Brad Blanks Makes Moments

Brad: Wait a minute!

Tommy: Crossface!

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

Josh: Daily Talk Show, live from New York City, Brad Blanks.

Tommy: Yeah, Brad Blanks.

Brad: How are you guys? This is great to be a part of it. This is the most daily Podcasts in the world, right? Every single day.

Tommy: Yeah, I think so.

Josh: Yeah, 5 days a week. Do you think that we can say that we're daily if we're 5 days a week?

Brad: Yes, that's pretty good. You need weekends off in any good relationship. Yeah, true. Yeah, 2 grown men out there in the world and you aren't in the same room, are you?

Josh: Well, we haven't been. So we're gonna be back in Melbourne obviously after this US trip. But yeah, for the last, what, 3 months we have been doing the show remotely. So it's been weird hours. Wow. Doing like, uh, TJ would do like 6 AM and take morning shifts. I would do like 10 PM and Josh would take the night shifts.

Tommy: And there's— we found a clear difference in the quality of show pointed out by a listener, right?

Josh: Um, that I wasn't a morning person.

Tommy: He wasn't a morning person. I was better in the morning.

Brad: Controversial already.

Josh: Yeah. The problem is though that I don't know if you— because you do— do you do breakfast radio?

Brad: Breakfast, that's it. That's all.

Josh: Yeah. Do you find— because the The thing is that your voice is getting still warmed up. So TJ would do a bit of, ah.

Brad: Yeah, there's a bit of that.

Josh: A bit of phlegmy action.

Brad: No, I love it. I love morning radio. I think I'm a son of a dairy farmer. I love being a paperboy and I love breakfast. I love it. Morning radio here in America, I don't know if you've figured that, they call it mornings here.

Josh: So you were on Craig Bruce's podcast, Game Changers, and you were talking about that at the beginning of your career going in and saying, Hey, I wanna speak to the breakfast show producer. They had no idea.

Brad: They had no idea. And I was only, but don't get me wrong, I was only talking to receptionists. We've all been there pitching a receptionist any job that we've always wanted and receptionists don't take any of that. And I've been a receptionist. We don't wanna talk to guys like me ringing in.

Josh: Desperate, desperate people.

Brad: Desperate, we'll hang up or put them through to the mailroom. And that was what was happening to me in that morning where I sat there for like 5 hours ringing the top 20 radio stations in New York. Not that I knew they were really the top 20, but it was the top 20 from one of those old website lists in the year 2000. If you guys, were you guys alive then?

Josh: I was alive, yes. 1990, if you can believe it.

Tommy: '88 for me.

Brad: Right.

Tommy: Different times. So you grew up on a farm?

Brad: Yeah, well, I grew up in country, in a town. So look, I grew up in the town of Cobram, which I, you know, it's country and I, you know, just down the road to the Murray River and I'm—

Tommy: Mate, I lived in Shepparton for 2 years.

Brad: Oh, you're, so you know, there you go.

Tommy: I'm not from Shepparton, but I lived there for a couple of years, not far from Cobram. So you know Cobram, yeah.

Brad: But I always— I'd go to the city and people would go, 'Oh, you're a country boy,' and I'm like, 'Well, I always felt it was like a suburb.' Anyway, we'd get in a car and with no troubles be in Melbourne in 2 and a half hours, 3 hours. And so we'd be zip— we'd be under the footy a lot of weekends when we weren't playing footy as kids and getting the train down there. But yeah, it's a country town, and I spent the first 3 years— and 3 years— I'm from a dairy farming family, so, you know, my dad just decided to sell caravans and, um, instead of going on for his, you know, dairy farming, fulfilling his destiny.

Tommy: Yeah, fork in the road. It was either sell caravans or milk.

Brad: That's right, that's right. I think you picked the right one. Yeah, but my early love of radio came from my dad doing commercials to 2QN Deniliquin on the phone, and I'd sit there as a young boy and listen to him raven rant into the telephone live on there, and I'd run to my bedroom and then listen to him on the radio, which I— yeah, was a cool little moment.

Josh: So what I love about you is the fact that you're doing this in a different country. Like, 'cause the thing is like Australian radio is really sort of glamorous in a lot of, in the sense that it's sort of, it's got, it seems like there's a bit of an investment there. There's a lot going on and all that sort of thing. Radio.

Brad: It's arguably the most, it's arguably the number one radio market in the world. I'd even say.

Tommy: Really?

Brad: Yeah, from comparisons over the years. Yeah. Australia is a radio goldmine. It's just, it's brilliant. It's got the best people.

Josh: Why do you think that is?

Brad: I tell you, I'm studying it. Like I used to say England was on comparison, but you know, you've seen the Christian O'Connor go to Melbourne and it looks like he's killing it. So, and very happy from what I see and hear. And so I can't nail it down. Is it the breadth, the length of the country, how big it is? Or I don't. I can't nail it.

Josh: So it's a different, but that's what I find so surprising is when I started listening to US radio, I'd like stream it on the phone. And it just surprised me that the difference in the showmanship, there's a showmanship to radio where it's a little bit broadcasty. And it's like, how did you decide? How'd you end up in the world of the US and What's your perspective?

Brad: Yeah, on that, yeah, because really on that whole point you're still right on terms of the showmanship because really I shouldn't be here. I wasn't coming in and doing a song and dance when I was on, I was just still trying just to have a chat.

Josh: Yeah.

Brad: And I was essentially emulating the guys that I grew up liking and, you know, enjoying on Melbourne. Well, starting off in Shepparton radio and listening to 3SR and Sun FM and then down to Melbourne through my university days and That would have been Triple M and back then 2Day FM. No, not 2Day FM, I'm sorry, uh, Triple T FM.

Josh: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brad: Love Songs. Yeah, yeah, and, um, yeah, so then getting here, I just wanted to chat and I knew I— I was just— I mean, I'll get to how it happened, but the show I ended up getting on was a comedy show. So in essence, they wanted to be funny and I knew I had to provide— be the foil to their funny, you know. And they were a duo and a straight man who was a funny guy, but then a really funny guy, real quick, just sharp.

Josh: And what's their show called?

Brad: That was The Scott and Todd Show on PLJ.

Josh: I was watching on YouTube, I searched on YouTube, I think it was after hearing your chat with Craig, and some of the stuff that happened, like I think there was one where it was sort of some sort of tits, some sort of stripper, I don't know, it was some YouTube video where it's like basically—

Brad: It was great, man.

Josh: There was some like radio show. I'm waiting for this to go— Champagne. No, where it was sort of like, it was like wet t-shirt competition or some shit like that. Do you remember?

Tommy: Taking away two big keywords? Strippers, wet t-shirt.

Brad: That wasn't in my day.

Josh: Okay, yeah, because it was like 10 years ago, like I think it was like 2008 or something like that.

Brad: Oh no, no, it still wouldn't have been wet t-shirt. No, no, but it might have been recently.

Josh: Yeah, oh maybe. Maybe. But do you think there is that, like Howard Stern or that sort of thing, there is sort of a certain style?

Brad: That's right, no, that, but then Howard Stern's on his own in terms of, but there are those stations throughout America, classic rock stations, that'd be the genre where there is that.— you know, wild affair. I am on a station in Minneapolis that would be classed— not so wild anymore, but in the 'O's it was more wild. I think the wild radio stations have, you know, have— you know, the culture has changed.

Tommy: That is, you know, it's a risky business model.

Brad: That's right.

Tommy: Having a really risky radio show.

Brad: The show I was on was very, you know, soccer mum listening audience. Very, you know, very Today FM, very, um, Fox FM, you know, good fun, upbeat, just, you know, it was two guys, a woman who she was the news guru of the show. And then I managed to come in as sort of this Australian sidekick where really they didn't really need me, but every day I was trying to figure out ways to be wanted and to be needed. And it worked. Yeah.

Josh: And so you would listen, were you listening to a bunch of radio then or were you just having a guess of?

Brad: What they would know? No, no, it was just a guess of what I wanted to do. Like, my whole thing started around— it was 2000, and I always loved— when I was very young, I loved Norman Gunston, and then I loved in the '90s, I loved Dennis Pennis with him. But I knew I wouldn't be able to pull off the, the real ballsy moves, although I've done some ballsy moves, but in terms of being a pest or whatever, I'm not too much of a pest. 'Cause I always still wanted to be invited into the party afterwards for the free beer or the free chicken wings. But I love that style of, let's call it reporting or creating bits. And then it got to Dennis, and then around the late '90s, I was in London in '97, '98, '99, and that was sort of the beginnings of Sacha Baron Cohen. And so I'd look at all that stuff and I'd be inspired of the sort of stuff of how I'd like to interview people or talk with people. By no means, I'm not like them at all. They're geniuses, but that sort of banter with people to get sort of an off-script chat that's not mean, not cheeky, just fun, upbeat, something different that you wouldn't hear on the radio. And that sort of meshed with what these guys, they didn't know what they wanted at the beginning, this radio show, which was a big, it's a big, then it was a big Disney-owned radio station. The crown jewel in, Disney's FM sort of, you know, they own stations all across America. And the show was a sort of a heritage show they called that's been going for— had been going for about 7 years before I turned up. So I sort of created this character that slotted in. The character was me anyway, but you know, it sort of fitted in with them.

Tommy: I used to do some red carpet reporting. I kind of weaselled my way in as well. But I remember watching your stuff thinking, ah, you know, just trying to get some inspo of the red carpet stuff you were doing, Hamish and Andy at that time. And yeah, I loved it. I loved, you know, it's so interesting meeting you and then seeing that person very, you know, similar where you kind of, people look in and go, oh, there's a character, that Aussie really carving it out in the States. What was that like for the Hamish and Andy stuff?

Brad: Yeah, it was great because the Hamish and Andy, you know, every, I was only at one show and then as other shows started taking my interviews, then you're like, wow. 'Cause you never know what if people like you, you never know where you work if they actually really like you. I guess you have it, the only way you can tell is if you have the job. So that's, you know, you have the job and you're still, the cheques are clearing, then they like you. But you never know, there was never any feedback in New York. I never, only feedback when I sucked or, you know, it was just, I knew that 'cause I debuted, I hadn't done any radio beforehand. So it was this baptism. By Fire, and I was getting smashed, and I'd get smashed on the air and a little bit off the air, but it was never constructive. It was never— it was pretty brutal.

Tommy: But smashed on the air, what do you mean by that?

Brad: Like, yeah, like, like Hamish and Andy would smash me on there, but it would be comedically, and we'd be all in on the joke.

Josh: It's like a play, play fight.

Brad: Yeah, exactly. And I love that. And even, you know, big radio people could do that sort of stuff, but I would be getting broken down of my ability on the air, and I'd be like, oh God, no. But it was— I wasn't— that wasn't what the issue— my issue was My issue was more like, um, yeah, my bit is to not— is to suck. This is what we're doing to try and create the bit, you know, like, and, and my bit was always to throw stuff out there so the others could collaborate for comedy off the back of me, you know what I mean? I wasn't the one that come in to do the punchlines, you know, I was creating— I was being the foil, the punching bag, punching bag, and I was fine with that. But in the early days, it was tough just to keep— I had to keep going, but I knew I was debuting in New York, so I'm like I didn't cry too much in the corner 'cause I'd walk outside, I'm like, I'm in New York City. Every day to me was a bonus 'cause I'm like, this will end. And as soon as this ends, I've got a hell of a storey to tell my mates back in the top pub in Cobram, you know, like the stuff I was doing. But I was squeezing so much stuff in that it was actually elevating me within the show. Did you like, I was doing stuff.

