Man vs Australia (with Jimmy Carr)

CChris Williamson
Mental HealthBooks & LiteratureManagementAdult EducationAir Travel

Transcript

00:00:00This is a new level for me.
00:00:05I am trying to push the limits of what I'm comfortable with.
00:00:08That's exciting, but it's also very stressful.
00:00:11It's me screaming into a mirror, reminding myself of all of the **** that I need to keep
00:00:16an eye on.
00:00:17It's exciting, but I'm feeling it.
00:00:19I'm really feeling it.
00:00:26Guess what?
00:00:27Tour is back, baby.
00:00:28I'm about to fly across the world, actually, to go to three countries and play eight shows
00:00:33in three weeks.
00:00:34So, Australia, New Zealand and Bali, I will soon be inside you.
00:00:41We made it.
00:00:50Landed in Sydney.
00:00:51Body clock has no idea what time it is.
00:00:53Today's Sunday.
00:00:54It's an Australian Sunday, but it's everybody else's Saturday, and the show's on Thursday.
00:00:59So the plan between now and then is to just take care of myself, acclimate, try and get
00:01:03my body clock in line.
00:01:04The name of the game today is don't fall asleep.
00:01:08That's it.
00:01:09If I fall asleep, rest of the week's ****.
00:01:16Where am I?
00:01:19Right, when in Australia, the last time I had some of these on, I was sat right there.
00:01:29What do you think, Jimmy?
00:01:33I'm watching the kit.
00:01:34The kit?
00:01:35The kit.
00:01:36You just got to watch the kit or not?
00:01:39Dad's looking after the kit.
00:01:40We're going to have a dip and then we'll be back.
00:01:43Jimmy's hot.
00:01:44Just looking after your stuff.
00:01:45Don't worry, boys.
00:01:46That was a belly flop in a hole.
00:01:50Jimmy's late for his gig because we haven't come back to get the **** club.
00:01:53Why did Jimmy Carr start so late at his gig?
00:01:56Apparently, James Smith and Chris Williamson's ****head friends didn't get out of the sea
00:02:00for long enough.
00:02:03Jet lag update.
00:02:22I think I've completed it.
00:02:23I think this crazy psy-op inverted wake up first thing in the morning thing.
00:02:28I think it's worked.
00:02:29I went to bed at eleven o'clock and I woke up at seven thirty and I actually feel like
00:02:32a functioning human but I'm not allowed to see sunlight yet so I feel like a slightly
00:02:37mincy Batman.
00:02:38I keep the curtains drawn, put the glasses on, keep the lights low.
00:02:42Today's going to be fun because I'm going to get to run through the show with the boys
00:02:46because they haven't seen it yet.
00:02:48Max, Dean, Alex, none of them have seen the show so the boys are going to come around today
00:02:52and we're going to have a look at everything that I want to do from a production standpoint
00:02:55which is exciting.
00:02:56It means that I can get creative with how we film it, how we make the socials off the back
00:03:00of it, how I want the lighting to be.
00:03:01I think today will be fun unless I crash at three PM.
00:03:12This is Darling Harbour in the middle of Sydney and that is the Darling Harbour Theatre.
00:03:17Fucking cool.
00:03:18Last time we did smaller show, medium show, bigger show on a show that I'd run thirty
00:03:23times before.
00:03:25This time more people, two and a half thousand people for a show that I've never done before.
00:03:34That's me.
00:03:35It takes my butthole to go like this.
00:03:39The inner colonist in me wants to board these ships and retake this great land.
00:03:44Don't be shy, darling.
00:03:49We were friends once before.
00:03:51I mean, by the way, I mean board the fucking wooden thing, I don't mean the actual warship
00:03:55behind it that's got fucking modern weapons on it.
00:03:58No, no.
00:03:59I want me, my friends and a cutlass.
00:04:01Dude, have I been shooting cannons with the boys?
00:04:04Give them the triple cannons.
00:04:08The modern boys would never get to understand how good it is to go plundering with your mates
00:04:12on a weekend.
00:04:13Plunder?
00:04:14When was the last time you plundered?
00:04:15You haven't plundered anything.
00:04:16I couldn't tell you.
00:04:17I haven't plundered in years.
00:04:19You better not be out plundering again, Alex.
00:04:22Oh, mom.
00:04:23What do I want?
00:04:26Mom!
00:04:27All my friends are plundering.
00:04:28How are you?
00:04:29How are you?
00:04:30Yeah, I'm good, man.
00:04:31Hello.
00:04:32Great to finally meet you.
00:04:33How are you?
00:04:34Is this where you did your coffee, like, competition thing?
00:04:38So, like, yeah, this is where I trained to become a world class barista.
00:04:42I come bearing gifts.
00:04:43Oh, amazing.
00:04:44I was going to say.
