# Off-Air Podcast: The Full Chat With Todd McKenney

An episode of [The Joel Creasey Show](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1892211318), 22 Oct 2026, 36 min.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/0a7e0de0-74e0-4e43-8322-b4280001079c/65adc787-7733-4dd0-af97-b4eb0054bbee/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=4e45f23a-f6ca-4ea9-b5f6-b42800010bb7

Joel has recently claimed that this chat with Todd McKenney might be one of his recent faves and we can see why! Todd dishes on what a life on, behind and outside of both the screen and stage has been like. We find out that we almost could have read a Todd McKenney memoir (twice, too be fair), the mechanics behind that iconic Wicked Musical moment and what he’s been up to lately. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Get ready. Yes!
[0:02] Speaker 2: It's Joel Creasy.
[0:04] Speaker 3: Joel Creasy! With The Joel Creasy Show.
[0:11] Speaker 2: Welcome to The Joel Creasy Show podcast. I love all
[0:14] Speaker 2: the guests I have on this show, but Todd McKinney
[0:17] Speaker 2: came in, and I've known Todd for many years, but
[0:20] Speaker 2: I've never really, I guess in a social setting or
[0:22] Speaker 2: when I've seen him after a show, when we have
[0:25] Speaker 2: worked together, I've never really had the chance to ask
[0:28] Speaker 2: him questions in the way you would doing an interview,
[0:31] Speaker 2: because that would just be strange. So it was such
[0:35] Speaker 2: a thrill to talk to Todd, who truly is an
[0:38] Speaker 2: icon of Aussie showbiz. He, of course, was Nathan Starkey
[0:43] Speaker 2: in Strictly Ballroom, which is my favourite film of all time.
[0:46] Speaker 2: And I'm very hit and miss on Baz. I either
[0:50] Speaker 2: love his films or hate despise them and Strictly Ballroom,
[0:54] Speaker 2: to me, will forever hold my heart. He, of course,
[0:59] Speaker 2: played Peter Allen in The Boy From Oz and is
[1:01] Speaker 2: widely considered to be the greatest Peter of all time.
[1:04] Speaker 2: Just don't let Hugh Jackman hear me saying that. He
[1:07] Speaker 2: did 21 seasons of Dancing With The Stars and, gosh,
[1:10] Speaker 2: we get into that and come up with a funny
[1:13] Speaker 2: drag persona for him. And we talk about just the
[1:16] Speaker 2: art of performance and our love of it and horror
[1:20] Speaker 2: gigs and everything. Wicked, literally everything. We cover it all.
[1:25] Speaker 2: This treat was a joy. Warning, lots of cackling, laughing,
[1:30] Speaker 2: tears streaming down my face from me and hopefully from
[1:33] Speaker 2: you too. Enjoy.
[1:34] Speaker 3: This is the Joel Creasy Show.
[1:37] Speaker 2: I am so excited to be talking to you, Mr.
[1:39] Speaker 2: Todd McKinney. Welcome.
[1:40] Speaker 1: Yes, thank you.
[1:41] Speaker 2: You are a busy, very talented man.
[1:44] Speaker 1: Have we started?
[1:45] Speaker 2: We started.
[1:46] Speaker 1: Oh, we've started? Yeah. Oh, this is cash.
[1:48] Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so cash.
[1:49] Speaker 1: I like it. I love it.
[1:50] Speaker 2: Cash and camp.
[1:51] Speaker 1: Cash and Cam.
[1:52] Speaker 2: Yeah, you were admiring.
[1:53] Speaker 1: That's the name of my biography.
[1:57] Speaker 2: Have you written a biography?
[1:58] Speaker 1: No, I started twice. So hard. But you know what?
[2:01] Speaker 1: I got to a certain point in the story both times.
[2:05] Speaker 1: The first one was six weeks of interviews because I
[2:08] Speaker 1: had a guy.
[2:09] Speaker 2: Writing it with me.
[2:11] Speaker 1: I just got so sick of myself. And I thought,
[2:14] Speaker 1: if I don't want to read it, why can't I
[2:16] Speaker 1: make someone else read it? And so- I canned it,
[2:19] Speaker 1: and then I got approached again by another publishing company.
[2:22] Speaker 1: He said, will you do it again? The same thing happened. Really?
[2:25] Speaker 1: I bored myself stupid, and I've got some good stories.
[2:31] Speaker 2: I would read the shit out of your book.
[2:33] Speaker 1: Yeah, I've got good stories, but I just went, I
[2:36] Speaker 1: just can't talk about myself anymore. I think if I'm
[2:39] Speaker 1: going to do it, I need to write it myself.
[2:42] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[2:43] Speaker 1: Not dictating it to somebody else and- It needs to
[2:47] Speaker 1: have my flavour. Yeah.
[2:48] Speaker 2: I mean, I guess, yeah, talking about you are an actor,
[2:51] Speaker 2: you play other people, but maybe you could do one
[2:53] Speaker 2: like a wanky writer's retreat and go to like the
[2:56] Speaker 2: south of France and rent a little villa and do
[2:59] Speaker 2: it over an espresso each morning.
[3:01] Speaker 1: Yeah, espresso martini before 10, thanks.
[3:06] Speaker 2: Do you know what? That is the way to do it,
[3:07] Speaker 2: I think. I think so.
[3:08] Speaker 1: I think that's the way to do it. But I
[3:10] Speaker 1: never get through any of my friends' biographies either. I
[3:12] Speaker 1: start them with all the passion in the world.
[3:14] Speaker 2: I agree.
[3:14] Speaker 1: And then I bail. And I think, well, people are
[3:16] Speaker 1: going to do that to me, so why should I
[3:17] Speaker 1: steal their money? I got advances from both publishing companies,
[3:23] Speaker 1: and I had to give it back.
[3:25] Speaker 2: I was about to say, did you get to keep them?
[3:26] Speaker 2: Because I wrote one when I was 25 because I
[3:29] Speaker 2: got offered the advance. It's the worst book ever. And
[3:32] Speaker 2: spent the advance and then delivered the book a year
[3:35] Speaker 2: late and wrote it in two days.
[3:37] Speaker 1: Yeah, right. Right, but it's the worst book ever.
[3:40] Speaker 2: It's the worst. When people go, I'm reading your book, I'm.
[3:42] Speaker 1: Like, please don't. Please don't.
[3:44] Speaker 2: What bargain bin did you find that in?
[3:47] Speaker 1: No, that's me and CDs. My CDs, they're not even
[3:49] Speaker 1: $ 2 anymore.
[3:53] Speaker 2: I'd buy it, Todd. I can give.
[3:55] Speaker 1: You a whole box of them if you want. I
[3:57] Speaker 1: was trying at one point at shows to sell six
[3:59] Speaker 1: at a time and telling people to use them as
[4:01] Speaker 1: coasters because I just wanted the bloody things out from
[4:04] Speaker 1: under my bed. And who's even got a CD player anymore?
[4:09] Speaker 2: Yeah, I was. I did just go, where would I
[4:11] Speaker 2: put it? I'd have to put it into Jack's PS5.
[4:13] Speaker 2: Does that take those sort of things? You are touring
[4:17] Speaker 2: at the moment. So you've just done DY. You've got Melbourne.
