December 16, 2020 • 14 mins
This is the story of how I unraveled a whole film shoot with just a single pair of underwear. And, I’ll introduce you to bugs. But not just any bugs. Big bugs.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Today's stories about meeting your heroes underwear and an insect
the size of a tiny lobster. It's also about me
your host on a pump care, but mostly it's about
making you smile. Welcome to one of pump Cares. Chapter eight,
Feeling and See. I landed a small role in the
(00:42):
film produced by the one and only Shashi Kapoor. Not
only was Shashi Kapoor a charming and stylish hero with
a long string of successes, he also had a reputation
as a kind hearted man, and I got to witness
that up close. For instance, we all arrived at the
(01:02):
airport in Daily at the same time and was supposed
to have cars to take us to the film location
in Rajasthan. But my car never showed up. Somehow Shashikpur
noticed and he immediately said, my car is there and
I'm alone. Come with me. Come come, sir, Really, sir,
you mean in your car? Come on, okay? So thank you.
(01:29):
I couldn't believe my luck that the star like Shashi
Kapoor would allow me to share his car. I wanted
the whole world to look into that car and see
that an open care was sitting with Shashikapoor. Of course,
the minute the car started moving, he fell asleep, but
that didn't stop me from beaming. I'm sitting with Shi anyway.
(02:00):
Jessi Copulgi was always kind to me and I was
excited to work with him. In fact, I wanted to
make a lasting impression, and well I did, but not
in the way I had hoped. The rules on the
set were very strict. Every morning, the cast was expected
to be ready to shoot by seven in the morning.
(02:22):
That meant arriving with full makeup and costume, irrespective of
whether you were in the shot or not. We were
expected to be ready and witty. At the time, I
was still a budding actor and I had just two
sets of underwear on location with me, and they were
Victor brand underwear. If you wore Victor back in the
(02:45):
early eighties, you will agree that they were not built
to last. The pair would barely hold up for six
months or so before developing a yawning hole in the
front that would make the garments useless. Anyway, every day
I would wash one of these pathetic pairs and where
the other one mm. It seemed like a foolproof system
(03:08):
at the time. What could possibly go wrong. One day
I got an unusual message from the assistant on the set.
He said, you can relax this morning on a pump.
We won't be shooting until. Knowing how strict the policy
had been, I asked, are you sure? He said, I
guarantee you. You are certainly, definitely, absolutely not working until
(03:34):
eleven thirty today. I nearly jumped for joy. Knowing that
I wouldn't be needed on set for a few hours,
I seized the opportunity to wash both payers of under.
To have that sort of time felt like a luxury.
After giving them a good scrub, I put them on
the wooden railing outside my hotel room to dry in
(03:55):
the sun. Then I crawled back into a bed for
some much needed rest. But the piece didn't last long.
At nine o'clock I was startled out of bed by
(04:15):
some frantic banging at my door, and assistant had rushed
to my room with a summons to come to the
set immediately. Shashigi, turns out, was ready with the next shot,
and he wanted me there right now. To say I
was in panic would be putting it mildly. I grabbed
my things, slipped on the closest peer of underwear from
the balcony, still a little wet, and I rushed for
(04:38):
the shot. I arrived at the set painting, but somehow
I had made it just in the nicktime. I caught
my breath and took my place. The camera started rolling,
The director said action She started the scene while I
was almost acting as his shadow, following him quietly in
(05:00):
the background. So that's what I did, or started to do.
But suddenly I felt something in my pants and let out.
I grabbed my clot and ran from the washroom. Oh
(05:27):
everyone was baffled. As the crew cut off the cameras.
Everyone looked at me, wide eyed and slack jarred. Remember
these were the days of giant film cansters, and every
bit of film was expensive. Why had I ruined the shot?
Truth be told, I was just as confused as everyone else.
But when I pulled down my pants in the safety
(05:49):
of the washroom, that's when I realized that unders hundreds
of five Steve Brown ants had crawled into my underwear
on the railing and well, in the response to the
disturbance I had caused them, they chose to disturb me
right back. I was the victim of literal ants in
my pants. Sadly, the crew was not sympathetic to my
(06:12):
bug bites, and of course when I tried to explain
even more of the details, well, it only made everyone
laugh harder. Oh, it can only happen with you. This,
of course, was not the lasting impression I had hoped
to make Concers, and as I made more money, I
learned to bring more underwear to film sets. I also
(06:35):
learned never to leave them drying out on the balcony.
