Rugby to Revelations Part 1- Steve Haddan talks Rugby League, his career and surprise connection with Marisa Vecchio

In this episode we had the privilege of sitting down with the remarkable Steve Haddan, a man who’s name echoes excellence, versatility, and an undeniable talent that has captivated audiences across tv, radio, books and many, many corporate events.

Buckle up, because this episode is a two-part extravaganza. In part one, we'll dive into Steve's incredible career, where he has conquered the stage as a comedian, commanded the airwaves as an on-air presenter and sports journalist and penned best-selling books that have left an indelible mark on the literary landscape.

But that's not all—prepare to be astonished as we unravel a deeply personal aspect of Steve's life. We'll explore the emotional journey of adoption, shedding light on the incredible path that led Steve to his extraordinary career and the surprising connection he and Marisa discovered later in life.

From his early days as a professional actor, gracing the stages of major productions, to his rise as one of Australia's most sought-after corporate performers, Steve's captivating charisma and comedic genius have earned him a rightful place in the hearts of audiences nationwide. And let's not forget his trailblazing achievements as an author, with his books selling thousands of copies and reshaping the way we perceive the world of rugby league. You can get your hands on a signed copy of Steve's latest book here.

Join us as we peel back the layers of Steve Haddan's richly textured and eclectic career, uncovering the milestones, the triumphs, and the surprises that have shaped his remarkable journey. This episode is a front-row seat to a life lived with dedication, passion, and an unwavering commitment to delivering the very best in entertainment.

Stay tuned for part two coming soon as we take a closer look into Steve's adoption journey and the advice he has for this that follow in his footsteps.

Have any questions for us? Send them through to podcast@hanworthhouse.com.au

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Transcript

 Welcome to Bubbles and Benevolence, the podcast where we pop the bubbles to success and dive deep into the benevolent hearts of those who have achieved it. In this podcast, we'll sit down with successful business leaders, philanthropists, nonprofit workers, and more to discuss their journeys, the lessons they've learned along the way.

And how they're using their success to make a positive impact on the world. So grab a glass of bubbles and join us as we explore the intersection of business and benevolence and discover what it truly means to be successful.

On today's episode, we chat with excellence, versatility, and undeniable talent with a career spanning across various fields. Steve has cemented his reputation as a comedian, on air presenter, sports journalist, best selling author, and award winning radio host. This episode brings you part one of our chat with Steve.

Join us exploring the emotional journey of adoption, shedding light on the incredible path that led Steve to his extraordinary career, and the surprising connection he and Marisa discovered later in their lives. So sit back and relax as we unravel some deeply personal aspects of Steve's life. Well, I have a really special guest here today, and you'll probably realize the story behind him being so special in a little while.

So welcome Steve Haddon. Thank you. And you've brought in some remarkable bubbles today, Steve. I have. Tell us the story behind, behind you and Cannotto. Well, this is a, this is a this is a pretty exotic Italian soft drink, I guess you'd call it. And, and given that and it's, it's interesting, non alcoholic sparkling beverages, being an Non-drinker and those who know me will, will go really?

But I, I've been, I, I haven't had I've been sober 14 years, so it's a dis decision I made to to go down that road. And I certainly feel and operate better for it. Years and years ago, I pursued alcohol. And so I brought some, I've got a nice little cup of instant coffee beside me. I thought instant, it's slightly better than instant.

Is it? Yeah. Okay. Obviously not good enough. You'll have to, you'll have to, we'll have a talk, talk to the young lady on her way out. But this is, this is, this is a good one. But I quite like a a Heineken zero zero I love. Or a what's the one, what's the nice, Peroni make it lovely. They do. Lovely zero zero.

As do James Squires. And it's nice because you feel like you're part of the crowd, can't you? And yet your drinking absolutely no alcohol. And the thing is, the thing is interestingly enough that these days, I have always loved drinking beer. Okay, that's been my drink of choice. But I don't particularly like the alcohol anymore, the drug that's in it.