00:04:45Did you bring merch?
00:04:46I did.
00:04:47So, Sidney's going to be a big one.
00:04:48Fucking 2 and a half thousand, yeah.
00:04:53Uh, I feel okay.
00:05:01It's 4 p.m.
00:05:02Jet lag's a myth.
00:05:03Jet lag's a myth.
00:05:04It's been good.
00:05:05We went for lunch with Ali Abdaal and Matt Surname I can't pronounce.
00:05:08How do I pronounce it?
00:05:09Matt D'Avella.
00:05:10Matt D'Avella.
00:05:11He fucking rules.
00:05:12OG YouTuber now turned super dad.
00:05:14Ali OG YouTuber now turned super dad.
00:05:16The show's in three days and I need to kill probably about half an hour of material and
00:05:21each word that I get rid of makes me hurt inside.
00:05:24It pains my heart, but I can't do a two and a half hour show.
00:05:28That would be insane.
00:05:29There's no interval either.
00:05:30No one's got a bladder that big.
00:05:32The next two days are just going to be dedicated to trying to get the show completely dialed,
00:05:37which basically means killing all of the bits that I can't use anymore.
00:05:41I say that's the next two days.
00:05:43Tomorrow morning I'm doing Australian morning TV and then tomorrow evening I'm going for
00:05:46dinner with Tony Abbott, I think was the ex present prime minister.
00:05:53Something he's important.
00:05:54The most important thing is that chat likes a myth and I vow alphadit.
00:06:03I vow alphadit.
00:06:04I vow alphadit.
00:06:05I vow alphadit.
00:06:21I vow alphadit.
00:06:45Welcome back.
00:06:46From reality TV starts a global podcasting powerhouse across 1000 episodes.
00:06:52Chris Williamson's at modern wisdom series has started conversations changing the way
00:06:57people think, feel and look at life over a billion downloads billing with a bay.
00:07:03So you've obviously inspired and motivated a lot of people of the listeners.
00:07:07But what have you taken from the people that you've interviewed?
00:07:10One of the lessons, especially given that I reinvented myself at 30, 32 and then moved
00:07:15to America at 33 was it's never too late to reinvent yourself because people have got short
00:07:22memories and most importantly, they just don't care.
00:07:25So whatever it is, they're not thinking about you.
00:07:28Um, and one other one is that adversity is a terrible gift to waste.
00:07:35The most of the growth that you have in life comes from your lowest moments.
00:07:38So, you know, in the mid nineties there was a woman who was living in Edinburgh in quiet
00:07:43poverty.
00:07:44She was married in a relationship that she called abusive.
00:07:47She fled to Portugal with her daughter and this manuscript of a book that she was working
00:07:51on.
00:07:52Her husband tried to stop her from leaving by hiding the manuscript.
00:07:55She said she was clinically depressed and suicidal.
00:07:57She used to walk her daughter to a cafe because she couldn't afford to heat her apartment so
00:08:02that she could be warm while she wrote this book.
00:08:04She got rejected by 12 different publishers.
00:08:07That's 12 different people saying that she wasn't good enough, right?
00:08:10This rejection wasn't just a small thing.
00:08:12It was an existential crisis and each rejection further emboldened her to go and work harder
00:08:17to get this thing done.
00:08:18So clinically depressed, suicidal, abusive relationship, got this daughter who doesn't
00:08:21have a heated home.
00:08:23JK Rowling went on to sell 500 million copies in the Harry Potter franchise and became richer
00:08:28than the queen.
00:08:30Adversity is a terrible thing to waste.
00:08:31So that's your podcast.
00:08:32What about this live tour?
00:08:33That's what you're here for.
00:08:34Tell us what do people get on in your, in your live presentation.
00:08:38It's a solo show of me on stage.
00:08:40It's kind of like a Ted Talk with a ton of jokes in it.
00:08:43It is in Sydney this Thursday, the Darling Harbor, then Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane,
00:08:48Perth and Brisbane are already sold out and it'll make you feel less alone and help you
00:08:52understand yourself more.
00:08:53That's what I'm here to try and do.
00:08:54I suspect it was all those years as a nightclub manager that set you up for this, like an understanding
00:08:58of people.
00:08:59A little bit.
00:09:00Yeah.
00:09:01Human nature.
00:09:02Human nature is at its most transparent when people are five drinks deep.
00:09:06We hear that a lot in television.
00:09:07It's quite extraordinary what you've been able to achieve.
00:09:11Thank you.
00:09:12I appreciate that.
