Learn English in this interview episode of the Aussie English Podcast where I chat about Gary the goat, rude comedy, and how to swear like an Aussie with Jimbo Bazoobi.

AE 534 – Interview: Gary the Goat, Rude Comedy & How to Swear Like an Aussie with Jimbo Bazoobi

G’day, guys! What’s going on? Welcome to this interview today.

Now guys, ***WARNING WARNING WARNING***. There is a lot of swearing in this interview. Okay.

I got Jimbo on because I had been following him for a while and he has an amazing Australian accent, he’s an amazing Australian guy with a lot to share and an interesting story of his own as he will get into in this interview, but he swears a lot as do I in this interview.

Now, it is not necessarily because I’m trying to encourage you to speak like us, but I want you to have exposure to this kind of language because it is the kind of language that, especially, Aussie blokes are going to use in Australia. So, you are going to come across it.

But if you are a young child, please do not listen to this episode without your parents’ permission. And if you don’t like swearing, please don’t listen to this episode. Okay.

So, warning aside, let’s get into it. I give you Jimbo the owner of Gary the Goat. Let’s get into it.

****

G’day, guys! Welcome to this episode of Aussie English, second try, Jimbo second try! We had a really bad connection last time, but this time it’s going to work, it’s going to be perfect! How are you going mate?

Yeah. Good. I’m all set. Kids are in the other room. I reckon we can do this uninterrupted.

Because you’ve locked the door, have you? Got a doorstop that you’ve wedged under the door there so, they can’t open it?

Rope and gaffer.

Duct tape them, have you?

They won’t remember this shit from when they’re three.

So, mate I wanted to get you on the podcast because you must be one of the most interesting Aussies that I’ve seen online, right? In social media. You have a YouTube channel and Facebook page and website called Gary the Goat. Can you tell us what it is and tell it tell us how it started?

I mean, I’m just basically a comedian, you know, who’d been doing comedy for years and I just can’t keep…. this comedy scene wants you to be sort of… the money, the agents get… the money’s in attracting corporate clients and getting on TV and I was just to feral, I was getting the laughs, but I was just… they weren’t going to put me on TV, I just swore too much and talked about sex too much and got people to burn pubes on stage in the end.

What is with that? Can I just interrupt there? Why…Because I was talking to my wife recently who’s Brazilian and I was saying to her…

That she hasn’t got any pubes, you know.

I was saying to her, I think Australian comedy there’s a certain genre of it that is very Australian, right? The Rodney Rude types, they’re really, really crass, sex talk, racism and it’s pretty easy for outside it’s the kind of see that and think it’s absolutely horrible, but why do you think it is that Australians have that side of comedy and what would you say to people who say it’s just, you know, for the lowest common denominator etc.? Because I haven’t any Americans…

I’d just say don’t turn up. That’s it. You know, don’t turn up and then if they then go outside the comedy room and try and stop other people going in you just whisper in their ear ”how about you just get a life?”. All they’re doing is making people laugh and if it’s not your cup of tea, go home and watch Bill Cosby because he’s got really safe comedy, but you know he rapes women on the side and that might be more your cup of tea. Whereas these guys get up and do really crass jokes, but they go home to their wife and look after their kids.

And then go to church on Sunday.

Yeah. Well Rodney probably doesn’t go to church on Sunday, but Rodney and Kevin “Bloody” Wilson, obviously, but they didn’t, they did it themselves, they didn’t come up through the industry, they just went straight to the people and in a way I’ve done the same thing where I got…the industry just said ”no way” and then suddenly this social media came up and I just happened to have a goat and I broke through all the barriers and I basically…I got a bit of fame, not the money, but I got a bit of, you know, I got yeah, that space, and now social media has been censored as we all know and it’s probably going to go the same way as mainstream media, but there’s definitely still chances on social media.

So, why do you think it is though that Australians like that sense of humour? Especially, I guess Australian males, although women show up to the shows as well and they get it. What is it about that sort of crass humour that you think is very uniquely Australian?

Because everyone’s got, everyone’s got genitals and everyone’s like, you know, you have moments where… it’s a reality of life. It’s a chakra and it’s like…They’re basically just talking in the way that you talk with good mates anyway. So, everyone just goes ”oh you can’t say that”, but it’s like every little group is saying that. So, they’re just basically getting up there and everyone is…and, you know, as far as it being racist and sexist, I mean, I don’t know, it’s not as bad as they say, I don’t think, but it’s just labelled as dumb humor, but the bottom line is they’re making like Rodney Rude and Kevin “Bloody” Wilson have made more people laugh than anyone in Australia, and surely, if they were real dickheads that wouldn’t happen.