What I do like is the taste of it. With food and the taste of it. So one or two generally pulls me up. Which just wasn't always the way, and these sorts of things are good but there's there's a good whack at, there's a, no these two, these aren't bad, these aren't aren't in the realm of a, of a coke or something like that.

No, I love

coke. Which you've got a is a, is a, is a, is a something for me because I love sugar. I know you do. That's my one remaining addiction. So cheers Steve. I think it's going to be a lovely chat this afternoon. And coincidentally, we know a lot of this podcast features on Panworth. And how Hanworth has become a bit of a highway for people to meet.

But canotto is one of my mother's very favourite drinks. And being Italian, or any canotto, that kind of slightly bitter cola taste. So this is, this is a great choice. I'm a big fan too. I'm a big fan too. Cheers. The San Pellegrino's mineral water too, generally speaking. It's a bit exotic, isn't it? It is.

And the other, the other interestingly enough, the other mineral water that I really like is Mount Franklin Lightly Sparkled. And they've got them in flavours now, lime, etc. Which is one of my big, big favourite, favourite drinks. I agree. So, it's so delicious. So it's a good thing. And I don't miss it.

And here's to our story. Cheers, big ears. So I don't and I don't miss, I don't miss it at all because you're generally able to enjoy it. You're generally able to maintain good conversations, but what happens is when it gets a bit loose at the end of the night, that's when I choose to make, that's generally when I make my exit.

Yeah, not a bad strategy. It's a good strategy. It's not only about 10, 10, 30, I leave it and I'm rarely missed. I just say, see ya, I'm off. Catch you next time. Good on you, Steve. Now as I said, it's really exciting to have Steve. here today. Not that I don't see him very often, but lots of people won't know what we're going to talk about today.

But let's go back. It's a big story. It's a big podcast. We have all the true grit issues on this podcast, bubbles and benevolence. I want you to tell me about growing up in Toowoomba, Steve, and how did Steve Haddon come into this world and what happens over the next, well, you might have to like. Do you want to do the left version?

Well, it is a fascinating story. My life is

pretty richly textured in terms of what roads I've travelled down at various stages in my life. So, this what would you say? Motorbike copper and a young girl meet at Lennon's one night. And one thing leads to another. It was on the couch at... Stafford, who was your dad's best mate that lived at Stafford and the son's a dentist?

Oh, Brian Hickey. Brian Hickey, okay, so it's on Brian Hickey's couch. Oh, I'm not sure if I need to hear this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so one night, a few months later, this young 21 year old girl who works in the ES& A bank. Suddenly realizes that this is going on. This, she comes back from a holiday, and she reveals to the, the, our father.

Well that's, that's the punchline, isn't it? That's the punchline, that's the punchline. I mean, so this police... And this young girl who works at the bank gets on a couch at Stafford and obviously you are the product of what happened on that couch. I'm the product of that. So, right from, right from the word go, the stories, for the purposes of your podcast, it's interesting.

See, there's no surprise now. No, no. It's interesting. So, he doesn't want to go down the road of this happening. So, he heads off. for the hills, and there's quite a kerfuffle. Well, he was probably pretty young as well, wouldn't he have been? No, he was about late twenties. Oh, should have known better, really. Oh, well, but in those days, she, she had to go it alone with all this, because he, he had a solution for it, which would, meant I wouldn't be here today.

The end result is... That this brave, brave little girl, who was made to feel very unpleasant during the whole process and had her finger, finger waved at her enough by the powers that be, saying you've been a naughty little girl. You don't deserve to be able to look after this child. So he's... We're talking 1958.

So 1958, this little girl has a little baby in a house basically across the road from where you live now, Marisa. So I'm brought a PA, and then I go back there, mum and dad come down and pick me up, and I begin this. Lovely life up in, up in, up in Toowoomba. This is Frank and Helen Haddon, a local GP up in Toowoomba, who were unable to, to have children because my mother's appendix birthed.