Josh: So how do you see status and ego then? Like, did you sort of, good question. Like, 'cause I guess in some regards, in Australia with, you know, tall poppy syndrome or even being self-deprecating. Like we like characters like Brad, you know, on air, but maybe, you know, I remember a friend of mine, Cyan, who works in the tech industry. She had a meeting with some American venture capitalists or whatever, and she sort of underplayed what she did and all that sort of thing. And she's got a really successful company. And the thing that she learned was it doesn't always translate.

Brad: No, it doesn't at all. I think I still struggle with that. Yeah, definitely, for sure. You gotta, you gotta sell yourself, and I'm still not— haven't nailed it.

Josh: Yeah.

Brad: And it's still there for the taking if any Aussies listening want to come here. And, you know, but you got— it's that whole measure because we, we are still enjoyed on the streets of New York as an Aussie because we still like have that laid-back thing. So you can't let ambition get in the way of what you— what we are as pretty cool, relaxed sort of people. But also you've got to still sell yourself. And back in those early days, I, I, there was no— I think I I still called myself goofy. I should probably still do, but I had to eradicate that word probably in the late '00s when, you know, when people started going, hold on, now you know exactly, you know, it's just when people, when you're doing something, people really know exactly what you do.

Josh: Like, it is a bit, yeah, it's like a Louis Theroux effect in some regards. You know, Louis Theroux, someone who it's hard because as he's gone through his career, you know exactly what he's doing when he's playing dumb.

Brad: You're like, this guy's a genius at playing dumb and he's getting the most that, yeah, you're So true.

Tommy: And what was your strategy once they worked out your strategy?

Brad: It sounds like it's all very contrived, doesn't it? But I enjoy what you're getting at. No, I think you just had to keep— I had to keep evolving. I had to make— I think my interviews at times when someone I'm interviewing is not playing along, I had to make them interesting or entertaining and not realise it's not always going to be about getting that joke or when I'm in my head, you know, when you're interviewing and you're self-editing He's going, "Nup, not funny, not funny. Oh, that's not good. Oh, jeez, that's trying to—" 'Cause I'm trying to make the person I'm interviewing funny or upbeat or something and you're not getting it. Just going, "Oh well, it doesn't matter.

Josh: This will still work." And it happens in, I guess the thing, the challenge with what you're doing is you're getting such a small bit of time. Small bit. It's like when I bring up strippers and wet teacher and you're like, "Oh, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about." You spend— That was probably me.

Brad: I liked it. I was like, I was running through my past. My database was rolling on that in my head.

Josh: The advantage is juice that it's like, okay, you spend 1 minute getting a bit sweaty and you get a bit fucking hot, and then it's like, okay, I can chill. Like, it's like we've got an hour to fucking chat. And so how do you deal with it when it's like you've got 3 questions with someone and your first question tanks?

Brad: Tanks, right? Yeah, brilliant. Because you, you know, so I've got a minute, let's say minimum. If it goes for 2 minutes, amazing. But I've got a minute and I've got to win them over. And this stretch, when I started cracking it in about 2002 on a red carpet. First 6 months I didn't even hit a red carpet. I was just this, you know, a sidekick on a morning show and doing man on the street stuff. And, um, and then I realised this is free, you know, content, you know, um, just this opportunity. Yeah, treasure trove of people where I could go. And I was always at the very end of the red carpet, always at the bottom of the red carpet. And I was fine with that. I had no worries. And I'd stand there and, um, And I had to just had to get the first question out and be gentlemanly and, you know, and just and rapture them in that first minute in the hope that they would stay. Then I get the second one in and by the third I'm hoping I can get a punchline in. Not necessarily me delivering the punchline, me setting them up to really take a swing at me or a swing at their movie or their whatever they're selling. Just something different that would be funny. Or again, like with Hamish and Andy, which started with, you know, about at the end of '05. You know, as you said, sweaty. It was always me being sweaty and nervous in front of Angelina Jolie and, or, you know, or mumbling my words or, yeah, how I would do the one minute, I would back myself into a corner and then try to fight my way out of it verbally.

Josh: Are you reading them as you're doing it? No, no, it's all off the cuff.

Brad: And there's not much prep going into it.

Tommy: They're the good ingredients to get that scenario that you're talking about.

Brad: It's like if you go down the prep like, there'd be some that I would prep and they would just— I'd be too prepped and I had to— it had to be a reaction to get their reaction. So I love the feeling of this when two people are just— it's just not spiralling down, but just getting evolving into this explosion by the end.

Tommy: Yeah, did you do one with Mel Gibson that sort of went a bit pear-shaped? Um, yeah, I did.

Brad: Did I see something? You might have seen— I did Mel Gibson in '02. It was with the stripper video. Yes, I have done Mel Gibson. I've had Liam Neeson a few times.

Tommy: There was one that was a bit of a meltdown. It was awesome though, but that's the—

Brad: Russell Crowe, I might have had. Yeah, I had Russell. I might have asked him about drinking and he goes, well, I don't drink that much or something like that. And I'm like, oh, well, sorry, Mr. Crowe. But by then you're like, your brain's filling up. And no, I had Chris Martin at a press— I know you as guys who have been in radio, It was like a, um, a junket. Yeah, no, it was— this was a big one. This was, this was a Coldplay event that WPLJ was hosting at a venue called the China Club, which, you know, I don't know if it's still running now, a big sort of famous music venue and, um, in up in Hell's Kitchen. And it was a lunchtime event, so listeners would come in, filled it, and then every record executive in New York, which is essentially America, was in this room. And other radio stations would come because radio stations invite other— they don't mind. It's you know, an open book, come in and watch other radio executives. Everyone's in there and I was hosting it with a real-life DJ. She was a professional and I was the, you know, but I was the guy in the audience running around and was sort of co-hosting this event. And I thought I've got to get something in. He was about to have their second child, Moses, I think. Yeah, Moses is the second child. He was about to have the baby. So I asked, I think Johnny on guitar, I said, Johnny, you know, you getting ready for the big, you know, whiskey night, you know, and get the cigars out and celebrate, you know, the imminent arrival of Chris's new baby. I didn't even direct it to Chris. I went to Johnny, and Johnny laughed. He's like, oh yeah, yeah, this is going to be great. Yeah, we'll drink some whiskey, we'll have a good time. And then Chris stopped it and goes, dude, that, that's personal, you know. Um, you, you, um, you can't ask questions like this. And there's probably 300 or 400 people in this room. Yeah. And I'm just like, I'm go— I've gone, this is, this is the lowest point ever. And I've just— yeah, the blood comes from the bottom all the way up into your head, and you, you can feel the veins in forehead, right, there's sweats going, and I had nothing to say. And then the co-host just picked it up and moved it on to the next thing. And I'm like, oh, this is a bummer, because if it was, if it was a radio show or it was your radio show, you could rectify it. Yeah, there was no rectifying, just moved on. I said, I can't. And I've still got half an hour more of question time to go. So I had to make a comeback, and I got it back on track by going, all right, Chris, yo, um, Mariah Carey, you know, last year you and Mariah Carey went head-to-head in the charts. I thought I'll get a music, just throw something out. How do you feel when Mariah Carey's chasing you? And it was a typical red carpet question. And the imagery, if you can imagine Mariah Carey chasing Chris Martin down the street, he bit on that imagery. Yeah. Because it could have went, he could have just went, no, I'm not talking to you. And he just went into this whole description of Mariah Carey's boobs just chasing him down like Fifth Avenue. And it was wonderful. And I'd got back on track. But they're the moments where that I probably didn't enjoy, but it worked. But again, it— I put myself into a corner and got the best result where that sort of Q&A got picked up then and it was, you know, went around, you know. So, so that worked.

Josh: What's the actual skill set, do you think, that you gain? Like, dude, like, if you were to translate it—

Tommy: Josh loves to work out the strategies and things, which is— it's a good place to get you to think, right?

Josh: But is it something like— I'm wondering, is there moments in your life where it's like fuck, this is really like, in this specific scenario, I'm doing what I do with a microphone, but I don't have a microphone.

Brad: Great. Yeah, I think in the early days trying to meet girls, that might have happened a lot. But yeah, if that's not being recorded, there's no win, right? 'Cause you just fail. You don't get a girl. Bad luck tonight, your mates all got a girl. I'm still single, I'm trying. Yeah, in terms of— yeah, I don't know, because how would that work? You know, I don't think— I think it's just in a microphone when it's— when it's for me just having a chat. But then I've always had good chats in the pub, and yeah, you know, when you're talking to people or meeting people at a sports event or watching something or doing, you know, you know, you're analysing if things go bad, if you run into a crazy bunch of folks. So you talk to strangers a bit?

Josh: If you're on a plane Are you the type to engage with person?

Brad: Yeah, I think not so much anymore, but I was that guy. And I think just as I've got a bit older, I just wanna go to sleep and not engage anymore. Where, don't worry, I just learned from you. You've inspired me. Maybe I should get back to chatting more.

Josh: 'Cause I don't think I do. I think that that's like, I say that I love people and I love having conversations, but at the same time I can go fully weird where it's like, oh, I have a different persona when I'm sitting next to someone on a plane where I'm the guy who look— seems like I've— I don't like anyone and I would just be like minding my own business.

Brad: On that, on that point, what you say, that's really interesting because let's say the red carpet or a junket or wherever you're assigned to interview the movie star, before that even goes down, and my whole job in that interview, or we're all doing interviews, you know, we're all chatting, you know, and we all know we're in that moment of the inner when the interview gets there and you know when you've done a good interview and everyone's been charming and they're nice and back and we've really— everyone's won, right? But in the lead-up to that interview, I'm not necessarily winning when I'm talking to the publicist or their manager. I've always been proud of my small talk, but in those scenarios with the people around the star, I'm failing. So I've gone into red carpets or where I'm trying to, hey, how you going? Nah, they don't even want to borrow me. They'll just walk straight by, you know. And then you're like, geez, how's this interview going to go? And then you go and do this amazing interview with the the talent. And you're like, how can I nail the interview of the talent yet anyone around the machinery of who's brought that talent I'm not managing to win over or create a moment or create— that's always fascinated me. I don't know if that helps.

Josh: Well, it's not for content, right? Like, I think that what can be hard is maybe when— like, I've even seen it happen on YouTube where it's people who have created a living out of making content for their life, and then you've come to a position where it's like, hang on, am I only doing this now in my life for content? Right. Whereas I think like you've got the advantage too of maybe being able to separate those things a little bit.

Brad: Yeah, maybe that's a good point. Yeah, how's the world going to end if everyone's just doing content? Well, we're in the middle of that now.

Tommy: You're saying we talk about ABC, always be contenting, which is like everyone's looking for a moment to elevate the situation because it's going to reap a reward with a video or something.

Brad: 15 years ago that was radio Morning show or afternoon breakfast show. That was hosts, right?

Josh: But now everyone, now my mum.

Brad: Now the whole world is doing that.

Tommy: Well, anyone can have a podcast. Yeah, that's right. Everyone's looking at us. Look at us.

