Chatting with Mathew De Goldi, Australia’s Most Famous Clown.

This week I sit down with Mathew De Goldi, aka GOLDIE the Clown, to unpack what it really takes to make kids and adults laugh. We talk craft, character, clown fear, and why humour can be a genuine support for mental health when life gets heavy. For 35 yrs he's been a crowd favorite around Australia. 

Things we chat about: 
• Clowns in pop culture and how scary clown myths spread 
• GOLDIE'S origin story from country Victoria to joining the circus at 12 
• Dreamworld roving performance versus big top routines 
• Building a repeatable “formula” while keeping it fresh 
• How character gives permission to be outrageous while staying G rated 
• Dealing with teens, heckling, and turning chaos into play 
• Performing through grief and using laughter as a coping tool 
• Clown fear in real life and gentle exposure that helps 
• COVID, fuel costs, and what keeps a travelling circus alive 
• Life on the road, audience energy, and why some towns hold back 
• Purpose, service, and finding meaning in making others laugh 

Thanks for listening.

For more about Mathew De Goldi, visit: 
https://www.facebook.com/mathew.degoldi

https://www.facebook.com/hudsonscircus

https://www.instagram.com/mdegoldi/

If you enjoyed the episode, please share it with a friend, subscribe or leave a comment, you know, all that  jazz. It's greatly appreciated. 🙏

Website: www.thelaughterclinic.com.au

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thelaughterclinicAus

"If you or someone you know needs support, please contact one of these Australian mental health services. In an emergency, always call 000."

Lifeline Australia
Phone: 13 11 14 (24/7)
Web: lifeline.org.au

Suicide Call Back Service
Phone: 1300 659 467 (24/7)
Web: suicidecallbackservice.org.au

Beyond Blue
Phone: 1300 22 4636 (24/7)
Web: beyondblue.org.au

Kids Helpline (for people aged 5-25)
Phone: 1800 55 1800 (24/7)
Web: kidshelpline.com.au

MensLine Australia
Phone: 1300 78 99 78 (24/7)
Web: mensline.org.au

SANE Australia (complex mental health issues)
Phone: 1800 18 7263
Web: sane.org

QLife (LGBTIQ+ support)
Phone: 1800 184 527 
Web: qlife.org.au

Open Arms (Veterans & Families Counselling)
Phone: 1800 011 046 (24/7)
Web: openarms.gov.au

1800RESPECT (sexual assault, domestic violence)
Phone: 1800 737 732 (24/7)
Web: 1800respect.org.au

Headspace (youth mental health, ages 12-25)
Phone: 1800 650 890 
Web: headspace.org.au

13YARN (Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander crisis support)
Phone: 13 92 76 (13YARN) (24/7)
Web: 13yarn.org.au

Music by Hayden Smith
https://www.haydensmith.com

Transcript

Welcome And Laughter Medicine

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Laughter Clinic Podcast with comedian and psychopsychologist Mark McComville. Bringing you practical, evidence-based self-care strategies, the latest research in mental health, along with conversations that inspire, educate, and entertain. This is the Laughter Clinic Podcast with your host, Mark McComville.

SPEAKER_06 0:35

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this episode of the Laughter Clinic Podcast. No matter where you are tuning in in the world, thank you very much for joining us. As always, totally appreciate your time. And we have a wonderful guest today. We have Matt DeGoldie, aka Goldie the Clown. Probably, probably Australia's most famous clown. I reckon you would have to be, surely.

SPEAKER_04 1:00

Yeah. Welcome, Matt. I'm feeling a sudden rush of ego. Right. I'm Australia's most famous. Those words are good. And then you add clown.

SPEAKER_06 1:09

That's a good thing. Well, mate, you've been doing it for over 30 years. I mean 35. Professionally, that's a big thing, man. That is a big so look, before we get into everything Goldie, right? With all our guests, we start with a question centered around the saying laughter is the best medicine. So this is a saying that's been around for over 3,000 years, and now we have modern-day research supporting the physical benefits of laughter and the psychological benefits of using your sense of humor as a coping mechanism to build resilience. So when you hear the saying laughter is the best medicine, what does that conjure up for you, my friend?

SPEAKER_04 1:51

It's actually a little bit triggering for me because my father used to say that. And he just laughed. And then my appendix burst. And you're still laughing. He's like, and then oh, yeah. No, that's a joke. I'll start with the It was so funny until my sister got run over by a car. She'll be fine. Come on, laugh, everybody. Yeah, right. Uh well, of course, then we live by that, don't we? That's that's life in general, isn't it? Laughing in the face of tragedy, laughing in the face of life's pain. Dealing with it through comedy is is as how I try to deal with life.

SPEAKER_06 2:30

Oh mate, I'm I'm so glad that we've been able to sit down and have this chat because as soon as I started this podcast and I was going through all of the people that I wanted to talk to, you were in the top 20. Right. You know, it's a lie. Well, no, no, that's not a lie because I'll tell you, I've got there's eighty, eighty-five people on the list. So well, I'm touched. You know, because I find it fascinating that we work around we we swim around different parts of the same ocean, you know, like to me, I I can't begin to fathom what it's like to do your job, you know, to to have to walk out and have an audience that can span three generations of people from little kids to grandparents. And whereas, you know, when I walk out on the stage in the comedy club, I pretty much know who I'm gonna have.

SPEAKER_04 3:19

You've got a demographic. Yeah, that's right, you know. So it's true, yeah. So babies can laugh at me and one year old and two, or not babies.

SPEAKER_06 3:26

Well, I'm sure but see, this is one of the things though I talk about in the in when I'm doing my mental health presentation. Right. I talk about the fact that laughter has been given to us from birth by whatever means of creator or creation that you subscribe to. And the proof of this lies in the fact that babies and infants laugh years before they understand language or humor.

SPEAKER_04 3:48

Yeah, it's one of the greatest things is when you first make you try to make them laugh first, is what you're trying to do. And then they yeah, they laugh. The first laugh being like, oh wow, and then yeah, words come later.

Why Clowns Get Misjudged

SPEAKER_06 3:58

Yeah, and it's sounds like faces and that sort of stuff, you know, like making kids little babies laugh when you know it's made, and so we really want to unpack that. So before we do, let's unpack that box. What do you reckon? You know, you've been, like I said, professional clown for over three decades now. So what do you reckon is a misconception the general public would have about a clown, like a professional clown, a circus clown?

SPEAKER_04 4:23

Yeah. Well, I mean, it's clowning's taken a battering in the last 30 years since I first started. I don't know, was it respected? I don't know, but clowns like me were all the clowns looked like me, and over time, especially with the movies, the the first it thing came out not long after I first started clowning. That's the uh Stephen. Yeah, the first that one with uh Tim Curry and wonderful god, what a performance he does.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:47

And there's a clown, there's moments in that show that I look at and I go, that's great. Look at his physicality, it's fantastic. Yeah. But you know, it's been a huge hit to clowns. And the other older clowns, because suddenly clowns some kids were saying, Oh, don't bite me. And the older clowns, well, I guess because of this movie thing, it'll go and it did go away for a long time, but then it's popped up again in the last 10 years or so with a vengeance. Yeah, right. The other it movies and that terrible thing they did 10 years ago when they were walking around dressed as clowns and going to schools.

SPEAKER_06 5:20

And yeah, well, look, even there's even a Seinfeld episode where Right.

SPEAKER_04 5:25

But it's funny, it's funny. Seinfeld's got some good clown bits. Yeah, Seinfeld's got that bit that's like, you know, underneath all that makeup is a man that's just not right. And he's got another we went and saw him a couple of years ago when he was here. Oh, well, I've and he did questions at the end. I was gonna stand up because we were right at the front. Yeah, right. I got I'd lost my nerve. I wanted to stand up. I got a bone to pick with you, Seinfeld.

SPEAKER_05 5:49

As a clown, you know what? He would have loved it. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 5:54

Because people were yelling out stuff everywhere, and I was I just I didn't have the courage. Oh man. And there's a there's a couple of he's got a couple of clown bits, yeah. They're great. But he respects clowns, you can tell he does with the way he talks. Yeah, yeah. Whereas there's other people, I've heard Louis C. K. Like clowns, they're not funny, and it's from he really thinks that. Yeah, right. But uh that's fine. It's too much.

SPEAKER_06 6:18

You know, like that's it's it's an you know, when you look at like I I did a a blog oh I know a year or so ago about the history of the saying laughter is the best medicine and that sort of stuff, you know, dates back to biblical times and all that. But the the the court jester isn't a stand-up comic, he's a clown.

SPEAKER_04 6:36

Yes, right, and he could he's the one that could speak the truth to the king. Yeah. I've had that role kind of a little bit in with the with the boss and the CEO, I've been able to get away with stuff that other people.

SPEAKER_06 6:48

Yeah, but it was it was the you know, the crazy hat and the big shoes and the outfit and all that sort of stuff. There was there was that physicality, like the court jester wasn't coming in doing stand-up. Yes, right.

SPEAKER_04 7:01

You know what I mean? For sure, yeah. Yeah, it was of course stand-up's a more recent thing. I don't know what they were doing. Were they juggling? I don't know. I don't know the history. There's a guy in Brisbane, there's a clown intellectual guy, he's great, and he's like he knows all the history and and everything. I know some, yeah, yeah, but I'm not.

Growing Up Performing And Joining Circus

SPEAKER_06 7:17

So talking about history, how did where's the origin of you being Goldie the Clown? How did all this nice? That was good. You're good at this. You heard that word and you went ha hace.

SPEAKER_05 7:28

That was great segues, mate. Making your history of history. Yeah, I love this.

SPEAKER_04 7:34

I love this podcast. I've been listening to your podcast. You're fantastic. Thank you. Hit my history. I j I grew up in a small country town in Victoria, little town. There was 60 kids in my school, but we were always a song and dance family. We would do shows and singing and Steadford's and dancing.

SPEAKER_06 7:53

So your parents were performing?

SPEAKER_04 7:54

My dad was a singer and he used to sing on the radio back in like the 50s. Yeah, right. And he was a t a tenor. And my mum never really performed, but she was like a a a good stage mum. She'd make all our costumes and think of the ideas and drive us through auditions and yeah, right.

SPEAKER_06 8:12

And how old how old were you when you started doing that?

SPEAKER_04 8:14

Four. I was four when I first went on stage.

SPEAKER_06 8:17

With them or by yourself?

SPEAKER_04 8:18

By myself. Actually, Joanne, my sister, was behind me. I sang, I dressed as Pinocchio, I sang Little Wooden Head from Pinocchio. Wow. And uh there's two lines in that actually that are very prophetic that I uh you just wonder how the universe works. There's two lines one of them is in a weary world, you do your share, spreading laughter everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:39

Funny little toy, go play your part, give a little joy to every heart.

SPEAKER_06 8:44

Wow, that's the first thing. How cool is that? And very poignant that you've remembered those, man.

SPEAKER_04 8:48

Yeah, right. And they kind of that that song, so that song means a lot to me. And it's like, wow, you know, what's you wonder sometimes how the universe works. I don't know that answer, but yeah, there's things like that that I'm very profound for my life.