00:09:13I think what's most extraordinary is I managed to tell JK Rowling's origin story in 30 seconds.
00:09:16I wasn't able to do that.
00:09:33The girl with the dog just walked past, but looking in, smiling like, and then she came
00:09:39back the other way, doing the exact same thing.
00:09:45Don't be obvious.
00:09:46Don't be obvious.
00:09:47She was charming.
00:09:48We double as Chris's bodyguards.
00:09:49All right, should do this.
00:09:50Hey, day three in Australia.
00:09:52Thank you for getting us all here safely.
00:09:54Thank you for helping us thread the needle of jet lag.
00:09:57What an unbelievable fluke that is that I actually feel human.
00:10:00I think the boys do too, and we've only been here for three days.
00:10:04Got one more day to relax and get ready before chaos and war zone begins.
00:10:09Keep us calm and regulated.
00:10:10Let us do the work that helps make the world a better place or at the very least fulfills
00:10:14us.
00:10:15Amen.
00:10:16Amen.
00:10:17Most secular grace of all time, which actually becomes a bit of a wishlist after a while.
00:10:24It's like, and I want, I want my knee pain to go away and I, I, I, I would like a blazer
00:10:33with mostly hand movement.
00:10:35And I would like to spend the last 24 hours sleeping, eating and preparing.
00:10:52I didn't have my set completely finished because I had to rush from the last work in progress
00:10:57in Austin last Monday.
00:10:59I just rushed out here.
00:11:00So it's been a bit of a sprint finish to get the show done.
00:11:03And that's exciting, but it's also very stressful because the first show is the biggest show
00:11:07of the entire run.
00:11:09And the time when I've got the least experience of doing this set, this brand new show.
00:11:15I'm doing some things tomorrow that I've never seen done live.
00:11:18I'm not doing fucking back handsprings and stuff.
00:11:21There's not going to be a break dance number or a fucking musical, but I am trying to push
00:11:24the limits of what I'm comfortable with.
00:11:26And I'm, I'm doing some things that are very revealing and push the audience to reflect.
00:11:33There's way more audience involvement.
00:11:36It's adventurous and kind of feels dangerous and that's, what's cool.
00:11:39It feels like a high wire act that could sort of go wrong.
00:11:42So there's stakes and it's exciting, but it I'm fucking feeling it.
00:11:48I'm really feeling it and I just want to enjoy it.
00:11:50I really think I'm going to enjoy it.
00:11:54But the reason I'm going to enjoy it is because of how terrifying it is.
00:11:58This is a new level to me.
00:12:20It is the first show of the Aussie New Zealand Bali tour.
00:12:31This is a big boy.
00:12:32This is two and a half thousand people.
00:12:34This is the second biggest show I've ever done.
00:12:37The first time to have ever done this set live.
00:12:39You just don't know exactly where it's going to head, but you're not sure of the direction.
00:12:43Everyone's still a little bit unsure of what works, what doesn't work, and you can only
00:12:46really gauge that with an audience.
00:12:48And also coming to a venue like this, because it's so schmick, so professional, there's so
00:12:52many different options that we've got.
00:12:54Sometimes you can have too many options and conflate a little.
00:12:57So yes, some of the things that we're dialling in, the vision, getting the timing right for
00:13:01vision, getting the timing right for lighting, getting the timing right for walk on tracks,
00:13:05all the audio cues, the switches between some of the different lighting scenes and the different
00:13:10phrasing that we're using, make sure we can hear what's going on out the crowd.
00:13:13Then you've got the lights, also communications between the tech team that have literally only
00:13:18just seen the show during soundcheck, and then having to communicate that.
00:13:22There's a lot of those little moving parts going on.
00:13:25Some people could think that because I used to be the headliner.
00:13:28I'd be that, I'd be number two.
00:13:29I'll tell you the truth, I actually prefer, I prefer being the number two.
00:13:33Way less pleasure.
00:13:39Real change is very difficult.
00:13:40This was something I talked about in the last show.
00:13:41People will lose five pounds, they'll move companies.
00:13:44But how many people do you know that have lost 50 or 100 pounds or have changed careers or
00:13:47moved to a different country?
00:13:48And most people only get to deep, deep change when they're in deep pain.
00:13:51Like all of your biggest points of growth in your life have germinated from your lowest
00:13:55moments.
