Podcast
Sitting Under A Tree with Aidan Jones
Catalog
Episodes
- Ep 418 - The EndNov 19, 2025 · 36 minEight years ago I started recording a weekly, solo podcast, and resolved to keep going every week. I had no idea what it was or why I was doing it, but it felt like a good idea so I kept going. In that time I have gone from a lonely, open mic comedian to being a professional artist living in London. I'm so proud of the life that I've built for myself in my life, profession and community. In these years I have come to use this podcast as a way of contextualising my life and giving narrative to the chaotic events that continually bombard all of us. Throughout that journey there have been an incredibly small, but unbelievably loyal group of listeners on the journey with me. Thankyou to everyone who has ever tuned in! I'd still struggle to tell you what "IT" was, but I do know I couldn't have done it without you.
- Ep 417- Second Last EpNov 10, 2025 · 31 minTomorrow I'm going to upload every episode of this podcast to a voice-to-text engine, then run all of the text through an AI chatbot like ChatGPT or something, to effectively have this AI engine experience 8 years of my weekly thoughts. Then I'm going to ask it some questions. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Then next week for the last episode I'm going to talk about whatever comes of it, and that will be that!
- Ep 416 - Third Last EpNov 5, 2025 · 34 minThis is the third-to-last episode of my podcast. I talk about feeling unfocussed and frustrated this week, and trying to find a renewed sense of focus. I'm sick, which isn't helping. Time to pop a Vitamin D tablet, I reckon.
- Ep 415 - I Bought A CarOct 27, 2025 · 30 minI bought a car on Friday from a car dealer in Coventry, then drove it to Birmingham, Preston, Liverpool and finally back to London today! I've never owned a car before and it's really exciting and scary to have invested so much into this thing. Still, better than lugging my trolley with the keyboard up a flight of 60+ stairs after a gig, as was my fate on Wednesday night. This feels like an important step forward.
- Ep 414 - Back From HolidayOct 21, 2025 · 36 minBack from almost two weeks in Poland, and for the first time in a year I gave myself permission to completely neglect my professional life. What a joy!! But I'm back in London now and have a very busy week of gigs and travel lined up. Also looking at buying a car. Still need to find a permanent place to live. It's all details, really.
- Ep 413 - ZamoscOct 15, 2025 · 42 minSpent a wonderful 24 hours in Zamosc, this medieval town in the South-East of Poland. I fired a cannon! I'm in Krakow now, in some dodgy tenement-type accommodation with thin walls and the guy in the room next to me is snoring like a motherfucker. It's alright though, I'm travelling, and learning stuff. And really having a fantastic time.
- Ep 412 - Autumn LeavesOct 7, 2025 · 31 minI'm tired today, and it's making me grumpy. I'm off to Poland tomorrow to watch the International Chopin Competition which is just so incredibly exciting! I can't wait to see the city and feel the energy around this celebration of Chopin's music, and I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to go.
- Ep 411 - First Month in LondonSep 29, 2025 · 36 minI've been in London for a month now, and in that time I've performed at the best club in the city, done a paid 20 for a promoter who didn't even know my name at the start of the month, and done a bunch of sets at great clubs and rooms! I'm feeling really good about the way things are going. This weekend I was in Manchester doing a bunch of shows at clubs and my solo last night, it was great. Everything is great, really.
- Ep 410 - A Fucken Awesome EpisodeSep 23, 2025 · 44 minI went to the media night of 'Emma' at the Rose Theatre last night, this is the play my girlfriend is in and has been rehearsing for the last 6 weeks. It was INCREDIBLE!! Fuck I loved it so much, as did the 800-odd people who packed out the theatre. I went to the opening night on Wednesday, and even in the time between that and the media night it's changed heaps. I have so many thoughts after this week on the differences between acting and stand up, and I really feel like this has given me a completely new perspective to create from! Super exciting, feeling incredibly inspired!
- Ep 408 - What Else Do I Want To SaySep 9, 2025 · 34 minI've been in London two weeks now. I'm writing every day, and the gigs I'm doing are going great. Like always, I can't help but think about what things will be like 3 months, 6 months in the future. The one thing I am absolutely certain of is my phone is destroying my brain and ruining my ability to concentrate.
- Ep 407 - CloudstreetSep 2, 2025 · 45 minI've just finished reading the book 'Cloudstreet' by Tim Winton - I've been reading it for like six months, so god damn it, it's about time! It struck me how all the characters had, by the end of the story, found some semblance of home by virtue of simply staying put. Some of them left, and in leaving they also departed the story, but the ones who stayed, even though many of them were deeply flawed, ended up in a happier place than when the story started. I also saw the film 'The Roses' with Olivia Colman this week and if I compare the two main characters in that film to those in 'Cloudstreet', the couple in 'The Roses' live much more separate lives from each other. It's not that they fight less, but they seem, maybe because of wealth, to be able to live independently of each other, and so their relationship suffers.