SPEAKER_06 9:02

That's what I ended up doing. And well, through school, like was this performance? Did it just be a good one?

SPEAKER_04 9:06

Yeah, we used to there was a beautiful woman in our hometown that used to put on these shows, and every every second year it'd be an adult show, and every and every other year it'd be a kids' show, and it'd be a variety show. She'd get people to do songs and dances. Yeah. And so we'd always be in them, and then if not, we were in, you know, we'd go to Bendigo, which was the closest big town. I was in we're in the sound of music, or we'd go down to Melbourne and do a Steadford's, and yeah. So we're the DeGoldie family singers, basically. Yeah, right. And then uh and then my sister joined a circus when she when I was eleven. And your sister, old older sister. Yeah, my older sister, she's seven years older. Wow. So she was a dancer, and the circus had dancing and illusions. So they needed dances. So she went and became a dancer. She ended up doing trapeze and she went up there and did all that stuff, which I can't do.

SPEAKER_06 9:55

And when when you when you saw her do that, obviously she had the support of your parents to go and do that. Right, yeah. Was that would would was it? She was 18 or 19 when she took off. Yeah, was that the thing that went, wow, if she can do it, I can do it.

SPEAKER_04 10:08

No, it was just I could I I there was a job offer. There was because there's always other jobs in the circus for uh for other things apart from just performing. Yeah. So they needed someone to take tickets, they needed someone to work the canteen, yeah, and they needed a cook for all the tent hands. They don't do it anymore, but they always used to have a kitchen. Okay, and all the tent hands would come by and get three meals a day. Yeah. And so they needed that. And so I just came home from school and my mum said we're doing it too. We're running away to join the circus. As a family, as a family. Oh man. So suddenly I'm with my parents working with my parents, 12 years old. And when I was we left, we did that circus for about a year and a half. We left for a little bit, then we went back, joined another circus, and that's when I became a clown. So did they did the name go like was Goldie? Because it's giving Goldie, my mum, my mum chose it. Yeah, okay. I wanted to be buttons, or you know, but you wanted to be something traditional. Yeah, I want a clown name. Yeah, really. I even like Matthew. I just thought I'd never liked my name when I was a kid. I like it now, but when I was, I just Matthew the clown was a bad thing. But I just thought Matthew had a nice kind of sound to it. I don't know, it's a soft sound, I don't know what it was. But my mum was she named me twice. She named me when I was born, and she also named my clown. And and then she made all my first costumes. She was a massive supporter of me. My mum loved clowns. When I was little, she'd make burn before I was born. She made clown dolls. She painted clowns. She opened a shop and it was called Harlequin.

SPEAKER_06 11:37

Wow. She just loved and so were you were they homeschooling you? Is that how that works?

SPEAKER_04 11:41

Yes, when I when they could catch me. Well, because you turn into town and you get up and you're at a show grounds or something, and I had a mate that was like a year younger, so we'd be like, let's go, and we'd run off and make cubbies and yeah, okay. So when they could catch me, we got homeschooled. Yeah. But I'd I'd quite often be, you know, it's you're exploring. I was I I'd never been out of my state, and and I'd lived in this small little country town. Yeah. And suddenly we're off in the circus. Within six months, I was living in the car park of Australia's Wonderland in Sydney, working the circus got booked to work in the theme park.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 12:16

So I'd never been out of my state little town, and within six months I was living and working in a theme park. Like it was a whole new world.

SPEAKER_06 12:23

Oh, yeah, I bet. And and like so you're 12, like coming into your teenage years at that point, do you find do you reckon that you grew up really fast?

SPEAKER_04 12:32

Oh, you're there. Oh yeah, but suddenly you're working with adults. There's a few kids, but mostly it's adults, so you have to start learning adult conversation.

SPEAKER_06 12:40

Yeah. And yeah, but did you did your parents kind of were they cool with that or did they try and shelter you from that abuse?

SPEAKER_04 12:47

No, not at all. And then I suddenly, because I'm then working with my parents, suddenly I heard my dad swear for the first time. You know, it's like, oh, that's fun. Because he's we're I'm suddenly in his world. Yeah. And so he's now with the fellas. Yeah. So yeah, so we're all it changed the dynamic of the family completely. We weren't just Mum and Dad were workmates.

SPEAKER_06 13:09

Yeah, well, I reckon everybody can remember the first time they hear their parents swear or go off at something. You know, I remember when my old man said fuck for the first time. I was like, you know, I thought I like I idolized him all of a sudden, you know.

SPEAKER_05 13:22

Like it's just like he was local. Yeah, I just thought this guy's great, you know.

SPEAKER_06 13:28

And then of course I started dropping it left, right, and centre around the house, and uh I quickly found out that you know it's uh one of those be careful.

SPEAKER_04 13:36

Yeah, I've said that with my kids from the kids, they've grown up in the circus. So, and people will swear and say, you know, oh sorry, I swore in front of the kids. It's like, no, no, I've been telling them since this big swears are for adults, not for children. You can swear when you're bigger, and uh yeah, and they stuck to that. They're good, they're good kids. They've never sworn.

SPEAKER_06 13:56

So talking about is this something that you hope is going to stay in the family now?

SPEAKER_04 14:02

It may, because Billy's been clowning with me now. So I left the circus when I was 16 because I wanted to go to school.

SPEAKER_06 14:08

And then wanted to go to school.

SPEAKER_04 14:10

Yeah, there's a many uh I I missed a lot of schooling. Again, they couldn't catch me enough to sit me down.

SPEAKER_06 14:17

Do you think you also missed like the friend like you all you had was your circus friends?

SPEAKER_04 14:22

Do you think you missed that sort of no, because I didn't want to go into normal school because because I felt like I was older suddenly than everyone else. I'd speak to people my own age and they all seemed so young. Yeah. So I ended up doing night night classes in year 11 and 12 with like 50-year-olds who were going back to get their their their hey. And so I'd be sitting the school had finished at 3, 3:30, the night classes had start, and I was only 16, 17, but that's I'd turn up with all those people. I wouldn't want to have people my own age. They were annoying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was an adult now. I regret some of that, you know. You grew up too far. That's fine, but that's how I was. But some of it I go, ah, I should have hung on to some of that youth a little more.

SPEAKER_06 15:11

Yeah. But so you so you left the circus at 16.

SPEAKER_04 15:15

I stepped plowing, and then I went to I went to uni as well. I was studied. Let me guess, you did an arts degree.

SPEAKER_05 15:23

Yeah, well, you did an arts degree.

SPEAKER_04 15:25

I did this is what I was doing because I didn't know what I wanted to do. I was doing act yeah, acting. I went to UQ. I was doing the acting, whatever they had, Japanese and astronomy. Okay. Because I didn't really know what I wanted to do. Apparently, I was going to be some Japanese-speaking dramatic astronomer.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

I star or not I star. That is a question.

Dreamworld Years And Theme Park Life

SPEAKER_04 15:49

Yeah, I know. I didn't know what I love. Did you finish all of those? No, six months in Dream World called and said we need a clown. Ah, Dream World. Yeah. So and in the in those media, in those intermediate years, I've been I just kept clowning because gigs would pop up on the weekends and I was thinking, what am I gonna do with my life? I never planned to be a clown for my life. I thought, what am I gonna do? Yeah, yeah. And then the phone would ring, hey, this Saturday, South Bank, you know, okay, so it'd suddenly be and so it was. So did you did you clown during Expo 88? No, I I was after that. So I started in ninety one.

unknown 16:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 16:26

I I missed Expo. I was still in Victoria then.

SPEAKER_06 16:29

Yeah, right. And so when you say when you say Dream World called, what did that look like? Did you have to audition? Did uh they were they're putting a thing out for a clown?

SPEAKER_04 16:37

I did in 92-93 they did a circus promotion and I I didn't audition for the I just put in and I got that gig. It was a five-week school holiday thing in December of 93, 92, 93. And then uh and then they would get me back, I think for the next year they had a promotion. Oh, let's get the clown back. And then I think I did six stints at Dream World at different times over the next three years for like school holiday promotions. And then the clown they had retired and which I didn't see coming, and they didn't because they'd promoted him to being like virtually the biggest mascot of the park.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:15

And then they just they wanted to replace him, but they didn't, they felt like they great for me. They felt like they needed a full-down full-time cleaner. That was part of they felt like that was fundamental by then because he was so great.

SPEAKER_06 17:27

So when are we talking about here?

SPEAKER_04 17:28

Late 90s. I got the gig in 96. 96, okay. July 96, that's when I started.

SPEAKER_06 17:34

And so 16 years you were there. So for those that don't know, Dreamworld's probably one of Australia's biggest theme, or if not Australia's biggest theme bark here on the Gold Coast. And and I actually worked there for a few years, you know, it was very meditated, kind of shared the green room there, mate. I'd never thought I'd share the green room with the cloud.

SPEAKER_04 17:56

It's funny, isn't it? When you're sitting there having lunch and there's someone in half a bad suit and the wizard's still got his beard on and the swords around the court. That's right. This is normal. Yeah. All right, yeah, this is my life. It's like Trump with the Easter bunny. See that?

SPEAKER_05 18:11

Oh, mate. I don't know. That's normal. Random.

SPEAKER_06 18:16

That's the thing is I do I do remember multiple days where I would be sitting there in the green room and I'm just looking around and I'm going, Cloud, wiggles, uh, you know, there's someone from Nickelodeon. I'm there in a in a like an alien versus predator outfit. Yes. And and then, like, before I did that, we did the scare sc we did the scare attractions down there as well, which was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_05 18:39

I can't believe I got paid to scare people. You know, where's my money?

SPEAKER_06 18:44

That's the weirdest thick man. Like, I I I think the fascinating thing about working as a clown at Dreamworld is before I started doing oh, before I got really heavily into stand-up, I'd because I trained as an actor for three years and and I worked for a company you probably could heard of Is It Entertainment. David Crimson. Yeah, yeah, great guy.

SPEAKER_04 19:04

I used to do gigs, they they'd get me gigs too back in the day.

SPEAKER_06 19:08

Yeah, and and you know, it was all street theatre. Yes. You know, street theatre. I've I've been that guy where you're a statue. Right. And you know, fashion police and all that. Yeah, fashion police. That's right. Right. Did you do that?

SPEAKER_03 19:20

Yeah, all of that. Yeah, right. You know, with Sean Dennahy and all those guys, you know. And when did you start? When did you do that?

SPEAKER_06 19:26

Like before stand-up or yeah, I probably did that around I'd say 1998 till maybe about 2002. Yeah, right. Yeah, probably about.

SPEAKER_04 19:37

That's when I would have been at Dreamworld by then, so I'm out of the because I used to bump, you'd you'd bump, you'd do a shopping centre opening or something, and there'd be the regular guys kind of sitting there, you know, sharing uh sharing sometimes a little toilet to put on your face or a little bathroom in the back of a shopping centre, and there'd be regular guys from Isit and stuff that would be in there. But I never saw you then because that was a few years later.

SPEAKER_06 19:59

Did you ever see the uh the the most random thing I reckon I got to do when I was doing street theatre? Was I was part of the Victor Lawnmowering Precision stunt team.