[4:21] Speaker 1: We've got the Memo Hall in Melbourne on Friday, which
[4:26] Speaker 1: is standing room only. We've sold out. Isn't that good?
[4:30] Speaker 2: We love it. And this economy, we love that.
[4:32] Speaker 1: Yeah, it's great. Well, my audience are the empty nesters. Mm-hmm.
[4:35] Speaker 1: they have the income. And do you know what I
[4:38] Speaker 1: find with the older crowd as well? My audience would
[4:40] Speaker 1: be 50 plus. And a real even mix of men
[4:44] Speaker 1: and women, which is Peter Allen's audience. And because I'm
[4:46] Speaker 1: synonymously attached to Peter Allen, I get his audience. But
[4:51] Speaker 1: the older crowds, they're loose. Right. They are loose. They
[4:55] Speaker 1: yell things out at me. And I'm like, hang on
[4:58] Speaker 1: a sec, you know, and it's not, and because I
[5:00] Speaker 1: wear glasses these days, they all look young to me
[5:02] Speaker 1: because I can't see them. The other day, D.Y. You
[5:07] Speaker 1: all look great. The other day, D.Y., I thought, God,
[5:10] Speaker 1: that audience is looking blurry. But I knew I had my,
[5:14] Speaker 1: my glasses were on the piano from the soundcheck. And
[5:17] Speaker 1: I went, I actually think you look really great. I
[5:20] Speaker 1: actually think.
[5:21] Speaker 2: I actually think you look really great.
[5:23] Speaker 1: Anyway, I put my glasses on and I went, Oh,
[5:25] Speaker 1: my God, you're so old. But they'd fall off their chairs.
[5:29] Speaker 1: They would die. And I did a matinee for the
[5:32] Speaker 1: first time. I don't normally do matinees of my one-man
[5:34] Speaker 1: show because it's a night vibe, the band and everything.
[5:36] Speaker 2: I see. I don't mind a cheeky matinee.
[5:38] Speaker 1: Well, they didn't mind a cheeky matinee either. And I said,
[5:42] Speaker 1: should we do more matinees? Are you enjoying the matinee experience?
[5:45] Speaker 1: They went, yeah. And I said, what's the best thing
[5:47] Speaker 1: about it? This little old lady yelled out, it gives
[5:50] Speaker 1: me an excuse to day drink. So I'm providing a
[5:55] Speaker 1: service I didn't even know I was providing.
[5:57] Speaker 2: You are. Next you'll be doing morning melodies. Actually, can
[6:03] Speaker 2: you drink?
[6:04] Speaker 1: I love it when my audience have a drink because
[6:06] Speaker 1: they chill out, we sound better to them and they're
[6:10] Speaker 1: just relaxed. For sure. That's why I like doing the
[6:13] Speaker 1: clubs as well because we're going to Wente in Sydney
[6:16] Speaker 1: and we're going to the Richmond Theatre where they can
[6:19] Speaker 1: take their drinks in too.
[6:20] Speaker 2: Love that.
[6:20] Speaker 1: It's... It just sort of puts everyone in a great mood.
[6:23] Speaker 1: And I think my shows are sort of aimed at that.
[6:26] Speaker 1: So I do a lot of racy fun chat as
[6:28] Speaker 1: well as the singing. And if they can have a
[6:30] Speaker 1: glass of wine in their own environment, I think– so
[6:33] Speaker 1: I never poo-pooed the clubs. No. Ever, ever, ever, ever.
[6:38] Speaker 1: And they're big these days and they've got great production.
[6:40] Speaker 1: So the sound is good. People haven't paid $ 1, 000 to
[6:43] Speaker 1: come to your show. Yeah. I say bring it on, yeah.
[6:48] Speaker 2: I agree. And I appreciate that too because I always
[6:50] Speaker 2: say to my audience, like, you're not going to learn anything.
[6:53] Speaker 2: This is just going to be a good time. And
[6:54] Speaker 2: if you want to get up and go to the bar,
[6:56] Speaker 2: I'm not going to stop you. I'm not one of
[6:57] Speaker 2: those comics that's going to be like, oh, I hate
[6:58] Speaker 2: your Hawaiian shirt. Like, I'm busy. I'm talking.
[7:01] Speaker 1: Yeah. No, I agree. But you've just been touring with
[7:04] Speaker 1: your mum.
[7:04] Speaker 2: Oh, my God. How did that go? Triggered. It's good.
[7:07] Speaker 2: I mean, halfway through. And we're going to end up
[7:09] Speaker 2: like Liam and Noel Gallagher and be on like separate
[7:11] Speaker 2: flights and not talking and only meeting on stage. She's
[7:14] Speaker 2: currently saved in my phone as Lord Voldemort. She is
[7:18] Speaker 2: a nightmare, but she's my nightmare. So we've done Perth
[7:22] Speaker 2: and we're about to do Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney.
[7:26] Speaker 1: So did she have a comic background or did you
[7:30] Speaker 1: get your comedic?
[7:32] Speaker 2: I thought she did. And then we did the first shows. No. No,
[7:36] Speaker 2: she was a West End performer.
[7:38] Speaker 1: Oh, was she?
[7:38] Speaker 2: Yeah, so she was classically trained and then.
[7:42] Speaker 1: As a what?
[7:43] Speaker 2: Singer. Singer. And then was in like the Western productions of,
[7:49] Speaker 2: the big one she did was a big flop called Bernardo.
[7:52] Speaker 2: But she also did Joseph and the Technicolor Drinker.
[7:55] Speaker 1: Oh, okay, right.
[7:56] Speaker 2: And then she was singing on cruise ships and that's
[7:58] Speaker 2: where she met my father.
[8:00] Speaker 1: Ah, right.
[8:00] Speaker 2: She was married at the time too.
[8:01] Speaker 1: Right, so you come from the love boat.
[8:03] Speaker 2: I do. I do. Yeah, yeah. So I come, like
[8:07] Speaker 2: most comics when they tell their parents they want to
[8:09] Speaker 2: be a stand-up comic, they go, please, no, please, no.
[8:12] Speaker 2: When I told my parents, they said, great, we'll drive you.
[8:15] Speaker 2: And they had to because it was a licensed venue.
[8:19] Speaker 1: Well, they get it too. And they get that you're
[8:21] Speaker 1: going to come home late, so don't ring me before 11. No.
[8:23] Speaker 1: They get all that.
[8:25] Speaker 2: Yeah, they're good fun. Too fun.
[8:26] Speaker 1: My mum never got on stage, but she would have been.
[8:29] Speaker 1: She was an incredible dancing teacher. Really? She was a
[8:33] Speaker 1: competitive ballroom dancer as well, my mum. But she never
[8:36] Speaker 1: got to do it. And so I always drag her
[8:38] Speaker 1: to everything I possibly can because I just know that
[8:41] Speaker 1: She would have loved to have felt what I get
[8:44] Speaker 1: to feel, which is that standing on stage thing, directing
[8:49] Speaker 1: a crowd. Because for me, the way I look at
[8:52] Speaker 1: it is I love it. And the audience never think
[8:56] Speaker 1: about this. But while they're watching the show that they
[8:59] Speaker 1: paid to come and see, we're watching them. And so often, Joel,
[9:03] Speaker 1: they're putting on a better show down there than we're
[9:05] Speaker 1: putting on. Up here, right?