Well, that’s one of the funny things that I was learning about… I was listening to a political commentator talk about Brexit and Britain and its relationships with Scotland and Ireland and one of the biggest thing that keeps them together, even though they are different, is the fact that they can take the mickey out of each other, they can take the piss and, you know, a Scotsman can make fun of an Englishman who can make fun of an Irishman and that’s what bonds them together and they were like as soon as you stop people from having the ability to make fun of each other and their differences, as well as their similarities, you build a wall.

Yeah, but they’re taking the piss out of other white people, basically. I mean you can do that. You know, we can take the piss out of Kiwis, but you basically can’t really take the piss out of a different identity groups, especially if you are from England and Australia. I mean, you know, it’s talked about a lot. It’s basically…can you just take the piss? And if it’s a bad joke surely it comes back on the person who does the bad joke. If you’re up on stage and it doesn’t work or you’re with your mates and you tell a bad joke, that should be just the cost of it, shouldn’t be like you’re going to court, you know, that’s you know it’s got to the stage… I got… with the Gary (the Goat) thing I got charged for offending a cop.

Really?

Well, they were trying to set me up on this other thing and then they said…long story, but they basically set up all these are serious charges like using a carriage service to offend a cop and it was, the joke was, and I had it on tape, this guy introduced me to a local cop and she is 22 year old spunky cop in Bourke and I just looked at her and said, she was in plainclothes, I just said you’re the cop, right? And I just said oh no wonder so many break and enters in this town is just to be handcuffed by you. It was a fucking joke and she laughed, she wasn’t even offended, but later on the cops are using… and they drop that because they knew they didn’t have a case, but it’s like if she laughed… and then you go to court on you who have I offended? There’s no one I’ve actually offended here and then it gets to the stage where… does it get to stage we’re having jokes, you’re about to say jokes with your mates around the barbecue and then you go, guys before I say this joke can you sign is indemnity form, just in case you don’t like it and you get upset? I mean it kind of spoils a punch line of it. But yeah that’s just the level it is. Technically when you get into the letter of the law, offensive behaviour is defined by you’re literally…it’s defend, if the judge thinks you offended someone who literally was on a Clapham train in the 1800’s, that’s the definition of a normal person. So, it’s basically whether the judge likes you or not.

So, why do you think this is sort of…do you have headphones by the way? Because I can just hear a bit of an echo.

No, I don’t.

Bugger. Just turn it down a little bit.

Ok, yeah, I’ll turn it down.

It should be all good, should be all good. So, what do you think this has come from, the sort of political correctness all of a sudden? Is that something you’ve noticed growing over time or has it always been there where people just haven’t liked your comedy and they’ll take umbrage and be like, you know, I’m going to do what I can to take you down?

I mean, if you go… if I do a comedy set and no one’s upset I feel like I haven’t really given the crowd value for money. I mean, come on. I mean Jordan Peterson has basically said it with this thing about where he just drew the line. It’s an offense, potentially a criminal offense if you don’t address a transgender person by the right gender pronoun or whatever, but it just basically says it’s, it’s the beginning of totalitarianism where they control your speech. It’s basically the eroding of what is it? The first amendment of freedom of speech. And once you do that it’s just downfall of Western culture, which I don’t know whether it’s the aim or not, but you know, it gives creed to the conspiracy theorists who think it is, I can’t think of any other reason apart from it just being insane, like I want…someone should have the right to offend me. How do you learn? How do you grow? How do you change your ideas If…you know, imagine having a friend who never, ever offended you or confronted you on anything? Like…fuck.

Well, and it gets to that point, right, where you need to find that zone of uncomfortableness where you are getting challenged and you may get offended by certain ideas, right? Like how on earth do you teach about the Holocaust or about Communism in Russia and everything or the USSR and not offend people when you tell certain stories? You’re going to have to sort of completely censor everything so, have you noticed since this sort of started coming up I think like post 2014 where people started getting very politically correct, especially online, have you noticed yourself having to censor jokes or are you pushing back even harder now?