I used to think this whole story was an incredible
stroke of bad luck, that is until I learned about
a gigantic insect, the Lord House walking stick. And now
I feel lucky that my underwear was populated by well
(06:59):
small are critters. Before I tell you about these next insects,
I want to tell you about two Australian scientists, David
Priddle and Nicholas Carlyle. Unlike me, Prill and Carlyle seek
out encounters with bugs. They are both environmental scientists who
(07:20):
focus on extinct species. You see a lot of insects
species have recently gone extinct. In most cases, the story
is the same. These species settle in one teeny corner
of the world. The humans descend on the area, and
they bring their problems with them. To date, Priddle and
(07:43):
car Life have catalog seventy two species, from various butterflies
to beetles to dragonflies, that have all gone extinct because
of humans. But there was one species they were particularly
interested in, an instinct called loud House walking stick. The
(08:03):
lord houses a stick insect famous for its size, and
when Europeans first discovered these five inch long critters, they
referred to them as walking sausages. Indeed, some people refer
to the critters as three lobsters. And when you read
about them, it turns out that they are a little endearing.
(08:24):
For instance, they're one of only a few bugs that
is monogamous. They find a single mate and commit for life.
They also cuddle their romantic partners when they sleep, which
is somehow both sweet and disgusting. But the thing that
Priddle and Carlyle were most curious about was how could
(08:46):
such a big, sturdy species like this go extinct? The
answer rats in a British supply ship was selling near
Lord Howe Island when it ventured just a little too
(09:07):
close and accidentally struck the shore. As the ship's crew
worked to fix the damage, a pack of Stoway rats
curried onto the land, and they became the worst house
guests you could imagine. The rats hit everything inside and
(09:29):
by within just two years, there were no more Lord
House Walking Sticks sightings anywhere. That is until a pair
of rock climbers spotted some giant bugs eighty years later
on an island called Ball's Pyramid. Could these massive bugs
(09:49):
be Lord House Walking sticks? When Priddle and Carlid heard
the news, they had to find out themselves, So in
two thousand and one, the two scientists set off for
Ball's Pyramid with their two fearless assistance. Strangely, Ball's Pyramid
(10:12):
is a spooky place. It's a dormant volcano that juts
straight out of the sea, and it feels like the
sort of place a James Bond villain might hide their
secret layer. But Ball's Pyramid doesn't just look scary. It
is scary. One wrong step on those steep cliffs and
you will tumble straight into a sea full of sharks. Still,
(10:39):
Priddle and Carlisle vera automission, so carefully they began climbing.
Anytime the scientists would see something move, they would stop
media and think, this is it. We found one. Then
they would look closer and see it was just a
leaf or a twig, a big cricket. They started to
(11:02):
feel that maybe the Lord how Walking Stick really was extinct.
But as they made their way back to their tent,
one of the scientists passed a bush and noticed something
unusual done insect dounge and it was big. This was
(11:23):
a sign. The scientists then wondered if the Lord how
Walking Stick could be nocturnal. Maybe the bugs stayed in
and until the sun went down. The scientists were seized
with newfound hoope. But this discovery meant they had no
choice but to climb back up to the volcano, this
time at night. The plan was near suicide, but the
(11:49):
men called in a ranger who knew the terrain, and
armed with a little more than a flashlight, they carefully
scrambled up the cliff side in the pitch darkness. When
Carlyle reached the side of the droppings, he shined his
light and there he saw two black, shiny sausages with legs,
(12:15):
and then another, and another and another. After decades of
believing they were extinct, Brittle and Carlyle discovered twenty four happy, healthy,
and very much not extinct lord how walking sticks. Riddle
(12:40):
and Carlyle immediately recognized they had to protect the creatures,
so they brought some to Melbourne, where zoologists successfully bread
more than seven these ugly, cuddling, monogamous walking sausages. And
it all happened because Spriddle and Carlyle did not give
(13:01):
up their belief in the resilience of the natural world.
That's it for today's episode. I'm an opum Care, Be
kind to yourself and thank you for listening. A pump
(13:33):
Cares is a production of I Heart Radio. I'm your
Host A pump Care. Our executive producer Is Mangis, Senior
producer Julian Weller, Associate producer Morgan Lavoy. Sound design and
mixing by Julian Weller and Dan Pauza. Music by Aaron Kaufman.
(13:54):
Production support from Emily Maronov and Married You. Writing by
Lucas Riley, mat Riddle, margoont La Boy and Julian Weller.
