Leave A Light On Podcast
Welcome to "Leave A Light On Podcast," the podcast that brings you inspiring stories of ordinary people overcoming extraordinary challenges in their lives. Join us as we delve into the lives of individuals from all walks of life, exploring the adversities they face and the resilience they demonstrate in overcoming them.
In each episode, we'll introduce you to a new guest—a parent, a teacher, a healthcare worker, a student, a veteran, or perhaps your neighbor next door. Through heartfelt interviews and candid conversations, we'll uncover the personal battles they've fought, whether it's overcoming illness, navigating through loss, breaking free from addiction, or facing societal barriers.
From tales of triumph over adversity to stories of perseverance in the face of hardship, "Leave a Light On Podcast" celebrates the human spirit and the strength found within each of us. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and most importantly, you'll be inspired by the resilience and determination of these everyday people who refuse to be defined by their struggles.
So, tune in and join us on this journey of hope, empowerment, and the celebration of the human spirit. Because in the end, it's the stories of everyday people that remind us all that we are capable of overcoming anything life throws our way.
Leave A Light On Podcast
S2 Ep 7 - Acting, Radio & Finding Your Inner Billy - The Garth Russell Story
What happens when we finally tell the stories we've kept locked inside? Entertainment veteran Garth Russell takes us on a captivating journey through his 67 years of life experience, revealing how sharing our authentic narratives can transform not just our mental wellbeing, but potentially our physical health too.
From his early days as a nervous radio DJ in Tamworth to acting alongside Sam Neill, Garth shares the profound insecurities that have followed him throughout his successful career. With refreshing honesty, he admits to feeling unconfident even while captivating rooms full of people – a reminder that even accomplished performers battle self-doubt.
The heart of our conversation explores Garth's remarkable business, "A Life Recording," where he captures people's life stories on film for their families. He shares the unforgettable story of Harry Power, a terminally ill veteran who experienced a mysterious remission after unburdening himself of war experiences he'd never previously shared. This powerful narrative illustrates how the simple act of telling our stories can possibly create healing that extends beyond the psychological.
Garth's own experiences with loss – particularly losing his father at just 48 years old when Garth was 22 – highlight why preserving our loved ones' stories matters so deeply. "What I'd give, even if it was just an audio, just Dad talking," he reflects, reminding us not to wait until it's too late to record the voices and stories that matter most.
For those struggling with confidence or direction, Garth offers a beautifully simple practice: speak to your seven-year-old self. By reconnecting with that inner child and honestly sharing what you've accomplished, you gain a fresh perspective on your journey that cuts through adult judgments and expectations.
Listen now and discover how telling your authentic story might be the key to unlocking something transformative within yourself.
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Share your stories with us and lets Leave a Light On
Hello and welcome to Leave a Light On Podcast, a show that looks to tackle the everyday struggles in our everyday lives. It's time to shed some light on it. Leave a light on podcasts not a licensed mental health service. It shouldn't be substituted for professional advice or treatment. Things discussed in this podcast are general in nature and may be of a sensitive nature. If you're struggling, please seek professional help or contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Speaker 4:Here's your hosts Yo, hello and welcome to another episode of Leave a Line on Podcast. I am one half of the show, which is Shane. Well, I'm Shane, should I say, not the show. The show is Leave a Line on Podcast. Unfortunately my other half, Shev, is not with me today. But I have a very suitable stand-in filler, the one that only producer slash, manager, slash everything else that is not. Host. Mr Mick Boyd, old Boydy, Hello.
Speaker 1:Good morning, hello. How's that for an intro? Yeah, thanks, I didn't get an intro in the last one. I was a bit disappointed, yeah.
Speaker 4:Or a song no, you don't need a song. I'm a bit disappointed. Yeah, or a song no, you don't need a song. That's fine. But yeah, I just thought I'd give you some kind of intro. Yeah, thank you Very good.
Speaker 1:Good to be here. Chev will be back next time, but this is the second one For today.
Speaker 4:You've just got Mikanai. It sounds like a.
Speaker 1:Mikanai, mikanai, mikanai.
Speaker 4:Real island getaway McKinney McKinney An island Thank you for joining me, mick.
Speaker 1:Thank you for standing in. Thanks for having me, shane. I really appreciate it, yeah.
Speaker 4:It's not going to be as off the cuff as normal, I guess, with the old Chevron. Yeah, we make it work.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4:And the ball has to keep rolling and we keep doing what we're doing, because no one else is going to tell our people stories. That's right. It's not for us.
Speaker 1:You've got to keep going.
Speaker 4:It sounded very dramatic, but it's not.
Speaker 1:Today's episode. Today's episode. Thank you very much. Shane is going to be.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean today's episode. What an incredible guest we have today. Just an incredible dude, Like I don't even take out all the accolades, take out all the accolades, take out all everything he's done. I mean he is just an incredible person, Yep, and, like you say, a real father figure actually. Yeah, 100%, you definitely get that vibe.
Speaker 1:You just get that vibe of just like wow.
Speaker 4:So today's guest is the one and only Mr Garth Russell. For those of you who know Mr Garth Russell, he has been around for 67 years now and an incredible person in the entertainment industry. He was on ABC radio for many, many years, yeah, and he did breakfast show and everything like that there, as well as started his own talk show segment, yes, which was amazing. He has featured on TV series such as Home and Away. Water Rats, Water Rats my wife will be so excited All Saints as well. He has also started his own business, which is called A Laugh Recording, and basically he'll go into it more, but what an incredible business model he has.
Speaker 1:Just so good, I think that so many people could actually use it, but they don incredible business model he has. Yeah, it's just so good. I think that so many people could actually use it, but they don't know that they need to use it until it's too late. Absolutely recording someone's you know story and keeping it to have that moment cherished forever, I think is just such an amazing thing and he just loves doing it yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so good, so good, like um.
Speaker 4:So I really yeah, a shout out to that business. So good, um, and he, his wife Susie, is a big part of his life.
Speaker 1:I've known Garth and Susie for probably three or four years now.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 1:Susie is just amazing. She's just. She can captivate a room. So can Garth, but's just yeah, she's next level, I can imagine. I can imagine she's really cool.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and then also, he's now started His own stage production. Yes, well, he's just done His own stage production, shall I say, which is called Billy Billy and it's based on the character of Billy Connolly. Yep, but it's, yeah, it's telling him.
Speaker 1:It's telling him story, but it's, yeah, it's her story through, obviously, billy and he sold out the playhouse in Newcastle two nights in a row it's huge, unbelievable huge, and I think he's going to talk about going on tour, like going around the country, yeah so really, really cool guest and I can't even begin to punt this enough.
Speaker 4:there is so much value in this podcast. It's unbelievable. I was blown away by his story, by all the little anecdotes that he talks about the struggles that he has had to face during his time, so, so key for every single person. He's just got so much life experience Yep, 100% that there's literally nothing, that this man there's nothing. He says that you just don't go.
Speaker 1:oh my goodness, oh, my goodness, yeah, and I knew when I was trying to get him as a guest on the show, I was like he is just going to be next level. People are just going to resignate with what he says. They're going to just get that goosebump feeling of you know, when he talks and, as I said, I've been in a room with him where he can captivate 50 people, you know, from a concrete tradie to an architect and literally no one talks, no one does anything. It is just listening and focusing on Garth. He's just such an amazing person, touching and curable dude.
Speaker 1:So let's not pump the man up anymore, yeah, without any more further ado. Well, Susie will be like calm down boys, Calm down Jeez.