[9:07] Speaker 2: I so agree.
[9:08] Speaker 1: And I love that. I had a lady, I did
[9:10] Speaker 1: a show in Adelaide not that long ago, and a lovely,
[9:14] Speaker 1: lovely lady towards the second half of the second act
[9:20] Speaker 1: went out through the back of Her Majesty's Theatre, went
[9:23] Speaker 1: out to go to the loo, but she came back
[9:25] Speaker 1: in through another door, which had one step down that
[9:29] Speaker 1: the other door didn't.
[9:30] Speaker 2: Oh, a little surprise step.
[9:32] Speaker 1: Yeah. So she went hurtling into... A little low half
[9:37] Speaker 1: wall at the back of the stalls downstairs and went
[9:40] Speaker 1: bang and she broke her collarbone and then she fell
[9:44] Speaker 1: to the floor and broke her hip.
[9:46] Speaker 2: Oh my God.
[9:46] Speaker 1: So I could see all this fuss going on at
[9:48] Speaker 1: the back of the stage. I shouldn't laugh. But anyway,
[9:52] Speaker 1: I thought, what am I going to do? And I
[9:54] Speaker 1: looked into the wings. My producer was doing the, you know,
[9:57] Speaker 1: can it stop? You need to stop. You need to stop.
[10:00] Speaker 1: And I said, is everything all right back there? And
[10:02] Speaker 1: the whole audience went, no. So I got off the
[10:05] Speaker 1: stage and I went down and saw her and she went,
[10:08] Speaker 1: oh darling, I'm sorry to cause a fuss. She said,
[10:10] Speaker 1: I'm a, she said, I'm a nurse. She said, I've
[10:12] Speaker 1: got osteoporosis and she's lying on the floor. Yeah. She said,
[10:15] Speaker 1: I know what I've done. I've broken my shoulder and
[10:17] Speaker 1: I've broken my hip.
[10:18] Speaker 2: And you're in full glam talking to her.
[10:20] Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm in rhinestones with a microphone. Yeah, what do
[10:25] Speaker 1: you think of the show so far? We're killing them tonight.
[10:29] Speaker 1: We're laying them in the aisles. Anyways, then she said
[10:33] Speaker 1: to me, how many songs has he got left? I said,
[10:36] Speaker 1: I've got four. She said, well, can you get on
[10:38] Speaker 1: with it? What a trooper. Because the paramedics had been called. Anyway,
[10:45] Speaker 1: so she just lay there. I went back to the
[10:47] Speaker 1: stage and got on with it, and I was singing
[10:49] Speaker 1: my second last song, which is the fabulous Tenefield Sadler. Yeah.
[10:53] Speaker 1: And they picked her up, and they could only take
[10:55] Speaker 1: her out through the side door of the stalls, but
[10:58] Speaker 1: so they had to carry her over the crowd and
[11:00] Speaker 1: go through the rows of seats. And she's waving like
[11:05] Speaker 1: the royal family, right, on this gurney suckered on the
[11:07] Speaker 1: green whistle.
[11:09] Speaker 2: Time of her life.
[11:10] Speaker 1: That's a great show for me to watch. And I
[11:12] Speaker 1: didn't even have to pay for that. I got paid
[11:14] Speaker 1: for that show. Yeah. So that's what I love about it.
[11:17] Speaker 2: She's essentially crowd surfing.
[11:18] Speaker 1: She was.
[11:20] Speaker 3: The Joel Creasy Show.
[11:22] Speaker 2: You know, that is kind of like the, you know,
[11:24] Speaker 2: I'm very like catty, but really that's why I'm doing
[11:26] Speaker 2: it with mum because she's like, it's such a drug
[11:30] Speaker 2: being on stage.
[11:31] Speaker 1: It is.
[11:31] Speaker 2: And when you get that rush of laughter, that rush
[11:32] Speaker 2: of applause is.
[11:34] Speaker 1: There's just something about a full auditorium for me. Well,
[11:38] Speaker 1: and for you, obviously. Laughing. Yeah. Because you can't fake laughing. No.
[11:43] Speaker 1: I mean, you can, but you know it's fake. When
[11:44] Speaker 1: a whole room is guffawing over something that you've done,
[11:50] Speaker 1: you know they're releasing the endorphins. You know they're having
[11:53] Speaker 1: a great time. And that makes me feel good about myself.
[11:55] Speaker 1: So it's purely for selfish reasons.
[11:57] Speaker 2: I get it.
[11:58] Speaker 1: That I love that moment. I can give them that.
[12:00] Speaker 2: And you're giving them, I like to think, you're giving
[12:01] Speaker 2: them a little mental vacation from their lives.
[12:03] Speaker 1: Yeah. And people need it. I had a lady come
[12:06] Speaker 1: up to me again in Adelaide when we were doing
[12:08] Speaker 1: The Boy From Oz. And she was at the top
[12:11] Speaker 1: of the stairs outside stage door. She saw me. She went, Todd, Todd, stop, stop, stop.
[12:17] Speaker 1: Wait there, wait there. I'm coming down. She had to
[12:19] Speaker 1: find her way down. Anyway, this dear lady called Barbara Kent,
[12:21] Speaker 1: her name was. She made it down. And Barbara said
[12:24] Speaker 1: to me, Todd, my daughter has spinal cancer. and it's
[12:30] Speaker 1: inoperable and incurable. And she said she passed away very recently.
[12:35] Speaker 1: And she said, when I saw this show, The Boy
[12:38] Speaker 1: From Oz we're talking about, advertised on television, she said,
[12:41] Speaker 1: I'm going to go and see it in Melbourne. She said,
[12:43] Speaker 1: I'm going to go and see it, and I'm going
[12:45] Speaker 1: to turn my life around because she'd been going through
[12:47] Speaker 1: years of drama with her daughter's illness. And she went,
[12:51] Speaker 1: and you know what? It did. She said, now I've
[12:53] Speaker 1: followed you in every city in Australia. Wow. Because it just, this,
[12:57] Speaker 1: you were my, this show was my rebirth. Yeah.
[13:00] Speaker 2: You're attached to that memory now.
[13:02] Speaker 1: So there is, so even though we're doing frivolous stuff
[13:05] Speaker 1: and making people laugh, you know, when you're nearly a
[13:09] Speaker 1: thousand shows in, don't forget that someone is sitting in
[13:11] Speaker 1: the audience who wants what exactly what you were talking about,
[13:14] Speaker 1: a relief from their day. Yeah. Their life for a minute.
[13:17] Speaker 1: And I find, I take that really seriously. Yeah.
[13:19] Speaker 2: And I, yeah. And I appreciate performers that do, because
[13:21] Speaker 2: it is, it's, yeah, we're in such a lucky position.
[13:24] Speaker 2: You mentioned your mum before.
[13:26] Speaker 1: I didn't.
[13:27] Speaker 2: Just before you were coming in, I had no idea
[13:28] Speaker 2: you were from Perth.
[13:29] Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm from Perth. Are you from Perth?
[13:31] Speaker 2: I'm from Perth.
[13:32] Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. Whereabouts?
[13:33] Speaker 2: Applecross.
[13:34] Speaker 1: Applecross, Chewart Hill. Get out. Yeah. My first job was
[13:37] Speaker 1: at Channel 7 on Wanneroo Road as Percy Penguin, Fat
[13:41] Speaker 1: Cat's off-sider. Wow. For the early bird morning show. Oh, hilarious. Yeah.