SPEAKER_04 20:10

Oh no, I never saw that, but that doesn't surprise me. That's great.

SPEAKER_06 20:13

It was four of us in red overalls pushing around lawnmowers over ramps and shit. Right. It was just great. It was hilarious, yeah. But when you're when you're a uh full-time clown in a theme park, yeah, and that's that's street theatre next level, isn't it? Because they're yeah. People are coming into the theme park and they, you know, they want to do the rides and all that sort of stuff, and and they come round the corner and there you are in your little clown car me.

SPEAKER_04 20:42

Right. It's something for them to do on the way from a ride to a ride or something. Yeah. I don't know if it's next level because I always thought, well, it's not it's different to busking, I guess.

SPEAKER_06 20:51

Did you have your own show? It's like at the end. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:55

Yeah, yeah. No, not at the end. I started, I'd do it now and then, and then uh more and more towards the end, I'd do a show in the middle of the day. But mostly it was roving. Yeah. And and the good thing, so it's I guess on some level I wouldn't build crowds necessarily. Sometimes I would, but in the where you've got to learn to hold them. I never really had to learn how to hold them because I didn't really care. I'd have a laugh with people. Sometimes I'd hold them, but I didn't have to, you know, like you do when they do street shows, you know what I mean? You need to build a crowd and then hold on to them for 15 minutes or so, and then hopefully they're gonna put money in your hat at the end. Yeah, yeah. For me, I'd joke around, and if it didn't go well, I'd move on to the next bit of people. That was a good thing.

SPEAKER_06 21:38

Was the Goldie the clown, the Dream World Goldie pretty much the same persona as what the circus Goldie is?

Routines Versus Improvising With Crowds

SPEAKER_04 21:45

It's it's there's different. It's yeah, yeah, it is. It's just there's slightly different uh ways of I don't get to improvise as much in the circus. I do at intermission a little bit, but at a dream world it was just all improvisation. Yeah. Up and saying something to people, and they'd say something back, and you make comedy, you make a little comedy moment, have a laugh, move on. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 22:07

Yeah. Well, I've made I've seen you do the circus show a few years ago. And it's fantastic. Like the you are center stage, you know, as opposed to in Dream World, you're kind of part of an ensemble of entertainment that's around the park. But when you're in that space, you're really holding that space, aren't you?

SPEAKER_04 22:28

Yeah, well, uh in the circus, I am the Tower of Terror. I am the roller coaster. Dreamworld, they come to see the tigers, they come to see the roller coaster. But and oh, and now oh, and there's a clown here. Great, we'll have a laugh with the clown while we're here during the day. That's not to say that some people it it hasn't affected some people. And I had a mate who was getting on a on a plane once and he was standing behind a family, and they were saying, I can't wait to get to the Gold Coast, we'll go to the beach. Oh, I can't wait to go then go on that ride.

SPEAKER_02 22:59

And the little kid behind said, I can't wait for the clown to kick me in the bum again.

SPEAKER_04 23:05

So I was one of his I was one of their three things that they were looking forward to. Yeah, yeah. Wonderful, but I'm not, but uh but for the most part, they're not coming to the theme park to see, but at the circus, yeah, I'm one of the three I'm one of the three big things. They want to see the acrobats, the animals, they want to see the clown.

SPEAKER_06 23:22

Yeah, and and uh you know, can we mention the circus that you Hudson Circus? Yeah, and you are pretty much the face of Hudson Circus on so much of the promo, yeah, it's goldie.

SPEAKER_04 23:33

Yeah, he's put me on the posters and on the trucks and on the canteen, and I was on the show bag, and I'm on the pamphlets and big inflatable gold.

SPEAKER_05 23:43

You know you've made it when you inflated my ego. You've got a big inflatable gold.

SPEAKER_04 23:47

Well, Dream World made a statue. That's right. You know you've made it, I guess, when you made a statue. I've got it. Is it what? Yeah, when Dream when the Dream World gig fell through, yeah, because they didn't want they were sad. My bosses, they didn't want it was a company above that were doing budget cuts.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:05

So they were so sad that they they gave me, they gave me the car, they gave me the motorbike, and they gave me the statue. They went, here, have everything. So uh so I now I've now built a thing for the statue and it's in the foyer in the circus. Yeah, cool. But it's it's pretty cool seeing the statue. Have you ever seen a statue of yourself? No, it's an interesting experience doing a statue of Mar McGovern, man. I can tell you right. First time we see it. The first it's like I sat down to the back.

SPEAKER_06 24:30

But did you have to pose for someone to like uh or did they just do it off a photo?

SPEAKER_04 24:34

They did it off a photo, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 24:37

But you got to choose the the pose.

SPEAKER_04 24:40

No, I think they kind of based it on the Donald McDonald ones, you know, he's sitting there on the bench. They did kind of that. So he's got one arm out and one arm for someone to come and sit beside. Yep, yep, yep. But uh, but yeah, it's pretty cool. I've lost my train.

SPEAKER_02 24:55

Bip, beep, honk, honk.

SPEAKER_06 24:56

The kid, the the the the circus. I want to talk about it because the thing that and we touched on this right at the start, the thing that fascinates me about what you do is your ability to entertain five-year-olds and 75-year-olds. Yeah, you know, because I've had times on cruise ships where they've gone, we want you to go and do a kid's show. Right. And and I shit myself, right? I come out on the stage at like four o'clock on the end, because they they know they employ us as R18 adult comedians. Right. And and I actually do a whole comedy routine about the fact that I don't know how to entertain kids, so I'd get them to entertain themselves and do a little joke-telling competition and all that sort of stuff, and and the shit that comes out of kids' mouths is because there's no filter, you know. But but that's only, you know, I've only got half an hour and I and I I cheat, I cheat my way through it. But as a clown, you know, when people come into the circus, I I dare say everybody in that big top is looking at the clown to entertain the kids. And if you entertain the adults, that's a byproduct, that's that's a bonus.

SPEAKER_04 26:04

Would that be right? I think so. I think I think most I even sometimes there'll be a group of adults, just adults, and again, sometimes men, and I feel it. You'll see them going like comes the clown.

SPEAKER_06 26:16

Do you actually get do you get people going to the circus that without kids? Like, oh, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_04 26:20

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, sometimes there's just a group of fellas, you know, I guess they've thought, let's go to the circus. All right, Barry, sounds fun. Not doing anything.

SPEAKER_05 26:28

Let's do that. Let's do that. Let's do that. Let's do that, let's crack another beer and go.

SPEAKER_06 26:34

There's an 18-year-old guy growing up in Australia. I don't know if that was ever really on my radar. No, it's a surprise.

SPEAKER_04 26:40

It is a surprise when I see it, but that does happen. But you've got to im yeah, you've got to impress them every time, even though I very seldom bomb anymore. You know, because I've I've got a formula. Yeah. They want to, they're on my side.

SPEAKER_06 26:53

But you're still improvising when you're going out.

SPEAKER_04 26:56

Not in the ring.

SPEAKER_06 26:57

Oh, but when you when you when I've seen you walk around the crowd, the little water pistols and all that sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_04 27:04

Right, a little, but uh, but more the circus is more routine. Yeah, right. And and I get too scared to uh I I know of other clowns, I've heard of other clowns that that do it. They go out and they they improvise away from their routine. I get a bit too scared. And if it's one-on-one in the street and you're coming up with stuff, then fine. You know, I'll improve and I and I love that. I got it.

SPEAKER_06 27:25

Well, it's a f it's a formula, you know what works, you know. And yeah, and I remember, you know, as a there was a time in my career doing stand-up, and I'm I'm sure a lot of comedians get this, where I was going from, you know, doing amateur spots to being paid, and you know, the show producer would say, Um when I'm paying you, I'm not paying you to experiment. Right. I'm paying you to give me the show that you have honed within an inch of its life. If you want if you want to experiment, go and do open mic stuff and do all that sort of gear. Right. Or but like now, you know, like I can do a one-hour show and do an experiment with like ten minutes of new stuff in the middle or whatever, because I know that everything either side.

SPEAKER_04 28:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 28:09

And I suppose that's the same for you. You've got your formula for your show.

SPEAKER_04 28:13

Yeah, and it's got to work every show. I can't afford to just go off and have something not work. Yeah, it's not fair to them, and it's not fair to my boss. Yeah, same thing. He's paying me for a product to get everybody to laugh every show and have every show be like, wow, the clown was so great, and tell their friends so more people come.

SPEAKER_06 28:29

Yeah, I do do you does your boss give you a certain amount of freedom to to ex, you know, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:36

If I if I said, Hey, I want to do this new act, yeah, which I which I do every now and then I change out an act and try something different. I'd have a whole new act. Yeah. But but so yeah, I've got freedom to do that. Yeah. And I've got freedom to it changes over time, you know. It's there there'll be you'll think of something one show, and you go, well, that's better. So it'll be one little it'll grow and change and increments over time. The structure of it will stay the same. And I like that there's there's a there's it's fun to you know what it's like. You've got to make it this stuff feel like you've just thought of it. There's a there's a there's an art to that.

SPEAKER_06 29:13

And and well, that's one of the things that I say to people is the interesting one of the one of the most commonly asked questions that I'll get after uh you do, well, on the cruise ships, for example, where you do a one-hour show, right? Big theatre, thousand-sea theatre, you might have people come up to you, how do you remember all that? Right, you know, how do you think you've just spoken for an hour, how do you remember all that? And and my standard response is remembering it is the easy part, right? Because at the end of the day, it's a script that I've said a thousand times before, however many times, and it's and it's easy to remember because a lot of it is stories that have happened to me.

SPEAKER_01 29:52

Right.

SPEAKER_06 29:52

Right. The hard part is doing it in a way for the ten thousandth time or whatever that I still think it's funny. Right. Because if I do if I tell that story and I don't I don't still think it's funny, it's not you're not gonna buy it. Yeah, you know what I mean? And I suppose that's the same.

SPEAKER_04 30:09

You've still got to believe in it's exactly the same. That that part of it's exactly the same, making it fresh, yeah. Making it feel like it's for you, for me, but I've got a joy in in doing it. But there are there's time there's times when it feels like any job. Most jobs are repetitive. You go drive a bus, what do you do? You drive a bus all day, you go here and you're mostly doing paperwork all day. So very few jobs you're really getting new challenges that are totally out of your zone all the time. I don't know what it would be offhand. A pilot, like but they're flying planes, they're they're flying planes every day. Yeah, well, it's not like they turn up one day and it's like train this elephant. No hey, turn one day and belly dance. They're flying planes, yeah, yeah. So you get sick of it. But and but with this, you get you know, it's it's joyous. And the trick is to, yeah, there's times when it's like I'm back into the grinder, but it's a pretty great grinder. Yeah.

Becoming Goldie Behind The Curtain

SPEAKER_06 31:07

Uh I I'm I I'm interested in the because when I go out, it's Mark McConville on stage, right? And it's like it is a version of me, yes, but it's still me. Whereas mine is that whole different human being. That's right. So when you so I don't know if you're happy to go a bit of a peek behind the curtain, but before you're doing a show, like how long does it take you to go from being matte to being Goldie?