Josh: It's a bit of a joke, isn't it?

Brad: No, it's fantastic.

Josh: We literally flew to New York for this. For a fucking podcast.

Brad: It's great. Well, how do we get on? How does everyone talk to each other? Oh geez, we're in the middle of something. You might have broken the—

Josh: What are you like on social media? What's your strategy?

Brad: No, no, I'm good. I post. I don't post enough. I'm a lazy poster.

Josh: Based on what? Who's telling you to post more?

Brad: I feel that. That's a great question. This is good because I feel that I'm not posting enough, you know. I should be posting more.

Josh: For your career? Yeah, for every—

Brad: yeah, yeah, I think so. For what I'm doing or where I'm heading or— that's a good, good point. Or yeah, should we not be posting? What should we be posting?

Josh: Yeah, I mean, that's the thing.

Brad: Well, not for career, but for fun, testing the— working the muscle. I don't know.

Tommy: Well, I think a lot of people are doing it so much to get the role or to land the job. And so you're in the middle of it. And so I don't know, sometimes we can see, it's like I've had discussions with people who are really successful in their area and have that same thought of, I need to be posting more. But then the people who are posting more are going, I need the job. And so there's this weird thing. It's like, which direction do you take it?

Brad: All right, this is good.

Josh: But I mean, there's also like—

Tommy: This is now a social media coaching session.

Brad: You're very helpful.

Josh: You're right, there's a psychology to that.

Brad: What's the middle ground?

Josh: It's also interesting, the mainstream media meeting social media, 'cause there's breakfast show hosts in Australia that have been number one in their time, only up until 5 years ago, who would have a social media audience that's smaller than the majority of the population. How does that work?

Brad: How does that— Well, they don't work in radio anymore. They're done.

Josh: But the interesting thing is it becomes like you start to think about things like ratings and Nielsen and all that sort of stuff. It's like, well, how much does, you know, like what does, yeah, I mean, what are we counting? What is the, what's the end game? What's the goal? And like, what are you doing?

Brad: I think we are counting social media though. Yeah. I don't think my numbers are particularly high, but you know, I haven't got to a stage where people are going to hire me or not hire me off the back of my numbers, but I'm sure people, executives need a measurement regardless if that's the right measurement or not, right? Media executives. I'm not talking just radio for anything, you know.

Josh: How much of your mind is business focused and thinking about that?

Brad: Uh, I think 50/50. Yeah, yeah, just I've got to create, I've got to get ahead, got to create, gotta, you know, I do the radio show here, I'm on CBS FM now, but outside that I come to this office where we are now and I will be thinking of trying to come up with a pitch or, you know, what's the next pitch, what's the next thing. Yeah, definitely, you know, because We all want to get to a state where we're operating some sort of heightened, heightened state. Yeah. And the heightened state comes when you're involved in making something. But then being with you guys even now, and you know, we've just sort of met each other and we've noticed each other's work, but I'm going, you guys have created your heightened state yourselves. Would you, would you say?

Josh: I mean, it's that Seth Godin thing of picking yourself. And so the thing is that like, yeah, you know, Tommy has done amazing stuff when it comes to presenting. He's done great.

Brad: I call him the Casey Neistat of Australia. Yeah, and we didn't get it on video.

Tommy: No, no, but he pissed off.

Brad: He does great stuff. But the thing is, it's wonderful.

Josh: But he started off in the sort of old school, you know, being good mates with Jules Lund who did Getaway and all that sort of thing.

Tommy: Watching Brad Blanks doing red carpets.

Josh: But the thing is that you see that journey and it's like there is a, yeah, there is something right now that's happening where it's like, oh, well you can, you don't have to wait to be picked by the executive. You can be picking yourself. And the thing is that maybe the number, the social media numbers isn't to sell in to then get the next job. The numbers is the thing. The audience, like that is your audience that you're gonna be producing for.

Brad: Right, yeah, no, no, I totally agree. But then the other side of it is how do you get that? I love the pick yourself. And a lot of what I've done is essentially pick yourself. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, blended in New York City, blended into what I've done in the mainstream game. But, but then at the end of the day, um, I'll give you an example. I made a documentary earlier this year on Major League Baseball spring training. I loved it, and I went in for ESPN Australia, right? Cool. I'm not a big audience, but yeah, they had the money to put it up, and we went and made it. It was wonderful, wonderful experience. But if I had picked myself for that, I probably wouldn't have got into the club rooms. I only got in, not of ESPN Australia, like ESPN initially, do you know what I mean? So how do you get to them?

Josh: Well, you leverage, I think the thing is it's like there's all different games, but you're sort of playing the same sort of thing. It's just like whatever the, but that outcome that got to where you wanted to go, being picked or whatever. But the thing is, it's like, I think that being in the different, if we had the experience that you had, we probably wouldn't have to do this. Like, we wouldn't be doing this, right? The only reason we're doing this is because we've got nothing out. Like, if we— yeah, that's it.

Brad: But you make me laugh again because I love what you're doing, and I'd love to be going down the road of doing a daily podcast. Yeah, do you see what I mean?

Josh: Well, it's the thing is, like, radio people— like, it's YouTubers want to be on TV and TV stars want to be YouTubers. Yeah. And so I think that it's this interesting world that we're in right now where it's a bit fucking confusing.

Brad: It is, it is. This is good.

Josh: What do you think about, like, do you think about this stuff that much?

Brad: Definitely, yeah. I just think about how, you know, what's— what are my roadblocks? And maybe it's the wrong way to think. Maybe there's a lesson in changing thinking, you know. Um, you know, when I say roadblocks, roadblocks to getting a project off the ground, getting, you know, drop it, you know, something where I love small town America, dropping myself into small town America, and I'd love to make a show around that. But do I need Travel Channel to do that? And now as, as I'm going through it and learning more about sort of non-fiction programming. Travel Channel might— probably is not the type of people to make the show I would want. Yeah. Or the show that you guys know of my experience of the show I would probably end up making, which I hope would be funny and heartwarming and upbeat. Travel Channel wouldn't put that on because it wouldn't make sense in a 22-minute format. So I'm still learning all that. I think I'm just sort of, you know, even though I've been here in New York for 18 years, I'm by no means figured any of this out. Yeah, there's—

Tommy: we've spoken to quite a few people who've been in America, and it's— they have learned things from the Americans that Australians don't have. Yeah. Is there anything that you know that the Australians have that the Americans don't have?

Brad: Uh, yeah, yeah. In terms— oh, I can only maybe speak from— let's start with radio point of view. I loved, um, and we'll go back because I did with Hamish and Andy, you know, the sense of mateship on the air was something that I, that I don't hear. There's friends, but there's usually a main guy and everyone rallies around the main guy. It's like an ensemble cast, and I'm a part of that now, and it works very well. I'm on with a legend, Scott Shannon, who— Scott was part of Scott and Todd, and he went over now, so we all rally around him. But this whole equal mateship, the fact that mates, you'd still think they'd go out for a beer afterwards. There's a lot of put-together shows where they just put together.

Josh: Yeah, but that happens in Australia. The thing in Australia is it's like they appreciate mateship and they want to get to mateship, but unfortunately what ends up happening is it's this revolving door of trying to get these two people who aren't mates together trying to be mates.

Tommy: I'm staying uptown, Josh is staying downtown. We actually don't like each other.

Brad: You're very good together. I'm out. When you hold microphones. Mateship.

Josh: But no, I think that that's— it's, um, yeah, I think Australia appreciates it based on people like Hamish and Andy who have done a great job, I think that the hard combination is that in some regards creativity in this sort of form can be, I think it's hard to find other people. Yeah. It's like to be able to connect. Like, could you imagine doing a duo? What would a duo look like? No, I've never gone.

Brad: Yeah, I don't know how it would work. I think I've probably got past that. I could do a fivesome. Yeah. I think I'd be good at a fivesome. Some real kinky shit.

Tommy: Was this Josh's flashback? What's going on here?

Brad: Yeah. But a duo, yeah. It's right, I'm probably past the point of the duo thing.

Josh: Brad and Ben on the red carpet.

Brad: Yeah, it'd be a funny old, but maybe that's something I will have to do. Sorry, Ben out there, wherever you are, one day would you become my co-host? But in terms of you're saying more, what could I see more from Australia?

Tommy: Yeah, well, I think some of the things we've heard is like, not the hustle, but there's just a real drive in the US. And it's a bit different in Australia.

Brad: There's, um, they want you to succeed here because I think once you can show them that you— this, I'm going to get back to an executive's or the ad sales people within a radio station— once they see that you're on the make and you are hustling for them, then you'll get caught up in that machinery, which is a good thing. And that's pretty much my whole existence on with PLJ from 2000 to 2010 was I was good with sales and I knew that quickly that I had to give them an opportunity to sell me and sell me well when I was, you know, even though I'm playing this complete, you wouldn't have me sell anything, but you know, I'm just this goofy guy that, you know, that came to America on his own, which was so outside any of the people's worlds that I was working with. They couldn't understand a guy that would live in a backpacker's hostel or, you know, And so, but then I had to then flip the switch and present to the salespeople and say, look, you know what, you know, I can be a good endorser of a product, and which will then give me money to eat. What sort of integrations do you actually do?

Josh: What sort of stuff?

Brad: I back, oh, you know, get a car, drive around a car, whatever, like, or, um, delivering Coca-Cola. Yeah, it's back in, back in then. Really? Yeah, that's good. Back in the old, back in the 'O's, um, when radio was still sort of booming in New York, it was, it was a free-for-all. I AT&T, you know, the phone company sponsored me for like 8 years and I finally— they finally let me go after I— They forgot that they sponsored you?

Josh: Who's using up all this fucking data? Yeah, it was the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Brad: I got let go in the February following that because obviously when you go— that was in August '08, but then they don't really get their own bill. I'm like, they should know my bill, they are AT&T. They didn't get the bill.

Josh: Do you know what the bill was?

Brad: Yeah, it was a $20,000 bill for that quarter. And then I got let go. I got the phone call as, um, yeah, I got the phone call in 2009 and they wrapped me up. Am I actually talking about the debt collectors? They just said, that's it, we're not covering this bill. We're not covering— yeah, they were covering pretty much everything, my existence. Yeah. Wow. Um, and it was great because, you know, there was great money.

Josh: And what did you have to do in return?

Brad: Oh no, just mention them on the air. It was, it was just a mention. Yeah, and the hard plugs or just integrate them? G'day Russell Crowe, TNT. No, no, I wouldn't mention, maybe the hosts. Oh, amazing.

Tommy: Yeah, they would do all your dirty work. They would, that's right.

Brad: That's pretty good. Don't worry, I figured that out. If you get the host to mention, that's even better than me. It also helps that you're 6 foot 3.

Tommy: You're a big tall Aussie bloke.

Brad: 6 foot 5. Holy shit. Yeah, so even bigger and, you know, more Frankenstein-like on red carpets and To the extent I— one video I did scare Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler, which is probably my most successful interview on YouTube for hits because I was crouching because it was— most reporters are all small. They're beautiful, petite, female red carpet interviewers and they're always next to me and they don't really like me because I'm big and I get in the way of the camera. They like me as a friendly guy but they're like, "Brad, can you move?" And I said, "This time I'm gonna— I'll do my interview on my knees." So Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston turned up and they're very tiny as well. And as I'm interviewing them, like, you know, kind of like Dickie Knee on Hey Hey Saturday, put my mic up, I'm like, this is— where have I come in my life? But I'm gonna get the bit, I'm gonna get something out of this.