[13:46] Speaker 2: Oh, well, I was just talking about Fat Cat earlier
[13:48] Speaker 2: because it was telethon.
[13:49] Speaker 1: Over the weekend. Well, yes. Well, I was Fat Cat's off-sider.
[13:52] Speaker 1: I have been inside Fat Cat.
[13:56] Speaker 2: I hope you bought your dinner first.
[13:58] Speaker 1: Wow.
[13:58] Speaker 2: Yeah, because people in the East Coast are like, Fat Cat?
[14:01] Speaker 1: Yeah, because the guy playing Fat Cat one day, he
[14:03] Speaker 1: turned up and he's so hungover that he couldn't put
[14:05] Speaker 1: the head on. And they said to me, talk to
[14:07] Speaker 1: Fat Cat. And I was like, give me the head.
[14:09] Speaker 1: Give it to me. And so I went on and
[14:12] Speaker 1: did Fat Cat. Yeah, Perth. I love Perth. Yeah, it's great.
[14:15] Speaker 1: One of my first jobs was as a DJ at
[14:18] Speaker 1: the Morley Rollerdrome. Yeah. Please grab your partner for a
[14:23] Speaker 1: couple skate. And now we're going to skate in the
[14:26] Speaker 1: reverse direction.
[14:27] Speaker 2: Oh, that's so cool.
[14:28] Speaker 1: And then for speed skate, we'd put on Black Betty. Bam-a-lam. Yep,
[14:32] Speaker 1: we do. Love it.
[14:34] Speaker 2: Do you remember were you doing your early productions? Because
[14:39] Speaker 2: some of my school productions were terrible. Did you do
[14:41] Speaker 2: those in Perth?
[14:42] Speaker 1: We didn't have any of that. Oh, really? Dancing school
[14:46] Speaker 1: concerts was our main thing.
[14:47] Speaker 2: And this is where your mum was the.
[14:49] Speaker 1: My mum had one of those mega dancing schools with
[14:52] Speaker 1: like 400 students and won all the Stedfords. And a
[14:56] Speaker 1: lot of her people to this day work all over
[14:58] Speaker 1: the world, Broadway, London, West End, and they're all doing
[15:01] Speaker 1: my thing. And, yeah, she's a really, really, really good teacher. Wow.
[15:05] Speaker 2: That's so cool. Because, I mean, obviously, like you did
[15:09] Speaker 2: Strictly Boring, which, you know, is my favourite movie.
[15:12] Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. Yeah, well, it is. Yeah. It's pretty good. Yeah.
[15:16] Speaker 1: But I only did it because someone got sick. I
[15:18] Speaker 1: wasn't in it. Really? Yeah. And they needed somebody to
[15:20] Speaker 1: do the fruity rumba.
[15:22] Speaker 2: Oh, my God.
[15:22] Speaker 1: It's the best thing. Because Sonia was in it, Sonia Kruger,
[15:26] Speaker 1: as Tina Sparkle, as everyone knows. And so she said
[15:29] Speaker 1: to Baz, get Toddy, see if Toddy's around. And I
[15:33] Speaker 1: was around.
[15:35] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[15:35] Speaker 1: Because I was supposed to be in Germany, in East Germany,
[15:39] Speaker 1: doing a production of 42nd Street, the musical. And that's
[15:42] Speaker 1: why I didn't go for Strictly Ballroom. But then the
[15:45] Speaker 1: Berlin Wall came down and we no longer had the
[15:47] Speaker 1: rights to East Germany because there was no East Germany.
[15:50] Speaker 1: So we just got paid to stay at home.
[15:53] Speaker 2: Wow.
[15:53] Speaker 1: And suddenly I was free. And so that's how I
[15:56] Speaker 1: ended up in Strictly Ballroom.
[15:58] Speaker 2: Todd, you need to write a book. This is insane.
[16:01] Speaker 1: I've got the stories.
[16:02] Speaker 2: That's amazing.
[16:03] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[16:03] Speaker 2: Was it Nathan Starkey?
[16:05] Speaker 1: Nathan Starkey.
[16:06] Speaker 2: Nathan Starkey.
[16:07] Speaker 1: Who was retiring. We were the current Pan Pacific champions.
[16:10] Speaker 1: And we were retiring because I was taking up a
[16:15] Speaker 1: career in landscape gardening. And that's why Tina Sparkle was
[16:20] Speaker 1: looking for a new partner, Scott Hastings. They were trying
[16:23] Speaker 1: to get her together.
[16:24] Speaker 2: Right, Tina Sparkle's on the market.
[16:26] Speaker 1: Yes, she's on the market.
[16:27] Speaker 2: Because at my wedding, my dream is, like, I want
[16:30] Speaker 2: to be able to afford Thinny Lorber to come out
[16:32] Speaker 2: and sing Time After Time and have the Coca-Cola sign
[16:34] Speaker 2: drop down while Jack and I do our first dance.
[16:36] Speaker 1: Yeah, and underneath a Hill's voice.
[16:40] Speaker 2: It's just so, oh, yeah, I love it so much.
[16:44] Speaker 2: Because I'm horrified to say, I've seen you on stage
[16:47] Speaker 2: so many times. Do you know I've never seen you
[16:49] Speaker 2: do Peter Allen?
[16:50] Speaker 1: Haven't you?
[16:51] Speaker 2: No, which is why I think I need to come
[16:52] Speaker 2: to one of these shows. You do.
[16:53] Speaker 1: You should.
[16:54] Speaker 2: I've seen others do it, but everyone says I've seen
[16:58] Speaker 2: you do. Because I don't.
[17:00] Speaker 1: Play him in these shows. It's me just celebrating his music.
[17:03] Speaker 1: But I've got a rich history of involvement with his
[17:07] Speaker 1: family and with, like it was the first one-man show
[17:11] Speaker 1: I ever saw. My mum took me as a 12-year-old
[17:14] Speaker 1: to the Perth Concert Hall down on St George's Terrace there.
[17:17] Speaker 1: to see this guy called Peter Allen. Mum got free tickets.
[17:20] Speaker 1: That's the only reason we went. We didn't know who
[17:21] Speaker 1: he was, but mum knew the box office lady. And
[17:24] Speaker 1: so we went and I didn't, and the lights went
[17:27] Speaker 1: down and on, you know, on he came. And I
[17:29] Speaker 1: was like, what the?
[17:30] Speaker 2: So in the moment you knew this was something.
[17:32] Speaker 1: I didn't. He was on stage for nearly three hours.
[17:35] Speaker 1: And at the end I went, oh my God. And
[17:38] Speaker 1: I just stayed in my seat. I was like, I
[17:40] Speaker 1: just want this whole, that to start again. But it was,
[17:43] Speaker 1: and I remember thinking, even as a 12 year old,
[17:46] Speaker 1: I wonder what that feels like. Because he had a
[17:50] Speaker 1: very general public, middle Australian audience, mums and dads, in
[17:55] Speaker 1: the palm of his hands. And he was flamboyant as everything.
[17:59] Speaker 1: And I thought, I wonder what that feels like. And
[18:01] Speaker 1: I wonder how this audience is buying that. But they
[18:04] Speaker 1: were buying it in bucket loads. It's because he was himself. Authentic.