Speaker 4:So, without any further ado, I give to you our podcast, our interview, our storytelling of the one and only Garth Russell. Garth Russell goth, thank you so much for joining us today on this, uh, beautiful episode of level on a podcast. Um, you have an incredible story which we are going to get into a little bit more, but thank you for joining us for your time. That's a pleasure. Um, you have led a really interesting life, sir. Um, I must say, talking before this, um it, it was a real eye-opener to me in terms of just a different perspective on on life and and maybe the value that you have in life and where you put the value in. But let's start more so on who gotth is now today. How would you describe yourself, garth?
Speaker 2:I'm a Caucasian male just about to turn 67. How would I describe myself? Well, I'm curious, I'm learning, I'm insecure, sometimes unconfident, probably not aware, often, of my own worth. Yes, these are all the good things. Yeah, okay, so wait till we get into the deep, dark, nasty bits. Yeah, look, I was encouraged to be curious from a very early age, and curiosity is the thing that I think overrides just about everything I do.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean anyone who's listening to that right now and said Mr Garth Russell, insecure, not very confident, no ways. I think that's a very key characteristic for a lot of people who have been in your line of work actually totally agree.
Speaker 2:Um, that's why they get into it actually, yeah, very true, I radio um acting, those those areas that I've delved into over the years probably mostly radio but they're full of people who are talking out loud, acting, performing, engaging, entertaining, but deep down they're going. I don't know whether I should be doing this, I don't know if I'm good at this, but I think that's what drives people like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's so funny. I was talking to you just before we started recording and garth I've known garth for probably about four years now and we I, he came into a room we'd never no one had met him before and he started speaking and literally we had 50 people with eyes on garth and no one interrupted, no one made a noise and we just listened to him speak. He had captivated the room and it was just. I was like this guy is amazing. When I hear you say what you just said, then I'm like you are not insecure.
Speaker 3:You have totally got this.
Speaker 4:Yeah, let me ask you that when you hear something like that that Micah's just said, when you've gone, you've captivated the room and you've really like you've just said something that's really just. I mean, that's something that he's held with him for a fairly substantial amount of time how do you feel when you hear that?
Speaker 2:A little bit embarrassed, I suppose, to be quite honest, I think it's off the back of. So I started in radio in 1983. I'd always wanted to be an actor. I'd always wanted to be an actor, I'd always wanted to be a performer of some sort. And from radio and 35 years of radio, I found an outlet that allowed me to entertain, engage. So I think there's the person and then there's the performance, or what you learn. And so through radio I learned. I mean, when I first started doing radio, after a very short training stint of what was it? 12 weeks, two hours a week, 24 hours training I got my first radio gig in Tamworth and I often jokingly say that I think only dogs could hear me for the first couple of months because I was so nervous, I was speaking so high, going what the heck am I doing? And there were people listening to me going. Are you sure you should be doing?
Speaker 2:this A stop apologising and B just relax. So you know, as I was saying before, sometimes we put ourselves in those positions that we feel most uncomfortable in, but we probably most need to, for whatever reason.
Speaker 4:Okay, so here's a question, and this is it's very deep for so early on in the podcast. Oh gosh, here we go.
Speaker 2:Let's ask the question.
Speaker 4:Let's dig deep. When you talk about, obviously, people telling you to just be who you are on the microphone and just like be confident, do you think that that character you portray is your true, authentic self? Because you're now in a position where you can just put on an act but the act is actually who you want to be?
Speaker 2:Radio-wise, yes, no, it's sort of the reverse. So after 35 years and I was on radio predominantly for 35 years, but I took breaks every now and then and I went back the last time at the beginning of 2016. I had an opportunity to go back and do breakfast radio, for it turned out to be three years. It wasn't going to be but it did and I came away from that and I knew that it wasn't ongoing, that there was going to be an end date and that was the end of 2018, I walked away from that going. That's the most me I've ever been on air and I remember earlier in my career going. I can't wait for that time when I'm in a studio talking to people as if the microphone's not there.
Speaker 2:So it took me and I wasn't necessarily going to go back to radio, but I'm so glad I did because it was kind of okay. I could pull the piano lid down and go okay, that's it. I don't need to do that again. But it was the most confident and comfortable I'd ever been and look, it went really well. It was a successful stint as well. I rated well and the reaction was great and when I left there was like this outpouring of. Wow, you know, there was a lovely acknowledgement. So yeah, the irony was that was probably just me in front of a microphone chatting.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 2:What made you leave the ABC? Okay, we don't want you anymore yeah. But yeah, look, and I probably would have stayed on, but I knew it was only temporary, it was only going to be four months, it turned out to be three years and it was a break from running my own business, for I'd been running that for seven years and I was exhausted, to be quite honest. I was in my.
Speaker 2:I was about 57, I guess getting into my late fifties and you know ups and downs of work and jumping in and out of businesses that I was running. I'd run that one for seven years and they said, do you want some regular work? And I went, yes, I do, I could do with a breather. I could do with going back and getting paid on a regular basis, doing something I felt comfortable with. So it was a really nice chapter professionally in my life.
Speaker 4:What was that business that you were running at the time?
Speaker 2:I still run it temporarily or, you know, sort of casually. It's called a live recording and it's basically capturing people's stories on film on behalf of their families. And the story behind that was I was working at the ABC and the producer I was working with at the time. It was a Friday night I was doing Drive. Finished the show, we were just sort of wrapping up and this producer said look, it's amazing, it's been a year since Dad passed away. And she said Mum's still in good physical shape. But you know, when she's gone, there go all the family stories.
Speaker 2:And I said well, that's why there are people out there, you know, capturing them. And it's one of those lightbulb moments where I thought, yeah, but I've never heard of anyone doing that. And I jumped in the car, went past the bottle, bought a really nice bottle of red wine, bounced through the back door at home and just said to Suze, my wife I've just come up with this great idea, business idea. And we talked about it and she said, well, if it's really important, do it. So I went back to the ABC about I don't know, maybe two weeks later and said look, at the end of the year I'm leaving. And the manager, quite rightly in a way, said well, you sure you don't want to stay here for, you know, a year, do another year contract and work up your business. I went ah, no, mate, no, that wouldn't be doing either of us a service, so I'll just jump. So I jumped and that was the beginning of 2000,. Well, the end of 2009.
Speaker 2:And so the premise of it was to talk to people, get their stories, get their trust, which I didn't know that I could necessarily do as close, face-to-face with that, with a camera and a microphone. So the first person I interviewed was my father-in-law. He was my guinea pig. Then I think there was another relative and then the next person was a grandmother I'd never met before and the family just said look, would you sit down and tell your story to this stranger? So I rocked up at her house with my camera and gear and we had a cup of tea. We sat down and she told me a story and I thought this will work. And it worked on the premise that, well, I was getting paid for it, but not by her for a start.
Speaker 2:But I was just genuinely interested in her story. There was just curiosity there. So she went you look interested, I'll interested in her story. There was just curiosity there, so she went you look interested, I'll tell you my story. And I don't think out of the hundreds I've done since then, there's been anyone sort of dry up going no, I'm not going to talk to you. They've been pushed in front of me by their families, sometimes going yeah, all right, but really it's someone who wants to hear what they have to say and find out what was interesting in their life and what their life meant to them. And, of course, if you have that genuine interest, people are going to talk and they're going to share.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's been an incredibly privileged position to put yourself in. Yeah, and I love it. It's one of those things when you it's work but it doesn't feel like work. It's just something I happen to get paid for because it works.
Speaker 1:That's a perfect job. Yeah, it's the perfect job.