This is, this is the, this gets a bit confusing now. It's funny that, We need a whiteboard. Yeah, we need a whiteboard because you've got, A birth mother and a birth father, you've got John and you've got Joan, then you've got up into Umber, Frank and Helen. So I have, my life begins up there. Clinically they've proved, Marisa, that this process, like any species, In life, being removed from your mother at the point of, at the point of birth, which basically happens when you're in another room, so there's no bonding process at all, they've found, they have found clinically that this has an effect on the development of a child.

Okay, so you, you think, well, how, how is that, how, and a child who has lived inside a mother's stomach, who is suddenly removed from that, is very, very aware of maybe not able to articulate it, but very aware that there is something wrong that's going on. So I go up to Toowoomba, and I think probably you take with you certainly a number of consequences of that.

They have found, A, that you have chronic rejection. You grow up with a chronic rejection type of issue, which is, you know, look at the career that I've had. I know. I'm a stand up comedian who wants people to clap at the point and think he's funny. That's true actually. I never thought of it that way. And all these types of things.

I've been able in the last couple of years to unpack a lot of this and evaluate it for what it really is. Because from my point of view, I wanted to put it to one side, you know, and get on, get on with my life without having to go back to that. But what I've been able to understand is there are chronic rejection issues.

Gosh, father, mother didn't want me, I'm with these ones now, maybe they won't want me. So these sorts of things, even from as early as I'm conscious, my behaviour... is geared toward, well, I better behave myself, otherwise these people are going to take me back to the adoption shop and swap me for one that works.

Because you always knew you were adopted, right? Always knew I was adopted, from the moment. The other point that I need to make at this is when I get up in the morning, I have, I have some coffee cups in front of me when I open my cupboard. And I have ones from exotic holidays that I've had with my, my wife Cara in Hawaii.

Where you and I and Philip and Carla have been before on holiday. I have one from my old footy club up in Toowoomba where I used to go when I was about the age of eight. And these, these things that trigger, first thing in the morning what they do is they trigger for me the very happiest of memories.

Beautiful hotels, the Grand Colbert in Paris where, which is a restaurant we had dinner one night, which is the place where Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson and some... They say you got these things that strike me in the morning, and it's interesting, isn't it? The one that I go, now, despite all this stuff whirling around inside me, as a kid.

The Perceptions, I think, is the best way to speak of it. The one mug that I go to is the one of the Marvel superheroes, which reminds me of about 1967 and 1968. Reminds me of the time I used to spend with my father because every, every Saturday night up in Toowoomba, we'd go down and we'd get the Chinese food together and he'd take me next door to the Chinese food place to the news agency and we'd get a Marvel superhero of Captain America.

And isn't it funny? You know, that's the, the childhood, the childhood thing is, and it, and it's the, it's the music of the era. It's the movies of the era. It's that growing up in a carefree environment. It's the smells, smell of a watermelon in the middle of summer. It's running around with no sunblock on or anything like that.

Chasing kids, getting on a bike, you know, riding around a Sean, Sean Stringer's place. One of my early memories often won't take us long to get to the, the game of rugby league. But I remember when dad used to take me to the. football because everything in this modern world is delivered to you straight away, straight away.

You've got the concept of immediacy and I want it now, whereas in the 60s, Marisa, you waited and you waited and you waited and you'd finally get it. What's going on in there behind that big, big stadium? I'm walking back from Sunday school with my little sister in tow, and I can hear these sounds and I can go, Oh, I'd like to go there one day.

And I remember... walking down, we'd go and park the car and I'd walk down Arthur Street with Dad to the football and he'd be holding my hand and I can never fit, never remember feeling joy on that level. Is this your first trip? This is, you know, my first trip to the footy with my Dad. I'm going to watch Toowoomba play the Dragons in 1967 and the point that I make there is that that's why there's this deep love of this game.

But a couple of years ago, I used to take Billy up, and I still do from time to time. I put my little boy, my son, in the car. And he was a young boy of eight and nine when I used to take him. And as we used to walk down Arthur Street, I'd say, Come on, mate, you gotta hold my hand, because when I was your age, I used to walk down this very street.

