Checking In With Brad Blanks

Tommy: It's The Daily Talk Show, episode 655.

Josh: What's happening, guys? What's going on? Welcome Brad Blanks to the show, mate.

Brad: Haha, Tommy, Josh, Mr. 97, how are you, fellas? Great to be here. It's been a long time.

Josh: Last time we were right next to you. We can't be as close as we once were. We're now 10,000 miles away, but you're, um, You're in the epicentre of where it's all going down in New York City. I mean, where are you right now?

Brad: Well, I'm actually out on Long Island. I have a place out here. And, you know, 18 days ago we locked down— wife, kids— we came straight out here, buckled down pretty early. And yeah, just, just we're in the lockdown. So in terms of even if I was in New York City, I'd still be locked down. So I wouldn't be able to know too much. Of what was going on on the outside streets. But the news, it seems that everyone's getting back, back in Australia and around the world is from the hospitals and they look pretty, pretty dire at the moment. So I'm getting the same footage that you guys are seeing too.

Tommy: And so Brad, when did you decide to actually move out of Manhattan?

Brad: Yeah, it was the Friday afternoon. The kids had been out of school. No, the kids were still in school on the Friday. New York school, that's, I'm gonna give you the date of that, was like the 10th, 10th of March, I think. And we just made the decision we're out and would let the, we pulled our kids out of school, but then by the Sunday night, the schools got shut down, which I think might've been the same thing in Melbourne as well, where people said, yeah, is that what happened?

Josh: It's been a real trickle effect. It hasn't been that clear. Like some states were saying schools are done. Victoria closed schools on a Tuesday. It was like, it's all been very strange. So 18 days ago, 19 days ago, that day before it got locked down, what's the vibe? What are you feeling? What's going on in New York City?

Brad: Yeah, great. So I do morning radio, breakfast radio in New York on CBS FM. And I went in, it was a Thursday morning, and I could feel the sense had changed. I'd been on the streets, I went out in the streets Wednesday afternoon, and an interview you'll hear soon, that I've given you guys and met some great New Yorkers. But everyone was carrying, you know, sprays, you know, like they call it Lysol, spray themselves down and hand sanitizers in the back pocket. But people were clearing out the train. I went down Madison Square Garden where Penn Station was, and people were just leaving the city and leaving. And it was quite becoming quite spooky even on the Wednesday. So that's— I think we got it then. That's— I give you the date then. That was like That was actually probably the 9th, 10th, 11th. Everything was getting a bit dodgy. And then on the Thursday, I did radio, but no one would touch you or come near. The distancing had already sort of started. Did the radio and then left, and then pretty much didn't leave the house until we got in the car and went out to Long Island, where we've been ever since.

Tommy: How have your kids taken it all?

Josh: Yeah, good.

Brad: They're fine. We're having a good time. Like, the positive side The other side of it is that we've sort of— reality is that we're quite a busy family in Manhattan, rushing. Everyone's got their jobs. Even though I've got a 10-year-old, an 8-year-old, and a 6-year-old, but everyone's moving quite independent. We've got to get them to after-school classes and stuff. Here, we're quite regimented. The homeschooling started pretty much straight away at 9:00 AM last Monday. So what's that, the 16th of March? The schooling started at home. And then the schooling really ramped— homeschooling really ramped up with the apps and the teachers Zooming in on Monday, last Monday. So we're a week into the official homeschooling and that's going really well. And we're gathering as a family, we're having nice dinners and laughing and watching plenty of The Office and finding some old movies to watch. And in that way, it's a positive, but But we know that the kids probably don't get the craziness of what's really going on in the outside world. But we know it's sad and a lot of hardship happening.

Josh: I thought you said they were doing jobs, like they had to make some money to survive in New York City. Like a lot of people are working multiple jobs. That's right. What's the vibe financially? Because that city, there's a lot of people hanging on just paying rent, right? What's the vibe? Senses of money.

Brad: No, I, I, uh, yeah, the end, that done, completely done. Uh, a lot of friends I know have small businesses, uh, restaurants, uh, well, the Aussie cafe community is so strong in New York City. I know a few of them and there, there's no cash flow. And a lot of these, I mean, the businesses don't have cash in the bank. They're relying on that cash flow to pay their staff and keep the business ticking over. And And they still got to pay rent. In New York, most businesses are leveraged up or hanging by the balance anyway because of the rent. You know, it's a lifestyle choice, and hopefully you make a good living out of it, but they're hanging on, if not, you know, on their way to being done. So that's heartbreaking, all from this mystery that sort of enveloped the world.

Tommy: The healthcare system in the US has been criticised a lot over the years. In a time like the current situation, what's the vibe as someone who's living and will have to rely on the healthcare system? How are you feeling?