Lucas Riley and mat Riddle are our story editors. Thanks
to Sikin parou Hermandes Suza, Godwin Amana, Sidium Studios, Conel
Byrne and Bob Pittman. Wonder
Today's stories about meeting your heroes underwear and an insect
the size of a tiny lobster. It's also about me
your host on a pump care, but mostly it's about
making you smile. Welcome to one of pump Cares. Chapter eight,
Feeling and See. I landed a small role in the
(00:42):
film produced by the one and only Shashi Kapoor. Not
only was Shashi Kapoor a charming and stylish hero with
a long string of successes, he also had a reputation
as a kind hearted man, and I got to witness
that up close. For instance, we all arrived at the
(01:02):
airport in Daily at the same time and was supposed
to have cars to take us to the film location
in Rajasthan. But my car never showed up. Somehow Shashikpur
noticed and he immediately said, my car is there and
I'm alone. Come with me. Come come, sir, Really, sir,
you mean in your car? Come on, okay? So thank you.
(01:29):
I couldn't believe my luck that the star like Shashi
Kapoor would allow me to share his car. I wanted
the whole world to look into that car and see
that an open care was sitting with Shashikapoor. Of course,
the minute the car started moving, he fell asleep, but
that didn't stop me from beaming. I'm sitting with Shi anyway.
(02:00):
Jessi Copulgi was always kind to me and I was
excited to work with him. In fact, I wanted to
make a lasting impression, and well I did, but not
in the way I had hoped. The rules on the
set were very strict. Every morning, the cast was expected
to be ready to shoot by seven in the morning.
(02:22):
That meant arriving with full makeup and costume, irrespective of
whether you were in the shot or not. We were
expected to be ready and witty. At the time, I
was still a budding actor and I had just two
sets of underwear on location with me, and they were
Victor brand underwear. If you wore Victor back in the
(02:45):
early eighties, you will agree that they were not built
to last. The pair would barely hold up for six
months or so before developing a yawning hole in the
front that would make the garments useless. Anyway, every day
I would wash one of these pathetic pairs and where
the other one mm. It seemed like a foolproof system
(03:08):
at the time. What could possibly go wrong. One day
I got an unusual message from the assistant on the set.
He said, you can relax this morning on a pump.
We won't be shooting until. Knowing how strict the policy
had been, I asked, are you sure? He said, I
guarantee you. You are certainly, definitely, absolutely not working until
(03:34):
eleven thirty today. I nearly jumped for joy. Knowing that
I wouldn't be needed on set for a few hours,
I seized the opportunity to wash both payers of under.
To have that sort of time felt like a luxury.
After giving them a good scrub, I put them on
the wooden railing outside my hotel room to dry in
(03:55):
the sun. Then I crawled back into a bed for
some much needed rest. But the piece didn't last long.
At nine o'clock I was startled out of bed by
(04:15):
some frantic banging at my door, and assistant had rushed
to my room with a summons to come to the
set immediately. Shashigi, turns out, was ready with the next shot,
and he wanted me there right now. To say I
was in panic would be putting it mildly. I grabbed
my things, slipped on the closest peer of underwear from
the balcony, still a little wet, and I rushed for
(04:38):
the shot. I arrived at the set painting, but somehow
I had made it just in the nicktime. I caught
my breath and took my place. The camera started rolling,
The director said action She started the scene while I
was almost acting as his shadow, following him quietly in
(05:00):
the background. So that's what I did, or started to do.
But suddenly I felt something in my pants and let out.
I grabbed my clot and ran from the washroom. Oh
(05:27):
everyone was baffled. As the crew cut off the cameras.
Everyone looked at me, wide eyed and slack jarred. Remember
these were the days of giant film cansters, and every
bit of film was expensive. Why had I ruined the shot?
Truth be told, I was just as confused as everyone else.
But when I pulled down my pants in the safety
(05:49):
of the washroom, that's when I realized that unders hundreds
of five Steve Brown ants had crawled into my underwear
on the railing and well, in the response to the
disturbance I had caused them, they chose to disturb me
right back. I was the victim of literal ants in
my pants. Sadly, the crew was not sympathetic to my
(06:12):
bug bites, and of course when I tried to explain
even more of the details, well, it only made everyone
laugh harder. Oh, it can only happen with you. This,
of course, was not the lasting impression I had hoped
to make Concers, and as I made more money, I
learned to bring more underwear to film sets. I also
(06:35):
learned never to leave them drying out on the balcony.