Speaker 4:Let me ask you what are some of the key things. Maybe that you learnt doing that in terms of, like some of the stories you've heard, maybe life lessons that you might have picked up during this, because you would have heard some incredible stories from people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, look, I always go to the one and I've done public speaking on the power of storytelling and, you know, mental health benefits and that sort of thing. But this one was one that it totally surprised me and I guess I couch it in terms of the thousands of people I've interviewed, many of whom are famous. They could be pop stars or actors or politicians. It was a gentleman called Harry Power and Harry was late 70s, riddled with cancer, had been given three months to live. Riddled with cancer, had been given three months to live. And this was six months later and his daughter reached out to me and just said look, dad's in a position where he feels comfortable to tell his story, but we really want him to do it, you know, sooner rather than later. So I went around to Harry's house and sat down and set the camera up and in those days I was filming myself, so I'd have my little monitor to the side and have my earphones in and sort of, you know, just checking to make sure it's still working, but being able to, you know, still conduct the conversation.
Speaker 2:And Harry's story was a tough one in a way, because as a baby he was fostered out to a home because his father was fighting in the war and his sister was looking after him. They went, nah sorry. And there he stayed till he was a teenager and he had the love of learning beaten out of him and he was bullied as a little kid. But he was there till he was about 14, I think, and became the hero and became the protector of all these other little kids that he saw come through. And that was his job. That was what he saw was really important. He was mistreated by the family members when he worked on a farm.
Speaker 2:Then he went to fight in the Korean War and there he was badly injured in a mortar attack. And this is where the story got really interesting, because there was this total void in his story, this total void in his memory, where he just said he literally said I don't know how badly injured I got. He said I remember the attack, I remember the mortar attack, I remember the shouting. I remember that some of my fellow soldiers were injured, possibly killed. He said but I don't remember how I got back to Australia, whether I kept fighting. It was really quite weird. So he shared that and then he went on to talk about the rest of his life, becoming a dad and you know all that sort of stuff. And at the end of it I said well, harry, thanks very much for telling your story on behalf of your family. And he looked at me and he said you know, I feel different. He said I've never told that story before.
Speaker 2:That has never left my lips that story before that has never left my lips and he said I feel different and he looked different. He looked lighter. So I left and went and did the you know, produced it all up, put you know the photos on and gave it to the family. And about 10 months later I got a call or an email from his daughter, christine, and I saw who it was from and I thought, wow, she's probably emailed me to let me know that Harry's lasted this long. She emailed me to say Harry's gone into remission, he's fine. The doctors are scratching their head. They don't know what happened, but he's fit as a fiddle. Like God, garth, I've got goosebumps, yeah, well, I sort.
Speaker 2:I started putting two and two together but it wasn't until a few years later that a friend of mine who'd been in the military said are you still doing those live recordings? I said yeah. He said have you done any veterans? And I said yeah, I told him about Harry. I said I've actually got this footage that could be really helpful, because he thought maybe we could work together to help veterans tell their stories. So this was four years after I did the interview with Harry originally. So I rang Harry's house very tentatively to see if I could get permission from his family to use this bit of footage because you could physically see this guy lighten up physically. So and Pat, harry's wife answered the phone and so I went Pat, look, I hope you don't mind me calling, but this is my plan and you know I've got this footage. And she said well, ask Harry, he's right here. It's his 84th birthday tomorrow. You'd love to have a chat with you. Harry gets Garth, how are you, mate? We're chatting away. And he said yeah, look, I'm still around, still good.
Speaker 2:And I did another interview with him. We didn't. Actually. I tried to go down that path, talking to you know, veterans Affairs and RSLs, and it was just like pushing you know what uphill. It wasn't going to happen. It was too simple, you know, get veterans to tell their stories. It might be really good for them. So that wasn't going to work. But I used the story when I talked to people about the power of storytelling and I get to that point where I said do you want to hear what happened with Harry next? And they went oh, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:The final, the epitaph I think is the expression of the story was I'd organised for Harry to come. I was back at the ABC to come in and do an interview about the Korean War and he said, yeah, yeah, that'd be great, I'll be there. And then, about two days before we do the interview, I get a call from his son-in-law who said Harry had had a fall. It wasn't cancer related, he may have had an episode like a heart attack and passed away. Oh man, and I delivered a eulogy at his funeral.
Speaker 2:They invited me to tell a story about Harry and to this day I just cannot get over how different he looked when he actually unloaded, when he finally told this part of his story that he'd never shared with anyone. And you know, you can put two and two together, you can do the research. There's still a lot of suggestions that if we share, if we unburden ourselves, it's not just good for our mental health, it's good for our physical health. So I guess, in answer long answer to your question, that to me is if that was the only interview I'd ever done that was worthwhile.
Speaker 4:Yeah, 100%. Wow, that's a. I mean, what a powerful story, honestly.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, I think the whole opportunity to talk to veterans, for example anyone but veterans, for example, I suppose. Something that holds quite close to my heart is Sierra's grandfather, I suppose something that holds quite close to my heart is Sarah's grandfather.
Speaker 1:He went to war and I think he really struggled with being able to talk about it. He would only ever talk about it if we would have a scotch, or we would, and then he would really start to open up. But unfortunately it was usually quite late in the night and it was all going to get a bit messy, but there were some amazing stories there that you were just like. I could just listen to them for hours.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I know Sarah's mum would be listening to this now going my God, if we had have got that of Jack Gamble, it would be something that we would all have a copy of and we would, you know, cherish for quite some time. And I know that by they've got a recording of him, that he was done when he came back from war and they've still got that on tape. Yeah, and it's still. Yeah, it doesn't get played very often, but it's still. I know that it would be so amazing to have that piece of you know, archived, I suppose information about anyone and the stories that those people have got, oh, yeah, absolutely and they talk.
Speaker 2:You know there's a Simon Sinek you know sort of way of looking at things, which I'm a big believer in. You know why do you do what you do and be really sure about that. The other why for me is to have lost my dad when he was 48. I was 22 and I've got a handful of photos of him, no record of his voice, those sort of things that you just can't recall what I give, even if it was just an audio, just dad talking, simple as that. So that's another reason why I was so hell-bent on doing that job, because I just know what it means and I think as I got more involved in it I could also see, obviously, the benefit to the families, but the benefit to the person a la Harry, a la anyone going, you're interested? This is what my life meant to me. People don't get an opportunity to do that very often.
Speaker 4:So it's pretty special. No, it's such a. I mean it's just. Even while you were saying that, I could think of so many people that I know that have, in sharing their story, like you say, have just unburdened this weight that has just come back and they've come back out of that after sharing it and gone. Man, I just my life changed after that, like I don't know why, I don't know what it was about that moment, but me just opening up about something so simple like my story, things that I've gone through, things that I've walked through, it almost put my entire life into perspective and it's just such a beautiful thing. Like people, there's power in people's stories.
Speaker 2:Well, and it's a two-way thing. There's power for the listener because we automatically start reflecting on ourselves. You know, what am I learning from this? What does this mean to me? I mean, it almost becomes selfish, but it's true. We love stories and back in the days when we lived in caves, you know, tens of thousands of years ago, stories kept us alive when we lived in caves. You know tens of thousands of years ago, stories kept us alive. That's it. That's right. Someone would come running into the cave going.
Speaker 3:hey, can I suggest you don't head out to the left over that hill because there's a saber-toothed tiger.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he will rip your head off as soon as he looks at you. You know, or there's food over there.
Speaker 4:You know, like we told stories, we shared stories with each other to yeah, that's how traditions and cultures and values were passed down was through stories. Absolutely yeah, and we don't have enough of that nowadays.
Speaker 2:No, we don't.
Speaker 4:Or if we do, it's just the wrong kind of stories.
Speaker 2:Well, it's hey. Look at me in Fiji, exactly.