Josh: Brad is moving the microphone a lot, so when you hear him signing out, he's just acting like Dickie Knee.

Brad: I apologize. And, um, I, um, I— Jennifer Aniston goes, can you please stand up? What are you doing down there? And I stood and I said, I'm gonna I'm gonna pour a bit of gravy on this in my head. So I did it and I did it very methodically, kind of like Dracula would rise. I did it like that in front of her and I kept going. I said, I'm gonna go to my tippy toes. So I went to about 6 foot 7, slowly and like an elevator just taking me up. And her face, she just had this meltdown. She's going, oh my God, like this is crazy.

Josh: This is on YouTube?

Brad: It's on YouTube. So you can cheque it out. Brad Blanks is my YouTube channel. You can see this. And Adam Sandler's in shock. He's like, "Oh my God, you're scaring Aniston." So yeah, I am a big beast, which I think, which adds to probably this guy that's sitting there trying to get a bit or a chat with someone on a red carpet.

Tommy: I reckon there's been people that have come to America that have hammed it up, that have just tried to be you because I think you are that Aussie, like you've got an Aussie accent. You're big and you're out there.

Brad: Yeah, yeah, I hope— thank you anyone if you came out there and if you failed, I apologize. Yeah, it was me, I failed. Sorry, no, it's more like, look, I just wanted to chat that no one else was having. Everyone's trying to do, you know, it's funny even when I hear red carpet reporter, I'm like, well, I didn't set out to be a red— I was just trying to create essentially right before any video. It was all just trying to create a radio bit that I could then take. The, the, the goal was just the audio. As long as I can take the audio into the radio station the next morning, I know me and whoever— what show I'm on— Scott and Todd back then, or Hamish and Andy, or still Scott now, uh, or I'm on a station in Minneapolis, KQRS. And as long as I can tell the storey leading in that interview— and that's where, if it's a 50-second bit, if I've got 5 minutes of banter or 5 minutes of reaction from the host going, 'That sucked,' or 'Geez, you screwed that up,' or this, then I've done my deed.

Josh: There's something so therapeutic in you just saying, 'If I just— all I need is the audio.' Do you think that things have changed now where it's like you don't just have to have the fucking audio, you need to be making sure the GoPro's on and that you're getting all the different angles and that you need— we're shooting vertical and horizontal because we want it for Insta Stories. Are you feeling that pressure?

Brad: Yeah, I— yes, because it gets it back to that when you ask me, are you thinking of business? So I'm thinking of business, not that I'm sort of, um, not that my videos are getting the traction they should, but I have this amazing— I'm not giving up the fact that I could reinvent those archives. Like, I've been filming myself since 2006, and I'd only say a portion of it goes on YouTube. And, um, and, and you guys, as my social media, uh, gurus, you'd go in there and go, Brad, your consistency's sucking. You know, you're putting out one a month, and then you're gonna rush a blog and you'll put it up every one of every 5 days, or Um, so I'm not very good on that, but yeah, the video— I added the video in '06 and I used a little handheld camera that I bought at Tullamarine Airport in 2001 on the way here. On the way here. And I used it in 2006 up until— I might have used it. Did you go PAL or NTSC?

Josh: No, that was—

Brad: so PAL's the Aussie, right? Yeah. So it was PAL for the first year, and then on the morning of the big Spider-Man, uh, 2 red carpet. I think it was, yeah, I think it's May, let's say May 13th, 2007. My camera broke. I'm like, oh shit, what am I gonna do?

Josh: You mean like a mini DV or something? Yeah, so it was a mini DV.

Brad: Oh, using tapes? Tapes, yeah. So I run down to B&H and I just say, mate, I just know I've got a big red carpet tonight, Spider-Man. They obviously didn't believe me. And you know, I'm like, I'm trying to big note myself and I gotta buy a camera. So I bought the, they got me another little mini DV camera. So it's NTSC then. So good, I finally made it in America. And I take that and I get on the red carpet. I managed to get it working and it came out great. And I used that camera for 5 years to the extent that it got to a stage where people were belittling me for the size of my camera. They were equating it to the size of my manhood. And that turned into the bit. Yeah, that's like— so it's part of the character.

Josh: That's right. Yeah. And I think that's That's the advantage in a lot of ways too, because you're on a red carpet, you can have people, especially the sort of old ENG style cameras on the shoulder. Yeah. Versus when someone comes up to you and you've got this little fucking camera, people can sort of relax, right? That's right. Did you notice it? Can you actually visually see that?

Brad: Yeah. People like the banter. Like, what's his name? Jeremy Piven. There was a stage every year I'd be interviewing him for Entourage. I just remember the little camera and I'd be placed, that was HBO, so I had a good relationship with HBO. So they'd put me in a good spot, you know, the camera made me move up the red carpet. So I was going up.

Josh: What makes a good relationship, by the way, with the studio?

Brad: Them actually knowing that I get the coverage for them. Okay, sure. And even to the next level, they know it's a bit. So a bit gives them You know, then comfort in that you're not actually amateur hour, but it's gonna go on a big— and it's gonna be something funny that's gonna show their star and their show in a good light. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, it's again—

Josh: and there's a virality to it as well, which is like, if you can bring out something, you know, different, then you're in.

Brad: Exactly. But not everyone gets that. Like, I always found the best two that I ever worked with who got that were HBO and Playboy. So it's a work— Playboy magazine. Um, but I'd stand in there and I'd be in the middle of massive cameras and there'd be my little camera and my guy who was essentially like an accountant friend of mine who I'd, you know, buy him some beers afterwards to hold the camera and he'd turn up. And then in 2012 I got a Sony which is a little bit bigger. But every time I— from adding the camera to getting the camera bigger, my positions on the red carpet would move up. And the celebrity— when I added the camera it was a game changer. So I had 4 years of just doing radio interviews And I was kind of like an old-school 1950s radio reporter. Yeah, awesome. And then by adding the camera, the stars would just— I felt their radio performance was better when a camera was on them. Yeah, interesting.

Josh: Yeah, it makes sense. I remember seeing a red carpet where there was a journalist from a paper who literally had a notepad and pen. Yeah. Do you still see that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's like an actual legit way.

Brad: Yeah, yeah, sort of. But a lot of them now just have even those little— just the hard drive recorders, or mostly iPhones now. But I'd always look at them and my brain kicks in and go, why don't they just have a friend standing over their shoulder? Yeah. With a little iPhone. There's just so much good stuff they're getting and they're not using it. Even if it's just straight questions and not trying to get a laugh or whatever, it's still good stuff.

Tommy: I once handed a publicist the camera and she filmed it for me and I got a good video out of it.

Brad: That's right. No, every— like, I've been in so many scenarios where I'll take a camera and I'll say, can you just hold it for me? And just, they have no idea what they're doing, but they still get it. And the whole time I'm looking, I've seen, I've given it to strangers and the camera starts filming over and I'll be interviewing like Michael Phelps on them, on them, a lot of noddies.

Tommy: You're not relying, you're relying on the content, not the production value of the content. Definitely.

Josh: And the production value plays into the content as well, which is brilliant.

Brad: For sure, for sure.

Josh: Which is part of the whole bit. It's sort of like you think about mockumentary style, or you think about The Office and fucking Crash Zoom.

Tommy: Did you think that, or did you just—

Brad: that was happening?

Josh: No, no, I've got no idea. Here's the camera.

Brad: I never let it become— look, at the end of the day, video wasn't, wasn't going to be a worry. I was doing the video for the sake of doing the video, and I could put on YouTube back when YouTube was just starting. This is '06, '07, '08. But it was more, um, I still had to get the audio, so if they even screwed that up, the the audio is going to be— the audio is still going to be the— yes, it's going to be the good stuff. So as long as the audio was good, it didn't matter. But then these other things were coming in with the video aspect that were making it funnier or, you know, weirder or crazier.

Josh: Yeah, you know, you mentioned, um, you know, people describing you as a celebrity reporter or whatever it is. There seems to be a trend at the moment, especially with tech companies, where they don't just describe what they do, they have sort of a grandiose vision, you know, changing the world or Facebook. I was reading an article the other day that there was an executive that was saying why Facebook was better than all the other companies and all that sort of thing. And it was basically Facebook was saying, we're not doing it for the money. You're right, that's good. That's what they're saying. Facebook, they're doing it for the money. They're doing it for connecting people. So they're saying, you know, like, you know, Google, Amazon, all that sort of thing, they're all about like getting things to you quicker or, you know, whereas, you know, Facebook's all about the people.

Tommy: Mark's been saying that for a while. Yeah, yeah, we're trying to connect everyone in the world.

Josh: Yeah, well, it is— that's all your information.

Brad: That's right, that's right.

Josh: But do you— what is your, um, that sort of grandiose view if you're not sort of a celebrity reporter? What is that top line?

Brad: Great, yeah, great, great, great question. Yeah, because I don't— I know that's what I do, the celebrity reporter, but— and you'd have to know me well or listen to my stuff well to know that I'm not— yeah, you know, I'm that. But that's hard in this world. We're only looking at people briefly. Yeah, absolutely.

Tommy: But Brad Blanks, not doing it for the money.

Brad: Yeah, yeah, that's right. Um, I, I think I, I, I just think I'm trying to, I'm trying to create moments. I'm trying to create good moments for people. I'm trying to, you know, up. I'm trying to get a reaction out of someone that's a good-natured reaction, that's fun, a bit cheeky, but up. And, and, and then seeing if I can get to the— get, get in, in inside their heads a bit more through a laugh. Not, you know, not trying to go too deep with them, but I'm trying to find the bit of truth in, you know, them creating something that's funny. If you're gonna put it down to that 1-minute moment that I get with a celebrity, or be it even if I go and do man on the street, I'm only getting 2 minutes or 3 minutes of a person talking about current affairs or topic of the day or whatever. But I'm trying to get them to delve deep. I know I'm waffling on there. No, no, it wasn't a catchphrase, but I'm like—

Josh: Do you ever veer off? Have you ever had moments where it's like you've done a project and it's like, actually this wasn't about the moment here, or this was maybe a bit nasty, or this wasn't— or not feeling good about it.

Brad: Yeah, this is good.

Tommy: Will Smith, there was a red carpet and the dude kissed Will Smith. Yeah. And Will Smith punched him in the face or slapped him. He slapped him. No, that had never— but that's like, take— that's him doing, trying to get a moment.

Brad: The guy— yeah, that's never what I've tried to do. Never kiss Will Smith? No, I'd love to kiss Will Smith. What a legend. Yeah, he's a legend. Yeah. But I'd never, never, no, I wasn't trying to get, I was never trying to do punchlines.

Josh: But did you ever have that moment? 'Cause I've had the sinking moment over the years where it's like you've done something out of thinking that you're doing it for the right thing or you have a moment where you haven't, like all the intention. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brad: 'Cause I still had to, being on a morning show when you're the sidekick, a breakfast show sidekick, you still gotta do stunts. And I did a good job of never, of staying clear of stunts as long as I could.

Josh: And, um, what would be an example of this?

