March 25, 2025 • 20 mins
Comedian James Liotta joins us to talk about his roots, being born on Lygon Street, and what it truly means to be Italian.
From family traditions to fiery debates at the dinner table, we dive into the experiences that shape Italian culture and the influence it’s had on James’ life and comedy.
Get ready for a lively, nostalgic, and hilarious conversation about heritage, identity, and the unmistakable energy of growing up Italian!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Every day brings a new story. The life isn't perfect,
but it's perfectly ours, with raw conversations, inspiring stories and
laugh until you cry moments we hit him. I unpack
it all and figure it out together, one episode at
a time. This is Life as we know It, Unfiltered
with Tony Tanalia and Lisa Cameron.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hello there, welcome along. We've got a very special guest
joining us. In fact, we're hoping that you caught our
last episode with him, comedian James Leona. If you haven't
caught that one yet, go back and have listened to
it before you listen to this one. Okay, We're about
to find out where James was born.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I was born on Lygon Street. What I was born
at the Queen Victoria Hospital.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I thought you're gonna say on the actual street, not
in a picture. This was going to get really interesting.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
I was born inside Brunitis sponsored the show how do
you know the Queen Victoria Hospital rules on the end
of on Street. It was what what qv is? It
was the Queen Victoria Hospital.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
And it was like.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Russell it was corner.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
The other one sounded more interesting. A comedian.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
You people look me up and go it's fake, fake news.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
So let's talk about growing up in an Italian family.
Did your family speak Italian when you were a kid,
so English became.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Your second life.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I learned English in prep. Wow, I didn't do kind
because what kids don't go to king save money? Yeah,
we get straight to prep because you're with your grandparents
and parents, what have you. So they spoke Italian and
Sicilian dialect. In fact, I probably would would argue that
the Sicilian dialect was the more prominent than actual fluent Italian.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
So then when you came to learn, did you learn
Italian at school?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
I still knew it from home, but yeah I did,
did study it at school.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah, because this is the thing I found. So my parents,
my family is so at home. You know, if they
were speaking Italian, they'd speak right the dialect and says
a dialect everything gets cut off the end. So instead
of sayingto what, the cat.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Cut the end of everything.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
So I would be in the Italian class and having
to say something in Italian, I'd be speaking and they'd
be looking at me like you no, no, go back
and learn the right one, because there's a real difference.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Yeah, there is. I was going to say how would
I differentiate?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
So I couldn't understand, could not understand Sicilian Sicilian, and
I had no idea what she was saying.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
For some dialects, certainly southern dialects to northern dialects. I mean,
if you stick with some, you might get a few words,
but certainly southern to north. Forget it?
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Really do they do? They both say Chell, Oh, yeah, standard,
it's a good mate. Yeah, okay, that's okay.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I went to Italy years ago and we were in
Tuscany for a couple of weeks and I had to
We're at the service station, I can't remember. We were
filling up the car or whatever was going on, and
so this guy started speaking to me in Italian, but
he was speaking the Tuscan dialect. And I'm sitting there.
I got no freaking idea what he's saying. And then
at one stage he said ilbarka I think it was.
There was anyway. I thought he's talking about boats. That's all.
(03:28):
That's all I got out of the conversation. But then
I finally figured out that what this man was talking about.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Was a boat.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I had no idea because he was speaking dialect.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Telling you to get back on the ship.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Probably. I don't know what he was telling me about
this bloody boat, but we were talking about boats.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
The Italian dialects, so it can be so difficult to
understand because not only is the dialect a separate language,
but the accent changes as well on top of that
from a little from region to region. So like Sicilians
and Calibries are very close, too closest, they kind of
understand each other. They don't have too many problems, but
some words do change. Then it starts to get southern
(04:10):
to as you go through it starts to get a
little bit more more difficult, and that's why it's important
to know the standard Italian in order to travel Italy
and not have too many issues understanding. I don't know
if Malta is the same sort of thing is Are
they dialects in Malta or not?
Speaker 4 (04:24):
No, there's just multi it's Maltese. But it's about small.
It's too small. It's literally forty minute drive from top
to bottom. And the I think it's about seventy or
eighty percent of the language is Arabic and then there's
some Italian, a little bit of French, and then some
of their own words. And then they're the only when
(04:46):
they say the what's Arabic? The writing that they do
Arabic just called Arabic? Isn't there another name for it?
