Leon Sjogren On Brand Integrations & 2020

Leon: The Daily Talk Show.

Josh: It's The Daily Talk Show, episode 567, and we got Leon Shergrin back in the studio. I got it right.

Leon: I'm applauding you saying my name correctly.

Josh: That's because I call you Shogun mostly.

Leon: Yeah, true.

Josh: Yeah, um, very true. Thanks for coming back on the show, mate.

Leon: Thank you for having me.

Tommy: Uh, he is a producer, executive producer for Fifi Fev'n Byron.

Leon: Yes, uh, in Melbourne. Yes.

Josh: And, um, and you're here to do a full retro on Mr. 97's, uh, performance as a producer.

Leon: So in 2019, take Well, the hair's nailing it. It's all about looks. Basic t-shirt, great hair. Yeah, nailed it.

Josh: Yeah, there you go, mate.

Tommy: Lovely smile as well. Yeah, absolutely. Like, that's what you want, I guess, as talent. What you want is having a producer smiling. I sometimes see now that radio is filming more and more. Yeah, you can see the shots of the producers in the background. Yeah, half the time they're like chowing down a souvlaki.

Leon: Well, that's not a good producer. Always look like you're interested or laughing.

Josh: Any rules in the studio that you've enforced or that were there before you got there?

Leon: No, not really. I think everyone's pretty aware these days that these cameras are like the live TV camera shot kind of thing. So you're cutting between shots constantly. So they're all aware they're on camera. And I think everyone these days are very relaxed with how they look as well. Breakfast radio, it's like we just got up.

Tommy: I was, I was watching Chris Fade's Instagram. Yes, he's on Virgin in Dubai.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: And they have a policy you can't eat or drink in the studio. And so every time he's doing some form of like integration where the cafe is obviously giving him, giving him a free salad, he always prefaces it with, I'm just outside the studio. Like he's literally in the corridor eating the salad so he can't, he can't eat.

Leon: Well, I'd like to say thank you, Coffee Office. I had my coffee this morning.

Josh: Coffee Office.

Tommy: It's actually across very close to my place. Bree went there this morning. I went to Which is— what's the duck one that I go to?

Josh: Pavlov's Duck.

Leon: Pavlov's Duck.

Josh: I was a fan and then I wasn't. Yeah. No longer.

Tommy: You actually mentioned Pavlov's Duck like a year ago. To you? No, just on the show. And because I wasn't living around there, I'd never really connected until— I think you were talking about potentially some awkward interaction happened at a café.

Josh: My current barista from AU79, she worked at Pavlov's Duck.

Tommy: Oh, really?

Josh: And I said to her, I remember you. Did you work at Pavlov's Duck? She was so blown away that I remembered.

Tommy: And that's nice.

Josh: Yeah, I remember your great coffee.

Tommy: Do you, Shergz, do you go there a bit? Because you went to this place when we went on our walk.

Leon: That's my local coffee place.

Tommy: Okay, very close to mine. I like that.

Josh: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Coffee routine at the studio for 6—

Leon: like, I mean, for a show that starts at 6 AM, unhealthy amounts of coffee in the morning. Like, I think about it, it's really not good. I get— I think I get a lot of indigestion, and I think it's because of coffee.

Josh: Heartburn, or in— like, is that the same?

Leon: Like heartburn, indigestion. Yeah, yeah, that sort of refluxy kind of thing. And I think I've— and I've nailed it down to you, and I keep going, I should look into that. But I think it's because I wake up and I have like 3 coffees before I even eat anything.

Tommy: Yeah, and you're actually still laying down as well.

Leon: It's just an intravenous drip.

Tommy: Have you seen this? I saw that, uh, Jase Hawkins, uh, partner, she was hungover and—

Leon: oh, I messaged him about this.

Tommy: And so they have a drip for a hangover. Now I've seen this in LA, the US, Bali. Yeah.

Leon: So I've heard it can happen in Australia, but I don't know if it's a very common thing.

Josh: There is a place in Melbourne you can get it.

Leon: Yeah, it's very expensive, I think.

Josh: But LA, you can get it to your house and shit. Yeah, but Bali, your point is, are they using Balinese water in that drink?

Tommy: Yeah, yeah. I don't know if it's water, but you know, I just, I do wonder about the, maybe that's quite— I've been to parts of Indonesia before. I've been parts of Indonesia before where I went into a kitchen and I saw the way that meat was cooked.

Leon: Why are you going into the kitchen?

Tommy: Well, because I was, I was at a conference.

Josh: I have to speak to the chef. This is bullshit.

Tommy: No, I went there and I saw some, but that was in Surabaya, a completely different part of Indonesia. It was sort of a little bit more sort of local. I guess they're sort of more sort of used to, you know.

Leon: I know what you mean. If you don't have to have a needle in your body.

Tommy: Yeah.

Leon: Don't do it. Especially when you're in a foreign country.

Josh: Yes.

Leon: That's why don't get a tattoo in Bali.

Tommy: Is that a thing?

Josh: There is some, there is some really good tattoo shops in Bali. Like, there's a lot of famous, but then there's the shitty ones, right, that lure in the bogans to get the omni sign, you know.

Tommy: What's the omni?

Josh: Omni, it's like the, uh, yin and yang.

Tommy: Oh yeah, is that called the omni sign?

Leon: Omni, didn't know that.

Josh: Om, omni, maybe I got that wrong. Look it up. Yin and yang, omni sign, I'm pretty sure.

Tommy: I like that.

Josh: I don't even know where I pulled that word from.

Mason: I don't think it's an omni sign.

Tommy: Omni, what is an omni sign though? Have you got a tattoo?

Leon: I've got a couple.

Tommy: Oh, that's what you're looking at, laser.

Leon: I am, we spoke about this the other day.

Josh: Yes, have you got tattoos? Yeah, I got one.

Leon: One?

Josh: Yeah, you should be able to get it through the show though. Stacey June got her dolphin removed from her lower back doing an integration of laser, like a laser removal.

Tommy: That's good.

Josh: Onto the show.

Leon: She meant through this show. Yeah, no, we could just do it here live.

Tommy: Yeah, no, but we've got a laser upstairs. We use it for different stuff, we use it as a laser cutter, but we could try the I actually got into watching—

Josh: I'm sure there's a TikTok account, but there's Insta accounts, high amounts of followers. This is Melbourne-based laser removal, actually Australia-based laser removal. Yeah, one in Brisbane. And it's, it's so addictive just watching them really get rid of it.

Leon: So did Stacy say it hurt? Did it hurt?

Josh: I don't know, I wasn't— I just saw it from afar, you know, peripheral content. Peripheral content.

Mason: Yeah.

Josh: Okay.

Tommy: More. I think it's meant to hurt more than getting it done.

Leon: I mean, the people, the people— wait, I don't really— look, maybe I just keep it.

Josh: It's very quick, like, like, depending on the size, it could be like 5, 10 seconds of that and then it's done. It's literally hours.

Leon: There's a laser removal place right next to my house, like, it's the closest store, yeah, to my apartment before all the shops on that street. And I just find it weird because, like, I've never seen one anywhere else.

Josh: They're in tattoo parlours nowadays.

Leon: Oh, really?

Josh: Yeah. So they're offering tattoo removal. A lot of people get the sleeve taken off and they do it again. So you can actually like— it's an etch-a-sketch. Just for face shaving.

Leon: The skin can't be good though.

Tommy: It seems like having an Alcoholics Anonymous at a Dan Murphy's, you know, sort of a little bit of a—

Josh: I guess where you made your mistake, you can go and rectify it. Yeah.

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: Officeworks sells the rubber as well as the pencil. It's a funny one. But you could do it through the— like, surely you could integrate it. Have you leveraged being the executive producer of, you know, a very well-known breakfast radio show to get anything for free? I mean, that— there is clauses when you work in radio, it's like pay, say, for cash, or pay for cash for comment. Cash for comment.

Leon: Like, I feel like that's, yeah, kind of gone now. I remember hearing about that back in the day with like AM, like maybe John Laws or like one of those big AM thingos and got in a lot of trouble for a casual comment. I think it's pretty obvious that, um, they're doing it for that reason, it's fine. But when it's suddenly just like dropping things in, yeah, that's a bit on the iffy.

