Transcript of AE 1269 - The Goss: Taylor Swift Has Her Biggest-Ever Show in Melbourne

G'day you mob. Pete here. And this is another episode of Aussie English, the number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English. So today I have a Goss episode for you where I sit down with my old man, my father, Ian Smissen, and we talk about the week's news weather locally Down Under here in Australia or non-locally overseas in other parts of the world. Okay. And we sometimes also talk about whatever comes to mind, right? If we can think of something interesting to share with you guys related to us or Australia, we also talk about that in The Goss.

So these episodes are specifically designed to try and give you content about many different topics where we're obviously speaking in English and there are multiple people having a natural and spontaneous conversation in English. So it is particularly good to improve your listening skills. In order to complement that, though, I really recommend that you join the podcast membership or the Academy membership at AussieEnglish.com.au where you will get access to the full transcripts of these episodes, the PDFs, the downloads and you can also use the online PDF reader to read and listen at the same time.

Okay, so if you really, really want to improve your listening skills fast, get the transcript, listen and read at the same time. Keep practising. And that is the quickest way to level up your English. Anyway, I've been rabbiting on a bit. I've been talking a bit. Let's just get into this episode guys. Smack the bird. And let's get into it.

So, Dad, Taylor Swift, you want to chat about her? Do you?

Yeah!

Being bigger than the Beatles?

Being bigger. She's big- bigger than everything.

What do you think- well, yeah. What do you want to talk about? You sent this through as a topic so we can have a yarn about it. My sister recently went to a concert of hers at the MCG, which was the biggest ever for her. Or was it the..

Biggest ever for her..

.. in Australia?

No. Biggest ever for her. 96,000 people. Three nights in a row. And then..

Jesus.

Three days later, she started four concerts in Sydney with 80,000 people each. So.

You wonder if the reason that it's so big is because in the US, there's way more venues in way more cities that are sort of dotted all over the place, right. And so you maybe it's just harder to actually get as many people interested in any single concert because they're happening all over the place.

Yeah, I think that's probably true. But also in the US, the biggest stadia are in universities. They're college football stadiums.

That's so weird.

I know.

You'd imagine that they would have built something like the MCG or something.

There are, there are a handful of college football stadiums in, or stadia, in the US that are bigger than the MCG. In the sense they hold more spectators, to 115,000 people. But because they're private university things, they won't be publicly available for concerts and things. So..

But are they used for NRL?

No.

Really? So they only college football..

Only college football.

So they can't even be used for the pro football stuff.

No.

Jeez. Where do they get the money to build those sorts of, like, it would be so weird for me to think Melbourne University has, has an MCG equivalent, and that the Melbourne CBD itself or City Council couldn't afford to build their own one. You'd be like, what?

Yeah, it's alumni donations.

Yeah. Okay, so just these rich people who go to the universities and then..

Apparently, and this may be apocryphal, I don't know, but I heard that the..

Do you want to explain what apocryphal is?

Apocryphal means it's widely believed to be true, but actually not. Yeah. The Ohio State University upgraded their stadium of about ten years ago. I think it was maybe a bit more, and it was hundreds of millions of dollars donated by one person.

Yeah.

To do it. On one condition. And that was they didn't name the stadium after him. Well, because he didn't want it to be seen if he'd even just buying a legacy.

It's insane, isn't it? Like I saw recently that Ruth goddess- Gottesman. Gottesman.

Yeah.

A long time professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. So this is a place in the US where they teach doctors, obviously. I think she obviously didn't make her money from being a professor, but I think she inherited her late husband. Right.

3 billion, I think. Yeah. His company was worth anyway.

Yeah. And she donated it all. Well, the $1 billion to Albert Einstein College of Medicine to make tuition free forever.

Yeah.

For anyone who goes there. Yeah. And you're just like, God. Like, it's so funny to me that you would think people like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg could be doing that kind of crap on a monthly basis and never run out of money, right? Like the amount that they end up making on an annual basis would be surely more than, respectively, $12 billion each. So, I mean, they may not necessarily have it liquid, but I just don't get people like Zuckerberg, who's already said he wants to donate 99% of his wealth to. But it's like, when?

He said that five years ago.

Yeah. When?

Yeah, exactly.

