ask your dad, like, obviously having a lot of those experiences, when you have the questions around 'Hey, like we're celebrating this engagement, but what about this single thing?' Who do you bring those sort of questions to?

Hi: I once asked the whole church.

Josh: Little open mic night.

Tommy: Did a Esther poll. Yeah, yeah. Hands up who's single.

Hi: No, I questioned it like I just questioned it with you. And I was preaching, I don't know what about, like maybe on something to do with marriage or whatever.. And I just said, I was like, it's, it's cool that we celebrate people getting engaged and married and we should do that. That's not a bad thing. But how do we celebrate, you know, the people that are single or just either decide to be single or single just because of circumstance? Um, and I said to them, I don't know what the answer is, but even just asking the question, it just, I guess it helps people to talk for the single people sitting there to know, ah, okay. Someone valued me from the stage. They didn't clap me and make me stand up. Like, because you also don't want to ostracise them and be like, yeah, Susan, stand up because you're still single this week and we celebrate that. But yeah, I don't know what the answer is. But you know, there's a lot of those things in society which are unspoken. But it's like, oh, you're 40 years old and you're still living with your parents and like, it's like, okay, is that a bad thing? Maybe it is in some circumstances, but maybe there's a reason behind that.

Tommy: What was the response when you did that?

Hi: I mean, people appreciated it, but again, there's no answer. Like, yeah, we still, you know, the next week someone got engaged and we still got them up.

Josh: That's why the Instagram poll works so well. Yeah, anonymous. It gives you a 50/50.

Tommy: I think we wrap our identity up so much in our jobs. Yeah. And is it fair to say that for something like being a pastor. There's a lot of identity in that.

Hi: Yeah, because it's kind of— it's tied to your spirituality. Um, so like your life decision of like following Jesus, it's tied to that. Um, and it's— again, it's tied to these maybe unspoken things of like, yeah, we celebrate people who drop everything and serve the church. Um, so yeah, for me it was, it was a, it was a tough decision which I just made over a long time, but once I'd made it, like, I knew it was the right decision to move on. Um, and yeah, so I haven't really looked back and it hasn't— again, it's not tied up with my own personal faith. Like, I started going to a church out near my new— where, where I live now. Um, but yeah, I'm just not as involved as I was before.

Josh: What's the dynamic when you change churches?

Hi: It depends why you change.

Josh: Yeah. Boo!

Hi: Um, yeah.

Josh: Uh, do people ask, like, oh, hi Josh, welcome to the church, where were you before?

Hi: Yeah. And why did you leave?

Josh: Did they ask? Yeah, well, I guess they would.

Hi: Yeah. No, I think that is the—

Josh: do they make a few calls, find out from the other church what they're like?

Hi: Sometimes. And I you know, from being on the other side of it where lots of people would come to our church. Um, how many people? Oh, I think we had like 1,200 total. Um, but like every week there's new people and they're generally not people that have never been to church. They're people who have been at another church and then they're checking out ours. And like the cool thing about like my church was we, we made sure that it was like, um, like pretty, uh, just kind of well known to those people that we, we want to encourage them to stay at their church because ours was an easy one to just come because it's big and it's fun and it's like there's a youth group and that kind of thing.

Josh: Um, where, you know, someone's got to go to the shitty church.

Hi: But yeah, there's a lot of empty churches. Um, but I mean, that's the thing, like, you, you don't want to you do need people at these smaller ones. And I'm now at a smaller one. And what does the small one bring then?

Josh: Because obviously there is some extra value that you can get. Well, everyone knows everyone.

Hi: And I'm saying that in a positive way. Sometimes it's not always that positive. Um, at the church I'm currently at, they do, um, like dinner after their night service every week because they can't—

Josh: what do you have? Yeah, what sort of—

Hi: what's the spread? Last time is a barbecue chicken.

Josh: Are they gonna say 10 boxes of taralli? Yeah, yeah, someone brought a whole bunch of Daily.

Hi: Um, yeah, like, that's the cool thing about small church is you can kind of hang out with everyone. Um, you can know everyone, you can eat together, which is, um, it's just a really cool thing. Like, again, that community vibe.

Tommy: So taking the leap out of doing something that you were into, the YouTube stuff, like, were you scared? Was it— yeah, yeah, obviously.

Hi: I was scared that it was not the right decision, or that like financially that I wouldn't be able to support myself and my future wife/family. But it like, like I said before, it took me a long time to make the decision. I talked to so many people to get their wisdom, and I journaled, and I looked back on the journals, and I was like, I think this is the right time. And so once I'd made it I was like, okay, I'm at peace. Like, I didn't look back. I was just like, okay, this is it. And it's been, yeah, it's hard to explain, but it's like a year on, I'm like, whoa, this, it worked. Like, it really worked and it's working.