SPEAKER_04 31:33

It'd take an hour to put it on. Okay. Definitely that process, yeah, the whole thing.

SPEAKER_06 31:39

It's not makeup my own. I can probably make alert that mistake.

SPEAKER_04 31:42

But I watched you contain it.

SPEAKER_06 31:43

I do wear makeup. I watched your conan. I watched your conan podcast. And I'm very grateful that you're doing this because it is a step down for being interviewed by Conan.

SPEAKER_04 31:52

It's just a step sideways. It's a coat inch above the convales.

SPEAKER_06 31:55

But uh when he was saying about makeup, I saw it just goes.

SPEAKER_04 31:59

It's my go-to gag. I just say it all the time. Someone says makeup, say face paint. Face paint. You know, and that joke actually it got ahead of me. A few years ago, somebody came to me and and and they said when I started working in it, someone had warned me because they thought I was serious. Don't call it makeup. He hates that. Let's call it face paint. It's like it's a joke. I'm not, but it's my go-to joke. But I said it to Conan and he was like, Oh, I wear makeup. I don't think I'd ever said it to somebody who also wears makeup before. So most people anyway. So the processing an hour. It's a I I allow an hour because I don't like to rush. If I go if I I could do it in half an hour if I had to, but I like to take my time. Also, I've got to keep cool. If I sweat and rush, then it doesn't go on properly. So and in that process, it's mostly when the nose goes on and I can see the nose. And then even then, I can still be backstage and be out of character. It's mostly when you're in front of people. And the Dream World thing helped with that. A lot of clowns don't clown when they're they clown in the show, and then after the show, or if they're being interviewed by somebody on the news or whatever, they're they're suddenly serious. They go out after the show and they'll be like, hi, thanks for coming to the show. Thank you, thank you. Whereas I'm still like, hey kids, hope you had a good time. Yeah. It sounded like Mickey Mouse. It didn't sound anything like I can't do the clown voice out of the Isn't that interesting. It gets evoked.

SPEAKER_06 33:24

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_04 33:25

Yeah. A channel. It's I don't get to say this too much, but after 35 years and maybe other people out there who have also done a character for this amount of time, after a while, it's got a separate part of your brain. A lot of the comedy is in Goldie. Goldie says things that I wouldn't think of. Goldie reacts to things in ways that I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 33:45

Well, that was one of the things I was gonna ask you. Do you reckon so Goldie can get away with things that Matt couldn't?

SPEAKER_04 33:50

Oh yeah. It's a license to kill's the wrong word. Clowns don't kill. License to kill with comedy. Oh yeah, the the clown can like I I go up to people and I go up to blind people. Give me your stick. I want it. What do you want to have?

SPEAKER_02 34:05

Well, you don't need it, I need it.

SPEAKER_04 34:06

I've got to hit kids with that. Or uh you know, get out of your chair, I want to ride around in it. You know, like you can't get away with doing that. Yeah, yeah. Uh the clown can say and do things that are outrageous and I do.

Handling Teenagers And Pushing Limits

SPEAKER_06 34:20

Do you reckon there's because there's a lot of scrutiny on comics now, you know, like what we can and can't say and all that sort of stuff. Do you reckon the that is happening?

SPEAKER_04 34:28

Is that happening? That's real.

SPEAKER_06 34:29

100% it's happening. Like I got last year, in the space of 12 months, I got six emails from for gigs that I was going to do. Yes. And six different occasions where I was specifically told what I cannot say. Oh, by the booker. Well, by the client, by the client. Not so much the agent, but the end client whose whose company I was going to work for or whose conference I was going to do, whatever, whatever it was, saying, We don't want you to touch this subject, this subject, this, you know, and and six times. In in and one of them I actually did the the list was so long I I rang the client up and I said, Yeah, maybe you don't want a comic. Right. You know, like I mean, because you're taking out magicians. Yeah, you're taking out all of the good stuff. But I suppose you've kind of escaped that, haven't you? Because Clown, you've still got the license to do what you want.

SPEAKER_04 35:22

Yeah, but I do, but I've got a good filter of what's right to and wrong to say. Uh I can you can say some things with a wink and a smile, but it's always it's always G-rated. I'm aimed for the kids.

SPEAKER_01 35:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:33

And it's it's almost like a Pixar movie. Sometimes I'll word things or phrase things in a way. Yeah, it's but it's very light. But the adults will go, uh, I know what he means.

SPEAKER_05 35:42

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:42

And the kids will just be so yeah, there's a way to get around it. But it's not, I'm not, it's I'm not a stand-up. It's different to have you ever thought about doing stand-up? Yeah. Have you? Oh yeah, I'd never, but I never had the drive. You know, East Skate's been trying to talk me into it for years. Yeah. But I uh and I'll come up with bits every now and then, you know, I'll go like that's good, but that's a stand-up bit, that's not a clown thing. Yeah, and but I never you know, I never really like, yeah, I'm gonna go do it. It was always like there, like, oh maybe. But I've all the other cids and clowns and and children's entertainers that I knew and used to work with got to a stage where they went, we want to go do adult now. And I just never did that. I just I just always was like, I love this, this is so fun. Kids and families.

SPEAKER_06 36:31

Well, it's it's it's the heart and soul of it, isn't it? You know, like like making kids laugh is and just getting them to erupt.

SPEAKER_04 36:38

Yeah, I love it. And I I find it easy. There's people that don't, and it's it's but I was at uh I I was I went and got the tiger photos years ago before my mum died. I got I I took her in to get tiger photos. And uh I said to the tiger guys while we were doing it, I said, I don't know how you guys do this with tigers, like I'd be scared. Yeah. And they said saying they were, I don't know how you do that, putting up with those kids all day. We saw what 20 kids around you the other week stomping on your toes, trying to rip your whip your wig off. How do you handle that?

SPEAKER_06 37:10

I know. Well, that's a teacher there's I don't know how you maintain your cool man because like I had times where when I was doing street theatre, right, where I there was one day in particular where it was some street fair or something, and I had to do the statue, right? Yes, right. And and so I had this these big jacket and pants on that made me look like I was covered in like I was a concrete statue, yeah, right? And it was one of those tableau things where you'd just stand there and you'd you're just frozen, but then every now and then you'd just move. Right, right, okay, to freak someone out, yeah, right. And and I remember this one day where I was standing there, and and there's like, I don't know, maybe three or four teenagers, and they're like, get something to throw at his nuts, right? Get something to throw at his nuts, you know, and like let's poke him, let's poke him, get him to smile. And they were just hell-bent on getting me to break character, you know. And so the only thing I could do, because you know, in my mind I'm just unraveling going, you know, I want to just get these kids. Right. And I just waited until they came close enough, and then I just like lunged. Yes. But didn't didn't get them, obviously. But I just lunged at them in a way that just made them all shit themselves and run away.

SPEAKER_04 38:31

But man, when you got kids that I can get away with, so you're you're constrained there by that character. Whereas I virtually have no constraints. So for kids, if the kids come up to me, like Dreamworld used happen all the time. You get a big group of ten teenagers that are there by themselves without adult supervision, they come out, ha, let's get the clown, let's get him. And within five minutes, they're either leaving with their tail between their legs or they're picking on, you know, you pick on one guy. And see, I've seen it all before. Yeah. And they think I've come down the last shower. But I've got to every to every line you're probably going to say to me, I've heard it 20 times before.

SPEAKER_03 39:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:08

And I've got 20 lines to come back at you with. Yeah. So and and then you seem like super quick and super funny. And then and then I pick on Barry, and by the end, they're like the clown's their best friend. Yeah, yeah. And then ah, yeah, Barry is an idiot, and then they walk off. So I've got uh it's just most and most kids that come up to me, they're wanting to be playful. I've got a I I've got a detector for when they're actually wanting to be brats. Yeah. It takes a lot before finally, I'll try, I'll joke, I'll joke, and then every now and then, all right, you know, rack off. That's enough of you. Yeah. But for the most part, they're wanting to be playful, and I'll play in response, and then I'll I'll find a way to steer it into goodness.

SPEAKER_06 39:51

It must be hard, it must be hard when you see them running amok and their parents aren't doing anything. Like their parents almost like, yeah, go and see if you can hassle the clown sort of thing.

SPEAKER_04 40:01

Right.

SPEAKER_06 40:01

Does that happen? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:03

Go somebody's toes. Because he wants to, because the dad wants to do it. Yeah, yeah. No, I I can after this, I can twist 99.9% of interactions into goodness. Yeah. It doesn't, it I don't have to. And in fact, when I if it doesn't, if if I fail at that, if I do have to say enough go away, I more look at that as a failing of my ability to have turned it into something good.

SPEAKER_03 40:28

Right.

SPEAKER_04 40:29

But it's probably not right.

SPEAKER_03 40:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:30

Probably that was just a no-win situation. That was just a bad kid or bad situation. Yeah. But I try to think about as many ways as I can to make it good, make it funny, bring it, bring it to the bring it to the good side.

Performing Through Grief And Hard Days

SPEAKER_06 40:43

Yeah, yeah. It's there to be hard. Mate, that that process of, like you said, taking an hour to put the face paint on and actually, you know, get all your clothes and all that sort of stuff. Do you think that helps you go out and do it when you don't feel like being funny or you don't feel like like because you know I know there's been times where I've done gigs where personal tragedy in my life, loved ones have passed away, you know, fights with your girlfriend or whatever, you know, like and you being paid to go out and be funny, you know, might be the last thing that you feel like doing. And you know, but do you think going through the process of becoming another character helps you navigate that?

SPEAKER_04 41:27

Yeah, you forget about your I I forget you become something else if and then you can go back into the green room and be like, oh you'll feel down again. But for that time, yeah, it helps. Well, that's hard to know. After my dad died, I only had two weeks off. And that might have been too soon, maybe. Maybe not. But I yeah, I think it's hard for Conan was talking to me about that at the end of the interview. Oh, sometimes you don't feel like doing it. He was saying, you just don't feel like can I really do this? Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 41:57

But but it's it's a like I've described it before on a podcast where I was talking about the fact that like there was a time where my stepfather was in hospital, you know, dying with nine brain tumours, and and at this at the same time I was just starting to get paid support work, and so I'd go from his hospital driving across town to the comedy club and walking on stage and having to be funny for 20 minutes, you know. And you know, you're backstage going, How can I how can I possibly do this? Right. And the the group of comics that I had around me at the time, I was very fortunate, you know, was so supportive and they just said, just go out and worry about the first minute because once you get out there and you start, you know, once you get that first laugh and you've you're trying to get into that zone, everything else just peters away. And then you come off stage with that adrenaline, that rush, and that's and now, you know, fast forward to you know, my uni studies and and talking to people about the importance of humor and laughter for your mental health, it's fascinating to me now that there's I've found research to show that it's more psychologically beneficial to make someone else laugh than it is to laugh yourself. Right.

SPEAKER_04 43:22

That's uh there's there's information on that, is there?