Like, why wouldn't you start now?

And that was, that was his, at least it was reported as being his gift to his daughter when she was born.

Yeah.

Of saying that she was going to donate, you know, 98 or 99% of..

I'd still take 1 to 2% of his wealth any day of the week.

Mind you, 98, 98% of his wealth five years ago is nowhere near what it is now.

Uh huh.

So.

But, I mean, I feel like..

Sorry, I'm in the farty chair again!

Yeah. That's it. I feel like if I was either of these guys like Elon Musk is on another level, ego wise, and delusion wise. But if I was Zuck, you would think you'd get to a point with Facebook or something where you're just like, I'm done, I'm tapping out, I'm taking my money, and I'm running like, I'm going to sell this, even if it's a fraction of it. Or a, you know, you sell a bunch to investors or whatever and just step down as CEO and then go and do something more fulfilling with your life because you would surely like. Yeah, for me personally, at least, I would like..

Which is effectively what Bill and Melinda Gates did. Bill gates just went done. He's still a majority shareholder in Microsoft, but he just said, I'm going to take my money and go out and work for charities.

Well, that's. That's what I feel like. That would be something that I would do because it's at that point you have more money than you, you know, than God, than you need. You can still live a lavish lifestyle, buy a Ferrari a day for the rest of your life, probably.

You can live a lavish lifestyle with a 100th of what they've got.

Yeah, but. But then be able to derive so much more fulfilment from life. By doing things for others. And at that scale, too. Like, where, I don't know how many. How many people- is it the Gates that have, like done a whole bunch with AIDS and malaria, right?

Yeah. They wanted to eradicate malaria from Africa. As well as working on AIDS..

You wonder how many, how many- they reckon that since the Gates Foundation since 1990 has apparently saved about 122 million children.

Yeah.

You know, by vaccinating them. And again, I don't know how accurate those numbers are, but I would imagine that it's something in the order of tens of millions of people have been had their lives saved. And imagine the productivity for humanity.

Yeah.

Just, just the fact that you've made that kind of and for places specifically disproportionately affected, like, you know, East Asia, Africa, probably the Middle East as well, that they've been able to have children who then go on into adulthood to live healthier lives, and they would have otherwise to then be able to contribute to society.

Exactly.

So, yeah, I don't know, it's a bit of a rant, but I'm like, it still blows my mind that Zuckerberg is so attached to Facebook and its success. I feel like it's like you've done it. Tap out. Like, what else is there to achieve?

Yeah, I there's a there's a sort of well known thing in business called 'founder syndrome'.

Yeah.

Where founders of companies that start off as little, you know, garage shops..

You just can't, like, go.

And turn out to be multi-billion dollar companies or even multi-million dollar companies, can't let go because they created- it's their baby. They created it. And..

Yeah,

It's not a lot- it's not a lack of trust. Because clearly when you've got a company the size of whatever the name of the company is that owns Facebook, Zuckerberg's-

Meta.

Meta. When you get a company that size, you have to trust hundreds of other people to do most of the work.

Exactly. It's all outsourced, anyway, right?

Exactly. So.

You're just the one with the vision.

But it's just that, can't let go. Yeah. This is this is my baby.

It's funny. I guess I would like to be. I would love to be put in that position with Aussie English, but I think if you offered me enough to never have to work again, I'd be like, it's yours.

Yeah.

Like. Like I love you guys. I love everyone listening. But at the same time though..

That's, that's what lots of Start-Ups are.

Yeah.

They're not Start-Ups with the intention of making making somebody, you know, $1 billion in 20 years when the, you know, the company's gone crazy.

Yeah.

It's 'make me $10 million in 2 or 3 years, somebody buys me out, and I'm right. I'm done'. Well, but often it's not the. I'm never going to work again. It's all right. What's next? You know.

Yeah. Well, I mean, and I can understand that of, like, having a passion or an interest and in just creating new businesses.

Yeah.

And there was a guy I was following for a while on YouTube. I've forgotten his name, but he was, I stumbled upon him because he was kind of outing all of these fake millionaire guru types. That like, get online and say, this is how you make millions of dollars with real estate or with, you know, how you get a jet plane. And there are so many of those charlatans who I think a lot of his, his ones that he actually showed, he's like, these people don't actually have any money. They just rent houses when they do the filming. They rent the jets, they rent all this stuff.