They don't need each other, and they chose over and over again not to prioritise their relationship, and so in the end their relationship dies.
- Ep 406 - Hit The TAug 27, 2025 · 39 minI've finally arrived in London. The Edinburgh Fringe is over, and I'm booking spots for the next few months around the UK. Today is my first full day as a resident of London, and I'm feeling great about the future! Let's go.
- Ep 405 - The Future Is Looking BrightAug 20, 2025 · 34 minThe last week at the Fringe my ticket sales have gone up and up! Also I've seen a bunch of wonderful, inspiring shows, I've been getting a good amount of sleep but also have seen friends, and managed to even work on a few ideas for a new show. It's been perfect, honestly, so I'm just reminding myself to be grateful and enjoy this all right now!
- Ep 404 - Day OffAug 12, 2025 · 36 minI've had a day off today, no shows! In 10 years of coming to the Fringe I've never had a day off, and I'll tell you what I FUCKING LOVE IT!! I'm feeling so good right now, this is smack-bang in the middle of the run, and everything is ticking along smoothly. I've got some plans for after the Fringe, some potential opportunities and some industry people excited about the show. I'm also having fun, and have booked tickets to see shows every night until the end of the festival.
- Ep 403 - Snotty NoseAug 5, 2025 · 37 minI have a snotty nose and everyone can fuck off. Nah I'm actually doing great other than that, the show is selling and I have a review coming out tomorrow which I am NERVOUS about. I guess I'm nervous about a lot of things, just thinking about the future. Ruminating. At the end of the podcast I went around my room and described everything, it was an exercise in mindfulness and made me feel a lot better.
- Ep 402 - Waiting For The Great Leap ForwardsJul 29, 2025 · 42 minFirst week of the Edinburgh Fringe, got into town today and I haven't had a good, proper night's sleep in over a week. It's currently half past midnight as I upload this and I can't wait to finish, shower, and get into bed. I am going to launch into that fucking bed mate. Don't you worry about me.
- Ep 401 - JetlagJul 23, 2025 · 33 minHonestly man I always thought jetlag was just like, you wake up earlier and go about your day. I feel TIRED AND WEAK! I've never had it like this before and I hate it. Other than that, and forgetting to pick up one of my checked bags from the airport, everything is sweet. hehe.
- Ep 400 - I'm Very Curious About MyselfJul 15, 2025 · 47 minTwo more sleeps until I leave Melbourne! I've almost finished selling my stuff, just a few more bits and pieces, but the plan is tomorrow night for the last night in my room, I'll be sleeping in an empty room with just packed bags and a mattress on the floor. Pretty romantic image hey? And I'll leave this city the same way I came in, sleeping on the floor like a 21-year-old.
- Ep 399 - Two Weeks LeftJul 8, 2025 · 42 minTwo weeks from today I'll be about to land in London and start a new life! How dramatic. This week I did two of my favourite rooms in Melbourne for the last time, the next week is going to be full of more last times of stuff and it feels like the process of saying goodbye is really intensifying now. Once I get on the plane it'll all be over.
Brown Cardigan Video:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DL0tAjytNKf/
- Ep 398 - I Don't Have Wardrobes AnymoreJul 1, 2025 · 38 minI sold my wardrobes on Sunday for $200 which was what I was asking, and honestly more than I thought I was going to get! There's a big wardrobe-sized hole in my room now, and all of my clothes are either on the floor or packed in vacuum-seal bags ready for the move. I had a headache for like two days after I sold the wardrobes, and I thought maybe it was a holdover from being sick last week, but then it could just as well be from the unique stress of knowing that I'm about to pull up the anchor of my life and drift out into the unknown in less than three weeks' time. It could be one of THOSE headaches?
- Ep 397 - Blinky BillJun 24, 2025 · 40 minThe venue I did my show at in Sydney was owned by this legend of a guy (named Guy) who as it happens, also wrote the music for the hit 90s children's show Blinky Bill. Remember that?! "Good old Blinky Bill!" hahaha.
I'm sick as a dog right now, my voice is fucked and I'm coughing up a storm. Boooo. I hope you're well, all things considered.
- Ep 396 - Dra Meg Baklengs I FuglekassaJun 17, 2025 · 41 minThe title of the pod this week is Norwegian, it's a really funny phrase that a Norwegian person I met on Friday night taught me and I've committed it to memory so that I can impress any Norwegian people I meet in the future, such is my commitment to ingratiating myself to strangers. I'd love to tell you what it means and why I love it, but I guess if you want to find out you'll just have to listen to this 40-minute podcast.