00:13:56So that line that JK Rowling had, a rock bottom is a very firm foundation to build from.
00:14:02You want to try and do it before you get there, but change is very individual.
00:14:06So it's difficult for me to say without going, so what is it you want to achieve?
00:14:09And what are the obstacles in the way?
00:14:10And what are the specific, specific fears?
00:14:13Gentlemen, yes.
00:14:15What does fulfillment look like for me?
00:14:16At the moment it's just enjoying each day, like especially for the last couple of years
00:14:19I've achieved so much objectively.
00:14:21One of the big takeaways from tonight, which hopefully it'll help the boys, is why is it
00:14:26that we feel like we've achieved a lot objectively but it hasn't touched us subjectively?
00:14:30And there's all of these different stories and lessons and things that I try to bring
00:14:33in.
00:14:34I think it's a much more difficult show.
00:14:35The first one was getting from zero to one.
00:14:36You need to get your life together.
00:14:37And as you change, people are going to go, wow, you're different.
00:14:40And that's hard, right?
00:14:41That's the lonely chapter stuff.
00:14:43This one is about the problems and the challenges that people make, intelligent people make whilst
00:14:48doing everything right.
00:14:51Why is it that I feel deeper than most, work harder than most, achieve more than most, and
00:14:55yet I still feel existentially empty?
00:14:58What the fuck is like this bottomless pit, like going to a buffet and never getting full?
00:15:03I've spent a long time sacrificing the way that I feel for something that I want to achieve.
00:15:08And now I'm significantly more happy to sacrifice things that I want to achieve for the way that
00:15:12I feel.
00:15:42the way that I feel.
00:15:59Yes?
00:16:00Overcoming burnout.
00:16:01Overcoming burnout.
00:16:02You are speaking to patient fucking zero here, my friend.
00:16:04Obviously, spaciousness, you need a little bit of time.
00:16:07The problem is how much of our sense of self-worth is taken from how hard we can push ourselves.
00:16:13We will just keep on going, nose against grindstone, because that's where we get our sense of self-worth
00:16:17and belonging.
00:16:18That's where the world has started to give us a degree of love and acceptance and praise
00:16:22and now we matter.
00:16:25You need to learn that after a while, working harder is not going to fix your problems.
00:16:30There are very few problems in life that working harder won't make better, but there is a certain
00:16:35category of them that working harder will make them worse.
00:16:38And burnout for me, this happened every October, so freshers week, when university students
00:16:45come back.
00:16:46It was the middle of September until the start of October in the UK.
00:16:49The second week of October for a decade, I got depression.
00:16:54I couldn't get out of bed for about five days.
00:16:57And it took me nearly 10 years to realize, oh, I hadn't slept for more than four hours,
00:17:03like three weeks.
00:17:04I'd worked every single night at a club night and I'd been out drinking for half of them
00:17:08and I'd got up and just checked my, I hadn't trained.
00:17:11I hadn't seen sunlight.
00:17:12I hadn't eaten correctly.
00:17:13What's last night's dominoes and a beer?
00:17:15Oh, that's burnout.
00:17:18And you can do that.
00:17:19You can just basically go as hard as possible, blow your engine and then go again.
00:17:23But in my experience after a while, it's unsustainable.
00:17:26I can't do it.
00:17:28Oh, dude, I love the show.
00:17:29So good.
00:17:30Second time seeing Chris.
00:17:31You've already soaked it all in because you've heard all the podcasts, but it's a very different
00:17:34experience, especially in person, to be honest, just how relevant it was for me.
00:17:38I recently started back at therapy and so much of the conversation today actually mirrored
00:17:42a lot of the conversation I had this morning with my therapist.
00:17:44We're talking a lot about overachieving and it didn't necessarily surprise me because I
00:17:48kind of expected him to go there, but just how relevant it was and how much it kind of
00:17:51like hit for me during the entire shows.
00:17:53It surprised me with the breathing exercises and the groundedness.
00:17:58I think like as a whole, that was really beautiful.
00:18:01It was good just to when Chris was getting the crowd to take a deep breath and actually
00:18:05sit in the motions and the feelings and then have everyone grounded.
00:18:09I loved how together the audience felt and he made everyone feel super comfortable.