It may be like something that you can fall in love with your, your whole life and it'll love you back like you, like you can't imagine. So walking there with that little boy, it's very much the best things that any of us experience in life are the things that move our heart. They're not things where, you know, it's great for me from time to time to have these, these rooms where.

You know, I'm working my magic like Beethoven or anything like that. You might be Clive Palmer on stage, or Gina Reinhardt impersonations, all of that. Yeah, Molly Meldrum, or Stefan, or Sir Joe, or anything like that. It's wonderful. People, people love you, people love you, but there's these things sometimes in life that just never, never leave you, that take you.

And it's been, it's been, one of the things that's been important in my life is to move beyond that place. of needing this approval, needing this sense of recognition, feeling that I need to be out there. Now, I, I like that, but to me it's a bit dangerous to equate my sense of self-worth with my ability to walk into a room and make people laugh.

In the old days, it was very, it was critical to me. I'd be crestfallen if, if they, they didn't find me funny. You're impressive or anything, whereas now I'm almost at the other end of the spectrum where I'm a bit, an exciting day for me is getting up in the morning, unstacking the dishwasher and putting the pots and pans in, although I did a

gig last Sunday for the, for the, the Mata Research Foundation and smiling for Smitty, which was a cancer, cancer related thing. And it was, if you'll pardon the expression,

that's why I do it and that's great. But see it for what it is. And that is you've got it. You've got a skill where you're where you can. If the circumstances are right, they've got in a modern world, a working comedian. It's not easy. It's like stepping into a bullfighting ring at the moment. You've got to have a situation where you can get in there.

The situation is. Right. And then off you go because you know, you run, you run for the hills when you see something that's not probably up your alley. I must say, Steve, I think you said to me that that day raised over 280, 000 or something in my research. There was some really, there was some really Generous people.

There's a guy called bill Ferguson from o p d developments who do little office things in, in the, around the place. So, but rather than people going into town to have an office, they can have an office at Springwood or Sunnybank or, so he builds those things and he, he here's a $20,000 sponsor and decided he'd up.

But he heard a girl who had lost her husband to cancer and they'd only been together three years. She got up and spoke about it and he said, I put another 80, 80 grand in. So, you know, you, you like that. You do a lot of work in that, in that field as well in the charity field. A lot of the work that you do in terms of the public speaking space has been geared towards philanthropy and I've, you've been my host at events that I've been involved in and coincidentally in a couple of weeks, there's another smoothies function actually at Heworth, so Yeah.

Yeah. I'm not with Marty. It's a wonderful, that's smiling committee. So it's a really good, with really good people Steve Russell, and.

I should be better with names, I'm getting to that age where, what's nice, what was really interesting about the other day was the dynamics we were able to create in the room. So you've got a lot of other people, it's Sunday afternoon, they're all really happy to be there, then you go out and you have some fun with them, and you see how that lifts the room.

That's great. That's, that's where you get the, that's where you get the satisfaction. The satisfaction is not everyone thinking I'm fabulous because what they think of me is none of my business. What brings me the satisfaction is being able to contribute to them having a good time. And I think that's really important in any sort of organization or room that's about raising money.

It's about, are you experiencing a fullness of heart and a fullness of, you know, camaraderie between the people that you're there with? That's what pushes the That's how the big fundraisers happen. So you've been critical to getting that happening, but listen, I'm still taking you back to Toowoomba because this little boy who kind of was really reserved and wanting this sense of self worth then decides to go to University of Queensland.

And of course, Into the media space, right? Yes. It's almost an anomaly, isn't it really? I'll tell you, I, and I'll, and I'll dip back into that. I had an athletics coach at Tooo Bagram called Lindsay Jones, and I knew I was a pretty good swimmer and I did a few of these. I was AG Good Boxer one, and, and Lindsey Jones said, I want you to come down and run for the school.