But I can't blainny thing, But Maltese is the only
one that writes with using the English letters. Okay, yeah,
but you still can't read it. Like I'll look up
a word and I'm like, how do I say that?
(05:07):
There's lots of and because.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
There's sounds that there's sounds that are a bit you know. Yeah,
but I do think any language that still uses the
English alphabet, so what it is English the standard alphabet
alphab I don't know. But any language like Italian does,
and you know, and Maltese does, is much easier to
pick up for us than you know, squiggles and.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Oh my god, Yeah, I look at something that crazy,
and I hope. I even think to myself, if I
wanted to learn that language, I wouldn't know where to start.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Yeah, it would be no way.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
It's so tricky. And I always found Maltese really aggressive.
So if it's like, can you speak Maltese, and I'm like,
I was petrified. I thought that they were yelling at
me all the time, and still with Maltese people, I
still feel like they're yelling at me and I would say,
why are you yelling? I'm not yelling, I'm yelling. And
(06:02):
the way you're talking, you're so scary.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
And then because they're passionate, they're passionate language.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
So passionate. Do you know what I was going to
ask you guys, where do you think this passion that
is in Italian's, Greek, Maltese? Where do you think that
come from? Because I mean when you look at Australians
that are you know, from England and Scotland. Scotland can
be Scottish can be a bit feisty. But this passion
that you know to talk with our hands and all that,
where has this come from?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
James?
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Do you guys take commercial breaks on.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Google?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Yeah, it's kind of in the DNA of this sort
of you know, Mediterranean style of countries. It's a hard
one because you're we're born into it into it. Did
Vikings come into like gladiator things?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Glad?
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Yeah? I know, like when you know, when we're say
in the DNA, what was there just a big fight
one day and then it just kind of I.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Just read making people. He went right, gas raped a
extra off you chill.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
That's what it is. Chili. It's all the chili, and
everyone's everyone's frustrated, everyone's angry.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Because when I lived in Malta for six months and
it was with my ex husband and kids, and I
remember my husband went out once Daney came home and
he goes, I'm just finding it really difficult to get
along with everyone here. I said, why is that? And
he goes, I feel like everyone's trying to start a
fight with me. And I said it's because they are
(07:38):
trying to start and he goes, what do you mean?
And I said, well, look, they're not really but they
wear their heart on their sleeve and if you want
to get into a fight, they're ready. Let's go. And
he goes, I was just asking the guy where the
cereal was and the guy said, cut, you'll see, I'm busy,
and he goes he was working there. And I'm like,
(07:59):
that's they are.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
It's a purpose of actually working for a store.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
And I don't think there's an answer. Where does the
passion come from. I mean, you know it comes from
the I don't know whether it's just there.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
We just don't see it. Men that were born here
and have that English background or what?
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yeah, just from the demeanor available.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
All behind their backs when they're talking.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Do you think it has maybe a a society or
societal I don't know the right the word with this
for this, but like, I mean, my family were a
peasant family, and most of the Italians, I know they
were peasant families, right, And then I know a lot
of English people who come from well to do families, Like,
do you think that maybe that could be.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
They have to fight for things? Possibly I could have been,
but I mean you see, you know, yeah, the men
like they've got this sort of red blooded passion in them,
and you're like, what's wrong with the bloody Australian man here?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Where is the passion? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Because again, yeah, it's just it's just cultural. It's just
the way we are.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
We do, we get things done. It's like that European
things traditional.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Australian is a late, laid back approach. Yeah, and that's
why we don't marry Australian. Oh my god, nothing gets done.
The house canceled.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Have you ever been in a situation where, because I
know of an Italian family where one of the people
wanted to marry somebody from a different nationality, and that
was just frowned upon. There was no way that was
ever going to happen.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Can I just say, because I am see a lot
of weddings, so I do. I do a lot of
m scene for weddings. I must say the Italians, the
Italian families are probably some of the more lenient and
more flexible then others than other cultures in terms of
cross cultural weddings, you know, and stuff like that. I've
(10:08):
known many stories about other cultures. I want to single
them out because people listening and we're not. But they're like,
if you don't marry someone of the same nationality, they
are really upset. I've heard. I've heard of parents not
coming to weddings, wow, because their son or daughter didn't
marry solationality. So some take it that far out, Yeah,
(10:32):
which is very sad. Sad, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Yeah. We're a friend of mine. She's Lebanese and she's
married an African American and that was just a huge
no for her family. So it was so sad. None
of her family came to the wedding, and I don't
know how she got through the day, Like, you know,
she was just devastated, but they wouldn't accept him at all.