SPEAKER_06 43:25

Yeah, there's a ton of research on it. Yeah. You know, and and a lot of it is to do with the connectedness, you know, because you're feeling a connection, you're doing something good for someone else, self-esteem, quality of life, life satisfaction, because it feels good to make someone else laugh. So as much as as much as the audience is getting a kick out of it when we're making them laugh, in actual fact, psychologically, the person on stage is getting a bigger hit out of it. And that's why I say to people, you know, when I do the workshops, I say, you know, go forth and be funny. Right. It certainly does.

SPEAKER_04 44:00

Does feel like you do you're doing uh a s a service. And I think that's one of the keys to to any life, any career is what are you helping humanity? What are you doing to pay back? That that gives you so much reward. And I I was thinking about studying to be a psychologist a few years ago because I thought, oh, what in like in 2022, we left the circus for a while and I thought maybe I'll do something else. And my first thought was, what can I do that feels like I'm helping people as much as this does? So silly, like I'm the clown, but but it it does feel like I'm I'm yeah, you take people away from their troubles for a couple of hours and make them laugh. 100%. Yeah, more of that. The world means more of that. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And you do get I get people coming up and telling me over the years, you know, how much it means. And now, of course, people coming up with their kids saying, This is this is my clown when I was a kid. You know, it's beautiful. Yeah, that's it. It does mean stuff to people.

SPEAKER_06 44:59

Oh, a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_04 45:00

Which I never saw coming. I always just thought, I'm just doing my thing. And then later it's like, oh, there's meaning in this.

SPEAKER_06 45:06

It's happening more and more. Uh like we see it in stand-up, you know, like that's what it was that was a turning point for my career was husband and wife on a cruise ship back in 2012, where after the gig I'd just done a gig like I'd done a thousand times before, and after the gig, this sorry for those listeners that have heard me tell this story a thousand times, but it's this is this is the this is the origin, you know. And and this lady came up and she's crying her eyes out, and she wraps her arms around me and goes, I don't know how I can possibly thank you because I haven't seen my husband laugh out loud for three years.

SPEAKER_04 45:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 45:38

And he was a veteran, yes. And here's this guy saying, Mate, you've done more for me in one night than three years of counselling and post-traumatic stress management because you just made me laugh for an hour.

SPEAKER_04 45:48

That's beautiful, and I've had exactly that moment too, and I've had, and it was a clown too, where it was a few years ago, after that thing that happened in 2016 where they were turning up, I've had a family come up with the daughter, and they were like, the clowns turned up, the idiot clowns turned up at her school, and she's been terrified ever since. And we came here, and wow, and and we had a hug, and she was like, I love you, and I love you too, and you're my new favourite. They were like, You've cured her clown fear. I've had adults come up and and like, I'm scared of clowns, I've been in therapy, but uh my therapist has told me it's time for me to find a clown and give him a hug. So I just want to it's like, yeah, yeah, I'm just a person dressed up, you know, to make you laugh. And I've had a lot of that. I had a guy about a year ago, you love this.

SPEAKER_06 46:33

Oh girl.

SPEAKER_04 46:33

Is this the end? This is ridiculous, but it was he was so sincere. He said, Oh man, he said, it feels so good. Thank you so much for the laugh tonight. He said, he said it was really good to get out and have a laugh. You know, my sister died yesterday, and uh and I thought, God, I thought, yesterday, yesterday, and he's at the surface today. Yesterday, he couldn't have waited. Normally it's like three years, okay, fair enough. But if the very next day he was like, Oh, I need to be cheered up, I'm off to the one how's the self-awareness of that guy?

SPEAKER_06 47:08

Oh, yeah. But see, that's that you know, that goes to the heart of laughter is the best medicine. You know, yeah, like so many people, oh, I've had a shit day, shit week, my sister died yesterday.

SPEAKER_04 47:19

But normally you'd wait a little while, take the medicine, you know. I take the medicine, yeah. How did you respond to that? Oh, great. Oh, thank you, mate. You know, wonderful. And he walked off. And as he walked off, you know, I was like, yesterday.

The Truth About Clown Fear

SPEAKER_06 47:32

That's crazy. So, so just I want to I want to go back to something that you just talked about. This this fear of people actually have come up to you and said that you've cured their what is with this fear of clowns?

SPEAKER_04 47:46

Yeah, I don't know if it's a lot of it's not real. A lot of it in society, people think clowns are all scary now. They're not. I uh then it's no different. I walked around the shops last week to film this thing for the circus, and I was a little worried, even myself, because sometimes I buy into it. It's like we're gonna go over to the shops and I'm gonna fill things, film things around. Did I say filthy just then? I'm gonna film film things around the shopping centre, but I'll get a guy to come with me just in case I have any trouble. There's no trouble. Not one scared person, kids waving, people coming up and having photos. Any teenager that was pretending to be scared is only pretending to be scared. It's the clown fear thing is very few and far between. Yeah. I I maybe don't see them. I say every now and then at the circus, I'll see a genuine case. Very rare though.

SPEAKER_06 48:31

Yeah. It's like, oh, that's what I'm saying. You think it's like little kids kind of because it's the only it might be the first time they've seen a clip of the case. It depends on a bit overwhelmed.

SPEAKER_04 48:39

Yeah, but um, but again, most little kids very rare that any kids are scared at the circus. Yeah, very rare that kids they they're they're they're no more scared of the clown than they are of Santa Claus. Some kids are just scared of a person dressed up. Yeah, but somewhere along the line, society in the last 20 years went, oh, clowns are scary, and that kind of started to take off. But I don't see that on the ground. It's no different than it was 35 years ago when I started. Yeah, right. The same amount of kids now and then are a little timid, or every now and then one will cry. But that's I'll go a week or more without hearing hearing a kid be scared.

SPEAKER_06 49:18

Does it annoy you when, like we were saying before about the you know, clowns being portrayed in the movie as the the villain?

SPEAKER_04 49:24

I hate it. Yeah, yeah. It's kind of ruined my art form. It's put a it's tried to ruin my art form. Yeah. It's put a you see, most clowns now that are coming, they're not dressing like me. They're not even wearing makeup. Sometimes they don't wear red noses and they've been clowning, and that's fine, they're doing their thing. But I like a clown to look like a clown. What I like about what I do, and I'm not gonna change it, yeah, is the minute anyone sees me before they even the first millisecond they look at me. Clown.

SPEAKER_06 49:52

Well, because it's traditional.

SPEAKER_04 49:54

You you are the traditional got the hoopy pants, the big shoes, the red nose, the red wig, the makeup, big tie, yeah. My pants fall down, yeah, uh my squirt water. That's to me, I I love that. And I don't want it. So I'm trying to hold the torch to keep that tradition.

SPEAKER_06 50:11

Yeah, it's the traditional clown.

SPEAKER_04 50:12

Yes, clown classic, as we called it, and clown classic.

SPEAKER_06 50:17

So, do you think where where do you like I know it's um we're in a strange time, entertainment-wise, you know, everyone's on their mobile phones and getting online entertainment, all this sort of stuff. How do you see the future of, you know, just a traveling circus traveling around? That sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_04 50:33

Hopefully it'll be well, but when when things were good, like after COVID, bam, we boomed. Like people were just, I think they're at a sick and sit at home on Netflix.

SPEAKER_06 50:41

How did you guys cut during COVID?

SPEAKER_04 50:43

We just shut down, like everything got shut down. Yeah, you know, all the entertainment was like the first thing to go, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_06 50:48

It was a crazy thing, man.

SPEAKER_04 50:49

Lost my gig, lost all my gigs.

SPEAKER_06 50:51

It was and the thing that I found really annoying at that time, and I even was part of a group of us who wrote a letter to the federal ministers about it, was the fact that all of the the narrative in the news centered around the hospitality industry and the tourism industry and and the health care workers, right? And yet myself, like you know, everyone that I knew, we lost I lost eight months worth of work in four days. Right. As did you all did. As did you, you know. And there was no narrative about the entertainment industry whatsoever.

SPEAKER_04 51:32

It was, I think, for the first little bit, when all the gigs started going, people went, oh blues fest is cancelled, this is cancelled, whatever, you know. That's right. And then people didn't care after a while, it was on to the essential workers. Yeah. And we weren't the we weren't them. Clown wasn't an essential worker, it wasn't on the list. I wrote to the Prime Minister, he didn't write back. Yeah, I I the funny thing with me was we left the circus at the end of 2019 to decide to to get the kids into school and and live a real life. And I thought, am I going to be able to get gigs? Because I hadn't got I hadn't tried to get gigs for 23 years. I was at Dreamworld and then I was in the circus.

SPEAKER_06 52:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 52:10

So I just had regular work.

SPEAKER_06 52:12

And so as soon as Dream World finished, you pretty much went straight into Hudson's.

SPEAKER_04 52:16

I had two days drinking to do, and then the circus called. It was actually Royale Circus called and said we need a clown. So I took off to Perth and and was planning with them. With them, we were with them for a year and a half and then we left. And then a few months later, Hudson started up and I started with them and I've been with them ever since. Yeah. But then and then, well, not ever since, but we left at the end of 2019 to get and I thought, am I gonna be able to get gigs? And then sure enough, I started getting gigs. I went, this is gonna work. It's gotta work. I'm getting work. COVID. Yeah, yeah. And the funny thing too was one of the reasons we got left was to get the kids into school because we were sick of homeschooling them, and all the schools shut.

SPEAKER_05 52:57

So I was homeschooling the kids. This hasn't worked out at all. That's right. But I've got other friends.

SPEAKER_04 53:05

I've got another friend who just cut back on one job to focus on cruise ships. Oh, that just then that didn't go over so well. I've got another friend who just left his job to go work at flight center. Oh, then that all all the flight centers shut. So a lot of a lot of stories of people went, This is my new career move. Bum bum. Yeah, that's right. Um, you got a laugh. You gotta laugh in the face of that kind of adversity.

SPEAKER_06 53:28

How did how did how did it come back for you guys?

SPEAKER_04 53:31

I just went on the job keeper.

SPEAKER_06 53:34

No, I mean when when the circus started up.

SPEAKER_04 53:36

And then and then and then by April 21, he started up again.

SPEAKER_06 53:42

And did you we was he able to get the full compliment of some different people?

SPEAKER_04 53:48

No. Some same, depending on who was around, and and he he said, Do you want to come back? So we went, yeah, okay.

Life On The Road In A Tent

SPEAKER_06 53:54

So how many how many people does your circus employ?

SPEAKER_04 53:56

It's got 32 at the moment.

SPEAKER_06 53:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 53:59

And that's not all entertainers, that's you know, ticket people and and box office and does everyone have multiple jobs?

SPEAKER_06 54:07

Because like I'm assuming that when you when you rock when you roll into town, you're basically setting up a little mini city, aren't you? Yeah, a little town.

SPEAKER_04 54:16

Yeah. I describe it as that. The town, because we put all the caravans in the same place every time. Yeah. So your neighbor's always your neighbor, yeah. And the tent's in the middle. We live kind of around the tent. Yeah. And then our surroundings just change every few weeks. So it's like a little town that moves town.

SPEAKER_06 54:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 54:31

And at the moment we don't have a school, but when the kids were little, they had a little school.

SPEAKER_06 54:36

Yeah. So what's your what's your other tasks when you're not clowning when you're setting up the city?

