November 8, 2020 • 34 mins
It turns out Wil Anderson might never have entered comedy if not for his mum and a pair of Dr Marten boots.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
My favorite conversations with people are when they share something
about themselves. I wanted to create a show with guests
opening up in new and interesting ways. I've often thought
that the objects of our lives have so much meaning
when you stop and think about them. This show features
some of the world's funniest and most interesting people sharing
three of their most treasured objects and the stories behind them,
(00:24):
stories you've never heard before.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I'm a person that doesn't really keep things because I
travel so much. I really get attached to too many
possessions because you have to travel lights, so the idea
that material things define you goes out the window a
little bit. So in some ways it was hard because
I don't have a lot of those things. But in
some ways it was also incredibly easy to choose three
(00:49):
things because I only really had three things, so they
really chose themselves.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
One of them.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
It just isn't your bad Yeah, most suitcase, my underpants,
my toast rush. Anyway, it was great to be on
the podcast, Christian Hope this is your best One.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
I'm Christian O'Connell and this is the Stuff of Legends
Today with will Anderson.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
My name is.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
William James Anderson, but I go by the professional name
of Will Anderson. That's Will with one L. Don't complain
to me about the fact that it should be spelt
with two l's, because it clearly shouldn't. Liam Gallagher is
also a William, and he split it into Liam and
I took the first half, which is Will.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Will is a real Australian comedy, radio and TV legend.
He staged so many live stand up specials, all with
his name Will worked into the title some of my favorites,
Will of Fortune, Jagged, Little Will, Free, Will Kill, Will
License to will you get the Idea. Since two thousand
and eight, he's been the host of a great TV
(01:51):
show in Australia called Gruin, which is one of the
highest rating shows on Australia's ABC TV.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Well, at the moment, I'm a professional podcaster. I have
four podcasts, so I guess right now I run an
imaginary radio station. But no, I mostly identify as a
stand up comedian.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
So I guess it was no surprise that Will's first
treasured item takes us back to his early days in
stand up comedy.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
So my first one is actually shoes. It's a pair
of Doctor Martin boots and They were my high school shoes,
and I've chosen them for a couple of reasons. But firstly,
it reminds me of when I was at high school
and I was starting to discover Because the thing that
really runs through my comedy is a sense of anti authoritarianism,
(02:40):
or at least being suspicious of undeserved bullshit or rules
that really shouldn't apply. That's always been at the heart
of what it is that I do. So it started
at high school, and I don't really remember necessarily exactly
how it started. I used to watch a bunch of
shows on the ABC. I think it was. This is
(03:00):
back in the day. I'm forty six years old and
so in Australia, in the country where I grew up,
back in the day, we had two TV networks, two
TV channels. One was a composite commercial channel, it was
like a mashup of the best of the commercial channels,
and then the other one was the taxpayer funded public
broadcasters of the ABC. And I must have been around
(03:22):
twelve or thirteen when there was a couple of shows
that were very iconic in my life. One was a
television program called The Big Gig, which was an incredible
stand up sketch comedy live show that was hosted by
Wendy Harmer and featured weekly the Doug Anthony All Stars
and a range of brilliant Australian comedians and I'd never
(03:43):
seen anything like that before. And then the other one
was a show called The Money or the Gun, which
was hosted by Andrew Denton. And Andrew Denton did a show
ended up winning a bunch of international awards if I
remember correctly, but it was called The Year of the
Patronizing Bastard, and basically it was about our relationship to
disability and how we treated people with disability in our society.
(04:07):
And it really started with Andrew, you know, kind of
admitting his own failings and then using the hour to
explore using experts and you know, really getting to the
heart of the way that we use language and the
experience of people with disability and what it is like.
But the thing that I loved, you know, as a
(04:27):
twelve year old or a thirteen year old, was how
incredibly funny it was. So it was around that time
that I started to realize that humor was an amazing
way to disarm unearned authority, to cut through the bullshit
and to get to the actual truth. And I loved that.
And so, of course, when you're a teenager, the way
(04:49):
that you start to express who's the authority in your life, Well,
there's your parents, so you know they can be authority,
and there's your teachers. And for me, it was the teachers.
And I'm sure some really good teachers along the way
who copped some you know, teenage pubescent trying to understand
that I didn't like authority but didn't understand why, so
(05:11):
some of them probably unfairly copped it along the way.
But I remember a real symbol of that anti authoritarian
thing were two things. One at our school, there was
a rule that boys could only grow their hair to
their collar, whereas girls could. Of course, if their hair
was over their collar, they could wear it tied up.
And I remember thinking, this is an outrage, this is injustice,
(05:34):
and I remember my mother being very much on my side.
She thought that was unfair as well, so I lobbied
to be able to wear my hair, you know, in
a ponytail like the girls did, above the collar. And
the other one was we had to wear black boots
to school, you know, black school shoes as part of
the school uniform, and I wanted to wear Doc Martins,
(05:56):
So you weren't allowed to wear Doc Martins because they
had a Traditionally most of them had yellow, you know,
in the stitching back in the day around the shoes,
and that contravened the policy of the school. So my
mum and I went on quite an exhaustive search to
find myself a pair of Doc Martin boots that did
not have the yellow stitching, and we did, and then
(06:17):
I wore those boots to school for the rest of
my school experience. So partly that's why I choose them
is I remember them being fiercely identified with that young
kid who was trying to work out what he wanted
to do with the world and what ways he wanted
to express himself. But secondly, and I think probably more interestingly,
(06:37):
the reason it was so when I'm at high school,
I start doing high school theater sports. Now, for people
who don't know what theater sports is, is like at
improv games. And so when I was about fourteen or
fifteen at high school, somebody came along and taught us
theater sports. And the reason they taught us theater sports
was they were going to have a local theater sports competition.
(07:00):
Basically all the local schools we're going to learn theater sports.
And then we were going to have you know, the
equivalent of a you know, drama nerds rap battle, where
we all came together and we competed against each other
in the thunderedome that was the theater sports cauldron. And
so I had a team called over the Top was
(07:23):
the name of the team, and it was myself, Shep, Freddie,
and Max. So our team, Shep and my team, We're
going to compete against Freddie and Max's team. And then
we realized that we were about evenly matched in teams,
and if we got rid of the other two dromos
who were in our existing teams and we just joined together,
(07:44):
we could be a super team.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
So that is actually what happened Avengers Improv.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, exactly. Well, it was more a corporate takeover, a merger.
You know, we were forming a theater sports monopoly at
the school and crowding out the rest of the competitors
in the market. I suppose my mom made us all
matching MC hammer shorts because that was the big stylistic
(08:11):
choice at the time.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Your mom sounds awesome.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
And actually goes everywhere trying to find these Dot Martin
boots without any yellow stitching. And now she's a seamstress
to this new conglomerate that you've met.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Well, I look back on my mum even more fondly
in that regard than I did at the time, because
there are key moments. So I go up on a
dairy farm country Victoria, Anderson's Road country Victoria, two hundred
and fifty people in Dennison, and my dad has lived
on Anderson's Road for seventy seven years. You know, he
(08:42):
lives five hundred meters from the house he was born in.