[18:09] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[18:09] Speaker 1: Then I moved to Bondi and I used to play
[18:11] Speaker 1: all his music. So I became a huge fan of his. Yeah.
[18:14] Speaker 1: Play his music. And then my dogs in the afternoon
[18:17] Speaker 1: would play with these other two little mutts behind the
[18:20] Speaker 1: Bondi Pavilion. Yeah. In Sydney. And after a few months,
[18:25] Speaker 1: their owner would stand over there, I'd stand over there
[18:28] Speaker 1: and The dogs had played. Anyway, she came over to me.
[18:30] Speaker 1: She said, we should meet because our dogs. Yeah. They're
[18:33] Speaker 1: humping each.
[18:34] Speaker 2: Other, right? We're going to be in-laws.
[18:36] Speaker 1: We're going to be in-laws. She said, my name's Lynn Smith.
[18:39] Speaker 1: And I said, oh, I'm Todd McKinney. She went, I've
[18:42] Speaker 1: seen you in shows. She said, you might know my brother,
[18:44] Speaker 1: Peter Allen. Do I what? I was like, do I what?
[18:47] Speaker 1: He snores. But so I then became friendly with her.
[18:52] Speaker 1: So I had this whole connection to the Peter Allen world.
[18:54] Speaker 1: I saw him. I met him. I. I like his music.
[18:57] Speaker 1: I love his sense of humour. It's hilarious too. His
[19:00] Speaker 1: chat was really funny.
[19:02] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[19:02] Speaker 1: And so then to get the boy from Oz, it
[19:04] Speaker 1: just changed my life. But I had a real understanding,
[19:07] Speaker 1: a genuine understanding of who he was, you know. Yeah.
[19:11] Speaker 1: And so his family gave me videos and cassettes. Remember those?
[19:16] Speaker 2: Yes, I do. I used to sit by the radio
[19:18] Speaker 2: and record my favourite song.
[19:20] Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, he sent me, because he ended up in
[19:22] Speaker 1: my backyard having a, barbecue with the people who lived
[19:25] Speaker 1: underneath me at one point.
[19:27] Speaker 2: Fabulous.
[19:27] Speaker 1: You know, all of this stuff would happen. But, and
[19:30] Speaker 1: he said, he asked me if I wanted to go
[19:32] Speaker 1: and see his show. He was doing a show at
[19:33] Speaker 1: the Hilton Hotel. And I said, I was 19. And
[19:37] Speaker 1: I said, oh yes, Mr. Allardy, I'd love to do that.
[19:40] Speaker 1: And forgot about it. Didn't hear from him for about
[19:42] Speaker 1: a month and then got home and he rung me.
[19:45] Speaker 1: We swapped numbers and he rang me and left a
[19:49] Speaker 1: message on my old answering machine, you know, with the
[19:51] Speaker 1: little red light that flashes saying, you know, hi, doll,
[19:55] Speaker 1: I got you some tickets, blah, blah, blah, all of that.
[19:59] Speaker 1: And I recorded it and made it my answering machine message.
[20:03] Speaker 1: So when people would ring me, they'd get, hi, doll,
[20:04] Speaker 1: let's put her on. That's amazing.
[20:06] Speaker 2: Incredible.
[20:07] Speaker 1: So it was all just written in the stars anyway.
[20:10] Speaker 2: So just a humble person, easy.
[20:13] Speaker 1: Him? Yeah. Oh, fabulous. Really.
[20:14] Speaker 2: Oh, that's so nice.
[20:15] Speaker 1: Supportive and funny. Oh, funny. And take no prisoners kind
[20:19] Speaker 1: of funny. Like he'd give you the dirt. Yeah. But
[20:21] Speaker 1: in a really funny way. Yeah.
[20:22] Speaker 2: Oh, that's my sense of humour. Like Joan Rivett.
[20:24] Speaker 1: Like that style. Absolutely. Oh, he did this whole spiel
[20:27] Speaker 1: in the backyard at that barbecue about Elizabeth Taylor. Because
[20:32] Speaker 1: it just on the night of a hundred stars. Oh.
[20:33] Speaker 2: You know one of those concerts?
[20:35] Speaker 1: Yeah. He said, I did a night of 100 stars, Todd.
[20:38] Speaker 1: And he said, well, it was 99 stars plus the
[20:40] Speaker 1: dog from Annie. He said, but you know who was
[20:44] Speaker 1: in it? He said, Elizabeth Taylor. He went, she was
[20:46] Speaker 1: wearing jeans. She should not wear jeans. He said, I
[20:49] Speaker 1: didn't have the heart to tell her the stitching on
[20:51] Speaker 1: those things. Oh my gosh. Like all of that.
[20:55] Speaker 2: Oh, and you're just eating it up.
[20:57] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[20:57] Speaker 1: And so then I was asked to say all that
[20:59] Speaker 1: stuff in that style all those years later in Boy
[21:02] Speaker 1: From Oz. But I had all that stuff in me from,
[21:04] Speaker 1: from experiences with him.
[21:06] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[21:07] Speaker 1: So.
[21:07] Speaker 2: Cause you mentioned Annie and cause I, and then I
[21:10] Speaker 2: remembered as I was speaking, I've seen you do, um,
[21:13] Speaker 2: I did Rocky Horror the more recent one. And then
[21:15] Speaker 2: the time before that you were playing, um, Frankenfurter. You're fantastic.
[21:20] Speaker 2: And I, and then I realized I've seen you do
[21:21] Speaker 2: Hairspray too, but, I think the first time I saw
[21:24] Speaker 2: you on stage, you were playing Rooster in Annie?
[21:27] Speaker 1: Rooster Hannigan, yes.
[21:28] Speaker 2: So good in that.
[21:29] Speaker 1: It was good, yeah. That was fun. Alan Jones was
[21:33] Speaker 1: in that too, of course.
[21:35] Speaker 2: Yes.
[21:36] Speaker 1: He was playing Roosevelt. Yeah.
[21:39] Speaker 2: I think it's the only time I've seen it.
[21:40] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[21:41] Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, look, there's a reason it's been around forever.
[21:44] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[21:45] Speaker 1: Little kids love it. It inspires little kids to go
[21:49] Speaker 1: to the theatre that there might be a job for
[21:50] Speaker 1: them one day and they get to work with dogs.
[21:52] Speaker 1: I know.
[21:53] Speaker 2: And scrub the floor.
[21:54] Speaker 1: It's a hard life.
[21:56] Speaker 2: And then that was when you stole the show and
[21:58] Speaker 2: you also really stole the show in Greece when you
[22:01] Speaker 2: were a teenager.
[22:02] Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. I was on stage for three minutes and
[22:05] Speaker 1: 47 seconds.
[22:06] Speaker 2: And you were chewing the scenery. It was like you
[22:09] Speaker 2: came in on a hurricane. And I did think, I
[22:11] Speaker 2: was like, oh, John's got a sweet gig here.
[22:13] Speaker 1: Yeah, I did nothing. I was upstairs with Anthony Kalia,
[22:18] Speaker 1: who also had a small role in it.
[22:19] Speaker 2: That's right.
[22:21] Speaker 1: And I just come down. And I said to the
[22:24] Speaker 1: producers during rehearsals, because I didn't really... investigate what my,
[22:28] Speaker 1: what Teen Angel role was in Grease.
