Ella Beth - Jazz singer and finalist on The Voice Vietnam | S2 Ep 4

Ella Beth is a sassy jazz singer and more recently comedian hailing from Australia. Since leaving her hometown, singing has taken her all over Australia and Asia and in traveling she’s developed her own brand of on stage performance.

This lead to being the first foreign competitor on The Voice Vietnam - making it all the way to the finals!

We talk about her time in Vietnam which has been a rollercoaster, between different cities, festivals, teaching, dating and of course motorbikes. We cover it all and more in this episode with Ella Beth.

Check out Ella on YouTube.

-------------------
Theme music composed by Lewis Wright.
Main Cover Art designed by Niall Mackay and Le Nguyen.
Episode art designed by Niall Mackay, with pictures supplied by guests and used with permission.

Need a stunning new logo for your brand? Or maybe a short animation?

Whatever you need, you can find it on Fiverr.

I’ve been using Fiverr for years for everything from ordering YouTube thumbnails, translation services, keyword research, writing SEO articles to Canva designs and more!

Whether you're a budding entrepreneur, a seasoned podcaster, or anyone in between, Fiverr has got you c

Get 68% off and three months free when you join NordVPN today with Seven Million Bikes.

As an affiliate partner it also means that I will get a small commission when you sign up, but at no extra cost to you. 

So not only will you be getting a great deal through Seven Million Bikes, you get a great VPN and you'll be supporting Seven Million Bikes Podcasts. Stay safe online and enjoy the shows you love.  Any questions, just let me k

Transcript

spk_1:   0:14
getting deep into season to know. So thank you for people who are regular listeners or if you're turning in for the first time, thanks very much. Hope you enjoy the show and you can find other episodes on the website. Seven million Bake stopped pretty much any really listen to podcasts today. My guest is an Australian. You're the first Australian on the

spk_0:   0:33
issue on the first Australian. Yeah, it's reference,

spk_1:   0:37
Julia. So we have l a bath with me now. Ever birth has been renowned for seven years

spk_0:   0:44
of being Yep, seven, almost seven years, six and 1/2. I took a six month hiatus and went and lived in Dubai for six months. But almost seven years of getting up there so exciting.

spk_1:   0:56
You're annoying for most of that time, right?

spk_0:   0:59
I am. I lived in Holloway for since the end of 2012 so I moved. Well, I went to visit, originally went to visit my parents for Christmas, and I was on a three month visa and I thought, Oh, you know, I don't have, like, a boyfriend or a mortgage or study to grow back. Teo, just go and have a three month break, and at the end of three months I was like, I don't wanna leave You don't just stay another three months It was originally six month and six years later it's 2019. I'm still here, sir. It's good. I like it.

spk_1:   1:28
And I just realised you're actually the Hanoi in on this season of only four guests who

spk_0:   1:34
were the other

spk_1:   1:35
ones that we've had a woman too home but no lives in Technomic from Hanoi, originally comedian on We had seven, Win, Who's a reporter and she's from Hanoi now lives in Saigon. And then we now have yourself Wait a second now thinks that I write to you from Orange, just three hours out of Sydney on DH Country Australia. That interesting pleased to be,

spk_0:   2:03
Yeah, so I was born in Orange and raised there till I was 18 years old. It's It's a beautiful town. It gets really cold in winter. People think of Australia's being like a hot, sunny place like the beaches, but where lives has quite high elevation. So it's a town really known for its cold climate lines. It's become quite like a sooty destination for people travelling outside of Sydney for the weekend. So it's really nice, because growing up, it was rather quiet on a little bit of, ah, sort of country, Australian homogenous town. You know, I didn't really get so much culture growing up their butt. Yeah, it was a nice place to live. And then at 18 years old, I thought, I'm gonna go and see what the rest of the world has to offer

spk_1:   2:52
until 18. Then where did you come to Vietnam or

spk_0:   2:55
so? At 18 years old, I jumped on a tour bus with a band and travelled all up and down the east coast of Australia for two years singing with a five piece local band, singing in high schools, doing motivational stuff. And yeah, it was a really interesting experience. And when I finished that, I thought I'd come over to Vietnam and yeah, I'm still here.

spk_1:   3:19
So let me give you so feel introduction. So you started singing a full team. Two of the band moved to Vietnam. You've sung all over Vietnam right on. You will the first foreign female competitors on the Vietnamese voice that right

spk_0:   3:33
I wass earlier this year. So I auditioned in January 2019. Got the coal early February, was on the plane down to Saigon late February. And then it was back and forth between the cities as we filmed the different episodes further and further into the competition. And yeah, I was the first Australian. Well, not even just first Australian first foreign female on the voice to send you to meet, sir. Yeah, it's really exciting.

spk_1:   4:01
And you go in the final seal team. Right,

spk_0:   4:03
Top 13. Congratulations. Thank you.

spk_1:   4:07
So I have a bit of a backstory, Tio, how Ellen has ended up on seven million bakes today. So a cz many people would know I do. Stand up. Comedy on. I have this joke. Where, uh which basically making fun of the tunes in Vietnam. If you take the world and e m Nam and you change the inflexion of the context, that can make seven different meanings. So I do this joke on stage. When I see ask somebody and ask an expert who can speak Vietnamese to come join me on stage and l a people a hand up junior, I can speak Vietnamese. OK, come up, Come up. And I handed a piece of paper. We're going to do it again. So the piece of paper says I lay in a bed with a man called Nam holding five mushrooms for five years.

spk_0:   4:56
I am now voi non lazy Nam. Uh, num num. No,

spk_1:   5:10
I just deleted My colleague Li is one that helped me with that translation, that joke, and she literally can't see in Vietnamese without cracking up laughing because it's just is ridiculous.

spk_0:   5:22
It's an actual Vietnamese tongue twister. When you speak a different language and you read like what if Vietnamese tongue Twister would be? I would never have expected it to be one word seven meaning

spk_1:   5:33
since Degrees. You can speak Vietnamese quite well, right?

spk_0:   5:37
See, as to my Vietnamese is, and it's not by any means fluent, but it's a very conversational. So I learned to speak Vietnamese from friends and Brooke by dating Vietnamese guys. So the Vietnamese that I've learned and that I speak is is that's very functional so I can talk with my friends, parents at Tet, holiday about family and work in life and what I want to do in the future and what I like to do. But as faras, my vocabulary goes is not quite as wide as it should be. If I was gonna be a fluent speaker, I've

spk_1:   6:12
had that same route times from people who can speak Vietnamese. They say the exact same thing. It's functional. Is it that much more leap from having a functional Vietnamese to conversation will be mean. I

spk_0:   6:25
think the difference between the functional and the conversational Vietnamese is you learn the things that you need to know that will help you to get around the city or get around the country as faras ordering food or knowing directions or numbers. Or, uh, how to tell your Children to sit down and be quiet, that kind of thing. But when you get into conversational, I understand all the grandma, for example. So the grammar isn't what buggles me once you understand that the way that structures of the sentences a structured in Vietnamese, that's not the problem is just this so many vocabulary. And like we just had a little with the word little experiment doing. There's one word, and if you say it wrong, most Vietnamese people, if they're listening that he will understand what you're saying within the context, even if you say a word? Rome. But just trying to learn all of the very cleverly thought you that you can learn and knowing that I'm probably gonna say some of these words wrong is just yet. It did convey a bit of a struggle, but

spk_1:   7:28
so thank you for coming on stage with me that time. So yeah, we're doing that. You came on stage. You did it really well. Because then I brought my colleague Leah and she said it in Vietnamese and used was pretty accurate Any time. What are you gonna be me? Hello? I leave you five. I'm, uh no. No way. Now, now? No, tonight. You know, this is why I can't be What? Well, seven meeting giving the whole sentence with man for five years for five months. Go on then. I went into work a few weeks a couple of months later and later would be not an excuse. Like new Come and see this and puts on the Vietnamese voice. And she's like, That's like a really came on stage and say we want a little bit because and you do. And you're speaking Vietnamese with the cast by the host, right?

spk_0:   9:53
Yeah, Speak Vietnamese with the judges and the horse on the TV show, there wasn't much translation done. A couple of times I was like that. Could you repeat that a little slower or off camera? What was cut out was Could you speak English in that part? But when I was replying, I was responding in Vietnamese.

