From TV Studios to KISS Tributes: The Many Lives of Geoff Moxham

In this episode of The Big 6-Oh, we chat with the multi-talented Geoff Moxham, whose eclectic career has taken him from the TV studio to the driver’s seat, the airwaves, and even the stage as the host of a KISS Tribute Band. 

Geoff shares fascinating stories from his varied life, offering a behind-the-scenes look at his adventures and the lessons he’s learned along the way. 

Tune in for an entertaining and insightful exploration of what it’s really like living inside the body — and mind — of a 64-year-old going on (in his own words) 15  . . .  again!

Transcript

00:00

If you're old enough to remember when phones had cords and the only thing that went viral was a cold, then you're in the right place. Welcome to the Big Six-O with Kaylee Harris and Guy Rawlison. Because who better to discuss life's second act than two people who still think mature is a type of cheese?

00:37

Welcome to this week's edition of the Big Six-O podcast. My name is Kayleigh Harrison. My childhood friend from primary school is Guy Rolison. G'day, Guy. Hey, Kayleigh, how you going? I'm going well. Now, don't forget, you can contact us through our email, which is contact at the Big Six-O, and that's six and then number O and then an H. And quite a few people have been doing that, including our next guest, who has a story to share about his life. Now, he, I...

01:03

He reached out to us and said, I'd love to come on the podcast and talk about my life. And we, I said, okay, well, you know, can you describe yourself? He describes himself as a semi-retired entrepreneur who's had more career changes than Donald Trump. He's done everything from corporate training to voice acting. He says he's a failed TV producer and even hosted a show on TalkBack radio about voting. Jeff Moxham, AKA Mox-O, welcome to the Big 6-0. It's great to be here. It doesn't read well, does it?

01:33

I think it's great. I think it's great. Now, what prompted you to contact us and say, hey, have me on? Well, I remember you from Talking Lifestyle, Kayleigh. I think it was to or 2GB or both, because it was all under the same roof. And so I was following you on Facebook. And so your podcast popped up and I went, that is right in my crosshairs. You know, I'm always being stirred by my...

01:57

that mates and colleagues about being over 60 and you know and then I thought hey you've found a tribe and you're it. Oh that's great. I don't know about mates I can understand colleagues but if your mates are giving you a hard time Jeff that's um I think you need to find a new circle of friends. I think I need to go to the local RSL club and find some old cogs that you know hanging on the bar and no look I love being my age you know and just in relation to um my attraction for

02:26

podcast being an over 60s podcast is that I'm really comfortable in the skin. I'm really comfortable being 64 and I'm 64 going on 15 going on 90. So I you know it depends on how I wake up as to how old I feel on the day. Well let's go back a little bit and clearly you've done a lot of really interesting things in your life. So let's talk about that. So I'm going to go through these. So you had a boating show on radio tell us about that.

02:54

Yeah, that was called On The Water, On Talking Lifestyle, which was part of the Macquarie group and the Macquarie radio group. And I was working with a mate of mine on that show, the late Patrick Boland, that you might recall. He used to do a lot on the ABC and he was the go-to boating guy for the Sydney to Hobart. He'd done about 20 or 30 Hobart races and we're all sailing mates and we were just having a beer one day and we said, you know, there's nothing really on radio.

03:24

They had one iron and the boys had that fishing show very early in the morning, if you remember. And we thought, you know, fishing's great. It's got broad appeal. And I think it's the biggest recreational, the biggest recreation in Australia, fishing. And so we, you know, so we wanted to bolt into that, you know, into that vein. And we thought, what about a boat show? So we came up with the idea and we pitched it on Houston people in, you know,

03:52

TUE, 2GB World, and I pitched the idea in and they said, yeah, we'll give it a go. We've got some sponsors on board and we got a head of steam and then they closed the radio station down. How good was that? We killed them. Who killed Talking Lifestyle? I'm gonna write the book. You too, Kale. Yeah. So, but that was great fun. We had a lot of traction with that and we had sponsors and it was fun. The ratings were very low, but that wasn't really what it was. It was really about

04:23

really about engaging like-minded people. I had a bond on it. I remember, if I can jump in there, I remember for a couple of weekends I was co-hosting the fishing show because as you would be aware, both of you, on those talkback programs you have the subject matter expert, which is you know the fishing person or the boating person or whatever, then you have an announcer who kind of holds the show together and makes sure it stays on time. So for the fishing show I was that announcer and

04:51

Was it Alex McGlashen, the fishing guy? Yeah, McGlashen. I can't remember his name. Yeah, he's a fantastic fisherman. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's a lovely guy too. Al McGlashen. But we were getting no calls. I was, Al McGlashen, that's it. I was trying so hard to get calls. I kept throwing the number out there and nobody would call. So I quickly sent a text to my relatives in Melbourne. I said, quick, on a fishing show, come up with some fishing questions and ring on this number. And five minutes later, I get a call from my 16 year old cousin.