- Ep 395 - They Just Don't Get ItJun 10, 2025 · 46 minThis week my football club Tottenham Hotspur fired Ange Postecoglou as manager after he led us to win the Europa League a few weeks ago. There are arguments for and against this decision from a footballing perspective, but ultimately it feels like a complete failure on behalf of the decision-makers at the club to grasp the entire point of following a football club, or of life in general.
The reason I follow the club is because it's a big part of the friendship I have with one of my mates back in London, and the feeling I had when we won the trophy was shared with him. Everyone who follows the club and shares that with people in their life got to have that experience when we won, and if you believe what Ange was saying after we won, there's every chance that he could have led us to more of those moments. The people in charge took that opportunity away from him, from us, all because of some cold pragmatism, and finding out for certain that this is where their priorities lie has made me really sad.
- Ep 394 - New BitJun 4, 2025 · 36 minI did two gigs tonight, and got out an ending to a bit I've been working on for like six months - exciting! I talked about the story around it a bunch on the podcast today, which is a day late I'M SORRY! But it wasn't nearly as shambolic and unfocussed as I would expect after the long day I've had.
Here's the video btw:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKZ5X2HRLuZ/
- Ep 393 - South Australian SunsetMay 27, 2025 · 44 minI've just finished 2500km of driving from Brisbane, to the South Coast of NSW, to Melbourne, and then Victor Harbor to visit my grandparents. I forget how flat South Australia is - as soon as you go West of Ballarat it's just flat in every direction. It's really beautiful. This afternoon I traced the sunset from mid-afternoon and watched it the whole way down, stopping the camper van in a car park for the last 45 minutes or so to record this podcast.
- Ep 392 - Energised By The PerformanceMay 19, 2025 · 50 minI saw a wonderful band called FERLA on Saturday night with some friends. The lead singer was bald with his hair completely gone up top, but at the back where it still grew he'd let it go out into a mullet! Awesome. His voice reminded me of the singer from that band Future Islands who did the incredible spot on Letterman like ten years ago.
Then on Sunday morning I went to an 11am performance of Chopin's Piano Sonata no. 2 and a few pieces by Ravel, at Tempo Rubato in Brunswick. That was also a magical performance and has had me humming the Funeral March from the Chopin Sonata all week. I had a great show in Bendigo on Thursday, and have another one coming up in Brisbane this weekend!
- Ep 391 - This Fucken SucksMay 13, 2025 · 37 minBit of a dramatic title this week, I'm feeling pretty good about things and blah blah, but I guess I'm just in a grumpy mood because I sat down this morning to try and do a bunch of things, and try as I might, none of them are completed. There's always more bullshit isn't there. Right now I'm torn between getting back on the emails and trying again, or just fucking all of it off and going to the piano. As always, I think I'm going to try to do both. Ho ho ho.
- Ep 390 - Peter DumbcuntMay 7, 2025 · 44 minI try not to engage with politics too much because I feel it's a part of life that only leads to anger and frustration, and I think our time is much better spent working hard (and the work is VERY hard) to be good to the people around us. Having said that, when something beautiful happens like a horrid little scumbag of a man being destroyed in a Federal Election, I do absolutely love it.
I don't talk about that too much on the podcast, but I do talk about my brother's surprise birthday, getting my money from the Melbourne Comedy Festival, and workshopping realistic poems for the side of tea cups.
- Ep 389 - AustraliaApr 29, 2025 · 39 minI'm annoyed that I have to leave Australia to keep pursuing my dream in stand up comedy. I'm scared, and excited, and all of that other stuff, but at the core of it, I am annoyed. By which I mean, heartbroken.
Also it's late and I'm really tired right now.
- Ep 388 - ThankyouApr 22, 2025 · 45 minI took MDMA on the last night of comedy festival and it really brought the emotions out of me. The mixture was strong, and I'm glad I got to feel it all at the festival club, surrounded by my community of comedians all at the end of this beautiful thing we do every year. I'm proud of everything I've done with this show, excited for what's to come with it, and also slowly beginning the process of writing the next one. I'm committed to my aim of making work that prioritises final quality over any financial concerns, and I am grateful for this moment right now.
- Ep 387 - Last WeekApr 17, 2025 · 31 minIt's the last week of the Melbourne Comedy Festival and I'm feeling reflective. The show has been a dream, and with seven still to go I've smashed my goals for attendance and profit. I've got an idea for the next show, which I'll keep nurturing, but for the next three months, all my focus is on the rest of the tour in Australia, and getting ready to leave Melbourne and move to London. Terrifying!