Oh, I mean, once you start censoring jokes, you’re not funny anymore, really. I mean it’s not… I just keep doing it, but I’ve noticed… I mean my YouTube channel got demonetized and then it was like I can’t even get into it now. And there’s, and then you look around and you see the amount of deplatforming there is… I have no, there is a fear, not so much of a joke, but if I give it… it’s more political opinion. If I give up certain political opinion which isn’t, which isn’t words that would come out of Hillary Clinton’s mouth, there’s a threat that you’re going to be shut down. So, that is a real fear for me and it’s a real pullback and it’s a real… I’ve got a Facebook account, I used to use my YouTube. Facebook it’s got one point seven million and YouTube and a hundred and 50 thousand, but I used to have, because it was a smaller channel for me, I used to muck around on the YouTube going, I’ll take some really big risks here, and that was more challenging for me, but yeah you definitely got it… It’s pretty shit at the moment the censorship, but you know, you just got to keep going really.

And that’s it, don’t let them win. So, back to back to Gary the Goat. Why a goat and not a sheep or a cow or a donkey?

I just find goats more sexually attractive, you know, Kiwis have got there thing, and each to their own, but, I basically… when I got kicked out of Sydney, not kicked out, but pretty well banned from every venue, and I had the choice to atone my act down and I just went, 2004, I’ll head off on a three month tour around the country, where I can just country pubs and just do whatever I want and no one’s going to get offended. And I just was selling shirts that said I fucked a goat.

What made you decide to make those?

Well it was… you know, I’d say I could do something like, back then I could have ideals weapons of mass deception or something slightly clever, but no one’s going to fucking buy it. And then what people bought was I fucked a goat, which people were buying and they were basically going ”what I love about this shirt is I don’t give a shit what you think of me”, I fucked a goat, what are you going to say behind my back? That’s on the front of my shirt.

So, like that was the joke and that just got me petrol and food around Australia for seven years and then some guy just said ”mate, why don’t you back it up by having a goat at a gig?” and I just thought, fuck, as if I’m going have a goat in the car, it sounds like a nightmare, but the next day I just bought a goat off him as a joke because a dog’s not for Christmas, but hey, a goat is are feral animal, you can just kick it out at the nearest farm so, and then it just grew on me and we became mates and then, you know, we were best mates and then I had him for two years and then I just did a Youtube thing and just a Facebook thing and started videoing and it went off so, that’s how the goat thing happens.

So, what were you expecting, though? When you got this goat and were you expecting it to be a massive burden that it’s completely different from having any other kind of pet and were you surprised about that?

I wasn’t expecting anything, I was in my 40s, didn’t have a girlfriend, didn’t have kids.

Oh, you had a goat.

No, but before I had that, I didn’t have, I didn’t have an address. I was just the solo man going around so I’m going ”fuck, I got to look after this goat” and then the first thing that got me was he waited until, I let out of the car to do piss and shit and that’s when I went ”oh that’s a massive tick, he’s not going to piss and shit in the car” and then he just started following me around and then he was just enough company for me on the road not to just… I could just focus on my work a lot more than rather than just sort of hanging around parties and you know get your social interaction, I had a goat and then he attracted different people and I quickly realized that the joy I got out of looking after him was way more than the hassle of the responsibility and like long term for that. You know, a few years later I transferred that idea to kids as well. It really opened me up to the idea and I think having a kid might be better than, you know, so you know some people say they have a dog before they have a kid, I’ve got a goat before I go one.

Well, you had a kid, right? You had a kid before you had a kid. What was it like compared to having a dog then, having a goat? Are they affectionate? Are they a pain in the arse? Do they try and have sex with other goats at the goat park or…?

He didn’t have his balls, but later on, I did record him getting one in, which was pretty impressive, but he did, he had a fuck before he died, but it was like he was in this farm at Linders mate’s place and there were 13 horny goats all just backing up to him. And he just had to root them all, and then after, he’s sitting down like a middle-aged man, just going, can you just leave me alone, bitches. But, like, he got one in.

Lucky Gary.

He’s got 13 in. Anyway, how we… we digress. What was the question again?

So, how was it compared to a dog? What was it like having a goat?

Yeah, basically a dog, you know when you call a dog it’ll come to you? A goat won’t come to you, but a goat won’t piss off like a dog. So, they kind of in an orbit of you, they’re kind of like guy like a special kid really and they also, they just get you into a little bit more trouble than a dog, like they’ll…basically when I go for a walk, a walk with the dog they’ll follow you, with a goat they’ll follow you, but at some point they’ll go ”no mate, you’re following me now”. And then you know you end up in someone’s house or like in a rose garden and surrounded by cops or…basically we had to move from a lot of towns pretty quickly.

But I take it, though, it would be a sort of a good conversation starter with a lot of strangers, right? Like the dog on a lead that runs around another woman’s leg and you talk to them. That’s a cliché, but surely if it’s a goat that’s definitely going to get you into a lot more conversation with a lot more people.