It's all the way you make money out of those things is to..

Pretend to have money.

Pretend to have money, and tell everybody else how to make money.

He, he had effectively just, I think he made software originally and built a company up and then sold it for $12 million. And then just was like, I'm starting a YouTube channel outing all these fuckwits. Yeah. And he's like, I just don't give a shit anymore. I don't have to work. I don't have to do any of this. I'd rather do something positive. And I really hate these fake millionaire guru types that are like taking money selling courses on how to become a millionaire from, you know, young, young guys typically. Yeah. And so it was just funny because he obviously had..

Well, it's always that, it's always that gag of I've, you know, now it's all online courses that people are selling. It used to be back- "back in my day when I was a youngster", it used to be going to seminars.

Yeah.

You'd pay $100 to go to a seminar, or often it was free. You'd go to a seminar and have this, you know, the smooth talking, rich looking dude, usually a guy, telling you how to make money fast by investing it or buy property or I've got the next get rich quick scheme sort of stuff.

It's funny, right? Because the guys who actually can, shut the fuck up and go and make..

Of course! And that's what I always wanted to- I always wanted to go to one of those things, put my hand up and go, so if you've got all the right ideas, how come you have to spend your time going around hiring halls in local communities to tell us how to get rich? Surely you would just go and do what you're saying to do and you'd be rich.

Is that a pivoted?

Yeah, I know.

Well, I had a friend back in the day who took me to an MLM multi-level marketing conference thing. He was like, Just come with me. And I'm like, Sure. And it was about, I think it was like phone plans or something, where you cold call people and try and convince them to switch over to a different plan or network or whatever it is. And, you know, you get a certain percentage of however much they pay to switch across. And I remember it going and just sitting there laughing the entire time, because it was like it was a huge church. It was like a religious experience.

It has to be!

There's music. They're getting up and dancing, and then they would have, like, speakers come up to rile everyone up at the start and be like, Who's here to make money? Who's here to let go of their shackles, to like, live their freedom, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, it was just nuts! And then when they get down to it, you're like, I was like, this is a Ponzi scheme. This is like, you know.

The Ponzi scheme. They're all..

Any- all the guys on the stage are the ones who got in early and have everyone else below them making them money.

And that's the thing you got..

.. into late, guys.

Just do the arithmetic here. If you've got five layers of people in it, the best you're going to be doing is earning, you know, 1/64 of what somebody is, and then you're trying to sell five layers below you.

Well, it was weird because we got sort of..

.. make money!

Afterwards we got taken away to like different rooms in that hotel to then be kind of marketed to.

To sign up.

By the people, the level above you.

Yeah.

And I was just like, I was sitting there the whole time, Mark. You know, my friend was just looking at me going, What do you reckon? And I'm like, let's I'll tell you when we leave. And they were like, you know, You're gonna join up? And I was like, No, I'm tapping out, dude. I'd rather get a 9 to 5 because I got a feeling that if I do this, I'll be making a lot less per hour than if I just went and worked at a restaurant.

You won't make any money. You. The money you're making is making money for other people.

Yeah.

You're doing all the work and somebody else is making the money.

Yeah. It is one of those interesting things. But anyway, I don't know how we got all sidetracked here, but..

Taylor Swift!

Taylor swift, yeah.

Well, money.

She's almost worth $1 billion now.

She's worth more now. They allegedly. Who knows what she's actually worth, but. Well, if you believe half of what you read about the numbers on this latest tour, The Eras, or Eras, if you want to pronounce it as American. It, by the time it is finished at the end of this year, going through its various..

.. hundreds of millions of dollars..

They reckon it'll have earned something like $4 billion.

Good God.

And she has a majority shareholding in that.

You'd hope so. You'd hope so.