(10:55):
But now they bloody love him, And I'm.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Like you, how long did that take for the two?
Speaker 4 (11:00):
It took. It took a few years.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Can I just say, Lisa, I know exactly who you're
talking about.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Oh my god?
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Is he a comedian? Yes, yeah, he's a friend of mine.
We've done a lot of shows to really Yeah, and
I know her as well. They're lovely. Yeah, and I
know that story.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
It took Okay, if you left out here, I don't
know if I want to mention, but.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
This podcast.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Are you were you at the wedding?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
No, No, I wasn't. I wasn't at the wedding, but
it was MC by George, Yes and tare I think
together they did it. Yes, Yeah, he's fantastic. So yet this,
what Lisa is saying, is one hundred percent through this story,
and it took a long time, and now now things
are sweet. But I guess you know that's that's beautiful.
(11:44):
I know it's sad to begin with, but it's beautiful
that it's changed now.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
It makes you sit there and think, well, why could
you have not got over this to start with? You
were waiting for this marriage to break down or you
were waiting for them to have kids before you actually
accepted it.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
It was crazy and they were crazy. They were almost
more happy for her to go and marry like a
second cousin overseas or something than marry And yeah, it was.
It was just awful. And I just remember her on
the day like it was like, you know, like we
had to pick her up and get her there like
through because their family is everything to her, you know,
(12:19):
and not having their support it was. Yeah, it was sad,
but it was a really beautiful wedding as well. So
yeah it was and they're yeah, still together and the
family love him.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Yeah, so tables can turn, yeah you know.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yeah. So do you do a lot of weddings?
Speaker 4 (12:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Now I do thirty to forty weddings a year.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Wow. Ever time I see your Instagram, it's either you
on stage or you're at a wedding.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Yeah, there's a lot of wedding bookings, definitely.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, you'd have some funny stories from weddings. Do you
actually incorporate any of that into your.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Show into when I do stand up?
Speaker 5 (12:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Yeah, yeah, Yeah, I've got like a whole wedding section. Well,
talk about wedding. Yeah, I did that night?
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Did you forgot?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Show?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I can't remember.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
We come to another show.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Show coming up in Caroline Springs, and I'm going to
I'm taking my friend Maria for her birthday.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
I've got to get a ticket. I need to come
to this.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Tickets left in Carolina.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
Please put one aside for me, You've got I've got
nothing to do with.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
No, no, give your phone right now, right now.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
See, thank you very much that.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
I was coming. I'm telling you from the start. Must
have forgot, Okay, so don't blame me for not remembering
the whole two hour show.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
The one in Caroline Springs is a very intimate show
because it's a cocktail lounge. So I've never done like
an intimate space.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Right because I was just about to ask you, you know,
obviously the first show I saw you do was how
many people were there.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Was about nearly five hundred.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Okay, so that was quite big, and you do a
lot of big shows.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
So the difference between doing a big show and then
a smaller show like that.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
I don't know. I'm going to find out Thursday, that
Thursday night, a Thursday cheeky Thursday night show. I think
the when you go and do a show that the room,
if you can fill the room, like, the room holds
about it's very intimate, holds about sixty or so. It's
a cocktail lounge. Yeah, and we're about there, We're just
about there's no more. It's going to be no thing.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Free cocktails.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
You do actually as part of the ticket price, get
a mock get a water if you fresh air, glass
of fresh. But if you can fill it, the energy,
the energy is great. But if you have five people
in a sixty seedar, it's like having fifty in a
(14:40):
five hundred seedar. You know, it's the same, balances itself out.
But I'm looking forward to it because the pitch is
obviously got to be different because you are in a
smaller environment and you're not on this big stage see
people in the eyes, whereas really close.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Yeah, I'm going to see up the front. Great, and
I'm going to just point right like.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
That like the whole show, just like.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Yeah, I'll point out you're laughing at Oh god.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
I used to go to I love going to watch comedy,
and my ex husband said he wouldn't take me anymore
because I would laugh that much. He thought that I
was heckling the comedian and I'm like, I'm I'm not.