Speaker 4:There's another shot of my…. Or look at my brand new car that I've just bought.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my painted toes in front of another pool. And you're in the middle of winter in Newcastle going rack right off. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:I mean, you just hit the nail on the head there for me, to be honest, oh, 100%. So I mean, that's been a beautiful thing, a part of your life, I think, and I really encourage you to keep doing that, because I don't think people realize the power in those stories until it is too late. Oh, totally, you know, yeah, and I think we've even said this on this podcast before. But we have this kind of ability to think that things are never going to change, that life will just go on and at 40 years old, nothing's ever going to happen to my dad or my mom or whoever you know. They've still got heaps of time to live, it doesn't matter how long, and then life can change in an instant, absolutely, and by that stage it's too late. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:You know, and then when you have these opportunities where we can take the time to, you know tell the story, you know record these moments of it's just, I think, like people need to just see the value in that a lot more.
Speaker 2:And you know we're in an age where it's so easy. Just hold up your iPhone and have a chat, ask a few questions. You know you don't have to engage a professional. If you're genuinely interested, nana will talk to you. Yeah, absolutely Crazy, uncle George, he'll talk at you for hours yeah, yeah, that's beautiful.
Speaker 4:Let's move a little bit earlier in your life. Obviously, you started your business before this. You were still on radio is that correct?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, the business came gosh. Yeah, I've probably been in radio for about 25 years, and I was. It was a mixture of boredom and ambition, I think. For me, whenever I'd jump in and do something oh, I think I'm sick of this, I'll have a go at something, but radio since I was 25 and before that I did retail management because I couldn't think of anything else.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But very early in my radio career. So my first gig was in Tamworth and for the first year I did sort of music shows and worked on the weekends and you know sort of put the races to, you know on air and you know the horse racing and stuff. So you did a bit of everything and after a year the manager came to me and he said look, what are you interested in doing? Are you interested in anything other than presenting music? Because I didn't really see myself as a music DJ. That wasn't entertaining enough. I think I wanted to talk. Yeah. So he gave me the opportunity to start a talkback show first time in Tamworth and it was, you know, three hours a day between 9 and 12, monday to Friday. And that was amazing.
Speaker 2:After a year of getting comfortable with radio, to be thrown that at me, to have that thrown at me, I went back up to oh my God, what am I doing? Again there he's gone again. Just the dogs hearing him. But that was amazing because that sort of that was all about interviewing people and having people come on air and talk about what was troubling them, interesting them. But what I'd realised was that seven years of retail management had given me that confidence to talk to anyone, so you know customers would come in. I'd be managing. You know sort of older people they were getting. You know they're on commission for selling TVs and stereos. And here's this 20-year-old going. Well, hang on, I think you know. It just gave me confidence.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a totally unexpected, great way to launch myself into something. That really was a bit terrifying because the studio I worked for I didn't have a producer for the first year so I did it all myself. I looked, I found the guests. I panelled. There was no one in another room going. Oh, this is Betty from you know, gunna Gada, she wants to do it. The light literally would flash on the phone in the studio. I'd hit it and go hi, who have we got? And I never knew who I had until they were on air.
Speaker 2:So, that was seat of your pants stuff. I had a seven-second delay, yeah, but that was it. You get wackos, lovely people, people that thought you were you know whatever, but it was. And after two years I left Tamworth feeling like I'd had a role to play and maybe in my own little way bringing the community together. Because when we first started the Talkback show people were concerned that other people would recognise their voices Big country town, they weren't going to say anything too outrageous, so I picked really sort of pretty safe topics.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But as it went on, people started trusting me, people started trusting each other and people would ring and talk about quite personal things. Other and people would ring and talk about, you know, quite personal things and other people would go. Well, this is what I reckon would be helpful to Jack, or this has been my experience. So there was this sort of little community that developed around this talkback show, which was just a lovely surprise, and I left Tamworth going well, that's cool yeah.
Speaker 4:It's crazy when you create something like that and the expectation in the beginning was never for that to kind of transpire, but when you do, you just look back and you go man, how can something so good come out of something that?
Speaker 2:we just didn't expect. Yeah, yeah, it was lovely. I really really enjoyed it. Yeah.
Speaker 4:What do you think were some of the challenges during that time, when you were trying to obviously start this Talk Back show and things like that? Did you face any challenges? Obviously, the fact that you had to do everything on your own would have been challenging in its own right.
Speaker 2:Well, that's where the unconfident, insecure, I can't do this person came in big time. I mean, when I first started it and I wanted to do it, this is the thing I wanted to do it, this is the thing I wanted to do it and I and I thought I could do it, but I was just panicked. I'd get to the, to the station at six o'clock in the morning, just freaking out.
Speaker 3:Who am.
Speaker 2:I going to talk to today. Oh my God, this is, you know, like this is terrifying. And I remember fairly early in the piece. So to make it a bit easier for me because it because three hours is a long time I'd get someone I think just about every day, an expert in a particular area and I'd say, would you come in and talk about day lives or talk about, you know, truck driving or whatever, and I'd get listeners to ring and ask this person questions. So fairly early in the piece I've got this clinical psychologist to come in to talk about stress. Who would have thought I didn't join the dots straight away, but it made total sense that halfway through this hour I'm in an ad break and I'm feeding carts into a cart machine and taking calls and yeah, we'll be within, and this guy is sitting at the back of the studio going we're out. And he said to me while one of the ad breaks was on.
Speaker 2:He said do you know, I've spoken to some pretty stressed people so far this morning, he said, but none of them are as nearly as you did you want to come and see me this afternoon when you, when you finish work, and I might be able to help you, aren't you sure? So I turn up at his, at his room, in his rooms, and he said I want to. I'd love to see if you could try this thing. It's called self-hypnosis and it's sort of it was just meditation with positive affirmation. So what he did? He showed me how to do it and I did it in his rooms and I went. Well, that feels all right. I went home and did it that night, got up the next morning and did it again and all I was doing was blanking out my mind and telling myself I was confident, and I cannot tell you the difference it made. When I went to work the next day, I went yeah, I can do this.
Speaker 2:And it's not always that easy, but but it was just a light bulb moment where. I've just rebooted my brain going oh my God, I can't do this. I was still getting on air and doing it, but telling myself in the back of my mind you can't do this. This is way too much for you. And that was just such a light bulb moment. It was brilliant.
Speaker 4:Did it increase your capacity? Do you think into what you were capable of doing then?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it would have had to. Yeah, I think it gave me the confidence. And look, the interesting thing is, after a year I was offered a producer. What's all that about? I've already done the hard yards. I'm aged 10 years in a year and it was a kid that came from high school. She'd just done her HSC and she wanted to be a journalist and someone knew her and we worked for nine months together. It was brilliant. Then she got poached by the TV station next door, went into TV. She's now Kylie Gillies, who's on Channel 7.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But, she was this kid that just had it. It started with you. It started with me and you know, I'd like to think I taught her everything she knows.
Speaker 4:but I don't think I did. You did Just say that you can say that.
Speaker 2:But I tell you what she made my job a lot easier. It was brilliant. And then I really started enjoying it and then I really got into it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I know the feeling because old Mick over here, who's our producer and manager, he's 100% made my life a lot easier because I don't have to worry about all the other little things. I can come here and I can worry about interacting with a guest like yourself and just focusing on what I enjoy, which is the conversations that we have, and not worry about who's next, what's coming next, what do we need to do after this. It's like I feel a lot lighter and I feel like I can bring a lot more of me into the podcast and the conversations that I have. So I resonate a lot with what you're saying in that aspect.
Speaker 1:So it's good, you can.
Speaker 4:you're saying in that aspect. So it's true, it's good you can take solace in that, nick oh, thank you.
Speaker 2:I do take a lot of things on and I say where's my coffee? Yeah, the orange guy's not here today, sorry you've also done a bit of acting.
Speaker 4:Yes, let's go into that a little bit. How did that firstly begin for you, and where did it go?