Brad: Oh, I firstly, from the— I, I don't know how it'll go financially. The big thing was insurance and having insurance to cover your medical needs along those lines. Um, but I don't know how that will go. I'm pretty sure that if you're dying, they'll take you in and you might not have to pay in this scenario if you have coronavirus. But, uh, what I'm— from what I'm hearing and how I'm looking at it as a, you know, been in New York for 20 years, the hospitals in New York City just can't handle the, the people that are coming in. And then you're getting people that are coming that maybe shouldn't be coming in, but they don't know. So normally they would be coming in, but in this scenario, they, they, they're ripped with anxiety as well as a cough and a sniffle. So, you know, New York City, when there's a little bit of snow, the city can shut down. So when you have a virus sitting on there that's pumped into your brain 24/7, there's a lot of fear. So these hospitals are full and inundated and packed. And I mean, I can only see what you guys are seeing as well, but I have people living around the that I know that are living around this one epicenter, Elmhurst Hospital in Queensland. And they've already put up the— last week they built tents, which essentially will be the morgue in the car park. So yeah, which is crazy. And then yesterday the tents went up in Central Park where you throw frisbee and have picnics that you guys probably did when you were over in the East Meadow. And that is now filled with those tents that you probably all first saw when we saw the movie E.T., you know, like these tents from diabolical world-ending movies. So yeah, right in the madness of it.

Josh: I feel like when we caught up in New York, I sensed that you'd sort of inherited or sort of taken on some of the New Yorker traits with a bit of the Aussieness. So there's more likeable and more sort of loving to randoms. What do you think? Like the traditional New Yorker who doesn't have time for anyone walking in front of them, that kind of stereotype you see. How is that New Yorker dealing with something like coronavirus, which they can't see?

Brad: Yeah, well, and I can, I can gauge from that, that period because I was out there doing man-on-the-street interviews, and mostly they were all right, up for a chat. I had to do my interviews from a distance, um, but people were in a hurry. That people, for the 3 days that I was out on the street watching people get on, you know, go, and I always hover around train stations because it's high traffic area with plenty of crazy people to chat to, um, that people were moving pretty quickly there. There wasn't any anger. Um, a lot of people were saying feedback from friends and that on the streets in New York was very similar. And I was— I arrived in New York a month after 9/11 in 2001, And a lot of the vibe and the feeling was similar before people were clearing out—similar to after 9/11, where there was actually a bit more compassion and a bit more mateship from people looking at you on the streets and giving you a nod or having a chat. So no, the vibe was good in that few days leading up. No knobs? Well, that's the thing. New York's a very excited sexual town. I wonder how that... How that went in those last few days before the lockdown really kicked in.

Tommy: And so you gave us a grab from a guy named Brian. Can you set this up for us?

Brad: Yeah, he's a self-proclaimed urban survivalist. There's some fruity language in this, very passionate man. This was outside Penn Station on a little seat. We sat down and had a nice chat, and I wanted to delve into how he was going to survive the coronavirus. Brad Blanks, and I'm here with Brian, straight out of Manhattan. What is going on here today in the streets of Manhattan? This is urban survival, brother. Talk me through the coronavirus and how it's affecting you. Coronavirus? Fuck the coronavirus.

Unknown: Riding the subway is worse than the coronavirus. You're breathing in 401 deadly chemicals every fucking minute.

Brad: So there's more things that you're worrying about at the moment? You damn skippy! What advice do you have for the people out here of New York?

Unknown: Not a damn thing. Most of the people are ignorant as hell. They got on these masks. This thing can go through your eyeballs. You know fucking well it go through your ears. Really? So why in the fuck are you wearing a mask? And you got your eyes, you're blinking and linking. You know what I'm saying?

Brad: So how are you preparing here today for urban survival?

Unknown: Lots of vitamin C and orange juice. Yeah, that's how you survive. That's how you survive.

Brad: Talk me through your orange juice.

Unknown: The way you— you see, you get your orange juice and you take it with about maybe 15,000-20,000 milligrammes of vitamin C. Boost— to boost your immune system. Got ya.

Brad: And have you been telling a lot of people this is what you've got to do to beat corona?

Unknown: No, because they wouldn't listen anyway. These are New Yorkers.

Brad: What about the stock market?

Unknown: Fuck it, they're gonna find a way to take your money. It's just a more convenient way to take your money. Is the world ending? Hell no, it's gonna be fucked up today, it's fucked up tomorrow. What should we do? We should pray to God that the people in power stop this bullshit.

Brad: How do my eyeballs look?

Unknown: Your eyeballs look crystal clear.

Brad: Any corona getting in there?

Unknown: You better get out of Manhattan, man, it's spreading like hell.

Tommy: Thank you, sir. Thank you. And so that was after— so you'd actually left and come back at that point, was it?

Brad: Yeah, yeah, so I had to come back and get some supplies. So that was, you know, March 18th. I did a run. It was like I felt like I was in Walking Dead when, you know, you had to do the supply run. Um, so I turned up to my apartment, grabbed everything, as much stuff as I could, and, um, packed up the minivan. Um, and before I did that, I went for a walk around, you know, those train stations in Times Square, and that's where I ran into Brian. And, um, yeah, um, good guy. Yeah, good guy. Had some great lines there. He called me Skippy, didn't he?

Josh: I wonder where did Brian live, do you know? Did he live on Manly Island?

Brad: Yeah, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, it's a— I hope he's all right now, Brian. I just, yeah, I would, you know, I just hope he's all right, the poor guy. He was ready to fight, fight corona.