Yeah. Yeah, like it especially, you know, as sort of a 40-year-old bloke…. You know, people came to you on a different level. Yeah and people talk about I grew up with a goat and yeah it just opened up a whole lot of new interaction with people. So, it was great, but goats go spare if you don’t… you’re not with them all the time. So, like a dog you could leave it and it really suited me on the road, but people try and have a goat at home and they just go bleet, they… it’s not like a dog you can leave it, but I highly recommend goats. They’re just that bit different.

So, when did you realize that you could make videos with Garry in them and, you know, that he was going to be a bit of a classic bit of entertainment for other people online?

Not really, I had a Facebook page for about two years and it was just still photos and I didn’t really get much action and then I literally got a camera upgraded and had a video thing on it so I just put on moviemaking. I just happened to be going down the dog park and I just started using the video and then I just put Gary in his dog park with all these dogs and then I just ended up with video one night and just uploaded it. Not really thinking much of it and I came down in the morning and he’d gone from 5000 followers to 60.000 overnight. And I just felt like ”shit, they ike this goat”.

More than me.

Yeah and then I just started doing goat videos and they just wanted more and more. It just went up to nearly 2 million in the space of a couple of years and that that’s when I knew that people like this goat. But I think in retrospect I had him for two years so, he was really humanized by the time I’m just suddenly doing goat videos and I just took it for granted that he was a goat that followed me around and that was pretty weird, especially to my city people and I’d been out in the outback with him.

Yeah that is so funny because the way that I got onto you was obviously seeing these videos go around on Facebook and I think the first one that I ever saw was Kevin is a cunt and I remember just…

I mean Kevin was almost as bigger than Gary, yeah he was…again that was just video I just went down and then…Kevin the cunt.

Can you tell us that story? What exactly happens in that video?

Well, I was down to Jindabyne. I remember I had a bad back and I was just so worn out from doing videos and I parked myself in a caravan park because they had goats next door on a paddock and I just said ”mate, can I put my goat next door in your paddock? So, he’s got a bit of company? So, I can just chill out a bit?” and then I went and fed him and there was two goats and a sheep and, you know, called one Barbara, the babe, and made jokes about how that was my girlfriend and the other one was Alex, the hermaphrodite, and Gary in there, and then the fourth one was Kevin, his name was Kevin and he was like the alpha goat in the paddock and when I had a Wheatbix, he’d just butt everyone out of the way and I was just trying to share that Wheatbix, and I was just saying, “Get away Kevin, you cunt! Stop being a cunt!”, which was one minute of me just be using this goat calling him a cunt. And then the next day it got up to 15 million views that video, but I think in retrospect it got there because everyone in their life wants call someone a… I don’t know whether I’m going to say that word on your podcast.

You might as well, man, you might as well. That’s the whole point is that people can learn all sorts of things in English so, use it in the context.

The beauty of the word “cunt”…you know, you can say “cunt”, which is really like… but “cunt”… and you know, yeah, you don’t even have the T at the end, it’s a bit softer for anyone out there. I had my grandmother on my, it was really nice on Facebook ’cause I got a bit of shit from swearing, but.

I can’t imagine, I can’t imagine.

She actually wrote in saying, ”At first I thought this was so disgusting, because I don’t listen to people who swear” and then she goes ”after a while I realized it was just nothing. It was just a word and I really like your humor and I’m kind of desensitized to swearing now, thank you, I don’t really think that all people swear are terrible”.

Can you talk a bit about that? Because I feel like Australians do swear a lot more than a lot of other Western countries like the UK or America. Why do you think that is? And what would you recommend for foreigners learning English, obviously? Would you recommend that they just learn to swear or obviously it’s context dependent?

Well, even Australians, you’ve got to learn to swear, even as a young fella, you know, if you haven’t been around and growing up you go out and learn to swear like the same way you can learn to drive a car, like out in the country, you know, a lot of parents swear around their kids, but there’s a rule you don’t swear.

So the parents can do it, but the kids can’t.

Yeah and the kids really listen to it and the parents really enforce it. So, when the kid, you know, stories of it, a mate told me about how he bought, you know, they went out on a fishing trip with his mates and they’ve invited their 13-year-old son. And you know and he’s never sworn in his life, but he’s around all the boys now and he pulls a fish out and he just looks, and it’s a big fish, he just looks at his dad and his mates and just goes ”it’s a big fucker, isn’t it?”.

