Monte Franklin on Joke Structure, Confidence, and Reading Any Room
Become funnier, faster: the joke framework you can practice tonight.
I just sat down with Monty Franklin.
Twenty-year Australian stand-up; toured globally; appeared on Rob Schneider’s TV show; currently on tour.
In this episode you’ll learn
Write jokes with setup→angle→misdirection→punch→tag; hit laughs every 10–15 seconds (18:52).
Use the 5+5+5 path to find your voice faster (05:23).
Read any room and engineer connection - lighting, seating, energy, confident vulnerability (38:46).
We dive into the details later in the conversation.
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
02:48 Vulnerability in comedy
05:23 Finding your voice (the 5+5+5 model)
07:59 The flow of comedy
10:50 Confidence through experience
13:23 Life experiences fuel material
16:19 Improv vs stand-up
18:52 Anatomy of a joke and cadence
28:54 Evolving joke structure
38:46 Reading the room
45:38 Being Australian in America
54:31 Burn the safety net
56:43 Opportunities in the arts
59:56 Personal growth through change
1:03:11 Confidence and self-acceptance
1:06:49 Living in the moment
1:10:40 Cultural generosity
1:14:07 Purpose and philosophy
1:17:35 Embracing change and adventure
1:21:16 Finding happiness in uncertainty
Listen
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Here’s the full transcript:
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (00:00.143)
If somebody wanted to learn how to become funny and you had to teach them in an hour, how’d you go about it? What kind of funny do you want to be? Do want to be on stage funny? Do you want to be funny around your friends? Do you want to be funny looking? He was kind of funny looking. The parts of you you want to hide, those are the ones to actually bring out. Share those, but share them wholeheartedly. I want to break down the anatomy of a joke. Setup, angle, misdirection, punch, tag.
You have to be hitting a joke every 10 to 15 seconds. was finishing my show and some lady from the back of the room yelled out, don’t give up your day job. I yelled back, well, I’d tell you not to give up your day job, but hookers work at night. did a Joe Romans podcast. He said to me, so how are you fucked up? Like I just laughed. told him what, and he said, that’s the same one for me. How are you fucked up? cause of.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (00:54.638)
Welcome to That One Time with Adam Metwally, the podcast bridging the gap between health, hustle and happiness. We’re at podcasts from Wyal in Chelsea, New York City, and I’m with Australian comedian, Monte Franklin. Hello. Hello, Monte. Hello. So if somebody wanted to learn how to become funny, aka me, and you had to teach them in an hour, how’d you go about it?
All right, I need to ask you a few questions though. So what kind of funny do you want to be? Do you want to be on stage funny? Do you want to be funny around your friends? Do you want to be a funny actor? Do you want to be funny looking? Like there’s a few different things. So you need to be specific. would say funny enough to navigate life in a better way. Just life funny. Just be a bit more interesting for people to be around and to enjoy life a little bit more. Yeah, maybe you meet a hotter girl because she thinks you’re funny and...
Apparently that’s useful to people. with women as a guy or with attracting the opposite sex or same sex, whatever, confidence is the big part of funny there. It doesn’t matter really what you’re saying within reason, but if you say it with confidence and a little bit of flair, anything’s going to be interesting to talk about if you’re not hesitant with what you’re talking about. That’s what I come back to knowing who you are.
is more than just being your voice and being a difference. Because there’s a lot of people that rise to success that you think, but they’re just the same as blah. Why did they rise to success? I’ll tell you why. Because they maybe use the same format that’s used before or the same blueprint that you’ve seen someone else do, but they did it in their confidence, in their truth. So
My big advice, if you want to have a more interesting outlook, have people find you funny and interesting to talk to, is to tap into yourself a little bit more. And the parts of you that you think you want to hide, those are the ones to actually bring out. There’s a great interview and a line from Quentin Tarantino in his movies. He said, if I’m at the point where I’m a little bit scared,
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (03:05.74)
to share this with the people that I know, I know it’s something good. And he’s right. Like the things inside you, the things that you feel, the things that you’ve gone through that you’re like, I don’t want to share that with anyone. Share those, but share them wholeheartedly because everyone’s got those. So if you are confident enough to share the most vulnerable parts of you, the most intimate parts of you, the things that you’re scared about and can do it with confidence, that will become interesting. And then after a while, you’ll know how to
confidently and charismatically hold conversations or to talk in front of a crowd or to maybe act or anything like that on a better scale when you know yourself a little bit better and are confident in that. That’s the first step. And then the second thing is to lace it with comedy, with funny things, and the best way to do that, and you might...
be in a stage of your life where you might be too late for this kind of stuff, but you need to draw on things in your life that you found funny. So if you went through all of my comedy, anything I’ve done acting comedic wise or anything, it all stems back to The Simpsons. It all comes from that. I watched them flat out when I was a kid. So my comedy all comes from things I learnt from The Simpsons, comedic timing I got from The Simpsons.
anything that I learned of how to be interesting and funny and talk to and elements of that all came from saying references from The Simpsons early on as a kid and then getting my own things to add into conversation that weren’t just references from that or from movies and stuff. So that’s what I would say. The first framework is to get a real hold of yourself to present to the world in a confident way.
And then the second thing is to draw on things you found interesting and funny from your life that usually come from anything from movies, from other people’s stories and stuff like that. I’m not saying go around plagiarizing everyone, but everyone has been given inspiration from something else and it’s all come from somewhere else. So just wrap it up in your own package and deliver it in your way. And that is, that’s the simplest way to be interesting and funny.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (05:31.746)
What was an example of you being vulnerable in your comedy through your life? Because you mentioned that was really important. I think in the last, I reckon it’s only the last two years have I really been comfortable to really get vulnerable. I think before that, I’ve done stand up for 20 years and I’ve, this is how it has worked with comedy for me and I think a lot of people.
is the first five years are you just figuring out what it’s like to stand on stage with a light in your face and a microphone. Then you can start to craft a little bit of elements of ownership on stage. And that sort of takes about five years. And then it takes you another five years to really find your voice and yourself, what I’m talking about. And then after about the 15 year mark, you can really start tapping into what do I have to say?
That might be of the same subject matter. You think about how many people have done jokes about dogs and they’re still funny. Why are they still coming up with different ways? Because it’s your take on it. So once you can tap, start tapping into that, that’s where you get real, real comedy from. So I feel like only in the last couple of years have I been open enough and vulnerable enough to tap into some of the experiences of my life. A father leaving when I was young and I talk about that on stage now.
how to make that funny. Because I know other people have experienced either that or similar things in their lives going through divorce. And I tapped into that without just surface level talking about it, because you can easily just say, my wife, my wife’s stupid and fat and I’m a hoe. But actually talking about how it made you feel and how you felt, you know, being, you know, 42 now and single in the world and everything. And I think
getting to a point of vulnerability like that is where you start really having proper human connections with audience. And that’s the key, you think? How do you tie in between the connection versus the funny, though? This is what I’ve said it’s kind of like. So for the first 15 years of my career, I was good at what I was doing. I was doing stand-up. I was going around. was headlining and doing shows. And people would leave and...
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (07:53.026)
This is how I felt. never really saw this, but I felt they would leave and go, that was really fun. I had a great time. And they would forget everything I said the minute they leave the building. But now, because I really tap into some deeper, meaningful things, people come up to me with specific things and go, that happened to me with the something or other, right? We had this conversation yesterday. Yeah, exactly. so now I feel like, and with
comedy that I love, I think about it weeks later, years later, anything, just in the shower, you think about something that someone said and you went, that’s just like how I felt. Now I feel like I’m doing that a bit more. So I’m tapping into a deeper place of human connection where people don’t just leave the show smiling and having a good time, but forget everything I said, they leave smiling, having a good time and then think about it days later and go, that was really, that was really interesting. It’s like when you see a really good movie that has
much more intricate detail than just a fun rom-com, which is also great. But sometimes you see these movies and days later you’re just like, wow, they really tapped into something there, into the human psyche, into the thing that makes us all interested and curious at each other. So I think that’s the level that I hope I’m at and I feel like I’m at right now, which is really fun to explore.
It’s nice and nerving, but in a cool way. I think with a lot of creative pursuits, that’s where really, really good stuff comes from. And I again, go back to musicians because when musicians really tap into a set, if you see a great singer and they’re clearly good at playing guitar, doing whatever, and you’re like, they’re a good musician, but listen to their lyrics and they’re like, I would climb the highest mountain. would.
swim across the sea and you’re like, would you? Do you really, are you just writing words? But then you hear someone write some deep real words and you’re like, that’s, that’s real. That’s coming from a real place. That is a, that’s a deeper level of, of artistic connection that I think some of the comedians that I know and love really get to. And it’s interesting that most comedians you talk to say it takes that long, takes 15 years.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (10:17.646)
some comedians who are very, very good and tap into it early, like my mate Ronnie Chang, who I feel tapped into that after about six years of doing standup. he just knew himself a little bit better and it usually takes people a lot longer. sometimes, and like if you look back at Eddie Murphy, was doing that at 19. So he was just like a savant, like how Mozart was just gifted, like so was Eddie. And he just knew how to...
how to touch that artistic human emotion very early on. most people, takes training, takes time. it, it sounds like the difference is storytelling, good storytelling. Yeah, but there’s people that can be good storytellers around a dinner table, but can’t necessarily get on stage and do it in that format. So there is a difference. What is the difference? I think
If you’re around the dinner table and telling a good story and you can engage everyone at the table, that’s that’s like playing in the NBL. You’re very good. But if you want to play in the NBA, you’ve got to be quite exceptional and you’ve got to tap into a different level of yourself to do that in front of twelve hundred, two thousand people. Right. I think.