Josh: The thing of like being in New York, you— all the people there during the weekdays or weekends, like there's so many blow-ins or so many people from off the island I mean, I was one of the blow-ins, one of the tourists. But I mean, where are all these people? Like, where are all the homeless?

Brad: Are they still on the streets? Yeah, I know. No, that's, that's the thing. On that day, on March 8th, the Wednesday, it was after St. Patrick's Day, and I walked around Times Square and they were— it was, it was fascinating. In the areas that we could— with seats, they're all, you know, around Herald Square, which is near Macy's. Everyone would know, just down from Empire State Building on 34th. Street and you can walk up Broadway. And I did that walk and there were homeless everywhere, just seated. And it was a beautiful day, uh, it was a warm day too, and they were all seated. Everyone was happy, everyone was fine. And the people that were hanging out with them were delivery guys, which was an interesting thing to watch. So you had the people who were making a lot of money doing deliveries and you had, uh, the homeless and Then you get to Times Square, and in Times Square there was one of those, you know, a person painted as Statue of Liberty, one of those ones that just— one of those you pay them a dollar and you take a photo with them. And there was a person dressed as the Incredible Hulk as well, those annoying ones, you know, the annoying ones. So I commended their work ethic in Times Square where there were no tourists and no one. It was a ghost town.

Tommy: Brad, are you worried about job security?

Brad: Uh, yeah, on all levels. Yeah. And in, from a radio perspective, for sure. I mean, this is, you know, uh, doesn't, you know, they say we, you know, we've been living on the fat for 10 years, as you know, in New York and I don't know where else. But, you know, the stock market's been the whole way pointing up and everything's been pretty good. But, you know, they all said a bubble was about to be burst in all ways. And now I'm in radio and you worry that maybe that could be the end of, you know, you're just a, how would you say, a recalibration of budgets and, um, you know, and, and changes and, you know, and then it just shifts into the next industry, whatever it is, you know, podcasting, streaming, or whatever. Um, but yeah, for sure. Yeah, you always, you worry about that.

Josh: Um, definitely. What fat are you cutting? I remember you telling us that your, uh, your car park was more expensive than your, um, than your actual car lease.

Brad: Yeah, that's right. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's, that's the thing. People are actually going to their landlords and saying, you know, what can you do for me? And landlords have to go, well, you know, I've got my own mortgage to pay. So you've got this amazing domino effect going on, but then if you want to keep that tenant, you probably got to give them some leeway. You know, this is, this is diabolical what we're probably in, you know, which we are in, not probably, you know, we're definitely in. There's this, this massive knock-on effect that we won't know. We're sitting here now and I say like, you know, yeah, you wake up, you think about yourself. All right, what am I going to do today? Where's my ambition? What am I trying to achieve? Whatever. And then you're like, oh my goodness, that's very selfish because this whole world is sort of all under the same umbrella of these knock-on effects. You know, what is it going to be the same in 3 months when this is all, all, you know, I was about to say the word sorted, but maybe we live with corona forever. Yeah, yeah, maybe. I hope not.

Tommy: Yeah, the, the, uh, you mentioned redundancies, you're, you're already seeing them. What are sort of businesses communicating in, in this time? There's that classic thing of like, don't blame Christmas, you'll fatten August. With— there's, there's businesses that weren't doing well just before corona and now this has really just tipped them over.

Brad: Well, that's right. Yeah. And this is, I mean, it's so ruthless when you hear, you know, just following on social media, people getting fired, you know, by phone call, just messages when they're logging into their work. You're now fired. But this is the time where they've sped up. Maybe people were going to get cut in certain industries. In June, July, and it was all mapped out, but it's just been sped up. So it's, yeah, exactly what you said. You know, businesses were wilting anyway just from the changing of technologies and old school becoming new school and that, um, but, but it's all going to come at once. If it hasn't started already, it will keep going.

Josh: Your bread and butter is, you know, red carpets, right out on the street, roving reporting. What's, what's the vibe in Entertainment Land, Hollywood. Yeah, that stuff, you know, what's going on?

Brad: Yeah, I mean, stuffed. Like, like, how will another red carpet happen, Tommy? I don't know. Like, and it's so funny because I'm sitting here analyzing, going, look, I'm going to be all right, I'm going to survive, it will be good, and yeah, I'll be able to eat and have a few beers and everything will be good. But I've said that, you know, and this, it's so— what's— is it the word trite? I'm looking for what I'm about to say is, but We all love what we do and you guys love what you do. And when you can't get to do what you love, you've got to pivot. And I know that's on the higher than now scenario when people are, you know, completely lost their jobs and, you know, financially bamboozled. But like going out and having a chat to someone in an intimate chat with a microphone, though, how will that return? Will it return? Yeah. Will, you know, someone like Gal Gadot want my big sweaty forehead in front of her as I'm trying to interview her? Yeah, like, I don't know. And it's still there. I've still got some hair under there. Yeah, it's always good.

Josh: What about, um, Brad, the movies that have been pushed back? Like, what's some sort of insight, like the stuff that you're consu— you know, you're needing to do for work and talk about this sort of entertainment stuff? What are some stuff that us gronks could, uh, could learn about the future of movies being released in the entertainment industry.