And they’re just going yeah that’s how you swear. You know what I mean? He’s using it context and everything so, it’s a comma in a sentence, I think, swearing, and it’s as much, as crass as it is, I think the people who really swear and people write them off as just being uneducated idiots, people you really get to the point when someone swears much easier. Like say someone comes at you and goes “look, cunt, fucking”. Like, look, cunt, fucking, that’s three words. You know whatever’s going to happen after ”look, cunt, fucking”, you mightn’t agree with what they’re saying, but you’re going to be in no question about what’s on their mind and they’re going to get to the point straight away. Whereas if someone comes up to you and goes ”oh excuse me, I just kind of want to talk to you about a certain issue some time and is there any….” just say it, mate! There’s a real intelligence in swearing thing as well which is if you don’t get it, you probably just don’t swear and the irony is, yes, learn to swear.

Is it one of those things that really bonds you together? Because that’s what I think especially around Australian men, I remember growing up and always… it was always context dependent, right? You wouldn’t necessarily do it with people in your parent’s generation, you wouldn’t necessarily do it with your sister and her mates, but you do it with your mates and it kind of bonded you together. Do you think there’s kind of that aspect of it where if everyone’s swearing, then there’s no one who isn’t? It’s kind of like they’re drinking rule, right? If everyone goes out to go drinking and there’s one guy who says ”na, na I’m good, I’m not going to drink tonight” you kind of, everyone feels uncomfortable.

I think if someone doesn’t swear, it’s cool, it’s not like you expect someone else to do it, but if someone’s swearing there is a, especially amongst the boys, there’s a feeling that everyone’s being honest.

And it’s a relaxed kind of situation, where it is like ok, informal, casual.

You don’t have to worry about offending someone and also you want a controversial comment, you know, and you know so… yeah and also a lot of the women say, that is stereotype of the older women who doesn’t wear, a lot of them only, like to say the word cunt, they think it’s a really angry word, but 99 percent of the time cunt is actually used is ”how are you going, you cunt? Fucking, yeah, she’s a bit of a funny cunt”. So, it’s a positive thing and they don’t hear it they just hear the angry things, but most of it it’s a beautiful multi-faceted word.

It’s almost like being able to paint with another colour, right? As soon as you start swearing like that in these sorts of situations because it sort of allows you to emphasize things. It allows you to become sort of that extra level more casual and informal, right. And I remember my dad always saying that Australian anguishes is so funny because you can use, you know, the rudest word, but it can mean… if you call someone a cunt, it can either mean that someone is the worst thing imaginable or if you call someone a mad cunt, it’s the best thing imaginable, right? And so there’s kind of like that that contradictory nature in swearing in English you can use it horribly. You can also use it in a very positive way too.

Well, it’s a complex word, like when you said you can paint in another color like this color, it’s just two words fuck and cunt that those two words are like a rainbow, like you can, like you said it’s got so many different meanings and depending on the context and the way you say it. And that’s why when you say learn to swear it’s like learn to drive, like you’ve got to practice and you’ve got to be around people who teach you how to drive and you got to be around people who swear to be able to do it, but yeah, it’s definitely an art form, but it’s basically just fun, really.

And what would you suggest to people? You’d say okay like you can you can do this, but make sure you’re in very, very, very informal, casual situations. Don’t just, you know, walk into a job interview and say ”what’s up, cunt?”.

I mean, obviously, I mean if you don’t know that, you’re an idiot and like and technically you can push it there. Like if you go into a job where you don’t really give a fuck about and you just go ”So, mate, cunt, what do you want of me?” Right, the attitude is “He’s probably… this guy doesn’t really think much of this job, maybe, you know, he’s overqualified”, I don’t know.

He’s taken a bit of a gamble.

I like a risk taker, you know what I mean? But like, you know, if it’s for a customer service job, you’re probably not going to get it, but like it’s, you know, like it’s… I don’t really swim much in my personal life, like it is not really necessary, but you know when I’m doing comedy though, I swear a lot more, but people obviously know that there are contexts to say certain stuff. I’d rather someone who was honest and swearing, than someone who was polite and just didn’t get to the point.

It is funny how it becomes one of those things, right? As soon as I hear people swearing like that, especially not in a horrible way, you can tell they just being conversational and just throwing in more F bombs and C bombs. You do feel like ok, these are going to be just open honest people and there’s not going to be any bullshit from these people usually, right? They’re just going to tell you exactly what they think because they obviously don’t care enough to censor themselves and not swear, right?

Yeah, well, yeah you’re thinking this is going to be interesting really, you know, like is an attractive to us. So, if someone’s trying to shut it down simply because you swear, I think shut down someone because their ideas, the basis of their ideas, challenge them on that, but if you’re just going to simply challenge them on the fact that they swear, it’s like… get out of the room, cunt, you’re boring.