Speaker 2:Just as a kid from my earliest memories where I wanted to be an actor slash entertainer, dad it's funny because Dad was this real blokey blokey. You know, he was a bronze dozzy played every sport under the sun and he was. I think he was hoping that his first child, particularly a son, was going to be like him and I can't tell you how proud he was that I could sing just like Julie Andrews from Mary Poppins so proud.
Speaker 1:He would have been. Yeah, Frank.
Speaker 2:Brosey, he hid his pride really well if he was. So, yeah, that was my thing. But the irony is that Dad helped me prepare myself, as young as I was, to be an actor, because Dad was a bit of a. He was incredibly curious. Dad took himself to church when he was seven. Wow, I don't know that he went more than once, but he was.
Speaker 2:Dad was constantly searching, fascinated by mostly people. In his mostly working life he was an insurance salesman, which is a tough gig sometimes, but he was brilliant at it because he understood people, listened to people, learned from people, and so I picked up on that. And one of the interesting things, one of the many interesting things about that is he used to go and see psychologists talk. So an Anthony Robbins of the day was a guy called Murray Banks. He was a New York psychologist, jewish, very, very funny, and he used to travel the world. And dad went to see him speak, probably at the Horton Pavilion or the stadium or somewhere like that in Sydney, and bought one of his albums and he brought it home and the album is called, called I've Got it Still, just In Case you Think You're Normal and so I started to listen to it as a kid because it had jokes in it. This guy was funny, but in all the jokes, amongst all the jokes, were these life lessons.
Speaker 2:All these nuggets of psychological gems, and so I was kind of taking that on board and sort of feeding the part of my brain that makes people good at acting, because you've got to be interested in people, you've got to be. Every person is a possible subject. Yeah, you don't do it consciously, but I've read enough about actors and know enough about actors who have done far more acting at a far, far higher level than me. But the thing that I have in common with actors I know enough about actors who have done far more acting at a far, far higher level than me but the thing that I have in common with actors I've read about is you just part of your fascination with people is I'll lock that away somewhere and use that.
Speaker 2:I'll use that when I'm creating a character. So that's really interesting and you do it sort of subconsciously. So yeah, I mean the first acting I did was just did some amateur stuff, not until I was about 18. And it was. I loved it because I could tell I was really happy creating totally as this unconfident kid get on stage playing a character, and it was like, oh, I'm hiding behind the character, this is brilliant.
Speaker 2:And then I had thought about doing it when I was in my early 20s and I was sort of put off, probably way too easily. I just didn't have maybe the guts or wasn't prepared to have the bum out of my pants, you know, trying to find work and all that sort of stuff. Anyway, in my late 30s I finally decided to have a go at professional acting. So I just did some classes in front of the camera, classes. I'd go down to Sydney and learn to act for camera and then found myself an agent and then started getting some acting gigs on sort of shows that were around at the time, like Water Rats and All Saints. I was on Home and Away five times it's a different character each time, suggesting it wasn't a particularly memorable character, but I've done enough and TV commercials and stuff, and I've done enough in the last nearly 30 years, I suppose, to go. Yeah, I love this.
Speaker 2:And there have been times when I've been on a film set or a TV set and I'm acting as a professional. I'm there with all these professional actors going. I really I'm meant to be here, I'm good enough to be here and it's not an ego thing, it's just like no, I'm doing this, I can do this and I just it's probably been enough for me to go. Yeah, look, I didn't know I'm being a full-time actor, but I know I can do it. I've still got the capacity to do it. There may be a big role out there somewhere, but probably one of those pinch me moments was acting with Sam Neill in 2000. We filmed it in 2014, so it was a long time ago and it was called the House of Hancock. It was a two-part series about Gina Reinhart and Lang Hancock and that whole weird dynasty, rose Hancock and all that sort of stuff, oh yeah, and it ran over two nights and I auditioned for it.
Speaker 2:It was, as the part was, one of Lang Hancock's old engineering mates. He had a name and everything and you know a reasonable size role in this miniseries and I got the part. And then, after I got the part, I found out that Sam Neill was playing Lang Hancock. And then I went back through the script going God, I'm on a tennis court playing tennis with Sam Neill Lang Hengok, I'm in a boardroom and I look back at those scenes now on a regular basis. Can I say, nick, absolutely.
Speaker 4:Now that.
Speaker 2:I'm feeling a bit flat where I am Check me out. Oh, look at me, Look at me. No one else is watching, just me. But there I am acting with Sam Neill like I'm supposed to be there. So that was kind of, you know, as I said, pinch me moment where okay, yeah, that's cool, I can tick that box.
Speaker 4:I love the fact that you've had these little moments in life where, even when you've thought to yourself should I be here? That voice of I am good enough, I am supposed to be has always been louder and stronger.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, that you've jumped into it. Yeah, yeah, it's like you know, taking a big bite and then chewing really hard.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm going to swallow this thing now, or otherwise I'll choke. Yeah, but I think that is.
Speaker 4:You know, it's key to so many areas in life that you are. Maybe you you're stepping into the unknown, or you're taking a risk, or you know you're starting something that you have no idea, or maybe you're just going through something really tough and you don't know what it is, but it's that overriding voice where you're just like I can do this, I can keep pushing, I can do it. That is going to get you through at the end of the day. Yeah, you know along, know along with maybe a few other things. I'm sure it wasn't only that you would have had key people around you that you probably would have surrounded yourself with.
Speaker 2:Totally.
Speaker 4:That would have also been telling you these things, and you know, like, for instance, the stress psychologist that you said, you know having those key people and management skills, I suppose, in order to then, I suppose in order to then get you through these moments where you've gone, man, I can do this.
Speaker 2:My wife gets really cranky with me because she thinks I'm just looking for compliments. She goes oh, look, you know you can do it. You know like she does, and Suze, we've been married. Shout out to.
Speaker 1:Suze she's amazing, she is amazing. I love Suze.
Speaker 2:We've been together for 21 years, married for nearly 20. Wow, oh that's right.
Speaker 1:I knew we were going to use that sound.
Speaker 2:I knew it. I knew it when you mentioned it, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it's funny you should say that because Suze and I were friends for 12 years in a big circle of friends and Suze just happened to become my best female friend but my most platonic. You know, when you're single and you've got, maybe female friends that are platonic and you think, oh, I could maybe go there, yeah, yeah, there's potential.
Speaker 2:I am a bloke, you know, I've got a pulse Never with Suze. We were just mates and she counselled me through relationships. And I've got a pulse Never with Suze. We were just mates and she counseled me through relationships and she was such a great friend. Anyway, push comes to shove and we sort of the relationship became romantic. So she is. It's such a great foundation for a relationship. Friendship is the first and great foundation for a relationship.
Speaker 4:Friendship is the first and foremost foundation for any relationship, I think.
Speaker 2:To this day, the happiest I am is when it's just Suze and I on our own, just being together. Kicking the breeze Hanging out, it's as simple as that it really is. Life throws its challenges and we get tested and our relationship gets tested because there there are other forces. Um, you know what they say the strongest steel is tempered. We, you know it's grown healthily and we have, you know, we have our disagreements, all that sort of stuff, but it's, it's based on this really strong foundation of a friendship.
Speaker 4:It's just so key. I think that with any good friendship, any good relationship, it always comes down to that foundation of how did it start, how did you build it, and did you build it on a strong foundation.
Speaker 2:And which is why she sees right through me yeah, getting back to the point going mate just bloody you know, toughen up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Don't be a prima donna. You don't need people to tell you how good you are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, really you know, gosh, you know.
Speaker 4:Be fair dinkum buddy. Fair dinkum exactly, and Garth is serious about that.
Speaker 1:I've been in a circle and Susie's like Garth, whatever and whatever, and I'm like you guys are so cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she doesn't suffer fools gladly and she certainly speaks her mind and it's refreshing. There's not one bit of passivity about my wife.