[22:30] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[22:30] Speaker 1: I knew her from the movie, but in my head
[22:33] Speaker 1: it was a bigger role. And we got to rehearsals
[22:35] Speaker 1: and I was never called in. And I was like,
[22:37] Speaker 1: are you ever going to get, how much of this
[22:39] Speaker 1: show am I in? And the director said, oh, it's
[22:44] Speaker 1: like a sort of cameo. I said, but you've been
[22:46] Speaker 1: rehearsing for three weeks and I haven't been in the
[22:48] Speaker 1: rehearsal room once. Anyway, When we came to do the
[22:53] Speaker 1: show for the producers in the rehearsal room, like just
[22:56] Speaker 1: before you go to the theatre, I got up to
[22:59] Speaker 1: go and start my number. I looked at John Frost,
[23:00] Speaker 1: who was the producer, and I said, can you time
[23:03] Speaker 1: this for me? He went, why? I said, I just
[23:06] Speaker 1: want to know how much per minute you're paying me.
[23:08] Speaker 2: I've done that before.
[23:11] Speaker 1: I got up and I did my number and I
[23:14] Speaker 1: walked past him on the way to the seat and
[23:16] Speaker 1: he went, three minutes, 47 seconds.
[23:18] Speaker 2: LAUGHTER And you earned every dollar because it was so good.
[23:25] Speaker 1: It was funny, but I have no problem. See, I'm
[23:27] Speaker 1: at an age now, I don't need to be the
[23:30] Speaker 1: motor of the show anymore. Yeah. I just need to
[23:32] Speaker 1: have fun, work with decent people and just have a
[23:36] Speaker 1: good time. Yeah. And I'd kind of rather not have
[23:39] Speaker 1: the pressure of being another boy from Oz where you're
[23:42] Speaker 1: on in every scene and you're only off stage to
[23:44] Speaker 1: change clothes. Yeah. You know, you're sweating and you're waking
[23:47] Speaker 1: up in the morning testing your voice. I'm happy with
[23:50] Speaker 1: the cameo.
[23:53] Speaker 3: This is The Joel Creasy Show.
[23:54] Speaker 2: I saw you in Wicked. Yeah. And, I mean, was
[23:59] Speaker 2: it an hour until you come on in the first hour?
[24:01] Speaker 1: Yeah, it was an hour. Yeah, and you know what
[24:02] Speaker 1: I started to do? I started to hit the snack machine. Oh, really?
[24:05] Speaker 1: In that hour. And so I ballooned. Really? Yeah, and
[24:09] Speaker 1: I looked at myself. And because my coats and clothes
[24:11] Speaker 1: in that show were also oversized, so I didn't realise
[24:14] Speaker 1: I was eating my body weight in chips.
[24:16] Speaker 2: Do you have to arrive at the same time as
[24:18] Speaker 2: everyone else?
[24:19] Speaker 1: Yes. Oh. Oh, I tell you, for an hour, it
[24:21] Speaker 1: was just over an hour and I came on just
[24:24] Speaker 1: before interval. But I used to do, when I've got
[24:28] Speaker 1: time on my hands right backstage, that's so dangerous because I,
[24:32] Speaker 1: I don't know, I muck up in Greece one night. Yeah.
[24:35] Speaker 1: I went down backstage. I was just walking around, you know,
[24:38] Speaker 1: chatting to everybody because I was bored out of my brain.
[24:41] Speaker 1: And I saw all of the boys, sand shoes for
[24:46] Speaker 1: their quick change. Yeah. Yeah. Lined up under their quick
[24:49] Speaker 1: change chairs with their t-shirt for the next scene over
[24:52] Speaker 1: the back.
[24:53] Speaker 2: Oh, yes.
[24:53] Speaker 1: It was all lined up there and I'm walking past
[24:56] Speaker 1: them and I thought, oh, do you know what would
[24:58] Speaker 1: be funny? Because they had a really fast change out
[25:01] Speaker 1: of the Grease Lightning number into the next song. If
[25:04] Speaker 1: I just loosely tied their shoelaces together, right? But what
[25:08] Speaker 1: I didn't, and I did it, but what I didn't
[25:11] Speaker 1: realise is, They didn't know that.
[25:13] Speaker 2: You killed 12 chorus members.
[25:14] Speaker 1: Yeah. People went on in their socks. What? Yes. Because
[25:20] Speaker 1: what they did is as they grabbed the shoes, it
[25:22] Speaker 1: tightened the knot. But I'd left the knot really loose.
[25:25] Speaker 1: And all I could hear backstage were people yelling out, McKinney! McKinney! McKinney!
[25:31] Speaker 1: So it's not good to have me off stage.
[25:33] Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, yeah, they're going to have to, they'll be
[25:36] Speaker 2: locking you in your dressing room and letting you out
[25:38] Speaker 2: for even three minutes, 47. Because I was a narrator
[25:41] Speaker 2: in Rocky, I've just realised, when you were doing Wicked
[25:43] Speaker 2: across the road. And I had started saying, don't worry,
[25:48] Speaker 2: this show's tight and bright. We'll be done by the
[25:51] Speaker 2: time Wicked's just getting into that, going to interval.
[25:53] Speaker 1: It's so short. That second act of Rocky Horror, it
[25:56] Speaker 1: is so, but there's nothing wrong with a short show.
[25:58] Speaker 2: That's what I think. What's that famous expression? No one's
[26:01] Speaker 2: been sad to leave the theatre too early.
[26:04] Speaker 1: No.
[26:04] Speaker 2: So, but when that, you're like, because I'm such a,
[26:07] Speaker 2: and you would have been doing Wicked when the movies
[26:09] Speaker 2: came out.
[26:10] Speaker 1: Yeah, we all went and watched it together.
[26:12] Speaker 2: I thought Jeff Goldblum was.
[26:13] Speaker 1: I thought he was great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[26:16] Speaker 2: The second film.
[26:17] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[26:18] Speaker 2: But like I, like for me, when I first saw Wicked,
[26:22] Speaker 2: I saw it in, I can't remember what year. But
[26:25] Speaker 2: in LA, it was the first touring cast. It was
[26:27] Speaker 2: Megan Hilty, Casey Levy, Joanne Worley, Joel Grey was the wizard.
[26:32] Speaker 2: And that moment in Defying Gravity was like– It's incredible.
[26:36] Speaker 2: That's what the ticket price is worth. And you were
[26:38] Speaker 2: on right before that. Would you stay and– Yes.
[26:42] Speaker 1: I would stay every night and watch it, even from
[26:44] Speaker 1: the wings when you can see the mechanics of it. Yeah.
[26:47] Speaker 1: The lighting is so special. Yeah. And when she takes–
[26:49] Speaker 1: I've got goosebumps now.
[26:50] Speaker 2: Talking about it.
[26:51] Speaker 1: Me too. It is just one of those theatrical moments
[26:54] Speaker 1: that is genius. Yeah. And the audience love it. And
[26:58] Speaker 1: every now and again when the mechanics didn't work and
[27:00] Speaker 1: she'd have to be on the floor for it, you
[27:02] Speaker 1: could just hear the audience just going, oh, I've missed
[27:05] Speaker 1: that moment. Yeah. It's incredible. Yeah.