So, what’s the rule with your kids? Because you’ve got two young kids.

I got a three-year-old right next to me now, right? He was asleep. He’s probably just faking, just going, “No cunt, I’m awake!”. But like they don’t swear and I just, you know, when it comes up to it I…my five-year-old daughter did say the other day ”what does I fucked a goat mean?”.

I guess, who did she ask, you or?

Yeah, me and I explained to her that it means giving a goat a cuddle, which technically isn’t too far off the true.

But that’s a bit of a dangerous thing, though, right? Because if she is going to go around and be like I actually want to cuddle, that goat over there you’re going to set her up to make a fool of herself.

No if I’ve got a video camera, it’ll probably go viral, like… you know, like, obviously I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. It’s not… I’m more interested in whether they’re… I’m not too… If she starts swearing in inappropriate places, I’ll tell her, but it hasn’t got to that stage yet, but it’s not really… because when you think about it, it’s not…you’re swearing it doesn’t actually… it probably doesn’t register in their mind as a it’s not a noun, it’s not a…It’s just kind of like it’s a comma in a sentence, but I’ll get to that point, but I’ve got worse issues, I’m more worried about other stuff than whether they can swear and, but I’ll definitely not encourage them to do that.

I take it they are pretty switched on, right? They’re going to know when to do it when not to do it and that’s how they learn, as opposed to, you know, it’s kind of like…never teaching your kids not to do drugs and then they’re finally confronted with drugs. It’s kind of like well you set him up to fail really if you don’t sort of give them some exposure to it and context as to when and when not to do it.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, like, you know… if my three-year-old is going into town and just telling people can you pass me the fucking ball…

Don’t swear!

Yeah, yeah surely there’s a bigger issue in that statement than swearing. So, yeah it’s, but you know half the thing is, if we’re all meant to be so politically correct where we don’t do anything, you just get your… all humanity taken out, you know? Like we’re talking previously to this whole assault on masculinity now is like at what point do you want to just take out your name your edge as female or your femininity as a female and you’re…there’s bigger issues in the world than swearing and so, fuck them if they’re offended, basically. But obviously, you know, if you’re in court and you just going “G’day, judge, how are you going, cunt?” you’re really going to score an own goal, I think, when it comes to sentencing.

That’s it, he’s not going to have any excuses not to give you a few extra years so, far out, man. So, switching gears, you’ve travelled around Australia, obviously a shitload doing comedy in different pubs and stuff. How would you say Australia differs when you go out of the city? Because I think a lot of foreigners, especially a lot of people listening to this podcast, will probably be living in places like Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Are they good representatives of the rest of Australia?

Oh no, obviously not. There’s more difference going out to Windorah or some outback town between Sydney and that town and there is in between Sydney and Melbourne and London and Moscow or whatever. So, I think there’s just…There’s a huge difference. It’s just there’s a total relaxing of the laws, but more of a personal responsibility from people and the humans a lot more broader, they’re politically a bit more conservative, but just open minded in a different way. But yeah, it’s just… But the big killer is to drive out to these towns. It’s huge petrol costs and in the hotels and all these towns about 100 bucks a night. I mean I do mine on vegetable oil and I just camp, but yeah, it’s definitely and I think that’s what my videos did, aside from the goat, it was documenting country towns and country people. I suppose the stereotype of country towns, even in Australia, like outback towns is you’ve got this Wolf Creek element, like you don’t go out there, there’s crazies and psychos, but in my experience doing it for so (many) years it’s just so full of people who would just go out of their way to help you. If you’re broken down on the side of the road, they’ll not only tow you, they’ll probably fix it up before you need towing.

So, they’ll tow your boot out of the mud, won’t they? They’ll tow your boot out.

Yeah, you saw that.

That was a good video where you were stuck, you (?) your car, right? And it was in the middle of nowhere, looked like he was surrounded by desert.

Yeah. Oh, that was Cameron’s Corner, that was in the top corner of New South Whales. You know, I was glad that car could turn up and then he just, they got the time to pull you out and like he said, he goes, “No, it could happen to anyone” and in a time a car out and he towed my boot out. He could have just gone ”you bloody idiot! I’m in a hurry to get back to my farm” and then someone else turned up and took the goat back and try to get Gary to root their goats, it was just a whole lot of female goats, and Gary nearly got raped and that was my punch line. So, you know, and then you know like it’s all on video, edit it up, yeah, I like that video.