Big difference is a lot of people that are good storytellers around the dinner table are doing it. And there’s part of them that’s, I want the attention. Hey, look at me for a second. I’ve got a good story to tell, which is fine in the dinner table environment. If you get on stage and say, Hey, look at me. I’ve got a story to tell. You won’t get the same connection as if, as opposed to being when you’re really sitting in good standup comedy is when you are
the conductor of the evening. are not the main event. Yes, you’re the one on the stage with the light and stuff, but you are the conductor of getting the energy from the audience, letting it flow through you and then putting it back out to them. So you are just like making beats and everything like that and getting the audience to come with you and everything like that. And you know it’s not about you. It’s about that, that energy, that flow, that movement. The story is
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (12:36.232)
as much part of the audience being involved as you are. And it’s a back and forth. It’s like a breathing. I put out, you put back, I take in, I put back. And then when you get into that flow, ooh, that’s where the sweet spot of comedy is. And it’s you feel part of it rather than making it. And that’s the key. It’s reminding me of when I DJ. Sometimes you just tap into a certain
Yeah. The room is right and it feels like you’re in that flow state. Yeah. But it takes a very long time to get to that flow state. I feel like you need to get the reps in of the skill before you can turn your brain off almost to a point where you can just be in it. Yeah. Yeah, you do. So that’s the 10, 15 years. Yeah. You need to almost experience every scenario to go, oh, I’ve been here before. Yeah. I know this energy. I know what’s happening. There’s a...
someone’s laughing too loud over there. So it’s distracting that group. then that was a result. They’re worried that they’re not laughing enough and stuff. And so you have to mold that into and yeah, if you, if you’re DJing and trying to get the vibe of everyone in the room together, enjoying what you’re doing. And then suddenly you aren’t the one conduct like pressing the buttons anymore. You’re just feeling it completely and just going, and now we’re going to go here and it all works. So that, yeah.
I think the flow of that is integral to getting that level of connection. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I want to jump back to the confidence side. So would you just say purely the reps is what builds our humor confidence? It helps. It’s part of it. But it doesn’t always need to just be reps. I think it’s life, it’s circumstance.
A lot of the times when I’m building up a show, so I’m on tour right now, I’ve got my show that will evolve over the show, the tour, and when I go to Europe and blah, blah, everything, but it’s pretty set, right? So for the last three, four months, I was building that show and doing as many shows as I could in LA and San Diego, wherever I could get to and stuff like that, and doing shows every night. And then I’d get to a point and I go, I’m getting
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (14:55.235)
diminishing returns on this now, I need to go and live a bit of life. need to go on a surfing trip. need to do something else. So as much as the reps, I would say is part of it, because you get to a point where you’re so comfortable on stage because you’re doing it so often that it’s not even an issue. It’s just, okay. And we go. And when you can get into that state of things, it’s very easy to...
bring in the other elements that are part of it. So the reps is a big part, but also life is a big part, almost as big as the reps. So you need to go out, you need to live your life, you need to experience so that you’ve got things to talk about and say on stage, you can’t just be talking about airports and hotel rooms and planes, which is why a lot of comedy from the nineties was that because it’s all they were doing. The peanuts on the plane are funny because it’s all that was happening. So.
Yes to reps, but yes to life and yes to embracing the weird things that come your way because something interesting will come out of it. Yes to saying yes. Saying yes. Yeah. Like that movie, Yes Man, when Jim Carrey just starts saying yes to everything. Seriously. I did that for a while.
I went, I’m going to try yes, man, for just a week. And I had to say no to a couple of things because I’m like, I’m not doing that. was more like someone was going to Tokyo and said, you should come with me. as a joke, I can’t just, but I should have. so, um, uh, logistically, I don’t think so. think at the time I wasn’t that well off to just, I mean, you could have been like, pay for it. Yeah. If you can figure it out, I’ll come with you. And I’ve done things like that before. Sure.
But um, slept in a bush as per the rapid fire story. I’ve jumped on planes and got we in places before. Um, then, uh, yeah, I, um, uh, I don’t know what the question was now. do you build confidence through humor? Um, or how do you build your humor confidence? And I was talking about reps on a side note while we’re here, have you read the artist’s way by Julia Cameron? No, there’s a book called the artist’s way. And it talks about
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (17:11.566)
you know, more strategies around how to be a good artist. And one of the strategies of it is something she calls the artist’s date, which is exactly what you’re saying. So she says, go out once a week to put in a two hour block where you go do something for you. That is just to fill up your artistic curiosity. Maybe you go to a, go to a park that you’ve never been to, or you go to a movie alone, or you go to a museum or something, something that is
has no goal. I would recommend that. And I do that a lot because out of curiosity, because curiosity will get you to places that you can explore differently, see differently, and then articulate that through your built up reps and through your confidence to stay on stage and stuff like that. getting to a point and back to building up the confidence and the reps and stuff like that.
I remember when I was a kid, my mom put me into tennis lessons and I was being told how to hit a forehand and a backhand and shown by a coach and stuff like that. And you get the hang of it a little bit, but looking back, the thing that made me be a decent tennis player and I can play tennis, I’m not going to go in the Australian Open next week, but the thing that changed was I watched
tennis players and I’d go and I’d watch them and see how they hit and then I’d try and mimic them as a kid on the on the court. And that gave the next level of what you could do out there, which is similar to your confidence and being funny like that. Watch other comedy and see, that’s how he’s looked at that subject and has delivered it in that way. How interesting. How can I adopt that into what I do through my way?
and stuff like that. So watching, learning, observing, and then just trying it out yourself. That’s how you build up those reps and how you get to a better place. Yeah, I mean, that’s a really good analogy to learn any skill almost. It’s not quite comedy, but the first time I realized I could learn and get good at things, because when I was younger, I didn’t have much confidence either. It was a similar scenario, broken home, beaten down.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (19:37.263)
pretty, pretty badly. But then I started playing a lot of video games. That was kind of my escape. And at one point I was playing World of Warcrafts. It might’ve been 15 and I started getting really, really good. And the reasons why I got really, really good was because I would, we would do these things called arenas. You’d pick it, you’d have a team, you’d have three versus three. And at my peak in that, you know, 15 year old kid, terrible internet was probably top 100 in the world.
Wow. Really, really good. Really good. Had a great team, but I was, my internet was terrible. So eventually I got dropped from the team. But that’s fine. was horrible. It was like, imagine, imagine being in the NBA, but you have like a half a second delay on everything you do. It’s difficult. But what I learned, and this is stuck in my brain ever since was I went from mediocre to good because every day I would
log on and I would just go out and practice. Yeah. Play around and I just, just learn. And then I would watch YouTube videos with the best. Yeah. Yeah. And that combination got me better and better. And then I thought to myself, wow, I could do this for almost any skill. You knew for anything. If you look at Kelly Slater’s, the greatest surfer, definitely, and one of the greatest sportsmen of all time, he just reps surfing. Doesn’t matter if it was one foot, he’d go out. It doesn’t matter if it was 10 foot, he’d go out. Just go out. Just go out.
And yeah, definitely when building up in standup, doing as much as you can. mean, in LA, can do a show at a laundromat. They’ve got them everywhere. So people do, and they just do these reps after and after. There’s a comedian called Chris D’Elia, who I think is fantastic, and he’s a friend of mine. And one year he did something like 600 shows or something, which is two a day. So he was just anywhere he could find because he just...
He wanted to, I think he was going through a divorce and he just didn’t want to address it in his head. So he was distracting himself. But as a result, he became almost untouchable as a comedian because he just had these reps in, cause he just did show after show. It was more, was, it was like a thousand shows in a year. And yeah, that’s, that combined with looking at the best and seeing how they’re doing it and then molding it into your own is the way to learn any skill. You’re right.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (21:58.498)
This is, this has been a side thing I’ve been thinking about of starting to go into the open mic nights in New York and just trying some joke ideas. it. I’ve, I’ve got how many joke ideas when they need before I can do a show. I’ve got like four loosely formed ones. I’ve started a notion doc with a couple of ideas. What’s like the bare minimum of jokes that I need.