Josh: But I mean, there's a— so you're not on air but you're behind the scenes? Yes, running the show. Is— I mean, surely there's an influence. And, and I want Mr. 97 to sort of just suck from this, learn everything about like, have you called somebody and, you know, just got them to sort of provide something, or you're wanting to show the team?

Leon: I've put, I've put, um, both Fifi and Fev, the hosts I've worked with, actually in the back, in the past, Merrick Watts, the comedian, yeah, I worked with him as well. I put them on references for a rental application because they thought, they thought that like, that someone gets to call one of these people, have a quick chat with them and it's worked every single time.

Tommy: Do they actually chat to them or no?

Leon: Uh, well, they get the quick call, just checking, and they go, yeah, yeah, work with him. Oh, that's awesome, is radio fun? It's not your one chance to call.

Josh: And that was, and that was when you're renting because now you've bought and you put Fev as the guarantor.

Leon: He didn't even know, but he had no idea.

Tommy: Is it true about Fev with, uh, being one of the top Uber Eats customers in Australia?

Leon: Yeah, so We, um, because I know he used to just get Uber Eats delivered to the radio studio in the mornings, even though we have producers that will run down and get a coffee or food for him. No, I want a bagel from the other side of town. What he would do is just go buzz out to a producer and say, hey, my Uber Eats is downstairs, can you go grab it? But, um, we noticed he was using it a lot, and even just at home, you know, he would order second dinners. This is why he's doing Jenny Craig, I think. Uh, and he, um, I thought, let's just find out how much he is spending as well. So we had to get— we went to Uber Eats' sort of head office and asked them if we could get that information. We had to fill out this really in-depth form and get them to sign it. So it's Fifi and Feb to sign it to make sure they're okay with us having their data. Data.

Josh: And luckily you have Feb's signature stored in my apartment.

Leon: But, um, they sent it away and sent it back. And yeah, he was in the top 0.01% in Australia. The other one above him was a corporate account.

Josh: They're a full team.

Leon: Um, so I think it was around $35,000 in a year.

Tommy: That's a lot, which is so much. Yeah, I mean, what is it? I mean, that's getting, uh, to the point of just at rate, like just constantly ordering. What's the silliest thing that you saw him order through Uber Eats?

Leon: I don't think it was, it was big crazy ones. It was just a lot and little separate ones. I think he would get home and sort of cook something and and then his daughter will go, oh, can I have Thai? And she'll be like, yep, cool, just order it.

Josh: Yeah.

Leon: So I'll just be having meals from around the world.

Tommy: It's a good way of doing it because like back in the day it was sort of like you had the option of eating what everyone else is eating or nuggets. Yeah, you know, like, what is—

Josh: I mean, but what does it do to you?

Leon: What is it like? It's always on the menu.

Tommy: No, well, as in like when I feel like when you're growing up as a kid, there's things that you can have access to anything.

Leon: Mum's like, I've made meatloaf for everyone. I want nuggets.

Tommy: Yeah, well, no, you're a brat.

Leon: Eat the meatloaf.

Tommy: No, I get it. No, but Mum, she loved the, um, Canton, you know, like the Canton jars. Yeah, yeah, like satay and all that.

Leon: Still great.

Tommy: Yeah, they're okay. Do you use Canton?

Leon: Well, like the Coles or Woolies have their own sort of different pre-mixed ones sometimes. It's just an easy meal sometimes.

Josh: Uh, so when it comes to content, finding opportunities for content, or seeing, like, what do you think the lens is when, when you're sort of in a show, you're a producer?

Leon: Yeah.

Josh: And you're observing the world.

Mason: How is that?

Josh: What is that observation of the world and how do you convert to the content?

Leon: I think I've got to the point now where I know the on-air guys so well and how they would react almost to something. So that's the kind of lens for me, whether it's, you know, a political thing, you know, the PC police have gone too mad kind of thing, you know, oh, we can't say this word anymore in schools. Fee gets really fired up about that. So I'm like, great, I reckon it's a good one to send her way or get Fev to tell her. So it's kind of that reaction. So it's getting to know— I think the lens for me now is one, Melbourne, because we're a very Melbourne show. And but then how would they react to it?

Tommy: You could almost create a fake bit of fake news around PC stuff to fee. I think that would be quite funny. Like, people aren't allowed to, to wear shoes in shopping centers.

Leon: Those stories, you don't need to make them up. Those storeys are popping up now.

Josh: Like, over Christmas, Moreland City Council banned people from leaving out a six-pack of beer for the garbos that were working across the Christmas break.

Tommy: They cancelled. So you couldn't do that, or you had to do that?

Leon: No, you can't do that.

Tommy: Illegal.

Leon: Illegal. Yeah, can't give them Legally, I can't give them the beers.

Tommy: Yeah, that's upsetting.

Josh: Like the council said no, no.

Tommy: What about the pirate? You see that? There's a, there's a, there was a school that instead of having a Santa, they did like a PC pirate.

Leon: PC pirate.

Tommy: Can you have a look up that '97, what it was actually called? So it was like the everyone's pirate. It was sort of like this, I guess, like a pirate sort of detached to any one religion. Or one.

Leon: So everyone's beliefs are covered in there.

Tommy: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Leon: But a pirate?

Tommy: Yeah, what else could it be?

Mason: It's a sustainability pirate.

Leon: Sustainability.

Mason: They hold a fresh food picnic instead of a Christmas party.

Tommy: What do you think of that, 97s? You would get around that fresh food swap?

Leon: But like a pirate, like, like the, like a character of pirate, you know, Pirates of the Caribbean, is it like, it's a mild version of what pirates are. Pirates are like Alcoholic murdering rapists.

Tommy: But the school— I wonder if they're working with children. It's a good question.

Josh: They've banned ball sports at some schools.

Leon: The best one— we— there was one, I can't remember which council it was, it was somewhere, you know, north of here, but, um, they banned balloons. You know, no balloons anywhere.

Tommy: I, I agree with that. I went to the Penguins, uh, the other month in Phillip Island. Yes.

Leon: Yep.

Tommy: And they did a big bit beforehand, I saw all these like, um, Sustaining the Living Heart was there. Yeah, there was, there were, there was big jars of straws and balloons and all this sort of thing. And they were all like, hey everyone, move from using balloons to bubbles to help save the penguins. And so I've actually normally, especially the radio part in me, always goes to like every radio producer needs a confetti cannon.

Leon: Yeah.

Tommy: Access to letters or numbers in the form of balloons. Yes. I think that's mainly it. That's the two things that give away. And that's all.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: Botox hands.

Leon: Botox hands.

Tommy: Botox. I didn't hear anything about Botox this year.

Leon: What?

Josh: What? No. Game changers really fucked them.

Leon: I didn't hear anything.

Tommy: They've just gone a bit quiet. Nova normally does it because they'd play the 3A Derby.

Josh: Oh yeah, that's right. We gave away a Botox hand.

Tommy: But it wasn't Botox. It was a different one.

Leon: We couldn't get a bazooka.

Josh: No, it was too expensive. We left it last minute, mate. Come on, we don't have you running around for us.

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: And so, um, he actually wasn't with us then. It wasn't—

Tommy: he wasn't born.

Leon: So we haven't got a ham for you this year.

Josh: Didn't get a ham for Christmas.

Tommy: He doesn't even— he doesn't even, uh, he doesn't eat much meat.

Josh: No.

Tommy: So we're doing something, um, uh, we did something with Hayden Dibb. Have we— is that episode coming out yesterday? Yesterday. And 97 won't eat the chicken wings that Hayden's made. He doesn't like— is it chicken with bones?

Mason: Yeah. Any bones in the chicken?

Leon: I'm with you on that.

Mason: Yeah, it's disgusting.

Leon: People that love chicken wings, I don't get it. It's like you're like scavenging for little morsels of meat between bones.

Mason: It's disgusting.

Leon: Just get a bite. It's great.

Josh: I'm task-oriented, so it's nice to be able to just see the target and just, I'm going to get that.

Tommy: I just feel like I never leverage the full chicken.

Leon: No.