Brad: Well, um, all right, Jesus, this is the crazy things in the stunts were crazy successful, but I'll give you a run. Um, I had to do a triathlon through New Jersey. The triathlon was a BMX bike, a scooter, and then finished with a run. So it was 7 miles each leg, and I was dressed as Elmo. And, um, and it was, uh, the scooter portion was going up a massive hill and down a hill on a highway. Yeah. And, um, and the show started. So, um, one host was in the studio, the other host was in a car following me and, and doing live play-by-plays as I was dressed as Elmo going through some pretty wild neighbourhoods in Jersey. Uh, 21 miles, you're covering everything, you know, bad neighborhoods, beautiful neighborhoods, everything. And, um As I'm going through there, people would come out to the road. It was like Forrest Gump and cheer me, you know, and this is great. There's Elmo and kids were coming out, so hearing it on the radio. So the whole time I'm hating it, but I was giving them, you know, I'm giving people special moments. And I'm like, geez, this sucks so much.

Josh: You sound like a jester or something.

Brad: Yeah, it was a jester. It was terrible, but it was turning into great radio. And the whole time, and I'm in pain. I was like, can I die here? When I started running, it was like a Hessian suit. And when I was running the final 7 miles with the fibreglass Elmo head bouncing on my clavicle. Oh no. Is it clavicle? The collarbone or whatever? Yeah, the collarbone. Yeah, yeah, I was like, this is hell. And then it finished. That was something to not be proud of. So you didn't feel good about it? No, I don't. No, no, it was— well, not demoralizing. 'Cause you gave people moments.

Josh: It was a great moment. But it sacrificed you. Yeah, it was hard work, but I know it was epic.

Brad: And I know even telling that storey now was an epic story. So I'm proud of the storey in the end, but Going through it was—

Josh: So what's the filter then? If so, if then, you know, the station's like, we want to do this thing, if it's an awesome moment and you got that thing out of it, what I find hard to gauge is it's like, what's the difference between a good— like, where's the line?

Brad: I don't know. The fact that I only had to do maybe one a year, that was good. But I know it was like that old, uh, what was it? Didn't Matt Damon say the whole thing, you got to do the blockbuster so you get to make your own? Movie. Yeah, you make your independent.

Josh: So that was you sort of— there was me.

Brad: So I could go out because I still love going out and interviewing, selling.

Josh: You see, selling out a little bit.

Brad: Yeah, you're selling out to do a stunt.

Josh: At least you're in disguise.

Brad: Yeah, in disguise, that's right. But then I had to dress up as Hannah Montana, which is sort of— you can sort of see my face. Yeah, you see my face with fishnets and 10-inch heels, and I ran 10 miles. And the good thing I learned about it for, you know, I've lost a bit of weight since those days, but I wasn't I was a big, bigger boy.

Josh: And you could do 10 miles.

Brad: Yeah, and I did 10 miles in, um, you know, massive, um, yeah, boots that I bought down on St. Mark's Place. Yeah, silver boots. I've still got them. They give me shudders when I pull them out of my, um— In fact, he's wearing them now. Beautiful silver. But that was a hard one. I did 10 miles, and again, people came out and rallied around me, you know, and police would give us police escorts. Yeah. Wow. That's absurd. But on the one that maybe I might might have felt bad. It was, um, or regret. Not a regret, no, because again, I'm not great story. I feel really bad.

Josh: Content scum, the highest content.

Brad: We call it all for content.

Josh: Yeah, I'm not very good to you, am I?

Brad: Because you asked me quite a very powerful question there, but everything I've given you, which were bad moments of my career, they actually turned out to be highlights. So let's, we can analyse that later. Um, But this one was, they— I'd been here one week, I was full-time. So I did an 18-month of, you know, lobbying to get the job, and they eventually brought me over October 20th, 2001. And we know that September 11th happened, so it's like 5 weeks after September 11th. The city's, you know, the city was actually quite cheerful. Everyone would look you in the eye, and they were in a sort of rejuvenation stage of life, and everyone was coming together. But it was Halloween week and they said, "Brad, we're gonna send you to Hillary Clinton's house in Chappaqua and you're gonna trick-or-treat." And so it became a bit leading up to the moment. And I'm like, "Oh, you sure? You sure?" But I'd only been there a week. If I don't do it, I'm fired, right? So they said, "And we're gonna dress you up as Monica Lewinsky." So they put me in the blue dress, they put the red beret on me. You know, I'm just wearing sneakers and I'm just, it's just me and an intern from the promotions department. Not even a, you know, lovely guy who I've turned great friends with him now. I was great friends with him then 'cause I think I just met him that morning at 5:00 AM when we got into the pink PLJ van. How'd you feel in the moment? Oh no, terrible. That was like, I've been here a week and all I wanna do is, you know, interview bits. Yeah, 'cause that's at that stage, that's what was my skill, I thought, you know, interviewing people and audience and bringing, going out and getting audio around an event or a storey and then bringing the audio back in. And now you're in a dress.

Tommy: Yeah, now I'm in a blue dress.

Brad: Hillary Clinton dress. I don't have a visa, like I've got a just a holiday visa at this stage. Tourist visa. I'm on the 3-month visa in and out. I'm like, and that, and the night before The Nation had got put on, yeah, The Nation got put on high alert. They'd have an alert thing that they just sort of invented after 9/11. It's called the blue dress alert. Yeah, that's right. Very good. Yeah, I was at the blue dress, and I remember the speech. George Bush goes, we are now in a high alert stage, you know, for anything that could happen. So be, you know, be on high alert. And I'm like, oh my gosh, this is— what's going to happen? I could get deported. Worst thing is I get arrested and then I'm done. Yeah, because I'm just done, right? Yeah. But there's too much to even worry about. It's— then you kick in because you still got to get the bit. You still gotta do the bit, you know? So we get up there and the first stop is we knew that Bill Clinton would drink at the Starbucks there every day. So straight to the Starbucks and I walk in there and I'm interviewing people live on the radio. In your blue dress? In my blue dress. And they're all laughing, the staff and that. And I'm like, if Bill walks in here, what do I do? You know, like—

Tommy: Luckily he didn't walk in. Well, we know what you do.

Brad: Take him in the cupboard. Very good. Wuff wuff. That's a wuff wuff moment. Yeah, that's right. That would be a passionate moment, wouldn't it? And then I walk out, I get it, I get back into the PLJ van. The whole town knows that, yeah, the PLJ van and we're there, so people are probably tuning in. And I'm live on the air as I'm driving, you know, I've got— so I don't really know where Hillary lives, but I'm going to find the house. I get pulled over by the cops and I'm like, oh no, I'm done here. So the cop pulls me over and he just winds down, he doesn't get out, he just stops us and he's yelling through his window to us.

Josh: How close were you to their house, do you think? Had you hit sort of a point, do you think, where you'd gotten so close?

Tommy: Well, I don't know if I was close.

Josh: No, I don't know.

Brad: I pull over and the guy goes, "Um, I've been listening to this on the radio." And it was the chief of Chappaqua Police. I said, "Oh yeah, hey, oh, how you doing? We're just having a bit of fun." He goes, "Um, I'll show you where the Clintons live." That's amazing. This is unbelievable. He goes, "So follow me." So he and I— and I said, "Why would you do this?" He goes, "We don't really like them around here." Like, he said that. And I went, "Wow. Oh, all right. Well, this is politically charged." We followed him and he drove us in. It was a court, like kind of like the Neighbours court. Yeah. On Neighbours. So we drive into the court. Australian reference. Yeah, yeah, good, good. Or in a cul-de-sac, they call it here. Into the cul-de-sac and he just gave us a wave and drove out. And we stopped, we pull up outside the Clinton house. It's a big white, beautiful, you know, typical Americana, you know, older house. And I'm on live on the radio and I get out and—

Josh: Did you say on there that the police were chasing you?

Brad: I told the whole story. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They loved it. It was great. Yeah, yeah. Told all that. I get out and the intern's like, what are we doing here? I said, I don't know what we're doing here. And I'm like, I'm rock bottom now. I'm like, this is it, I've got nothing to lose. So I get out, I walk up, and then the two Secret Service agents come to the side of the gutter and they pretty much say you can't walk, you know, because these guys wanted me to ring the bell and trick or treat, you know. And the guys go, if you step on here, you're done pretty much. And so I stood in the gutter doing the live report and Because the guy the week before who did your job got shot dead.

Josh: That's what I'm thinking.

Brad: If they're on a high alert, this is the former president only from like a year and a half ago. Wow. Wouldn't there be snipers? But no, I don't think there were. There was no snipers.

Tommy: It was the Secret Service. They would find out who you were. Hey Monica, come this way. That's right.

Brad: No one said anything and walked out. And a limo did come out of the back. A limo came out. So I'm like, oh, that would have broke— that broke my heart that I've heart that if Hillary's in the back and there's this prick from, you know, typical, you know, morning radio, you know, that— oh, and what an asshole.

Tommy: Yeah. Do you think with the times now that wouldn't be done? No. For what reason?

Brad: Uh, I think there'd be too much— well, insurance issues. Like, you know, my guys just didn't care, which again, it worked because I'm getting to tell you this storey and people amazed at the the balls on me pulling this off. It was, and you could see them too. You're right, yeah, it's a wonderful story. I would know, you know, so I thank them for putting me up to it. But you couldn't do it now, you know. I think the whole, that whole game's changed now.

Tommy: I mean, have your sensitivities changed in, in terms of what you say when you ask people?

Josh: Have you noticed?

Brad: Sure, even if you, if you want to switch into that, yeah, definitely. From a, um A lot of my— I used to be racist. No, no, no. That's very good. No, a lot of my shtick was to flirt with a beautiful woman, or, you know, and I— you know, you wouldn't do that now. But then— but my stuff was never misogynistic, or— you see all these— they had a big red carpet campaign at the Oscars maybe 18 months ago where people would only ask females about their dresses and that. I was never asking about dresses, and if I was, it was a piss take for them to know that I was sort of—

Josh: Yeah, when you were wearing your blue dress. Yeah, that's right.

Brad: What dress? Because, you know, what do you think of my dress? Yeah, exactly. But, but you definitely— yeah, you got to think about the sign of the times. And, but, but I never thought that there was anything— I was doing anything culturally insensitive. If anything, the cultural insensitivity— I was trying to get them to be culturally insensitive against me as this big buffhead sort of overweight sweating Australian guy who couldn't really fit into a suit who shouldn't be on a red carpet. I wanted them to smash me, you know, if anything.

Josh: Were you ever worried about like, you look amazing now, you've lost like a bunch of weight and I've gone through a similar, I used to be 120 kilos. Wow.

Brad: And so, and did you have the beautiful producer there? The beautiful girlfriend? You did? She's been with you for the whole time? Yeah, exactly.

Josh: I know, 10 years.

Brad: She invested early.

Josh: That's what I tell my wife.

Brad: It's like, you invested early, darling.

Josh: She invested in Apple in, you know, 2000. That's right. But no, were you ever concerned about the, you know, your image changing and then potentially your persona having to adjust?

Brad: Yeah, yes, yeah, I think, yeah.

Josh: It's a good fucking excuse to keep eating cake. Yeah, that's right, it is.

Brad: No, it changed. One thing I did notice is that That movie stars aren't very nice to fat people. Like, yeah, you're summed up pretty quickly in that, mate.

Tommy: They're just jealous that they can't eat all the cake.