spk_1:   10:11
Yeah, that was good. So she was trying to late for me. So we were watching her. And then she's like, we're seeing this, That judges saying that some of the judges could speak English, right? And some couldn't, right?

spk_0:   10:21
Yes. So Ms Tang Ha, the female judge, she her English is fantastic. She's lived in the US before. Hope why I'm his English is his English is really good as well. He's worked with foreign artists. My judge, Uh huh. He's is he hasn't lived. Agassi's per se eso. His English was probably the list developed of the four judges, so 21 was actually the coach that I ended up being on his team and he was great. He's more Rocky's more sort of younger than the other judges. And so I think, what he's storing my voice in my performance was that I was a little more contemporary, sir. Even though there was a bit of a language gap, my Vietnamese was enough that we could bridge that in his English was enough that we met halfway. He was It was a great courage, sir. Yeah,

spk_1:   11:14
and so there. And then we bumped into each other recently. And,

spk_0:   11:18
of course, it could be a

spk_1:   11:19
festival in your festival. And as they come on, seven million bytes. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Told me this before your train Jazz

spk_0:   11:27
singer? Yeah. Yeah. So when when I said that I started singing at 14. That was when my parents put me into singing lessons and very quickly my teacher said, Look, have you ever some jazz? I was like, No, I don't really even know what Jazzy is. She said, Let me play you some stuff. Clay threesome, edit James and some Ella Fitzgerald now is like, what is this amazing nous? And she said, Well, this is jazz music. I said, Okay. I want to sing this like, teach me how to do it. So, at a fairly young age, I decided that jazz was sort of the joiner that I felt most at home in felt most comfortable singing. I really love that. You can put a lot of expression and a lot of emotion into jazz, because the lyrics are often very, very deep, quite hot, wrenching, especially with the older jazz singers from like the Blues Dear and stuff, sir. Yeah, I really fell in love with the with the genre on DH. Then I went into a bit of classical singing to develop my technique and my range in my register. And then I pretty much finished taking the singing lessons. Once I left my arm, China went on the road. But jazz is my arm generous someone that I love to sing. I moonlight as a rock star. Sometimes I like to pretend to be a pop star. My songwriting is a little bit kind of on the folky side, but when I sing jazz and that's that's me, that's all of it.

spk_1:   12:51
And you get to sing jazz much these days.

spk_0:   12:54
Uh, yes. So I haven't been doing any regular jazz night recently. Mostly, my regular nights are a mix between pop like Pop Top Forties and some rock But I'm hoping Tio start a regular jazz evening at one of Thie Cafe Mysteries here in town, sir, That'll be exciting. That would be really nice by some of the people that I play with. Young Vietnamese musicians in town are excellent jazz players, and we have a great time playing to get this, sir working with them. It just makes it all the more special to be back in my home territory.

spk_1:   13:36
She joined a band 18. That's pretty cool. Tells about that.

spk_0:   13:40
Yeah, it was a little unexpected. They were. When they came through my hometown, they were actually auditioning for male singers. And I said, Look, I know I'm not a guy. Let me audition. Just listen to me Sing anyway, Keep me on the books. So they heard me sing. They're like, Yeah, we really like your voice. And then a few months later, one of the existing girls in the band decided that she was gonna finish her time. So they called me up and I went into, like, an audition at the band base, which is in the Hunter Valley. So that's another area of Australia. Well, nerd for one. That floor I was away from my hometown, so yeah, basically, they said, Look, we really like what you do. We think you messed with the band and I pretty much got on a plane and jumped on the bus up in Brisbane and then came down the east coast of Australia and did that up and down for two years. So yeah, it was really exciting. What we would do is go into schools during the week, mostly high schools and two performances where we touched on, um, road safety and relationships, depression and self hom drug and alcohol safety, all sorts of things. We do it through music to inspire the kids. Obviously, music is pretty much a universal language, And so young people would really get involved in the music and then would provide a message of positivity. And, you know, if you need help like, don't be afraid to reach out. So it was a really exciting time. Uh,

spk_1:   15:09
that's cool. I literally was gonna ask you what rock and roll storeys we got from. Maybe you've got some minutes during the day. We'll like squeaky clean message to the kids. But by night you'll like mainlining heroin and throwing TVs with

spk_0:   15:25
everything we know. So it was actually a band that was formed within a church group. So I'm a backstory. I'ma pastas, kid. So, yeah, joining the band was a part of, I guess, my ministry time At that point in my life sonar there was an r no drugs, no TV is out the window. I'm trying to think of like some crazy things we did were all between the ages of sort of 19 and 23. What we do

spk_1:   15:52
stayed up late one night.

spk_0:   15:54
We see how we set up really late playing cards fairly often. Um, what else way silly. You know, we go get McDonald's during the morning. We, like, always start dad like, cheque us out rocks, stones. It wasn't really a rock star life. I met some incredible people during my time. Like probably I think my best Storey was that we spent a month down in Tasmania, which is a small island at the bottom of Australia. Tasmania is probably one of my favourite places in all of Australia. It's also one of the strangest places in Australia. You

spk_1:   16:30
bean has been delayed long sense than many people in this village that had, like, never bean toe Kuba, I have never is the smallest island in the world. It's only like, What's the difference in one system and about like yeah, and they really I know I don't go to a big city. Big Smoke Melbourne, Melbourne It's

spk_0:   16:54
very June debate. It's such a strange culture there because I look at it and I, you know, visually like green rolling hills and sheep and Rocky Car Slams. I'm like this could be like island, or it could be in your zeal and it's the most beautiful place. Goldman are Scotland. Yeah, you know, like just sze just this morning. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful scenery. And then and then there's like the culture of the people there and for example, so we're driving between our bond Launceston and mind you this in 2010. So it's 2010 with driving from her pots along system, which is like you said an hour and 1/2 away. We're in a bus and the bus drivers like a cool we need to get gas. So we're like, Okay, so we pull off this gas station right in 2010 above the front door is this big new shiny sign that says F plus now available. And I'm thinking to myself, it was now available. What? What did you do last week like it was It was really the strangest, strangest experience. But

spk_1:   18:02
there are forces greater noisy town, just in case someone doesn't know what f it. A car just paid my car, but I don't think other countries calling. So you literally like you couldn't pay by card?

spk_0:   18:13
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

spk_1:   18:15
Well, I used to live in Melbourne for nearly four years, And you know what they used to say about how you could tell if somebody was from Tasmania?

spk_0:   18:22
They had two hits

spk_1:   18:23
because they had a scar on the neck when they removed the same I

spk_0:   18:29
didn't ever believe those things about That's maybe I was like, you know, it can't be that with, and I I don't know if anyone had scars on that next, but there's definitely a different culture. I mean, they're just a little more insular. Ethan Dana. Then I grew up being, but at the same time, it's funny because you go down to Tasmania and you'll go to the post office will be like, I just want to send a postcard to Australia. And they'll be like, Excuse me. You mean you want to send it to the mainland? I'm like, Okay, you want to be thought of his Julian. But you also want to be a little bit weird, like I don't understand.

spk_1:   19:05
So when did you first come to you? Now.

spk_0:   19:08
So my first trip to Vietnam was in 2001. My parents bought me and my younger brother over, and I was 10 years old and he was five. And so my parents, they wanted to do some eight trips, work with charities for a while, and my dad had been to India and China. My moment beats a camp loiter in Vietnam, and I think they wanted to sort of from my younger brother of mine, my eyes up at a young age. So they brought us to Vietnam for three weeks, and we started in Saigon. I still remember the first time that I stepped off the plane. So I was blown when I was a little girl, and my little brother had, like, ginger hair and into 2000 won like kids, Western kids in particular. Weren't that much of a common sight in Vietnam? The country Haven't bean that birth into tourism for very long, sir. My little brother and I step off the plane and the girls waiting at the bottom of the aeroplane stairs with their little umbrellas like their eyes went so big and they ran up the stairs and we're like shuffling is down with the umbrellas. Like my little brother and I We're like, we're like royalty over here, So that was my first little experience in Vietnam. But, um, at that point, it's funny now, as an adult living in Saigon and going to the places that I went as a 10 year old because I still see things so vividly as I did as a 10 year old, particularly like a very I guess a very profound memory to me was at 10 years old, going to the park in between fungal lo and Li Ly Street. And at that point, there was so many street kids around Not not so much begging, yes, begging sometimes, but often just playing, you know, with the shuttlecock or whatever. And me is a white kid that will stare at me for a second and then be like you, like in Vietnamese. You want to come play with this And I just have such, like, distinct memories at that point in my life where I knew at that point that I had a really affinity for Vietnam, The people, the coach of the food. Like everything that I felt here, I was like, This feels right. This feels like harms. What, 10 years old, I knew I was gonna live here at some point. And then I came back at 14 15 16 17 doing different A trips, different organisations working with different charities and projects. And then in 2012 my mom and dad actually moved to Hanaway to stop their earn a charity organisation. And I came to visit them a Christmas. And like I said, the rest is history. I'm still here, so it's been a good run. It's good run enough. I feel like I'm in the place that I always knew I wanted to be. So it's good.