He is never drunk alcohol, he's never smoked a cigarette,
and he married the first woman he ever kissed. As
I used to famously say in my stand up, you know,
we have nothing in common.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
So I've had his share and my share my mom.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
My mom moved back to the farm also and has
spent most of her life on the farm, but she
didn't give us a fully farm experience as we were
growing up. If it had been left up to my dad,
we only have would have made it to Hayfield, which
is twelve hundred people to play footy in cricket and
that'd be enough. That's always been enough for him. But
my mom used to take us down to the city
(09:19):
to go and see musicals. You know, all the obvious
ones that start Cats and the Andrew Lloyd Webbers, but
I remember seeing Hugh Jackman and Beauty and the Beast,
and she would take us down. She loved the theater
and she loved to experience you know, those things with us.
She was on my side when I wanted to grow
my hair long. She was on my side when I
(09:39):
wanted to wear my boots. She used to let me
take days off school to fill in for her married
women's netball team that played during the day if they
were down and her mother during the week. Mum would
give me a day of school and I could go on.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
You can't just have a ringer who's like a you know,
a strapping teenage boy in mc hammer pants and Dr
Martin Walds and with her.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Big old friend. I know what you're saying, mate, but
you can. And I'll tell you what. I dominated, absolutely
dominated with those mums.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
They were It's not the last time exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
They uhould make a documentary about my years with my
mum's married women's netball team, and it would just be
me smoking cigars, drinking whiskey, going out, playing a game
of netball, fighting with the other mums, punching a mumm
at training, telling her she's no good, making her cry.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
And your mum, is you kind of your scotchy pepper,
she's not paid, underpaid.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
So yeah, she used to let me play a netball
with her, and then we would go and get a
cappuccino at Muff and Break and you know, sort of
spent the afternoon together. We enjoyed each other's company.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
It's just just so sweet. It's just what a lovely
thing to do with your mum. I mean, what a
great So we ended.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Up playing in the local district tournament and we won that,
and then we went onto some sort of regional tournament
and we won that, and then we landed ourselves in
the state final of theater sports. So this little group
of people from this country town in country Victoria suddenly
up in the big smoke competing against all these city
schools at the Asenam Theater. Now, for people who aren't
(11:23):
from Melbourne, the Athenaem Theater is one of the most
historic and iconic theaters in Melbourne.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
It's a beautiful theater. Honestly, when I moved here from London.
Obviously London's got so you know, theater Land, He's got
so many old historic theaters. But the athername is stunning.
It's a beautiful place.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
So three levels, very close, which is what is brilliant
to perform on a stage like that. So all your
audience is about a thousand people, but they all feel
very close, which is great for a theater. And so
this is I mean, can you imagine, you know, we're
fifteen years old, a bit like something like that, We've
traveled down to the city three hours, We've got our
(11:57):
uniforms on. We turned out we were only team that
have matching uniforms, by the way, So because you imagine
all these cool city kids like we don't need matching uniforms,
and then these kids from the country and they're like
mc hammer shorts and matching teams.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
In the movie of the scene, you've also got a
bit of straw behind your ear and there's cow dung
on those Dr Martin boots.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
We had an opening chant like our version of the Harker,
which other teams also didn't have.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
We were definitely playing by our own rules.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
I can't remember what the chant was, but it was
like one of those old school you're about to say
the rude word, and then you don't say the rude word,
you know, So it was like, you're over the top.
We're a team of class. All the others watch out,
we're going to kick ask U see any questions you
want to know we are and you tell you one thing,
We'll tell you where to go. Go over the top.
And then there was anyway, it's.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Horrible, horrible, you're coming across.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
There's almost like a load of like improv jocks, you know, Like, well, we.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Certainly were not jocks. I don't know what we were.
We were the team that other people would have talked
about on the way home going what was with those guys?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
And how did you get on? I'm desperate to know
how did you get on? But we certainly did not win.
I remember that.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Is it wrong that a part of me was hoping
you were going to say that I wanted you to
be humbled.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
We got stuck with one of the worst improv games,
which was scene without a question. We made it to
the stream minute game round, so we're probably in about
the middle of the tournament at this stage, and we
get a three minute scene without a question, and as
soon as you ask a question, the player is eliminated
from the scene. We lost all four of us within
(13:39):
forty seconds.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
It sounds really hard, it's really extreme.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
It's incredibly like incredibly hard. Although I will remember that
one of us and I think it might have been Freddy,
but I can't remember because I think someone had a
stick in their hand and I think one of us
ask what's that? So they were eliminated, and then I
(14:05):
believe it was Freddy. It's a long time ago now,
it was thirty years ago now, but I believe it was.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Freddy said, can I lick it?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Which, even at the best of times, even when you're
not playing scene without a question, can I lick it?
Is that the first thing that you're going to when
someone's holding a stick?
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Can I lick it?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
So anyway, we wore our doctor Martin boots one stage
at the athenam Flash forward to twenty years plus later
and I am doing my show, my Melbourne Comedy Festival
show at the Athenaeum. So at the time, huge deal
(14:48):
for me. It probably was the first time I ever
played a thousand seat venue, and it was at that theater,
that same theater, and my mother, as a good luck present,
found my old Doctor Martin boots and brought them down
to the show for the show. Now, my parents come
and see my show every year. They've come and see
my show every year at the Comedy Festival, which is amazing,
(15:10):
and Mum mostly enjoys it. I think, in fact, I
think Mum would like to see more comedy. Dad probably
couldn't name five comedians like from history. I can't imagine
that he would be able to name five. He'd probably
forget to put me on that list if he was
trying to name five comedians. But he comes every year also,
which is lovely, and he never says anything which is
(15:31):
lovely because that's all I need. You don't need to
compliment it as long as you don't complain about it.
So anyway, my mom brought these shoes down, these Doc
Martin boots, and then I wore them in the show
because she just thought that would be a lovely thing too,
because I never would have imagined. Can you imagine at
fifteen years old, when you're standing on that stage that
twenty years later you're going to be standing on that
(15:52):
exact same stage, but it's just going to be you,
and it's not just going to be for one night,
it's going to be for twenty nights.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
It's incredible.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
And then the fact that you go in full circle
the very boots that you wore then when you were fifteen,
you're wearing again as an adult.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
But you've still got that grounding. You know, they've still
got those same shoes.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Well, that word grounding is very important because it is grounding.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
There was a period of.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Time for a while that I sold the most tickets
of anyone at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and they
have an award called the People's Choice, which is basically
just the person who sells the most tickets award, right,
and I've won that six times. So there was a
period of time where there were more people coming to
see my show than anybody else's show, and this was
probably around the start of that. So in some ways
(16:37):
that could really, you know, mess with your ego in
a massive way, give you an over inflated sense of
who you are and your position within the industry and
your respective talents. But you know, those shoes which I
ended up wearing on stage until they fell apart. Basically
very much reminded me, No, you're still that kid. Also,
(16:57):
that naive kid coming up in his hammer pants, you know,
with his boots on. That's where it all started. And
try to remember that, Try to remember where you're from.
