The Sports Equipment Guy

Tommy: The Daily Talk Show.

Josh: It's The Daily Talk Show, episode 870.

Tommy: Happy Fat Friday, Gronks. What's happening? What's going on?

Josh: Uh, so you have a croissant. What do you got? A bagel. Uh, it's a— I think it's a jalapeño and, uh, cheese, uh, bagel.

Tommy: I mean, that's lit your day up.

Josh: It has, because I've been eating, like, I've been really good on just, yeah, just a lot of black beans and eggs and just trying to feel better. And so this is nice just on a Friday, like, let's not make this the whole Friday. Like, it doesn't mean I need to have a cake after this.

Tommy: Are you my internal dialogue? Because I was thinking that this morning. I was like, please, like, TJ, it doesn't have to be the whole day. You don't have to start and not stop. But no, it is good, mate. It's a new month.

Josh: Today's October 2nd.

Tommy: 2020. Beautiful day here in Melbourne. There's the smell of grass in the air at my place, not marijuana. Um, October 2, trimming.

Josh: Was that 2— was it 2 years ago that we're in New York?

Tommy: Oh wow, hang on. Um, how could I find out? I could go to my Google Photos.

Josh: I could even go on— could I ask Siri? Like, um, let's try.

Tommy: I know. Hey Siri, here we go.

Josh: Show me photos from 2 years ago today. Oh, here we go.

Tommy: Hang on, 2 years ago.

Josh: No, no result.

Tommy: 2 years ago today I had— I know that's 28th of September.

Josh: This is fucking boring, isn't it? No, but we were, we were—

Tommy: oh no, no, no, hang on, September, October.

Josh: I was in Singapore.

Tommy: Was I? Oh no, 2 years, 2 years, 2 years ago. Yep, yep. Hang on, second—

Josh: just give us a moment, guys. Enjoy your whatever you're having for Fat Fridays.

Tommy: October.

Josh: This bagel's great.

Tommy: To October, um, no, lost it. Nah, see, I don't know what's going on with my phone. It would have been great. That's when we'll— oh, October 8th we were in LA. October 3rd we're in New York. Yeah, Tuesday, 2nd of October 2018, you and I, we did an episode walking along the, the High Line. That's right, in New York City. Uh, we went to the Standard, we had a cocktail on the rooftop looking over the top. Yeah, looking over the Hudson River. We went on a boat with you, Bree, and I on— in, um, Central Park.

Josh: Oh yeah, and it was a rowboat.

Tommy: Yeah, very good, very good. How's those memories for you, huh?

Josh: It was good. It's really pepped me up.

Tommy: What's the state of the day? Well, my dad's over. He's mowing the grass. It's his job. He's got an excuse to be able to drive all the way here. Is your dad Jim? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The less anti-mask version. You know, Jim was like, "No, don't close us down." Anyway.

Josh: A little bit different from an anti-masker to someone who's just like, "Don't ruin my business." But you go on.

Tommy: He really pushed back.

Josh: He went hard. He went hard.

Tommy: He basically said, sorry, mate.

Josh: I think he sued the government, didn't he?

Tommy: Yeah. Sorry, mate. We're not closing. I mean, it takes some heroes. Not everyone would have taken that chance. They just use mowers.

Josh: But don't you think, like, if you think about it, you would think that the mowing of lawns would be okay. But is this the problem? Once you start opening all this stuff up, it's like, well, hang on. I could do this responsibly.

Tommy: If you think I'm an idiot for saying that Jim Shouldn't have said what he said. Like, seriously, being outdoors and mowing, come on, man. Like a gardener, like just you're out in the fresh air. It should have been allowed. Anyway, but it's back open. My lawns are being mowed. My dad offered, which was lovely. So—

Josh: The backyard? Big backyard?

Tommy: Backyard, front yard, ready for a big weekend. And that's been going on, but a bit tired, a little bit tired. Um, thanks to the Jonas Brothers.

Josh: What are the Jonas Brothers? Why are the Jonas Brothers—

Tommy: Do you know the Jonas Brothers?

Josh: I do know the Jonas Brothers. Yeah, yeah. Well, I think one of them— Did one of them date Miley Cyrus?

Tommy: He— One of them was in love with Miley, I think.

Josh: Uh, Demi Lovato? Levine? Lovato?

Tommy: Not sure.