There’s no bare minimum. I think you’d start off, you’d start off doing three probably. How long does that get you? Five minutes? No, no, three minutes. You probably, not even that long. You probably won’t even need, you don’t need five minutes at the start. Three is a long time for my experience. Three is long for when you’ve very started. It’s a lot. And, so you really, I don’t know, you could get away with almost, you’d
two, three, like sort of premises, things you want to talk about stories, but it depends what kind of delivery you want to do. There’s some people that just do one liners like, what’s bloody name? forgot his name. He’s got the frizzy hair and he’s bloody hilarious. He’s an older guy. Are you typing in frizzy head comedian? That’s hilarious. I don’t know. I’ll get his name. He’s funny. Great. He’s like one of the greats. Anyways, a one line of comedian, right? And,
So he would in three minutes would probably belt out 20 jokes, but um, Marty Allen, no, frizzy head comedians. Someone’s sitting there listening to this guy. Dickhead. Um, Steven Wright. There you go. I got it for God’s sake. Um, but if you’re, if you’re telling a bit more stories and stuff, it can be, you could do one premise for the three minutes. Like, uh, oh, me and my girlfriend, this is his stuff, but you just, reckon.
You have to be hitting a joke every 10 to 15 seconds throughout that three minutes. Otherwise, that’s just too much storytelling for too much of a short set. When you’re doing an hour long, you can bring people into stories a bit more and you could go minutes without a laugh if it’s engaging enough, but it has to have a payoff of a laugh. It’s still comedy. So you can’t have long depressing stories. But yeah, when you’ve got an hour, you can work a lot more when it’s three minutes, just
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (24:14.062)
Yeah, try and bang out as much as you can, really. But if you join open mics, all you’re really doing is just busting through that stereotype, perhaps that that scared part of you that wants to do it and just do it. That’s all it is. Yeah, I mean, it’s like getting on stage and doing karaoke. Just get up and do it. And then you go, oh, that wasn’t that bad. Yeah. Oh, give it up. It was terrible. Yeah, it was terrible. I still did it. But if.
The only thing that you bring to your friendship groups is that you’re kind of funny and then you go to stand up and objectively you don’t get laughs. Then who am I? I mean, who is the person? You still, you still, you’re funny amongst your friends. That’s not going to ruin that unless that ruins your confidence. Everything just spirals down and you turn into a depressed shit for your friends. The, you need to treat it separately.
Okay. Being funny with my friends. I’m still funny with my friends. None of my friends expect me to be any funnier now that I do it. Some of them do. And I go, yeah, well, they’re not my friends. They’re usually idiots. They go, say something funny. And I go, no, get away from me. But my friends don’t expect any of it. Some of my best friends have never even seen me do standup.
They just know that I’m good at what I do because I don’t go to their office and go, you know, you’re doing a good job here at your law firm. Congratulations on hitting the KPIs. Yeah, you did it. Synergy is happening in your office space, but I know they’re good at what they do, but we don’t need to talk about that. So it is a separate thing and keep it separate. So yeah, I’m funny around my friends and yeah, I’m funny in my family and everything, but can I be funny in that world? And then you give it a go and keep it to yourself. I kept it to myself for
I just went and did stand up and I didn’t tell anyone. I told my sisters and my mom, think. But I kept it for me because it was a separate thing than the me off stage and the me around my friends and family. So if you separate the two, then it won’t bleed into you being depressed if it didn’t feel great on stage and go, well, I’m a terrible person. I’m not funny anymore. No, I’m just I’m learning a new skill.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (26:24.682)
And it’s challenging. That’s all that it is. So separate the two. I’ve also been thinking about looking into improv. I feel my friends do improv. Do you think improv is useful for stand up or that different skill sets being developed? I think it’s useful for a lot of things, but it is very, very different skill set. So I would not be very good at improv. I’d be okay, because I can kind of muddle my way through, but it is a different muscle.
And I’ve gone and watched improv and been just totally so impressed by how engaging and so funny and so off the cuff and so topical. And I’m like, this is fantastic. But I’m sure they couldn’t get up and have a crafted hour of stand-up material like I do. And they’d probably come and go, this is fantastic as well. So they are two separate muscles completely. It’s like,
comparing surfing and basketball, but you’re both athletes. Yeah, but they’re different sports. They’re different games. Could you improv, could improv improve your ability to work a room or is that another skill again? I think you’re better off if, if you’re really trying to work in standup and on stage and working in a room, you’re better off hosting comedy nights and in between other comedians coming up with material that
Okay, so he just talked about that, and that’s the level of improv, but it’s different, it’s stage improv. The improv that you’re talking about where they all get together as a group and a troop, they call them, they’re coming up with scenarios. So we’re in doctor’s surgery and this happens and that’s almost more acting. They’re playing a role, they’re playing a character. On stage, you’re you. So I’d say in order to feel more confident working a room in stand-up,
you’re better off emceeing and hosting comedy shows, which is what I did very early on. And what helped me a lot was I did crowd warmups for who wants to be a millionaire. And that once what’s that you went on there. How’d you do? Got knocked out. question. So you got on the seat and got knocked out. that’s funny. So yeah, for probably a year or something, two years, maybe I did the crowd warmups for that. So we would be there all day and I had to entertain a crowd that were
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (28:44.536)
kept hostage for like five episodes. So I had to learn pretty quickly how to keep an audience engaged and fun and keep it silly and light without swearing too. there was a lot of that helped my ability to work comedy rooms a lot. But I would say doing improv is just a different muscle. All good, all good for the world of comedy and building everything but specifically for stand up.
hosting a comedy show or anything of that nature is more valuable to getting comfortable in the room of stand up. I’ve been wondering what one of the reasons why I thought about getting into improv was to become a better podcast, become a better interviewer. But I wonder if stand up would be a better tool than improv for that skill. If the goal is to make the podcast the best podcast could ever be aside from doing the podcast reps. I’d say stand up.
And I’d say more along the lines of an attire too, but like I said, with the crowd warm up because I was interacting with people. where are you from? And I was talking and they’d say, I’m from Broadmeadows when I was in Melbourne, Australia. And then I’d talk about that. We’d come up with something funny and stuff that would work in the world of this a bit more than improv, which is an acting scene. you’re, you’re taking a horse out for a bath and you and someone are coming up with.
Scenarios which we’re not coming up with horse scenarios right now. feeding off one another. and it’s more and you’re you and I’m being me in this environment Whereas if we were right now being characters then sure improv would work into that a bit more, but I would say hosting a Open mic comedy night where you’re bringing on people who suck who are great who are good and then you’re
the host of the evening that will give you much more of a sense of how to interact with people on a one on one way than an improv I would say. Yeah, I like it. Yeah, I think maybe I have to pivot because I haven’t haven’t done the improv yet and it’s on the list of things to do. it, do it. But I think it’s a separate a separate muscle and a separate thing that you’ll find then you’ll be able to if you’re in an acting role.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (31:04.302)
And I’ve done plenty of acting stuff and I wouldn’t call myself an actor, but I do really enjoy it. And I did Rob Schneider’s TV show and I was able to improv a lot because he’s my friend and I knew I could, and I knew he would find it funny. And so the improv that I did in that was as a character, but I had the confidence from everything else that I’ve done to know that the moves that I’m going to make right now are going to be funny if I
don’t hesitate with them. And I didn’t. And I could see Rob pissing himself laughing off the screen and I’m going, this is good. So yeah, I think improv leads into acting a bit more. Stand up and emceeing nicer stuff leads into this a bit more. Got it. Got it. I want to break down the anatomy of a joke slash a laugh. So when I did a little bit of research, the framework I got given,
and this could be completely wrong. So feel free to roast it at any point. Did you get it from AI? Yeah. Setup, angle, misdirection, punch, tag. I’ve never heard of tag. That was new to me. I’m like, what is a tag? Tag’s just a little tidbit at the end that gives you another little jab from the premise that you just sort of threw out. But yeah, that’s pretty much a very good template.
comedy’s changed a lot over the years. So what it used to be, which was back in the day where the comedian would open up for Dean Martin or something on the road, right? And they’d go, Hey, I went to the doctor the other day and he said, you know, that was just set up punchline, set up punchline. And then what happened is audiences wanted to be surprised a little bit more. We’re bored, entertain us. Clown, change it up. And so if you break down
some of the best comedians in the world. I think like if you look at Louis C.K. or you look at Bill Burr and stuff, it will be premise. They’ll set it up for you. And this is something very interesting that Rob told me about. If you look at Watch Chris Rock, he says the premise over and over so that you are not at all confused what he’s talking about. Like he’ll say, women love shopping. Shopping. Women love shopping. He does it on purpose. Yeah.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (33:22.114)
doesn’t have purpose so that you know exactly what the premise is that he’s talking about shopping everyone do not deviate from what I’m saying but it’s true because if you look at these jokes you are locked in and you go right I know where we are because there’s nothing worse than a confused audience while you’re trying to tell them a joke and they’re still going wait is it Tuesday or what day are we talking like
That’s that’s when you know you’ve got somebody who doesn’t know how to tell a story and they go. So it was a Tuesday or was it a Wednesday? That is not pivotal to the story. Just carry on. So, yes, premise set up and then the misdirection is the biggest sort of part that will differentiate because a lot of audiences are now savvy to comedy. A lot of audiences and most audiences are intelligent and they think they’re intelligent.