Brad: That's what they're like. Yeah, no, it was definitely— and then it's funny even thinking that I can, I can get a rapport going quicker. Back then it took me 30 seconds to get them on track to know that the bit was going on, whereas now I can get the bit happening. Yeah, definitely. There's— because we're in a, we're in a game of instantaneous moments, aren't we? Yeah, we're trying to capture something.

Josh: So you think looking slimmer, you're able to engage quicker with them?

Tommy: Engage, yeah, connect. Any, um, connect, which is a shame.

Brad: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Josh: So you, Ricky Gervais, have you— into—

Brad: yeah, yeah, well, Ricky Gervais is a great example because you pulled a Ricky. Yeah, Ricky, Ricky, Ricky called me, he was so enamoured with the size of my head for so long, and my head shrunk a little bit. Yeah, so it's going to be— we haven't seen him since the head shrunk a little a little bit, so that'll be quite exciting.

Josh: Have you noticed going through customs, because of my weight loss, even just going through New York through customs yesterday, I got asked, oh, have you lost some weight?

Tommy: That's on your photo. How, when did you have it?

Josh: Because I had my photo from 2011. Wow.

Brad: So I was like, I've got to see this peak wave. So you don't know this part of the relationship?

Tommy: Well, I didn't know Josh when he was at the height of his—

Josh: Here we go, my passport's here.

Tommy: It's not the height, it's the, at the width. The depth of his—

Josh: So there's my passport from 2011. Totally different dude. So I look a little bit—

Brad: Still a nice looking fella though.

Josh: Crazy neckbeard. Like my neckbeard definitely adds a little bit of weight. But you know, it's funny. So do you get, have you had any of those moments? Have losing weight, have you even, you know, going through customs or anything like that?

Brad: Yeah, I've had those. Yeah, for sure. But yeah, that whole thing's a funny one. You know, yeah, it's definitely.

Tommy: People take you more seriously. Yeah.

Josh: Do you get worried that you take yourself— do you get worried that you take like that almost that you're— because I know that I've had my own issues in the sense of like, you know, when you get everyone complimenting you, it's a bit of a— it's a bit fucked because you start saying, well, what was— what did everyone think beforehand? And then we know what they thought. Not only was it what it— because everyone's like, oh my God, you look so good. Like, fuck, how bad were you back then? So then it plays into the self-esteem self-esteem of like, well, I can never get back. If I ever get back there, I'm gonna be the shit person that everyone thought I was.

Brad: There's a whole thesis in what you're saying there. Yeah, but a lot of issues was for a lot of people were avoiding me, eye contact, them chatting, or even the ones that never said anything were another worry because it taken 6 months to go to me, oh, I thought you might have lost a testicle or something, you know.

Josh: Yeah, well, once you get like, yeah, especially like, um, which was Fascinating.

Brad: It was more about others than— Yeah.

Tommy: So any actual, you know, like, well done from any big celebrities?

Brad: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm trying to think of— definitely got well done.

Tommy: He's put together a montage.

Brad: Yeah, I should put that together. Great, yeah. Well, that's funny with montages, you know, as a video man, Tom, you'd look at all your, um, you know, all my montages are all of me as a fat bastard. Yeah. And they kind of work out pretty good, but I'm like, Wow, that's kind of not me now. I've got a great video of Oprah giving me advice.

Josh: But isn't that interesting that you say, you're not saying it's not what I look like now. You said it's not me now. Oh, you called me.

Brad: I'm waiting to start crying now.

Josh: It's like, you guys are— Bring the tissues. Do you feel a detachment to your past self? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, because I think that the other thing too is like, I know that I can get into the negative self-talk, but also talk about others where it's like, you know, being overweight's, you know, lazy or you need to exercise or you've got no self-control. How are you reconciling all that in your head?

Brad: Oh, that gets, it's funny 'cause it gets back to, I hope my answer makes sense to what you were looking for, but it's more getting up and just striking ahead of me what's in the day, like what I'm gonna eat, what I'm gonna do. So day to day, which is pretty much how I started my radio career, uh, 18 years ago, everything was day to day. And so I can get back to that day to day, even in the career, is still important. So the loss of weight is reconciling. It is, it's a day-to-day thing. Just keep, keep it going, keep it going. Moment, small momentum. And I think as I'm going back to radio and the media and whatever I lose sight of that day-to-day thing because you're always looking— because you've, you've, you've got— you've created this great history on radio or in media or videos or whatever. I'm thinking I need a bigger— the next big thing. Yeah. Whereas you kind of— you just need your patience and to keep little chipping away at little momentum things. Has it been you like lifting? Sorry, I've given you a bit of a parallel there.

Josh: I think it's interesting. Does that make sense? Did it make a little bit of sense? Well, because I think it's like, okay, I've lost the weight now. Tommy talks about this a lot with me. It's like, oh, well, now you gotta lift, you gotta lift. Do you feel the pressure of like, lift weights, lift weights? What was the tipping point for you?

Brad: Oh no, I woke up last, January 1st last year and I said, all right, New Year's resolution. Let's do the no sugar, no beer thing for January.

Josh: You actually did it, a New Year's resolution?

Brad: You're the only bloke who's ever stuck to a New Year's resolution. That's right, New Year's resolution. There you go, well, and I did it No beer for January. I love beer and, um, it's wintery, it doesn't matter. And then, and then I went, yeah, January, and then, uh, February 1st went back on them, but not, not much. A couple of beers here and there. And, um, and, but it was the sugar. And look, my thing was I'd love, you know, I'd love, I love pizza. I'd eat the whole pizza or I'd sneak a whole pizza or I just love being full.

Josh: Fuck, sneaking a whole pizza is hard work.

Tommy: Josh has told me about feeling full. Can you please elaborate on your— because you just said it then, no, I love feeling full.

Josh: Yeah, I love the feeling of like— I get it from Mexico. There's certain cuisines I can get it from, like Mexican, like nachos, fucking like Tex-Mex sort of stuff. I was always good at never going—

Brad: no, but nachos was a killer. Remember nachos hit us in the late '90s in Australian pubs and whatever, and every table would have nachos on them. They'd be— they were epic. And I'm like, gee, Australians are really good at making nachos.

Tommy: Like, it's on the Andre, um, It's a main disguised as an entrée. Exactly, you've nailed it.

Brad: And I would smash those.

Josh: It's actually not a food set up as an entrée. It's like, it's corn chips. You're eating a snack.

Tommy: It's a main disguised as an entrée, but then disguised as a bar snack.

Brad: Yeah, that's right. And you'd knock one off. Yeah. And you'd go, how did I do that? And your poor mate that you're sharing it with would get 4.

Josh: Yeah, that's, you know, the thing is, yeah, that's the fucked up bit. The fucked up bit is that there's this preconceived idea that we're all sharing, but we're not.

Brad: That gets back to it. This could be a very Aussie moment too. This gets back to the early days of fish and chips when you can get a dollar's worth of chips and you'd get them after school. Yeah. And you go down to the fish and chip shop, play pinball machines or whatever, and you'd get your dollar's worth of chips. And then it would be— my good friends, there'd be 4 of us around a table and we would fight to the death to get our chips. Like seagulls. To get to that last one. Yeah, like seagulls with the barbecue sauce, black sauce. Yeah. And I think that's where it started, my love of being full.

Josh: And so where are you now? 'Cause I can definitely feel that. He's ripped in Rock Hard.

Brad: That's where he is right now. No, no, no, still blubbery.

Josh: But that's where I feel like I'm in that constant blubbery phase. Like I feel like I'm always, I've got more to do. Are you?

Tommy: 'Cause I don't think you are. You don't look blubbery.

Brad: Well, you know, early 40s, dad bod, we're still going, aren't we, Josh? We're still up.

Josh: The sad thing is I'm 28 and have a dad bod.

Brad: And I don't even have a kid.

Tommy: I think the challenge for both of you is to lose what, that talk. 'Cause you're both looking great and you're both in good shape. So it's like, at what point does that shift? 'Cause I've known dudes who are bodybuilders that think they look fucking shit ass. All right. And that's just mental. And so.

Brad: I like on the talk or the self-talk and you smash yourself down. Isn't that always gonna enrapture people that are in, well, it happens to everyone, don't get me wrong, us folks in media, because we're always— we're coaching ourselves along, be it to lose weight or be it to do a good bit on the radio or to make a good video. Aren't we always self-critical?

Josh: Absolutely, yeah. Which is silly. But also like being able to get filmed at the red carpet and not hate the way it looks, right? Like that would be another—

Tommy: Were you seeking that?

Brad: No, no, no, I've never— I never had a vanity issue. He thought he was ripped. No, no, but I never had the vanity issue, which—

Josh: But does the vanity come with losing weight.

Brad: Everyone's saying, why is it you recently— that's not vanity, that gets back to that, oh shit, if I fall off the wagon again, I'm going to be shovelling pizzas at a kid's birthday party in my mouth without anyone seeing again. Yeah. And, and I don't want to do that again.

Tommy: I reckon you're on to something, Josh, because I've said when I've been in my best shape, I've looked in the mirror more. But then when I've stopped, I haven't looked. But I haven't thought, nah, I'm not going to look because— but it's just like I switch into this a bit vain mode when I've started lifting more.

Brad: Yeah. Wow. So you— all right, but lifting's good for you though. The lifting's great.

Tommy: Yeah, you don't have ads and look in the mirror all the time.

Josh: What have you learned, like, having met, you know, what you could describe as the biggest egos in the world, you know, Hollywood and all that sort of thing?

Tommy: What have you— don't talk about Tom Cruise.

Brad: What have you learned? I love him.

Josh: What have you learned about ego, and what have you learned about maybe interacting day to day and that's, we spoke about status earlier. Yeah, yep. How has seeing how you interact with them and how they interact with you, how's that changed how you interact with people?

Brad: Losing weight or just in general? In general, all right, good, good, good. Yeah, over the, you know, with ego and a lot of my thing, my interviews and to get them to stay is based around ego, isn't it? To get them, I need to give them an opportunity to want to stay with me. And maybe at the beginning it was playing to their ego to get them to stay, but then I'm— I think everyone, every one of those stars is different because I don't really want to be on that red carpet, or they don't really want to be interviewing a stranger, and they don't have to in a way. They're contracted to be there, but they don't have to. But I'm digressing again. But in terms of the ego, what have I learned? Like, they're just doing their job. They're, they're trying to earn a buck. Of course they have to put on a show. And they've got their own ego and they've got a big ego to be in front of up on a big screen. But shit, and this might— I might not— I'm definitely not nailing your question, but from my experiences, most of them are nice people. Most of these big stars are nice people.

Josh: Do they have common qualities though that you're like, actually, all of these people who I'm interviewing on the red carpet are somehow different to the rest of the world? Or is that the big misconception?

Brad: No, I think that's a misconception. They're workers. Most of them are workers. Most of them, just cool jobs, but they've got to— they're working their asses off. And I reckon a lot of them find it hard to go to a red carpet. A lot of them are still very insecure and not, you know, they might have a big ego, but they have to use that to disguise themselves from the fact that, you know, they're just actors that stand in a little room with probably 10 people around them as they're filming something.

Tommy: Is there anything to learn from the ego in terms of how you could kind of use it as a hack to kind of give yourself some more confidence or put yourself out, especially because I think people see Americans as like sort of, you know, driven on that.