SPEAKER_04 54:41

I put up and pull down the tents.

SPEAKER_06 54:43

How would they? Yeah, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 54:45

But that's only, but but apart from that, no, I don't have another job.

SPEAKER_06 54:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 54:49

Some of the others do, they go and work in the box office or other things. But no, I'm I'm clown.

SPEAKER_06 54:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 54:54

And then pizza.

SPEAKER_06 54:56

Right.

SPEAKER_04 54:56

Yeah. Eating pizza, not making pizzas.

SPEAKER_06 54:59

So do they uh, you know, when you try to do something, you know, like if you get asked to do it, because I know.

SPEAKER_05 55:04

Busy eating pizza. Well, I was actually thinking, you know, how is how important is this job?

SPEAKER_06 55:09

Well, I don't get the clown to do it.

SPEAKER_05 55:11

You know, don't you dare? Don't you know who I am?

SPEAKER_04 55:15

My face is on the truck. Don't you know who I am, damn you? Yeah, no, I I have no ego. I fired ego something to fight. I don't fire, it's terrible. My face is on all the trucks. I could walk around like that, couldn't I? I'm a clown here. Don't talk to me like that. You do it. Pick up that rubbish I just threw on the ground. No, you just met. Right. Because I have met clowns that have egos. And I always find that very funny.

SPEAKER_06 55:43

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 55:44

Clown. Yeah. With an ego. There's an oxymoron.

SPEAKER_06 55:48

Yeah. So how many how many months a year are you on the road?

SPEAKER_04 55:53

11 months of the year. What? Yeah, with normally January till November.

SPEAKER_06 55:58

And when how long do you stay in a town for when you rock up usually?

SPEAKER_04 56:02

The smallest with this show will be a week.

SPEAKER_06 56:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 56:05

The longest is right now six weeks. That's the longest we've ever done because we had to extend because of the fuel crisis. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_06 56:12

That's that's tough tough for you guys.

SPEAKER_04 56:14

Normally the maximum will be four weeks.

SPEAKER_06 56:16

Yeah. Because I'm assuming that, you know, because it's such a big job setting up and pulling down everything, like you've got to have a you've got to make it worth your while. You can stay for a minimum of a couple of weeks, surely, aren't you?

SPEAKER_04 56:28

Yeah, it's depending on the size of the town. If it's a small town, we'll go in for a week. Yeah. Get in, make them laugh, take all their money. Ah, let's get out of here. But if it's a bigger place, then we'll do two weeks. And then if it's a school holiday place, you know, we'll go to try to go to a big city or Townsville or Cairns or something for school holidays or wherever.

SPEAKER_06 56:46

So have you pretty much in the process of travelling with the circus, have you pretty much done a lap of Australia?

SPEAKER_04 56:52

Yeah, I've done it all. We even went out to the Rock in 2013 and set up out there.

SPEAKER_06 56:56

Wow, cool.

SPEAKER_04 56:57

Did three shows out there. I did again, I hadn't been so I hadn't been out of my state at 12 years old before I joined the circus. Billy, my son, had done every capital city and in every state by the day by age four. We'd been everywhere, man.

SPEAKER_06 57:14

Yeah. Do you have a favourite part of Australia that you like to revisit?

SPEAKER_04 57:17

I kind of like it all. Airley Beach is pretty great.

SPEAKER_06 57:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:20

So yeah, I do have my favourite spots.

Why Some Towns Hold Back

SPEAKER_06 57:23

Have you noticed a difference in audiences? Like when you go out doing you do you set up like farming communities and that sort of stuff, people that might be doing it pretty tough out on the land or can be funny.

SPEAKER_04 57:34

There's sometimes you go out to a country town, but they're normally more appreciative because if they don't get much entertainment, you really feel like you're doing in in 2013. We went over the top. We went from uh from Perth up to up the north, up to you know, Exmouth, and then over Port Headland and Broome and then Halls Creek and and little places like that. Up to Darwin, then through to Catherine to Cooper Petey. It was some of those towns where they just would lift the roof off the place because they don't get entertainment. It was wonderful. Sometimes you get to a small town and you think, gee, they're gonna love it here. And they're all like stoned. They don't, you know, they don't clap but they don't laugh. Some towns have a vibe. A whole town won't won't clap. What is this? And then some towns you turn up and tell me that's enough, yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah, it's hard. It's like, oh god, they're not they're but then they'll come up to you after the show. Oh, we loved it. It was so cool. Yeah, that's weird. So funny.

SPEAKER_02 58:28

It's like, well, you know, you had a chance to show us that. Did you enjoy yourself like half an hour ago?

SPEAKER_04 58:33

You had a woo-woo and a ha ha and a bang bang that you could have done to show us that rather than after the show to go, that's the best thing I've ever seen, right?

SPEAKER_06 58:41

Yeah. Oh, comedians get it too, man. You get oh yeah, you'll get a tough gig, and you you know, you think, oh, they weren't really into that. And then you'll go, and then after the gig, they'll be coming up going, oh man, that was awesome. And I'm like, Were you at the same show? Right. Were you in that show?

SPEAKER_02 58:56

Some nights everyone's got a feel. It's like everyone called each other and went, Are you pissed off? Yeah, I'm pissed off too. Oh, right. Will you go on Thursday? Yeah, I'll go on Thursday.

SPEAKER_06 59:04

Yeah. But we'll just sit and enjoy it. We won't, we won't, we won't. I thought you know, I think sometimes the what we do as comics, clowns, in the comedy industry. In the comedy industry, and making a living out of making people laugh, it's very much a two-way street.

SPEAKER_04 59:25

They don't seem to get that the more you chap and clap and chap and and blah blah blah.

SPEAKER_02 59:34

The more you react, the better the show is. We'll lift our performance when you lift your appreciation.

SPEAKER_06 59:40

You know, see bands, people jumping up and down, that that energy, the live gig.

SPEAKER_04 59:45

Better gig. Absolutely. The show's better if you're better. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, because it just it's just it's it is in that way a mutual thing. It's like a communication that's going on.

SPEAKER_06 59:56

Yeah, we're all in this one space at this one point in time. Let's make the most of it together.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:01

You know, yeah. It's uh there's a lot of differences and there's a lot of similarities. Yeah. There's a lot that I there's a lot that you'd be taking in comically that and there's a there's like there's names and things that I'm watching that you would be off your radar, because I'm a clown. So I'm I'm also watching comics and learning stuff, but I'm also learning things from here. And you'd be watching certain things that are off my radar too. But with with with there's a lot so much that's that's the same. There's still green rooms and there's still audiences, and we're still trying to make them laugh.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:34

Yeah. And do you think in your 35 years doing it, do you think it's got it harder to make audiences laugh in recent times?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:42

It's impossible for me to know because it's made it's been it's got easier for me as I've got better at it. And I've and I'm getting uh you know, I'm and I'm getting better at it every day. I am getting better at it all the time. That's the other thing, too, is you're always learning and improving, and you think, oh, I'm the best I've ever been now.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:02

And then just the other week, I just did something different in a show and it was better. Yeah. And I went, oh, that was there for me to find every show for the last 10 years, and bang, that's better. Yeah. So you're always on the road to you.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:15

Do you find it, do you find it as comics? Sometimes we will get in the groove where we know how good because people say, Oh, do you still get nervous? Right? Like, I don't know if you still get nervous, or and I and I say to them, what it is is it's an anxiousness. Right? I've been doing it for 28 years. Before I walk out on the stage, I know what I'm capable of doing to an audience, but I don't know, the audience is always the unknown factor, right? Whether or not they're gonna come with you, whether or not the energy is gonna be, whether or not they're gonna be on board, you know, and and want to be in the moment, sort of thing. Yes. But then when you've had those nights where, like I know I've had it where I've got a thousand people in a theatre eating out of the palm of my hand for an hour to the point where all I have to do is a facial expression or a hand movement, and it's all part of it. Right. Right, all of a sudden that's the benchmark. And then everything that you do, you're kind of chasing that again. Do you have that where you go, there's been times where I've had this entire tent just there with me. Yeah. And then you go, I'm chasing that all the time. You get what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:31

Yeah, I do, because though you remember those shows. Yeah, I don't necessarily remember specific shows, but I know that there's times when the audience are like that, and then there's times when they're like that, and it's not as fun. And but I still I still try to have my fun with it. And no, it can be just as it's only when they're really because a small crowd can sometimes still be amazing, and we can still I can still connect and have yeah, I can get just as much fun and a challenge out of out of out of out of any show, maybe. And I've you know, I've entertained I did in in 2020, I did a birthday party for one kid because it was COVID. It was towards the end of COVID. And so I went and did the birthday party because he was a Goldie fan, and so they luckily and and he was he didn't laugh. Right. Okay. He watched my whole show. Tough crown. Luckily, there the mum and the sister laughed. Yeah. You know, and and six months before that I was at the Echo with 20,000 people a night in the main arena with with Billy, you know, doing the clown car routine. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, 20,000 people and like well, a year later, yeah, one kid. But in some ways, I got just as much joy out of that one kid gig. Yeah. Remember that. Yeah. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:54

Well, talking about two doing a gig for one kid, you know, like I'm I'm uh the the clown doctors, you know, like those clowns that go into hospitals and stuff, man, with the humour foundation. It's quite a big thing in Australia, you know. Like, has that ever been something that's been on your radar?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:11

I've done a lot of hospital gigs. Yeah. Yeah, I've done I've done heaps of them. Yeah, we we have with the circus we go in and and I've done no, I've done lots of hospital gigs over the years. Back in the day I used to do the saddest thing. Is it the saddest thing? It's one of them. On Mount Tambourine, they used to have a Christmas in July. And it was for families who had a kid that wasn't going to be here at Christmas.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:37

Oh my god, seriously.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:38

So we'd do Christmas in July. And I would turn up and do a clown show and make everyone laugh, and then I would go and sit with out of a hall and I'd sit down with these families. I'd sit down as a clown and have Christmas dinner with kids. It's heavy. They're heavy, they're heavy gigs.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:53

Yeah, I bet.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:54

And yeah, I've done it's uh you see some pretty those those they're pretty rewarding gigs.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:00

Yeah, I was gonna say, like because you're not only doing it, you know, for the kids, but you know, for the parents as well, and to see that yeah, the pain in their eyes. Well, that's the the thing that I I know when I came and watched you do the big top in this circus, uh looking around, you know, because when you're a performer, like you've got to some sometimes turn off your performing brain to just enjoy the show and not analyze it. Yeah, look at the crowd. Yeah, that's right, that's exactly, you know, and so like because I was watching you do your thing and I'm just like, man, he's he's got him here and he's doing that, and he's holding the holding the space so well, and then you look out into the audience and you see the connection between the parents and the adults. Right. Sorry, the adults and the kids laughing together, yeah, or the parents laughing at their cat the fact that their kids are losing it.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:58

You know, that idea.