And they want to know. They think they’re intelligent. That is, and we all do. We all want to feel like we’re intelligent. So 80 % of people apparently think they’re above average drivers. really? Yes. That’s no, the roads are not that organized. so people want to not think they’ve got the answer before and they’ll go, I see where this is going. And if you can not only
surprised them over there, but actually punched them in the back of the head with an angle they never even thought was coming. And they go, Oh, that’s the big one. it. Misdirection. And then the tag at the end is just another little, and then I punched her in the thing. what’s it? Yeah. What’s an example of a domestic violence there? Yeah. My comedy is all about punching her in the thing. We are, we’re Australian after all. We’re pretty crude. Yes. Crude. is true. So fine.
So in my research, it also brought up that laugh is basically benign violation of expectations. how do you... love how AI just diminishes what an actual... that was funny. Benign? Your expectations. I was expecting to think this and now I thought that I am having a pleasant time. Yeah, basically that’s what it is. What a drab and...
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (35:34.84)
bleak way to say it. I kind of, wasn’t planning on doing this, but what you want, I’m going to give you one of the joke ideas. Cause I think it’s super relevant to what you do. Yeah. Comedy wise as well. Okay. The hook comedian roast, non comedians joke. Comedian roast, non comedians joke. right. Comedian bullies.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (36:06.078)
So do you want me to try it? Like I’m going to riff the whole joke. I should have just go the punch line. I’ve only got the, I’ve only got the punch line. I’m going to have to improv the rest. Yeah. Improv the rest and then throw the punch line out. Yeah. So, all right. So I’ve recently, I’ve been, I recently moved to America, right? I’m going to pretend like I’m on stage and doing something. Do it like you’re on stage. All right. So I recently moved to America.
And love it here, but it’s a, it’s a bit of a tough place sometimes, you know, there’s a, it feels a little dangerous. I’ve fucked it already anyway. I recently moved to America and I meet a lot of Americans that come to me like, you’re Australian. I love this. I love Australia. I’d love to go there one day, but yeah, the spiders, I just can’t do the spiders. The spiders are really scary, aren’t they? And I look at them and initially I used to say,
Yeah, I get it. get it. But recently I’ve switched it up. So whenever somebody says to me, yeah, look at the spot. I’d love to come to Australia, but I just can’t. I’m too scared of spiders. I look at them dead pan in the eye and go, yeah, I wanted to come to America, but I was worried I’d get shot. But here I am. That’s kind of the general gist of the joke. Okay. So I could probably play it out a bit more. No, what do need to do? Right. So you’ve got an idea for a joke, which is the idea is they’re scared of,
being killed by a spider in Australia, whereas there’s guns all over this place that can kill you that is something that is much more obvious that will kill you. So really to deliver that joke, just strip everything back. That’s what a lot of people get caught in the weeds sometime and think, I have to explain and stuff like that. There’s much more, that’s much less explaining in that joke. You could just deliver it a much more simple and How would you do that as funny? Jeez.
This could be a piece of content for you. You can have this joke by the way. Thank you. I think just bring it back and go as an Australian and American, Americans come up to me and they go, I’d love to go to Australia, but there’s just too many spiders and snakes that could kill you. And I just look at them and go, yeah, none of them have handguns though. it’s...
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (38:23.116)
I don’t know. Then you picture a spider with a gun and that’s kind of funny. So I don’t know. That was my first riff at it, but see how I did it much shorter. And it’s just, it’s just, the premise is set. The subject is set and then the punchline is there. And then, yeah, you get another tag on the end of that, which if we’re doing tag, yeah, I don’t know. I can’t even think of one right now because I’m not smart enough, but, the, the, you, when you’re thinking of ideas.
First of all, write them all down on paper and then look at it. And you actually just highlight the, like you’re at school and highlighting the nouns in a sentence or something. You just highlight the bits that need to be said. That needs to be said, that needs to said. And you’ll find it’s a much easier delivery to just go bang. don’t, a lot of people will go on and say, I’ve just moved to America. That’s why it’s hard.
I’ve just moved to America and, and I like, it’s a scary place. You don’t need to say things like that. As soon as you say America, everyone knows. You don’t need to reinforce that to audiences. Like I said, audiences are intelligent. They’ll pick up on a lot of the underlining things that need to be said. You don’t need to say them all. Yeah. So it’s just, about coming up with, ideas like that and then stripping it back and then, putting them in a more.
To start off, putting them in a silly scenario like that, like picturing a snake with a handgun is funny in your head, right? So just delivering stuff like that. Yeah. All right. Nice. That was great. I’ve got one more. I’ll try and do a different one. This is me riffing off the top. I’ll try and do real concise. We’ll if it’s funny or not. Funny or not. So a friend of mine said she was walking down the street recently and she got spat on by a homeless guy.
And it got me thinking, most of the negative things that really happened in this city are also sexy in the right context.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (40:25.678)
Yeah, that’s good. The one who’s sexy is just funny in that scenario. there’s this funny, something funny about like some awful that happened in the street and you making it. Well, there was something sexy about it. I mean, maybe it’s not necessary. Maybe that’s the of the joke. But I’m like, you know, like if a homeless guy spits on your face, no thanks. But if a supermodel doesn’t, maybe.
in the street, says the supermodel spitting at you like, Whoa, daddy, grab a drink later on. We’ve been here before. It’s a fine line between inappropriate and sexy. And it comes to how hot you are basically how attracted to you. am. Homeless guy spitting at me. Beautiful supermodel spitting at me. What are you spitting on me? All right. Anyway, back to it. That was that was.
What do you think? That was good. Again, I think you can trim it down. You didn’t need to say a friend of mine was recently walking down the street. Just say, oh, my friend Sarah got spat on the other day in this. You don’t need to go so much detail. Do you the specificity of names are better? Always. OK. Because then it brings me into your that’s your world, your experience. And I’m like, oh, he knows this person. There’s a history with that person. So you don’t have to actually say it. Yeah.
So if you say, my, well, one of my, one of my girlfriends, Sarah was, no, that meant that it’s confusing because people go, one of your girlfriends, so many girlfriends. Female friends. Female acquaintances. Non completely plutonic. Just say my friend Sarah and that’s enough. We assume Sarah’s female. You’re not allowed to assume these days, but we did. Yes, we did. my friend Sarah got spat on in the street the other day.
she said was gross. then I said,
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (42:21.218)
You said the other night when you were with Kevin, but so what’s the gross part? Was it just that you were out dorks?
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (42:33.134)
I like the use of sexy. There’s a fine line in between unnecessary and sexy in the street.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (42:45.594)
Alright, back to our regular schedule program. That was great. Fuck me, I’m sweating. I wanted to talk about reading the room. how do you, when you’ve got a room of people, what are you thinking? How are you approaching it? Do you know you’ve got a few bangers from your experience that you know will work and if they don’t land as well, then maybe the room’s a bit shit and you need to try a few other things? How are you approaching this?
What do you think about that? Sometimes you go to, you look at the room. It’s always nice when the opening acts go out first and you can get a little feel for the room first. So you’re listening in the back. Yeah. You’re feeling how the energy is. Sometimes rooms laugh as one. Sometimes they laugh separately and quickly and you have to reset quicker. So there’s a lot of things, but in 20 years of doing standup, I can kind of pick up on a room straight away and go, okay, it’s one of those nights. Easy.
But you can turn the audience both ways by him, mind you. So you can bring them up to the audience you want them to be, or you can fuck up and take them to a place they didn’t want to go to. So there is that. But reading the room is a huge part of it. And that is something that you can only get with time and reps. You’re not going to come out of the gates knowing how to
read a room and know, oh, I’ve been here before. Like I said, there’s so many things that control off comedy. What’s examples? This the crowd being too far away from you. Some stages. Sometimes the venue like sucks. The venue set up poorly. The lights aren’t bright enough. The sound isn’t good enough. They’re serving dinner while you’re performing. Terrible. There’s all these elements that knowing after 20 years to
Do not serve dinner while I’m on. Do not do that while I’m on. Make sure those TVs in the back are off. Anything that’s distracting for people. When I started in comedy, I was doing it in pubs in Australia with TAB going off in the corner. So I know how to capture people, but it’s a lot easier when they don’t have that distraction. The Comedy Cellar, I’ve been there a few times. love that place. They serve food there. But then I also noticed that we had a group of seven of us. They wouldn’t let us be a group of seven. They split the group up into maximum four. I don’t know if that was done on purpose because it looked
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (45:09.59)
It creates a cluster in the room or why did they separate you across the room from each other? Yeah, they’re like maximum four in a group. Wow. And I was like, I wonder if that’s done on purpose. It be. And I’ve never heard of that, but the comedy cell are, they’re professionals. So they might’ve just had enough of bachelorette parties coming in and people and just ruining the show. So they’re like, you know what? Four people max. Cause that is four people can only cause so much drama.