spk_1:   21:52
That really resonated with me. What you just said. They're about to my wife and I. We came here for a vacation like four years ago we were here for best part of three weeks. We came to visit her sister, who also lives here as well, totally America and just simmer. We just fell in love with the police like it's just well, you know, I know from doing the shore and talking to other ex Pats. You know, I think everybody seems to have similar thing, and I can't even really describe it. But you just come here and it's like I don't know. So I remember we came on the vacation for three weeks and we're back to Wellington. And then all we did was eat Vietnamese food Weekend when Vietnamese coffee. We found all these restaurants, Vietnamese restaurant we never knew existed. And then it was pretty much not long after that were like Let's cool travelling, But we never intended. I've said this before on the show. Never intended to live here for this long. We just came from six weeks and Nova over three years later. I don't know how long we'll be here for, but you know what? Yeah, it's good, please. And it's been interesting doing the shores where, like, people reach out to me on Facebook about someone just reach out to me this week who just told me he visited Vietnam recently and he's back to America. And he's like, literally falling in love with police, falling in love with the guru. He's gonna be moving back. You in December of invaded and catch up for a butte and things like that. And you loves listening to the shore because you, like he's just misses Vietnam and things like that. Then I've had comments from local people who have the shore and Billy, They just find it really interesting. And I think, like they're really pretty here. Why expats move here or why I was immigrant move you. Why we love it? Because I don't think the wife, while we feel like this, is why we have this affinity to Vietnam. So that's closer. You knew 10 years old, you were gonna come back.

spk_0:   23:38
Yeah, it was. It was always a part of always a part of me, 10 years old. I I think I realised that the world was a much bigger place than my hometown. And I never a 10 year Yeah, 10 years old. I realised the number one the world was a much bigger place than my hometown and also that I could make a difference by living outside of my comfort zone. You know, it's not. I don't live here just for me. I live here because I hope that I am adding something to the Vietnamese society as opposed to I just doing a 9 to 5 job in Australia, just being part of the workforce out. But what I do here, being musically or teaching English or anything like that, working with organisations and charities that I'm actually helping to build a country that's developing so quickly, you know, being a part of that is really exciting. It kind of feels like it feels like I met the country when it was also 10 years old, and in some ways I feel like I've grown up with it, you know, with being three creepy peasants. And now Vietnam's obviously, like become this incredible international market for tourism and feared and and all sorts of things that have perhaps it didn't see 10 10 years ago. But I always knew that it was part of me, sir. Yeah,

spk_1:   25:02
and toe just jump back and state. What was it like being passed with daughter.

spk_0:   25:09
It was all I knew growing up. So I grew up singing in church with my with. My parents are also musicians. So I sang in church with my parents. I went to school, didn't church every Sunday Bible studies during the week it was It's a very community based thing from a denomination that I don't know if you know about Hillsong. So it's like a global Pentecostal denomination. Pentecostal being like happy, clubby drums in church kind of thing. So, yeah, it was it was all in you. And, um, it was great fun, definitely in the community, like the kids that I grew up in George's church with. They're kind of like my extended cousins. Some of them have come to visit Vietnam, which is really cool, And yeah, that was that was my life growing up, I didn't know any different. And then I came to Vietnam, and I've bean like typical possum's daughter, good girl all my life and not not that I'm some sort of wild child now, But definitely being around international community and living overseas has definitely given me more of a broader view of the world than just sort of the the blind of life's that I grew up. I grew up with. And as much as I love that, it's really nice to be able to see the world in a more full light now.

spk_1:   26:30
Well, anyone who's travelled or anyone who travelled a tall A west of the country talks about, you know, travel broadens our horizons. I know for me, I left it 20 years old, literally. My main was little street, were moved to America and lived all over the world. So I've lived in Australia, have travelled all over the country Australia. I think I've been toe orange. I can't remember that. So I know, like how mental means like you're talking about Tasmania being in soil and definitely rural Australia could be like that as well. So I'm interested to hear you your opinion or hear your experience like you transformation or your main changing experience must be quite curious to come from Orange Australia, which is inland bush country and then also be part of the church, which is just a different experiences. Well, and they know you're exposed to a new country, new culture, all these international people, non religious people, different religions like How is that being?

spk_0:   27:24
Well, I mean, I guess topping back into having had come here at such a young age, I think I knew from an early age that I was no. I'm gonna spend my twenties to thirties in Australia and then you from a fairly early age that I probably wasn't going to marry someone from Australia. It's to me like it's it's very natural to live. I suppose what people from my hometown would consider, like quite a unconventional life and lifestyle. But, I mean, I wouldn't I don't see my life any other way. You know that The idea of going back, Teo say Australia are going back to a town of that size, be it anywhere in the world. Just It feels quite restricting to me. I love being in bigger cities. I love being in such a melting pot. I love being able to, to explore and to exchange with other people from around the world, like more about their cultural. What shapes them as a person and all those things have shaped me as a person to even down to like the way I speak. Now, I go back to Australia. My friends say Speak so weird. You don't sound Australian and it's never be something that I was like, I'm gonna change my accent. If anything, it was more when I was teaching Children kindergarten with the broad Australian accent that I came to Vietnam with. They were like Teacher, speak slower, we don't understand. And so and so I didn't just kind of tried to adapt the sounds. It was a little more international and even, you know, down to that that's a small thing. But everything now in my life has become more global, and I hate someone millennial like I'm a global citizen. But that's how I see myself in are darn, I don't feel a riel like I don't feel like I'm tempted or anchored to any particular place. Vietnam, for me, is very much harm, and I have people that I truly, truly adore back in our engine Australia. But I went to, for example, Italy earlier this year, and I feel like I left part of my heart in Italy and you know, like I love I love Latin like Latino people, and so I feel like if I go there, I'll be like, Oh, my gosh, this is what I was missing my whole life. So yeah, ever everything that I've experienced as someone living overseas have really shaped who I am, And it's very different to the little girl who grew up in a town in Australia. But that little girl also knew that she was gonna live. And in an unconventional way, I suppose,

spk_1:   30:03
and that is very different from what most people you're going up with would have bean bean thinking if you're thinking from that, because to give a bit of context and you can correct me if I'm wrong. But rural Australia is very small. You know, everybody. Everybody in town knows each other. You grew up. You generally grew up with someone that you're gonna marry, right, Like, you know, really laughing because you probably know people like this, right? You if you're not married, But I mean to rule a stream of people, tell me you're not married by 25 you that you're almost not going to get married because everyone in the town is already married off by that point, started to have kids and things like that. I am I right in saying this?