Brad: Well, yeah, uh, yeah, well, I think it's— this could be the— again, this could be the, the beginning of cinematic movies being released, uh, a few days after the cinema release. This— I'm sure they could do the stats on the Pixar movie Onward that was in the cinema for maybe a week, uh, and then they released it, and I bet you the numbers were really good when they released it and charged $20 to be shown in, in your house. Uh, you had Invisible Man, who was— which was the number one movie in America for two, two weeks in a row. This hits and they release it straight away. I bet you the numbers were big. I think it'll change how movies are released, um, more quickly. They'll have data— I mean, they're gonna have— the data will be skewed because there's more people at home watching. But yeah, it won't take much for them to go, oh, we're on to something here. Um, Yeah, obviously Netflix have already— or the new masters of maybe rolling something like The Irishman out for 7 days in the cinema just to get the Oscar qualification, and they put it straight on Netflix. But maybe every major studio will pick and choose. Maybe if a genre movie like Invisible Man is the type of movie you can keep in the cinema for 10 days and then put direct to, um, direct to households.

Josh: Fast and the Furious— sorry, Fast and the Furious is pushed to next year. Uh, James Bond has been postponed. Like, this, this is going to— like, Josh and I were talking about, like, um, the bigger businesses. Was it Disney, Josh? The, the ones that were like, you'd think are sound, the brands that you'd think will make it through this, but then they're completely rooted.

Tommy: Yeah, well, you look at the, um, uh, I guess especially like accommodation and all the theme parks and They were crying poor within like a couple of weeks of this happening. Donald Trump has obviously been having a lot of conversations. He's streaming a lot. He's talking about his ratings. He's saying he's getting the highest ratings. But he's also giving a lot of cash by the looks of things, like over $6 trillion of, you know, stimulus. What is the vibe on the ground in regards to the government?

Brad: Yeah, how I found from people, friends and people out there that I've chatted to on Zoom and calling up, I got one friend who says, I hate Donald Trump, but I want to get back to work. Now he's a friend of mine who is a business owner. So he wants his business to keep going because he's worried about his self You know, and then you got other people who don't own their own business and just don't like Donald Trump. So it's this— it's— well, so I've given you two examples of people that don't like Donald Trump, but one guy agrees, agrees with the fact that Donald said Easter Sunday, which— and I think, I think on Twitter the hashtag was Easter Sunday Massacre, was the, the line that if everyone went back to work Easter Sunday after church— yeah, very Godfather 4 or something. Anyway, you know, so, you know, but when he said that day of Easter Sunday, but if you continually— all right, we all know what Donald Trump is. He's going to say things about ratings and it's very distasteful, but he said distasteful things many, many times in the past. So it's nothing new, but it's just heightened by the fact that people's anxiety levels are so huge now. And if you don't like Donald Trump anyway and you see him banging on about comparing his press conferences to The Bachelor. I mean, that was comedy gold. He would say, he would say, huge, huge, huge, huge. Which is funny because Donald Trump actually got about 14 million viewers back in the days when we all did watch live-to-air television, you know, prime time television. He was getting 14 million viewers on The Apprentice. He had a, he had a hit show. But now he's averaging 8.5 million on his press conferences, and he's very proud of that. So we understand all that, but I think the politics has come into people that are saying, when do we return to work? The big debate was, will the poor economy hurt more people than the coronavirus? But I'm more of like, you can only operate in what you know, the data of the coronavirus. A death of a 100-year-old person is terrible. Yeah, we're not as ruthless. We care for everyone. But there we are. That's the political divide more than what Donald Trump is, you know, obviously saying stupid things.

Josh: There's a bunch of people kind of looking at silver linings of something like this, and one of them being the slowing down of society, just that that fast pace that we've all had. And I definitely feel it, you know, when you go out, it's much quieter. It's shifting perspective of what the future for jobs and, you know, what your priorities are. For you, what has— has there been any new thoughts, like just brand new?

Brad: Oh yeah, yes, yeah, yes, for sure. Like, it's like, I, I, you know, I said it before, your ambition, you know, we all get up and we want to move ahead. You're in this media game and you want to keep moving forward and you want to create the next moment. You want to interview the next person and make it great and then get it on radio or get it on whatever you're in television or get it on your show and, and, and make it better. And, and then you sit there and you map, you map what your ambition was a month ago and you're like, hold on, that mapping doesn't work now. It doesn't. I mean, it's still in you because you still want to do a good job and you're passionate about I'm passionate about what I do, but it's a different mapping now. And you've got to— it's taking me a couple of weeks to under— while I'm homeschooling the kids and, you know, trying to hold the hands of my missus and go for a walk. And, you know, we're in this stage now where what I wanted to achieve and what I was setting out to do a month ago is a lot different to today.

Tommy: Yeah. Talking about that business as usual for this guy, This is the— is it the Naked Cowboy? Is that his name? Yeah, that's right.