12 people can really ruin a crowd. And I’ve seen it happen before. What also happened was when we split the room, the comedian started making jokes at the friends and then we laughed in the other side of the room. it kind of spread the room out a little bit positively. was interesting. Yeah. I’ve never heard of that, but that does kind of make sense. And I’m sure they probably did it just so there’s not clusters of people in their own Bachelorette world or whatever’s happening and stuff like that.
But there’s so many elements that the lighting, the sound, where the stage is. If the stage is too high, you’re too high above people. When Joe Rogan was building his club in Austin, the Comedy Mothership, he’s built the perfect comedy club. But Louis walked in there, Louis CK, and he said to Joe, goes, you need to drop the ceiling six feet. And he was right. There was too much space in between for the laughs to dissipate.
And so Rogan... you don’t want the laughs to dissipate or you want the laughs to dissipate? No, no, you want them to be enclosed and tight and then everyone’s in this energy ball of laughter that... So some of the best comedy clubs in the world are these basement ones like the Comedy Cellar. And everything bounces off. Low Low ceiling. Everyone’s tied in there. There’s a... The Comedy Works in Denver is a basement comedy club. It’s low. It’s slightly tiered audience so everyone can see the stage properly and...
There’s a lot of things to set up. So, yeah, Joe said, you’re right. And he lowered the roof because he could. it changes everything, changes the acoustics of the room and how people feel confident laughing in an environment that’s not in a huge church with huge roofs and stuff. So there’s so many elements that go into making comedy work that people don’t know about. And I’ve done shows and they go, I just stand up in the corner and do a show while people are standing there drinking. I’m like, it’s not going to work.
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And they go, yeah, but you know, we’re paying you this. And I go, I’ll do it. But I’m telling you, it’s not going to work. And it sure enough doesn’t work. And I go, I’ll still take that check. But I told you. well, I know. Do people need to be sitting for comedy to work most effectively versus standing? Yes. Yes. Standing. It is called stand up, though. Yeah, but I’m the one standing. You see. But no, you cannot stand there and watch. Do you ever stand and watch a television program? Sometimes. Yeah, but you’re insane.
No, people need to be comfortable. They need to feel like sitting. Okay, I’m sitting, I’m being entertained. I am part of this audience, this show, this thing. People know how it works in the cinemas when you go to sit down at a Broadway on a play, everything. Okay, I’m sitting, I’m ready, I’m attentive. Let’s do it. Big part of it is sitting down. Yes.
Has phones ruined comedy at all, do you think? No, because as a result of phones and social media, it’s blown comedy up. Comedy’s bigger right now than it has ever been. Thanks to Netflix, thanks to Instagram, and people putting clips out, and people able to reach larger audiences. mean, geez, I’m doing a European tour. I’m doing 27 cities. It’s outrageous. I would have never been able to do that without the use of phones. But.
What the good thing is a lot of comedy clubs are doing, they’re putting him in those yonder bags. what that does is though, that’s great is as soon as you, you, you, you angry at first and you’re like, and then you put your bag in and then after five minutes, you’re like, there’s nothing I can do. I can’t look at my phone. So you start going back to the world before phones and actually talking to other people in the room. And that helps the audience be one.
as opposed to being separate people laughing at the thing. They’re a group of people that have interacted first beforehand and then they’re all part of the show after that. So I think it’s really good when they do that. the, and it stops people distracting. Cause even when your phone’s in your pocket, you still, if you feel a vibration, you’re like, Ooh, what’s that? Is that a text message? That thing takes you out of it. So it takes 15 minutes to get back in as well. So it’s good to have those things. Just quickly though.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (49:50.498)
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and they’ll also provide the podcast a small kickback. These are two very easy ways for you to support us as we continue to grow the podcast that we absolutely love doing. Thank you for your support and I’m back to the episode. I want to switch gears and just riff a little bit on the experiences you’ve had being Australian in the US. yeah.
What a wild place to be. Let’s talk about how you got here and anything fun and interesting, any fun, interesting stories. the greatest thing is still is America’s fascination with Australia, the world’s fascination with Australia. Anywhere I go, people, like you say, I’m from Australia, their eyes light up immediately. And I’m very proud of that because the reason- PR, whatever we’ve done. Whatever we’ve done. Well, I’ll tell you what it is. It’s the people who’ve paved the way for us because we live in a very,
rugged place. It’s a tough environment. There’s things that want to kill you everywhere. It’s a tough place to live and grow up and stuff like that. So it breeds tough people. it particularly, it’s particularly hard to get over to America. If you think you can just pack a bag and come over here, you’ve got a very big surprise coming ahead of you. It’s very hard to get visas in to get even a bank account, like to structure yourself to get over here to actually work and live.
you have to be very, very committed. So the people that come here are very good at what they do because they’re passionate and they’ve gone through the gauntlet and hell to get here. So right from when Errol Flynn sort of came and he came from Tasmania and then the people who followed and Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts and Olivia Newton John and then onto Steve Irwin and then like everyone who’s paved the way for us have been exceptional at what they do because it’s very hard to
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (52:09.774)
We’re very far away. We’re very far away. So to come and to bring that and to be accepted and embraced by a culture in America that is, there’s so much going on here. To stand out and stuff, you really have to be very good. that, know, Hugh Jackman’s and even the, like the recent ones, Margot Robbie and the Hemsworth boys and everything like, and so many musicians. And I love it, the Oscars, when you, they’re doing the,
costume design and there’s an Australian in there, you’re like, wow, they’ve gone. That is brutally hard industry and they’ve worked there. And it’s very, I get a lot of sense of pride when Australians are so successful over here because I know how hard it is. And so as a result, are, rightly so, I think, beloved by the world because we’re very hard workers. We don’t take anything too seriously, so we’re always fun.
We like to have a drink and a laugh and everything. mean, it comes from the, um, the culture. Well, essentially, but we adopted more of a, um, a work rest play, which is eight hours work, eight hours rest, eight hours play day for 24 hours. So when we work, we work when we rest, we rest. When we play, we play, we have fun. We don’t bring it out. They’re separate things. So we, we know how to do that very well. A lot of Americans sometimes will.
go out for a drink, but they’ll take all their business with them and stuff like that and they can’t separate. Whereas we go to the pub, we go to the bar, we’re having a drink and a laugh. And so I think our culture and the way that we were brought up is very inviting to the rest of the world because it’s not laced with any bullshit. You can’t be.
laced with bullshit in Australia, people call you out on call you out. They go, don’t be a dick. And so you can’t grow up thinking that you’re this and that. It doesn’t matter what you do either. I’ve noticed you can have, the thing I like about being an Australian here is my radar is so high. Like somebody will be the most successful person in the world here and you meet them and you’re like, hey man, how are you? And they’re like, yeah.
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (54:22.414)
you don’t care what they do. You don’t care how they got here. You’re just like, who’s this person in front of me? Oh mate, you would drive a front. Yeah. Sick. Yeah. Oh, Is it fast? you something dumb like, yeah, you don’t care. I’m not impressed by your thing that impresses other people. I’m not impressed by anything actually. If you’ve got a good story to tell me at the bar, then I’m impressed. Do do a shoey? Then you’re in. So yeah, that’s, uh, I’m very, um, I’m very proud of that. Uh,
that that part of our culture, which the rest of the world is very intrigued by because it does it does lead to fun and interesting moments by being humble. Yeah, very humble people. Yeah. For how educated, how general I think on a population basis, we’re pretty switched on. Yeah. Educated. Yeah. We’re pretty hard working and we’re humble. It’s a good combination. And we’re very like
it’s going to sound arrogant, but skillful, meaning that it’s hard world. Like Australia to be successful in whatever job you pick, you gotta be really good because the minimum standard is so high because we’ve got such a small population, so spread out that you have to be a killer in whatever you’re doing to get above even the basics. But then you take those, you build the reps there, you come here and the bar of
success of, you you can eat is way lower. You can be a shit comedian here and probably make ends meet because there’s just so much volume. There’s so much to do and you can find your way. that’s true. But also I think in Australia we pride ourselves on being all-rounders. I’m able to, I can play tennis and golf and I can play basketball and I can do all these things physically because we all learn a lot of it all at once.