Speaker 1:She sounds a bit like my wife. Actually, I think her and Susan get on really well.
Speaker 4:I mean, in essence, that's what your partner should do. She should tell you the truth, even if it's not what you want to hear.
Speaker 2:Totally, totally yeah.
Speaker 4:They keep us grounded?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Absolutely. If it were a friend or a relative, you could just.
Speaker 3:You know, sort of Brush it off, brush them off or just avoid them?
Speaker 2:Yes, For months, and you can't do that with your wife. She's still, oh, you're still here. She's just in the other room, here she comes, she's going to get you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4:You actually have With let's stay on the acting side of things. You actually have a really cool Thing that you have just completed which is being on at the Civic Theatre. If I'm not mistaken. You have your own show, yeah, yeah, it's called being Billy. It's called being Billy, yeah. What is being Billy about?
Speaker 2:Being Billy is about 90 minutes long.
Speaker 1:Only 90 minutes for the guy. That's really shy.
Speaker 2:It's about storytelling. It's after the thousands of stories that I've helped people tell, I decided there was a good argument for me to tell my story, not just because I wanted to tell my story, but to promote the concept that being honest and telling our stories raw and real is good for us, but it's also good for the listener. So I'm using the pretext that Billy well, in a couple of ways Billy says he was quoted as saying we're all absurd. Human beings are all absurd. I think we try to hide our absurdity and I think we try to be normal and hide the rough edges. And you know we were talking about before. You know if life is tough, you wouldn't know if you went onto someone's Facebook page and go how good's your life? But really it's probably not. So what I wanted to do was I've always loved doing impressions and going back.
Speaker 2:When I was 17 and doing my HSC, we had our sixth form, as we used to call it, year 12 Muck Up Day, and I used to just do impressions for the family, and so we rocked up at North Avalon Car Park, encouraged to turn up as our heroes, and I turned up as Norman Gunston. This is 1975 and Norman Gunston was at the peak of his power and I loved Norman Gunston still do to this day and armed with or fortified by half a bottle of half a magnum of champagne. I went into my Norman Gunston act. So I had the you know toilet paper on the face and the hair slicked down and the cravat and the.
Speaker 2:I went to a lot of trouble, yeah, and someone said, because they were putting on a big show in front of the school, yeah, and there was dancing girls and they were taking the mickey out of teachers and having a you know like a trial for teachers. So there was this whole show. Yeah, and they said you can be our MC. I went oh, okay, great, so I did. And it went really well, it was a huge hit. I was just pissed but performed and I had people come up to me afterwards going how long have you been at this school? I said six years, never seen you before. Who's this guy?
Speaker 1:So I was obviously flown under the radar.
Speaker 2:I think some of them were my teachers. Yeah, you've been my English teacher for three years. So I guess my point is I've always loved creating a character, so I've always loved telling a story. So I thought, well, I'm going to put those two things together, find a really loved character who's still alive, which helps, I think, rather than if Billy and I don't know how long he's with us, he's 82 and he's not well, billy Connolly, of course. So it's kind of good timing and I just went, I'm going to give this a go, I'm going to meld these two things because I think people are more likely to come and see it if it's not just me. And look, I've road tested it in Newcastle in front of a very sort of parochial, friendly, familiar audience. But I'd love to tour it.
Speaker 1:Oh, I absolutely think it's got that. How did you feel when you first walked onto stage? That first, I know you did two nights yeah yeah, yeah, how was that first time when you were there, there was no one helping you. It was you.
Speaker 2:I kind of. This is where it was really easy and I've struggled with visualising and that sort of thing, manifesting, I guess, in the past. But because this was such a big deal for me, I was really I'd already done it, I'd already done it several times and it kind of felt like I hoped it would. There was a comfortableness in it, there was a I mean, I know these stories, they're my stories, so it wasn't like I was. You know, I didn't even I haven't learned a particular script. I had a running order of stories and comments and you know observations. But I knew that if I could pull off the Billy thing, that would give me that armour, that old thing of it's not me telling my story, it's Billy telling my story.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 2:Which was this, which just all came together really well and it's what got a lot of people there as much as my friends are lovely and they'd go. Yeah, I'll come and support you. There was more interest because it was like I want to see if you can pull off, billy. I want to see how, you know, you look like him. You know because they saw the posters and all this stuff.
Speaker 4:But you know really Billy Connolly, could you pick someone harder to try and sort of. You know he's such an iconic character.
Speaker 2:He's such a so it you know like, by my own admission, it's a gutsy move and people have just gone. Man, all power to you. But once again that you know that little kid voice in me going like really Do you need to be doing this? And it's like, yeah, I did. I needed to be doing it, and it's this really weird dichotomy there's a part of me going, of course I can do it, but there's the other part of me going. Yeah, you're right, that is a bit shitskidding.
Speaker 1:And Susie was probably like oh God, here we go again.
Speaker 2:Well she got really panicked when I said look, not planned what I haven't scripted every what I'm gonna find my inner billy and just sort of maybe take it from what, take it for a ride you've got family and friends there you idiot and I said, well, I've only charged 50, so yeah, but there's, there's such power and flexibility though?
Speaker 4:yeah, because it allows you then to just if you find that maybe something isn't working, you can change it up and not feel like, hey, I've deviated completely from this. If you find that maybe something isn't working, you can change it up and not feel like, hey, I've deviated completely from this?
Speaker 1:Did you find that? Did the second night? Did you feel that you've slipped somewhere different, where you didn't think you were going to go? Yeah, they certainly weren't exactly the same show.
Speaker 2:I didn't think they would be, but I guess I draw on 35 years of live radio as well, yeah, I guess what I'm doing is I'm drawing on all this stuff that I've since I was a kid, since I was a little kid wanting to entertain my friends at school, you know, imagining doing these crazy things in the classroom, many of which I didn't do because I was too shy to 35 years of live radio, where you know anything can happen and go wrong, and it can. You've got to get yourself out of it and I, always, very early in the piece with live radio, I went okay, take what I'm doing seriously, but not myself, and it's a huge release to do that with whatever we're doing. Every time I say that to someone, they go wow, that's amazing. I think that's obvious because I worked with people in radio who'd been doing it for many years and they were still stitched up, they were still going. I can't make a mistake. I can't be myself.
Speaker 2:And I just, you know I worked on that premise that I'm a human being, I'll make mistakes, no one's going to die, yeah, yeah, it's not the biggest thing in the world. So I applied that to the show going. Look, it might not go perfectly, but I've got the ability to laugh at something that's not going well and then the audience feeds off that and that gives you another boost. So you know they're in on the joke.
Speaker 1:It's reading the room. It's also, I think, the achievement, just to make mention, that you sold out Civic Theatre in Newcastle two nights in a row.
Speaker 2:Well, Mick, I've got to say it's the playhouse.
Speaker 3:Oh sorry, the playhouse.
Speaker 2:If it was 3,000 seats two nights in a row, I wouldn't be here. I'd be in Fiji with pictures of my toes at the pool going hey stuff, you guys, I'm travelling the world. Now, I don't care what you think, no, but look, it was.
Speaker 1:It what you think? No, but look it was. It was 178 seats, both nights sold out going wow, that's what I said.
Speaker 2:And you got off stage. And what did Susie?
Speaker 1:say Good job darling.
Speaker 2:Well it's more what she said as I was fixating on the numbers of sales going. Look, just stop looking at how many seats you've sold and work on the show.
Speaker 4:You still don't have a script.
Speaker 1:Exactly that's what she's saying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, look, it's great. You've got lots of people coming to see you, but what?
Speaker 1:are they?
Speaker 2:going to freaking see.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter, we sold the place out.
Speaker 2:I'll just stand there going. How good is this.