Brad: Yeah. So through my walk through Times Square, again, social distancing. Don't worry, I went in for a supply run, everyone. I did get a bit of flak that I was in Times Square on March 18th. You know, the town had started to be shutting down. I did a walk. I was very careful, but I saw the Naked Cowboy and apparently If you can somehow find a Times Square webcam, he is still walking in Times Square. Um, that's the rumour on the street. Can't believe it. Can't believe it. He's here. Why is he out here? Why? The Naked Cowboy never rests. He got to be 65 by now, don't he?

Tommy: Yeah, I mean, that's pretty, pretty outrageous.

Josh: That bloke's got some anti-aging anti-aging shit going on for sure.

Brad: He had— do you agree with me? He's got to be 65. He has to be some sort of crazy age, you know, madness. Yeah, I saw it. I saw it last time. Where'd you see him? You saw him when he came over?

Josh: Yeah, and in 2012.

Tommy: I mean, he's just as good.

Brad: Yeah, I remember I saw— the last time I actually saw him was— I'll tell you when it was. It was the beginning of 2008. It was Fashion Week in New York City, and it was I, uh, who was Jennifer Hawkins with? Was she with David Jones or Maya? One of those two, uh, you know, Miss Universe.

Josh: Maya, Maya.

Brad: So Maya had flown her, that Maya had a little cocktail party and I went along to this cocktail party and it was in honour of Jennifer Hawkins being in New York for Fashion Week. And the Naked Cowboy was one of the props they hired just to stand. I'm telling you, there would have been 40 people at this party and the Naked Cowboy just stood in the corner playing all night. And I, so I went up that— and I'd been interviewing him since about 2001, but I was just like, well, what a cool moment for him. But that was, yeah, early '08 at the height of— well, even before Jennifer Hawke, she won the title and she was on her ascent to be, uh, you know, to be this superstar that we, that we know.

Tommy: It, um, it seems like a good time to do some streaming Have you watched Tiger King yet?

Brad: Yeah, so I'm one episode into that. Loved it. Unfortunately, my 10-year-old son watched a bit of it, so he had a lot of questions afterwards. And I like— anyway, he won't be watching the next 5 episodes. Episode 2, Brad, it's just—

Josh: it even goes so deep. And what are you up to, JJ?

Tommy: All right, I'm up to— we've got a— we thought it was a final episode. Last night that we're watching, but we're 6. We've got one more, episode 7.

Josh: Oh, that's like when you find an extra bit of choccy.

Brad: Geez, that's great. But you guys are like, you guys love your media. You know what's going, you know what's hot at the right time. This, uh, you know, true crime series couldn't have come at a perfect time for the world. Like, the Netflix executives' heads must be spinning with what this show is sort of, the fanfare it's captured.

Tommy: Well, I think also it doesn't feel too true crimey. Like, I feel like I'm not a huge fan of true crime, but this, it's really an observation of just characters, isn't it? Yeah.

Brad: And do you feel, do you look at his tech setup and you're like, this guy was ahead of his time?

Tommy: Like, his tech guru is like, he's so tech-savvy. I was working out how I was switching everything. Oh man, I was so triggered. I don't actually— I don't want to spoil too much, but there was a potential— there was a scene where footage was lost, and when footage is lost, it makes my skin crawl. It's like, right, it's not ideal. Yeah.

Josh: Hey, I want to throw the floor to Seb. Sorry, Seb came to LA, his first American experience, last November. He got a cheeky one in before this has gone down, which we probably won't be able to get back over to see you in the flesh in New York probably for quite some time. Seb, is there any questions that sort of you go to based on what you experienced in America and how you think they're handling it now? Uh, that is also my cue to go up and just put another movie on for my son because he's yelling, so I'll be back.

Brad: Tiger King.

Unknown: No, I guess the— I guess from like what, what we've heard over here is The, uh, the New York governor, I can't remember his name, how much of an impact is he having on the stuff that's being implemented in New York? Because I think we've had a bunch of stuff from Daniel Andrews, our premier, sort of like having more stringent lockdown laws and all that sort of stuff compared to the federal stuff that's going on.

Brad: Yeah, no, uh, incredible. Andrew, uh, Cuomo, Andrew Cuomo, Governor Cuomo. He's been incredible. How he's presented himself with his live press conference has been like this great point of difference to Trump's press conference. He's been matter of fact. He hasn't had people standing behind him. Trump's come out and visually Trump looks like it's, you know, something from 50 years ago where you walk out, a dictator walks out with their people behind them. Just from a visual point of view.

Tommy: And definitely not respecting the 6 feet rule as well.