I just he thought he thought I was. Yes, and
he said, it sounds like you're heckling them, and I'm like,
I'm just enjoying it sort of a laugh for you.
(15:28):
I laugh, and I get right into it. I just
get totally into having times I shouldn't put.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Your Have you got one of those like those laughs
that are loud and you can hear them?
Speaker 2 (15:39):
And I didn't, like, I didn't think you had that
so laugh But now drinking what sort of a laugh?
Speaker 4 (15:46):
You know what? He's probably it was probably more like
there were bits that I was laughing at and other
people went laughing at, so then maybe it looked like.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Maybe you're an overlaugher, you know, like when someone laughs,
like the laugh is not balanced with the living of joke, funniness.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Of the joke. But there'sn't that a comedic's dream to
have somebody like that one person.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
But you just take the pest out of that that
there's that she's just going to stup the back because
otherwise you're going to That's right, I do. I make
sure I sit up the back because me and my
son are going to go and see Luke Kitchell.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
A few months and he loves to pick everyone the
audience small audience like is it well, it's at the
Art Center. He so yeah, I think it's big. And
we're in like people, we're in a reserve. But you see.
So I'm like, okay, that's a few rows. I don't
think he'll he'll see us.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
So can you see everybody?
Speaker 3 (16:43):
You can see? You can see the first few rows.
I mean every every theater and room is different. Of
course in Caroline Springs will be able to see everybody,
which is fine. I don't actually have a problem with that.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
I'm going to feel more uncomfortable than you know.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
That's the thing. That's the funny thing, like of you. Actually,
sometimes people like there are some comics they don't want
to see anybody, Like they know they're there. They just
want to hear them, but they don't want to see them.
I actually I hate that. I hate not being able
to I want to see some people. I know this
more at the back of that, but I want to
see the first few rows.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Does it put you off that if they're not laughing,
I'm not saying people don't laugh.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Yeah, we definitely. I mean it's you know, that's the
comedian's job because if you're delivering your material and they're
not laughing.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
I've had things sometimes and I've just gone, I don't
like these people just staring at me like they think
I'm an idiot.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
That's handle that.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
When they don't laugh. Luckily, it hasn't happened too many times.
It does happen, you know what it is. It's not
that it doesn't happen for the whole like it might
be a particular gag that just doesn't land with them.
You think it's funny, they don't think it's funny. The
trick is to move on the problem is if you
if you're doing an hour and they're not laughing, and
you're moving on to things that they stilling not love that,
(17:59):
get off, Just go.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
I've been telling them there a bunch of yeah, get off.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Stop putting them through misery and yourself as well. Look, luckily,
the comedy I do has a particular audience as well.
That doesn't mean that others aren't welcome, and they certainly
do to come and be part of it, but it
has a particular audience where you know, the vast majority
of followed me online as well, they're kind of already
(18:25):
laughing at the material. They know the kind of material they're.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
Going to get.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Someone coming to the show it doesn't understand what it's
about and isn't going to come for a lot.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
Yeah, you might, you might. The vast majority of will
also relate to a lot of the content. One thing
I have been enjoying is actually doing some of my
writing a lot of material that's got nothing to do
with my ethnicity, like just observation all and stuff. And
I did I did do some of that? Did you
I did?
Speaker 1 (18:51):
I did?
Speaker 3 (18:52):
I did do some of that And it's going well,
you know, And that's that's good for me too, because
it's a challenge because it can be easy just stick
to the material that you know is going to work.
You know. So sometimes you want to go, hey, can
I get laughed? Do we to tell you? Yeah? There's
more to you? That's right?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
And you know to you?
Speaker 4 (19:14):
So what else is there to you, Jame? Besides you
want to know everything? What are you interested in?
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Work life? I mean that, yeah, Like it's what makes me.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
You host a radio show or you get a couple
of shows, a couple of So I did something right
just now you're speaking in a different language. Hope you're
enjoying our catch up with comedian James Leota. Other episode
still to come.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
You've been listening to Life as We Know It Unfiltered
with Tony Tanalia and Lisa Cameron. If you like this episode,
please leave us a review or drop a comment on
our socials. We love hearing from you. You can also
come hang out with us on Instagram at Life as
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as we Know It. Oh and please did that follow
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(20:06):
us yet, catch up with you in our next episode.