Tommy: Last time I saw you in Melbourne, you'd just done a stand-up comedy gig.

Hi: Yeah, my first one.

Tommy: And it's so interesting, like a friend, good friend of ours, Craig Harper, is a, motivational, you know, high-performance coach, speaker, speaks in front, you know, 700 people come out to see him and he's talking about things that help people, but he's really fucking funny. And it's like, it helps. It's, yeah, it's an interesting one. I could imagine the training you did talking to people, having to command a room, having to share information or tell stories, can see it like has basically been the foundation for walking into what you are now. Yeah.

Hi: It didn't feel like that when I walked on stage for the first time. I'd be shooting myself. Yeah, I think it probably helped. But yeah, like stand-up comedy is, it's an interesting art form. Like you've written something you think is funny and you've left a space for people to laugh. But until you actually get up there and say it, you're like, this could go really wrong. Because what if they don't laugh? And then the second thing is kind of like the first thing, and so then it might not laugh at that. And then like, like, where do you go from there? Oh, you run.

Tommy: Yeah, you drop the mic.

Josh: Did you do open mics and things like that? No. Really?

Hi: So the first, first time was I, I was the headliner for like a night of comedy.

Josh: And you didn't know if the jokes worked? Yeah.

Hi: Because that's pretty crazy, right? And I didn't have time I'm always like a last-minute guy. I didn't have time to practise out loud because my flight— it was in Melbourne, I'm from Sydney— and so I was flying down for the first show and Jetstar was delayed for 7 hours.

Tommy: I thought it was a brand deal.

Josh: I thought it was a plug. No, it's an anti-plug.

Hi: It's an unplug. Delayed for 7 hours. I was like, well, that's it, my stand-up career is over. But I got there, landed, got in like the Uber, went to the venue, and the first half of the show had already finished. And so I got there at intermission and I was like, oh my gosh, I'm like 3 people away from my first stand-up gig ever. And my plan was to use those 7 hours in Melbourne to practise for the first time out loud and all I could do was just practise in my head. Oh no. And so that kind of freaked me out.

Josh: So you just did half an hour of slamming Jetstar on stage? Was there a Jetstar joke at least in the set?

Hi: No, there wasn't. How did it go? It went better than I thought because I did it 3 weeks in a row. So that was the first night and then I went back the second week and the third week.

Tommy: When did I see you? What? Was that when I saw you this year or is that another time?

Hi: Yeah, that would have been the third show. After the third show. First show was alright. The crowd was a bit smaller and a bit cold.

Josh: What was the venue?

Hi: It was a cold night in Melbourne. Melbourne Convention Centre in the city. How many people were there? I think the first night was like 150 or something, but then The next two nights were like maybe 300 or so.

Tommy: Wow. So how'd you get roped into it?

Hi: I mean, it's a bit of choice, but had someone just emailed me? It just tends to happen. They're like, do you want to do stand-up? And I'm like, I've never done it before. And they're like, well, you can be the headliner. And I'm like, I've never done it before. Like, what? Like, why would you think that I could do it? And I mean, not just do it, but be like the last guy on the bill. And so like, he was like, yeah, you'll be fine. And, um, and then I was like, oh man, this must be such a shoddy show. Like they're reaching for talent that they're picking a guy that's never done stand-up before to be the headliner. I'm like, this has got to be bad. I've got to cheque out the other 9 acts just to see how bad they are. So I Googled some of them, I YouTubed some of them. And I was like, oh my gosh, these guys are legitimate comedians. Like, have written for late night shows in America, have had stand-up crews for 20 years. What have I got myself into? 'Cause I thought these guys are gonna be even worse than me and I'm headlining. So yeah, that kind of freaked me out a little bit. This is no amateur show.

Tommy: Well, it's a real subculture, the stand-up comedian world, because there would be comedians that have been doing it for 20 years that would be super pissed or looking at someone who's got a following that just comes in. But then there's the other side of the coin, which is, uh, Josh, hi Josh, I fucking, I'm scared shitless, I've never done that before. It's self-doubt. And so, but it's an opportunity. So you've taken an opportunity Yeah, what's the alternative, I guess? Yeah, just staying home eating Daryl late.