spk_0:   30:40
Yeah. I mean, my town certainly wasn't a big time was a quiet, rural other. There were a lot of rural areas where the kids would come into my town to study. Uh, yeah, that culture of like, marrying someone before you're 25. That was, I think, more so. Part of because I was brought up in a church community. I went to a Christian school. So Yeah, a lot of people did sort of go to school with people that they married. And a lot of my friends, thankfully, married each other because it meant that I got invited to lots of weddings. Who, uh,

spk_1:   31:14
I'm not saying it's a bad thing. I'm just, you know, Nigel happens like I think about helping to choke on all of these places in its That's the experience that I

spk_0:   31:22
know. It's definitely true. And I'm so, so thrilled for my friends that a lot of them has followed, I suppose what you're called like a nuclear lifestyle, you know, um nucleus nucleus, You clear nuclear, You know where they get married, young ish have kids settle down, get a mortgage, maybe start a business, get people move up, have a white picket fence and a puppy on. Honestly, the idea of that. It's beautiful, it really is. And I'm so, so thrilled that people that I know have being able to find there. They're calling and find themselves in that. But I knew from me. I was just like, That's just not for me and part of me has always wanted, Like what? What would my life be like if I had decided? You know, as much as I love the outside world outside of Australia, like, what would I have done if I had a stable Australia? Would I be happy? Would I have perhaps move to a bigger city and still done the whole picket fence thing? Would I would that have fitted me? And I think I just never would have really being completely content. And I'm nearing 30 now 28. So there are some parts of that kind of lifestyle that I would like in the future, but it all comes down. Teo. The idea of still being able to I have a part of myself be a little bit wild per se, you know, being able to have the freedom to If I want to jump on a plane with someone, or if I want to try a new idea and best money or do something like that am am I able to do that and then still have some elements of the nuclear lifestyle and I don't know, I haven't I haven't found the balance yet. I think there is a balance, but I haven't quite found it yet. Sir,

spk_1:   33:09
you're speaking like an old man. You're still young. I just there seven and yeah, I think I had similar experiences. And then, I mean, you made my wife, like, years ago, and it's everything changed. And I was like, Oh, this is my life now. Well, together. And that was it then. Now we have the dog, and we don't have the way Have you think you think like there's just no talent of ways of doing things right? Like Like tell me of like, oh, like just different life. Different pathways, things like that, you know? Yeah. My best friend in the world. Martin got married when you've just had 14 14 year wedding anniversary.

spk_0:   33:51
I thought you were about sees just how these 14 kids

spk_1:   33:53
no 14 year winning and that was the best man is waiting 2020 years 14 years ago. And he's just the happiest guy in the world. He doesn't regret that at all. Totally different to what my life is being. But you can completely see how happy he is to everybody. You just find your own path. So then how did you end up coming back to me? In on what happened next?

spk_0:   34:15
Yes. So I finished my two years with the band.

spk_1:   34:18
The Balkan route?

spk_0:   34:19
Yeah. Rock and roll Queen. You must, um I was honestly, after two years, almost two years full time of being on the road, I was just a little bit burnt out on dit. Wasn't that I'd fallen out of love with music or fallen out of love with what? The motivation behind being in the band. Wass, I just It's tough to be on the road full time. We're staying in different people's houses every night, like billeting and and some nights sleeping on the bus and ahs. Much as I love that lifestyle, like it really was like, Yeah, I'm living the dream. It could be really exhausting. It could be even with six people travelling with you could be a little bit lonely. So I came to Vietnam a little burnt out, and I was just like a cam. Gonna take this three months with my family to just chill out. I had a bit of money saved up. I was doing Cem. I work with my parents in their organisation and I was doing a little bit of, like, volunteer teaching English wisdom places up in Hanoi, and at the end of three months, they three months was coming up. My parents were like, So what do you want to do? Do you feel like you want to go back to Australia and study or stop working again? And I thought, I mean, I could do that, but there wasn't really any real cool taking me back there, so I thought, Oh, I'll extend my visa because extensions are much easier to come by back. Then, I'll extend my visa for another three months and just see how it goes. And then, by the time I got in four and 1/2 months into Vietnam, I discovered the music scene. I was starting to do gigs regularly during the week with a couple of different musicians. And then by September by September I found Hanoi Rocks City in Hanoi and Wednesday nights Open Mike night. And really, I really a credit. Everything that I've done musically since coming to Vietnam to Wednesday nights of my anorak city because that place those people that dream envision that just really gave me wings to fly on. Uh, yeah, that was a lot of the reason why state was the music. And then I kept teaching English, made friends and dated people. And, yeah, it's bean bean A really cool red.

spk_1:   36:39
What was exactly know Iraq to think Oh

spk_0:   36:42
my gosh, So Anorak City is a venue that was founded in 2011 beliefs, Could it? I believe it was 2011. We're coming up to eight or nine years birthday in November, so was founded by a three Vietnamese guys huddle, studied overseas together in England and then come back. So my one of my really great makes his took an d. A. He's one of the founders of it, and basically the venue is just dedicated to the odds. It was started as like Hanoi's first western end Vietnamese rough in you, and over the years it's evolved. It's developed. It's become a harm for artists and musicians, fire spinners, people wanting to start small businesses like it is a bar. But it's also a collective, and it's for me. I really consider Hey Tracy one of my hardest stages in Vietnam. So Wednesday nights is thie. I know what Wednesday night is the good night of the week, so you'll have people come Vietnamese and foreigners alike. Travel is expats. Immigrants like you name it. There'll be people there. Those musicians that poets, comedians, dances, rappers. All sorts of people go there and the place is packed. It's probably the same size that, like if you're going toe equated to a Saigon, places probably the same size room as probably the same size room. Miss Layla Barr. Yeah, so a similar size that set out a little bit differently. So the upstairs room, the Red room has the bar back in on the stage from, But yeah, it's just such a great venue. And when when it's popping their puppet like the place is also packed. Yeah, if anyone's ever remember

spk_1:   38:34
help before, next time I'm going to cheque. I wish we had something like that.

spk_0:   38:40
Me too. Me too. When you have some simple shot out. If anyone wants to start in the

spk_1:   38:43
O. So then how long did you live in Illinois? Six and 1/2. You

spk_0:   38:50
six now? Yeah, Just under. So at the end of 2017 I went over to Dubai to try doing hotel contracts. It doesn't Dubai for six months. And I really I liked my experience there. It was very costly. Different to Vietnam. Obviously, I don't really think I knew what I was in four when I when I moved over there and I really had a great experience. But Dubai is, it's it's shiny and it's it's manufactured. And those things, a wonderful like it is truly a mind blowing city. But I love I love the chaos of Asia. I love the grittiness of Asia. You know, it can be tough year and frustrating and completely confusing. And and sometimes I'm just kind of at my wit's end like Why? Why's everything like this? But at the end of the day, you know, as much as I like Dubai Love Asia. I love you, Mom. I love that every day is something different, you know, it's not. There's no recipe to my life in Vietnam. Every day is just Well, this is what I'm doing today. I love waking up and wondering, You know when when you live in a big corporate city like Dubai or perhaps like London Eye Sydney, You know, there's definitely like it's all rode out already. You know, it's just they and they out you do the same thing, whereas here we we have the freedom to to make our own pass. Even if you are teaching English. I teach English a little bit. Even if you're teaching or you have, like, a regular job here. There's still so much to do and see, and we have the freedom to do that. And that's what I love about Vietnam, sir. That's why I've been here so long. I wouldn't have it any other way.

spk_1:   40:34
You mentioned dating, and that's something that we talked about before on the podcast with Susan Li. I know it's something that comes up in conversation is the challenges of being a single female in Vietnam. Um, what's that been like, what you experienced then, being off that.

spk_0:   40:51
So my early my early years in Vietnam, I predominantly was interested in data Vietnamese guys, I suppose, something I might have mentioned earlier when I was talking about coming here as a young kid, I met another, a young Vietnamese guy when I was 10 years old, you know, there wasn't a thing was very much popular, was just like, Oh, he's so beautiful. But there was always that in the back of my head. My hometown didn't have company Asian people in a little earned single Asian men. So that wasn't something that I ever really experienced in Australia. But coming to Vietnam my early years, definitely I was. I was meeting young Vietnamese guys who, um, who were interested. I guess being being a young foreign woman, like they are just a cZ interested in me. So I I've dated a number of Vietnamese guys, huh? Short and long term, I had a long term relationship with beautiful, beautiful Vietnamese men who's now in America studying. He's a drummer, so we met through the music scene and he was great, he told me a lot of Vietnamese language told me a lot about the culture and so I find that dating within the Vietnamese community gives me more of an insight into. So I learned a lot when I Davian amusement. It can be a little bit difficult because I don't know whether it's society or whether it's media. Whether it's the coach of Vietnamese guys Dart seem to be, as they don't approach me as easily as as guys from other cultures will. And I think that might have to do with the culture and that it could be quite a shy society in some ways. And that's part of you know, the true tradition, years long tradition of, um, quite a I'm not naive but innocent society. It can be quite innocent and traditionally has bean. They dated quite innocently. So I think, in that Vietnamese mint don't often approach me as I would perhaps a leg, simply because I think they look at me meant might be a little bit intimidated so that that could be a little difficult with the invention of India. My mom's living with the religion of tender. It's made it a little bit easier to sort of make that first Connexion and have a conversation with somebody without them having to sort of build up all the courage to come and be like Hi, but that doesn't really