Brad: Yeah, that's right. Yeah, isn't that crazy, isn't it? And, um, but Cuomo sits up there and he's very matter of fact. He states the points. I mean, the big one that was quite striking was, uh, yeah, it was Saturday. Saturday was when Trump came out and said, I'm gonna put New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut on a quarantine. Trump, he loves to say things flippantly, and he came out and said that. The idea is not crazy. It's not a crazy idea, but legally, a president can't come out and put a ruling on states. It's a legal thing and how the country was set up 220-odd, 230-odd, 240-odd years ago. Cuomo goes, "This is the first I've heard of this. He cannot do that." I think Cuomo even got a little bit too dramatic and said, well, that's an act of war. War. Um, but other than that, Cuomo's done an amazing job, uh, in his daily press conferences. He's become quite a sex symbol too. Um, women have commented, um, that they find his, his power attractive. Uh, and from a long shot point of view, they've talked about, you know, maybe come the convention, the Democratic convention, you know, to who will be the Democratic the leader, the person to go up against Donald Trump in the election, US election, that maybe they could do a backdoor roll and tip him into the nomination, which would be very far-fetched. But if you watch House of Cards and you want to understand the American machinations of how you get nominated to be president, people are clinging a little bit to that hope in the fact that Joe Biden, the the man that will probably surely win the nomination at this stage, um, is not up to it as a 79-year-old, uh, guy that screws his words up here and there.

Josh: Is a nomination meaning he'll take the presidency?

Brad: Uh, no, nomination to go up in the federal election where it's, uh, the Democrats versus Donald Trump's Republicans. And so what is the take about? Uh, well, at this stage, well, Donald's on his— he'll be representing the Republicans And it's up who he's going to be against. Biden's leading Bernie Sanders, so Biden will probably win the nomination. But it's that whole, you know, Cuomo's done such a great job sort of from an optics point of view. He looks great. He's talked sense. He's got the biggest state, you know, or second biggest state behind California, but he's got the epicenter, which they say, of the virus, and he's handling it well. He's begging the federal government to give them beds and ventilators. So he's putting his best foot forward. But, you know, it's the whole, as I say again, house of cards. Can you tip this guy into the Democratic nomination?

Tommy: What's the day-to-day looking like for you now, Brad?

Brad: Yeah, I get up, I do radio in the morning, and then from about 9 AM till noon, I sit with my kids and make sure they're doing their reading, writing, and mathematics, and just staying on board. My wife's working from home, so she's busy typing emails and on the phone and working very hard. Sounds so interesting, you describing her work, just typing emails. Yes, yes, I'm going to get my ass kicked for that. But she then at lunchtime We have a family lunch, which is obviously a rare thing to do on a weekday. And we have a chat, and then we go back to all our jobs in the afternoon. Try to get the kids to do a bit of fitness. Everyone's booming in like taekwondo classes and now on Zoom and all this. So do a bit of fitness. I'll go for a run, try to keep the pounds off because I'm drinking a lot in lockdown. So that's the thing. Is anyone else having a beer during this lockdown?

Josh: Yeah, yesterday Josh was on, Josh was on at 4 PM, and then I got on it. It's, uh, it's all happening, Brad. For you, mate, what is, um, what is, what is the— I mean, you don't know what the future looks like, but in times that get tough, you kind of can have that moment where you're looking to another careers or looking where you could sort of, yeah, move to. What is, what is Brad Blanks end up doing?

Unknown: I mean, you'd be a great cop, I reckon.

Brad: Yeah, a dancer. I'd be a good dancer, you know, one of those big slow dancers, you know. Um, I'm never a good dancer, but in the corner for beer. Um, no, that's a good question. What, what do we start looking at, you know? Um, I'll tell you what, I've watched a bloody lot of the stock market in the last 2 weeks, and, um, and, and the commentators on these shows, geez, they bullshit, don't they? So maybe I could get a job, you know. Oh, it's going up, it's going up, it's going, it's going down, it's going down, it's going down. It's going up, it's going up, it's going up. Yeah, maybe that could be, um, yeah, those are, yeah, stock pundits. There you go, Tommy. I want to buy shares in the Daily Talk Show. Those guys are awesome.

Tommy: Yeah, uh, 97, um, we are live streaming on YouTube. Have we got any, uh, people asking questions or comments? Yeah, Glenn's saying Kumo for president.

Unknown: He's the only adult in the room right now. Uh, Emily Bev says, I second that, Glenn. Uh, and then Glenn says, the network's over here covering Kumo. As much as they are covering Trump, which is great because it probably infuriates him.

Josh: Oh, mate, if you want some entertainment, watch— is it Cuomo? Cuomo? Cuomo. Cuomo. Cuomo. Yep. Watch Cuomo and his brother have it out. Just, there's like montages.

Tommy: It's so fucking funny because his brother is an anchor for CNN.

Brad: That's right, Chris Cuomo. And, uh, and they have a great— it's a great brotherly relationship. They've got a lot of years between them, but Chris has this— Chris has always had this real sense of arrogance. You're the younger brother, and, um, and Andrew's obviously very authoritarian, very powerful, but the arrogance and the power collide in this clip. And, uh, a lot of their clips together, so yeah, they are— it is very good. It's very good stuff to see, even. And it's good that they can have a laugh in the middle of all this, uh, tragedy and madness going on around them.

Josh: The best one is when, um, when he says, you know, thanks for joining me. This is to the, uh, the governor, and he says, uh, well, mom told me I had to.

Brad: Yeah, yeah, it's fantastic. And, and, and you're right, this softening of, uh, you know, Governor Cuomo would be eating at Trump, even though Trump's, Trump's been quite good to him. Trump's coming out and saying, I love New York, uh, Governor Cuomo and I have had a good relationship, we're talking very deeply to each other. So it's, it's Trump hasn't dropped the knife on him yet, or, you know, the guillotine on him yet. And I'm sure he's getting told, don't praise this guy Cuomo too much because, you know, this could potentially be the guy that, you know, at 20 to 1, the guy you may run against.