Try to remember that your family has been with you
for this entire journey and you're representing them at the
same time. And grounding is absolutely what they became, because
literally they grounded me on stage. Like when I'm on stage,
(17:20):
the reason the ideas come out so quickly is that
there is something that happens to me and my brain.
Whereas that's how the ideas come to me. They explode
into my brain and they can only explode out of
my mouth. My pace of talking about things matches the
pace that I think of things. And over the years
I've tried to moderate that and change that, but the
(17:40):
truth is that I can't. It's just how I express
myself on stage. But what I did change was something
very physical. So my two thousand and nine special, you
can see me with a headset microphone that I'm pacing
all over the stage. Like you know, I've watched too
many Chris rock videos. I'm trying to, you know, physically
show what I'm also mentally doing. And I remember watching
(18:03):
that I've only ever watched that show once, and I
did not like it. And the reason I did not
like it was it did not work at all for me.
It was too much. And I realized in that moment
what I really needed to do was sent to myself,
was ground myself. I don't take the microphone out of
the stand anymore. All we travel with is a microphone
stand in a stool, you know, the two simplest bits
(18:24):
of equipment and stand up comedian needs. And that's all
I have now, and I use the shoes and the
microphone stand to ground me. And so every time you
put on those shoes, and every time you plant them
on the stage, you're also going this is where I
came from, and this is who I am now.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
I'm Christian O'Connell, and this is the stuff of legends
today with Will Anderson, so far we've learned about is
dot martin boots and imagined him in MC hammer pants.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
So what is his next item?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
So my next object you've actually seen. You've seen my
next object. In fact, I sat in my next object
when we were doing our philosophy podcasts. It is a
chair that I had got shipped back from America because
it was the first first chair that I ever bought
when I was living in America. So I lived in
(19:20):
America doing stand up for ten years on and off.
And when I first moved there and got myself an apartment,
I actually weirdly lived in a hotel for three months,
which is probably an experience in my life that we
do not have the time to get into today. I
got myself an apartment, but I had not got any furniture,
and of course, as anyone knows, when you're trying to
(19:43):
furnish a place, particularly the big ticket items often can
take a while to come through. A bed or a couch, Yeah,
they're not necessarily things you can buy on the same
day and get installed. So I had a period of time,
probably two months, where there was very little furniture in
my house at all. There was something for me to
sleep on, and there was this one chair. So this
(20:03):
one chair is very symbolic of the first, you know,
overseas experience that I had. I guess I was like
thirty two, thirty three, something like that, maybe even a
little older, because I remember that we'd done a season
or two of Growon and Growon at the time had
launched out. It was the biggest ABC show since Cas
(20:24):
and Kim. You know, we'd had these incredible records for ratings,
and I'd imagined that it was about to finish, because like,
how many years can you honestly do a show that
is about TV advertising on the ABC. So we must
have been in season two. I might have been nominated
for like the Gold LOGI or something like that, like
it would have been around that time, and I was like, well,
(20:45):
clearly this is about to finish. I better go to
another country and find, you know, something to do with
my time when this finishes. Now I've come back home
and grew and still going, so what do I know?
Speaker 3 (20:56):
But I so I went over to.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
The States, and what I really wanted to do was
get back to doing stand up comedy. To go to Ohio,
to go to Minneapolis, to go to Alaska and stand
on stage at shows there and see if what I
was talking about would be relatable and interesting and funny
to those people. So I spent ten years over there
doing that, and it was the greatest fun I've ever had.
(21:21):
In my life, without a single doubt. By the end
of it, I was earning enough money as a stand
up comedian in America that if I had no other jobs,
I would actually be able to say to somebody, Yes,
I live in America. I have an apartment, and I
make my living as a stand up comedian touring around
America doing shows. But the idea that I could just
(21:43):
go to another country and prove that I was a
good enough stand up to make a career there as
a stand up comedian was probably the proudest I've ever
felt in my life. And so that chair, that chair
was there for me for that journey. It was the
chair that I sat in when I recorded my first Philosophy.
It was the chair pretty much the only thing that
(22:04):
I got shipped back from the States that was really
really important to me. And the great thing about it,
as you know, Christian, is it's not even that comfortable
that chair.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
I was hoping that we could talk this because I
got to be honest. When I first saw it, I
actually felt sorry for you. I thought it was like
a mum or daddy give it to you and you
had to have it.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
It looks really uncomfortable, and it's a hideous color. If
you don't mind me saying no, I don't.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Can you describe it to everyone?
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Okay, So it's like it's got a wooden frame, so
it looks it's kind of like a faux vintage chair.
In fact, it probably is vintage, but it could be fothy.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
There's nothing vintage about that. I know, Vinas that is
not a vintage chairs like Elton John would say it
was too over the top.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
I believe it's been reupholstered. It's been I think it
is an old frame and are old bits and paces,
but they've done it, so they've recovered it. It's like
a denim material and then it's got a sort of
stripey furry brown and red kind of I don't even
know what.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
The material is, a woolen kind of.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
I guess it looks like somebody in a peeragenes yes
and a woolen jumper.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
A stripey woolen on a chair. Okay, No one is
ordering that chair.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
And it's not particularly comfortable and I always have to
put a pillow on it so that my back doesn't hurt.
But it has a sentimental value, and I believe that
is the point of this podcast, Christian, So do not
possession shame me.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
This is what I've chosen. What a new I didn't
know any new ways to shame somebody. I've chair shamed you.
I'm so sorry. Chair shame.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Much like the docks, now that you mentioned it not
also not comfortable. It's funny that the two things I've
chosen are things that aren't necessarily comfortable, but as things
that I enjoy regardless, because I think if you want
to extend that analogy or metaphor, I can never really
tell the difference between the two.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Is that, you know, stand up itself.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
The thing that I've chosen for a career is something
that is uncomfortable, but I love anyway. Sometimes the things
that you love the most in life are uncomfortable. Sometimes
they're a hideous looking chair that's not really good for
your back, and sometimes there are a pair of Doc
Martins that probably aren't great for your arch support. In
the same way as I did not walk well when
(24:29):
I was fifteen, I was dragging those heels a fair bit.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
To me, the Dot Martin boots and the chair. The
chair is also another grounding, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
You know? It's where you can sit and it supports you.
It holds you, not.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
The ground underneath your feet with your doctor Martin boots.
It's another earthing thing to me of sorts.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
I think there's that, and I think that you know,
like it being that I like to sit in the
same chair every time I do my podcasts, and again
that I think that is about grounding. It's the same
way that I wear the same thing on stage every night.
If you come and see me do two of my show,
you'll see me wear the same clothes on stage every night. Well,
not the exact same clothes. I just end up having
(25:08):
a wardrobe like Mark Zuckerberg or Batman, where I have
several versions of the same clothes.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
But what company to be in as well? Very similar,
aren't they?
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Zuckerberg and Will Anderson The you Know, the Illuminative The
Illuminative Former show available on DVDA.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Please check it out. Gus and.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Got a great Matt Damon's story in it. I do
like that sense of ritual around those things, the idea
of putting on the shoes to go to work, the
idea of sitting in the chair to do the podcast.