Tommy: So what about, what about if it's that type of chicken, but like they're like if you go to a chicken place. Yeah.

Leon: So you're going to call wings chicken?

Tommy: No, no. I'm even thinking like you go to like those American-style wing places, you can get like tenders. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Leon: I'll get a tender.

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: Mr. 97 thought he was on to a winner when we were at— what was it? Waffle House in the States.

Tommy: And what was that place called?

Josh: Ben— Oh, it's so good.

Tommy: Bob's.

Josh: No, it was Reese's. Yeah, something like Reese's.

Tommy: You look up on our Instagram, you'll find it. But it was an iconic house. Waffle House. Chicken and waffles.

Leon: I had chicken and waffles.

Josh: He got fried chicken breast and it had a fucking bone on it.

Mason: Yeah, I thought I was being real smart and trying to get like a no-bone piece of chicken.

Leon: Really?

Josh: And it came with a big bone on it.

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: Roscoe's. Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles.

Tommy: It's in like a movie. It's good. There's a bit of popular culture.

Josh: It's so good. And so, go on.

Leon: So you're not eating much meat or you're cutting it out completely?

Mason: I'll probably have meat twice a week.

Leon: Okay, you guys both still meat eaters after this year?

Tommy: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Leon: So many people I know have jumped on.

Tommy: So I did veggo for 4 weeks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I just, uh, I wasn't, I wasn't doing it right. Like, it felt like I was replacing it with Reese's peanut butter cups.

Leon: That's not a good substitution at all. Um, no, I just, I'm finding really interesting this, this year with everything coming out that Christmas Day is gonna be a real challenge for people, I think, because they get to it and go, oh, hang on, what do we eat today?

Tommy: Yeah, I wonder if there's, uh, I guess there's the, the whole pho. Like, I was talking to a mate, I was talking about the, uh, I've been to the deli that's like, it's like a deli but like none of it's meat. I wonder how, yeah, I wonder how that would go because I was asking him like, do people go in there thinking they're actually buying salami? He's like, yeah. And so he reckons that's the future.

Leon: Oh, you think that the goal is to trick people?

Tommy: There is an element of like trying to make it as, oh, like universal as possible. That's like, you just don't know.

Josh: At my son's Christmas party and there was a sausage sizzle and there was very limited sausages left by the time me and one of the other dads went over. And then he's eating it and he's just like, I could see him and I was like, I said to him, you know, that's not a real sausage. And as soon as he realised it wasn't a real sausage, he was so pissed off. Like, the— like, he, he was thinking it was a shitty tasting sausage, but he thought it was like— yeah, but as soon as he realised it wasn't real, oh, what is this fucking thing? I get it.

Leon: It is mind over matter. It absolutely is.

Josh: So when you're— when you— yeah, he wasn't— but when you— when you work out, it's the fake stuff.

Tommy: But eating less meat, I think, is a good thing.

Josh: I think if we can reduce how much meat we're eating, nothing wrong with it. I think it's all positive. In terms of sort of that, the sensitivities that are 2019 moving into 2020, we're talking about the schools, the balloons, the meat. What have you seen that has sort of really sort of rattled the team? Not even, but what, what's the consideration from a team perspective that is Metro Radio?

Leon: Everything's got to be put through a filter again, like these days now as well, because you go, if we say something like that, is that going to upset a whole different audience as well? But then also you don't want to filter yourself where it's to the point where everything is just bland and you can't have an opinion on things. I think you've just got to be very careful with not overdoing it and smashing something every day. Or, you know, because both Fifi and Fav this year have both flirted with becoming vegan. Fifi went vegan for about a week.

Tommy: She also did a weekend where she watched every Netflix documentary, which is a real headfuck because by the end—

Leon: that sounds like a wacky radio stunt, but that's just her because she was like, no, I'm gonna I think that's like a challenge, almost like, I reckon I could watch these without being affected. And she got affected for about a week.

Josh: Every meat, every—

Tommy: what it was almost like that, it's like the knives over forks, it's the—

Josh: yeah, conspiracy.

Leon: Yeah, all those different ones, which she did point out as well, all are very conflicting, um, ideologies and stuff like that. Yeah. Um, but Fev now has since November has become pescatarian, only fish. He thought he was gonna go vegan and he was like, oh no, but he's going hard with pescatarian. What's the Uber Eats choice for someone who's going Well, he gets a lot of Lobster Cave.

Josh: Do you know that? Down there?

Leon: That's by Beaumaris, I think it is.

Josh: Yeah, near my mum and dad's place.

Leon: It's quite a famous, like, seafood restaurant called the Lobster Cave. Yeah. And he does a lot of posts on his Instagram with tagging of Lobster Cave.

Tommy: So there's some sort of deal. Yeah, he's actually got a private driver now, Uber Eats, just from the Lobster Cave. I do wonder about that. Like, maybe there's going to be a correction, but when was the last time you called up a restaurant like a pizza place to order and get delivery.

Josh: We do it all the time.

Leon: Really?

Josh: Sorry, not delivery. We do it to pick it up. Yeah, getting the—

Leon: yeah, I'll pick up. Yeah, I suppose.

Tommy: Yeah, delivery, like there's something interesting about like— I sort of miss opening the door and having like them wearing a uniform.

Josh: Yeah, I know a guy I went to primary school with, I see him, uh, he's a pizza delivery driver for a local place that only— are they—

Mason: they have—

Josh: I don't think they have Uber. They have menu log, and then they have their own internal delivery guy.

Leon: Do you think they're suffering from that though? Because I feel like you'd lose a lot of business just because you're not on there.

Josh: I think this was the outcry 2017 of like people, you know, businesses are too affected. Everyone's leaned into it. Everyone's got 3 different services— Foodora, Deliveroo, Uber.

Leon: There's DoorDash, which is just opening as well.

Tommy: Yeah, and so the interesting thing about DoorDash is that obviously scraped some database, so they have everything on there. Yeah, but the restaurant doesn't even have to buy in. Like, the restaurant doesn't even have to tick. So it's like, this isn't an official thing.

Leon: You're externally ordering for whoever, and then there's a middleman essentially, as opposed to teaming up.

Tommy: Yeah, which is sort of strange.

Josh: Well, Uber provide hardware, so they've got the iPad or the little screen that's—

Tommy: do you know what I saw that was awesome? I think it was— I think it was Deliveroo in the UK. Look it up, 97, but this YouTuber tried to work out whether he could set up a restaurant in his apartment.

Josh: Oh, yeah.

Tommy: And so, he bought frozen meals from the supermarket down the road and took photos of them all and actually got verified. And so, he was taking orders from his apartment and all he was doing was microwaving the meal.

Leon: Was he getting a rating?

Tommy: Yeah, like, and the thing was that he wasn't getting many orders. And so you can do with a lot of these services now, you can put discounts and stuff. And so he was like 40% off or whatever. And so he's like, oh, we've got another one for the linguine or whatever.

Mason: Yeah, he made £100.

Leon: Yeah.

Josh: Oh yeah.

Tommy: And the funny thing is they gave him like a, um, uh, like a point of sale, like iPad and all that sort of thing, a receipt. So I was printing it all out.

Josh: I'd heard about that in Melbourne. A burger place. Someone was doing burgers from their house at some point. That was— did you hear any of this stuff?

Leon: No, I didn't hear about that one. There's the— I think one of them, I'm not sure if it's Deliveroo or Uber. No, it's not Uber.

Tommy: Is Foodora still around or no?

Josh: Foodora, something went.

Tommy: One of them, I think that might have been the one that went.

Leon: There was—

Tommy: because remember, Deliveroo and Foodora, they look the same, came out the same time. Foodora had the pink, pink—

Leon: I don't think Foodora—

Tommy: well, I don't— yeah, I think they may have gone.

Leon: I must say, I think it was Deliveroo. They have like a a mini kitchen set up where it's literally— they don't sell to public, it's just for deliveries.

Josh: Mr. Miyagi do that.

Tommy: Yeah, I think Raiders do it as well. Raiders have Little Raiders, which is an offshoot like two doors down where they just do that.

Leon: But there's one where it's a kitchen that just has all types of food. Ah, so it's almost like room service where you go, what do I feel like tonight? And I think it's a branded restaurant from the— maybe it's Deliveroo.