05:20

And he goes, Oh, hello. And I was like, Oh, gosh. And these cousins are known for really stirring me up. So I thought, what is he going to say? And I said, so what's your name? And he said, Jacob. And I said, have you got a question Jacob about fishing? And he goes, yes, I want to catch a shark. How do I do that? So I just sat back and went, Al, you go for it. I don't know anything about it. And then one up one by one, the rest of the Relly started ringing up. We had about 10 calls from.

05:46

relatives about fishing and where's the best place to go fishing. It was great. And you're wondering why the station closed down. Yes. How do I catch a shark? Go to Macquarie Street or Parliament House in Canberra. That's right. Geoff, you obviously moved on to some more reputable sort of vocations and corporate training. What was all that about? Oh, yeah. So that was a real zeitgeist thing for me. So...

06:16

I was in a corporate role with the company Ampol and I got dragged in, it was about 1991, 92, I've been there about five or six years in marketing and I got dragged into a bunker where I had to sign an NDA and sworn to secrecy and I was actually part, I was putting the people section together as part of the logic, at the time there's the largest...

06:42

corporate merger in Australian corporate history. And that was between Ampol and Caltech. So I came out of the Ampol camp. So when we finished with that, I was worn out and I thought, I really don't wanna go on here. And they offered me a training sort of management role. And I went, yeah, I can do that. You know, a little bit of tap dancing in front of people. Cause I hate talking, but anyway, you probably haven't recognized that yet. But, bye.

07:08

Yeah, so I went, yeah, I can do that. And big corporations for all their faults, they are very good at developing people and they put me through training and I did a diploma with Monash University in Melbourne, living out of Sydney, and I had four kids at the time. It was a really busy time, but I just dug in and I loved it, so much so that I left the company and started my own training business, corporate training business with a...

07:34

A wonderful friend of mine, a lady called Nane James, who's about four foot ten, and she sounds like Mickey Mouse, but she's one of the greatest keynote speaking corporate trainers I've ever worked with in my life. And we had this great business called in the early 2000s called Whistling Arrow Corporate Communications or something, I can't remember. And we were going really well and then her husband got transferred to America and she pissed off on me. So yeah, another kiss of death.

08:03

There's a thread starting to run through your life here, Geoff. Well, you did say you'd be able to give me some therapy on here. So as cathartic as just venting is, so I was on my own, effectively, and I decided to use the experience I'd had making corporate videos and we did a lot of corporate video work ourselves and I did some work with, you might remember a guy called John Harker who was on Channel 7 Sports World.

08:29

And our generation will remember John, he's a little bit, about our age, a little bit younger, and he's a very close friend of mine. And he dragged me into doing some corporate video work with him with Hark Attack Productions. And it kind of really did fire my passion for working in television. Naively, my desire was to be in front of the camera, but I actually did okay behind it.

08:53

and I was working with John and we were working for AMZ and National Bank and Vodafone and we had some great work and it plays really well. And I was doing sort of acting roles and writing and we in fact, how about this, we won the corporate video equivalent to Alaska. And such a thing exists, yeah, such a thing exists. And so I missed the trip because they couldn't stump up for me to go.

09:19

I starred in this corporate video, which was actually quite funny, where we had to do in the National Bank. Believe it or not, I actually had staff members with me in a boardroom table and I was like the boss and I had to get some great ideas about banking and how we can promote these new products in the branches. Remember when they had bank branches? Remember that? Yes. Great days. And tellers, yeah. And tellers, that's right.

09:49

And so we did that and I moved into television. Well, now that we're speaking to the Leonardo DiCaprio corporate video, we might move on to the whole voice acting thing. Walk us through that part of your career. OK, well, let me just say before you say, I probably more like the Leonardo DiCaprio. Catch me if you can. I was dodging and weaving. As long as you're not like the Leonardo DiCaprio that drowned at the end of Titanic. That's right. Oh, listen.

