Earlier this week I caught up with the very talented Francis Greenslade in my favourite Melbourne suburb in terms of pronunciation: Elsternwick. We chatted for an hour about insects, acting, Blue Heelers, Winners & Losers, Shaun Micallef, sketch comedy, theatre, musical instruments and other related things.
Fortunately, this fascinating conversation was recorded and you can hear it all in the latest episode of David M. Green & Other Famous People. Available on iTunes, as well as in the player embedded below:
31 Questions S2E06 aired on C31 Melbourne & Geelong on the 31st day of August. And there is it on glorious YouTube.
I spent 4 days in Sydney last week. It was the first time in seven years I’d been somewhere that wasn’t Melbourne or Adelaide. And it was fantastic.
I stayed in the seaside suburb of Sans Souci on the shores of Botany Bay (to my knowledge, the only bay named after a spaceship from Star Trek) with the lovely Barb Badham:
She’s mother to my good friend and mentor Van Badham. Here’s a photo of her aged 14, which I discovered in a drawer that wasn’t locked in any serious kind of way:
I forgot that I actually like Sydney. Last time I was there it was for New Year’s Eve 2006 when my Grandma treated the family to watch the fireworks on Sydney Harbour. An unforgettable experience. Back then, I returned to Adelaide via Melbourne. On that trip, I had a much better time in Sydney than Melbourne. To quote my 19-year-old self from my own diary:
7 January 2007
“I think I prefer Sydney to Melbourne. Watching this promotional video in the Rialto Tower really gave me the impression Melbourne is an arrogant city. It’s really just a bigger, more disorganised Adelaide.”
It probably didn’t help I was travelling with my good friend John Timoney and by the time we got to Melbourne, we were well and truly sick of each other. While I’ve got my diaries out, here’s how I felt about Melbourne when I was there again 18 months later:
12 July 2008
“Melbourne is great. I can see myself living here more than I could last time.”
Quite a turn around! And since then, the only news I ever hear about Sydney is to do with traffic congestion, high cost of living and racist electorates in the western suburbs. But I always have a great time when I’m there (I don’t drive and I stay away from the western suburbs).
Highlights of this Sydney trip include meeting Mark Humphries from ABC2’s “The Roast” at Pizza Hut. We talked comedy and TV and such for 5 hours straight. Didn’t even take a photo with him. But he’s pretty good in this:
I also caught the train to the Petersham TAFE to be interviewed by Sean Campbell for his “The Sean Campbell Show” on XRLENT Radio. Good guy. We talked about 31 Questions, TVS, RMITV, radio and Adelaide. Here’s the video of our chat:
On Thursday, after one and a half cancellations, I finally caught up with my old radio pal Matty B at the Queen Victoria Building (or MB at the QVB). Hadn’t seen him in 3 years. Again no photo, but we did do this once:
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And now for the strangest experience of my trip…
On Thursday night, to coincide with the broadcast of S2E04 on TVS, I journeyed to Ultimo (a couple of streets back from the headquarters of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation), home to the infamous “Ultimo Bachelor Pad” – the self proclaimed (and probably rightly so) biggest 31 Questions fans in, if not Sydney, then the world.
Now, they are some REAL fans…
To illustrate:
Dear God. We must be doing something right with 31 Questions?
Thanks again to Mike, James, Zoe, Nathan, Mel and (via Skype from Europe) Daniel for a magnificent dinner and cake, as well as their ridiculous amount of support they continue to give to me and the rest of the 31 Questions team. Fans in other cities, you’ve got your work cut out for you if you plan on topping that.
I’m now safely back in Melbourne. And it’s back to the hyper-reality that is my life.
Kind regards,
David M. Green
PS. 31 Questions debuts on Face Television New Zealand this Thursday 9.30PM.
It was 31 Questions S2E04’s premier on C31 Melbourne & Geelong last Saturday evening. And now available in fabulous web-based YouTubed form (where available).