spk_1:   43:27
interesting point of view. I'm glad I asked, you know, interesting toe limb. Because I wonder then, if that is why you know, when the stereo tape isn't, it's lovely, true that a lot of Western men did off Vietnamese women and married them. And again, that's completely fine. I wonder of part of that reason, then it's because of Western Man is not going to be so shy to approach a Vietnamese women ask around, if that's how you doing, start a conversation. So I wonder if that's why it's more lopsided, that more men on the Vietnamese women, rather than Vietnamese men beating Western women because interesting as you point out, maybe the Vietnamese managed to scale intimidated, shy, whatever to start that conversation

spk_0:   44:06
Once interesting, you say that So another part of my life in Vietnam Segway into this is something called Hannah were beautiful. How beautiful. What is a online Facebook group that I actually created back in 2016? Think we're three years in on a supply was originally created, a platform for women to make friends. At that point, I'm just going through a break up, and I realised I didn't have that many female friends. So I was like a kale created group. And maybe we can sort of make a little girl's group, cannot get together, have coffee, and in three years it's become 13,000 Memphis, which is wild beyond my wildest imagination, really. But it's funny you talk about like the whole lopsided thing and dating, because a topic that comes up in annoy beautiful, not regularly, but occasionally is is how it can be hard as a foreign woman to date here simply because a lot of Western men like you, said, Come over here. I realised that the enemies, maybe had never like me had never really had experience of Asia before. Come here realise that Asian women, particularly Vietnamese women, are just gorgeous. And so there's a lot of there's a big I had to call it like a market, but there's a big pool there, you know. And I think another thing that happens for Western women is that they see that Western men are dating Vietnamese girls more, more openly and more regularly And so there can be, like, a bit of bitterness that comes up. And I'm like, I know I'm no stranger to that. Like, I definitely am not. What's the word? I'm definitely not an exception to the rule. I've definitely being there where I thought, You know why? Why not me? And that's okay. At this point in life, if I approach a guy, I'm talking to someone like, Yeah, I'm really attracted to Asian one. I'm, like, good for you. Like they're flipping beautiful. They're they're hilarious, like Asian girls. My girlfriends are so funny. Like I love these girls. So, you know, it's just about finding. Finding what? What works for you. For me? You know, I feel like I've definitely grown up Is a woman here in Asia. I'm becoming a woman that I want to be, And that includes knowing what I want dating wise. We're knowing what I want in a future relationship for a future Patna and knowing what I don't want. And so no, I'm not really sure. Exactly. Or I'm not sure. No, I'm gonna end up with right now. Be they Vietnamese, be they foreign. But I'm Yeah, I guess knowing that, being aware of the fact that, yes, I am a Western woman who at some points may be attracted to Western men at some points may be attracted to Asians or Latinos or African or Middle Eastern. I've dated all over the world, so it's not really a problem for me to be like, Okay, who Who will I find? It's like, Okay if I decide to live here long time Who? Who is there, who might be also reciprocal and interested in me? Yeah, it's definitely an interesting place today, particularly being a Western woman.

spk_1:   47:30
Yeah, and that's what I've heard from friends and things like that. Well, and so that's why I brought it up on my top two motor before I'm interested. Teo, tell me, how has Tindle changed the dating game? Because I mentioned my wife and I we met eight years ago. I never used to like I remember the first time somebody mentioned that we were in a bar. A guy mentioned something about me and my wife was like, What is this? And then he showed it was like the whole kid, not really clear what it was like, kind of mind blowing and I think was relatively new, that team. And no, obviously it's completely changed the world of dating. So my wife and I, we just cannot last because we just really from a different era, basically because we've never used being exposed to other than once we helped her friend use Bumble. We will again. No till I can yesterday,

spk_0:   48:19
Um, it's definitely made it easier to to start a conversation for shore. I mean, I'd like to think that I'm fairly confident, fairly outgoing. Find it easy to make friends isn't easy for me to approach men that I think are attractive or funny or that I'm maybe interested in being more than friends with not at all like I still even when I'm on the stage, you know, like I'll see, a cute guy at the state will still be like, I don't have the guts to go talk to him like they could be throwing flowers at me and say they like high, like I just I don't know that so tender is most definitely made up more easy. Tio. Make that initial approach with someone, particularly people who you might not be brave enough to talk to in real life, it's definitely gives me the opportunity to I am interested. This gets interested in the conversation a little later. It's definitely made it, uh, easier to meet international people. So, like I said, you know, approaching Vietnamese men or perhaps Vietnamese men approaching me, that doesn't happen so often on also, I work a lot. I don't get the chance to just go and meet someone at a bar or a coffee shop like people used to so tinder gives me the opportunity to chat. You know, you talk for a little while, maybe there's a spot. Maybe that's not. Maybe you meet someone you like, Cool. Like if you're going to stay here for a while, we could actually be really great friends, so I really appreciate that. It's also made because it's so accessible. It's also made it easier to just treat people is sort of throw away.

spk_1:   50:01
Yeah, we've talked about this people. We used a disposable

spk_0:   50:04
disposable. Yeah, You know, I often say to my friends jokingly like, you'll never marry anyone that you swiped left two wanted. A swipe left is when you I'm much

spk_1:   50:13
more Whatever. Thank you. I actually didn't know his conversation with somebody recently. I think it wasn't on the podcast and really, what

spk_0:   50:21
one does, what One swipe left, swipe right

spk_1:   50:23
on my way.

spk_0:   50:25
Don't that's what right is good. What is bad? Sweat up his super

spk_1:   50:29
sweet, uneven. A

spk_0:   50:32
new addition to the application. So again, it's definitely it's made people seem more disposable. That's made perhaps, like when If you meet someone in real life and you have that instant Connexion, that's something really special is that it's not something that you'll never forget, whether whether they're just a platonic friend or whether it's relationship. But you know, when you just have that moment, its leg magical gender takes that away. You don't get to north for certain you might like, have great banter with someone at the beginning, and that's for me. That's a good sign. If someone's got a sense of humour like, yes, that's what we like. But you don't have the opportunity to sort of have that real spot Connexion moment like you would if you just met someone organically. And I do miss that because I've had some wonderful, um, relationships. Friendships in my life come out of just that moment of all. I let you know this person right here. I like them. That's cool, you know? And you just know that you work. So I do miss the organic nous of meeting people in real life. But like I say for me personally, I just don't have time. But then people treated her for different reasons. I you know, some people treat it as a way to make friends or funnel people into their businesses. In some cases, some people use it for just leg one time, things hooking up. Uh, if that's their thing, like how to them? Me, I I enjoy the the opportunity to be able to connect with, say, like of Venezuelan today or someone from Wales tomorrow. And nor that like this. No pressure. Teo. Teo definitely have a Connexion. There's no pressure to continue a conversation if it's not going anywhere. So that's that's cool.

spk_1:   52:29
Have you helped storeys? Have you ever had it? Where you seeing somebody? All flame that you've swiped left all sweet, right? 00 my colleagues on my school,

spk_0:   52:39
actually, Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Someone My experience? Yes. Right now I work for school. That hasn't quite a few centres around Vietnam, and I've seen people on tinder that I'm like, Oh my gosh, I've seen you in the staff room like maybe we haven't talked in real life. It's just like that's weird back in Hanoi, when I'm waiting a slightly smallest in a city where I knew more people, I often have instances where I'd see a really, really cute guy. Maybe Wednesday night open Mike night, and then I'd see them on tinder. And that's what it's like May just see and sweat right? And sometimes, like Oh my gosh, they match me like they saw me, too. But here, I don't know so many people. So I don't have weird sort of awkward encounters as often wear like your intended like,

spk_1:   53:30
yeah, yeah, what's being the best and the worst pick up line? Because I know like I see these things on Facebook and things like that screen shots, but it's like you've gotta have like, a good entry lane, right till I get a conversation right? What's been the best in the world.

