Ooh.

And, uh, we experience the flavors, the culture.

We meet some characters, and the chefs get inspired, uh, by their travels, and they come back onto, onto the ship, and they, uh, uh, basically come up with a dish, um, from scratch based on, on, on their-

Yeah

... uh, based on ships, the captain's dinner's where everybody gets dressed up in like tuxedos and suits and, and, you know, frocks, and it's very fancy.

There's 4,000 guests on board, and they have to cook for, for them.

Um, and whoever gets...

And they basically pitch their, their, their dishes to the, uh, the diners, and whoever gets the most orders wins the most coveted Australian culinary prize on, on TV at high seas.

Of course.

Uh, and he's, he's an absolute joy, as we all know.

Um, and Dan Hong, who's an absolute icon of, uh, the Australian restaurant scene, uh, particularly in Sydney, massive.

Um, they, they come on board.

So two chefs come on board.

Uh, they experience the ship on the, uh, the Princess Cruise.

The, um, and then we get off port.

Yeah

And sometimes it happened to be in Pete Helliar's car.

Anyway, we agreed.

We thought, you know what? You know one thing we've never done? I don't remember this chat.

We've never donated blood.

You have never donated blood.

At that time, I had never donated blood.

That was like eight years ago.

recycle or build back up again? I don't

What's happening?

Basically, I'm hosting, I'm not cooking.

We travel around on a princess cruise around the Mediterranean, around Japan, around Korea.

Each episode, two chefs join me on board, and they get inspired by the local cuisine.

They meet characters from places like Busan and Barcelona, and they create a dish based on their experiences and the culture of where we're visited.

And they will plate that dish up at the captain's dinner for about 4,000 guests.

Are these chefs cooking for 4,000 people?

Yeah.

True,

true.

But it's funny because Rove has mentioned it recently to me that we did in the very first season of...

I did a second called Other People's Lives.

And because I always loved big ego characters with little talent.

And I just like that mockumentary kind of format because I was a big fan of, you know, like obviously Spinal Tap and I think Guffman had been released by then.

But this is all pre-office and all that stuff.

of Mormon.

Mm

... to make strangers laugh"? And I'm not sure about you, but I often look back when I was younger.

Like, I traveled around Europe for six months just by myself, you know, backpacking around Europe, um, and the UK and a little bit of Scandinavia.

Uh, and I look back, you know, I, I hitchhiked in Ireland, and I look back and I go, "What were you doing? You were like...

Geez, you had some balls." You know, like, and you...

the older you get, you probably, you know, you, you're probably taking less risks.

And, and, and, um, and I, and I look back at that, you know... 'Cause people say, "Oh, comedy must be the hardest thing in the... to do." Like, so many people say that, but it's so untrue.

[laughs]

[laughs]

2023 was...

Well, 2023 basically is the, is the, uh, the antidote, because, uh, if that doesn't happen, I was-- it would still hurt more.

That was like, that w- I'd said, uh, between 2018 before 2023, that 2018 was so close to being the best day of my life.

Because I was with, yeah, everyone.

You know, um, my dad was sitting with us.

You know, everyone who I go with every week, I was able to get tickets to have us all together.

[laughs]

It

was Will, myself, Tripod, Ross Noble, Keith Robinson.

Yes.

Ross took over from Keith.

They kind of split the tour.

Yeah.

Corinne and Matt King.

Okay.

Have you seen anything like this with a coach that's sort of new school, new age, and really looking to get the most out of his players in different ways?

Yeah.

And it's, I've been lucky enough to go into the club a few times.

I was even there last, last week for a couple of days.

And yeah, You literally see it on the walls and this was fly who did this.

He he's put history on the walls.

There's reminders everywhere about the jumper, about the history of the game.

us a bit more about

Wow, and did you poo your pants when he tapped you on the shoulder and said, oh, I think you're amazing? Like had you idolised him or was it just like you was just kind of checking him

out? I'd be lying if I said I was quite at the idolisation point with Rove.

Like he was just, he was a guy that I saw on stage a couple of times.

So he wasn't Rove McManus, you know.

He was just Rove from that duo Rove and Duff.

He was starting to break out and do his own stuff though.

I was flattered that anyone, you know, kind of, said nice things, you know, and, um, but I don't know, there's something.

Is there a story that comes to mind when...

Yeah, that's

right.

Accurate.

Because Tommy was booked weeks out, so you don't know what's going to happen.

I remember having a conversation with Tommy after the show, and he was a bit white.

We were both probably a bit white in this going, geez, that was tough.

And it's an ongoing situation.

Like 14 years, I mean, I know some people get even less than that, but 14 years doesn't feel long enough for something that becomes so much part of your life.