Tommy: That's great. So our, um, our, uh, mates at Redfern Convenience Store, yeah, they, they do, uh, delivery through their convenience store. So you can get like chocolates through Deliveroo. Deliveroo, yeah. So you can get all that.

Leon: And I'm noticing that, like, because the whole point of— the whole point of his thing is to have his favourite customers come in. Is he just gonna start losing?

Tommy: Well, it's also that, but also he's part— it's convenience. Yeah, it's a very convenient—

Leon: you'll just see his Instagram feed is just gonna be his favourite delivery ruedrivers now.

Tommy: Well, there's a lot of— yeah, there's a lot of Insta storeys of the receipts of what people are ordering.

Leon: Invasion of privacy.

Tommy: Well, there was, there was a couple of times where I was like, the phone number's on there. I never said it because I don't think it's my place to point it out.

Josh: I think it's such a great idea because people are ordering packets of chips. Yeah, Lamington packet of chips.

Leon: But you know what, it's 1 AM stoners that can't get out of their house.

Tommy: My favourite one was The messaging I think was a bit off. It was like avoid the Sydney smoke order on, you know, Deliveroo. I was thinking about the riders. Someone's got to do it. Someone's delivering.

Leon: They're getting paid, mate. Here's your order. Sure, they get, you know, health compo down the track somewhere.

Tommy: Absolutely not.

Leon: Have you guys been on the page for the Redfern Convenience?

Tommy: Yes.

Josh: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tommy: So we actually did a live show from there, which was great. And then, yeah, so he featured us then, which was—

Leon: Because I used to live around the corner from that store. And all my friends were just so, so desperate to be featured on the page. And but then you like, you can't go in, you got to play it cool. You can't go in and just go, can I be in the page?

Tommy: You just have to do a big order and be passionate. If I was to do it, I'd be like, mate, I need 1,000 LaCroix. I mean, it's a big investment.

Leon: It is a big investment. My mate had a plan. Like he got— he bought one of the t-shirts, the merch. And took it.

Tommy: Oh, hang on, is this— was he on TV? No, because there was a guy I saw that, uh, Ben Fordham was talking about it, where there was a guy who was, um, in New Zealand because he got, he got fired or something. No, he got fired. He's, um, the interview, like his exit interview for his work, he dressed up as a clown.

Leon: I heard about that.

Tommy: Yeah. And so then he, uh, he was interviewed on one of the talk shows and he was wearing a Redfern Convenience t-shirt.

Leon: No, no, no, it wasn't that one. No, no, he wasn't as good as that now. Well, you just ruined my set.

Tommy: So I've done the classic. So if we were to relate this back to radio, what I've done is normally you have, you know, if you have 3 callers, yeah, put the good one at the end.

Leon: But sometimes if the storey before you're soliciting is so good, you're like, well, the calls aren't gonna be as good. Yeah, yeah, just keep it as one break.

Tommy: Just drop it. So just drop it and start the story. Thanks. No one to hear it.

Leon: So no, no, no, he just bought a t-shirt I'm going to the UK to Glastonbury Festival and I'm going to wear it in front of the iconic stage, get a photo and send it back. And within an hour it was posted and it was like, great, I'm done here.

Tommy: But he didn't get— he wasn't officially a customer of the day.

Leon: No, no, he used to be. Well, that's a good point. Well, no, he used to be a customer quite frequently.

Tommy: But there's a— it's a specific benchmark.

Leon: Okay, so he's failed then. You can tell him that then. I'm not.

Josh: What do you— what are your benchmarks of the show? And what is a benchmark for non-radio people?

Leon: Benchmarks are like a regular segment that you do, you know, usually once a week, once a day, or, um, look at benchmarks. We change around a lot.

Josh: We're—

Leon: Tradie Yoki is one of our biggest ones, which, um, you travelled for that. We traveled. Yes, we have travelled for that. Yeah, yeah, we— it was essentially because we realised tradies listen to the show a lot between 6 and 7, you know, that early start in the morning, and we wanted some sort of something to do with them because it's just a really good audience to reach out to. And so we thought, let's just do a karaoke segment with tradies. Actually started— no, it started organically because it was a video on the Today Show or Sunrise or something of a tradie singing opera. And we thought, let's see if there's any tradies that can sing like that as well. Called out for some tradies. Some came through and sang and we realised they have no filter. Tradies, they just— one, they're happy to do anything, always up for some fun. Yeah, but also have a very weird selection of music. Like when you hear one call up, you go, oh, he's probably gonna do a Jimmy Barnes song here. No, I've got a Kelly Clarkson number for you. It's always just, always kills.

Tommy: Well, you think when you think of tradies, you think of Triple M. That's it.

Leon: Yeah, yeah. But, um, we, we have a different—

Tommy: so it's a type of, I guess, the Fox or Hit listening, uh, tradie. Are they certain trades? Do you find that bricklayers stick to Triple M?

Leon: A lot of chippy. We have a lot of chippies call through that segment.

Josh: There's a lot of good-looking sort of—

Leon: yeah. And then we also do like bend what a tradie is. Like, we've had truck drivers, which technically could be a tradie, tradesperson, that sort of thing. But either way, so we've done the— that version. Then we did like a rooftop— at our rooftop we had some perform for huge crowds. We did live, Tradie Oki Live. And then this year we did Tradie Okio, which we took tradies to the home of karaoke, to Tokyo in Japan. We've got to compete in the karaoke competition over there.

Josh: I thought Tradie Oki couldn't get any better, the name, and then Tradie Okio.

Leon: Oh, and you know what? I've got, I've got the next one for next year. For this year.

Josh: Can you say it?

Leon: I'm not going to say it.

Tommy: Is it going to be— you're going to be travelling somewhere?

Leon: Hopefully, yes.

Josh: We're now trying to work it out.

Tommy: And so the client— who was the client? Who paid for you guys to go? What was— who was the supporting partner in that?

Leon: Sheen Panel Service.

Tommy: Yeah, great.

Leon: And we had one of their panel beaters from one of their stores caught up in Ants and we're like, we've got to bring him along.

Tommy: That's so good.

Leon: So he was one of our traders that came with us.

Tommy: And so what does— for people who don't know within the radio space, what's the requirement if they throw a bunch of cash at something like this? What does it look like from a content integration point of view? When does it start?

Leon: Well, there's usually by a sponsorship package. So like you're promoting— you're sorry, you're sponsoring the show. So you'll get, you know, daily mentions, you'll get mentions on social media, which is all sorted out through sales, salespeople.

Tommy: Are they structured? Are they scripted? Are they off the cuff?

Leon: A bit of everything. They kind of get the gist of what we're doing, and there are some recorded lines that are scripted and approved usually, but then when it comes to being part of an integration within the show, they've got to give over the trust for the show to kind of own it. They know where it's sort of going, but they're very, very good with that sort of stuff.

Tommy: Have you had a favourite credit line in 2019? So I remember there was moments where, when I was working on Fifi and Jules, where they had to mention, you know, whether it be Nando's or whatever, and they just worked out a really good way of doing it where it's like, ah, tick that off. Oh yeah, now we've got that credit. Has there been anything that's been like a really natural credit?

Leon: Well, do you know what worked really well for us? We were sponsored by Mandalay Homes, which is a home—

Tommy: is it a home and land estate?

Leon: Home and land package estate in Beveridge, which is, you know, 40 minutes from the city near the airport. Yeah, yeah. And So they've been quite a good sponsor to us last year and next year as well. And we lived there for one night, so we took the show there for a night and did all the things that they're wanting to promote.

Tommy: Do they have— because I remember Radio Karate in about 2006 did a video which got onto the Comedy Channel where they were in a display home and they were— someone was living in a display home that had no water. And had like, it was like a mockumentary. So this was more than just a display home. This was actually, it had utilities.

Leon: Yeah. So I think someone actually just rent, we rented it almost from them for a couple of days and they got a holiday for it, which was good for them. But it just sort of allowed our guys to sort of live there. And like there was a golf course at the back of the house. There was a pool, a clubhouse, like all those sort of things. And the guys all just, do that and record some content. But then moving forward, anytime we have them on as a sponsor, our guys just refer— I remember we lived there and how good is the pool? Well, yeah, you pushed me into the pool.