- Ep 386 - TullamarineApr 8, 2025 · 48 minI've got a joke that I've been doing in the show the last few nights about how the airport in Warsaw is called the 'Frederic Chopin International Airport', like that's how much of a big deal this guy is - they don't name airports after anyone! Who's Tullamarine, you know?
After the second show I'd done that joke, someone messaged me and told me that actually Tullamarine was an indigenous freedom fighter in the area, and that's why they named it after him. Pretty brutal that I don't even know the guy's name, and that he's so unknown that a joke about Melbourne's airport not being named after someone can literally use his name as a working punchline.
So I've decided to add, as a tag, that someone contacted me and told me that, and now I feel really bad, but I'm still doing the joke. So yeah, that's why the pod is named what it is. Heaps of other cool shit happened this week, but if you want to know about any of that, you'll just have to pop your little headphones in and have a listen, won't you!
- Ep 385 - Return To The Flower FestivalMar 31, 2025 · 39 minGoing to the Melbourne Flower Festival last year was what originally inspired me to host my Melbourne Comedy Festival show in a beautiful, bespoke space this year. I went back on Sunday and it was just as beautiful as I remembered, but I didn't enjoy it as much because I was busy worrying about ticket sales and money and comparing myself to my peers.
I'm having an objectively great festival. It's only been one weekend, but I've already sold more tickets across the run than I did in the whole of Perth Fringe World. I sold 251 in the first five shows alone. That's great! Those are great numbers. And I'm still not happy.
Last year when I didn't do a show at any festivals, and instead just worked a normal job and paid my bills - that was one of the happiest years of my life. It'd be easy to romanticise it and conclude that actually comedy is the thing that's making me upset here, but I know that isn't the full story. I know that the only reason I was able to let go of the grinding and striving for a year and be happy was that for that whole year I was dreaming of this time I'm living in right now.
Every day I drove the bus down the Great Ocean Road, when I was done talking about the stuff out the window, I would put the music on and drift off into fantasies of this run. The first show. The last show. The night I finally film it. The ending. New jokes... those fantasies got me through the year, and made it a very happy one, and now I'm here in that imagined future, and I'm struggling to enjoy it because I'm always wanting more! The irony is not lost on me... but I am having a nice time, I promise.
- Ep 384 - Here We AreMar 25, 2025 · 36 minThis week has been intense, gratifying, exhausting, terrifying, humbling, exciting, overwhelming, and over in the blink of an eye. The gallery is ready for opening night tomorrow, which is sold out by the way! And so is the night after.
I can't believe how many different people have stepped up out of nowhere in the last week to offer their help in whatever way they can to make this project happen. I had a moment yesterday while I was eating dinner by myself when I realised that all of this work - this beautiful, tiring, exhilarating work - is because of me! This whole thing exists because of an idea that I had and then started telling people about and working on, and now it's a venue in the Melbourne Comedy Festival. I'm so excited for the next month, and I'm so happy in this moment right now.
- Ep 383 - Meditative PodcastingMar 18, 2025 · 45 minI've had the best month in Adelaide doing my show to great audiences, winning an award in the first week and getting five star reviews! Then on Monday, my last day in town, I accidentally crushed the door of my Mum's partner's car in the carwash. It was really scary actually, and it's going to cost me $2000.
I find myself here yet again, in a moment where I could have maybe slowed down a little, but felt like I had everything under control, and then realised too late that I didn't. It was a mistake, whatever, we move on, but it'd be good to learn from it too, eh?
For the next week I'm back in Melbourne and working on the setup of the gallery. There's lot's to do, and I feel really stressed about it, but I'm going to find time every day to stop and take stock of everything that's around me. Have fun. Slow down. Be in the moment. Have fun.
- Ep 382 - Just Imagine You're A Cow Floating Through SpaceMar 11, 2025 · 43 minI had the best day yesterday at WOMAD with a wonderful bunch of friends. Khruangbin were incredible, I was soaring through the trees for the entire 90 minutes that they played. And I'm still having the best time at the Adelaide Fringe in what has turned from a two-week, eight-show run, into a month-long season of 17 performances.
I feel like I'm getting better at choosing not to engage with things and people that don't make me feel good. There's so much of that out there, especially if you spend even a bit of time on the internet. Comment sections are full of angry, hurt people taking their feelings out on the world. It's their choice to do that, and we really can't do anything to stop them, but we all have the power to choose how we react to that stuff, and I choose to disengage.