And, but Americans kind of stick to something and be very specific at it. I’ve got friends here that are very good at ice hockey, but they can’t actually throw a basketball and you’re like, how are you an athlete? But they’re very specific with what they do and they’re very good at it. But we tend to be more all rounders and stuff like that, which I think leads itself to being able to enter into the world of
Metwally — That One Time Podcast (56:44.558)
so many opportunities here in America. Hey, we’re doing a podcast. Hey, we’re doing a TV ad. can, you can mold yourself into those things a lot easier and be an addition rather than needing to figure it out a bit more. I think we’re just a bit more, more malleable. Malleable? Yeah, that’s a good word. Write that down. Yeah, no, there is a word I’m thinking of, but it’s gone, but that’s fine.
I’ve also liked, what I do like about the American culture though is that Australia lacks is if you do want to be, if you want to aim for the top. Yeah, they’re so encouraging. They’re not encouraging. Well, in Australia, they’re not encouraged whatsoever. Yeah, it’s tall poppy syndrome. Yeah, yeah, it’s tall poppy syndrome. But coming here, people just want, kind of just want you to succeed. They do. They want to give you a crack.
Yeah. Like they’re raring to go, yeah, you say you can do something. They’ll go, all right. Yeah. I can show us then. This is how it works in Australia. And look, I love everything about our country, but I hate the tall poppy syndrome. What do you think it is? We’re a small population. And so, and we’re a population of workers, I said, workers, but talented and skillful people. So everyone actually thinks they can do it because they
probably can. But a lot of people don’t have the guts to go ahead with it or don’t have the thing. So when someone else does, they immediately go in their own self go, I probably could have done that, but I didn’t. instead of encouraging them, I’m going to cut them down. And it’s just a part of our culture that I would love for us to get away from. But it’s pretty ingrained in there.
But we’ve got it in the terms like, yeah, righto hero. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
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play Madison Square Garden one day, they’d go, wow, that’s awesome. I can’t wait to see you on there. If you that in Australia, they’d go shut up. What do think you’re funny, do you? Look at this guy. Yeah, so there is a... But it’s been interesting. The moment I left Australia, my stock in Australia went up. always. Always. you got to leave for Australia, the entertainment industry in particular, to embrace you. You have to leave.
No one has just stayed there and done massive success. look, I’m not going to take away from the people that have and have done great things in radio and everything like that. But you look at the biggest and most successful Australians, they’ve all left and they’ve come back and will never forget their home and everything like that. But you have to go onto the world stage. And like I said, playing the NBA, you can’t just be doing layups in the NBL.
I should stop giving shit to the NBL. Like it’s actually a really good league. Well, I mean, you’ve been here for what? 20, 15 years now? In America? Yeah. Yeah. About 12, I think. I don’t know. I came when I was about, just before I was 30. So I’m 33 now. So 42. So yeah, about 12 years. So if you were to impart some wisdom on me being a year and a half in. Yeah.
What should I do? should I do? Shouldn’t I do from your experience? I don’t know where you’re at, but the thing that you have to do to succeed here in America is you have to let the safety net of Australia go. You have to embrace America completely as your new home and where you’re going to do when you’re on a visa that you could be.
can from in three years. It’s really, I’m finding that it is, I’m like, do I buy this $2,000 thing that will help for everything I want to do? But what if I have to go back? This is, this is real tough. You wouldn’t throw. You got to let that go. You got to let the safety net go. You got to know that this is where you’re going to put your efforts in. I’ll give you an example. There was a friend of mine that I lived with, an Australian guy who came, but he was still listening to Triple J. He was still, he hadn’t unpacked his bag properly and he never left Australia.
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So he never really embraced the opportunities that could come because he’s he was half a foot in and half a foot out type thing. You have to jump in completely, completely. Don’t forget where you came from, because it’s the most beautiful place on earth. But this is a new you’re in it now. You have to let it go. And the big part for me, and I’ve said this to people is once you so for the first three years of coming here and even living here and stuff, I always had a return ticket from Australia. So it started in
like I’d buy one in Melbourne, return ticket LA back to Melbourne. Okay. So I always knew that I had a ticket back because I’d bought a return one. The day that I switched it over to a return ticket LA to Melbourne and knew that I was coming back here is the day that I really felt, I’ve embraced this now. This is my home. it’s not where my heart is not where my home and my heart is. And, but this is my, this is the place that I’m at.
I would say the advice I would give is you need to cut off that safety net of Australia. You need to fully embrace anything that comes your way here and you need to immerse fully into this entertainment world because it will give you vastly more than Australia can. It already has. already has. Like I spent, my past life was in running events and festivals in the music industry and
even just working for a venue here that’s a B or C tier venue. I’ve started doing things like interviewing artists that are top artists in the world. And they just said, yeah. I said, can I do this this summer? And they said, yeah, sure. Next thing you I’m interviewing these huge artists. Exactly. That stuff happens all the time. I didn’t even mean it. It’s not even the core thing that I want to do. But it’s great. It’s great. Those things really do. I know it sounds so cliche that there’s so much opportunity here, but there really is. There is. It’s nowhere else in the world.
No, we’re in the world. No, absolutely not. Not in London, not in anywhere else, but here in America. haven’t, we haven’t a weird, we have like a 10 % advantage as Aussies in America, feel because of the eyes lighting up. I reckon we got more. think more? I think so. I think we’re, I think, honestly, I think we’re the most loved. People love Irish, but no one talks about the Irish the same way they talk about Australians. And because of the cool things that have infiltrated America’s culture from us.
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right from Crocodile Dundee to Day Medina to now Bluey. Like everything is fun from Australia. And the artists are fun. The artists are fun. The bands are unreal. There’s so many underground bands. There’s so many underground bands that people go, do you know Parkway Drive? Do know this and stuff? And I go, no, but I know they’re good because you’re talking about them and they’re from Australia where I know they’re putting the effort in. And so yeah, there’s just a lot of good stuff that comes from Australia.
And maybe it is me biased and thinking that we’re the best, but we’re the best. I mean, I think I had my moment where I burned the boats a little bit last summer because I came in May last year. Yeah. Still had a rental that I was still had a place I was on a lease for in, in Melbourne. I still had my house in Geelong that had a bunch of furniture floating around.
Still had my car and my dog was with half of your heads in your thought is still back in Australia. Yeah. So I went back for Christmas to see family, which I’m going to try and do most years. I think it’s nice. Get out of the cold. Go back for a month. I think it’s the best. Yeah. Go back for a month. It’s the best time to be in Australia. See family, take my time off. But yeah, the last time I was there, my sole goal was to unwind my life. I left the lease that I had.
put a property manager into the house I owned. put all the stuff that I owned, I consolidated everything, put it into a shipping container in Ballarat that I’m never going to look at probably ever again. It’ll just stay there. Gave my dog to my cousin for an extended period of time until I can get a green card or something and hopefully bring him over. And sold my car. Yeah, you got to do The car was probably the hardest one. I was like, wow, I’ve got so many experiences with this thing.
I’ve got my car now that I’ve had for 10 years here in America and it’s taken me from that place to now this and everything. And I went to sell it the other day and I pulled out. I went in there and I went, I’m not selling it, I want to keep it. Think about how much time you spend in the car, you get attached to those things. Yeah, I love that. And I would have kept that car for another 10 years, easily. was good Subaru, like 2017 Subaru. thing was You got to think of it that you’re giving someone else their chance to live the moments in that.
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with that car too now. blows up. Engine blows up immediately. got him. man. I love it. Well, look, I’m conscious of time. So I’d love to wrap up with a few closing questions. Generally, these are a little bit more philosophical, just getting your view of the world. And I like to tap into the philosophy of life a little bit. what’s the biggest thing over the last two years you’ve changed your mind on? Caring about what people think. And I don’t
mean that I don’t care what people think as I do. But I no longer require anyone’s validation to exist. And you did before? Yeah, I think so. I think I wanted people to like me. I wanted to be on stage and have people walk away and like me. I wanted them to think I was great. I wanted to do a good show so that you, and now,
back to the confidence thing.
going to sound really arrogant, but I know you’re going to have a good time. I know it’s going to be a good show. It’s my job to make it a great show, but I know it’s going to be a good show. So I go in with that confidence now. And that’s been a big, I used to get very anxious before shows. It wasn’t nerves because it was more like, I just want to get out there and stuff like that. And now I’m much more calmer before.
And I’m a bit more calculated because I go into it a bit more like I’m. Everything’s going to be okay. I know everything’s going to be okay. What shifted? How did that shift? Cause that’s a profound shift. I got divorced. So what caused the divorce to make that shift? The, the idea that my existence on this earth is not set is not what I thought it was for a bit.
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and I can do anything that I want. And I think I just got a sense of myself and a sense of freedom and a sense of, think because something so dramatic sort of happened in my life, I was with this person for 10 years and then it abruptly sort of ended in a very, very quick sort of manner. such an American way. And then I just, I realized
you take inventory of yourself and you start to go, who am I? What am I? Do I provide anything and stuff like that? And I very quickly went, yeah, you do. You’re, you’re pretty good at that. And, and then I embraced that a bit more rather than being worried about it. I hope people like me. I hope they like this stuff. I just, got into this mindset, because of that, maybe, traumatic.
sort of little, little event, but event, no big event. But because something traumatic sort of just punched me, the bit of that that had the confidence and everything said, well, we’re just going to shine a bit bigger. I felt it felt the shift. And I felt all that stuff that I was talking about that these people I respect, Rob Schneider, Adam Sandler, Joe Rogan, they like me.