They ask things that give an element of ceremony, even
if it's small ceremony too. I am now about to
start my job. Because sometimes when you're someone who just
(25:48):
talks for a living, I mean I also talk, you know,
in my real life. It's hard to sometimes tell the
difference between real life and where work starts, whether it's
the Doc Martin's or whether it's the chair. There isn't
our element of Okay, I'm in this chair now, I
am going to work.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
All right, Where do we go next? Then we'll see
your next object. I have a painting.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
It was done by most friend Nathaniel Dean Knackers as
we'd like to call him, but Nathaniel Dean, and he's
an amazing artist in his own right. But it was
done for my fortieth birthday. It's the view out the
back of my house to where my office is in Sydney.
So the very first you know home, you know that
(26:39):
Amy and I ever had, I had a little office
out the back. I always like to have a little
office out the back. That's what I like at a home.
And it's a view out to that from the house,
so you can sort of see the trees and the
swimming pool.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
It's quite lovely.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Ideally beautiful place and then not sure that that swimming
pool would stand up to council regulations these days. Is
no fence, no fence in that photo, I have noticed,
so reminds us of a different time. Don't find me
after seeing the picture. And then yes, so there's an
(27:16):
album there, Arcade Fire album there, and then high fidelity
Essential Daredevil, Alan Law's Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman and
William Goldman's The Princess Bride are all stacked together. And
then well, there's actually just a little crystal Skull vodka
Dan Akroyd's Crystal Skull vodka thing that has a plant
in it.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
And that's it. That's the that's the that's basically it.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
It's a collection of things that I loved, things that
you know, were indicative of what it was that I
liked and it inspired me and that I was into
at the time. And it's a portrait of that looking
back at my backyard. And it was given to me
on my fortieth birthday, which is why I wanted to
tell you this story because my fortieth birthday was the greatest.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Night of my life.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
So my partner Amy and my friend Charlie, who I
did my show tofat With. They organized my fortieth birthday
for me. It was a surprise party. I don't really
love parties, but I had said on the podcast Once
with Charlie that if I was going to have a party,
all I would want is a surprise party organized by
my friends that had all my favorite people in one room.
(28:24):
And then, of course eventually I would like it to
head back to my place, because I'm a person who
never wants to go further away than my house when
I'm at a party. Anytime someone says let's go to
another venue, if that venue is not back in the
direction of where it is that I started out that night,
it does not matter. I Am not going to that
next venue.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
I get that. I'm the same.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Have I got to expand one calorie? I'm not interested?
Can I just press a button and on? There is
there a shoot we can go down to get there.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Also, I hate that last bit between when you want
the night to be over and then you have to
get home.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
I don't like that.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
I want me to go okay, I'm done with this party,
and then be able to just walk into the bedroom and.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Go to bed.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
I don't want there to be anything in between there.
So what happened was on the night of my birthday,
they managed to keep it as surprise, and then they
got people from all over my life, from interstate. It
was incredible, and so Amy and I go to lunch,
and I think, this is pretty much other than a
dinner with a few friends, all we've got to do
that day. So what I do is they see it's
(29:28):
my fortieth and they start bringing out instead of the
third glass of wine that's matched with every meal, they
start bringing out a full glass of wine that is
matched with every meal.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
So suddenly I've.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Had like seven or eight glasses of wine, plus a
gin and tonic and a few other things. And look,
it's like maybe four or five o'clock in the afternoon now,
and Amy and I get on a water taxi back
to our house across Sydney Harbor. You know, beautiful, what
a beautiful way to spend your fortieth birthday. Long lunch, right,
long lunch, you know, with the person that I love.
(29:58):
This is, you know, it's brilliant. This is all that
I do, you know for my birthday. This is great.
But it turns out I've probably gone a little bit
too hard, and so I go home, and I'm like,
you know what, I've got to have a nap. I've
got to just have a napp to regroup for tonight. Literally,
did I know when I went to have a nap
because I'm out cold now? And everyone just goes into
a blind panic blind because there's like hundreds of people
(30:22):
coming from into state and there's been this whole thing organized.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
And I'm passed out.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
In bed because I think I'm just having dinner with
a few friends.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
What all that matter?
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Just one doctor Martin boo on, you got drawled down
your cheek.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
There's the party.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Boy, You know that there's something urgent happening. When you're
awoken by a group of friends, it's kind of trying
to awake you and get you ready to get up.
But anyway, they got me into some decent shape and
they take me down to King's Cross in Sydney where
the bar was, where it turns out this surprise party
was happening. And we go down the stairs and luckily,
just probably about three steps before the everyone yell's surprise,
(30:58):
I see a little sign that says closed for prime function,
and I just gave my brain just enough time. Those
three seconds just that enough time for me to not
fall down the rest of the stairs, because I think
in the state I was in, if it had been
a full surprise, it may well have killed me. So
I think just that sign was just enough to get
(31:20):
me in the right shape. So anyway, brilliant time they
give me this painting as a present. I'm having an
absolute ball. But really there's so many people there that
by midnight I've really only got around to, you know,
just to say hello to everyone basically at this stage.
And then the bar shut and I'm like, what, Okay, well,
this is great, but what's been going on? We go outside.
(31:43):
There's buses outside, and we all get on the buses
and they take everyone who was at the party back
to my house. Now in the meantime, what's going on
is there have been people while we've been at the
bar at our house, putting in a bar, putting in lights.
There's staff, there's food, there's like whatever, the entire house
(32:04):
has been.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
How amazing, What great friends you've gone, right, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (32:08):
And so then I was able to just go home,
sit in a chair in the backyard, and then just
be at the party for the rest of the night,
and it was incredible. It was the greatest gift that
I've ever really been given in my life. And you
are reminded in those times of what it is that
is super important to you. And that's why it's actually
(32:28):
nice to get asked to do something like this, because
when you do think about it, you have to actually go, well,
what is it When I'm choosing something to talk to
Christian about on this podcast, it actually reveals something, not
just to you or to the people listening, but it
revealed things to myself because you do start to think, well,
(32:50):
why is it that this is so important to me?
Why is it that I pay for this chair to
be shipped back from America, Why is it that I
wore those boots on stage all that time? And why
is it that painting which I am currently staring at,
which is now in the wall, on the wall in
another office in another place, reminding me of that party
and that place where it all started. So it's been
(33:12):
a nice experience to actually consider those things myself as well.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Hughes, thank you to today's legend, Will Anderson.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
I love this chap. I hope you did too.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
I've always found Will to be someone very interesting, not
all comedians can actually articulate what goes on inside their heads.
It makes sense to them, but they don't know how
to describe it to us and get us in there.
I think we could all take something from Will's ideas
about staying grounded and remembering, getting a sense of where
we came from, the sense of the journey that we're on,
how we're all a culmination of everything that's happened in
(33:46):
our lives. That's what I wanted this podcast to be
all about. The objects of our lives are like little
time traveling portals to a specific time and place in
our lives, like Will and is Dr Martin boots. We
went time traveling in those boots with Will. Make sure
you don't miss any of our upcoming legends. Follow the
show for free on iHeartRadio or whatever podcast app you're
(34:08):
listening to us on, and if you want to get
in touch, check out stuffof Legends podcast dot com. I'm
Christian O'Connell and until the next time, this is the
Stuff of Legends.