Not- and yes, she's paying hundreds of people. Lots of money to continue this tour. But it's funny, I was a bit of a Swifty hater. Right? I didn't really like Taylor Swift and almost resented how big she was and, and the music. Just not liking the music and being like, why are people into this garbage? Why is there a 30 something year old singing about teenager problems still like, grow up, just get married, shut up, have kids, be rich. But I don't need to keep hearing album after album about having a broken heart or cheating on someone or wanting to kiss someone, but at the same time, I now sort of appreciate a little more that there is still a market for this stuff. Young kids, obviously, and older women typically probably guys too are into it. It resonates with them. And I have seen now through Reddit quite a few of her just spontaneous interactions with people in the street. And you do just get that instant vibe of she's a good person. She just seems- she's just a nice. Completely genuine, nice person.

And..

Well, the first thing I saw..

And nobody has ever got anything bad to say about her.

Yeah.

All the haters are about why is she so big? Why is she on at NFL games, why is she wasting her and all that?

And originally it wasn't necessarily that I hated that. I just hated hearing about it all the time and sort of being like, Oh, it's his song again. Every time I go into a store, bloody Taylor Swift, I'm like, I don't, I don't care, I don't want to know about it. But you know, it's, you know, it's just deal with it. You're out in public and that's how it is. But yeah, I did. I saw this interaction where I think she was walking down the street and this, you know, young teenage girl is just like, Oh my God, Taylor Swift, can I get a photo with you? And she's like, Yeah. And then she was like, Your dress is so nice, like, you know, and just instantly starts with a compliment and everything, and you're just like the amount of people that I would see, actors in particular and actresses, who get to her size and then are just arseholes. Like absolute arseholes to public people, or just completely shun them. You know, I remember- was it Jerry Seinfeld? I remember that that infamous thing with him where I think he had a small child come up and asked for an autograph, and he effectively told her to go away like, Bugger off. Get out of here. Fuck off. Leave me alone. And it's like, It's a four year old girl, dude, just give her a damn autograph.

And I was listening to- and this is an aside, listening to Travis and Jason Kelce on their podcast. The New Heights, the other day. Travis Kelce, of course, being Taylor Swift's boyfriend..

Future husband?

And Jason, his brother, who was just resigned or retired from NFL football. And Travis was saying that, you know, this is completely new for him. He said this is a level of fame that is beyond what? Because he's already..

We talked about that, right. If he- I would have no idea who he is. If he was walking down the street, he..

If he walks down the street anywhere in America and people know who he is..

But still..

He's one of the most famous footballers in America. And he said, but he said, this is fame beyond. He said, you know, when they're, you know, they'll talk about when he was in Australia because he came to Australia for a few days when Taylor was in Sydney. And, you know, they went out to Taronga Zoo.

Did she go twice?

She did. She went the first day and then he when he came, she said, we've got to go again. You'll love it. Yeah. And he was talking about how cool that was. But I know there was sort of photographs from, of, from above of them. And the guy and Jason said was this drones or whatever? He said, no, this is helicopters flying over. Yeah. Just just getting a photograph of this, you know, from above and behind this couple walking around the zoo holding hands..

.. will make his money.

And he said it. It's just beyond belief. But he said the astounding thing is she enjoys it.

Yeah.

And not enjoys the fame. But she just enjoys talking to people and being out in public. And..

I feel like..

So do I. So it's not a problem..

But I feel like. But..

It must be. And I can't imagine your mum and I were talking about this a while ago, saying, I can't imagine what it's like. Wherever you go.

Mmhmm. Someone recognises.

Someone recognises you, and there are crowds. And not just somebody recognises you. But now with social media.

Yeah.

Somebody sees her at the zoo and there's suddenly thousands of people outside waiting for her to leave. You know.

That I think would wear you down more than, more than being recognised. And it's the scale, right? Like, there's probably no issue with you being stopped every now and then in the street, even if it was on a daily basis and people one on one interacting with you. But when it gets to the point of there being a crowd or something, you would just be like, What do you want me to do? I'm not standing here for hours signing autographs, and I cannot- I can't have an interaction that's quality with any individual person now because there's a crowd here.

No, it's the 'selfie'. 'Can you sign the autograph?'.

Yeah. You would just sort of be like..

But look, some people do it, you know. You know, I talk about Amber Marshall, the star of that Canadian TV show.

That none of my audience will know.

None of your audience will know.

Do you want to drop..

Heartland. Heartland, the TV show.

Dad's watch this thing, like, five times.