Yeah, it’s crazy. Do you feel like the rest of Australia, especially in those sort of suburbanized and you know the cities of Australia, do you think we’re sort of missing that community nowadays? Because there’s just so many people around all the time and we’re so interconnected that we almost don’t need to know our neighbors anymore, right? I kind of feel nostalgic for a time that’s probably even before I was born where people actually knew the names of their neighbors.

Yeah, I mean they’re sort of the cliché you go the country and everyone says g’day, and you go to the city no one does it, but the reality is there’s not as many people around, especially when you get right out there.

Yeah.

So, you do say g’day, but I mean if you walk down Martin Place in the city and just started saying g’day to everyone and having a chat with everyone you just wouldn’t get anything done. The practicalities of it is there’s basically… I’ve been like, I travel around country towns and you get the best of it, but you know people say it’s different if you live in it like you gets circled up into gossip. There is a bit of a hassle and everyone knowing what you’re doing and also making up shit about what you’re doing as opposed to the city where you can die and three years later they find your rotten body in there. So, there’s benefits both ways, but it’s it’s basically not practical in the city to just say g’day to everyone, you won’t get anything done and…

Well, people will think you’re a weirdo, right? Because the rest the people are all keeping to themselves so, you deviate from the norm everyone’s like wha is this guy’s issue?

Yeah, I mean, you know, you just got, exactly, so you just got to cut through that by just going ”how are you going, cunt?” and you’ll find out pretty early whether they want to be friendly or not. If you said it with a smile and a twinkle in your eye, you might get away with it and not be put in the paddy wagon. So, it’s you know it’s hit and miss. Some days you’re hot, some day you’re not.

So, are there any like hidden away areas in Australia that you’ve sort of found? Like hidden away gems, diamonds that you’re like ”holy crap! this town is here!”

I like the opal mining towns like Grawin, which is just near Lightning Ridge. Lightning Ridge and Coober Pedy are obviously the most famous ones.

So, these are in South Australia, right?

Yeah, South Australia, back in NSW there’s a few, and in Queensland. Yeah, I like the back of Queensland, they just… most of the houses are built by people before. So, they’ve got… and they’re all digging and it just got a sense of, you know, if you do something wrong, you know, if you steal someone’s opal or fuck someone’s wife or you shouldn’t have, you know, you’ll be put down a hole, but other than that, everyone is just like… you know, if something happens do you know why, it’s not going to be a random act. I remember I went to… out the back of Grawin, I love that town near Lightning Ridge, a mining town, opal mining and it’s not big industrial mining, opal town is still individual people, unlike gold mining which is all super industrial now. So it’s all massive company so, there’s still that individual have a go spirit and you’re sitting around with these guys, you’ve just been down their tunnels and all these guys are big bushy beards and no teeth and I like it, when I went out when I first left Sydney, people go oh don’t go into these small country towns, be careful, you know, you’ll be squealing like a pig, deliverance and all this and then yeah and then you go out to these towns. Like, you say, you know, I’ve been down a mine, these guys with big beards and no teeth, and you ran a campfire, and you’re cracking a beer, and they go ”where you’re from?” and there you go ”Sydney” and they go ”oh, Sydney, scary place, you walk down the street and some random will shoot ya!’.

So, it’s the opposite, the complete opposite, right?

Yeah, they’ve got the same base fears about being killed, but just in a different way. And so, you realize they’re all the same. We are all projecting shit. It’s just funny, really. You just go and everyone is deep down scared of it, but really you’re not going to, it’s pretty safe walking through Sydney, but if you grew up here, you’re know really paranoid about being shot and you go out in the local town and you’re really paranoid about someone throwing in a mineshaft. So, it’s just funny how the commonality between everyone is special the more you travel. It’s great.

So, what are some of the lessons you’ve learnt? And what are the best and worst things about being a comedian who’s travelled all around Australia?

Probably the worst thing is having no money, but when you have no money that’s when you look back, that was when the best or wildest time happened. Especially when you have two kids you look after. I suppose the thing for me travelling obviously introducing my kids, my girlfriend and Gary knew it instinctively being a goat, is don’t worry about stuff, like if aren’t going your way, it’s because there’s something there coming up around the corner, just ride out the lows and just amazing things will happen and you get addicted to that rhythm. And that’s really the only the privilege of people who travel unended, it’s not like most people go I’ve got two weeks to do a holiday and I’ll do a full itinerary and make sure everything goes right, but if you go away on a holiday and everything goes right, it’s probably been a pretty boring holiday.

So, where would you suggest people go in Australia if they are to sort of, you know, disappear, and how would you suggest they do it? Just plan to go somewhere, but don’t plan how you’re going to do it.