00:18:14The meditation task actually definitely stood out.
00:18:17I found it very interesting how he did a lot more interactive content.
00:18:21You know, three times he did crowd work and every time he managed to, his tonality was
00:18:25just white.
00:18:26He knew when to speed up, he knew when to slow down, take it in because if you've got high
00:18:29standards, you look past the moment.
00:18:31They're like always looking over the shoulder of the present moment for what's coming next.
00:18:34Bro, you nailed it with the thing where it's like you're a high performer and your standard
00:18:39is to always succeed.
00:18:40When?
00:18:41Curse of confidence.
00:18:42Dude!
00:18:43I was like...
00:18:44Chris's show was like this unique thing where you can actually get immersed and feel like
00:18:48you're connected to it.
00:18:49There's portions when you can chat, comment, have instant feedback and then points where
00:18:54you get real deep.
00:18:55If I could take something away, it would be to really dig deep into your purpose and why,
00:19:02instead of searching for something on the surface, search within.
00:19:06Being more peace of mind, giving myself time to really just know that I'm enough and he
00:19:12can really just make that impact on making you just crystal clear to know that.
00:19:17It was amazing, life-changing.
00:19:18Fuck me, that's hard to do.
00:19:28Really decided to put the difficulty level up by... it's twice as hard as the last one.
00:19:35I mean it's good, it's very exciting, it's very, very nerve-wracking to do that.
00:19:40Super nerve-wracking to do this show.
00:19:42So much that can go wrong.
00:19:44So many moments where someone in the audience can do something or say something.
00:19:51We got the tech wrong tonight.
00:19:52The lights were up too long, the song came on at the wrong point.
00:19:56It was fun.
00:19:57It was exciting.
00:19:58It was really exciting.
00:20:01I'm glad that I did something that wasn't safe, that didn't just run the old show back and
00:20:06I really hope it landed.
00:20:08I need to go to bed.
00:20:09Alright guys, Melbourne tomorrow.
00:20:32Chris Williamson live at the Palai Theatre in Melbourne.
00:20:38Is he mostly wise?
00:20:39That was, that was...
00:20:40That was shit.
00:20:41The thing is, about the Australian accent, they always go up at the end of the sentence
00:20:48until they're finished talking and then they go down.
00:20:51You see what I mean?
00:20:52They're mostly wise.
00:21:09Excuse me.
00:21:10Excuse me.
00:21:11Excuse me.
00:21:12I don't think we know who we are, but if you get to speak to us...
00:21:17As a water farce.
00:21:18I was just saying to Chris then, I was like, the thing that was weird is we started with
00:21:22a bigger show first.
00:21:23So I said, he will give that the most importance.
00:21:26So here we go, Sydney's the Catalina wine mix up.
00:21:28Then he'll also forget it's the first time he's ever done that live event.
00:21:32And he'll go, was it perfect?
00:21:33No.
00:21:34I'm not sure what he's saying.
00:21:53Strange downtime before a show, there's no loud music, James is fucked off, he's on stage.
00:22:10I'm just waiting, thinking.
00:22:13Tonight I really want to connect with the audience as much as I can.
00:22:17Last night was completely road testing everything.
00:22:19I think I've got a good idea about what it is I should focus on.
00:22:22So I just want to enjoy it.
00:22:24I'm here to have fun.
00:22:25Been here before, done this before, sold out.
00:22:29Beautiful Friday evening in Melbourne.
00:22:38You had your life over again.
00:22:52What would you change?
00:22:53I had my life over again.
00:22:54What would I change?
00:22:55Jesus Christ, I'd feel less.
00:22:59I think a lot of what I've done, a lot of what's driven me to get to where I am has been fearing
00:23:04not doing it right, not getting it right, not being enough, not something.
00:23:08I don't know who the not enough is for.
00:23:11I don't know what the fear is of, but it's been one of the things that's pushed me.
00:23:15You know, this entire show is a thinly veiled autobiography.
00:23:20It's me screaming into a mirror, reminding myself of all of the shit that I need to keep
00:23:23an eye on.
00:23:24Not running away from a life that you want, running toward a life that you fear thing.
00:23:27I don't think that you need to do it to improve your performance.
00:23:30I think that you can get to where you need to go without hating yourself in the moment.
00:23:34I don't think you need to use self-rejection as the fuel that pushes you there.