Every day brings a new story. The life isn't perfect,
but it's perfectly ours, with raw conversations, inspiring stories and
laugh until you cry moments we hit him. I unpack
it all and figure it out together, one episode at
a time. This is Life as we know It, Unfiltered
with Tony Tanalia and Lisa Cameron.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hello there, welcome along. We've got a very special guest
joining us. In fact, we're hoping that you caught our
last episode with him, comedian James Leona. If you haven't
caught that one yet, go back and have listened to
it before you listen to this one. Okay, We're about
to find out where James was born.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I was born on Lygon Street. What I was born
at the Queen Victoria Hospital.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I thought you're gonna say on the actual street, not
in a picture. This was going to get really interesting.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
I was born inside Brunitis sponsored the show how do
you know the Queen Victoria Hospital rules on the end
of on Street. It was what what qv is? It
was the Queen Victoria Hospital.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
And it was like.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Russell it was corner.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
The other one sounded more interesting. A comedian.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
You people look me up and go it's fake, fake news.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
So let's talk about growing up in an Italian family.
Did your family speak Italian when you were a kid,
so English became.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Your second life.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I learned English in prep. Wow, I didn't do kind
because what kids don't go to king save money? Yeah,
we get straight to prep because you're with your grandparents
and parents, what have you. So they spoke Italian and
Sicilian dialect. In fact, I probably would would argue that
the Sicilian dialect was the more prominent than actual fluent Italian.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
So then when you came to learn, did you learn
Italian at school?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
I still knew it from home, but yeah I did,
did study it at school.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah, because this is the thing I found. So my parents,
my family is so at home. You know, if they
were speaking Italian, they'd speak right the dialect and says
a dialect everything gets cut off the end. So instead
of sayingto what, the cat.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Cut the end of everything.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
So I would be in the Italian class and having
to say something in Italian, I'd be speaking and they'd
be looking at me like you no, no, go back
and learn the right one, because there's a real difference.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Yeah, there is. I was going to say how would
I differentiate?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
So I couldn't understand, could not understand Sicilian Sicilian, and
I had no idea what she was saying.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
For some dialects, certainly southern dialects to northern dialects. I mean,
if you stick with some, you might get a few words,
but certainly southern to north. Forget it?
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Really do they do? They both say Chell, Oh, yeah, standard,
it's a good mate. Yeah, okay, that's okay.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I went to Italy years ago and we were in
Tuscany for a couple of weeks and I had to
We're at the service station, I can't remember. We were
filling up the car or whatever was going on, and
so this guy started speaking to me in Italian, but
he was speaking the Tuscan dialect. And I'm sitting there.
I got no freaking idea what he's saying. And then
at one stage he said ilbarka I think it was.
There was anyway. I thought he's talking about boats. That's all.
(03:28):
That's all I got out of the conversation. But then
I finally figured out that what this man was talking about.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Was a boat.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I had no idea because he was speaking dialect.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Telling you to get back on the ship.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Probably. I don't know what he was telling me about
this bloody boat, but we were talking about boats.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
The Italian dialects, so it can be so difficult to
understand because not only is the dialect a separate language,
but the accent changes as well on top of that
from a little from region to region. So like Sicilians
and Calibries are very close, too closest, they kind of
understand each other. They don't have too many problems, but
some words do change. Then it starts to get southern
(04:10):
to as you go through it starts to get a
little bit more more difficult, and that's why it's important
to know the standard Italian in order to travel Italy
and not have too many issues understanding. I don't know
if Malta is the same sort of thing is Are
they dialects in Malta or not?
Speaker 4 (04:24):
No, there's just multi it's Maltese. But it's about small.
It's too small. It's literally forty minute drive from top
to bottom. And the I think it's about seventy or
eighty percent of the language is Arabic and then there's
some Italian, a little bit of French, and then some
of their own words. And then they're the only when
(04:46):
they say the what's Arabic? The writing that they do
Arabic just called Arabic? Isn't there another name for it?
But I can't blainny thing, But Maltese is the only
one that writes with using the English letters. Okay, yeah,
but you still can't read it. Like I'll look up
a word and I'm like, how do I say that?