Speaker 4:That's amazing. Your dad obviously played a big part in your life. As you said, Huge In the beginning stages, especially when you're wanting to be an actor and you're wanting to get entertainment. 14 years old, there was obviously quite a, I would say, life-changing moment for you. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it was Shane. It was a diagnosis of bladder cancer. Dad was 40. That's young. It's very young and a really fit guy. He smoked and he drank, but you know, like as most people of that era they seemed well. He'd never been to a hospital. We were big on preventative medicine, so we were a pretty healthy family. So it was a real shock and the interesting thing was that he had it for eight years.
Speaker 2:So there was some ups and downs. I don't remember the details of it, but I just remember I used to have recurring dreams after dad passed away for quite some time and it kind of took me back to how I must've been feeling when dad would have it down and then somehow he'd lift himself up and you go, okay, he's feeling better, but how long is that going to happen? How long is that going to go? So you know, you were kind of sort of riding this wave with him and we were struggling financially at that stage. So there was the prospect of us losing our house. So my teen years and the funny thing about that I'm sure a lot of people would feel the same. I think about the fun I had at school, I think about surfing, I think about. You know this fun stuff I did, but you kind of put that overriding doom or worry. I must have been feeling that sense of uncertainty for the future and that played out in my later life in relationships and also, oh, this isn't going to last, this job's not going to last, and I had this constant reminder that no, this won't last, and so I think that sort of stayed with me for a long time. But the interesting thing is that for the last 12 years of Dad's life he became a Scientologist. Remember I said he was always looking for things, curiosity, went and saw Murray Banks and you know like he got drawn into L Ron Hubbard and Scientology and that didn't help us financially because that sucked a lot of his money up. But the interesting things that Dad learnt from that were things like this lifelong learning that we try to find of being in the moment.
Speaker 2:So when Dad was really, really sick towards the end, I was his carer. So Mum and Dad had split up. Mum had gone back to England and there was. You know it was a tough relationship for her and him. So I was his carer. I had a brother who was four years. I've still got a brother that's four years younger than me, but he wasn't in a. He didn't have the capacity to look after Dad and I did, so I sent him overseas for treatment. That didn't work. We managed to somehow get him back as crook as he was he was.
Speaker 2:Dad used to be about 15 stone when he was well, he was down. He was about nine stone, eight and a half stone, and he was just so sick, so sick, and I went to visit him in hospital one day and I'd have a cry in the car. I'm this 22-year-old going, I'm looking after my dad and I'd have a cry in the car and I'd go up and see him at the ward and we'd just talk and Dad didn't want to talk about dying. He didn't want to acknowledge it and I respected that. And he told me crazy stories about when he was overseas in this weird clinic in Tijuana in Mexico, and how this woman that was in the clinic with him I'm just remembering this story who was much stronger than him, would take him out and they'd drive into town and have a night on the town and then she'd take him back to the clinic. Oh, my goodness, he's back in bed going. You all right, mr Russell yeah, I'm fine Anyway.
Speaker 2:So he'd tell me these crazy stories and we'd just sit in the hospital ward and laugh, yeah, anyway, one day I went in to see him and he said to me you've got to get me out of here. I said what do you mean? He said you've got to get me out of here. I said what do you mean? He said you've got to take me home. All they do is they talk to me about the fact I'm dying. Do you swear on this podcast? Yeah, yeah, go for it. They've fucked up my hair.
Speaker 2:So, dad, as sick as he was, was still egotistical enough to go look at the haircut they've given me. That was the thing that did it. He was not staying another freaking haircut like that. So I sort of had this dad who had talked to me years ago before that about reincarnation I'm sort of melding the stories here, but it had a big bearing on what dad taught me about life and death. So I was about 14, funny enough, around the time that dad was diagnosed, and I think it was might've been just coincidentally.
Speaker 2:He said do you want to know what I think reincarnation is? And I went sure, shoot, tell me. He said well, I think it's. He kept it simple. He said I think it's like, you know, there's the car and the driver. And he said the car is your body and the driver is your soul. And he said your car can rust away or whatever, and you just get out of that car, your driver gets out and gets into another car. So here I am in the hospital bed or watching Dad in the hospital bed rusting away, going get me out of here. And that's Dad. Dad was still there. There was this incredible, you know, sort of line down the middle and anyway. So I took him home shitting bricks all the way home. Dad got me to do this sort of thing, where I got into the present moment. As we're driving up to my house you know a half-hour drive going oh my God, dad, I've got my dying dad in the car and he just brought me back into the present, a bit like the psychologist did all those years before.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I looked after him and he'd have to urinate every hour and go through this horrible, painful experience. So we'd be sitting in the lounge room chatting and he'd go I've just got to go. And he'd go into the toilet and I could hear him in the bathroom banging on the wall, just going through this, just heart-wrenching. He'd come out even more washed out than when he went in and he'd look at me and go where were we?
Speaker 1:Oh God.
Speaker 2:And we'd continue the conversation. How the hell do you do that To this day? I don't know. But oh look, you know, at nearly 67, 45 years after Dad passed away, I think this is a wonderful reminder that our elders and the people that we've had in our lives stay with us. And I still learn from Dad Forty-five years later. There's still things I go yeah, that makes sense. Thanks, dad, you set me up to sort of think this way.
Speaker 2:I guess that's the best way of putting it. He set me up to think a certain way, and for that I'm eternally grateful.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean those lessons that you say just last a lifetime.
Speaker 2:They do, they do?
Speaker 4:And I think that's the beauty of some of those moments with our parents we don't realize the lessons they're teaching us, maybe until much later in life.
Speaker 2:Totally.
Speaker 4:And then you have that light bulb moment where you're like oh, that's what they meant. Or that's what he was talking about, or my mom was talking about in that moment.
Speaker 2:So it's like it's such a beautiful moment when that does happen because you're like thanks Dad, yeah exactly, that's exactly right, I get it. Now it finally clicks.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it really does I mean, geez? That's such a beautiful story. Thank you for sharing that about your dad. I know it really would have been a tough period. I mean, you were a young man at the time. You were obviously going through the fact that you wanted to start career start, you know and then you having to care for someone who's in that condition would have been would have put a lot of strain on you, I'm sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Mentally, physically and all those things. So I can imagine that would have added also to the fact that I can't do this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's funny because every now and then I'll do something where I feel like I'm stretching myself and I'll take myself back to that time and go you looked after your dying dad. You know like you managed that. You lived through it, you know. So there are times, I think, whether we take ourselves back to you know, sort of a kid or whatever, we've all found ways of being resilient. We can, all you know, look after ourselves. And there's that old saying that you know no one's coming to save us. Yeah, as much as we want to rely on people, but really it's up to us.
Speaker 1:Look after yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, as you know, mick, when I was sort of in that group with you, I was talking about specifically about health and wellbeing, and it gave me an opportunity, with Sue as my wife, who's the educator, to really delve into what it is that keeps us well. And you know, it's been said many times and I'm certainly yet another person to say, but it is self-care. It is doing those things for us, for ourselves, that we deserve to do, that make us well. You know those, those pillars of well-being, you know the psychological, the physical, um, the social, all those things that. That I think in this life, this hurly-burly world in which we live, we don't necessarily give ourselves enough time to do, or or the license to do, because we go. That's, that's just being selfish. Taking myself off for a bushwalk, that's bloody selfish.
Speaker 2:But it's you know, it's that old oxygen mask in the plane thing. Oh, I love that story.
Speaker 4:It's so simple. I've said it on this podcast before it's so simple, it's just a great analogy.
Speaker 2:And when you say it, everyone goes. Of course you look after yourself so you can look after your kids.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know yeah. And that's the thing People often, especially parents, I think and this is another thing I heard as well that, like with couples, like married couples that have kids, or even, if you're not married, just couples that have kids, just because you have a kid doesn't mean that you start to ignore your relationship with your spouse.