Tommy: Like, it's—

Leon: yeah, because they've lived there, it's just naturally something that's happened to them now that doesn't feel like they're making something up. It's a genuine sponsorship.

Tommy: It's great. I remember I got in trouble from Kerry Jones, who was a producer, Kerry, uh, when I was at FIFA Angels. I, uh, I did a tweet about a restaurant that I wasn't happy with Oh, and it was a client.

Leon: Yeah, I've got to be super careful.

Josh: I—

Leon: yeah, I think this is for social media, and there is a social media policy. If you— I'm always very careful with—

Tommy: it's like slander.

Leon: Yeah, that's why I have fake accounts to troll people.

Tommy: No, because I guess I remember Tim Lee had Not Tim Lee on Instagram or whatever. His I'm Not Tim Lee is a way of like being able to slam people and being like, no, it's a parody account, it's not me.

Leon: Well, that's a very good point. Like, I've— like, everyone has, you know views and opinions are my own on their accounts. But I think that only covers you to a certain extent.

Josh: Like, if it loses the business money, you've still lost the business money.

Leon: Totally.

Tommy: But what about doing like talk breaks? So for instance, say if I'm at McDonald's and I find some bug in the thing, but it's a Big Mac and it's very related to that story, is that— what's the filter system like?

Mason: Are you—

Tommy: because I know that's some sensitivity that we have. It's like, yeah, uh, 97 Gets His beautiful hair done by Rachel Vitullo, Australia's number one hair colorist. If a guest comes in, just say at least once a show. Yeah. When, when someone comes in, goes, I don't know about your hair. I'm like, no, but seriously, it's quite nice. And Rachel did a beautiful job.

Leon: I mentioned it already earlier. Yeah. So there are— it's hard. Like, look, if it's, if it's big news, if it's in the news, you kind of go— if, if it's necessary to the story, you, you've got to mention it because you're reporting on something.

Tommy: Yeah.

Leon: But if it's an irrelevant kind of part of like, you just go, I was at a burger place, or I was at a fast food restaurant that rhymes with McDonald's.

Tommy: Have you had any moments though where you get, get the call where it's like, ah, maybe don't mention that?

Leon: I haven't. Oh no, I haven't actually. No.

Tommy: Is the sensitivity— because I guess just in real time, say even meat or whatever, say if you're doing something on the veggie stuff and being like, meat's fucked, I guess if you just think about all the companies that associated with meat.

Leon: Yeah.

Tommy: Is it just like in, you know, in this day and age, do they just accept the fact that people have a diverse range of opinions on this?

Leon: Well, you have to, because you look at social media, you can't control every single comment happening around the world. And I suppose if you're a big media company, that's kind of somewhere you can have more control. But at the end of the day, you've, you've got to have opinions and you just be super careful.

Tommy: Well, you've got—

Leon: you do it.

Josh: So you've got like a ad ad blocks every 15 minutes. Yeah, they're just triggering off sort of 5 ads.

Leon: Yeah.

Josh: Are you thinking at the metro level, what, what are those ads and what is the content and does it relate to them? Never.

Leon: I never think about that.

Josh: That's good.

Leon: I'll always be like, you're very conscious of the big— yeah, the big companies and who could be. And I'm always, if we're doing a phone topic when someone's calling through and going, where have you found something weird in your food, I'd tell every caller, don't say the brand, just say I was having a burger or whatever it is, just because again, is it— you don't need to know.

Tommy: I love the idea that punter's just fucking it up though. It's just, I had a burger. Oh no, that happens.

Leon: That happens. Like when they say a brand, you're like, oh yeah, ads are coming up next.

Josh: I mean, then so what we're worried about is advertisers in one thing pulling cash, but then on the other side it's listeners thinking they're fucking just controlled by all these brands, they're sellouts, or they're But if you've got mates, so I guess like the example is like if we have a mate of the show, some people won't like that person, some people will.

Tommy: There's all that, like you can have someone that you're friends with, but other people hate. If someone comes on the show and then says something disparagingly about the, that person that you're friends with, you want to be able to protect them in some way, right? Because like you would, it's not about like bullshitting, but it's just like, being a little bit of a filter system. I guess that's the same thing with brands. If you've got partners that are supporting and working, you get to see the inside bit of how hard it actually is to run a restaurant.

Leon: Yeah, yeah, everyone is suffering right now. I think even the big one, like, I get with— you look along the streets, you know, in this sort of north side of Melbourne, there's so many smaller stores shutting down, and it is genuinely because of bigger stores taking their, you know, own online stores as well. But even these, the big supermarkets are suffering as well. Like, no one's— like, everything's sort of just diluting and being spread out, and people are losing money from what they thought they could absolutely smash.

Tommy: Yeah, it's a weird time.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: So, uh, this year, 2020.

Leon: Yes.

Tommy: Uh, what are you excited about in life?

Leon: Oh God, I haven't thought about that yet. Not much really. Like, I feel— you know what, we were talking the other day, got a job. We went for a— yeah, that— no, you know what it is, that I've got a good stable job and Last year I bought an apartment for my first time buying.

Josh: Yeah, Fev was the guarantor.

Tommy: No, but that was the whole sand debacle, the north side. It was a big issue around Collingwood.

Leon: Oh, from my, um, from the fake grass. Last time I was on the show, I think I told the storey that I had artificial grass installed in my balcony.

Tommy: My apartment block is a few blocks down and that the sand is still making its way across. I'm sorry about that. That's okay.

Josh: Yeah, but Leon's got grass.

Leon: There actually is an update with we, because we have a Facebook group in this apartment and there's about 100, must be like 80 or 90, I think, apartments in this complex. And there's a Facebook group, which when I first moved in, I thought, that's a really cool idea. It's like Secret Life of Us, like everyone's friends. You know, there's a communal rooftop.

Tommy: That's what everyone thought about Facebook in general, right? Oh, this is great. It's like Secret Life of Us. That's it.

Leon: But then, you know, because originally it was like nice messages like, hey, I'm moving in on Thursday. Can anyone help me get a fridge up? Or hey, I'm having drinks on the rooftop tomorrow night. Does someone want to come up? It's, it's become almost a point where everyone's got this open slab that you go, I'm going to just complain and bitch about stuff.

Josh: And is it all owners or is it people who rent?

Leon: I think if you rent, no, if you rent, you can be on the group as well.

Tommy: Bree is still a member of a group where we used to live and she's always saying, I'm so glad we don't live there because it's always like, which idiot put this couch in the bin room?

Leon: And what I've realised is You know, all these complaints and these negative things coming through, none of us in this apartment building would know about if this Facebook group didn't exist.

Tommy: Like, it's, it's like news.com.au for you.

Leon: Exactly right. So I had the first time I've, I've had— so last week or the week before, had a bit of a little bit of a party. Not a party, I had people over for drinks and they got a bit—

Tommy: how many people?

Leon: 7 or 8.

Tommy: Okay, it's not bad.

Josh: That's a small gathering. Yeah, yeah.

Leon: So we have a cooler rooftop and at 10 o'clock It was— we went, yep, cool, let's head back downstairs to my apartment because don't make noise in the roof. That's the official time for, you know, cut off. We had drinks and there's a few of those people left, so by the end it was probably 4 or 5 of us and we're out on our balcony having some drinks, though, having a smoke, having a chat, and went till about 3 or 4 AM. And we weren't playing music, but we turned the music down. I remember that because I was like, let's not play the music too loudly, so angry. I can hold my alcohol. I've seen it, he can. I'm drunk now. But, and I understand, look, people, people do work and people have to have, you know, they're quiet and stuff. But they are soundproof doors and windows at that place because we live next to a massive live music venue. So you need to be able to close the doors and windows and have no noise. So someone wrote this complaint, like a really just like, it was 2 paragraphs of like, how dare you, this, like it was very Greta Thunberg, like it was 'You know, blah blah blah, people are trying to sleep. You were up all night with loud music and throwing cigarette butts.' And I guarantee we weren't throwing cigarette butts because we don't.