Brad: Yeah, well, all right, let's get back. If you brought up Tom Cruise, he has a heck— he'd have to have a heck of an ego, but he still has this amazing ability to— you can tell he's working his ass off at drumming it down on the red carpet, which leads him to be the best person I've interviewed on red carpet. The most giving. When I say best, because I still need that piece of audio to take back, and if I can get something out of him that's— and I do every time I interview him, he's wonderful.

Josh: What does that mean, giving, in this context?

Brad: Giving, uh, spending time talking to me. Yeah, coming up with—

Josh: is he thinking about bites? Do you think it's like, fuck you, a content— like always be contenting? Is he like— yes, I know. Yeah. So it actually becomes a little bit transactional though too, because like, I'm gonna come here and I know what you need. I'm just going to give you that and then I'm going to get it.

Brad: It is. And but in the case of the people, us, who are on the other side of the translation, we want— but then it's up to us to make it interesting, right? You know, and not talking about him breaking his ankle on an aeroplane. Yeah, like, how can I get something different to the— that he's done to the previous 20? And it— but if he's, if he's signed up to that 1-minute dance, and if you're, you know, if you're interesting enough, you're getting to say something different. So I don't know how that leads into the ego thing. I do like the fascination with the whole ego, you know, what was that movie that, um, that no one watched with Guy Ritchie, the second? I don't even watch movies that people do watch, so shocking, right? The third one he did, um, it wasn't the rock and roller one, it was one in there, it was all about ego and mind and how you see yourself. I do like that, and you've got me thinking in that.

Tommy: Well, I think when we ask you, when Josh asked you that question Maybe you were thinking, okay, that ego is a really negative thing. And some people I think think it's a really negative thing.

Brad: I didn't think in the, let's say, you know, 'cause I've split my life obviously into the 10 years on PLJ and then the last 8 years, which is, you know, a little bit with Fifi and Jules and then KQRS, which is the Minneapolis thing that I call in once a week. And then the last 4 years on CBS. But I still look at this as my next stage of my career. Kids, I've got 3 kids and whatever, you know. So I always revert to the 10-year play. But in terms of the 10-year play, I'll listen back to some of my stuff and I don't know from an ego point of view, but I was, there were moments where I got very cocky and was very even arrogant. I'm like, wow. I mean, that wasn't meant to be my bit.

Josh: How does it come out? It comes out good.

Brad: Is that a cocky bit? If I've ever seen a cocky bit, it's right there.

Tommy: I'm like, wow.

Brad: Yeah, but that was, yeah, that was over, that was an evolution of me, you know, through that stage. And I would hope that I definitely didn't take that ego or being cocky onto a red carpet. I think I was cocky in the ability to get good content. Was it confidence though?

Tommy: Confidence, yeah. 'Cause I think some people think confidence is arrogant and ego coming through. Whereas I think when you're in the middle of it, you can just be like, nah, I'm nailing this. But maybe that is your ego talking. No, no, please.

Brad: No, no, that nailing it, That's interesting what you say, I'm nailing this. I got to, through that whole 10 years, as much as I got knocks and I had to dress up as Elmo in '07, I had to, you know, do various Hannah Montana in '08, all these stunts, that whole second part of that 10-year play, whereas most people leave a job after 5 years and go to the next stage, I'm kind of glad I did the next 5 years because it took me 5 years to get good at actually being decent on the radio, you know, being my baptism of fire was over 'Now I just have to play that character.' And I think I nailed it, and that's where the confidence maybe came from.

Tommy: And knowing who you are, I think Hamish talked about it, Hamish Blake. He was saying like he listened back and he was like, 'I had some English accent at one point,' but it's like he was just talking about finding his feet and knowing who he is.

Josh: You just have to do more and more of it, don't you?

Brad: I think so. Yeah, I love that second part, like, and that's when like I'm glad I did push in that second from 2005 to 2010. It was a great period. Like, that's when the Gervais interviews started happening, and that, you know, they were happening a couple of times a year. And, you know, the Coldplay incident, all these— and even the stunts played into it because, I mean, they were stupid even though I was mentally affected. So maybe I did develop an ego. Maybe there was a sense, yeah, I just got married, I'm crushing this, I'm on fire. Yeah. But I think maybe as a performer you need a bit of that at the right time. I don't know how, I can't give you an answer of how to turn that on or turn that off and still hopefully become a good bloke.

Tommy: I think action can turn it on. Yeah. And then it's awareness that can switch it off a bit and falling back into actually being a normal person or trying to connect to who you are and trying to be a good person. Right. But I think I've always thought like ego can sort of almost gets you past this bit where you might not have had enough confidence to put yourself out there and do it.

Josh: I think it's the same with naivety, right? It's like, what should I have? Yeah, and I think naivety is important and it's sort of, it can be used similarly to the ego type of thing, which is like, say the naivety in the podcast that like Tommy and I are doing, that this actually matters, right? And so there's an ego to that, that like we think that we are somewhat important enough to even fucking reach out to you and ask you.

Brad: I'm more worried about your other guests down the road in New York.

Josh: I think that is an interesting thing, right? Which is like, there is an ego and naivety to even pick up the phone and for you to even—

Brad: To pick up the phone to ring radio stations in the hope that one will invite me in. And only one did.

Josh: And the thing is that— You're right, that's stupid.

Brad: No, no, it was total naivety. I actually call it stupidity.

Josh: And we apply different things to it. And so ego could be a negative thing, but also if you, use it at the flip side, you could say, well, ego can be a thing that you can use to then level up. It's like, what is the opposite of doing that? It's like the imposter syndrome that's really popular in talking, you know. Yep. And so it's like, what other options do we have? Do we fucking self-hate and say that we can't do it and use that as the blocker? Or do we fucking say, yeah, we— I can do it and be seen as an arrogant prick?

Brad: Does that mean you bring on the ego, you bring on the imposter, and you still keep the naivety? Yeah. And you do— you become a hodgepodge.

Josh: What's the paradox? I think— I mean, that's what That's why like so many artists or creative people, they're all a bit fucked up. Because it's like there is that, there is the highs and there's the lows. Are you a consistent person, do you think? I, no, I think—

Tommy: What would your wife say?

Brad: No, no, no, she wouldn't.

Josh: No, I think after a good project.

Brad: That's the truth. Yeah, that's right. I think after when you do a good project and you have a little bit success on something. Then there's, you think you could put your feet up and that the phone will ring or whatever, and it never rings. Never. Like, like, I'll give you an example. Olympics. I love going to, I love covering the Olympics. So London Olympics, I go there, I work for NBC, do just go, I work 20-hour days to create the content I want.

Josh: And you did that in the 2000 Sydney Olympics?

Brad: I started 2000 for radio. That was my first ever time talking on the radio after I'd pitched them here in studio, went back to Sydney. And so Olympics mean a lot to me, um, but London NBC, you know, it was all video, it was all web content. I came— it wasn't on the main thing, um, but so I was the only guy doing it for their website. And, you know, it was the— on the face, I'd pop up in the corner thumbnail, you know, when you see your thumbnail. It was great. And I'm interviewing big names and creating bits every day. And then you've got to get— you've got to seduce is a terrible word, but— or cajole. You've got to cajole editors to buy into this because they're normally editors that edit non-sort of funny bits, you know, more sports, straight sports stuff. So you've got to get them to find the gag or the entertaining moment.

Josh: Yeah, and then like that awkward bit you don't cut out, that's the actual bit.

Tommy: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that stuff up, leave it.

Brad: Yeah, yeah, that's right. But that's a hard thing when you're NBC, which is the rights hold, you know, very esteemed. So it was a tough, but it finished and I went, this is great. And I remember no one, then that's it. I'm back to, you're back doing my normal day-to-day thing, which is awesome. But you thought that people watched it, but no one, you've actually gotta never stop hustling or never stop.

Josh: Well, you've summed up radio completely. Like when I was working at Fifi and Jules in the, as a digital content producer, I thought that fucking everyone was listening, right? It was like, it was a number one drive show. And I thought like, and the radio station, everyone, And I think you need that. That's like the thing. And that's the same thing with our podcast is like we treat it. There's that thing of like, you know, fake it till you make it. Rather than saying fake it till you make it, one of our previous guests, Peter Shepherd, talks about doing something as if. Doing something as if there's a million people listening. That's great. And so it's not about fucking faking it. It's about just giving it the oxygen and the effort to be like.

Brad: And I think to go back to that, back to my first, let's say my first 2 years on radio, from walking into PLJ in August 2000 up until, let's say, meeting my wife. I met her 2 years later, so that's a nice little bookend of life. But then it was just everything. The only thing that mattered was what came out of the speakers at the end, and everything else behind that didn't matter. So that every day I didn't have an overall goal. My goal was just to do good stuff on the radio. So that gets back to your naivety And don't get me wrong, I had an ego because I'm pulling all this off with no money. My ego wasn't like probably being flashy. I'm pulling this off like a backpacker. I've got no money. I'm living in New York City. I'm living in a hotel room. I'm on New York radio. How that, this is so cool. And I'm probably entertaining myself that every day is a bonus. So I think that might get to you. I don't know if that blends in. But I know I'm—

Josh: The funny thing about you as an interviewer, you're so fucking worried about being a good interviewer. Every question we ask, you're like, I'm hoping that he's got it.

Brad: Yeah, that's right. Sorry, you're right. You're asking me some pretty hard-hitting questions, you guys. Like, are you actually psychology professors? This is, what is this? As a compliment. Yeah, very good.

Josh: We've got the ego up. Yeah, but it's good.

Brad: And you've delved into my head. Maybe these are just the thoughts that I normally have and you've really pulled them out so well, haven't you?

Josh: Is there, what's the big misconception around what you do in the sense of other people giving it a crack or people who want to get into entertainment or even if they want to do podcast. Like the exciting thing about the podcast stuff is I don't think it's a case of fuck radio, fuck TV. It's like let's learn everything we can about all of these things and bring it and create something new. What are, can you tell us fucking everything that you know that we should be incorporating into this? What are the best bits about radio and TV? Oh, this is a good one.

Brad: Another good question. Yeah, geez, I've got the pressure on now. Um, no, I, I, you guys are an example of what we're doing today. It's, we're just having a nice chat, and I reckon, and, and this environment gives you the opportunity to have nice open-ended chats. You know, you haven't got a clock to go. I mean, he's still, you've probably got a producer. Yeah, so the time's, you know, but, but I, I think you can have— that's a wrap-up signal. No, no, no, hurry, Brandon. That's funny. No, I, I, it's bloody hard to look. My thing was all what I learned was I was always working with people, so it's all about people. And yet, and, and the people you're working—

Josh: sounding like Facebook now.

Brad: Yeah, yeah, the people I was working with were tough and, and they're still tough, and I had to figure out how to fit into collaborating, collaborate. Yeah, but when they aren't, you know my time here, they weren't necessarily collaborators. I needed just to bring something in and then I had to ensure that they picked up on what I was pitching in under 5 words and then they will put it on and then they would carry it. And there'd be moments where I didn't know that 5-word pitch in the morning, you know, 6:01 when I walk into the studio when the show starts. I've got an interview, let's say, with Matt Damon. Oh, is it funny? Ah, and they smell weakness. Yeah. 'You know, even if I put the interview on and there's nothing there, I'll get smashed.' And that was my hardest part. So I know it doesn't get to—

Josh: So it's communicating?