Today I tried to wash my Mum's partner's car at the car wash and after downloading their stupid app, giving them my details, confirming my phone number, and then paying for a $12 wash with my card, they told me that the machine was broken and I couldn't use the thing I'd just paid for. It's in infuriating situations like that when the use of those reserves of energy is warranted - I sent them an email, and you better believe I will be calling them tomorrow, and reporting them to consumer affairs if I don't get my money back and some vouchers on top of it. 'Happy Wash' indeed.
And this is my point man!! If I was letting myself get angry at every lunatic I saw on the internet, maybe I wouldn't have enough left of myself to pursue these motherfuckers when I actually need to. And yes I DO need to, by the way. Oh I will have my twelve dollars. And then I'll go back to enjoying good times with wonderful friends, which is where the energy comes from in the first place.
- Ep 381 - Five StarsMar 3, 2025 · 36 minThis week I got five stars in The List and The Advertiser, and I won a weekly award at the Adelaide Fringe for best comedy! This kind of week is really as much as I could have dreamed of when I started working on the show a couple years ago, but still on Sunday I felt tired and sad.
I took a walk this morning down to the Torrens near my Mum's place in Thebarton, there's a beautiful trail there with signs telling the story of the Bunyip as written by a children's author. On the signs there are prompts encouraging you to ask questions about the bush around you, the animals, the plants, and the river - why are they the way they are? What can you see? Can you see these particular things? Etc.
The thing that made me realise on Sunday that I was feeling tired was that I had started going to my phone more frequently, looking for the next dopamine hit from ticket sales, Instagram interactions, messages, or whatever. It took me most of the day before I realised the increased frequency of my desperate search for the next hit was a symptom of my tiredness - I hadn't had much sleep the two previous nights, and my body needed a rest.
Going for a walk in the bush (I mean it's Thebarton, so not really, but you know) this morning was a great reminder to be grateful for the success that I'm enjoying right now, but also to remember that that success doesn't actually mean all that much anyway! Like, yes take a look around and enjoy the five star reviews and the award and the ticket sales and the money and all that, but also, there's plenty of beautiful trees and birds out there just waiting for you any time you want. I could have gone for a walk two years ago and never even written this show, and the bush would have been there waiting for me all the same. But I didn't, i wrote a show about Chopin.
- Ep 380 - I See The MoonFeb 24, 2025 · 42 minThe other day my Mum reminded me of an old nursery rhyme she used to sing to me when I was a baby called 'I See The Moon' and it's been stuck in my head the last few days. It's got a really beautiful melody and I'm looking forward to playing around with it on the piano.
I've been reflecting on the one-year cycle that a lot of the live comedy touring industry operates on in Australia. I tried for a few years there to write a new hour of stand-up every year as a way to build a career in this industry. The reason I started doing that is because that was what I saw other people doing, and I assumed that that was the only way to do it.
What I realise now is that when comics who have a profile - from doing TV work, radio, or social media stuff - tour a new hour every year, they are playing to audiences who already know them and just want to come out and support the person they know from other media. I don't have a profile like any of those people, so when I write an hour of stand-up in a year, even if it's as good or thereabouts as what anyone else is coming out with, when faced with the choice between me, and someone they know from TV/radio/Instagram, audiences are going with the other people every time. The only way for me to compete and draw an audience without a profile is to create a show that is different and unique enough to sell on its own merits.
I've been thinking around ideas for the next show I might write as the one I've been working on for the last two years slowly finds its feet. I'm definitely going to stay with the piano, and I'd like to incorporate a certain story that has been told a lot recently in my family. And now, after my Mum reminded me of that nursery rhyme tune the other day, I'm thinking I might try and incorporate that as well.
- Ep 379 - Countless Summer MorningsFeb 17, 2025 · 41 minI'm all over the shop on the podcast today... I got a tattoo on my butt on Thursday night... I'm $12k in debt... I saw the new Captain America movie on Sunday night and I absolutely hated it... my money from Perth hasn't come through yet... tickets for Adelaide are still selling well... I'm leaving Australia in 5 months. I can't seem to relax and just settle.
I've been watching this Australian show 'Mr Inbetween' on the recommendation of a friend and it is absolutely fantastic! Not only is it funny and dark, it is also recognisably Australian, set in Australia with Australian people as it's characters. Also the guy who created has worked for like twenty years to get this thing made, and he stars in it and is absolutely incredible. What a triumph of artistic vision! This stands in such stark contrast to the utter contempt in which 'Captain America' holds its audience. I sat through two hours of explosions and violent thudding and was bored the entire time - a truly pathetic offering.
I'm reading 'Odyssey' by Stephen Fry, and there's a poem at the start called 'Ithaca' by C. P. Cavafy that has really resonated with me this week. It begins, "When you start on your way to Ithaca // pray that the journey be long", and goes on to describe a life full of "countless summer mornings"; full of adventure and discovery. He says "Always keep Ithaca fixed in your mind ... Yet do not hurry the journey at all".