Yeah, I have no idea why, but I just enjoy it. But, you know, I've seen video of her at events. Because the Heartland is a horse-y sort of a show. You know, it's all about horses and interacting.

Dad's just always been into horses.

Ah yeah never, never. But, so she goes to, you know, rodeos and, you know, agricultural shows and things, as, you know, one of their sort of star celebrities in Canada. And I remember seeing a video of her having been the sort of master of ceremonies at the sort of Grand Parade thing in one of these shows.

Mhm.

And so she's on horseback just walking around and then she's sitting on her horse at this after the thing's over at the side of the stadium. And there is a queue of people around the stadium lined up to get the selfie and the autograph or whatever. And it was a little YouTube video that somebody had taken and somebody had commented and said, I was there.

And she did..

She did that for four hours.

Yeah. Well, that was just..

And it's just. People somehow. Sometimes people just get..

Yeah.

Celebrity. They understand why they're famous. And you know, Amber Marshall is hardly even in the same.

Do you book..

Let alone pages..

Do you remember going to that conference in like 2010 with Richard Dawkins there? And he, I remember seeing probably about a thousand people lined up to get his book signed. I've got two of his books signed, and I remember getting to chat to him and just saying thank you effectively and him being like, no worries, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, hey, but and then, you know, I got to know him a little bit later at the next conference because I was working with..

Were you interviewing him?

Yeah. With the Melbourne Uni Atheist Society. But it was just so funny seeing how many people were there and being like, Jesus, he's going to go through every single. And he did. He apparently like, yeah, but yeah, I guess people are just they understand the responsibility, you know, like that. You don't you get all this fame and everything, but it's because of these people that you're there. And I imagine Taylor Swift is very connected to the fact that the reason that she has the wealth, the fame and the ability to do what she does is because of the people that support it.

Of course, it is.

Massively clued in. Yeah. But yeah. So what else did you want to talk about? That she smashed the Beatles record, right, of being in the top ten for the last 386 weeks?

Yeah.

The Beatles had 384, right?

Something like that. Yeah.

Which is pretty astounding considering..

Seven now, this week.

So how many? That's like what? Almost eight years?

Yeah.

Of being, having a song in the Top Ten.

Yeah.

And I can sort of see that the Beatles would have done that more readily than her because didn't they, didn't they only have like a seven year period where they released all those albums. It's some short. It's like a decade where..

Yeah, it was 62 to 69. So eight years.

And they smashed out. Didn't they release like 12 records or something like that?

There was more than one a year, and every one had 4 or 5 hit songs.

Yeah. And so that I can understand, right. Because if you got almost eight years, right, 384 weeks or whatever, and you're releasing an album a year or more, yeah, you can be like, okay, well, it makes sense that at least one song is going to be in the top ten for that entire time. But I don't think Taylor's had anywhere near the sort of prolific release of albums like that, right. And yet, and she also had ten songs. Didn't she have, like her entire recent album..

When it came out..

Was in the Top Ten..

It was just literally all her songs?

Yes.

What the fuck?

I know, but but see, now it's different now because..

Yeah.

Yeah, this is on the American Billboard charts. And so it's back in the old days when the Beatles were there, it was about the number of records that you sold.

Okay. So it wasn't about plays or downloads. It wasn't about radio plays or anything like that.

But now it's about sales, streams, downloads, all those things combined. So, so it's sort of, in some ways it's easier to, to stay there because and particularly in Taylor's case is that she's had rereleases of what her first four albums.

Yeah, okay.

Due to the, you know, circus she went through with.

Rama, right, of people owning the copyright or something. So but she owned the IP so she could effectively rewrite..

Well, yeah. Yeah. She owns the copyright to the song, but she doesn't own the property rights to the recordings.

Gotcha.

They were sold by her recording company. And so she just went, Well, stuff you. I'll just rerecord them, which is just a stroke of genius. It's like the guy pays $300 million for her recordings, and now they're effectively useless, you know?

Well, yeah, you'd hope you made your money back initially, and then you can just tap out, but. Yeah. I think if, to get me to like Taylor Swift more or at all like, you know, to become a fan, I think she would need to sort of start doing different stuff musically. Like, I feel like..

You haven't listened to her music. That's the..

I've heard songs..

A few of them..