(05:07):
There's lots of and because.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
There's sounds that there's sounds that are a bit you know. Yeah,
but I do think any language that still uses the
English alphabet, so what it is English the standard alphabet
alphab I don't know. But any language like Italian does,
and you know, and Maltese does, is much easier to
pick up for us than you know, squiggles and.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Oh my god, Yeah, I look at something that crazy,
and I hope. I even think to myself, if I
wanted to learn that language, I wouldn't know where to start.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Yeah, it would be no way.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
It's so tricky. And I always found Maltese really aggressive.
So if it's like, can you speak Maltese, and I'm like,
I was petrified. I thought that they were yelling at
me all the time, and still with Maltese people, I
still feel like they're yelling at me and I would say,
why are you yelling? I'm not yelling, I'm yelling. And
(06:02):
the way you're talking, you're so scary.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
And then because they're passionate, they're passionate language.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
So passionate. Do you know what I was going to
ask you guys, where do you think this passion that
is in Italian's, Greek, Maltese? Where do you think that
come from? Because I mean when you look at Australians
that are you know, from England and Scotland. Scotland can
be Scottish can be a bit feisty. But this passion
that you know to talk with our hands and all that,
where has this come from?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
James?
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Do you guys take commercial breaks on.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Google?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Yeah, it's kind of in the DNA of this sort
of you know, Mediterranean style of countries. It's a hard
one because you're we're born into it into it. Did
Vikings come into like gladiator things?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Glad?
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Yeah? I know, like when you know, when we're say
in the DNA, what was there just a big fight
one day and then it just kind of I.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Just read making people. He went right, gas raped a
extra off you chill.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
That's what it is. Chili. It's all the chili, and
everyone's everyone's frustrated, everyone's angry.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Because when I lived in Malta for six months and
it was with my ex husband and kids, and I
remember my husband went out once Daney came home and
he goes, I'm just finding it really difficult to get
along with everyone here. I said, why is that? And
he goes, I feel like everyone's trying to start a
fight with me. And I said it's because they are
(07:38):
trying to start and he goes, what do you mean?
And I said, well, look, they're not really but they
wear their heart on their sleeve and if you want
to get into a fight, they're ready. Let's go. And
he goes, I was just asking the guy where the
cereal was and the guy said, cut, you'll see, I'm busy,
and he goes he was working there. And I'm like,
(07:59):
that's they are.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
It's a purpose of actually working for a store.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
And I don't think there's an answer. Where does the
passion come from. I mean, you know it comes from
the I don't know whether it's just there.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
We just don't see it. Men that were born here
and have that English background or what?
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yeah, just from the demeanor available.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
All behind their backs when they're talking.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Do you think it has maybe a a society or
societal I don't know the right the word with this
for this, but like, I mean, my family were a
peasant family, and most of the Italians, I know they
were peasant families, right, And then I know a lot
of English people who come from well to do families, Like,
do you think that maybe that could be.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
They have to fight for things? Possibly I could have been,
but I mean you see, you know, yeah, the men
like they've got this sort of red blooded passion in them,
and you're like, what's wrong with the bloody Australian man here?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Where is the passion? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Because again, yeah, it's just it's just cultural. It's just
the way we are.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
We do, we get things done. It's like that European
things traditional.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Australian is a late, laid back approach. Yeah, and that's
why we don't marry Australian. Oh my god, nothing gets done.
The house canceled.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Have you ever been in a situation where, because I
know of an Italian family where one of the people
wanted to marry somebody from a different nationality, and that
was just frowned upon. There was no way that was
ever going to happen.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Can I just say, because I am see a lot
of weddings, so I do. I do a lot of
m scene for weddings. I must say the Italians, the
Italian families are probably some of the more lenient and
more flexible then others than other cultures in terms of
cross cultural weddings, you know, and stuff like that. I've
(10:08):
known many stories about other cultures. I want to single
them out because people listening and we're not. But they're like,
if you don't marry someone of the same nationality, they
are really upset. I've heard. I've heard of parents not
coming to weddings, wow, because their son or daughter didn't
marry solationality. So some take it that far out, Yeah,
(10:32):
which is very sad. Sad, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Yeah. We're a friend of mine. She's Lebanese and she's
married an African American and that was just a huge
no for her family. So it was so sad. None
of her family came to the wedding, and I don't
know how she got through the day, Like, you know,
she was just devastated, but they wouldn't accept him at all.