Tommy: Yeah, you got no—

Leon: But, uh, and then people started chiming in and it became a bit of a witch hunt. Like, I think it was level 7 or 704, and I'm 604. Shouldn't have said that, actually. Shit. But like, it was almost trying to pinpoint who it was, and it was that real thing of me— I was about to go, 'Yeah, I heard it too.' How rude.

Tommy: It's the grass guy all over again.

Leon: Not every—

Josh: like, yeah.

Tommy: But I know who it is.

Leon: And they have dogs that bark like at 6 AM every morning. And I felt like going, why don't you shut your dogs up?

Tommy: Like, yeah.

Leon: But then I saw someone write, I tried yelling out to them but they didn't hear us and I didn't know what to do.

Tommy: No one knocked on my fucking door.

Leon: Well, that's the thing.

Tommy: Got it.

Leon: But then at the end of it, I thought, I felt stressed for about a day because I was like, well, I don't want to be that dickhead.

Tommy: Did you say something?

Leon: I never have parties and stuff at my house. And again, we were very careful not to have loud music and stuff. It was just obviously we're talking too loud. And then I realized, no, fuck, if I didn't even have this Facebook page, I wouldn't have known about this.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: Yeah.

Leon: I mean, so it's just all these people are just finding a way to—

Tommy: So what did you do?

Leon: I had another party.

Josh: More sand. I mean, these people shouldn't have a microphone. This is what they've— this is what it's giving them.

Leon: That's it.

Josh: An opportunity to do it.

Leon: It's really— it's morphed into this. It was a nice little sort of community and now it's a bit like 'Oh, well, you're all dickheads.' Could you turn it—

Tommy: could you turn the culture around? How about you do a post, uh, being like, you know, end of the year or whatever, and just being like really nice?

Josh: What about Redfern convenience store approach?

Tommy: Uh, community member of the week. Or what about you could even do something around like, uh, I mean, you're a producer, you could do something around highlights. Maybe you could do a— fuck, this is good, this is good— what about you write a song Yeah. Where it's all about the shit that went down in the building in 2019. So it's like, you know, sand in the air.

Leon: I'll just like, go on.

Mason: Yeah.

Josh: Now you got to bury the lead.

Tommy: No, but I think it could be like if you parody, like if you, if you make it satirical, then people can sort of deal with the issues more, right? So it's like noises after 10, sand in the air, everybody go.

Josh: Could you get a outsource social media manager to be the community manager on the page.

Tommy: That's a great idea.

Josh: Hi, Janet, thanks for getting back. We're looking into— and you build out some character that acts like they're from the—

Tommy: a character. How funny would it be to have a character in the page?

Leon: Like a mascot for the building?

Tommy: Crazy Jeff. No, I'm just— yeah, what about, um, who's I'm Excited? Who was he? Oh, Big Kev. What about like— rest in peace, Big Kev. Big Kev's profile picture. Could all be Kev. I think there's definitely something.

Leon: Maybe you think it needs a moderator.

Josh: Like someone moderating neutral ground, someone that doesn't care, doesn't even live there.

Leon: But it's like, I'll be honest, you know what, I commented on something this morning just to alleviate my guilt because someone last night must have been having a party. I didn't hear it because soundproof windows. Yeah, but, um, where are we?

Tommy: Someone had a party, didn't hear anything. Good job, guys.

Leon: Someone wrote this last night. Hey guys, we're in 501 and have been woken up by stomping and banging from the apartment above us. It's been going for at least an hour now. I'm not quite sure which apartment it is, but it's 2 o'clock in the morning. Would appreciate if you could chill out up there.

Josh: That was posted at that time.

Leon: At that time.

Josh: Fucking close your eyes and meditate.

Leon: That's it. Headphones, sound noise plugs. Like, probably also a good reminder to everyone else in the building not to be— to be considerate to your neighbors, blah, blah, blah.

Tommy: Natalia, fuck off.

Leon: And I wrote, yeah, I'm on level 6 and could hear something from down the hall. Wasn't sure which number though, because it made me feel like I'm almost like, yeah, this is not good. And it kind of takes me out of the picture from that. Previous complaint last week.

Tommy: No, I think you're absolutely part of the problem. The most fucked up thing is you're also Talia. You've got multiple accounts, 40 of them. That's the other thing, you probably should start trying to get other accounts in there that are you, so that when it comes to things like polling— so if they ever do a poll around, then you've got more weight on the whole poll because you've got— you keep going.

Leon: I'm in the owner's corp as well, so that's probably more professional than just a poll on Facebook. But I feel like this is where it's all going though. Yeah, true.

Tommy: So do you take any specific— do they have treasurers and stuff in the owners corp?

Leon: Uh, I think as a group in the owners corp, we all agree on finances and stuff for the apartment building.

Tommy: Any weird expenses that you've had?

Leon: Um, no, not really. We've been—

Tommy: CCTV?

Leon: Yeah, we have actually. Someone tried to break in, so we, we had to We said let's just get more CCTV around the back of the building, just covers us insurance-wise for the building. Um, well, that's pretty much it.

Josh: What's your body corporate fee?

Leon: Um, I can't remember how it works because there's like rates and shit. Like, it's all like, there's rates and body corp fees.

Tommy: What's your internet like?

Leon: Um, it's not bad. It's, it's— we're forced to go with the one provider.

Tommy: Which one is it? G Telecom.

Leon: Uh, is it really close? I've never heard of it.

Tommy: It's on Is it on like this, the same street? Because I, I got installed internet at our place the same day we moved in. It was G Telecom and they're very good.

Leon: Well, that's the thing, is that you should call them and they just flick it on because it's, which is all connected. Not bad.

Tommy: But you're finding out. Yeah, try G Telecom. He looking up late, late notices.

Leon: Yeah, text messages, bills I haven't paid.

Tommy: Um, he's just going through his iPhone.

Josh: Is it fast or not?

Leon: Yeah, it's fine. I haven't had any issues with it. I don't measure the speed. I don't know, it doesn't affect me. Well, no, if you want to come over and measure my internet, come and measure it.

Tommy: It sounds like a good evening. No, but our mate Pete Shepherd just moved into a place. That was the first thing, getting him to test, do speed tests.

Josh: Turns out— shit house.

Tommy: Well, they've got NBN, but the thing is, the problem was that he was on the lowest plan. So he's getting 11 megabits down, 1 megabit up. How is he going to run?

Mason: That's worse than ADSL. Yeah.

Josh: You know what, I think he might just be being a tight ass because the one above it's $5 more. Well, so that's ridiculous.

Tommy: So $10 more. Yeah, $10 more and he gets like 48 megabits.

Josh: That's the one I'm on. There's an NBN.

Tommy: Yeah, that's what you need to do. You couldn't find it.

Leon: It's like $60 a month or something and it's completely—

Tommy: I had— there was a time in 2019 that I had like industrial grade internet because they're like, you can go as fast as you want, just you don't need it. And so I got like 200 megabits up and down.

Leon: It was like—

Tommy: what were you paying? 180. Oh God, it was so far, but it was so fast that I couldn't even use it all. So I ended up downgrading.

Josh: But, and so yeah, so 2019 you bought an apartment. It's a great accomplishment.

Leon: So I think it's just nice to sort of be settled because I've worked in radio for 11 years. I've been at the company and I've moved around a fair bit, moved from show to show, moved interstate back and forwards. And it's just nice to have somewhere I can set up just for a little bit and just breathe and and enjoy it.

Josh: And you weathered the redundancies. I did. So the lot went.

Leon: It was, it was not great.

Josh: You've got your job. I mean, in terms of being in those senior positions, talent are on contract, so they're signed for X amount of years. Is it just you're, you've got a job? Yeah.

Tommy: Would talent just, if talent was to move tomorrow, would you still be the breakfast EP?

Leon: Yeah, you're, I'm employed by with that station to be executive producer of Breakfast.

Tommy: Yeah, yeah.

Leon: So I'm not like a contractor to do the show.

Tommy: Yeah.

Leon: Are you trying to poach me?

Tommy: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Josh: We thought about that. We're like, imagine what it would—

Tommy: how much would it cost? No, no, we're thinking about like, yeah, if we had Leon and 97 working together.