This is up at Toumba Grammar, this beautiful school that I was fortunate enough to attend, and Lindsey taught me an. It's just a really, really important philosophy because I had never run before, never ever made an athletics team before, but all of a sudden, you know, I was in the Toowoomba Grammar athletics team running against boys, boys from schools down here and having a fantastic time.

But what Lindsay taught me was if you're going to, if you want to be good at something, you've got to do more work on it than anyone else is doing. So if you're going to compete with someone in a You the one thing that is an absolute no brainer and a mandatory, a mandatory requirement of anything like that and it was a big lesson for me.

You simply you simply gotta do if you're competing against someone in anything, you just gotta do more work than they do and he proved that lesson to all these young kids. That's why he was such a good coach. He used to take this little school of 400 people and bring them down here. Matt Woodman, GPS Athletics, never won anything before ever, but he instilled in these guys if we do more and the routine was, was, was punishing.

So that's been something that served me. You know, there's, I've had a lot of luck in my life career wise, you know, I bounced into this and I got into comedy at the right time and I got, you know, I was selling photocopies at Xerox for a while and had a great time and doing, you know, worked in radio and had tremendous success there.

Lots of doors open, lots of doors closes. Push me, which pushed me into another area. But I've always had that lesson from Lindsay Jones. You can't get around, especially, especially in a, in a field like mine, where getting up in front of people and the humiliation of things not working out is terrifying.

And it continues to terrify them into this day. Getting up in front of an audience, not having had at least have a little bit of a look at what you're gonna say. and do, I still, I still get scared. You know, there's very rarely a time, there's very rarely a time when I get up and I'm, and I'm not filled with a level of fear.

Absolutely, I think the kind of the sport ethos, you know, the learnings from winning, losing, how to play the game was really important to Sport as a metaphor for life is very, you know, on a, on a regular basis, you see these stories of you know, the ability to, I guess probably you'd say at various stages in my life, I've had the ability to pick myself up off the floor, dust myself off and go and go again, you know.

Take another career path, you know. So tell us about those days. I did a couple of productions on the stage. When I finished at Queensland University, I had a really good mentor at Queensland University, who later became the Dean of the Arts Faculty, a guy called Professor Richard Fotheringham, who was really, really terrific with me.

And he sent me on this path and I had Jennifer Bloxidge, who was who was at the Wyatt Theatre, who was a great champion of mine. I played Errol Flynn in a play there. And, and, one of the happiest days of my life was when, having done that, I went and did an audition for the great Alan Edwards at the Queensland Theatre Company.

I got a Part in some parts. I did about five or six roles in in Annie the musical, which was a wonderful, this is 1981 and this is a wonderful, never, never been more thrilled in my life than the day I, the day they told me I'd come out of university with an arts degree. Not sure what was going on.

And there, there, there was the Queens and theater company offering me a job to write the age of 22. So they were, they were exciting times. Really interesting, really interesting times. And that I read that bus bus for Two years and then, as sometimes happens when you're a professional actor, suddenly there's no work.

I got this part in a movie and I thought I was like Hugh Hefner, you know, I thought I, I thought I'd really hit the big time and the money was really good. But it was at a time when there was investment, there was investment in movies. And I think Graham Kennedy. Pulled his money out of the film for some reason, he decided he wasn't going to invest in it so they came to us the next day and said...

So you've damned your plans to be produced. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so here I am, here, I even had a party at my, the little house I was living in in Taringa. I had this party and everyone came around, there was a card game in that room and there were naughty movies in that room. And it was all this, you know, it was all, this is, I've, I've, I've made it!

I'm there! As I said, that door shuts. So, so I find myself a mate of mine says, Oh, look, go and sell photocopies for Xerox. They'll give you a thousand dollars a month and a car. This is 1982. So you're off. So I said, well, I'll, I'll go. I went and did a Chandler McLeod personality test. And they said, yes, it'll probably work.