They think I’m good. They think I’m funny. Why do I ever question it then? So now I go into shows, I go into anything, acting stuff or anything with a confidence that I don’t need validation or approval anymore. I’m already enough, which is what we’re all trying to get to in life, that you’re enough. But I really feel it.
And that’s stemmed into a lot of parts of my life, my relationship with friends, family, dating new people and stuff and realizing that, that I’m, that I’m enough. And then knowing when and picking up on when other people are still struggling with that. And then finding the people that have the energy and you go, Oh, they’ve, they’ve figured it out a bit. This is an interesting person. This is going to be a nice chat or whatever like that.
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That’s what shifted in the most in the last couple of years. And it’s made my standup improved vastly, which I can feel it. can just feel you keep hitting these new levels in standup. And if you ask the greats, they say you never really stop just hitting new levels. But I’ve just felt this real big one in the last couple of years. And it’s allowed me freedom on stage to go down a different path.
than I would have because I’m confident that I know how to take you down that path with me. And even if we find that there’s nothing at the end of the path, I know how to get us back too. So I’m confident to go down these areas and stuff. leaving space for audiences to breathe, for me to breathe, be comfortable in silence on stage. It’s a big one. You can’t come out of the gate one, two, three years in.
and be comfortable in silence because you’re there thinking, another laugh. Sometimes you can sit there and just let everyone reset and you can reset and then you can bring them back. there’s just a, there’s a subtlety to it. Yeah. And it’s a, it’s a confidence that I, I am in control of not the outcome. I’m in control of.
All of all of us in this room, I’ve got the confidence. want you to have confidence in me and the confidence that I have will give you that confidence. Yeah, you trust you. It seems like you’re able to trust yourself to lead. Yeah, better. Yeah, that’s a good that’s a good way to put it. So like a leader into battle or whatever, I’m not hesitating. I’m not asking anyone’s permission. I’m going we are doing this. We’re all going for it. Let’s go.
works out. found going down the silent component, I’ve that when I’m least confident in myself, I do need to fill the space. But when I’m feeling confident and strong, powerful, I can sit there, I can say something and just, yeah, you know, when the time is right. And all right, there’s, I’m gonna jump in with that. people that like, well, you’re just like, calm down. Calm down. So if you were to
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Tell yourself of say five, 10 years ago, what could you have told yourself then?
that may have helped to begin to quicker, quicker cultivate this version of you. I tell you, and it’s not going to make quicker, but I would have said everything’s going to be okay. You hear that a lot. You bet it is. You need to know that it will. But if I told myself that, would hope. Fuck off. Fuck off. I need help now. So how do you, how do you, how do you tell yourself something useful then?
Cause you’re going to tell yourself to fuck off anyway. And it’s yourself. If myself from 10 years came now and said to me, Hey, it all works out. I would understand and know, enjoy, enjoy the now because the future works out and it always does. It always does. And it’s such a, I guess it’s a broad thing to go and say everything’s going to work out. But what that kind of means is
stop worrying about the little things, stop worrying about that and that. Everything works out in the end. And then we die. And then you die, which also works out. But it’s more about giving yourself permission to live in the now and enjoy the now because what we’re all doing is waiting for, then I’ll be happy or then I’ll... But guess what? That thing that you’re...
striving for and searching for right now, I don’t actually care about anymore. Yeah. Yeah. You were obsessing over that. my God. But if this doesn’t work out, I forgot about that years ago. I don’t even think about that. Yeah. That person that you were chasing and obsessed with, they’re gone. You don’t care about them. So just don’t worry about that stuff. Be a hard worker. Be diligent at what you’re doing and be the best version of you.
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in each situation. And that’s all you can do now. See opportunities when they come and grab them, but don’t push too much. Every time I have pushed or chased, it’s never worked out. Never. It’s a different energy, isn’t it? It’s like you pick the direction. Because I’m starting to feel this subtle shift as well over the last few years because of that exact same thing. Some things that I’ve been from a small town, I’ve tried to.
I had a bit of early success and I just, needed to hold onto it as much as I could. And over time that holding on destroyed everything. And now I’m at a reset in a new country and I’m going, all right, well, what do I, what have I learned that I don’t repeat this time? And it is, it’s, it’s, still going for things, but you’re going for it in a different mindset of pick a direction.
work at it, but kind of trust the process. And you don’t 100 % know how this is to play out. Learn from it. Be curious. This is what I’m doing right now. You know what? I did a pilot for a TV show 10 years ago. I financed it all myself. I filmed this thing. I edited it myself. I didn’t know how to edit. And I taught myself how to edit. And it took forever. And I remember at the time thinking, I’m wasting my time. I should just get someone else to edit and pay it. then
I should be out doing stand up. should be doing that and everything like that. As a result, I know how to edit now. So when I’m doing more of the stuff that I do now and I go into an editing suite and they go, you can’t actually do that. And I go, no, press alt five. See? You learn things. And it’s all about just adding more to your tool belt and being an interesting person and doing interesting things.
So, but what we all do and I find myself still just, but I gotta get that. And as soon as I start doing that, go, hey, you drop that immediate. And I’m very good at doing that now. If I’m holding onto something, I really, recognize it straight away. And I go, holding onto it too much, let that go immediately. Go off and do something else. And that thing, if it’s right and meant, it comes back to you. It really does.
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Going back to the Australian-American thing for a second, there’s something that’s popped into my mind here that has been really, really great about Americans. They’re so generous. So in Australia, people are pretty tight. They’re like, you got for dinner, everyone’s splitting. It’s rare that someone’s going to take the bill. Here, people are clamoring over one another to try and pay.
Sometimes they’re showing off a bit though. And that’s okay. That’s okay. Show off. don’t mind. But I’ve, I’ve recently started to take that energy and I’m trying really hard to be that more generous person. Even though right now I’ve just moved to America and I don’t have it figured out financially. Yeah. But it’s, but in my head I’m like, you know what? I really like and respect this. The people that act this way, people that act this way, I respect a lot. And it seems like the world
Yeah. Works itself out really positively. And I think it’s again, it’s an energetic thing. It’s just a bit of a letting go and going, I’m going to. Allowing yourself to become the person you want to be as well when you’re, when you don’t think you’re ready for it to be, that is a huge thing. I remember I, about 10 years ago, when I first moved to LA, I, I met Hugh Jackman, and he walked into the room.
And someone introduced me to him and I shook his hand and spoke for maybe a minute. But he looked me dead in the eyes. There may as well have been no one. It was like a fairy tale. No, was, may as well, but he, actually, he, he, yeah. Well, I kissed him. I got in trouble. Um, he genuinely asked me a question. He genuinely waited for my answer. He wasn’t just doing it. And then, uh, he went around the room and I looked at him and I said in my head, I want to be that.
type of person. Like, yes, it’s Hugh Jackman, of course you want to be, but it was more the confidence and the kindness that he showed everyone. so, and since then, and still to this day, sometimes when I’m going to places, I just remind myself of that. go, remember that person and who you are. And I hope I’m that person in a lot of scenarios that I find myself in now because of what I saw that day in someone.
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I think in Australia with people and they’re because we have such a small population and small industry, there’s only so much of a pie to go around and people are very scared about their little bit of the pie being taken away. You’re not allowed to share contacts and relationships in Australia. Absolutely not. But that’s fine. And because we’re in a small place and everyone’s worried about
this is my pie. I worked out on my pie. You’re not having my pie. But here there’s 400 pies. So if someone’s holding onto their pie too much, you go, I’m going to go over and try that pie. There’s this more pie. you think you can take, cause I’ve noticed that as well with also sharing contacts and relationships in Australia, my first response would be, no, I’m not telling you my like supplier contracts. I’m not telling you these people, but here I go, yeah, yeah, take it. Yeah, go, go ahead. I wonder if it’s useful.
going back to Australia with this mentality or you just get wiped away? don’t know. I don’t know either. But the thing I’ve noticed with that is I’m more than happy to share and everything, but I now know when not to. What’s the difference? The difference is when it impedes on your reputation a bit, some random...
A person says to me, can you introduce me to the something at the comedy store? And I do. And they go and do a terrible performance that reflects badly on me. And it’s happened a few times. And I’m like, just be a bit more careful because everyone’s not your friend. Yeah. That’s the thing about Australia. Like most people are your friend. They are, they’re not going to kind of fuck you over the, but there’s a lot of deluded people here in America and they’re not your friend.