[27:08] Speaker 2: And when you go and see another show, you're like, oh,
[27:11] Speaker 2: there's no defined gravity.
[27:13] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[27:13] Speaker 2: No.
[27:14] Speaker 1: Did you see up on my socials yesterday came this
[27:18] Speaker 1: thing that, People, when they're flying, someone has worked out
[27:25] Speaker 1: if you turn on the soundtrack to Gravity as the
[27:29] Speaker 1: plane starts down the actual runway to take off, it's
[27:33] Speaker 1: an amazing experience. Yeah. And from the video I saw,
[27:37] Speaker 1: it actually works.
[27:38] Speaker 2: And it's really good. I think I saw the exact
[27:39] Speaker 2: same video.
[27:40] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[27:41] Speaker 2: I mean, it's so camp. And also, that song can
[27:43] Speaker 2: be interpreted so many ways. And, you know, yeah, I just–
[27:47] Speaker 2: because I finished it. I was 16 and I turned
[27:49] Speaker 2: to my friend. And I said, I'm gay. That's how
[27:52] Speaker 2: I came out. She goes, no shit. Real supportive. I've
[27:57] Speaker 2: also had another, I've had this idea for years, my
[27:59] Speaker 2: friend and I, and I thought you'd be the perfect
[28:02] Speaker 2: person to do it. You could do a drag show.
[28:05] Speaker 2: You're in drag. And it could be maybe a reflection
[28:09] Speaker 2: on your time as judge on Dancing with the Stars,
[28:11] Speaker 2: which you did 20 seasons. 21. 21. And you could
[28:16] Speaker 2: do a drag character called Helen Bitchy. I don't know
[28:20] Speaker 2: why there's never been Helen Ritchie.
[28:23] Speaker 1: And Freddy Krueger could be the co-host. You could be
[28:28] Speaker 1: Freddy Krueger. I'll be Helen Ritchie. You be Freddy Krueger.
[28:32] Speaker 2: And nothing's good enough for Helen Ritchie. Everyone's a one puddle.
[28:36] Speaker 1: I love that idea. I've got the wig. I've got
[28:38] Speaker 1: the hair. I've got the look in my head already. Yeah.
[28:41] Speaker 1: That black and white kind of hair. Oh, God, I
[28:45] Speaker 1: loved her.
[28:45] Speaker 2: That was like my current. Helen Bitchy. Helen Bitchy.
[28:50] Speaker 1: Or Helen Back. That could be pretty good.
[28:52] Speaker 2: I heard that one the other day and I was like,
[28:53] Speaker 2: that is brilliant, Helen. Barb into Helen Back. People, my
[28:58] Speaker 2: new little bon mot when, you know, because, you know,
[29:00] Speaker 2: One Nation are in the news a lot at the moment,
[29:02] Speaker 2: is that Pauline Hanson came second on the first season
[29:05] Speaker 2: of Dancing with the Stars.
[29:06] Speaker 1: Pauline Hanson was. People forget this. Yes.
[29:09] Speaker 2: 2004.
[29:10] Speaker 1: Pauline Hanson was our very first competitor. She did the
[29:13] Speaker 1: first dance on Dancing with the Stars. It was a cha-cha. Right.
[29:19] Speaker 1: And I remember we were just sitting there because we
[29:21] Speaker 1: didn't really know what the show was at that point.
[29:23] Speaker 1: And Helen Ritchie, Helen Ritchie, she had her knuckles buried
[29:29] Speaker 1: into my thigh as Pauline was dancing going.
[29:32] Speaker 2: Jesus Christ.
[29:34] Speaker 1: And we're like, oh, is this what the show is?
[29:37] Speaker 1: You all right? And then Helen walked over to Daryl Summers. No,
[29:40] Speaker 1: Pauline walked over to Daryl Summers, the very first thing
[29:42] Speaker 1: she ever said, and said, oh, my God, I'm so
[29:45] Speaker 1: glad it's over. And then Daryl went, Todd, I went,
[29:49] Speaker 1: you're glad. And that's how my character on that show started. Really?
[29:54] Speaker 1: I was as surprised as anyone that I came out,
[29:56] Speaker 1: that was my first thing I ever said, you're glad.
[29:58] Speaker 2: Oh, you were so brilliant with your quips.
[30:01] Speaker 1: I loved it.
[30:02] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[30:03] Speaker 1: Sonia Kruger, Freddie and I, we used to get to
[30:07] Speaker 1: the theatre. Because I'd do a bit of homework before it,
[30:10] Speaker 1: just in case a competitor was dry and middle of
[30:14] Speaker 1: the road. We still had to have stuff to say.
[30:16] Speaker 1: So I used to find out what they were dancing
[30:19] Speaker 1: to or what they were wearing or just something. And
[30:22] Speaker 1: I used to just make notes in case they were
[30:25] Speaker 1: just middle of the road.
[30:25] Speaker 2: Yeah. Something to work with.
[30:27] Speaker 1: Something to work with. And so Sonia and I used
[30:29] Speaker 1: to meet before that. She'd seen the rehearsals. We never
[30:33] Speaker 1: got to see the rehearsals. And so Sonia would say
[30:36] Speaker 1: to me, you are going to love Holly Brisley on
[30:39] Speaker 1: today's show. Do you remember Holly Brisley?
[30:42] Speaker 2: I do. And that's one of those names, that rush
[30:45] Speaker 2: of nostalgia.
[30:46] Speaker 1: Well, I had this line.
[30:46] Speaker 2: She was great, wasn't she? She was great.
[30:49] Speaker 1: And a bombshell. Gorgeous. But I had this line in
[30:52] Speaker 1: my head which I just couldn't. get it out because
[30:55] Speaker 1: it was never appropriate what she was doing. And Sonia
[30:57] Speaker 1: knew I had the line. And she was like, and
[31:00] Speaker 1: I got into work one day and I went and
[31:02] Speaker 1: saw Sonia before the show and she went, you're going
[31:05] Speaker 1: to get the line in today. And she went, but
[31:07] Speaker 1: I'll race you for it.
[31:10] Speaker 2: And I love that. Game on.
[31:11] Speaker 1: Oh, game on, mom. Yeah. And so anyway, I got
[31:14] Speaker 1: to do it. So Holly turns out and does this
[31:17] Speaker 1: Latin number in this really, really short skirt. And I said.
[31:21] Speaker 2: I remember.
[31:22] Speaker 1: Holly, that skirt is so short we nearly saw your brisley.
[31:26] Speaker 1: And Sonia, you can't see Sonia on there, but she's
[31:29] Speaker 1: looking at me going, you bastard. So we had fun
[31:33] Speaker 1: on that show.
[31:33] Speaker 2: Yeah, because that's where I really fell in love with Sonia.
[31:36] Speaker 2: And I have, because I always say Sonia and Gretel
[31:39] Speaker 2: Colleen are my two live TV, like they taught me
[31:42] Speaker 2: how to host live TV. Sonia was so naughty on there. Oh, no,
[31:45] Speaker 2: she's so naughty.
[31:47] Speaker 1: So naughty. She threw an egg at me in one
[31:50] Speaker 1: show for some strange reason. I don't know why. But
[31:52] Speaker 1: she's always been like that. Do you know what it is?