He'll probably be okay. And had a wonderful 80, 1985. In the, my second last year, my penultimate year at Xerox, I did the Greg Evans Star Search show. Did you? I didn't know that. That's new to me. That was, that was a that was on, that was a big rating show. I watched it. Back in the days, 85 and, and 86 I was doing in a series of things and I won the, kept on winning every week.

In the comedy, in the comedy area, we used to get 2, 000 a, a lot of money in those days, you know. When I was doing gigs, when I was doing gigs at that time, you know, you'd probably get 200, 100, 400 or something like that. So that really pushed things along to the point where I was eventually able to say to Xerox, I think I'm gonna, I think I'm gonna bang away at this for a while, this idea of being a comedian and leave the photocopies behind me.

to be proved to be a good a good point. I got the radio and FM 104 during its glory days. I worked with some great people like Ted Seymour and Billy Reiner who were, who were well known to people in the, in the radio landscape here. And that's when, that's when that. That radio station was huge. It was the big, the big ratings.

We were getting about 38% of the audience at that particular time. A popular radio station in Brisbane is celebrating if they get 13% of the audience. But we had a huge audience there and I'd won up to I won a Federation of Australian Radio Broadcaster's Award for the best newcomer and Australian radio.

And then they then . Then I helped, then I helped, helped a I went down to, said the late depart of Doug Maray, cuz the station had said, put together a breakfast team. And I said, right o we'll get I said, who do you think we should get, Doug? And he said, get Alan Mcg. And then I came back from holidays and Alan McGervin had got his own team, and he didn't require me.

So, so. Poor Steve again. There you go. Up the door again. It's a new wind. It's a new wind that blows no good because I'm sitting at home in the throne room. You know, looking, looking for inspiration, reading an old Aussie rules history book. And I said, I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to write a history of the, the New South Wales Rugby League.

The De Blancos are in and, and that. So just like that. So you know that ability? Dad, my father, Frank, up in Toowoomba, always said this about me, Marisa, that I could have a, that I could have a concert done and ready to go by Friday. You know, that, so, so, and a lot of that had to do with The selling strategies I'd learned.

That was an invaluable thing. The ability to sit in front of someone and say we can do this, this, this and this and it'll cost you that much. Do you want me to lock it in? That ability to do that, rather than having someone else do it for you. Or that, the ability to sit down with people. And so I wrote the Crest of a, Crest of a Way.

I wrote it, how's this? I wrote this history of the New South, Power sponsored me, I went and saw Bernie Power and he, he said, how much do you want? And I thought of the tax problem and the, and the mortgage I couldn't jump over and you know. And doubled it, I hope, at least. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and, and he said, fine, I'll pay you half now and half when the book's delivered.

So Bernie was a, Bernie was really central. To what he believed in, what I was, what I was doing, and the idea that that a Queenslander write the history of this, what was, what had up until that point when the Broncos and Newcastle came into it, basically been a a Sydney, Sydney competition. And then I do the second edition of the book and I go up to channel nine to sell it.

And I'm, so, I do, I wear my big Arthur Beetson suit, which is the old Russ Inns suit. And this is 19, this is early late 1991. And I'm thinking, oh God, that money from that book's running out. You know, I had, I had, I had big commitments, I had a lot of balls in the air in those days, trying to keep this thing going, cause we had, we'll get to little Freddy in a minute, when we're doing a wheelchair.

She's had two young children, so I'm driving down after doing this. What was a really good turn with the beautiful Fiona MacDonald and Tony Gordon up there on in Brisbane today. And I get a call from the producer of the show, Paul Wade, not a call because I didn't have a mobile at this stage. I had a beeper and the beeper goes off, call Paul Wade.

So I get home, I ring Paul Wade, he says, do you want to host the show next year? And that lends itself. to a 20 year career. Channel nine. Who lost their job as a result of Tony? Tony stopped. Tony. Tony. Tony. I, I dunno what happened with Tony. I don't think he wanted to do it anymore. I certainly don't think they thought this bloke's so sensational.