Josh: They're all married now. Who's the one who, uh, had a drug problem?

Tommy: Demi Lovato.

Josh: Yeah, yeah. She had a, um, Yeah, she had a documentary. I think he might have been in that.

Tommy: Oh yeah, well, I mean, they're movers and shakers from, from the Americas, and, um, and they've got a documentary on Amazon Prime, which is kind of cool. And so I, you know, it's one of those traps you, you start watching and then all of a sudden it's 11:50 and you're like, I'm a fucking idiot.

Josh: And what did you learn about in the documentary? I feel like I've got bagel in my teeth. Can I do some sort of Finger thing?

Tommy: You know what I do. I do, um, what did I learn about them? It's, it's an interesting case because they're, they were child stars essentially, but they came from a quite a good upbringing. Father was a super religious—

Josh: was he a pastor?

Tommy: Yeah, he was a pastor, um, and, and he lived, they lived next door to their church, and so these kids grew up just singing in church, you know, being at the front. It looked fun. There was a real community. And then these kids sort of like the— Nick the youngest, who is like the leader of the troop even though he's the youngest. How much would that suck? Your brother— imagine James think like looking down at you, Josh, and you're actually the fucking one leading the vision of it.

Josh: Yeah, I'd love that.

Tommy: I know you would, but James wouldn't.

Josh: Yeah, sure, James would hate it. That's why we never started a band.

Tommy: Anyway, they ended up, um, getting kicked out of the church because they signed with a, uh, with a record.

Josh: So that was quite a conservative— it was a pretty conservative, uh, church then, I'm guessing.

Tommy: Uh, yeah, I mean, most— if you're in church and you're up top, I mean, conservative or not, just a, um, you know, the foundations of being a leader of a church, like signing with a non-secular record label because music's so like embedded in Christianity and religion. It's like he's—

Josh: well, think about like Guy Sebastian, like what's like—

Tommy: yeah, well, I mean, he was singing in church, but if you look at Hillsong, they have their own label. Like there's people that are churning out music like heaps and they become super popular through the church's label, and so they, they want something different, but Anyway, it's just interesting. They fucking work their asses off. Like, you see them touring when they're young and just doing small pub gigs. It's like everyone fucking does start there. And one of the lines is like, these people think we're like, um, you know, just like carbon copy mop head, um, you know, manufactured in some sort of label. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Manufacturing the Disney factory. South Park did a funny skit on them.

Josh: Oh, that's funny.

Tommy: It was hilarious. And so anyway, that it— in Australia, I feel like they are well known, but they've been more well known in the States. And you just see how the stardom that they had— it was hard work.

Josh: It's good.

Tommy: It's, it's an interesting doco. I don't know, you might like it. It's well made, really well made.

Josh: And then remember one of the first times that you and I travelled together, what we were doing?

Tommy: Um, Internationally or?

Josh: No, no.

Tommy: Did we go to, um, Five Sauce? Oh, that's right, we flew up to Sydney. Yeah.

Josh: And so Vegemite had a, um, brought out Five Sauce and, uh, yeah, we filmed that whole thing. That was a, like, just, it's very funny. Is that a lot of screaming going on?

Tommy: Oh yeah, I mean, you see girls get a, get a sort of, you know, there must be some sort of subculture of sort of a WhatsApp group going on. Where are they? And then next minute there's fucking thousands of girls screaming right next to them. And so yeah, we film them. It's, it is weird. I mean, that's, that's this obscure world that's—

Josh: yeah, well, I even— it's that they live in the US now. It's interesting just seeing the, uh, uh, yeah, the different personalities. Like, I was watching, um, Green Day. Like, Green Day still, like, they perform. They were on Howard Stern last year, and it's just very interesting seeing guys in the '90s who were playing the song that they made in the '90s, and they're like sort of wearing very sort of similar— like, they've still got to have that same vibe.

Tommy: Oh yeah, well, one of the things in the, in the documentary, The Jonas Brothers, was, um, imagine— so you've got— you're the Kardashians of Australia. James, Jake, Josh.

Josh: Yep.

Tommy: Uh, you're the Jansen brothers.

Josh: You have the Jansen brothers. Yeah.