00:23:37What do you bench?
00:23:38What do I bench?
00:23:39That's a good question.
00:23:42My best bench was 140.
00:23:45James has got four figure testosterone.
00:23:49The last time that we were on tour in Australia, him pointing at me in the gym as we were training
00:23:54and then the same thing around North America to then come in with, he's brought fucking
00:23:57hypodermic needles with him on tour.
00:24:00Mate, it's my peptides.
00:24:02No, it's not James, it's your testosterone.
00:24:05Yeah.
00:24:06This is fucking unbelievable.
00:24:08And I'm not allowed to throw my undies on stage at Chris, so this is the modern wisdom version
00:24:16of throwing your undies.
00:24:17I think the way that it was structured was just awesome, the way that it got the crowd
00:24:20involved coming together of human beings, campfire, factory reset, you know, staring into the flames.
00:24:25It's awesome.
00:24:26I felt like the room was one.
00:24:27It was really nice to get 2,000 people in the same moment was very special.
00:24:32He makes you feel like you know him.
00:24:35He breaks that barrier of you being the crowd and him speaking.
00:24:39It was super special.
00:24:40It was a reflecting point by the end of it.
00:24:42I think I got a couple of things to think about.
00:24:44I'm trying to be a better dad, try and take life not too seriously, reflect, enjoy the
00:24:48journey not just about what's at the end of the rainbow.
00:24:51I think too much into the future, but I forget to live.
00:24:54I think that was the biggest thing for me that resonated.
00:24:57He makes, I guess deep questions sometimes seem so simple.
00:25:01The answer can be so simple.
00:25:03It doesn't have to be as complicated as we make things out to be.
00:25:07Do you want a hug?
00:25:15I'm like a little rabbit.
00:25:22Say goodnight.
00:25:24Goodnight.
00:25:25It's a day after the Melbourne show and we're still here, but Zach is playing a festival
00:25:35today.
00:25:36I'm going to go watch him.
00:25:38It's pretty fucking retarded that we're across the planet doing different things in the same
00:25:44cities at the same time, but it wasn't planned.
00:25:48It was going to be in Australia one way or another.
00:25:49He was only going to be playing for himself.
00:25:50I played for me.
00:25:51That was it.
00:26:14It is so much more fun to do this with my boys.
00:26:16The fact that I get to travel across the planet, see friends that I'm not with, hang with friends
00:26:22that I am with, it's it's unreal.
00:26:26I'm just enjoying it.
00:26:27It feels like high pressure because the show's so fucking new, like changing 20% of the show
00:26:33every night, which is kind of terrifying.
00:26:35But also I guess this is where reps and improving the skill set of doing the live thing come
00:26:42from.
00:26:43And the whole point of this is to push the limits, to try and do different things, to
00:26:46try and be adventurous, to build the skill of doing this live.
00:26:49It's kind of weird, man.
00:26:50You know, tour's awesome.
00:26:52It fucking rules, but it is very insulated that you're kind of kept in this weird bubble
00:26:57and then just deposited in a new place and deposited in a new place.
00:27:00What it sounds like is, Oh, you get to travel and then do a bit of work, but it's not.
00:27:06It's you do work and the whole world moves around you and the work stays the same.
00:27:11So I guess I'm, that's a skill as well.
00:27:14Enjoying tour, living tour outside of the bubble is a skill that we need to do this.
00:27:19We need to say I, instead of going back right now so that we can get food so that we can
00:27:23go to bed or so that we can go to dinner and do the next soundcheck or whatever, like maybe
00:27:27we can just find 15 minutes so I can actually have a memory of being in Melbourne and St.
00:27:31Kilda and actually know what it feels like.
00:27:32So not only am I learning the skill of being on stage, I'm learning the skill of being on
00:27:37tour.
00:27:38And those are two very different things, learning to enjoy it, learning to relax, learning to
00:27:42make memories with the boys, learning to not take it too seriously, but then not take it
00:27:45so relaxed that you're not improving and constantly iterating.
00:27:48So I guess this is the end of the first leg, but it actually just feels like the start of
00:27:52tour because I've got cities coming up that I've never been to before, shows coming up
00:27:55that I've never been to before, countries that I've never been to before.
00:27:58I'm going to have some adventures with the boys, so stay tuned.