I take inspiration from the story of Scott Ryan who created 'Mr Inbetween' - he has Ithaca fixed in his mind. I also take inspiration from everyone who worked on 'Captain America', these poor souls lost at sea. I try to remember not to hurry my journey:
"... better that it lasts for many years
and you arrive an old man on the island,
rich from all that you have gained on the way,
not counting on Ithaca for riches.
For Ithaca gave you the splendid voyage:
without her you would never have embarked.
She has nothing more to give you now."
- Ep 378 - I Don't Know How To Read The OceanFeb 11, 2025 · 36 minI recorded this podcast last night in the back of a hire car parked in the carpark at Point Addis near Anglesea. I love coming down the coast and getting out into the ocean in the morning, how lucky are we in Australia that this is something we can just go and do whenever we want!
I'm stressing about getting an offer from a venue for the Edinburgh Fringe this year. Whatever happens, I'm going and I'll get the show somewhere, but right now not knowing where that will be, and knowing that it's out of my control, is very frustrating. Having said that though, tickets are moving for Adelaide, and Melbourne has started to tick over as well.
With all the time/money/emotional investment I've put into this show, I guess it is inevitable that I will continue to stress about the future and worry that things won't work out, even as the very same things I worried about three months ago are falling into place before me. Getting out in the ocean for a couple of hours this morning was a great way of taking my mind off all of that.
- Ep 377 - Birthday WeekFeb 3, 2025 · 35 minIt's my birthday on Wednesday! I haven't planned a party or anything, I figure I'm moving away in July so I'll have a going-away party then, but now I'm still kind of in the midst of doing all this stuff with the show and it just doesn't feel like the right time for a party. And it's my birthday, so I should get to choose when the party is, right? RIGHT?!!
On the day I'm going to go to South Melbourne Markets for breakfast, then go with my mate to the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the NGV, then in the evening I'm having dinner with another friend. That sounds perfect to be honest.
- Ep 376 - Advance Australia FairJan 27, 2025 · 47 minAustralia Day this week, always high emotion on both sides. When I was doing my bus tours, I would always explain the situation in Australia with regards to indigenous people by saying that it's a very emotional issue for everyone. Some people think we should talk about it more, and that we need to move towards greater recognition for indigenous people. Some people think we talk about it too much and we should stop spending time and money on it.
Personally I think the ideal future for our country is one where every person who is born here or chooses to come here and make it their home, should feel equally as though they have a stake in our society. I don't think that will ever be possible until we address this thing that sits at the heart of our country. The shameful harm that was done to the people who lived here for tens of thousands of years before the British established a colony here in 1788.
There are countless stories that serve as examples of this shameful secret, and the more of them we tell, the more we, as a society, can familiarise ourselves with what happened, and maybe work up the collective courage to confront it together. One of those stories was told to me by my grandpa in an email recently, and so I plan to tell it in a video, with a piano version of Advance Australia Fair that I just worked out as the backing track. I'm excited to make the video tomorrow, I think it's going to be great.
- Ep 375 - Beach DayJan 20, 2025 · 39 minI went to the beach today with a bunch of friends. What a wonderful sentence to be able to say! It was 42 degrees, but down by the water it was much cooler, the waves were big and scary and I got thrown around a bunch, it was awesome.
I have been worrying about ticket sales a bit, but what makes me feel better is the amount of nice stuff that other comedians have been saying to me after my spots this week. I've had so many people who I love and respect tell me that what I'm doing on stage is really unique and exciting. I've also found a bunch of places in the show where I can change things and add stuff to make it funnier and better, and that's incredibly exciting too!
I only have 8 tickets for tomorrow's show, and two of them are a reviewer, so obviously not idea, but Iearned something in Edinburgh this year, and it's time now to put it into practice. Whoever is at the show tomorrow, I am going to welcome them in to the room, put them at ease, and get them around me as I sit at the piano. Then I'm going to give them the best fucking show they've ever seen, and they're going to love it.
The beach has completely fried my brain man.
- Ep 374 - Little CuntsJan 14, 2025 · 45 minYesterday at my removals job we worked for a customer who was sending some of their furniture to an auction house to be sold - that is to say, this person was extremely well-off. They had two children there with them, both around 5 years old, and these kids were, as it transpired, two of the most entitled, horrible little bastards I've ever met. They were both rude to us and clearly thought themselves better than anyone who would come to do work for their family.
I landed in Perth today and just checked in to the room above a pub where I'll be staying for the next 19 nights. It's gross in here, there's shared bathrooms, the kitchen has no utensils and smells like musty, old grease, and the laundry is in the basement and was, I am informed by one of the local characters, without power last night. Truly exhilarating stuff!