Hi: Yeah, um, but yeah, it went, it went well, heaps better than I thought. Um, and yeah, I got to chat to some of these comedians and realise I'm not them, they're not me, we do completely separate things, um, but I'm kind of stepping into their world, giving it a go, and they're asking me questions about my world and they're kind of a little bit jealous of like having a following. And I didn't realise this about comedians, like their following is because they do 4 pub shows a night and like 2 people come and like if they do a really good job then that one person might remember their name and like it's a hard slog and I don't think I'd ever do that.

Tommy: Did you get the vibe from these people that you met? Did you feel that from them?

Hi: Did they Like, which part? Uh, as in, like, I think jealousy. Yeah, it wasn't a negative jealousy. It was like, you know, they were saying, oh, would you want to do your own shows? Like, is that the goal? I'm like, oh, I don't think so, because they were all doing their own shows. I made—

Tommy: I'm at the top. I just headlined this. There's no— it's just down for me.

Hi: Back to Sydney, 7 hours later. Who's your audience? Who's my audience? Yeah, uh, 85% women. Yeah, um, but how many? 4 million. Generally, I, I call them like mums and bubs. Yeah, I had like, for some reason, I think it's probably because I started doing like Bachelor content a few years ago that it's just kind of progressed to like being young mums or like, um, women between like 18 and 35 who like love The Bachelor. But then like, my content is pretty safe because I'm still kind of that guy. So if they have kids, they're like, they allow them to watch me on YouTube and that kind of thing. Um, yeah, so the stand-up thing, no, it wasn't a negativity jealousy. It was like, I guess, something that I didn't realise I had, which was a following that I'd built over many years. And because they, um, these guys would, you know, almost exclusively doing stand-up, they didn't have that, unfortunately. Which they should, 'cause like these guys were so funny, unbelievable. So yeah, they were actually really encouraging that whole time.

Josh: So was the audience on the night a representation of the audience online?

Hi: Were they exactly 85%?

Josh: Yeah, well, I wonder, was it completely different?

Hi: Is it a different? Uh, yeah, 'cause they weren't all there for me.

Josh: And I guess that's an interesting case too. When you fill out a room that's just your audience. Yeah, your people, yeah. Everyone's there celebrating you. Yeah. To your point of, having all these different people. Yeah. If you add up all of the people that weren't there for you, there's a significant amount that don't necessarily know you or understand you.

Hi: Yeah, don't care. Yeah. Like, don't care that it's my first time. But I think it went all right. Like, the people laughed in the pauses that I had, you know, scheduled for them to laugh in.

Josh: I love how you describe a joke. Just, you know, the bit at the end for them to laugh.

Hi: But it's like, it's so true. And like, it's unbelievable how crafted people's stand-up is. And the more relaxed and off-the-cuff they seem, the more crafted it is. It's crazy hard work, and like, I take my hat off to those guys.

Tommy: And so for the 3 shows you did do, what is it— did you feel like you— I mean, it's only 3 shows, but by the 3rd show, you're feeling more confident?

Hi: Yeah, well, after the 1st show, I watched it back immediately. I was like, take that bit out, take that bit out. I said something off the cuff that really worked, like add that in. So in between 1 and 2 was like a significant jump in my own confidence and the actual set. And then 3 was just kind of like a farewell, like peace guys, I've nailed this, this is my career. Yeah, I've done 2 of these before. So that was just kind of like a nice, like, ooh, 2 went really well, let's do that again and just do it. With more confidence. Are you gonna do it again? Yeah, probably. I just don't like— it's just so much like— it's hard work. Yeah, it's just, it's so— it's hard and weird to sit down and try and write jokes. Like, it's, it's really odd and it doesn't come naturally to me, I don't think.

Tommy: So how did you do it? How did you— what were you writing?

Hi: Like, I went across the road to the cafe, I sat down and I just started writing, and then Actually, that is true, but there was a before bit, which is I try and write ideas down or funny things I think of in just a list in my phone. And sometimes those things become videos. Quite often they don't. So I just look back at the last, I don't know, however long I've been taking notes to find anything that was possibly funny. And old tweets and that kind of thing and see if I could kind of expand them. And that was how I shaped the whole set, I was like, oh, I've said 5 funny things once, and I'm pretty sure these ones are actual funnies. Let's like expand those 5 things into 20 minutes of like material. Um, I don't know if that's how people normally do it, but I just, I just kind of sat down with that list, just started writing, went back to it, chopped out stuff that wasn't funny, and hope for the best.