10:17

If we could do this for hours, he should have climbed onto that plank or whatever it was. I know. What an idiot. I know. Well, given your experience with the boating show and then the fact that... Exactly. Sounds like you did climb onto that plank with the voice acting career that you had going. What was with that? Nice segue, Guy. Nice segue. That's right. You've got a career in podcasts, over 60 podcasts, but podcasts all the sudden. But yeah, so we did. So I was doing that and...

10:46

And then I had a couple of, they're still very good fans to this day, a guy called Grant Quayle who had Quayle Television, which was in the, in the sort of the beginning of his, his career as a, as a content developer. And he did very well. We made a fantastic show on Channel 7, you might remember called Find My Family with Jack Thompson. Yeah. Beautiful show. And in the very first episode.

11:14

we had to struggle, we had to work so hard to get people to come on it. It was like the hardest thing you could ever imagine. As soon as it went to where the applications to go on there for people to find their family was in the thousands. You couldn't, we couldn't keep up with it. We had, we were applying associate producer after associate, which basically means an intern that you don't pay. But anyway, we've all been one of those. Do you want to work in television? Yeah, that's it. Do you want to work in television? There's your desk.

11:43

Anyway, so we did that and Greg did some great stuff and I was doing a bit of show running for him in the United States as well. And then he got this wonderful show up in America called Texas Flip and Move, which I wasn't directly involved in, but it sort of got Greg going. And then I worked with a couple of friends of mine in development in partnership with a company called Freehand Television, which was owned by a guy called Peter Abbott.

12:10

Now Peter Abbott, wonderful, very seasoned producer, we're going right back to towards 2000 and the Beyond group. And he was the voice on the very original Big Brother, which he EP'd. So that was him. So Peter and myself, we were going great. We were producing content, we were pitching shows to all the networks, we had great relationships. And then we made the mistake of deciding to make our own television with our own money. So.

12:39

Anyway, it's been great talking to you. And basically what we decided, there's four of us and, you know, a little bit like, you know, everyone puts their hand in and let's do this thing, you know. We're sick of, you know, the big production companies beyond and those guys getting all the money or someone over at North Sydney. All these big shops were sort of trampling us and had the direct relationship with the networks.

13:06

And we said, no, we're going to make our own show. And we made a show for Channel 7, which was a show called Sellout. And it was actually a really good idea, but it was ahead of its time. And it was basically a quiz show where you had contestants who were playing for prizes. And as they were playing for the prize, every time they got a point right in a, you know, in a Q&A, sort of first buzzer, you know, hit the buzzer sort of thing. They got one right. Then the wrap price of that item.

13:36

be it a washing machine, a holiday, whatever, online would come down. So it's a bit like the stock market. So you could sit at home with one of your devices and buy that product, but if you waited too long and they got a question wrong, boom, it went straight back up. Oh wow. You with me? Yeah, wow. Great idea, yeah? Great idea. So we were slotted. We spent probably a million and a half dollars on development and seven days a week.

14:03

20 hour days, the whole thing, the stuff you do. And it was all ready to go to work for two o'clock on Monday to Friday on Channel 7 on the main station. And this was about 12 or 13 years ago, I would imagine. Yeah, about 12 or 13 years ago. So the secondary tertiary stations then weren't huge. You know, 7-2 and 7-8 and all that. You know, they had like a thousand viewers. Channel 7 in the afternoon probably had three or 400,000.

14:31

And then you can crashing down to the secondary and tertiary stations. And that were like the pauver stations. But we were slotted for the main, for channel seven, for the main station at Toowel Park, we were targeting housewives, watching it before they went and picked the kids up from school. It was all worked out. And then at the last minute we got, well I laugh, we got bumped to channel seven two, we didn't get the audience and it didn't work. So there you go. Oh, wow. Jeff, that thread.

15:01

That thread is still running very deep in those veins. One thing I was curious about, you also worked as a chauffeur to the stars. What's going on with that? So I had a marriage breakdown and it wasn't a good time. It was an awful time, you know, as a consequence of a lot of things. But I've got seven children, four grandchildren. So I went through a divorce and it was a separation. It was pretty bad.

15:30

And I was working at 2GB for Chris Smith, doing some voiceovers and I did a few comedy things for him on the weekend when he had the weekend show. And it was a Saturday and they must have had a special guest in there who had a limousine take them to the studio. Might have even been, what is it upstairs, Kayleigh? Nova or something. Nova, yeah. Wasn't it? Upstairs. We have a few radio stations upstairs here, Nova and Smooth and yeah. That's it.