(10:55):
But now they bloody love him, And I'm.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Like you, how long did that take for the two?
Speaker 4 (11:00):
It took. It took a few years.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Can I just say, Lisa, I know exactly who you're
talking about.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Oh my god?
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Is he a comedian? Yes, yeah, he's a friend of mine.
We've done a lot of shows to really Yeah, and
I know her as well. They're lovely. Yeah, and I
know that story.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
It took Okay, if you left out here, I don't
know if I want to mention, but.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
This podcast.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Are you were you at the wedding?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
No, No, I wasn't. I wasn't at the wedding, but
it was MC by George, Yes and tare I think
together they did it. Yes, Yeah, he's fantastic. So yet this,
what Lisa is saying, is one hundred percent through this story,
and it took a long time, and now now things
are sweet. But I guess you know that's that's beautiful.
(11:44):
I know it's sad to begin with, but it's beautiful
that it's changed now.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
It makes you sit there and think, well, why could
you have not got over this to start with? You
were waiting for this marriage to break down or you
were waiting for them to have kids before you actually
accepted it.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
It was crazy and they were crazy. They were almost
more happy for her to go and marry like a
second cousin overseas or something than marry And yeah, it was.
It was just awful. And I just remember her on
the day like it was like, you know, like we
had to pick her up and get her there like
through because their family is everything to her, you know,
(12:19):
and not having their support it was. Yeah, it was sad,
but it was a really beautiful wedding as well. So
yeah it was and they're yeah, still together and the
family love him.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Yeah, so tables can turn, yeah you know.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yeah. So do you do a lot of weddings?
Speaker 4 (12:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Now I do thirty to forty weddings a year.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Wow. Ever time I see your Instagram, it's either you
on stage or you're at a wedding.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Yeah, there's a lot of wedding bookings, definitely.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, you'd have some funny stories from weddings. Do you
actually incorporate any of that into your.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Show into when I do stand up?
Speaker 5 (12:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Yeah, yeah, Yeah, I've got like a whole wedding section. Well,
talk about wedding. Yeah, I did that night?
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Did you forgot?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Show?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I can't remember.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
We come to another show.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Show coming up in Caroline Springs, and I'm going to
I'm taking my friend Maria for her birthday.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
I've got to get a ticket. I need to come
to this.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Tickets left in Carolina.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
Please put one aside for me, You've got I've got
nothing to do with.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
No, no, give your phone right now, right now.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
See, thank you very much that.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
I was coming. I'm telling you from the start. Must
have forgot, Okay, so don't blame me for not remembering
the whole two hour show.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
The one in Caroline Springs is a very intimate show
because it's a cocktail lounge. So I've never done like
an intimate space.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Right because I was just about to ask you, you know,
obviously the first show I saw you do was how
many people were there.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Was about nearly five hundred.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Okay, so that was quite big, and you do a
lot of big shows.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
So the difference between doing a big show and then
a smaller show like that.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
I don't know. I'm going to find out Thursday, that
Thursday night, a Thursday cheeky Thursday night show. I think
the when you go and do a show that the room,
if you can fill the room, like, the room holds
about it's very intimate, holds about sixty or so. It's
a cocktail lounge. Yeah, and we're about there, We're just
about there's no more. It's going to be no thing.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Free cocktails.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
You do actually as part of the ticket price, get
a mock get a water if you fresh air, glass
of fresh. But if you can fill it, the energy,
the energy is great. But if you have five people
in a sixty seedar, it's like having fifty in a
(14:40):
five hundred seedar. You know, it's the same, balances itself out.
But I'm looking forward to it because the pitch is
obviously got to be different because you are in a
smaller environment and you're not on this big stage see
people in the eyes, whereas really close.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Yeah, I'm going to see up the front. Great, and
I'm going to just point right like.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
That like the whole show, just like.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Yeah, I'll point out you're laughing at Oh god.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
I used to go to I love going to watch comedy,
and my ex husband said he wouldn't take me anymore
because I would laugh that much. He thought that I
was heckling the comedian and I'm like, I'm I'm not.
I just he thought he thought I was. Yes, and
he said, it sounds like you're heckling them, and I'm like,
I'm just enjoying it sort of a laugh for you.