Tommy: Imagine like, as you've sort of gone on, Josh, you went off to do your own thing and you had some success in it, but then you sort of were still doing your thing with your brothers, but then it got to a point where you didn't really want to do it anymore. So Josh, you have the conversation I could imagine this is actually how you would come in and say, guys, not— I know you guys are feeling too, but I'm not feeling it, so we're cutting it. Like, you're the decision maker.

Josh: You could go do sort of a Queen with, um—

Tommy: No, I think you would be the one to lead the decision because you— which is fine.

Josh: But then imagine this, this is all a made-up world, so of course it's fine.

Tommy: Feel it, feel it, feel it. I'm feeling fun to feel.

Josh: I don't need to feel it.

Tommy: So there's a concert that has to happen, and they, um, and Josh and Jake decide to do the concert without James.

Josh: And they do it. This sounds like Screenplay Sunday with you, doesn't it?

Tommy: And so they did a— the Jonas Brothers did this concert where they were singing all of their songs as the Jonas Brothers minus Fucking Kevin.

Josh: You don't know the other?

Tommy: That was his name. His name was Kevin.

Josh: And so what's Kevin feeling? What's Kevin doing? Was he in the— did he, did he know what was going on?

Tommy: They have this scene. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They didn't speak for months, but they had this, have this scene in the documentary where they, uh, around the table in a, you know, in a house in Sydney, and they're playing this sort of drinking card game where they're just being really honest. And then he One of them, it'd be like Jake says to your older brother James, look, we felt like you were holding us back, that's why we did it.

Josh: It's fucking awful. You are describing screenplay. It's very funny. Yeah, I mean, could you ever do anything with your brothers or family? Could you have a family business? Could you have a fish and chip shop? How do you think you'd go?

Tommy: Oh. Look, I reckon it was always up for being on the table of us taking the landscaping business off my father. But, you know, it turned out that—

Josh: Now he's mowing your lawn, so clearly you're not into—

Tommy: He works for me now, just in my business. No, I think the thought of it is great because it's like, think about what you were— Listen, you and I have talked about our relationship being like brothers. Because with your brother, you, you don't get rid of them because they're your brother. And so there's shit that they will do that if they were anyone else, you'd actually absolutely tell them and tell them to get fucked and never speak to them again. And so business relationship almost needs a version of that because they are pretty intense and there's lots going on, lots at stake. But you also need to have the link to them where it's like, I know I fucking hate your guts right this minute but I don't want you to go anywhere, really. You know, like, I love you, so don't leave.

Josh: Because you can have, I think, the strongest feeling of family of like wanting to punch them, don't you think? There's something like you can't— like the smell. Like, I remember being a kid, just like, say, like, like when you're younger and you're all sort of like teenagers, you just— it's almost like, uh, when you see dogs just barking at each other, just like they're not fucking doing anything, it's just like barking because they're, they're near each other. Yeah. I feel like that was where they used to have the biggest punch-ons, like the holes in the wall where like my brother pushed me and my head went through. And we had, um, I remember once he fucking— I mean, it's a bit lame, but I was wearing, um, uh, flannelette pyjamas and he, he ripped off, uh, my pocket, my chest pocket, revealing my breast, like in that, um, uh, what's, what's the, uh J.Lo at the bloody Grammys or something. No, no, what was the, um, what was the, the big one where the Tim Lake star—

Tommy: this—

Josh: she had the, she had the star on her nipple on the, um, wasn't it, um, Janet Jackson and Timberlake?

Tommy: Yeah, I think Janet Jackson and Janet Jackson. Yeah, nip slip.

Josh: Yeah. What— no, what was that? What's the Super Bowl? Was it the Super Bowl? Yeah.

Tommy: So yeah, it was, um, Super Bowl. I can't look at— I don't know the number because they use those fucking Roman numerals. Come on, guys.

Josh: Um, guys, come on, grow up. We're 2020, not— we're not in IVV, XVV, XXX.

Tommy: Yeah, Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake. I mean, that's an assault caught on camera, isn't it?

Josh: Yeah, but surely it was planned, right?

Tommy: Oh, oh no, no, Janet just wears stars on her nipples, like stickers, star stickers.

Josh: Sure, sure. The, um, but there's, there's been a few of those things, like, uh, Britney Spears, she made out with Madonna. Do you remember that? That was a big deal. Oh, that's right.

Tommy: I mean, these are all manufactured, aren't they? Yeah.