15:58

So there was a limo waiting out the front with the guy sitting in there looking all sort of downtrodden and got a suit on, it was a hot day, and he just sort of hanged me out of the car, and I said, hey, go on, mate. Went out to get a cup of coffee. Hey, go on, he said, oh, not bad. And I said, this is a nice car. He said, oh, it's all right. And I said, how does this hire car thing work? Like, you own it or whatever? He said, oh, some people do. He said, this is owned by a company called Royal Limousines down at the Star Casino. And I said, oh, yeah, so you have to, like,

16:28

full-time and he went, I know you can do part-time or whatever. He said anyway, he's the guy's phone number, they're always looking for someone and I went down there and I met the guy, this Michael Bartolotta who to this day is a really good mate and he said, and he said, you've got a pulse and I said yeah and he said, you start tomorrow. When was the last time you had an accident? And no seriously he said, can you drive me down to the airport and back? And I went, yeah sure, down there and back. I said,

16:58

He just wanted to watch me drive. So we got in a $200,000 S-Class Mercedes and went down to the airport in the back. And he said, okay, he said, no, he really did. He said, can you start tomorrow? And I said, oh yeah, I've got a little bit of other work going on, but I can fit it in. But you know, do you really want me to take the car? And he said, oh yeah, you'll get some work. Just take it home. And I went, okay. Can I drive it? He said, yeah, do it if you like. He said, you've got to put the fuel in it. I went, okay. Anyway, that was the beginning of the.

17:26

of the turning point in my life. How about that? Wow. That's incredible. That's incredible. Yeah. Now can I tell everybody about um you mentioned to well it's actually no I saw it on your Facebook I think and I love this UMC uh Kiss Tribute Band shows for the Kiss Army. How on earth did that come I mean I love Kiss. I love it. I love it. I love it. How did that happen?

17:55

Okay, so the Kiss Army is an organised group of fans who know every single Kiss song. I think I've seen some video photos of these people, they're just absolute fanatics. And as a consequence of the weight of this organisation, a wonderful bloke up in Brisbane called Darryl Franks, who's a good mate of mine, he started to put these shows together and just went crazy.

18:25

And it culminated 12 months ago in the final ever concert by Kiss in Australia in Sydney. So you can imagine it was sold out, people paying thousands of dollars to scalp us for tickets and he decided to sort of walk into that. He was doing Kiss shows around the place and he ran a Kiss tribute night, which was so much fun at the Bridge Hotel in Roselle, which is a local home game for me.

18:51

on Victoria Road. It's an iconic old rock venue. The Angels played there and Inexcess used to play there. It's just been the place to go. Sticky floors, we've grog-tipped all over it and rubber matting on the floor. It's older than you guys, the pub itself. Anyway, we had three bands, so I hosted it.

19:19

And we started with The Kiss, the original Kiss, who wore the makeup, which is the 70s, right? So they were, you know, just pretty much the makeup that you remember, and relatively conservative. And then they were terrific, the band that did the old stuff had so many songs, to be honest with you, in that first set. And then the second hour, or the second hour and a half, or whatever, The Kiss, they went through that stage, I think it was the 80s and the 90s, yeah, Kaleigh, you should be across this if you're a fan,

19:49

the 80s and 90s, where they strip bare, if you like, without makeup. And so there's a band that specializes in make-up kicks. And then the last one is the last 20 or 30 years where they do the big high boots and the really huge shoulder pads and the really anthemic stuff, big, big ballads. They only play three chords, but they do it well.

20:18

And this concert, you could not, they were queued up around Victoria Road on the side street there, it was so much fun. That is fantastic, being a Kiss fan. So do you regard yourself, Jeff, as more your Peter Criss, maybe your Gene Simmons, maybe your Paul Stanley? Well, I miss Peter Criss. What's your specialty on a Saturday night? I'm Jesus, I'm actually a yacht rock person. What a surprise.

20:45

I like Chris of the Cross, the Durby Brothers, Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Darrell Hall. I love all that stuff. You're a very West Coast sound sort of guy, right? Yeah, that's it. Oh yeah. And I'm a bit of an America file too. I lived over there a couple of times, had two stints over there and I love the joint. So you've come to some sort of semblance of normality in your life.