Leon: Yeah, Unstoppable.

Tommy: Right, yeah, it'd be a big thing. I mean, we've got 10 years, so we've got a while. So if in like 2 years' time you're like, you know, well, I'm glad that offer's out there. Yeah, that's okay.

Josh: Yeah, it's not rock solid yet.

Leon: I can moderate your Facebook page.

Josh: The, uh, Yeah, it makes sense to sort of just bunker down. You've got, got it all sorted.

Mason: Yeah.

Josh: Does that not mean— I think we can get in the trap of like, we need to progress, so we're always looking. Like, it's, it's counterintuitive. Not counterintuitive, but we spend so much time trying to make it, make something of our career, or so it always seems like trying to progress.

Tommy: It's just like, it's that whole thing of like, if, if being present is the goal.

Leon: Yeah.

Tommy: And trying to force that through thinking about the future, it doesn't really work.

Leon: Yeah, like there's always people like, all right, what's next for you? What's next? What's next? Where you see yourself in 5 years? And I don't— like, radio can be so unpredictable. Like, there's no real proper endgame for me right now because it's going to be different in 5 years, 10 years, whatever it is. I'm happy to ride the wave, but also I'm very present in— I love my job and I make sure I do my best every single day, but also keeping myself creatively, you know, having that creative— yeah, that's it. I'm still doing that as well. Like, it's— there's always a challenge there. And I, you know, have fun on the side as well. Like, I'm— keep myself fresh.

Tommy: Yeah, you do the DJing stuff, DJ Shirk.

Leon: And that's— I think, actually, you know what, this, this year I want to focus more on like that. So I, I think last year, last time I was on the show, I just started— yeah, DJing. And when I say DJing, I'm not a DJ.

Tommy: Like, there's something so fun about that. Like, I'm actually seeing the, uh, We had Grant Smiley on the show.

Leon: Yeah.

Tommy: Lovely dude. And he's a DJ.

Leon: Yeah, but not a DJ. He's a DJ.

Tommy: But there is something about this, the performance in just being like being able to because I see your Insta storeys or whatever and just being able to control the room. And Grant Smiley says, you're fucking mine. That's what I do.

Leon: I'm covering the lack of skill I have DJing with props. We bought a bubble machine for the bar the other day. No, that's it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, we had confetti cannons the other week though as well, so— but biodegradable, they just disintegrate.

Tommy: And no straws?

Leon: Uh, no straws, no straws. Um, but yeah, so I, I started DJing in the sense of a friend of mine had a bar and said, hey, do you want to DJ? Um, and I was like, I don't know how to. She goes, you'll be fine, just hit your Spotify up and some CDs and just play some songs and have some fun. And then progressed, my friend opened a bar, she asked me to DJ there, and I started to teach myself on the decks. So within the last year I've picked up a lot more skills than I used to have, but I've been asked to DJ a gig several times. I've said no because I'm scared that I'm gonna get found out that I'm not a DJ. It's like, I'm not really a DJ, I'm just—

Tommy: this has happened to us with MTV. Oh, so MTV and Visit Victoria. MTV said, guys, we want to get you on doing— there's 6 music events, we want you to do coverage for them. They're like, you know, MTV was saying you're going to be the music correspondent, but we get that you're not really like fully into music. And then so we were like, great, they understand our brand, they know what we're about. And then we met with Visit Vic and they're like, you know, it's just great that you're passionate about music, you know? And we're just like, yes, yes, yes, I know everything about them. Yeah, we love music. Yeah, I know. I know vinyl. You know, is that a little bit like that? So you start on Spotify, and then before you know it, you're— I'm doing an event for Victoria.

Leon: I'm doing an event in like 2 weeks for the radio station for this. There's an artist around now called Lizzo. I'm not sure if you know. You probably would because you at least—

Josh: you know it.

Leon: Yes, you know, like an MTV.

Josh: Just give him one of the main songs.

Leon: Um, uh, Juice. I'm trying to think of— I'm trying to think which one he would know.

Josh: The one that's played on the radio constantly.

Tommy: Um, like—

Josh: what am I? Oh yeah!

Leon: No no no remix, don't play it now he says they don't want to deal with you anyway she's become the biggest artist in the world she had 8 Grammy nominations bigger than um what's her name Celine Dion yeah no no but Billie Eilish on par well I think you go right now yeah Billie Eilish was bigger earlier this year she's okay I saw at the start of the year in the UK came back and thought she's gonna be massive we should really get up for her.

Tommy: This is Lizzy.

Leon: Lizzo.

Tommy: Lizzo.

Leon: God, you absolutely— that's exactly what my mum said the other week. She's like, oh, is that that Lizzie chick? Close enough, Mum. Um, but I came back, I was like, we really need to get onto her as a radio station. She's gonna be huge. Eventually we got onto her and we're playing her music now, like everyone is. But, um, she's coming to Australia and we've pushed, and now she's playing a concert for our listeners. Like, we're putting on this party with, with her, and they're like, oh, we need like a support sort of DJ person beforehand. And they're like Well, Leon's a massive fan. He was one pushing it from the start. We should just get him to do it. This is so good. Okay, I'm not a DJ.

Tommy: What date is this?

Leon: This is January 13th.

Tommy: Oh, this is awesome.

Leon: Yeah, I'm shitting myself.

Josh: Saturday or Sunday?

Leon: It's a Monday.

Tommy: Monday, the best day for a DJ.

Leon: So, well, that's even harder because if it's a Saturday, people are drunk and they— Yeah, yeah, yeah. Again, like they don't really know, but it's a Monday. So since then I've like wiped my music collection since I found out. I've got new equipment, uh, burning new CDs. I'm repurchasing all like music because I was just ripping stuff off YouTube and I've realised they're terrible quality. Yeah, like, so when you're playing like speakers at a bar at 3 in the morning, it doesn't make a difference. But you're at a like a proper stage at a beach party before the biggest artist in the world, I really need to—

Tommy: So will you know, will you Do you practise the set? Will you go through all the songs?

Leon: Uh, I don't want to like set it out. I never go in with an idea of a set. I just have— I know a lot of music and I just go, I'll start with something I know that gets everyone going and then I'll read the vibe. Like the bar I work at, it has a lot of hens parties, you know, a lot of different sort of vibes that people come in. It's '70s, '80s bar. And I'll see if a hens party comes in and then not much of a dance floor, Whitney Houston, I Wanna Dance With Somebody gets them all up. And then you go a bit more female Yeah, I love that.

Josh: I was just thinking, what's next level? Cock straws.

Leon: There's a lot of biodegradable cock straws.

Tommy: They're biodegradable.

Leon: There's a lot of plastic.

Tommy: The paper ones that just go all soft. Didn't they?

Josh: And we know we don't want soft cocks in our mouth.

Tommy: Soft cocks in our mouth. Nothing worse. Soggy soft cocks. There's the title of today's episode.

Mason: Yeah.

Leon: So yeah, look, so I love that you were—

Tommy: It's Gen 4 week.

Leon: It's today. Gen 4. I've got 11, 9 days.

Tommy: Yeah.

Leon: And I'm— yeah, I'll be shitting myself still. Like, I'm—

Josh: yeah, just don't play your music.

Leon: I know, I know. I don't play all her songs. Well, I've got nothing left to do, so I actually— I'm thinking about more props. Do I bring my— the bubble machine from my friend's bar? Do I like—

Tommy: what about this?

Josh: A good shirt.

Leon: Yeah.

Mason: Okay.

Tommy: I was at a, um, I was emceeing a Christmas event, and, um, logistically they needed some work in regards to all the sets and they were, they were going overtime. So it was meant to go from like 10 a.m. to midday.

Leon: Yeah.

Tommy: And when I got the run sheet, it said like 10 a.m. till 12:50. So it was an extra 50 minutes of stuff, right? But no, no one who was attending the event knew that. And there was, you know, the song, what is it like, Santa Claus, like the high five one that they always play, like Santa's coming.

Leon: Santa Claus is coming to town.

Tommy: No, no, it's not Santa Claus. You know, Santa Claus. I'm trying to think of how it goes. Type in high five, Santa's coming.