Key Takeaway

Achieving objective success often leaves an existential void unless individuals transition from using self-rejection as fuel to prioritizing internal peace and subjective well-being.

Highlights

Reinventing a career or personal identity is possible at any age because public memory is short and collective attention is minimal.

JK Rowling's path to success involved overcoming clinical depression, domestic abuse, and 12 consecutive publisher rejections before selling 500 million copies.

Growth often requires enduring a lonely chapter where existing social circles distance themselves as an individual adopts higher standards.

The transition from high-performance success to subjective fulfillment requires shifting from sacrificing feelings for achievements to sacrificing achievements for mental well-being.

Burnout frequently stems from tying self-worth to the ability to push through exhaustion, resulting in cyclical physical and mental collapses.

Timeline

Managing high-stakes production and jet lag

  • Acclimatizing to a new time zone requires staying awake until the local evening to reset the body clock.
  • A successful jet lag recovery involves waking up at 07:30 after an 11:00 p.m. bedtime while avoiding early sunlight.
  • Pushing personal comfort limits creates a stressful environment that necessitates constant self-monitoring.

Traveling across the world to perform eight shows in three weeks creates a significant physiological strain. The strategy for recovery involves a strict schedule of staying awake despite exhaustion to align with the Australian Sunday. Success in this reset allows for a functioning human state, though it requires environmental controls like low lighting and drawn curtains to manage the transition.

Scaling live performance production

  • Moving from small venues to a 2,500-seat theater increases the pressure to refine production elements like lighting and social media content.
  • Preparing a long-form show requires cutting significant amounts of material to maintain a manageable duration without an interval.
  • The first show of a tour often carries the highest stakes despite being the point of least experience with the new material.

Transitioning to larger venues like the Darling Harbour Theatre changes the technical requirements of a performance. Collaborative run-throughs with a production team focus on creative filming, lighting cues, and audience engagement strategies. Every word removed from the script during the editing process is necessary to prevent an overly long, two-and-a-half-hour runtime that exceeds audience comfort.

The utility of adversity and reinvention

  • Personal growth frequently germinates from the lowest moments and deepest pain an individual experiences.
  • A history of working in nightlife provides a transparent view of human nature through observing people under the influence of alcohol.
  • Reinventing oneself at age 30 or older is viable because most people are too preoccupied with their own lives to maintain judgments.

The story of JK Rowling serves as a primary example of using rock bottom as a foundation for massive success. Her experience of poverty and rejection emphasizes that adversity is a gift that should not be wasted. This perspective is reinforced by a decade of observing human behavior in nightclubs, which revealed the underlying patterns of how people think and feel.

Subjective fulfillment vs objective achievement

  • Objective success does not automatically translate to subjective happiness or a sense of being 'enough.'
  • High performers often suffer from a bottomless pit of ambition that leads to existential emptiness despite reaching goals.
  • Real change usually only occurs when the pain of staying the same exceeds the fear of the unknown.

A new live show focuses on the specific challenges intelligent people face even when they are doing everything right. This internal conflict arises from sacrificing the way one feels to reach an external milestone. Transitioning toward a life that feels good involves understanding specific fears and recognizing that achievement cannot fill an internal void.

Breaking the cycle of burnout

  • Burnout is often a result of seeking love, acceptance, and self-worth through extreme productivity.
  • Working harder can make certain categories of problems worse rather than fixing them.
  • Interactive performance elements like group breathing exercises help ground an audience and foster a sense of shared presence.

Ten years of cyclical depression were eventually traced back to chronic sleep deprivation and poor self-care during high-stress work periods. The realization that working harder is not a universal solution is a critical step in recovery. Implementing grounding techniques and meditation during a live show allows both the performer and the audience to move past the 'curse of confidence' and connect with the present moment.

The duality of life on tour

  • Touring is an insulated experience where the world moves around the performer while the work remains constant.
  • Maintaining a skill set for live performance requires constant iteration and the courage to include 'unsafe' or revealing material.
  • Separating the work of the show from the experience of travel is a distinct skill needed to avoid being trapped in a professional bubble.

Being on tour involves more than just the time spent on stage; it requires learning how to relax and make memories in new cities despite the high pressure. Success in this environment comes from pushing the limits of comfort and avoiding safe, repetitive routines. Balancing the need for sleep and preparation with the desire to experience the local culture is essential for long-term sustainability on the road.

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