I think I've reached a point in my life and my career where I am no longer happy to accept this kind of grotty living situation. When I was younger, even as recently as 5 years ago, I probably would have been okay with this, but I've grown up, and I'm not now. Thing is, I'm also not in a financial position where I can afford to stay somewhere that might be, how can I put it, "more to my taste". So here I am. I'll buy some candles and incense and flowers and make the room nice, and I'll do my shows and keep working, but also I'm going to be grateful for this time.
If I've learned anything in the last few years, it is that there is dignity in the struggle and not getting what you want. There is pride to be taken in doing a job, and working for someone else, and we should always respect those who happen, in any given moment, to be doing their work for us. Staying in this awful room is a good reminder that no matter where I go or what I do in my life, any success I have is a blessing, not a right. Remember to be grateful, if only so as not to become one of those awful, little cunts.
- Ep 373 - New Years Skinny DipJan 7, 2025 · 40 minLately I've noticed I get anxious when I find myself with nothing to do. I guess that's why I am so enamoured of the Edinburgh Fringe - a month where every moment of every day is relentlessly full of people and places and things and stuff and you NEVER get a break. You NEVER have to stop!! You can just keep going for ever - heaven.
The way I've always coped with the anxiety is by just filling my time up with stuff, and I don't necessarily think that's a bad way of coping, but it becomes a problem when I make commitments and then put undue amounts of pressure on myself to fulfil those commitments. That's funny isn't it! I do feel anxiety when I'm still, so to avoid that anxiety, I fill my days up with activities and commitments, sometimes to the point that there are too many things for me to do, which gives me anxiety. It really never ends.
I think what I'd like to remember is that while I do like to always be doing lots of things - seeing friends, doing stand up, working on projects etc. - if I ever find myself rushing through my days because I've given myself too many of these therapeutic *things* to do, it's okay to leave some of those commitments unfulfilled. I am allowed to prioritise my commitments however I see fit, and then if there isn't time for something, I can just apologise and say that I'm not going to make it. I'm about to go to Perth for three weeks, and I'm going to have heaps of time to myself, so I'll see how all this goes I guess.
- Ep 372 - 2024Dec 29, 2024 · 39 minAt this time last year my goals were to put my head down at work and make as much money as I could, while spending all my creative energy working on the new show. It was the first year since I started doing solo stand-up shows that I'd planned to not do a show at the Australian festivals, and my only hope for the end of the year was that I'd be in a position where I would be confident with my new show and ready to tour it myself.
That is exactly where I'm at right now! In the last year I worked hard on my show, took it to Edinburgh and had a very successful first season there, worked with a designer to create a visual branding language for the show and have started to use that brand to promote it. I also went to New York for the first time, which is something that I've wanted to do for the best part of ten years! I also worked as a tour guide and discovered that I don't want to pursue that as a career, which is something that I thought I might be interested in at the start of the year.
In the next twelve months I will be crossing two more things off of my list of long-term goals: 'Record A Great Special' and 'Live In Another City'. On Saturday night I went to a party and a friend did a tarot reading for me, and the thing that I chose to focus on was my planned move to London. I'm nervous about it, specifically leaving my close friends and family in Australia, and everything that I'm going to miss in their lives, but I'm also confident that this is what I need to do for myself and my career. Happy New Year everyone, we did it.
- Ep 371 - Happy HolidaysDec 24, 2024 · 44 minLast night I saw a movie called 'The Substance', it was great! Go look it up if you don't know what it's about because their copy will explain the premise much better than I can here, but the premise of the film is an ageing Hollywood star takes an experimental drug to create a younger, "more perfect" version of herself. It's all about female beauty standards in society and the way we treat people - especially women - as disposable once their youth and beauty have faded.
I got the impression from the outset that whoever had made this film was very angry about the subject, and wanted us to feel the pain and discomfort that they feel when they think about it. I figured it was probably a woman and I was correct - bully for me! I really enjoyed the way the shocking visuals and sound in the movie made me feel uncomfortable, which is odd to say, because at the time I was.. well, uncomfortable. But immediately I'm like, okay if I feel uncomfortable now, imagine how uncomfortable it must be to actually BE a woman and be subject to these kinds of pressures and standards! Provoking the audience into such considerations is the sign of great art.
In a way, this is what I'm trying to do in my show - I want people to recognise the feeling that I find in the music, and then relate it to their own lives so they can actually feel it themselves, and in doing so, connect with the experience of the person who wrote the music I'm playing. The feeling I'm working with isn't anger or anything close to it, but rather hope, which comes with it's own fears and anxieties. Despite the differences, it was inspiring to see a film - a piece of art - where each element is so clearly chosen with an overall effect in mind, and everything is working in concert to achieve a clear goal. It wasn't at all subtle, but what's the big whoop about subtlety anyway?