My favorite conversations with people are when they share something
about themselves. I wanted to create a show with guests
opening up in new and interesting ways. I've often thought
that the objects of our lives have so much meaning
when you stop and think about them. This show features
some of the world's funniest and most interesting people sharing
three of their most treasured objects and the stories behind them,
(00:24):
stories you've never heard before.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I'm a person that doesn't really keep things because I
travel so much. I really get attached to too many
possessions because you have to travel lights, so the idea
that material things define you goes out the window a
little bit. So in some ways it was hard because
I don't have a lot of those things. But in
some ways it was also incredibly easy to choose three
(00:49):
things because I only really had three things, so they
really chose themselves.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
One of them.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
It just isn't your bad Yeah, most suitcase, my underpants,
my toast rush. Anyway, it was great to be on
the podcast, Christian Hope this is your best One.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
I'm Christian O'Connell and this is the Stuff of Legends
Today with will Anderson.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
My name is.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
William James Anderson, but I go by the professional name
of Will Anderson. That's Will with one L. Don't complain
to me about the fact that it should be spelt
with two l's, because it clearly shouldn't. Liam Gallagher is
also a William, and he split it into Liam and
I took the first half, which is Will.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Will is a real Australian comedy, radio and TV legend.
He staged so many live stand up specials, all with
his name Will worked into the title some of my favorites,
Will of Fortune, Jagged, Little Will, Free, Will Kill, Will
License to will you get the Idea. Since two thousand
and eight, he's been the host of a great TV
(01:51):
show in Australia called Gruin, which is one of the
highest rating shows on Australia's ABC TV.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Well, at the moment, I'm a professional podcaster. I have
four podcasts, so I guess right now I run an
imaginary radio station. But no, I mostly identify as a
stand up comedian.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
So I guess it was no surprise that Will's first
treasured item takes us back to his early days in
stand up comedy.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
So my first one is actually shoes. It's a pair
of Doctor Martin boots and They were my high school shoes,
and I've chosen them for a couple of reasons. But firstly,
it reminds me of when I was at high school
and I was starting to discover Because the thing that
really runs through my comedy is a sense of anti authoritarianism,
(02:40):
or at least being suspicious of undeserved bullshit or rules
that really shouldn't apply. That's always been at the heart
of what it is that I do. So it started
at high school, and I don't really remember necessarily exactly
how it started. I used to watch a bunch of
shows on the ABC. I think it was. This is
(03:00):
back in the day. I'm forty six years old and
so in Australia, in the country where I grew up,
back in the day, we had two TV networks, two
TV channels. One was a composite commercial channel, it was
like a mashup of the best of the commercial channels,
and then the other one was the taxpayer funded public
broadcasters of the ABC. And I must have been around
(03:22):
twelve or thirteen when there was a couple of shows
that were very iconic in my life. One was a
television program called The Big Gig, which was an incredible
stand up sketch comedy live show that was hosted by
Wendy Harmer and featured weekly the Doug Anthony All Stars
and a range of brilliant Australian comedians and I'd never
(03:43):
seen anything like that before. And then the other one
was a show called The Money or the Gun, which
was hosted by Andrew Denton. And Andrew Denton did a show
ended up winning a bunch of international awards if I
remember correctly, but it was called The Year of the
Patronizing Bastard, and basically it was about our relationship to
disability and how we treated people with disability in our society.
(04:07):
And it really started with Andrew, you know, kind of
admitting his own failings and then using the hour to
explore using experts and you know, really getting to the
heart of the way that we use language and the
experience of people with disability and what it is like.
But the thing that I loved, you know, as a
(04:27):
twelve year old or a thirteen year old, was how
incredibly funny it was. So it was around that time
that I started to realize that humor was an amazing
way to disarm unearned authority, to cut through the bullshit
and to get to the actual truth. And I loved that.
And so, of course, when you're a teenager, the way
(04:49):
that you start to express who's the authority in your life, Well,
there's your parents, so you know they can be authority,
and there's your teachers. And for me, it was the teachers.
And I'm sure some really good teachers along the way
who copped some you know, teenage pubescent trying to understand
that I didn't like authority but didn't understand why, so
(05:11):
some of them probably unfairly copped it along the way.
But I remember a real symbol of that anti authoritarian
thing were two things. One at our school, there was
a rule that boys could only grow their hair to
their collar, whereas girls could. Of course, if their hair
was over their collar, they could wear it tied up.
And I remember thinking, this is an outrage, this is injustice,
(05:34):
and I remember my mother being very much on my side.
She thought that was unfair as well, so I lobbied
to be able to wear my hair, you know, in
a ponytail like the girls did, above the collar. And
the other one was we had to wear black boots
to school, you know, black school shoes as part of
the school uniform, and I wanted to wear Doc Martins,
(05:56):
So you weren't allowed to wear Doc Martins because they
had a Traditionally most of them had yellow, you know,
in the stitching back in the day around the shoes,
and that contravened the policy of the school. So my
mum and I went on quite an exhaustive search to
find myself a pair of Doc Martin boots that did
not have the yellow stitching, and we did, and then
(06:17):
I wore those boots to school for the rest of
my school experience. So partly that's why I choose them
is I remember them being fiercely identified with that young
kid who was trying to work out what he wanted
to do with the world and what ways he wanted
to express himself. But secondly, and I think probably more interestingly,
(06:37):
the reason it was so when I'm at high school,
I start doing high school theater sports. Now, for people
who don't know what theater sports is, is like at
improv games. And so when I was about fourteen or
fifteen at high school, somebody came along and taught us
theater sports. And the reason they taught us theater sports
was they were going to have a local theater sports competition.
(07:00):
Basically all the local schools we're going to learn theater sports.
And then we were going to have you know, the
equivalent of a you know, drama nerds rap battle, where
we all came together and we competed against each other
in the thunderedome that was the theater sports cauldron. And
so I had a team called over the Top was
(07:23):
the name of the team, and it was myself, Shep, Freddie,
and Max. So our team, Shep and my team, We're
going to compete against Freddie and Max's team. And then
we realized that we were about evenly matched in teams,
and if we got rid of the other two dromos
who were in our existing teams and we just joined together,
(07:44):
we could be a super team.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
So that is actually what happened Avengers Improv.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, exactly. Well, it was more a corporate takeover, a merger.
You know, we were forming a theater sports monopoly at
the school and crowding out the rest of the competitors
in the market. I suppose my mom made us all
matching MC hammer shorts because that was the big stylistic
(08:11):
choice at the time.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Your mom sounds awesome.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
And actually goes everywhere trying to find these Dot Martin
boots without any yellow stitching. And now she's a seamstress
to this new conglomerate that you've met.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Well, I look back on my mum even more fondly
in that regard than I did at the time, because
there are key moments. So I go up on a
dairy farm country Victoria, Anderson's Road country Victoria, two hundred
and fifty people in Dennison, and my dad has lived
on Anderson's Road for seventy seven years. You know, he
(08:42):
lives five hundred meters from the house he was born in.