Josh: But do you remember like MTV, like these music video awards where everyone's like watching it at the same time? Do we have any of that now? Oh, do you know, the debate was definitely—

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: Everyone was tuning into the debate.

Tommy: Everyone. Funny memes, such funny memes going around. Drinking games for Joe Biden. If he forgets where he is, you have to skull the bottle.

Josh: Well, Joe Biden has his own t-shirt, shut up, man. And it's got a picture of Trump.

Tommy: Shut up, man.

Josh: Yeah, shut up, man.

Tommy: That was like a brotherly debate. Like, think about your brother. You've got no— You've got the most respect, but also the least respect because you're happy to talk over your brother when you're, you know, you're just barking.

Josh: Rarararara.

Tommy: And so, that had vibes of— It turns out they're actually siblings.

Josh: But, yeah, do you know, the thing is, though, if you've ever if you've ever done an actual debate, there's like rules in a debate. So, like, this is like the weird thing about the whole thing is it's just like there was no sense of structure. Like, they just talking over, like there was. So, I wonder if they tried to put more structure on it, actually said like, no, you can't talk, even like turning off the mic until the other person's finished. Yeah, because it becomes this like derailing thing where it's like no one looks good. It's just a— it's, it's a— as CNN called it, a shit show, which is apparently a big deal, calling something a shit show on TV in the US.

Tommy: I saw something like a headline, um, Trump took, uh, the debate to the gutter and Biden with him. So it's like, you know, the dirty fight needs to be played dirty.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: And so, then Biden's pulled into it, which is a tactic, but I think it's just how Trump acts that then, you know, it just goes fucking, turns into a shit show, I guess.

Josh: How do you feel about, so, Mason and Grace got me a baseball glove and a ball. Would you ever get your own baseball glove so we can have our meetings like throwing the baseball?

Tommy: I'd love that.

Josh: Okay, I'd love that.

Tommy: There's a little spot near our office, um, there's a grassy little patch, you know, where we filmed, um, uh, Fixo.

Josh: Fixo. It's not big enough, I don't think. Like, I want a bigger space.

Tommy: Oh my, how far do you want?

Josh: Well, I think— no, no, no, I think you just want like an oval. You don't want to actually— like, if you missed something, you don't want it to go through anyone's window. So I think it should be more sort of open space.

Tommy: True, true. So then we go over to, um, Victoria Park, the old training ground of Collingwood Football Club back in the day.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: Um, but then what we're going to have to do is, because we're going to get skilled and quite a large right arm for our throwing arm, pitching arm, and we'll be quite far back from each other, we're going to need headsets. So we're going to need radio headsets that allow us to communicate from 40 yards, you know what I mean? And so we can have our meetings and throw the— but I like that. I like that. I mean, this month is all about movement. Um, the Step Challenge is underway. I think we'll have a full sort of deep dive on that tomorrow's show with the, the other Gronks, Jess and Mason. A bit of an update there, but I like it. Love it.

Josh: And then, uh, the other thing is just like sports equipment in general. Like, uh, so Jack Post and I had been playing like a football, you know, kicking the football. He had like a, I still don't know what it's called, the ball that they use in NFL.

Tommy: Yeah, gridiron.

Josh: Gridiron. Is it a gridiron ball? Yeah.

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: Using that. I think—

Tommy: You were kicking it?

Josh: No, the gridiron, well, throwing. And I would kick it sometimes, but—

Tommy: Drop punt, like a—

Josh: Yeah, exactly. But I do wonder. I always looked, not looked down, that's the wrong word. I always felt like the people who brought sports equipment to a park weren't my people. Like I just, or at a picnic, it's just like there's something like overly alpha about it where it's like, yeah, I went to Rebel Sport and I got this fucking footy and now I'm in charge, you know.

Tommy: And meanwhile, you're over there with a MacBook Pro and a 60-inch LCD screen.

Josh: No, so I— But I think I could be. I've really changed sort of tune on this. I think I want to be the sports equipment guy. So, just like going to a park, maybe I buy some frisbees as well. Maybe— What's the one that you throw and it makes a noise?

Tommy: Vortex.

Josh: Vortex. Haven't seen a vortex in a long time. Would love to get a vortex. What other— If I want to be the sports equipment guy, At parks, what other things do I need?