I haven't listened to loads, but I just, it's not her personally or particularly. It's just pop music. I just, I get over the same tropes and the same melodies that are, you know, that sort of stuff in every song and you're just like.

So that's her pop songs. But.

Yeah.

There are some I, some of the best songs ever written. I think she's done.

Well, you'd hope so. With the money she has, you'd hope she could buy the writers.

And I just sit there and, you know, I'm a grumpy 60 something. I'm the same age as her parents, you know. Well, she's younger than you and your sister, so. And I just sit there just thinking, how can this person just have an inkling? And a lot of her fans say she's in my head.

Yeah.

She understands my life. She understands what I'm thinking, which is. Probably reasonable because let's face it, most 20 something, 30 something, well, teenage 30 something. Women have had similar experiences or similar. We all have. We've all had relationships and relationship break ups and not knowing what I'm doing with my life and all that sort of stuff. But that doesn't resonate directly with me because I'm, you know, clearly a generation older. I've never been a teenage girl.

There's still time!

Yeah, there's still time. I can identify as..

You can identify as whatever you want these days. Dad, you could be a small dog if you want.

Exactly. I don't think I could identify as a small dog. People would go, I hate to see the big dog. But I just sit and listen to them and go, I get it. I understand, like the first time there's one of the record, one of the songs that she had that that was not on Midnight. She released it out of The Vault later. You're Losing Me. The first time I heard it halfway through, I was in tears just going, this poor person, like, she's just trapped in this mind, fucked in her own head about this relationship and how do I get out of it? Or how do I how do I fix it when it's impossible? And I and I sit there and go, how is it that somebody can just write very simple lyrics that just cut to the core of that issue? It's..

As someone who's probably a bit cynical, I would imagine it's not her. It's I mean, solely it would be a team of people.

She writes with one other person often,

But but I imagine it's so polished by the time that it actually comes out that it is one of those situations where it can't fail, right? Like and that's the..

Yeah, but that's true. But why is she better at it than anybody else?

Well, because- I don't know. She's..

She's a genius.

Yeah.

It's just one of those things that you just sit there and go. If she can affect me that way.

Yeah.

The last person on earth that you would, you would think would react like that.

Oh, there's a few other sort of imagine that are further down..

There would be some, you know..

My grandparents would probably be there!

Maybe. Well, and that's, but the other thing I like about..

That'd be great. Take grandpa, Nana and Grandpa to a..

But the other thing I like about those, well, going to the concert is different. And even Annie, your sister said, I'm not going to listen to the music. I'm going..

.. For the experience. Yeah.

I sit there and go, you could you listen to the music? And they're. The melodies are pretty. And, you know, she has a standard format for her poppy type songs of, you know, she's known as, you know, the Queen of the bridge, you know. I've no idea that she will change up the melody to emphasise something towards the end of a song.

Mhm.

And that she's very good at doing that. But at the same time, if you just read it as poetry you'd go, oh my goodness, you know.

Well I guess that's the art in it. And you know, when there are so many other limiting factors on like chord progressions and note choice and everything else that's probably just so streamlined and reused as a trope, the only real way to kind of express yourself artistically is in the lyrics and, you know, the delivery of it on the day. But I think I respect it, too, the fact that you were telling me she, to train, to get used to being able to sing something like 30 or 35 songs in a single night, which is like 3 to 4 hours or 3.5 hours. Good God is..

Five nights a week.

Yeah.

A year.

She, she walks on a treadmill whilst practising it, right. Doing the entire set list.

Yeah.

You're just like, good God. I can't imagine though to getting to that point. Like, it is interesting, right? People who get to that amount of wealth and still keep going when it's something much more like, like I would respect her so much more than someone like Zuckerberg, because it seems like there is so much more. Talent and, well, not just talent, but but discipline and hard work that is required. Like she has to maintain her physical health, her ability to sing, to perform. And then she has to travel all over the world in order to do this repeatedly and to do it night after night, after night after night, and still be going when you're at the level that you're at, when she could just tap out tomorrow and never be seen again and be fine.

The thing that I appreciated about it, and it's, I think musical performance. Like actors who are live on stage is a bit like this too. But musical performers in particular, for me, are almost the ultimate in that sort of celebrity.