Tommy: Yeah, we saw in California with lockdowns, the places people were going to were gun stores. Does that actually worry you, the amount of people who own guns if shit gets really bad?

Brad: Yes, for sure. Like, they went for guns, I went for baked beans. And I tell you what, guns are a lot easier to get than baked beans.

Josh: Yeah, both are popping off though, mate.

Brad: Yeah, very good. I'll tell you what, yeast, yeast is very tough to get as well. I like to bake my own bread, made some hot cross buns last night, and, uh, yeast is very difficult too.

Tommy: So can you not make zombies? How does yeast work?

Brad: How does it— you gotta get the bread to rise. You gotta get it to rise. You got to get the action happening.

Tommy: Can you grow it? Is it like culture? Like, what's— where do you—

Brad: where does yeast come from? That's a bloody good question. I don't know. Jeez, I was sounding smart then until you dropped the turd on my story. 97 will tell us.

Tommy: Sevs, where does yeast come from?

Josh: Um, hang on, I'm just looking it up. It's like— it's a powder, right? Not—

Brad: don't look up yeast infection, just yeast. Very different. Very different.

Josh: Um, Brad, there's like a few little cute things that are going on, like put your teddy out. I just got sent one that was like follow the rainbow. Kids are drawing rainbows, um, on their pavement. Anything in New York? Because it is so kind of close proximity, even where you are, Long Island, there's a lot of population there. Is any cute things you're seeing?

Brad: Well, the big one, I mean, uh, New York's just started— they copied, uh, London from last week when they did the big signal for carers that went out at 8 PM. I think it was on Thursday night and everyone in all of England put their heads out the window and tooted their horns or banged on pots and pans. And so New York City has been doing that every night at 7 PM. So 7 PM has been— everyone's gone out their window and banged their pots and pans for their first responders, doctors, and nurses. So that's quite a nice movement. But look, I love looking at the whole birthdays. When someone has a birthday, the street opens up for them, and they obviously keep their distance, but they celebrate kids' birthdays in these suburban streets, which has been something that's very heartwarming. Yeah, and as you said before, the silver lining, you know, the human spirit always wins, and There's some wonderful storeys just coming out of this and moments where we're getting to dig in with our family and have chats and have dinners and lunches and not be as busy.

Tommy: So, they're my silver linings. Yeah, it seems like families are having to find a new normal. When you're speaking to your friends and stuff like that, what's the common friction point for people?

Brad: Oh well, you know, the people I've been talking to, you know, it's again, it gets back to politics and is it, you know, when to get back to work. Is it— it just gets back to that whole economics versus science, you know. Is— does the flatten the curve work? And yeah, that's the divide I'm, I'm seeing at the moment. That, that's the friction point. Yeah, our government's going too far or they're not going far enough, or And we can only trust the scientists on this one is how I feel. But, you know, and I understand from an economic point of view it's devastating. But I mean, I don't know why, you know, I'm not a very political person, but, you know, I understand the flattening of the curve.

Tommy: Yeah. It feels like in partnerships, normally one person in the relationship is more sort of washing their hands and the other one's a bit looser. Are you finding that within your relationship? Yeah, it's good.

Brad: We're not allowed to pick up deliveries. My wife scolds me because I want to bring them in. She said, no, we're going to leave them outside for 24 hours. So does that include Uber Eats? What happens if— Uber Eats? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We haven't done the delivery food yet. We've been good. We've been cooking. But going to the supermarket, I go in there like it's a— like I'm a ninja. I'm like a 6-foot-5, 110-kilogram ninja in a supermarket. I'm moving quick, I've got it all planned, um, but I come home and then I've got to clean every bag. And so, well, look, we're, you know, it's one of those things where I've had friends who are mocking how far we go, and then you got others who go further than us. So it's this Everyone is relating to this differently, and over the last 3 weeks, people have got in tune with it differently too. And it's affected— I'm talking about friends and family members around the world. It's a— everyone looks at— everyone has their own different way of how they handle this.

Josh: Josh, your book club book was Tiny Habits. I mean, it was all about connecting a habit to one that you've already got. One way to form new habits is a pandemic. Because everyone's just sort of instantly gone and formed. It's almost just calls bullshit on how, uh, how little we commit to new habits. And so there is this—

Brad: yeah, you're right, that's brilliant.

Josh: Breaking habits is hard. So, uh, what I think is going back, so in 6 months' time, just jumping back into normal life is going to be this all-out brawl of breaking old, breaking new habits.

Brad: And you said that before with, will it change, you know, how people are, you know, reconnecting with people. I think the ferocity of how we return to a normal existence will be, what, wild. Like, I mean, geez, single people, Mr. 97, your Tinder is gonna blow up. Like, wild.

Tommy: He's even been— he's been having so many messages. We have a catfish incident at the moment, which we're going to bring on this afternoon's show. We've got some developments there which are fine. Yeah, yeah, it's actually very full-on. You won't believe it.