He is never drunk alcohol, he's never smoked a cigarette,
and he married the first woman he ever kissed. As
I used to famously say in my stand up, you know,
we have nothing in common.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
So I've had his share and my share my mom.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
My mom moved back to the farm also and has
spent most of her life on the farm, but she
didn't give us a fully farm experience as we were
growing up. If it had been left up to my dad,
we only have would have made it to Hayfield, which
is twelve hundred people to play footy in cricket and
that'd be enough. That's always been enough for him. But
my mom used to take us down to the city
(09:19):
to go and see musicals. You know, all the obvious
ones that start Cats and the Andrew Lloyd Webbers, but
I remember seeing Hugh Jackman and Beauty and the Beast,
and she would take us down. She loved the theater
and she loved to experience you know, those things with us.
She was on my side when I wanted to grow
my hair long. She was on my side when I
(09:39):
wanted to wear my boots. She used to let me
take days off school to fill in for her married
women's netball team that played during the day if they
were down and her mother during the week. Mum would
give me a day of school and I could go on.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
You can't just have a ringer who's like a you know,
a strapping teenage boy in mc hammer pants and Dr
Martin Walds and with her.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Big old friend. I know what you're saying, mate, but
you can. And I'll tell you what. I dominated, absolutely
dominated with those mums.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
They were It's not the last time exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
They uhould make a documentary about my years with my
mum's married women's netball team, and it would just be
me smoking cigars, drinking whiskey, going out, playing a game
of netball, fighting with the other mums, punching a mumm
at training, telling her she's no good, making her cry.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
And your mum, is you kind of your scotchy pepper,
she's not paid, underpaid.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
So yeah, she used to let me play a netball
with her, and then we would go and get a
cappuccino at Muff and Break and you know, sort of
spent the afternoon together. We enjoyed each other's company.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
It's just just so sweet. It's just what a lovely
thing to do with your mum. I mean, what a
great So we ended.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Up playing in the local district tournament and we won that,
and then we went onto some sort of regional tournament
and we won that, and then we landed ourselves in
the state final of theater sports. So this little group
of people from this country town in country Victoria suddenly
up in the big smoke competing against all these city
schools at the Asenam Theater. Now, for people who aren't
(11:23):
from Melbourne, the Athenaem Theater is one of the most
historic and iconic theaters in Melbourne.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
It's a beautiful theater. Honestly, when I moved here from London.
Obviously London's got so you know, theater Land, He's got
so many old historic theaters. But the athername is stunning.
It's a beautiful place.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
So three levels, very close, which is what is brilliant
to perform on a stage like that. So all your
audience is about a thousand people, but they all feel
very close, which is great for a theater. And so
this is I mean, can you imagine, you know, we're
fifteen years old, a bit like something like that, We've
traveled down to the city three hours, We've got our
(11:57):
uniforms on. We turned out we were only team that
have matching uniforms, by the way, So because you imagine
all these cool city kids like we don't need matching uniforms,
and then these kids from the country and they're like
mc hammer shorts and matching teams.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
In the movie of the scene, you've also got a
bit of straw behind your ear and there's cow dung
on those Dr Martin boots.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
We had an opening chant like our version of the Harker,
which other teams also didn't have.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
We were definitely playing by our own rules.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
I can't remember what the chant was, but it was
like one of those old school you're about to say
the rude word, and then you don't say the rude word,
you know, So it was like, you're over the top.
We're a team of class. All the others watch out,
we're going to kick ask U see any questions you
want to know we are and you tell you one thing,
We'll tell you where to go. Go over the top.
And then there was anyway, it's.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Horrible, horrible, you're coming across.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
There's almost like a load of like improv jocks, you know, Like, well, we.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Certainly were not jocks. I don't know what we were.
We were the team that other people would have talked
about on the way home going what was with those guys?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
And how did you get on? I'm desperate to know
how did you get on? But we certainly did not win.
I remember that.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Is it wrong that a part of me was hoping
you were going to say that I wanted you to
be humbled.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
We got stuck with one of the worst improv games,
which was scene without a question. We made it to
the stream minute game round, so we're probably in about
the middle of the tournament at this stage, and we
get a three minute scene without a question, and as
soon as you ask a question, the player is eliminated
from the scene. We lost all four of us within
(13:39):
forty seconds.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
It sounds really hard, it's really extreme.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
It's incredibly like incredibly hard. Although I will remember that
one of us and I think it might have been Freddy,
but I can't remember because I think someone had a
stick in their hand and I think one of us
ask what's that? So they were eliminated, and then I
(14:05):
believe it was Freddy. It's a long time ago now,
it was thirty years ago now, but I believe it was.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Freddy said, can I lick it?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Which, even at the best of times, even when you're
not playing scene without a question, can I lick it?
Is that the first thing that you're going to when
someone's holding a stick?
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Can I lick it?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
So anyway, we wore our doctor Martin boots one stage
at the athenam Flash forward to twenty years plus later
and I am doing my show, my Melbourne Comedy Festival
show at the Athenaeum. So at the time, huge deal
(14:48):
for me. It probably was the first time I ever
played a thousand seat venue, and it was at that theater,
that same theater, and my mother, as a good luck present,
found my old Doctor Martin boots and brought them down
to the show for the show. Now, my parents come
and see my show every year. They've come and see
my show every year at the Comedy Festival, which is amazing,
(15:10):
and Mum mostly enjoys it. I think, in fact, I
think Mum would like to see more comedy. Dad probably
couldn't name five comedians like from history. I can't imagine
that he would be able to name five. He'd probably
forget to put me on that list if he was
trying to name five comedians. But he comes every year also,
which is lovely, and he never says anything which is
(15:31):
lovely because that's all I need. You don't need to
compliment it as long as you don't complain about it.
So anyway, my mom brought these shoes down, these Doc
Martin boots, and then I wore them in the show
because she just thought that would be a lovely thing too,
because I never would have imagined. Can you imagine at
fifteen years old, when you're standing on that stage that
twenty years later you're going to be standing on that
(15:52):
exact same stage, but it's just going to be you,
and it's not just going to be for one night,
it's going to be for twenty nights.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
It's incredible.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
And then the fact that you go in full circle
the very boots that you wore then when you were fifteen,
you're wearing again as an adult.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
But you've still got that grounding. You know, they've still
got those same shoes.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Well, that word grounding is very important because it is grounding.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
There was a period of.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Time for a while that I sold the most tickets
of anyone at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and they
have an award called the People's Choice, which is basically
just the person who sells the most tickets award, right,
and I've won that six times. So there was a
period of time where there were more people coming to
see my show than anybody else's show, and this was
probably around the start of that. So in some ways
(16:37):
that could really, you know, mess with your ego in
a massive way, give you an over inflated sense of
who you are and your position within the industry and
your respective talents. But you know, those shoes which I
ended up wearing on stage until they fell apart. Basically
very much reminded me, No, you're still that kid. Also,
(16:57):
that naive kid coming up in his hammer pants, you know,
with his boots on. That's where it all started. And
try to remember that, Try to remember where you're from.
Try to remember that your family has been with you
for this entire journey and you're representing them at the
same time. And grounding is absolutely what they became, because
literally they grounded me on stage. Like when I'm on stage,
(17:20):
the reason the ideas come out so quickly is that
there is something that happens to me and my brain.