Brad: Communicating quickly, getting a message across and working. And, um, I've always worked where I've always been a sidekick. So the times where I haven't been the sidekick, where like MBC was my bit, or— that is still fresh new ground for me to tackle. So I I can give you advice on being a professional sidekick on a massive radio show.

Josh: Do you want to be the sidekick forever?

Brad: Uh, I have— at this stage, I don't. I'm not looking to try and be a radio host at this stage.

Josh: The thing is that I guess the US, like, what you're talking about, the mateship type of thing. Yeah. Like, I guess you'd be open to being a mate on a show, like doing that sort of thing, like, and maybe removing part of what you do on almost is like saying fuck you to status, right? So the idea of trying to be the main guy, you probably give pushback to anyway. Yeah, that's right. It doesn't have to be the main guy.

Brad: That's right, yeah, yeah. I don't think I'm built to be a main guy. And I know I haven't answered your question. So I'm doing my interview analysis then of, I didn't really give it to you.

Josh: What do you think though? But if you actually, I guess another way to phrase it is like, so you're starting a media company. That's specifically new media. It's podcasting, it's video online. And you know that the point of difference that you have is all the experiences that you've had before. So you walk into a room with a bunch of YouTubers that you're gonna be working with, some people who have done stuff with Gimlet Media or whatever, the podcasting, and you're the traditional head who also understands digital.

Brad: Yeah, I'd go in, I— What is the stuff? My thing would be capturing magic moments. I, from a YouTuber perspective, and they're only, it's just them talking to a camera, I love it when they interact with people. In terms of Casey Neistat, I love when his UPS guy turns up and he's reacting with him. I even love it when Casey goes out and interviews fans of himself. So I want, I'm a people interaction moment where there's something, a give and take. From having others on with you or with you. I wanna see that. I want interaction. Capturing real moments. Capturing real moments. Something unscripted, that's totally unscripted. Not even what you were looking for.

Josh: And probably it happens well within the first-person context of like being able to first-person film. Like that idea of using the camera yourself and talking to the camera. Is that a muscle that you're looking at?

Brad: Yeah, I haven't developed as well as I should. I reckon there were moments over the last 10 years where I was doing it. Yeah. Not just doing it because I had to and then let it go and— You were vlogging.

Tommy: Yeah, I was. 15 years ago before it was cool.

Brad: I was, but you wouldn't have thought. I didn't even know it was, you know, there was plenty of moments. And you guys would have done it too. You would have been doing selfies in '98, but you didn't know it was a thing because I had no one on a red— Well, in my case in 2002, I think I got a selfie with Phil Collins. I still have it now that I think about it. It might have been my first selfie.

Tommy: Josh's first selfie. Podcast was when he was 2.

Josh: Yeah, no, I didn't know how old— no, it would have been like, uh, '06 or something like that, like early. Yeah, very big. Yeah, yeah. And so, no, I think it's, it's interesting about merging these things together. I think that that's like the amazing thing, and I'm excited to see how, like, because creativity and sort of those things that you're talking about, which is having moments, they're broader, they cross different mediums, different platforms.

Brad: You've now like, and I've done thousands of moments with people for radio, but I'm, and I've filmed a lot of those, probably not edited them, which gives a whole nother, just in the right way for a YouTube community or viewership, you know, those magic moments worked very well on radio. And that is probably my current disconnect in that bridging, making those magic moments pop in different mediums. Yeah, because on radio there's context, you know. I come on, hey, my shenanigans, when my bits would— I'd come on, Brad, what are you up to? Oh, I went out last night, I went to a big party, George Clooney was there, and this and that. What movie is that? This, this, this, and this. How'd you go? Oh, there was beautiful people there and they let me in. Um, oh, did you get anything? Yeah, here's my interview with George Clooney. Play the interview. Um, So we have context already. I put just that George Clooney interview up on YouTube, people are like, who the hell's this weirdo? Like what's, you know, who is, there's no, and that is probably something that I've gotta get.

Josh: But it's just understanding the audience, like understanding who the audience is and what you're putting it up for. And sometimes it means like, even Tommy and I have discussions around podcast episode titles. So is the podcast episode title, you know, Brad Blanks in New York City? Or is the title mainstream media going new? Like, is the selling point Brad Blanks, or is the selling point the— and so all of those things.

Tommy: What we're saying is, can you come up with the title?

Brad: I wouldn't, yeah, I wouldn't say Brad Blanks. I'd just say, uh, yeah, yep, um, you know, Monica Lewinsky impersonator. Yeah, that'd go huge.

Josh: And this is it.

Brad: I mean, I did have Exhibit A, uh, uh, on that arrow directed to something that was on, yeah, which is not very good in these modern times. Yeah, sorry, yeah, disgusting it was.

Josh: Anyway, the, yeah, so with the titles and all that and clickbait.

Brad: So all this stuff as you're saying this, it's tiring to me. Yeah. Like, but yeah.

Josh: It's stuff that you think about, like it's that other thing of like, 'cause the thing is it's like, do you wanna sell it in harder? I think the approach that TJ and I have had is like we want people to click on the content or listen to the episode and be happy that they listened versus feeling like, oh, they spoke about that thing for 2 seconds. So it's trying to like—

Tommy: I think you've been doing clickbait for years, but you've actually delivered on— like, I think clickbait went too far. Yeah. When it's like telling you, you see this cute dog and you get there and it's a penguin. So they lied to you.

Brad: Yeah, yeah, you're right. I haven't nailed it. And I— geez, this is good though, philosophical, my goodness. We'll need a beer after this. Yeah, but I hear you on that. I haven't nailed that, and that's what I'm up— that's the whole thing, you know, when you want to write a book. Do you want to write a book about yourself? Yeah. Which is what you— you know, what I would like to do. And then you write the book, and how you sell it, you're not— you've got to have in that book, you've got to have takeaways. And this is what I think I mean, from just talking to you guys now, your podcast, there's gonna be takeaways, right? There's a bit of a journey going on.

Josh: Well, audio is interesting, right? Because it's not like indexed like a blog or like you can't look on visually on Instagram. So it does have, but I think we'll get to a point where all of this stuff will be indexed on Google. So you'll be able to type in Elmo, sorry, Elmo riding BMX, right? And people will actually be able they would have heard me say it and then it will bring it up, but it's gonna change. Think about how that changes the audience because what I'm worried about is at the moment we haven't gone that, like we get 300+ listeners per episode every day. We haven't gone that far outside of our community, right? We've got more fucking friends on Facebook. What's interesting is what happens when, do we wanna target the person who just so happens to live 10 miles outside of New York who saw that? Are they gonna be interested in all the stuff that we're philosophically surprising about all this. Maybe not. And so that's what, like, that's what's fucking interesting too.

Brad: Yeah.

Tommy: Oh wow, building a community is hard, and sometimes you don't actually get to choose who that community is because they choose you.

Brad: But are you saying that should you not worry about it then and just roll and keep going?

Tommy: You're in the thick of it, right? Because we could strategize about the audience and community we want to build, but I don't know if it's going to be— that's what we will achieve. There's no, there's no for certain.

Josh: Yeah, we could have way more listeners right now if we said we are doing a podcast about video production for people who are starting their own business and would be able to get and would be able to niche. But I don't like it. What we're trying to do, which is a little bit different, is it's like the niche is us having a conversation, right? So people are listening because they don't mind our perspective.

Brad: That's good, actually. Yeah, so that's what—

Josh: that's fucking hard because it's way hard because the thing is is that it's like, it's a new category. It is in the sense of like, if, if, if you say peanut butter and chocolate and you've had peanut butter before, you can sort of fucking grasp what it's like.

Brad: The same as what the— some of these successful podcasts. Isn't that like Marc Maron? Isn't— aren't I listening to Maron because I want his take on— it's like therapy?

Josh: Well, I think that's what you need to do. I think that to stand out, I like what you said about it. You can't be an interview— you can't just be an interviewer just doing the normal shtick. You need your own niche, which is the personality. And I think that's what's the difference between having a list of questions and going through. And that's what's maybe different. The advice that people probably give with the podcast stuff is it's like people are tuning in, like say with this episode, it might be like people are wanting to listen to Brad Blanks' story. It's like Craig Bruce's podcast, right? You're listening because you wanna hear the radio talent and all that sort of thing. But I actually like Craig's perspective as well. But there's a lot of people who might just hear because they wanna hear Eddie McGuire's bit. And so the thing is that what we're trying to do is it's like, it's a bit of a package deal. So what people are listening for is it's you, me, Tommy, we're all having this conversation together. And it's not just like, you can't cut us. If you cut us out, there'd just be a lot of you being like, I don't know if I've answered your question. So I mean, I think that's, I think the niche stuff and you're a perfect example of someone who's done that. You've been like, you know what, there are so many— there's a fucking red carpet full of people who are asking the same mundane questions that could easily just be auto— you could fucking automate that. That's right. Yeah, but applying creativity, applying your personality. I like that because I'm—

Brad: again, it gets back to these moments. I don't see anyone else doing— creating these moments that go for a minute and a half. So all I was doing Don't think I'm anything special. I just saw a moment where I could get with a big name star that I was kind of a fan of anyway to create a bit. Yeah. And I found that entry point and it turned me into a bloody red carpet reporter. I wasn't trying to do that, but I was just—

Josh: You can apply to anything. That's right. That's the thing. And that's what like I'm excited about to see is when you're going and doing other stuff, applying those things. 'Cause I think that that's maybe, you know, people pigeonhole and lots of things, but there's, it's just, 'cause you see that, that's what I was asking before about, you know, where else do you see it in life? Because those, that set of things, moments translates fucking everywhere.

Brad: Exactly. Moments isn't on a red carpet. Well, that's what people would say, that red carpet thing. I'd be like, well, I do 50% I'm out on the street creating game shows and bits with people and whatever, you know, anyone.

Tommy: I've got the episode title. Celebrity reporter Brad Blanks.

Brad: Bastard. Shit, you got me. Red carpet now. That's good.

Josh: It's a Daily Talk Show. Yeah, Brad Blanks, thank you for fucking having us here. Yeah, good, very interesting. Are we gonna finish the live read? We're at, uh, what was it, Upwork? We were in Midtown Manhattan.

Brad: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So guys, loved it, great stuff.

Josh: Awesome. I've learned about myself.

Brad: Thanks, buddy. Is that what we're meant to do? I don't know. I don't think so. Have other guests left changed or moved?

Josh: Yeah, maybe. No, I don't know, in a good way. But anyway, Daily Talk Show, way. You're very nice people. Thank you. Hi@thedailytalkshow.com if you want to send us an email. And we're also— have you been on Reddit?

Brad: Have you looked at— no, I've got to get on your Reddit.

Josh: Yeah. So do you go on Reddit in general?

Brad: I do a little bit, not as much. Yeah, we've just started, right?

Josh: So we've got like a subreddit of like 18 people.

Brad: Well, um, those 18 people, find my Elmo video on YouTube and, uh, post it. Oh, is it out? It was like the third video I think I ever made.

Tommy: All right, there's now going to be a Reddit dedicated to all of the stuff we've been talking about from Brad.

Josh: Today's talk show. Have a good one, guys.