Josh: You do, do content that is very sort of positive, positive, and I guess that sort family-friendly stuff. Yeah, uh, clean. Has it been a challenge, uh, riding waves of like creative burnout or anything like that? Do you— are you pretty stable with that type of thing, or do you—

Hi: um, yeah, at the moment it's, it's pretty stable. Like, I have a bank of like ideas just from the list that I keep adding to. Um, again, like 80% of the stuff I write down will never become anything, But, but possibly, and it tends to happen, like one thing becomes my whole like brand for the next 3 months. Um, so for example, and this wasn't even my idea, um, at the start of the year, um, someone, or Yahoo, someone, Yahoo came to me and was like, we want to do some content around MAFS, Married at First Sight. Like, do you have any ideas? I'm like, nope, never seen the show. And they were like, what about, have you ever tried like the bad lip reading stuff? I'm like, ugh, like I hate doing ideas that have already been done. But they were gonna pay me, so I ended up doing like this, the first episode of Married at First Sight. And I'd never done this like voiceover stuff before, but I did it. And the video got like a million views, like in a couple of days. It was funny as fuck. Okay, good. Um, and then I was like, whoa, like, I— we, we as Amin Yahoo really stumbled across this thing that people really enjoyed.

Josh: Yahoo just sounds like a friend, doesn't it?

Hi: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yahoo serious, you know the guy. Um, so who are you talking to at Yahoo?

Josh: Is it like their head of like marketing for some division or—

Hi: it's— yeah, it's a head of content at like, um, Yahoo Lifestyle Australia. There's— I mean, Yahoo's huge. Yeah. 'cause they used to repost my Bachelor videos, which is why I started the relationship with them. So yeah.

Josh: Do you have Skype calls? Like, I'm curious about this stuff, 'cause they have an office in, are they 9MSN still?

Hi: No, they were, they were Yahoo 7, but that split, so now they're just independent. That's right, yeah.

Josh: Are they in Sydney?

Hi: They are. Yeah, yeah, just met at their office and yeah, the lady was like, got this idea. I was like, uh, not so keen, never done it before. Like, don't wanna, rehash that Bad Lip Reading guys who are like smashing it. But they're paying me, so. And what did they want out of it?

Josh: Did they make it clear of like, this is what the ROI is for us?

Hi: No, no, they just wanted content around Married at First Sight. On your channel? Well, a bit like shared. It would sit on their channel, I'd share it, that kind of thing. But yeah, we stumbled across this thing that was like absolute gold. Like every week they would get a video had a million views, which that's never happened for me ever. Like, I've had some videos which have multiple million views, but they're like one-offs, like, you know, 4 years ago. Like, I'm not doing consistent content that's getting those views. Um, but yeah, this kind of happened and it was out of nothing. Um, which, yeah, like I'm saying, like 80% of the ideas I have become nothing, but maybe that 1% is the thing that, you know, I'm kind of known for now, is this, um, um, between the lines lip reading reality shows. And it came out of nowhere. So I'm like, I wonder if that'll happen again with something else. Yeah. Um, so yeah, with, with creative burnout, I haven't found it in like the last year of doing stuff, um, because I have so many ideas I just haven't done yet, even if they're not good ideas. That's the beauty of it.

Tommy: It's like trying all— trying these ideas is will be the difference. Yeah, of finding out whether it'll work or not. The dancing— absolutely— that you livestream. Yeah, Wake Up Wednesday. Wake Up Wednesday. And fuck, you got some good dance moves. There was this one where this woman walked past. Oh my gosh, my favorite. Doris? Sandy? Sandy. I went on a stalking mission to find Sandy. Did you find her? Found Sandy.

Hi: Yeah, you follow her now?

Tommy: No, I didn't follow. That was a bit too far. But, um, tell, tell us about what happened.