- Ep 370 - Dad I Want To Hear Your StoryDec 17, 2024 · 39 minYesterday I got an ad for this garbage book called 'Dad I Want To Hear Your Story'. It's not even a book that you read, it's a book that you give to your Dad that he writes his life story in. There are all these questions about your first kiss or your school years or whatever the fuck stupid bullshit these people put in there to try and seduce people into thinking that you can skip the years of work it takes to build up a good relationship with your loved ones and all you need to do is BUY THIS BOOK!! THIS ONE WEIRD TRICK MADE MY DAD LOVE ME AGAIN!!
The ad creeped me out for that reason, but also even more so because the Instagram page that was hosting it was full of the same guy saying the same words to a camera, but with all different intonations, different music, and wearing different hats and sunglasses on his face. It feels as if whoever is selling this thing is doing A/B market testing on their own face, trying to find the optimal combination of sounds and images required to sell these cynical, loveless items.
As I wade into the world of advertising and marketing ahead of the festival season (the show opens a month from the 17th!!!) I am more and more aware of this kind of stuff. I'm even using some of it to sell my tickets, but I am also very conscious of trying to keep it at arm's length, because throughout the world of marketing there exists this idea that you can sell anything with the right ad campaign. There are people all over online message boards and social media apps talking about how they can increase your Lead Generation and Sales Performance and ROI without ever talking about what products anyone might actually be selling, and that kind of mindset is liable to destroy a person if it gets a hold of you.
And boy has it gotten a hold of these book-selling losers on Instagram.
- Ep 369 - Eugen CiceroDec 9, 2024 · 48 minThe modern world of classical piano seems to be split into two groups:
First there are the people who play the classics, they go through the music from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries and play the same pieces over and over again in search of the "composer's intention", while attempting to also bring some aspect of their own personality to it. Each year there are dozens of recordings of the most famous pieces of the classical repertoire, and the people in this world have opinions on all of them.
Then there are the people who go in the complete opposite direction - they are sick of playing the same pieces and so they rebel in the extreme by creating music with completely outlandish instruments and sounds. It's conceptual, it's cerebral, and it might actually be nonsense? We're talking music with teapots, we're talking music determined by the roll of the dice, stuff that seems like it's more about the idea of the thing, rather than the actual thing itself.
Both groups of people have interesting ideas and I wouldn't go so far as to say that they're creating cynical work at all! I'm not trying to denigrate either of them, except to say that I think they both, to some extent, have their heads completely stuck up their own asses.
I say all of that to say - with absolute joy!! - that this week I discovered a new pianist named Eugen Cicero who seems to embody a third, completely exciting and inspired path. He plays the classical repertoire - music that was created to sound beautiful - but rather than sticking dogmatically to the text, he brings it to life with his own improvisations and modern musical ideas. I love it, and now you can too as some of his music is hidden at the end of my ramblings on this week's podcast. Enjoy!
- Ep 368 - One Week CloserDec 2, 2024 · 38 minHuge shock in the Australian Comedy world this week with one of the biggest management companies declaring bankruptcy, leaving dozens of artists without representation heading into the 2025 festival season. Also a bunch of comedians have lost tens, or in some cases HUNDREDS, of thousands of dollars.
In reflecting on what is catastrophic news for so many of my friends, I'm reminded of my own experiences with management. I think it's tempting as an artist to see management as someone who will take care of the business side of everything and allow us to do the work we want. That's the idea we are sold, and that's what we all hope for, because we aren't the kind of people who are confident in the world of business. But no one really has any more of a clue than we do about how to market our work, and if any of us actually wants to make a career out of doing this, the only way to make that happen is to figure out for ourselves what it is that we do and why people might pay money to see it. That's not to say that managers are useless, just that whatever it is that they can do, we can do it as well, and we probably don't need to be giving anyone 30% of our income to do it for us.
Moreover, it is so important that we think about these questions ourselves, because if we want to keep pursuing our art and growing as artists, we need to eventually take the leap and become professional. On Sunday I went to watch a wonderful amateur choir and orchestra perform Beethoven, closing with the 9th Symphony, 'Ode To Joy'. I was reminded that Beethoven's incredibly difficult orchestral parts were one of the things that led to the development of professional orchestras, because people needed to be paid to practice so they could have the time to actually play his insane music! I feel like that's where I am as a comedian - I have reached a ceiling of how good I can get with the resources that I have, and I need to find an audience and start making money from this if I want to reach that next level.
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