Brad: It's, it's usually, it's usually a 125-kilogram male who just wears, um, a G-string around his house by himself. So Mr. 97, he might speak very beautifully, but be careful.

Josh: Hey Brad, um, Do you have any insight on this, you know, that, uh, the big dark man whose penis is out and being exposed to everyone? Do you know, do you have any, do you have any insight on what, what that is and what that's all about?

Brad: Uh, yeah, um, so he's the If You Know, You Know guy. That's his title. Um, and, and yeah, I, yeah, he really was the king of the internet before Tiger King came on, right? Like, he really dominated Um, to the extent I have to explain— yeah, yeah, yeah, Python King. So I, I did a bit of a deep dive on him. Um, did you? And unfortunately, yeah, unfortunately, did he do a deep dive on you? Yeah, he did. Oh, what a— what a— what— wow, wouldn't that be a night of passion, wouldn't it? Like, you know, you wouldn't want to run into that one. Um, my goodness. He, um, I tell you what, apparently it's Photoshopped, it's not real. And, and, oh, I feel very upset there, Tommy. So unfortunately, sadly, sadly, he passed away in 2016. So he's died. Yeah, he died.

Josh: I'll be honest, other than loss of blood to his brain, what did he die of?

Brad: I set you up beautifully then. Beautiful. Um, he— yes, he passed. We don't know for sure what happened to him. The photo was apparently taken in 2009. I love that I've become an expert on the 'if you know, you know' guy. I mean, I want to say so much more about this. Um, but yeah, he passed away. He was a porn actor. Um, he did a lot of things, and if you actually delve deep into his video content it'll live with you forever. Um, so I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't do that if I was you. Yeah, it's a pandemic. It's like looking into the sun. It's like the Day of the Triffids, remember that old show? Jesus. Yeah. Um, sorry, but it's sad that this man, uh, is passed and he's become one of the most famous men in the world. Um, and I love the latest meme, him actually wearing overalls. I found that Yeah, the tasteful meme of him is delightful, actually.

Tommy: You've got a lot of Lego behind you. Yes. How much time are you spending doing the Lego? And have you worked out a way of getting Lego Masters in the US?

Brad: I haven't seen Hamish's Lego Masters yet. I keep telling him, please send me the link. I need the pirated copy on it. We make a lot of Lego here in this house. Um, you know, I've got the roller coaster behind me, which is actually— we had a— some 3-year-old kid came over there and devastated it on me. So that's going to take me a bloody week project, uh, to put back together. I've got the Death Star sitting next to me here. Um, but I've been watching the whole— the kids love Will Arnett's LEGO Masters on Fox, the American version. Um, but I keep telling Hamish, I'm like, I— because Hamish's was the first show to be made around the world, you know. They all in England, obviously they took it from England, a smaller version of the show, and they did the MasterChef sort of concept, bring it to Australia, turn it into a bigger version, which they did very successfully. But, and then they sell it around the world, they sell the format around the world, and they obviously base it off the Australian version. Now when you watch Will Arnett, who I think is top 5, one of the quickest, you know, comic banter chat guys in the world, he's wonderful. You know, up there with Gervais and how quick his mind is. But when you're watching doing this, I can hear Hamish's lines. I think they've taken— this is my theory— they've taken the Aussie version and they've transcribed Hamish's lines, and then they've gone out and fed them to Will Arnett. So you'll see Will Arnett doing Hamish Blake stuff, and you're like, hold on, that's not really Will, you know. And but that's how America works. Everything's very written, where I know Hamish is not— doesn't take writing very well and is just riffing on things.

Josh: And I mean, we appreciate you, we appreciate you sending through the script for what you're going to say for this whole episode.

Brad: Very helpful. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you did— but Tommy, I've got to give you, you did come up with the, the big black guy off the long schlong. I did look flustered. I did get flustered.

Josh: Yeah, but mate, you had a lot of info on it, so it was obvious.

Brad: I knew a little bit. Yes, I'm very passionate about that subject.

Tommy: Brad, mate, thanks for coming on the show. It'd be great to get you on every few weeks during this time because I feel like you've got an interesting perspective.

Brad: Well, thank you, Josh, and thanks, Tommy. I love you guys. And Mr. 97, I followed your career. I'm very proud of you. Well done. You are going to roar back when society gets back to normal. It's going to be an unbelievable life for you. So well done. You got two great mentors there looking after you. So well done, mate. Thanks, Brad.

Josh: And the third, the big guy, if you know, you know, that's Mason.

Brad: Oh, that's right. Guru. Yes, the guru. The guru. Wow. It's the Daily Talk Show.

Tommy: If you've enjoyed the show,. You can subscribe on all podcast apps. Also, we livestream every episode. We're doing it twice a day, Monday to Friday, and then just our regular weekend banter shows. And so, you can go to youtube.com/thedailytalkshow to watch us live. Otherwise, see you tomorrow, guys. See you, guys. Actually, won't see you tomorrow. I'll see you in a few hours. Oh, yeah.

Josh: Yeah. See you in a couple of hours.