Hi: Well, so the Wake Up Wednesdays— and this was kind of back where maybe I was, I was trying to make consistent content, but I didn't have an idea for consistent content. But one thing I was doing when I was at church, um, I was like, I need to get into a good routine, but I hate waking up in the morning. So I was like, one thing I love doing is dancing and just to good music, it always wakes me up instantly. So, I was like, "Why not just try, you know, wake up and the first thing I do is put on my favourite song and dance?" So, I started doing it and it worked. It got me up, it got me happy. I'd go to the gym consistently and then go to work. It was such a great routine. And I was like, "I'll do it every day." So, I'd wake up, dance to 1 or 2 songs and get on with my day. So then I was thinking of like consistent content. I was like, well, maybe like I'm already doing it, maybe I could just share it with the world. So I chose a Wednesday to wake up Wednesday Instagram livestream dancing to one song. And it started out like that. I would dance at like quarter past 6. That was my routine. So no one would watch it, but some people would kind of comment during the day as they watched it.— yeah, from before. And then that kind of transitioned into getting people to vote for the song that they wanted on the Tuesday night. And then that transitioned into getting people to submit their own dancing videos on a Wednesday. So that's where it kind of started. So every Wednesday I do this and then I repost people's dancing videos on Wednesday. But now that I've moved, I do it generally outside. Because I live across the road from a park. So I go across to this park one morning and people walk past because it's like a nice park to walk and I try to ignore them. Like, even though I've been doing it for so long, I'm still like, "Oh, I'm the weird guy dancing in the middle of the park." But this one morning, I was setting up my computer on a bin. I have a special bin that I put my computer on, put my phone down so I can play the music and dance. And, um, and there was this old lady kind of coming towards me and I try to ignore people before I'm like dancing. Cause it's again, I'm like, oh, this is so awkies. Um, but then I hear like this little voice. She's like, um, is your name Josh? I was like, what? And I'm like, yeah, how do you know? She's like, oh, um, a couple of weeks ago I walked past like behind you. And my niece like pointed me out and said, "You were on this Josh's like dance thing." I was like, "Oh, that's amazing." And I'm like, "So are you gonna dance with me this morning?" And she was like, "No." She's like, "I've just like got a hip replacement, so I can't really do it." She's like 70 years old. But then like, 'cause I was live streaming at that point, I was like, Hey everyone, if you want Sandy to dance, you got a message right now. Dance, Sandy, dance. And so all these messages came through and I'm like, Sandy, they want you to dance. And she's like, okay. So we were dancing to Crazy in Love, Beyoncé, that morning. So she joined me and then I just put the video together of her reacting to not wanting to dance, but then getting people to make her dance. That was one of my favourite ones, 'cause normally they're just like, it is what it is, I dance, I go home. But every now and then, and this almost happened this Wednesday, I went across the park, set my stuff up, there was an old man and lady walking towards me, so I ignored them, like I still do. I was like, oh, just wait 'til they walk past and then start playing the music. And then as they walked past, my wife was opposite me just chilling and she was like, "That's Malcolm Turnbull." Oh, wow. And I was like, "What?" She's like, "That was Malcolm Turnbull." And I'm like, "Oh, I missed an opportunity where I should have just started dancing and just get his reaction." Or like, if I noticed it was him, be like, "Oh, Malcolm, come take a dance." So yeah, every now and then, you know, the bin guy comes and interrupts me or like, Sandy walks past and it makes for an interesting Wednesday.

Josh: Do you ever switch off?

Hi: Switch off what?

Josh: Personally, like as in with all the ideas you've got, lists and lists of ideas. Is there a time where you're not creating or coming up with content?

Hi: Not really, it's been pretty flat out. Like I kind of count my blessings that I haven't Haven't gotten to a Wednesday in the last year. I think I started doing this like over a year ago where I'm like, gee, life sucks today. Or like this week has been the week from hell and I just don't feel like dancing, especially on the internet. So I kind of count my blessings that I've never had a week or a day that has really, you know, that I wanted to like retreat from the internet, which is my job. And like, I know that that day will come, like it definitely will come, like especially with the babies coming in 2 weeks, like I know it's gonna be difficult, I'm gonna be sleep deprived, like, you know, there'll be emotions and hormones and all those things surrounding it. And I think that's fine, I'm confident to be you know, to actually take a break from social media if I need.

Josh: Like, do you have a plan? Like, what does the break look like for you?

Hi: Yeah, sit down like those YouTubers, like the Apologies guys. I got something.

Josh: I feel like you've got so much content that you've got a bank of stuff that you could put stuff out every single day without actually having to produce something.

Tommy: Yeah, I don't really have a—

Hi: the only bank I have is like doing throwbacks, which I try and do once a week, but like to do those every— uh, actually Mondays.

Tommy: Oh really? Just throw us off. Well, how do you run?

Hi: I've got Wake Up Wednesdays, I've got Fashion Fridays, and I thought it might be overkill to do another one. Yeah, but maybe I should just do every day. Motivation Mondays. Yeah, I like that. Um, Cheese Tuesdays. Just cover myself in cheese. Um, yeah, so I don't, I don't know. I think like I'm preempting it because The Bachelor finale is next week, and then the week after, baby's born. And normally The Bachelorette starts, so it's possible that the baby will be born during an episode of The Bachelorette. And that's one of my things, that I do Bachelor recaps every week and I haven't like missed one. So I'm preempting to be able to have to say to people, hey, got a pretty good excuse tonight.

Tommy: Yeah, or you might feel like doing it. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. I mean, it is a hard time, but dancing shit makes you feel good. It makes other people feel good.