Whereas that's how the ideas come to me. They explode
into my brain and they can only explode out of
my mouth. My pace of talking about things matches the
pace that I think of things. And over the years
I've tried to moderate that and change that, but the
(17:40):
truth is that I can't. It's just how I express
myself on stage. But what I did change was something
very physical. So my two thousand and nine special, you
can see me with a headset microphone that I'm pacing
all over the stage. Like you know, I've watched too
many Chris rock videos. I'm trying to, you know, physically
show what I'm also mentally doing. And I remember watching
(18:03):
that I've only ever watched that show once, and I
did not like it. And the reason I did not
like it was it did not work at all for me.
It was too much. And I realized in that moment
what I really needed to do was sent to myself,
was ground myself. I don't take the microphone out of
the stand anymore. All we travel with is a microphone
stand in a stool, you know, the two simplest bits
(18:24):
of equipment and stand up comedian needs. And that's all
I have now, and I use the shoes and the
microphone stand to ground me. And so every time you
put on those shoes, and every time you plant them
on the stage, you're also going this is where I
came from, and this is who I am now.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
I'm Christian O'Connell, and this is the stuff of legends
today with Will Anderson, so far we've learned about is
dot martin boots and imagined him in MC hammer pants.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
So what is his next item?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
So my next object you've actually seen. You've seen my
next object. In fact, I sat in my next object
when we were doing our philosophy podcasts. It is a
chair that I had got shipped back from America because
it was the first first chair that I ever bought
when I was living in America. So I lived in
(19:20):
America doing stand up for ten years on and off.
And when I first moved there and got myself an apartment,
I actually weirdly lived in a hotel for three months,
which is probably an experience in my life that we
do not have the time to get into today. I
got myself an apartment, but I had not got any furniture,
and of course, as anyone knows, when you're trying to
(19:43):
furnish a place, particularly the big ticket items often can
take a while to come through. A bed or a couch, Yeah,
they're not necessarily things you can buy on the same
day and get installed. So I had a period of time,
probably two months, where there was very little furniture in
my house at all. There was something for me to
sleep on, and there was this one chair. So this
(20:03):
one chair is very symbolic of the first, you know,
overseas experience that I had. I guess I was like
thirty two, thirty three, something like that, maybe even a
little older, because I remember that we'd done a season
or two of Growon and Growon at the time had
launched out. It was the biggest ABC show since Cas
(20:24):
and Kim. You know, we'd had these incredible records for ratings,
and I'd imagined that it was about to finish, because like,
how many years can you honestly do a show that
is about TV advertising on the ABC. So we must
have been in season two. I might have been nominated
for like the Gold LOGI or something like that, like
it would have been around that time, and I was like, well,
(20:45):
clearly this is about to finish. I better go to
another country and find, you know, something to do with
my time when this finishes. Now I've come back home
and grew and still going, so what do I know?
Speaker 3 (20:56):
But I so I went over to.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
The States, and what I really wanted to do was
get back to doing stand up comedy. To go to Ohio,
to go to Minneapolis, to go to Alaska and stand
on stage at shows there and see if what I
was talking about would be relatable and interesting and funny
to those people. So I spent ten years over there
doing that, and it was the greatest fun I've ever had.
(21:21):
In my life, without a single doubt. By the end
of it, I was earning enough money as a stand
up comedian in America that if I had no other jobs,
I would actually be able to say to somebody, Yes,
I live in America. I have an apartment, and I
make my living as a stand up comedian touring around
America doing shows. But the idea that I could just
(21:43):
go to another country and prove that I was a
good enough stand up to make a career there as
a stand up comedian was probably the proudest I've ever
felt in my life. And so that chair, that chair
was there for me for that journey. It was the
chair that I sat in when I recorded my first Philosophy.
It was the chair pretty much the only thing that
(22:04):
I got shipped back from the States that was really
really important to me. And the great thing about it,
as you know, Christian, is it's not even that comfortable
that chair.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
I was hoping that we could talk this because I
got to be honest. When I first saw it, I
actually felt sorry for you. I thought it was like
a mum or daddy give it to you and you
had to have it.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
It looks really uncomfortable, and it's a hideous color. If
you don't mind me saying no, I don't.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Can you describe it to everyone?
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Okay, So it's like it's got a wooden frame, so
it looks it's kind of like a faux vintage chair.
In fact, it probably is vintage, but it could be fothy.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
There's nothing vintage about that. I know, Vinas that is
not a vintage chairs like Elton John would say it
was too over the top.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
I believe it's been reupholstered. It's been I think it
is an old frame and are old bits and paces,
but they've done it, so they've recovered it. It's like
a denim material and then it's got a sort of
stripey furry brown and red kind of I don't even
know what.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
The material is, a woolen kind of.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
I guess it looks like somebody in a peeragenes yes
and a woolen jumper.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
A stripey woolen on a chair. Okay, No one is
ordering that chair.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
And it's not particularly comfortable and I always have to
put a pillow on it so that my back doesn't hurt.
But it has a sentimental value, and I believe that
is the point of this podcast, Christian, So do not
possession shame me.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
This is what I've chosen. What a new I didn't
know any new ways to shame somebody. I've chair shamed you.
I'm so sorry. Chair shame.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Much like the docks, now that you mentioned it not
also not comfortable. It's funny that the two things I've
chosen are things that aren't necessarily comfortable, but as things
that I enjoy regardless, because I think if you want
to extend that analogy or metaphor, I can never really
tell the difference between the two.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Is that, you know, stand up itself.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
The thing that I've chosen for a career is something
that is uncomfortable, but I love anyway. Sometimes the things
that you love the most in life are uncomfortable. Sometimes
they're a hideous looking chair that's not really good for
your back, and sometimes there are a pair of Doc
Martins that probably aren't great for your arch support. In
the same way as I did not walk well when
(24:29):
I was fifteen, I was dragging those heels a fair bit.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
To me, the Dot Martin boots and the chair. The
chair is also another grounding, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
You know? It's where you can sit and it supports you.
It holds you, not.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
The ground underneath your feet with your doctor Martin boots.
It's another earthing thing to me of sorts.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
I think there's that, and I think that you know,
like it being that I like to sit in the
same chair every time I do my podcasts, and again
that I think that is about grounding. It's the same
way that I wear the same thing on stage every night.
If you come and see me do two of my show,
you'll see me wear the same clothes on stage every night. Well,
not the exact same clothes. I just end up having
(25:08):
a wardrobe like Mark Zuckerberg or Batman, where I have
several versions of the same clothes.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
But what company to be in as well? Very similar,
aren't they?
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Zuckerberg and Will Anderson The you Know, the Illuminative The
Illuminative Former show available on DVDA.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Please check it out. Gus and.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Got a great Matt Damon's story in it. I do
like that sense of ritual around those things, the idea
of putting on the shoes to go to work, the
idea of sitting in the chair to do the podcast.