He was probably an I was probably an option to them. But I have to ask you that. Well, I'll ask, I'll ask Paul and I'll come back to you because we did say in a. Discussion that, you know, aptitudes can take you so far in attitude, but really there's a bit of luck that plays a role in just being in exactly the right place at the right time.

And what a great demonstration of that happening at channel nine. And then that must have actually cast you into quite a long history. I've written the book. So I'm hosting in Brisbane today. for a year. The, that, the ratings in that show are absolutely fantastic, but the powers that be in, in Sydney say, no, we're taking the Melbourne Ernie, Lise Drysdale show out.

We're not going to spend the money on producing our own show. So the guy from the sports department, that's John Evans and Lee Anderson, come and say would you like to read the sport on the news? And here's another story, here's another, another story. Three years, three years into that, they decide, okay we're going to change, we're going to get Bruce Page back to read the news, we're going to replace Mike London, and we're going to replace Steve Haddon with Gary Belcher.

And I go great, great, but I've got a contract to the end of the year. So I said, well, I won't leave now, you know, we've got a contract, so I'll work here until the end of the year. And head down, head down, tail up, Marisa, this is another bit of, bit of where there's life there's hope. You ever heard that expression?

So I'm thinking, I'm thinking, right, I've got till the end of the year to hang on to this gig, so get stuck in my boy. You know, the stakes are pretty high here. You've got, you know, the family at home, you've got two little kids. One's at Somerville House and one's at, and little Freddy's in a wheelchair and mum's at home.

So, so at the end of the year, so what's happening? They say, well, you can stay. So, so there's just a couple of little things there. that have really been I guess I can be persistent. You create your own luck. You never know. We, you've got to be in it to win it. Once again, sporting, sporting metaphors come into the, to come into the fore, but that's about it.

Get up. Put a suit on, put a tie on, go and make an appointment, go and see someone and ask. And you never know what's going to happen. It's not going to happen while I'm sitting on the couch at home. And then I think, Steve, it was about 20 years involvement with Channel 9, is that correct? Yeah, yes, yeah, wonderful.

Amazing, how'd you just, maybe if you hadn't even said, well I won't go now, I'll just stay till the end of the year, you might have actually never ever had that. In a town like, in a town like Brisbane, or a city like Brisbane, don't burn bridges. There's only three degrees of separation in Brisbane, I would think.

Look, look, it can be tempting to tell someone where to go, but you never know. When you're going to spin back into their orbit, it happens all the time. So the Be Gracious, Be Gracious, A good, a good, a good lesson from that perspective I would think. One of the lessons, one of the lessons that I learned, but you know, for me, it was that going into that book.

book thing, which sustains me to this day with, with I've written five books now and, and I'm on my, on my sixth book. So it's, it's interesting. It's interesting. You know, I studied, I studied arts, drama. Journalism and Australian history. So how funny that disciplines that I paid very little attention to at the time have sustained me to this day.

Just those little, building on those little building blocks. When I look back, I'm quite proud with what I've been able to do. My father up in Toowoomba, Frank, always said, If you're going to do anything, do it properly. So that's, that's been another, so there's the Lindsay Jones, there's a few of those little things that have come.

Some great teachers in that, and great, great, great teachers like that. Exactly. Well I'm going to come back and talk to you in a little bit about the drama perspective because there was more drama to follow a life on the stage and in the media, when our two lives collided. So we might come back and chat about that in a moment.

We hope you enjoyed part one of our chat with Steve. If you have any questions, you can send them through to podcast ler house.com.au. That's H A N W O R T H. You can get your hands on a signed copy of Steve's latest book. Or request him to roast you at your next event through the link in the episode description or directly at stevehaddon.

com. au That's S T E V E H A D D A N If you enjoyed today's episode, please share, rate, review, and make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss part 2 of our chat with Steve where we go into depth on how Marisa and Steve reacted when they discovered they were siblings and what's coming up for Steve in the future.

Cheers! Cheers!