Should You Become A Clown

SPEAKER_04 1:06:00

remember thinking man that's a that's a but it's a buzz what an energy that is yeah it is pretty special it's pretty special it's giving it's giving memories and moments to people it's it's it's beautiful yeah and talking before about uh just adults like the other day when I was walking to the shops this guy came out this guy came he was in one of the shops and he's as I was walking to the shops he came out the first person that spoke to me when I was on the way over he said does anyone does anyone ever tell you you look terrifying now he was being playful but just straight away I looked at him went looked in the mirror lately and he's getting cracked up so he said first he's like yeah this clown I'll say this to him yeah and then he's like ah clown yeah do you like it when you actually get an opportunity as Goldie to just you know banter with adults yeah yeah totally because you I again I couldn't do what you do if you put me out on a stage with just adults I just well maybe I could if I again you've got but you've got to you've got to write your routine and then you've got to go out and die for however long until you start to learn how to do it properly and I'm I don't want I don't really want to do that. I'm good at this now I don't want to go back to square one. I think you'd surprise yourself maybe maybe maybe not but yes I I oh any chance to make people laugh yeah great I did a we did a a promo show for the circus the other day and I had I do this cut lady in half trick but before I did it I went oh instead of getting a lady I'll get a man yeah so but here's my lady today's lady this is a lady as a big Maori fella that Eli is the best today's lady we're gonna cut in half Eli so yeah he's plenty yeah there's any moment of sharing laughter and making somebody laugh is is joyous yeah that's why it's it's constantly rewarding yeah yeah there should be more of it in the world man especially now the world is now that's right so uh so aside from when you're being goldy and and bringing all this joy to everyone around Australia yes who's who's Matt when the when the face paint raging alcoholic so this is where the cloud fit does this kids are driving me crazy more vodka mix it with bourbon put it in the bucket pour it over my head hey do you like do you like the Simpsons Krusty the clown getting a cramp at my leg oh god that could that comedy bit just gave me a leg cramp. Sorry I'm all right yes Krusty is of inspiration he has to be you can't not be inspired because that's the clown that people know a lot of so I do a lot of and he's funny too any anything funny and that's a clown that's it's is he the world's most famous clown for the last 20 years probably I'd say yes probably longer yeah absolutely so if you're not getting inspired inspired by him yeah then you'd be you'd be crazy yeah a lot of there's a lot of Goldie and there's a lot of crusty and Goldie yeah hey Krusty I'm crustier than Krusty Krusty's my sister yeah I've got Krusty's awesome do you have do you have some advice for someone that might be listening that you know because this goes out of I think it's what 50 odd countries we're getting listened to at the moment like someone that's listening going you know I wouldn't mind having a crack at being a clown don't do it run for the hills don't do it get out of here ever heard of a real job yeah no I'm I'm it is a real job it is well it is I guess I've I've always been uh I'm so surprised by people that choose to do it and want to do it and I've had people in the last few years come up to me and say I became a clown because of you. I had a guy do it a few years ago. Hey seriously I was a magician I never really rated clowns I saw you at Dreamworld and went ah and now for the last 15 years I've had this clown character. Wow and another guy recently on Facebook reached out and said I I said I don't do it anymore. He said but as a kid you inspired me so much I started juggling and doing clown gigs and wow cool.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:13

But it didn't call because it didn't call me I'm always interested by like it called comedy surely called you you're like no no I never set out to be a comedian so you have I not told you this story no because I wanted to be an actor right I wanted to be a gangster in an like I studied acting for three years. Right. And as part of the acting course I did stand up. Yeah right well basically it wasn't part of the course we put on a like a cabaret show for the students to perform in for friends and family.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:46

Right.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:46

And I looked at the running order a couple weeks before and I said there's no comedy and the guy goes do you want to do tell some jokes to you McConville and I was telling jokes on building sites as a sales rep, you know and muck and rein in class and whatever so I said yeah yeah all right so April 20 this year April 26th is my anniversary date.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:07

So April 26 1998 Hamilton Town Hall did 10 minutes in front of about 90 people and then three days later I go into the acting school on the Wednesday night and they've got all these arty farty black and white photos up of everyone that performed on the Sunday night.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:24

Right.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:24

And there's a photo of me on the wall holding a microphone and I'm looking at it laughing going how funny is that I look like a comedian in this photo right which I actually have in my office now that photo yeah and then the dean of the school comes out and he goes I need to speak to you in my office. Right and I think I'm in the shit I've said something I've done something wrong and when I go in there's that school you had to audition to get in and they took 14 people twice a year to get into this acting school and he said when you auditioned to come into the acting school you never mentioned anything about doing stand-up how long you been a comedian for and I said 10 minutes yeah and he goes well I'm here to tell you mate he goes that's that's clearly your thing he said you need to you need to start pursuing a career as a comedian and doing open mic spots and all that he said continue with the acting course because it will help you stand up to no end and and so that's pretty much how that happened man. Right it wasn't on my radar. This guy got the ball right he put the idea in you and then by the time I graduated from the acting school I'd been doing gigs for three years and was starting to get paid comedy spots in Brisbane Sydney and Melbourne. Right and kind of just took off from there.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:39

So we're kind of similar in that way we kind of fell into it by when we're not really it wasn't really the plan. It wasn't a plan. Yeah you know I think there are a lot of people like that as well but I think there are people that it that it calls them. It's like that's what I and I'm always a little jealous of those people because and I always I for a long time I felt a little inferior to it. It's like I'm not I'm not the real thing because I didn't actually want to do this and and there's like uh it's not really I was I wasn't born to do comedy I know I had to learn how to do it.

Comedy As Mental Health Work

SPEAKER_06 1:13:08

And then recently I thought I kind of fell backwards I kind of fell into it bunk b dunk bunk and then and then I thought well that's a pretty clown way to that's a pretty clown way to start doing it I've been doing this your whole life though like I I was 15 yeah like I I was 28 when I started right when I started at the acting school like I I'd done it but why acting why'd you want to act I was just going through this I'd I'd worked on the tools as a well welder I was a sales rep for 10 years and I just it was one of those I had a midlife crisis at 28 thinking to myself I know my life's destined for something other than being a sales rep. And I just thought I always wanted to be an actor for some reason and and I had the gift of the gab I could I could go on building sites and talk to the labra digging the hole and the guy paying three million bucks for the building and I could I was in the state of emergency service I'd stand up in front of people I was an instructor and I taught all that so being in front of people wasn't a problem and I just thought you know what I'm gonna audition for this school and if I get in taking that as being a sign that that's my thing. Right and and and so I did I just auditioned and got in and that was that yeah right but and then and then the craziest thing is is how your life changes tacked meeting that couple on the cruise ship you know and having this incredibly powerful conversation you went oh it's meaningful no well it was it was a lot of comics and like I'm sure you s like you spoke before about people coming up to you going mate I've had a shit day I've had a shit week I really need a laugh you know so that that part of it wasn't new but the impact that that show had on that couple yeah you know here's a guy who for three years was dealing with his his demons from Afghanistan and I'd just gone out and done a show like I'd done tons of times before and it had in her eyes I'd given her her husband back. And in his eyes I'd changed and all I'd done was a gig. It's beautiful and then when I got off when I got off the ship I could not stop thinking about him and that's when I started to think maybe there's more to being a comedian than just telling jokes and then one thing led to another and going to uni and draft a clinic why suicide particularly it was one of those things that when I started to look at the effect of laughter on depression and PTSD with on the back of this conversation with this five hours I chatted to him for on the ship. Right after that gear. Like until the sun came up right and and it was just a progression of going wow the stats on depression are full on wow the stats on PTSD are full on and then and that led me it was like a natural progression to then the stats on suicide and the stats on attempted suicide and and then by the time I got there I was like wow this is suicide is a real problem in our society that I had no idea of the extent of it and I thought I just happened to work in an industry that could have a positive impact on this. Yeah and so there was a thing at the time called a global impact competition run by the Singularity University where they went around different countries in the world and you had to submit your idea how you could have a positive impact on a million people in your country over three years. Right. And so I had this lofty idea of creating a link between the comedy industry and mental health yeah entered the competition came second and and then got a this business mentor and he was actually my last week's guest actually on the podcast Dr. Clarence Tan and and he said mate he goes you've got to get a university involved to do this and and that's kind of how I ended up doing the masters in suicidology.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:16

It's wonderful I'm just this has all happened since we were working together at Dreamworld hasn't it's all kind of popped up since 2012. Yeah yeah because I was at Dreamworld from 07 to 09 I think 07 to 09 I think my mum died in 08 so you were there just before that yeah right so yeah wow so it's just I knew you were doing it and I've been because we've been Facebook friends of course and so I've been abreast of what you're doing but I wasn't really I just recently that I've really looked at what you're doing and listening to this and it's just great. It's just and you're doing your part like it's it's God's work it's giving back to humanity. It's really wonderful.

Purpose And Ikigai In Real Life

SPEAKER_06 1:17:52

Thanks man well it's it it fills your cup you know like and you fill your cup and and fill everyone's cups if you can let's fill our cups that's it yeah that's it and full cups are good fill my cup and we can all drink we we talked we talked about something last week have you ever heard of the Japanese philosophy of ikigai yeah yeah the four things that's right so great isn't it and and I feel fortunate that I've found you've found your full purpose you know what it is that um my purpose is what I'm good at what the world needs and what I can get paid for. Right. You know not that I get paid for the podcast but this is this the podcast after this one it's gonna take off the track to the top of the charts that's right see the podcast came about as a way of because I was going there's only so like I'm only I'm I go out and do the conferences and and and do the laughter clinics live in communities and all that sort of stuff. You can only reach so many people.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:49

Right.

What If Goldie Had To Stop

SPEAKER_06 1:18:49

And then I thought well this is a vehicle to get who knows the sky's the limit. That's it you know and so and it's been yeah it's I've enjoyed it man and and I get to you know tell wonderful stories like yours and and it's everybody wins. Everybody wins you know fill all our cups. That's right okay so let's uh just quickly before we do wind it up I I am curious if you like if you weren't a clown yeah what do you reckon you'd do that's what I was wondering forever like that's what I spent the first 20 years doing like what else am I going to do?

SPEAKER_04 1:19:21

Never knew what it was. Actually the the dreamworld management called me in once and said you're here you've been here for years we've got all these courses and things that you could do is there anything you want to study we'll pay for it we'll help you to learn something else. Yeah cool and I went away for weeks thinking about it yeah and nothing came. Yeah at the end I went I think I'm really happy doing this. Yeah yeah awesome but in so in 2022 I got my first ever real job uh Jane was teaching at the school and she she there was a cleaning job they wanted school cleaners yeah and she said you wouldn't want to do that and I said be be blowed I don't absolutely okay so I would get up at 4 a.m and I didn't have to put on a clown face and I and I would put on my podcast you could be Matt all day well I didn't even have to be me I didn't have to be anything there was no one else it was empty classrooms and I would clean the thing and vacuum the floor it's like they're paying me to do this this is great I did it for six months I loved it is that wrong oh my god and I think people looked at me like I was romantic because I've never had a real job it was 45 years old I didn't had a real job this is the people the other cleaners thought I was mad because they were a bit like oh god this is our lives and I was like this is awesome where's the choc but it did give me an appreciation a new appreciation for the clown then when I went back to it I went oh this is it was fun to do it for six months. Yeah right to see how the other half live yeah yeah but uh I don't know if that answered your question or not because I kind of forgot what it was but uh what would you do like if you if you no idea but there's but now at least I know I can do other things.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:00

Do you reckon you could teach someone to do what you do?