Well, just give up your job, your relationship and everything so, you’ve got nothing that ties you to coming back at a certain date.

That’s how good road trips begin.

Yeah. Tell your husband all you miss that straight out, I might come back, but you just go…

Don’t count on it.

Yeah, like, but if I have to you a date when I’ll come back is really going to spoil this trip so, can you please understand me? Or I’d just say go to the towns that you haven’t heard of before, don’t go to…just drive and just, drive it’s safe and just stop and and just get out there and do a bit of part time work or just keep going, don’t have an itinerary, just get in the car and drive. It’s not that bad. Nothing really can go wrong. No one starves to death and unless you’re messing with anyone out there no one’s really going to do anything.

Just take a lot of water, you know, have 30 liters of water in the car.

Not even that, really, people, I mean even in that spot in Cameron’s Corner someone would stop every half a day, they’re like yeah, obviously take water and people go ”I’ve got to get my car right”, but if you break down, you break down, so many people go ahead you end up in this town. Twenty years ago, I was driving through, I broke down and got my car fixed here, I was stuck here for a week and then I saw a part time job for three days, I took it. And then I met a girl I stayed here a bit long. Anyway, got her pregnant and here I am 20 years later.

No kidding.

You know like so, you just…most of the country people there’s no plan in their… so many people have no plan and you wouldn’t know what’s ahead of you in the future, but I think it’s a wonderful thing not knowing what the fuck is going to happen, but you can put yourself out there and travel and just keep doing it until, you know, that like the John Walker guy, he’s just traveling, He’s been walking around Australia for 35 years.

Really?

There’s no end point, he’s just going to do until he dies on the side of the road.

Just cutting laps.

He’s cutting laps, alright, with his feet.

So, man, finishing up, what happened to Gary?

I thought he had, he was only six, I thought he had bloat and then I thought he had pneumonia and then they said take him down to this specialist and they said he had a whole lot of blood they had to drain. They did this test and then and then he was riddled with cancer. Then we had to put him down the next day so, I filmed it and I’ve got the movie done, but I need about 20 grand for post-production which Im working on.

Can you tell us about the movie, what exactly is it?

Oh, before everyone said “oh, do a movie on the life of Gary”, but it just would have been a highlights reel, but I just filmed, I filmed him when he was getting sick and the whole process and I filmed his death when he was euthanized. He went out not giving a fuck, just the way he lived, and that gave the whole… you know, and then I’m just tied… It’s basically a belly full of laughs and a bucket full of tears. It’s the life of Gary and it’s also showing Australia or this Australia that we’re talking about so, I’m hoping it’s… a production company just basically want to own it and then change the script. I want to do it so, it’s my script and I’ve just got to keep inching ahead. If there’s anyone out there want to give me funding, I’ll give you return. People will watch a movie, but yeah.

Maybe you just just have to invest some time in learning how to use the programs in order to make it yourself and then just smash it out.

Oh yeah, I can. I’m just full time looking after the kids at the moment, I’m just yeah, I’ll get there. Exactly, so I’ll just go to… that’s the movie, it’ll come out in about the 2050, stay tuned.

Is that going to be a sequel?

Oh, well, if I get Kevin the cunt, they’ve offered me Kevin the cunt, but Kevin the cunt is probably just in a nursing home now so, yeah. If I get clear of my debts and, you know, I’ve got three and five-year-old and girlfriend is sort of semi into it, I’d love to just get a goat and hit the road again. But yeah…

10 and 10 would recommend get a goat and hit the road and you’re going to have a good time in Australia.

Get a goat When in doubt, get a go and hit the road, especially, especially if you’re single and just fucking don’t know what to do. Just get a goat. You’ll have so much fun.

And just swear a little bit more in casual situations and relax.

Fuck yeah.

Awesome, mate! Well, how can people find out more about you? How can they find you on the social medias?

Well, not on my Youtube, you can see my YouTube, you can’t contact me through it, just Facebook Gary the Goat.

And obviously find you on YouTube as Gary the Goat as well.

Yeah. So, and that’s about it, really.

Brilliant. Well, Jimbo, thank you so much for joining me today and thank you so much for expanding the rude vocabulary for the listeners. It’s been well overdue, I think.

Yeah. Any time, Peter. Thanks. This is the first podcast I’ve ever done, I’ve had fun, cheers!

Yeah, it was fucking mad. Thanks, you’re a mad cunt!

Fuck you for offending me, cunt!

Thanks again, man!

Cheers, Peter!