spk_0:   53:48
So ultimately, the worst pick up line is the one that I get like a least once a day which is high. Like why

spk_1:   53:56
you don't get e s. L You remember that from back in the day?

spk_0:   54:00
Because we're not using him as a messenger. And

spk_1:   54:02
you know what that was like back in the day?

spk_0:   54:06
Yes. Oh, uh, no. Tinder already tells you all those things. So yeah, worst pick up line. It by far is definitely high. Like I put into my buyer. Do not hit me up with hi or hello. I'm not about boring like island match you. So this week I've had a lot of like hello in different languages. I have a child in the new like Oh, like Karen. That's a little bit imaginative. My best pick up line, My best pick up one led to my best tinder date. You can tell the Storey I went to Italy earlier this year with my band and we're in Venice and I saw this guy with the beautiful the nation boy with this big smile. I was like, Oh, he looks great. He's got a great smile. Looks really happy. And Dad's earth. So it's quite frightened. He match with me. And he wrote the message first, and he said my bio at that point. Well, I was in Italy was when I was eight years old. I liked an Italian boy. I don't know if it's still the same now, something like that, and he's in. So he wrote when you were eight years old, did you know a football and named then named an Italian footballer? And I was like, No, I must have been too young for that and that started a conversation anyway. But they he picked me up in the sport on the canals of Venice and had a bottle of wine and took me all around the canals of Venice. It was like I was like a movie dates Are you? It is not all that

spk_1:   55:40
I know. I know it's not so Let's move on. The voice tells more about the voice. What was that? Because I read, I read it. I have often seen people be like Tell the behind the scenes storeys off reality TV and this obviously the reality or reality TV very different to what you see on television. How was your experience with that?

spk_0:   56:04
So I think honestly, my experience being a foreigner on the TV show will I was a little bit different to the locals who participated purely because there was some stuff that I just missed out on because of the language barrier, for example, S So what do you think when I when I think about my time there, there was a lot more filming that went on behind the scenes that would later get edited to be on TV, which I didn't know it before I joined. You know, I didn't know that there was so much behind the scenes stuff, because when it's put on TV, it's it's like you see it live. So, for example, when we were doing the initial auditions, So, for example, when we're doing the initial costing it was a whole day off being in the clothes that we would wear on stage in the auditions and then walking down the runway with the stars and everything doing interviews backstage and this is all. Before we even knew if we were going having any chairs turn around, sir, the preliminary stuff that they do and film it all add, since the experience, it definitely makes it more nerve racking. Getting up on stage after having filmed all that thinking. OK, I really hope things go well and then you get up on stage like having the fingers of your mind. Like what if my chairs turned around Donald this filming? So that's that's interesting. Living living with my teammates was by far and above the best. Probably experience, like these young Vietnamese people are sore cool. Two of the girls in my team where 16 on one of them was 23. So when we went through from the blind auditions into the battle rounds of the knockout rounds, four of us shared bedroom and it was just like the best two weeks of my life with rigorous and film rehearsals. Quite often, film us like just, you know, doing sort of day to day activities was all set up. But like David activities and spending time with these kids was just so wonderful. They just saw hungry for music. And they're so passionate about what they do. Even at a young age. I didn't know what 16 that I wanted to be a professional singer, thes these young girls just like they're all in for it. So I got her, so that was really, really awesome. thing was to see. I guess it be a part of like their lives for a few weeks. But as far as the filming girls, I mean, it's just long days. What you see on TV is five minutes of a five hour filming session. So

spk_1:   58:51
I was just listening to a podcast this week called The Good One. That's a talkative comedians and how they come up with George and Barbara. She look up. It's really good in the later disorders with Jerry Seinfeld, and he said he wanted TV choose anymore. He's like I'm over and done with. It's like I went. I did one recently for Amy Schumer. She asked me on a win and you wait about all day and you're like, Wait, and then you go and do your like five minutes or you do a scene, and then we all can do it again. And this time, or I'm not doing any more TV because it's just the way in around just to do in this little bit.

spk_0:   59:24
Yeah, that's that's definitely that's definitely a thing for show. For example, when we did the the filming for the actual auditions, for everyone to be on the show. We started filming at 2 p.m. And we didn't wrap up filming until 2 a.m. Yeah, you know, And then And that's that's not even just the interviews. That's just getting everyone on stage setting up. Okay. Is the band ready? Okay. Cameras in place. And I had no idea that it was like that. So they were long, long days. Um, yeah, but I mean, it was it was a totally different experience to anything I've ever done. Like, Will I do it again? Perhaps. Perhaps, Um,

spk_1:   1:0:11
what Doors didn't open for you? What were some of the benefits of some of the results of being on the voice?

spk_0:   1:0:18
So the biggest one being that I've wanted to move to Saigon for about two and 1/2 years, But I was never brave enough to make the jump because I didn't know if I have any jobs down here. I didn't like I thought, you know, if I moved on a second, I'm gonna have to start from scratch, and I'm not gonna know anyone. Then you wass gonna know any musicians. So the biggest thing really was having that exposure instantly gave me doors to musicians to then used to promoters. Two produces two agents, and by the time I'd finished, the show was already getting calls and e mails to get gigs down here. So I was like, Okay, I can do that. I'm not just going in leg. I'm not just jumping into the deep end. I actually have, like, a platform to land on. So that was the biggest thing. And I'm so like, overwhelmed Twist with gratitude that that was what the show want me.

spk_1:   1:1:13
Do you get recognised much?

spk_0:   1:1:15
Oh, not like it's not as frequently as it was straight after the show, but it'll be the most random things. Like, for example, I was gonna grab bike the other day and my grub by drivers said, Do you speak the enemies? And I was like, Uh, no, not really. And he was like, But But you're Ella Beth. You speak Vietnamese on the voice, right? I was like sitting on the back of the bike with my mouth open, Like God, it's like, I mean, I do it

spk_1:   1:1:49
well. You wear will be like,

spk_0:   1:1:53
Yeah, so I think you just must have made the Connexion. I was like, all right, But sometimes it'll happen like I went Teo the the recent beer festival that was held in the one and one of the young guys. Who is that? The pistol was like, Hey, you were on the voice, right? I was like, Yeah, that's me. So sometimes it's cool. I got a free beer at that point. Um, yeah, sometimes people just But it's just the most random times. So you know, I don't get recognised. Quite. It's frequently now, but that's kind of cool. I didn't ever want to, like, have being eroded by stands and have to sign A bazillion

spk_1:   1:2:27
had to say no. Then when asked, there's also no, no

spk_0:   1:2:32
selfies in Vietnam more often. When I, when I was doing the band in Australia, was old across all the time. Now let's take a selfie. I'm like, Okay, please tag me.

spk_1:   1:2:42
All right. So what's next time? What you doing in Saigon?

spk_0:   1:2:45
So at the moment, my schedule, my music schedule isn't quite as full as I'd like it to be, but I'm trying to keep it open so that I have opportunities to take corporate gigs or any sort of functions. If they offered to me. So Tuesday nights I do Apocalypse now barred from Oh, this is gonna be the part where I plug all my shows. So Tuesday nights from 10 PM is Apocalypse an alibi with my rock band? It's a great night. It's really, really fun. The boys that I play with her super talented. Yeah, great, great great crack on DH. The audience always gets involved. Friday night since Sunday nights from around 10 30 I sing at Layla Barr in Lille I Street, which is obviously a psycho favourite. There's, um, awesome awesome musicians there as well. The other singers who sing there just like world class, really phenomenal singers. So working with them is great fun. It's never. It's never boring with those boys who worked there. Girls who worked there on DH Then I am occasionally taking gigs with companies for corporate functions. I've sung a couple of weddings here. Um, I'm hoping to not hoping to the plans were in the works. Start working with a few collaboration artists, so there's a couple of DJs that I'm talking to. There's a couple of producers that I'm talking to. I'm sending ideas back and forth. I would really like to get back into doing original music because I was I am a songwriter. It was what I was doing in Hanoi. But at the moment, coming down cycle on often I'll get bookings because people want me to sing the Vietnamese songs I did on the show, or they want me to be able to, like, do a set of love songs for wedding. So that's sort of what I'm working with at the moment. And I've also put together plans to start teaching as well. So teaching sing I teach English, but teaching, singing, being a singing teacher, sir. Yeah,

spk_1:   1:4:45
that's awesome. And you told me, is very started getting anti comedy.