Tommy: So, there's one that I— so, it's in the frisbee realm. It's not as insensitive as buying a boomerang. It's like a— it's from Aerobie, I think, and it looks almost like a ninja star.

Josh: Sure.

Tommy: And I think people would be very impressed. Like if someone saw that, they'd be like, obscure purchase, but fuck, pay that and have fun with it. Definitely, definitely, definitely the— This is transferable from park to beach, even though you don't—

Josh: Oh, can I guess?

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: The Velcro ball game.

Tommy: That's fun. But then there's one above that. So, that's kids. Can't remember the name. I used to always get it for Christmas, like Velcro ball.

Josh: You'd always— After a while, the tennis ball would get sort of ripped apart because you're pulling it from the Velcro and you'd have to replace it.

Tommy: And so the, the graduation from that is into, um, what the old Italians use on the Amalfi Coast. I was watching Conor McGregor, the UFC fighter. He, he's living over in off his superyacht or something recently, but he's just got this footage of these old leathery looking— probably healthy, healthy as shit— these old Italian guys. It's a ball and bat, looks like tennis, but it's like a hard bat. And they're just hitting it together and it— oh, that's one. Bocce, get yourself a bocce set for sure. Very fun at a pub.

Josh: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bocce. I like that idea.

Tommy: Cricket, like you get your bat, ball, and stumps. If you rock up with stumps, you're fucking— you're into it.

Josh: Without the bat and ball? I was like, mate, I brought the stumps, who brought the bat and ball? It's, yeah, you need to bring the whole kit. So, you almost— I need a duffle bag, I think. I need a park duffle bag.

Tommy: That would be funny. That would be funny.

Josh: But would it be fun as well?

Tommy: I would find it fun because I'm into the stuff that's in it.

Josh: Why don't we do a, like, a team sports rec sort of thing each week where we all meet somewhere and we, like, kick the footy around and we do different like PE sort of stuff?

Tommy: Well, I would be happy to invest through the business a couple hundred for a bag. We don't even need to buy the bag, I'll provide the bag, but just getting some frisbees, some vortexes, footy, some of those, you know, hand bats.

Josh: What about like the Daily Talk Show, like getting one item that we can get for the Daily Talk Show, like with printed on it? What's something good? So, it needs to be sort of inexpensive. Frisbee, I feel like could be it.

Tommy: Frisbee, mate.

Josh: Yo-yo could be good, but yo-yos aren't really that fun for parks.

Tommy: Frisbees are great. You know, you know my affinity for frisbee. And so, I would love the Daily Talk Show frisbee.

Josh: Because it's a great marketing tool. Because if it goes too far, it's like someone grabs it, it's like, oh shit, what's this?

Tommy: You can get promotional frisbees.

Josh: Right. What's the cost? What's the unit cost?

Tommy: I reckon that'd be at the $4, $6 mark. But the problem is—

Josh: Can we do them for Gronkhs?

Tommy: Like, uh, they're no good. They're no good at that point. I'd rather purchase a more expensive one and put our sticker over it.

Josh: But this is like the whole mug issue that we had where it's like, you want a good mug, people aren't going to pay $70 for a mug.

Tommy: Look, I reckon what we could do is get— so coming into the summer months in Australia, we have a bag. So we actually get a bunch of equipment and we have a bag. And as a team, because we've got like, you know, 5, 6 people now.

Josh: I just want us to have a clean bag. I don't want it to get— because I can see this getting messy already and people losing shit and not knowing. Like, you know that I was the kid who managed all the sports equipment in year 6 and we had a whole tag system. So we just need to work out how we can do it.

Tommy: One way to do it is how many items in the bag, and at the end of the session we have to count them as we put them back in. And so I reckon 10 items— basketball, soccer ball, football, gridiron, frisbee, um, a roadie, baseball gloves for everyone. Yeah, yeah, I mean, we're getting close to the 10. There we go, bocce set, and we're good. This is good.

Josh: Okay, great. All right, if you, uh, if you have a sport that you think that we should play in the park, hi@thedailytalkshow.com. Remember I spoke about Gronk Olympics? Maybe we could do that.

Tommy: Yeah, I like this.

Josh: I like this. Okay, uh, it's a Daily Talk Show. Enjoy the rest of your Friday. We'll see you tomorrow for Weekend Banter. Have a good one, guys.

Tommy: See you guys.