(15:28):
I laugh, and I get right into it. I just
get totally into having times I shouldn't put.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Your Have you got one of those like those laughs
that are loud and you can hear them?
Speaker 2 (15:39):
And I didn't, like, I didn't think you had that
so laugh But now drinking what sort of a laugh?
Speaker 4 (15:46):
You know what? He's probably it was probably more like
there were bits that I was laughing at and other
people went laughing at, so then maybe it looked like.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Maybe you're an overlaugher, you know, like when someone laughs,
like the laugh is not balanced with the living of joke, funniness.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Of the joke. But there'sn't that a comedic's dream to
have somebody like that one person.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
But you just take the pest out of that that
there's that she's just going to stup the back because
otherwise you're going to That's right, I do. I make
sure I sit up the back because me and my
son are going to go and see Luke Kitchell.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
A few months and he loves to pick everyone the
audience small audience like is it well, it's at the
Art Center. He so yeah, I think it's big. And
we're in like people, we're in a reserve. But you see.
So I'm like, okay, that's a few rows. I don't
think he'll he'll see us.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
So can you see everybody?
Speaker 3 (16:43):
You can see? You can see the first few rows.
I mean every every theater and room is different. Of
course in Caroline Springs will be able to see everybody,
which is fine. I don't actually have a problem with that.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
I'm going to feel more uncomfortable than you know.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
That's the thing. That's the funny thing, like of you. Actually,
sometimes people like there are some comics they don't want
to see anybody, Like they know they're there. They just
want to hear them, but they don't want to see them.
I actually I hate that. I hate not being able
to I want to see some people. I know this
more at the back of that, but I want to
see the first few rows.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Does it put you off that if they're not laughing,
I'm not saying people don't laugh.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Yeah, we definitely. I mean it's you know, that's the
comedian's job because if you're delivering your material and they're
not laughing.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
I've had things sometimes and I've just gone, I don't
like these people just staring at me like they think
I'm an idiot.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
That's handle that.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
When they don't laugh. Luckily, it hasn't happened too many times.
It does happen, you know what it is. It's not
that it doesn't happen for the whole like it might
be a particular gag that just doesn't land with them.
You think it's funny, they don't think it's funny. The
trick is to move on the problem is if you
if you're doing an hour and they're not laughing, and
you're moving on to things that they stilling not love that,
(17:59):
get off, Just go.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
I've been telling them there a bunch of yeah, get off.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Stop putting them through misery and yourself as well. Look, luckily,
the comedy I do has a particular audience as well.
That doesn't mean that others aren't welcome, and they certainly
do to come and be part of it, but it
has a particular audience where you know, the vast majority
of followed me online as well, they're kind of already
(18:25):
laughing at the material. They know the kind of material they're.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
Going to get.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Someone coming to the show it doesn't understand what it's
about and isn't going to come for a lot.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
Yeah, you might, you might. The vast majority of will
also relate to a lot of the content. One thing
I have been enjoying is actually doing some of my
writing a lot of material that's got nothing to do
with my ethnicity, like just observation all and stuff. And
I did I did do some of that? Did you
I did?
Speaker 1 (18:51):
I did?
Speaker 3 (18:52):
I did do some of that And it's going well,
you know, And that's that's good for me too, because
it's a challenge because it can be easy just stick
to the material that you know is going to work.
You know. So sometimes you want to go, hey, can
I get laughed? Do we to tell you? Yeah? There's
more to you? That's right?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
And you know to you?
Speaker 4 (19:14):
So what else is there to you, Jame? Besides you
want to know everything? What are you interested in?
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Work life? I mean that, yeah, Like it's what makes me.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
You host a radio show or you get a couple
of shows, a couple of So I did something right
just now you're speaking in a different language. Hope you're
enjoying our catch up with comedian James Leota. Other episode
still to come.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
You've been listening to Life as We Know It Unfiltered
with Tony Tanalia and Lisa Cameron. If you like this episode,
please leave us a review or drop a comment on
our socials. We love hearing from you. You can also
come hang out with us on Instagram at Life as
we Know It dot podcast and on Facebook at Life
as we Know It. Oh and please did that follow
button on your favorite podcast app. If you're not following
(20:06):
us yet, catch up with you in our next episode.
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