Speaker 2:Oh, why is the kid there? Yeah, how did the kid get there?
Speaker 4:Yeah, you put your relationship first Totally, because that is the lesson that you then teach your kids. Yes, it's not to say that you don't value your kids. It's not to say that they aren't priority for you. It's just that they need to understand that you know mom and dad's relationship is so valuable and important that you need to put that at the forefront of everything. And when you do that, then obviously your kids are the next in line and everything.
Speaker 2:It's just putting that perspective in and it's putting, like you say, putting yourself and your needs first and I know people and I'm thinking of a particular couple, and I know it happens a lot that stayed together. For the kids, no relationship. They slept in separate beds in separate rooms. They lived their own lives but they wanted to look like they were a family unit. What's that showing those kids? A loveless marriage? That is just a horrible thing to witness.
Speaker 4:And when you ask those people, if their kids came to them and told them that they were doing that with their spouse, what would their advice be to their kids? I guarantee you it would be like get out, do something else, do something different, move. But they won't take that advice themselves.
Speaker 4:No, no, yeah, I mean, that's just, that's all. Another podcast on its own, god. Let's let another podcast on its own, garth, let's end today's one. I'm going to ask you you've given me so many nuggets today, and I'm sure I'm not the only one but if I could ask you if you had one bit of advice for someone who is just going through life, maybe feeling like, hey, I'm not good enough to do this, or hey, I'm not confident enough to do this, what am I doing here? Or maybe they just need a bit of a pep me, like a bit of a pick me up, to be like, hey, I need someone to come alongside, or whatever. What would your one bit of advice for that person be?
Speaker 2:this. This had a big effect on me last year, um, and helped me with this Billy show and just helps me on a daily basis and it's a well-known sort of practice and it's been talked about and followed for many years now. It's, I believe, talking to your seven-year-old, talking to that little kid that you were and creating a bit of a relationship with that little kid. It doesn't have to be seven, but just the inner child work where you go okay, what can I admit to you, to my seven-year-old, that I've achieved? And, conversely, what would I love to really achieve in this life? So, to be able to take yourself back to seven and go, what would I really love to do in my lifetime and be really honest with yourself and don't judge it, but you just start sitting with that child and I go back to me as a seven-year-old, really insecure.
Speaker 3:Who would have thought an?
Speaker 2:insecure little kid who wanted to be an actor, wanted to be a performer. And if I can say to him as a 67-year-old, 60 years later, look what we achieved and do that really honestly. That's gold. That means, I think that means a lot yeah, yeah, that's.
Speaker 4:That's such a beautiful bit of advice. Honestly, just like you say, speak to the inner child in you and be like sit with yourself and take yourself, like I did this, what? Would? What would the me at 10 years old? What would they want? What would they have dreamt of?
Speaker 2:it's almost like you're keeping yourself accountable what you know what, and you and you start talking in the way what can we do? What can we do about this? How can we work together on this? And it's a really lovely. You sort of ease into it. At first it's a bit oh yeah, but I've never and I haven't sort of talked to heaps of people about it. But if I have no one's gone, well, that's stupid.
Speaker 2:You can see everyone going oh yeah, there's something in that and I think you can just ease into it and think about it and see whether that works.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean Garth. I can't thank you enough for being on this podcast with us. I know that anyone who listens to this is going to get, if not more than just one nugget. They're going to get so much value out of it. I hope Suze listens.
Speaker 2:I hope Suze listens. I hope Suzy listens. I'm sure Suzy listens, Absolutely. She'll go. I taught him all that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's going to be able to go tick that's been done.
Speaker 4:My wife says that to me every day.
Speaker 3:She's like I told you that I was the one who said that.
Speaker 4:And she's 90% right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and she's 90% right, actually they always.
Speaker 4:No, it's been lovely I really have appreciated the conversation.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much I really appreciate you coming.
Speaker 1:I knew I said to Shane when I and when someone suggested for you to come on, I was like, oh my God, garth Russell is the person, and I've literally had goosebumps the whole time. You've just about been speaking because it just resonates, I think, with everyday people and I just think it's such a. You're just an amazing person.
Speaker 1:I love my dad and I want to have half of you and half of him, because I can just get this feeling, when I'm with you, of just like you're sort of just at ease and you can just have a conversation with you and I know that we have had a couple of conversations over the time, but it's just, you're just such an easy person to talk to and just make people feel comfortable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thanks, and that's when I said to Shane, we've got to have Garth Russell on, and then it was a bit of time for me to get hold of you because you're a busy man. Oh sure, selling out the theatres and doing all the things.
Speaker 4:The Civic Theatre, not you know, selling out the theatres and doing all the things. The.
Speaker 1:Civic Theatre, not the Civic. No, it's a playhouse.
Speaker 2:It's a playhouse. Can I tell you a funny story before we go, please do To do with the Civic and to put me down to put my feet back on the ground if Suze can't do it. This person did. A mate of mine went in to buy a couple of tickets at the box office and the lady at the box office said you know, it's not really Billy Connolly, don't you? My mate really went. Well, that's it. I'm not buying it. I wonder how many people have walked away. What it's not Billy Connolly, what the heck.
Speaker 1:She's my publicist now by the way, I would just like to say that when you are touring the world, don't forget about Leave a Light on podcast. Have a shout out Alright, done.
Speaker 4:Thank you so much. I mean I can't. I'm so upset I didn't get to see the show and I really do hope that you do more.
Speaker 2:That's the plan. I really do hope when I fill out the Civic Theatre I'll come and see it.
Speaker 4:Anyone who wants to get hold of you in terms of, if they want to get, just have a chat with you. Maybe they want to reach out in terms of getting hold of the business, because I really do feel that there is so much value in what you're doing in that business. How would someone get hold of you, garth, really?
Speaker 2:simple. I've got a website called GarthRussell. Susie stops you there, but yeah it's really simple. There's sort of a suite of things that I can help people with, but it's just a nice way for people to find me anyway.
Speaker 4:GarthRussellcom. Double S, doublel. Yep, that's it, garthrussellcom. If you want to get hold of Garth, any info on there, it'll all be there. That's lovely, garth. Thank you so much for being with us, really appreciate it.
Speaker 3:We wish you well in the future.
Speaker 4:Any other acting and stuff like that? Please let us know Any other shows in the future? We would love to support you. I feel like you have friends that fall off in us for sure.
Speaker 2:Oh lovely, that's nice to know.
Speaker 4:Thank you very much. We support you and everything that you stand for. You are an incredible person and have an incredible story, so thank you for allowing us to just shine some light on it.
Speaker 3:We really appreciate you.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for coming. I really enjoyed it. Thank you.
Speaker 4:Mick, thank you for joining me. No worries, shane, appreciate it For standing in. Our producer, mick, thank you.
Speaker 3:Anyone else?
Speaker 1:who wants to she will be back. Still haven't had a coffee, by the way. Oh man out there listening.
Speaker 4:Anyone who wants to join on obviously jump on our site. That's livealightonpodcastcomau, and all our socials livealightonpodcastcom.
Speaker 1:We'll have a link also to Garth's website. We've got a new section on our website which is called resources and information, so we'll have a link that will go straight to Garth's website. If you need it, so jump on our website. If you need it, so jump on our website.
Speaker 4:If you're struggling to find that, just jump on our website and it'll lead you straight to Garth, Fantastic Yellow brick road. I'll be waiting. Yeah, absolutely Otherwise. Thank you so much, guys, for another enjoyable podcast For everyone who's listening. Obviously, we're going to say leave a light on and stay safe.
Speaker 3:Hey, thanks for listening. We hope you've managed to gain some insight from today's episode.