spk_0:   1:4:48
Yeah, I think so. That's that came about. The comedy thing kind of came about because I haven't really written as much musical material lately, and I jokingly actually jokingly say that one of my comedy sets, I'm like, I haven't written that much material because I've been single and I tend to write my best songs when someone goes and breaks my heart

spk_1:   1:5:10
thing that great outcomes from like great heartbreak and go from tragedy and things like that,

spk_0:   1:5:19
Yeah, I find that definitely is true for myself, sir. It's nice not having to be hot working, but it just means that I might. My songwriting is lacking and write happy songs. You say that. But like all the times to come out is like it sounds like some China sparkle. That's like I'm a jazz singer. I'm not a pop artists plate I

spk_1:   1:5:42
saw on your Facebook Just sung happy.

spk_0:   1:5:45
I did just think happy

spk_1:   1:5:46
I e happy

spk_0:   1:5:51
this's jury. Okay, potentially That could be a some happy songs in my brain's gonna get through all the mishmash. Yeah, but so I started writing comedy because I I think I'm a funny person. I've seen what she had. Which comics? For a while, I actually funny Storey. I went on a tinder date with an Irish comedian who was just coming through Vietnam on his tour, and we we went to San chose on boy be in street and we're drinking margaritas because they're delicious and we're just chatting. He was like he already knew I was a singer and I've seen him. I've actually seen his shores posted on Facebook and then I started Once injuries like that guy's a comedian, so we matched and ended up going out for a drink.

spk_1:   1:6:42
What was his name? You're pretty much like I didn't like that Irish comedian who drive with through Saigon.

spk_0:   1:6:51
Donnie Ryan.

spk_1:   1:6:52
Yeah, way.

spk_0:   1:6:56
I don't think you'd mind. So I

spk_1:   1:6:59
don't think you listen.

spk_0:   1:7:04
Yes. Way went out and we were just chatting about, like the entertainment industry, the differences between music and comedy. And I was telling him how it really likes doing. It's like, Well, why don't you like? I don't know if I'm brave enough to speak to a microphone. I'm fine, One of this backing music and I'm singing. But I don't know if talking's really my strong point. He was like, Well, you never know until you try. So that kind of went round in my head and a couple of weeks after that I saw I saw a couple of the comedians were coming through town, so I went to go Sam, see, And I went to that night. I was like, You know what? Why don't I try this? There was another girl. Forget her name. She's listening. I'm sorry. There was a girl there who did her third ever stand up show that night and I was like, Why don't I do this? You know, she's She's just on her third set and she's already supporting an international artist. Like Why Don't try. So I went home and I started really driving down the things that have been going through my mind. Then it was the case of sort of, like what? Jokes? Leading toe what jerks to have, like a stolen five minutes set. And I finally had my set together, and I told myself to Monday nights in a row that I go to the open mic night here indica try my stuff on both Monday nights, I was like, No, no chickening out and I

spk_1:   1:8:19
seen for about seven years before I lived in New Zealand and stuff and a practise. My friend went and opened. Then I would indicate for ages before I eventually got into that.

spk_0:   1:8:34
Yeah, you work yourself up, and then for me, it was always like that moment, just like the nerves would just get too much. I was like, Not with this week. I'll do it next week. Going to the gents just just have to do it so I was actually up in hand away, and, uh, there was a site. There was a show going on that asked me to put bonus based on how a beautiful to advertise for it. And I said, Okay. All right, well, put the advertisement up. You have to put me on the bill. And they were like, your comic. Now these these guys, you've known me for years and annoy like you're a comedian, that, like, uh, yeah, I'm thinking to myself, Well, now I am. So I get up on stage in Hanoi and I think that was good audience to try in front of because they were mates. Some of my stuff like bombs. Some of my stuff got huge glasses, like, Okay, I can do this time. I've done three sets now I wouldn't have a way to in Saigon, and I'm working on new material. I think that's my biggest thing is just like getting your material, you know, because I think the drugs that I tell that air the funniest of the ones that I want to tell all the time. We can't do that to an audience that charges before. So for me, it's just working on new stuff. But I'm being around people like yourself. Like having a chat with My housemate is an Irish guy, and he used to do stand up comedy so chummy with him, like surrounding yourself with people that you want to get into the off, I think really helps. And it's definitely given me more confidence and expert expertise. Opened my eyes up a little bit, so yeah, I'm really enjoying the comedy scene. So

spk_1:   1:10:09
where do you perform next? They're gonna come to you. Okay. You've seen me twice,

spk_0:   1:10:14
I think. Probably be an Indy car on Monday.

spk_1:   1:10:17
All right, Yeah. Come on. Right. We're gonna move on to the final questions. I ask everybody that at the end of the episode. All right, so the 1st 1 is, Do you drive a bake? What came? How do you deal with Saigon? Traffic.

spk_0:   1:10:32
Okay, so break it down. No, I don't drive a motorbike here in Saigon. I do have a motorbike. It's in Hanoi. It's a pink sparkly Attila on the traffic here. Inside. Go on, Honour. Due within myself. I get on the back of the grub bike and I let them do it all for me. I'm a little grab by Princess these days because it's just it's not so much that the traffics as chaotic because people definitely respect the road rules here more. What? They were the helmets and they suffered red lights, like, See that? Yeah. Um, it's more than I I don't really understand. Like the one way road system, that there's a lot of one way roads here in Saigon.

spk_1:   1:11:14
That's true. That takes a long time.

spk_0:   1:11:16
And that just makes me anxious because I think I'd be like, I'm gonna get there later. No. What's it doing out? I know where I'm going. I'm in a different district.

spk_1:   1:11:24
Don't you miss your time? Sometimes you have to go massively. Oh, you're way too right, you official.

spk_0:   1:11:30
So I like grab blacks do that for me these days. So on any day, my grab, I could be an exciting or way

spk_1:   1:11:38
grab a princess. What's the hardest thing that you've seen on a bank in Vietnam? Also

spk_0:   1:11:45
the hardest thing I've ever seen with bike in Vietnam Wass a blue macaw Just I was driving along. I wasn't a very big street. There wasn't that much traffic. I was driving along and I saw, like this blue it looked like a stick like a blue stick, sort of hanging down from a guy's motorbike. But it was he was in the way of whatever it wass. So I was like, What is that? So being curious, I sidled up alongside him and there's just this giant blue macaw sitting on his handlebars. He's driving alone as a little chain on it. It touched the handle, so account fly away. But this bird's just but it's a big bird, just chilling there. Just just going for a ride with its dad. I was like, What? On what? Like,

spk_1:   1:12:27
yeah, I've seen birds of prey. Yeah, well situation yet. So I asked this question of so many things that you see,

spk_0:   1:12:35
I think that's the animals. Really? That gets me something. I'm probably the second artist thing was a guy on a really big souped up I don't know what motorbike was. Could have been a holly was like a really big, loud, growly motorbike he touches old. Um, yeah, I gather you don't serve that look. You talk to your soul down the songs he was wearing like a black ripped T shirt. I was like and then I drive past him. I looked across and there was this tiny little teacup poodle with dyed pink ears with a matching helmet. Just sounds like what is life? What do you see? Oh, yeah. Good Pet Storey.

spk_1:   1:13:22
I think you're good. All right. So you got 24 hours off. Got nothing to do. No singing, no teaching, nothing. What do you do inside?

spk_0:   1:13:30
So, a day off in Saigon, my perfectly off would be waking up going to my local gym. It's like a little gym on the quiet on the sidewalk. But there's no way conditioning is very local. Going to the gym for a little bit and then go to brunch. Something I've discovered in Saigon is that I actually like going to brunch. Normally, I'm not a breakfast prison, but getting up and going having brunch in Saigon is the best. So I would go to Emporium vintage important.

spk_1:   1:13:59
It's one of my favourites when I might have shot you like the Moroccan eggs

spk_0:   1:14:03
I've had shut cheque up before the corn fritters. Really, really, really one of my favourites

spk_1:   1:14:11
Bacon, avocado, right,

spk_0:   1:14:12
making never Qatar Yeah, all the French toast with extra sausages on the side s. So that's one of my favourite vintage Emporium meals. Otherwise, I really like God Mobile,

spk_1:   1:14:24
New have bean.