Leon: But there's this like classic—

Tommy: Yeah, there's a classic song that like carols by candlelight they always play and all that sort of thing gets kids pumped.

Leon: I guarantee it's Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

Tommy: No, no, no, it's definitely not.

Leon: Santa Claus is Coming.

Mason: It's called Santa Claus is Coming.

Tommy: Can you get the lyrics, please? Can you get the lyrics?

Josh: What song are you on? Santa Claus is Coming.

Mason: Santa Claus is coming. He's not very far away. Time to hang your stocking. Stockings up. Tomorrow's Christmas Day.

Tommy: Keep going. I don't know it yet.

Josh: Yeah.

Mason: Put a piece of pie or cake on a pretty Christmas plate. Remember Rudolph's carrot. Oh, we can hardly wait.

Leon: I've never heard this.

Mason: Christmas tree is twinkling. Christmas pudding stirring. Presents are all wrapped and stacked because everybody's heard Santa Claus is coming. Santa Claus is coming.

Tommy: You know what, can you just— I know that we never play copyright stuff. Can you just play 10 seconds of it, please?

Leon: You're using your one copyright?

Tommy: Yeah, I think if High Five takes me one. Let It Be. Can you play it please?

Leon: I think there's only 4 of them now, so.

Tommy: Okay, here we go. All right, this is— here we go, here we go.

Leon: Just 5.

Tommy: You guys will know it. Santa Claus is coming, never heard this in my life. That was perfect because I reckon that was a karaoke version, even harder for it to suit.

Josh: Never heard it. And that's the quality of Sherg's songs.

Tommy: No, so what happened at the event, so some, like, the, um, there was a group that were doing the song Santa Claus is Coming, which is great.

Josh: It's a takeoff of another song. Yeah, it sounds like Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

Leon: Like, write an original song, Hi-5. I know you're not The Wiggles, but aim higher.

Tommy: So they, so someone played this song, right? Like, so they, like, a group performed the song. And then there was a lady on, a performer, two performances after, and her set, she— we were running overtime. Yeah. And she's like, plays that song and it like, she's like, I know that it's already been played, but let's do it again. And she had—

Leon: it's such a hit, they want to hear it again.

Tommy: And like, if you were to cut, like, we should have been cutting stuff out, right? Like, from a timing perspective. And she played it. I just thought it was so brave. To have someone else play a song, 3 songs before you, and then go, let's do it again.

Leon: That is super brave. Yeah, like, it's—

Tommy: so definitely don't play Lizzo's music. I think that's safe to say.

Josh: Yeah, definitely.

Leon: Very careful.

Josh: Um, what, um, how many people? Where, what, where is that being?

Tommy: Rooftop?

Leon: Uh, no, it's, um, it's, uh, it's one of the bars on St. Kilda Beach. It's gonna be a beach party, so it's like a big setup.

Josh: Can we come?

Tommy: I made it to the stage.

Leon: Yeah, yeah, a lot of fans are trying to get in, including me. We'll see what we can do.

Josh: Well, we want to come to support you.

Tommy: I think it feels a little bit like—

Leon: I want to come to see the support act.

Tommy: No, actually, I would leave if I had to come and watch you.

Leon: Yeah, you know, I'm building this up. It probably is just like I'll be playing background music.

Tommy: You won't actually be on the stage?

Leon: Yeah, probably.

Tommy: Yeah, well, maybe.

Josh: Yeah, if you want us to come and support you, you need We could all do it.

Tommy: Yeah, surely. Well, we're trying to do deals with free tickets. Callum Sinclair from the Sydney Swans is potentially getting us to a footy game next year or this year. So maybe, maybe we could do some wheeling and dealing and say, hey bro, if you're in Melbourne, our mate's DJing for Lizzo, you know, and we could get him on there as well. And he's AFL, so there's a big name, big name ruckman. So probably quite tall. So at the back, not in the front, but I'm sure you're not going to have a problem getting other people on People there.

Josh: to come down and watch it.

Tommy: Yeah, it's Lizzie's playing, but if she sold out in 3 seconds. But also January 13th, it's sort of a— people are going away and stuff. So if it is quiet, okay, it won't be.

Leon: Lizzie's doing pretty well.

Tommy: That is—

Leon: I haven't— she just played SNL, SNL Live this week, I think.

Tommy: Yeah, that is such a radio— the hottest tickets in town is such a radio producer thing to say.

Leon: Everything's like tickets in town. They absolutely are. Like, I've said it so many times about shit we have to sell.

Tommy: But this is genuinely the hottest tickets in town.

Josh: Hottest artist. You'd like if Post Malone was here.

Tommy: Have you ever done a music, uh, shift?

Leon: I haven't actually.

Tommy: Yeah, it'd be fun, which is fun because I'm such a music person.

Leon: I've gone to radio because I love music, but like ironically what I do right now isn't very music based. But that's why I feel like— and again, this is that sort of creative thing with a bit of music on the side with DJing.

Tommy: 2020, could you maybe do one shift for a weekend for fun?

Leon: I reckon I could.

Tommy: It'd be great. We'll film it.

Leon: There was talk of— so the DJ sets I do at my friend's bar is a '70s, '80s, '60s, '70s, '80s thing. So I love older music, like, and so our station doesn't play that, but, you know, old school stuff is very popular for younger people now. And there was talk of me doing like a Saturday night sort of a party thing.

Tommy: Oh, that'd be great.

Leon: On the radio station, but that sort of never eventuated. So maybe I should just push for that.

Josh: On late night shift. Yeah, just pre-record it. Maybe just play your shift from The Duff from—

Leon: yeah, oh, simulcast from—

Tommy: that'd be good.

Josh: I know I sent yesterday, uh, a full hour set, a live set from somebody. Yeah, it's like, it actually, like, if you've got a good webcam—

Tommy: who's sending you that stuff?

Josh: Oh, Conspiracy Jimmy, he always sending me music, he loves it.

Leon: Just sending you a good sort of 1-hour mix?

Josh: It was a 1-hour mix. You might know this because I just—

Leon: can I just play it before Lizzo?

Josh: Is it real?

Leon: I pretend like I'm doing something.

Tommy: It's got— it's even got applause.

Josh: It's all YouTube, it's all YouTube.

Tommy: YouTube.

Josh: So he said it's all like, there's heaps on YouTube. This— there's so many.

Leon: SoundCloud is full of just DJ mixes from—

Josh: does he preface it with anything? This is, um, what does he say? Kells. He just said Kells killing it.

Tommy: And then who is Kells?

Josh: Oh, the kookiest dude. I didn't even know. I don't even know who he is, but it was an hour-long set.

Mason: Jesus.

Tommy: No, they're getting a free—

Josh: yeah, yeah, I just got to run. Amsterdam full show.

Tommy: Anyway. It's, uh, do you bring that to tell us about DD?

Josh: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tommy: And so this is how you do integration.

Josh: Yeah, yeah, that's it.

Leon: Maybe I should get a sponsor on board for my set.

Josh: Yeah, I'm gonna get a DD back.

Leon: Give me a Daily Talk Show hat and I'll—

Tommy: oh, that'd be— yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Leon: I'll give one to Lizzie somewhere.

Tommy: Yeah, definitely. I'd love that. Lizzie would love it. And we'd get some stickers and stuff.

Leon: Yeah.

Tommy: Okay, this is very good. It's a Daily Talk Show.

Leon: I'll pop it on my laptop.

Josh: Yeah, it will be.

Tommy: Fuck yes.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: So, uh, Kate Mead, uh, who does does, uh, radio in— what area?

Josh: Warrnambool.

Tommy: Warrnambool.

Leon: Yes.

Tommy: Uh, she has the Daily Talk Show on her laptop, and so whenever they're doing outside broadcasts, right, people say it. So no, I'd love that. Leon Shogren, thank you for being on the show.

Leon: Thank you for having me.

Tommy: Hi@thedailytalkshow.com is the email address if you want to send us an email. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe, whether that's on Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Spotify, even on YouTube. That's another place to, uh, to get us. And if you're enjoying the show as well, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. 5 stars only, please. Uh, that's it for today. Have a great day and we'll see you tomorrow.

Josh: See you guys.