Hi: And it helps me wake up. And maybe I need it every day when the baby comes. But yeah, nah, I feel like I'm okay. Like haven't needed to take a break from social media, which is cool. Like again, I count my blessings with that.

Josh: What content online are you loving at the moment? Who are you following?

Hi: Um, uh, I'm like a big, big YouTube watcher. Um, who am I watching? I'm watching like throwbacks of this channel H3H3. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, and their journey is pretty interesting. And like, if they've been—

Josh: I feel like they haven't popped up in my feed lately.

Hi: Yeah, well, they've definitely slowed down. They're doing like podcast stuff. He had a baby. They had a baby. They had a baby. Yeah, that's probably why I haven't seen them. But yeah, some of their old stuff is just, it's so good. Like their reaction videos to, I think he really nailed it with that stuff. So I've just been rewatching. And I've watched 3 seasons, complete seasons of Survivor in the last week.

Tommy: Wow. The old school stuff or recent?

Hi: Some old school, some recent. Yeah. Like I've never been a Survivor fan until we started watching the Australian one. I was like, this is actually a really good show. And so then we like, we binged, um, this whole season in 2 nights, one of the like the best American seasons. And we're like, oh, this is incredible. So then we watched another one and we just finished last night, um, a third whole season in a week. So wow, that's—

Josh: I'm watching a lot of Survivor. And is the idea that you'll turn it into some form of creative for yourself?

Hi: But how do you know that it won't?

Josh: Well, yeah, you've only got your inputs. Whatever you input could eventually—

Hi: yeah, well, I am currently doing the voiceovers for Yahoo for the Survivor Australia, so I am doing that. But it's actually quite difficult because they mumble a lot because they're quite tired, so it's hard to like read their lips. And yeah, it's, it's actually a hard show to lip read.

Tommy: Is there any easy way to do the lip reading thing?

Hi: There is no easy way.

Tommy: Because I was thinking the bad lip read, the ones that were really, really famous. Yeah. They, um, I was thinking surely they're taking the dialogue, put it in a machine, the list that it goes, it spits out this word could look like this, and then we jumble.

Hi: And well, I don't know how they do it, but I'm assuming they haven't like, you know, come up with some magical formula. The only way, and that was how I do it, is I watch the show without audio or watch like a portion of the show. And if something pops up, oh, it looks like he's saying spaghetti. I'm like, okay, what could he be saying about spaghetti? And it's like, I eat spaghetti. And like sometimes it works. Sometimes you're like, oh, I nailed it. Sometimes you just give up because it's like he's just mumbling and he says spaghetti. Um, with Survivor, it's, it's difficult because Again, they mumble, there's a lot of reaction shots, so they're not actually saying anything. But we do one run through where I just like, okay, what are they saying? Then you gotta figure out a whole sentence, and then you have to make that sentence funny in the context of the whole video. So it's a really long, difficult process, but when you nail it, it's really funny.

Josh: What does it look like from a technical point of view? Are you in Premiere Pro or something and voiceover?

Hi: Yeah, I'm in Final Cut. Watching it, like scrolling with like a little text block, like copy paste, and then I'll write in. So I'll go back to it and like again, some things get deleted, some things are funny if I put it with two things and like create, you know, 30 seconds about cats because one person was talking about cats and then the second person was. Yeah, so it's long. It's— that's why the Bad Lip Reading guys do like a video every 3 months. I reckon they probably have real jobs. Um, but it's, it's a cool— it's, it's like a mathematical process almost of like, this is going to take the next 5 hours, but I'm in it for the long haul because I know that, you know, the end product's gonna be good.

Tommy: Which bit of the process do you love most? Not even of that, just of making videos.

Hi: Ah, making videos, watching it when it's done.

Tommy: So then you mustn't Hate the all the other bits.

Hi: I'm, I'm like an editor at heart. That's kind of like making videos for church and youth group. Um, we got into editing pretty early, and so that's just kind of been my thing. Um, so yeah, I love the edit because you can take things, something that is not working, and make it work just in the edit. It's so powerful. But it's also scary when you're like, you watch something you've shot, you're like 'Ah, this is not funny,' and it was supposed to be. Uh, will I be able to like save it with an edit?

Josh: And sometimes you can, sometimes you can't. It's a lot about problem solving, I guess.

Hi: Yeah, and just cutting. Like, you know, you might shoot something that's 2 minutes long and then but only a minute of it is funny. Or it's an Instagram video, it's got to be a minute, but there's 2 minutes of good footage. And so you've got to figure out, okay,, you know, what's something dear to me that's really funny that I can just cut? And that's a hard decision sometimes.