Yeah.

Because they are constantly giving. This is about, you know, 4 or 5 nights a week for a year.

Yeah.

You're up performing and you're giving to like between 1000 and 100,000 people.

Yeah.

Every time you go out there.

It'll be..

Whereas if you're a movie actor, yes, you work hard at your craft and you, you work on a movie for a year, six months.

But every time the movie plays, you're not there having to perform.

You don't have to perform it. You're not doing it over and over and over again.

That's why they respect theatre performers so much more, right? And that's seen as a purer art or whatever.

Yeah, exactly. And look, Springsteen says it that every night when he gets up in front of a crowd, he performs a magic act. And he says, I don't know how I do it. I can't teach someone to do it. I just know that I can do it. And you just. He said. It's a, it's a, this fusion of the performer and the audience.

Yeah.

And you watch the Taylor Swift as well where you, you know, watch the movie from the tour, a couple of times last week and it's astounding, the performance. Because it is a performance. It's not just a rock concert. It's a, she performs the same thing every night and changes one song.

Yeah, okay.

But, but that performance, it goes for over three hours. You just sit there and go, this is astonishing.

Yeah, well, and that's, that's what I mean. Like, my astonishment is that you wouldn't just get to a point where you'd be like, I'm not doing that anymore.

Yeah.

Like, this is so much effort.

Yeah, you've done it 100. She's, I think it's now 120 something times.

I guess though, the other side of it, the flip side that I had, only that only just popped into my head, is that she must also be appreciative of the fact that she has hundreds of people that work for her, and that if she did just tap out tomorrow, there all of a sudden unemployed effectively, right? I mean, I'm sure they would find jobs and everything, but she would also know that there's this whole apparatus below her that is, her company, her business, you know, that she's created, that she's running. And if she stops.

Christmas bonus last year.

Yeah, 100 grand.

A hundred, 100 grand each.

Yeah.

Yeah.

50 roadies? Or was that to every single person who works for her?

No. The people on the tour, the roadies, the, you know, sound people, the dancers, the..

That was another thing that I think was just a massive. Wow, respect.

Yeah.

Like, especially I guess. Yeah, it would be. I would like to think I would..

Apparently. Allegedly, if you to believe what you see, she pays them well anyway.

Yeah.

Yeah. But.

Well that's. I was about to say, I think I would like to think if I was making that kind of money, that I would have that kind of philanthropic attitude towards the people making it happen, right? Yeah. You would just be like, I'm not going to just pinch pennies and, you know, take it all. Yeah. You know..

And look, people, it's and it's alleged that last year she gave away 300 million USD to charity.

Wow. Yeah.

Who knows whether that's ever true because most of the most celebrity charity donations are..

Anonymous.

Anonymous. But yeah, if it's a 10th of that, it's still a lot of money. And yes, people go, oh yeah, but she earned $1 billion. She can afford it..

It's like, yeah, but lots of other people who earn that. Yeah. If you gave away 100 grand, did you donate 30?

I know..

Like, I did! In tax. Yeah.

Yeah. And, and so that yeah there's that. And you know a lot of celebrities do similar things. So it's not I'm not going to. Putting her up on a pedestal of, you know, she's better than everybody else. But yeah, I've I've yet to find something to dislike about her, and that's not something I can say about.

That's how I dislike it.

Yeah. Like I want to dislike it right now. Well. And that's. And look..

God damn it, why can't you just be a horrible human..

.. Travis Kelce thing, too? I just sit there and go, this is, this is a match made in heaven. Like it's because he's the nicest person on earth. Present company excluded.

He's probably nicer than me.

And you, and you just look. Yeah, from what you see. And of course, it's all, you know, you're just the superficial stuff. But again, nobody's ever got a bad thing to say about him, his brother, his family, and she just seems to have slotted straight into that. And so it's just the two families, you know, he Travis was, you know, hanging out with her dad at a couple of concerts and they're, you know, arm in arm dancing and high fiving and, and she goes to the football with his mum.

Yeah.

So they just seem to be genuine family people who now happen to have a lot of money and fame.

Yeah. So.

I would love to, to have a chat with them, right. To know their experience of these. The parents of both Kelce and, and Swift to, to be like. What has it been like for you watching your kids reach a level of fame? Because I imagine that both their respective parents came from, you know, middle class, working class kind of people.