21:11

So how are you dealing with being 60? What's the hardest part of life for you? What's the best thing about being in your 60s? This is, I had thought about it before I came on. I gave a lot of thought and I'm serious about this. That I just found that when the big 6.0 rolled around that I was so stunned by, and I've listened to your other podcast, you know, where you're doing the old TV shows and all that sort of stuff.

21:37

The reminiscing is just wonderful. I absolutely adore it and congratulations on hitting that vein. It's just good fun. But I was, I just, I remember saying to myself, I cannot be 60, this is bullshit. I couldn't relate. But what it did was it got me fit. I was about 92 kilos, I'm about 84 now. I lost a lot of weight. I pal a lot of crap out of diet.

22:04

I still have a nice feed every now and then. I barely drink. Turning 60 was very symbolic for me. Turning 40, it's interesting, when I was turning 40, I felt like that was a very, that was the age of anger. For me, 40 years of age was where, you know, people that turned 40, particularly guys, they should have been out hunting and gathering, but they weren't. They were starting to get a bit slow and they couldn't play footy anymore.

22:32

you know, they're going for this, moving into golf carts and all that sort of stuff. And I remember being that angry 40 and I was going through a divorce, the first divorce, not the second one, the first divorce at the time. And I was angry at the world and I thought there was just something. I couldn't control it. I just, you know, I just wanted to kill someone. And then 50, I was in denial. I had my last child at 50, little Jasper. I was, I just turned 50 when he was born. He's a statistic finder. When my little fella finished his school.

23:02

is in year eight now, when he finished his school, I will have had dependent children nonstop without a break for 48 years. Oh my goodness. That's incredible. How about that for a dinner party conversation? Yeah. Um, and I wouldn't change any of it. That's probably what got you into trouble in the first place. Yeah. So exactly what it was. So, so I was, so when I turned 60, I was looking at people, like I went to a high school reunion.

23:32

And I just looked at guys and I thought, this is just ridiculous, ego. I said, look at them, I go, you couldn't possibly have been in my year. And they come up and they go, I'm also how I, oh, Jesus, you. You know, like, up in the same age, that, you know, like there's no mirrors in my joint, don't get me wrong. But, you know, I was really shocked by it. It's actually one word to sum up how I approached my 60s, denial. Deny your age.

24:01

You're only as old as you feel. I've got a girlfriend who's 22 years old. No, I'm kidding. I thought that was going to get creepy. Yep. She's a bit, yeah. But I've got to tell you something about that. I just thought of it when I was talking about the high school reunion. I went along to my high school reunion. And I walked in and I saw the guys. And it was like, everyone looked like they had Hollywood makeup on, made up to look old. You know when they do that? They put this.

24:31

They put the powder in their hair and they walk like old men. Anyway, that's what everyone looked like. And we did the same gags as high school 40 odd years before. We did the same gags and we still bully the same kids. How good was that?

24:48

No, not that nasty bullying, but we had a hall pass to go back to, you know, back to unscrewing our head and putting a pumpkin on, because in the 70s, it was encouraged. I used to turn up at school, I'd get beaten up at recess, at lunch, afternoon, and that was just the teacher. I went into this 40 plus reunion, and I saw my old English teacher who was a – it turns out – have you ever been to a reunion? It's the weirdest thing.

25:18

because your teachers that were young are a very similar age to you. Do you know what I mean? So when you were 18 doing your HSD and they were 23 or 24, they seemed like they were 100. But when you're 55 or 60 and they're 58 or 63, anyway. So I walked up to my old English teacher and I said, do you remember that? And he said, yeah, I think so. I said, Jeff Mokson, I was in your English class.

25:46

He said, ah, he probably does when he runs into kids all the time. Yeah, I remember, you know. And I said, do you remember what you said to me when I was finishing my HSC? You know, and he said, no, no, remind me. And I said, you said to me, you said you talk too much. And he said, you're never going to amount to anything. And I said, you know what? And he said, what? And I said, you're right. I don't know about that. You're right. Spot on.

26:14

Jeff Watson, thank you so much for your time. That was a lot of fun and thank you. It's been great, thank you. Thank you. Thanks Jeff. Thanks, bye.

26:33

Ah, and before we go, let's give credit where credit is due. Kaylee Harris and I came up with all the genius content for this week's episode. Our producer, Nick Abood, well, he keeps the lights on and makes sure we don't accidentally upload a cat video instead of a podcast. So thanks for keeping us on track, Nick. Nick.