They ask things that give an element of ceremony, even
if it's small ceremony too. I am now about to
start my job. Because sometimes when you're someone who just
(25:48):
talks for a living, I mean I also talk, you know,
in my real life. It's hard to sometimes tell the
difference between real life and where work starts, whether it's
the Doc Martin's or whether it's the chair. There isn't
our element of Okay, I'm in this chair now, I
am going to work.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
All right, Where do we go next? Then we'll see
your next object. I have a painting.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
It was done by most friend Nathaniel Dean Knackers as
we'd like to call him, but Nathaniel Dean, and he's
an amazing artist in his own right. But it was
done for my fortieth birthday. It's the view out the
back of my house to where my office is in Sydney.
So the very first you know home, you know that
(26:39):
Amy and I ever had, I had a little office
out the back. I always like to have a little
office out the back. That's what I like at a home.
And it's a view out to that from the house,
so you can sort of see the trees and the
swimming pool.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
It's quite lovely.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Ideally beautiful place and then not sure that that swimming
pool would stand up to council regulations these days. Is
no fence, no fence in that photo, I have noticed,
so reminds us of a different time. Don't find me
after seeing the picture. And then yes, so there's an
(27:16):
album there, Arcade Fire album there, and then high fidelity
Essential Daredevil, Alan Law's Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman and
William Goldman's The Princess Bride are all stacked together. And
then well, there's actually just a little crystal Skull vodka
Dan Akroyd's Crystal Skull vodka thing that has a plant
in it.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
And that's it. That's the that's the that's basically it.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
It's a collection of things that I loved, things that
you know, were indicative of what it was that I
liked and it inspired me and that I was into
at the time. And it's a portrait of that looking
back at my backyard. And it was given to me
on my fortieth birthday, which is why I wanted to
tell you this story because my fortieth birthday was the greatest.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Night of my life.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
So my partner Amy and my friend Charlie, who I
did my show tofat With. They organized my fortieth birthday
for me. It was a surprise party. I don't really
love parties, but I had said on the podcast Once
with Charlie that if I was going to have a party,
all I would want is a surprise party organized by
my friends that had all my favorite people in one room.
(28:24):
And then, of course eventually I would like it to
head back to my place, because I'm a person who
never wants to go further away than my house when
I'm at a party. Anytime someone says let's go to
another venue, if that venue is not back in the
direction of where it is that I started out that night,
it does not matter. I Am not going to that
next venue.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
I get that. I'm the same.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Have I got to expand one calorie? I'm not interested?
Can I just press a button and on? There is
there a shoot we can go down to get there.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Also, I hate that last bit between when you want
the night to be over and then you have to
get home.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
I don't like that.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
I want me to go okay, I'm done with this party,
and then be able to just walk into the bedroom and.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Go to bed.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
I don't want there to be anything in between there.
So what happened was on the night of my birthday,
they managed to keep it as surprise, and then they
got people from all over my life, from interstate. It
was incredible, and so Amy and I go to lunch,
and I think, this is pretty much other than a
dinner with a few friends, all we've got to do
that day. So what I do is they see it's
(29:28):
my fortieth and they start bringing out instead of the
third glass of wine that's matched with every meal, they
start bringing out a full glass of wine that is
matched with every meal.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
So suddenly I've.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Had like seven or eight glasses of wine, plus a
gin and tonic and a few other things. And look,
it's like maybe four or five o'clock in the afternoon now,
and Amy and I get on a water taxi back
to our house across Sydney Harbor. You know, beautiful, what
a beautiful way to spend your fortieth birthday. Long lunch, right,
long lunch, you know, with the person that I love.
(29:58):
This is, you know, it's brilliant. This is all that
I do, you know for my birthday. This is great.
But it turns out I've probably gone a little bit
too hard, and so I go home, and I'm like,
you know what, I've got to have a nap. I've
got to just have a napp to regroup for tonight. Literally,
did I know when I went to have a nap
because I'm out cold now? And everyone just goes into
a blind panic blind because there's like hundreds of people
(30:22):
coming from into state and there's been this whole thing organized.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
And I'm passed out.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
In bed because I think I'm just having dinner with
a few friends.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
What all that matter?
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Just one doctor Martin boo on, you got drawled down
your cheek.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
There's the party.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Boy, You know that there's something urgent happening. When you're
awoken by a group of friends, it's kind of trying
to awake you and get you ready to get up.
But anyway, they got me into some decent shape and
they take me down to King's Cross in Sydney where
the bar was, where it turns out this surprise party
was happening. And we go down the stairs and luckily,
just probably about three steps before the everyone yell's surprise,
(30:58):
I see a little sign that says closed for prime function,
and I just gave my brain just enough time. Those
three seconds just that enough time for me to not
fall down the rest of the stairs, because I think
in the state I was in, if it had been
a full surprise, it may well have killed me. So
I think just that sign was just enough to get
(31:20):
me in the right shape. So anyway, brilliant time they
give me this painting as a present. I'm having an
absolute ball. But really there's so many people there that
by midnight I've really only got around to, you know,
just to say hello to everyone basically at this stage.
And then the bar shut and I'm like, what, Okay, well,
this is great, but what's been going on? We go outside.
(31:43):
There's buses outside, and we all get on the buses
and they take everyone who was at the party back
to my house. Now in the meantime, what's going on
is there have been people while we've been at the
bar at our house, putting in a bar, putting in lights.
There's staff, there's food, there's like whatever, the entire house
(32:04):
has been.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
How amazing, What great friends you've gone, right, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (32:08):
And so then I was able to just go home,
sit in a chair in the backyard, and then just
be at the party for the rest of the night,
and it was incredible. It was the greatest gift that
I've ever really been given in my life. And you
are reminded in those times of what it is that
is super important to you. And that's why it's actually
(32:28):
nice to get asked to do something like this, because
when you do think about it, you have to actually go, well,
what is it When I'm choosing something to talk to
Christian about on this podcast, it actually reveals something, not
just to you or to the people listening, but it
revealed things to myself because you do start to think, well,
(32:50):
why is it that this is so important to me?
Why is it that I pay for this chair to
be shipped back from America, Why is it that I
wore those boots on stage all that time? And why
is it that painting which I am currently staring at,
which is now in the wall, on the wall in
another office in another place, reminding me of that party
and that place where it all started. So it's been
(33:12):
a nice experience to actually consider those things myself as well.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Hughes, thank you to today's legend, Will Anderson.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
I love this chap. I hope you did too.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
I've always found Will to be someone very interesting, not
all comedians can actually articulate what goes on inside their heads.
It makes sense to them, but they don't know how
to describe it to us and get us in there.
I think we could all take something from Will's ideas
about staying grounded and remembering, getting a sense of where
we came from, the sense of the journey that we're on,
how we're all a culmination of everything that's happened in
(33:46):
our lives. That's what I wanted this podcast to be
all about. The objects of our lives are like little
time traveling portals to a specific time and place in
our lives, like Will and is Dr Martin boots. We
went time traveling in those boots with Will. Make sure
you don't miss any of our upcoming legends. Follow the
show for free on iHeartRadio or whatever podcast app you're
(34:08):
listening to us on, and if you want to get
in touch, check out stuffof Legends podcast dot com. I'm
Christian O'Connell and until the next time, this is the
Stuff of Legends.
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