Josh: Are you seeing any trends being in the position that you are? I guess you're having conversations with brands. What's the, what's the trends? What's the new thing? Yeah, or even the new thing, like obviously the classics are like, ah, TikTok and all that stuff. But I guess on sort of a broader, more strategic level, like, are people— what are people resonating with at a very sort of content level, not necessarily platform?

Hi: I don't know. Like, for me, it's hard because like Facebook is like the ruler, but they change their algorithms and really change the game a lot. And so even with like my Bachelor stuff, which is, um, so measurable over the last 3 years I've now had to like rethink it and think, is this actually working on this platform? Um, so yeah, I don't really know what's the new thing. Um, but like at some levels I've been really disappointed in my own like numbers. Um, because like I thought I could rely on, you know, this Bachelor content and then it took a dip and I'm like, is it me? Is it the algorithm? Like having all these thoughts. But then I made this video on the very end or like even past the end of that bottle cap challenge. I had this idea of like doing a Vegemite one, like just making it real Aussie and using a thong and flicking it from my foot and like it hitting perfectly and this thing spinning off and then the Land Down Under starts playing and I dance around like it. An Aussie larrikin. And then like I did that video and it had like 1.4 million views and I was like, I'm back, baby. Like, screw you, algorithms. Like, it was just nice to have something that's like, I wouldn't say it went viral necessarily, but it's like, okay, like, you know, the thing that I most relied on you know, isn't giving me the confidence. But just this little idea that I didn't think would go anywhere has like got a lot of views.

Tommy: It's nice when you can, not even that example, but breaking the rules, you know, doing a longer video than everyone says.

Hi: You've got to do it over 3 minutes and then you make a 10-second video. It's like, well, that works.

Tommy: So I think not everyone knows. We can just know what is kind of working, what isn't working, then you'll work it out.

Hi: Yeah. Yeah, and again, it's all— it's like you said before, it's like, what do you value? And I try as hard as I can to not value numbers because they often don't mean anything. Yeah, like a big number doesn't mean anything, and a low number might not mean anything. Um, and some of like my, in inverted commas, proudest work is something that's never ever going to go viral, and only a few people have kind of seen it. But I'm like, that's probably the funniest thing and most creative thing I've ever done. And that's the value. The value isn't that, oh, a million people have to see it.

Josh: I think you can tell that as well. I feel like Tommy and I are always talking about what we love about your content is that you, you look like you're having fun doing it, and it doesn't fit— even though there's, you know, you work with brands, you're do— you're a dude who wants to make this thing, and so you make it. Yeah, I think that that's like, that's what the few— like, if you can look at anything as a trend, I guess that's That's it, right? If you're being true to your voice as a creator and you're having fun.

Hi: Yeah, it's been cool like having to do branded stuff to make a living, to really like work with brands who are really keen to like just risk things. And I generally don't say yes to the brands who like, you know, give you a script and say, you know, please say these words and, don't say these things. If they're smart, they're getting you for a reason and they want your audience as well. So yeah, it's been really fun to work with brands and they're like, just, you know, do whatever you want. Or they give you a brief and like I throw it in the bin and then I create something and they're like, oh, like that was the best. I'm like, yes, 'cause I didn't listen to your script, like the brief.

Tommy: Do you do that even with the chance of them going, nah, I don't even want that?

Hi: Absolutely. I'm like, has it happened? I don't know why I'm so confident about it. Well, they've hired you for a reason. Exactly.

Josh: And that's, I guess, the part of it is it's—

Hi: well, even to the point where I've said yes to a few like photo campaigns and I don't do a photo, I do a video. Yeah. And they've come, like the current one has come back and been like, oh yeah, by the way, yours was our favourite by far. We're going into phase 2, we're gonna like, you know, um, get you on board for the second part. Um, I'm like, I knew it. Like, I knew if I took the risk, um, even with the format that they wanted, yeah, yeah, um, that, and if I do a really good job, like, that's what they want. They maybe they don't want you to follow the rules. I still have— I say that I haven't come up against anyone who was like, you didn't do the brief, we're not paying you. Not yet. Yeah, but I'm sure it will happen.

Josh: But that's the game you're playing. And you're being true to yourself and you're true to your content. I think that there's so many people who, you know, young people who want to be YouTubers and want to be doing all of that stuff. And I think it's refreshing to hear someone like yourself who is just being authentically them, doing it the way that you want to do it and actually have it succeed and work.

Hi: I think that's really nice. Yeah. It's like, oh man, like I got away with that one. But, um, Yeah, it's nice to get that feedback, um, particularly from brands because yeah, it gives you confidence to be like, actually, I think I know what I'm doing and like my ideas are all right.