[31:55] Speaker 1: It's intelligent humour. Yeah. And it's also that you sit
[31:59] Speaker 1: on the edge of your seat not really knowing whether
[32:01] Speaker 1: she's going to get away with what she's just about
[32:03] Speaker 1: to say.
[32:04] Speaker 2: A few of them.
[32:05] Speaker 1: I love that.
[32:06] Speaker 2: Me too.
[32:06] Speaker 1: But I kind of lost the enthusiasm as I used
[32:11] Speaker 1: to have it for the show when it started to
[32:12] Speaker 1: be pre-recorded where I used to get cleaned up in
[32:14] Speaker 1: the edit. I know. It wasn't the same adrenaline for me.
[32:18] Speaker 1: I still enjoyed it. I know what you mean. But
[32:20] Speaker 1: I loved the live because you were like, shall I
[32:22] Speaker 1: hear what comes? Am I going to say this?
[32:24] Speaker 2: Am I going to do it?
[32:24] Speaker 1: Am I going to do it? And then you do
[32:25] Speaker 1: it and then it's out. And it's mostly, it's fine.
[32:28] Speaker 2: I don't want a producer who doesn't have a sense
[32:31] Speaker 2: of humour telling me what is and isn't funny.
[32:33] Speaker 1: Or a lot of the production team and the editing
[32:35] Speaker 1: team and stuff were a lot younger in the pre-recorded
[32:39] Speaker 1: things and so they were playing it a lot safer. Yeah.
[32:41] Speaker 1: Plus I think the value in that show often was,
[32:43] Speaker 1: I mean, there's stuff we said which we would just never,
[32:46] Speaker 1: ever say today.
[32:47] Speaker 2: Of course. And say.
[32:48] Speaker 1: You know, the world has changed.
[32:50] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[32:50] Speaker 1: But I think part of the joy of that show
[32:52] Speaker 1: was like when we could say something. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
[32:55] Speaker 2: All these people that you're talking about, they're getting paid.
[32:57] Speaker 2: They know what they signed up for.
[32:59] Speaker 1: It's so true. But do you find that, has your
[33:01] Speaker 1: comedy changed? Yeah, definitely.
[33:03] Speaker 2: The one thing I'm lucky... is that I am, and
[33:07] Speaker 2: I only discovered this when I Googled myself once, and
[33:09] Speaker 2: this is how Wikipedia described me, an autobiographical comic. So
[33:13] Speaker 2: all my material is about me. So I can't, it's
[33:17] Speaker 2: not like I'm doing a narcissistic comic.
[33:18] Speaker 1: Absolutely. Yeah.
[33:19] Speaker 2: Real uppity bitch. But so, yeah, but there's certainly things
[33:24] Speaker 2: that I've, I've changed and wording that I've changed over
[33:27] Speaker 2: the years. And, fine. It's growth and it's learning.
[33:31] Speaker 1: And you have to too. It is a different world.
[33:34] Speaker 1: It'd be the end of your career if you didn't
[33:36] Speaker 1: have to change a bit. But I think you've got
[33:37] Speaker 1: to retain who you are. And also there are ways
[33:43] Speaker 1: of doing the same shtick and cleaning it up for
[33:46] Speaker 1: today's sensitive audience.
[33:48] Speaker 2: And people say that you can't say anything at all.
[33:50] Speaker 2: It's like, no, you're not clever enough. Just work it out.
[33:52] Speaker 2: It's part of the joy of it.
[33:54] Speaker 1: I think there's also a technique of, I'm glad you
[33:56] Speaker 1: say self-deprecating, because I think there's You can, if you,
[33:59] Speaker 1: if you balance it up, like I talk about my
[34:01] Speaker 1: audience being old and I talk about audiences dying during
[34:04] Speaker 1: my shows and stuff like that to an audience who's
[34:06] Speaker 1: about to die often.
[34:09] Speaker 2: But then I just punch myself harder.
[34:12] Speaker 1: I punch myself harder. Yeah. And there's, I love that. Yeah.
[34:15] Speaker 1: I love the science of that.
[34:16] Speaker 2: For sure. I, yeah. I mean, yeah. The best punchline
[34:19] Speaker 2: is myself. I go twice, three times as hard.
[34:22] Speaker 1: I think that as Australians get that too, because we
[34:25] Speaker 1: are a sort of self-deprecating kind of nation. Yeah. You know,
[34:28] Speaker 1: I think we like to, you know, pick on ourselves
[34:31] Speaker 1: and throw ourselves under the bus. Yeah. I think there's
[34:33] Speaker 1: something charming about that. Yeah.
[34:35] Speaker 2: Well, you are brilliant. I'm going to try and get along.
[34:37] Speaker 2: So you've got Melbourne Music Hall in Melbourne this Friday,
[34:40] Speaker 2: Sunday at the Regent Theatre in Richmond in New South Wales,
[34:43] Speaker 2: and then the following Sunday, a Wente Leagues Club.
[34:46] Speaker 1: And then next year for mid-February where I'm reshaping the show,
[34:50] Speaker 1: shaking it up.
[34:52] Speaker 2: Doing Helen Bicci.
[34:55] Speaker 1: I just might. Helen Bicci first act, Freddy Krueger in
[34:59] Speaker 1: the second. But Freddy Krueger in a short dress, a
[35:01] Speaker 1: short sparkly dress with a hell of a spray tan.
[35:03] Speaker 1: Do you know what I mean?
[35:04] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, like a Gina Liana-esque spray tan.
[35:07] Speaker 1: What I've got out of this interview is my next show.
[35:10] Speaker 1: So thank you very much for that.
[35:11] Speaker 2: You're very welcome. But so, yeah, changing it up next year.
[35:13] Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm going to change it up. So we're going
[35:14] Speaker 1: to go back on tour until April and, yeah, then
[35:18] Speaker 1: have a bit of a rest. I've been doing radio, so...
[35:20] Speaker 1: I'd be loving that. I'd like to do more of it.
[35:22] Speaker 2: Yeah, great. I mean, yeah.
[35:23] Speaker 1: I'll be doing Saturday mornings on ABC.
[35:25] Speaker 2: Oh, I did know this.
[35:26] Speaker 1: Yeah, four months I did. My last show is this Saturday.
[35:30] Speaker 1: And it's just been great. Yeah. Because the ABC audience
[35:33] Speaker 1: is my audience, but those text lines, they come at you. Really? Yes,
[35:38] Speaker 1: if you don't do your research and you say 1967
[35:43] Speaker 1: instead of 1969, bang. But I love that. They keep
[35:46] Speaker 1: you on the toes.
[35:46] Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
[35:48] Speaker 1: You can't. You can't make shit up on the ABC.
[35:51] Speaker 2: You can't fool them.
[35:52] Speaker 1: You can't. You need to get your facts right because
[35:54] Speaker 1: they're waiting. But I love it. They play along.
[35:57] Speaker 2: Oh, good. Well, I make shit up here all day long.
[36:01] Speaker 2: ToddMcKenney.com.au for tickets. You are a legend.
[36:05] Speaker 1: So are you. Thank you. And this has been a joy.
[36:08] Speaker 1: Thank you.
[36:09] Speaker 3: It has been a joy. The Joel Creasy Show is done.
[36:12] Speaker 3: But Joel's got plenty more to say. Find more exclusive
[36:16] Speaker 3: content on the Nova Player app.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.