Tyler's family are reasonably wealthy.

Okay.

Her father was a, a financial adviser.

Okay. And he ended up being a bit of work.

He ended up being a senior vice president of Merrill Lynch.

Yeah. Okay. So he's sweet. Yeah. Yeah. Okay..

So she came. She came from money, but not hyper wealthy.

No. Yeah. Well that's it..

Whereas the Kelce's were just an ordinary, you know, I think the. Yeah. Mr. Kelce, dad, was a factory worker.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I think that would be the interesting conversation to have with the parents of him being like, what is it like not only for your son to have gotten to a point where he's worth something like, you know, 60, $70 million and is a famous footy player in the US, but then for him to hook up with someone who's worth ten times, if not more, maybe 20 times the amount that he's worth. Does that..

A thousand times that just celebrity..

Does that just blow your mind? Like, how has that impacted your day to day life? Or are you still just living in your same old house and no one knows who you are? And you just go about your day and you're just like my little secret, you know, last sort of point on wealth. And this is a random question, but I found this out the other day. I couldn't I couldn't believe it, right. So the prime minister of the UK, you know, that guy, Rishi Sunak?

Yes.

How much do you reckon he's worth?

Oh, it's hundreds of millions.

It's, it's. It's something like 730 million USD.

Ah, US dollars.

Yeah, yeah. Oh, no. Sorry. Pounds. Yeah. 844 million.

Yeah.

So over 1 billion AUD. Does it- I guess my, my thing that I was thinking here is like, at what point do you have a prime Minister that is that wealthy? And you think that that is a conflict of interest.

Well, it depends on where his money and I don't know where his..

He worked as a banker, as a financial investor and all that sort of stuff back in the early 2000s. And apparently that's where he earned all of it. I don't know, you know, he probably already had it for him to get to that level. But yeah, he, it's just ridiculous, right?

Yeah. It's a, it's a funny one because. A British and Australian politics are not money oriented.

Yeah.

There's still the- and in any political situation there is the chance of inappropriate behaviour, corruption, where people in power are making decisions that financially or otherwise benefit themselves.

Mhm.

The challenge with that, though, is you look at it and go, if somebody's worth that much money, it doesn't need to be corrupt.

Yeah.

So.

But I guess the question here would be corrupt to the extent that he would be wanting to protect his wealth, right. And so in government in particular, doing things in order to protect..

Is he making decisions about the banking industry?

Or real estate, or wherever he has his assets, right? Because he doesn't just have £730 million in the bank.

No.

They're in things that people own or live in. Or..

Is that any different from a politician in Australia who owns 2 or 3 properties on the coast of New South Wales? You know, holiday houses on the coast of New South Wales, who then becomes the planning minister?

Yeah,

Yeah. Yeah. We're going to create a national park around that. And so the boom, you know. And so yeah, not that it's that simple. I'm being flippant, but, so I don't, I don't think the size of the wealth is the issue.

Yeah.

That corruption is, you know, always a possibility. But the other side that I have, the other thing that I have with that is if somebody is worth that amount of money, then they probably have other reasons for going into politics. They, you know, there's a chance they genuinely do want to do something.

Yeah.

It was just something I was learning about recently, and was just thinking, like, is there a guy..

Malcolm Turnbull's not in that sort of money, but Malcolm Turnbull's probably the wealthiest prime minister Australia has ever had.

I didn't realise Scott Morrison apparently here on Google is worth 40 something million dollars. Again. Yeah. Talk about the worst prime minister we ever had. Anyway, Taylor Swift yeah, I might have to check out some of her tunes.

Yeah. Do it.

But..

Listen to All Too well. It'll blow your mind when you look at this and go, a 21 year old wrote this and..

Yeah. God. All right, well, hopefully, hopefully this is, gotten it out of our system because I did have a question last week on Instagram. Like, do you like Taylor Swift? What do you think of her? I was just like, Yeah, I don't know. I used to hate her, but I kind of, I don't love her, but I'm I appreciate her, I appreciate her. I think that's where I sit now. I'm kind of like, look, I understand, you know? Anyway.

All right.

See ya!

Peace!