So you’ve got to be wary of that a little bit. so sometimes in my head, someone will go, like they’ll go, I wish I could. And I have a direct contact. But in my head, just go, don’t, not this time. Yeah. Don’t know this person well enough yet. You can’t, you can’t bring everyone into the world that you’ve spent time and built and everything without knowing. And when, but when the time’s right, I’m more than happy to. And I’m like, yes, let me introduce you to the right person. Here they are. You guys are going to do something great.
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go for it. Yeah, you got to be pretty, pretty careful about it in this industry to the summer in the middle of the two is a sweet spot. Yeah. But you kind of get it. You got to learn to get a feel for someone quickly and go this person’s a hard worker and they’re going to do something good. I’ll introduce them. Yes. But you also got to just be mindful of of that a little bit too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You’re right. Okay. So my one of my last questions is if you could
know the absolute truth to one thing, what would it be? Why? Why we’re here? That’s a deep one. If I knew the absolute truth to it. Why do think we’re here? I think we’re here to share a collective experience on a human level and explore. there’s another place that we go to after that where we take inventory of this place. I think there’s other, there’s something else. Are you religious?
No, but I’m not an atheist or something. I’m just floating around like an idiot in the middle somewhere. But I guess, I guess, I don’t know. I believe in magic. Believe in Hogwarts. But I definitely believe in further than what we know. I have this analogy that I kind of made up that makes sense to me. But there’s a
There’s a salmon swimming upstream in the, I don’t know, New York, upstate New York, right? They swim upstream and stuff like that. And the salmon turns to his salmon friend and goes, did you know there’s a city called New York outside of this and there’s people walking around and stuff? Now the salmon goes, fuck you talking about, just keep swimming. He doesn’t think outside the river that they’re in. So a lot of us think that this is all we’ve got, all we’ve discovered, all we have without really
thinking outside a world around that we’re not even sure of. this, this is what Rogan talks about a lot with taking drugs like DMT and stuff, but it opens up your perception to outside things. And I think there’s a lot of that that we haven’t even tapped into from, you know, Eastern philosophies to a lot of things. So there’s just, there’s way more, but I think, I think just back to the
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the idea of what we’re doing here. And I came up with a life philosophy that I like to live by, which is life is about living the stories worth retelling. I don’t really want to hear your story about how you paid your taxes on time and you lived in a house and cut your lawn every set. Like, good, great. Tell me the thing that scared you that you did that was different and took you out of your comfort zone. Tell me that story. So that’s
me what life is. It’s about living those stories in the moment and going, I can’t wait to tell someone this is a good story. That’s all we got. That’s how I really feel is all we can do is pass on stories and information. So things that we found with science and everything like that we can pass on to the next generation. But stories coming in form of movies, art, music, anything.
That’s all we can pass on. That’s it. There’s only two things you can do. when I was working through the decision making criteria of coming to America, because I came to New York in 2022, four days, which turned into six weeks and buying into a nightclub. Yep. That’s usually what happens here. Went back to Australia, went back to Geelong.
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I’m part of group in York. Dua Lipa did a Met Gala after party, which then resulted in a Vogue article that I then posted on my LinkedIn and Facebook. We were like, what the fuck? Anyway, I come back in 2023 and I’m like, I’ll test it out again. I’ll spend a few months here. I’ll see if I really like it. I’ll see if I can make a life out of this. I loved it. And then I go back to Australia and I was sitting there thinking, am I really going to do this? And then I thought to myself,
When I get to 80, am I going to regret this decision? Yes. I going to regret? Yeah, fuck it. Have I ruined my life? There we go. Am I going to, sorry, there’s a bunch of barflies. Am I going to regress more staying where I am right now or following this side quest and seeing where it goes? And I got to the conclusion of worst case would make for a great story. Yeah. And when I’m 80, I’m going to be this old dude.
seeing I’m probably shitting my pants. Yeah. And I have a good story about New York. Yeah. So here we are. There’s two types of people in the world though. a lot of my friends. that shit their pants. The that shit their pants and ones that don’t. No, there’s two types. And I’ve got tons of friends that haven’t left the hometown that I grew up in and stuff. And they live fantastic lives. They’re happy. They’ve got their things, but then there’s other people that are explorers and they’re pioneers and they want to explore and try different things and stuff. And if you’ve got that in you.
You owe it to yourself to give it a go. I’ve never thought of it that way. Yeah, there’s always, I get jealous of some of my friends that are content in being choosing their content though. Yeah. Yeah. Because they don’t have something biting at them going, but what if there’s that? But they’re just, they’re just content. And I’m not saying that they’re deliriously happy or anything, but they’re content and they’re fine with,
watching their horse races on a Saturday and having a few beers at their local pub and they know they like that meal and then they go home to their wife and they’ve got this world that they’re content with. And to be honest, most people are like that. are they content? Like that’s what I’m saying. Are they truly like, you know what I mean? They really don’t have the, the wonder that you and I might. They, they, they might want to
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Travel to, they might want to travel to, I want to climb out of, they might have one or two things. They don’t have a constant brain going, what could we do with that? Or wow. should see my list of business ideas. Open up a cabaret in Singapore. What? At one point I was like, solve corruption in me.
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But yeah, there’s a lot of people that are content and there’s a lot of people that their brains are just excited and want to explore and want to try new things. And then there’s other people that craft that into different ways, scientific advancements, into technological advancements. I’ve got a friend of mine who’s very, very intelligent.
and comes up with new devices and stuff all the time. But he doesn’t want to go and make a movie in America like I do. It’s just different. But he’s got this brain that wants to, what if I combine a water hose with that? Let’s see if that works. And blows up and he’s like, oh. So yeah, there’s different people with different mindsets and stuff. But for creative people that want to explore that element that’s inside them.
denying that part of you because you’re scared, you will have regrets. Yeah, it kills you slowly. Yeah, the regrets of it. They weigh heavy. Is there anything you regret?
I mean, saying that and then the cliche answer is that I wouldn’t be where I am now without some of the things that I regret. If I could do it again, I might tell myself, you know, you don’t need to do that one. That one’s a tough lesson. But they’re all they’re all necessary to get you to the point. where you are right now. And I’m the happiest I’ve been in my life right now, which is really nice. And I see a very prosperous
future in all endeavors of my life ahead of me, which is a nice place to be. What what is it that’s making you the happiest you’ve been? What’s the difference? Perhaps that shift of my mindset, like I was talking about, knowing that I’m enough and bringing that into every element of my work environment, to my personal life, to my to everything. Being okay, knowing
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like what I said that everything’s going to work out. Like I don’t have a home right now. I’m living in hotels. But I’ve said to myself, it’s only for this year. enjoy it. So I am. So I am enjoying being in different hotels and saying, well, I’ve got five days off here. Maybe I’ll go see my mate in London and do that. Having that freedom at this age with, you know, seeing where else I could have been and feel trapped is pretty cool.
It’s also lonely sometimes, but it’s also pretty cool. just being okay and comfortable and confident is why I think I’m happy. in this industry and what I do, there’s very big ups and downs. But there’s a really good thing that Austin Butler said on one of those round table things. You ever watched any of those? The Actors Round Tables? And he said this great thing. He said, a lot of ups and downs in our industry and stuff like that. So you picture it like a heart.
monitor going up and down like that. And a lot of people are scared to live a life like that. That’s, my god. And then they’re like, my god. But an easiest way is to just sort of stay in the middle like that. But if you’re in the middle, you’re dead. That’s dead. Interesting. I like that. That’s living. That’s flatlined. Flatlined. Yeah. So know that in the down. The up’s coming. Get through the down. It sucks.
And when you’re in the up, don’t go, I’m here, I’m here forever. You’ll be back down. So enjoy it and embrace it, but know that it’s not forever too. And then you can kind of handle those a bit better, but it’s better to have that than to, yeah, to not be living. Yeah. I think that’s a great way to end this. Yeah. Very Matthew McConnell. Yeah. Wow.
I’m by my book, Greenlight. Have you read that book by the way? Not yet. you simply have to. I’m not even kidding. Get it immediately. Listen to the audio. I’ll only read it when he’s about to come on the podcast. All right. His PR. Yeah, he’s coming next week. Responded. That’s a good start. Really? She said no. That’s a good start. She responded. She responded. Ripper. So, yeah, is there anything you’re excited about at the moment you want to let listeners in on and where can people find you if they’re interested? Well, I’m on tour right now and all of my
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shows are on my website at MonteFranklin.com. I’m doing coming up, I’m doing UK, Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, takes me right to Christmas is if it’s not anywhere near you, I’d be surprised. But Kazakhstan, obviously doing one in Kazakhstan, North Korea, North of South Korea. It’s just North of South Korea. You love it. So the stand up tour right now. Yeah, just check that out. That’s the most pressing and enjoyable thing. So that’ll be it.
And if you’ve enjoyed this episode, please go to YouTube, search that one time with Adam Metwally, click subscribe somewhere, like the video and leave us a comment. Thanks, brother. Thanks, man.