spk_0:   1:14:26
That's that's if I'm feeling

spk_1:   1:14:28
down a street in place. I think other studio owners are based on the street.

spk_0:   1:14:34
I know that.

spk_1:   1:14:35
Pretty sure I could be wrong.

spk_0:   1:14:36
The menu was just get like I walked in. There was like, I'm just gonna have a quick brunch. And then they have, like, Morris's and champagne. I thought, I'm gonna come back here when I'm feeling Virgie. So I like. Yeah, those are my two favourite

spk_1:   1:14:49
core. You know, that's a good one.

spk_0:   1:14:51
Brunch is here. Good. Yeah. Good, Good, Perfect. 24 hours would include excellent brunch and then I'm definitely a bit of a girly girl, so I I would take a little bit time to go shopping, maybe by clothes or something, or being in Vietnam, getting beauty stuffed on his super super cheap so I might get, like, my eyelash stun or my nails done. That's that's kind of my relaxed time. Maybe get a massage. I try to do that at least once a week That's kind of like my down time. And then usually, if I've got a night off, take off. I'll meet friends for dinner. I'm trying to get some of my favourite places I really like. Well, the Korean barbecue places soon my barbecue, um dim sum house on Ly ly street is a regular place I go to. Usually I go by myself because I'm in a rush to get to Layla, borrow one of my gigs. But I really, really love exploring all the food options in Saigon that that's fun for me, like that's That's a joy and a hobby, yes, and those would be my usual. They are things. Maybe go see if I'm not singing myself. Go see live music or go see a comedy show where some something a little bit cultural with a candidate.

spk_1:   1:16:11
Eyes just say with any of this with tinder there a friend visit recently and I won't see on them, and she literally just got off the plane and she's like, Yeah, all right. I'm meeting up with some guy five o'clock like walk from tinder Julie Gayet from $10 just landed in your meeting. Me like seven o'clock She's like, Yeah, I was a kid. Bring him. She didn't bring them. I don't know. Is this the world? I don't think she was like that day. Or is she really family money? It's a way to meet people, right? Yeah, but I was like, what

spk_0:   1:16:42
really was again I've done because I'm picking to get a little off topic, particularly when you go to when you city somewhere you don't know. Like I I'm very happy to travel by myself. I'm super independent. I'm super confident. I don't need to be with anyone, but you're going somewhere. You want to really see it like a local tinder is a great

spk_1:   1:17:04
storeys of this. But people have travelled and you don't use it for dating. Use it to me. A truly gave this angel in that Some people who want to do that, they want to meet people. So, yeah, I know. I know. It's no who can open stuff like that. You go accommodating in any league, Nate spots that you would get up.

spk_0:   1:17:20
Uh, I find myself really frequently a Tina bar, you know? It's all right.

spk_1:   1:17:28
I'm trying to remember. Yeah,

spk_0:   1:17:30
it's off wave in ST I

spk_1:   1:17:32
don't think I'm being a little

spk_0:   1:17:33
bit of a cave. It's quite dark inside, but it's open till late. Late, late. So I happened to be with friends. Or if it's after a show, a lot of musicians go hang out there. So it's a late night hold for musicians at any point. Will meet DJs were guitarist sort, you know? So that's my late nights, but, um, and just up the road is the far place, so I don't know if you know the intersection. It's fungal out. And the DA Quando is the street that Tina bars on. But the intersection the corner sang allowing da quando is a far place and it's super famous. And the far and the suffering there is, like, so delicious. Sir,

spk_1:   1:18:13
Finish with that lane. You're Bailey. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good. Sounds good. All right, if you know, week to explore Vietnam were magical. Uh,

spk_0:   1:18:21
central Vietnam. So I'm not gonna go in our my favourite part of all of Vietnam. It's just such a beautiful area. Cohen in particular is sore. So stunning, Like just the culture and the history and the fact that it's b it's tried to preserve that culture. But I haven't actually being up the Khyber Pass yet, so I would really like to drive the Highland House between the nine and way. I don't know if we'll do that this year. Or maybe, perhaps for 10 next year. I would really like to go do that and see Bana heels in the night. I hear that's just such a strange experience, but really good hands. Yeah, the bridge hands and then the town around it. Yeah, I'd really like to go see that and then spend a couple of days on the beach and then bang, probably by so beach bye.

spk_1:   1:19:11
Yeah, I mean

spk_0:   1:19:14
that that would be a good week

spk_1:   1:19:15
cycle back through the race. Patty's.

spk_0:   1:19:17
Yeah, get a little bit lost takes in

spk_1:   1:19:19
Florida for sure that's going on. And so do you have any hidden gems that you can share?

spk_0:   1:19:26
Yes, my favourite food spot. It's not particularly right. I live in D seven, so it's over in D seven, but I my housemaid and I hit a three or four times a week. It's a vegetarian hotel place, so the address for anyone

spk_1:   1:19:43
who's right in this, you know, Sammy

spk_0:   1:19:46
thie address is 334. 20. Pop.

spk_1:   1:19:50
I've been there. I know you're going to see where you place it. Just kind of on the Coleman

spk_0:   1:19:54
next to Popeye's.

spk_1:   1:19:55
Yeah, love. Because we used to teach in d seven and we would stop there on the way home. That guy, I think, is lives inform you. When we met him in food one time and he remembered me and my wife was like 20. No way. No. The father and the Hutu there is like

spk_0:   1:20:12
out of this and I'm not actually a vegetarian, but my housemaid is so I tend to eat vegetarian three or four times a week. And that place honestly, if, like, there's a reason we go back so many times it's so good they do these the kind of like a vegetarian one.

spk_1:   1:20:31
Don't you

spk_0:   1:20:35
know I always ask for extra, wants

spk_1:   1:20:37
me to wait. I need to go back. I have no meaning like months because we moved. We don't teach that anymore. But that's the one. Yeah. When Tito I know exactly what we don't know about. Awesome. Great. Thank you so much. That has been an amazing interview. Thank you. for your time. Thank you for sharing the storeys. I look forward to try and see your comedy soon. Where can people find out more information about you

spk_0:   1:21:03
so you can follow in my Facebook music page? It's Ella Beth music. You can follow me on Instagram, which is Ella beth dot sings. And on my instagram I post selfies and stuff. But also they'll be clips of me singing different shows up late people what I'm doing. I'm always on my Instagram Storey like just saying what I'm doing with my life. Some of my funny stuff I put onto Instagram as well. In the storeys, sir, I want to see some sort of common comedic side. Instagrams, wonderful or otherwise For music. Ella Beth Music on Facebook You can find some of the videos on YouTube If you want to watch my shows from the voice. It's just L a. Beth the Voice Vietnam. Otherwise Evita type Ella Beth. They'll come up a couple of my original videos collaborations I've done with other people. So coat

spk_1:   1:21:53
cheque. I always forget I never tell anybody that is actually a seven moving bakes instagram. I'm no big instagram.

spk_0:   1:22:00
Oh, I'm gonna get

spk_1:   1:22:01
following Follow me on Instagram the seven million. But we do have one. I'm starting to use it more and more. But the better instagram to follow is Biscuit. Biscuit has our own instagram off course. Look up, Biscuit The back pig. Okay. And you will find her Instagram or cute pictures and you go back to the beginning here. Small. She wasn't things like that. Cheque out the awesome. Enjoy the rest of your afternoon. Thank you very much for your senior comedy. Have a good day. Thank you. Thank you for listening to another episode of seven million bakes a Saigon podcast. Don't forget to go on Facebook like the page lever of you. Send a message. You can send me an email at seven million bakes at gmail dot com. It's always great to hear from people. Thank you for listening. It's really, really appreciated. It's amazing to see that people are listening from all over the world. It's always really good to hear feedback from people. So thank you. Thank you to Louis, Right? For composing the theme music. Thank you to lay and win for helping design the cover art that you can see anywhere you can get your podcast. So don't forget you can listen on Google Apple podcasts, stitcher Spotify or on the website. Seven million bakes dot com. And most of all, thank you to L. A. Beth for being an amazing guest. You can cheque out singing all oversight gone. And you may even get to here doing some comedy, maybe with me at the same time as well. So hopefully you'll enjoy that and enjoy the show. Have a good one.