I used to think this whole story was an incredible
stroke of bad luck, that is until I learned about
a gigantic insect, the Lord House walking stick. And now
I feel lucky that my underwear was populated by well
(06:59):
small are critters. Before I tell you about these next insects,
I want to tell you about two Australian scientists, David
Priddle and Nicholas Carlyle. Unlike me, Prill and Carlyle seek
out encounters with bugs. They are both environmental scientists who
(07:20):
focus on extinct species. You see a lot of insects
species have recently gone extinct. In most cases, the story
is the same. These species settle in one teeny corner
of the world. The humans descend on the area, and
they bring their problems with them. To date, Priddle and
(07:43):
car Life have catalog seventy two species, from various butterflies
to beetles to dragonflies, that have all gone extinct because
of humans. But there was one species they were particularly
interested in, an instinct called loud House walking stick. The
(08:03):
lord houses a stick insect famous for its size, and
when Europeans first discovered these five inch long critters, they
referred to them as walking sausages. Indeed, some people refer
to the critters as three lobsters. And when you read
about them, it turns out that they are a little endearing.
(08:24):
For instance, they're one of only a few bugs that
is monogamous. They find a single mate and commit for life.
They also cuddle their romantic partners when they sleep, which
is somehow both sweet and disgusting. But the thing that
Priddle and Carlyle were most curious about was how could
(08:46):
such a big, sturdy species like this go extinct? The
answer rats in a British supply ship was selling near
Lord Howe Island when it ventured just a little too
(09:07):
close and accidentally struck the shore. As the ship's crew
worked to fix the damage, a pack of Stoway rats
curried onto the land, and they became the worst house
guests you could imagine. The rats hit everything inside and
(09:29):
by within just two years, there were no more Lord
House Walking Sticks sightings anywhere. That is until a pair
of rock climbers spotted some giant bugs eighty years later
on an island called Ball's Pyramid. Could these massive bugs
(09:49):
be Lord House Walking sticks? When Priddle and Carlid heard
the news, they had to find out themselves, So in
two thousand and one, the two scientists set off for
Ball's Pyramid with their two fearless assistance. Strangely, Ball's Pyramid
(10:12):
is a spooky place. It's a dormant volcano that juts
straight out of the sea, and it feels like the
sort of place a James Bond villain might hide their
secret layer. But Ball's Pyramid doesn't just look scary. It
is scary. One wrong step on those steep cliffs and
you will tumble straight into a sea full of sharks. Still,
(10:39):
Priddle and Carlisle vera automission, so carefully they began climbing.
Anytime the scientists would see something move, they would stop
media and think, this is it. We found one. Then
they would look closer and see it was just a
leaf or a twig, a big cricket. They started to
(11:02):
feel that maybe the Lord how Walking Stick really was extinct.
But as they made their way back to their tent,
one of the scientists passed a bush and noticed something
unusual done insect dounge and it was big. This was
(11:23):
a sign. The scientists then wondered if the Lord how
Walking Stick could be nocturnal. Maybe the bugs stayed in
and until the sun went down. The scientists were seized
with newfound hoope. But this discovery meant they had no
choice but to climb back up to the volcano, this
time at night. The plan was near suicide, but the
(11:49):
men called in a ranger who knew the terrain, and
armed with a little more than a flashlight, they carefully
scrambled up the cliff side in the pitch darkness. When
Carlyle reached the side of the droppings, he shined his
light and there he saw two black, shiny sausages with legs,
(12:15):
and then another, and another and another. After decades of
believing they were extinct, Brittle and Carlyle discovered twenty four happy, healthy,
and very much not extinct lord how walking sticks. Riddle
(12:40):
and Carlyle immediately recognized they had to protect the creatures,
so they brought some to Melbourne, where zoologists successfully bread
more than seven these ugly, cuddling, monogamous walking sausages. And
it all happened because Spriddle and Carlyle did not give
(13:01):
up their belief in the resilience of the natural world.
That's it for today's episode. I'm an opum Care, Be
kind to yourself and thank you for listening. A pump
(13:33):
Cares is a production of I Heart Radio. I'm your
Host A pump Care. Our executive producer Is Mangis, Senior
producer Julian Weller, Associate producer Morgan Lavoy. Sound design and
mixing by Julian Weller and Dan Pauza. Music by Aaron Kaufman.
(13:54):
Production support from Emily Maronov and Married You. Writing by
Lucas Riley, mat Riddle, margoont La Boy and Julian Weller.
Lucas Riley and mat Riddle are our story editors. Thanks
to Sikin parou Hermandes Suza, Godwin Amana, Sidium Studios, Conel
Byrne and Bob Pittman. Wonder
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