Tommy: Like, yeah, it's a weird time we're in, like that you can have a living doing this stuff. Yeah, so we've got to be grateful for that. Yeah, as well, because it hasn't always been this case. I think it's getting— not— it's still very hard, but it's getting easier, or brands are starting to understand that we wanna put our trust in Josh. And you do you.

Hi: And that's super powerful 'cause it hasn't always been like that. No, no, I know, the tide is turning a little bit, which is cool. Yeah, I'm stoked to be doing what I'm doing. And I'm just riding the wave 'cause who knows what's next? It's not gonna happen, but tomorrow Facebook could be no longer. And then you're like, oh, okay. Um, or, or Instagram, like, just, you know, changes one thing. Yeah, the apocalypse. But, you know, people were like, oh my gosh, they're taking away likes, like, game over.

Josh: It's like, well, moments like that. Like, what if one day petrol no longer works in cars? I don't understand how long plans work.

Tommy: Yeah, I don't know, everyone needs to go electric.

Josh: So you're Hi Josh Everywhere on the internet, just about, like username-wise.

Tommy: Yeah, got the website domain. It's good.

Hi: Got the website, got the YouTube, got the Instagram, got the Facebook. Didn't get Snapchat, but then, um, but I don't use Snapchat anyway.

Tommy: Yeah, I reckon you'd be good on that.

Hi: Bums and Bubs. Yeah, yeah, I didn't get, um, I didn't get Hi Josh, and so I've never used it.

Tommy: You've spat it. You've spat it out.

Hi: Out of spite of them. Well, I don't know, someone just sitting there, probably someone named Josh, I'm assuming. Bye Josh. The opposite. Yeah, my, my niece yesterday was like, you gotta get on TikTok. And I'm like, I, I understand where she's coming from, and maybe she's right. She's right.

Josh: I can tell you with your stuff specifically, like the dancing and stuff, like it's so easy to consume. And the Aussie stuff, like even actually you look at the Australiana that happens on TikTok, and you've already done it with the, you know, what Aussies say, you know, the content's there.

Tommy: You literally could just build out for the next 50 weeks.

Josh: Here's some of our stuff. Yeah, no, that's what's happening.

Tommy: No one knows. I did it.

Hi: Why do you have dreads in this video?

Tommy: A video of mine got like 150,000 plays or whatever it is, and so many comments. Wow. It was just a good video. It was one that went viral on all the other platforms. You bought a Tesla with that? But so I think it's like your stuff, you may as well. Okay.

Hi: There's no harm. I will look into it once the baby comes and we'll see how we go. Okay, perfect.

Josh: Can we feature in a TikTok? We should do some form of collab.

Hi: Yeah, I'll give you my agent's email.

Josh: Do you have an agent?

Tommy: Like, do you have a life cat?

Hi: Yeah, I have a manager. Yeah, you do? Yeah, the last 3 or 4 weeks I signed my life away to a manager.

Josh: And what have they given you? It's been awesome.

Hi: I haven't had to read a contract since then. And I haven't had to negotiate with the brand. I just sit back and kick things off Vegemite jars and eat dinnerily. No, it's been really good. They're awesome. That's, I mean, that's a good thing.

Josh: You say, who are they? Darryl Lee. Who's the manager?

Hi: His name's Darryl. The company's called MTM Media Talent Management, and my manager is Laura. Oh yeah, cool. And she's about to have a baby too. Oh, congratulations, Laura.

Tommy: So who's reading the contract? Titus. Ah, Titus is stepping in.

Hi: He's stepping in.

Tommy: Good to know. Mate, thank you for coming into our makeshift studio at the Overlow Woolamello.

Hi: It's, uh, yes, it's a beautiful room. Oh mate, how good— how did you fork out so much money for this room?

Josh: It's, uh, it's that podcast, the 4 million people.

Hi: It's those 150,000 views.

Josh: Would you like a piece of cheese?

Hi: I actually love cheese. Yeah, it's an active gronk move.

Josh: Oh, can you— can I eat this whole thing? This is just my white piece of bread. It's a daily talk show. hi@thedailytalkshow.com is the email address. Uh, if you like the show, you can Leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Otherwise, we'll see you tomorrow.

Hi: If you don't like the show, uh, if you don't like the show, go eat some Dara Lee. Yeah, or just—

Tommy: you're sad, second, go and watch Josh on a Wednesday morning and feel good about yourself.

Josh: Yeah, dude, just dancing. We'll see you tomorrow, guys. Catch ya.