SPEAKER_04 1:21:02

It's hard because I didn't learn so I always wonder that but there is things I've done a few little courses or over time only a few and whenever I've had have it's they'll teach something in a like a method or a a theory and I'll be like oh that's what I do. Oh that's the theory behind that what I do. I kind of worked it out all myself.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:22

But have you ever thought about teaching how but I don't I'd have to go I don't know what would I say yeah right put on a red nose everyone and let's walk around I don't maybe I could I don't I I don't know I've found my way of doing it.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:36

So I so I guess everyone's got to find their own way don't they be your be your clown be your version of you yeah and it's like well how do you do that? I don't know go do it. I wouldn't know the theory behind behind it.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:52

And there's probably people that are looking at me that do know the theory going gee he's doing this wrong and he's doing this right and well mate you must be doing something laughing all I've got to worry about over three 30 odd you know that's you've been almost constantly employed. Yeah that's pretty cool man so yeah it is so I must be doing something right all I've got to worry about is is the audience are the audience laughing yeah is the boss happy and giving me my paycheck and everything else. But I yeah I thought about it a lot would I be able to go teach and I'd have to learn a few techniques first and then maybe I'd be able to go do it. Yeah it could be on the cards.

Where To Find Goldie Online

SPEAKER_06 1:22:27

Yeah right I don't know yeah so uh okay so but before we uh wind up with our final feel good five so if people want to find out what Matt DeGoldie's up to and Goldie the clan where do they go? Is it a Facebook then I've got a Facebook and an Instagram and an OnlyFans Goldie OnlyFans it's yes I get Goldie Cow is and it's active and it's actually you standing there you standing there and you've got a shop and that's all you sell is OnlyFans and it's just me with fans tricked you okay well I'll put all the I'll put all the I'll put all the bullets to these in the see that's the type of thing that you can do with the clown you can actually throw in and the kids would be like what yeah love it.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:16

Yeah no I that's that's it I did have a I have have a few people hit on me as the clown over the years like on my Instagram privately because there's clownophilics get out it's a real thing.

The Feel Good Five

SPEAKER_05 1:23:28

I'd never heard the word and this guy started saying wow the ones with the foot fetish they love feet yeah yes and this guy was saying gee your nose it's not a pro nose is it I said no I make them the noses myself and he was like oh you're like a clown god and then he said I'm just a clown philic little fella like he was in he's in Germany he's in his 20s or something and I was like clown philic and then I went oh I know what he's talking about and you know then wrapped up the conversation thanks for messaging clown asexual apparently it's a thing so maybe I could make money doing that I'm not going no no we're not going I'd have to be pretty hard up all the bus driving jobs that have to be taken yeah which uh which which is which is strange because the last thing we're doing is the feel good five which is well some people would feel good by there's people out there that are hopeful please Goldie get into that please okay all right I'm gonna let you go shortly right but before we do right all of our guests get the final five all of our guests get asked the feel good five so here we go the feel good five feel good five number one what makes you happy oh so much my children make me happy so much joy out of family yeah there's the world makes me happy there's so many happiness is there to be found the world is a sad place at times and there's a lot of suffering and pain so look for the happiness wherever you can love it love it what are you grateful for oh god gratitude's a daily thing too isn't it studying that's so helpful to to be daily thinking of what you're grateful for.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:04

Oh you can be grateful for everything you go get up and you know you're putting away chores putting away you know you can you can you can wash your dishes with uh with an attitude of of of being thankful and grateful to the universe that you're alive and you've got to remind yourself don't you you're walking around oh I'm a bit tired it's like well it's it's actually good I've been working that's a good thing oh my legs are sore I can walk I've got sore leg. Wow it's it's you can you can start taking everything for granted and then you've got to you remind yourself ah be grateful.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:39

Yeah well especially now you know like we sometimes forget that you know we see the the news and all the conflict that's happening around the world and for you for for you and I it's just news for them that's their life right you know that's their daily we daily reality perspective yeah perspective the the whole same thing with hospital visits you go in and you see you see families that are really suffering through I've seen some very sad things and then you get you do you go ah my problems are yeah nothing. There's still everyone's got their cross to bear but that puts things into perspective gratitude's a beautiful thing to practice my friend right oh yeah daily number three on the list what are you looking forward to mate what's coming up what am I looking forward to ah I don't know if I have anything that I'm looking forward to. Okay so let for the whenever when I ask people this question and they they go I don't know right I to help you out I'll give you you can do three time frames what are you looking forward to in say the next two days two weeks two months yeah interesting got anything happening over the you know next couple of days couple of weeks my future's just gone a little bit dark I'm not sure what's going to be happening so I've had to go like well how am I gonna is this does the circus has to close down because of the fuel crisis. Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:59

So I've need to work I guess that's the the at the moment I maybe if you'd asked me this a few weeks ago I would have had a list of things. At the moment it's just like all right you've got to bring your vision down for the next few weeks of yeah I'm gonna have to I'm gonna hopefully get clown gigs. Oh that's what I'm looking forward to hopefully getting clown gigs places and getting some other maybe job who knows whatever to pay bills in the meantime and then and then maybe I'm looking forward to the circus starting back up again so I can yeah keep on keeping on.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:30

So you know because these come back after COVID which was a big shutdown that sort of stuff you know like you what's your vibe on how he's gonna navigate the uh the fuel because I'm assuming it's the fuel fuel situation.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:44

And and Mr Trumpy what's he going to do? Yeah right yeah I think at the moment yeah definitely the fuel's a big part of it yeah and and also but everyone so ticket sales have dropped off yeah because people are also looking going well we can't afford to spend crazy right now yeah yeah mortgage Rates or whatever it is, you know.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:02

So so so things have been a bit on the downturn. Oh yeah. Once he once things settle down, he's got all the trucks and the boat and the and the tent and the seating. Yeah, at some point he'll go, let's go.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:16

Yeah, nice. Okay. Number four on the on the feel good five is what's your me time, mate? When you're uh when you switch off and you want to recalibrate, what do you do? Dude, I'm always doing something.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:27

It's so seldom that I get it. It was raining the other week and I couldn't do anything outside. And because I live in a caravan. I live in a what's not even, it's a truck. It's 2.5 metres by 2.5 meters. Right. And then I've got an annex out the back, which is another. So I live in basically a 2.5 by 5 meter space. And in that I've got everything you need. Everything.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:48

Washing machine, dryer, all my clothes. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:50

Kitchen, bed.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:51

I've got a bed that folds down.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:53

Is that where you you sit and do your makeup and everything? And you came out and you damn. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:59

Damn. I thought I got through the offend me. I thought I've got through the whole episode. Yes, I do that there.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:07

That folds that fold the table folds out, and there's my face paint tray. Yeah, and that folds in, and the other one folds out, and that's my table where I eat. Yeah. I've got a big screen TV, but it's on a blind with a with a projector. Cool. And it folds away. I've been uh the bed folds down, the bed folds up, the couch comes up, and then the couch comes down and my piano comes out. Yeah, okay. I've got maybe the world's only bed couch piano. Okay. Good, good. In one. So what do I do? Like, yes, I play piano in my spare time. I love sitting down. I've taught myself to do that for the last 30 years. Cool. I paint. Yeah. That's what I was doing in COVID. I just started painting like a madman. I started selling paintings.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:48

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, I do.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:50

Uh there's creative things like that.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:52

Creative things, yeah, yeah, cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:53

But uh, if not, then I'm looking, I'm like, I'm gonna build this. So I'm building, I'm constantly pottering and building and keeping. I think that's a big trick to life is yeah, keep busy. Yeah, idle hands are the devil's playground.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:07

Playground playground something. Okay, cool. So uh that's good, mate. It's good to have that that creative outlet for your me time's awesome. Okay, so last one. What is it that's made you laugh recently?

SPEAKER_04 1:30:21

Yeah, I've had a lot of laughs. Oh, what you know what I've been laughing at? You know what I've been laughing at recently is some of these. There was a woman the other night in the front row, and at the end, we're doing the finale, yeah, people are clapping, and the kids are laughing and waving, and we're doing our bows, and this one woman like scowling. The people that don't clap, they come at the end and they're sitting front row right there, and they're folding their arms and refusing. And I've just been laughing at them because that's just funny. Yeah, yeah. This one particular woman the other night that was scowling at me. Like I was the worst thing. Ugh. She's kind of turning her head on the side and looking at me with a side eye. Do you have that mentality where I'm gonna get you, I'm gonna get you. I just no, this was at the end. I didn't even notice her to the very end of the show. Right. And and I just went out the back. I nearly was on the ground. It was so funny. That's the biggest laugh I've probably had in the last week. Yeah, right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:22

Hi out there if you're listening.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:24

Side of Mrs. Side Eye. Isn't that weird how that could be a thing? She'll be looking at her, looking at her iPhone with her side eye. Why am I listening to this clown podcast?

SPEAKER_05 1:31:39

Why did I come to this circus? Why did I come to this circus? Why am I here?

SPEAKER_02 1:31:46

You get that sometimes. People they're scared of clowns and they come sit in the front row. I've had women's kind of sitting there, like, uh, it's like, why did you come here at all?

SPEAKER_06 1:31:54

But maybe they're trying to sit at the back. No, they might be trying to overcome.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:59

That's right. I say that a lot.

SPEAKER_06 1:32:00

The psychologist had said if you go to the circus, you've got to sit in the front row.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:04

I say if they come up to me, I say, you know, you want to hug. And sometimes before the show they don't want to. So you've got to confront your fears. If you're scared of heights, you should jump out of a plane. If you're scared of spiders, you should uh buy a pet spider. If you're scared of clowns, hug a clown.

SPEAKER_06 1:32:18

Hug a clown.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:19

And sometimes they by the end of the show, they'll come up and uh you're right. And they love me by the end. They can't give me a hug.

unknown 1:32:25

Hearing people.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:26

Oh, you're a legend, mate. I'm so glad we got to do this. This is fun. I'm so glad we got to do this. It was better than Conan. Oh good. Maybe Conan's listening. He's crying right now. Oh, yeah. He's calling Cloud PS.

Final Thoughts And Goodbye

SPEAKER_06 1:32:40

Yeah, yeah, I'm sure he is. Yeah, mate. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your time and and everything that you bring to the world, mate. Which there's should be more of it. There really should be. You too. Let's keep up the good work. Absolutely, brother. So uh thank you, my friends, for tuning in. No matter where you are in the world, listening, as always. Really appreciate your time. If you enjoyed the episode, share it with a friend, leave a comment, all that sort of jazz. You know the deal. And and like always, my friends, please be kind to yourself and be kind to those around you. We'll talk to you next time. Cheers.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:16

Thank you for listening. The information contained in this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes. It is not intended, nor should it ever replace advice received from a physician or mental health professional. Want more info? Visit thelaughterclinic.com.au. If you enjoyed the episode, please share and subscribe. Thanks again for listening to the Laughter Clinic Podcast with your host, Mark McConville.