Special thanks again to Dan Ilic and Rex Hunt, who both made cameos in Ep 4. And the fabulous editing work from Dan Jones and Anthony McCormack.
Coming up on tomorrow night’s show, it’s the John Blackman episode with special guest… John Blackman (SURPRISE!), as well as Dicky Knee!
John Blackman was on Melbourne radio station 3AW with Philip Brady and Simon Owens again on Thursday night. He made some downright lovely comments about me and the show:
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Good on Philip Brady for asking the tough questions. Parking is shocking around RMIT University, especially during the day.
Couldn’t have done it without an incredible team.
And in late breaking news, 31 Questions has an ALL NEW time slot for New Zealand’s Face Television. We’re now on Thursdays 9.30PM, starting September 12. Apologies to my Kiwi friend(s) for our ever-changing start date.
31 Questions S2E02 aired on C31 Melbourne & Geelong on Saturday 3 August 2013. Could we have conjured a more “game showy” picture than the one in the above YouTube preview image?
If so, I’d like to see it.
Anthony McCormack did a sensational job editing/booty-shaking this one. And I love his Don Bradman gag. Sequentially, this was actually the third episode we shot for this season, and from memory there were quite a lot of problems that night. So it’s good to see it wasn’t a complete write-off (like the first two!).
Other 31Q things…
Thursday evening marked my first time on Melbourne radio station 3AW. I had a chat with Philip Brady, Simon Owens and John Blackman about the show (mainly mine, not so much theirs). Both John and Simon have made appearances on 31 Questions. Their episodes are coming up in the next few weeks.
Amazingly in this media-saturated modern world of ours, the 3AW webcam video of my interview was on YouTube within minutes. Saves me uploading the audio myself. Check it out (stay watching right til the end to see some innovative signaling from the panel operator):
Here’s an interesting bit of news. I was about to reveal it on 3AW before getting sidetracked, but in our upcoming fifth episode – which was actually the sixth one we taped and will air in Melbourne on August 24 – not only is that the episode John Blackman makes an appearance, but the dude contestant that week is Rohan Zorz, who just Monday entered the Big Brother house as a “latecomer” contestant on Channel Nine!?!
I find this all very bizarre. Usually Big Brother contestants appear on game shows AFTER they’re kicked out of the house.
Unfortunately, a cursory glance at the #BBAU tweets shows a general hatred of Rohan. Exactly how this legion of teenage girls with anti-Rohan agendas will affect 31 Questions is yet to be fully understood.
At the moment, we’ve got the classic DMG mug for sale for the reduced price of $20. We’re working on some new designs, so keep checking to see what we’ve got in stock. All proceeds will go towards the future of 31 Questions (there’s already been talk of a third season 😉 ).
See you Saturday for Ep 3.
Kind regards,
David M. Green
Still not going to watch Big Brother.
There it is! Fresh from the C31 Melbourne & Geelong sliver of the television spectrum, 31 Questions Season 2, Episode 1 for your YouTubing pleasure.
Or if you’d prefer, you can always wait until it airs in Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide or New Zealand. Up to you. Next city to get the 31 Questions televisual treatment is Perth on WTV this Sunday 11.30AM.
Interesting side note, this is the difference between a guy who wears a question mark jacket, and a guy who wears a question mark jacket ON TELEVISION:
Tout that!
Special thanks also to our official sponsor for Season 2, Mind Games: purveyors of fine puzzles and board games.
And get a load of this…
As a special offer for 31 Questions fans, if you go into any of the Mind Games stores in Victoria (and hey why not, try this at their Queensland stores too), if you mention 31 Questions and can correctly answer a question from this week’s show, they’ll give you 20 PER CENT OFF your purchase! HOW FREAKING AMAZING IS THAT!?!
How great is saving money?
No, that’s not one of the questions.
Kind regards,
David M. Green
Ironically, there’s a Season 1 gag about “mind games”, which I wrote and recorded before I was aware there was an actual store already called “Mind Games”.
